On This Day: January 30

This is the 30th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: cheese

The type of cheese made depends on the variety of microbes added and the conditions of fermentation. An enzyme called rennin is added to milk. It ferments the milk sugars to produce lactic acid. The acid curdles the milk and the solid curds are separated from the liquid whey. The curds then are pressed into cheeses. Microbes continue to work in the cheese as it ages, making its flavor stronger and changing its texture.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Martina, St. Bathildis, St. Adelelmus or Aleaume, St. Aldegundis, St. Barsimaeus, and St. Hyacintha Mariscotti.

Greece: Holiday of the Three Hierarchs.

Events

1781 - Maryland became the last of the 13 original states to adopt the Articles of Confederation.

1835 - President Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, survived the first attempt against the life of a U.S. President, when shots were fired in the U.S. House of Representatives.

1862 - The USS Monitor was launched at Greenpoint, Long Island.

1933 - Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

1933 - The first episode of the "Lone Ranger" radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.

1968 - The Vietcong launched the Tet offensive against South Vietnamese cities.

1969 - The Beatles made their last public appearance together, on the roof of their Apple Studios in London.

1972 - In Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators were shot dead by British Army paratroopers, a day later known as "Bloody Sunday."

1996 - Gino Gallagher, the reputed leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, was shot and killed while waiting in line for his unemployment benefit.

2003 - Richard Reid, also known as the "shoe bomber," was found guilty on terrorism charges in a federal court in Boston.

2005 - Iraqis voted in their country's first free election in a half-century.

Births

1882 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States of America (1933-1945).

1937 - Vanessa Redgrave, English actress.

1941 - Dick Cheney, 46th Vice President of the United States.

1951 - Phil Collins, English rock and pop musician.

Deaths

1649 - King Charles I, beheaded for treason. The Commonwealth of England was established.

1948 - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement, assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic.

1948 - Orville Wright, American aviation pioneer.

1995 - Gerald Durrell, English zoologist, traveller, writer, and broadcaster, born in Jamshedpur, India.

1999 - Huntz Hall, radio, theatrical, and motion picture performer perhaps best known for his acting roll in the "Dead End Kids" movies.

2006 - Coretta Scott King, wife of the assassinated civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. She was 78.