NOW & THEN
APRIL 30
1789: George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States. 1804: Shrapnel was first used in warfare by the British against the Dutch in Suriname.
1891: An Comunn Gàidhealach was formally instituted.
1906: For ease of identification, numbers were given to bus routes in London.
1938: The FA Cup final from Wembley, shown on the BBC, was the first football match to be televised live in Britain.
1944: The first of 500,000 prefabricated homes (prefabs) went on show in London.
1945: German Führer Adolf Hitler shot himself in his underground bunker beneath the chancellery in Berlin. His wife, Eva Braun, whom he had married the previous day, died beside him by taking a cyanide pill. 1964: BBC2 began transmission, introduced by Gerald Priestland.
1966: First regular cross-channel hovercraft service was started between Ramsgate and Calais.
1975: The Vietnamese War ended – the longest conflict in the 20th century.
1980: Queen Juliana abdicated as Queen of the Netherlands in favour of her daughter Beatrix. 1980: Armed terrorists took 20 hostages in Iranian Embassy in London and threatened to blow it up if their demands were not met.
1986: Soviet Union admitted that a nuclear reactor was ablaze at Chernobyl – four days after the event.
1990: Ten airmen killed when RAF Shackleton plunged into a hillside on Harris.
1993: Tennis star Monica Seles was stabbed by a spectator claiming to be a Steffi Graf fan while playing in a tournament in Germany.
1995: Stephen Hendry won the Embassy World Snooker Championship for the fourth time in a row, his fifth triumph in six years, beating Nigel Bond.
1999: A neo-fascist group, the White Wolves, claimed responsibility after a nail-bomb killed three people and injured more than 130 others in a gay pub in London’s Soho.
2002: In a Golden Jubilee address to both Houses of Parliament, the Queen quelled speculation that she was contemplating retirement by telling of her determination “above all” to continue serving the nation.
2004: United States media released graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. 2007: Five men who plotted to kill hundreds of people with a 600kg fertiliser bomb were jailed for almost 100 years at the end of the longest terror trial held in Britain.
2009: A ceremony was held in Basra to mark the official end of the six-year British military presence in Iraq.
2009: A car driver crashed into crowds watching a Dutch royal parade, killing five people, in an attempted attack on the Royal Family. The driver died the next day in hospital.
2014: Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams was arrested over the IRA abduction and killing of mother of ten Jean Mcconville in Belfast in 1972.
BIRTHDAYS
Dame Jane Campion, New Zealand film director, 68; Dickie Davies, British television sports presenter, 89; King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden, 76; Tony Harrison, British poet, 85; Emma Pierson, British actress, 41; Baron Sanderson of Bowden, chairman, Scottish Conservative Party 1990-93, 89; Burt Young, American actor, 82; Merrill Osmond, American singer and bassist (The Osmonds), 69; Dianna Agron, American actress, 36; Stephen Harper, Canadian prime minister 2006-2015, 63; Leigh Francis (aka Avid Merrion and Keith Lemon), British comedy performer, 49.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1870 Franz Lehár, Hungarian composer (The Merry Widow); 1926 Janey Buchan, Glasgow-born MEP 1979-94; 1943 Bobby Vee, US singer; 1944 Jill Clayburgh, US actress; 1947 Leslie Grantham, British actor. Deaths: 1883 Édouard Manet, Impressionist painter; 1912 Wilbur Wright, aviation pioneer; 1985 Sir Max Aitken, newspaper publisher; 1994 Roland Ratzenberger, Formula One racing driver; 2009 Maurice Lindsay, Glasgow-born broadcaster, writer and poet; 2015 Ben E King, American soul singer (the Drifters).