Reuters historical calendar - April 1

London, Mar 31 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on April 1 since 1900: 1917 - Scott Joplin, U S jazz musician famous for his ragtime pieces including ''The Entertainer'', died.

1924 - A German court sentenced Adolf Hitler to five years in jail for high treason after his abortive 1923 putsch; he was released on December 20.

1945 - An assault by 50,000 U S troops on the Japanese-held island of Okinawa heralded the beginning of the last major battle of the Pacific. It ended on July 2 with 7,000 American and 100,000 Japanese dead.

1948 - The Soviet blockade of West Berlin began. Controls were imposed on all road and rail traffic between the city - cut off inside the Soviet occupation zone covering eastern Germany - and the western zones, occupied by the United States, Britain and France.

1960 - Tiros I, the world's first satellite to transmit meteorological cloud-cover pictures, was launched from the United States.

1975 - Cambodian President Lon Nol, leader of the U S-backed government, fled to Indonesia as Khmer Rouge guerrillas closed in on the capital Phnom Penh.

1976 - Max Ernst, German painter and sculptor and one of the founders of Dadaism, died.

1981 - Heavy fighting broke out in Beirut and Zahle between Arab peacekeeping forces and Lebanese right-wing militia.

1984 - U S soul singer Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father.

1996 - The world's largest bank was created in Japan with the merger of Mitsubishi Bank and the Bank of Tokyo.

1999 - In the first redrawing of Canada's provincial borders in 50 years, a vast new Arctic territory called Nunavut was created.

1999 - Jesse Stone, U S rock and roll pioneer songwriter and composer of the classic ''Shake, Rattle&Roll'', died at 97.

1999 - BP Amoco Plc agreed a .8 billion takeover of Atlantic Richfield Co of the United States to create the world's biggest non-OPEC oil producer.

2001 - Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was arrested in Belgrade after a stand-off. He pleaded not guilty to charges of abuse of power and criminal conspiracy.

2001 - A U S Navy surveillance plane with 24 crew made an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan after a mid-air collision with a Chinese F-8 fighter, sparking a diplomatic stand-off that was to last several weeks.

2002 - Euthanasia became legal in the Netherlands a year after parliament voted to make it the first country to permit mercy killing.

2003 - Britain jailed for 11 years two Algerians accused of supporting Osama bin Laden, making them the first people with suspected al Qaeda links to be imprisoned in the country.

2003 - Michael Jeter, U S stage and screen actor, died aged 50. He was Mr Noodle on U S children's television programme 'Sesame Street'.

2004 - Former Rwandan president Pasteur Bizimungu went on trial on charges of trying to set up an armed militia group seen as a threat to national security.

**2005 - Harald Juhnke, one of Germany's best-loved stars of television, film and stage and hailed by many as the German Frank Sinatra, died aged 75.

REUTERS PV DS1116