April 30 is the 120th day of the year (121st in leap years). 245 days remain until the end of the year. Find out some of the important events that occurred on this day in history.

 

Historical dates

0030 – Jesus of Nazareth is crucified.

0313 – Licinius unifies the whole of the eastern empire under his own rule.

1250 – King Louis IX of France released at ransom of $1 million.

1527 – Henry VIII and King Francis of France sign the treaty of Westminster.

1725 – Spain withdraws from Quadruple Alliance.

1789 – George Washington takes office as first elected US president.

1803 – The US purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million.

1812 – Louisiana becomes the 18th US state.

1849 – Republican patriot and guerrilla leader Giuseppe Garibaldi repulses a French attack on Rome.

1864 – Work begins on the Dams along the Red River. The work would allow Union General Nathaniel Banks’ troops to sail over the rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana.

 

30th April in the 20th Century

1900 – Hawaii becomes an official US territory.

1900 – Casey Jones dies while trying to save the runaway train, “Cannonball Express.”

1930 – The Soviet Union proposes a military alliance with France and Great Britain.

1938 – Happy Rabbit appears in the cartoon “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” This rabbit would later evolve into Bugs Bunny.

1939 – The first railroad car equipped with fluorescent lights enters into service. The train car is the “General Pershing Zephyr.”

1945 – Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide. They were married for one day. One week later, Germany surrenders. unconditionally.

1945 – Arthur Godfrey begins his CBS radio morning show, “Arthur Godfrey Time.” It will run
until this day in 1972.

1947 – The name of Boulder Dam, in Nevada, changes back to Hoover Dam.

1952 – Mr Potato Head becomes the first toy to be advertised on network television.

1964 – The FCC rules that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both VHF and UHF channels.

1980 – Terrorists seize the Iranian Embassy in London.

1984 – US President Reagan signs cultural and scientific agreements with China. He also signs a tax accord that would make it easier for American companies to operate in China.

1991 – An estimated 125,000 people are killed in a cyclone that hit Bangladesh.

1993 – CERN puts the World Wide Web software in the public domain.

1998 – NATO expands to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The three nations receive formal admittance the following April at NATO’s 50th-anniversary summit.

1998 – United and Delta airlines announce their alliance. It would give them control of 1/3 of all US passenger seats.

 

30th April in the 21st Century

2002 – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf receives overwhelming approval for another five years as president.

2012 – One World Trade Center becomes the tallest structure in New York. It surpasses the height of the Empire State Building.

2015 – NASA’s Messenger spacecraft crashes into the surface of Mercury. The space probe sends back more than 270,000 pictures to earth.