1043 - Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England.
1077 - The first Parliament of Friuli is created.
1559 - The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis treaty is signed, ending the Italian Wars.
1834 - The generals in the Greek War of Independence stand trial for treason.
1860 - The first successful United States Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins.
1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
1882 - American Old West: Outlaw Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford.
1885 - Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.
1895 - Trial of the libel case instigated by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
1917 - Vladimir Lenin arrives in Russia from exile, marking the beginning of Bolshevik leadership in the Russian Revolution.
1922 - Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1929 - RMS Queen Mary is ordered from John Brown & Company Shipbuilding and Engineering by Cunard Line.
1936 - Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh II, the baby son of pilot Charles Lindbergh.
1942 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
1948 - In Jeju, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses begins, known as the Jeju massacre.
1948 - President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
1955 - The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
1956 - Hudsonville-Standale Tornado: The western half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado.
1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech.
1969 - Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.
1973 - The first portable cell phone call is made in New York City, United States.
1974 - The Super Outbreak occurs, the biggest tornado outbreak in recorded history. The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured.
1975 - Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.
1982 - Great Britain sends a naval task force to the south Atlantic to reclaim the disputed Falkland Islands from Argentina.
1996 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana, United States cabin.
1996 - A United States Air Force airplane carrying United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 on board.
1997 - Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
2000 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
2004 - Islamic terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.
2007 - Conventional-Train World Speed Record: a French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line sets an official new world speed record.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Historical Events on 3 Apr
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Historical Events on 2 Apr
1453 - Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (Ä°stanbul), which would fall on May 29.
1513 - Juan Ponce de Leon sets foot on Florida becoming the first European known to do so.
1755 - Commodore William James captures the pirate fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.
1792 - The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
1801 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen - The British destroy the Danish fleet.
1804 - Forty merchantmen are wrecked when a convoy led by HMS Apollo runs aground off Portugal.
1810 - Napoleon Bonaparte marries Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.
1863 - Richmond Bread Riot: 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: The Siege of Petersburg is 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.
1900 - The Foraker Act passes through Congress, giving Puerto Ricans limited self-rule.
1902 - Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated by a terrorist in the Marie Palace, St Petersburg.
1902 - "Electric Theatre", the first full-time 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.
1945 - Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established.
1962 - The first official Panda crossing is opened outside Waterloo station, London.
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 .
1972 - Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins - North Vietnamese soldiers of the 304th Division take the northern half of Quang Tri Province.
1973 - Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.
1975 - Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from the Quang Ngai Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
1975 - Construction of the CN Tower is completed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It reaches 553.33 metres (1,815.4 ft) in height, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure.
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: The Falkland Islands are invaded by Argentina.
1984 - Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma is launched aboard Soyuz T-11, and becomes the first Indian in space.
1989 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
1991 - The first female Premier of a Canadian province takes office. Rita Johnston succeeds William Vander Zalm, who 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.
1997 - Tennessee accepts the 15th Amendment.
2002 - Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues.
2004 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid. Their attack is thwarted.
2005 - James Stewart Jr. becomes first African American to win a major motor sports event.
2006 - Over 60 tornadoes break out, hardest hit is Tennessee with 29 people killed.
68 - Galba, governor of Hispania, names himself legatus senatus populique Romani, breaking the line of Roman emperors begun with Julius Caesar and Augustus.