GMT

Today in History: April 30

0313 Licinius unifies the whole of the eastern Roman Empire under his own rule.

1064 German King Henry IV gives away Utrecht county of West Friesland

1789 George Washington is inaugurated as the first U.S. president.

1803 The United States doubles in size through the Louisiana Purchase, which was sold by France for $15 million.

1812 Louisiana is admitted into the Union as a state.

1864 Work begins on the Dams along the Red River, which will allow Union General Nathaniel Banks' troops to sail over the rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana.

1943 The British submarine HMS Seraph drops 'the man who never was,' a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.

1945 Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his bunker. Karl Donitz becomes his successor.

1973 President Richard Nixon announces the resignation of Harry Robbins Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and other top aides.

1975 North Vietnamese troops enter the Independence Palace of South Vietnam in Saigon ending the Vietnam War.

2020 US President Donald Trump claims COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, while the Office of the Director of National Intelligence saying the virus is not manmade

2021 Australia announces a ban on citizens returning from India, stranding 8,000 people, and making it a criminal offence to return, amid India's COVID-19 crisis - first democratic country to do so

2022 Jacky Hunt-Broersma sets world record for running 104 consecutive marathons in 104 days, after surviving cancer and with a prosthetic leg.

Born on April 30

1933 Willie Nelson, country singer.

1975 Johnny Galecki, American actor (Roseanne, The Big Bang Theory), born in Bree, Belgium

JOTD
Hooker: “$10 on grass, $30 on sofa, $50 in bed” Man: “I’ll pay $50”

Hooker: “You’re a man of class :)”
Man: “Class my arse, I want it five times on grass”