April 1
33 – According to one historian's
account, Jesus Christ's Last Supper is held.
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
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.
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[edit]
1908 – The Territorial
Force (renamed Territorial Army in 1920) 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.
1924 – Adolf
Hitler is sentenced
to five years imprisonment 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 200 and 2,000 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 Mw Aleutian Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian
Islands with a
maximum Mercalli intensity of
VI (Strong). 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.
1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan
Army massacre over 1,000 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
(Mashal) 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 (commonly known as the "poll
tax"), is introduced in Scotland.
1993 – NASCAR racer 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 (SOCA) 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 thirteen people,
including eight foreign workers.
2016 – The 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict begins along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of
Contact.