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April 26: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – April 26 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 26th April 1220: Bishops were granted sovereign rights by German king Frederick II.
2. 26th April 1478: Pazzi conspirators today attacked Lorenzo de’Medici and killed Giuliano de’Medici.
3. 26th April 1514: Astronomer and Mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus made his first observations on Saturn.
4. 26th April 1564: Playwright William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.
5. 26th April 1607: The first English settlement was founded today when ships led by Capt. Christopher Newport sought shelter in Chesapeake Bay leading to the founding of James Town on the James River.
6. 26th April 1654: Jews were expelled from Brazil.
7. 26th April 1655: Peter Stuyvesant’s desire to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam was denied by the Dutch West Indies Co.
8. 26th April 1677: The University of Innsbruck was formed by Emperor Leopold today.
18th Century – What Happened on April 26 – The 1700s
9. 26th April 1721: Smallpox vaccination was administered for the first time by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who had learned the procedure to inoculate the vaccine during her stay in Turkey. She began a campaign to have the procedure established.
10. 26th April 1755: The first Russian university opened today in Moscow.
19th Century – April 26 This Day That Year – The 1800s
11. 26th April 1803: Meteorites fall in L’Aigle in France.
12. 26th April 1814: King Louis XVIII landed in Calais from England today.
13. 26th April 1819: The first Odd Fellow Lodge was established in Baltimore today. It was started in Great Britain to ” relieve the brethren, bury the dead and care for the widow and orphan”.
14. 26th April 1828: Russia today declared war on Turkey to support the independence of Greece.
15. 26th April 1841: “Bombay Gazette” begins publishing on silk.
16. 26th April 1848: Biologist and explorer Alfred Russel Wallace today started his four years of travel from the U.K. to South Africa, collecting and conducting research in the region.
17. 26th April 1853: The 2nd Chamber was today disbanded by Dutch King William III.
18. 26th April 1859: Dan Sickles was today acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity, the first time this defense was successfully used in the United States.
19. 26th April 1865: Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston today surrendered his army to Union Gen W.T. Sherman.
20. 26th April 1887: Huntsville Electric Co. formed today to sell electricity.
21. 26th April 1890: Journalist and Explorer Henry Morton Stanley was inaugurated in London today.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day April 26th – The 1900s
22. 26th April 1904: During the Russo-Japanese War, General Kuroko led the Japanese Army against the large Russian force at the Yalu River.
23. 26th April 1904: In Belgium, the Bell Telephone Company of Antwerp was formed today.
24. 26th April 1906: Regular showing of motion pictures begins at the Orpheum Theater in Honolulu Hawaii.
25. 26th April 1913: In China, Sun Yet San called for a revolt against President Yuan Shikai.
26. 26th April 1915: After conducting a successful bombing raid Second Lieutenant Rhodes-Moorhouse became the first airman to win the Victoria Cross.
27. 26th April 1915: Italy today secretly signed the Pact of London with Britain, France, and Russia.
28. 26th April 1920: At the US National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold a “great debate” on the nature of nebulae, galaxies, and the size of the Universe.
29. 26th April 1921: The first weather news was aired by station WEW in St. Louis Mo.
30. 26th April 1925: Edna Ferber was today awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “So Big”.
31. 26th April 1926: Germany and Russia today signed the neutrality/peace treaty.
32. 26th April 1928: Madame Tussaud’s waxwork exhibition opened today in London.
33. 26th April 1929: The first England to India non-stop flight landed today.
34. 26th April 1933: Jewish students are barred from schools in Germany.
35. 26th April 1937: The Basque town of Guernica in Spain was today destroyed by the German Luftwaffe.
36. 26th April 1938: Austrian Jews are required to register property above 5,000 Reich marks.
37. 26th April 1941: Potatoes were rationed in Holland.
38. 26th April 1942: A coal mine explosion at Honkeiko in Manchuria killed 1,549 people.
39. 26th April 1944: Papandreou forms government in Greece.
40. 26th April 1944: Japanese fighters attack B-29. One fighter was shot down.
41. 26th April 1945: Leader of France’s Vichy collaborationist regime during World War II, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain was arrested for treason.
42. 26th April 1947: The musical “Bless the Bride” opened in London today.
43. 26th April 1950: The last horse race was run at Havre de Grace Track in Md.
44. 26th April 1951: Queen Juliana today opened Brielsche Mausoleum today.
45. 26th April 1952: The US minesweeper Hobson rammed into aircraft carrier Wasp killing 176 people.
46. 26th April 1954: The Far Eastern Affairs conference opens in Geneva today.
47. 26th April 1954: The nationwide test of the anti-polio vaccine of medical researcher and Virologist Jonas Salk began today.
48. 26th April 1956: The first modern container ship, the Ideal X, leaves Port Newark in New Jersey for Houston in Texas today.
49. 26th April 1957: The 350th Anniversary Festival of Jamestown in Vancouver began today.
