April 2

• April 2, 568
  The Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy is founded by king of the Lombards Alboin
• April 2, 742
  Charlemagne, King of the Franks, is born
• April 2, 1453
  Mahmed II begins the siege of Constantinople
• April 2, 1513
  Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon lands in Florida and claims it for Spain
• April 2, 1801
  The British navy defeats the Danish at the Battle of Copenhagen
• April 2, 1872
  George Brayton, an American engineer, invents the constant pressure engine, the basis for the gas turbine
• April 2, 1905
  Railway from Cairo in Egypt to Capetown, South Africa, opens
• April 2, 1941
  Hungarian Prime Minister Pal Teleki kills himself, rather than agree to Adolf Hitler's demand to allow passage of German troops to Yugoslavia, however, the Hungarian Chief of General Staff accedes to the demand
• April 2, 1979
  A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock
• April 2, 2005
  Pope John Paul II dies at his home in the Vatican, following complications from the flu