What Happened on April 1st in History

The only mutiny in the history of the Royal New Zealand Navy begins.

During April 1947, the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) experienced a series of non-violent mutinies amongst the enlisted sailors of four ships and two shore bases. Over 20 per cent of the RNZN's...

Cold War: Communist forces respond to the introduction of the Deutsche Mark by attempting to force the western powers to withdraw from Berlin.

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist...

Faroe Islands gain autonomy from Denmark.

The Faroe Islands, also known as the Faroes, are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and a rigsdel of the Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the Hebrides and Shetland...

The Government of Canada repeals Japanese-Canadian internment after seven years.

The Government of Canada, formally His Majesty's Government, is the federal executive of Canada, which includes ministers of the Crown and the federal civil service ; it is corporately branded as...

United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Dwight David Eisenhower, also known as Ike, was the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. He led the Allied Expeditionary Force during the Second World War, launching decisive...

The EOKA rebellion against the British Empire begins in Cyprus, with the goal of unifying with Greece.

The Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston was a Greek Cypriot nationalist guerrilla organization that fought a campaign for the end of British rule in Cyprus, and for eventual union with Greece.

The TIROS-1 satellite transmits the first television picture from space.

Television InfraRed Observation Satellite (TIROS) is a series of early weather satellites launched by the United States, beginning with TIROS-1 in 1960. TIROS was the first satellite that was...

The British Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry are replaced by a unified Defence Council of the United Kingdom.

The Admiralty was a department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and from 1801 of the Government of the United Kingdom that was responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. Historically, its titular...

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

The Hawker Siddeley Harrier is a British jet-powered attack aircraft designed and produced by the British aerospace company Hawker Siddeley. It was the first operational ground attack and...

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

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the...

A Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crashes near Berrechid, Morocco, killing 61.

Royal Air Maroc is the Moroccan national carrier, as well as the country's largest airline, ranking among the largest in Africa.

Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army massacre more than a thousand people in Keraniganj Upazila, Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Liberation War, also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East...

Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Jim Corbett National Park, India.

Project Tiger is a wildlife conservation movement initiated in India to protect the endangered tiger. The project was initiated in 1973 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of...

The Local Government Act 1972 of England and Wales comes into effect.

The Local Government Act 1972 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of...

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc.

Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman, inventor, and investor. A pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, Jobs co-founded Apple Inc. with his early business partner...

Iran becomes an Islamic republic by a 99% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.

Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, historically known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea...

Singer Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father in his home in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, California.

Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Commonly referred to as the "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul", he helped to shape the...

Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) cadres attack a number of police stations in Kathmandu, seeking to incite a popular rebellion.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) was an underground communist party in Nepal. CPN (Mashal) was formed in November 1984, following a split in the Communist Party of Nepal (Masal). The new party...

Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax"), is introduced in Scotland.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She...

NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki is killed in a plane crash near the Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville, Tennessee.

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of...

Comet Hale–Bopp is seen passing at perihelion.

Comet Hale–Bopp is a long-period comet that was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades.

Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.

Nunavut is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, which...

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.

The Lockheed EP-3 is an electronic signals reconnaissance variant of the P-3 Orion, primarily operated by the United States Navy.

Former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on war crimes charges.

The president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the head of state of that country from 14 January 1953 to 4 May 1980. Josip Broz Tito was the only person to occupy the office. Tito...

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

Same-sex marriage has been legal in the Netherlands since 1 April 2001. A bill for the legalisation of same-sex marriage was passed in the House of Representatives by 109 votes to 33 on 12 September...

Google launches its Email service Gmail.

Google LLC is an American multinational technology corporation focused on information technology, online advertising, search engine technology, email, cloud computing, software, quantum computing,...

Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) of the Government of the United Kingdom is enforced, but later merged into National Crime Agency on 7 October 2013.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) was a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom which existed from 1 April 2006 until 7 October 2013. SOCA was a national law...

After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of fourteen people, including seven UN workers.

In July 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, United States, announced plans to burn 200 copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the...

The 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict begins along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact.

The 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, also known as the Four-Day War, April War, or April clashes, began along the former Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact on 1 April 2016 with the Artsakh Defence...

The Artemis II lunar flyby mission launches, marking the first crewed flight above low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Artemis II was a crewed flyby of the Moon. It was the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972, the first crewed flight of the NASA-led Artemis program, the first crewed...