On 30 April 1975 North Vietnamese tanks rolled through the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon, and South Vietnam's president, Duong Van Minh, surrendered, effectively ending the Vietnam War. Hours earlier the last U.S. Marines had left the embassy roof by helicopter. On the same date in 1863 Hooker's Union army reached Chancellorsville.
The fall of Saigon, 1975: the last helicopters and the end of the Vietnam War
30 April 1975 · 51 years ago
North Vietnamese forces and the Viet Cong entered Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, hours after a mass evacuation of Americans and South Vietnamese civilians. President Duong Van Minh surrendered unconditionally the same day, ending the Vietnam War and South Vietnam itself.
Read the full story of The fall of Saigon, 1975: the last helicopters and the end of the Vietnam War ›The Battle of Chancellorsville, 1863: Lee's perfect battle
30 April to 6 May 1863 · 163 years ago
At Chancellorsville, from 30 April to 6 May 1863, Robert E. Lee won what many historians call his greatest victory, beating a Union army under Joseph Hooker that was more than twice the size of his own.
Read the full story of The Battle of Chancellorsville, 1863: Lee's perfect battle ›Also on this day
1863: on the Mississippi, Ulysses S. Grant's army crossed the river and landed at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. C. A. Dana reported to Secretary of War E. M. Stanton at 2 p.m. that three divisions "were landed safely without opposition at Bruinsburg, Miss., at the mouth of Bayou Pierre, at 11 a. m. to-day". Grant later wrote: "When this was effected I felt a degree of relief scarcely ever equalled since". The campaign is told in our article on Vicksburg.1
