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This day in history

This day in history: 26 April

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day196 · 91

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Key facts

341 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 26 April.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2025: A car ramming attack at a Lapu-Lapu Day festival kills 11 people and injures at least 30 in Vancouver, Canada.

Holidays and observances

Chernobyl disaster related observances: Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy (Belarus)

Chernobyl disaster related observances: Memorial Day of Radiation Accidents and Catastrophes (Russia)

Christian feast day: Aldobrandesca (or Alda)

Christian feast day: April 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Blessed Stanisław Kubista

Christian feast day: Lucidius of Verona

Christian feast day: Our Lady of Good Counsel

Christian feast day: Paschasius Radbertus

Christian feast day: Pope Anacletus and Marcellinus

Christian feast day: Rafael Arnáiz Barón

Christian feast day: Riquier

Christian feast day: Robert Hunt (Episcopal Church (USA))

Events

2025A car ramming attack at a Lapu-Lapu Day festival kills 11 people and injures at least 30 in Vancouver, Canada.

2015Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote, one of the biggest vote shares in Kazakhstan's history.

2015Peaceful protesters install the first anti-monument in Mexico, Antimonumento +43, as a call for justice and remembrance to commemorate the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping, later inspiring similar memorials elsewhere in the country and Latin Ame

2005Cedar Revolution: 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 (Syrian occupation of Lebanon).

2002Robert Steinhäuser kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany, before committing suicide.

1999Outbreak of CIH computer virus.

1994China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.

1994South Africa begins its first multiracial election, which is won by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress.

1993The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on mission STS-55 to conduct experiments aboard the Spacelab module.

1991Fifty-five tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado.

1989People's Daily publishes the April 26 Editorial which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests.

1989The deadliest known tornado strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.

1986The Chernobyl disaster occurs in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

1981Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.

1970The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.

1966A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.

1966The magnitude 5.1 Tashkent earthquake affects the largest city in Soviet Central Asia with a maximum MSK intensity of VII (Very strong). Tashkent is mostly destroyed and 15–200 are killed.

1964Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

1963In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allow for female participation in elections.

1962NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.

1962The British space programme launches its first satellite, the Ariel 1.

1960Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after 12 years of dictatorial rule.

1958Final 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.

1956SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey, for Houston, Texas.

1954The first clinical trials of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, Virginia.

1954The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.

1945World War II: Battle of Bautzen: Last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.

1945World 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 liberate Baguio as they fight against the Japanese force

1944Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.

1944World War II: Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.

1943The Easter Riots break out in Uppsala, Sweden.

1942Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1,549 Chinese miners dead.

1937Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain, is bombed by the German Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria.

1933The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Göring.

1925Paul 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.

1923The Duke of York (the future King George VI) weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.

1920Ice hockey makes its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games with center Frank Fredrickson scoring seven goals in Canada's 12–1 drubbing of Sweden in the gold medal match.

1916Easter Rising: Battle of Mount Street Bridge.

1915World War I: Italy secretly signs the Treaty of London pledging to join the Allied Powers.

1903Atlético Madrid Association football club is founded.

Born on this day

2005Alex Sarr, French basketball player

2001Thiago Almada, Argentine footballer

1997Amber Midthunder, American actress

1997Calvin Verdonk, Indonesian footballer

1997Kirill Kaprizov, Russian ice hockey player

1996Jordan Pefok, American footballer

1994Daniil Kvyat, Russian racing driver

1994Odysseas Vlachodimos, Greek international footballer

1992Aaron Judge, American baseball player

1992Delon Wright, American basketball player

1991Isaac Liu, New Zealand rugby league player

1991Peter Handscomb, Australian cricketer

1990Joey Wendle, American baseball player

1990Jonathan dos Santos, Mexican footballer

1990Mitch Rein, Australian rugby league player

1990Nevin Spence, Northern Irish rugby player (died 2012)

1989Kang Daesung, South Korean singer

1989Melvin Ingram, American football player

1987Jorge Andújar Moreno, Spanish footballer

1986Lior Refaelov, Israeli footballer

1986Yuliya Zaripova, Russian runner

1985John Isner, American tennis player

1983Jessica Lynch, American soldier

1983José María López, Argentinian racing driver

1982Novlene Williams-Mills, Jamaican sprinter

1981Caro Emerald, Dutch pop and jazz singer

1981Ms. Dynamite, English rapper and producer

1981Sandra Schmitt, German skier (died 2000)

1980Anna Mucha, Polish actress and journalist

1980Channing Tatum, American actor and producer

1980Jordana Brewster, Panamanian-American actress

1980Marlon King, English footballer

1978Peter Madsen, Danish footballer

1978Stana Katic, Canadian actress

1977Kosuke Fukudome, Japanese baseball player

1977Roxana Saberi, American journalist and author

1977Samantha Cristoforetti, Italian astronaut

1977Tom Welling, American actor

1976Václav Varaďa, Czech ice hockey player

1975Joey Jordison, American musician and songwriter (died 2021)

Died on this day

2023Jerry Apodaca, American politician, 24th Governor of New Mexico (born 1934)

2022Klaus Schulze, German composer and musician (born 1947)

2017Jonathan Demme, American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter (born 1944)

2016Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist (born 1937)

2015Jayne Meadows, American actress (born 1919)

2015Marcel Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1930)

2014DJ Rashad, American electronic musician, producer and DJ (born 1979)

2014Gerald Guralnik, American physicist and academic (born 1936)

2014Paul Robeson, Jr., American historian and author (born 1927)

2013Earl Silverman, Canadian men's rights advocate (born 1948)

2013George Jones, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1931)

2013Jacqueline Brookes, American actress and educator (born 1930)

2012Terence Spinks, English boxer and trainer (born 1938)

2011Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1950)

2010Mariam A. Aleem, Egyptian graphic designer and academic (born 1930)

2010Urs Felber, Swiss engineer and businessman (born 1942)

2009Hans Holzer, Austrian-American paranormal investigator and author (born 1920)

2008Árpád Orbán, Hungarian footballer (born 1938)

2007Jack Valenti, American businessman, created the MPAA film rating system (born 1921)

2005Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan journalist, author, and academic (born 1917)

2005Elisabeth Domitien, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (born 1925)

2005Maria Schell, Austrian-Swiss actress (born 1926)

2005Mason Adams, American actor (born 1919)

2004Hubert Selby, Jr., American author, poet, and screenwriter (born 1928)

2003Edward Max Nicholson, Irish environmentalist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (born 1904)

2003Rosemary Brown, Jamaican-Canadian academic and politician (born 1930)

2003Yun Hyon-seok, South Korean poet and author (born 1984)

1999Adrian Borland, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1957)

1999Jill Dando, English journalist and television personality (born 1961)

1996Stirling Silliphant, American screenwriter and producer (born 1918)

Quote of the day

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

Seneca

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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