Today is
April 30, the last day of April, and the 120th day of the year. One third of the year has passed.
There are 245 days remaining in 2017.
On this date Western Christianity observes a
Global Day Of Prayer.
Honesty Day is marked today in the U.S., coinciding with the anniversary of the
first inauguration of George Washington.
UNESCO has proclaimed this day as an
International Jazz Day, so, if you're a musician, find four buddies and all of ya play a different song at the same time.
Events
1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.
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.
1803 – Louisiana Purchase: The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for less than three cents per acre, $15 million (~$250,000,000 in 2016 dollars), more than doubling the size of the young nation.
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.
1927 – Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete
at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
1945 – World War II: Stalag Luft I prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany is liberated by Soviet soldiers, freeing nearly 9000 American and British airmen.
1956 – Former Vice President and Democratic Senator Alben Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia.
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.
1975 – Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Dương Văn Minh.
1993 – CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.
2004 – U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
2008 – Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg, Russia are confirmed by Russian scientists to be 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.
2009 – Chrysler
files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
1877 – Alice B. Toklas, 1908 – Eve Arden, 1926 – Cloris Leachman, 1938 – Gary Collins, 1943 – Bobby Vee, 1944 – Jill Clayburgh, 1953 – Merrill Osmond, 1954 – Jane Campion, 1961 – Isiah Thomas, 1963 – Michael Waltrip
, 1981 – Kunal Nayyar (
The Big Bang Theory), 1982 – Kirsten Dunst
65 – Lucan, 1900 – Casey Jones, 1956 – Alben W. Barkley (35th VPOTUS), 1970 – Inger Stevens, 1972 – Gia Scala, 1974 – Agnes Moorehead ('Endora' on
Bewitched), 1983 – George Balanchine,
1983 – Muddy Waters, 1989 – Sergio Leone, 1994 – Richard Scarry, 2007 – Tom Poston, 2016 – Daniel Berrigan