Today’s highlight

On April 30, 1975, the Vietnam War ended as the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces.

On this date

1789: George Washington took the oath of office at Federal Hall in New York as the first president of the United States.

1803: The United States completed its purchase of the 828,000 square-mile Louisiana Territory from France for 60 million francs, the equivalent of about $15 million at the time.

1945: As Soviet troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler took his own life, as did Eva Braun, whom Hitler married the previous day.

1993: Top-ranked women’s tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a match in Hamburg, Germany, by a man who described himself as a fan of second-ranked German player Steffi Graf.

1993: The European Organization for Nuclear Research announced that the World Wide Web, which was invented at CERN four years earlier by Tim Berners-Lee, was free for anyone to use, and released its source code to the public domain.

2019: Japan’s 85-year-old Emperor Akihito abdicated his throne, ending his three-decade reign; his son Crown Prince Naruhito ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Today’s birthdays

Filmmaker Jane Campion is 72. Basketball Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas is 65. Actor Johnny Galecki is 51. Actor Kunal Nayyar is 45. Actor Kirsten Dunst is 44. Basketball Hall of Famer Seimone Augustus is 42. Actor Gal Gadot is 41. Rapper-producer Travis Scott is 35. Actor Emily Carey is 23.