✦ DateLore

On This Day · The 92nd day of the year

April 2

A look at April 2 through the almanac — historic events, famous birthdays including Émile Zola and Serge Gainsbourg, and the day's notable deaths and observances.

♈ZodiacAries ◈BirthstoneDiamond ❀Birth flowerDaisy
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Events

10 notable moments
  1. 2015

    Garissa University College attack

    Gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 148 people and wounding 79 others.

    2015 Al-Shabaab shooting in
  2. 2015

    Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary

    Four men steal items worth up to £200 million from an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden area in what has been called the "largest burglary in English legal history."

    2015 underground vault theft
  3. 2012

    2012 Oikos University shooting

    A mass shooting at Oikos University in California leaves seven people dead and three injured.

    Mass shooting in California,
  4. 2002

    Israel

    Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, into which armed Palestinians had retreated.

    Country in West Asia
  5. 1992

    New York (state)

    In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.

    U.S. state
  6. 1986

    Alabama

    Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist, best 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.

    U.S. state
  7. 1911

    Australian Bureau of Statistics

    The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country's first national census.

    Australian statistics and census
  8. 1863

    American Civil War

    American Civil War: The largest in a series of Southern bread riots occurs in Richmond, Virginia.

    1861–1865 conflict in the
  9. 1800

    Ludwig van Beethoven

    Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna.

    German composer (1770–1827)
  10. 1725

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    J. S. Bach's cantata Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV 6, is first performed in Leipzig on Easter Monday.

    German composer (1685–1750)
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Famous birthday twins

Born on April 2

Émile Zola

b. 1840

French novelist, playwright, journalist

Serge Gainsbourg

b. 1928

French singer-songwriter, actor, and director

Keshorn Walcott

b. 1993

Trinidadian javelin thrower

Jack Brabham

b. 1926

Australian race car driver

Hans Christian Andersen

b. 1805

Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet

AD 747

b. 747

Frankish king

181

b. 181

Chinese emperor

Roshan Seth

b. 1942

Indian-English actor

Deaths

  • 2015Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 2005Pope John Paul II, Head of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005
  • 1995Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1974Georges Pompidou, French banker and politician, 19th President of France
  • 1416Ferdinand I of Aragon, king of Aragon
  • 1118Baldwin I of Jerusalem, king of Jerusalem

Holidays & observances

  • —Christian feast day: Abundius of Como
  • —Christian feast day: Amphianus of Lycia
  • —Christian feast day: Æbbe the Younger
  • —Christian feast day: Bronach of Glen-Seichis (Irish martyrology)
  • —Christian feast day: Blessed Elisabetta Vendramini
  • —Christian feast day: Francis of Paola
  • —Christian feast day: Francisco Coll Guitart
  • —Christian feast day: Henry Budd (Anglican Church of Canada)

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