Monday, 30th March 2026 in Kyiv
Welcome to your daily snapshot of Kyjiw! Explore 45 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day in Kyjiw. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Today's weather in Kyjiw brings cloudy with temperatures between 4°C and 11°C. Tonight's moon is in its waning crescent phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Aries. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this Monday, 30th March in Kyjiw, UA.

Kyjiw, the capital of Ukraine, is situated on the Dnieper River and serves as the country's cultural, scientific and educational centre. On Monday, 30 March 2026, the city experiences cloudy weather. The sun is positioned in Aries, the zodiac sign associated with initiative and determination, whilst the moon is in a waning crescent phase, a period traditionally linked to reflection and release.
On this day
On 30 March 2002, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, widow of King George VI and mother of Queen Elizabeth II, died at Royal Lodge aged 101. Her death marked the end of an era for the British royal family, as she had witnessed and participated in nearly a century of British history, from the reign of her father-in-law George V through to the modern era under her daughter's rule.
The day also recalls significant political upheaval in European history. In 1863, George I became King of the Hellenes, a moment that shaped modern Greek independence and sovereignty. Earlier, in 1912, Sultan Abd al-Hafid signed the Treaty of Fes, fundamentally altering the political landscape of North Africa by establishing Morocco as a French protectorate, a decision that would influence regional politics for decades to come.
DayAtlas provides comprehensive information for any date and location, including weather conditions, historical events, and notable births and deaths. Users can explore what happened on specific days throughout history and discover how atmospheric conditions and celestial positions aligned on dates of their choosing.
Find out what's happening today in Kyjiw.
What the Weather Had in Store for Kyjiw on 30th March 2026
Spring ignites what winter merely tolerated.
Fortune of the Day
30th March in the Stars – Star Sign Aries
Personality Profile
Personality Those born on March 30th blend Aries's impulsive drive with Jupiter's expansive wisdom. They're energetic, courageous visionaries who push boundaries and inspire others. Master Number 33 grants them exceptional ability to channel their passion for the greater good.
Strengths & Weaknesses Their strengths include pioneering spirit, boundless energy, and inspiring leadership. However, they tend toward impatience and hasty decisions when impulse dominates. Balancing action with reflection is their key developmental challenge.
Love In relationships, these individuals are passionate, loyal, and refreshingly honest. They seek partners who understand their intensity and share their adventurous nature. Jupiter's influence makes them generous and genuinely supportive partners.
Caree & Finance They thrive in roles demanding leadership, innovation, and transformation—entrepreneurship, coaching, or creative ventures. Their natural authority opens doors, yet sustainable financial stability requires strategic planning beyond impulsive ventures.
Health These energetic natures require regular intense movement and challenge. Uncontrolled impatience and overextension risk burnout. Mindfulness and restorative breaks help maintain their vitality sustainably.
That night, the moon was in its waning crescent phase.
Chinese year of the Horse (Fire).
Fun Facts About 30th March
Name Days in Your Language: Adin, Adon, Adonia, Adonis, Amada, Amadea, Amadeus
Someone born on this day would be just 83 days old today — roughly 2,003 hours, 120,191 minutes, or 7,211,513 seconds spent on Earth so far.
It's the 89. day of the year. In 2026, 30th March falls on a Monday.
There are 276 days still to come.
We’re currently in Week 14 — the year marches on.
Famous Birthdays on 30th March
On this day, 208 notable people were born on 30th March — spanning from 892 to 2001. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.
30/03/2001
Anastasia Potapova, Russian tennis player
Anastasia Sergeyevna Potapova is a Russian-born Austrian professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of No. 21 by the WTA, achieved on 19 June 2023, and a doubles ranking of world No. 40, reached on 5 December 2022. Potapova has won three WTA Tour singles titles along with three doubles titles. She is a former junior world No. 1, and she was the 2016 Wimbledon girls' singles champion.
30/03/2000
Colton Herta, American race car driver
Colton Thomas Herta is an American racing driver who competes in the FIA Formula 2 Championship for Hitech with support from Cadillac. Herta competed in the IndyCar Series from 2018 to 2025.
30/03/1998
Kalyn Ponga, Australian rugby league player
Kalyn Ponga is a professional rugby league footballer who captains and plays as a fullback for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League and Queensland in the State of Origin series. He is the recipient of the 2023 Dally M Medal.
30/03/1997
Cha Eun-woo, South Korean singer, actor, and model
Lee Dong-min, known professionally as Cha Eun-woo (Korean: 차은우, Korean pronunciation: [t͡ɕʰa ɯn u]), is a South Korean singer and actor. He is a member of the South Korean boy band Astro, and debuted as a solo artist with the extended play (EP) Entity in 2024. Cha made his acting debut in the film My Brilliant Life (2014) and gained widespread recognition through his lead roles in television series such as Gangnam Beauty (2018), Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung (2019), and True Beauty (2020–2021), the latter contributing to his international recognition as a figure of the Korean Wave. He has since starred in Island (2022–2023), A Good Day to Be a Dog (2023–2024), and Wonderful World (2024), and the film The First Ride (2025). He has received several accolades throughout his career and has been included in various notable lists, including Forbes Korea Power Celebrity, Forbes 30 Under 30, and Gallup Korea's actor rankings.
30/03/1996
Ryan Noda, American baseball player
Ryan Anthony Noda is an American professional baseball first baseman in the Baltimore Orioles organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics and Chicago White Sox.
30/03/1995
Zay Jones, American football player
Isaiah Avery "Zay" Jones is an American professional football wide receiver. He played college football for the East Carolina Pirates. Jones is the all-time NCAA Division I career receptions leader with 399 as well as the all-time NCAA Division I single-season receptions leader with 158.
30/03/1994
Alex Bregman, American baseball player
Alexander David Bregman is an American professional baseball third baseman for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox.
Jetro Willems, Dutch footballer
Jetro Danovich Sexer Willems is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a left wing-back or left-back for Eredivisie club NEC.
30/03/1993
Anitta, Brazilian singer and entertainer
Larissa de Macedo Machado, known professionally as Anitta, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, dancer, actress, and occasional television host. One of Brazil's most prominent artists, she became known for her versatile style and mixing genres such as pop, funk, reggaeton and electronic music. She has received numerous accolades, including one Brazilian Music Award, four Latin American Music Awards, three MTV Music Video Awards, nine MTV Europe Music Awards, two Guinness World Records, and nominations for two Grammy Award and ten Latin Grammy Awards, in addition to being the Brazilian female singer with the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100. She has been referred to as the "Queen of Brazilian Pop".
30/03/1992
Palak Muchhal, Indian playback singer
Palak Muchhal is an Indian playback singer and lyricist. Muchhal performs as a playback singer across Hindi films and other Indian film industries. She has rendered her voice in Hindi films such as Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Aashiqui 2 (2013), Kick (2014) and Action Jackson (2014) Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015) M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016) Kaabil (2017), Baaghi 2 (2018) and Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas (2019). Her rendition of the song "Kaun Tujhe" from the film"M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story has earned her much praise from fans as well as prominent personalities in the music industry. On 6 November 2022, she married music composer Mithoon, with whom she had earlier worked on the soundtrack of Aashiqui 2. Alongside her brother Palash Muchhal, she has also done philanthropic work by raising funds through her stage shows for children who need financial assistance for treatment of heart diseases.
30/03/1991
NF, American rapper
Nathan John Feuerstein, known professionally as NF, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has released three EPs, I'm Free (2012), a self-titled EP in 2014 with Capitol CMG, and Fear in 2025 with NF Real Music and Capitol Records. His second and first major-label studio album, Mansion, was released on March 31, 2015. His third studio album, Therapy Session, was released on April 22, 2016, and peaked at number 12 on the US Billboard 200. His albums have earned several accolades, some of which include the Gospel Music Association Dove Award for Rap/Hip Hop Album of the Year in 2016 and the Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year in 2017.
30/03/1990
Thomas Rhett, American country music singer and songwriter
Thomas Rhett Akins Jr. is an American country music singer-songwriter. He is the oldest son of singer Rhett Akins.
Michal Březina, Czech figure skater
Michal Březina is a retired Czech figure skater. He is the 2013 European bronze medalist, 2011 Skate America champion, 2009 World Junior silver medalist and four-time Czech national champion. He also won the 2014-15 ISU Challenger Series. Michal represented the Czech Republic at the 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 Winter Olympics.
30/03/1989
Chris Sale, American baseball player
Christopher Allen Sale is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox. He throws left-handed and is 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall.
João Sousa, Portuguese tennis player
João Pedro Coelho Marinho de Sousa, known as João Sousa, is a Portuguese former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 28 on 16 May 2016 and a doubles ranking of No. 26 on 13 May 2019.
30/03/1988
Will Matthews, Australian rugby league player
Will Matthews is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer.
Thanasis Papazoglou, Greek footballer
Thanasis Papazoglou, commonly known also as Sakis Papazoglou, is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a striker.
Richard Sherman, American football player
Richard Kevin Sherman is an American former professional football cornerback who played 11 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Stanford Cardinal, beginning his career as a wide receiver before moving to cornerback as a junior. Sherman was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth round of the 2011 NFL draft. He was selected to the Pro Bowl five times and voted All-Pro five times, including three first-team selections. In 2013, Sherman led the NFL in interceptions. He is considered to be one of the greatest cornerbacks of all time.
Larisa Yurkiw, Canadian alpine skier
Larisa Yurkiw is a Canadian retired World Cup alpine ski racer, specializing in the speed events of downhill and super-G.
30/03/1987
Trent Barreta, American wrestler
Gregory Marasciulo, better known by the ring name Trent Beretta, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the Don Callis Family and one-half of RPG Vice with Rocky Romero. He is also known for his time with WWE as Trent Barreta and New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor under the ring name Beretta. As part of Roppongi Vice, Beretta is a former four-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion. He is also known for his tenures with Pro Wrestling Guerilla and various independent promotions.
Calum Elliot, Scottish footballer
Calum Elliot is a Scottish former professional footballer who was most recently manager of Scottish League Two club Bonnyrigg Rose.
Kwok Kin Pong, Hong Kong footballer
Kwok Kin Pong is a former Hong Kong professional footballer who played as a defender or a midfielder. As he resembles Hong Kong artist and singer Edison Chen, he was given the nickname 'Edison'.
Marc-Édouard Vlasic, Canadian ice hockey player
Marc-Édouard Vlasic is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman. He most recently played for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League (NHL), for whom Vlasic holds the franchise record for most games played by a defenseman and the NHL record for blocked shots.
30/03/1986
Sergio Ramos, Spanish footballer
Sergio Ramos García is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back and is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest centre-backs of all time, he is known for his aerial abilities, physicality, leadership, and goalscoring abilities, having scored more than 100 goals for Real Madrid.
30/03/1985
Giacomo Ricci, Italian racing driver
Giacomo Ricci is a former Italian racing driver.
30/03/1984
Mario Ančić, Croatian tennis player
Mario Ančić is a Croatian former professional tennis player who currently works as a private equity vice president in New York City. He won three singles titles and five doubles titles on the ATP Tour. Ančić's career-high singles ranking came in 2006, when he reached world No. 7. Ančić helped Croatia to win the 2005 Davis Cup and claimed a bronze medal for the country at the 2004 Athens Olympics, in men's doubles partnering Ivan Ljubičić.
Samantha Stosur, Australian tennis player
Samantha Jane Stosur is an Australian former professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in doubles, a ranking which she first achieved on 6 February 2006 and held for 61 consecutive weeks. Also a former top ten singles player, Stosur reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 on 21 February 2011 and spent a total of 165 weeks ranked inside the top ten, between March 2010 and June 2013. Stosur was also the top-ranked Australian singles player for 452 consecutive weeks, from October 2008 to June 2017, and was ranked inside the top 25 for a period of nine straight years. She won a combined total of 40 career titles, including 8 major titles, and amassed more than $20 million in prize money.
30/03/1983
Jérémie Aliadière, French footballer
Jérémie Aliadière is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker.
30/03/1982
Mark Hudson, English footballer
Mark Alexander Hudson is an English football manager and former professional footballer who is first team coach at Ipswich Town. A centre-back, he began his professional career with Fulham after progressing through the club's youth academy. He made his senior debut in a League Cup match in 2000 but made just two further first team appearances for Fulham. He spent two spells on loan with Oldham Athletic in 2003 before joining Crystal Palace on loan after Oldham manager Iain Dowie moved between the two clubs. He joined Palace on a permanent basis soon after as they spent one season in the Premier League before establishing himself in the first team following their return to the Championship.
Philippe Mexès, French footballer
Philippe Mexès is a French former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He represented Auxerre, Roma and AC Milan at club level during a career that spanned between 1999 and 2016. A full international between 2002 and 2012, he won 29 caps and scored one goal for the France national team and represented them at the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup as well as UEFA Euro 2012.
Javier Portillo, Spanish footballer
Javier García Portillo is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a forward.
Jason Dohring, American actor
Jason William Dohring is an American actor, known for his roles as Logan Echolls in Veronica Mars and its 2014 film continuation, Josef Kostan in Moonlight (2007), Adam Carpenter in Ringer (2011), Detective Will Kinney in The Originals (2013), Chase Graves in iZombie (2015), and Terra in the Kingdom Hearts series.
30/03/1981
Jammal Brown, American football player
Jammal Filbert Brown is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle for seven seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Oklahoma Sooners, receiving unanimous All-American recognition. Brown was chosen by the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 2005 NFL draft. He was selected for the Pro Bowl twice and won Super Bowl XLIV with the team. He also played for the Washington Redskins.
Andrea Masi, Italian rugby player
Andrea Masi is a retired Italian rugby union footballer. His usual position was in the centres but he has also played at fly-half and at full-back. His last club before retirement was the English Premiership club Wasps. In a 16-year international career lasting from 1999 to 2015, Masi won 95 caps for the Italy national team, and was a part of their squad at four World Cups in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015.
30/03/1980
Katrine Lunde, Norwegian handball goalkeeper
Katrine Lunde is a retired Norwegian handball player, who last played for the Norwegian national team and Randesund IL.
Kristine Lunde-Borgersen, Norwegian handball player
Kristine Lunde-Borgersen is a retired Norwegian handballer who played for the Norwegian national team. She is Olympic champion, World Champion and three times European champion. She is the twin sister of fellow handball player Katrine Lunde. On 13 June 2017, she announced her return to playing handball for the 2017–2018 season, to replace Marta Tomac, who is out of play following a severe injury.
