Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

The following is your daily snapshot of what happened on this day in history,  April 26th. On this day in history, April 26, 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. Chernobyl is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima I nuclear incident, which is considered far less serious and has caused no direct deaths). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.

BORN APRIL 26TH:
April 26, 121 – Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (d. 180)
April 26, 570 – Muhammed, founder of Islam, according to the Shi’a sect. Other sources suggest April 20. (d. 632)
April 26, 1538 – Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter (d. 1600)
April 26, 1573 – Marie de’ Medici, wife of Henry IV of France (d. 1642)
April 26, 1648 – King Peter II of Portugal (d. 1706)
April 26, 1662 – Maria Luisa of Orleans, queen consort of Spain (d. 1689)
April 26, 1710 – Thomas Reid, British philosopher (d. 1796)
April 26, 1718 – Esek Hopkins, Commander of the US Navy during the Revolutionary War (d. 1802)
April 26, 1774 – Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist (d. 1853)
April 26, 1782 – Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies, Queen Consort of the French (d. 1866)
April 26, 1785 – John James Audubon, French-American naturalist and illustrator (d. 1851)
April 26, 1787 – Ludwig Uhland, German poet (d. 1862)
April 26, 1798 – Eugène Delacroix, French painter (d. 1863)
April 26, 1801 – Ambrose Dudley Mann, American diplomat (d. 1889)
April 26, 1804 – Charles Goodyear, American politician (d. 1876)
April 26, 1812 – Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1887)
April 26, 1822 – Frederick Law Olmsted, American landscape architect (d. 1903)
April 26, 1826 – George Hull Ward, American general (d. 1863)
April 26, 1826 – Ambrose R. Wright, American Civil War General (d. 1872)
April 26, 1856 – Sir Joseph Ward, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
April 26, 1878 – Saint Rafael Guízar Valencia, Mexican Catholic bishop (d. 1938)
April 26, 1879 – Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
April 26, 1886 – Ma Rainey, American singer (d. 1939)
April 26, 1886 – Ğabdulla Tuqay, Tatar poet (d. 1913)
April 26, 1888 – Anita Loos, American writer (d. 1981)
April 26, 1889 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born philosopher (d. 1951)
April 26, 1894 – Rudolf Hess, Nazi official (d. 1987)
April 26, 1896 – Ernst Udet, WWI pilot and film actor, Luftwaffe officer (d. 1941)
April 26, 1897 – Eddie Eagan, American sportsman (d. 1967)
April 26, 1897 – Douglas Sirk, German-born film director (d. 1987)
April 26, 1898 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1984)
April 26, 1898 – John Grierson, British filmmaker (d. 1972)
April 26, 1900 – Charles Richter, American geophysicist (d. 1985)
April 26, 1900 – Hack Wilson, American baseball player (d. 1948)
April 26, 1904 – Paul-Émile Léger, Canadian cardinal and archbishop (d. 1991)
April 26, 1910 – Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese movie producer and creator of Godzilla (d. 1997)
April 26, 1911 – Marianne Hoppe, German actress (d. 2002)
April 26, 1912 – A. E. van Vogt, Canadian writer (d. 2000)
April 26, 1914 – Bernard Malamud, American author (d. 1986)
April 26, 1914 – James W. Rouse, American investor (d. 1996)
April 26, 1914 – Charlie Chester, British comedian (d. 1997)
April 26, 1916 – Morris West, Australian writer (d. 1999)
April 26, 1916 – Vic Perrin, American actor (d. 1989)
April 26, 1916 – George Tuska, American comic book illustrator (d. 2009)
April 26, 1917 – Sal Maglie, American baseball player (d. 1992)
April 26, 1917 – I.M. Pei, Chinese-born architect
April 26, 1918 – Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (d. 2004)
April 26, 1918 – Stafford Repp, American actor (d. 1974)
April 26, 1922 – Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian politician (d. 1993)
April 26, 1924 – H. Browning Ross, American long-distance running Olympian (d. 1998)
April 26, 1925 – Jørgen Ingmann, Danish musician
April 26, 1926 – David Coleman, British TV sports broadcaster
April 26, 1926 – Michael Mathias Prechtl, German illustrator (d. 2003)
April 26, 1927 – Jack Douglas, British actor (d. 2008)
April 26, 1929 – Richard Mitchell, American author and professor (d. 2002)
April 26, 1930 – Roger Moens, Belgian athlete

