March 30th

Events

• 1492 - Ferdinand and Isabella sign a decree aimed at expelling all Jews from Spain unless they convert to Roman Catholicism.
• 1533 - Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 1822 - Florida becomes a United States territory.
• 1842 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation (Dr. Crawford Long performed the operation and ether was used).
• 1855 - "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.
• 1856 - The Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War.
• 1858 - Hyman Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.
• 1863 - Prince Wilhelm Georg of Sleeswÿk-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg is chosen as King George I of Greece.
• 1867 - Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million (about two cents an acre) by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The news media call this "Seward's Folly."
• 1870 - Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.
• 1912 - France establishes a protectorate over Morocco.
• 1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna.
• 1951 - Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
• 1964 - The game show Jeopardy! debuts on television.
• 1972 - Vietnam War: The Eastertide Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
• 1981 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr., family friend of the Vice President. Two police officers and James Brady are also wounded.
• 1987 - Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Sunflowers" is bought for $39.85 million.

Births

• 1746 - Francisco Goya, painter († 1828)
• 1798 - Luise Hensel, poet († 1876)
• 1811 - Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist, inventor: Bunsen burner († 1899)
• 1844 - Paul Verlaine, lyric poet († 1896)
• 1853 - Vincent van Gogh, painter († 1890)
• 1879 - Coen de Koning, speed skater († 1954)
• 1880 - Sean O'Casey, dramatist († 1964)
• 1895 - Nikolai Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union († 1975)
• 1913 - Richard Helms, director of the Central Intelligence Agency († 2002)
• 1913 - Frankie Laine, singer
• 1914 - Sonny Boy Williamson, musician
• 1919 - McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor († 1996)
• 1930 - John Astin, actor
• 1937 - Warren Beatty, actor/director
• 1940 - Astrud Gilberto, singer
• 1941 - Wasim Sajjad, former President of Pakistan
• 1945 - Eric Clapton, blues guitarist
• 1949 - Lene Lovich, singer
• 1950 - Robbie Coltrane, actor, comedian
• 1957 - Paul Reiser, actor
• 1964 - Tracy Chapman, singer
• 1968 - Céline Dion, singer
• 1979 - Norah Jones, musician

Deaths

• 1842 - Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, painter
• 1879 - Thomas Couture, French painter and teacher
• 1894 - Sergey Ilyushin, Russian aerospace engineer
• 1912 - Karl May, author
• 1986 - James Cagney, actor
• 1947 - Arthur Machen, author
• 2002 - Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen Mother of the United Kingdom
• 2003 - Rudolf Walter Leonhardt, German journalist

Holidays and observances

• Roman Empire - Festival devoted to Salus

March 29 - March 31 - April 30 -- listing of all days

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