Portal:United States/Anniversaries/April

United States April anniversaries

January • February • March • April • May • June • July • August • September • October • November • December

These are the selected anniversaries for April that appear on the United States portal.

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See also

• Yearly "...in the United States" articles, such as 2024 in the United States.
• United States history categories (Select [+] to view subcategories)

History of the United States

April 1

Portal:United States/Anniversaries/April/April 1

• 1789 – In New York City, the House of Representatives holds its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first House Speaker.
• 1826 – Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.
• 1891 – The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy (pictured) in Colorado.
• 1970 – President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring surgeon general's warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertisements on television and radio in the United States.
• 1976 – Apple Computer is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

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April 2

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• 1513 – Juan Ponce de León sets foot on Florida, becoming the first European known to do so.
• 1792 – The Coinage Act is passed, establishing the United States Mint.
• 1900 – The Foraker Act passes through Congress, giving Puerto Ricans limited self-rule.
• 1917 – President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war on Germany, beginning American involvement in World War I.
• 1917 – The first woman elected to the Congress, Jeannette Rankin (pictured), takes her seat as a representative from Montana.
• 1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.

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April 3

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• 1865 – In a major turning point of the American Civil War, Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
• 1948 – President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
• 1955 – The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
• 1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech.
• 1973 – The first portable cell phone call is made in New York City, United States.
• 1996 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his cabin in Montana, United States.
• 2000 – In the case of United States v. Microsoft (testimony pictured), a federal judge rules that Microsoft violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors, and orders the corporation be split into two separate units.

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April 4

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• 1818 – Congress adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (then 20).
• 1841 – William Henry Harrison (pictured) dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President to die in office, and President with the shortest term served.
• 1887 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
• 1949 – Twelve nations, led by the United States, sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
• 1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
• 1984 – President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.

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April 5

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• 1614 – In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.
• 1792 – U.S. President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States.
• 1933 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 6102 "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates" by U.S. citizens.
• 1937 – Colin Powell (pictured), U.S. Army General, 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and 65th Secretary of State, is born.
• 1949 – A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements in the United States.

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April 6

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Today is Tartan Day.

• 1808 – John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, eventually leading him to become America's first millionaire.
• 1830 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is organized by Joseph Smith, Jr. (pictured) and others at Fayette or Manchester, New York.
• 1862 – The Battle of Shiloh begins when forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston in Tennessee. The battle claims almost 25,000 lives.
• 1865 – The American Civil War Battle of Sayler's Creek begins. Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.
• 1917 – The United States declares war on Germany, beginning its official involvement in World War I.

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April 7

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• 1788 – American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory arrive at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, establishing Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement of the Northwest Territory.
• 1890 – Marjory Stoneman Douglas, conservationist and writer whose book The Everglades: River of Grass redefined popular perception of the Florida Everglades and was instrumental in ensuring their preservation, was born.
• 1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp (pictured).
• 1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.
• 2001 – NASA launches the robotic spacecraft Mars Odyssey, an orbiter designed to hunt for evidence of past or present water or volcanic activity on Mars.

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April 8

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• 1513 – Explorer Juan Ponce de León declares Florida a territory of Spain.
• 1808 – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore is promoted to an archdiocese, with the founding of the dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Bardstown (now Louisville) by Pope Pius VII.
• 1913 – The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, becomes law.
• 1935 – The Works Progress Administration (logo pictured) is formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 becomes law.
• 1943 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases by common carriers and public utilities.
• 1952 – U.S. President Harry Truman calls for the seizure of all domestic steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike.

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April 9

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• 1865 – Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War.
• 1867 – Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
• 1909 – The U.S. Congress passes the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act.
• 1945 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission is formed.
• 1959 – NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven" (pictured).
• 1992 – A United States Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He is sentenced to 30 years in prison.

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April 10

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• 1606 – The Charter of the Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.
• 1816 – The United States Government approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States (pictured).
• 1866 – The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.
• 1874 – The first Arbor Day is celebrated in Nebraska.
• 1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner's Sons.
• 1971 – In an attempt to thaw relations with the United States, the People's Republic of China hosts the U.S. table tennis team for a weeklong visit. The visit gained the moniker ping-pong diplomacy.

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April 11

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• 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln makes his last public speech.
• 1899 – Spain cedes Puerto Rico to the United States.
• 1945 – American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.
• 1951 – President Harry Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea.
• 1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs (ceremony pictured) the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

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April 12

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• 1776 – With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its delegation to the Second Continental Congress to vote for independence from Britain.
• 1861 – The first battle of the American Civil War begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
• 1865 – Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.
• 1934 – The Auto-Lite Strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.
• 1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; vice-president Harry Truman (pictured) is sworn in as the 33rd President.
• 1981 – The Space Shuttle Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission, the first manned mission of the STS program.

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April 13

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• 1743 – Thomas Jefferson (pictured), principal author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, 1st Secretary of State, 2nd Vice President, and 3rd President of the United States, is born.
• 1861 – Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces during the American Civil War.
• 1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of Jefferson birth.
• 1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program MKULTRA.
• 1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while it is en route to the Moon.
• 1974 – Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launches the United States' first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1.

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April 14

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• 1828 – Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.
• 1860 – The first Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California.
• 1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre (pictured) by John Wilkes Booth.
• 1894 – Thomas Edison demonstrates the kinetoscope, a device for peep-show viewing using photographs that flip in sequence, a precursor to movies.
• 1956 – Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (now NAB) convention in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1981 – The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia, lands at Edwards Air Force Base, California after its first test flight.

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April 15

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• 1783 – Preliminary articles of peace ending Revolutionary War ratified.
• 1865 – Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by John Wilkes Booth and Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the United States.
• 1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
• 1927 – Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Norma and Constance Talmadge become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
• 1947 – Jackie Robinson (pictured) debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, breaking that sport's color line.
• 1955 – Ray Kroc opens his first franchise of McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.