Ricardo Osorio, Mexican footballer
Ricardo Osorio Mendoza is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a defender.
30/03/1979
Norah Jones, American singer-songwriter and pianist
Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, as of 2023, has sold more than 53 million records worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000s decade. She has won ten Grammy Awards and was ranked 60th on Billboard magazine's Artists of the 2000s Decade chart.
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Ukrainian footballer
Anatoliy Oleksandrovych Tymoshchuk is a Ukrainian football coach and former midfielder. Since 2017, he has served as an assistant coach of the Russian Premier League club Zenit Saint Petersburg. Tymoshchuk is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of Shakhtar Donetsk and Zenit Saint Petersburg, and is also a former captain of the Ukraine national team.
30/03/1978
Paweł Czapiewski, Polish runner
Paweł Czapiewski is a former Polish middle-distance runner. He was born in Stargard.
Chris Paterson, Scottish rugby player and coach
Christopher Douglas Paterson, MBE is an ambassador and specialist coach for the Scotland and Edinburgh rugby union teams. He is a former professional rugby union player who played for Scotland and, for the most part of his career, Edinburgh. Paterson is Scotland's record points scorer with 809 points and second most-capped male player with 109 caps. He was capable of playing in a range of positions, including fullback, wing and fly-half.
Bok van Blerk, South African singer-songwriter and actor
Bok van Blerk is a South African singer-songwriter who sings in Afrikaans. He became famous in 2006 for his rendition of "De la Rey" by Sean Else and Johan Vorster.
30/03/1977
Abhishek Chaubey, Indian director and screenwriter
Abhishek Chaubey is an Indian director, screenwriter and film producer known for his works in Hindi cinema.
30/03/1976
Ty Conklin, American ice hockey player
Ty Curtis Conklin is an American former professional ice hockey goaltender. Throughout his National Hockey League (NHL) career, he played for the Edmonton Oilers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues and two stints with the Detroit Red Wings.
Obadele Thompson, Barbadian sprinter
Obadele "Oba" Thompson BSS is a Barbados-born former sprinter, lawyer, author, and speaker. He won Barbados's first and only Olympic medal as an independent country by placing third in the 100 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He is a three-time Olympian, and a finalist at each Olympics. His personal best performances are 9.87 seconds for the 100 m, 19.97 seconds for the 200 metres, and 45.38 seconds for the 400 metres. He has held the indoor 55 metres world record since 1997.
Troels Lund Poulsen, Danish politician, Minister for Education of Denmark
Troels Lund Poulsen is a Danish politician who has served as leader of Venstre since November 2023. He has been a member of the Folketing since 2001 and has held several ministerial offices in Danish governments.
30/03/1975
Paul Griffen, New Zealand-Italian rugby player
Paul Richard Griffen is a former New Zealand-born rugby union player who represented Italy at scrum half in 42 full internationals. He played for Calvisano from 2000 to 2014.
30/03/1974
Martin Love, Australian cricketer
Martin Lloyd Love is a former Australian cricketer who played in five Test matches from 2002 to 2003. He was a right-handed batsman.
30/03/1973
Adam Goldstein, American keyboard player, DJ, and producer (died 2009)
Adam Michael Goldstein, known professionally as DJ AM, was an American DJ. Born in Philadelphia, Goldstein became interested in deejaying as a child after watching Herbie Hancock perform his 1983 single "Rockit". Goldstein developed a drug addiction as a teenager and was sent to the controversial rehabilitation center Straight, Incorporated. After he left the center, his drug problems became worse; he was addicted to crack cocaine for several years in his early twenties. After he attempted suicide in 1997, Goldstein became sober and later sponsored other addicts through Alcoholics Anonymous.
Jan Koller, Czech footballer
Jan Koller is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was noted for his height, strong physique and heading ability.
Kareem Streete-Thompson, Caymanian-American long jumper
Kareem Streete-Thompson is a Caymanian-American athlete specializing in the long jump and the 100 metres. He was born in Ithaca, New York.
30/03/1972
Mili Avital, Israeli-American actress
Mili Avital is an Israeli actress. Her career began in Israel, starring on stage, film and television. She won the Israeli Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1991, moved to New York in 1993 to study theatre in English, was discovered by an agent while working in a restaurant, and started acting in Hollywood almost immediately. She has maintained her career in both countries since.
Emerson Thome, Brazilian footballer and scout
Emerson Augusto Thome, also known as Paredão, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a central defender.
Karel Poborský, Czech footballer
Karel Poborský is a Czech former professional association football player. Poborský played as a winger, and was most noted for his technical ability and pace.
30/03/1971
Mari Holden, American cyclist
Mari Kim Holden is an American Olympic medalist and World Champion in the sport of cycling. She won a silver medal in the 2000 Olympic Games time trial in Sydney, Australia and the world time trial championship later that year. She also won six U.S. championships, becoming the first American woman to win three consecutive U.S. time trial championships (1998–2000) and scoring a double by winning the U.S. time trial and road championships in 1999. In 2016 she was inducted into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame as a Modern Road and Track Competitor and presently works as a community director at USA Cycling.
Mark Consuelos, American actor and television personality
Mark Andrew Consuelos is an American actor and talk show host. He rose to prominence as a television actor on the ABC soap opera All My Children for his portrayal of Mateo Santos, and subsequently as Hiram Lodge on The CW drama Riverdale (2017–2023). Consuelos currently co-hosts the daytime talk show Live with Kelly and Mark with his wife Kelly Ripa.
30/03/1970
Tobias Hill, English poet and author (died 2023)
Tobias Fleet Hill was a British poet, essayist, writer of short stories and novelist.
Sylvain Charlebois, Canadian food/agriculture researcher and author
Sylvain Charlebois is a Canadian professor and researcher of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is a former dean of the university's Faculty of Management. Charlebois, who goes by the moniker "The Food Professor," is the director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie. Since December 2010, he has been the lead author of Canada's Food Price Report.
30/03/1969
Troy Bayliss, Australian motorcycle racer
Troy Andrew Bayliss is an Australian motorcycle racer. During his career Bayliss won the Superbike World Championship three times and a MotoGP race, all with Ducati. He finished his career after winning the 2008 World Superbike title. His 52 World Superbike victories ranks fourth all time in the history of the championship behind Jonathan Rea, Álvaro Bautista and Carl Fogarty. His son with Kim Bayliss is named Oli Bayliss, he competes in the World Supersport Championship.
30/03/1968
Celine Dion, Canadian singer-songwriter
Céline Marie Claudette Dion is a Canadian singer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Dubbed the "Queen of Power Ballads", she is known for her powerful, technically skilled vocals and commercially successful works, which have had a significant impact on popular music. With over 200 million records sold worldwide, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, the best-selling French-language artist, and one of the best-selling musical artists.
30/03/1967
Christopher Bowman, American figure skater and coach (died 2008)
Christopher Nicol Bowman was an American figure skater. He was a two-time World medalist, the 1983 World Junior champion, and a two-time U.S. national champion. He competed in two Olympic Winter Games, placing 7th in 1988 and 4th in 1992.
Richard Hutten, Dutch furniture designer
Richard G. J. Hutten is a Dutch industrial designer, art director, and artist who is active in furniture design, product design, interior design, and exhibition design.
Julie Richardson, New Zealand tennis player
Julie Richardson is a former professional tennis player from New Zealand. She won seven doubles titles during her career.
30/03/1966
Efstratios Grivas, Greek chess player and author
Efstratios Grivas is a Greek chess player who holds the titles of Grandmaster, FIDE Senior Trainer, International Arbiter, and FIDE International Organizer.
Dmitry Volkov, Russian swimmer (died 2025)
Dmitry Arkadyevich Volkov was a Russian two-time Olympic breaststroke swimmer. He swam at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics.
Leonid Voloshin, Russian triple jumper
Leonid Anatolyevich Voloshin is a retired triple jumper from Russia. He competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1992 Summer Olympics.
30/03/1965
Piers Morgan, English journalist and talk show host
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan is an English broadcaster, journalist, television personality, and writer. He began his career in 1988 at the tabloid The Sun. In 1994, at the age of 29, he was appointed editor of the News of the World by Rupert Murdoch, which made him the youngest editor of a British national newspaper in more than half a century. From 1995 Morgan edited the Daily Mirror, but was fired in 2004. He was the editorial director of First News from 2006 to 2007. In 2014 he became the first editor-at-large of the MailOnline website's American operation.
30/03/1964
Vlado Bozinovski, Macedonian-Australian footballer and manager
Vlado Bozinovski is an Australian retired footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.
Tracy Chapman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter. She was signed to Elektra Records by Bob Krasnow in 1987. The following year she released her self-titled debut album, which became a commercial success, boosted by her appearance at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, and was certified 6× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album received six Grammy Award nominations, including one for Album of the Year, three of which she won: Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her single "Fast Car", and Best Contemporary Folk Album. In 2025, the album was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.
30/03/1963
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, Mongolian journalist and politician, 4th President of Mongolia
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, known internationally as Elbegdorj Tsakhia, is a Mongolian politician and journalist who served as the president of Mongolia from 2009 to 2017. He previously served as prime minister in 1998 and again from 2004 to 2006.
Panagiotis Tsalouchidis, Greek footballer
Panagiotis Tsalouchidis is a Greek former football player and coach who played professionally from 1983 to 1999 for Veria, Olympiacos and PAOK, making 500 league appearances in Greek football.
30/03/1962
Mark Begich, American politician
Mark Peter Begich is an American politician and lobbyist who served as a United States senator from Alaska from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as mayor of Anchorage from 2003 to 2009. As of 2026, he is the most recent Democrat to serve Alaska in the U.S. Senate.
MC Hammer, American rapper and actor
Stanley Kirk Burrell, better known by his stage name MC Hammer, is an American rapper and dancer. He is known for hit songs such as "U Can't Touch This", "Pray", "2 Legit 2 Quit" and "Pumps and a Bump", as well as flashy dance movements, extravagant choreography and his namesake Hammer pants. Remembered for a rapid rise to fame, Hammer has also become an entrepreneur and celebrity spokesperson. A multi-award winner, he is considered a "forefather" and pioneering innovator of pop rap.
Gary Stevens, English international footballer and manager
Gary Andrew Stevens is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Brighton & Hove Albion, Tottenham Hotspur and Portsmouth. He won seven caps for England.
30/03/1961
Mike Thackwell, New Zealand racing driver
Michael Christopher Thackwell is a former racing driver from New Zealand, who participated in a number of prominent racing categories, including Formula 1. The seventh youngest driver ever to qualify for a Grand Prix, he participated in five of them, making his first start on 28 September 1980 at the Canadian Grand Prix. He scored no championship points. He had previously attempted unsuccessfully to qualify for the Dutch Grand Prix which was held on 31 August 1980.
Doug Wickenheiser, Canadian-American ice hockey player (died 1999)
Douglas Peter Wickenheiser was a Canadian ice hockey player, who was drafted first overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1980 NHL entry draft.
30/03/1960
Laurie Graham, Canadian skier
Laurie Graham, is a former Canadian downhill skier.
Bill Johnson, American skier (died 2016)
William Dean Johnson was an American World Cup alpine ski racer. By winning the downhill at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, Johnson became the first American male to win an Olympic gold medal in alpine skiing and the first racer not from an Alpine country to win an Olympic downhill race.
30/03/1959
Martina Cole, English television host and author
Eilidh Martina Cole is a British crime writer. As of 2021 she has released twenty-six crime novels, most of which examine London's gangster underworld. Four of her novels, Dangerous Lady, The Jump, The Take and The Runaway have been adapted into high-rating television dramas. She has achieved sales of over fourteen million in the UK alone and her tenth novel, The Know, spent seven weeks on The Sunday Times hardback best-sellers list.
30/03/1958
Maurice LaMarche, Canadian voice actor and stand-up comedian
Maurice LaMarche is a Canadian voice actor and comedian. Across a career spanning more than four decades he has voiced one of Sector V enemies, Benedict Wigglestein-Uno aka "Father" on Codename: Kids Next Door, Chief Quimby on Inspector Gadget, Egon Spengler on The Real Ghostbusters, The Brain on Animaniacs and its spin-off Pinky and the Brain, Big Bob on Hey Arnold!, Alec Baldwin in Team America: World Police, Kif Kroker and Calculon on Futurama and dozens of other characters in roles across film, television, and video games.
Joey Sindelar, American golfer
Joseph Paul Sindelar is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He previously played on the PGA Tour, winning seven tournaments between 1985 and 2004.
30/03/1957
Marie-Christine Koundja, Chadian author and diplomat
Marie-Christine Koundja is a Chadian writer and diplomat, who has worked in various departments, ministries and embassies of her country. The first published female Chadian author, she has written two novels: Al-Istifakh, ou, L'idylle de mes amis (2001) and Kam-Ndjaha, la dévoreuse (2009).
30/03/1956
Bill Butler, Scottish educator and politician
Bill Butler is a Scottish Labour Co-operative Councillor. He was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Anniesland from a by-election in 2000 until losing his seat in the 2011 election.
Juanito Oiarzabal, Spanish mountaineer
Juan Eusebio Oiarzabal Urteaga, commonly known as Juanito Oiarzabal, is a noted Spanish Basque mountaineer. He has written four books on the subject. He was the 6th man to reach all 14 eight-thousander summits, and the third to do so without supplemental oxygen. He was the first person to climb the top three summits twice and the oldest climber to summit Kangchenjunga, at almost 53, until Carlos Fontan did so in 2014, at 75 years old. In 2004, he lost all his toes to frostbite after summiting K2.
Paul Reiser, American actor and comedian
Paul Reiser is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He played the roles of Michael Taylor in the 1980s sitcom My Two Dads, Paul Buchman in the NBC sitcom Mad About You, Modell in the 1982 film Diner, and Detective Jeffrey Friedman in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise. He has gained recognition for his roles as Jim Neiman in the 2014 film Whiplash and Dr. Sam Owens in the Netflix series Stranger Things.
Shahla Sherkat, Iranian journalist and author
Shahla Sherkat is an Iranian journalist, publisher, author, feminist, and women's rights activist. She is a Persian and one of the pioneers of the women's rights movement in Iran.
30/03/1955
Randy VanWarmer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2004)
Randy VanWarmer was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His biggest hit song was "Just When I Needed You Most". It reached No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart in September 1979 after peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks earlier that year.