April 26, 1932 – Francis Lai, French film music composer
April 26, 1932 – Michael Smith, British-born chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 2000)
April 26, 1932 – Israr Ahmed, Pakistani Muslim religious scholar (d. 2010)
April 26, 1933 – Carol Burnett, American comedian
April 26, 1933 – Arno Allan Penzias, German-born physicist, Nobel laureate
April 26, 1933 – Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Puerto Rican activist (d. 2005)
April 26, 1938 – Duane Eddy, American musician
April 26, 1938 – Wolf Kahler, German actor
April 26, 1940 – Giorgio Moroder, Italian composer
April 26, 1940 – Cliff Watson, British rugby league footballer
April 26, 1941 – Claudine Clark, American R&B singer-composer
April 26, 1941 – John Mitchell, American composer
April 26, 1942 – Claudine Auger, French actress
April 26, 1942 – Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat
April 26, 1942 – Bobby Rydell, American singer
April 26, 1942 – Jadwiga Staniszkis, Polish sociologist
April 26, 1943 – Gary Wright, American singer
April 26, 1943 – Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect
April 26, 1944 – Amien Rais, Indonesian politician
April 26, 1945 – Sylvain Simard, Canadian politician
April 26, 1947 – Warren Clarke, British actor
April 26, 1949 – Carlos Bianchi, Argentinian footballer
April 26, 1949 – Jerry Blackwell, American wrestler (d. 1995)
April 26, 1949 – Dominic Sena, American film director
April 26, 1952 – Spice Williams-Crosby, American actress and stunt performer
April 26, 1954 – Alan Hinkes, British mountaineer
April 26, 1955 – Kurt Bodewig, German politician
April 26, 1955 – Mike Scott, American baseball player
April 26, 1956 – Koo Stark, American actress
April 26, 1958 – John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute
April 26, 1958 – Giancarlo Esposito, American actor
April 26, 1958 – Jeffrey Guterman, American mental health counselor
April 26, 1958 – Georgios Kostikos, Greek footballer
April 26, 1959 – John Corabi, American musician
April 26, 1959 – Thanassis Papakonstantinou, Greek singer and songwriter
April 26, 1960 – Roger Taylor, British musician (Duran Duran)
April 26, 1960 – Steve Lombardozzi, American baseball player
April 26, 1961 – Joan Chen, Chinese-born actress
April 26, 1961 – Anthony Cumia, American radio personality (The Opie and Anthony Show)
April 26, 1961 – Chris Mars, American rock drummer (The Replacements)
April 26, 1962 – Colin Anderson, British footballer
April 26, 1962 – Michael Damian, American actor, singer and producer
April 26, 1962 – Debra Wilson, American actress and comedian
April 26, 1963 – Li Lianjie/Jet Li, Chinese martial artist and actor
April 26, 1963 – Colin Scotts, Australian-born American football player
April 26, 1965 – Kevin James, American comedian
April 26, 1966 – Yoshihiro Togashi, Mangaka who created YuYu Hakusho
April 26, 1967 – Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Academy Award nominated British actress
April 26, 1967 – Glenn Jacobs, American professional wrestler
April 26, 1969 – Teresa Lewis, American murderer (d. 2010)
April 26, 1970 – Melania Trump, Slovenian model
April 26, 1970 – Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, American singer (TLC)
April 26, 1971 – Shondrella Avery, American actress
April 26, 1971 – Jay DeMarcus, American bassist (Rascal Flatts)
April 26, 1972 – Jason Bargwanna, Australian racing driver
April 26, 1972 – Kiko Narváez, Spanish footballer
April 26, 1972 – Avi Nimni, Israeli Footballer
April 26, 1973 – Chris Perry, British footballer
April 26, 1974 – Ivana Milicevic, Croatian-American actress
April 26, 1974 – Adil Ray, British radio presenter (BBC Asian Network)
April 26, 1975 – Nathan “Joey” Jordison, American musician (Slipknot)
April 26, 1975 – Nerina Pallot, British singer
April 26, 1976 – Luigi Panarelli, Italian footballer
April 26, 1976 – Václav Varaďa, Czech ice hockey player
April 26, 1977 – Jason Earles, American actor
April 26, 1977 – Kosuke Fukudome, Japanese baseball player
April 26, 1977 – Chris Johnston, Irish rugby player
April 26, 1977 – Tom Welling, American actor
April 26, 1978 – Avant, American singer
April 26, 1978 – Joe Crede, American baseball player
April 26, 1978 – Peter Madsen, Danish footballer
April 26, 1978 – Tyler Labine, Canadian actor
April 26, 1978 – Stana Katic, Canadian actress
April 26, 1979 – Ariane Moffatt, Canadian singer and songwriter
April 26, 1979 – Janne Wirman, Finnish musician (Children of Bodom)
April 26, 1980 – Jordana Brewster, American actress
April 26, 1980 – Marlon King, Jamaican footballer
April 26, 1980 – Anna Mucha, Polish actress
April 26, 1980 – Channing Tatum, American actor
April 26, 1980 – Marnette Patterson, American actress, famous YouTube star LG15: The Resistance
April 26, 1981 – Matthieu Delpierre, French footballer
April 26, 1981 – Ms. Dynamite, British musician
April 26, 1982 – Joanne Gobure, Nauruan poet
April 26, 1982 – Brock Gillespie, American basketball player
April 26, 1982 – Jon Lee, British singer (S Club)
April 26, 1982 – Cooper Wallace, American football player
April 26, 1983 – José María López, Argentine racing driver
April 26, 1983 – Jessica Lynch, American P.O.W.
April 26, 1985 – John Isner, American tennis player
April 26, 1985 – Nam Gyu-Ri, Korean singer (See Ya)
April 26, 1987 – Jarmila Groth, Slovakian/Australian tennis player
April 26, 1987 – Jessica Lee Rose, American/New Zealand actress
April 26, 1988 – Kimber James, American transsexual pornographic actress
April 26, 1989 – Daesung, Korean singer (Big Bang)
April 26, 1992 – Danielle Hope, English Actress/singer

