April 26

## Events 
### Up to 1950 
*1315 &ndash; Robert the Bruce opens the first Scottish Parliament.
*1478 &ndash; The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Florence Cathedral.
*1564 &ndash; William Shakespeare is baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.
*1607 &ndash; English colonists of the Jamestown settlement make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
*1721 &ndash; A massive earthquake hits Tabriz, present-day Iran.
*1802 &ndash; Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but 1,000 of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France. 
*1803 &ndash; Meteor fragments, in their thousands, fall from the skies above L'Aigle, France.
*1865 &ndash; American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman near Durham, North Carolina.
*1865 &ndash; Union cavalry troopers corner John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, in a barn in Virginia. Booth is shot dead by cavalryman Boston Corbett.
*1876 &ndash; In football, FC Copenhagen is founded. It is the oldest Football Club in Denmark and Northern Europe.
*1903 &ndash; In football, Spanish club Atletico Madrid is founded.
*1923 &ndash; Future King George VI of the United Kingdom marries Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.
*1925 &ndash; 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 &ndash; The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
*1937 &ndash; Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
*1942 &ndash; The worst-ever mining accident in history kills 1,549 miners in an explosion at the Honkeiko Colliery, Manchuria.
*1944 &ndash; Georgius Papandreou becomes Head of the Greek government–in–exile based in Egypt.
*1946 &ndash; 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.

### From 1951 
*1954 &ndash; The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
*1956 &ndash; SS *Ideal X*, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.
*1960 &ndash; The April Revolution in South Korea leads to the resignation of President Rhee Syng-man, who had ruled for 12 years.
*1962 &ndash; NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
*1963 &ndash; Libya changes its constitution. Women gain the right to vote, and the official name of the country becomes "Kingdom of Libya".
*1964 &ndash; Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
*1965 &ndash; A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario has to be abandoned after 15 minutes after rioting.
*1966 &ndash; The IOC decides that Munich should host the 1972 Summer Olympics.
*1966 &ndash; Ambroise Noumazalaye forms the new government in the Republic of the Congo.
*1982 &ndash; 57 people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in Gyeongsangam-do, South Korea.
*1986 &ndash; In Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, a nuclear reactor at the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear plant explodes, creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
*1989 &ndash; The deadliest-ever tornado kills over 1,000 people in central Bangladesh.
*1991 &ndash; 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 &ndash; South Africa holds its first multiracial elections.
*1994 &ndash; A China Airlines Airbus A-300–600R crashes at Nagoya Airport, Japan killing 264.
*2000 &ndash; The Andorra national football team scores its first-ever win; 2–0 against the Belarus national football team. Andorra had joined FIFA in 1994.
*2002 &ndash; 19-year–old Robert Steinhäuser shoots and kills 17 people at his school in Erfurt, Germany.
*2005 &ndash; 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.
*2012 &ndash; Former President of Liberia Charles Taylor is found guilty of war crimes for his role in supplying weapons during the Sierra Leone Civil War.
*2013 &ndash; A fire in a psychiatric hospital near Moscow, Russia, kills 38 people. Only 3 people survive.
*2013 &ndash; The Bank of England announces that Winston Churchill will feature on its five–pound bank notes from 2016.
*2016 &ndash; A court ruling finds that the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster were unlawfully killed.
*2017 &ndash; The Cassini space probe moves inside Saturn's ring system.
*2018 &ndash; American entertainer Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault.

## Births 
### Up to 1900 
* 121 &ndash; Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (died 188)
* 1538 &ndash; Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter (died 1600)
* 1575 &ndash; Marie de' Medici, Queen of France (died 1647)
* 1647 &ndash; William Ashhurst, English banker and politician (died 1720)
* 1648 &ndash; Peter II of Portugal (died 1706)
* 1710 &ndash; Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher (died 1797)
* 1711 &ndash; David Hume, Scottish philosopher (died 1776), born on May 7 in Gregorian calendar
* 1765 &ndash; Emma, Lady Hamilton, wife of Horatio Nelson (died 1815)
* 1774 &ndash; Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist (died 1853)
* 1782 &ndash; Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily (died 1866)
* 1785 &ndash; John James Audubon, American painter (died 1851)
* 1786 &ndash; William Hovell, English explorer of Australia (died 1875)
* 1787 &ndash; Ludwig Uhland, German poet (died 1862)
* 1798 &ndash; Eugène Delacroix, French painter (died 1863)
* 1801 &ndash; Ambrose Dudley Mann, American politician and diplomat (died 1889)
* 1812 &ndash; Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (died 1887)
* 1821 &ndash; Robert Adamson, Scottish photographer (died 1848)
* 1822 &ndash; Frederick Law Olmsted, American landscape architect (died 1903)
* 1826 &ndash; Ambrose R. Wright, American Civil War general (died 1872)
* 1845 &ndash; Jorge Montt, President of Chile (died 1922)
* 1856 &ndash; Joseph Ward, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1930)
* 1862 &ndash; Edmund C. Tarbell, American artist (died 1938)
* 1865 &ndash; Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish painter and architect (died 1931)
* 1879 &ndash; Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist (died 1959)
* 1885 &ndash; Marcello Bertinetti, Italian fencer and footballer (died 1967)
* 1886 &ndash; Gabdulla Tukay, Tatar poet (died 1913)
* 1886 &ndash; Ma Rainey, American singer (died 1939)
* 1888 &ndash; Anita Loos, American writer (died 1981)
* 1889 &ndash; Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born philosopher (died 1951)
* 1889 &ndash; James Wordie, Scottish polar explorer (died 1962)
* 1892 &ndash; John Murray, Australian army officer (died 1951)
* 1894 &ndash; Rudolf Hess, Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler's Deputy (died 1987)
* 1896 &ndash; Ernst Udet, German pilot (died 1941)
* 1897 &ndash; Douglas Sirk, German-born movie director (died 1987)
* 1897 &ndash; Eddie Eagan, American athlete (died 1967)
* 1898 &ndash; Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer (died 1984)
* 1898 &ndash; John Grierson, Scottish moviemaker (died 1972)
* 1900 &ndash; Charles Richter, American seismologist (someone who studies earthquakes), creator of the Richter scale (died 1985)

### 1901 &ndash; 1950 
* 1904 &ndash; Jimmy McGrory, Scottish footballer (died 1982)
* 1907 &ndash; Ilios Tsirimkos, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1968)
* 1909 &ndash; Marianne Hoppe, German theatre and movie actress (died 2002)
* 1910 &ndash; Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese movie director (died 1997)
* 1914 &ndash; Bernard Malamud, American writer (died 1986)
* 1917 &ndash; I. M. Pei, Chinese–born architect
* 1917 &ndash; Virgil Trucks, American baseball player (died 2013)
* 1918 &ndash; Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (died 2004)
* 1921 &ndash; Jimmy Giuffre, American jazz clarinetist, saxophone player and composer (died 2008)
* 1922 &ndash; Roger Grava, Italian-French footballer (died 1949)
* 1922 &ndash; Jeanne Sauvé, 23rd Governor General of Canada (died 1993)
* 1922 &ndash; Margaret Scott, South African-Australian ballerina and choreographer 
* 1925 &ndash; Vladimir Botlyansky, Russian mathematician and writer
* 1925 &ndash; Jorgen Ingmann, Danish musician (died 2015)
* 1925 &ndash; Zvi Yavetz, Israeli historian (died 2013)
* 1925 &ndash; Michele Ferrero, Italian businessman (died 2015)
* 1926 &ndash; David Coleman, British sports broadcaster (died 2013)
* 1930 &ndash; Roger Moens, Belgian athlete
* 1931 &ndash; Bernie Brillstein, American movie and television producer (died 2008)
* 1931 &ndash; Paul Almond, Canadian screenwriter, director and producer (died 2015)
* 1932 &ndash; Israr Ahmed, Pakistani theologian, philosopher and scholar (died 2010)
* 1932 &ndash; Francis Lai, French movie score composer
* 1932 &ndash; Agildo Ribeiro, Brazilian actor (died 2018)
* 1932 &ndash; Birgitta Stenberg, Swedish writer (died 2014)
* 1932 &ndash; Michael Smith, British-born chemist (died 2000)
* 1933 &ndash; Carol Burnett, American actress and comedienne
* 1933 &ndash; Arno Allan Penzias, German-born physicist
* 1934 &ndash; Donald Sterling, American businessman, former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers
* 1936 &ndash; Doug Sax, American audio engineer (died 2015)
* 1937 &ndash; Jean-Pierre Beltoise, French racing driver (died 2015)
* 1938 &ndash; Nino Benvenuti, Italian boxer
* 1938 &ndash; Duane Eddy, American guitarist
* 1940 &ndash; Giorgio Moroder, Italian composer
* 1942 &ndash; Svyatoslav Belza, Russian scholar, critic and essayist (died 2014)
* 1942 &ndash; Molvi Iftikhar Hussein Ansari, Kashmiri Shia cleric and politician (died 2014)
* 1942 &ndash; Bobby Rydell, American singer
* 1945 &ndash; Richard Armitage, American politician
* 1945 &ndash; Jorge Serrano Elias, 29th President of Guatemala
* 1947 &ndash; Warren Clarke, British actor (died 2014)
* 1947 &ndash; David Byrne, Irish politician
* 1948 &ndash; Derek Davis, Irish broadcaster (died 2015)
* 1949 &ndash; Carlos Bianchi, Argentine footballer
* 1949 &ndash; Dominic Sena, American director
* 1950 &ndash; Thomas Quick, Swedish claimed serial killer

### 1951 &ndash; 1975 
* 1953 &ndash; Arved Fuchs, German polar scientist and writer
* 1955 &ndash; Kurt Bodewig, German politician
* 1956 &ndash; Koo Stark, American actress
* 1958 &ndash; John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, Scottish peer and racing driver
* 1959 &ndash; John Corabi, American singer and musician
* 1959 &ndash; Thanassis Papakonstantinou, Greek singer and songwriter
* 1960 &ndash; Roger Andrew Taylor, British drummer (Duran Duran)
* 1961 &ndash; Joan Chen, Chinese-born actress
* 1961 &ndash; Chris Mars, American singer-songwriter, musician and producer
* 1963 &ndash; Jet Li, Chinese martial artist and actor
* 1963 &ndash; Tank Abbott, American martial artist and wrestler
* 1965 &ndash; Kevin James, American comedian
* 1966 &ndash; Yoshihiro Togashi, Japanese manga artist
* 1967 &ndash; Marianne Jean-Baptiste, British actress
* 1967 &ndash; David Gebbia, American businessman
* 1967 &ndash; Richard Gebbia, American businessman
* 1967 &ndash; Glenn Jacob, American Wrestler
* 1970 &ndash; Melania Trump, Slovenian–American model, First Lady of the United States
* 1972 &ndash; Avi Nimni, Israeli footballer
* 1973 &ndash; Lee Woon-Jae, South Korean footballer
* 1973 &ndash; Gedeon Naudet, French-born American movie maker
* 1974 &ndash; Adil Ray, British radio presenter
* 1975 &ndash; Nerina Pallot, British singer-songwriter
* 1975 &ndash; Joey Jordison, American musician (Slipknot)

### From 1976 
* 1977 &ndash; Jason Earles, American actor, comedian and martial artist
* 1977 &ndash; Roxana Saberi, American journalist
* 1977 &ndash; Raphael Wicky, Swiss footballer
* 1977 &ndash; Craig Adams, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1978 &ndash; Elson Becerra, Colombian footballer (d. 2006)
* 1979 &ndash; Ariane Moffatt, Canadian singer and songwriter
* 1980 &ndash; Anna Mucha, Polish actress
* 1980 &ndash; Channing Tatum, American actor
* 1980 &ndash; Jordana Brewster, American actress
* 1980 &ndash; Marlon King, Jamaican footballer
* 1981 &ndash; Matthieu Delpierre, French footballer
* 1981 &ndash; Ms. Dynamite, British singer and musician
* 1981 &ndash; Caro Emerald, Dutch singer
* 1982 &ndash; Nadja Benaissa, German singer
* 1982 &ndash; Amazing Red, Puerto Rican professional wrestler
* 1983 &ndash; Jessica Lynch, American POW
* 1984 &ndash; Emily Wickersham, American actress and model
* 1985 &ndash; John Isner, American tennis player
* 1985 &ndash; Nam Gyu-Ri, South Korean singer and actress
* 1987 &ndash; Jessica Lee Rose, American-New Zealand actress
* 1989 &ndash; Daesung, South Korean singer-songwriter and actor
* 1990 &ndash; Kim Yu-mi, South Korean model
* 1990 &ndash; Jonathan dos Santos, Mexican footballer
* 1991 &ndash; Ignacio Lores Varela, Uruguayan footballer
* 1992 &ndash; Danielle Hope, English actress and singer
* 1994 &ndash; Daniil Kvyat, Russian racing driver
* 1994 &ndash; Zoe Smith, English weightlifter
* 1995 &ndash; Daniel Padilla, Filipino actor and singer

## Deaths 
### Up to 1950 
* 499 &ndash; Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei in China (b. 467)
* 645 &ndash; Richarius, Frankish hermit and monk (b. 560)
* 757 &ndash; Pope Stephen II
* 1192 &ndash; Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (b. 1127)
* 1196 &ndash; Alfonso II of Aragon (b. 1157)
* 1444 &ndash; Robert Campin, Flemish painter (b. 1378)
* 1476 &ndash; Simonetta Vespucci, Italian noblewoman (b. 1453)
* 1478 &ndash; Giuliano di Piero de' Medici, ruler of Florence (b. 1453)
* 1489 &ndash; Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shogun (b. 1465)
* 1716 &ndash; John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1651)
* 1789 &ndash; Petr Ivanovich Panin, Russian soldier (b. 1721)
* 1865 &ndash; John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed United States President Abraham Lincoln (b. 1838)
* 1910 &ndash; Bjornstjerne Bjornson, Norwegian writer (b. 1832)
* 1910 &ndash; Garretson W. Gibson, President of Liberia (b. 1832)
* 1915 &ndash; John Bunny, American actor (b. 1863)
* 1920 &ndash; Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (b. 1887)
* 1924 &ndash; Josef Labor, Bohemian composer, organist and pianist (b. 1842)
* 1938 &ndash; Edmund Husserl, German philosopher (b. 1859)
* 1940 &ndash; Carl Bosch, German chemist (b. 1874)
* 1944 &ndash; Violette Morris, French footballer, shot putter and discus thrower (b. 1893)
* 1945 &ndash; Sigmund Rascher, Nazi doctor (b. 1909)
* 1946 &ndash; James Larkin White, American, discovered the Carlsbad Caverns (b. 1882)

