April 02
1513
Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.
1792
Congress authorized the first U.S. mint, in Philadelphia.
1865
Confederate president Jefferson Davis and most of his cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.
1870
Victoria Claflin Woodhull announced her candidacy for president of the United States.
1917
President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany.
1932
Charles Lindbergh paid a $50,000 ransom for the return of his kidnapped son.
1982
Argentina seized the Falkland Islands from Britain
2005
Pope John Paul II died.
Birthdays
Charlemagne
Pronunciation: [shär´lumAn]
[O.Fr.,=Charles the great], 742?–814, emperor of the West (800–814), Carolingian king of the Franks (768–814).
King of the Franks
Elder son of Pepin the Short and a grandson of Charles Martel, Charlemagne shared with his brother Carloman in the succession to his father’s kingdom.
Hans Christian Andersen
writer (1805)
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi
sculptor of Statue of Liberty (1834)
Émile Zola
novelist (1840)
Max Ernst
painter (1891)
Alec Guinness
actor (1914)
Georgie Anne Geyer
foreign correspondent (1935)
Marvin Gaye
singer, songwriter (1939)