April 26
April 26 is the 116th day of the year (117th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 249 days remaining until the end of the year.
Events
- 1336 – Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux.
- 1478 – The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.
- 1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of actual birth is unknown).
- 1607 – English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
- 1721 – A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.
- 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Regime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.
- 1803 – Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European science that meteors exist.
- 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.
- 1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. Also the date of Confederate Memorial Day for two states.
- 1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
- 1923 – The Duke of York weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.
- 1925 – Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic.
- 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
- 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica (or Gernika in Basque), Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
- 1942 – Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1549 Chinese miners dead.
- 1944 – Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
- 1944 – Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.
- 1945 – World War II: Battle of Bautzen – last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
- 1945 – World War II: Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL and the American troops of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Division, United States Army was liberated in Baguio City and they fought against the Japanese forces under by General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
- 1946 – Naperville train disaster kills 47.
- 1954 – The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
- 1956 – SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.
- 1958 – Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
- 1960 – Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after twelve years of dictatorial rule.
- 1962 – NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
- 1963 – In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
- 1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
- 1965 – A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.
- 1966 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
- 1966 – A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
- 1970 – The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.
- 1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.
- 1982 – 57 people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.
- 1986 – A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
- 1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
- 1989 – People's Daily publishes the People's Daily editorial of April 26 which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests
- 1991 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado (see Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak).
- 1994 – China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
- 2002 – Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
- 2005 – Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country (Syrian occupation of Lebanon).
↑Jump back a sectionBirths
- 121 – Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (d. 180)
- 1538 – Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter (d. 1600)
- 1575 – Marie de' Medici, wife of Henry IV of France (d. 1642)
- 1648 – Peter II of Portugal (d. 1706)
- 1697 – Adam Falckenhagen, German lutenist and composer (d. 1754)
- 1710 – Thomas Reid, English philosopher (d. 1796)
- 1718 – Esek Hopkins, American navy commander (d. 1802)
- 1774 – Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist (d. 1853)
- 1782 – Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily (d. 1866)
- 1785 – John James Audubon, French-American naturalist and illustrator (d. 1851)
- 1787 – Ludwig Uhland, German poet (d. 1862)
- 1798 – Eugène Delacroix, French painter (d. 1863)
- 1801 – Ambrose Dudley Mann, American diplomat (d. 1889)
- 1804 – Charles Goodyear, American politician (d. 1876)
- 1812 – Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1887)
- 1822 – Frederick Law Olmsted, American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer (d. 1903)
