30 April: On this day in history
What events happened on 30 April in history? We round up the events, births and deaths…
30 April 1520
In a skirmish known as Cleanse the Causeway, supporters of James Hamilton, Earl of Arran and Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus fought a pitched battle in Edinburgh High Street.
30 April 1527
Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France conclude the Treaty of Westminster and ally themselves against the Holy Roman Empire.
30 April 1532
Gloucestershire lawyer James Bainham was burned at the stake for heresy at Smithfield after explicitly denying the doctrine of transubstantiation.
30 April 1651
Birth in Reims, France, of priest and educational reformer Jean-Baptiste de la Salle. Canonised by Pope Leo XIII in 1900, de la Salle was proclaimed the patron saint of teachers by Pius XII in 1950.
30 April 1803
In Paris, American diplomats agree a deal to buy 828,000 square miles of ‘Louisiana’, containing 15 current US states, from the French.
30 April 1859
The first instalment of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities is published in All the Year Round, the writer's own weekly magazine.
30 April 1943
Economist, socialist and reformer Beatrice Webb died at her home in Hampshire. An early member of the Fabian Society (a British socialist organisation), Webb was also a co-founder of the London School of economics and Political Science.
30 April 1948
The Land Rover is launched at the Amsterdam motor show. Initially designed by the Wilks brothers as a stop-gap measure for the Rover Company – with aluminium bodywork instead of rationed steel – it is an immediate success.
30 April 1975
As US embassy officials are helicoptered to safety, communist North Vietnamese troops smash their way into Saigon’s presidential palace, marking the end of the Vietnam War.
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