DIED APRIL 26TH:
April 26, 1192 – Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (b. 1127)
April 26, 1444 – Robert Campin, Flemish painter (b. 1378)
April 26, 1476 – Simonetta Vespucci, inspiration of Botticelli (b. 1453)
April 26, 1478 – Giuliano di Piero de’ Medici, ruler of Florence (assassinated) (b. 1453)
April 26, 1489 – Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shogun (b. 1465)
April 26, 1716 – John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1651)
April 26, 1784 – Nano Nagle, Irish convent founder (b. 1718)
April 26, 1789 – Count Petr Ivanovich Panin, Russian soldier (b. 1721)
April 26, 1852 – Charles Athanase Walckenaer, French naturalist (b. 25 December 1771)
April 26, 1865 – John Wilkes Booth, American assassin (b. 1838)
April 26, 1881 – Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, German general (b. 1815)
April 26, 1892 – Sir Provo Wallis, British Admiral and naval hero (b. 1791)
April 26, 1910 – Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author, Nobel laureate (b. 1832)
April 26, 1915 – John Bunny, silent film comedian (b. 1863)
April 26, 1920 – Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (b. 1887)
April 26, 1932 – William Lockwood, British cricketer (b. 1868)
April 26, 1936 – Tammany Young, American actor (b. 1886)
April 26, 1938 – Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher (b. 1859)
April 26, 1940 – Carl Bosch, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1874)
April 26, 1944 – Violette Morris, French athlete (b. 1893)
April 26, 1945 – Pavlo Skoropadsky, Ukrainian politician and general (b. 1871)
April 26, 1945 – Sigmund Rascher, Nazi doctor (b. 1909)
April 26, 1946 – Jim White, discoverer of Carlsbad Caverns (b. 1882)
April 26, 1950 – G. Murray Hulbert, American politician (b. 1881)
April 26, 1951 – Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (b. 1868)
April 26, 1956 – Edward Arnold, American actor (b. 1890)
April 26, 1957 – Gichin Funakoshi, Father of Japanese Shotokan Karatedo (b. 1868)
April 26, 1964 – E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet born Newfoundland (b. 1882)
April 26, 1968 – John Heartfield, German artist (b. 1891)
April 26, 1969 – Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist and founder of aikido (b. 1883)
April 26, 1970 – Erik Bergman, Lutheran pastor (b. 1886)
April 26, 1970 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress (b. 1911)
April 26, 1972 – Fernando Amorsolo, Filipino painter (b. 1892)
April 26, 1973 – Irene Ryan, American actress (b. 1902)
April 26, 1976 – Sid James, South African–born British comedian (b. 1913)
April 26, 1980 – Cicely Courtneidge, British actress and comedian (b. 1893)
April 26, 1981 – Jim Davis, American actor (b. 1909)
April 26, 1984 – Count Basie, American musician and composer (b. 1904)
April 26, 1986 – Broderick Crawford, American actor (b. 1911)
April 26, 1986 – Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (b. 1899)
April 26, 1986 – Bessie Love, American actress (b. 1898)
April 26, 1987 – John Ernest Silkin, British politician (b. 1923)
April 26, 1987 – Shankar, Of Noted Bollywood Music Director Duo Shankar-Jaikishan (b. 1922)
April 26, 1989 – Lucille Ball, American actress and comedian (b. 1911)
April 26, 1991 – Leo Arnaud, French-American composer (b. 1904)
April 26, 1991 – Carmine Coppola, American composer and conductor, father of Francis Ford Coppola(b. 1910)
April 26, 1991 – Emily McLaughlin, American actress (b. 1928)
April 26, 1991 – Richard Hatfield, Canadian politician (b. 1931)
April 26, 1994 – Masutatsu Oyama, Founder of Japanese Kyokushin Karate (b. 1927)
April 26, 1996 – Stirling Silliphant, American writer and producer (b. 1918)
April 26, 1999 – Adrian Borland, British musician (The Sound) (b. 1957)
April 26, 1999 – Jill Dando, British television presenter (b. 1961)
April 26, 2002 – Robert Steinhäuser German spree killer (b. 1983)
April 26, 2003 – Rosemary Brown, Canadian politician (b. 1930)
April 26, 2003 – Max Nicholson, Irish environmentalist (b. 1904)
April 26, 2003 – Peter Stone, American writer (b. 1930)
April 26, 2004 – Hubert Selby Jr., American author (b. 1928)
April 26, 2005 – Mason Adams, American actor (b. 1919)
April 26, 2005 – Maria Schell, Swiss-Austrian actress (b. 1926)
April 26, 2005 – Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan author (b. 1917)
April 26, 2007 – Jack Valenti, American political advisor and film executive (b. 1921)
April 26, 2009 – Hans Holzer, American paranormal researcher (b. 1920)

