On This Day: 30 April

Christianity is officially recognised in the Roman Empire under an edict of Galerius Valerius Maximus		311
Chinese and Arab astronomers observe a new star in the sky – a supernova		1006
Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots		1598
Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace presents a petition to Parliament on behalf of King Charles I, and is imprisoned		1642
Samuel Pepys makes the first reference in his diary to the great plague		1665
George Washington inaugurated as the first President of the USA		1789
The USA more than doubles its land area, by purchasing the Louisiana Territory from the French for $15 million		1803
Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation		1838
In a lecture at the Royal Institution in London, J. J. Thomson of the Cavendish Laboratory announces his discovery of the electron – a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton		1897
The Republic of Hawaii cedes itself to the USA		1900
'Casey' Jones dies when the Cannonball Express hits a stationary train near Vaughn, Mississippi		1900
Debussy's ballet Pelleas et Melisande first performed, in Paris		1902
St. Louis Exhibition (World Fair) opens		1904
Albert Einstein completes his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich		1905
Winston Churchill moves a second reading of the Irish Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons		1912
The Federal Industrial Institute for Women – the first women's federal prison in the USA – opens in Alderson, West Virginia		1927
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood		1937
The animated cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy Rabbit, an early version of Bugs Bunny		1938
New York World's Fair opens; NBC broadcasts President F. D. Roosevelt's opening day ceremonial address, inaugurating its regularly scheduled television service in New York City		1939
HMS Seraph surfaces near Huelva, in south–west Spain, to cast adrift a dead man dressed as a courier and carrying false invasion plans – successfully disguising the Allied invasion of Sicily		1943
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide (by gunshot and cyanide pills respectively) after being married for less than 40 hours. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building. Stalag Luft I prisoner–of–war camp, near Barth, Germany, is liberated by Soviet soldiers, freeing almost 9,000 American and British airmen		1945
Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam		1947
The first Land Rover is exhibited at the Amsterdam Motor Show		1948
The Organisation of American States is established in Bogotá¡		1948
Anne Frank's diary is published in English for the first time, as The Diary of a Young Girl		1952
Suez Canal re–opened		1957
First London performance of My Fair Lady		1958
K–19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned		1961
The Bristol Bus Boycott begins, in protest against the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom		1963
Bob Dylan opens his first UK tour in Sheffield		1965
Muhammad Ali stripped of the world heavyweight boxing title for refusing the draft		1967
Brighton Belle makes its last journey from London Victoria to Brighton		1972
In a televised statement, Richard Nixon accepts responsibility for the bugging of the Watergate building in 1972, and announces that White House Counsel John Dean has been fired and other top aides, notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, have resigned		1973
Saigon falls to Communist forces, and is renamed Ho Chi Minh City. The South Vietnamese government surrenders unconditionally, ending the Vietnam war.		1975
Terrorists seize the Iranian embassy in London		1980
Beatrix succeeds as Queen of the Netherlands, following the abdication of Juliana		1980
125,000 die following a cyclone in Bangladesh with winds of up to 146 mph		1991
Monica Seles, the world No. 1 in women's tennis, is stabbed in the back by Gunter Parche, a 39–year–old unemployed lathe operator obsessed with Steffi Graf, during a quarter–final match in Hamburg		1993
CERN announces that use of World Wide Web protocols will be available to anyone, free of charge		1993
Virgin 1215 officially begins broadcasting		1993
Austrian racing driver Roland Ratzenberger dies in a crash during qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix run at Imola		1994
Ellen DeGeneres's character on her sitcom Ellen comes out as gay, making the show one of the first major television shows featuring an openly gay main character		1997
London's third nail bomb in a month, in a gay pub in Soho, kills two and injures 73		1999
Three people are killed by British suicide bomber Mohammed Hanif in a cafÃ© in Tel Aviv		2003
Richard Cazaly, 23, a suspect in the inquiry into the stabbing of Abigail Witchalls in Little Bookham, Surrey on 20 30 April, dies in an Edinburgh hospital after a suspected drugs overdose		2005
Russian scientists confirm that two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg are 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		2008
Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy		2009
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		2009
At least 103 lives are lost when an overloaded ferry capsizes on the Brahmaputra river in India		2012
Willem–Alexander succeeds as King of the Netherlands, following the abdication of Queen Beatrix		2013

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On This Day: 30 April