Sunday, 26th April 2026 in Lisbon

26th April in the Stars – Star Sign Taurus

Today, the zodiac sign Taurus celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on April 26th combine Taurus steadiness with Saturn discipline. They appear calm and dependable, yet with creative impulses. This blend makes them practical dreamers who pursue goals methodically.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their strengths lie in patience, endurance, and sensory perception. Saturn's influence reinforces responsibility. Weakness: rigidity and impatience with less structured people can emerge.

Love April 26th natives seek deep, stable partnerships. They're loyal and sensual, yet need personal space. Their Venus nature attracts beauty, while Saturn favors lasting commitment over superficiality.

Caree & Finance These people thrive in roles blending creativity with organization. Financial security matters greatly; they build wealth steadily. Craftsmanship, design, or management suit their strengths well.

Health April 26th natives benefit from regular movement and sensual activities like yoga or dancing. They tend toward stress from overwork; relaxation rituals are essential. Adequate sleep supports emotional balance.

That night, the moon was in its last quarter phase.

Chinese year of the Horse (Fire).

Fun Facts About 26th April

Name Days in Your Language: Clarence, DeMarco, Demarcus, Demario

Someone born on this day would be just 37 days old today — roughly 901 hours, 54,071 minutes, or 3,244,286 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 116. day of the year. In 2026, 26th April falls on a Sunday.

There are 249 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 17 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 26th April

On this day, 196 notable people were born on 26th April — spanning from 121 to 2005. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

26/04/2005

Alex Sarr, French basketball player

Alexandre Dam Sarr is a French professional basketball player for the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Sarr played for the French youth national team and the Perth Wildcats of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) prior to being selected second overall by the Wizards in the 2024 NBA draft. He is the younger brother of basketball player Olivier Sarr.

26/04/2001

Thiago Almada, Argentine footballer

Thiago Ezequiel Almada is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for La Liga club Atlético Madrid and the Argentina national team.

26/04/1997

Kirill Kaprizov, Russian ice hockey player

Kirill Olegovich Kaprizov is a Russian professional ice hockey player who is a left winger and alternate captain for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League (NHL). Before joining the Wild, Kaprizov played for Metallurg Novokuznetsk, Salavat Yulaev Ufa and CSKA Moscow in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Kaprizov won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 2021, becoming the first Wild player to win the award. Fans have nicknamed him "Kirill the Thrill".

Amber Midthunder, American actress

Amber Thunder Rose Midthunder is an American actress.

Calvin Verdonk, Indonesian footballer

Calvin Ronald Verdonk is a professional footballer who plays as a left-back or centre-back for Ligue 1 club Lille. Born in the Netherlands, he plays for the Indonesia national team.

26/04/1996

Jordan Pefok, American footballer

Theoson-Jordan Siebatcheu, commonly known as Jordan Pefok, Jordan Siebatcheu, or just Jordan, is an American professional soccer player who plays as a striker for Portuguese Primeira Liga club Tondela on loan from French club Reims.

26/04/1994

Daniil Kvyat, Russian racing driver

Daniil Vyacheslavovich Kvyat is a Russian racing driver who competes in Super GT for JLOC. Kvyat competed in Formula One from 2014 to 2020.

Odysseas Vlachodimos, Greek international footballer

Odysseas Vlachodimos is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Sevilla, on loan from Premier League club Newcastle United. Born in Germany, he plays for the Greece national team.

26/04/1992

Aaron Judge, American baseball player

Aaron James Judge is an American professional baseball right fielder for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He is a seven-time MLB All-Star and three-time American League (AL) Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) winner. He holds the AL record for most home runs in a season with 62. He stands 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) tall and weighs 282 pounds (128 kg), making him one of the tallest and largest players in MLB. He is considered by some to be among the best power hitters of all time.

Delon Wright, American basketball player

Delon Reginald Wright is an American professional basketball player who last played for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the CC of San Francisco Rams and the Utah Utes, being a first-team all-conference player in the Pac-12 in 2014 and 2015. He also earned the Bob Cousy Award in 2015.

26/04/1991

Peter Handscomb, Australian cricketer

Peter Stephen Patrick Handscomb is an Australian cricketer who plays for the Victoria cricket team.

Isaac Liu, New Zealand rugby league player

Isaac Liu is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a loose forward and prop forward for the Leigh Leopards in the Super league and New Zealand at international level.

26/04/1990

Jonathan dos Santos, Mexican footballer

Jonathan dos Santos Ramírez is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Liga MX club América.

Mitch Rein, Australian rugby league player

Mitch Rein is a former Australian rugby league footballer who last played as a hooker for the Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League (NRL).

Nevin Spence, Northern Irish rugby player (died 2012)

Nevin Spence was a Northern Irish rugby union player for Ulster in the Pro12. He played as a centre, but could also play wing. He was educated firstly at Dromore High School, where he was introduced to rugby, and then at Wallace High School. He played his club rugby with Ballynahinch. He was also a capable footballer, playing for the Northern Ireland U-16's.

