2 April

Events

Pre-1600

* 1513 – Having spotted land on March 27, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León comes ashore on what is now the U.S. state of Florida, landing somewhere between the modern city of St. Augustine and the mouth of the St. Johns River.

1601–1900

* 1725 – J. S. Bach's cantata ''Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden'', BWV 6, is first performed in Leipzig on Easter Monday.
* 1755 – Commodore William James captures the Maratha fortress of Suvarnadurg on the west coast of India.
*1792 – The Coinage Act is passed by Congress, establishing the United States Mint.
*1800 – Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna.
* 1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: In the Battle of Copenhagen a British Royal Navy squadron defeats a hastily assembled, smaller, mostly-volunteer Dano-Norwegian Navy at high cost, forcing Denmark out of the Second League of Armed Neutrality.
*1863 – American Civil War: The largest in a series of Southern bread riots occurs in Richmond, Virginia.
*1865 – American Civil War: Defeat at the Third Battle of Petersburg forces the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate government to abandon Richmond, Virginia.
* 1885 – Canadian Cree warriors attack the village of Frog Lake, killing nine.

1901–present

* 1902 – Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated in the Mariinsky Palace, Saint Petersburg.
* 1902 – "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.
*1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country's first national census.
*1912 – The ill-fated begins sea trials.
*1917 – American entry into World War I: President Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
*1921 – The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established.
*1930 – After the mysterious death of Empress Zewditu, Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.
*1954 – A 19-month-old infant is swept up in the ocean tides at Hermosa Beach, California. Local photographer John L. Gaunt photographs the incident; 1955 Pulitzer winner " Tragedy by the Sea".
*1956 – ''As the World Turns'' and ''The Edge of Night'' premiere on CBS. The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.
*1964 – The Soviet Union launches Zond 1.
* 1969 – LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 crashes into the Polica mountain near Zawoja, Poland, killing 53.
*1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.
*1973 – Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.
*1975 – Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Quảng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
*1976 – Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.
*1979 – A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
*1980 – United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act.
*1982 – Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
* 1986 – Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist, best known for the " Stand in the Schoolhouse Door", announces that he will not seek a fifth four-year term and will retire from public life upon the end of his term in January 1987.
*1989 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana in an attempt to mend strained relations.
*1991 – Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
*1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
* 1992 – Forty-two civilians are massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
*2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, into which armed Palestinians had retreated.
*2004 – Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid; the attack is thwarted.
*2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; Tennessee is hardest hit with 29 people killed.
*2011 – India wins the Cricket World Cup for the second time in history under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
*2012 – A mass shooting at Oikos University in California leaves seven people dead and three injured.
*2012 – UTair Flight 120 crashes after takeoff from Roshchino International Airport in Tyumen, Russia, killing 33 and injuring 10.Translated article
(Note: this translation was made automatically from the original (in Russian) and has low technical quality, lends itself only to specific queries).
*2014 – A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, with four dead, including the gunman, and 16 others injured.
*2015 – Gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 148 people and wounding 79 others.
* 2015 – Four men steal items worth up to £200 million from an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden area in what has been called the "largest burglary in English legal history."
*2020 – COVID-19 pandemic: The total number of confirmed cases reach one million.
*2021 – At least 49 people are killed in a train derailment in Taiwan after a truck accidentally rolls onto the track.
* 2021 – A Capitol Police officer is killed and another injured when an attacker rams his car into a barricade outside the United States Capitol.
*2024 – Viertola school shooting: A 12-year-old pupil is killed and two others injured by a shooter of the same age in Vantaa, Finland.
*2025 – Liberation Day tariffs: U.S. President Donald Trump announces sweeping worldwide tariffs.

Births

Pre-1600

* 181 – Emperor Xian of Han, Chinese emperor (died 234)
* 747 – Charlemagne, Frankish king (died 814)
* 1473 – John Corvinus, Hungarian noble (died 1504)
* 1545 – Elisabeth of Valois (died 1568)
*1565 – Cornelis de Houtman, Dutch explorer (died 1599)
*1586 – Pietro Della Valle, Italian traveler (died 1652)

