Events
311 – The Diocletianic Persecution of Christians
in the Roman Empire ends.
313 – Battle of Tzirallum: Emperor Licinius defeats
Maximinus II and unifies the Eastern Roman Empire.
1315 – Enguerrand de Marigny is hanged on the
public gallows at Montfaucon.
1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission
of exploration.
1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to
the English throne, is executed on the orders
of Henry VIII.
1557 – Mapuche leader Lautaro is killed by Spanish
forces at the Battle of Mataquito in Chile.
1671 – Petar Zrinski, the Croatian Ban from the
Zrinski family, is executed.
1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall
Street in New York City, George Washington takes
the oath of office to become the first elected
President of the United States.
1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases
the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million,
more than doubling the size of the young nation.
1812 – The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th
U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
1838 – Nicaragua declares independence from the
Central American Federation.
1863 – A 65-man French Foreign Legion infantry
patrol fought a force of nearly 2,000 Mexican
soldiers to nearly the last man in Hacienda Camarón,
Mexico.
1871 – The Camp Grant Massacre takes place in
Arizona Territory.
1894 – Coxey's Army reaches Washington, D.C. to
protest the unemployment caused by the Panic of
1893.
1900 – Hawaii becomes a territory of the United
States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.
1900 – Casey Jones dies in a train wreck in Vaughn,
Mississippi, while trying to make up time on the
Cannonball Express.
1904 – The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's
Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri.
1907 – Honolulu, Hawaii becomes an independent
city.
1920 – Peru becomes a signatory to the Buenos
Aires copyright treaty.
1925 – Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to
Dillon, Read & Company for $146 million plus
$50 million for charity.
1927 – The Federal Industrial Institute for Women
opens in Alderson, West Virginia, as the first
women's federal prison in the United States.
1927 – Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become
the first celebrities to leave their footprints
in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
1937 – The Philippines holds a plebiscite for
Filipino women on whether they should be extended
the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in
the affirmative.
1938 – The animated cartoon short Porky's Hare
Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy
Rabbit (a prototype of Bugs Bunny).
1938 – The first televised FA Cup Final takes
place between Huddersfield Town and Preston North
End.
1939 – The 1939-40 New York World's Fair opens.
1939 – NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled
television service in New York City, broadcasting
President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's
Fair opening day ceremonial address.
1943 – World War II: Operation Mincemeat: The
submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean
Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man
planted with false invasion plans and dressed
as a British military intelligence officer.
1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler
and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married
for one day. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory
Banner over the Reichstag building.
1947 – In Nevada, the Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover
Dam a second time.
1948 – In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of
American States is established.
1953 – In Warner Robins, Georgia, an F4 tornado
kills 18 people.
1956 – Former Vice President and Senator Alben
Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia. He collapses
after proclaiming "I would rather be a servant
in the house of the lord than sit in the seats
of the mighty."
1961 – K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine
equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned.
1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol
to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal
to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national
attention to racial discrimination in the United
Kingdom.
1966 – The Church of Satan is established at the
Black House in San Francisco, California.
1967 – The Aldene Connection opened in Roselle
Park, NJ, shutting down the CNJ's Jersey City
waterfront terminal and transferring commuters
to Newark Penn Station.
1973 – Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard
Nixon announces that top White House aides H.R.
Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and others have resigned.
1975 – Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control
of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with
the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese
president Duong Van Minh.
1980 – Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
1982 – Bijon Setu massacre
1988 – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II officially
opens World Expo '88 in Brisbane, Australia.
1993 – CERN announces World Wide Web protocols
will be free.
1993 – Virgin Radio broadcasts for the first time
in the United Kingdom.
1993 – Monica Seles is stabbed by Günter Parche,
an obsessed fan, during a quarterfinal match of
the 1993 Citizen Cup in Hamburg, Germany
1995 – U.S. President Bill Clinton became the
first President to visit Northern Ireland.
1999 – Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) bringing the number of members
to 10.
2004 – U.S. media release graphic photos of American
soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi
prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
2008 – Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg,
Russia are confirmed by Russian scientists to
be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich
of Russia and one of his sisters.
2009 – Chrysler automobile company files for Chapter
11 bankruptcy.
2009 – Seven people are killed and 17 injured
at a Queen's Day parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.
2009 – Terror act in Azerbaijan state oil academy:
13 students died.
Holidays
and observances
Armed
Forces Day (Georgia)
Birthday of the King Carl XVI Gustav, one of the
official flag days of Sweden.
Last day of classes at universities in India
Camarón Day (French Foreign Legion)
Children's Day (Mexico)
Christian Feast Day:
Adjutor
Aimo
Amator, Peter and Louis
Blessed Miles Gerard
Eutropius of Saintes
Marie Guyart (Anglican Church of Canada)
Maximus of Rome
Pomponius of Naples
Quirinus of Neuss
Suitbert the Younger
Saint Pope Pius V
April 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Consumer Protection Day (Thailand)
Earliest day on which Ascension Day can fall,
while June 3 is the latest; celebrated 40 days
after Easter (Christianity), and its related observances
International Jazz Day, organized by UNESCO, first
observed in 2012, "is intended to raise awareness
in the international community of the virtues
of jazz as an educational tool, and a force for
peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation
among people."
May Eve, the eve of the first day of summer (see
May 1):
Beltane Fire Festival (Calton Hill, Edinburgh)
Carodejnice (Czech Republic and Slovakia)
Eve of Beltane (Celtic Druidic holiday)
Walpurgis Night (Central and Northern Europe)
National Persian Gulf Day (Iran)
Queen's Day (Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint
Maarten)
Reunification Day (Vietnam)
Teacher's Day (Paraguay)
International Jazz Day
For details, contact Datacentre
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