TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – APRIL 30
313 Licinius unifies the whole of the eastern Roman Empire under his own rule.
711 Islamic conquest of Iberia: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus)
1250 King Louis IX of France is ransomed.
1527 Henry VIII of England and King Francis of France sign the Treaty of Westminster.
1562 1st French colonists in North America: Jean Ribault & colonists arrive in Florida
1563 All Jews are expelled from France by order of Charles VI.
1789 George Washington is inaugurated as the first U.S. president.
1803 France sold Louisiana and adjoining lands to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million.
1812 Louisiana is admitted into the Union as a state.
1916 Germany and its World War I allies become the first countries to use daylight saving time (DST). The rationale was to save energy to aid the war effort. Other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, first introduced DST later that year.
1930 The Soviet Union proposes a military alliance with France and Great Britain.
1931 The George Washington Bridge, linking New York City and New Jersey, opens.
1938 Happy Rabbit appeared in the cartoon “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” This rabbit would later evolve into Bugs Bunny.
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 Land Rover (Land Rover Series I) is shown for the first time at the Amsterdam Car Show, many of the original components were from Rover saloon cars including the 1.6 engine from the Rover P3 60 saloon. The car featured four-wheel drive.
1952 The diary of Anne Frank, a Jewish victim of the Holocaust is to be published in English titled “The Diary of a Young Girl”. Her diary, later entitled “The Diary of Anne Frank”, becomes one of the most popular books in the world and is included in most schools as recommended reading.
1964 The FCC ruled that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both VHF and UHF channels.
1973 President Richard Nixon announces the resignation of Harry Robbins Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and other top aides.
1980 Terrorists seize the Iranian Embassy in London.
1984 U.S. President Reagan signed cultural and scientific agreements with China. He also signed a tax accord that would make it easier for American companies to operate in China.
1993 CERN announces that World Wide Web protocols will remain free. By offering the software required to operate a web server with an open license, the European organization ensured its dissemination, and the WWW flourished.
2003 Libya accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
2007 The United States and European Union have committed themselves to a new transatlantic economic partnership at a summit in Washington. The pact will attempt to boost trade and investment by harmonizing regulatory standards, and laying down the basis for a US-EU single market. The two sides have also signed an Open Skies deal, which is designed to reduce fares and boost traffic on transatlantic flights.
2009 The U.S. car maker Chrysler has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and has formed an alliance with Fiat.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