- 1826 – George Hull Ward, American general (d. 1863)
- 1826 – Ambrose R. Wright, American General (d. 1872)
- 1834 – Charles Farrar Browne, American writer (d. 1867)
- 1856 – Joseph Ward, New Zealand politician, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
- 1862 – Edmund C. Tarbell, American artist (d. 1938)
- 1876 – Ernst Felle, German rower (d. 1959)
- 1878 – Rafael Guízar Valencia, Mexican bishop (d. 1938)
- 1879 – Owen Willans Richardson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
- 1886 – Ma Rainey, American singer (d. 1939)
- 1886 – Gabdulla Tuqay, Tatar poet (d. 1913)
- 1889 – Anita Loos, American writer (d. 1981)
- 1889 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian philosopher (d. 1951)
- 1894 – Rudolf Hess, German Nazi politician and deputy (d. 1987)
- 1896 – Ruut Tarmo, Estonian actor (d. 1967)
- 1896 – Ernst Udet, German pilot (d. 1941)
- 1897 – Eddie Eagan, American athlete (d. 1967)
- 1897 – Douglas Sirk, German director (d. 1987)
- 1898 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
- 1898 – John Grierson, English filmmaker (d. 1972)
- 1900 – Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist (d. 1985)
- 1900 – Hack Wilson, American baseball player (d. 1948)
- 1904 – Paul-Émile Léger, Canadian cardinal and archbishop (d. 1991)
- 1910 – Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese movie producer (d. 1997)
- 1911 – Marianne Hoppe, German actress (d. 2002)
- 1912 – A. E. van Vogt, Canadian writer (d. 2000)
- 1914 – Bernard Malamud, American author (d. 1986)
- 1914 – James Rouse, American real estate developer, urban planner, activist, and philanthropist, founder of The Rouse Company (d. 1996)
- 1914 – Charlie Chester, English comedian (d. 1997)
- 1916 – Morris West, Australian writer (d. 1999)
- 1916 – Vic Perrin, American actor (d. 1989)
- 1916 – George Tuska, American illustrator (d. 2009)
- 1917 – Sal Maglie, American baseball player (d. 1992)
- 1917 – I.M. Pei, Chinese architect
- 1917 – Virgil Trucks, American baseball player and coach (d. 2013)
- 1918 – Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)
- 1918 – Stafford Repp, American actor (d. 1974)
- 1922 – Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian politician (d. 1993)
- 1924 – Browning Ross, American long-distance runner (d. 1998)
- 1925 – Jørgen Ingmann, Danish jazz musician
- 1926 – David Coleman, English sports commentator and television presenter
- 1926 – Michael Mathias Prechtl, German illustrator (d. 2003)
- 1927 – Jack Douglas, English actor (d. 2008)
- 1929 – Richard Mitchell, American author and professor (d. 2002)
- 1930 – Roger Moens, Belgian athlete
- 1932 – Francis Lai, French composer
- 1932 – Michael Smith, English chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 2000)
- 1932 – Israr Ahmed, Pakistani theologian (d. 2010)
- 1933 – Carol Burnett, American comedian
- 1933 – Arno Allan Penzias, German physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1933 – Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Puerto Rican activist (d. 2005)
- 1938 – Duane Eddy, American guitarist and actor
- 1938 – Wolf Kahler, German actor
- 1940 – Giorgio Moroder, Italian composer
- 1940 – Cliff Watson, English rugby player
- 1941 – Claudine Auger, French actress
- 1941 – Claudine Clark, American singer and composer
- 1941 – John Mitchell, American composer
- 1942 – Sharon Carstairs, Canadian politician
- 1942 – Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat
- 1942 – Bobby Rydell, American singer, drummer, and actor
- 1942 – Jadwiga Staniszkis, Polish sociologist
- 1943 – Gary Wright, American singer, musician, and producer (Spooky Tooth)
- 1943 – Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect
- 1944 – Richard Bradshaw, English conductor (d. 2007)
- 1944 – Amien Rais, Indonesian politician
- 1945 – Sylvain Simard, Canadian politician
- 1947 – Warren Clarke, English actor
- 1949 – Carlos Bianchi, Argentinian footballer
- 1949 – Jerry Blackwell, American wrestler (d. 1995)
- 1949 – Dominic Sena, American director
- 1952 – Spice Williams-Crosby, American actress
- 1953 – Nancy Lenehan, American actress
- 1953 – Linda Thompson, American attorney, filmmaker and founder of the American Justice Federation
- 1954 – Alan Hinkes, English mountaineer
- 1955 – Kurt Bodewig, German politician
- 1955 – Mike Scott, American baseball player
- 1956 – Koo Stark, American actress
- 1957 – Michel Barrette, Canadian comedian and actor
- 1957 – Diane Hébert, first Quebecer to receive a heart-lung transplant (d. 2008)
