Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

April 30

1997
Ellen DeGeneres' character comes out of the closet on the TV sitcom Ellen.

1993
Monica Seles, the #1 ranked women's tennis player, is stabbed in the back during a tournament in Germany. Her attacker didn't want her to compete against Steffi Graf.

1993
Longest time between the birth of triplets: A Vancouver, British Columbia woman delivers the first of her triplets. The other two were born 45 days later.

1975
Fall of Saigon: The South Vietnam capital is captured the People's Army of Vietnam, marking the end of the Vietnam War and the unification of the country under communist rule.

1973
Top Nixon aids, H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and Richard Kleindienst resign amid charges of White House efforts to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.

1943
World War II, Dead Man's Bluff: The Allies plant a corpse with fictitious classified documents indicating a pending invasion of Sardinia, Greece. Hitler fell for the rouse. The Allies then took Sicily, the real point of attack, which was under defended because of the buildup in Sardinia for the fake invasion.

1939
Lou Gehrig plays the last of his record 2,130 consecutive major-league games.

1900
Hawaii becomes a U.S. Territory.

1878
Germs: Louis Pasteur lectures at the French Academy of Science in favor of his theory that many diseases are caused by tiny organisms. He was met with skepticism by many scientists of the day.

1812
Louisiana becomes the 18th state.

1803
Louisiana Purchase: 828,000 square miles of land are purchased from France for $15,000,000.

1598
First theatrical performance in North America: A Spanish comedy given near present day El Paso.

1462
First French settlement in what was to become the present day U.S. is established, Port Royal on Parris Island, of the coast of present day South Carolina.

1953
Merrill Osmond, American singer. Music: One Bad Apple (1971, #1) and Go Away Little Girl (1971, #1).

1944
Jill Clayburgh, American actress. Film: An Unmarried Woman (1978). TV: Search For Tomorrow (brain tumor victim Grace Bolton).

1938
Gary Collins, American actor, talk-show host. TV: Hour Magazine and Home.

1933
Willie Nelson, American singer, Country Music Hall of Famer. Music: Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain (1975, #1), Good Hearted Woman (1976, #1), and On The Road Again (1980).

1926
Cloris Leachman, American Oscar-winning actress. Film: The Last Picture Show (1971) and Young Frankenstein (1974). She was a runner-up in the 1946 Miss America Pageant.

1912     d. 1990
Eve Arden (Eunice Quedens), Emmy-winning actress. TV: Our Miss Brooks (Connie Brooks).

1910     d. 2006
Al Lewis, American actor. TV: Car 54, Where Are You? (Leo) and The Munsters (Grandpa).

1857     d. 1939
Eugen Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist. He coined the term "Schizophrenia" (1908, schizo=split, phrene=mind). He also coined the terms "ambivalence" (1911) and "autism" (1912)

1777     d. 1855
Karl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer. The magnetic unit of flux density "Gauss" is named for him. He also devised the method of least squares used in statistics.

1662     d. 1694
Mary II, Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1689-94). She died of smallpox.

1994     b. 1919
Richard Scarry, American children's author, creator of Lowly Worm. His 250 books sold over 100 million copies in over 30 languages. Writings: Best Word Book Ever (1965) and Cars and Trucks and Things That Go (1974).

1989     b. 1921
Sergio Leone, Italian director of "spaghetti" westerns. Film: A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966).

1983     b. 1915
Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield), American blues musician, "The Father of Chicago Blues."

1974     b. 1906
Agnes Moorehead, American Emmy-winning actress. Film: Citizen Kane (1941), and The Magnificent Ambersons (1943). TV: Bewitched (Samantha's mother Endora). Her death was attributed to radiation exposure received from an A-bomb test near the filming of the movie The Conqueror in 1953.

1956     b. 1877
Alben William Barkley, 35th U.S. Vice-President (1949-53).

1945     b. 1912
Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress, they were married shortly before committing suicide together.

1945     b. 1889
Adolf Hitler, German Nazi leader, started World War II by invading Poland (1939) and was Time magazine's 1938 "Man of the Year." It is reported he committed suicide with his mistress, whom he had married the day before, although their bodies were never found.

1941     b. 1870
Edwin Stanton Porter, Italian-born American film director. Film: The Life of an American Fireman (1903, the first American film to use intercutting), The Great Train Robbery (1903, the first motion picture with a plot), and The Eternal City (1915).

1926     b. 1892
Bessie Coleman, American daredevil aviator. She was the world's first black female aviator (1921). She died in a plane crash while preparing for a show.

1879     b. 1788
Sarah Josepha Hale, American author, Mary Had a Little Lamb (1830).

1792     b. 1718
John Montagu, English diplomat, 4th Earl of Sandwich, for whom the Sandwich Islands are named, and inventor of the sandwich which he devised as quick meal to allow him more time to gamble.

1790     b. 1727
Samuel Heinicke, opened the first German institute for the deaf (1778).

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