Under Thursday, March 30, the book of history records, among other things:
1723: Vaud’s hero of freedom, Major Jean Abraham Davel, attempts to liberate Vaud in western Switzerland from Bernese rule. After the uprising failed, he was captured and executed on May 24.
1863: Schleswig is incorporated into Denmark by a patent of King Frederick VII, Holstein and Lauenburg are separated from the state as a whole.
1863: The Greek National Assembly elects the Danish Prince William, second son of King Christian IX, as George I as King of the Hellenes. He succeeds the Wittelsbacher Otto I, who was expelled in 1862.
1888: In Austria, the government of Prime Minister Count Eduard Taaffe enacts the Workers’ Health Insurance Act. It is the second important work of social legislation after the creation of the trade inspectorates in 1883.
1933: The Dollfuss government orders the dissolution of the Republican Protection Association of Social Democracy throughout Austria. In return, Vienna’s mayor and governor Seitz bans the home guards in his state.
1948: The Pan-American Conference in Bogotá cannot agree on a unified position on the question of European colonial possessions.
1953: The Yugoslav authorities reverse the forced collectivization of agriculture.
1958: With the Vienna-London route, Austrian Airlines (AUA) is opening its first airline.
1968: The Czechoslovak National Assembly elects General Ludvik Svoboda to succeed Antonín Novotný as President.
1978: Chancellor Kreisky is the first non-communist European head of government to visit the German Democratic Republic.
1983: The new German federal cabinet under Helmut Kohl is sworn in.
1988: Two military planes crash in Germany within 24 hours. A French Mirage crashes in the immediate vicinity of the Ohu I and II nuclear power plants at Niederaichbach near Landshut. The pilot dies.
1993: The government in Skopje objects to the provisional name FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), under which the sovereign republic is being admitted to the UN because of Greek reservations.
2003: Iraq War: Heavy fighting breaks out near Basra between British invasion forces and Iraqi defenders. The US is concentrating its attacks on Saddam Hussein’s elite units of the “Republican Guard” in Baghdad.
2008: After the elections in the African crisis country Zimbabwe, a serious conflict is looming over the outcome of the vote. While the opposition declares itself the winner, the controversial, authoritarian long-term President Robert Mugabe is also confident of victory.
2008: The French architect Jean Nouvel (62) is awarded the renowned Pritzker Prize. In Vienna, Nouvel has, among other things, converted one of the gasometers, and he is constructing a multifunctional building on the Danube Canal on behalf of UNIQA Insurance.
2008: The first part of the “Open Skies Agreement” between the European Union and the United States comes into force. It allows EU airlines to fly to any US city from any EU airport. Domestic routes in the US may not yet be served.
birthdays: Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (1853-1890); Frankie Laine, US singer (1913-2007); Herbert Asmodi, German writer (1923-2007); Thomas Ridley Sharpe, British writer (1928-2013); Jean-Claude Brialy, French film actor (1933-2007); Rudolf Taschner, Austria physicist/mathematician (1953); Celine Dion, Canada. singer (1968); Jan Koller, Czech ex-soccer player (1973).
days of death: Rudolf Walter Leonhardt, German journalist (1921-2003); Hilde Alexander (née Haagen), Austrian actress, manager and wife of Peter Alexander (1922-2003); Phil Ramone, US-South AFR. music producer (1934-2013); Dith Pran, Cambodia. Journalist (“The Killing Fields”) (1942-2008); Javier López Peña, Basque. Separatist (1948-2013).
name days: Amadeus, Roswitha, Quirin, Dietmut, Patto, Widow, Guido, Bodo, Johannes, Angela, Gregor.