What are the important events that happened on April 26? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
April 26: Facts & Myths About This Day
April 26 is the 116th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 249 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Saturday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is April 13, 2025 – a Saturday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 29,093,760 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectadecahexagon’ day.
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Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Diamond is the modern birthstone for this month. Opal is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 297 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,509 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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April 26 Historical Events
- 1336 –Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux
- 1865 –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 most states.
- 1933 –The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
- 1944 –Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
- 1956 –First container ship left Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.
- 1965 –A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.
- 1966 –An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
- 1966 –A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
- 1982 –57 people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.
- 1986 –A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Who were born on April 26?
- 570 –Muhammed, founder of Islam, according to the Shi'a sect. Other sources suggest April 20. (d. 632)
- 1538 –Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter (d. 1600)
- 1573 –Marie de' Medici, wife of Henry IV of France (d. 1642)
- 1648 –King Peter II of Portugal (d. 1706)
- 1787 –Ludwig Uhland, German poet (d. 1862)
- 1812 –Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1887)
- 1918 –Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)
- 1938 –Wolf Kahler, German actor
- 1974 –Ivana Milicevic, Croatian-American actress
- 1983 –Jessica Lynch, American P.O.W.
Who died on April 26?
- 1489 –Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shogun (b. 1465)
- 1852 –Charles Athanase Walckenaer, French naturalist (b. 25 December 1771)
- 1946 –Jim White, discoverer of Carlsbad Caverns (b. 1882)
- 1964 –E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet born Newfoundland (b. 1882)
- 1973 –Irene Ryan, American actress (b. 1902)
- 1986 –Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (b. 1899)
- 1999 –Adrian Borland, British musician (The Sound) (b. 1957)
- 1999 –Jill Dando, British television presenter (b. 1961)
- 2003 –Rosemary Brown, Canadian politician (b. 1930)
- 2004 –Hubert Selby Jr., American author (b. 1928)
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