April 26: Encyclopedia - April 26

April 26

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

April 26 - 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 at the Bennett Place 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 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.

April 26 - Births

• 121 - Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (d. 180)
• 1538 - Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter (d. 1600)
• 1573 - Marie de' Medici, queen of Henry IV of France (d. 1642)
• 1564 (baptized) - William Shakespeare, English writer (d. 1616)
• 1648 - King Peter II of Portugal (d. 1706)
• 1710 - Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher (d. 1796)
• 1711 - David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian (d. 1776)
• 1718 - Esek Hopkins, American Revolutionary War admiral (d. 1802)
• 1765 - Emma, Lady Hamilton, English mistress of Horatio Nelson (d. 1815)
• 1774 - Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist (d. 1853)
• 1785 - John James Audubon, French-American naturalist and illustrator (d. 1851)
• 1787 - Ludwig Uhland, German poet (d. 1862)
• 1798 - James Beckwourth, American explorer (d. 1867)
• 1798 - Eugène Delacroix, French painter (d. 1863)
• 1812 - Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1887)
• 1822 - Frederick Law Olmsted, American landscape architect (d. 1903)
• 1826 - George Hull Ward, American general (d. 1863)
• 1826 - Ambrose R. Wright, American Civil War General (d. 1872
• 1879 - Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
• 1886 - Ma Rainey, American singer (d. 1939)
• 1888 - Anita Loos, American writer (d. 1981)
• 1889 - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born philosopher (d. 1951)
• 1894 - Rudolf Hess, Nazi official (d. 1987)
• 1896 - Ernst Udet, German World War II pilot (d. 1941)
• 1897 - Eddie Eagan, American sportsman (d. 1967)
• 1897 - Douglas Sirk, German-born film director (d. 1987)
• 1898 - Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
• 1898 - John Grierson, Scottish filmmaker (d. 1972)
• 1900 - Charles Richter, American geophysicist and inventor (d. 1985)
• 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 W. Rouse, American real estate investor, activist, and philanthropist (d. 1996)
• 1916 - Morris West, Australian writer (d. 1999)
• 1917 - I.M. Pei, Chinese-born architect
• 1918 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)
• 1918 - Stafford Repp American actor (d. 1974)
• 1925 - Jørgen Ingmann, Danish musician (d. 1990)
• 1926 - Michael Mathias Prechtl, German illustrator (d. 2003)
• 1932 - Michael Smith, English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
• 1933 - Carol Burnett, American singer, actress, and comedian
• 1933 - Arno Allan Penzias, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1934 - Alan Arkin, American actor
• 1936 - Lane Smith, American actor
• 1938 - Duane Eddy, American musician
• 1940 - Giorgio Moroder, German composer
• 1942 - Claudine Auger, French actress
• 1942 - Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat
• 1942 - Bobby Rydell, American singer
• 1943 - Gary Wright, American singer
• 1943 - Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect
• 1946 - Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Russian politician
• 1949 - Carlos Bianchi, Argetinian football coach and player
• 1956 - Koo Stark, American actress
• 1958 - Jeffrey Guterman, American mental health counselor
• 1960 - Roger Taylor, English musician (Duran Duran)
• 1961 - Joan Chen, Chinese-born actress
• 1963 - Jet Li, Chinese martial artist and actor
• 1965 - Kevin James, American comedian and actor
• 1967 - Glen Jacobs, American professional wrestler
• 1970 - Tionne Watkins, American singer (TLC)
• 1973 - Chris Perry, English footballer
• 1975 - Joey Jordison, American musician (Slipknot)
• 1976 - Jose Pasillas, American musician (Incubus)
• 1977 - Tom Welling, American actor
• 1980 - Jordana Brewster, American actress
• 1982 - Joanne Gobure, Nauruan poet
• 1983 - Jessica Lynch, American P.O.W. captured and rescued in Iraq in 2003
• 1984 - Mija Martina, Bosnian singer

April 26 - Deaths

• 1192 - Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (b. 1127)
• 1444 - Robert Campin, Flemish painter (b. 1378)
• 1478 - Giuliano di Piero de' Medici, ruler of Florence (assassinated) (b. 1453)
• 1489 - Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shogun (b. 1465)
• 1716 - John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1651)
• 1784 - Nano Nagle, Irish convent founder (b. 1718)
• 1789 - Count Petr Ivanovich Panin, Russian soldier (b. 1721)
• 1865 - John Wilkes Booth, American actor and assassin (shot) (b. 1838)
• 1892 - Sir Provo Wallis, British Admiral and naval hero (b. 1791)
• 1910 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1832)
• 1920 - Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (b. 1887)
• 1932 - Hart Crane, American poet (suicide) (b. 1899)
• 1932 - William Lockwood, English cricketer (b. 1868)
• 1938 - Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher (b. 1859)
• 1940 - Carl Bosch, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
• 1951 - Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (b. 1868)
• 1956 - Edward Arnold, American actor (b. 1890)
• 1969 - Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist (b. 1883)
• 1970 - Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress (b. 1911)
• 1973 - Irene Ryan, American actress (b. 1902)
• 1976 - Sid James, British comedian (b. 1913)
• 1981 - Jim Davis, American actor (b. 1909)
• 1984 - Count Basie, American musician and composer (b. 1904)
• 1986 - Broderick Crawford, American actor (stroke) (b. 1911)
• 1986 - Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (b. 1899)
• 1988 - James McCracken, American tenor (b. 1926)
• 1989 - Lucille Ball, American actress and comedian (b. 1911)
• 1991 - Carmine Coppola, American composer and conductor (b. 1910)
• 1991 - Emily McLaughlin, American actress (b. 1930)
• 1996 - Stirling Silliphant, American writer and producer (b. 1918)
• 1999 - Jill Dando, British television presenter (b. 1961)
• 2002 - Lisa Lopes, American singer (b. 1971)
• 2003 - Rosemary Brown, Canadian politician (b. 1930)
• 2003 - Max Nicholson, Irish environmentalist (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 - Blade Icewood, American rapper (b. 1977)
• 2005 - Maria Schell, Austrian-born actress (b. 1926)

April 26 - 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)
• Florida and Georgia, USA - Confederate Memorial Day
• Intellectual property - World Intellectual Property Day (since 2001)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "April 26", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki