30 January 1955

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be a public health emergency of international concern.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute launched Naro-1, South Korea's first carrier rocket and their first launch vehicle to achieve Earth orbit.

Forty-six years to the day after the sinking of the Danish ocean liner MS Hans Hedtoft, Queen Margrethe II unveiled a memorial in Copenhagen to the 95 passengers and crew who perished.

Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ivory Coast shortly after takeoff, killing 169 on board.

Varig Flight 967 disappeared shortly after takeoff from Tokyo's Narita International Airport en route to Rio de Janeiro.

The Troubles: On Bloody Sunday, members of the British Parachute Regiment shot 26 civil-rights protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing at least 13 people.

Vietnam War: Forces of the Viet Cong and the Vietnamese People's Army launched the Tet Offensive to strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam.

In a bloodless coup, Nguyễn Khánh overthrew Dương Văn Minh's military junta in South Vietnam, less than three months after Minh's own coup.

Danish ocean liner MS Hans Hedtoft sank, resulting in the deaths of all 95 passengers and crew.

Mahatma Gandhi (pictured), the political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement, was fatally shot by Nathuram Godse at Birla House in Delhi.

World War II: Allied forces liberated more than 500 prisoners of war (pictured) from a Japanese POW camp near Cabanatuan in the Philippines.

In a speech to the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler threatened the "annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".

The United States Navy launched USS Monitor (pictured), the first American ironclad warship.

Richard Lawrence became the first person to attempt to assassinate a sitting US president when he failed to kill Andrew Jackson at the US Capitol (assassination attempt pictured) and was subdued by the crowd.

Two years after his death, Oliver Cromwell's remains were exhumed for a posthumous execution and his head was placed on a spike above Westminster Hall in London, where it remained until 1685.

King Charles I, who was defeated in both the First and the Second English Civil Wars, was beheaded for high treason in front of the Banqueting House in London.

Low-lying areas flooded around the coasts of the Bristol Channel in southwest England and south Wales, resulting in around 2,000 deaths.

Wareru created the Hanthawaddy Kingdom in today's Lower Burma and declared himself king following the collapse of the Pagan Empire.

Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, and Bolesław I, the Piast ruler of Poland, signed the Peace of Bautzen to end the German–Polish War.

The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Naro-1 becomes the first carrier rocket launched by South Korea.

Microsoft Corporation releases Windows Vista, a major release of the operating system Microsoft Windows and the NT based kernel.

The Goleta postal facility shootings occur, killing seven people before the perpetrator took her own life.

Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ivory Coast, killing 169.