30/03/1952
Stuart Dryburgh, English-New Zealand cinematographer
Stuart Dryburgh is an English-born New Zealand cinematographer.
Peter Knights, Australian footballer and coach
Peter Knights is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After retiring as a player, he was appointed the inaugural coach of the Brisbane Bears and later returned to coach Hawthorn during the 1990s.
30/03/1950
Janet Browne, English-American historian and academic
Elizabeth Janet Browne is a British historian of science, known especially for her work on the history of 19th-century biology. She taught at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College, London, before returning to Harvard. She is currently Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University.
Robbie Coltrane, Scottish actor (died 2022)
Anthony Robin McMillan, known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor. He is best known for his role as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011) and as Dr. Edward "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the crime drama series Cracker.
Grady Little, American baseball player, coach, and manager
William Grady Little is an American former player and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He managed the Boston Red Sox from 2002 to 2003 and the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2006 to 2007. He recently served in the front office for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
30/03/1949
Liza Frulla, Canadian talk show host and politician, 3rd Minister of Canadian Heritage
Liza Frulla, formerly known as Liza Frulla-Hébert, is a former Canadian politician. She was a Liberal Member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1989 to 1998, a Liberal Member of Parliament from 2002 to 2006, and a member of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Dana Gillespie, English singer-songwriter and actress
Richenda Antoinette de Winterstein Gillespie, known professionally as Dana Gillespie, is an English actress, singer and songwriter. Originally performing and recording in her teens, over the years Gillespie has been involved in the recording of over 70 albums, and appeared in stage productions, such as Jesus Christ Superstar, and several films. Her musical output has progressed from teen pop and folk in the early part of her career, to rock in the 1970s and, more recently, the blues.
Naomi Sims, American model and author (died 2009)
Naomi Ruth Sims was an American model, businesswoman and author. She is widely credited as being one of the first African-American supermodels. Sims was the first African-American model to appear on the covers of Ladies' Home Journal and Life.
30/03/1948
Nigel Jones, Baron Jones of Cheltenham, English computer programmer and politician (died 2022)
Nigel David Jones, Baron Jones of Cheltenham was a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the 1992 general election until the 2005 general election, and as a member of the House of Lords from 2005 until his death in 2022.
Eddie Jordan, Irish racing driver and team owner, founded Jordan Grand Prix (died 2025)
Edmund Patrick Jordan was an Irish motorsport executive, broadcaster, racing driver and businessman. From 1991 to 2005, Jordan served as founder and team principal of Jordan in Formula One.
Mervyn King, English economist and academic
Mervyn Allister King, Baron King of Lothbury, is a British economist and public servant who was Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013. Emeritus Professor of the London School of Economics and Chairman of the Philharmonia since 2020, Lord King served as President of Marylebone Cricket Club for 2024/25.
Jim "Dandy" Mangrum, American rock singer
Black Oak Arkansas is an American Southern rock band named after the band's hometown of Black Oak, Arkansas. The band reached the height of its fame in the 1970s, charting ten albums. Their style is notable for multiple guitar players and the raspy voice and on-stage antics of vocalist Jim "Dandy" Mangrum.
30/03/1947
Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, American activist, writer, and black anarchist
Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin is an American writer, activist, and Black anarchist. He is a former member of the Black Panther Party and Concerned Citizens for Justice. He was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and has lived in Memphis, Tennessee, since 2010.
Dick Roche, Irish politician, Minister of State for European Affairs
Richard Roche is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister of State for European Affairs from 2002 to 2004 and 2007 to 2011 and Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government from 2004 to 2007. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wicklow constituency from 1987 to 1992 and 1997 to 2011. He was a Senator for the Administrative Panel from 1992 to 1997.
Terje Venaas, Norwegian bassist (died 2025)
Terje Venaas was a Norwegian jazz musician, known from dozens of recordings and a number of international collaborations.
30/03/1945
Eric Clapton, English guitarist and singer-songwriter
Eric Patrick Clapton is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". He was named number five in Time magazine's list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009.
30/03/1944
Mark Wylea Erwin, American businessman and diplomat
Mark Wylea Erwin is a former U.S. ambassador and the president of Erwin Capital, Inc., a family-owned investment company in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Brian Wilshire, Australian radio host (died 2026)
Brian Wilshire was an Australian radio broadcaster for 2GB in Sydney. He hosted the Australia Overnight program until 11 December 2015. The signature tune of the program show was "Hanky Panky" by Pete Fountain.
30/03/1943
Jay Traynor, American pop and doo-wop singer (died 2014)
John "Jay" Traynor was an American singer.
30/03/1942
Ruben Kun, Nauruan lawyer and politician, 14th President of Nauru (died 2014)
Ruben James Kun was a political figure from the Pacific nation of Nauru and was president of the Republic of Nauru.
Tane Norton, New Zealand rugby player (died 2023)
Rangitane Will Norton, commonly known as Tane Norton, was a New Zealand rugby union player. He played at the hooker position. He played for Linwood before he first represented Canterbury in 1969. In 1977, he captained the All Blacks to a series win over the British Lions and played three games for the World Invitation XV in South Africa.
Kenneth Welsh, Canadian actor (died 2022)
Kenneth Clifford Welsh was a Canadian actor, who made over 300 stage, film, and television appearances over a nearly 60-year career.
30/03/1941
Graeme Edge, English singer-songwriter and drummer (died 2021)
Graeme Charles Edge was an English musician, songwriter and poet, best known as the co-founder, drummer, and only constant member of the English band the Moody Blues. In addition to his work with the Moody Blues, Edge worked as the bandleader of his own outfit, the Graeme Edge Band. He contributed his talents to a variety of other projects throughout his career. In 2018, Edge was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues.
Ron Johnston, English geographer and academic (died 2020)
Ronald John Johnston, OBE, FAcSS, FBA was a British geographer, known for elaborating his discipline's foundations, particularly its history and nature, and for his contributions to urban social geography and electoral geography. His broad scope is illustrated by the fact that he made extensive use of quantitative methods, while critically dealing with subjects of social and political relevance. Johnston authored or co-authored more than 50 books and 800 papers, and edited or co-edited a further more than 40 books. He edited The Dictionary of Human Geography and for the first four editions was its main editor.
Wasim Sajjad, Pakistani lawyer and politician, President of Pakistan
Wasim Sajjad Jan is a Pakistani conservative politician and lawyer who served as the acting president of Pakistan for two non-consecutive terms and as the Chairman of the Senate between 1988 and 1999.
Bob Smith, American soldier and politician
Robert Clinton Smith is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district from 1985 to 1990 and the state of New Hampshire in the United States Senate from 1990 to 2003.
30/03/1940
Norman Gifford, English cricketer (died 2026)
Norman Gifford was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. Gifford played county cricket for Worcestershire, and Warwickshire County Cricket Clubs, and represented England in fifteen Test matches and two One Day International between 1964 and 1985.
Jerry Lucas, American basketball player and educator
Jerry Ray Lucas is an American former basketball player. He was a nationally awarded high school player, national college star at Ohio State University, and 1960 gold medal Olympian and international player before later starring as a professional player in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Hans Ragnemalm, Swedish lawyer and judge (died 2016)
Hans Olof Ragnemalm was a Swedish lawyer, judge, and professor emeritus of public law.
David Earle Bailey, American Episcopal priest (died 2024)
David Earle Bailey was an American Episcopalian clergyman who was bishop of the Missionary Diocese of Navajoland, a missionary diocese of the Episcopal Church. He was consecrated bishop on August 7, 2010.
30/03/1938
John Barnhill, American basketball player and coach (died 2013)
John Anthony "Rabbit" Barnhill was an American professional basketball player. He played for the St. Louis Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Baltimore Bullets and San Diego Rockets in the National Basketball Association (NBA); and the Indianapolis Pacers and Denver Rockets in the American Basketball Association (ABA). Barnhill attended Tennessee A & I State College where he was the starting point guard on three consecutive NAIA national men's basketball championship teams from 1956 to 1959, playing under Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach John McClendon. These three teams were collectively inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019. He was named to the first or second all-tournament teams in each of those seasons.
Klaus Schwab, German economist and engineer, founded the World Economic Forum
Klaus Martin Schwab is a German mechanical engineer, economist, and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He was the WEF's chairman from 1971 until his resignation in 2025.
30/03/1937
Warren Beatty, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
Henry Warren Beatty is an American actor and filmmaker. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received the Irving G. Thalberg Award in 1999, the BAFTA Fellowship in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2008.
Ian MacLaurin, Baron MacLaurin of Knebworth, English businessman
Ian Charter MacLaurin, Baron MacLaurin of Knebworth is a British businessman, who has been chairman of Vodafone and chairman and chief executive of Tesco. He is a former chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, a former president of the Marylebone Cricket Club and a former Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire.
30/03/1935
Karl Berger, German pianist and composer (died 2023)
Karl Hans Berger was a German-American jazz pianist, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. He was a leading figure in jazz improvisation from the 1960s when he settled in the United States for life. He founded the educational Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York, in 1972 with his wife and Ornette Coleman, to encourage international students to pursue their own ideas about music.
Willie Galimore, American football player (died 1964)
Willie Galimore, nicknamed "the Wisp", was an American professional football player who played halfback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 to 1963. He was selected by the Bears in the fifth round of the 1956 NFL draft. Tragically, his NFL career was cut short with his death at age 29 in a traffic accident just ahead of the 1964 season.
Gordon Mumma, American composer
Gordon Mumma is an American composer. He is known most for his work with electronics, many devices of which he builds himself, and for his performances on horn.
30/03/1934
Paul Crouch, American broadcaster, co-founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network (died 2013)
Paul Franklin Crouch (; was an American televangelist and the co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Founded in 1973 with his wife, Jan Crouch, TBN grew to become the world's largest religious television network. Crouch was a prominent figure in the prosperity gospel movement, a theology that drew both a massive global following and significant criticism regarding the network's fundraising tactics and the family's lavish lifestyle.
Hans Hollein, Austrian architect and academic, designed Haas House (died 2014)
Hans Hollein was an Austrian architect and designer and key figure of postmodern architecture. Some of his most notable works are the Haas House and the Albertina extension in the inner city of Vienna.
30/03/1933
Jean-Claude Brialy, French actor and director (died 2007)
Jean-Claude Brialy was a French actor and film director.
Joe Ruby, American animator (died 2020)
Joseph Clemens Ruby was an American animator, writer, television producer, and music editor. He was best known as a co-creator of the animated Scooby-Doo franchise, together with Ken Spears. In 1977, they co-founded the television animation production company Ruby-Spears Productions. Ruby would work with Spears and would co-create several other shows including Fangface, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, and Jabberjaw among others.
30/03/1930
John Astin, American actor
John Allen Astin is an American actor and director who has appeared in numerous stage, television and film roles, primarily in character roles. He is widely known for his role as patriarch Gomez Addams in TV series The Addams Family (1964–1966), reprising the role in the television film Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977) and the animated series The Addams Family (1992–1993).
Rolf Harris, Australian singer-songwriter (died 2023)
Rolf Harris was an Australian musician, television personality, painter, and actor. He used a variety of instruments in his performances, notably the didgeridoo and the Stylophone, and is credited with the invention of the wobble board. He was convicted in England in 2014 of the sexual assault of four underage girls.
30/03/1929
Richard Dysart, American actor (died 2015)
Richard Allen Dysart was an American actor. He is best known for his role as senior partner Leland McKenzie in the television series L.A. Law (1986–1994), for which he won a 1992 Primetime Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series after four consecutive nominations. In film, he held supporting roles in The Hospital (1971), Being There (1979), The Thing (1982), Mask (1985), Pale Rider (1985) and Wall Street (1987).
Ray Musto, American soldier and politician (died 2014)
Raphael John Musto was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as a Democratic Party member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district from 1980 to 1981. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 118th district from 1971 to 1980 and of the Pennsylvania Senate for the 14th district from 1982 until his retirement in 2010.
István Rózsavölgyi, Hungarian runner (died 2012)
István Rózsavölgyi was a Hungarian athlete who competed mainly in the 1500 metres.
30/03/1928
Robert Badinter, French lawyer and politician, French Minister of Justice (died 2024)
Robert Badinter was a French lawyer, politician, and author who enacted the abolition of capital punishment in France in 1981, while serving as Minister of Justice under François Mitterrand. He also served in high-level appointed positions with national and international bodies working for justice and the rule of law.
Colin Egar, Australian cricket umpire (died 2008)
Colin John "Col" Egar was an Australian Test cricket umpire.
Tom Sharpe, English-Spanish author and educator (died 2013)
Thomas Ridley Sharpe was an English satirical novelist, best known for his Wilt series, as well as Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape, all three of which were adapted for television.
30/03/1927
Wally Grout, Australian cricketer (died 1968)
Arthur Theodore Wallace Grout, known as Wally Grout, was a Test cricketer who kept wicket for Australia and Queensland.
30/03/1926
Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish businessman, founded IKEA (died 2018)
Feodor Ingvar Kamprad was a Swedish billionaire businessman who founded IKEA in 1943 and grew it into a multinational retail company that became the world's largest furniture seller in 2008.
30/03/1925
Hans Reichelt, German politician (died 2025)
Hans Reichelt was a German politician of the Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany (DBD), a GDR-Bloc party. He was Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in 1953 and from 1955 to 1963, and from 1972 to January 1990, Minister of Environmental Protection and Water Management, as well as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the GDR.
30/03/1923
Milton Acorn, Canadian poet and playwright (died 1986)
Milton James Rhode Acorn, nicknamed The People's Poet by his peers, was a Canadian poet, writer, and playwright.
30/03/1922
Turhan Bey, American actor (died 2012)
Turhan Bey was an Austrian-born actor of Turkish and Czech-Jewish origins. Active in Hollywood from 1941 to 1953, he was dubbed "The Turkish Delight" by his fans. After his return to Austria, he pursued careers as a photographer and stage director. Returning to Hollywood after a 40-year hiatus, he made several guest appearances in 1990s television series including SeaQuest DSV, Murder, She Wrote and Babylon 5 as well as a number of films. After retiring, he appeared in a number of documentaries, including a German-language documentary on his life.
Arthur Wightman, American physicist and academic (died 2013)
Arthur Strong Wightman was an American mathematical physicist. He was one of the founders of the axiomatic approach to quantum field theory, and originated the set of Wightman axioms. With his rigorous treatment of quantum field theories, he promoted research on various aspects of modern mathematical physics.