Joey Wendle, American baseball player

Joseph Patrick Wendle is an American professional baseball infielder who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, and New York Mets. Wendle made his MLB debut in 2016 with the Athletics. He is one of the few MLB players to not use batting gloves.

26/04/1989

Melvin Ingram, American football player

Melvin Ingram III is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the South Carolina Gamecocks, earning All-American honors in 2011. He was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the first round with the 18th overall pick of the 2012 NFL draft. He has also played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins.

Kang Daesung, South Korean singer

Kang Dae-sung, better known mononymously as Daesung and his Japanese stage name D-Lite, is a South Korean singer who made his musical debut in 2006 as a member of the South Korean boy band Big Bang. He debuted as a solo artist in South Korea with the number one trot song "Look at Me, Gwisoon" in 2008. Since the inception of the Gaon Digital Chart in 2010, Daesung achieved two Top 10 songs, the digital single "Cotton Candy" and "Wings" from the BigBang album Alive (2012).

26/04/1987

Jorge Andújar Moreno, Spanish footballer

Jorge Andújar Moreno, known as Coke, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a right-back.

26/04/1986

Lior Refaelov, Israeli footballer

Lior Refaelov is an Israeli former professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or as a winger.

Yuliya Zaripova, Russian runner

Yuliya Mikhailovna Zaripova is a disgraced former Russian middle-distance runner who specialised in the 3000 metres steeplechase event.

26/04/1985

John Isner, American tennis player

John Robert Isner is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Considered one of the best servers ever to play on the ATP Tour, Isner achieved his career-high singles ranking in July 2018 by virtue of his first Masters 1000 crown at the 2018 Miami Open and a semifinal appearance at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships. At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, Isner played the longest professional tennis match in history, requiring five sets and 183 games to defeat Nicolas Mahut in a match which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes, and was played over the course of three days. Isner holds the record for hitting the ATP's fastest official serve ever and third-fastest on record in tennis at 157.2 mph or 253 km/h during his first-round 2016 Davis Cup match. He has the most aces in the history of the ATP Tour, having served 14,470, as of August 31, 2023. Isner retired from professional tennis following the 2023 US Open.

26/04/1983

José María López, Argentinian racing driver

José María "Pechito" López is an Argentine race car driver who is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Akkodis ASP. He is three-time World Touring Champion with Citroën in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and two-time World Endurance Champion with Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2020 and 2021, also becoming that last year the second Argentine driver to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans since José Froilán González in 1954.

Jessica Lynch, American soldier

Jessica Dawn Lynch is an American teacher, actress, and former United States Army soldier who served in the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a private first class.

26/04/1982

Novlene Williams-Mills, Jamaican sprinter

Novlene Hilaire Williams-Mills is a retired Jamaican track and field athlete. She won the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 2007 World Championships. She is also a three-time Olympic silver medallist in the 4 × 400 metres relay. In 2015 she won relay gold alongside her Jamaican teammates.

26/04/1981

Caro Emerald, Dutch pop and jazz singer

Caroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw, formerly known as Caro Emerald and lately part of the music project The Jordan, is a Dutch pop and jazz singer who mainly performs in English. Active since 2007, she rose to prominence in 2009 with debut single, "Back It Up". Follow-up single "A Night Like This" topped charts in several countries, including her native Netherlands.

Ms. Dynamite, English rapper and producer

Naomi Arleen McLean-Daley, better known as Ms. Dynamite, is a British singer and rapper. She is the recipient of the Mercury Music Prize, two Brit Awards and three MOBO Awards.

Sandra Schmitt, German skier (died 2000)

Sandra Schmitt was a German freestyle skier. In 1998, she came 9th in the Women's Moguls contest at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. She became the Women's Dual Moguls World Champion in 1999. Schmitt died with her parents in the Kaprun disaster on 11 November 2000.

26/04/1980

Jordana Brewster, Panamanian-American actress

Jordana Brewster is an American actress. She made her acting debut, three weeks after turning 15, in an episode of All My Children in 1995 and next took on the recurring role as Nikki Munson in As the World Turns, garnering a nomination for Outstanding Teen Performer at the 1997 Soap Opera Digest Award. Her first role in a feature film was in Robert Rodriguez's horror science fiction The Faculty (1998).

Marlon King, English footballer

Marlon Francis King is a former professional footballer who played as a striker.

Anna Mucha, Polish actress and journalist

Anna Maria Mucha is a Polish actress. She is best known to Western audiences as Danka Dresner in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List. In Poland, she is known for her regular role in the soap opera L for Love (2003–present).

Channing Tatum, American actor and producer

Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor and film producer. He made his film debut in the drama Coach Carter (2005), and had his breakthrough with the sports comedy film She's the Man (2006) and the dance film Step Up (2006). He rose to prominence for playing Duke in the action films G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), the title role in the comedy-drama films Magic Mike (2012), Magic Mike XXL (2015) and Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023), and an undercover cop in the action-comedy films 21 Jump Street (2012) and 22 Jump Street (2014).

