Today's 30 April Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 30 April Major Events

311 Roman Emperor Galerius issues the Edict of Toleration, ending the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
313 Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his 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)

Henry IV Cedes Utrecht

1064 German King Henry IV gives away Utrecht county of West Friesland

1315 French chamberlain Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged on the public gallows at Montfaucon after being convicted of sorcery
1349 Black Death Massacre: Jewish community of Radolfzell, Germany, exterminated
1396 Crusade of Nicopolis: one of the last large-scale medieval crusades departs from Dijon led by the Count of Nevers, eldest son of the Duke of Burgundy
1483 Orbital calculations suggest that on this day, Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit until July 23, 1503

1492 Spain announces it will expel all Jews
1506 Philip of Burgundy & England sign trade agreement

Treaty of Westminster

1527 Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France sign the Treaty of Westminster, pledging to combine their forces against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in attempt to win War of the League of Cognac

1562 Jean Ribault and colonists arrive in Florida, the first French colonists in North America
1573 The spire of Beauvais Cathedral, France, which made it the tallest human-made monument in the world at the time, collapses (never rebuilt)
1598 First theater performance in America, the Spanish comedy "Rio Grande"
1616 King James I of England leaves Brielle
1650 French rebel Henri de la Tour Turenne signs treaty with Spain
1661 Tsjeng Tsj'eng-Kung begins siege of Dutch fort Zeelandia, Formosa
1665 Naval battle in Bay of Barbados between attacking Dutch fleet led by Michiel de Ruyter damages ships but fails to take the English-held fort [1]
1671 Petar Zrinski, the Croatian Ban from the Zrinski family, is executed for treason
1695 William Congreve's Restoration comedy "Love for Love" premieres in London
1722 Game of Billiards is mentioned in New England Courant

Treaty of Vienna

1725 Emperor Charles VI and King Philip IV of Spain sign the Treaty of Vienna

1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle drawn up ending the War of the Austrian Succession

Wilkes Confined in the Tower

1763 Member of Parliament and journalist John Wilkes confined in the Tower of London, charged with seditious libel

1774 Pope Clement XIV proclaims a universal jubilee for the second time

1789 George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America at Federal Hall in NYC

1790 Dutch Colonial troops occupy guerilla leader Boni's maroon village in Suriname
1794 The Battle of Boulou: French forces defeat a Spanish army under General Union during the War of the Pyrenees
1798 US Department of the Navy forms

Louisiana Purchase Treaty

1803 Chancellor Robert Livingston and James Monroe sign Louisiana Purchase Treaty in Paris at a cost of 15 million dollars, doubles the size of the USA

1804 The New Hague Theater opens in The Hague, Netherlands
1808 First practical typewriter is finished by Italian Pellegrino Turri
1812 (Eastern) Louisiana admitted as 18th US state
1838 Nicaragua declares independence from the Federal Republic of Central America

Dmitri Donskoi

1852 Anton Rubinstein's opera "Dmitry Donskoy" (The Battle of Kulikovo) premieres at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia

1857 San Jose State University forms

Chess Master Retires

1859 American Paul Morphy, widely regarded as the world's best chess player, retires after returning from a 10-month chess tour of Europe

A Tale of Two Cities

1859 Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" is first published in the literary periodical "All the Year Round" in weekly installments until November 26

1860 Navaho indians attack Fort Defiance (Canby)

Lincoln Orders Evcuation

1861 US President Abraham Lincoln orders Federal Troops to evacuate Indian Territory (US Civil War)

1862 Swift Run Gap skirmishes in West Virginia

Battle of Snyder's Bluff

1863 -5/1] Battle of Snyder's Bluff, Virginia (part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War): General Sherman beaten by Confederate forces

1863 Mexican forces attack the French Foreign Legion at Hacienda Camarón, Mexico

Battle of Chancellorsville

1863 US Civil War - Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia: In a major victory General Robert E. Lee's troops defeat larger Army of the Potomac under Major General Joseph Hooker, Stonewall Jackson is fatally wounded

