April 2 is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 273 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
- Christian feast day:
- International Children’s Book Day (International)
- Malvinas Day (Argentina)
- Odisha Day (Odisha, India)
- Thai Heritage Conservation Day (Thailand)
- Unity of Peoples of Russia and Belarus Day (Belarus)
- World Autism Awareness Day (International)
History
In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sights land in what is now Florida. When asked what he’ll do after he spent many months finding Florida, he says he’s goung to Disney World
In 1755, Commodore William James captures the pirate fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.
In 1792, The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint, which was built in Philadelphia, Pa. The denominations of the coins would be $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar, 1/2 dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime. All the coin money was to be inscribed with the Latin words “E Pluribus Unum”… a motto meaning “Out of Many, One.”
In 1800, Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna.
In 1801, Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen – The British capture the Danish fleet.
In 1851, Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.
In 1863, Richmond Bread Riot: Food shortages incite hundreds of angry women to riot in Richmond, Virginia, and demand that the Confederate government release emergency supplies.
In 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.
In 1865, A. P. Hill, American, Confederate general (b. 1825) was shot dead by an Union soldier. He was a career U.S. Army officer in the Mexican–American War and Seminole Wars and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He gained early fame as the commander of the “Light Division” in the Seven Days Battles and became one of Stonewall Jackson‘s ablest subordinates, distinguishing himself in the 1862 battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. Following Jackson’s death in May 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Hill was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded the Third Corps of Robert E. Lee‘s Army of Northern Virginia, which he led in the Gettysburg Campaign and the fall campaigns of 1863. His command of the corps in 1864–65 was interrupted on multiple occasions by illness, from which he did not return until just before the end of the war, when he was killed during the Union Army offensive at the Third Battle of Petersburg. Hill is usually referred to as A. P. Hill, to differentiate him from another prominent (unrelated) Confederate general, D. H. Hill. 1865, American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
In 1870, the first woman to ever be nominated for U.S. president was Victoria Woodhull representing the National Radical Reformers party.
In 1872, Samuel Morse, American inventor, invented the Morse code (b. 1791) dies. He was an American painter who turned inventor. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer of the Morse code, and helped to develop the commercial use of telegraphy.
In 1878, The “Egg Roll” was reinstated and held on the grounds of the White House in Washington, DC. Rutherford B. Hayes was president at the time. According to tradition, Dolley Madison, the wife of President James Madison, began the event in 1814 and hundreds of children brought their decorated eggs to join in games.
In 1885, Cree warriors attacked the village of Frog Lake, North-West Territories, Canada, killing 9.
In 1886, The first industrial large-scale production method was independently developed in 1886 by French engineer Paul Héroult and American engineer Charles Martin Hall; it is now known as the Hall–Héroult process. The Hall–Héroult process converts alumina into the metal. Austrian chemist Carl Joseph Bayer discovered a way of purifying bauxite to yield alumina, now known as the Bayer process, in 1889 Modern production of the aluminium metal is based on the Bayer and Hall–Héroult processes.
In 1891, Albert Pike, American lawyer and general (b. 1809) dies. He was an American attorney, Confederate officer, writer, and Freemason. Pike was born in Boston, Massachusetts, son of Ben and Sarah (Andrews) Pike, and spent his childhood in Byfield and Newburyport, Massachusetts. His colonial ancestors included John Pike (1613-1688/1689), the founder of Woodbridge, New Jersey. He attended school in Newburyport and Framingham until he was 15. In August 1825, he passed entrance exams at Harvard University, though when the college requested payment of tuition fees for the first two years which he had successfully challenged by examination, he chose not to attend. He began a program of self-education, later becoming a schoolteacher in Gloucester, North Bedford, Fairhaven and Newburyport. At the Southern Commercial Convention of 1854, Pike said the South should remain in the Union and seek equality with the North, but if the South “were forced into an inferior status, she would be better out of the Union than in it.”
In 1900, The United States Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.
In 1902, Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated in the Marie Palace, St Petersburg.
In 1902, “Electric Theatre”, the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.
In 1911, The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country’s first national census.
In 1912, The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.
In 1917, World War I: United States President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.”
In 1921, The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established.
In 1921, Professor Albert Einstein arrives in New York to give a lecture on his new theory of relativity.
In 1928, Clarabelle Cow is first used in the Mickey Mouse comic strip.
In 1930, After the mysterious death of Empress Zewditu, Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.
In 1932, Aviator Charles A. Lindbergh and Dr. John F. Condon turned over $50,000 in ransom to an unidentified man in a Bronx cemetery in New York in exchange for Lindbergh’s kidnapped son. The infant, however, was not returned, and was found dead the following month.
In 1935, Sir Watson-Watt was granted a patent for the RADAR.
In 1945, Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established.
In 1956, As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere on CBS-TV. The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.
In 1958, The National Advisory Council on Aeronautics was renamed NASA.
In 1962, The first official Panda crossing is opened outside London Waterloo station.
In 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.
In 1973, Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.
In 1973, The Liberal Movement breaks away from the Liberal and Country League in South Australia.
In 1975, Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Quảng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
In 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.
In 1980, United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act in an effort to help the U.S. economy rebound.
In 1982, Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
In 1986, Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist most widely known for the “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door“, announces that he will not seek a fifth four-year term and will retire from public life upon the end of his term in January 1987.
In 1986, a terrorist bomb ripped a hole in a TWA jetliner over southern Greece en route from Rome to Athens, Greece, the blast forced a man, woman and child out of the plane to their deaths.
In 1987, the U.S. Senate, rejecting a plea from President Reagan, overrode his veto of an $88 billion highway and mass transit bill that the president had denounced as containing “pork-barrel” items.
In 1989, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
In 1991, Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
In 1992, In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
In 1994, The National Convention of New Sudan of the SPLA/M opens in Chukudum.
In 2002, Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated; a siege ensues.
In 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.
In 2006, Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; hardest hit is in Tennessee with 29 people killed.
In 2011, India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup, defeating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the final in Mumbai, thus becoming the first country to win the Cricket World Cup final on home soil.
In 2012, A mass shooting at Oikos University at Oakland, California, leaves seven people dead and three injured.
In 2014, A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood Army Base near the town of Killeen, Texas, with four people dead, including the gunman, and 16 others sustaining injuries.
In 2015, Gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 148 people and wounding 79 others.
In 2015, Well There Goes the Neighborhood…Jackson’s Blueprint for city’s future….. The city of Jackson releases its future plans. The plan focuses on a primary growth area comprised of 4,372 acres of developmental land. The area includes portions of South Jackson. Recommendations include encouraging infill development within existing residential areas, and using vacant lots for temporary uses such as “pocket parks” or community gardens.
