What Happened on April 30th in History
30 historical events on this date
The 1939â40 New York World's Fair opens.
The 1939 New York World's Fair was an international exposition held at Flushing MeadowsâCorona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. The fair featured exhibitions, activities, performances,...
World War II: The British submarine HMSÂ Seraph surfaces near Huelva to cast adrift a dead man dressed as a courier and carrying false invasion plans.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: FĂŒhrerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours.
The FĂŒhrerbunker was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1944. It was the...
World War II: Soviet soldiers raise the first Soviet flag over the Reichstag. The Victory Banner will be raised the next day.
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's...
World War II: Stalag Luft I prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany is liberated by Soviet soldiers, freeing nearly 9,000 American and British airmen.
Stalag Luft I was a German World War II prisoner-of-war (POW) camp near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany, for captured Allied airmen. The presence of the prison camp is said to have shielded the...
In Nevada, Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam.
Nevada is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It is also sometimes placed in the Mountain West and Southwestern United States. It borders Idaho to the northeast, Oregon to the...
In BogotĂĄ, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.
BogotĂĄ is the capital and largest city of Colombia. The city is administered as the Capital District, as well as the capital of, though not politically part of, the surrounding department of...
Former Vice President and Democratic Senator Alben Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia.
Alben William Barkley was an American lawyer and politician from Kentucky who served as the 35th vice president of the United States from 1949 to 1953 under President Harry S. Truman. In 1905, he...
Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery enters into force.
The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the full title of which is the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar...
K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned.
K-19 was the first submarine of the Project 658 class, the first generation of Soviet nuclear submarines equipped with nuclear ballistic missiles, specifically the R-13 SLBM. The boat was hastily...
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.
The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 arose from the refusal of the Bristol Omnibus Company to employ Black or Asian bus crews in the city of Bristol, England. In line with many other British cities at...
Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon fires White House Counsel John Dean; other top aides, most notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, resign.
The Watergate scandal, or simply Watergate, was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. On June 17, 1972, operatives associated with Nixon's...
Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president DÆ°ÆĄng VÄn Minh.
Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, was captured by North Vietnam on 30 April 1975. This caused the evacuation of thousands of civilians and U.S. personnel, and ended the Vietnam War. The...
Eruption of Mount Marapi: Mount Marapi, a complex volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, erupts. Between 80 and 100 people are killed.
On 30 April 1979, Mount Marapi, a complex volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the most active complex volcano in West Sumatra province, erupted, killing between 80 and 100 people.
Beatrix is inaugurated as Queen of the Netherlands following the abdication of Juliana.
Beatrix is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until her abdication in 2013.
The Iranian Embassy siege begins in London.
The Iranian Embassy siege took place from 30 April to 5 May 1980, after a group of six armed men stormed the Iranian embassy on Prince's Gate in South Kensington, London.
The Bijon Setu massacre occurs in Calcutta, India.
The Bijon Setu massacre refers to the killing of 16 sadhus and a sadhvi of the Ananda Marga, at Bijon Setu, West Bengal, India, on 30 April 1982. The killings remain unresolved, with no convictions,...
The Monkseaton shootings occur in Tyne and Wear, England. One is killed and 16 are injured.
The Monkseaton shootings occurred on 30 April 1989 in Monkseaton, Tyne & Wear, England, when Robert Sartin killed one man and left 16 other people injured during a 20-minute shooting spree.
CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is...
Formula One racing driver Roland Ratzenberger is killed in a crash during the qualifying session of the San Marino Grand Prix run at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari outside Imola, Italy.
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel, single-seater formula racing cars run by the Formula One Group and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de...
Neo-Nazi David Copeland carries out the last of his three nail bombings in London at the Admiral Duncan gay pub, killing three people and injuring 79 others.
The 1999 London nail bombings were a series of bomb explosions in London, England. Over three successive weekends between 17 and 30 April 1999, homemade nail bombs were detonated in Brixton in south...
Canonization of Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people and the first Divine Mercy Sunday celebrated worldwide.
Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and...
U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers committing war crimes against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in Abu...
Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anastasia, two of the children of the last Tsar of Russia, whose entire family was executed at Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks.
Yekaterinburg, alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk (1924â1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District,...
Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
FCA US, LLC, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler, is one of the "Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills,...
Seven civilians and the perpetrator are killed and another ten injured at a Queen's Day parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands in an attempted assassination on Queen Beatrix.
On 30 April 2009 in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, a man drove his car at high speed into a parade which included Queen Beatrix, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and other members of the Dutch royal...
An overloaded ferry capsizes on the Brahmaputra River in India killing at least 108 people. At least 150 more are missing and presumed dead.
On 30 April 2012, a ferry carrying about 350 passengers capsized in the Brahmaputra River in the Dhubri district of Assam in Northeast India. The disaster killed at least 108 people.
Willem-Alexander is inaugurated as King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Beatrix.
Willem-Alexander is the King of the Netherlands and has reigned since 30 April 2013.
A bomb blast in ĂrĂŒmqi, China kills three people and injures 79 others.
On 30 April 2014, a bomb-and-knife attack occurred in the Chinese city of ĂrĂŒmqi, Xinjiang. The terrorist attack killed 3 people, and injured 79 others. The attack coincided with the conclusion of a...
Forty-five men and boys are killed in the Meron stampede in Israel.
On 30 April 2021, at about 00:45 IDT (UTC+3), a deadly crowd crush occurred on Mount Meron, Israel, during the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on the Jewish holiday of Lag...