1864 Battle of Jenkin's Ferry, Arkansas; Confederate General William Reid Scurry is killed
1864 New York becomes 1st state to charge a hunting license fee
1869 Hawaiian YMCA organized
1871 The Camp Grant Massacre of Apache Indians in Arizona Territory is committed by white and Mexican adventurers, 144 die
1880 The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens its new premises designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould at its current site on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street
1885 Henry Lee Higginson starts the "Popular Music" series with the Boston Symphony, which evolves into the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1900
1887 1st game played at Broad & Huntingdon St Park (Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia; Phillies beat Giants 19-10
1888 Hailstones allegedly as big as oranges kill 246 people and some 1,600 sheep and cattle in Moradabad, India
1889 First US national holiday on the centennial of Washington's inauguration

Discovery of the Electron

1897 English physicist and head of the Cavendish laboratory J. J. Thomson announces his discovery of the electron in a lecture to the Royal Institution

1898 Championship wrestling match at Met turns into a brawl
1900 Casey Jones dies heroically in a train wreck at Vaughn, Mississippi, while driving Cannonball Express, immortalized in the song "Ballad of Casey Jones"
1900 The "Hawaiian Organic Act" is enacted by US Congress making Hawaii a US territory

Fitzsimmons KOs Dunkhost

1900 Weighing in at 170 lbs British former world heavyweight boxing champion Bob Fitzsimmons KOs 270 lb American Ed Dunkhost in round 2 of a lop-sided bout in Brooklyn, New York

Pelléas et Mélisande

1902 Claude Debussy's only completed opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" premieres at the Salle Favart in Paris, performed by the Opéra-Comique and conducted by André Messager

1903 NY Highlanders (Yankees) inaugural home opener at Hilltop Park, Manhattan; beat Washington Senators, 6-2
1904 Ice cream cone makes its debut at St. Louis World's Fair invented by Ernest A. Hamwi (independently of other claimant Italo Marchiony in NY)
1905 First official soccer game between neighboring countries Belgium and the Netherlands; the Dutch win 4-1 at Olympic Stadium, Antwerp
1907 Honolulu, Hawaii, becomes an independent city
1910 Cleveland Naps Addie Joss limits St.Louis Browns to 8 hits in 2-1 victory
1911 Portugal approves female suffrage
1916 Germany ratifies a bill introducing Daylight Saving Time, the first country in the world to do so
1918 Orange Nassau soccer team forms in Groningen
1919 Phillies beat Brooklyn Dodgers 9-0 in 20 innings
1920 The British Government ends military conscription
1921 1st American Professional Football Association Championship (1920): undefeated Akron Pros awarded inaugural title
1921 American Professional Football Association reorganizes in Akron, Ohio

On Dante

1921 Pope Benedict XV issues the encyclical "On Dante," honoring the poet's enduring influence on Catholic thought and Italian literature

1922 Chicago pitcher Charlie Robertson throws a perfect game as the White Sox beat Detroit Tigers, 2-0 at Navin Field
1925 Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Company for $146 million plus $50 million for charity

1928 Cherkess Autonomous Region forms in RSFSR (until 1957)
1929 Ernst Streeruwitz becomes Chancellor of Austria, lasts less than 5 months
1929 Thorvald Stauning becomes prime minister of Denmark for the second time
1934 Austria gets "Austrian fascist" constitution
1935 World Congress for Women's Rights concludes in Istanbul
1937 The Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be granted the right to suffrage; over 90% vote in the affirmative

First President on TV

1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first US president to appear on television when NBC-RCA broadcasts the opening of the 1939 New York World's Fair

Gehrig's Final Record

1939 Lou Gehrig sets a MLB record playing his 2,130th consecutive and final game for the New York Yankees.

1939 Tropicana ballet of Havana, Cuba, forms
1940 Air New Zealand, then known as TEAL, makes its inaugural flight from Auckland to Sydney. It later becomes the first airline in the world to boil hot water in flight to offer customers hot tea and coffee.
1940 Brooklyn Dodger Tex Carleton no-hits Cincinnati Reds, 3-0
1942 1st submarine built on Great Lakes launched, (Peto), Manitowoc, Wisconsin
1943 Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp for Jews forms
1943 Dutch strike against forced labor in Nazi Germany's war industry
1943 Noël Coward's play "This Happy Breed," written in 1939, premieres in London after production is delayed by World War II
1944 NY Giant Phil Weintraub gets 11 RBIs
1944 NY Giant, Mel Ott scores 6 runs in 1 game drawing 5 walks for 4th time

