March 30 - Events

Events

• 240 BC – 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
• 1282 – The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.
• 1296 – Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.
• 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris.
• 1814 – Joachim Murat issues the Rimini Declaration which would later inspire Italian Unification.
• 1822 – The Florida Territory is created in the United States.
• 1842 – Anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by Dr.Crawford Long.
• 1844 – One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.
• 1855 – Origins of the American Civil War: Bleeding Kansas – "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.
• 1856 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.
• 1858 – Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.
• 1863 – Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece.
• 1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The media call this Seward's Folly.
• 1870 – Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.
• 1885 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Pandjeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.
• 1909 – The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan and Queens.
• 1910 – The Mississippi Legislature founds The University of Southern Mississippi.
• 1912 – Sultan Abdelhafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.
• 1918 – Outburst of bloody March Events in Baku and other locations of Baku Governorate.
• 1939 – The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph.
• 1939 – First flight of the Australian C.A.C. CA-16 Wirraway.
• 1940 – Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.
• 1945 – World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna; Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.
• 1945 – World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to the Americans.
• 1949 – A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joins NATO.
• 1954 – The Yonge Street subway line opens in Toronto. It is the first subway in Canada.
• 1961 – The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.
• 1965 – Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the US Embassy, Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
• 1972 – Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into theDemilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
• 1979 – Airey Neave, a British Member of Parliament, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.
• 1981 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.
• 1982 – Space Shuttle program: STS-3 Mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
• 2006 – The United Kingdom Terrorism Act 2006 becomes a law.