April 1

527 – Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne.

1789 – The first quorum of the U.S. House of Representatives’ 1st Congress meets at Federal Hall in New York City, electing Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first Speaker.

1833 – 56 delegates of Mexican Texas meet at the Convention of 1833 in San Felipe de Austin to draft a series of petitions to the government in Mexico City for redress of grievances and submitting a state constitution.

1865 – At the Battle of Five Forks, southwest of Petersburg Virginia, Union troops led by Philip Sheridan defeat Confederate troops led by George Pickett, cutting the Army of Northern Virginia’s last supply line.

1924 – Adolf Hitler is sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for his participation in the “Beer Hall Putsch” of November 1923 in Munich, but spends only 9 months behind bars at Landsberg prison.

1945 – The 10th United States Army, consisting of the U.S. Army’s 7th, 27th, 77th and 96th Infantry Divisions and the US Marine Corps’ 1st, 2nd, and 6th Marine Divisions, invade the Japanese island of Okinawa.
A few hours into the invasion, the cruiser USS Vincennes is attacked by Kamikaze aircraft, the Gunner’s Mates Guns aboard shooting down one that crashes less than 50 feet from the stern.

1946 – A 8.6 Mw  earthquake strikes the Aleutian Islands, injuring over 165 people, also causing a tsunami reaching the Hawaiian Islands resulting in 173 deaths, mostly in Hilo, Hawaii.

1960 – NASA’s TIROS-1  Television InfraRed Observation Satellite transmits the first television picture to Earth, of the Earth, from space.

1970 – President Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, revising the warning on cigarette packaging and banning cigarette advertisements on American radio and television.

1976 – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc.

1997 – Comet Hale–Bopp is seen passing at perihelion, it’s closest approach to the Sun. No spacecraft is detected in its vicinity.

2001 – An EP-3E U. S. Navy surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet, with the resulting loss of the Chinese pilot. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, China where they are detained for 10 days.

2004 – Google launches its Email service Gmail.

2011 – After protests against the burning of a Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of 13 people, including 8 foreign workers. None of the U.S. troops and their supporting civil service employees deployed there  come under threat of attack.