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.
1802 - A general amnesty signed by Napoleon Bonaparte allowed all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture to make peace with the various factions of the Ancien Regime that would ultimately consolidate his own rule.
1805 - United States Marines captured Derne, Tripoli under the command of First Lieutenant Presley N. O'Bannon.
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 Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak).
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)
1893 - Draza Mihajlovic, Serbian WW2 Hero
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, Italian 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
1964 - Jens Unmack, Danish singer and songwriter
1965 - Kevin James, American comedian and actor
1967 - Glen Jacobs, American professional wrestler
1970 - Tionne Watkins, American singer (TLC)
1973 - Chris Perry, English footballer
1976 - 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
1988 - Tammie Ji Yoon Choe, World Champion Fast Food Eater and Five-Time Miss Leonia Winner
1990 - Pedro Avelar Gontijo, Brazilian Bassist

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.g 1874)
1951 - Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (b. 1868)
1956 - Edward Arnold, American actor (b. 1890)
1964 - E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet born Newfoundland (b. 1882)
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)
1987 - John Ernest Silkin, British politician, (b. 1923)
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)

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