Anniversaries 2 April

Birth

Charlemagne8

King of the Franks, King of Italy, and Holy Roman Emperor 748–814

Francesco Maria Grimaldi2

Italian physicist 1618–1663

Giacomo Casanova55

Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice 1725–1798

Hans Christian Andersen41

Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet 1805–1875

Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet2

colonial administrator and historian 1807–1886

Henry L. Benning12

Confederate Army general 1814–1875

Emile Zola54

French writer (1840-1902) 1840–1902

Nicholas Murray Butler17

American philosopher, diplomat, and educator 1862–1947

J. C. Squire6

British poet, writer, historian, and literary editor 1884–1958

Max Ernst20

German painter, sculptor and graphic artist 1891–1976

Jan Tschichold1

German graphic designer 1902–1974

Alec Guinness2

English actor 1914–2000

G. Spencer-Brown3

British mathematician 1923–2016

George MacDonald Fraser39

English-born author of Scottish descent 1925–2008

Kenneth Tynan40

English theatre critic and writer 1927–1980

Ferenc Puskás6

Hungarian-Spanish association football player 1927–2006

Serge Gainsbourg1

French musician and actor 1928–1991

A. James Gregor64

American political scientist 1929–2019

Paul Cohen5

American mathematician 1934–2007

Marvin Gaye23

American singer-songwriter and musician 1939–1984

Richard Taruskin2

American writer 1945

Sue Townsend3

English writer and humorist 1946–2014

Camille Paglia326

American writer 1947

Emily Rodda1

Australian fiction writer, for children as Rodda (pseudonym… 1948

Joan D. Vinge5

American writer 1948

Zhang Yimou5

Chinese actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer 1950

Mark Holton1

American actor 1958

Alberto Fernández1

President of Argentina 1959

Gregory Parkes1

Roman Catholic bishop 1964

Rodney King2

American taxi driver and police brutality victim 1969–2012

Mark Jason Dominus3

American computer programmer 1969

Eyal Berkovic2

Israeli footballer and manager 1972

Evan McMullin5

American political candidate 1976

Scott Lynch138

American writer 1978

Natalia Villaveces1

Colombian television host 1979

Death

John Howe2

English Puritan theologian 1630–1705

Jasmine Jones1

American painter and inventor 1791–1872

Thomas Cogswell Upham2

American philosopher and psychologist 1799–1872

Richard Cobden56

English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman 1804–1865

Albert Pike88

Confederate States Army general and Freemason 1809–1891

Katharine Tynan1

Irish poet 1859–1931

K. S. Ranjitsinhji3

Indian cricket player. 1872–1933

Eugene M. Kulischer11

American sociologist 1881–1956

Franz Halder7

German general 1884–1972

Bernard Lyot1

French astronomer 1897–1952

C. S. Forester4

British novelist 1899–1966

Hannes Alfvén9

Swedish electrical engineer and plasma physicist 1908–1995

Buddy Rich2

Jazz drummer and bandleader 1917–1987

Pope John Paul II64

264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint 1920–2005

Robert H. Schuller1

American television evangelist 1926–2015

Mike Zwerin1

American jazz musician 1930–2010

Paul Arden16

writer 1940–2008