April 2

April 2 is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 273 days remaining.

Events

• 1453 – Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (İstanbul), which would fall on May 29
• 1513 – Juan Ponce de Leon sets foot on Florida becoming the first known European to do so.
• 1755 – Commodore William James captures pirate fortress of Severndroog on west coast of India.
• 1792 – The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
• 1800 – Manhattan Well Mystery: In New York City, the trial of Levi Weeks ends with an acquittal. Weeks was defended by Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
• 1801 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen – The British destroy the Danish fleet.
• 1863 – Richmond Bread Riots: Food shortages incite hundreds of angry women to riot in Richmond, Virginia and demand the Confederate government to release emergency supplies.
• 1865 – American Civil War: Siege of Petersburg broken – Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.
• 1865  – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
• 1902 – "Electric Theatre", the first movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.
• 1917 – World War I: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
• 1917  – The first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress, Jeannette Rankin, takes her seat as a representative from Montana.
• 1930 – Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.
• 1941 – The radio program Life of Riley aired for the first time.
• 1956 – General Motors board member Alfred P. Sloan steps down after 19 years as chairman with Albert Bradley as his successor.
• 1956  – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night first aired on the CBS network in the United States, as the first half-hour serial dramas.
• 1964 – The Saab board started Project Gudmund to develop a new and larger car, later released as Saab 99.
• 1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist in the early 1950s during the Red Scare.
• 1972  – Vietnam War: Easter Offensive begins – North Vietnamese soldiers of the 304th Division take the northern half of Quang Tri Province.
• 1975  – Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from the Quang Ngai Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
• 1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act in an effort to help the U.S. economy rebound.
• 1982 – Falklands War: Invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina. The disputed islands are later retaken by the United Kingdom.
• 1982  – John Chancellor helms the news desk at the NBC Nightly News for the final time, after eleven-and-a-half years.
• 1989 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
• 1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
• 1992 – Pierre Bérégovoy becomes Prime Minister of France
• 2002 – Israeli forces surrounded the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem which has around 200 Palestinians inside. A siege ensues.
• 2004 – Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt a thwarted bombing of the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid.

Births

• 1335 – Henry of Carinthia
• 1510 – Ashikaga Yoshiharu, Ashikaga shogun (d. 1550)
• 1545 – Elizabeth of Valois, queen of Philip II of Spain (d. 1568)
• 1565 – Cornelis de Houtman, Dutch explorer (d. 1599)
• 1618 – Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian mathematician and physicist (d. 1663)
• 1725 – Casanova, Italian adventurer and writer (d. 1798)
• 1798 – August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet (d. 1874)
• 1805 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (d. 1875)
• 1827 – William Holman Hunt, English painter (d. 1910)
• 1838 – Léon Gambetta, French statesman (d. 1882)
• 1840 – Émile Zola, French novelist and critic (d. 1902)
• 1862 – Nicholas Murray Butler, pedagogue and Nobel Peace Prize winner (d. 1947)
• 1867 – Eugen Sandow, body builder and circus performer (d. 1925)
• 1869 – Hughie Jennings, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1928)
• 1875 – Walter Chrysler, American automobile pioneer (d. 1940)
• 1891 – Max Ernst, German painter (d. 1976)
• 1908 – Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (d. 2003)
• 1914 – Sir Alec Guinness, English actor (d. 2000)
• 1917 – Dabbs Greer, American actor
• 1917 – Lou Monte, Italian-American singer (d. 1989)
• 1920 – Jack Webb, actor, director, and producer (d. 1982)
• 1923 – G. Spencer-Brown, mathematician
• 1923 – Gloria Henry, American actress
• 1925 – George MacDonald Fraser, author
• 1925 – Hans Rosenthal, showmaster (d. 1987)
• 1926 – Sir Jack Brabham, race car driver
• 1927 – Carmen Basilio, boxer
• 1927 – Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer
• 1928 – Serge Gainsbourg, singer (d. 1991)
• 1928 – Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, American cardinal (d. 1996)
• 1934 – Paul Joseph Cohen, mathematician
• 1934 – Brian Glover, British actor and wrestler (d. 1997)
• 1939 – Marvin Gaye, singer (d. 1984)
• 1940 – Penelope Keith, actress
• 1941 – Dr. Demento, American radio personality
• 1945 – Linda Hunt, actress
• 1945 – Don Sutton, baseball player
• 1947 – Emmylou Harris, singer
• 1947 – Camille Paglia, feminist writer
• 1949 – Pamela Reed, American actress
• 1951 – Moriteru Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist
• 1953 – David Robinson, musician
• 1953 – Debralee Scott, American actress (d. 2005)
• 1954 – Ron Palillo, American actor
• 1955 – Dana Carvey, actor and comedian
• 1959 – Juha Kankkunen, Finnish race car driver
• 1960 – Linford Christie, British athlete
• 1961 – Christopher Meloni, American actor
• 1961 – Keren Woodward, British singer (Bananarama)
• 1962 – Mark Shulman, children's author
• 1962  – Pierre Carles, French documentarist

Deaths

• 1335 – Henry, Duke of Carinthia and Carniola, Count of Tyrol
• 1412 – Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo, Spanish traveler and writer
• 1502 – Prince Arthur Tudor, elder brother of Henry VIII of England
• 1657 – Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor
• 1747 – Johann Jacob Dillenius, botanist (b. 1684)
• 1801 – Thomas Dadford Junior, British canal engineer
• 1827 – Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus, German physician and naturalist.
• 1865 – General A.P. Hill, Confederate commander (b. 1825)
• 1872 – Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse code (b. 1791)
• 1902 – Esther Morris, suffragist and the first woman judge in U.S. history (b. 1814)
• 1914 – Paul von Heyse, German writer, Nobel Prize in Literature winner in 1910 (b. 1830)
• 1922 – Hermann Rorschach, psychologist (b. 1884)
• 1928 – Theodore William Richards, Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner (b. 1868)
• 1930 – Empress Zauditu of Ethiopia (b. 1876)
• 1966 – C.S. Forester, author (b. 1899)
• 1972 – Gil Hodges, American baseball player (b. 1924)
• 1974 – Georges Pompidou, President of France (b. 1911)
• 1987 – Buddy Rich, drummer (b. 1917)
• 1994 – Betty Furness, American actress (b. 1916)
• 1981 – Erin Smith- actress
• 1995 – Harvey Penick, American golfer (b. 1904)
• 2000 – Tommaso Buscetta, Italian mafioso
• 2001 – Charles Daudelin, Canadian artist
• 2003 – Edwin Starr, singer (b. 1942)
• 2005 – Pope John Paul II (b. 1920, Karol Wojtyła)

External links

• BBC: On This Day

April 1 – April 3 – March 2 – May 2 — listing of all days