April 1
is the
91st day of the year (92nd in
leap years) in the
Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining.
*
527 -
Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew
Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne.
*
1318 -
Berwick-upon-Tweed is captured by the
Scottish from the
English.
*
1572 - in the
Eighty Years' War, the
Watergeuzen capture
Brielle from the
Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the
Dutch Republic.
*
1789 - In
New York City, the
United States House of Representatives holds its first quorum and elects
Frederick Muhlenberg of
Pennsylvania as its first
House Speaker.
*
1826 -
Samuel Morey patents the
internal combustion engine.
*
1854 -
Hard Times begins serialisation in
Charles Dickens magazine,
Household Words.
*
1857 -
Herman Melville publishes
The Confidence-Man.
*
1865 -
American Civil War:
Battle of Five Forks - In
Petersburg, Virginia,
Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.
*
1867 -
Singapore becomes a
British crown colony.
*
1868 -
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute is established in
Hampton, Virginia.
*
1873 - The
British steamer
SS Atlantic sinks off
Nova Scotia, killing 547.
*
1891 - The
Wrigley Company is founded in
Chicago, Illinois.
*
1893 - The
United States Navy rank of
Chief Petty Officer is created.
*
1918 - The
Royal Flying Corps is replaced by the
Royal Air Force.
*
1924 -
Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in
jail for his participation in the "
Beer Hall Putsch." However, he spends only nine months in jail, during which he writes the book
Mein Kampf.
* 1924 - First revenue flight for
Belgium's
Sabena Airlines
*
1933 - The recently elected
Nazis under
Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all
Jewish-owned businesses in
Germany, ushering in the series of
anti-Semitic acts that will be known as the
Holocaust.
*
1934 -
Bonnie and Clyde kill two young highway patrolmen near
Grapevine, Texas.
*
1937 -
Aden becomes a
British crown colony.
*
1939 -
GeneralÃsimo Francisco Franco of the
Spanish State announced the end of the
Spanish Civil War, when the last of the
Republican forces surrendered.
*
1941 - The
Blockade Runner Badge for
German navy is instituted.
*
1944 - Accidental
American bombing of the
Swiss city of
Schaffhausen. The bombers were lost.
*
1945 -
World War II:
Operation Iceberg -
United States troops land on
Okinawa in the last campaign of the war.
*
1946 -
Aleutian Island earthquake: A 7.8 magnitude
earthquake near the
Aleutian Islands creates a
tsunami that strikes the
Hawaiian Islands killing 159 (mostly in
Hilo, Hawaii).
* 1946 - Formation of the
Malayan Union.
*
1948 -
Cold War:
Berlin Airlift -
Military forces, under direction of the
Soviet-controlled
government in
East Germany, set-up a land blockade of
West Berlin.
* 1948 -
Faroe Islands receive
autonomy from
Denmark.
*
1949 -
Chinese Civil War:
Communist Party of China hold unsuccessful peace talks with the
Kuomintang in
Beijing, after three years of fighting.
* 1949 - The twenty-six counties of the
Irish Free State become the
Republic of Ireland.
*
1954 -
President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the
United States Air Force Academy in
Colorado.
*
1955 - The
EOKA rebellion starts in
Cyprus, aiming at the island´s independence from
Great Britain.
*
1963 - The debut of the long running soap opera
General Hospital on
ABC-TV which is still on the air today, while on rival
NBC debuted
The Doctors which last until
1982.
*
1967 - The
United States Department of Transportation begins operation.
*
1969 - The
Hawker-Siddeley Harrier enters service with the
RAF.
*
1970 -
Phil Spector finishes the orchestral
overdubs for the upcoming
Beatles album,
Let It Be, including the songs "
Let It Be", "
Across the Universe", and "
The Long and Winding Road". This causes controversy among
Beatles fans who feel that
Phil Spector has overproduced the
album.
* 1970 -
President Richard Nixon signs the
Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring surgeon general's warnings on tobacco products and banning
cigarette advertisements on
television and
radio in the
United States starting on
January 1,
1971.
* 1970 -
American Motors introduces the
Gremlin.
*
1973 -
Project Tiger, a
tiger conservation project, is launched in the
Corbett National Park,
India.
*
1974 - In the
United Kingdom, new
administrative counties come into being.
*
1976 -
Apple Computer Company is formed by
Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak.
* 1976 -
Conrail takes over operations from six bankrupt railroads in the
northeastern U.S..
*
1979 -
Iran's
government becomes an
Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the
Shah officially.
*
1980 -
New York City's
Transit Worker Union 100 goes on
strike, lasting 11 days.
*
1981 -
Daylight saving time is introduced in the
USSR.
*
1985 -
Villanova defeats
Georgetown in one of the biggest upsets in sports history for the national championship in college basketball at
Rupp Arena in
Lexington, Kentucky.
*
1999 -
Nunavut is established as a
Canadian territory carved from the eastern part of the
Northwest Territories.
*
2001 - An
EP-3E United States Navy plane collides with a
Chinese People's Liberation Army fighter jet. The
Navy crew makes an emergency landing in
Hainan,
People's Republic of China and is detained. See
Hainan Island incident.
