1. On April 2, 1865, Confederate General J. Stoddard Johnston surrendered his troops to Union General James H. Wilson in Eufaula, Alabama marking the end of the Civil War in Alabama.
2. The first electric streetcar service in Alabama began on April 2, 1886, with the opening of the Birmingham Street Railway Company in Birmingham.
3. On April 2, 1958, Tuscaloosa native and future astronaut Ken Mattingly graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Mattingly would go on to fly on the Apollo 16 and STS-4 missions.
4. On April 2, 1963, African American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and jailed for leading a protest march without a permit in Birmingham, Alabama. While in jail, King wrote his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
5. On April 2, 1992, a massive tornado outbreak struck the southeastern United States, including Alabama, killing 26 people and causing over $100 million in damage. The outbreak was one of the deadliest in Alabama history.