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, 484,896 hours 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
- 1803 –Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European science that meteors exist.
- 1865 –Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
- 1944 –Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
- 1946 –Naperville train disaster kills 47.
- 1954 –The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
- 1966 –A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
- 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.
- 1989 –People’s Daily publishes the People’s Daily editorial of April 26 which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests
- 1991 –Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak’s end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year’s only F5 tornado (see Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak).
- 1994 –China Airlines flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
Who were born on April 26?
- 570 –Muhammed, founder of Islam, according to the Shi'a sect. Other sources suggest April 20. (d. 632)
- 1900 –Charles Richter, American geophysicist (d. 1985)
- 1910 –Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese movie producer and creator of Godzilla (d. 1997)
- 1916 –Vic Perrin, American actor (d. 1989)
- 1942 –Bobby Rydell, American singer
- 1947 –Warren Clarke, British actor
- 1949 –Jerry Blackwell, American wrestler (d. 1995)
- 1958 –Jeffrey Guterman, American mental health counselor
- 1983 –Jessica Lynch, American P.O.W.
- 1992 –Danielle Hope, English actress and singer
Who died on April 26?
- 1716 –John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1651)
- 1784 –Nano Nagle, Irish convent founder (b. 1718)
- 1892 –Sir Provo Wallis, British Admiral and naval hero (b. 1791)
- 1936 –Tammany Young, American actor (b. 1886)
- 1950 –G. Murray Hulbert, American politician (b. 1881)
- 1981 –Jim Davis, American actor (b. 1909)
- 1986 –Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (b. 1899)
- 1991 –Emily McLaughlin, American actress (b. 1928)
- 2005 –Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan author (b. 1917)
- 2005 –Maria Schell, Swiss-Austrian actress (b. 1926)
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