April 30
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Featured Event
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gift of Jean McGinley Draper, 1954.9.2
George Washington, the first president of the United States, was inaugurated on this day in 1789 in Federal Hall in New York City in front of a crowd of hundreds of people. [Read todayâs edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© Artothek/Imagno/brandstaetter imagesâHulton Archive/Getty Images
It will endure as the characteristic expression of his talent, as the highest mark of his power.âŠWhen other artists correct nature by painting Venus they lie. Manet asked himself why he should lie. Why not tell the truth?
French painter Ădouard Manet, who died this day in 1883, broke with the historical tradition of illusionism and paved the way for Impressionism with such works as DĂ©jeuner sur lâherbe (1863; âLuncheon on the Grassâ).
Famous Birthdays
More on April 30
Peter DejongâAFP/Getty Images
2013
Willem-Alexander became king of the Netherlands after his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicated; she had ascended the throne 33 years earlier. [Take our quiz about kings and emperors.]
© 1984 Warner Brothers, Inc
1989
Italian director Sergio Leoneâwho popularized the âspaghetti westernâ with his hugely successful Dollar trilogy, which included the masterpiece The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)âdied at age 60. [Test your knowledge of cinema.]
Hubert Van EsâUPI/Newscom
1975
The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to North Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War. [Explore a timeline of the Vietnam War.]
EncyclopĂŠdia Britannica, Inc.
1945
Adolf Hitler killed himself as Soviet troops were advancing on his underground bunker in Berlin and the Battle of Berlin was drawing to a close. Eva Braun, whom he had married a day earlier, also died.
Matt WinkelmeyerâGetty Images
1933
Songwriter and guitarist Willie Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas. [Test your knowledge of musical forms and styles.]
NASA
1926
Bessie Coleman, the first American woman to obtain an international pilotâs license from the FĂ©dĂ©ration AĂ©ronautique Internationale, died after her plane crashed during rehearsal for an aerial show. [Take our quiz about famous firsts for women.]
John Wang/Getty Images
1900
U.S. President William McKinley signed the Hawaiian Organic Act, which made Hawaii a territory of the United States. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Hawaii.]
From Practical Physics by Robert Andrews Millikan and Willard R. Pyle, 1922
1897
English physicist J.J. Thomson announced that he had discovered the electron, which helped revolutionize the knowledge of atomic structure; he later was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. [Test your knowledge of physics.]