26/04/1978

Stana Katic, Canadian actress

Stana Katić is a Canadian and American actress. She played Kate Beckett on the ABC television romantic crime series Castle (2009–2016) and FBI Special Agent Emily Byrne in the psychological thriller series Absentia (2017–2020).

Peter Madsen, Danish footballer

Peter Planch Madsen is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a striker.

26/04/1977

Samantha Cristoforetti, Italian astronaut

Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She is the second of two women sent into space by ESA and the first from Italy. Cristoforetti holds the record for the longest uninterrupted spaceflight by a European astronaut, and she held the record for the longest single space flight by a woman until this was broken by Peggy Whitson in June 2017, and later by Christina Koch. She took command of ISS Expedition 68 on 28 September 2022.

Kosuke Fukudome, Japanese baseball player

Kosuke Fukudome is a Japanese former professional baseball player. He played as an outfielder in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league from 1999 to 2007 and in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2008 to 2012 before returning to play in Japan from 2013 to 2022. He played primarily with the Chicago Cubs in MLB and had a long spanning career in the Nippon Professional Baseball with the Chunichi Dragons and Hanshin Tigers.

Roxana Saberi, American journalist and author

Roxana Saberi is an American journalist who works as a correspondent for CBS News. In 2009, she was held prisoner in Iran's Evin Prison for 101 days under accusations of espionage. She subsequently wrote a book about the experience.

Tom Welling, American actor

Thomas Joseph Welling is an American actor, director, and producer. He is best known for his role as Clark Kent in The WB superhero drama Smallville (2001–2011). He also co-starred in the third season of the Fox fantasy comedy-drama Lucifer as Lt. Marcus Pierce/Cain (2017–2018).

26/04/1976

Václav Varaďa, Czech ice hockey player

Václav Varaďa is a Czech former professional ice hockey player and current coach. He formerly played in the National Hockey League (NHL) in a ten-year span. In his professional career, he has previously played for the Buffalo Sabres and the Ottawa Senators. Varaďa was known for his physicality in a third or fourth line role.

26/04/1975

Joey Jordison, American musician and songwriter (died 2021)

Nathan Jonas "Joey" Jordison was an American musician. He was the original drummer of the heavy metal band Slipknot, in which he was designated #1, and the guitarist for the horror punk supergroup Murderdolls.

Rahul Verma, Indian social worker and activist

Rahul Verma is a humanitarian, spiritual worker, and a devoted follower of Neem Karoli Baba. He, along with his wife Tulika, founded the Uday Foundation—a nonprofit organization named after their son, who was born with multiple congenital defects. The New York Times has described him as a 'Man's Stand Against Junk Food as Diabetes Climbs Across India,' featuring his story on its front page.

26/04/1973

Geoff Blum, American baseball player and sportscaster

Geoffrey Edward Blum is an American former professional baseball infielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Montreal Expos, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, San Diego Padres, Chicago White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks. He is currently the TV color analyst for the Houston Astros.

Jules Naudet, French-American director and producer

Jules Clément Naudet and Thomas Gédéon Naudet are French-American filmmakers. The brothers, residents of the United States since 1989 and citizens since 1999, were in New York City at the time of the September 11 attacks to film a documentary on members of the Engine 7, Ladder 1 firehouse in Lower Manhattan.

Chris Perry, English footballer

Christopher John Perry is an English football coach, former footballer and pundit.

Óscar, Spanish footballer and coach

Óscar García Junyent, known simply as Óscar as a player, is a Spanish former professional footballer. He is currently caretaker head coach of Eredivisie club Ajax.

26/04/1972

Jason Bargwanna, Australian racing driver

Jason Eric Bargwanna is an Australian motor racing driver. Best known as a Supercars Championship competitor, Bargwanna raced in the series for 25 years, the pinnacle of which was winning, with Garth Tander, the 2000 Bathurst 1000 in a Garry Rogers Motorsport prepared Holden Commodore. Bargwanna was the Driving Standards Observer for the Supercars Championship from 2014 until 2016.

Kiko, Spanish footballer

Francisco Miguel Narváez Machón, known as Kiko, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward, mostly for Atlético Madrid.

Natrone Means, American football player and coach

Natrone Jermaine Means is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Diego Chargers, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Carolina Panthers from 1993 to 2000.

Avi Nimni, Israeli footballer and manager

Avi Nimni is an Israeli former professional footballer and Maccabi Tel Aviv's highest ever scorer. He is regarded as one of Maccabi Tel Aviv's greatest players ever. Until 2006, he served as the captain of the Israel national team. His number 8 shirt has become so symbolic that Maccabi Tel Aviv has retired the number at the end of his active football career.

26/04/1971

Naoki Tanaka, Japanese comedian and actor

Naoki Tanaka is a Japanese comedian, actor and television presenter, who is the leader and the boke of the owarai kombi Cocorico with his partner Shozo Endo. He has appeared in many television programmes and films. He is known for being a regular member of Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!, which he and Endo have worked on since 1997.

Jay DeMarcus, American bass player, songwriter, and producer

Jay DeMarcus is an American musician, vocalist, record producer and songwriter. He is a member of the country music band Rascal Flatts.

