Historical Events on Monday, 30th March

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.

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30/03/2019

Pope Francis visits Morocco.

Pope Francis was 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 born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.

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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.

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30/03/2017

SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital class rocket.

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, doing business as SpaceX, is a private American aerospace and artificial intelligence company headquartered at the Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the company has made numerous advances in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. As of 2026, SpaceX conducts more orbital launches annually than any other launch provider, including private competitors and national programs like the Chinese space program. SpaceX, NASA, and the United States Armed Forces work closely together by means of governmental contracts.

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30/03/2011

Min Aung Hlaing is appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar's armed forces.

Min Aung Hlaing is a Burmese army general who has ruled Myanmar under various titles since seizing power in 2021, and has led the Tatmadaw as Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services since 2011. He first served as Chairman of the State Administration Council and as well as the 12th prime minister from 2021 to 2025, has been exercising presidential duties since 2024—as the acting president since 2025—and has been Chairman of the State Security and Peace Commission since 2025.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development, as a proposed nuclear shuttle in the plan was cancelled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips.

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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.

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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.

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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 territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 Dharamsala, India.

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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.

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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.

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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 in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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Out of 795 Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitos sent to attack Nuremberg, 95 bombers do not return, making it the largest RAF Bomber Command loss of the war.

The Avro Lancaster, commonly known as the Lancaster Bomber, is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling, all three aircraft being four-engine heavy bombers adopted by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the same era.

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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 Japanese Aggression, was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest, that forms a natural boundary delineated by the Rio Grande. Texas has a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Covering 268,596 square miles (695,660 km2) and with over 31 million residents as of 2024, it is the second-largest U.S. state by area and 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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, notably some of 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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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