What Happened on April 2nd in History
30 historical events on this date
The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country's first national census.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is an agency of the Australian Government that collates and analyses statistical data on economic, demographic, environmental and social issues to support...
The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.
RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. Of the 2,208...
American entry into World War I: President Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
The United States entered into World War I on 6 April 1917, more than two and a half years after the war began in Austria-Hungary. Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the...
The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established.
The Autonomous Government of Khorasan was a short-lived military state set up in Iran. It was formally established on the April 2, 1921, and collapsed a few months later, on October 6, 1921. Their...
After the mysterious death of Empress Zewditu, Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.
Zewditu was Empress of Ethiopia from 1916 until her death in 1930. She officially adopted the regnal name "Zewditu" at the beginning of her reign, which was triggered by the dethroning of Lij Iyasu...
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 crashes into the Polica mountain near Zawoja, Poland, killing 53.
LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 was an Antonov An-24 aircraft, registration SP-LTF, operating a scheduled passenger flight from Warsaw to Krakow Balice airport. It crashed into a mountain on 2 April...
Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Quảng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.
Norodom Sihanouk was King, Chief of State and Prime Minister of Cambodia. He is known as Samdech Euv. During his lifetime, Cambodia was under various regimes, from French colonial rule, a Japanese...
A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
On 2 April 1979, spores of Bacillus anthracis were accidentally released from a Soviet Armed Forces research facility in the city of Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union. The ensuing outbreak of the...
United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act.
James Earl Carter Jr. was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter served as the 76th...
Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial...
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.
Alabama is a state in the Southeastern and Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and...
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba, to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's...
Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
Rita Margaret Johnston is a Canadian politician in British Columbia. Johnston became the first female premier in Canadian history when she succeeded Bill Vander Zalm in 1991 to become the 29th...
In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
New York, also called New York State, is a state located in the northeastern United States. Bordering New England to its east, Canada to its north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to its south, it...
Forty-two civilians are massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Bijeljina massacre involved the killing of civilians by Serb paramilitary groups in Bijeljina on 1–2 April 1992 in the run-up to the Bosnian War. The majority of those killed were Bosnian...
Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, into which armed Palestinians had retreated.
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the...
Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid; the attack is thwarted.
Islamism is a range of religious and political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as...
Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; Tennessee is hardest hit with 29 people killed.
A tornado, also known as a twister, is a rapidly rotating column of air that extends vertically from the surface of the Earth to the base of a cumulonimbus or cumulus cloud. Tornadoes are often...
India wins the Cricket World Cup for the second time in history under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
The India men's national cricket team represents India in international cricket. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and is a full member nation of the International...
A mass shooting at Oikos University in California leaves seven people dead and three injured.
On April 2, 2012, a mass shooting occurred inside Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, California, United States. Seven people were killed, and three others were injured. One L....
UTair Flight 120 crashes after takeoff from Roshchino International Airport in Tyumen, Russia, killing 33 and injuring 10.
UTair Flight 120 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Tyumen to Surgut, Russia. On 2 April 2012, the ATR-72 turboprop aircraft operating the flight crashed shortly after take-off from...
A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, with four dead, including the gunman, and 16 others injured.
On April 2, 2014, a spree shooting occurred at several locations on the Fort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas. Four people, including the gunman, were killed while 14 additional people were...
Gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 148 people and wounding 79 others.
On 2 April 2015, gunmen stormed the Garissa University College in Garissa, Kenya, killing 148 people, and injuring at least 79. The militant groups Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab, which the gunmen claimed...
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."
In April 2015, an underground safe deposit facility in Hatton Garden, London, owned by Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd., was burgled. According to official sources, the total stolen had an estimated...
COVID-19 pandemic: The total number of confirmed cases reach one million.
The global COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It spread to other parts of Asia and...
At least 49 people are killed in a train derailment in Taiwan after a truck accidentally rolls onto the track.
On 2 April 2021, at 09:28 NST (01:28 UTC), a Taroko Express train operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) derailed at the north entrance of Qingshui Tunnel in Heren Section, Xiulin...
A Capitol Police officer is killed and another injured when an attacker rams his car into a barricade outside the United States Capitol.
The United States Capitol Police (USCP) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States with nationwide jurisdiction charged with protecting the United States Congress within the District...
Viertola school shooting: A 12-year-old pupil is killed and two others injured by a shooter of the same age in Vantaa, Finland.
On 2 April 2024, a shooting occurred at the Viertola school, Jokiranta site in Vantaa, Finland. The gunman, a 12-year-old fired a revolver at three students, all aged 12. One victim was killed while...
Liberation Day tariffs: U.S. President Donald Trump announces sweeping worldwide tariffs.
United States president Donald Trump announced a broad package of import duties on April 2, 2025—a date he called "Liberation Day". In a White House Rose Garden ceremony, Trump signed Executive...