26/04/1970

Dean Austin, English footballer and manager

Dean Barry Austin is an English football manager and former professional player who is head of recruitment at Coventry City.

Melania Trump, Slovene-American model; 47th First Lady of the United States

Melania Knauss Trump is a Slovenian and American former model serving as the first lady of the United States since 2025, a role she previously held from 2017 to 2021 as the third wife of Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States. She is the first naturalized citizen and the first non-native English speaker to become first lady; the second foreign-born first lady, after Louisa Adams; the second Roman Catholic first lady, after Jacqueline Kennedy; and the second to hold the position nonconsecutively, after Frances Cleveland.

Kristen R. Ghodsee, American ethnographer and academic

Kristen Rogheh Ghodsee is an American ethnographer and Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She is primarily known for her ethnographic work on post-Communist Bulgaria as well as being a contributor to the field of postsocialist gender studies. She was critical of the role of Western feminist nongovernmental organizations doing work among East European women in the 1990s. She has also examined the shifting gender relations of Muslim minorities after Communist rule, the intersections of Islamic beliefs and practices with the ideological remains of Marxism–Leninism, communist nostalgia, the legacies of Marxist feminism, and the intellectual history of utopianism.

Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress

Tionne Tenese Watkins, also known by her stage name T-Boz, is an American singer and actress. Watkins rose to fame in the early 1990s as a member of the best selling girl group TLC, with whom she won four Grammy Awards. As a solo artist, she reached the Billboard Hot 100 with "Touch Myself" in 1996, and as a featured artist on Da Brat's 1997 single, "Ghetto Love".

26/04/1967

Glenn Thomas Jacobs, American professional wrestler, actor, businessman and politician

Glenn Thomas Jacobs, also known by his ring name Kane, is an American politician, actor and professional wrestler. He rose to fame in WWE, where he holds the record for most matches in WWE history. In 2018, he became the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, English actress and singer-songwriter

Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste is an English actress and director. She is known for her role in Mike Leigh's drama film Secrets & Lies (1996), for which she received acclaim and earned nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

Toomas Tõniste, Estonian sailor and politician

Toomas Tõniste is an Estonian sailor and politician, and the former Minister of Finance.

26/04/1965

Susannah Harker, English actress

Susannah Harker is an English film, television, and theatre actress. She was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award in 1990 for her role as Mattie Storin in House of Cards. She played Jane Bennet in the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Kevin James, American actor and comedian

Kevin George Knipfing, known professionally as Kevin James, is an American actor and comedian. James began his career as a stand-up comedian on Long Island in the late 1980s before rising to prominence for playing Doug Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007), for which he received the nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2006.

26/04/1963

Jet Li, Chinese-Singaporean martial artist, actor, and producer

Jet Li Lianjie is a martial artist, actor, and philanthropist. With a career spanning more than forty years, he is regarded as one of the greatest Chinese film stars and one of the greatest martial artists in the history of cinema. His film career in Asia is credited with reviving Hong Kong kungfu films as well as Shaolin Temple.

Colin Scotts, Australian-American football player

Colin Roberts Scotts is an Australian former professional American football defensive tackle. Scotts was the first Australian to receive an American football scholarship in the United States and be drafted into the National Football League (NFL). He became the second Australian to play in the NFL after Colin Ridgeway, an Australian rules football convert.

Cornelia Ullrich, German hurdler

Cornelia Ullrich, née Feuerbach is a retired East German hurdler. She represented the sports team SC Magdeburg.

Bill Wennington, Canadian basketball player

William Percey Wennington is a Canadian former professional basketball player who won three National Basketball Association (NBA) championships with the Chicago Bulls. A center, he represented Canada in the 1984 Olympics and the 1983 World University Games, where the team won gold. He was on the Canadian team which narrowly missed qualifying for the 1992 Olympics. Wennington has been inducted into the Quebec Basketball Hall of Fame and the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame.

26/04/1962

Colin Anderson, English footballer

Colin Anderson is an English former professional footballer, predominantly playing on left side of defence or midfield.

Debra Wilson, American actress and comedian

Debra Wilson is an American actress, puppeteer, and comedian. She is the longest-serving original cast member on the sketch comedy series Mad TV, having appeared on the show's first eight seasons from 1995 to 2003. As a voice actress, she has voiced various characters on television shows and video games, including Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart, Baby Shark's Big Show!, Spitting Image, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Wolfenstein, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Halo Infinite, Diablo IV, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Clone Drone in the Hyperdome, Destiny 2, as well as Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.

26/04/1961

Joan Chen, Chinese-American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter

Joan Chen is a Chinese-born American actress and film director. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including four Taipei Golden Horse Awards and an AACTA Award. She made her film debut in the Chinese film Youth (1977) before starring in the film Little Flower (1979). She came to the attention of American audiences for her portrayal of Wanrong in the Bernardo Bertolucci historical epic film The Last Emperor (1987), which won nine Academy Awards including Best Picture.

