History of 1 April
- 1991 – Iran released British hostage Roger Cooper after 5 years.
- 1991 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that jurors could not be barred from serving due to their race.
- 1991 – The Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved.
- 1992 – Players began the first strike in the 75-year history of the National Hockey League (NHL).
- 1996 – U.S. President Bill Clinton threw out the first ball preceding a game between the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles.
- 1997 – David Carradine received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 1998 – A federal judge dismissed the Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit against U.S. President Clinton saying that the claims fell “far short” of being worthy of a trial.
- 1999 – In Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Anatoliy Onoprienko was sentenced to death for the deaths of 52 men, women and children. 43 of the killings occurred in a 6-month period.
- 1999 – The Canadian territory of Nunavut was created. It was carved from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories and covered about 772,000 square miles.
- 2001 – China began holding 24 crewmembers of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E U.S. Navy crew had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was missing and presumed dead. The U.S. crew was released on April 11, 2001.
- 2001 – Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested on corruption charges after a 26-hour standoff with the police at his Belgrade villa.
- 2003 – North Korea test-fired an anti-ship missile off its west coast.
- 2003 – Jason Mewes was ordered to complete drug rehabilitation or face five years in jail stemming from a drug conviction in 1999.
- 2004 – U.S. President George W. Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The bill made it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman.
- 2004 – Gateway Inc. announced that it would be closing all of its 188 stores on April 9.
- 2009 – Albania and Croatia joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
- 2010 – The U.S. Congress cut Medicare reimbursements to physicians by 21%.
- 2011 – After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of thirteen people, including eight foreign workers.
- 2016 – Nagorno-Karabakh clashes: The Four Day War or April War begins along the Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact on April 1.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Antonis Fotsis, Greek basketball player
- 1981 – Bjørn Einar Romøren, Norwegian ski jumper
- 1982 – Taran Killam, American actor, voice artist, comedian, and writer
- 1982 – Andreas Thorkildsen, Norwegian javelin thrower
- 1983 – Ólafur Ingi Skúlason, Icelandic footballer
- 1983 – Sean Taylor, American football player (d. 2007)
- 1984 – Gilberto Macena, Brazilian footballer
- 1985 – Daniel Murphy, American baseball player
- 1985 – Beth Tweddle, English gymnast
- 1986 – Hillary Scott, American country singer-songwriter
- 1987 – Ding Junhui, Chinese professional snooker player
- 1987 – Gianluca Musacci, Italian footballer
- 1987 – Oliver Turvey, English racing driver
- 1988 – Brook Lopez, American basketball player
- 1988 – Robin Lopez, American basketball player
- 1989 – Jan Blokhuijsen, Dutch speed skater
- 1989 – David N’Gog, French footballer
- 1989 – Christian Vietoris, German racing driver
- 1990 – Julia Fischer, German discus thrower
- 1992 – Deng Linlin, Chinese gymnast
- 1995 – Logan Paul, American Youtuber and actor
- 1997 – Álex Palou, Spanish racing driver
- 1997 – Asa Butterfield, English actor