April 1
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Featured Event
© E. Baccega—imageBROKER/Alamy
Territory of Nunavut is created
On this day in 1999, Canada’s Northwest Territories were divided to create Nunavut. Starting in the mid-1970s, the Inuit (who are indigenous to the land) began petitioning the Canadian government for greater control over their affairs. A 1992 vote allowed the territories to be divided, and two parliamentary acts were approved the following year: the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, which allowed the Inuit to control more than 135,000 square miles of land (350,000 square km) while receiving monetary compensation from the government, and the Nunavut Act, which established Nunavut as a self-governing territory. Today, the Inuit comprise roughly 86 percent of Nunavut’s population. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
In my own compositions, no conscious effort has been made to be original, or Romantic or Nationalistic, or anything else. I write down on paper the music I hear within me, as naturally as possible.…What I try to do, when writing down my music, is to make it say simply and directly that which is in my heart when I am composing.
Sergey Rachmaninoff, who was born this day in 1873, was a great figure in Russian Romanticism and a leading piano virtuoso who is especially known for his piano concerti and his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
Famous Birthdays
More on April 1
Massimno Salvarani/Associazione Culturale Accademia Degli Incogniti
Today
April Fools’ Day, celebrated today with joking relationships and practical jokes, may have grown out of the medieval Feast of Fools, which was held on January 1.
NASA
2026
The Artemis II space mission launched, sending astronauts toward the Moon for the first time since 1972. Crew members Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Jr., Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen traveled around the far side of the Moon. [Why are we going back to the Moon?]
© National Broadcasting Company
2018
American television producer Steven Bochco—the cocreator of such hit shows as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue—died at the age of 74. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about pop culture.]
© Avishek Das—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Image
2004
Google launched Gmail, and five years later the number of people using the e-mail service surpassed one billion. [Take our computers and technology quiz.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2001
The Netherlands became the first country to grant equal marriage rights to same-sex couples. [Test your knowledge of European history.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2001
The midair collision of a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet that was tailing it over the South China Sea resulted in the death of the Chinese pilot and the landing of the damaged American plane on Hainan Island, where its crew was detained for 11 days.
Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images
1984
American singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye, whose notable works include the concept album What’s Going On (1971), was shot and killed by his father in Los Angeles. [Take our rock-and-roll quiz.]
AP Images
1979
Following overwhelming support in a national referendum, Ruhollah Khomeini declared Iran an Islamic republic; it marked the end of the Iranian Revolution. [Explore a timeline of U.S.-Iran relations.]
Courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.
1976
Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne formed Apple Computer Inc., and it became one of the world’s leading tech companies. [Test your knowledge of tech companies.]
© Rich Grant/Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau
1954
The United States Air Force Academy was created by an act of Congress and was later built in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
U.S. Department of Defense
1945
U.S. troops landed on the Japanese island of Okinawa during World War II, marking the beginning of the Battle of Okinawa. [Sort fact from fiction in our World War II quiz.]
Universum Film A.G.; photograph from a private collection
1930
Josef von Sternberg’s Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel) was released in Germany, and the classic film made Marlene Dietrich a star. [Take our quiz about A-list actors.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1924
Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch; he ultimately served only nine months, during which time he wrote much of Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”). [How much do you know about Adolf Hitler?]
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1918
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force was formed. [Read about 11 of the world’s most famous warplanes.]
Paul Fearn/Alamy
1917
American composer and pianist Scott Joplin, who was known as the “king of ragtime” at the turn of the 20th century, died in a mental institution in New York City. [Take our composers quiz.]
Archiv für Kunst und Geschichte, Berlin
1815
Otto von Bismarck, the founder and first chancellor (1871–90) of the German Empire, was born. [Test your knowledge of German history.]
National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
1578
English physician William Harvey, who discovered the true nature of the circulation of the blood, was born in Folkestone, Kent. [How much do you know about blood?]