Chris Mars, American artist

Chris Mars is an American painter and musician. He was the drummer for the seminal Minneapolis-based alternative rock band the Replacements from 1979 to 1990; he later joined the informal supergroup Golden Smog before beginning a solo career. Although Mars concentrates mainly on his art career, he still occasionally releases new music.

26/04/1960

H. G. Carrillo, American writer and academic (died 2020)

H. G. Carrillo was an American fiction writer and academic. In the 1990s, he began writing as "H. G. Carrillo," and he eventually adopted that identity in his private life as well. Carroll constructed a false claim that he was a Cuban immigrant who had left Cuba with his family at the age of seven; in fact, he had no ties to Cuba. Carroll wrote frequently about the Cuban immigrant experience in the United States, including in his only novel, Loosing My Espanish (2004). He was an assistant professor of English at George Washington University from 2007 to 2013, and was later chair of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

Steve Lombardozzi, American baseball player and coach

Stephen Paul Lombardozzi Sr. is an American former professional baseball player who was a second baseman for the Minnesota Twins and Houston Astros for six Major League Baseball seasons. As part of the Twins' world championship team in 1987, Lombardozzi hit .412 during the World Series and hit a home run in Game 1.

Roger Taylor, English drummer

Roger Andrew Taylor is an English musician. He was the drummer of the new wave band Duran Duran from their inception until 1985, and again from 2001 onwards. Duran Duran have sold over 100 million records worldwide. Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November 2022 as a member of Duran Duran.

26/04/1959

John Corabi, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

John Corabi is an American hard rock singer and guitarist. He was the frontman of the Scream during 1989 and the frontman of Mötley Crüe between 1992 and 1996 during original frontman Vince Neil's hiatus from the band.

Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rican politician

Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer who served as the Governor of Puerto Rico from 2021 to 2025, having previously been the de facto governor from August 2–7, 2019. A member of New Progressive and Democratic Parties, he previously served as acting Secretary of State of Puerto Rico in 2019, as Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico from 2009 to 2017, and as Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 1997. He was formerly a private attorney for Puerto Rico's fiscal oversight board under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act.

26/04/1958

John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, Scottish racing driver (died 2021)

John Colum Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, was a Scottish peer and racing driver, best known for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1988. He was known as Johnny Dumfries, or, after he succeeded his father as marquess in 1993, John Bute. He attended Ampleforth College, as had his father and most male members of the Crichton-Stuart family, but did not finish the normal five years of study.

Giancarlo Esposito, American actor, director, and producer

Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is an American actor and director. He rose to prominence for his portrayal of Gus Fring in the AMC crime drama series Breaking Bad (2009–2011), a role he reprised in the spin-off Better Call Saul (2017–2022). For this role, Esposito won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series twice and earned three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

Georgios Kostikos, Greek footballer, coach, and manager

Georgios Kostikos is a Greek former international footballer who played as a striker.

26/04/1956

Koo Stark, American actress and photographer

Kathleen Norris "Koo" Stark is an American photographer and actress, known for her relationship with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and her roles in erotic films. She is a patron of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, which runs the museum of the Victorian pioneer photographer.

26/04/1955

Kurt Bodewig, German politician

Kurt Bodewig is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 1998 to 2009, representing the Neuss I district. From 2000 to 2002, he served as Minister for Transport, Building and Urban Development in the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

26/04/1954

Tatyana Fomina, Estonian chess player

Tatjana Fomina is an Estonian chess player holding the title of Woman Grandmaster and twice European senior women's champion.

Alan Hinkes, English mountaineer and explorer

Alan Hinkes OBE is an English Himalayan high-altitude mountaineer from Northallerton in North Yorkshire. He is the first British mountaineer to claim all 14 Himalayan eight-thousanders, a feat he completed on 30 May 2005.

26/04/1951

John Battle, English politician

Sir John Dominic Battle, is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds West from 1987 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he served in government as Minister of State for Trade and Industry (1997–1999) and Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1999–2001) under Tony Blair.

26/04/1950

Junko Ohashi, Japanese singer (died 2023)

Junko Ohashi was a Japanese singer best known for her songs "Silhouette Romance" (1981) and "Tasogare My Love" (1978). She was known for her "overwhelming singing ability" and was mainly successful between late 1970s and early 1980s. Her discography consists of more than 20 albums. After a brief hiatus due to battling esophageal and breast cancers, she returned to music in 2019. On November 9, 2023, Ohashi died in Tokyo at the age of 73.

26/04/1949

Carlos Bianchi, Argentinian footballer and manager

Carlos Bianchi, nicknamed El Virrey, is an Argentine former football player and manager. A prolific goalscorer, although he had a bright career as a forward in Argentina and France, Bianchi is best known as one of the most successful coaches of all time managing Vélez Sarsfield and Boca Juniors to a great number of titles each. Bianchi is the only coach to win four Copa Libertadores.

Jerry Blackwell, American wrestler (died 1995)

Jerry Blackwell Jr., better known by his ring name "Crusher" Jerry Blackwell, was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tenure in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) from 1979 to 1989.

26/04/1946

Ralph Coates, English international footballer (died 2010)

Ralph Coates was an English professional footballer who played as a winger. Coates played for Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur and Orient, making 480 appearances in the Football League. From 1970 to 1971, he played for the England national team, earning four caps.

Marilyn Nelson, American poet and author

Marilyn Nelson is an American poet, translator, biographer, and children's book author. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and the former Poet Laureate of Connecticut. She is a winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and the Frost Medal. From 1978 to 1994, she published under the name Marilyn Nelson Waniek. She is the author or translator of more than twenty books and five chapbooks of poetry for adults and children. While most of her work deals with historical subjects, in 2014 she published a memoir, named one of NPR's Best Books of 2014, entitled How I Discovered Poetry.

Alberto Quintano, Chilean footballer

Alberto Fernando Quintano Ralph, commonly known as El Mariscal, is a Chilean former professional footballer. He played as a defender for Universidad de Chile in Chile's Primera División.

26/04/1945

Richard Armitage, American diplomat and government official (died 2025)

Richard Lee Armitage was an American diplomat and government official. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Armitage served as a U.S. Navy officer in three combat tours of duty in the Vietnam War as a riverine warfare advisor. After leaving active duty, he served in a number of civil-service roles under Republican administrations. He worked as an aide to Senator Bob Dole before serving in various posts in the Defense Department and State Department.

Howard Davies, English director and producer (died 2016)

Stephen Howard Davies, was a British theatre and television director.

Dick Johnson, Australian racing driver

Richard Johnson is a part-owner of the V8 Supercar team Dick Johnson Racing and a former racing driver. As a driver, he was a five-time Australian Touring Car Champion and a three-time winner of the Bathurst 1000. As of 2008 Johnson has claimed over twenty awards and honours, including the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame into which he was inducted in 2001.

Sylvain Simard, Canadian academic and politician

Sylvain Simard is a politician and academic based in the Canadian province of Quebec. He represented Richelieu in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 2012, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry. Simard is a member of the Parti Québécois (PQ).

26/04/1944

Richard Bradshaw, English conductor (died 2007)

Richard James Bradshaw was a British opera conductor and the General Director of the Canadian Opera Company (COC) in Toronto.

26/04/1943

Gary Wright, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (died 2023)

Gary Malcolm Wright was an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs "Dream Weaver" and "Love Is Alive". Wright's breakthrough album, The Dream Weaver (1975), came after he had spent seven years in London as, alternately, a member of the British blues rock band Spooky Tooth and a solo artist on A&M Records. While in England, he played keyboards on former Beatle George Harrison's triple album All Things Must Pass (1970), which began a friendship that inspired the Indian religious themes and spirituality inherent in Wright's subsequent songwriting. His work from the late 1980s onwards embraced world music and the new age genre, although none of his post-1976 releases matched the same level of popularity as The Dream Weaver.

Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect and academic, designed the Therme Vals

Peter Zumthor is a Swiss architect whose work is frequently described as uncompromising and minimalist. Though managing a relatively small firm and not being a prolific architect, he won the 2009 Pritzker Prize and 2013 RIBA Royal Gold Medal.

26/04/1942

Svyatoslav Belza, Russian journalist, author, and critic (died 2014)

Svyatoslav Igorevich Belza was a Soviet Russian literary and musical scholar, critic and essayist, and a prominent TV personality who's launched and hosted several TV programs aimed at popularizing classical music, theatre, and ballet, including Music on Air and Masterpieces of the World Music Theatre. Belza has received high-profiled honors in three countries, among them the Russian Order of Merit for the Fatherland, the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and the Ukrainian Order of Saint Nicholas.

Sharon Carstairs, Canadian lawyer and politician, Leader of the Government in the Senate

Sharon Carstairs is a Canadian politician. She was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for the riding of River Heights, serving as Leader of the Opposition in Manitoba, and leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party. After her career in provincial politics, Carstairs was appointed to the Senate of Canada by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat, Canadian Ambassador to the United States

Michael Kergin is a Canadian career diplomat, who has been a member of the foreign service in some capacity since 1967, when he joined the Department of External Affairs.

Bobby Rydell, American singer and actor (died 2022)

Robert Louis Ridarelli, known by the stage name Bobby Rydell, was an American singer and actor who mainly performed rock and roll and traditional pop music. In the early 1960s, he was considered a teen idol. His best-known songs include "Wildwood Days", "Wild One" and "Volare" ; in 1963 he appeared in the musical film Bye Bye Birdie.

Jadwiga Staniszkis, Polish sociologist, political scientist, and academic (died 2024)

Jadwiga Staniszkis was a Polish sociologist and political scientist, essayist, a professor at the University of Warsaw and the Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu, a Polish campus of National-Louis University.

26/04/1941

Claudine Auger, French model and actress (died 2019)

Claudine Auger was a French actress best known for her role as a Bond girl, Dominique "Domino" Derval, in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965). She earned the title of Miss France Monde 1958 and went on to finish as the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.

