April 30: Facts & Historical Events On This Day

The Queen knighted British Captain Tom Moore on his 100th birthday.

Moore walked around his garden during the coronavirus lockdown and raised over £30 million for the National Health Service (NHS).

A newly discovered water beetle was named after Leonardo DiCaprio.

The new species was found in Borneo, clinging to a sandstone rock in a river. The name was chosen in honor of DiCaprio's environmental activism.

A remake of the original 1996 Resident Evil was released exclusively for GameCube.

The director, Shinji Mikami, thought the 1996 version didn't age well, and that the GameCube would better allow his vision for the game to come to life. Not only were the remake's graphics better, but it also had a new range of features, including better gameplay mechanics, new areas, more advanced puzzles, and an improved script.

Two new moons orbiting Uranus were announced in Nature magazine.

A team of scientists and astronomers from Cornell University discovered the moons on October 31, 1997, using a 200-inch (5.1 m) Hale telescope at Mount Palomar, California. The two moons, later named Caliban and Sycorax after characters from Shakespeare's Tempest, were the first two moons discovered in irregular orbits around Uranus.

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson got married.

The Church of Satan was established at the Black House in San Francisco.

This religious organization is dedicated to Satanism, an atheistic religion. The Church of Satan does not believe Satan is an actual entity that exists. They do not worship Satan, nor do they believe in the Devil or God.

Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on TV.

It also became the first commercial was marketed to children on screen.

Adolf Hitler and his newlywed wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide in their bunker in Berlin, Germany.

It became a honeymoon of death as they were found the next morning dead, Hitler with a gunshot to the temple and Braun poisoned with a cyanide capsule.

The first Converse shoes were introduced.

Albert Einstein completed his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich and was awarded a Ph.D.

Hawaii became a US territory when President William McKinley signed it into law.

McKinley also established the office of the governor of Hawaii. Sanford B. Dole was the first governor. In 1893 the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown by a US-backed coup, and the new provisional government set plans in motion to allow the US to annex Hawaii. It took nearly seven years to come to pass. It wasn't until 1959 that Hawaii was admitted as a US state.

Louisiana became the 18th state to join the United States of America.

Pellegrini Turri finished the construction of the world’s first commercial typewriter.

The USA signed The Louisiana Purchase in Paris.

The US paid France $15 million for all the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, which doubled the size of the USA.

George Washington gave his first speech as the first President of the United States.