April 1

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

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 External links

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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
1572 - The Watergeuzen succeeded in capturing Den Briel, effectively sealing off the Meuse from the Spaniards.
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.
1854 - Hard Times begins serialisation in Charles Dickens magazine, Household Words.
1857 - Herman Melville publishes The Confidence-Man.
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.
1868 - Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute is established in Hampton, Virginia
1873 - The British steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia killing 547.
1891 - The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
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 writes the 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.
1941 - The Blockade Runner Badge for German navy is instituted.
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).
1946 - Formation of the Malayan Union.
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.
1948 - Faroe Islands receive autonomy from Denmark
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.
1949 - The twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland.
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, including 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 has 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.
1974 - In the United Kingdom, new administrative counties come into being.
1976 - Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The Central Railroad of New Jersey is bankrupt and Conrail takes over its operations.
1979 - Iran's government becomes Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, overthrowing the Shah officially.
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.
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 Milošević 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.
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.

Faroese Coat of Arms
2004 - Faroese Prime Minister's Office announces that from then on the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's Office would use a new version of the Faroese Coat of Arms. The colours were inspired from the Merkið (flag) and yellow/gold was added. The new Coat of Arms depicts a Ram on a blue shield ready to defend. It can be used by the Government Ministries and by Faroese embassies, but some still use older versions of the Coat of Arms.

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Births

1220 - Emperor Go-Saga of Japan (d. 1272)
1543 - François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières, Constable of France (d. 1626)
1578 - William Harvey, English physician (d. 1657)
1610 - Charles de Saint-Évremond, French soldier (d. 1703)
1640 - Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (d. 1697)
1647 - John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet (d. 1680)
1732 - Franz Josef Haydn, Austrian composer (d. 1809)
1765 - Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver (d. 1810)
1776 - Sophie Germain, French mathematician (d. 1831)
1815 - Otto von Bismarck, German politician (d. 1898)
1815 - Edward Clark, Governor of Texas (d. 1880)
1834 - Big Jim Fisk, American entrepreneur (d. 1872)
1854 - Bill Traylor, American artist (d. 1949)
1856 - Acacio Gabriel Viegas, Indian physician (d. 1933)
1865 - Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1929)
1866 - Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist and composer (d. 1924)
1873 - Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer, pianist, and conductor (d. 1943)
1875 - Edgar Wallace, English writer (d. 1932)
1883 - Lon Chaney, Sr., American actor (d. 1930)
1885 - Wallace Beery, American actor (d. 1949)
1895 - Alberta Hunter, American singer (d. 1984)
1897 - Nita Naldi, American actress (d. 1961)
1898 - William James Sidis, eccentric genius and child prodigy (d. 1944)
1899 - Gustavs Celmins, Latvian politician (d. 1968)
1900 - Robert McDowell, Mayor of Maryborough, Queensland (d. 1988)
1901 - Whittaker Chambers, American writer, editor, and defector (d. 1961)
1906 - Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer and airplane designer (d. 1989)
1908 - Abraham Maslow, American psychologist (d. 1970)
1914 - Jerome L. Walton, Canadian author
1915 - Otto Wilhelm Fischer, Austrain actor (d. 2004)
1920 - Toshiro Mifune, Japanese actor (d. 1997)
1922 - William Manchester, American writer (d. 2004)
1924 - Brendan Byrne, Governor of New Jersey
1926 - Charles Bressler, American tenor
1926 - Anne McCaffrey, American author
1929 - Milan Kundera, Czech writer
1929 - Jane Powell, American dancer, actress, and singer
1929 - Bo Schembechler, American football coach
1930 - Grace Lee Whitney, American actress
1931 - Rolf Hochhuth, German writer
1932 - Gordon Jump, American television actor (d. 2003)
1932 - Debbie Reynolds, American actress
1933 - Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1934 - Don Hastings, American actor
1934 - Rod Kanehl, baseball player (d. 2004)
1935 - Larry McDonald, American politician (d. 1983)
1938 - Ali MacGraw, American actress
1938 - John Quade, American actor
1939 - Phil Niekro, American baseball pitcher
1940 - Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
1942 - Samuel R. Delany, American author
1942 - Annie Nightingale, British disc jockey
1946 - Ronnie Lane, British musician (The Small Faces and The Faces) (d. 1997)
1947 - Alain Connes, French mathematician
1948 - Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican musician
1949 - Gérard Mestrallet, French businessman
1949 - Gil Scott-Heron, American musician and composer
1952 - Annette O'Toole, American actress
1953 - Barry Sonnenfeld, producer and director
1964 - Erik Breukink, Dutch cyclist and manager
1965 - Mark Jackson, American basketball player
1965 - Robert Steadman, English composer
1970 - Sung Hi Lee, Korean-born model
1971 - Method Man, American musician
1972 - Allen and Albert Hughes, American film directors
1973 - Stephen Fleming, New Zealand cricketer
1975 - George Bastl, Swiss tennis player
1980 - Randy Orton, American professional wrestler
1980 - Takeuchi Yuko, Japanese actress
1981 - Hannah Spearritt, British singer (S Club 7)
1982 - Sam Huntington, American actor
1983 - Ólafur Ingi Skúlason, Icelandic footballer
1983 - Sean Taylor, American football player

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Deaths

1085 - Emperor Shenzong of China (b. 1048)
1204 - Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of Henry II of England
1205 - King Amalric II of Jerusalem (b. 1145)
1528 - Francisco de Peñalosa, Spanish composer
1580 - Alonso Mudarra, Spanish composer
1621 - Cristofano Allori, Italian painter (b. 1577)
1637 - Niwa Nagashige, Japanese warlord (b. 1571)
1682 - Franz Egon of Fürstenberg, Bishop of Strassburg (b. 1625)
1684 - Roger Williams, English theologian and colonist (b. 1603)
1787 - Floyer Sydenham, English classical scholar (b. 1710)
1839 - Benjamin Pierce, Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1757)
1872 - Frederick Maurice, English theologian (b. 1805)
1878 - John Corry Wilson Daly, Canadian politician (b. 1796)
1914 - Rube Waddell, baseball player (b. 1876)
1917 - Scott Joplin, American musician and composer (b. 1868)
1922 - Emperor Karl I of Austria (b. 1887)
1946 - Noah Beery, American actor (b. 1882)
1947 - King George II of Greece (b. 1890)
1950 - Charles R. Drew, American physician (b. 1904)
1966 - Flann O'Brien, Irish humorist (b. 1911)
1968 - Lev Davidovich Landau, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
1976 - Max Ernst, German artist (b. 1891)
1984 - Marvin Gaye, American singer (b. 1939)
1986 - Erik Bruhn, Danish ballet dancer, choreographer (b. 1928)
1988 - Joe Besser, American actor and comedian (b. 1907)
1991 - Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1894)
1994 - Léon Degrelle, Belgian Nazi (b. 1906)
1993 - Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (b. 1954)
1998 - Rozz Williams, American musician (Christian Death) (b. 1963)
1998 - Gene Evans, American actor (b. 1922)
2003 - Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong actor and singer (b. 1956)
2004 - Carrie Snodgress, American actress (b. 1946)
2005 - Harald Juhnke, German entertainer (b. 1929)
2005 - Jack Keller, songwriter (leukemia) (b. 1936)
2005 - Robert Coldwell Wood, American university president and political appointee (b. 1923)

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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.
Canada - Beginning of government's fiscal year
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.
International Day of the Birds