26/04/1940

Giorgio Moroder, Italian singer-songwriter and producer

Giovanni Giorgio Moroder is an Italian composer and record producer. Dubbed the "Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering Euro disco and electronic dance music. His work with synthesizers had a significant influence on several music genres such as hi-NRG, Italo disco, synth-pop, new wave, house, and techno music.

Cliff Watson, English rugby league player (died 2018)

Clifford H. Watson was an English professional rugby league footballer who played as a prop in the 1960s and 1970s. He played for the St Helens in the Rugby Football League Championship, and later the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership in Australia. Along with hardman Ken Gee, and legendary captain Alan Prescott, he remains one of the best Great Britain front-rowers ever.

Tan Cheng Bock, Singaporean doctor and politician

Adrian Tan Cheng Bock is a Singaporean former politician and physician who has served as the secretary-general of the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) between 2019 and 2021 and chairperson since 2021.

26/04/1938

Duane Eddy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (died 2024)

Duane Eddy was an American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a string of hit records produced by Lee Hazlewood which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" guitar sound, including "Rebel-'Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young". He had sold 12 million records by 1963. His guitar style influenced the Ventures, the Shadows, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, and Marty Stuart.

Maurice Williams, American doo-wop/R&B singer-songwriter

Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs were an American doo-wop/R&B vocal group in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Originally the (Royal) Charms, the band changed its name to the Gladiolas in 1957 and the Excellos in 1958, before finally settling on the Zodiacs in 1959.

26/04/1937

Jean-Pierre Beltoise, French racing driver and motorcycle racer (died 2015)

Jean-Pierre Maurice Georges Beltoise was a French racing driver and motorcycle road racer, who competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1962 to 1964, and Formula One from 1966 to 1974. Beltoise won the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix with BRM.

26/04/1933

Carol Burnett, American actress, singer, and producer

Carol Creighton Burnett is an American comedian, actress, singer and writer. Burnett has played dramatic and comedic roles on stage and screen. She has received numerous awards and accolades, including seven Golden Globe Awards, a Grammy Award, seven Primetime Emmy Awards, twelve People's Choice Awards, two Peabody Awards and a Tony Award. Burnett was honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1975, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2013, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2015.

Al McCoy, American sports announcer (died 2024)

Allen Leonard McCoy was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association from 1972 to 2023. The 2022–23 NBA season was his 51st and final season. He is the longest-tenured broadcaster in NBA history.

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Puerto Rican-American general (died 2005)

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was a Puerto Rican independence activist who cofounded the Boricua Popular Army, also known as Los Macheteros, and its predecessor, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN). In 1990, Ojeda Ríos became a fugitive of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), wanted for his role in the 1983 Águila Blanca heist, which netted more than US$7 million, as well as a bail bond default on September 23 of that year. On September 23, 2005, he was killed during an exchange of gunfire with FBI agents after they surrounded the house in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico.

Arno Allan Penzias, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2024)

Arno Allan Penzias was an American physicist and radio astronomer. He shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics with Robert Woodrow Wilson "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation".

26/04/1932

Israr Ahmed, Indian-Pakistani theologian, philosopher, and scholar (died 2010)

Israr Ahmed was a Pakistani Islamic scholar, theologian and orator. He developed a following in Pakistan and the rest of South Asia and also among some South Asian Muslims in the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America. He founded Tanzeem-e-Islami and also served as a member of the National Assembly from 1981 to 1982.

Shirley Cawley, English long jumper

Shirley Cawley is a British former athlete who won the bronze medal in the long jump at the 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki, Finland.

Frank D'Rone, American singer and guitarist (died 2013)

Frank D'Rone was an American jazz singer and guitarist.

Francis Lai, French accordion player and composer (died 2018)

Francis Albert Lai was a French composer, noted for his film scores. He won the 1970 Oscar for Best Music, Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for the film Love Story. The soundtrack album went to No. 2 in the Billboard album charts and the film's theme, "Where Do I Begin", was a hit single for Andy Williams.

Michael Smith, English-Canadian biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2000)

Michael Smith was a British-Canadian biochemist and businessman. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kary Mullis for his work in developing site-directed mutagenesis. Following a PhD in 1956 from the University of Manchester, he undertook postdoctoral research with Har Gobind Khorana at the British Columbia Research Council in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Subsequently, Smith worked at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada Laboratory in Vancouver before being appointed a professor of biochemistry in the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 1966. Smith's career included roles as the founding director of the UBC Biotechnology Laboratory and the founding scientific leader of the Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence (PENCE). In 1996 he was named Peter Wall Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology. Subsequently, he became the founding director of the Genome Sequencing Centre at the BC Cancer Research Centre.

26/04/1931

Paul Almond, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2015)

Paul Almond was a Canadian television and motion picture screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is most known for being the director of the first film in the Up series.

Bernie Brillstein, American talent agent and producer (died 2008)

Bernard Jules Brillstein was an American film and television producer, executive producer, and talent agent.

