April 26

Events

• 1336 - Francesco Petrarca ascends Mont Ventoux.
• 1478 - The Pazzi family attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in Florence Cathedral.
• 1564 - Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.
• 1607 - English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
• 1721 - A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.
• 1777 - Sybil Ludington, aged 16, rode to alert American colonial forces to the approach of the British regular forces
• 1794 - Battle of Beaumont during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
• 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.
• 1803 - Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists 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 Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia.
• 1903 - Atlético Madrid Association football club is founded
• 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, Spain, is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
• 1942 - Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1549 Chinese miners dead.
• 1943 - The Easter Riots break out in Uppsala, Sweden.
• 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 are liberated in Baguio and they fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
• 1954 - The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
• 1956 -, 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 12 years of dictatorial rule.
• 1962 - NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
• 1963 - In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya into one national unity and allows for female participation in elections.
• 1964 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
• 1966 - The magnitude 5.1 Tashkent earthquake affects the largest city in Soviet Central Asia with a maximum MSK intensity of VII. Tashkent is mostly destroyed and 15–200 are killed.
• 1966 - A new government is formed in the Republic of the 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 - Fifty-seven people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.
• 1986 - A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Soviet Union, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
• 1989 - The deadliest known tornado 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 April 26 Editorial which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests.
• 1991 - 55 tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado.
• 1994 - China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
• 2002 - Robert Steinhäuser 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.
• 2018 - American comedian Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault.

