TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 30
239 BC 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet
1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sign a decree expelling all Jews from Spain.
1533 Henry VIII divorces his 1st wife, Catherine of Aragon
1842 Ether was used as an anaesthetic for 1st time by Dr Crawford Long (Jefferson GA)
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
1867 A treaty for the purchase of Alaska from Russia for the sum of $7.2 million, approximately two cents an acre, was submitted to the U.S. Senate.
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.
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.
1964 The game show Jeopardy debuted on television.
1972 Northern Ireland’s Government and Parliament dissolved by the British Government and ‘direct rule’ from Westminster is introduced
1976 Thousands of Palestinians protest against Israel’s massive land expropriation
1981 President Ronald Reagan is shot and wounded in Washington, D.C. by John W. Hinckley Jr.
1984 US ends participation in multinational Lebanon peace force
1994 Serbs and Croats signed a cease-fire to end their war in Croatia while Bosnian Muslims and Serbs continued to fight each other.
2017 North Carolina repeals its controversial bathroom law that restricted transgender use
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
