Today in History, March 30th
On March 30, 1867, William Seward signed the deal to buy Alaska from Russia. Plus the 1981 shooting of Ronald Reagan and Van Gogh's birth.
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March 30 is best known as the day in 1867 when Secretary of State William Seward signed a treaty to buy Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. The date also saw John Hinckley Jr. shoot President Ronald Reagan in Washington in 1981 and Philadelphia’s Hyman Lipman patent a pencil with an eraser on the end in 1858.
The big story: Seward Signs the Deal for Alaska (1867)
Russia had been trying to unload Alaska for years. Its colony there never had more than about 400 permanent Russian settlers, it could not afford to defend the coast, and losing the Crimean War had cooled its interest. Russia first offered the land in 1859, partly to plant an American buffer against its rival Britain, but the Civil War got in the way. On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William Seward and the Russian minister, Edouard de Stoeckl, closed the deal: all of Russian America for $7.2 million, roughly two cents an acre. The Senate approved the treaty on April 9, and the formal handover took place on October 18, 1867. Critics called the purchase “Seward’s Folly.” The jokes faded after gold was found in the Yukon in 1896 and Alaska became the gateway to the Klondike.
More events on March 30
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1282 | The people of Palermo rose against their French rulers in the revolt known as the Sicilian Vespers, killing about 2,000 French residents. |
| 1855 | About 5,000 armed “Border Ruffians” from Missouri crossed into Kansas Territory and helped elect a proslavery legislature in its first territorial election. |
| 1856 | The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Crimean War. |
| 1858 | Philadelphia’s Hyman Lipman received a U.S. patent for a pencil with an attached eraser. The Supreme Court later threw out the patent, ruling that joining two existing things was not an invention. |
| 1965 | A car bomb exploded outside the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 people, including two Americans, and injuring 183. |
| 1981 | John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton. Press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a D.C. police officer were also wounded. Reagan recovered. |
| 2002 | Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, died in her sleep at Windsor Castle at age 101. |
| 2009 | President Barack Obama gave General Motors and Chrysler an ultimatum: make major changes or lose further government bailout loans. |
Born on March 30
- 1811: Robert Bunsen, German chemist who, with Gustav Kirchhoff, founded spectrum analysis and discovered cesium and rubidium.
- 1853: Vincent van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist painter.
- 1968: Céline Dion, French Canadian singer who became a global pop star in the 1990s.
Sources
- Purchase of Alaska, 1867, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
- Seward’s Folly, History.com
- What Happened on March 30, History.com
- President Reagan Is Shot, History.com
- On This Day: March 30, Britannica
- Robert Bunsen, Britannica
- Vincent van Gogh, Britannica
- Céline Dion, Britannica
Thank you for the enjoyable collection of factoids.
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