December 30th seems to be a thin day astronomically, but I did manage to find, in 1995, the launch of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer from Cape Canaveral. Bruno Rossi, after whom the satellite was named, was the discoverer of the first source of x-rays beyond the Sun.

Artist’s Impression of RXTE
Over a sixteen year lifespan, RXTE did exactly what its name suggests: it timed variations in emissions from x-ray sources using three experiments (a proportional counter array, theHigh Energy X-ray Timing Experiment, and an all-sky monitor).
Also today, in 1924, Edwin Hubble announced to the world that the Milky Way is not the only galaxy. Using the 100-inch Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson (the world’s largest until 1949) Hubble was able to calculate the distance to Cepheid variable stars in the Andromeda Galaxy using a technique devised by Harvard astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt. At the time, “spiral nebulae” were assumed to be patches of dust or gas within the Milky Way, but calculating a distance to Andromeda of approximately 860,000 light years changed the scale of the Universe for ever.
It's All Going On Up There 
