Also on this day
Lead Story
1981
On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by a deranged drifter named John Hinckley Jr.
The president had just finished addressing a labor meeting at the Washington Hilton Hotel and was walking with his entourage to his limousine when Hinckley, standing...
American Revolution
1775
Hoping to keep the New England colonies dependent on the British, King George III formally endorses the New England Restraining Act on this day in 1775. The New England Restraining Act required New England colonies to trade exclusively with Great Britain as of July 1. An additional rule...
Automotive
2009
On this day in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama issues an ultimatum to struggling American automakers General Motors (GM) and Chrysler: In order to receive additional bailout loans from the government, he says, the companies need to make dramatic changes in the way they run their businesses. The president also...
Civil War
1825
On this day in 1825, Confederate General Samuel Maxey is born in Tompkinsville, Kentucky. During the Civil War, Maxey served in the West and led Native Americans troops in Indian Territory.Maxey attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1846, second to last in a class of...
Cold War
1948
Henry Wallace, former vice-president and current Progressive Party presidential candidate, lashes out at the Cold War policies of President Harry S. Truman. Wallace and his supporters were among the few Americans who actively voiced criticisms of America’s Cold War mindset during the late-1940s and 1950s.
Widely admired for his intelligence and...
Crime
1981
John Hinckley, Jr.shoots President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. just after the president had addressed the Building and Construction Workers Union of the AFL-CIO. Hinckley was armed with a .22 revolver with exploding bullets and was only ten feet away from Reagan when he began shooting....
Disaster
1980
A floating apartment for oil workers in the North Sea collapses, killing 123 people, on this day in 1980.
The Alexander Kielland platform housed 208 men who worked on the nearby Edda oil rig in the Ekofisk field, 235 miles east of Dundee, Scotland. Most of the Phillips Petroleum workers were...
General Interest
1814
European forces allied against Napoleonic France march triumphantly into Paris, formally ending a decade of French domination on the Continent.
Napoleon, one of the greatest military strategists in history, seized control of the French state in 1800, and in 1804 was crowned emperor. By 1807, he controlled an empire that stretched...
1855
In territorial Kansas’ first election, some 5,000 so-called “Border Ruffians” invade the territory from western Missouri and force the election of a pro-slavery legislature. Although the number of votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters in the territory, Kansas Governor Andrew Reeder reluctantly approved the election to prevent further...
1867
U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signs a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as “Seward’s folly,” “Seward’s icebox,” and President Andrew Johnson’s...
1870
Following its ratification by the requisite three-fourths of the states, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment reads, “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied...
Hollywood
1981
On this day in 1981, John Hinckley Jr. attempts to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in a crowd of onlookers and security personnel–including police and Secret Service officers–outside a Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C. When asked about his motive for shooting the president, Hinckley revealed that he was seeking to gain...
Music
1974
Of his many enormous hits in the 1970s, none captured the essence of John Denver better than his first #1 song, “Sunshine On My Shoulders,” which reached the top of the pop charts on this day in 1974.
“Sunshine On My Shoulders” was John Denver’s attempt to write a sad song,...
Old West
1891
Signaling a growing movement toward direct political action among desperate western farmers, “Sockless” Jerry Simpson calls on the Kansas Farmers’ Alliance to work for a takeover of the state government.
Simpson was one of the most popular and influential leaders among Populist-minded western and mid-western farmers of the late 19th century....
Presidential
1981
On this day in1981, President Ronald Reagan is shot while leaving the Washington Union Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Reagan’s assailant, later identified as 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr., approached the president as he left the hotel after speaking to a union convention, and fired five to six shots from a .22 caliber...
Sports
1965
On this day in 1965, Princeton forward Bill Bradley sets an NCAA men’s basketball record with 58 points in a game against Wichita State. Bradley was the dominant player in college basketball that year and won the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award.
William Warren Bradley was born in 1943 in Crystal...
Vietnam War
1965
A bomb explodes in a car parked in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, virtually destroying the building and killing 19 Vietnamese, 2 Americans, and 1 Filipino; 183 others were injured. Congress quickly appropriated $1 million to reconstruct the embassy. Although some U.S. military leaders advocated special retaliatory raids...
1972
A major coordinated communist offensive opens with the heaviest military action since the sieges of Allied bases at Con Thien and Khe Sanh in 1968. Committing almost their entire army to the offensive, the North Vietnamese launched a massive three-pronged attack into South Vietnam. Four North Vietnamese divisions attacked directly...
World War I
1918
On March 30, 1918, British, Australian and Canadian troops mount a successful counter-attack against the German offensive at Moreuil Wood, recapturing most of the area and forcing a turn in the tide of the battle in favor of the Allies.
After launching the first stage of a major spring offensive on...
World War II
1940
On this day, Japan establishes its own government in conquered Nanking, the former capital of Nationalist China.
In 1937, Japan drummed up a rationale for war against Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist China (claiming Chinese troops attacked Japanese troops on maneuvers in a so-called “autonomous” region of China) and invaded northeastern China, bombing...
