April 1
Events
Pre-1600
- 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne.
- 1081 - Alexios I Komnenos overthrows the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, and, after his troops spend three days extensively looting Constantinople, is formally crowned on April 4.
- 1572 - In the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Seventeen Provinces, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.
1601–1900
- 1725 - J. S. Bach's later Easter Oratorio in its first version is performed at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig on Easter Sunday.
- 1789 - In New York City, the United States House of Representatives achieves its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first Speaker.
- 1833 - The Convention of 1833, a political gathering of settlers in Mexican Texas to help draft a series of petitions to the Mexican government, begins in San Felipe de Austin.
- 1865 - American Civil War: Union troops led by Philip Sheridan decisively defeat Confederate troops led by George Pickett, cutting the Army of Northern Virginia's last supply line during the Siege of Petersburg.
- 1867 - Singapore becomes a British crown colony.
- 1873 - The White Star steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547 in one of the worst marine disasters of the 19th century.
- 1900 - Prince George becomes absolute monarch of the Cretan State.
1901–present
- 1908 - The Territorial Force is formed as a volunteer reserve component of the British Army.
- 1918 - The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.
- 1922 - In newly formed Northern Ireland, six Catholics are murdered in the Arnon Street killings, one week after six others were killed in the McMahon killings.
- 1924 - Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years fortress confinement for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch" but spends only nine months in jail.
- 1924 - The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed.
- 1933 - The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in a series of anti-Semitic acts.
- 1935 - India's central banking institution, the Reserve Bank of India, is formed.
- 1937 - Aden becomes a British crown colony.
- 1937 - The Royal New Zealand Air Force is formed as an independent service.
- 1939 - Spanish Civil War: Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender.
- 1941 - Fântâna Albă massacre: Between two hundred and two thousand Romanian civilians are killed by Soviet Border Troops.
- 1941 - A military coup in Iraq overthrows the regime of 'Abd al-Ilah and installs Rashid Ali al-Gaylani as Prime Minister.
- 1944 - World War II: Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen.
- 1945 - World War II: The Tenth United States Army attacks the Thirty-Second Japanese Army on Okinawa.
- 1946 - The 8.6 Aleutian Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI. A destructive tsunami reaches the Hawaiian Islands resulting in dozens of deaths, mostly in Hilo, Hawaii.
- 1946 - The Malayan Union is established. Protests from locals led to the establishment of the Federation of Malaya two years later.
- 1947 - The only mutiny in the history of the Royal New Zealand Navy begins.
- 1948 - Cold War: Communist forces respond to the introduction of the Deutsche Mark by attempting to force the western powers to withdraw from Berlin.
- 1948 - Faroe Islands gain autonomy from Denmark.
- 1949 - Chinese Civil War: The Chinese Communist Party holds unsuccessful peace talks with the Nationalist Party in Beijing, after three years of fighting.
- 1949 - The Government of Canada repeals Japanese-Canadian internment after seven years.
- 1954 - United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- 1955 - The EOKA rebellion against the British Empire begins in Cyprus, with the goal of unifying with Greece.
- 1960 - The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space.
- 1964 - The British Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry are replaced by a unified Defence Council of the United Kingdom.
- 1969 - The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational fighter aircraft with Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing capabilities, enters service with the Royal Air Force.
- 1970 - President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law.
- 1970 - A Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crashes near Berrechid, Morocco, killing 61.
- 1971 - Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army massacre more than a thousand people in Keraniganj Upazila, Bangladesh.
- 1973 - Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Jim Corbett National Park, India.
- 1974 - The Local Government Act 1972 of England and Wales comes into effect.
- 1976 - Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc.
- 1979 - Iran becomes an Islamic republic by a 99% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.
- 1984 - Singer Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father in his home in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, California.
- 1986 - Communist Party of Nepal cadres attack a number of police stations in Kathmandu, seeking to incite a popular rebellion.
- 1989 - Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Community Charge, is introduced in Scotland.
- 1993 - NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki is killed in a plane crash near the Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville, Tennessee.
- 1997 - Comet Hale–Bopp is seen passing at perihelion.
- 1999 - Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.
- 2001 - An EP-3E United States Navy surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet. The Chinese pilot ejected but is subsequently lost. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, China and is detained.
- 2001 - Former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on war crimes charges.
- 2001 - Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, the first contemporary country to allow it.
- 2004 - Google launches its Email service Gmail.
- 2006 - Serious Organised Crime Agency of the Government of the United Kingdom is enforced, but later merged into National Crime Agency on 7 October 2013.
- 2011 - After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of fourteen people, including seven UN workers.
- 2016 - The 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict begins along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1220 - Emperor Go-Saga of Japan
- 1282 - Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor
- 1328 - Blanche of France, Duchess of Orléans
- 1543 - François de Bonne, Duke of Lesdiguières
- 1578 - William Harvey, English physician and academic
1601–1900
- 1610 - Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier and critic
- 1629 - Jean-Henri d'Anglebert, French organist and composer
- 1640 - Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician and academic
- 1647 - John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet and courtier
- 1697 - Antoine François Prévost, French novelist and translator
- 1721 - Pieter Hellendaal, Dutch-English organist, violinist, and composer
- 1741 - George Dance the Younger, English architect and surveyor
- 1753 - Joseph de Maistre, French philosopher, lawyer, and diplomat
- 1765 - Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver and etcher
- 1776 - Sophie Germain, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher
- 1786 - William Mulready, Irish genre painter
- 1815 - Otto von Bismarck, German lawyer and politician, 1st Chancellor of the German Empire
- 1815 - Edward Clark, American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Texas
- 1823 - Simon Bolivar Buckner, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Kentucky
- 1824 - Louis-Zéphirin Moreau, Canadian bishop
- 1834 - James Fisk, American businessman
- 1852 - Edwin Austin Abbey, American painter and illustrator
- 1858 - Columba Marmion, Irish Benedictine abbot
- 1865 - Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1866 - William Blomfield, New Zealand cartoonist and politician
- 1866 - Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor
- 1866 - Ève Lavallière, French actress
- 1868 - Edmond Rostand, French poet and playwright
- 1868 - Walter Mead, English cricketer
- 1871 - F. Melius Christiansen, Norwegian-American violinist and conductor
- 1873 - Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor
- 1874 - Ernest Barnes, English mathematician and theologian
- 1874 - Prince Karl of Bavaria
- 1875 - Edgar Wallace, English journalist, author, and playwright
- 1878 - C. Ganesha Iyer, Ceylon Tamil philologist
- 1879 - Stanislaus Zbyszko, Polish wrestler and strongman
- 1881 - Octavian Goga, Romanian Prime Minister
- 1883 - Lon Chaney, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1883 - Edvard Drabløs, Norwegian actor and director
- 1883 - Laurette Taylor, Irish-American actress
- 1885 - Wallace Beery, American actor
- 1885 - Clementine Churchill, English wife of Winston Churchill
- 1889 - K. B. Hedgewar, Indian physician and activist
- 1893 - Cicely Courtneidge, Australian-English actress
- 1895 - Alberta Hunter, African-American singer-songwriter and nurse
- 1898 - William James Sidis, Ukrainian-Russian Jewish American mathematician, anthropologist, and historian
- 1899 - Gustavs Celmiņš, Latvian academic and politician
- 1900 - Stefanie Clausen, Danish Olympic diver