April 26 - Definition and Overview

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 make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia, later moving up the James River to found Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina.
• 1865 - Union Cavalry corner John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, in a barn in Virginia and cavalryman Boston Corbett shoots him dead.
• 1937 - Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
• 1942 - The worst ever mining accident occurs when 1,549 miners are killed by an explosion at the Honkeiko Colliery, Manchuria.
• 1946 - Father Divine, a controversial religious leader who claimed to be God, married much-younger Edna Rose Ritchings, a celebrated anniversary in the International Peace Mission movement.
• 1954 - Geneva Conference (1954) begins: An international conference is held in Geneva in an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea.
• 1962 - Ranger program: The Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
• 1964 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
• 1971 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The American force level in Vietnam drops to 281,400 men, the lowest number since July 1966.
• 1972 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announces that another 20,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn from the war in May and June, reducing the authorized troop level to 49,000.
• 1986 - In Ukraine, one of the reactors at the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear plant explodes, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster. Thirty-one people are killed directly by the incident and many thousands more are exposed to significant amounts of radioactive material.
• 1991 - Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before its end, Andover, Kansas would record the year's only F5 tornado and 17 people will perish (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 during an amok run at his Erfurt/Germany school.

Births

• 121 - Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (d. 180)
• 1785 - John James Audubon, naturalist, illustrator (d. 1851)
• 1798 - Eugène Delacroix, painter (d. 1863)
• 1798 - James Beckwourth, mountain man and ex-slave (d. 1867)
• 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, Luftwaffe Fighter 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)
• 1900 - Charles Richter, geophysicist, inventor (d. 1985)
• 1911 - Marianne Hoppe, actress
• 1912 - A. E. van Vogt, science fiction writer (d. 2000)
• 1914 - Bernard Malamud, author (d. 1986)
• 1918 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)
• 1918 - Stafford Repp, actor (d. 1974)
• 1925 - Jørgen Ingmann, Danish musician and Eurovision Song Contest winner (d. 1990)
• 1934 - Alan Arkin, actor
• 1935 - Carol Burnett, singer, actress, comedienne
• 1938 - Duane Eddy, musician
• 1940 - Giorgio Moroder, composer
• 1942 - Bobby Rydell, singer
• 1943 - Gary Wright, singer
• 1946 - Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Soviet politician
• 1947 - Donna DeVarona, Olympic gold medalist in swimming, sports journalist, sports activist
• 1956 - Koo Stark, actress
• 1960 - Roger Taylor, musician ("Duran Duran")
• 1961 - Joan Chen, actress
• 1963 - Jet Li, martial arts fighter, actor
• 1968 - Maria Irene Cardozo, Humanities genius
• 1977 - Tom Welling, actor, Clark Kent on "Smallville"
• 1983 - Jessica Lynch, POW rescued from Iraq in 2003
• 1984 - Mija Martina, Bosnian singer

Deaths

• 1489 - Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1465)
• 1865 - John Wilkes Booth, shot while trying to avoid capture for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1838)
• 1892 - Sir Provo William Perry Wallis, British Admiral and naval hero
• 1910 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author
• 1932 - Hart Crane, American poet (b. 1899)
• 1969 - Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido
• 1970 - Gypsy Rose Lee, actress (b. 1911)
• 1970 - John Knittel, dramatist
• 1973 - Irene Ryan, actress
• 1976 - Sid James, British comedian
• 1984 - Count Basie, musician, composer (b. 1904)
• 1986 - Broderick Crawford, actor (b. 1911)
• 1986 - Dechko Uzunov, painter (b. 1899)
• 1989 - Lucille Ball, actress, comedienne (b. 1911)
• 1988 - James McCracken (b. 1926)
• 1991 - Carmine Coppola, composer, conductor, father of Francis Ford Coppola and Talia Shire, grandfather of Sofia Coppola
• 1991 - William Andrew Paton, accountant and economist, dies at 101
• 1996 - Stirling Silliphant, writer, producer
• 1999 - Jill Dando, British television presenter (b. 1961)
• 2003 - The Honourable Rosemary Brown, Canadian politician (NDP)
• 2003 - Max Nicholson, environmentalist
• 2003 - Peter Stone, Oscar- and (3-time)Tony-winning writer
• 2004 - Hubert Selby Jr., author

Holidays and observances

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