On this day, Jan. 30

1649 England’s King Charles I was executed for high treason.

1902 The notorious Biddle boys, Edward and John, convicted murderers of grocer Thomas D. Kahney and Detective Patrick Fitzgerald, sawed their way out of their cells, overpowered guards and escaped from the Allegheny County Jail.

1945 Park H. Martin, who, as chief engineer of the Allegheny County Works Department, formulated the county’s longrange planning program in 1936, was appointed executive director of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development by Robert E. Doherty, chairman.

1974 The state Crime Commission charged that Allegheny County District Attorney Robert W. Duggan concealed $68,000 in contributions and expenditures, squeezed more than $36,000 from employees and falsified election records in his 1971 re-election campaign. Duggan replied that the mistakes happened because of “poor bookkeeping practices.” 2006 Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, at age 78.

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Rick Nowlin Today’s birthdays: Actor Gene Hackman, 92. Actor Vanessa Redgrave, 85. Country singer Jeanne Pruett, 85. Chess grandmaster Boris Spassky, 85. Country singer Norma Jean, 84. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, 81. R&B musician William King (The Commodores), 73. Singer Phil Collins, 71. Actor Charles S. Dutton, 71. World Golf Hall of Famer Curtis Strange, 67. Actor Ann Dowd, 66. The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, 60. Actor Wayne Wilderson, 56. Actor Norbert Leo Butz, 55. The King of Spain, Felipe VI, 54. Country singer Tammy Cochran, 50. Actor Christian Bale, 48. Rock musician Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket), 48. Actor Olivia Colman, 48. Actor-singer Lena Hall, 42. Pop-country singer-songwriter Josh Kelley, 42. Actor Wilmer Valderrama, 42. Actor Mary Hollis Inboden, 36. Actor Kylie Bunbury, 33. Actor Jake Thomas, 32.

Thought for today: “History repeats itself in the large because human nature changes with geological leisureliness.”

— Will (1885-1981) and Ariel Durant

(1898-1981), American historians