- 1958 – John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, Scottish peer and race car driver
- 1958 – Giancarlo Esposito, American actor
- 1958 – Jeffrey Guterman, American mental health counselor, educator, and author
- 1958 – Georgios Kostikos, Greek footballer
- 1959 – John Corabi, American singer and musician (Mötley Crüe, Angora, The Scream, Union, and Brides of Destruction)
- 1959 – Thanassis Papakonstantinou, Greek singer-songwriter and musician
- 1960 – Roger Taylor, English musician (Duran Duran and Arcadia)
- 1960 – Steve Lombardozzi, American baseball player
- 1961 – Joan Chen, Chinese actress
- 1961 – Anthony Cumia, American radio personality
- 1961 – Chris Mars, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (The Replacements and Golden Smog)
- 1962 – Colin Anderson, English footballer
- 1962 – Michael Damian, American actor, singer and producer
- 1962 – Debra Wilson, American actress and comedian
- 1963 – Jet Li, Chinese martial artist and actor
- 1963 – Colin Scotts, Australian-American football player
- 1965 – Kevin James, American actor
- 1966 – Yoshihiro Togashi, Japanese manga artist
- 1967 – Marianne Jean-Baptiste, English actress
- 1967 – Kane, American wrestler
- 1969 – Teresa Lewis, American murderer (d. 2010)
- 1970 – Melania Trump, Slovenian model
- 1970 – Tionne Watkins, American singer (TLC)
- 1971 – Shondrella Avery, American actress
- 1971 – Jay DeMarcus, American bassist (Rascal Flatts and East to West)
- 1972 – Jason Bargwanna, Australian race car driver
- 1972 – Natrone Means, American football player
- 1972 – Kiko Narváez, Spanish footballer
- 1972 – Avi Nimni, Israeli Footballer
- 1973 – Geoff Blum, American baseball player
- 1973 – Chris Perry, English footballer
- 1973 – Jules Naudet, French-American director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer
- 1974 – Ivana Milicevic, Croatian-American actress
- 1974 – Adil Ray, British radio presenter
- 1975 – Joey Jordison, American musician, songwriter, and producer (Slipknot and Murderdolls)
- 1975 – Nerina Pallot, English singer-songwriter
- 1976 – Luigi Panarelli, Italian footballer
- 1976 – Václav Varada, Czech ice hockey player
- 1977 – Jason Earles, American actor
- 1977 – Kosuke Fukudome, Japanese baseball player
- 1977 – Chris Johnston, Irish rugby player
- 1977 – Tom Welling, American actor
- 1977 – Roxana Saberi, American journalist
- 1978 – Avant, American singer-songwriter
- 1978 – Joe Crede, American baseball player
- 1978 – Peter Madsen, Danish footballer
- 1978 – Tyler Labine, Canadian actor
- 1978 – Stana Katic, Canadian actress
- 1979 – Ariane Moffatt, Canadian singer-songwriter and musician
- 1979 – Janne Wirman, Finnish musician (Children of Bodom, Warmen, and Masterplan)
- 1980 – Jordana Brewster, American actress
- 1980 – Marlon King, Jamaican footballer
- 1980 – Anna Mucha, Polish actress
- 1980 – Channing Tatum, American actor
- 1980 – Marnette Patterson, American actress
- 1981 – Matthieu Delpierre, French footballer
- 1981 – Ms. Dynamite, English singer-songwriter and rapper
- 1981 – Sandra Schmitt, German skier (d. 2000)
- 1982 – Joanne Gobure, Nauruan poet
- 1982 – Brock Gillespie, American basketball player
- 1982 – Jon Lee, English singer and actor (S Club)
- 1982 – Cooper Wallace, American football player
- 1983 – José María López, Argentine race car driver
- 1983 – Jessica Lynch, American army private
- 1985 – John Isner, American tennis player
- 1985 – Andrea Koch Benvenuto, Chilean tennis player
- 1985 – Nam Gyu-Ri, South Korean singer and actress (See Ya)
- 1986 – Lior Refaelov, Israeli Footballer
- 1987 – Coke, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Jessica Lee Rose, American-New Zealand actress
- 1988 – Kimber James, American porn actress
- 1988 – Manuel Viniegra, Mexican footballer
- 1988 – Hazel Ann Mendoza, Filipino Actress
- 1989 – Daesung, South Korean singer-songwriter, and actor (Big Bang)
- 1990 – Jonathan dos Santos, Mexican footballer
- 1990 – Nevin Spence, Irish rugby player (d. 2012)
- 1990 – Kim Yu-mi, South Korean model, Miss Korea 2012
- 1991 – Ignacio Lores Varela, Uruguayan footballer
- 1992 – Danielle Hope, English actress and singer
- 1995 – Daniel Padilla, Filipino Actor
↑Jump back a sectionDeaths
- 499 – Xiao Wen Di, Chinese emperor (b. 467)
- 1192 – Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (b. 1127)
- 1444 – Robert Campin, Flemish painter (b. 1378)
- 1476 – Simonetta Vespucci, Italian Renaissance noblewoman (b. 1453)
- 1478 – Giuliano de' Medici, ruler of Florence (b. 1453)