  Births

• 121 - Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor
• 757 - Hisham I of Córdoba
• 764 - Al-Hadi, Iranian caliph
• 1284 - Alice de Toeni, Countess of Warwick
• 1319 - King John II of France
• 1538 - Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter and academic
• 1575 - Marie de' Medici, queen of Henry IV of France
• 1647 - William Ashhurst, English banker, Sheriff of London, Lord Mayor of London and politician
• 1648 - Peter II of Portugal
• 1697 - Adam Falckenhagen, German lute player and composer
• 1710 - Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher and academic
• 1718 - Esek Hopkins, American commander
• 1774 - Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist and paleontologist
• 1782 - Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily
• 1785 - John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist and painter
• 1787 - Ludwig Uhland, German poet, philologist, and historian
• 1798 - Eugène Delacroix, French painter and lithographer
• 1801 - Ambrose Dudley Mann, American politician and diplomat, 1st United States Assistant Secretary of State
• 1804 - Charles Goodyear, American banker, lawyer, and politician
• 1822 - Frederick Law Olmsted, American journalist and designer, co-designed Central Park
• 1834 - Charles Farrar Browne, American author
• 1856 - Joseph Ward, Australian-New Zealand businessman and politician, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand
• 1862 - Edmund C. Tarbell, American painter and educator
• 1876 - Ernst Felle, German rower
• 1877 - James Dooley, Irish-Australian politician, 21st Premier of New South Wales
• 1878 - Rafael Guízar y Valencia, Mexican bishop and saint
• 1879 - Eric Campbell, British actor
• 1879 - Owen Willans Richardson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1886 - Ma Rainey, American singer
• 1886 - Ğabdulla Tuqay, Russian poet and publicist
• 1889 - Anita Loos, American author, playwright, and screenwriter
• 1889 - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-English philosopher and academic
• 1894 - Rudolf Hess, Egyptian-German politician
• 1896 - Ruut Tarmo, Estonian actor and director
• 1896 - Ernst Udet, German colonel and pilot
• 1897 - Eddie Eagan, American boxer and bobsledder
• 1897 - Douglas Sirk, German-American director and screenwriter
• 1898 - Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet and author, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1898 - John Grierson, Scottish director and producer
• 1899 - Oscar Rabin, Latvian-English saxophonist and bandleader
• 1900 - Eva Aschoff, German bookbinder and calligrapher
• 1900 - Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist and physicist
• 1900 - Hack Wilson, American baseball player
• 1904 - Paul-Émile Léger, Canadian cardinal
• 1904 - Xenophon Zolotas, Greek economist and politician, 177th Prime Minister of Greece
• 1905 - Jean Vigo, French director and screenwriter
• 1907 - Ilias Tsirimokos, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece
• 1909 - Marianne Hoppe, German actress
• 1910 - Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese screenwriter and producer
• 1911 - Paul Verner, German soldier and politician
• 1912 - A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-American author
• 1914 - Bernard Malamud, Jewish American novelist and short story writer
• 1914 - James Rouse, American real estate developer
• 1916 - Eyvind Earle, American artist, author, and illustrator
• 1916 - Ken Wallis, English commander, engineer, and pilot
• 1916 - Morris West, Australian author and playwright
• 1917 - Sal Maglie, American baseball player and coach
• 1917 - I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect, designed the National Gallery of Art and Bank of China Tower
• 1917 - Virgil Trucks, American baseball player and coach
• 1918 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch sprinter and long jumper
• 1921 - Jimmy Giuffre, American clarinet player, saxophonist, and composer
• 1922 - J. C. Holt, English historian and academic
• 1922 - Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian journalist and politician, 23rd Governor General of Canada
• 1922 - Margaret Scott, South African-Australian ballerina and choreographer
• 1924 - Browning Ross, American runner and soldier
• 1925 - Vladimir Boltyansky, Russian mathematician, educator and author
• 1925 - Gerard Cafesjian, American businessman and philanthropist
• 1925 - Michele Ferrero, Italian entrepreneur
• 1925 - Frank Hahn, British economist
• 1926 - Michael Mathias Prechtl, German soldier and illustrator
• 1927 - Jack Douglas, English actor
• 1927 - Harry Gallatin, American basketball player and coach
• 1927 - Granny Hamner, American baseball player
• 1929 - Richard Mitchell, American author and educator
• 1930 - Roger Moens, Belgian runner and sportscaster
• 1931 - Paul Almond, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1931 - Bernie Brillstein, American talent agent and producer
• 1931 - John Cain Jr., Australian politician, 41st Premier of Victoria
• 1932 - Israr Ahmed, Indian-Pakistani theologian, philosopher, and scholar
• 1932 - Shirley Cawley, English long jumper
• 1932 - Frank D'Rone, American singer and guitarist
• 1932 - Francis Lai, French accordion player and composer
• 1932 - Michael Smith, English-Canadian biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1933 - Carol Burnett, American actress, singer, and producer
• 1933 - Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Puerto Rican-American general
• 1933 - Arno Allan Penzias, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1935 - Patricia Reilly Giff, American author and educator
