Today in History

Today’s highlight:

On April 30, 1945, as Soviet troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun.

On this date:

A.D. 311: Shortly before his death, Roman Emperor Galerius issued his Edict of Toleration ending persecution of Christians.

1789: George Washington took the oath of office in New York as the first president of the United States.

1803: The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for 60 million francs, the equivalent of about $15 million.

1911: A fire broke out in Bangor, Maine, destroying much of the downtown area before it was brought under control the next morning; two deaths were blamed on the blaze.

1970: President Richard M. Nixon announced the U.S. was sending troops into Cambodia, an action that sparked widespread protest.

1973: President Richard Nixon announced the resignations of top aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst and White House counsel John Dean, who was actually fired.

1975: The Vietnam War ended as the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces.

1983: Blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters died in Westmont, Illinois, at age 68.

1993: Top-ranked women’s tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a match in Hamburg, Germany, by a man who described himself as a fan of second-ranked German player Steffi Graf. The man, convicted of causing grievous bodily harm, was given a suspended sentence.

2004: Arabs expressed outrage at graphic photographs of naked Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by U.S. military police; President George W. Bush condemned the mistreatment of prisoners, saying “that’s not the way we do things in America.”

Ten years ago: Heavy winds and high tides complicated efforts to hold back oil from a blown-out Bp-operated rig that threatened to coat bird and marine life in the Gulf of Mexico; President Barack Obama halted any new offshore projects pending safeguards to prevent more explosions like the one that unleashed the spill.

Five years ago: Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont formally entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination with a news conference on Capitol Hill. Vietnam marked the 40th anniversary of the day communist forces seized control of the country with a parade through the capital of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.

One year ago: A gunman killed two students and wounded four others in a lecture hall at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; a student who helped end the shooting by tackling the gunman was one of the two killed. Former student Trystan Terrell pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges.