History Events on April 02

United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act.

#Jimmy_Carter

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

#Australian_Bureau_of_Statistics

Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.

#Norodom_Sihanouk

Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.

#Charlie_Chaplin

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

The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established.

#Autonomous_Government_of_Khorasan

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_shooting

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sights land in what is now the United States state of Florida.

#Juan_Ponce_de_León

The United States Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.

#United_States_Congress

The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.

#Coinage_Act_of_1792

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

#New_York_(state)

American Civil War: Defeat at the Third Battle of Petersburg forces the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate government to abandon Richmond, Virginia.

#Third_Battle_of_Petersburg

"Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.

#Movie_theater

Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.

#Mongkut

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

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

#American_Civil_War

World War I: United States President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.

#World_War_I

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba, to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.

#Soviet_Union

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

#Israel

Commodore William James captures the Maratha fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.

#Commodore_(Royal_Navy)

French Revolutionary Wars: The British capture the Danish fleet.

#French_Revolutionary_Wars

Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; Tennessee is hardest hit with 29 people killed.

#Tornado

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

#Ludwig_van_Beethoven

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

#Garissa_University_College_attack

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

Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Qu?ng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.

#Vietnam_War

After the mysterious death of Empress Zewditu, Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.

#Zewditu

Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.

#Falklands_War

Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated in the Marie Palace, Saint Petersburg.

#Dmitry_Sipyagin

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

Forty-two civilians were massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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.

ASUS corporation was founded.

A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.

Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.

As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere on CBS. The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.

The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.

Canadian Cree warriors attack the village of Frog Lake, killing nine.

The Treaty of Constantinople establishes the Septinsular Republic, the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire.