History Events on April 26
A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world's worst nuclear disaster.
#Chernobyl_Nuclear_Power_Plant
Final 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.
#Baltimore_and_Ohio_Railroad
People's Daily publishes the April 26 Editorial which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests.
#People's_Daily
World War II: Battle of Bautzen: Last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
#Battle_of_Bautzen_(1945)
Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Régime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.
#Napoleon
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).
#Syria
SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.
#SS_Ideal_X
Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after 12 years of dictatorial rule.
#April_Revolution
Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist.
#L'Aigle_(meteorite)
Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of actual birth is unknown).
#William_Shakespeare
American comedian Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault.
#Bill_Cosby
American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. Also the date of Confederate Memorial Day for two states.
#American_Civil_War
The Easter Riots break out in Uppsala, Sweden.
#Easter_Riots
Sybil Ludington, aged 16, rode 40 miles (64 km) to alert American colonial forces to the approach of the British regular forces
#Sybil_Ludington
English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
#Cape_Henry
Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
#Tanganyika
Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia.
#Union_(American_Civil_War)
In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
#Libya
Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain, is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
#Spanish_Civil_War
The deadliest known tornado strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
#Daulatpur-Saturia_tornado
The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
#Gestapo
A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
#Republic_of_the_Congo
First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.
#First_Barbary_War
NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
#NASA
China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
#China_Airlines_Flight_140
A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.
#1721_Tabriz_earthquake
The 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.
#1966_Tashkent_earthquake
The Duke of York weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.
#George_VI
Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
#Georgios_Papandreou
Paul 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.
#Paul_von_Hindenburg
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux.
#Petrarch