This Day in History: Dec. 30

On this day, Dec. 30 ...

1922: Vladimir Lenin proclaims the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which would last nearly seven decades before dissolving in December 1991.

Also on this day: 

• 1813: British troops burn Buffalo, N.Y., during the War of 1812.
• 1853: The United States and Mexico sign a treaty under which the U.S. agrees to buy some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico for $10 million in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.
• 1916: Grigory Rasputin, the so-called "Mad Monk" who wielded considerable influence with Czar Nicholas II, is killed by a group of Russian noblemen in St. Petersburg.

• 1936: The United Auto Workers union stages its first "sit-down" strike at the General Motors Fisher Body Plant No. 1 in Flint, Michigan. (The strike would last until Feb. 11, 1937.)
• 1940: California’s first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, is officially opened by Gov. Culbert L. Olson.
• 1942: A near-riot of teenage female fans greet the opening of Frank Sinatra’s singing engagement at the Paramount Theater in New York’s Times Square.
• 1965: Ferdinand Marcos is inaugurated for his first term as president of the Philippines.
• 1979: Broadway composer Richard Rodgers dies in New York at age 77.
• 1997: A deadly massacre in Algeria’s insurgency begins in four mountain villages as armed men kill women and children in an attack that lasts from dusk until dawn the following morning; up to 412 deaths are reported.
• 2008: A defiant Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich names former state Attorney General Roland Burris to Barack Obama’s Senate seat, a surprise move that puts the governor’s opponents in the uncomfortable position of trying to block his choice from becoming the Senate’s only black member. (Burris would be sworn in as a U.S. senator the following month.)
• 2008: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signs a law extending presidential terms from four years to six.
• 2013: Six states are named by federal officials to develop test sites for drones: Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Texas and Virginia. 
• 2013: The NFL’s regular season ends with five head coaches being fired: Cleveland’s Rob Chudzinski, Washington’s Mike Shanahan, Detroit’s Jim Schwartz, Minnesota’s Leslie Frazier and Tampa Bay’s Greg Schiano.
• 2017: A wave of spontaneous protests over Iran’s weak economy sweep into Tehran, with college students and others chanting against the government.