Hitler Commits Suicide

1945 Adolf Hitler commits suicide along with his new wife Eva Braun in the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin as the Red Army captures the city

1945 Concentration camp Munchen-Allag freed

Dönitz Picks up the Pieces

1945 Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz takes over the head of state position in Germany following Adolf Hitler's suicide

1945 Record 48 U-boats sunk by the Allies this month
1945 Red Army occupies Demmin

1945 Red Army opens attack on German Reichstag building in Berlin

1945 Soviet Army frees Ravensbruck concentration camp
1945 US troops attack the Elbe
1946 Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller's 2nd career MLB no-hitter; beats New York Yankees, 1-0
1947 Boulder Dam renamed in honor of Herbert Hoover
1948 Organization of American States charter signed at Bogotá, Colombia
1948 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll
1952 Mr. Potato Head is the first toy advertised on television

Babe Ruth League

1953 Little-Bigger League changes its name to Babe Ruth League

1954 Darius Milhaud's 4th Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Op. 295) premieres in Haifa, Israel
1955 Cuban bandleader Pérez Prado's mambo version of "Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White" goes #1 for 10 weeks
1955 Element atomic number 101, Mendelevium, is announced
1955 Imperial Bank of India nationalized
1955 West German unions protest for a 40-hour workweek and higher wages
1958 Ted Williams is 10th major league player to get 1,000 extra-base hits
1961 "Tossin' and Turnin'" single released by Bobby Lewis (Billboard Song of the Year, 1961)
1961 First shuttle flights between Washington, D.C., Boston, and NYC begin (Eastern)
1961 MLB San Francisco Giants outfielder Willie Mays becomes just the 9th player in MLB history to hit 4 homers in one game in 14-4 win against the Braves in Milwaukee

1966 Anton LaVey founds the Church of Satan in San Francisco, California
1967 MLB Orioles pitchers Stu Miller & Steve Barber lose 2-1 despite no-hitting Detroit Tigers at Memorial Stadium, Baltimore

1967 Ostankino Tower, the then highest free-standing structure in the world at 540m is finished in Moscow, Russia

1968 3 Oriole pitchers walk 14 NY Yankees in a 9 inning game
1969 Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jim Maloney records his second MLB no-hitter in 10-0 rout of Houston Astros
1969 WEDB TV channel 40 in Berlin, New Hampshire (PBS) begins broadcasting
1970 MLB Chicago Cubs Billy Williams is 1st National League player to appear in 1,000 consecutive games
1970 US troops invade Cambodia
1972 "Arthur Godfrey Time" ends a 27 year run on radio

Red Rose Speedway

1973 Paul McCartney releases "Red Rose Speedway" album, includes the hit single "My Love"

1973 Women's tennis groups end disputes over sanctioning tournaments

Nixon Hands Over Tapes

1974 US President Richard Nixon hands over partial transcripts of Watergate tape recordings

1975 North Vietnamese troops capture Saigon, ending the Vietnam War
1976 "Silly Love Songs" single released by Wings (Billboard Song of the Year, 1976)

Ali vs. Young

1976 Muhammad Ali beats Jimmy Young in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1976 Royal Canadian Mint opens a branch in Winnipeg, Manitoba
1976 The Betsy Ross Bridge, spanning the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Pennsauken, New Jersey opens

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

1977 Human rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo begin protesting at the forced disappearances of thousands, under the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla, in Buenos Aires

1977 Ron Cey sets record of 29 RBIs in April

1980 Juliana, Queen of the Netherlands, abdicates; Princess Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard (42) becomes Queen Beatrix
1980 Ronald Harwood's play "The Dresser" premieres in London with Freddie Jones and Tom Courtenay
1980 Terrorists seize Iranian Embassy in London
1982 Alvaro Magana chosen to succeed Jose N Duarte as President of El Salvador
1982 Atlanta Braves win record 12th straight from beginning of season
1982 Iranian offensive in Khusistan
1984 1,700 skiers participate in an alpine event at Are, Sweden
1984 Strong winds cause a 30 min delay in Toronto Blue Jays game
1985 "Shoah", French documentary about the Holocaust, directed by Claude Lanzmann, starring Richard Glazar and Raul Hilberg, premieres in Paris
1985 Dale Murphy drives in a record-tying 28th and 29th run of April
1985 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll
1985 Last edition of Brink Daily Mail and Sunday Express in South Africa
1985 NFL Draft: Virginia Tech defensive end Bruce Smith first pick by Buffalo Bills
1986 Ashrita Furman performs 8,341 somersaults over 12 miles
1986 Mariners strike out 16 times, set record of 36 in 2 consecutive games

