From Historynet: Today in History March 30

1492          King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella  sign a decree expelling all Jews from Spain.

1840          "Beau" Brummell , the English dandy and former favorite of the prince regent, dies in a French lunatic asylum for paupers.

1858          Hyman L. Lipman  of Philadelphia patents the pencil with an eraser attached on one end.

1867          Russian Baron Stoeckl  and 

U.S. Secretary of State Seward  complete the draft of a treaty ceding Alaska to the United States. The treaty is signed the following day.

1870          The 15th amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, passes.

1870          President U.S. Grant  signs bill readmitting Texas to the Union, the last Confederate state readmitted.

1885          In Afghanistan, Russian troops inflict a crushing defeat on Afghan forces, despite orders not to fight.

1909          The Queensboro Bridge in New York opens. It is the first double decker bridge and links Manhattan and Queens.

1916          Mexican bandit Pancho Villa  kills 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.

1936          Britain announces a naval construction program of 38 warships. This is the largest construction program in 15 years.

1941          The German Afrika Korps under 

General Erwin Rommel  begins its first offensive against British forces in Libya.

1943          Rodgers and Hammerstein's  first collaboration, Oklahoma, opens on Broadway.

1944          The U.S. fleet attacks Palau, near the Philippines.

1945          The Red Army advances into Austria.

1946          The Allies seize 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.

1950          President Harry S Truman  denounces Senator Joe McCarthy  as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.

1957          Tunisia and Morocco sign a friendship treaty in Rabat.

1972          Hanoi launches its heaviest attack in four years, crossing the DMZ.

1975          As the North Vietnamese forces move toward Saigon, desperate South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets.

1981          President Ronald Reagan  is shot and wounded in Washington, D.C. by 

John W. Hinckley Jr .

1987          Vincent Van Gogh's  Sunflowers is bought for $39.85 million.