* 2001 - Former
president of
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police
special forces, to be tried on charges of
war crimes.
* 2001 - The first legal
same-sex marriage in the Netherlands is celebrated.
*
2002 - The
Netherlands legalizes
euthanasia, becoming the only nation in the world to do so.
*
2004 -
George W. Bush signs the
Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which makes an attack that leads to the death of a mother and her
unborn child two criminal charges.
* 2004 - The first legal
same-sex marriage in the Canadian province of
Quebec:
Michael Hendricks and René Leboeuf wed in
Montreal.
* 2004 -
Gmail, an email service from
Google launches.
*
2006 - The
Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed the 'British FBI', is created in the
United Kingdom.
*
1220 -
Emperor Go-Saga of Japan (d.
1272)
*
1543 -
François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières, Constable of France (d.
1626)
*
1578 -
William Harvey, English physician (d.
1657)
*
1610 -
Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier (d.
1703)
*
1640 -
Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (d.
1697)
*
1647 -
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet (d.
1680)
*
1732 -
Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (d.
1809)
*
1765 -
Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver (d.
1810)
*
1776 -
Sophie Germain, French mathematician (d.
1831)
*
1815 -
Otto von Bismarck, 1st
Chancellor of the
German Empire (d.
1898)
* 1815 -
Edward Clark, Governor of Texas (d.
1880)
*
1834 -
Big Jim Fisk, American entrepreneur (d.
1872)
*
1854 -
Bill Traylor, American artist (d.
1949)
*
1856 -
Acacio Gabriel Viegas, Indian physician (d.
1933)
*
1865 -
Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-born chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1929)
*
1866 -
Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist and composer (d.
1924)
*
1868 -
Edmond Rostand, French dramatist (d.
1918)
*
1873 (
N.S.) -
Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer, pianist, and conductor (d.
1943)
*
1875 -
Edgar Wallace, English writer (d.
1932)
*
1883 -
Lon Chaney, Sr., American actor (d.
1930)
*
1885 -
Wallace Beery, American actor (d.
1949)
*
1895 -
Alberta Hunter, American singer (d.
1984)
*
1897 -
Nita Naldi, American actress (d.
1961)
*
1898 -
William James Sidis, eccentric genius and child prodigy (d.
1944)
*
1899 -
Gustavs Celmins, Latvian politician (d.
1968)
*
1900 -
Robert McDowell, Mayor of
Maryborough, Queensland (d.
1988)
*
1901 -
Whittaker Chambers, American writer, editor, and defector (d.
1961)
*
1906 -
Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer and airplane designer (d.
1989)
*
1908 -
Abraham Maslow, American psychologist (d.
1970)
*
1915 -
Otto Wilhelm Fischer, Austrian actor (d.
2004)
*
1919 -
Joseph Murray, American surgeon, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine*
1920 -
Toshiro Mifune, Japanese actor (d.
1997)
*
1922 -
William Manchester, American writer (d.
2004)
*
1924 -
Brendan Byrne, Governor of New Jersey
*
1926 -
Charles Bressler, American tenor
* 1926 -
Anne McCaffrey, American author
*
1928 -
George Grizzard, American actor
*
1929 -
Milan Kundera, Czech writer
* 1929 -
Jane Powell, American dancer, actress, and singer
* 1929 -
Bo Schembechler, American football coach
* 1929 -
Payut Ngaokrachang, Thai animator
*
1930 -
Grace Lee Whitney, American actress
*
1931 -
Rolf Hochhuth, German writer
*
1932 -
Gordon Jump, American television actor (d.
2003)
* 1932 -
Debbie Reynolds, American actress
*
1933 -
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, French physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1934 -
Don Hastings, American television actor
* 1934 -
Rod Kanehl, baseball player (d.
2004)
*
1935 -
Larry McDonald, American politician (d.
1983)
*
1938 -
Ali MacGraw, American actress
* 1938 -
John Quade, American actor
*
1939 -
Phil Niekro, American baseball pitcher
*
1940 -
Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize*
1942 -
Samuel R. Delany, American author
* 1942 -
Annie Nightingale, British disc jockey
*
1944 -
Rusty Staub, Major League Baseball player
*
1946 -
Ronnie Lane, British musician (
The Small Faces and
The Faces) (d.