• 1937 - Jean-Pierre Beltoise, French racing driver and motorcycle racer
• 1938 - Duane Eddy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
• 1938 - Maurice Williams, American doo-wop/R&B singer-songwriter
• 1940 - Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Indian cleric and politician
• 1940 - Giorgio Moroder, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
• 1940 - Cliff Watson, English rugby league player
• 1941 - Claudine Auger, French model and actress
• 1942 - Svyatoslav Belza, Russian journalist, author, and critic
• 1942 - Sharon Carstairs, Canadian lawyer and politician, Leader of the Government in the Senate
• 1942 - Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat, Canadian Ambassador to the United States
• 1942 - Bobby Rydell, American singer and actor
• 1942 - Jadwiga Staniszkis, Polish sociologist, political scientist, and academic
• 1943 - Gary Wright, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
• 1943 - Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect and academic, designed the Therme Vals
• 1944 - Richard Bradshaw, English conductor
• 1945 - Howard Davies, English director and producer
• 1945 - Dick Johnson, Australian racing driver
• 1945 - Sylvain Simard, Canadian academic and politician
• 1946 - Ralph Coates, English international footballer
• 1946 - Marilyn Nelson, American poet and author
• 1946 - Alberto Quintano, Chilean footballer
• 1949 - Carlos Bianchi, Argentinian footballer and manager
• 1949 - Jerry Blackwell, American wrestler
• 1951 - John Battle, English politician
• 1954 - Tatyana Fomina, Estonian chess player
• 1954 - Alan Hinkes, English mountaineer and explorer
• 1955 - Kurt Bodewig, German politician
• 1956 - Koo Stark, American actress and photographer
• 1958 - John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, Scottish racing driver
• 1958 - Giancarlo Esposito, American actor, director, and producer
• 1958 - Georgios Kostikos, Greek footballer, coach, and manager
• 1959 - John Corabi, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1960 - Steve Lombardozzi, American baseball player and coach
• 1960 - Roger Taylor, English drummer
• 1961 - Joan Chen, Chinese-American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1961 - Chris Mars, American artist
• 1962 - Colin Anderson, English footballer
• 1962 - Debra Wilson, American actress and comedian
• 1963 - Jet Li, Chinese-Singaporean martial artist, actor, and producer
• 1963 - Colin Scotts, Australian-American football player
• 1963 - Cornelia Ullrich, German hurdler
• 1963 - Bill Wennington, Canadian basketball player
• 1965 - Susannah Harker, English actress
• 1965 - Kevin James, American actor and comedian
• 1967 - Glenn Thomas Jacobs, American professional wrestler, actor, businessman and politician
• 1967 - Marianne Jean-Baptiste, English actress and singer-songwriter
• 1967 - Toomas Tõniste, Estonian sailor and politician
• 1970 - Dean Austin, English footballer and manager
• 1970 - Melania Trump, Slovene-American model; 47th First Lady of the United States
• 1970 - Kristen R. Ghodsee, American ethnographer and academic
• 1970 - Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
• 1971 - Jay DeMarcus, American bass player, songwriter, and producer
• 1972 - Jason Bargwanna, Australian racing driver
• 1972 - Kiko, Spanish footballer
• 1972 - Natrone Means, American football player and coach
• 1972 - Avi Nimni, Israeli footballer and manager
• 1973 - Geoff Blum, American baseball player and sportscaster
• 1973 - Jules Naudet, French-American director and producer
• 1973 - Chris Perry, English footballer
• 1973 - Óscar García Junyent, Spanish footballer and coach
• 1975 - Joey Jordison, American musician, songwriter, record producer
• 1975 - Rahul Verma, Indian social worker and activist
• 1976 - Luigi Panarelli, Italian footballer
• 1976 - Václav Varaďa, Czech ice hockey player
• 1977 - Samantha Cristoforetti, Italian astronaut
• 1977 - Kosuke Fukudome, Japanese baseball player
• 1977 - Roxana Saberi, American journalist and author
• 1977 - Tom Welling, American actor
• 1978 - Stana Katic, Canadian actress
• 1978 - Peter Madsen, Danish footballer
• 1980 - Jordana Brewster, Panamanian-American actress
• 1980 - Marlon King, English footballer
• 1980 - Anna Mucha, Polish actress and journalist
• 1980 - Channing Tatum, American actor and producer
• 1981 - Caro Emerald, Dutch pop and jazz singer
• 1981 - Ms. Dynamite, English rapper and producer
• 1981 - Sandra Schmitt, German skier
• 1982 - Novlene Williams-Mills, Jamaican sprinter
• 1983 - José María López, Argentinian racing driver
• 1983 - Jessica Lynch, American soldier
• 1985 - John Isner, American tennis player
• 1985 - Andrea Koch Benvenuto, Chilean tennis player
• 1986 - Lior Refaelov, Israeli footballer
• 1986 - Yuliya Zaripova, Russian runner
• 1987 - Jorge Andújar Moreno, Spanish footballer
• 1988 - Ben Spina, Australian rugby league player
• 1988 - Manuel Viniegra, Mexican footballer
• 1988 - Gareth Evans, English footballer
• 1989 - Melvin Ingram, American football player
• 1990 - Mitch Rein, Australian rugby league player
• 1990 - Nevin Spence, Northern Irish rugby player
• 1991 - Lazaros Fotias, Greek footballer
• 1991 - Peter Handscomb, Australian cricketer
• 1991 - Isaac Liu, New Zealand rugby league player
• 1991 - Ignacio Lores Varela, Uruguayan footballer
• 1991 - Srdjan Pejicic, Canadian/Bosnian basketball player
• 1991 - Wojciech Pszczolarski, Polish bicycle racer
• 1992 - Aaron Judge, American baseball player
• 1994 - Daniil Kvyat, Russian racing driver

