March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in Leap years). There are 276 days remaining.

Events

• 1296 - Edward I stormed Berwick-upon-Tweed, sacking the then Scottish border town with much bloodshed. He slaughtered almost everyone who resided there, even if they fled to the churches.
• 1282 - The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.
• 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.
• 1814 - Napoleonic Wars: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris.
• 1822 - Florida Territory created in the United States.
• 1842 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation (Dr. Crawford Long performed the operation and ether was used).
• 1844 - One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.
• 1855 - Origins of the American Civil War: Bleeding Kansas - "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 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), 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 - Sultan Abdelhafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.
• 1940 - Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking to be the capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.
• 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.
• 1954 - The first subway in Canada finally opens after five years of construction, in Toronto.
• 1961 - The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.
• 1962 - Jack Paar films his last episode of The Tonight Show.
• 1964 - The game show Jeopardy! debuts on television.
• 1965 - Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
• 1972 - Vietnam War: The Eastertide Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
• 1974 - The Ramones play their first ever gig as a trio at CBGB's in New York City.
• 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.
• 1987 - Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Sunflowers" is bought for $39.85 million.

Births

• 1746 - Francisco Goya, Spanish painter and engraver (d. 1828)
• 1798 - Luise Hensel , German poet (d. 1876)
• 1820 - Anna Sewell, British author (d. 1878)
• 1844 - Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (d. 1896)
• 1853 - Vincent van Gogh, painter (d. 1890)
• 1857 - Leon Charles Thevenin, French telegraph engineer (d. 1926)
• 1875 - Jonathan Campbell, Film pioneer (d. 1942)
• 1879 - Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (d. 1954)
• 1880 - Sean O'Casey, Irish dramatist (d. 1964)
• 1892 - Fortunato Depero, Italian artist (d. 1960)
• 1895 - Nikolai Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1975)
• 1900 - Ted Heath, British musician and band leader (d. 1969)
• 1902 - Brooke Astor, philanthropist
• 1903 - Countee Cullen, American poet (d. 1946)
• 1913 - Censu Tabone, former President of the Republic of Malta
• 1913 - Richard Helms, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (d. 2002)
• 1913 - Frankie Laine, singer
• 1913 - Marc Davis, American animator (d. 2000)
• 1914 - Sonny Boy Williamson, musician
• 1917 - Herbert Anderson , American actor (d. 1994)
• 1919 - McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor (d. 1996)
• 1922 - Turhan Bey, Turkish-Czechoslovakian actor
• 1926 - Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish founder of IKEA
• 1929 - Richard Dysart , American actor
• 1930 - John Astin, American actor
• 1930 - Rolf Harris, Australian artist, entertainer
• 1930 - Peter Marshall, game-show host
• 1937 - Warren Beatty, actor/director
• 1940 - Astrud Gilberto, Brazilian singer
• 1940 - Jerry Lucas, American basketball player
• 1941 - Wasim Sajjad, former President of Pakistan
• 1945 - Eric Clapton, blues guitarist
• 1949 - Marcia Ball, blues pianist
• 1949 - Lene Lovich, singer
• 1950 - Robbie Coltrane, actor, comedian
• 1957 - Paul Reiser, actor
• 1962 - MC Hammer, rapper
• 1964 - Tracy Chapman, singer
• 1964 - Ian Ziering, American actor
• 1968 - Donna D'Errico, actress-model
• 1968 - Céline Dion, Canadian singer
• 1970 - Mark Consuelos, American actor
• 1974 - Secretariat, Triple Crown winning racehorse (d. 1989)
• 1976 - Obadele Thompson, Barbadan athlete
• 1978 - Chris Paterson, Scottish rugby player
• 1979 - Norah Jones, musician

Deaths

• 1486 - Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1783 - William Hunter, anatomist (b. 1718)
• 1840 - Beau Brummell, English celebrity and dandy (b. 1778)
• 1842 - Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, painter (b. 1755)
• 1879 - Thomas Couture, French painter and teacher (b. 1815)
• 1912 - Karl May, author (b. 1842)
• 1947 - Arthur Machen, author (b. 1863)
• 1966 - Maxfield Parrish, artist (b. 1870)
• 1968 - Bobby Driscoll, American actor
• 1977 - Sergey Ilyushin, Russian aerospace engineer (b. 1894)
• 1981 - DeWitt Wallace, American publisher
• 1984 - Karl Rahner, German theologian
• 1985 - Harold Peary , American actor, singer
• 1986 - James Cagney, actor (b. 1899)
• 1997 - Jon Stone , American writer, director, producer, co-creator of Sesame Street
• 1999 - Gary Morton, film and television producer
• 2002 - Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (b. 1900)
• 2003 - Rudolf Walter Leonhardt , German journalist
• 2003 - Valentin Pavlov, former prime minister of the Soviet Union
• 2003 - Michael Jeter, American actor
• 2004 - Alistair Cooke, broadcaster
• 2004 - Michael King, New Zealand historian
• 2004 - Erick Friedman , American concert violinist, violin professor at Yale University
• 2004 - Hubert Gregg, BBC broadcaster
• 2004 - Timi Yuro, American singer
• 2005 - Mitch Hedberg, comedian
• 2005 - Robert Creeley, poet, died of complications from respiratory disease.
• 2005 - Milton Green, former record holder in hurdles, boycotted the 1936 Olympics as a protest against Hitler.
• 2005 - Fred Korematsu, Japanese-American civil rights leader, respiratory illness
• 2005 - Ootupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan, Indian author and cartoonist

Holidays and observances

• Roman Empire - Festival devoted to Salus

External links

• BBC: On This Day

March 29 - March 31 - February 28 (February 29) - April 30 -- listing of all days