1900 – Hawaii was organized as a U.S. territory. After William McKinley won the presidential election in 1896, Hawaii’s annexation to the U.S. was part of the agenda. McKinley was open to persuasion by U.S. expansionists and by annexationists from Hawaiʻi. He met with three annexationists from Hawaii: Lorrin Thurston, Francis March Hatch and William Ansel Kinney. After negotiations, in June 1897, Secretary of State John Sherman agreed to a treaty of annexation with these representatives of the Republic of Hawaii. The treaty was never ratified by the U.S. Senate. Instead, despite the opposition of a majority of Native Hawaiians, the Newlands Resolution was used to annex the Republic to the United States and it became the Territory of Hawaii. The Newlands Resolution was passed by the House June 15, 1898, by a vote of 209 to 91, and by the Senate on July 6, 1898, by a vote of 42 to 21. In 1900, Hawaii was granted self-governance and retained ʻIolani Palace as the territorial capitol building. Despite several attempts to become a state, Hawaii remained a territory for sixty years. Plantation owners and key capitalists, who maintained control through financial institutions, or “factors”, known as the “Big Five”, found territorial status convenient, enabling them to continue importing cheap foreign labor; such immigration was prohibited in various states.
1943 – As part of a deception plan for the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky), the British submarine Seraph releases a corpse into the sea off the Spanish port of Huelva hoping it will be picked up and the papers carried passed on to the Germans. The body purports to be that of a Major Martin of the Royal Marines and he is carrying letters from General Nye, Vice-Chief of the British General Staff, and Admiral Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations, to Eisenhower, Alexander and Cunningham referring to Allied plans for an invasion of Greece. The Germans do receive the information and it contributes to their lack of appreciation of the true Allied strategy.
1943 – The Germans retake Djebel Bou Aoukaz, Tunisia. Farther north, the Americans gain a foothold on Hill 609.
1944 – The 8th and 9th US Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force Bomber Command began to fly sorties into France and the Low Countries in preparation for the Allied Expeditionary Force landing on Jun 6.
1944 – US Task Force 58 (Admiral Mitscher) raids the Japanese base at Truk for a second day. Over the two days, the Japanese lose 93 aircraft out of a total 104 while the Americans lose 35 planes. Meanwhile, American Admiral Oldendorf leads a force of 9 cruisers and 8 destroyers to bombard targets in the Sawatan Islands, southeast of Truk.
1945 – US troops attacked at the Elbe.
1945 – Der Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his “1,000-year” Reich collapses above him. Hitler had repaired to his bunker on January 16, after deciding to remain in Berlin for the last great siege of the war. Fifty-five feet under the chancellery (Hitler’s headquarters as chancellor), the shelter contained 18 small rooms and was fully self-sufficient, with its own water and electrical supply. He left only rarely (once to decorate a squadron of Hitler Youth) and spent most of his time micromanaging what was left of German defenses and entertaining such guests as Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler, and Joachim von Ribbentrop. At his side were Eva Braun, whom he married only two days before their double suicide, and his dog, an Alsatian named Blondi. Warned by officers that the Russians were only a day or so from overtaking the chancellery and urged to escape to Berchtesgarden, a small town in the Bavarian Alps where Hitler owned a home, the dictator instead chose suicide. It is believed that both he and his wife swallowed cyanide capsules (which had been tested for their efficacy on his “beloved” dog and her pups). For good measure, he shot himself with his service pistol. The bodies of Hitler and Eva were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors (as per Der Fuhrer’s orders) and reportedly later recovered in part by Russian troops. A German court finally officially declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956.
1945 – On Okinawa, Japanese counterattacks and infiltration attempts along the Shuri Line area are defeated. There is heavy fighting in the Maeda and Kochi Ridge positions. The US 1st Marine and 77th Divisions replace the US 27th and 96th Divisions in the line.
1945 – The preparatory bombardment of targets in the Tarakan area in the northeast of the island of Borneo continues. A small American landing force goes ashore on the island of Sadan.
1951 – U.N. Forces, having withdrawn to a new defense line, halted the Chinese offensive north of Seoul and the Han River.
1951 – Far East Air Forces accumulated 1,277 sorties, the largest number to date. Fifth Air Force accounted for a record breaking 960 of them.
1952 – The destroyers USS Maddox and Laffey participated in the most protracted gun duel of the Korean War as the engaged enemy shore batteries in Wonsan Harbor. Heavy coastal artillery fire was received, but neither of the two U.S. ships was damaged.
1964 – Secretary of State Rusk flies to Ottawa, Canada, to make secret arrangements with J. Blair Seaborn, Canada’s new representative on the International Control Commission. Seaborn has a scheduled visit to Hanoi in June and Rusk asks him to convey to the North Vietnamese Government and offer of US economic aid if it calls off its forces and support for the Vietcong.
