April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining.

Events

• 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
• 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.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks - In Petersburg, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.
• 1867 - Singapore becomes British crown colony.
• 1873 - The British steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia killing 547.
• 1891 - The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago.
• 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 wrote his famous 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.
• 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).
• 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.
• 1949 - Newfoundland becomes the tenth Province of Canada
• 1949 - Chinese Civil War: Communist Party of China hold unsuccessful peace talks with the Kuomintang in Beijing, after three years of fighting.
• 1954 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
• 1960 - The United States launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1.
• 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 . He fluffs up 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 overproduced the album.
• 1970 - President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law banning cigarette advertisements 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.
• 1976 - Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
• 1979 - Iran's government becomes Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
• 1985 - David Lee Roth announces his departure from Van Halen.
• 1996 - University of Kentucky team wins NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.
• 1999 - Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.
• 2000 - Bob and George, a webcomic, appears on the Internet.
• 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.
• 2001 - Former president of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic 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.
• 2003 - In Sturgis, Michigan, seven men place signs around town reading "All your base are belong to us," based on the popular mistranslation from the Japanese video game Zero Wing.
• 2004 - Google unveils their invitation based email service Gmail.
• 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.

Births

• 1578 - William Harvey, physician, discovered blood circulation (d. 1657)
• 1742 - P. D. Q. Bach, fictitious composer (d. 1807)
• 1776 - Sophie Germain, mathematician (d. 1831)
• 1815 - Otto von Bismarck, politician (d. 1898)
• 1815 - Edward Clark, governor of Texas (d. 1880)
• 1834 - James Fisk, entrepreneur (d. 1872)
• 1866 - Ferruccio Busoni, pianist and composer (d. 1924)
• 1873 - Sergei Rachmaninoff, composer, pianist, and conductor (d. 1943)
• 1875 - Edgar Wallace, writer (d. 1932)
• 1883 - Lon Chaney, Sr., actor (d. 1930)
• 1885 - Wallace Beery, actor (d. 1949)
• 1895 - Alberta Hunter, singer (d. 1984)
• 1899 - Gustavs Celmins, politician (d. 1968)
• 1901 - Whittaker Chambers, Hiss case witness (d. 1961)
• 1906 - Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer and airplane designer (d. 1989)
• 1908 - Abraham Maslow, psychologist (d. 1970)
• 1914 - Jerome L. Walton. author
• 1915 - Otto Wilhelm Fischer, actor
• 1920 - Toshiro Mifune, actor (d. 1997)
• 1922 - William Manchester, writer (d. 2004)
• 1924 - Brendan Byrne, governor of New Jersey
• 1926 - Charles Bressler, American tenor
• 1926 - Anne McCaffrey, American science fiction author
• 1929 - Jane Powell, dancer, actress, singer
• 1929 - Milan Kundera, author
• 1929 - Bo Schembechler, American football coach
• 1930 - Grace Lee Whitney, American actress
• 1931 - Rolf Hochhuth, writer
• 1932 - Gordon Jump, American television actor (d. 2003)
• 1932 - Debbie Reynolds, American actress
• 1934 - Rod Kanehl, Major League Baseball player (d. 2004)
• 1934 - Jim Ed Brown , American country music singer
• 1934 - Don Hastings, American actor
• 1935 - Larry McDonald, American politician (d. 1983)
• 1938 - Ali MacGraw, American actress
• 1939 - Phil Niekro, American baseball pitcher
• 1940 - Wangari Maathai, environmentalist
• 1942 - Samuel R. Delany, science fiction author
• 1942 - Annie Nightingale, verteran UK disc jockey
• 1946 - Ronnie Lane, British musician (The Small Faces, The Faces) (d. 1997)
• 1947 - Alain Connes, French mathematician
• 1948 - Jimmy Cliff, musician
• 1949 - Gil Scott-Heron, musician, composer
• 1952 - Annette O'Toole, American actress
• 1953 - Barry Sonnenfeld, producer, director
• 1955 - Ronnie Burk , surrealist and AIDS activist (d. 2003)
• 1965 - Mark Jackson, professional basketball player
• 1967 - Dione Mery Felix Silva, Brazilian-American adventurer
• 1970 - Sung Hi Lee, model
• 1971 - Method Man, musician
• 1972 - Allen and Albert Hughes, American film directors
• 1980 - Randy Orton, professional wrestler
• 1981 - Theresa Sokyrka, Canadian Idol runner-up
• 1995 - Bart Simpson, Perpetual ten-year-old on animated Fox sitcom The Simpsons