  Deaths

• 499 - Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei
• 645 - Richarius, Frankish monk and saint
• 680 - Muawiyah I, Umayyad caliph
• 757 - Pope Stephen II
• 893 - Chen Jingxuan, general of the Tang Dynasty
• 962 - Adalbero I, bishop of Metz
• 1192 - Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan
• 1366 - Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1392 - Jeong Mong-ju, Korean civil minister, diplomat and scholar
• 1444 - Robert Campin, Flemish painter
• 1478 - Giuliano de' Medici, Italian ruler
• 1489 - Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shōgun
• 1558 - Jean Fernel, French physician
• 1686 - Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, Swedish statesman and military man
• 1716 - John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, English jurist and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
• 1784 - Nano Nagle, Irish nun and educator, founded the Presentation Sisters
• 1789 - Petr Ivanovich Panin, Russian general
• 1809 - Bernhard Schott, German music publisher
• 1865 - John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln
• 1881 - Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, German general
• 1895 - Eric Stenbock, Estonian-English author and poet
• 1910 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian-French author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1915 - John Bunny, American actor
• 1920 - Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician and theorist
• 1932 - William Lockwood, English cricketer
• 1934 - Arturs Alberings, Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia
• 1940 - Carl Bosch, German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1944 - Violette Morris, French footballer, shot putter, and discus thrower
• 1945 - Sigmund Rascher, German physician
• 1945 - Pavlo Skoropadskyi, German-Ukrainian general and politician, Hetman of Ukraine
• 1946 - James Larkin White, American miner, explorer, and park ranger
• 1950 - George Murray Hulbert, American lawyer, judge, and politician
• 1951 - Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist and academic
• 1956 - Edward Arnold, American actor
• 1957 - Gichin Funakoshi, Japanese martial artist, founded Shotokan
• 1964 - E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet and author
• 1968 - John Heartfield, German illustrator and photographer
• 1969 - Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, founded aikido
• 1970 - Erik Bergman, Swedish minister and author
• 1970 - Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress, striptease dancer, and writer
• 1973 - Irene Ryan, American actress and philanthropist
• 1976 - Sidney Franklin, American bullfighter
• 1976 - Sid James, South African-English actor
• 1976 - Armstrong Sperry, American author and illustrator
• 1980 - Cicely Courtneidge, Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer
• 1981 - Jim Davis, American actor
• 1984 - Count Basie, American pianist, composer, and bandleader
• 1986 - Broderick Crawford, American actor
• 1986 - Bessie Love, American actress
• 1986 - Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter
• 1987 - Shankar, Indian composer and conductor
• 1987 - John Silkin, English lawyer and politician, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
• 1989 - Lucille Ball, American model, actress, comedian, and producer
• 1991 - Leo Arnaud, French-American composer and conductor
• 1991 - Carmine Coppola, American composer and conductor
• 1991 - A. B. Guthrie, Jr., American novelist and historian,
• 1991 - Richard Hatfield, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Premier of New Brunswick
• 1994 - Masutatsu Ōyama, Japanese martial artist, founded Kyokushin kaikan
• 1996 - Stirling Silliphant, American screenwriter and producer
• 1999 - Adrian Borland, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 1999 - Jill Dando, English journalist and television personality
• 2003 - Rosemary Brown, Jamaican-Canadian academic and politician
• 2003 - Yun Hyon-seok, South Korean poet and author
• 2003 - Edward Max Nicholson, Irish environmentalist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature
• 2004 - Hubert Selby, Jr., American author, poet, and screenwriter
• 2005 - Mason Adams, American actor
• 2005 - Elisabeth Domitien, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic
• 2005 - Maria Schell, Austrian-Swiss actress
• 2005 - Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan journalist, author, and academic
• 2007 - Jack Valenti, American businessman, created the MPAA film rating system
• 2009 - Hans Holzer, Austrian-American paranormal investigator and author
• 2010 - Mariam A. Aleem, Egyptian graphic designer and academic
• 2010 - Urs Felber, Swiss engineer and businessman
• 2011 - Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 2012 - Terence Spinks, English boxer and trainer
• 2013 - Jacqueline Brookes, American actress and educator
• 2013 - George Jones, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 2014 - Gerald Guralnik, American physicist and academic
• 2014 - Paul Robeson, Jr., American historian and author
• 2014 - DJ Rashad, American electronic musician, producer and DJ
• 2015 - Jayne Meadows, American actress
• 2015 - Marcel Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 2016 - Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist
• 2017 - Jonathan Demme, American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter

  Holidays and observances

• Chernobyl disaster related observances:
• *Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy
• *Memorial Day of Radiation Accidents and Catastrophes
• Christian feast day:
• *Aldobrandesca
• *Franca Visalta
• *Lucidius of Verona
• *Our Lady of Good Counsel
• *Pope Anacletus and Marcellinus
• *Riquier
• *Paschasius Radbertus
• *Peter of Rates
• *Robert Hunt
• *Stephen of Perm, see also Old Permic Alphabet Day
• *Trudpert
• *April 26
• Confederate Memorial Day
• Union Day
• World Intellectual Property Day