From Historynet: Today in History April 1

1572          The Sea Beggars under Guillaume de la Marck  land in Holland and capture the small town of Briel.

1778          Oliver Pollock , creates the dollar sign.

1863          The first wartime conscription law goes into effect in the United States.

1865          At the Battle of Five Forks, 

Gen. Robert E. Lee  begins his final offensive.

1868          The Hampton Institute is founded in Hampton, Va.

1905          Berlin and Paris are linked by telephone.

1918          England's Royal Air Force is formed.

1920          Germany's Workers Party changes its name to the Nationalist Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazis).

1924          Adolf Hitler  sentenced to five years in prison for the "Beer Hall Putsch."

1928          China's Chiang Kai-shek  begins attacks on communists.

1929          The yo-yo is introduced in the United States by 

Louie Marx .

1939          The Spanish Civil War effectively ends with the official recognition of Franco's  government.

1942          The U.S. Navy begins a partial convoy system in the Atlantic.

1945          U.S. forces launch invasion of Okinawa.

1946          A miner's strike in the U.S. idles 400,000 workers.

1948          The Berlin Airlift begins, relieving the surrounded city from the Soviet siege.

1951          United Nations forces again move northward across the 38th Parallel in Korea.

1954          The U.S. Air Force Academy is founded in Colorado.

1968          The U.S. Army launches Operation Pegasus, the reopening of a land route to the besieged Khe Sanh Marine base.

1970          The U.S. Army charges 

Captain Ernest Medina  for his role in the My Lai massacre.

1982          The United States transfers control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama.