March 30
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Featured Event
Alaska State Library, Alaska Purchase Centennial Commission Photograph Collection (Image Number: ASL P20-181)
U.S. purchases Alaska from Russia
On this day in 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward struck a deal to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. The decision was mocked as “Seward’s folly,” not least because it was a well-known fact that Russia had been attempting to sell Alaska since before the American Civil War. Seward’s critics were silenced, however, following the Klondike gold rush, in which about $50 million was mined—enough to justify the price of the purchase many times over. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Eileen Tweedy/Shutterstock.com
French painter Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, who died this day in 1842, was one of the most successful women artists, unusually so for her time, and was particularly known for her portraits of women, notably Marie-Antoinette.
Famous Birthdays
More on March 30
© Getty Images
2003
A law banning cigarette smoking in all places of employment, including restaurants and bars, went into effect in New York City. [Sort fact from fiction in our human health quiz.]
© Graham Wiltshire/Shutterstock.com
2002
Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, who was queen consort of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1936–52), died in her sleep at Windsor Castle at age 101. [Test your knowledge of English royalty.]
Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library
1981
In Washington, D.C., barely two months after his inauguration as the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously wounded by would-be assassin John W. Hinckley, Jr.
© Jason Merritt/Getty Images
1968
French Canadian pop singer Céline Dion, who was known for her vocal prowess and her passionate showmanship, was born. [How much do you know about pop music?]
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
1945
British rock musician Eric Clapton, a highly influential guitarist who performed with such groups as the Yardbirds and Cream before embarking on a successful solo career, was born. [Test your knowledge of all things rock and roll.]
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1914
American blues vocalist and harmonica virtuoso Sonny Boy Williamson was born in Jackson, Tennessee. [Take a sonic journey through the world of music in our quiz.]
© pidjoe — iStock / Getty Images
1858
Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia received a U.S. patent for a pencil with an attached eraser. [Take our quiz about practical inventions.]
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. Roger Fenton Photography Collection (Photography Collection PH-00023).
1856
The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Crimean War. [How much do you know about European history?]
© Scala/Art Resource, New York
1853
Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, one of the greatest Post-Impressionists, known for works that convey not only keen observations of nature but the anguish of a mental illness, was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our artists and painters quiz.]
© Photos.com/Getty Images
1811
German chemist Robert Bunsen, who observed that each element emits a light of characteristic wavelength, was born in Göttingen, Westphalia. [Take our science quiz.]
Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
1282
The people of Palermo massacred 2,000 French residents in the Sicilian Vespers, a revolt against the Angevin king Charles I. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Italy and France.]