April 2 birthdays
742 CHARLEMAGNE Holy Roman Emperor
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774 and the first Holy Roman Emperor from 800. He succeeded in unifying the majority of western and central Europe.
1725 GIACOMO CASANOVA Italian writer
Casanova was an adventurer and writer from the Republic of Venice. He has become so famous for his often complicated and
V1 - CCPE01Z01MA elaborate affairs with women that his name is now synonymous with “womaniser”.
1805 HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
Danish author
Although he was a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. His fairy tales, consisting of 156 stories across nine volumes, have been translated into more than 125 languages.
1926 JACK BRABHAM Australian car racer
Brabham was a Royal Australian Air Force flight mechanic and ran a small engineering workshop before he started racing midget cars in 1948. He later won the Formula One World Championship three times – 1959, 1960 and 1966.
1960 LINFORD CHRISTIE British athlete
Christie is the only British man to have won gold in the 100m in all four competitions open to British athletes – the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games.
1965 RODNEY KING American motorist
On March 3, 1991, King was beaten by LAPD officers during his arrest for driving while intoxicated. The incident was filmed by a bystander, who sent the footage to a local news station. The incident was covered worldwide and caused public uproar.
1981 MICHAEL CLARKE
Australian cricketer
Nicknamed Pup, Clarke was captain of the Australian team between 2011 and 2015. He played a total of 115 Test matches and 245 ODIs for Australia. Clarke scored 8643 Test runs at an average of 49.10.