### 1951 &ndash; 2010 
* 1951 &ndash; Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (b. 1868)
* 1956 &ndash; Edward Arnold, American actor (b. 1890)
* 1957 &ndash; Gichin Funakoshi, Japanese creator of Karate (b. 1868)
* 1968 &ndash; John Heartfield, German painter and graphic artist (b. 1891)
* 1969 &ndash; Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist (b. 1883)
* 1970 &ndash; Charles January, American soccer player (b. 1888)
* 1976 &ndash; Sid James, South African-born British comedian (b. 1913)
* 1984 &ndash; Count Basie, American musician (b. 1904)
* 1986 &ndash; Hermann Gmeiner, Austrian humanitarian (b. 1919)
* 1986 &ndash; Bessie Love, American actress (b. 1898)
* 1988 &ndash; Valerie Solanas, American feminist (b. 1936)
* 1989 &ndash; Lucille Ball, American actress (b. 1911)
* 1991 &ndash; Carmine Coppola, American conductor and composer (b. 1910)
* 1991 &ndash; Richard Hatfield, Canadian politician, 26th Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1931)
* 1994 &ndash; Masutatsu Oyama, founder of Japanese Kyokushin karate (b. 1927)
* 1996 &ndash; Stirling Silliphant, American writer and producer (b. 1918)
* 1999 &ndash; Jill Dando, British television presenter (b. 1961)
* 1999 &ndash; Man Mohan Adhikari, Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1920)
* 2002 &ndash; Robert Steinhauser, German spree killer in the Erfurt massacre (b. 1983)
* 2003 &ndash; Edward Max Nicholson, Irish environmentalist (b. 1904)
* 2005 &ndash; Maria Schell, Swiss-Austrian actress (b. 1926)
* 2005 &ndash; Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan writer (b. 1917)
* 2007 &ndash; Jack Valenti, American political advisor and movie executive (b. 1921)

### From 2011 
* 2011 &ndash; Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1950)
* 2013 &ndash; George Jones, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1931)
* 2013 &ndash; William L. Guy, 26th Governor of North Dakota (b. 1919)
* 2013 &ndash; Mary Thom, American journalist (b. 1944)
* 2014 &ndash; Sandro Lopopolo, Italian boxer (b. 1939)
* 2014 &ndash; Antonio Pica, Spanish footballer (b. 1933)
* 2014 &ndash; DJ Rashad, American DJ (b. 1979)
* 2015 &ndash; Wang Guozhen, Chinese poet (b. 1956)
* 2015 &ndash; Izatullo Khayoyev, Prime Minister of Tajikistan (b. 1936)
* 2015 &ndash; Bill Valentine, American baseball umpire (b. 1932)
* 2015 &ndash; Masudur Rahman Baidya, Indian swimmer (b. 1968)
* 2015 &ndash; Hojatollah Khatib, Iranian sports administrator (b. 1954)
* 2015 &ndash; Jayne Meadows, American actress (b. 1919)
* 2015 &ndash; Marcel Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1930)
* 2016 &ndash; Harry Wu, Chinese activist (b. 1937)
* 2016 &ndash; Vincent Darius, Grenadian Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1955)
* 2016 &ndash; Amanullah Khan, Pakistani-Kashmiri activist and writer (b. 1934)
* 2016 &ndash; Lucy Kibaki, former First Lady of Kenya (b. 1940)
* 2017 &ndash; Jonathan Demme, American film director (b. 1944)
* 2018 &ndash; Yoshinobu Ishii, Japanese footballer (b. 1939)
* 2018 &ndash; Philip H. Hoff, American politician, 73rd Governor of Vermont (b. 1924)
* 2018 &ndash; Elvira Orphée, Argentine writer (b. 1922)
* 2018 &ndash; Gianfranco Parolini, Italian film director (b. 1925)

## Observances 
* Union Day (Tanzania)
* Confederate Memorial Day (Texas and Florida)
* Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy (Belarus)
* World Intellectual Property Day
* Latest possible date for Easter Monday (earliest is March 23)