April 1

Byzantine general Alexios I Komnenos overthrows Emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, founding the Komnenian dynasty.

Byzantine general Alexios I Komnenos led a successful revolt against the increasingly unpopular Emperor Nikephoros III, entering Constantinople and seizing the throne. His accession founded the Komnenian dynasty, which restored a measure of stability and military strength to the Byzantine Empire after decades of decline, and Alexios later played a key role in launching the First Crusade by appealing to Western Europe for military assistance.

Dutch rebels known as the Watergeuzen capture the town of Brielle from Spanish forces, establishing the first foothold of what became the Dutch Republic.

A fleet of Dutch privateers known as the Watergeuzen, or "Sea Beggars," seized the small port town of Brielle from Spanish Habsburg forces, catching the garrison unprepared. The surprise capture gave Dutch rebels their first permanent territorial foothold in their revolt against Spanish rule, and the town's fall is traditionally regarded as the founding spark of what became the independent Dutch Republic.

The U.S. House of Representatives achieves its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg as its first Speaker.

After a slow start caused by travel delays among newly elected representatives, the first United States Congress finally achieved a quorum in the House and elected Pennsylvania's Frederick Muhlenberg as its inaugural Speaker. The milestone allowed the young federal government, established under the recently ratified Constitution, to begin functioning and move forward with organizing the executive and judicial branches.

Union cavalry under Philip Sheridan defeat Confederate forces at the Battle of Five Forks, cutting off the Army of Northern Virginia's last supply line.

Union cavalry commander Philip Sheridan decisively defeated Confederate forces at the Battle of Five Forks in Virginia, severing the last rail supply line into the besieged city of Petersburg. The defeat forced General Robert E. Lee to abandon both Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond within days, setting the stage for his surrender at Appomattox Court House just over a week later.

The Royal Air Force is created by merging the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, becoming the world's first independent air force.

The British government merged the army's Royal Flying Corps with the Royal Naval Air Service to create the Royal Air Force, the world's first military aviation branch established as an independent service rather than a division of an army or navy. The reorganization reflected growing recognition of air power's strategic importance during World War I and set a model later followed by other nations.

The Spanish Civil War ends as Francisco Franco announces the surrender of the last Republican forces.

General Francisco Franco announced the final surrender of the last organized Republican forces, bringing an end to the brutal three-year Spanish Civil War that had killed several hundred thousand people and drawn intervention from Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Soviet Union. Franco's Nationalist victory installed an authoritarian dictatorship that would rule Spain for nearly four decades until his death in 1975.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc. in a California garage.

College dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, along with a third partner, Ronald Wayne, founded Apple Computer in the Jobs family garage in Los Altos, California, to sell Wozniak's hand-built personal computer, the Apple I. The modest startup grew within a few years into one of the defining companies of the personal computing revolution and later became one of the most valuable corporations in the world.

Iran officially becomes an Islamic republic after a nationwide referendum overwhelmingly approves the change following the ousting of the Shah.

Following the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi earlier that year, Iranian voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum establishing the Islamic Republic of Iran under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The vote formalized the transformation of Iran's government from a Western-backed monarchy into a theocratic state governed according to Islamic law, reshaping the country's politics and its relations with the West for decades.

The Netherlands becomes the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.

The Netherlands became the first country in the world to legally recognize same-sex marriage, with four couples marrying in a ceremony held just after midnight in Amsterdam. The landmark law extended full marriage rights, rather than a separate civil union status, to same-sex couples, and it helped spur a wave of similar legalization efforts in other countries over the following two decades.

Google launches its Gmail email service, offering then-unprecedented amounts of free storage.

Google launched its Gmail email service, surprising the tech industry by offering one gigabyte of free storage per account at a time when competing services typically offered only a few megabytes. Announced on April Fools' Day, the offer initially struck some observers as an elaborate prank, but Gmail's generous storage and clean interface quickly made it one of the most widely used email platforms in the world.