- 1489 – Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese 9th shogun (b. 1465)
- 1716 – John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, English jurist and statesman (b. 1651)
- 1717 – Samuel Bellamy, English pirate (b. 1689)
- 1784 – Nano Nagle, Irish nun, founded the Presentation Sisters (b. 1718)
- 1789 – Count Petr Ivanovich Panin, Russian soldier (b. 1721)
- 1852 – Charles Athanase Walckenaer, French naturalist (b. 1771)
- 1865 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1838)
- 1881 – Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, German general (b. 1815)
- 1892 – Provo Wallis, English Admiral (b. 1791)
- 1910 – Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author, Nobel laureate (b. 1832)
- 1915 – John Bunny, American actor (b. 1863)
- 1920 – Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (b. 1887)
- 1932 – William Lockwood, English cricketer (b. 1868)
- 1936 – Tammany Young, American actor (b. 1886)
- 1938 – Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher (b. 1859)
- 1940 – Carl Bosch, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1874)
- 1944 – Violette Morris, French athlete (b. 1893)
- 1945 – Pavlo Skoropadsky, Ukrainian politician and general (b. 1871)
- 1945 – Sigmund Rascher, German SS doctor (b. 1909)
- 1946 – James Larkin White, American miner, explorer, and park ranger, discoverer of Carlsbad Caverns (b. 1882)
- 1950 – G. Murray Hulbert, American politician (b. 1881)
- 1951 – Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (b. 1868)
- 1956 – Edward Arnold, American actor (b. 1890)
- 1957 – Gichin Funakoshi, Japanese creator of karate (b. 1868)
- 1964 – E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet (b. 1882)
- 1968 – John Heartfield, German artist (b. 1891)
- 1969 – Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist and founder of aikido (b. 1883)
- 1970 – Erik Bergman, Swedish minister (b. 1886)
- 1970 – Charles January, American soccer player (b. 1888)
- 1970 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress (b. 1911)
- 1972 – Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (b. 1892)
- 1973 – Irene Ryan, American actress (b. 1902)
- 1976 – Sidney Franklin, American bullfighter (b. 1903)
- 1976 – Sid James, South African comedian (b. 1913)
- 1976 – Armstrong Sperry, American writer and illustrator (b. 1897)
- 1980 – Cicely Courtneidge, English actress and comedian (b. 1893)
- 1981 – Jim Davis, American actor (b. 1909)
- 1984 – Count Basie, American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer (b. 1904)
- 1986 – Broderick Crawford, American actor (b. 1911)
- 1986 – Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (b. 1899)
- 1986 – Bessie Love, American actress (b. 1898)
- 1987 – John Silkin, British politician (b. 1923)
- 1987 – Shankar, Indian composer (b. 1922)
- 1989 – Lucille Ball, American actress and comedian (b. 1911)
- 1991 – Leo Arnaud, French-American composer (b. 1904)
- 1991 – Carmine Coppola, American composer and conductor (b. 1910)
- 1991 – A. B. Guthrie, Jr., American writer (b. 1901)
- 1991 – Emily McLaughlin, American actress (b. 1928)
- 1991 – Richard Hatfield, Canadian politician (b. 1931)
- 1994 – Masutatsu Oyama, Japanese karate master (b. 1927)
- 1996 – Stirling Silliphant, American writer and producer (b. 1918)
- 1999 – Adrian Borland, English singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (The Sound and The Outsiders) (b. 1957)
- 1999 – Jill Dando, English journalist (b. 1961)
- 2002 – Robert Steinhäuser, German murderer, committed the Erfurt massacre (b. 1983)
- 2003 – Rosemary Brown, Canadian politician (b. 1930)
- 2003 – Edward Max Nicholson, Irish environmentalist, founder of the World Wide Fund for Nature (b. 1904)
- 2003 – Peter Stone, American writer (b. 1930)
- 2004 – Hubert Selby Jr., American author (b. 1928)
- 2005 – Mason Adams, American actor (b. 1919)
- 2005 – Maria Schell, Swiss-Austrian actress (b. 1926)
- 2005 – Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan author (b. 1917)
- 2007 – Jack Valenti, American political advisor and film executive (b. 1921)
- 2009 – Hans Holzer, American paranormal researcher (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Urs Felber, Swiss industrialist (b. 1942)
- 2011 – Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Sisters of Glory) (b. 1950)
- 2013 – George Jones, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1931)
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Reactor No. 4 with its enclosing sarcophagus.
