2001 – The Soyuz-32, carrying California businessman, multimillionaire Dennis Tito and 2 Russian astronauts, Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin, docked with the Int’l. Space Station. The Soyuz landed in the Kazak steppe on May 6.
2002 – Striking new images from the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope were unveiled.
2002 – A US grand jury indicted Colombia’s rebel FARC army and 6 of its members on charges of murdering 3 Americans.
2002 – North Korea accepted a US invitation on talks to curb its missile program and military exports.
2003 – The U.S. Navy withdrew from its disputed Vieques bombing range in Puerto Rico, prompting celebrations by islanders.
2003 – Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalqam said his government accepted responsibility for the 1998 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
2004 – In Indonesia hundreds of protesters clashed with police as officers re-arrested Abu Bakar Bashir (66), a Muslim cleric accused of heading an al-Qaeda-linked terror network. Muslims and Christians with homemade bombs and military-issue weapons clashed in the eastern city of Ambon, leaving 15 wounded and scores of houses in flames.
2004 – Iraqi troops led by Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh (49), one of Saddam Hussein’s generals, replaced U.S. Marines and raised the Iraqi flag at the entrance to Fallujah under a plan to end the month long siege of the city. A suicide car bomb on the outskirts killed two Americans and wounded six. Saleh was replaced May 3 by Muhammad Latif, a former Iraqi intelligence officer.
2004 – U.S. troops and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr agreed to a three-day truce in negotiations to end the standoff at Najaf.
2009 – The United Kingdom formally ended combat operations. Prime Minister Gordon Brown characterized the operation in Iraq as a “success story” because of UK troops’ efforts. Britain handed control of Basra to the United States Armed Forces.
2011 – Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, imprisoned by the United States on charges of disclosing government information to the general public, is found competent to stand trial by a “panel of experts.”
2013 – NASA extends its contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency, paying $424 million for the RKA to deliver and receive astronauts shuttled to the ISS thru 2016.
2014 – Top officials at the Phoenix VA falsely deny the existence of a secret appointment waiting list.
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/april-30/
