April 26

April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). There are 249 days remaining.

Events

• 1478 – The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Florence Cathedral.
• 1607 – English colonists of the Jamestown settlement make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
• 1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman near Durham, North Carolina.
• 1865  – Union cavalry troopers corner John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, in a barn in Virginia. Booth is shot dead by cavalryman Boston Corbett.
• 1925 – Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected Reichspräsident, the 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, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
• 1942 – The worst-ever mining accident in history kills 1,549 miners in an explosion at the Honkeiko Colliery, Manchuria.
• 1946 – Father Divine, a controversial religious leader who claims to be God, marries the much-younger Edna Rose Ritchings, a celebrated anniversary in the International Peace Mission movement.
• 1954 – The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
• 1962 – NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
• 1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
• 1986 – In Ukraine, a nuclear reactor at the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear plant explodes, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
• 1991 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before its end, Andover, Kansas would record the year's only F5 tornado (see The Andover, Kansas Tornado).
• 1994 – South Africa holds its first multiracial elections.
• 1994  – A China Airlines Airbus A-300-600R crashes at Nagoya Airport, Japan killing 264.
• 2002 – 19-year-old Robert Steinhäuser shoots and kills 17 people at his school in Erfurt, Germany.
• 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.

Births

• 121 – Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (d. 180)
• 1711 – David Hume, Scottish philosopher, historian (d. 1776)
• 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)
• 1798  – James Beckwourth, American explorer (d. 1867)
• 1812 – Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1887)
• 1822 – Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect (d. 1903)
• 1886 – Ma Rainey, blues singer (d. 1939)
• 1888 – Anita Loos, writer (d. 1981)
• 1889 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austian-born English philosopher (d. 1951)
• 1894 – Rudolf Hess, Nazi official (d. 1987)
• 1895 – Nathaniel Kleitman, sleep researcher (d. 1999)
• 1896 – Ernst Udet, German World War II pilot (d. 1941)
• 1897 – Olga Tschechowa, actress (d. 1980)
• 1897  – Douglas Sirk, director (d. 1987)
• 1897  – Eddie Eagan, American sportsman (d. 1967)
• 1898 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer (d. 1984)
• 1898 – John Grierson, filmmaker (d. 1972)
• 1900 – Charles Richter, geophysicist and inventor (d. 1985)
• 1911 – Marianne Hoppe, actress (d. 2002)
• 1912 – A. E. van Vogt, science fiction writer (d. 2000)
• 1914 – Bernard Malamud, author (d. 1986)
• 1914 – James W. Rouse, American real estate investor, activist, philanthropist (d. 1996)
• 1916 – Morris West, Australian writer (d. 1999)
• 1917 – I.M. Pei, architect
• 1918 – Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)
• 1918 – Stafford Repp American actor (d. 1974)
• 1918  – Stafford Repp, actor (d. 1974)
• 1925 – Jørgen Ingmann, Danish musician and Eurovision Song Contest winner (d. 1990)
• 1926 – Michael Mathias Prechtl, German illustrator (d. 2003)
• 1933 – Carol Burnett, American singer, actress, and comedian
• 1934 – Alan Arkin, actor
• 1936 – Lane Smith, American actor
• 1938 – Duane Eddy, musician
• 1940 – Giorgio Moroder, composer
• 1942 – Bobby Rydell, singer
• 1942 – Claudine Auger, French actress
• 1943 – Gary Wright, singer
• 1946 – Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Russian politician
• 1947 – Donna DeVarona, swimmer
• 1956 – Koo Stark, actress
• 1960 – Roger Taylor, musician (Duran Duran)
• 1961 – Joan Chen, actress
• 1963 – Jet Li, martial artist and actor
• 1965 – Kevin James, American comedian, actor
• 1970 – Tionne Watkins, American singer (TLC)
• 1976 – Jose Pasillas, American musician (Incubus)
• 1977 – Tom Welling, actor
• 1980 – Jordana Brewster, Panamanian-American actress
• 1982 – Joanne Gobure, Nauruan poet
• 1983 – Jessica Lynch, American soldier
• 1984 – Mija Martina, Bosnian singer

Deaths

• 1478 – Giuliano di Piero de' Medici
• 1489 – Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1465)
• 1865 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor and assassin (shot) (b. 1838)
• 1892 – Sir Provo Wallis, British Admiral and naval hero
• 1910 – Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author (b. 1832)
• 1920 – Srinivasa Ramanujan, mathematician (b. 1887)
• 1932 – Hart Crane, American poet (suicide) (b. 1899)
• 1932  – William Lockwood, English cricketer (b. 1868)
• 1938 – Edmund Husserl, philosopher (b. 1859)
• 1956 – Edward Arnold, American actor
• 1969 – Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido (b. 1883)
• 1970 – Gypsy Rose Lee, actress (b. 1911)
• 1970  – John Knittel, dramatist
• 1973 – Irene Ryan, actress (b. 1902)
• 1976 – Sid James, British comedian (b. 1913)
• 1981 – Jim Davis, American actor
• 1984 – Count Basie, American musician and composer (b. 1904)
• 1984 – Henry Rowland, American actor
• 1986 – Broderick Crawford, actor (b. 1911)
• 1986  – Dechko Uzunov, painter (b. 1899)
• 1988 – James McCracken, American tenor (b. 1926)
• 1989 – Lucille Ball, American actress and comedian (b. 1911)
• 1991 – Carmine Coppola, composer and conductor
• 1991  – William Andrew Paton, economist
• 1991 – Emily McLaughlin, American actress
• 1996 – Stirling Silliphant, writer and producer
• 1999 – Jill Dando, British television presenter (b. 1961)
• 2003 – Rosemary Brown, Canadian politician (b. 1930)
• 2003  – Max Nicholson, environmentalist (b. 1904)
• 2003  – Peter Stone, Oscar- and Tony-winning writer (b. 1930)
• 2004 – Hubert Selby Jr., author (b. 1928)
• 2005 – Maria Schell, Austrian-born actress (b. 1926)
• 2005  – Bob Schiffer, longtime Hollywood movie makeup artist (b. 1916)
• 2005 – Mason Adams, American actor

Holidays and observances

• Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  • Saint Alda (d. 1309)
  • Richarius or Riquier (d. 643)
  • Paschasius (d. 865)
  • Saint Cletus (Pope Anacletus) and Marcellinus (Popes and martyrs)
  • Lucidius (4th century)
  • Trudpert (Irish monk martyred in Germany in 607).
• Tanzania – Union Day
• Shi'a Islam – Mawlid, Muhammad's birthday (2005)
• Georgia, USA – Confederate Memorial Day
• Intellectual property – World Intellectual Property Day (since 2001)

External links

• BBC: On This Day

April 25 – April 27 – March 26 – May 26 – listing of all days