30/03/1921
André Fontaine, French historian and journalist (died 2013)
André Fontaine was a French historian and journalist. He started working at Temps Présent, and then was director at Le Monde in 1947, at the official beginning of the Cold War. He became the newspaper's editor from 1969 to 1985, and director from 1985 to 1991. As of February 2007 he was still contributing articles to the paper. André Fontaine is famous for his historical thesis, according to which the Cold War in fact started as soon as 1917 with the cordon sanitaire policy.
30/03/1919
McGeorge Bundy, American intelligence officer and diplomat, 6th United States National Security Advisor (died 1996)
McGeorge "Mac" Bundy was an American academic who served as the U.S. National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 through 1966. He is primarily remembered as one of the chief architects of the United States' escalation of the Vietnam War. He was president of the Ford Foundation from 1966 through 1979.
Robin Williams, New Zealand mathematician, university administrator and public servant (died 2013)
Robert Martin Williams, generally known as Robin Williams, was a New Zealand mathematician, academic administrator and public servant. He served as vice chancellor of the University of Otago from 1967 to 1972, and of the Australian National University from 1973 to 1975. Between 1975 and 1981, he was chair of the State Services Commission.
30/03/1917
Els Aarne, Ukrainian-Estonian pianist, composer, and educator (died 1995)
Elze Janovna Paemurru, pseudonymously known as Els Aarne, was an Estonian composer, pianist and pedagogue, primarily during the Soviet Union. She taught at Tallinn Conservatory, her alma mater, from 1944 to 1974.
30/03/1915
Pietro Ingrao, Italian journalist and politician (died 2015)
Pietro Ingrao was an Italian politician and journalist who participated in the Italian resistance movement. For many years, he was a senior figure in the Italian Communist Party (PCI).
30/03/1914
Sonny Boy Williamson I, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (died 1948)
John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson was an American blues harmonica player and singer-songwriter. He is often regarded as the pioneer of the blues harp as a solo instrument. He played on hundreds of recordings by many pre–World War II blues artists. Under his own name, he was one of the most recorded blues musicians of the 1930s and 1940s and is closely associated with Chicago producer Lester Melrose and Bluebird Records. His popular songs, original or adapted, include "Good Morning, School Girl", "Sugar Mama", "Early in the Morning", and "Stop Breaking Down".
30/03/1913
Marc Davis, American animator (died 2000)
Marc Fraser Davis was an American artist and animator who was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, the core animators of Disney animated films. After his work on One Hundred and One Dalmatians he moved to Walt Disney Imagineering to work on rides for Disneyland and Walt Disney World before retiring in 1978.
Richard Helms, American soldier and diplomat, 8th Director of Central Intelligence (died 2002)
Richard McGarrah Helms was an American government official, intelligence officer, and diplomat who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973 as well as United States Ambassador to Iran from 1973 to 1976.
Frankie Laine, American singer-songwriter (died 2007)
Frankie Laine was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005. Often billed as "America's Number One Song Stylist", Laine's other nicknames include "Mr. Rhythm", "Old Leather Lungs", and "Mr. Steel Tonsils". His hits included "That's My Desire", "That Lucky Old Sun", "Mule Train", "Jezebel", "High Noon", "I Believe", "Hey Joe!", "The Kid's Last Fight", "Cool Water", "Rawhide", and "You Gave Me a Mountain".
Ċensu Tabone, Maltese general, physician, and politician, 4th President of Malta (died 2012)
Vincent "Ċensu" Tabone, was the fourth president of Malta who also served as Minister and Nationalist MP.
30/03/1912
Jack Cowie, New Zealand cricketer (died 1994)
John Cowie was a New Zealand cricketer who played in nine Tests from 1937 to 1949. His Test opportunities were restricted by New Zealand's limited programme, and his cricket career was interrupted by World War II from 1939 to 1945. Following the 1937 tour of England, Wisden commented: "Had he been an Australian, he might have been termed a wonder of the age."
Alvin Hamilton, Canadian lieutenant and politician, 18th Canadian Minister of Agriculture (died 2004)
Francis Alvin George Hamilton was a Canadian politician. Hamilton led the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan from 1949 until he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1957 general election. That election brought the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to power under John Diefenbaker. He served as Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources, 1957 to 1960. He promoted a new vision of northern development. He was Minister of Agriculture, 1960 to 1963, where he promoted wheat sales to China.
30/03/1911
Ekrem Akurgal, Turkish archaeologist and academic (died 2002)
Ekrem Akurgal was a Turkish archaeologist. During a career that spanned more than fifty years, he conducted definitive research in several sites along the western coast of Anatolia such as Phokaia (Foça), Pitane (Çandarlı), Erythrai (Ildırı) and old Smyrna.
30/03/1910
Józef Marcinkiewicz, Polish soldier, mathematician, and academic (died 1940)
Józef Marcinkiewicz was a Polish mathematician.
30/03/1907
Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, German general (died 1994)
Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte was a German paratroop officer during World War II who later served in the armed forces of West Germany, achieving the rank of General. Following the war, Heydte pursued academic, political and military careers, as a Catholic-conservative professor of political science, a member of the Christian Social Union political party, and as a Bundeswehr reservist. In 1962, Heydte was involved in the Spiegel affair.
Shigeru Morita, Japanese painter (died 2009)
Shigeru Morita was a Japanese oil painter. His works were mainly centered on western-style paintings, and were exhibited multiple times across his career.
30/03/1905
Archie Birkin, English motorcycle racer (died 1927)
Charles Archibald Cecil Birkin was an English motorcycle racer, brother of Tim Birkin, one of the "Bentley Boys" of the 1920s.
Mikio Oda, Japanese triple jumper and academic (died 1998)
Mikio Oda was a Japanese athlete and the first Japanese Olympic gold medalist. He was the first Asian Olympic champion in an individual event.
Albert Pierrepoint, English hangman (died 1992)
Albert Pierrepoint was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him.
30/03/1904
Ripper Collins, American baseball player and coach (died 1970)
James Anthony "Ripper" Collins was an American professional baseball player, coach and scout. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. A switch hitter who threw left-handed, Collins was listed as 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and weighed 165 pounds (75 kg), during his playing days. Despite his stature, he was a power hitter who in 1934 co-led the National League (NL) with 35 home runs (HR).
30/03/1903
Joy Ridderhof, American missionary (died 1984)
Joy F. Ridderhof was an American missionary.
30/03/1902
Brooke Astor, American socialite and philanthropist (died 2007)
Roberta Brooke Astor was an American philanthropist, socialite, and writer. She served as the chairwoman of the Vincent Astor Foundation, established by her third husband, Vincent Astor, who was a member of the Astor family. Brooke Astor was the author of two novels and two volumes of personal memoirs.
Ted Heath, English trombonist and composer (died 1969)
George Edward Heath was a British musician and big band leader.
30/03/1899
Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, Indian author, playwright, and screenwriter (died 1970)
Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay was an Indian Bengali-language writer. He was actively involved with Bengali cinema as well as Bollywood. The creator of the Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi, Sharadindu composed stories of a wide array of varieties including: novels, short stories, crime and detective stories, plays and screenplays. He wrote historical fiction like Kaler Mandira, Gourmollar, Tumi Sandhyar Megh, Tungabhadrar Teere, Chuya-Chandan, Maru O Sangha, Sadashib series and stories of the unnatural with the recurring character Baroda. Besides, he composed many songs and poems.
30/03/1895
Jean Giono, French author and poet (died 1970)
Jean Giono was a French writer who wrote works of fiction mostly set in the Provence region of France.
Carl Lutz, Swiss vice-consul to Hungary during WWII, credited with saving over 62,000 Jews (died 1975)
Carl Lutz was a Swiss diplomat. He served as the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary, from 1942 until the end of World War II. He is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews during the Second World War in possibly the largest rescue operation of the Holocaust.
Charlie Wilson, English footballer (died 1971)
Charles Wilson was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Tottenham Hotspur, Huddersfield Town and Stoke City.
30/03/1894
Tommy Green, English race walker (died 1975)
Thomas William Green was a British racewalker who won a gold medal in the men's 50 km walk at the 1932 Summer Olympics. The son of a police constable, Green could not walk until the age of five, owing to his affliction with rickets. He lied about his age and joined the British Army in 1906 and served during the First World War, where he was wounded on three occasions and gassed while fighting in France. Returning to Britain, he eventually settled in Eastleigh where he worked at a railway works before being encouraged by a blind friend to take up racewalking.
Sergey Ilyushin, Russian engineer, founded Ilyushin Design Bureau (died 1977)
Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyushin was a Soviet aircraft designer who founded the Ilyushin aircraft design bureau. He designed the Il-2 Shturmovik, which made its maiden flight in 1939. It is the most produced warplane, and remains the second most-produced aircraft in history, with some 36,000+ built, behind the US Cessna 172.
30/03/1892
Stefan Banach, Polish mathematician and academic (died 1945)
Stefan Banach was a Polish mathematician who is generally considered one of the 20th century's most important and influential mathematicians. He was one of the founders of modern functional analysis, and an original member of the Lwów School of Mathematics. His major work was the 1932 book, Théorie des opérations linéaires, the first monograph on the general theory of functional analysis.
Fortunato Depero, Italian painter and sculptor (died 1960)
Fortunato Depero was an Italian futurist painter, writer, sculptor, and graphic designer.
Erhard Milch, German field marshal (died 1972)
Erhard Milch was a German Generalfeldmarschall of the Luftwaffe who oversaw its founding and development during the rearmament of Germany and most of World War II. Milch served as State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Aviation from May 1933 to June 1944 and as Inspector General of the Luftwaffe from February 1939 to January 1945.
Johannes Pääsuke, Estonian photographer and director (died 1918)
Johannes Pääsuke was an Estonian photographer and filmmaker. He worked as a photographer for the Estonian National Museum and was dedicated to recording the everyday life of Estonians in the early 20th century. In 1914, he directed one of the first Estonian feature films, Bear Hunt in Pärnu County.
Erwin Panofsky, German historian and academic (died 1968)
Erwin Panofsky was a German art historian whose work represents a high point in the modern academic study of iconography, including his hugely influential Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art and his seminal Early Netherlandish Painting.
30/03/1891
Chunseong, Korean monk, writer and philosopher (died 1977)
Lee Chang-rim, also known by his Dharma name Chunseong and the art name Muaedoin, was a Korean Buddhist monk, scholar, poet, writer, and philosopher.
30/03/1888
J. R. Williams, Canadian-born cartoonist (died 1957)
James Robert Williams was a Canadian cartoonist who signed his work J. R. Williams. He was best known for his long-run daily syndicated panel Out Our Way. As noted by Coulton Waugh in his 1947 book The Comics, anecdotal evidence indicated that more Williams' cartoons were clipped and saved than were other newspaper comics. A newspaper promotion of 1930 compared him to poets Eugene Field and James Whitcomb Riley.
30/03/1882
Melanie Klein, Austrian-English psychologist and author (died 1960)
Melanie Klein was an Austrian-British author and psychoanalyst known for her work in child analysis. She was the primary figure in the development of object relations theory. Klein's work primarily focused on the role of ambivalence and moral ambiguity in human development. Klein suggested that pre-verbal existential anxiety in infancy catalyzed the formation of the unconscious, which resulted in the unconscious splitting of the world into good and bad idealizations. In her theory, how the child resolves that split depends on the constitution of the child and the character of nurturing the child experiences. The quality of resolution can inform the presence, absence, and/or type of distresses a person experiences later in life.
30/03/1880
Seán O'Casey, Irish dramatist, playwright, and memoirist (died 1964)
Seán O'Casey was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the struggles and experiences of the working class in Dublin. He is best known for his "Dublin Trilogy", which includes The Shadow of a Gunman (1923), Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926).
30/03/1879
Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (died 1954)
Coen de Koning was a speed skater and cyclist. He started his sports career as a cyclist, but switched to speed skating and became the second Dutch speed skater to win a world title, in 1905. He finished second in 500 m, and won the 1500, 5000 and 10,000 m events. De Koning won the national all-around title in 1903, 1905 and 1912, and set national records in the 500 m and 10,000 m in 1905; these records stood until 1926 and 1929. De Koning also set a world record in one-hour skating, at 32,370 m in 1906, and won the Elfstedentocht in 1912 and 1917.
30/03/1875
Thomas Xenakis, Greek-American gymnast (died 1942)
Thomas Xenakis was a Greek gymnast. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. He was born in Naxos and died in Orange, California, United States.
30/03/1874
Charles Lightoller, English 2nd officer on the RMS Titanic (died 1952)
Commander Charles Herbert Lightoller, was a British mariner and naval officer who was the second officer on board the ocean liner RMS Titanic during its ill-fated maiden voyage, and was the most senior crewmember to survive the disaster.
Josiah McCracken, American hammer thrower, shot putter, and football player (died 1962)
Josiah Calvin McCracken was an American football player and track and field athlete.
Nicolae Rădescu, Romanian general and politician, Prime Minister of Romania (died 1953)
Nicolae Rădescu was a Romanian army officer and political figure. He was the last pre-communist rule Prime Minister of Romania, serving from 7 December 1944 to 1 March 1945.
30/03/1864
Franz Oppenheimer, German-American sociologist and economist (died 1943)
Franz Oppenheimer was a German-American sociologist and political economist, who published also in the area of the fundamental sociology of the state.
30/03/1863
Mary Calkins, American philosopher and psychologist (died 1930)
Mary Whiton Calkins was an American philosopher and psychologist, whose work informed theory and research of memory, dreams and the self. She developed the paired-associate learning technique and the theory of self-psychology. In 1903, Calkins was the twelfth in a listing of fifty psychologists with the most merit, chosen by her peers. In 1895 Calkins was refused a Ph.D. by Harvard University because of her gender even though she completed all the requirements. Calkins' experience at Harvard reflected the limited status of women in graduate education at the time, as they were often permitted to attend lectures informally but were excluded from official enrollment and degree recognition. She was given honorary membership of the British Psychology Association in 1928.
30/03/1858
Siegfried Alkan, German composer (died 1941)
Siegfried Alkan was a German composer from Saarland in the Kingdom of Prussia. He was assaulted and his musical business was looted during the Kristallnacht.
