Unix Timestamp: 1048982400
Sunday, March 30. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Sega's final video game system, the Dreamcast, was officially discontinued (Note that the video game system was discontinued four days earlier.)

A police officer tries to assassinate Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of the National Police Agency of Japan.

Cold War: After its first free elections during the Soviet era on March 18, Estonia declares Soviet rule to have been illegal since 1940.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John Hinckley, Jr. Two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded.

The last British soldier (belonging to the Royal Navy) leaves the Maltese Islands, after 179 years of presence. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).

The Pinwheel Network changes its name to Nickelodeon and begins airing on various Warner Cable systems beginning in Buffalo, New York, expanding its audience reach.

Gali Atari and Milk and Honey win the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 for Israel, with the song "Hallelujah".

Airey Neave, World War II veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the British House of Commons car park.

Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.

Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.

Merv Griffin's game show "Jeopardy!" debuts on NBC Art Fleming is its first host.

Indigenous Australians legally allowed to drink alcohol in New South Wales."Tracker", Footprints Tracker, August 2012, p. 46.

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.

The U.S. Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorize the founding of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado

April - Bill Haley The Comets record Rock Around The Clock thus starting the Rock and Roll craze.

The first operational subway line in Canada opens in Toronto, Ontario.

South Point School (India) was founded that would grow to the largest school in the world by 1992.

Alger Hiss congratulated in Moscow for his part in bringing positions of Western powers and the USSR closer to each other at the Yalta Conference.

The Red Army pushes most of the Axis forces out of Hungary and into Austria.

A German Lorenz cipher machine operator sends a 4,000-character message twice, allowing British mathematician Bill Tutte to decipher the machine's coding mechanism.//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8492762.stm BBC

All German, Italian, and Danish ships anchored in United States waters are taken into protective custody.

The independence of Poland is recognized.

France establishes a protectorate over Morocco.

Rudolf Diesel patents the Diesel engine in Germany.

The Battle for Kushka triggers the Panjdeh Incident, which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.

Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million from Alexander II of Russia, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The news media call this Seward's Folly.

Prince Wilhelm George of Denmark is elected by the Hellenic Parliament as George, King of the Hellenes he will reign in Greece for fifty years.

Discovery of the chemical elements: Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of Thallium.

Hyman Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.

Elections are held for the first Kansas Territory legislature. Missourians cross the border in large numbers to elect a pro-slavery body.

April ndash The Nepalese invasion of Tibet starts the Nepalese-Tibetan War (1855-1856).

Due to different transition dates to the Gregorian calendar, Finland (then part of the Russian Empire) is the only place in the world to have Easter day on this particular Sunday.

Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation (Dr. Crawford Long performed the operation using ether).

Napoleonic Wars: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris.

Carl Gauss obtains conditions for the constructibility by ruler and compass of regular polygons, and is able to announce that the regular 17-gon is constructible by ruler and compasses.

2nd performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's ""'St. John Passion""' BWV 245 (including 5 movements from his ""'Weimarer Passion""') at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig.

Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.

Edward I storms Berwick-upon-Tweed, sacking the then Scottish border town with much bloodshed. He slaughters most residents, including those who flee to the churches.

The Sicilian rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers begins against the rule of Angevin King Charles I of Sicily over the next 6 weeks, thousands of French are killed. The rebellion forces Charles to abandon the Ninth Crusade while still en route to the target city of Constantinople, and allows King Peter III of Aragon to take over rule of the island from Charles (which in turn leads to Peter's excommunication by Pope Martin IV).

Saint Ludger becomes the first Bishop of Munster.

Basil of Caesarea becomes presbyter of Caesarea.

Sixteen Kingdoms: Jin Feidi, age 23, succeeds his brother Jin Aidi as emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He has no actual power, governmental matters are largely in the hands of his granduncle Sima Yu.

Emperor Valens orders the expulsion of the Alexandrian bishop Athanasius from his see, but instead of going into exile Athanasius, now about 67, moves to the outskirts of Alexandria.

Antipope Felix II dies after a 9-year reign, ending the double occupancy of the papacy.