Did you know
In 1855, Origins of the American Civil War: "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature. This featured entry focuses on the immediate decision and its direct historical impact.
March 30 in History
1855 — Origins of the American Civil War: "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature
March 30 spans 45 recorded events across recorded history, from 598 to 2023. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Historical Events
45 events
598 – 2023
Today in history
More major events on March 30
The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.
Did you know
The origins of the American Civil War were rooted in the desire of the Southern states to preserve and expand the institution of slavery. This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.
Did you know
Historians in the 21st century overwhelmingly agree on the centrality of slavery in the conflict, but they disagree on the North's reasons for refusing to allow the Southern states to secede. This clarifies the institutional and public response around the event.
Did you know
The negationist Lost Cause ideology denies that slavery was the principal cause of the secession, a view disproven by historical evidence, including the seceding states' own secession documents. This shows how the event shaped policy and public communication in the same period.
Did you know
After leaving the Union, Mississippi issued a declaration stating, "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world." This helps explain why the event mattered beyond the initial announcement.
598
Avar–Byzantine wars: The Avars lift the siege at the Byzantine stronghold of Tomis.
Their leader Bayan I retreats north of the Danube River after the Avaro-Slavic army is decimated by the plague.
Maurice's Balkan campaigns were a series of military expeditions conducted by Roman Emperor Maurice in an attempt to defend the Balkan provinces of the Roman Empire from the Avars and the South Slavs.
1282
The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.
Island in the Mediterranean, region of Italy
Sicily, officially the Sicilian Region, is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea and one of the twenty regions of Italy, situated south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe.
1296
Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.
King of England from 1272 to 1307
Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307.
1699
Guru Gobind Singh establishes the Khalsa in Anandpur Sahib, Punjab.
Tenth Sikh guru from 1675 to 1708
Guru Gobind Singh was the tenth and last human Sikh Guru. He was a warrior, poet, and philosopher.
1815
Joachim Murat issues the Rimini Proclamation, among the earliest calls for Italian unification.
French military officer and statesman (1767–1815)
Joachim Murat was a French Army officer and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
1818
Physicist Augustin Fresnel reads a memoir on optical rotation to the French Academy of Sciences, reporting that when polarized light is "depolarized" by a Fresnel rhomb, its properties are preserved in any subsequent passage through an optically-rotating crystal or liquid.
French optical physicist (1788–1827)
Augustin-Jean Fresnel was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, fully supplanting Newton's corpuscular theory, from the late…
1822
The Florida Territory is created in the United States.
Organized incorporated territory of the United States (1822–1845)
The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 30, 1822, until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted to the Union as the state of Florida.
1841
The National Bank of Greece is founded in Athens.
Large bank in Greece
The National Bank of Greece is a banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Athens, Greece.
1842
Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr.
Crawford Long.
Diethyl ether, or simply ether is an organic compound with the chemical formula (CH3CH2)2O, belonging to the ether class. It is a colourless, highly volatile, sweet-smelling, and extremely flammable liquid.
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.
Part of the Dominican War of Independence
The Battle of Santiago was the second major battle of the Dominican War of Independence and was fought on the 30 March 1844, at Santiago de los Caballeros, Santiago Province.
1856
The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.
1856 treaty ending the Crimean War
The Treaty of Paris of 1856, signed on 30 March 1856 at the Congress of Paris, brought an end to the Crimean War (1853–1856) between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom, the…
1861
Discovery of the chemical elements: Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium.
List of history of chemical elements
The discoveries of the 118 chemical elements known to exist as of 2026 are presented here in chronological order.
1863
Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece.
King of Greece from 1863 to 1913
George I was King of Greece from 30 March 1863 until his assassination on 18 March 1913.
1867
Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents/acre ($4.19/km2), by United States Secretary of State William H.
Seward.
Alaska is a U.S. state located in the northwestern regions of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii.
1870
Texas is readmitted to the United States Congress following Reconstruction.
U.S. state
Texas is the most populous state in the Southern United States. It borders the American states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, and New Mexico to the west.
1885
The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the Russian and British Empires.
1885 battle between Russia and Afghanistan
The Panjdeh incident was an armed engagement between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the Russian Empire in 1885 that led to a diplomatic crisis between the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire regarding the Russian…
1899
German Society of Chemistry issues an invitation to other national scientific organizations to appoint delegates to the International Committee on Atomic Weights.
International scientific committee
The Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (CIAAW) is an international scientific committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) under its Division of Inorganic Chemistry.
1900
Archaeologists in Knossos, Crete, discover the first clay tablet with hieroglyphic writing in a script later called Linear B.
Study of human activity based on materials left behind
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture.
1912
Sultan Abd al-Hafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.