30/03/1857
Léon Charles Thévenin, French engineer (died 1926)
Léon Charles Thévenin was a French telegraph engineer who extended Ohm's law to the analysis of complex electrical circuits.
30/03/1853
Vincent van Gogh, Dutch-French painter and illustrator (died 1890)
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. His suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty.
Arnoldo Sartorio, German composer, pianist, and teacher (died 1936)
Arnold Gabriel Holland Sartorio was a German composer, choral conductor, and piano teacher of the Romantic period. His musical output lay almost entirely in the genre of salon music pioneered by Sigismond Thalberg among others and transcended by Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt.
30/03/1844
Paul Verlaine, French poet (died 1896)
Paul Marie Verlaine was a French poet, writer and critic associated with the Symbolist, Parnassianist and Decadent movements. He is considered one of the paramount exponents of the fin de siècle in French and international poetry.
30/03/1820
Anna Sewell, English author (died 1878)
Anna Sewell was an English novelist who is known for her only book, Black Beauty, a novel about a horse. She was born into a Quaker family in Norfolk and moved to London as a baby. Her mother, Mary Wright Sewell, was the author of popular children's books. Sewell never married and always lived with her parents, in Sussex, Gloucestershire and Norfolk. A chronic illness left her leading a life of invalidism, with trips to spa resorts in England and continental Europe. She joined her mother in carrying out charitable work and also edited her mother's books. Black Beauty was written between 1871 and 1877 and published a few months before Sewell's death.
James Whyte, Scottish-Australian politician, 6th Premier of Tasmania (died 1882)
James Whyte was a Scottish-born Australian politician who served as the sixth Premier of Tasmania, from 20 January 1863 to 24 November 1866. Before moving to Tasmania, Whyte was a pioneering sheep-farmer in western Victoria. He and his brothers perpetrated the Fighting Hills massacre of 40–80 Aboriginal people in Victoria while recovering stolen sheep.
30/03/1811
Robert Bunsen, German chemist and academic (died 1899)
Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium in 1860 and rubidium in 1861 with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Bunsen–Kirchhoff Award for spectroscopy is named after Bunsen and Kirchhoff.
30/03/1805
Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann, German-Swedish linguist and botanist (died 1887)
Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann was a linguist who researched Uralic languages, mostly Estonian. Wiedemann was also a botanist.
30/03/1793
Juan Manuel de Rosas, Argentinian soldier and politician, 13th Governor of Buenos Aires Province (died 1877)
Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rozas y López de Osornio, nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confederation. Born into a wealthy family, Rosas independently amassed a personal fortune, acquiring large tracts of land in the process. Rosas enlisted his workers in a private militia, as was common for rural proprietors, and took part in the disputes that led to numerous civil wars in his country. Victorious in warfare, personally influential, and with vast landholdings and a loyal private army, Rosas became a caudillo, as provincial warlords in the region were known. He eventually reached the rank of brigadier general, the highest in the Argentine Army, and became the undisputed leader of the Federalist Party.
30/03/1750
John Stafford Smith, English organist and composer (died 1836)
John Stafford Smith was an English composer, church organist, and early musicologist. He was one of the first serious collectors of manuscripts of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and a friend of his son Johann Christian Bach.
30/03/1746
Francisco Goya, Spanish-French painter and sculptor (died 1828)
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and engravings reflected contemporary historical upheavals and influenced important 19th- and 20th-century painters. Goya is often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of Western art.
30/03/1727
Tommaso Traetta, Italian composer and educator (died 1779)
Tommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta, was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic reforms including reducing the ornateness of style and the primacy of star singers.
30/03/1640
John Trenchard, English politician, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (died 1695)
Sir John Trenchard was an English politician and landowner.
30/03/1606
Vincentio Reinieri, Italian mathematician and astronomer (died 1647)
Vincentio Reinieri was an Italian mathematician and astronomer. He was a friend and disciple of Galileo Galilei.
30/03/1551
Salomon Schweigger, German theologian (died 1622)
Salomon Schweigger was a German Lutheran theologian, minister, anthropologist and orientalist of the 16th century. He provided insights during his travels in the Balkans, Constantinople and the Middle East, and published a travel book of his exploits. He also published the first German language translation of the Qur'an.
30/03/1510
Antonio de Cabezón, Spanish composer and organist (died 1566)
Antonio de Cabezón was a Spanish Renaissance composer and organist. Blind from childhood, he quickly rose to prominence as a performer and was eventually employed by the royal family. He was among the most important composers of his time and the first major Iberian keyboard composer.
30/03/1432
Mehmed the Conqueror, Ottoman sultan (died 1481)
Mehmed II, commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire twice, from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481.
30/03/1326
Ivan II of Moscow (died 1359)
Ivan II Ivanovich the Fair was Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1353 to 1359. Until that date, he had ruled the towns of Ruza and Zvenigorod. He was the second son of Ivan Kalita, and succeeded his brother Simeon the Proud, who died of the Black Death.
30/03/1135
Maimonides, Spanish rabbi and philosopher (April 6 also proposed, d. 1204)
Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam, was a Sephardic Jewish rabbi who is widely acknowledged as one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.
30/03/0892
Shi Jingtang, founder of the Later Jin Dynasty (died 942)
Shi Jingtang, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Gaozu of Later Jin (後晉高祖), was the founding emperor of the Later Jin dynasty of China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, reigning from 936 until his death.
Lives Remembered on 30th March
On 30th March, 134 remarkable people passed away — from 116 to 2026. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.
30/03/2026
Chan Santokhi, Surinamese politician, 9th President of Suriname (born 1959)
Chandrikapersad "Chan" Santokhi was a Surinamese politician and police officer who served as the ninth president of Suriname from 2020 to 2025. After winning the 2020 elections, Santokhi was the sole nominee for president of Suriname. On 13 July, Santokhi was elected president by acclamation in an uncontested election. He was inaugurated on 16 July.
30/03/2024
Tim McGovern, American visual effects artist (born 1955)
Tim McGovern was an American visual effects artist. He won a Special Achievement Academy Award in the category Best Visual Effects for the film Total Recall.
Chance Perdomo, British-American actor (born 1996)
Chance Perdomo was an American and British actor. He earned a British Academy Television Award nomination for his performance in the BBC Three film Killed by My Debt (2018). He gained further prominence through his roles as Ambrose Spellman in the Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020) and Andre Anderson in the first season of the Amazon Prime Video series Gen V (2023). He also appeared in the films After We Fell (2021), After Ever Happy (2022), and After Everything (2023). He died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident while travelling to begin filming for Gen V's second season.
30/03/2023
Doug Mulray, Australian radio and television host (born 1951)
Douglas John Mulray was an Australian comedian, radio, and television presenter. Nicknamed Uncle Doug, he grew up in Dee Why on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Mulray was well-known for his bawdy humor and charismatic larrikinism, with his style of free quips, parodies, and "unbridled naughtiness".
30/03/2021
G. Gordon Liddy, chief operative in the Watergate scandal (born 1930)
George Gordon Battle Liddy was an American lawyer and FBI agent who was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping for his role in the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration.
Myra Frances, British actress (born 1942)
Myra Frances was an English actress known for her role in the drama series Survivors and in Doctor Who.
30/03/2020
Manolis Glezos, Greek left-wing politician, journalist, author, and folk hero (born 1922)
Manolis Glezos was a Greek left-wing politician, journalist, author, and guerrilla fighter most famous for his role in the Greek Resistance during World War II. After the end of the war, Glezos became a journalist and edited the left-wing newspapers Rizospastis and I Avgi. As a politician, he was elected to the European Parliament twice and served as a Member of the Greek Parliament (MP) at various points from 1951 to 2014, representing three constituencies. He also published six books.
Bill Withers, American singer-songwriter (born 1938)
William Harrison Withers Jr. was an American soul and R&B singer and songwriter. Born in Slab Fork, West Virginia, and raised in Beckley, West Virginia, he is known for having several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me" (1972), "Lean on Me" (1972), "Lovely Day" (1977) and "Just the Two of Us" (1980). Withers won three Grammy Awards out of nine total nominations. He largely stopped performing and recording in the mid-1980s, citing burnout and conflicts with record company executives.
30/03/2018
Bill Maynard, English actor (born 1928)
Walter Frederick George Williams, better known by his stage name Bill Maynard, was an English comedian and actor. He began working in television in the 1950s, notably starring alongside Terry Scott in Great Scott – It's Maynard! (1955–56). In the 1970s and 1980s, he starred in the successful British sitcoms Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt and The Gaffer and appeared in five films in the Carry On series. After a hiatus from television work in the late 1980s, Maynard starred as Claude Jeremiah Greengrass in the long-running television series Heartbeat from 1992 to 2000, reprising the character in the spin-off The Royal in 2003.
30/03/2015
Helmut Dietl, German director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1944)
Helmut Dietl was a German film director and author from Bad Wiessee.
Roger Slifer, American author, illustrator, screenwriter, and producer (born 1954)
Roger Allen Slifer was an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and television producer who co-created the character Lobo for DC Comics. Among the many comic-book series for which he wrote was DC's Omega Men for a run in the 1980s.
Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, Dutch astronomer and academic (born 1921)
Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld was a Dutch astronomer.
30/03/2014
Kate O'Mara, English actress (born 1939)
Kate O'Mara was an English film, stage and television actress, and writer. O'Mara made her stage debut in a 1963 production of The Merchant of Venice. Her other stage roles included Elvira in Blithe Spirit (1974), Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1982), Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra (1982), Goneril in King Lear (1987), and Marlene Dietrich in Lunch with Marlene (2008).
Alice Raftary, American educator of blind adults (born 1927)
Alice Geisler Raftary was an American educator, based in Detroit, who specialized in education and rehabilitation for newly blind adults.
30/03/2013
Daniel Hoffman, American poet and academic (born 1923)
Daniel Gerard Hoffman was an American poet, essayist, and academic. He was appointed the twenty-second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1973.
Bobby Parks, American basketball player and coach (born 1962)
Bobby Ray Parks Sr. was an American professional basketball player from Grand Junction, Tennessee. He played for Memphis State University from 1980 to 1984 and played internationally in the Philippines, Indonesia and France. As one of the most celebrated "import" players in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), Parks became the second American ever inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame in 2009.
Phil Ramone, South African-American songwriter and producer, co-founded A & R Recording (born 1934)
Philip Rabinowitz, better known as Phil Ramone, was a South African-born American recording engineer, record producer, violinist and composer, and co-founder of A & R recording studio. Its success led to expansion into several studios and a record production company. He was described by Billboard as "legendary", and the BBC as a "CD pioneer".
Edith Schaeffer, Chinese-Swiss religious leader and author, co-founded L'Abri (born 1914)
Edith Rachel Merritt Schaeffer was a Christian author and co-founder of L'Abri, a Christian organization which hosts guests. She was the wife of Francis Schaeffer, and the mother of Frank Schaeffer and three other children.
Bob Turley, American baseball player and coach (born 1930)
Robert Lee Turley, known as "Bullet Bob", was an American professional baseball player and financial planner. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a pitcher from 1951 through 1963. After his retirement from baseball, he worked for Primerica Financial Services.
30/03/2012
Janet Anderson Perkin, Canadian baseball player and curler (born 1921)
Janet Margaret Anderson was a Canadian pitcher and outfielder who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) during the 1946 season. She batted and threw right handed. Anderson was one of the 68 players born in Canada to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in its twelve years history.
Aquila Berlas Kiani, Indian-Canadian sociologist and academic (born 1921)
Aquila Berlas Kiani, also known as Aquila Kiani was a Professor of Sociology and an educator in social work. Born in British India, she later worked in Pakistan, the UK and the US. She served as Chairman of the Department of Sociology at the University of Karachi.
Francesco Mancini, Italian footballer and coach (born 1968)
Francesco Mancini was an Italian football player and coach. A goalkeeper, he spent most of his career with Foggia during the 1990s.
Granville Semmes, American businessman, founded 1-800-Flowers (born 1928)
Granville Martin Semmes II was an American businessman, entrepreneur and gemcutter. Semmes was the founder of 1-800-Flowers, a floral retailer, gift and distribution company in the United States.
Leonid Shebarshin, Russian KGB officer (born 1935)
Leonid Vladimirovich Shebarshin was an intelligence officer and spy for the Soviet Union. He served in the First Chief Directorate (FCD), the foreign intelligence arm of the KGB. In January 1989, he was promoted to the head of the FCD when his former boss, Vladimir Kryuchkov, was promoted to KGB chief. Prior to that Shebarshin had served as Kryuchkov's deputy from April 1987.
30/03/2010
Jaime Escalante, Bolivian-American educator (born 1930)
Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutiérrez was a Bolivian-American educator known for teaching students calculus from 1974 to 1991 at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. Escalante was the subject of the 1988 film Stand and Deliver, in which he is portrayed by Edward James Olmos.
Morris R. Jeppson, American lieutenant and physicist (born 1922)
Morris Richard Jeppson was a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He served as assistant weaponeer on the Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.
Martin Sandberger, German SS officer and convicted war criminal (born 1911)
Martin Sandberger was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era and a convicted Holocaust perpetrator. He was the commander of Sonderkommando 1a of Einsatzgruppe A, as well as of the Sicherheitspolizei and SD at the time of Nazi German occupation of Estonia during World War II. Sandberger perpetrated mass murder of the Jews in German-occupied Latvia and Estonia. As the Gestapo chief in Verona, he was also responsible for the arrest of Jews in Italy, and their deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp. Sandberger was the second-highest official of the Einsatzgruppe A to be tried and convicted. He was also the last-surviving defendant from the Nuremberg Military Tribunals.
30/03/2008
Roland Fraïssé, French mathematical logician (born 1920)
Roland Fraïssé was a French mathematical logician.
David Leslie, Scottish racing driver (born 1953)
David William Leslie was a British racing driver. He was most associated with the British Touring Car Championship, in which he was runner-up in 1999. He was particularly noted for his development skill, helping both Honda and Nissan become BTCC race winners. He was born in Dumfries, Scotland.
Richard Lloyd, English racing driver (born 1945)
Richard Hugh Lloyd was a British racing car driver and founder of multiple sports car and touring car teams. He drove in multiple championships himself, including the British Saloon Car Championship and the World Endurance Championship.
Dith Pran, Cambodian-American photographer and journalist (born 1942)
Dith Pran was a Cambodian-American photojournalist. He was a refugee and survivor of the Cambodian genocide and one of the subjects of the Academy Award–winning film The Killing Fields (1984), in which he was portrayed by Haing S. Ngor, a fellow survivor.
