April 30th Events

This Day in History

On April 30
1789 George Washington took office as first U.S. president.
1803 The U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million.
1812 Louisiana admitted as the 18th U.S. state.
1889 Washington's inauguration became the first U.S. national holiday.
1943 The British submarine HMS Seraph drops 'the man who never was,' a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.
1945 Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. They had been married for one day. One week later Germany surrendered unconditionally.
1948 The Organization of American States held its first meeting in Bogota, Colombia.
1967 Muhammad Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight boxing championship when he refused to be inducted into the U.S. military service. Ali claimed his religion conflicted with being inducted into the military.
1968 U.S. Marines attacked a division of North Vietnamese in the village of Dai Do.
1970 U.S. troops invaded Cambodia to disrupt North Vietnamese Army base areas. The announcement by U.S. President Nixon led to widespread protests.
1972 The North Vietnamese launched an invasion of the South.
1973 U.S. President Nixon announced the resignation of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and other top aides.
1980 Terrorists seized the Iranian Embassy in London.
1997 ABC aired the "coming out" episode of the sitcom "Ellen." The title character, played by Ellen DeGeneres, declared she was a lesbian.
1998 In the U.S., Federal regulators fine a contractor $2.25 million for improper handling of oxygen canisters on ValuJet that crashed in the Florida Everglades in 1996.
2001 Chandra Levy was last seen in Washington, DC. Her remains were found in Rock Creek Park on May 22, 2002. California Congressman Gary Condit was questioned in the case due to his relationship with Levy.
2002 Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was overwhelmingly approved for another five years as president.