This is a list of rulers of Morocco since 789. The common and formal titles of these rulers have varied over time. Since 1957, the designation King has been used.
1918
Beginning of the bloody March Events in Baku and other locations of Baku Governorate.
1918 inter-ethnic clashes and Bolshevik takeover attempt in Baku
The March Days or March Events was a period of inter-ethnic strife and clashes which took place between 30 March – 2 April 1918 in the city of Baku and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate of the Transcaucasian…
1939
The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph (745 km/h).
Prototype fighter aircraft, German, WW2
The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel.
1940
Second Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Jingwei.
1937–1945 conflict in East Asia
The Second Sino-Japanese War, known in China as the War of Resistance Against Japan, was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan and its puppet states between 1937 and 1945, following a period of…
1944
World War II: Allied bombers conduct their most severe bombing run on Sofia, Bulgaria.
Global conflict (1939–1945)
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers.
1944
World War II: In a raid on Nuremberg, RAF Bomber Command suffers its greatest loss of the war, losing 95 bombers from a force of 795.
The bombing of Nuremberg was a series of air raids carried out by allied forces of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF).
1945
World War II: Soviet forces invade Austria and capture Vienna.
Polish and Soviet forces liberate Danzig.
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often referred by its shortened name as the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union.
1949
Cold War: A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joins NATO.
1947–1991 geopolitical rivalry between US and USSR
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc.
1959
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India.
Spiritual leader of Tibet since 1940
The 14th Dalai Lama is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism.
1961
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed in New York City.
1961 international treaty regulating narcotic drugs
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 is an international treaty that controls activities involving specific narcotic drugs and lays down a system of regulations for their medical and scientific uses, concluded…
1965
Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the United States Embassy, Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
1955–1975 war in Southeast Asia
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies.
1967
Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 crashes at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, killing 19.
1967 aviation accident
Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 was a scheduled training flight of a Douglas DC-8-51 that crashed on approach to New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, Louisiana, on March 30, 1967.
1972
Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
Part of the Vietnam War (1972)
The Easter Offensive, also known as the 1972 Spring–Summer Offensive by North Vietnam, or the Fiery Red Summer in South Vietnamese literature, was a military campaign conducted by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN)…
1976
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: in the first organized response against Israeli policies by a Palestinian collective since 1948, Palestinians create the first Land Day.
Ongoing military and political conflict in West Asia
Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in an ongoing military and political conflict about land and self-determination within the former territory of Mandatory Palestine.
1979
Airey Neave, a British Member of Parliament (MP), is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster.
The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.
Lieutenant Colonel Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave was a British soldier, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP) from 1953 until his assassination in 1979.
1981
U.S.
President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident.
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
1982
Space Shuttle program: STS-3 mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
1972–2011 United States human spaceflight program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S.
2002
The 2002 Lyon car attack takes place.
2002 antisemitic terrorist attack in Lyon, France
On 30 March 2002, a group of masked men rammed two cars through the courtyard gates of a synagogue in the La Duchere neighbourhood of Lyon, France, then rammed one of the cars into the prayer hall before setting the…
2006
Cyclone Glenda, one of the strongest tropical cyclones in the Australian region makes landfall near Onslow, Western Australia.
Category 5 Australian region cyclone in 2006
Severe Tropical Cyclone Glenda was among the strongest tropical cyclones to threaten Western Australia, though it weakened considerably before landfall and moved ashore in a lightly populated region.
2008
Drolma Kyi arrested by Chinese authorities.
Tibetan Singer and prisoner in the 2008 Tibetan Unrest
Drolma Kyi is a Tibetan singer. She was arrested on March 30, 2008 by the Chinese authorities, during the 2008 Tibetan unrest.
2009
Twelve gunmen attack the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan.
2009 terrorist attack in Pakistan
At 07:31 on 30 March 2009, the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan, was attacked by an estimated 12 gunmen.
2011
Min Aung Hlaing is appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar's armed forces.
Burmese politician and military officer (born 1956)
Min Aung Hlaing is a Burmese politician and retired military officer who has been the 11th president of Myanmar since April 2026, having ruled the country continuously since seizing power in February 2021 through a…
2017
SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital class rocket.
American spaceflight and AI company
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., doing business as SpaceX, is an American spaceflight, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence company headquartered at the Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas.
2018
The Israeli Army kills 17 Palestinians and wounds 1,400 in Gaza during Land Day protests.
Combined military forces of Israel
The Israel Defense Forces, alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym Tzahal (צה״ל), is the national military of the State of Israel.
2019
Pope Francis visits Morocco.
Head of the Catholic Church from 2013 to 2025
Pope Francis was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 13 March 2013 until his death in 2025.
2023
Donald Trump becomes the first former United States president to be indicted by a grand jury.
President of the United States (2017–2021; since 2025)
Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.