TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 30
240 BC 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet
1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sign a decree expelling all Jews from Spain.
1840 “Beau” Brummell, the English dandy and former favorite of the prince regent, dies in a French lunatic asylum for paupers.
1842 Anesthesia was used for the first time in an operation.
1855 About 5,000 “Border Ruffians” from western Missouri invaded the territory of Kansas and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature. It was the first election in Kansas.
1858 Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patents the pencil with an eraser attached on one end.
1865 The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War Russia lost the war to a coalition of the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain, and Sardinia.
1870 The 15th amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, passes.
1870 President U.S. Grant signs bill readmitting Texas to the Union, the last Confederate state readmitted.
1909 The Queensboro Bridge in New York opens. It is the first double decker bridge and links Manhattan and Queens.
1909 In Oklahoma, Seminole Indians revolted against meager pay for government jobs.
1916 Mexican bandit Pancho Villa kills 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.
1946 The Allies seize 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.
1950 President Harry S Truman denounces Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.
1972 Northern Ireland’s Government and Parliament dissolved by the British Government and ‘direct rule’ from Westminster is introduced
1975 As the North Vietnamese forces move toward Saigon, desperate South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets.
1976 Thousands of Palestinians protest against Israel’s massive land expropriation In the event, which is annually commemorated on Land Day, 6 protesters were killed and scores injured by Israeli police.
1981 President Ronald Reagan is shot and wounded in Washington, D.C. by John W. Hinckley Jr.
1984 The U.S. ended its participation in the multinational peace force in Lebanon.
2002 The Queen Mother Elizabeth of England died at the age of 101.
2002 Suspected Islamic militants set off several grenades at a temple in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Four civilians, four policemen and two attackers were killed and 20 people were injured.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
