Portal:Biography/Selected anniversaries/April 2

Births

 * 742 - Charlemagne (d. 814)
 * 1725 - Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer and writer (d. 1798) (pictured)
 * 1805 - Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (d. 1875)
 * 1840 - Émile Zola, French novelist and critic (d. 1902)
 * 1914 - Sir Alec Guinness, English actor (d. 2000)
 * 1920 - Jack Webb, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1982)

Deaths

 * 1872 - Samuel F. B. Morse, American painter and inventor of the telegraph (b. 1791)
 * 1922 - Hermann Rorschach, Swiss psychologist (b. 1884)
 * 1974 - Georges Pompidou, President of France (b. 1911)
 * 2005 - Pope John Paul II, Polish Pope (b. 1920)