April 26

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

• 1315 – Robert the Bruce opens the first Scottish Parliament.
• 1478 – The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Florence Cathedral.
• 1564 – William Shakespeare is baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.
• 1607 – English colonists of the Jamestown settlement make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
• 1721 - A massive earthquake hits Tabriz, present-day Iran.
• 1802 - 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 - Meteor fragments, in their thousands, fall from the skies above L'Aigle, France.
• 1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman 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.
• 1876 – In football, FC Copenhagen is founded. It is the oldest Football Club in Denmark and Northern Europe.
• 1903 - In football, Spanish club Atletico Madrid is founded.
• 1923 – Future King George VI of the United Kingdom marries 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 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.
• 1944 - Georgius Papandreou becomes Head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
• 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.
• 1956 - SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.
• 1960 – The April Revolution in South Korea leads to the resignation of President Rhee Syng-man, who had ruled for 12 years.
• 1962 – NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
• 1963 - Libya changes its constitution. Women gain the right to vote, and the official name of the country becomes "Kingdom of Libya".
• 1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
• 1965 - A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario has to be abandoned after 15 minutes after rioting.
• 1966 – The IOC decides that Munich should host the 1972 Summer Olympics.
• 1966 - Ambroise Noumazalaye forms the new government in the Republic of the Congo.
• 1982 – 57 people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in Gyeongsangam-do, South Korea.
• 1986 – 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 – The deadliest-ever tornado kills over 1,000 people in central Bangladesh.
• 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.
• 2000 – 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 – 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.
• 2012 – 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 - A fire in a psychiatric hospital near Moscow, Russia, kills 38 people. Only 3 people survive.
• 2013 - The Bank of England announces that Winston Churchill will feature on its five-pound bank notes from 2016.
• 2016 - A court ruling finds that the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster were unlawfully killed.
• 2017 - The Cassini space probe moves inside Saturn's ring system.
• 2018 - American entertainer Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• 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)