NASCAR Qualifying Record

1987 Bill Elliott sets a NASCAR qualifying record of 212.809 mph at Talladega Superspeedway (342.483 km/h; 44.998 seconds)

1987 Lou Lamoriello is named NJ Devils President
1988 NJ Devils beat Caps 3-2 taking 7th game of Patrick Division final
1988 NY Knights 1st arena football game beats Cobras 60-52 (10,157 in LA)
1988 NY Yankees' Dave Winfield gets his 29th RBI of April, setting the AL record and tying the MLB record
1988 The then largest banana split ever, at 4.5 miles long, is made along Market Street in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
1988 World Exposition, Expo 88 opens in Brisbane Australia
1989 Chicago newspaper movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert film their 500th movie review television show

Madagascar’s First Beatification

1989 Pope John Paul II beatifies Victoire Rasoamanarivo of Madagascar

1989 US beats Costa Rica 1-0, in 3rd round of 1990 soccor World Soccer tournament
1990 As Mets pitcher David Cone argues a call at first base, two Braves runners score
1990 US hostage Frank Reed is freed after four years in the hands of pro-Iranian captors

1993 The source code of the World Wide Web is released by CERN, making it freely available to all
1993 Virgin Radio broadcasts for the first time in the United Kingdom.
1995 After 120 years the last 15 A & S department stores close
1996 Dutch Itallian Beppo-SAX launches from Cape Canaveral
1996 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Grand Rapids, Michigan on WKLQ 94.5 FM

Clinton Taps Petroleum Reserve

1996 US President Clinton approves the sale of $227 million of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; US gas prices are at their highest levels in 5 years

1997 Atlanta Braves win record 19 games in April
1997 Big Ben stops at 12:11 PM for 54 minutes
1997 President Clinton's daughter Chelsea chooses to attend Stanford College

1997 Tajik Prest Imomali Rakhmonov wounded in assassination attempt
1997 Tino Martinez hits record 34 RBIs in April
1999 Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bringing the total members to 10
2000 Pope John Paul II canonizes Polish nun Sister Faustina [Helena Kowalska] as a Catholic saint
2001 The Mitchell Report on the Arab-Israeli conflict is published

Cheney Calls for More Energy

2001 US Vice President Cheney calls for increased domestic production of fossil fuels and increased usage of nuclear power to meet America's energy demand

Presidential Referendum

2002 A referendum in Pakistan overwhelmingly approves the Presidency of Pervez Musharraf for another five years

2004 U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison

Waldseemüller Map

2007 German Chancellor Angela Merkel officially hands over the Waldseemüller Map (oldest known document to name America) to the US Library of Congress [1]

Blaine Holds his Breath

2008 David Blaine sets a new Guinness World Record for holding his breath underwater for 17 minutes 4.5 seconds on "The Oprah Winfrey Show"

Royal Russian Remains

2008 Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg, Russia, are confirmed by Russian scientists to be those of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and one of his sisters

2009 Chrysler automobile company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
2009 Failed attack on the Dutch Royal Family results in 7 deaths and 17 injured
2009 The United Kingdom formally ends combat operations in Iraq
2012 Manchester City defeats Manchester United 1-0 in what is claimed to be the biggest match in English Premier League history
2012 Overloaded ferry in the Brahmaputra River, India, killing 103 people
2012 Spain's economy double dips after a 0.3% contraction and 25% unemployment rate
2012 The unfinished One World Trade Center overtakes the Empire State building to become the tallest building in New York

International Jazz Day

2012 UNESCO celebrates the 1st International Jazz Day with a daylong celebration in Paris; a sunrise concert in New Orleans’ Congo Square; and a sunset concert at the United Nations in NYC; performers included Tony Bennett, George Benson, Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, Hiromi, Angelique Kidjo, Lang Lang, Shankar Mahadevan, Hugh Masekela, and Esperanza Spalding [1]

