April 02

• 1931 Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, who held an hour of talks with Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey and government ministers during a stopover in Shannon on his way to Cuba in the spring of 1989, born to a poor peasant family in Privolnoye, southern Russia.
• 1989 The first Soviet–Irish summit. During a stopover in Shannon on his way to Cuba, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held an hour of talks with Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey and government ministers.
• 1917 President Woodrow Wilson delivered a war address to Congress. Four days later the US declared war on Germany.
• 1982 In a continuing dispute with Britain over the sovereignty of the islands, Argentinian forces invaded the Falkland Islands (pop. c. 2,000) and, the following day, South Georgia.