April 30

Birthdays:

1986 ~ Dianna Agron, American actress and singer best known for her role as Quinn Fabray on Glee.

1961 ~ Isiah Thomas, American baseball player.

1959 ~ Paul Gross, Canadian actor best known for his role as the upright Canadian Mounted Police Officer working in with the Chicago Police Department in the TV series, Due South.

1946 ~ Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

1945 ~ Michael J. Smith (d. 1986), American astronaut who was killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

1944 ~ Jill Clayburg (d. 2010), American actress.

1930 ~ Nathaniel Branden (né Nathaniel Blumenthal, d. 2014), Canadian-American psychologist who became Ayn Rand’s lover.

1926 ~ Cloris Leachman, American actress.

1925 ~ Johnny Horton (d. 1960), American musician and singer, best known for his song, The Battle of New Orleans.  He was killed in a car accident at age 35.

1921 ~ Robert L. Easton (d. 2014), American scientist and co-inventor of the GPS.

1916 ~ Claude Shannon (d. 2001), American engineer and mathematician.

1909 ~ Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (d. 2004).

1908 ~ Eve Arden (d. 1990), American actress.

1905 ~ Sergey Nikolsky (d. 1912), Russian mathematician.

1902 ~ Theodore Schultz (d. 1998), American economist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

1901 ~ Simon Kuznets (d. 1985), Ukrainian economist and recipient of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

1877 ~ Alice B. Toklas (d. 1967), American businesswoman and companion of Gertrude Stein.

1777 ~ Carl Friedrich Gauss (d. 1855), German mathematician.

1662 ~ Mary II of England (d. 1694).

1245 ~ Philip III of France (d. 1285).

Events that Changed the World:

2013 ~ Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicated in favor of her son, Willem-Alexander, who became King of the Netherlands.

2009 ~ Chrysler automobile company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

2008 ~ Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia were confirmed to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.

1995 ~ President Bill Clinton became the first US President to visit Northern Ireland.

1993 ~ Tennis star Monica Seles was stabbed in the back by an obsessed fan during the quarterfinal match of the 1993 Citizen Cup in Hamburg, Germany.

1980 ~ Beatrix of the Netherlands became Queen of the Netherlands.  She abdicated the throne on April 30, 2013 in favor of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander.

1975 ~ The Vietnam War formally ended with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh.  Communist forces gained control of Saigon.

1973 ~ Richard Nixon’s top White House aides, including H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, resigned amid the Watergate Scandal.

1947 ~ The Boulder Dam in Nevada was renamed the Hoover Dam.

1939 ~ The 1939-40 New York World’s Fair opened.

1939 ~ Television was first publically broadcast from the Empire State Building in New York City.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented the New York World’s Fair ceremonial address on NBC.

1927 ~ Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford became the first Hollywood celebrities to leave their footprints in the concrete at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

1927 ~ The first women’s federal prison in the United States opened in Alderson, West Virginia as the Federal Industrial Institute for Women.

1904 ~ The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World’s Fair opened in St. Louis, Missouri.

1900 ~ Hawaii became a territory of the United States.

1885 ~ The governor of New York State signed legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, the first state park in New York State.

1812 ~ Louisiana became the 18^th State of the Union.

1803 ~ The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France under the Louisiana Purchase Agreement which, although was signed on May 2, was dated as of April 30.  The purchase price was $15 Million.

1789 ~ George Washington was inaugurated as the first United States President.  The ceremony took place on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City.

1492 ~ Spain granted Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.

Good-byes:

2012 ~ Benzion Netanyahu (b. 1910), Israeli historian whose field of expertise was the history of Jews in Spain during the Inquisition.  He was also the father of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

2007 ~ Tom Poston (b. 1921), American actress.

1999 ~ Ralph Roberts (b. 1920), American businessman and co-founder of Comcast Communications.

1994 ~ Richard Scarry (b. 1919), American author and illustrator of children’s books.

1983 ~ George Balanchine (b. 1904), Russian dancer and choreographer.

1983 ~ Muddy Waters (né McKinley Morganfield, b. 1913), American Jazz musician.

1974 ~ Agnes Moorehead (b. 1900), American actress.

1956 ~ Alben W. Barkley (b. 1877). 35^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Harry S. Truman.  He collapsed and died of a heart attack while giving a speech in Virginia.

1945 ~ Adolf Hitler (b. 1889), dictator of Nazi Germany.  He committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun (b. 1912).

1936 ~ Alfred Edward Housman (b. 1859), English poet.

1900 ~ John Luther “Casey” Jones (b. 1863), American railroad engineer who died in a train wreck in Vaughn, Mississippi, when his train, the Cannonball Express, collided with a stall freight train.  He was the only fatality in the crash.

1883 ~ Édouard Manet (b. 1832), French painter.

1513 ~ Edmund de la Pole, 3^rd Duke of Suffolk (b. 1471), Yorkist pretender to the English throne.  Henry VIII had him executed.  He was the son of Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk.