On This Day: 26 April

26 April in world history

• 2017The Shandong was launched for the People's Liberation Army Navy, China's first domestically built aircraft carrier.
• 2007Controversy surrounding the relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, a Soviet Red Army World War II memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, erupted into mass protests and riots.
• 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.
• 1986The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Chernobyl, Ukrainian SSR, suffered a steam explosion, resulting in a fire, a nuclear meltdown, and the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people around Europe.
• 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 merged to form Tanzania with Julius Nyerere as its first president.
• 1962NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
• 1942Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1,549 Chinese miners dead.
• 1941Boris Kidrič and Edvard Kardelj founded the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation, the main anti-fascist Slovene civil-resistance and political organization during World War II.
• 1937Spanish Civil War: The Bombing of Guernica by the Condor Legion of the Luftwaffe resulted in a devastating firestorm that caused widespread destruction and civilian deaths and inspired one of Pablo Picasso's most famous paintings.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1865Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia.
• 1777American Revolutionary War: Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington allegedly rode forty miles (64 km) through the night to warn militiamen under her father Henry's command that British troops were planning to invade Danbury, Connecticut.
• 1478In a conspiracy to replace the Medici family as rulers of the Republic of Florence, the Pazzi family attacked Lorenzo de' Medici and killed his brother Giuliano at Florence Cathedral.

Born on 26 April

• 1985John Isner, American tennis player
• 1975Rahul Verma, Indian social worker and activistIndia
• 1932Israr Ahmed, Indian-Pakistani theologian, philosopher, and scholar (died 2010)India
• 1932Michael Smith, English-Canadian biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2000)
• 1927Harry Gallatin, American basketball player and coach (died 2015)
• 1900Hack Wilson, American baseball player (died 1948)

Died on 26 April

• 1987Shankar, Indian composer and conductor (born 1922)India
• 1945Sigmund Rascher, German physician and SS member, conductor of human experiments in the concentration camps (born 1909)
• 1920Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician and theorist (born 1887)India
• 1910Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian-French author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1832)

Frequently asked questions

What happened on 26 April in history?

2017: The Shandong was launched for the People's Liberation Army Navy, China's first domestically built aircraft carrier. 2007: Controversy surrounding the relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, a Soviet Red Army World War II memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, erupted into mass protests and riots. 1994: South Africa begins its first multiracial election, which is won by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. 1993: The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on mission STS-55 to conduct experiments aboard the Spacelab module.

Which famous people were born on 26 April?

John Isner, American tennis player (1985); Rahul Verma, Indian social worker and activist (1975); Israr Ahmed, Indian-Pakistani theologian, philosopher, and scholar (died 2010) (1932); Michael Smith, English-Canadian biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2000) (1932).

Which day is observed on 26 April?

Chernobyl disaster related observances: Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy (Belarus); Chernobyl disaster related observances: Memorial Day of Radiation Accidents and Catastrophes (Russia); Confederate Memorial Day (Florida, United States); Union Day (Tanzania); World Intellectual Property Day.