On This Day

[Henry Musikar]

Why is this day, April 30, different from all other days?:

 In 311, Galerius Valerius Maximianus issued an edict under which
 Christians were legally recognized in the Roman Empire.  

 In 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as America's first
 president.  

 In 1803, France agreed to sell Louisiana to America, the formal
 handover taking place in December, and on this day in 1812 it joined
 the United States as the 18th state.  

 In 1900, American railroad engineer Casey Jones died saving 
passengers as the Cannonball Express was about to crash.  

 In 1934, under a new constitution in Austria, a dictatorship was set
 up under Engelbert Dollfuss.  

 In 1945, Adolf Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide in
 his underground bunker in Berlin; Russian troops penetrated Berlin,
 capturing the Reichstag and other government buildings.  

 In 1973, President Nixon made a television statement on Watergate
 accepting responsibility for the bugging that took place at the
 Washington apartment complex in 1972.  

 In 1974, Nixon handed over partial transcripts of tape recordings to
 the impeachment inquiry.  

 In 1975, in South Vietnam, President Minh announced an unconditional
 surrender to the Vietcong, ending the 20th Century's longest
 conflict.  

 In 1980, in London, armed gunmen seized the Iranian Embassy demanding
 the release of political prisoners in Iran. The siege lasted six
 days.  

 In 1990, American hostage Frank Reed was freed in Lebanon after
 nearly four years in the hands of pro-Iranian kidnappers.  

 In 1997, reclusive, NBA winning, pomo author Thomas Ruggle's 
Pynchon's much anticipated novel Mason & Dixon is released

AsB4,
Henry Musikar

Keep cool, but care. -- TRP
Moderation in moderation. -- Husky Mariner