50. 26th April 1961: The revolt of the French paratroopers was today suppressed in Algeria.
51. 26th April 1962: Ranger 4 spacecraft crash lands on the backside of the Moon.
52. 26th April 1962: The U.K. today launched its 1st Satellite “Ariel 1”.
53. 26th April 1962: The first Lockheed A-12 was flown today.
54. 26th April 1964: Tanganyika and Zanzibar today formed The United Republic of Tanganyika & Zanzibar.
55. 26th April 1966: A massive earthquake of magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale struck and destroyed Tashkent in Uzbekistan.
56. 26th April 1968: The administrative building of Ohio State was seized by students.
57. 26th April 1968: US conducts, an underground nuclear test, “Boxcar,” a megaton device.
58. 26th April 1969: After 110 performances “Celebration” closes at Ambassador Theater in New York City.
59. 26th April 1969: At the Palace Theater in New York City, “George M!” closes after 435 performances.
60. 26th April 1971: Bhia district of Brazil received the heaviest recorded rainfall, 15” in 24 hours.
61. 26th April 1971: SF lightship was replaced by automatic buoy.
62. 26th April 1971: A state of siege was proclaimed in Turkey.
63. 26th April 1973: The U.S. performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site today.
64. 26th April 1974: A natural dam was created by a landslide in Huancavelica Province in Peru.
65. 26th April 1974: Malta today adopted its constitution.
66. 26th April 1975: The first free election in Portugal was today won by the Socialist Party led by Mario Soares.
67. 26th April 1976: Pan-Am today began operating non-stop flights from New York City to Tokyo.
68. 26th April 1978: Space vehicle S-201 was today launched by NASA.
69. 26th April 1978: France today sent its troops to Chad.
70. 26th April 1980: The longest jet boat jump is set at 120 feet.
71. 26th April 1980: Iran today began scattering US hostages from the US Embassy.
72. 26th April 1980: Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
73. 26th April 1982: A youth-oriented broadcast Radio Radio began by CBS Radio today.
74. 26th April 1982: Argentina surrenders to Britain on S Georgia near Falkland Island.
75. 26th April 1983: Dow Jones Industrial Average crosses the 1200 mark for the first time.
76. 26th April 1984: President Ronald Regan of the United States visits China.
77. 26th April 1986: France performed a nuclear test today.
78. 26th April 1986: In the world’s worst nuclear disaster the 4th reactor at Chornobyl nuclear power station in U.S.S.R. exploded killing 31 people and the contamination spread up to Western Europe.
79. 26th April 1989: AT&T today announced that New Jersey’s 201 area code will be split into 908 and 201.
80. 26th April 1990: A massive earthquake of 6.9 on the Richter scale struck China killing 126 people.
81. 26th April 1991: Tornados in Kansas and Oklahoma kill 23 people.
82. 26th April 1991: Football legend Diego Maradona was suspended for using cocaine and arrested in Argentina for possession and distribution of illegal narcotics.
83. 26th April 1993: STS-55 “Columbia was launched into the orbit today.
84. 26th April 1993: A Boeing 737 crashed at Aurangabad in India killing 56 people.
85. 26th April 1994: Physicists today announced the first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle.
86. 26th April 1994: An Airbus A-300 of Taiwan crashed at Nagoya in Japan killing 262 people.
87. 26th April 1994: In the first-ever multi-racial elections in South Africa, on the first day of voting, Dr. Nomaza Paintin in NZ was the first black South African to vote.
88. 26th April 1995: Baseball season begins today after a lengthy strike.
89. 26th April 1996: Sotherby today ended a four-day auction of Jackie O stuff and took in $34.5 million.
90. 26th April 1996: Playing for Warwickshire in B&H, Shaun Pollock takes 4 wickets in 4 balls.
21st Century – April 26 This Day In History – The 2000s
91. 26th April 2002: Robert Steinhauser infiltrated and killed 17 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt Germany before shooting himself.
92. 26th April 2005: Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon bowing to international pressure, thereby ending its 29-year military domination of that country.
93. 26th April 2007: Queen’s Pier is officially closed by the Hong Kong Government, after a bitter struggle by conservationists, to facilitate land reclamation in Hong Kong’s Central district.
94. 26th April 2009: “Harry and Paul” was awarded Best Comedy and “Wallander” the Best Dram by the 55th British Academy Television Awards.
95. 26th April 2012: After a confirmed case of mad cow disease in California, Indonesia suspends beef imports from America.
96. 26th April 2012: Rocket attacks by the Syrian Army on the city of Hama killed 70 people.
97. 26th April 2013: Following a Taliban attack in southern Afghanistan a bus crashes killing 30 people.
98. 26th April 2015: Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya and Tigist Tuf of Ethiopia win the 35th London marathon
99. 26th April 2015: Nursultan Nazarbayev was today re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote.
100. 26th April 2017: Gift Ngoepe became the first black African to; play in Major League Baseball, for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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