30/03/2007
John Roberts, Canadian political scientist, academic, and politician, 46th Secretary of State for Canada (born 1933)
John Moody Roberts, was a Canadian politician. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for 13 years interspersed between 1968 and 1984. He was a member of cabinet in the government of Pierre Trudeau.
30/03/2006
Red Hickey, American football player and coach (born 1917)
Howard Wayne "Red" Hickey was an American professional football player and coach. He played in the National Football League (NFL) with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1941 and the Cleveland / Los Angeles Rams from 1945 to 1948. Hickey served as head coach for the NFL's San Francisco 49ers from 1959 to 1963.
John McGahern, Irish author and educator (born 1934)
John McGahern was an Irish writer and novelist.
30/03/2005
Robert Creeley, American novelist, essayist, and poet (born 1926)
Robert White Creeley was an American poet and author of more than 60 books. He is associated with the Black Mountain poets, although his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. Creeley was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn.
Milton Green, American hurdler and soldier (born 1913)
Milton G. Green was a Jewish American track and field athlete who was a world record holder in high hurdles during the 1930s.
Fred Korematsu, American political activist (born 1919)
Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was an American civil rights activist who resisted the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Shortly after the Imperial Japanese Navy launched its attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal of individuals of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast from their homes and their mandatory imprisonment in incarceration camps. Korematsu challenged the order and became a fugitive.
Chrysanthos Theodoridis, Greek singer and songwriter (born 1934)
Chrysanthos Theodoridis, or simply Chrysanthos was a Greek singer and songwriter. He was born in Oinoi, Kozani to a Pontic Greek family from Kars and he wrote several songs for the Pontic music. He became a symbol for the people from Pontus worldwide. He died of a heart attack in Greece and his body was placed to accept pilgrimage by hundreds of people. Apart from the songs of Pontus, he also sang artistic songs, while collaborating with Christodoulos Chalaris.
O. V. Vijayan, Indian author and illustrator (born 1930)
Ottupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan, commonly known as O. V. Vijayan, was an Indian author and cartoonist, who was an important figure in modern Malayalam literature. Best known for his first novel Khasakkinte Itihasam (1969), Vijayan was the author of six novels, nine short-story collections, and nine collections of essays, memoirs and reflections.
Mitch Hedberg, American stand-up comedian (born 1968)
Mitchell Lee Hedberg was an American stand-up comedian. He was known for his one-liner comedy, characterized by surreal humor and his distinctive deadpan delivery, as well as his unconventional stage presence.
30/03/2004
Alistair Cooke, English-American journalist and author (born 1908)
Alistair Cooke, KBE was a British-American writer whose work as a journalist, television personality and radio broadcaster was done primarily in the United States. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and America: A Personal History of the United States, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theatre from 1971 to 1992. After holding the job for 22 years, and having worked in television for 42 years, Cooke retired in 1992, although he continued to present Letter from America until shortly before his death. He is the father of author and folk singer John Byrne Cooke.
Michael King, New Zealand historian and author (born 1945)
Michael King was a New Zealand historian, author, and biographer. He wrote or edited over 30 books on New Zealand topics, including the best-selling Penguin History of New Zealand, which was the most popular New Zealand book of 2004.
Timi Yuro, American singer and songwriter (born 1940)
Rosemary Victoria Yuro, known professionally as Timi Yuro, was an American singer. Sometimes called "the little girl with the big voice", she is considered to be one of the first blue-eyed soul stylists of the rock era. Yuro possessed a contralto vocal range. According to one critic, "her deep, strident, almost masculine voice, staggered delivery and the occasional sob created a compelling musical presence".
30/03/2003
Michael Jeter, American actor (born 1952)
Michael Jeter was an American actor. Known for his career on stage and screen, Jeter played diverse characters. He won a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. He portrayed Herman Stiles on the sitcom Evening Shade from 1990 until 1994.
Valentin Pavlov, Russian banker and politician, 11th Prime Minister of the Soviet Union (born 1937)
Valentin Sergeyevich Pavlov was a Soviet official who became a Russian banker following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Born in the city of Moscow, then part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Pavlov began his political career in the Ministry of Finance in 1959. Later, during the Brezhnev Era, he became head of the Financial Department of the State Planning Committee. Pavlov was appointed to the post of Chairman of the State Committee on Prices during the Gorbachev Era, and later became Minister of Finance in Nikolai Ryzhkov's second government. He went on to succeed Ryzhkov as head of government in the newly established post of Prime Minister of the Soviet Union.
30/03/2002
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (born 1900)
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was also the last Empress of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved on 15 August 1947. After her husband died, she was officially known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother to avoid confusion with her daughter Queen Elizabeth II.
Anand Bakshi, Indian poet and lyricist (born 1930)
Anand Bakshi was an Indian poet and lyricist. He won Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist four times during his career. He wrote more than 6,000 film songs in more than 300 films.
30/03/2000
Rudolf Kirchschläger, Austrian judge and politician, 8th President of Austria (born 1915)
Rudolf Kirchschläger was an Austrian diplomat, politician and judge. From 1974 to 1986, he served as the president of Austria.
30/03/1996
Hugh Falkus, English pilot and author (born 1917)
Hugh Falkus was a British writer, filmmaker and presenter, World War II pilot and angler. In an extremely varied career, he is perhaps best known for his seminal books on angling, particularly salmon and sea trout fishing; however, he was also a noted filmmaker and broadcaster for the BBC.
Ryoei Saito, Japanese businessman (born 1916)
Ryoei Saito was the honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing in Japan.
30/03/1995
Rozelle Claxton, American pianist (born 1913)
Rozelle Claxton was an American jazz pianist and arranger.
Tony Lock, English-Australian cricketer and coach (born 1929)
Graham Anthony Richard Lock was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. He played in 49 Test matches for England taking 174 wickets.
Paul A. Rothchild, American record producer (born 1935)
Paul Allen Rothchild was a prominent American record producer of the 1960s and 1970s, widely known for his historic work with the Doors, producing Janis Joplin's final album Pearl and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's first two albums.
30/03/1993
S. M. Pandit, Indian painter (born 1916)
Sambanand Monappa Pandit was an Indian painter from Karnataka, popular in the school of Realism in contrast to the contemporaneous net-traditionalist Bengal Renaissance and other Indian modern art movements of his time. Most of his subjects oscillated between events from classical Indian literature including the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas, and the contemporary cinema of his times. He infused a rare blend of artistic virtuosity and filmi glamour to his portrayal of romantic characters like Radha-Krishna, Nala-Damayanti, and Viswamitra-Menaka as also the many heroes and heroines of Hindi cinema. In addition to his critically acclaimed masterpieces he also illustrated many popular film posters, film magazines and various other publications in what can collectively be termed as calendar art. His works remain hugely popular even today. His mythological paintings and calendar art have been collected widely. He is also widely celebrated in the Indian calendar industry for his "realistic" depiction of themes from Hindu mythology. In these paintings he emphasised the physical forms of the heroes, heroines, gods and goddesses in marked contrast to traditional and classical styles of Indian painting. In his paintings, Pandit depicted his subjects as handsome, muscular, valorous men and sensuously beautiful, voluptuous women set in surroundings suggestive of cinema settings and sceneries.
Richard Diebenkorn, American painter (born 1922)
Richard Diebenkorn was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s, he began his extensive series of geometric, lyrical abstract paintings. Known as the Ocean Park paintings, these paintings were instrumental to his achievement of worldwide acclaim.
30/03/1992
Manolis Andronikos, Greek archaeologist and academic (born 1919)
Manolis Andronikos was a Greek archaeologist and a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
30/03/1991
Athanasios Ragazos, Greek long-distance runner (born 1913)
Athanasios Ragazos was a Greek long-distance runner.
30/03/1990
Harry Bridges, Australian-born American activist and trade union leader (born 1901)
Harry Bridges was an Australian-born American union leader, first with the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA). In 1937, he led several Pacific Coast chapters of the ILA to form a new union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), expanding its ranks to include thousands of additional warehouse workers. He served as ILWU president for the next 40 years.
30/03/1988
Edgar Faure, French historian and politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1908)
Edgar Jean Faure was a French politician, lawyer, essayist, historian and memoirist who served as Prime Minister of France in 1952 and again between 1955 and 1956. Prior to his election to the National Assembly for Jura under the Fourth Republic in 1946, he was a member of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) in Algiers (1943–1944). A Radical, Faure was married to writer Lucie Meyer. In 1978, he was elected to the Académie Française.
30/03/1986
James Cagney, American actor and dancer (born 1899)
James Francis Cagney Jr. was an American actor and dancer. On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances.
John Ciardi, American poet and etymologist (born 1916)
John Anthony Ciardi was an American poet, translator, and etymologist. While primarily known as a poet and translator of Dante's Divine Comedy, he also wrote several volumes of children's poetry, pursued etymology, contributed to the Saturday Review as a columnist and long-time poetry editor, directed the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont, and recorded commentaries for National Public Radio.
30/03/1985
Harold Peary, American actor and singer (born 1908)
Harold "Hal" Peary was an American actor, comedian and singer in radio, films, television, and animation. His most memorable role was as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, which began as a supporting character on radio's Fibber McGee and Molly in 1938 before being spun off to star in a successful radio series The Great Gildersleeve, several films and other media adaptations.
30/03/1984
Karl Rahner, German-Austrian priest and theologian (born 1904)
Karl Rahner was a German Jesuit priest and theologian who, alongside Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Yves Congar, is considered to be one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th-century. He was the brother of Hugo Rahner, also a Jesuit scholar.
30/03/1981
DeWitt Wallace, American publisher, co-founded Reader's Digest (born 1889)
William Roy DeWitt Wallace, publishing as DeWitt Wallace, was an American magazine publisher.
30/03/1979
Airey Neave, English colonel, lawyer, and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (born 1916)
Lieutenant Colonel Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave was a British soldier, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP) from 1953 until his assassination in 1979.
Ray Ventura, French pianist and bandleader (born 1908)
Raymond Ventura was a French jazz pianist and bandleader. He helped popularize jazz in France in the 1930s. His nephew was singer Sacha Distel.
30/03/1978
George Paine, English cricketer and coach (born 1908)
George Alfred Edward Paine was an English cricketer who played in four Test matches in 1934–35.
Memduh Tağmaç, Turkish general (born 1904)
Memduh Tağmaç was a Turkish general. He was the 14th Chief of the General Staff of Turkey during the 1971 Turkish coup d'état, and previously Commander of the Turkish Army (1968-1969) and Commander of the First Army of Turkey (1966-1968).
30/03/1977
Levko Revutsky, Ukrainian composer and educator (born 1889)
Levko Mykolaiovych Revutsky was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer, pedagogue, and public figure.
30/03/1975
Peter Bamm, German journalist and author (born 1897)
Peter Bamm was a German writer.
30/03/1973
Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish pilot and politician (born 1903)
Air Commodore Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton and 11th Duke of Brandon, was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and aviator. He was the first man to fly over Mount Everest. A member of the Unionist Party, he sat in the House of Commons and later in the House of Lords.
Yves Giraud-Cabantous, French racing driver (born 1904)
Yves Aristide Marius Giraud-Cabantous was a racing driver from France. He drove in Formula One from 1950 to 1953, participating in 13 World Championship Grands Prix, plus numerous non-Championship Formula One and Formula Two races.
30/03/1972
Mahir Çayan, Turkish politician (born 1946)
Mahir Çayan was a Turkish Marxist–Leninist revolutionary who co-founded and led the People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (THKP-C), one of the main armed left-wing organizations in Turkey in the early 1970s.
Gabriel Heatter, American radio commentator (born 1890)
Gabriel Heatter was an American radio commentator whose World War II-era sign-on, "There's good news tonight," became both his catchphrase and his caricature.
30/03/1970
Heinrich Brüning, German economist and politician, Chancellor of Germany (born 1885)
Heinrich Aloysius Maria Elisabeth Brüning was a German Centre Party politician and academic, who served as the chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1930 to 1932. His use of deflation in an attempt to combat the effects of the Great Depression in Germany increased unemployment and poverty and earned him the nickname of "the hunger chancellor".
30/03/1969
Lucien Bianchi, Belgian racing driver (born 1934)
Luciano "Lucien" Bianchi was an Italian-born Belgian racing driver who raced for the Cooper, ENB, UDT Laystall and Scuderia Centro Sud teams in Formula One. He entered a total of 19 Formula One World Championship races, scoring six points and had a best finish of third at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix.
30/03/1967
Frank Thorpe, Australian public servant (born 1885)
Frank Gordon Thorpe, was a senior Australian public servant. He was Public Service Commissioner between 1936 and 1947.
Jean Toomer, American poet and novelist (born 1894)
Jean Toomer was an American poet and novelist commonly associated with modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, though he actively resisted the latter association. His reputation stems from his novel Cane (1923), which Toomer wrote during and after a stint as a school principal at a black school in rural Sparta, Georgia. The novel intertwines the stories of six women and includes an apparently autobiographical thread; sociologist Charles S. Johnson called it "the most astonishingly brilliant beginning of any Negro writer of his generation". He resisted being classified as a "Negro" writer and he identified as "American". For more than a decade Toomer was an influential follower and representative of the pioneering spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff.
30/03/1966
Newbold Morris, American lawyer and politician (born 1902)
Augustus Newbold Morris was an American politician, lawyer, president of the New York City Council, and two-time candidate for mayor of New York City.
Maxfield Parrish, American painter and illustrator (born 1870)
Maxfield Parrish was an American painter and illustrator active in the first half of the 20th century. His works featured distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery. The National Museum of American Illustration deemed his painting Daybreak (1922) to be the most successful art print of the 20th century.
Erwin Piscator, German director and producer (born 1893)
Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator was a German theatre director and producer. Along with Bertolt Brecht, he was the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio-political content of drama, rather than its emotional manipulation of the audience or the production's formal beauty.
30/03/1965
Philip Showalter Hench, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1896)
Philip Showalter Hench was an American physician. Hench, along with his Mayo Clinic co-worker Edward Calvin Kendall and Swiss chemist Tadeus Reichstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1950 for the discovery of the hormone cortisone, and its application for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The Nobel Committee bestowed the award for the trio's "discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects."
30/03/1964
Nella Larsen, American nurse and author (born 1891)
Nella Larsen was an American novelist, nurse, and librarian. She published two novels–Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929)–and a few short stories.
30/03/1963
Aleksandr Gauk, Russian conductor and composer (born 1893)
Alexander Vassilievich Gauk was a Soviet conductor and composer.
30/03/1961
Philibert Jacques Melotte, English astronomer (born 1880)
Philibert Jacques Melotte was a British astronomer.
30/03/1960
Joseph Haas, German composer and educator (born 1879)
Joseph Haas was a German late romantic composer and music teacher.
30/03/1959
Daniil Andreyev, Russian mystic and poet (born 1906)
Daniil Leonidovich Andreyev was a Russian writer, poet, and Christian mystic.
John Auden, English solicitor, deputy coroner and a territorial soldier (born 1894)
John Lorimer Auden MC, was an English solicitor, deputy coroner for Staffordshire and a territorial soldier who served in the First World War. He was a collector of natural history.
Riccardo Zanella, Italian politician (born 1875)
Riccardo Zanella was a Fiuman politician who was the only elected president of the short-lived Free State of Fiume.
30/03/1956
Edmund Clerihew Bentley, English author and poet (born 1875)
Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who generally published under the names E. C. Bentley and E. Clerihew Bentley, was an English novelist and humorist and inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics.
30/03/1955
Harl McDonald, American pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1899)
Harl McDonald was an American composer, conductor, pianist and teacher. McDonald was born in Boulder, Colorado, and studied at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Redlands, and the Leipzig Conservatory. He was appointed a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania in 1927 and enjoyed other appointments at the University including the Director of the Music Department and Director of the University's Choral Society and the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club. Among his students there was Ann Wyeth McCoy. In addition to his administrative duties with the University, McDonald composed numerous musical works and served on the board of directors of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association. He died in Princeton, New Jersey due to a stroke at the age of 55 while helping to direct the production of a motion picture film on orchestral music.
30/03/1952
Nikos Beloyannis, Greek resistance leader and politician (born 1915)
Nikos Beloyannis was a Greek resistance leader and leading member of the Greek Communist Party.
Jigme Wangchuck, Bhutanese king (born 1905)
Jigme Wangchuck was King of Bhutan from 26 August 1926 until his death in 1952. He pursued legal and infrastructural reform during his reign. Bhutan continued to maintain almost complete isolation from the outside world during this period; its only foreign relations were with the British Raj in India, under which Bhutan was a protected state. He was succeeded by his son, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck.
30/03/1950
Léon Blum, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1872)
André Léon Blum was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister of France. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century.
30/03/1949
Friedrich Bergius, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1884)
Friedrich Karl Rudolf Bergius was a German chemist known for the Bergius process for producing synthetic fuel from coal, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of contributions to the invention and development of chemical high-pressure methods. Having worked with IG Farben during World War II, his citizenship came into question following the war, causing him to ultimately flee to Argentina, where he acted as adviser to the Ministry of Industry.
Dattaram Hindlekar, Indian cricketer (born 1909)
Dattaram Dharmaji Hindlekar was a cricketer who kept wicket for India in Test cricket.
30/03/1945
Béla Balogh, Hungarian actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1885)
Béla Balogh was a Hungarian film director, one of the most prominent of the early 20th century. He was prominent in both silent and voiced productions and is most known for movies like Havi 200 fix, Ópiumkeringő, and Úrilány szobát keres.
30/03/1943
Jan Bytnar, Polish lieutenant; WWII resistance fighter (born 1921)
Jan Roman Bytnar, nom de guerre "Rudy" (Ginger) was a Polish scoutmaster, a member of Polish scouting anti-Nazi resistance, and a lieutenant in the Home Army during the Second World War.
Maciej Aleksy Dawidowski, Polish sergeant; WWII resistance fighter (born 1920)
Maciej Aleksy Dawidowski codenames: Alek, Glizda, Kopernicki, Koziorożec was a Polish scoutmaster (podharcmistrz), Polish Scouting resistance activist and Second Lieutenant of the Armia Krajowa during the Second World War. Dawidowski is a main character in the books Kamienie na Szaniec by Aleksander Kamiński, and Rudy, Alek, Zośka by Barbara Wachowicz.
30/03/1940
Sir John Gilmour, 2nd Baronet Scottish soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Scotland (born 1876)
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Gilmour, 2nd Baronet was a Scottish Unionist politician. He notably served as Home Secretary from 1932 to 1935.
30/03/1936
Conchita Supervía, Spanish soprano and actress (born 1895)
Conchita Supervía was a highly popular Spanish mezzo-soprano singer who appeared in opera in Europe and America and also gave recitals.
30/03/1935
Romanos Melikian, Armenian composer (born 1883)
Romanos Hovakimi Melikian was an Armenian composer, conductor, and educator. He played a significant role in the developing Armenian classical music and established Armenian musical institutions such as Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, Yerevan Opera Theatre, and the Armenian Music Society.
30/03/1925
Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher and author (born 1861)
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian New Age guru, philosopher, occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by (Christian) Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
30/03/1912
Karl May, German author (born 1842)
Karl Friedrich May was a German author known for writing often in first-person narrative about travels and adventures, mostly set in the American Old West or the Orient and Middle East, but also in Latin America, China and within Germany. For a time he insisted that he actually had travelled to the West and was called Old Shatterhand there, while in the Ottoman Empire he was called Kara Ben Nemsi, and posed in costumes.
30/03/1907
Aurora von Qvanten, Swedish writer and artist (born 1816)
Aurora Magdalena von Qvanten was a Swedish writer, translator and artist who used the pseudonym Turdus Merula.
30/03/1896
Charilaos Trikoupis, Greek politician, 55th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1832)
Charilaos Trikoupis was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895.
30/03/1886
Joseph-Alfred Mousseau, Canadian judge and politician, 6th Premier of Quebec (born 1838)
Joseph-Alfred Mousseau, was a Canadian lawyer and politician, who served in the federal Cabinet and also as the sixth premier of Quebec.
30/03/1879
Thomas Couture, French painter and educator (born 1815)
Thomas Couture was a French history painter and teacher. He taught many notable contemporary figures of the art world, such as Édouard Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, John La Farge, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, John Ward Dunsmore, Karel Javůrek, William Morris Hunt, and Joseph-Noël Sylvestre.
30/03/1874
Carl Julian (von) Graba, German lawyer and ornithologist who visited and studied the Faroe Islands (born 1799)
Carl Julian (von) Graba was a German lawyer and Royal Danish judicial councillor, and was also a keen ornithologist and one of the first modern researchers to visit and study the Faroe Islands, where he described the local puffin which was subsequently named Fratercula arctica grabae after him. Graba's findings were mentioned in 1872 by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species.
30/03/1873
Bénédict Morel, Austrian-French psychiatrist and physician (born 1809)
Bénédict Augustin Morel was a French psychiatrist born in Vienna, Austria. He was an influential figure in the field of degeneration theory during the mid-19th century.
30/03/1864
Louis Schindelmeisser, German clarinet player, composer, and conductor (born 1811)
Louis (Ludwig) Alexander Balthasar Schindelmeisser was a nineteenth-century German clarinetist, conductor and composer. He was born Königsberg, Prussia, and studied in Berlin and Leipzig. He was an early and enthusiastic partisan of Richard Wagner, arranging his first performances in Wiesbaden and Darmstadt of Tannhäuser, of which he conducted the premiere, Rienzi and Lohengrin.
30/03/1842
Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, French painter (born 1755)
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, also known as Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun or simply Madame Le Brun, was a French painter who mostly specialized in portrait painting, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
30/03/1840
Beau Brummell, English-French fashion designer (born 1778)
George Bryan "Beau" Brummell was an important figure in Regency England, and for many years he was the arbiter of British men's fashion. At one time, he was a close friend of the Prince Regent, the future King George IV, but after the two quarrelled and Brummell got into debt, he had to take refuge in France. Eventually, he died from complications of neurosyphilis in Caen.
30/03/1830
Louis I, Grand Duke of Baden (born 1763)
Ludwig I succeeded as Grand Duke of Baden on 8 December 1818. He was the uncle of his predecessor Karl Ludwig Friedrich, and his death marked the end of the Zähringen line of the House of Baden. He was succeeded by his half brother, Leopold.
30/03/1806
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (born 1757)
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was an English aristocrat, socialite, political organiser, author, and activist. Born into the Spencer family and married into the Cavendish family, she was the first wife of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, and the mother of the 6th Duke of Devonshire.
30/03/1804
Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, French general and politician, French Secretary of State for War (born 1718)
Victor François de Broglie, 2nd Duke of Broglie was an officer of the French Army. He served with his father, François Marie de Broglie, 1st Duke of Broglie, at Parma and Guastalla, and in 1734 obtained a colonelcy.
30/03/1783
William Hunter, Scottish anatomist and physician (born 1718)
William Hunter was a Scottish anatomist and physician. He was a leading teacher of anatomy, and the outstanding obstetrician of his day. His guidance and training of his equally famous brother, John Hunter, was also of great importance.
30/03/1764
Pietro Locatelli, Italian violinist and composer (born 1695)
Pietro Antonio Locatelli was an Italian Baroque composer and violinist.
30/03/1707
Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, French general and engineer (born 1633)
Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis of Vauban was a French Royal Army officer who served under Louis XIV. One of the most important military engineers in European history, his defensive principles remained in use for nearly 100 years after his death, while aspects of his offensive tactics were employed into the 20th century.
30/03/1689
Kazimierz Łyszczyński, Polish atheist and philosopher (born 1634)
Kazimierz Łyszczyński, also known in English as Casimir Liszinski, was a Polish nobleman, philosopher, and soldier in the ranks of the Sapieha family, who was accused, tried, and executed for atheism in 1689.
30/03/1662
François le Métel de Boisrobert, French poet and playwright (born 1592)
François le Métel de Boisrobert was a French poet, playwright, and courtier.
30/03/1587
Ralph Sadler, English politician, Secretary of State for England (born 1507)
Sir Ralph Sadler or Sadleir PC, Knight banneret was an English statesman, who served Henry VIII as Privy Councillor, Secretary of State and ambassador to Scotland. Sadler went on to serve Edward VI. Having signed the device settling the crown on Jane Grey in 1553, he was obliged to retire to his estates during the reign of Mary I. Sadler was restored to royal favour during the reign of Elizabeth I, serving as a Privy Councillor and once again participating in Anglo-Scottish diplomacy. He was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in May 1568.
30/03/1559
Adam Ries, German mathematician and academic (born 1492)
Adam Ries was a German mathematician. He is also known by the name Adam Riese. He is known as the "father of modern calculating" because of his decisive contribution to the recognition that Roman numerals are unpractical and to their replacement by the considerably more practical Arabic numerals.
30/03/1540
Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, German cardinal (born 1469)
Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg was a statesman of the Holy Roman Empire, a Cardinal and Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1519 to 1540.
30/03/1526
Konrad Mutian, German humanist (born 1471)
Konrad Mutian was a German Renaissance humanist.
30/03/1486
Thomas Bourchier, English cardinal (born 1404)
Thomas Bourchier was a medieval English cardinal, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor of England.
30/03/1472
Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy (born 1435)
Amadeus IX, nicknamed the Happy, was the Duke of Savoy from 1465 to 1472. Known for his piety, charity, and gentle nature, he is venerated by the Catholic Church with a liturgical feast on 30 March. He was beatified by Pope Innocent XI in 1677.
30/03/1465
Isabella of Clermont, queen consort of Naples (born c. 1424)
Isabella of Clermont, also known as Isabella of Taranto, was Queen of Naples as the first wife of King Ferdinand I of Naples, and a feudatory of the kingdom as the holder and ruling Princess of the Principality of Taranto in 1463–1465.
30/03/1202
Joachim of Fiore, Italian mystic and theologian (born 1135)
Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora, was an Italian Christian theologian, a Catholic abbot, and the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore. According to theologian Bernard McGinn, "Joachim of Fiore is the most important apocalyptic thinker of the whole medieval period." The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri is one of the most famous works possibly inspired by his ideas. Later followers, inspired by his works in Christian eschatology and historicist theories, are called Joachimites.
30/03/1180
Al-Mustadi, Caliph (born 1142)
Abu Muhammad Hasan ibn Yusuf al-Mustanjid usually known by his regnal title al-Mustadi was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 1170 to 1180. He succeeded his father al-Mustanjid.
30/03/0987
Arnulf II, Count of Flanders (born 960)
Arnulf II was Count of Flanders from 965 until his death.
30/03/0943
Li Bian, emperor of Southern Tang (born 889)
Li Bian, courtesy name Zhenglun, known as Xu Gao between 937 and 939 and Xu Zhigao before 937, and possibly Li Pengnu during his childhood, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Liezu of Southern Tang, was the founder and first emperor of the Chinese Southern Tang dynasty. In traditional histories, he is also often referred to as the First Lord of Southern Tang (南唐先主). He was an adopted son and successor of the Yang Wu regent Xu Wen who usurped power from the Yang Wu emperor Yang Pu.
30/03/0365
Ai of Jin, emperor of the Jin Dynasty (born 341)
Year 365 (CCCLXV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in the West as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Valens. The denomination 365 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
30/03/0116
Quirinus of Neuss, Roman martyr and saint
Year 116 (CXVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lamia and Vetus. The denomination 116 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 30th March
Christian feast day: Blessed Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy
Amadeus IX, nicknamed the Happy, was the Duke of Savoy from 1465 to 1472. Known for his piety, charity, and gentle nature, he is venerated by the Catholic Church with a liturgical feast on 30 March. He was beatified by Pope Innocent XI in 1677.
Christian feast day: Blessed Maria Restituta Kafka
Maria Restituta Kafka was an Austrian nurse of Czech descent and religious sister of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity. Executed by the government in Nazi-run Austria, she is honoured as a virgin and martyr in the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1998.
Christian feast day: John Climacus
John Climacus, also known as John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites, was a 6th–7th century Christian monk at the monastery on Mount Sinai. He is revered as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Church.
Christian feast day: Mamertinus of Auxerre
Saint Mamertinus of Auxerre was a monk and abbot. He was converted by Germanus of Auxerre and became a monk at the Abbey of Saints Cosmas and Damian, Auxerre. He later served as its abbot.
