December 30 – 1460 Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield. A York and Lancaster competition, which lead to Henry 7th Tudor as King of England (Duke of Lancaster and husband of the Princess of York). Henry married their daughter, the Princess Margaret Tudor, to James 4th Stewart King of Scots, who left Margaret a widow after Flodden september 1513). Margaret married and divorced Archibald Douglas, the Earl of Angus, and then married Henry Stewart, raised to Lord Methven, in turn. (and Margaret became daughter in law to Andrew Stewart, Lord Avandale and Ochiltree). Margaret became the ancestress of all future monarchs of Scotland, England, and eventually most, if not all the crowned heads of Europe.The nick name, War of the Roses became a movie poster and title.

 

Stamp issue of 28 February 2008.

Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III.

 

1677 John Miller of Neilston. Robert Miller(I) of Ochiltree’s son. John was baptized 30th December, 1677, and licensed by the Presbytery of Ayr in 1701, seven years ahead of his older brother Robert Miller (II) who, though he eventually entered the ministry, spent the first twenty-odd years of his working life in an unrecorded occupation. Within two years John was called to his Uncle Andrew’s (Miller IV) former church at Neilston.

John married Janet, daughter of James Adam of Kirkton, merchant of Glasgow, and had an only daughter, Grizell Miller, born in 1708. Matrimonially, Grizell and her daughters were highly successful: she married William Grant, Lord Preston-grange, and had three girls, Janet, who married John, 4th Earl of Hyndford; Agnes, who married Sir George Suttie of Balgone, Bart. (Baronette); and Jean, who married Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session. Grizell her-self lived to a ripe auld age, dying in 1792.

1702 – Queen Anne’s War: James Moore, Governor of the Province of Carolina, abandons the Siege of St. Augustine. Anne Stewart, Queen of Scots.

WesternEurope showing the principal changes effected by the Treaties of Utrecht & Rastadt 1713 (ending Queen Anne’s War).

1825 Sir Walter Scott. December 30 [1825]’…Dined alone with [George Huntly] Gordon, Lady S., and Anne. James Curle, Melrose, has handsomely lent me £600; he has done kindly. I have served him before and will again if in my power. JG Lockhart discusses Scott meeting the younger Gordon in his “Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott”: ‘It may perhaps be remembered, that Sir Walter’s cicerone over Waterloo, in August 1815, was a certain Major. Pryse Gordon, then on half-pay and resident at Brussels.

http://dailysirwalter.blogspot.com/

  • Lockhart of Bar 1297 2Miller 2Simmons 2Choate 2Sorensen

On August 22nd and 23rd 1877, Wilford Woodruff, later reported that three knights, among others, Sir Walter Scott ‘called upon me, as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Temple at St. George, two consecutive nights, and demanded at my hands that I should go forth and attend to the ordinances of the House of God for them.’ A high honor indeed!

Sir Walter Scott survived a childhood bout of polio in 1773 that left him lame.[ During the winter of 1786–87 the 15-year-old Scott saw Robert Burns at one of these salons, for what was to be their only meeting. When Burns noticed a print illustrating the poem “The Justice of the Peace” and asked who had written the poem, only Scott knew that it was by John Langhorne, and was thanked by Burns. The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border 1796

Russian Burns Stamp. halifaxburnsclub.org.

1835 Maria Stuarda (Mary Stuart) premiered on 30 December 1835 at La Scala in Milan. A tragic opera, (tragedia lirica), in two acts, by Gaetano Donizetti, to a libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, based on Andrea Maffei’s translation of Friedrich Schiller’s 1800 play Maria Stuart.

Gaetano Donizetti. To European Catholics, Mary Stewart was a martyr and the legitimate ruler of Scotland and England, a sympathetic character versus Elizabeth Tudor, who was “as unrestrainedly jealous, willful, and easily over-wrought. This is the portrait of Elizabeth found, not too unexpectedly, in Bardari’s libretto”.

1865 Joseph Rudyard Kipling born to Alice Kipling (née MacDonald) and (John) Lockwood Kipling. Alice’s father was Reverend George Browne MacDonald (1805–1868), a Methodist minister, and mother Hannah Jones (1809–1875). Alice (thru her sisters) was aunt to Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, prime minister; Sir Edward Poynter President of the Royal Academy. http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/kip_fra.htm  

Jungle Book stamp USA.

1915 HMS Natal, magazine explosion, Cromarty, Scotland, (30 December 1915) (421 crew lost is the highest estimate, precise figure is disputed).

HMS Natal 1905-1915.

 

1941 Liberty Ship.

1991 September 3. World War II, Commemorative. The North African campaign became more intense, with Germany’s Afrika Korps arriving in Tripoli and retaking land lost in late 1940. German U-boats continued to disrupt the shipping lanes between the United States and Great Britain. www.usstampgallery.com

1944 The 7th and 9th Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) strengthened the 52nd Mountain Division’s defences when Ardennenoffensive, Ardennes Counteroffensive, and Rundstedtoffensive, Von Rundstedt Offensive was launched at Geilenkirchen. At Bruggerhof the Battalion was on the right flank of the British 21st Army Group and linking up with the American forces, we encountered the  rapid and demoralising firepower of a German Nebelwerfer, a multi-firing  rocket artillery weapon known as ‘Screaming Minnie’. . http://www.john-lowrie.com/friendship.html

Field Marshal Von Runstedt

 

Regimental Badge, The Royal Scots. Saint Andrew’s Cross, Sun strokes.  Fought at the Battle of the Bulge.

 

1965 William Francis Forbes-Sempill, 19th Lord Sempill (1893–1965) died. Royal Aeronautical Society, president, and advised overseas governments, including that of Australia, on the creation of their air forces. In 1956 the Swedish government awarded him the Order of the Polar Star. At various times he was president of the British Gliding Association and of the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

Captain William Francis Forbes-Sempill 19th Lord Sempill showing a Gloster Sparrowhawk to Admiral Togo Heihachiro, 1921.

1973 Jason Nathaniel Behr, born. American Actor. Jason’s great-great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Ann Morris, was from Paisley, Renfrew, Scotland. http://ethnicelebs.com/jason-behr   Also Murray and McCarrie clans.

1998 Avalanche kills 4 in Scotland. FORT WILLIAM, Scotland (AP) — An avalanche struck seven hikers on a mountain in northwest Scotland, killing four of them, police said Wednesday. Rescuers dug out three survivors who had been trapped in tons of snow.

The hikers had been on a “winter skills” training course on Aonoch Mor near Ben Nevis in the Scottish Highlands when they were caught Tuesday in the avalanche about 3,500 feet up the mountain, police said.

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