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April 16

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• 1862 – A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia becomes law.
• 1947 – Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
• 1963 – Martin Luther King Jr. pens his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.
• 1972 – Apollo 16 launches towards the Moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
• 2007 – The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, the Virginia Tech massacre (memorial ceremony pictured), occurs. A gunman shoots 32 people to death and injures 23 others before committing suicide.

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April 17

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• 1861 – Virginia secedes from the Union during the American Civil War.
• 1865 – Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
• 1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center (pictured) processes 11,747 people, more than any other day.
• 1961 – In what became known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
• 1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
• 1970 – The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.

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April 18

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• 1906 – An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9 destroys much of San Francisco, California.
• 1906 – A Los Angeles Times story on the Azusa Street Revival launches Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
• 1923 – The original Yankee Stadium (pictured), which served as the home of the New York Yankees until 2008, opens.
• 1983 – A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
• 1988 – The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
• 1949 – The aircraft carrier USS United States (CVA-58) is laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. However, the United States is canceled five days later, resulting in the Revolt of the Admirals.

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April 19

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• 1775 – The first battles of the American Revolution, the Battles of Lexington and Concord begin. Paul Revere (pictured) and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements.
• 1892 – Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
• 1961 – The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends with the defeat of the CIA backed guerrillas by forces loyal to Fidel Castro.
• 1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to life in prison for the Sharon Tate murders.
• 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (pictured) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is bombed by Timothy McVeigh, killing 168.
• 1993 – The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.

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April 20

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• 1657 – Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City).
• 1836 – U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.
• 1912 – Opening day for baseball stadiums Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1926 – Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.
• 1999 – Columbine High School massacre: Two gunmen kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School located in Jefferson County, Colorado.
• 2010 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes (pictured), killing 11 and initiating a massive oil discharge in the Gulf of Mexico.

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April 21

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• 1836 – In the Battle of San Jacinto, Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston (pictured) defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
• 1898 – Congress recognizes this day as the beginning of the Spanish–American War, in a session taking place on April 25.
• 1952 – Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) is first celebrated.
• 1962 – The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the U.S. since World War II.
• 1982 – Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.

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April 22

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• 1864 – The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act which mandates that the inscription "In God We Trust" (pictured) be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.
• 1876 – The Boston Red Stockings defeat the Philadelphia Athletics 6-5 in the first National League Baseball game.
• 1889 – At high noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Rush of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.
• 1930 – The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.
• 1954 – The Army–McCarthy hearings begin. MrCarthy's hunt for communists within the government was a core component of the Red Scare.
• 1970 – First Earth Day celebrated.

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April 23

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• 1635 – The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School (pictured), is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1791 – James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States, is born.
• 1910 – Theodore Roosevelt makes his The Man in the Arena speech.
• 1968 – Student protesting the Vietnam War take over administration buildings and shut down Columbia University in New York City.
• 1985 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than 3 months.

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April 24

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• 1704 – The first regular newspaper in the Thirteen Colonies, the Boston New-Letter, is published.
• 1800 – The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate US$5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress".
• 1913 – The skyscraper Woolworth Building in New York City was opened.
• 1990 – During NASA's STS-31 mission, the Hubble Space Telescope is launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery (pictured).
• 1996 – The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is introduced.
• 2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.

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April 25

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• 1846 – In what becomes known as the Thornton Affair, open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War.
• 1898 – The United States congress officially declares war on Spain. Combat in the Spanish–American War, however, had begun four days prior.
• 1938 – U.S. Supreme Court delivers opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins that overturns a century of federal common law.
• 1944 – The United Negro College Fund is incorporated.
• 1953 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA (pictured).
• 1959 – The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.

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April 26

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• 1607 – English colonists of the Jamestown Settlement (recreation pictured) make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
• 1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, in Virginia.
• 1865 – Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina.
• 1956 – The first container ship leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.
• 1991 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before its end, Andover, Kansas would be devastated by the year's only F5 tornado.

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April 27

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• 1805 – United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna during the First Barbary War. The line "shores of Tripoli" in the Marines' hymn is a reference to the battle.
• 1861 – President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
• 1865 – The New York State Senate creates Cornell University (pictured) as the state's land grant institution.
• 1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
• 1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
• 2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.

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April 28

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• 1758 – James Monroe, 5th President of the United States, is born.
• 1788 – Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
• 1952 – The United States occupation of Japan ends.
• 1965 – United States troops land in the Dominican Republic to "forestall establishment of a Communist dictatorship" and to evacuate U.S. citizens.
• 1970 – President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia, violating a United Nations convention put in place to prevent the spread of the Vietnam War into neighboring states.
• 2001 – Millionaire Dennis Tito (pictured) becomes the world's first space tourist.

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April 29

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• 1945 – The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.
• 1967 – After refusing induction into the United States Army the day before, citing religious reasons, Muhammad Ali (pictured) is stripped of his boxing title.
• 1974 – President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings related to the Watergate Scandal.
• 1975 – Operation Frequent Wind, an evacuation the last American citizens from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover, is commenced. United States involvement in the Vietnam War comes to an end.
• 1992 – Riots in Los Angeles, California, follow the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King. Over the next three days 54 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed.
• 2004 – Oldsmobile builds its final car, ending 107 years of production.

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April 30

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• 1789 – On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.
• 1803 – The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the nation overnight.
• 1812 – The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
• 1900 – Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole (pictured) serving as its first governor.
• 1939 – Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to appear on television, during a broadcast of the opening ceremonies of the 1939 New York World's Fair.
• 1973 – President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aids H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and others have resigned over the Watergate Scandal.

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