Today in History, April 30th
On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell and South Vietnam surrendered, ending the Vietnam War. Plus Washington's inauguration and the free World Wide Web.
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April 30 is best known for 1975, when North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon and South Vietnam surrendered, ending the Vietnam War. The same date saw George Washington sworn in as the first U.S. president in 1789 and Tim Berners-Lee put the World Wide Web’s software in the public domain in 1993.
The big story: Saigon falls (1975)
The end came fast. South Vietnam’s president, Nguyen Van Thieu, resigned, and on April 25, 1975, he fled Saigon. By April 27, North Vietnamese forces had the capital surrounded. His successor, Tran Van Huong, held the job for a single day before handing it to General Duong Van Minh. As Americans and their Vietnamese allies scrambled to get out, U.S. helicopters carried out what has been called the largest helicopter evacuation of its kind. At dawn on April 30, the final attack began. It met little resistance. North Vietnamese tanks smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace, and Minh surrendered to Colonel Bui Tin, who told him he had nothing to fear. The surrender ended the Vietnam War, a long conflict that had divided Americans at home. Saigon is now known as Ho Chi Minh City.
More events on April 30
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1789 | George Washington took the oath as the first U.S. president at Federal Hall in New York City and gave the first inaugural address. |
| 1803 | American and French negotiators completed the deal for the Louisiana Purchase. The treaty, signed two days later, was dated April 30. The price worked out to less than three cents an acre. |
| 1859 | The first installment of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities appeared in his weekly magazine, All the Year Round. |
| 1897 | British physicist J. J. Thomson announced that atoms contain smaller particles, which he called “corpuscles.” We call them electrons. |
| 1926 | Aviator Bessie Coleman, the first American woman to earn an international pilot’s license, was killed during a rehearsal for an air show in Jacksonville, Florida. |
| 1939 | The New York World’s Fair opened in Flushing Meadow, Queens, offering visitors a look at what life might be like in the future. President Franklin Roosevelt spoke at the opening. |
| 1945 | With Soviet troops closing in on Berlin, Adolf Hitler killed himself in his underground bunker. Germany surrendered on May 8. |
| 1948 | The original Land Rover debuted at an auto show in Amsterdam. Rover’s chief designer built it after the Jeep he used on his farm proved unreliable. |
| 1993 | Tim Berners-Lee and CERN released the source code for the first web browser and editor, making the World Wide Web free for anyone to use and build on. |
| 2019 | Emperor Akihito of Japan abdicated, the first Japanese monarch to step down since 1817. |
Born on April 30
- 1777: Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, born in Brunswick.
- 1961: Isiah Thomas, star point guard who led the Detroit Pistons to two NBA titles, born in Chicago.
- 1982: Kirsten Dunst, actress, born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.
Sources
- South Vietnam surrenders, History.com
- This Day in History: April 30, History.com
- On This Day: April 30, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- George Washington gives first presidential inaugural address, History.com
- Louisiana Purchase concluded, History.com
- Bessie Coleman, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- New York World’s Fair opens, History.com
- World Wide Web launches in public domain, History.com
- Japanese emperor Akihito abdicates throne, History.com
- Carl Friedrich Gauss, Encyclopaedia Britannica
