This Day in History: Iranians voted overwhelmingly in favour of establishing an Islamic Republic

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 30:

1950 – The French statesman Leon Blum died. France’s first socialist premier, he presided over the Popular Front coalition government in 1936-37.

1979 – An IRA car bomb killed Airey Neave, spokesman on Northern Ireland for Britain’s opposition Conservatives, in the car park of the House of Commons in London.

1979 – The people of Iran voted overwhelmingly in a referendum in favour of establishing an Islamic Republic.

1981 – President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest by would-be assassin John Hinckley as he left a Washington hotel.

1986 – The U.S. screen actor James Cagney died. His films included “Public Enemy”, “Angels with Dirty Faces” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, for which he won an Oscar.

1995 – Pope John Paul II signs 11th encyclical calling for global non-violent opposition to abortion and euthanasia.

1996 – World cross country champion Paul Tergat celebrates new world half marathon record in Milan.

2001 – The British rower Jim Shekhdar became the first man to row unassisted across the Pacific Ocean. His boat was swamped just short of land and he had to swim ashore.

2002 – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, died aged 101. The widow of King George VI and mother of the reigning British sovereign was born in 1900 when Queen Victoria still reigned.

2003 – New York’s bars and restaurants became no-smoking zones.

2010 – Nissan announces world’s first mass produced electric car.

(Reuters)