1 April in history
9 events that happened on 1 April, from 527 to 1976.
527 CE 1,499 years ago
Justin I makes his nephew Justinian co-emperor
The ageing Justin I raised Justinian to co-emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. Within months he ruled alone, and his reign would reconquer Italy, codify Roman law and raise the Hagia Sophia.
1572 CE 454 years ago
Sea Beggars capture Brielle from Spain
Dutch rebel privateers known as the Sea Beggars seized the port of Brielle. It was the revolt's first secure foothold on land and set off a wave of risings across Holland and Zeeland against Spanish rule.
1918 CE 108 years ago
Royal Air Force formed as the first independent air force
Britain merged the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service into the Royal Air Force, the world's first air arm independent of army and navy control.
1924 CE 102 years ago
Munich court sentences Hitler to five years for the Beer Hall Putsch
Adolf Hitler received five years' detention for his failed coup of November 1923. He served barely nine months at Landsberg, where he dictated Mein Kampf.
1939 CE 87 years ago
Franco declares the Spanish Civil War over
With the last Republican forces surrendered, Francisco Franco announced the end of the war. His victory began a dictatorship that would last until his death in 1975.
1945 CE 81 years ago
US forces land on Okinawa
American troops came ashore on Okinawa in Operation Iceberg, the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific War. The 82-day battle that followed cost the lives of well over 100,000 soldiers and civilians.
✦ Anniversary of the day
1976 CE 50 years ago
Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne found Apple Computer
Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne signed the partnership that created Apple Computer in California. Its first product was the hand-built Apple I; Wayne sold his share within days.
Born on 1 April 3
Died on 1 April 7
Dates as the sources give them: in the Julian calendar before 1582, and in some countries for longer (Britain until 1752, Russia until 1918). Only people whose day of birth or death the records agree on are listed.