Christian feast day: Quirinus of Neuss
Quirinus of Neuss, sometimes called Quirinus of Rome is venerated as a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. His cultus was centred at Neuss in Germany, even though he was a Roman martyr.
Christian feast day: Thomas Son Chasuhn, Marie-Nicolas-Antoine Daveluy (part of The Korean Martyrs)
Thomas Son Chasuhn (1838–1866) was one of the Korean Martyrs canonised by the Roman Catholic church in 1984. His feast day is March 30, and he is also venerated along with the rest of the 103 Korean martyrs on September 20.
Christian feast day: Tola of Clonard
Saint Tola is the name of a seventh-century Irish Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian saint, also referred to as "a good soldier of Christ".
Christian feast day: March 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
March 29 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - March 31
Land Day (Palestine)
Land Day, recurring on March 30, is a day of commemoration for Palestinians, both Arab citizens of Israel and those in the Israeli-occupied territories of the events of that date in 1976 in Israel.
National Doctors' Day (United States)
National Doctors' Day is a day celebrated to recognize the contributions of physicians to individual lives and communities. The date varies from nation to nation depending on the event of commemoration used to mark the day. In some nations the day is marked as a holiday. Although supposed to be celebrated by patients in and benefactors of the healthcare industry, it is usually celebrated by health care organizations. Staff may organize a lunch for doctors during which physicians are presented with tokens of recognition. Historically, a card or red carnation may be sent to physicians and their spouses, along with a flower being placed on the graves of deceased physicians.
Spiritual Baptist/Shouter Liberation Day (Trinidad and Tobago)
Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day is an annual public holiday celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago on 30 March. The holiday commemorates the repeal on 30 March 1951 of the 1917 Shouter Prohibition Ordinance that prohibited the activities of the Shouter or Spiritual Baptist faith.
School Day of Non-violence and Peace (Spain)
The School Day of Non-violence and Peace is an observance founded by the Spanish poet Llorenç Vidal Vidal in Majorca in 1964 as a starting point and support for a pacifying and non-violent education of a permanent character. Different as the first proposed by the UNESCO "Armistice Day" in 1948, DENIP is observed on January 30 or thereabouts every year, on the anniversary of the death of Mahatma Gandhi, in schools all over the world. In countries with a Southern Hemisphere school calendar, it can be observed on 30 March. Its basic and permanent message is: "Universal love, non-violence and peace. Universal love is better than egoism, non-violence is better than violence, and peace is better than war". In Navarra the slogan for the 2009 was "above all, we are friends".
What Happened on 30th March?
45 significant events took place on Thursday, 30th March — stretching from 598 to 2023. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.
30/03/2023
Donald Trump becomes the first former United States president to be indicted by a grand jury.
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.
30/03/2019
Pope Francis visits Morocco.
Pope Francis was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 13 March 2013 until his death in 2025. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first Latin American, and the first pope born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.
30/03/2018
The Israeli Army kills 17 Palestinians and wounds 1,400 in Gaza during Land Day protests.
The Israel Defense Forces, alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym Tzahal (צה״ל), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and the Israeli Navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security apparatus. The IDF is headed by the chief of the general staff, who is subordinate to the defense minister.
30/03/2017
SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital class rocket.
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, doing business as SpaceX, is an American spaceflight, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence company headquartered at the Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. The company operates 3 divisions: "Space", which conducts more orbital launches annually than any other launch provider, including national programs; "Connectivity", which operates Starlink, a communications satellite company; and "Artificial intelligence", which operates Grok, X, and data centers. The company is credited with advances in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight, satellite constellation technology, and for its significantly cheaper and more efficient launch operations compared to NASA. The company's largest customers include NASA, the United States Space Force, and the National Reconnaissance Office. Elon Musk owns 42% of the outstanding shares of SpaceX and controls 85% of the voting power via his super-voting stock.
30/03/2011
Min Aung Hlaing is appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar's armed forces.
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 military coup d'état against the elected government. Prior to the start of his nominally civilian presidency, he was a military ruler under various titles. He was appointed the commander-in-chief of Defence Services—the leader of the Tatmadaw—in 2011 and remained in that post through the period of military rule, until stepping down in 2026 to become the president.
30/03/2009
Twelve gunmen attack the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan.
At 07:31 on 30 March 2009, the Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan, was attacked by an estimated 12 gunmen. The perpetrators were armed with automatic weapons and grenades or rockets and some were dressed as policemen. They took over the main building during a morning parade when 750 unarmed police recruits were present on the compound's parade ground. Police forces arrived 90 minutes later and were able to take back the building by 15:30. Five trainees, two instructors and a passer-by were killed. Five of the attackers were killed in the fighting and three more blew themselves up to avoid arrest. A suspect was captured alive in a field near the school and three others were taken into custody as they tried to escape in police uniforms. The four were taken to undisclosed locations for interrogation by the security forces according to local media.
30/03/2008
Drolma Kyi arrested by Chinese authorities.
Drolma Kyi is a Tibetan singer. She was arrested on March 30, 2008 by the Chinese authorities, during the 2008 Tibetan unrest.
30/03/2006
Cyclone Glenda, one of the strongest tropical cyclones in the Australian region makes landfall near Onslow, Western Australia.
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. It began as a tropical low on 15 March in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The precursor disturbance drifted over Top End and later across the northeastern portion of Western Australia, and after emerging into the Indian Ocean it strengthened into a tropical storm. Aided by favourable environmental conditions, Glenda rapidly intensified to reach Category 5 status on the Australian cyclone scale, and with a peak intensity of 910 mbar it was among the strongest cyclones on record within the Australia region. On 30 March it moved ashore near Onslow as a Category 3 cyclone, and the next day it degenerated into a remnant tropical low over land.
30/03/2002
The 2002 Lyon car attack takes place.
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 vehicles on fire and causing severe damage to the synagogue.
30/03/1982
Space Shuttle program: STS-3 mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was carried over from the 1969 plan for the Space Transportation System (STS) of reusable spacecraft. Only the shuttle and supporting rockets were funded for development; a proposed nuclear lunar shuttle in the plan was canceled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips.
30/03/1981
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. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the Reagan era.
30/03/1979
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.
30/03/1976
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: in the first organized response against Israeli policies by a Palestinian collective since 1948, Palestinians create the first Land Day.
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. Key aspects of the conflict have included Palestinian refugees, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, borders, security, water rights, the permit regime in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian freedom of movement, and the Palestinian right of return.
30/03/1972
Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
The Easter Offensive, also known as the 1972 spring–summer offensive by North Vietnam, or the Fiery Red Summer as romanticized in South Vietnamese literature, was a military campaign conducted by the People's Army of Vietnam against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and the United States military between 30 March and 22 October 1972, during the Vietnam War.
30/03/1967
Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 crashes at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, killing 19.
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. The aircraft, registered N802E, struck a residential area while conducting a simulated two-engine-out landing, killing all six people on board—including five crewmembers and a FAA observer. Thirteen people were killed on the ground. Several homes, part of a motel complex, and the aircraft were destroyed. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined the accident was caused by improper supervision by the instructor and improper use of flight and power controls by both the instructor and the captain-trainee, resulting in loss of control.
30/03/1965
Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the United States Embassy, Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.
30/03/1961
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed in New York City.
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 under the auspices of the United Nations. The convention also establishes the International Narcotics Control Board.
30/03/1959
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India.
The 14th Dalai Lama is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet before 1959, and subsequently led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala, India.
30/03/1949
Cold War: A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joins NATO.
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. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.
30/03/1945
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. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars to oppose the military forces of the new nation's adversaries during the Russian Civil War, especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army. In February 1946, the Red Army was renamed the "Soviet Army". Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was split between the post-Soviet states, with its bulk becoming the Russian Ground Forces, commonly considered to be the successor of the Soviet Army.
30/03/1944
World War II: Allied bombers conduct their most severe bombing run on Sofia, Bulgaria.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.
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). It caused heavy damage throughout the city from 1940 through 1945. Nuremberg was a favored point of attack for allied bombers because it was a strong economic and infrastructural hub. It also had symbolic importance as the "City of the Nuremberg Rally".
30/03/1940
Second Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Jingwei.
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 war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is often regarded as the beginning of World War II in Asia, as the wars became heavily intertwined after Japan's entry into World War II. It was the largest Asian war in the 20th century.
30/03/1939
The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph (745 km/h).
The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel. Although it proved to be one of the fastest fighter aircraft in the world at the time of its development, the design was not ordered into series production. Approximately 19 prototypes and pre-production examples were built. None are known to have survived the war.
30/03/1918
Beginning of the bloody March Events in Baku and other locations of Baku Governorate.
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 Commissariat.
30/03/1912
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.
30/03/1900
Archaeologists in Knossos, Crete, discover the first clay tablet with hieroglyphic writing in a script later called Linear B.
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. It is usually considered an independent academic discipline, but may also be classified as part of anthropology, history or geography. The discipline involves surveying, excavation, and eventually analysis of data collected, to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research.
30/03/1899
German Society of Chemistry issues an invitation to other national scientific organizations to appoint delegates to the International Committee on Atomic Weights.
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. Since 1899, it is entrusted with periodic critical evaluation of atomic weights of chemical elements and other cognate data, such as the isotopic composition of elements. The biennial CIAAW Standard Atomic Weights are accepted as the authoritative source in science and appear worldwide on the periodic table wall charts.
30/03/1885
The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the Russian and British Empires.
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 expansion south-eastwards towards the Emirate of Afghanistan and the British Raj (India). After nearly completing the Russian conquest of Central Asia, the Russians captured an Afghan border fort, threatening British interests in the area. Seeing this as a threat to their rule in India, Britain prepared for war but both sides backed down and the matter was settled diplomatically, with the Russians and Afghans exchanging territories. The incident halted further Russian expansion in Asia, except for the Pamir Mountains, and resulted in the definition of the north-western border of Afghanistan.
30/03/1870
Texas is readmitted to the United States Congress following Reconstruction.
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. To the south and southwest, it has an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas, which is a natural boundary formed by the Rio Grande River. Texas has a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Covering 268,596 square miles (695,660 km2) and having an estimated population of 31.7 million residents in 2025, it is the second-largest U.S. state both by area and by population. Texas is nicknamed the "Lone Star State" for the single star on its flag, symbolic of its former status as an independent country, the Republic of Texas.
30/03/1867
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 non-contiguous 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. Alaska is considered to be the northernmost, westernmost, and, longitudinally, the easternmost state in the United States. It is a semi-exclave of the U.S., bordering the Canadian territory of Yukon and the province of British Columbia to the east. It shares a western maritime border in the Bering Strait with Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and is closer to another continent (Asia) than any other U.S. state. The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean lie to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the south.
30/03/1863
Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece.
George I was King of Greece from 30 March 1863 until his assassination on 18 March 1913.
30/03/1861
Discovery of the chemical elements: Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium.
The discoveries of the 118 chemical elements known to exist as of 2026 are presented here in chronological order. The elements are listed generally in the order in which each was first defined as the pure element, as the exact date of discovery of most elements cannot be accurately determined. There are plans to synthesize more elements, and it is not known how many elements are possible.
30/03/1856
The Treaty of Paris is signed, 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 Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia.
30/03/1855
Origins of the American Civil War: "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.
The origins of the American Civil War were rooted in the desire of the Southern states to preserve and expand the institution of slavery. 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. 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. 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."
30/03/1844
One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.
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. Although outnumbered, Dominican troops, part of the Army of The North and led by General José María Imbert, defeated Haitian Army troops led by General Jean-Louis Pierrot.
30/03/1842
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. It is a common solvent and was formerly used as a general anesthetic.
30/03/1841
The National Bank of Greece is founded in Athens.
The National Bank of Greece is a banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Athens, Greece. Founded in 1841 as the newly independent country's first financial institution, it has long been the largest Greek bank, a position it still held in the early 21st century. Following the financial turmoil of the Greek government-debt crisis in the 2010s, it remains one of Greece's four dominant banks together with Alpha Bank, Eurobank Ergasias, and Piraeus Bank. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank. NBG offers financial products and services for corporate and institutional clients along with private and business customers. Services include banking services, brokerage, insurance, asset management, shipping finance, leasing and factoring markets.
30/03/1822
The Florida Territory is created in the United States.
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. Originally the major portion of the Spanish territory of La Florida, and later the provinces of East Florida and West Florida, it was ceded to the United States as part of the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty. It was governed by the Florida Territorial Council.
30/03/1818
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.
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 1830s until the end of the 19th century. He is perhaps better known for inventing the catadioptric (reflective/refractive) Fresnel lens and for pioneering the use of "stepped" lenses to extend the visibility of lighthouses, saving countless lives at sea. The simpler dioptric stepped lens, first proposed by Count Buffon and independently reinvented by Fresnel, is used in screen magnifiers and in condenser lenses for overhead projectors.
30/03/1815
Joachim Murat issues the Rimini Proclamation, among the earliest calls for Italian unification.
Joachim Murat was a French Army officer and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the military titles of Marshal of the Empire and Admiral of France. He was the first Prince Murat, Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808, and King of Naples as Joachim-Napoleon from 1808 to 1815.
30/03/1699
Guru Gobind Singh establishes the Khalsa in Anandpur Sahib, Punjab.
Guru Gobind Singh was the tenth and last human Sikh Guru. He was a warrior, poet, and philosopher. In 1675, at the age of nine, he was formally made the leader of the Sikhs after his father Guru Tegh Bahadur—the ninth Sikh Guru—was executed by the emperor Aurangzeb. His four biological sons died during his lifetime—two in battle and two executed by the Mughal administrator Wazir Khan.
30/03/1296
Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.
Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 to 1306 ruled Gascony as Duke of Aquitaine in his capacity as a vassal of the French king. Before his accession to the throne, he was commonly referred to as the Lord Edward.
30/03/1282
The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.
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. With over 4.7 million inhabitants, including 1.2 million in and around the capital city of Palermo, it is both the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean Sea.
30/03/0598
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. Maurice was the only East Roman emperor, other than Anastasius I, who did his best to implement determined Balkan policies during Late Antiquity by paying adequate attention to the safety of the northern frontier against barbarian incursions. During the second half of his reign, the Balkan campaigns were the main focus of Maurice's foreign policies, as a favourable peace treaty with the Persian Empire in 591 enabled him to shift his experienced troops from the Persian front to the region. The refocusing of Roman efforts soon paid off: the frequent Roman failures before 591 were succeeded by a string of successes afterwards.