APRIL 26TH MEMORABLE EVENTS:
April 26, 1336 – Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux
April 26, 1478 – The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.
April 26, 1607 – English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
April 26, 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Regime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.
April 26, 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne, Tripoli under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon.
April 26, 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.
April 26, 1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
April 26, 1925 – Paul 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.
April 26, 1928 – Los Angeles City Hall dedicated.
April 26, 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
April 26, 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica (or Gernika in Basque, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
April 26, 1942 – The Benxihu Colliery accident occurs in Manchukuo : 1549 Chinese miners are dead.
April 26, 1944 – Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
April 26, 1945 – World War II: Battle of Bautzen – last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
April 26, 1954 – The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
April 26, 1956 – First container ship left Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.
April 26, 1958 – Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
April 26, 1960 – Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after twelve years of dictatorial rule.
April 26, 1962 – NASA’s Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
April 26, 1963 – In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
April 26, 1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
April 26, 1965 – A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.
April 26, 1966 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
April 26, 1966 – A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
April 26, 1970 – The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.
April 26, 1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world’s first human open fetal surgery.
April 26, 1982 – 57 people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.
April 26, 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.
April 26, 1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
April 26, 1989 – An editorial in the People’s Daily denounces the recent protests in Tiananmen Square, and would remain contentious through the remainder o
April 26, 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).
April 26, 1994 – China Airlines flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
April 26, 2002 – Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 17 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
April 26, 2005 – 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 ).

MEMORABLE QUOTE:

“A weapon isn’t good or bad, depends on the person who uses it.” (Jet Li)