Following are some of the major events to have occurred on April 1:
1924 – A German court sentenced Adolf Hitler to five years in jail for high treason after his abortive 1923 putsch; he was released on Dec. 20.
1955 – EOKA begins its armed insurrection in Cyprus against Britain, demanding the island to become part of Greece.
1976 – Max Ernst, German painter and sculptor and one of the founders of Dadaism, died.
1996 – The world’s largest bank was created in Japan with the merger of Mitsubishi Bank and the Bank of Tokyo.
1999 – In the first redrawing of Canada’s provincial borders in 50 years, a vast new Arctic territory called Nunavut was created.
1999 – BP Amoco Plc agreed a $26.8 billion takeover of Atlantic Richfield Co of the United States to create the world’s biggest non-OPEC oil producer.
2001 – Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was arrested in Belgrade after a stand-off. He pleaded not guilty to charges of abuse of power and criminal conspiracy.
2001 – A U.S. Navy surveillance plane with 24 crew made an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan after a mid-air collision with a Chinese F-8 fighter, sparking a diplomatic stand-off that was to last several weeks.
2005 – Harald Juhnke, one of Germany’s best-loved stars of television, film and stage and hailed by many as the German Frank Sinatra, died aged 75.
2007 – French acrobatic basketball team “Crazy Dunkers” member Willy Martignon breaks world record for dunking from the longest distance.
2012 – “Karat chef” creates world’s most expensive sushi.
2014 – General Motors CEO Mary Barra testifies on Capitol Hill on auto-related deaths.
(Reuters)
