A bit of April 30th history…

311- Roman Emperor Galerius issues Edict of Toleration which ends persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire

711 - Islamic conquest of Iberia - Moorish troops land in Gibralter

1789 - George Washington is inaugurated as 1st president of USA

1803 - James Monroe signs Louisiana Purchase Treaty at cost of $15 million, doubles size of USA

1897 - Physicist JJ Thomson discovers electron

1945 - Adolph Hitler commits suicide in Berlin as Red Army captures city

1952 - Mr Potato Head is 1st toy advertised on TV (pictured)

1974 - President Nixon hands over partial transcripts of Watergate tape recordings

1989 - World Wide Web (www) is 1st launched in public domain by CERN

1997 - 42 million watch Ellen DeGeneres publicly declare she is gay

2004 - US media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison  

On April 30, 1789, George Washington delivered his first inaugural address to a joint session of Congress, assembled in Federal Hall in the nation’s new capital, New York City. Continue reading.

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Matthew Vassar, founder and namesake of Vassar College, was born on April 29, 1792, in Norfolk, England. Continue reading.

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, often said to be America’s greatest composer, bandleader, and recording artist, was born on April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C. Continue reading.

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A bit of April 29th history…

1587 - Sir Francis Drake sails into Cadiz, Spain and sinks the Spanish fleet

1707 - English and Scottish parliaments accept Act of Union which creates the United Kingdom of Great Britain

1852 - 1st edition of Roget’s Thesaurus published

1975 - US begins evacuation from Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind in response to advancing N Vietnamese army, bringing an end to US involvement in war

1992 - Jury acquits LA police officers in beating of Rodney King, riots begin

2018 - The Simpsons (pictured) surpass Gunsmoke’s 635 episodes for longest running tv series  

A bit of April 28th history…

1789 - Fletcher Christian leads mutiny on HMS Bounty against captain William Bligh in the South Pacific

1967 - Muhammad Ali refuses inclusion into army and is stripped of his boxing title

1986 - Soviet TV news program announces Chernobyl nuclear accident - 2 days after the event

2004 - Shrek the sheep from New Zealand is finally shorn after 6 years of running away - fleece weighed 60 pounds (pictured)

2018 - World’s largest child sacrifice, 140 remains uncovered in Peru dating back 550 years to the Chimu civilization

2018 - India’s government announces that electricity has now reached every Indian village.  

A bit of April 27th history…

1773 - British parliament pass Tea Act

1865 - Steamboat SS Sultana (pictured) explodes on the Mississippi River killing up to 1800, greatest maritime disaster in US history - most were paroled Union POWs on their way home

1940 - Himmler orders establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp

1965 - RC Duncan patents Pampers disposable diapers

1989 - Beijing students take over Tiananmon Square in China 

A bit of April 26th history…

1514 - Copernicus makes 1st observation of Saturn

1895 - Criminal trial of Oscar Wilde for gross indecency begins 

1954 - Mass trials of Jonas Salk’s anti-polio vaccine begin, more than 443,000 children receive shots over the next 3 months.

1977 - Opening of Studio 54 in NYC

1986 - World’s worst nuclear disaster: 4th reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power station in USSR explodes, 31 die and radioactive contamination reaches much of Europe (pictured)

2019 - “No religion” tops survey of American religious identity for 1st time 

Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln County, New Mexico jail house on April 28, 1881, killing two deputies on guard. Continue reading.

James Henry Neel Reed, known as Henry Reed, was born on April 28, 1884, in the Appalachian Mountains of Monroe County, West Virginia. Reed was a master fiddler, banjoist, and harmonica player whose amazing repertoire consisted of hundreds of tunes, as well as multiple performance styles. Continue reading.

Cameraman G. W. “Billy” Bitzer filmed Professor Leonidas and his troupe of dogs and cats in the film short Stealing a Dinner on April 28, 1899. Continue reading.

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On April 27, 1822, military leader and U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio. Continue reading.

On April 27, 1895, the popular periodical Harper’s Weekly carried a story on the World’s Transportation Commission visit to Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka. Continue reading.

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Frederick Law Olmsted, America’s foremost landscape architect of the nineteenth century, was born on April 26, 1822. Continue reading.

William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Continue reading.

Click here to search Today in History for other historic moments.