April 2
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Events
- 1453 - Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (Istanbul), which would fall on May 29.
- 1513 - Juan Ponce de Leon sets foot on Florida becoming the first known European to do so.
- 1801 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen - The British destroy the Danish fleet.
- 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
- 1917 - World War I: The Battle of Vimy Ridge commences when the Canada Corps launches an artillery bombardment of the German trenches. Up to that time, it was the biggest artillery bombardment in history.
- 1917 - World War I: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
- 1930 - Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.
- 1945 - Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established.
- 1979 - Sverdlovsk Anthrax leak: A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores
- 1982 - Falklands War: Falkland Islands invaded by Argentina.
- 2002 - Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues.
Births
- 742 - Charlemagne (d. 814)
- 1743 - Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (d. 1826)
- 1805 - Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (d. 1875)
- 1914 - Sir Alec Guinness, English actor (d. 2000)
Deaths
- 1865 - General A. P. Hill, American Confederate general (b. 1825)
- 1872 - Samuel F. B. Morse, American painter and inventor of the telegraph (b. 1791)
- 1891 - Albert Pike, Confederate officer and Freemason (b. 1809)
- 1953 - Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (b. 1885)
- 2005 - Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)
