2 April in history

6 events that happened on 2 April, from 742 to 2005.

  1. ✦ Anniversary of the day

    742 CE 1,284 years ago

    Charlemagne is born, by tradition on this day

    Charlemagne, future King of the Franks and emperor in the West, was traditionally born on 2 April; the year may have been as late as 748. His empire united much of Western Europe for the first time since Rome.

    Western EuropeCharlemagne

  2. 1513 CE 513 years ago

    Ponce de León sights the coast he names La Florida

    Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León sighted the Florida coast during the Easter season, Pascua Florida, which gave the land its name. His was the first recorded European landing in what is now the United States.

    United States

  3. 1792 CE 234 years ago

    US Coinage Act creates the dollar and the Mint

    Congress passed the Coinage Act, establishing the United States Mint in Philadelphia and defining the dollar in silver and gold. It laid the foundations of American currency.

    United States

  4. 1865 CE 161 years ago

    Jefferson Davis abandons Richmond as Petersburg falls

    As Union troops broke through the Petersburg lines, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his government fled Richmond by train. Lee surrendered at Appomattox a week later.

  5. 1982 CE 44 years ago

    Argentina invades the Falkland Islands

    Argentine forces seized the British-held Falklands, which Argentina claims as the Malvinas. Britain sent a naval task force; the ten-week war ended in Argentine surrender and hastened the fall of the junta.

    Argentina

  6. 2005 CE 21 years ago

    Pope John Paul II dies after a 26-year pontificate

    John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in over four centuries, died in the Vatican. His papacy, one of the longest in history, was closely tied to the fall of communism in his native Poland.

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