1897 129 years ago Selected Events April 30 2 sources

British physicist J. J. Thomson and his team announce the discovery of the electron.

On April 30, in the year 1897, British physicist J. J. Thomson and his team announce the discovery of the electron. This event is recorded as a Selected Events event in the history of April 30, one of 418 recorded events on this date across all of history.

Sir Joseph John Thomson was a British physicist. He received the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics "in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases." In 1897, he showed that cathode rays were composed of previously unknown negatively charged particles, which he calculated must have bodies much smaller than atoms and a very large charge-to-mass ratio. The electron was the first subatomic particle to be discovered.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on April 30, 1897 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Selected Events event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 2 Wikipedia articles.
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 3 April 2026.

On This Date in History 418

Type Year Date Event
Notable Deaths 2024 Apr 30 Paul Auster, American writer and film director (born 1947)
Notable Deaths 2023 Apr 30 Jock Zonfrillo, Scottish television presenter and chef (born 1976)
Notable Deaths 2022 Apr 30 Naomi Judd, American singer-songwriter and actress (born 1946)
Notable Deaths 2022 Apr 30 Mino Raiola, Italian football agent (born 1967)
Historical Events 2021 Apr 30 Forty-five men and boys are killed in the Meron stampede in Israel
Notable Deaths 2021 Apr 30 Anthony Payne, English composer (born 1936)
Selected Events 2021 Apr 30 A crowd crush killed 45 people during the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Israel
Notable Deaths 2020 Apr 30 Tony Allen, Nigerian drummer and composer (born 1940)
Notable Deaths 2020 Apr 30 Rishi Kapoor, Indian actor, film director and producer (born 1952)
Notable Deaths 2019 Apr 30 Peter Mayhew, English-American actor (born 1944)
Notable Deaths 2017 Apr 30 Belchior, Brazilian singer and composer (born 1946)
Notable Deaths 2016 Apr 30 Daniel Berrigan, American priest and activist (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2016 Apr 30 Harry Kroto, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1939)
Notable Deaths 2015 Apr 30 Ben E
Historical Events 2014 Apr 30 A bomb blast in Ürümqi, China kills three people and injures 79 others
Notable Deaths 2014 Apr 30 Khaled Choudhury, Indian painter and set designer (born 1919)
Notable Deaths 2014 Apr 30 Julian Lewis, English biologist and academic (born 1946)
Notable Deaths 2014 Apr 30 Carl E
Notable Deaths 2014 Apr 30 Ian Ross, Australian journalist (born 1940)
Selected Events 2014 Apr 30 A bomb blast in Ürümqi, China, killed three people and injured 79 others
Historical Events 2013 Apr 30 Willem-Alexander is inaugurated as King of the Netherlands following the abdication of Beatrix
Notable Deaths 2013 Apr 30 Roberto Chabet, Filipino painter and sculptor (born 1937)
Notable Deaths 2013 Apr 30 Shirley Firth, Canadian skier (born 1953)
Notable Deaths 2013 Apr 30 Viviane Forrester, French author and critic (born 1925)
Historical Events 2012 Apr 30 An overloaded ferry capsizes on the Brahmaputra River in India killing at least 108 people
Notable Deaths 2012 Apr 30 Tomás Borge, Nicaraguan poet and politician, co-founded the Sandinista National Liberation Front (born 1930)
Notable Deaths 2012 Apr 30 Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer (born 1985)
Notable Deaths 2012 Apr 30 Giannis Gravanis, Greek footballer (born 1958)
Notable Deaths 2012 Apr 30 Benzion Netanyahu, Russian-Israeli historian and academic (born 1910)
Notable Deaths 2011 Apr 30 Dorjee Khandu, Indian politician, 6th Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh (born 1955)
Notable Deaths 2011 Apr 30 Evald Okas, Estonian painter (born 1915)
Notable Deaths 2011 Apr 30 Ernesto Sabato, Argentinian physicist, author, and painter (born 1911)
Historical Events 2009 Apr 30 Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Historical Events 2009 Apr 30 Seven civilians and the perpetrator are killed and another ten injured at a Queen's Day parade in Apeldoorn, Netherlands
Notable Deaths 2009 Apr 30 Henk Nijdam, Dutch cyclist (born 1935)
Selected Events 2009 Apr 30 A Dutch man drove his car at high speed into a parade in an attempt to kill the Dutch royal family
Historical Events 2008 Apr 30 Two skeletal remains found near Yekaterinburg are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei and Anasta
Notable Deaths 2008 Apr 30 Juancho Evertsz, Dutch Antillean politician (born 1923)
Notable Deaths 2007 Apr 30 Kevin Mitchell, American football player (born 1971)
Notable Deaths 2007 Apr 30 Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk, Inuk writer (born 1931)
Notable Deaths 2007 Apr 30 Tom Poston, American actor, comedian, and game show panelist (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2007 Apr 30 Gordon Scott, American film and television actor (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2006 Apr 30 Jean-François Revel, French philosopher (born 1924)
Notable Deaths 2006 Apr 30 Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesian author and academic (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2005 Apr 30 Phil Rasmussen, American lieutenant and pilot (born 1918)
Historical Events 2004 Apr 30 U
Selected Events 2004 Apr 30 The New Yorker published an online article and photographs detailing accounts of torture and abuse by American military
Notable Births 2003 Apr 30 Emily Carey, British actress
Notable Births 2003 Apr 30 Jung Yun-seok, South Korean actor
Notable Deaths 2003 Apr 30 Mark Berger, American economist and academic (born 1955)

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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