March 30 Birthday
March 30, 1981: President Reagan was shot outside the Washington Hilton by John Hinckley Jr., a twenty-five-year-old who believed the assassination would impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed after seeing her in Taxi Driver. Hinckley fired six shots in 1.7 seconds. One ricocheted off the presidential limousine and struck Reagan under the left arm. The bullet lodged an inch from his heart. Reagan lost more than half his blood. He told the surgeons, "Please tell me you're Republicans." A surgeon replied, "Today, Mr. President, we're all Republicans." Reagan was seventy — the oldest president. His recovery took three months. He used the assassination attempt to project strength and humor, and his approval ratings rose. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric hospital. He was released in 2016. The United States purchased Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million — about two cents per acre. Secretary of State William Seward negotiated the purchase. Russia was willing to sell because it could not defend Alaska in a potential war with Britain and because the fur trade had depleted. The Senate approved the treaty by a single vote. The purchase was widely mocked as "Seward's Folly," "Seward's Icebox," and "Johnson's Polar Bear Garden." The discovery of gold in 1896 and oil in 1968 proved the skeptics wrong. Alaska's strategic value became apparent during World War II, when the Japanese occupied two Aleutian islands. Alaska became a state in 1959. Crawford Long used ether as a surgical anesthetic for the first time on March 30, 1842, in Jefferson, Georgia. He removed a tumor from the neck of James Venable, who felt no pain. Long did not publish his discovery until 1849, by which time William Morton had publicly demonstrated ether anesthesia in Boston and was widely credited with the discovery. Long was a country doctor who had noticed that ether frolics — parties where people inhaled ether for amusement — left participants insensible to injury. His use of ether predates Morton's by four years, but his failure to publish cost him the credit. March 30 is now National Doctors' Day in the United States, in his honor. Vincent van Gogh, born this day in 1853, sold one painting during his lifetime — The Red Vineyard, for 400 francs. He painted over 2,100 works in ten years. He cut off his left ear (not the whole ear, just the lobe) after an argument with Paul Gauguin. He shot himself in a wheat field in July 1890 and died two days later. He was thirty-seven. His brother Theo, who had supported him financially and emotionally, died six months later. People born on March 30 fall under the zodiac sign of Aries. The birthstone is Aquamarine and the birth flower is Daffodil. Historical events on March 30 include 1842: Ether anesthesia first used in surgery by Dr. Crawford Long, 1867: US purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million ("Seward's Folly"), 1981: President Reagan shot and seriously wounded by John Hinckley Jr.. Famous people born on March 30 include Vincent van Gogh (1853), Warren Beatty (1937), Eric Clapton (1945).