✦ DateLore

On This Day · The 91st day of the year

April 1

A look at April 1 through the almanac — historic events, famous birthdays including Rachel Maddow and Sophie Germain, and the day's notable deaths and observances.

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Events

10 notable moments
  1. 2004

    Google

    Google launches its Email service Gmail.

    American multinational technology company
  2. 2001

    Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands

    Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, the first contemporary country to allow it.

    History
  3. 2001

    Lockheed EP-3

    An EP-3E United States Navy surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet. The Chinese pilot ejected but is subsequently lost. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, China and is detained.

    Signals reconnaissance aircraft of
  4. 1976

    Steve Jobs

    Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc.

    American businessman and inventor
  5. 1970

    Richard Nixon

    President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law.

    President of the United
  6. 1969

    Hawker Siddeley Harrier

    The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational fighter aircraft with Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing capabilities, enters service with the Royal Air Force.

    British ground attack aircraft
  7. 1941

    Fântâna Albă massacre

    Fântâna Albă massacre: Between two hundred and two thousand Romanian civilians are killed by Soviet Border Troops.

    1941 mass killing of
  8. 1922

    Northern Ireland

    In newly formed Northern Ireland, six Catholics are murdered in the Arnon Street killings, one week after six others were killed in the McMahon killings.

    Part of the United
  9. 1918

    Royal Air Force

    The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.

    Air and space warfare
  10. 1865

    American Civil War

    American Civil War: Union troops led by Philip Sheridan decisively defeat Confederate troops led by George Pickett, cutting the Army of Northern Virginia's last supply line during the Siege of Petersburg.

    1861–1865 conflict in the
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Famous birthday twins

Born on April 1

Rachel Maddow

b. 1973

American journalist and author

Sophie Germain

b. 1776

French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher

Otto von Bismarck

b. 1815

German lawyer and politician, 1st Chancellor of the German Empire

Samuel Alito

b. 1950

American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Gaston Eyskens

b. 1905

Belgian economist and politician, 47th Prime Minister of Belgium

Abraham Maslow

b. 1908

American psychologist and academic

Toshiro Mifune

b. 1920

Japanese actor

Randy Orton

b. 1980

American wrestler

Deaths

  • 1971Kathleen Lonsdale, Irish crystallographer and prison reformer
  • 1924Lloyd Hildebrand, English cyclist
  • 1922Charles I of Austria, emperor of Austria
  • 1548Sigismund I the Old, king of Poland
  • 1132Hugh of Châteauneuf, French bishop
  • 1085Emperor Shenzong of Song, Chinese emperor

Holidays & observances

  • —Christian feast day: Cellach of Armagh
  • —Christian feast day: Hugh of Grenoble
  • —Christian feast day: Frederick Denison Maurice (Church of England)
  • —Christian feast day: Mary of Egypt
  • —Christian feast day: Melito of Sardis
  • —Christian feast day: Tewdrig
  • —Christian feast day: Theodora
  • —Christian feast day: Walric, abbot of Leuconay

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