What Happened on April 26th in History
30 historical events on this date
Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
Georgios Papandreou was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as the prime minister of Greece. He was also deputy prime minister from 1950 to...
World War II: Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: Battle of Bautzen: Last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
The Battle of Bautzen was one of the last battles of the Eastern Front during World War II in Europe. It was fought on the extreme southern flank of the Spremberg-Torgau Offensive, seeing days of...
World War II: Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL and the American troops of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Division, United States Army liberate Baguio as they fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
Baguio, officially the City of Baguio, is a highly urbanized city in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 368,426 people.
The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
The Geneva Conference was intended to settle outstanding issues resulting from the Korean War and the First Indochina War and involved several nations. It took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 26...
The first clinical trials of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Jonas Edward Salk was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He was born in New York City and attended the City College of New York...
SSÂ Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey, for Houston, Texas.
SS Ideal X, a converted World War II T-2 oil tanker, was the first commercially successful container ship.
Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68Â years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830...
Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after 12 years of dictatorial rule.
The April Revolution, also called the April 19 Revolution or April 19 Movement, were mass protests in South Korea against President Syngman Rhee and the First Republic from April 11 to 26, 1960,...
NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and...
The British space programme launches its first satellite, the Ariel 1.
The British space programme is the British government's work to develop British space capabilities. The objectives of the current civil programme are to "win sustainable economic growth, secure new...
In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allow for female participation in elections.
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south,...
Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form the United Republic of Tanzania.
Tanganyika was a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania, that existed from 1961 until 1964. It first gained independence from the United Kingdom on 9Â December 1961 as...
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 15â200 are killed.
The 1966 Tashkent earthquake occurred on 26 April in the Uzbek SSR. It had a moment magnitude of 5.2 with an epicenter in central Tashkent at a depth of 3â8 kilometers (1.9â5.0Â mi). The earthquake...
A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply Congo, is a country located on the western coast of Central Africa to the west of the Congo River. It is...
The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.
The WIPO Convention is a multilateral treaty that established the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.
Michael R. Harrison served as division chief in pediatric surgery at the Children's Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for over 20 years, where he established the first...
The Chernobyl disaster occurs in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukraine, exploded. With dozens of direct casualties and thousands of health complications stemming from the...
The deadliest known tornado strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
The DaulatpurâSaturia tornado was a violent tornado that occurred in Manikganj District, Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. While it was destructive and extremely deadly, there is great uncertainty about...
People's Daily publishes the April 26 Editorial which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests.
The People's Daily is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It was established in 1948 during the Chinese Civil War as the organ of the CCP's North...
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.
From April 26 to 27, 1991, multiple supercells across Oklahoma and Kansas led to a regional tornado outbreak. Forced by a potent trough and focused along a dryline, these distinct thunderstorms...
The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on mission STS-55 to conduct experiments aboard the Spacelab module.
Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and the...
China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
China Airlines Flight 140 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan, to Nagoya Airport in Nagoya, Japan.
South Africa begins its first multiracial election, which is won by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress.
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. Its nine provinces are bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres of coastline that stretches along...
Outbreak of CIH computer virus.
CIH, also known as the Chernobyl virus, is a computer virus that targets computers running the Windows 9x family of operating systems. There are several variants, with different trigger dates that...
Robert SteinhÀuser kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany, before committing suicide.
The Erfurt school massacre was a mass shooting that occurred on 26 April 2002 at the Gutenberg-Gymnasium, a secondary school in Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany. 19-year-old expelled student Robert...
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).
The Cedar Revolution, known in Lebanon as the Independence intifada, was a chain of demonstrations in Lebanon triggered by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. The...
Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote, one of the biggest vote shares in Kazakhstan's history.
Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev is a Kazakh politician who served as the first president of Kazakhstan from 1991 to 2019. He also held the special title of Elbasy from 2010 to 2022 and chairman of the...
Peaceful protesters install the first anti-monument in Mexico, Antimonumento +43, as a call for justice and remembrance to commemorate the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping, later inspiring similar memorials elsewhere in the country and Latin America.
In Mexico, an antimonumento is a structure that is traditionally installed during popular protests. They are installed to recall a tragic event or to maintain the claim for justice to which...
A car ramming attack at a Lapu-Lapu Day festival kills 11 people and injures at least 30 in Vancouver, Canada.
On April 26, 2025, a vehicle-ramming attack took place shortly after the Lapu-Lapu Day festival, a public celebration of Filipino heritage in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The attack left 11...