April 30: What Happened on This Day in History (High_school Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1492 - Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
2. 1789 - On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.
3. 1803 - Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.
4. 1812 - The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the nameLouisiana.
5. 1885 - Governor of New York David B. Hill signs legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York's first state park, ensuring that Niagara Falls will not be devoted solely to industrial and commercial use.
6. 1927 - Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
7. 1939 - NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's Fair opening day ceremonial address.
8. 1963 - The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom.
9. 1993 - CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free
10. 2008 - Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia, are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, one of his sisters.
11. Famous Birthdays: Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (French priest, reformer, and saint), Mary II of England, Luigi Russolo (Italian Futurist painter and composer, considered the first to experiment with noise music), Simon Kuznets (Ukrainian-American economist, Nobel Prize laureate), Theodore Schultz (American economist, Nobel Prize laureate)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: April 29

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: May 1

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.