2013 13 people are killed after a bomb explodes in Damascus
2013 American toddler Hannah Warren, (2) who was born without a trachea, becomes the youngest patient to receive a stem cell bioengineered organ; she dies of complications several months later, and surgeon Paolo Macchiarini is later convicted of research-related crimes in Europe
2013 Apple offers the largest bond offering from a private company of $17 billion
2013 Bollywood actor Rajesh Khanna is declared "The First Superstar of Indian cinema" at the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards

King Willem-Alexander

2013 Willem-Alexander becomes the first male Monarch of Netherlands in 123 years, following the abdication of his mother, Queen Beatrix

2014 Masked gunmen and pro-Russian separatists take control of more buildings in eastern Ukraine
2015 MESSENGER spacecraft is intentionally deorbited and destroyed
2015 NFL Draft: Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston first pick by Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Sanders Runs for President

2015 US senator Bernie Sanders announces he will seek the Democratic Party's nomination for President

Whitney Museum of American Art

2015 Whitney Museum of American Art holds ribbon cutting ceremony with Michelle Obama and NY Mayor Bill de Blasio, for its new building designed by Renzo Piano

The DiCaprio Beetle

2018 A new species of water beetle from the Maliau Basin in Malaysian Borneo is named Grouvellinus leonardodicaprioi after actor Leonardo DiCaprio

2018 Coordinated double suicide attack kills 36 in Kabul, Afghanistan, including nine journalists
2018 Etienne Terrus art museum in Elne, France, reveals half of its collection are fakes
2018 Pakistani city of Nawabshah sets global record for an April temperature, recording high of 50.2C
2018 Sajid Javid is named UK Home Secretary by Prime Minister Teresa May

Avengers: Infinity War

2018 Superhero film "Avengers: Infinity War" sets new record for an opening weekend earning $250 million in the US, $630 million worldwide

2018 World's oldest known spider, a female trapdoor, dies after being killed by a wasp sting in Western Australia, aged 43

Akihito Abdicates

2019 Japanese Emperor Akihito declares his abdication at a ceremony in Tokyo which officially takes effect the following day

2019 New type of dementia identified and named limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (Late) after misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's disease
2020 British Captain Tom Moore, who raised more than £30 million for the National Health Service by walking in his garden, turns 100 and is made an honorary colonel by the Queen

Euro Economy Shrinks

2020 Eurozone economy shrinks at -3.8% between Jan and Mar 2020, the fastest rate on record with Euro Bank President Christine Lagarde warning the 2nd quarter will be even worse

2020 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail V. Mishustin says he has COVID-19
2020 South Korea reports no new domestic cases of COVID-19 for 1st time, their virus cases peaked Feb 29
2020 UK PM Boris Johnson says Britain is past the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak

2020 US President Donald Trump claims COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, while the Office of the Director of National Intelligence saying the virus is not manmade

2021 45 killed and 150 injured in a crush of people at the Israeli Lag B'Omer festival at Mount Meron
2021 Australia announces a ban on citizens returning from India, stranding 8,000 people, and making it a criminal offence to return, amid India's COVID-19 crisis - first democratic country to do so
2022 Bach Long Bridge, the world's longest glass-bottom bridge at 632m opens in Moc Chau Island mountain park, Vietnam [1]

Mr. Irrelevant

2022 Brock Purdy is selected by the San Francisco 49ers with the final pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, becoming Mr. Irrelevant

2022 Jacky Hunt-Broersma sets world record for running 104 consecutive marathons in 104 days, after surviving cancer and with a prosthetic leg [1]

Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday Concert

2023 Country singer Willie Nelson hosts second of two-night 90th birthday concerts for himself at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California; guest performers include Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Keith Richards, Bob Wieir, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliffe, Dwight Yoakam, Sheryl Crow, and Billy Strings, among others

2023 Seattle Kraken become first NHL franchise to earn its first-ever playoff series win against reigning Stanley Cup champion, eliminating Colorado Avalanche in 7 games
2024 NYPD arrest about 300 Gaza protesters at Columbia University and City College of NY after two weeks of protests, in New York City [1]