Tidbits of History, March 30

International Folding Laundry Day
National Doctors Day
I Am In Control Day – “As of now, I am in control here in the White House.” Those are the words of Secretary of State Alexander Haig on March 30, 1981, after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

Birthday of Goya (Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes) (March 30, 1746), Spanish romantic painter, regarded as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. See My Modern Met.com for a sample of Goya’s art including the clothed and the nude maja (a person from Madrid’s lower classes).

Congress combined East & West Florida into Florida Territory in 1822.

Ether anesthesia was used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long to remove a tumor from the neck of a patient on March 30, 1842.

Vincent Van Gogh, born March 30, 1853Birthday of Vincent Willem van Gogh (March 30, 1853), Dutch post- impressionist painter. See Wikiart.org for examples of Van Gogh’s art.

Seward’s Day in Alaska honoring the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. United States Secretary of State Seward agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million on March 30, 1867.

1870 – 15th Amendment passed, guarantees right to vote regardless of race:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

1870 – Texas becomes last confederate state readmitted to Union

1981 – President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr. Also wounded were White House press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and a District of Columbia police officer, Thomas Delahanty.

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