March 30Birthdays & History

On this day: March 30 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 598Avar–Byzantine wars: The Avars lift the siege at the Byzantine stronghold of Tomis. Their leader Bayan I retreats north of the Danube River after the Avaro-Slavic army is decimated by the plague.Europe
2. 1282The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.Europe
3. 1296Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.Europe
4. 1699Guru Gobind Singh establishes the Khalsa in Anandpur Sahib, Punjab.Asia
5. 1815Joachim Murat issues the Rimini Proclamation, among the earliest calls for Italian unification.Europe
6. 1818Physicist Augustin Fresnel reads a memoir on optical rotation to the French Academy of Sciences, reporting that when polarized light is "depolarized" by a Fresnel rhomb, its properties are preserved in any subsequent passage through an optically-rotating crystal or liquid.Europe
7. 1822The Florida Territory is created in the United States.North America
8. 1841The National Bank of Greece is founded in Athens.Europe
9. 1842Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.North America
10. 1844One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.Latin America
11. 1855Origins of the American Civil War: "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.North America
12. 1856The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.Europe
13. 1861Discovery of the chemical elements: Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium.Europe
14. 1863Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece.Europe
15. 1867Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents/acre ($4.19/km2), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.North AmericaEurope
16. 1870Texas is readmitted to the United States Congress following Reconstruction.North America
17. 1885The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the Russian and British Empires.Europe
18. 1899German Society of Chemistry issues an invitation to other national scientific organizations to appoint delegates to the International Committee on Atomic Weights.Europe
19. 1900Archaeologists in Knossos, Crete, discover the first clay tablet with hieroglyphic writing in a script later called Linear B.Europe
20. 1912Sultan Abd al-Hafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.AfricaEurope
21. 1918Beginning of the bloody March Events in Baku and other locations of Baku Governorate.Europe
22. 1939The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph (745 km/h).Europe
23. 1940Second Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Jingwei.AsiaAsia
24. 1944World War II: Allied bombers conduct their most severe bombing run on Sofia, Bulgaria.Europe
25. 1944World War II: In a raid on Nuremberg, RAF Bomber Command suffers its greatest loss of the war, losing 95 bombers from a force of 795.Europe
26. 1945World War II: Soviet forces invade Austria and capture Vienna. Polish and Soviet forces liberate Danzig.Europe
27. 1949Cold War: A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joins NATO.Europe
28. 1959Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India.Asia
29. 1961The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed in New York City.North America
30. 1965Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the United States Embassy, Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.AsiaNorth America
31. 1967Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 crashes at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, killing 19.North America
32. 1972Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.Asia
33. 1976Israeli-Palestinian conflict: in the first organized response against Israeli policies by a Palestinian collective since 1948, Palestinians create the first Land Day.Middle East
34. 1979Airey Neave, a British Member of Parliament (MP), is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.Europe
35. 1981U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident.North America
36. 1982Space Shuttle program: STS-3 mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.North AmericaLatin America
37. 2002The 2002 Lyon car attack takes place.Europe
38. 2006Cyclone Glenda, one of the strongest tropical cyclones in the Australian region makes landfall near Onslow, Western Australia.Oceania
39. 2008Drolma Kyi arrested by Chinese authorities.Asia
40. 2009Twelve gunmen attack the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan.Asia
41. 2011Min Aung Hlaing is appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar's armed forces.Asia
42. 2017SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital class rocket.North America
43. 2018The Israeli Army kills 17 Palestinians and wounds 1,400 in Gaza during Land Day protests.Middle East
44. 2019Pope Francis visits Morocco.EuropeAfrica
45. 2023Donald Trump becomes the first former United States president to be indicted by a grand jury.North America

Source: Wikipedia "March 30" / CC BY-SA 4.0