By Day: Historical Events on April 1st

Bishop Anselm of Bec becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.

Maghribi geographer and cartographer al-Idrisi is born in what is now modern-day Morocco.

Treaty of Windsor is signed, establishing an alliance between England and Portugal, which remains the world's oldest diplomatic alliance.

Singapore becomes a British crown colony.

The Greco-Turkish War begins when Greece declares war on the Ottoman Empire.

The Battle of Okinawa starts as more than 60,000 soldiers and US Marines of the US Tenth Army stormed ashore at Okinawa. Savage fighting erupted at the island’s southern end as the US forces encountered a network of Japanese inland defenses. The land, sea, and air battle raged for nearly three months. About 12,000 American and 90,000 Japanese combatants died in the fighting, but deaths among Okinawan civilians may have reached 150,000. More

A t.8 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Near the source of the earthquake, at Unimak Island, huge tsunami waves reached more than 100 feet above sea level and destroyed completely the newly built steel-reinforced concrete U.S. Coast Guard's Scotch Cap lighthouse. killing al 5 crew members. The tsunami arrived 4.9 hours later in Hilo, causing $26 million (1946 dollars) in damages and killing 96 people. More

The Netherlands legalizes same-sex marriage, becoming the first country to do so.