April 30 - Events

Events

• 311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ends.
• 313 – Battle of Tzirallum: Emperor Licinius defeats Maximinus II and unifies the Eastern Roman Empire.
• 1315 – Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged on the public gallows at Montfaucon.
• 1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
• 1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, is executed on the orders of Henry VIII.
• 1557 – Mapuche leader Lautaro is killed by Spanish forces at the Battle of Mataquito in Chile.
• 1671 – Petar Zrinski, the Croatian Ban from the Zrinski family, is executed.
• 1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.
• 1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.
• 1812 – The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
• 1838 – Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation.
• 1863 – A 65-man French Foreign Legion infantry patrol fought a force of nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers to nearly the last man in Hacienda Camarón, Mexico.
• 1871 – The Camp Grant Massacre takes place in Arizona Territory.
• 1894 – Coxey's Army reaches Washington, D.C. to protest the unemployment caused by the Panic of 1893.
• 1900 – Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.
• 1900 – Casey Jones dies in a train wreck in Vaughn, Mississippi, while trying to make up time on the Cannonball Express.
• 1904 – The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
• 1907 – Honolulu, Hawaii becomes an independent city.
• 1920 – Peru becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1925 – Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Company for $146 million plus $50 million for charity.
• 1927 – The Federal Industrial Institute for Women opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first women's federal prison in the United States.
• 1927 – Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
• 1937 – The Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative.
• 1938 – The animated cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy Rabbit (a prototype of Bugs Bunny).
• 1938 – The first televised FA Cup Final takes place between Huddersfield Town and Preston North End.
• 1939 – The 1939-40 New York World's Fair opens.
• 1939 – NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's Fair opening day ceremonial address.
• 1943 – World War II: Operation Mincemeat: The submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.
• 1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building.
• 1947 – In Nevada, the Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam a second time.
• 1948 – In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.
• 1953 – In Warner Robins, Georgia, an F4 tornado kills 18 people.
• 1956 – Former Vice President and Senator Alben Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia. He collapses after proclaiming "I would rather be a servant in the house of the lord than sit in the seats of the mighty."
• 1961 – K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned.
• 1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom.
• 1966 – The Church of Satan is established at the Black House in San Francisco, California.
• 1967 – The Aldene Connection opened in Roselle Park, NJ, shutting down the CNJ's Jersey City waterfront terminal and transferring commuters to Newark Penn Station.
• 1973 – Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aides H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and others have resigned.
• 1975 – Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh.
• 1977 – Led Zeppelin sets a new world record attendance for an indoor solo attraction at the Pontiac Silverdrome when 76,229 persons attend a concert here on the groups's 1977 North American tour.
• 1980 – Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
• 1982 – Bijon Setu massacre
• 1988 – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II officially opens World Expo '88 in Brisbane, Australia.
• 1993 – CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.
• 1993 – Virgin Radio broadcasts for the first time in the United Kingdom.
• 1993 – Monica Seles is stabbed by Günter Parche, an obsessed fan, during a quarterfinal match of the 1993 Citizen Cup in Hamburg, Germany
• 1995 – U.S. President Bill Clinton became the first President to visit Northern Ireland.
• 1999 – Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bringing the number of members to 10.
• 2004 – U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
• 2008 – Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg, Russia are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and one of his sisters.
• 2009 – Chrysler automobile company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• 2009 – Seven people are killed and 17 injured at a Queen's Day parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.
• 2009 – Terror act in Azerbaijan state oil academy: 13 students died.