1601–1900

* 1602 – Mary of Jesus of Ágreda, Franciscan abbess (died 1665)
* 1618 – Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian mathematician and physicist (died 1663)
*1647 – Maria Sibylla Merian, German-Dutch botanist and illustrator (died 1717)
*1653 – Prince George of Denmark (died 1708)
* 1696 – Francesca Cuzzoni, Italian operatic soprano (died 1778)
* 1719 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (died 1803)
* 1725 – Giacomo Casanova, Italian explorer and author (died 1798)
* 1755 – Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, French lawyer and politician (died 1826)
*1788 – Francisco Balagtas, Filipino poet and author (died 1862)
* 1788 – Wilhelmine Reichard, German balloonist (died 1848)
*1789 – Lucio Norberto Mansilla, Argentinian general and politician (died 1871)
*1792 – Francisco de Paula Santander, Colombian general and politician, 4th President of the Republic of the New Granada (died 1840)
*1798 – August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet and academic (died 1874)
*1805 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (died 1875)
*1814 – Henry L. Benning, American general and judge (died 1875)
* 1814 – Erastus Brigham Bigelow, American inventor (died 1879)
*1827 – William Holman Hunt, English soldier and painter (died 1910)
* 1835 – Jacob Nash Victor, American engineer (died 1907)
*1838 – Léon Gambetta, French lawyer and politician, 45th Prime Minister of France (died 1882)
*1840 – Émile Zola, French novelist, playwright, journalist (died 1902)
*1841 – Clément Ader, French engineer, designed the Ader Avion III (died 1926)
* 1842 – Dominic Savio, Italian Catholic saint, adolescent student of Saint John Bosco (died 1857)
* 1861 – Iván Persa, Slovenian priest and author (died 1935)
*1862 – Nicholas Murray Butler, American philosopher and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1947)
*1869 – Hughie Jennings, American baseball player and manager (died 1928)
*1870 – Edmund Dwyer-Gray, Irish-Australian politician, 29th Premier of Tasmania (died 1945)R. P. Davis
'Dwyer-Gray, Edmund John Chisholm (1870–1945)'
, ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 8, Melbourne University Press, 1981, pp 390–391.
*1875 – Walter Chrysler, American businessman, founded Chrysler (died 1940)
* 1875 – William Donne, English cricketer and captain (died 1942)
*1884 – J. C. Squire, English poet, author, and historian (died 1958)
* 1888 – Neville Cardus, English cricket and music writer (died 1975)
* 1891 – Jack Buchanan, Scottish entertainer (died 1957)
* 1891 – Max Ernst, German painter, sculptor, and poet (died 1976)
* 1891 – Tristão de Bragança Cunha, Indian nationalist and anti-colonial activist from Goa (died 1958)
*1896 – Johnny Golden, American golfer (died 1936)
*1898 – Harindranath Chattopadhyay, Indian poet, actor and politician (died 1990)
* 1898 – Chiungtze C. Tsen, Chinese mathematician (died 1940)
*1900 – Roberto Arlt, Argentinian journalist, author, and playwright (died 1942)
* 1900 – Anis Fuleihan, Cypriot-American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1970)
* 1900 – Alfred Strange, English footballer (died 1978)

1901–present

* 1902 – Jan Tschichold, German-Swiss graphic designer and typographer (died 1974)
* 1902 – Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe (died 1994)
* 1903 – Lionel Chevrier, Canadian lawyer and politician, 27th Canadian Minister of Justice (died 1987)
*1906 – Alphonse-Marie Parent, Canadian priest and educator (died 1970)
*1907 – Harald Andersson, American-Swedish discus thrower (died 1985)
* 1907 – Luke Appling, American baseball player and manager (died 1991)
* 1908 – Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (died 2003)
*1910 – Paul Triquet, Canadian general, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1980)
* 1910 – Chico Xavier, Brazilian spiritual medium (died 2002)
*1914 – Alec Guinness, English actor (died 2000)
*1919 – Delfo Cabrera, Argentinian runner and soldier (died 1981)
*1920 – Gerald Bouey, Canadian lieutenant and civil servant (died 2004)
* 1920 – Jack Stokes, English animator and director (died 2013)
* 1920 – Jack Webb, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1982)
*1922 – John C. Whitehead, American banker and politician, 9th United States Deputy Secretary of State (died 2015)
*1923 – Gloria Henry, actress (died 2021)
* 1923 – Johnny Paton, Scottish footballer, coach, and manager (died 2015)
* 1923 – G. Spencer-Brown, English mathematician, psychologist, and author (died 2016)
* 1924 – Bobby Ávila, Mexican baseball player (died 2004)
*1925 – George MacDonald Fraser, Scottish author and screenwriter (died 2008)
* 1925 – Hans Rosenthal, German radio and television host (died 1987)
*1926 – Jack Brabham, Australian race car driver (died 2014)
* 1926 – Rudra Rajasingham, Sri Lankan police officer and diplomat (died 2006)
*1927 – Carmen Basilio, American boxer and soldier (died 2012)
* 1927 – Howard Callaway, American soldier and politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Army (died 2014)
* 1927 – Rita Gam, American actress (died 2016)
* 1927 – Billy Pierce, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 2015)
* 1927 – Kenneth Tynan, English author and critic (died 1980)
*1928 – Joseph Bernardin, American cardinal (died 1996)
* 1928 – Serge Gainsbourg, French singer-songwriter, actor, and director (died 1991)
* 1928 – Roy Masters, English-American radio host (died 2021)
* 1928 – David Robinson, Northern Irish horticulturist and academic (died 2004)
* 1929 – Ed Dorn, American poet and educator (died 1999)
*1930 – Roddy Maude-Roxby, English actor
*1931 – Keith Hitchins, American historian (died 2020)
* 1931 – Vladimir Kuznetsov, Russian javelin thrower (died 1986)
*1932 – Edward Egan, American cardinal (died 2015)
*1933 – György Konrád, Hungarian sociologist and author (died 2019)
*1934 – Paul Cohen, American mathematician and theorist (died 2007)
* 1934 – Brian Glover, English wrestler and actor (died 1997)
* 1934 – Carl Kasell, American journalist and game show host (died 2018)
* 1934 – Richard Portman, American sound engineer (died 2017)
* 1934 – Dovid Shmidel, Austrian-born Israeli rabbi
*1936 – Shaul Ladany, Serbian-Israeli race walker and engineer
*1937 – Dick Radatz, American baseball player (died 2005)
*1938 – John Larsson, Swedish 17th General of The Salvation Army (died 2022)
* 1938 – Booker Little

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