On this day: 2 April
Events, births and deaths on 2 April. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Khamtai Siphandone
- Events · Liberation Day tariffs
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Robert Abajyan
- Deaths · Gallieno Ferri
100 years ago1926
- Births · Jack Brabham
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1118 · Deaths · Baldwin I of Jerusalem
- 991 · Deaths · Bardas Skleros
Events · 21
- 1792United States Mint — producer of circulating coinage for the United States
- 1801Battle of Copenhagen — battle between British and Dano–Norwegian navies (1801)
- 1863Southern Bread Riots — civil unrest in the Confederacy during the American Civil War, perpetrated mostly by women in March and April 1863, during which women violently invaded and looted various shops and stores, triggered by lack of money, provisions, and food
- 1865Third Battle of Petersburg — 1865 American civil war battle
- 1885Frog Lake Massacre — uprising during the North-West Rebellion in western Canada
- 1890Kashihara Jingū — Shinto shrine in Nara Prefecture, Japan
- 1969LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 — 1969 aviation accident
- 1979Sverdlovsk anthrax leak — 1979 accidental release of anthrax in the Soviet Union
- 1982Falklands War — undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982
- 1982Operation Rosary — invasion marking the beginning of the Falklands War in 1982
- 1992Bijeljina massacre — genocidal killing of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) in the town of Bijeljina on 1–2 April 1992 during the Bosnian War
- 2002Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem — 2002 siege
- 2012UTair Flight 120 — aviation accident
- 2012Oikos University shooting — shooting on April 2, 2012
- 20142014 Fort Hood shooting — mass shooting at a US military post
- 2015Garissa University College attack — attack in Kenya on 2 April 2015
- 2015
- 20212021 Hualien train derailment — 2021 railway accident in Taiwan
- 2021April 2021 United States Capitol attack — shooting by police of a man attempting to drive through a barricade at the US Capitol
- 2024Viertola school shooting — school shooting in the Viertola district in Vantaa, Finland, on 2 April 2024
- 2025Liberation Day tariffs — new or increased tariffs announced by Trump on 02.04.2025
Births · 60
- 181(Julian date)Emperor Xian of Han — Emperor of the Han dynasty from 189 to 220
- 748(Julian date)Charlemagne — king of Franks, regarded as the first Holy Roman Emperor (747–814) (742-814)
- 1545(Julian date)Elisabeth of Valois — Queen consort of Spain (1545-1568)
- 1618Francesco Maria Grimaldi — Italian physicist (1618–1663)
- 1647Maria Sibylla Merian — German-Dutch entomologist, botanist, naturalist, scientific illustrator, graphic artist, painter, and lepidopterologist (1647-1717)
- 1653Prince George, Duke of Cumberland — husband of Queen Anne, who reigned over Great Britain from 1702
- 1725Giacomo Casanova — Venetian adventurer and writer (1725–1798)
- 1755Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin — French lawyer, politician and writer (1755-1826)
- 1792Francisco de Paula Santander — Colombian military and political leader (1792-1840)
- 1798August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben — German scholar and poet (1798–1874)
- 1805Hans Christian Andersen — Danish writer and poet (1805–1875)
- 1827William Holman Hunt — Pre-Raphaelite artist (1827-1910)
- 1838Léon Gambetta — French politician (1838-1882)
- 1840Émile Zola — French novelist, journalist, playwright, and poet (1840–1902)
- 1841Clément Ader — French inventor and engineer
- 1842Dominic Savio — Italian saint (1842-1857)
- 1862Nicholas Murray Butler — American philosopher, diplomat, and educator (1862-1947)
- 1875Walter Percy Chrysler Sr. — (1875-1940) American automotive industry executive
- 1891Max Ernst — German artist (1891–1976)
- 1908Buddy Ebsen — American actor and dancer (1908–2003)
- 1914Alec Guinness — British actor (1914–2000)
- 1926Jack Brabham — Australian racing driver (1926–2014)
- 1928Serge Gainsbourg — French singer, songwriter, composer, writer, actor and director (1928–1991)
- 1933György Konrád — Hungarian novelist (1933–2019)
- 1934Paul Cohen — American mathematician
Deaths · 60
- 991Bardas Skleros — 10th-century Byzantine general
- 1118(Julian date)Baldwin I of Jerusalem — King of Jerusalem from 1100 to 1118
- 1272(Julian date)Richard of Cornwall — King of the Romans, Earl of Cornwall, English royalty
- 1305(Julian date)Joan I of Navarre — queen regnant of Navarre and queen consort of France
- 1335(Julian date)Henry of Bohemia — Bohemian king
- 1412Ruy González de Clavijo — Spanish traveller and writer
- 1416(Julian date)Ferdinand I of Aragon — Aragonese king
- 1502Arthur, Prince of Wales — Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester and Duke of Cornwall
- 1507(Julian date)Francisco — Italian mendicant friar, founder of the Order of Minims
- 1640Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski — Polish writer (1595-1640)
- 1657Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor — Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1608-1657)
- 1672Pedro Calungsod — Filipino catechist, saint and martyr
- 1747Johann Jacob Dillenius — German botanist (1684-1747)
- 1787Thomas Gage — British general (1721-1787)
- 1791Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau — French writer, orator and statesman (1749-1791)
- 1827Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus — German zoologist
- 1865Ambrose Powell Hill — Confederate Army general (1825-1865)
- 1872Samuel Finley Breese Morse — American inventor and painter (1791–1872)
- 1891Albert Pike — American author, poet, orator, editor, lawyer, jurist and Confederate States Army general Associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, Freemason (1809–1891)
- 1891Ahmed Vefik Pasha — Ottoman statesman, diplomat, scholar and playwright (1823–1891)
- 1896Theodore Robinson — American artist (1852-1896)
- 1914Paul Heyse — German writer (1830–1914)
- 1928Theodore William Richards — United States chemist (1868–1928)
- 1930Zewditu I of Ethiopia — Empress of Ethiopia (1876-1930)
- 1933Ranjitsinhji — Indian cricket player. (1872-1933)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.