2025: A car ramming attack at a Lapu-Lapu Day festival kills 11 people and injures at least 30 in Vancouver, Canada.
2015: Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote, one of the biggest vote shares in Kazakhstan’s history.
2005: Cedar 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).
2002: Robert Steinhäuser kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before committing suicide.
1999: Outbreak of CIH computer virus.
1994: China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
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.
1991: Fifty-five tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak’s end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year’s only F5 tornado.
1989: The deadliest known tornado strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
1989: People’s Daily publishes the April 26 Editorial which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests.
1986: The Chernobyl disaster occurs in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
1981: Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world’s first human open fetal surgery.
1970: The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.
1966: 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.
Famous Births 👶
2005: Alex Sarr, French basketball player
2001: Thiago Almada, Argentine footballer
1997: Kirill Kaprizov, Russian ice hockey player
1997: Amber Midthunder, American actress
1997: Calvin Verdonk, Indonesian footballer
1996: Jordan Pefok, American footballer
1994: Daniil Kvyat, Russian racing driver
1994: Odysseas Vlachodimos, Greek international footballer
1992: Aaron Judge, American baseball player
1992: Delon Wright, American basketball player
1991: Peter Handscomb, Australian cricketer
1991: Isaac Liu, New Zealand rugby league player
1990: Jonathan dos Santos, Mexican footballer
1990: Mitch Rein, Australian rugby league player
1990: Nevin Spence, Northern Irish rugby player (died 2012)
Notable Deaths 🕊️
2023: Jerry Apodaca, American politician, 24th Governor of New Mexico (born 1934)
2023: Tangaraju Suppiah, Singaporean drug trafficker (born 1977)
2022: Klaus Schulze, German composer and musician (born 1947)
2017: Jonathan Demme, American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter (born 1944)
2016: Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist (born 1937)
2015: Jayne Meadows, American actress (born 1919)
2015: Marcel Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1930)
2014: Gerald Guralnik, American physicist and academic (born 1936)
2014: Paul Robeson, Jr., American historian and author (born 1927)
2014: DJ Rashad, American electronic musician, producer and DJ (born 1979)
2013: Jacqueline Brookes, American actress and educator (born 1930)
2013: George Jones, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1931)
2013: Earl Silverman, Canadian men’s rights advocate (born 1948)
2012: Terence Spinks, English boxer and trainer (born 1938)
2011: Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1950)
Holidays & 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:
Franca Visalta
Christian feast day:
Lucidius of Verona
Christian feast day:
Our Lady of Good Counsel
Christian feast day:
Pope Anacletus and Marcellinus
Christian feast day:
Rafael Arnáiz Barón
Christian feast day:
Riquier
Christian feast day:
Paschasius Radbertus
Christian feast day:
Peter of Rates (or of Braga)
Christian feast day:
Robert Hunt (Episcopal Church (USA))
Christian feast day:
Stephen of Perm, see also Old Permic Alphabet Day
Christian feast day:
Trudpert
Christian feast day:
April 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