1997)
*
1947 -
Alain Connes, French mathematician
* 1947 -
Norm Van Lier, former NBA basketball player
*
1948 -
Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican musician
*
1949 -
Gérard Mestrallet, French businessman
* 1949 -
Gil Scott-Heron, American musician and composer
* 1949 -
Sammy Nelson, Northern Irish footballer
*
1950 -
Samuel Alito, Associate Justice of the
United States Supreme Court*
1952 -
Annette O'Toole, American actress
*
1953 -
Barry Sonnenfeld, producer and director
*
1964 -
Erik Breukink, Dutch cyclist and manager
* 1964 -
Scott Stevens, Canadian ice hockey player
*
1965 -
Mark Jackson, American basketball player
* 1965 -
Robert Steadman, English composer
*
1970 -
Sung Hi Lee, Korean-born model
*
1971 -
Method Man, American musician
*
1972 -
Allen and Albert Hughes, American film directors
* 1972 -
Jesse Tobias, American Musician
*
1973 -
Christian Finnegan, American comedian
* 1973 -
Stephen Fleming, New Zealand cricketer
*
1974 -
Richard Christy, American drummer and sidekick of
Howard Stern*
1975 -
George Bastl, Swiss tennis player
*
1976 -
Clarence Seedorf, Surinamese-Dutch footballer
*
1980 -
Randy Orton, American professional wrestler
* 1980 -
YÅ«ko Takeuchi, Japanese actress
*
1981 -
Hannah Spearritt, British singer (
S Club 7)
*
1982 -
Sam Huntington, American actor
*
1983 -
Ã"lafur Ingi Skúlason, Icelandic footballer
* 1983 -
Sean Taylor, American football player
* 1983 -
Franck Ribery, French footballer
*
1984 -
Olga Rei, Russian TV personality
*
1085 -
Emperor Shenzong of China (b.
1048)
*
1204 -
Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of
Henry II of England*
1205 - King
Amalric II of Jerusalem (b.
1145)
*
1528 -
Francisco de Peñalosa, Spanish composer
*
1580 -
Alonso Mudarra, Spanish composer
*
1621 -
Cristofano Allori, Italian painter (b.
1577)
*
1637 -
Niwa Nagashige, Japanese warlord (b.
1571)
*
1682 -
Franz Egon of Fürstenberg, Bishop of Strassburg (b.
1625)
*
1684 -
Roger Williams, English theologian and colonist (b.
1603)
*
1787 -
Floyer Sydenham, English classical scholar (b.
1710)
*
1815 -
Otto von Bismark, Chancellor of Germany (1862 - 1890) (b.
1815)
*
1839 -
Benjamin Pierce, Governor of New Hampshire (b.
1757)
*
1872 -
Frederick Maurice, English theologian (b.
1805)
*
1878 -
John Corry Wilson Daly, Canadian politician (b.
1796)
*
1914 -
Rube Waddell, baseball player (b.
1876)
*
1917 -
Scott Joplin, American musician and composer (b.
1868)
*
1922 - Emperor
Karl I of Austria (b.
1887)
*
1946 -
Noah Beery, American actor (b.
1882)
*
1947 - King
George II of Greece (b.
1890)
*
1950 -
Charles R. Drew, American physician (b.
1904)
*
1965 -
Helena Rubinstein, cosmetic manufacturer (b.
1870)
*
1966 -
Flann O'Brien, Irish humorist (b.
1911)
*
1968 -
Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1908)
*
1976 -
Max Ernst, German artist (b.
1891)
*
1984 -
Marvin Gaye, American singer (b.
1939)
*
1986 -
Erik Bruhn, Danish ballet dancer, choreographer (b.
1928)
*
1988 -
Jim Jordan, American actor (Fibber McGee) (b.
1896)
*
1991 -
Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (b.
1894)
*
1993 -
Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (b.
1954)
*
1998 -
Rozz Williams, American musician (
Christian Death) (b.
1963)
* 1998 -
Gene Evans, American actor (b.
1922)
*
2001 -
Olivia Barclay, British astrologer (b.
1919)
* 2001 -
Trinh Cong Son, Vietnamese composer (b.
1939)
* 2001 -
Jo-Jo Moore, baseball player (b.
1908)
*
2003 -
Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong actor and singer (b.
1956)
*
2004 -
Carrie Snodgress, American actress (b.
1946)
*
2005 -
Harald Juhnke, German entertainer (b.
1929)
* 2005 -
Jack Keller, songwriter (leukemia) (b.
1936)
* 2005 -
Robert Coldwell Wood, American university president and political appointee (b.
1923)
*
2006 -
In Tam, Cambodian politician (b.
1916)
* April 1 is known as
April Fool's Day or All Fools' Day in many countries.
* Last day of the
Assyrian New Year Celebration
*
Roman Empire -
Veneralia celebrated to honor
Venus.
*
Japan - The official start of school years in most universities and schools. Also, the official
First Day of Work at companies and offices for new university graduates hires, marked by welcoming ceremonies and speeches.
*
Canada - Beginning of government's
fiscal year.
*
India - Start of
financial year.
*
Orissa - a state in eastern
India celebrates "Utkal Divas", its statehood day.
*
Brielle celebrates victory of
1572 over
Spaniards.
* In
San Marino, two
Captains Regent, elected by
Parliament, take office for six months.
*
International Day of the Birds.
* In
England and Wales, local government reorganisations traditionally happen on April 1.
*
Pigasus Award announcement.
On the
Roman Catholic Church calendar:
*
Saint Hugh of Grenoble*
Saint Waleric*
Saint Jacoba*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This Day*
On This Day in Canada*
Epic Idiot: On This DayMarch 31 -
April 2 -
March 1 -
May 1 â€"
listing of all days