1965 – The Joint Chiefs present a detailed plan for deploying 48,000 US and 5250 third-country troops in Vietnam. This is more than the numbers agreed to in the earlier Honoloulu conference.
1968 – The US embassy releases a report that during the Tet Offensive in Hue, the NVA and Vietcong executed more than 1000 civilians and buried them in mass graves. 19 such grave sites have recently been uncovered.
1968 – U.S. Marines attacked a division of North Vietnamese in the village of Dai Do.
1969 – US troops in Vietnam peaked at 543,000. Over 33,000 had already been killed.
1969 – Prince Sihanouk withdraws his assent to the resumption of diplomatic relations with the US over the US stand on the status of a group of offshore islands, including Dao Phu Duoc, claimed by both Cambodia and South Vietnam.
1970 – President Nixon makes a nationally televised speech to announce his decision to send US troops into Cambodia to destroy Communist sanctuaries and supply bases. The announced objective is the “Fishhook area,” 50 miles northwest to Saigon, which is believed to be a ‘key control center” for the enemy and its ‘headquarters for the entire Communist military operation in South Vietnam.’ Nixon denies an intent to occupy Cambodian territory. Nixon argues that ‘plaintive diplomatic protests’ no longer are sufficient since they would only destroy American credibility in the areas of the world ‘where only the power of the United States deters aggression.’ Nixon warns that ‘if, when the chips are down, the world’s most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.’
1972 – The North Vietnamese launched an invasion of the South.
1973 – President Nixon announced the resignations of his aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, along with Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and White House counsel John Dean.
1975 – By dawn, communist forces move into Saigon, where they meet only sporadic resistance. The South Vietnamese forces had collapsed under the rapid advancement of the North Vietnamese. The most recent fighting had begun in December 1974, when the North Vietnamese had launched a major attack against the lightly defended province of Phuoc Long, located due north of Saigon along the Cambodian border, overrunning the provincial capital at Phuoc Binh on January 6, 1975. Despite previous presidential promises to provide aid in such a scenario, the United States did nothing. By this time, Nixon had resigned from office and his successor, Gerald Ford, was unable to convince a hostile Congress to make good on Nixon’s earlier promises to rescue Saigon from communist takeover. This situation emboldened the North Vietnamese, who launched a new campaign in March 1975. The South Vietnamese forces fell back in total disarray, and once again, the United States did nothing. The South Vietnamese abandoned Pleiku and Kontum in the Highlands with very little fighting. Then Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang fell to the communist onslaught. The North Vietnamese continued to attack south along the coast toward Saigon, defeating the South Vietnamese forces at each encounter. The South Vietnamese 18th Division had fought a valiant battle at Xuan Loc, just to the east of Saigon, destroying three North Vietnamese divisions in the process. However, it proved to be the last battle in the defense of the Republic of South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese forces held out against the attackers until they ran out of tactical air support and weapons, finally abandoning Xuan Loc to the communists on April 21. Having crushed the last major organized opposition before Saigon, the North Vietnamese got into position for the final assault. In Saigon, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned and transferred authority to Vice President Tran Van Huong before fleeing the city on April 25. By April 27, the North Vietnamese had completely encircled Saigon and began to maneuver for a complete takeover. When they attacked at dawn on April 30, they met little resistance. North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace and the war came to an end. North Vietnamese Col. Bui Tin accepted the surrender from Gen. Duong Van Minh, who had taken over after Tran Van Huong spent only one day in power. Tin explained to Minh, “You have nothing to fear. Between Vietnamese there are no victors and no vanquished. Only the Americans have been beaten. If you are patriots, consider this a moment of joy. The war for our country is over.”
1988 – Gen. Manuel Noriega, waving a machete, vowed at a rally to keep fighting U.S. efforts to oust him as Panama’s military ruler.
1990 – Hostage Frank Reed was released by his captives in Lebanon, the second American freed in eight days.
1992 – As rioting in Los Angeles entered its second day, President Bush condemned the violence and said the Justice Department would intensify its investigation of police conduct in the beating of Rodney King.
1995 – President Clinton announced he would end U.S. trade and investment with Iran, denouncing the Tehran government as “inspiration and paymaster to terrorists.”
1998 – The US Senate approved the expansion of NATO to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
1999 – The US State Dept. annual report on terrorism listed Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria as sponsoring terrorism groups.
1999 – NATO undertook over 600 sorties and strikes in Montenegro and Kosovo reportedly killed 13 people.
1999 – In Belgrade, Serbia, a 5.5 earthquake struck. Later in the day Jesse Jackson met with the 3 captured Americans and planned to meet with Pres. Milosevic for their release. In an interview Pres. Milosevic pronounced that his countrymen were willing to died to defend their rights.
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/april-30/