Deaths

• 1204 - Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II of England (b. c. 1122)
• 1637 - Niwa Nagashige, Japanese daimyo and retainer (b. 1571)
• 1839 - Benjamin Pierce (b. 1757)
• 1872 - Frederick Maurice, English theologian (b. 1805)
• 1914 - Rube Waddell, Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1917 - Scott Joplin, musician, composer (b. 1868)
• 1922 - Emperor Karl of Austria (b. 1887)
• 1946 - Noah Beery, actor
• 1947 - King George II of Greece (b. 1890)
• 1950 - Charles R. Drew, physician (b. 1904)
• 1966 - Flann O'Brien, humorist (b. 1911)
• 1968 - Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist (b. 1908)
• 1976 - Max Ernst, artist (b. 1891)
• 1984 - Marvin Gaye, singer (b. 1939)
• 1988 - Joe Besser, actor, comedian; member of the Three Stooges
• 1988 - Jim Jordan , American actor (Fibber McGee and Molly)
• 1991 - Martha Graham, dancer, choreographer (b. 1894)
• 1994 - Léon Degrelle, Belgian Rexist who joined the Waffen SS (b. 1906)
• 1993 - Alan Kulwicki, NASCAR driver, 1992 Winston Cup Champion (b. 1954)
• 1996 - John McSherry , American baseball umpire
• 1998 - Rozz Williams, member of Christian Death (b. 1963)
• 1998 - Gene Evans , American actor
• 2001 - Trinh Cong Son , Vietnamese songwriter (b. 1939)
• 2003 - Leslie Cheung, actor and singer (b. 1956)
• 2003 - Hyosuke Kujiraoka , a former vice speaker of the House of Representatives
• 2004 - Carrie Snodgress, American actress
• 2005 - Cheryl Barrymore , former wife and agent of British TV entertainer Michael Barrymore, lung cancer
• 2005 - Harald Juhnke, German entertainer
• 2005 - Jack Keller, songwriter, wrote themes to Bewitched and Gidget
• 2005 - Robert Coldwell Wood, was the second Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, University of Massachusetts President 1970-1977.

Holidays and observances

• April 1 is known as April Fool's Day or All Fools' Day in many countries.
• Feast day of Saint Hugh in the Roman Catholic Church calendar
• 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.
• India - Start of financial year.
• Brielle celebrates victory of 1572 over Spaniards.
• In San Marino, two Captains Regent, elected by Parliament, take office for six months
• Date that bobhouses, used for ice-fishing, must be taken off frozen lakes in New Hampshire.
• Intolerance Day
• Fortuna Virilis (Old Roman Women's Festival to Venus, seeking good relations with men)
• Loki's Day (Norse)
• Islamic Republic Day (Iran)
• EOKA Day (Greece)
• San Marino National Day
• One Cent Day
• Festival of Irritating Jokes and Childish Japes
• Tater Days begin (Kentucky)
• St. Melito's Day
• Hebrew University Day
• St. Lasarus' Day (patron of spring, love, Bulgaria)
• Alaska Dryrotta Day
• Gowkie Day (aka Gowkin' Day)
• St. Mary of Egypt's Day (Eastern)
• April Noddy Day
• Huntigowk Day
• St. Catherine of Palma's Day
• National Sourdough Bread Day
• St. Hugh of Grenoble's Day
• Check Your Batteries Day
• Sorry Charlie Day
• International Tatting Day
• Lupus Alert Day
• International Fun at Work Day
• Festival of Positive Threats
• Aspen/Snowmass Banana Season begins
• Hospital Admittance Clerks Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

March 31 - April 2 - March 1 - May 1 -- listing of all days