2 April
Notable Births
Brenda Fruhvirtová
b. 2007
Czech tennis player (born 2007)
Diana Shnaider
b. 2004
Russian tennis player (born 2004)
Emma Myers
b. 2002
American actress (born 2002)
Rodrigo Riquelme (footballer, born 2000)
b. 2000
Spanish footballer
Josip Stanišić
b. 2000
Croatian footballer (born 2000)
Dillon Bassett
b. 1997
American racing driver
Abdelhak Nouri
b. 1997
Dutch footballer (born 1997)
Austin Riley
b. 1997
American baseball player (born 1997)
Zach Bryan
b. 1996
American country singer-songwriter (born 1996)
André Onana
b. 1996
Cameroonian footballer (born 1996)
David Ferrer
b. 1982
Spanish tennis player (born 1982)
Michael Fassbender
b. 1977
German-Irish actor (born 1977)
Pedro Pascal
b. 1975
Chilean and American actor (born 1975)
Rodney King
b. 1965
Black American victim of police brutality (1965–2012)
Emmylou Harris
b. 1947
American singer, songwriter, and musician (born 1947)
Marvin Gaye
b. 1939
American singer and songwriter (1939–1984)
Alec Guinness
b. 1914
English actor (1914–2000)
Max Ernst
b. 1891
German artist (1891–1976)
William Holman Hunt
b. 1827
Pre-Raphaelite English artist (1827–1910)
Hans Christian Andersen
b. 1805
Danish writer (1805–1875)
Notable Deaths
Khamtai Siphandone
d. 2025
President of Laos (1924–2025; served 1998–2006)
John Barth
d. 2024
American writer (1930–2024)
Maryse Condé
d. 2024
French Guadeloupean author (1934–2024)
Larry Lucchino
d. 2024
American lawyer and baseball executive (1945–2024)
John Sinclair (poet)
d. 2024
American poet and activist (1941–2024)
Juan Vicente Pérez
d. 2024
Venezuelan supercentenarian (1909–2024)
Estelle Harris
d. 2022
American actress (1928–2022)
Simon Bainbridge
d. 2021
British composer (1952–2021)
Alma Delia Fuentes
d. 2017
Mexican actress (1937–2017)
Gallieno Ferri
d. 2016
Italian comic book artist (1929–2016)
Manoel de Oliveira
d. 2015
Portuguese film director, screenwriter and racing driver (1908–2015)
Robert Schuller
d. 2015
American television evangelist (1926–2015)
Steve Stevaert
d. 2015
Belgian politician (1954–2015)
Urs Widmer
d. 2014
Swiss novelist, playwright (1938–2014)
Fred (cartoonist)
d. 2013
French comics artist
Jesús Franco
d. 2013
Spanish filmmaker, composer, and actor (1930–2013)
Milo O'Shea
d. 2013
Irish actor (1926–2013)
Elizabeth Catlett
d. 2012
American artist and sculptor (1915–2012)
Mauricio Lasansky
d. 2012
Argentine artist and educator
Pope John Paul II
d. 2005
Head of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005
On This Day in History
All 41 ›
2025
Liberation Day tariffs: U.S. President Donald Trump announces sweeping worldwide tariffs.
Liberation Day tariffs
2024
Viertola school shooting: A 12-year-old pupil is killed and two others injured by a shooter of the same age in Vantaa, Finland.
Viertola school shooting
2021
At least 49 people are killed in a train derailment in Taiwan after a truck accidentally rolls onto the track.
2021 Hualien train derailment
2021
A Capitol Police officer is killed and another injured when an attacker rams his car into a barricade outside the United States Capitol.
United States Capitol Police
2020
COVID-19 pandemic: The total number of confirmed cases reach one million.
COVID-19 pandemic
2015
Gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 148 people and wounding 79 others.
Garissa University College attack
2015
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."
Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary
2014
A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, with four dead, including the gunman, and 16 others injured.
2014 Fort Hood shootings
2012
A mass shooting at Oikos University in California leaves seven people dead and three injured.
2012 Oikos University shooting
2012
UTair Flight 120 crashes after takeoff from Roshchino International Airport in Tyumen, Russia, killing 33 and injuring 10.
UTair Flight 120
2011
India wins the Cricket World Cup for the second time in history under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
India national cricket team
2006
Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; Tennessee is hardest hit with 29 people killed.
Tornado
2004
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
2002
Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, into which armed Palestinians had retreated.
Israel
1992
In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
New York (state)
1992
Forty-two civilians are massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bijeljina massacre
1991
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 Johnston
1989
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba, to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
Soviet Union
1986
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
1982
Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
Falklands War