John Cain Jr., Australian politician, 41st Premier of Victoria (died 2019)

John Cain was an Australian politician who was the 41st Premier of Victoria, in office from 1982 to 1990 as leader of the Labor Party. During his time as premier, reforms were introduced such as liberalised shop trading hours and liquor laws, equal opportunity initiatives, and occupational health and safety legislation.

26/04/1930

Roger Moens, Belgian runner and sportscaster

Roger Moens is a Belgian former middle-distance runner. In 1955 he broke Rudolf Harbig's long-standing world record over 800 meters. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome he won a silver medal in the 800 m.

26/04/1929

Richard Mitchell, American author and educator (died 2002)

Richard Mitchell was a professor, first of English and later of classics, at Glassboro State College in Glassboro, New Jersey. He gained fame in the late-1970s as the founder and publisher of The Underground Grammarian, a newsletter of opinion and criticism that ran until 1992, and wrote four books expounding his views on the relationships among language, education, and ethics.

26/04/1927

Jack Douglas, English actor (died 2008)

John Douglas Roberton, known professionally as Jack Douglas or Jack D. Douglas, was an English actor best known for his portrayals in the Carry On films.

Anne McLaren, British scientist (died 2007)

Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren, was a British scientist who was a leading figure in developmental biology. She paved the way for women in science and her work helped lead to human in vitro fertilisation (IVF). She left an enduring legacy marked by her research and ethical contributions to the field. She received many honors for her contributions to science, including election as fellow of the Royal Society.

Harry Gallatin, American basketball player and coach (died 2015)

Harry Junior "The Horse" Gallatin was an American professional basketball player and coach. Gallatin played nine seasons for the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1948 to 1957, as well as one season with the Detroit Pistons in the 1957–58 season. Gallatin led the NBA in rebounding and was named to the All-NBA First Team in 1954. The following year, he was named to the All-NBA Second Team. For his career, Gallatin played in seven NBA All-Star Games. A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, he is also a member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, the SIU Edwardsville Athletics Hall of Fame, the Truman State University Athletics Hall of Fame, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, two Illinois Basketball Halls of Fame, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) Hall of Fame, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Hall of Fame, and the SIU Salukis Hall of Fame.

Granny Hamner, American baseball player (died 1993)

Granville Wilbur "Granny" Hamner was an American professional baseball shortstop and second baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB). Hamner was one of the key players on the "Whiz Kids", the 1950 National League (NL) champion Philadelphia Phillies.

26/04/1926

David Coleman, British sports commentator and television presenter (died 2013)

David Robert Coleman was a British sports commentator and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 46 years. He covered eleven Summer Olympic Games from 1960 to 2000 and six FIFA World Cups from 1962 to 1982.

Michael Mathias Prechtl, German soldier and illustrator (died 2003)

Michael Mathias Prechtl was a German artist, illustrator and cartoonist.

26/04/1925

Vladimir Boltyansky, Russian mathematician, educator and author (died 2019)

Vladimir Grigorevich Boltyansky, also transliterated as Boltyanski, Boltyanskii, or Boltjansky, was a Soviet and Russian mathematician, educator and author of popular mathematical books and articles. He was best known for his books on topology, combinatorial geometry and Hilbert's third problem.

Gerard Cafesjian, American businessman and philanthropist (died 2013)

Gerard Leon Cafesjian was a businessman and philanthropist who founded the Cafesjian Family Foundation (CFF), the Cafesjian Museum Foundation (CMF) and the Cafesjian Center for the Arts.

Michele Ferrero, Italian entrepreneur (died 2015)

Michele Ferrero was an Italian billionaire businessman. He owned the chocolate manufacturer Ferrero SpA, Europe's second-largest confectionery company, which he developed from the small bakery and café of his father in Alba, Piedmont. His first big success was his work with Francesco Rivella in adding vegetable oil to the traditional gianduja paste to make the popular spread Nutella.

Frank Hahn, British economist (died 2013)

Frank Horace Hahn FBA was a British economist whose work focused on general equilibrium theory, monetary theory, Keynesian economics and critique of monetarism. A famous problem of economic theory, the conditions under which money, which is intrinsically worthless, can have a positive value in a general equilibrium, is called "Hahn's problem" after him. One of Hahn's main abiding concerns was the understanding of Keynesian (Non-Walrasian) outcomes in general equilibrium situations.

26/04/1924

Browning Ross, American runner and soldier (died 1998)

Harris Browning 'Brownie' Ross is often referred to as the father of long-distance running in the United States.

26/04/1922

J. C. Holt, English historian and academic (died 2014)

Sir James Clarke Holt, also known as J. C. Holt and Jim Holt, was an English medieval historian, known particularly for his work on Magna Carta. He was the third Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, serving between 1981 and 1988.

Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian journalist and politician, Governor General of Canada (died 1993)

Jeanne Mathilde Sauvé was a Canadian politician, journalist and stateswoman who served as the 23rd governor general of Canada from 1984 to 1990 and as the 29th speaker of the House of Commons from 1980 to 1984. She was the first woman to hold either office, and is to date the only woman to serve as speaker of the House of Commons.

Margaret Scott, South African-Australian ballerina and choreographer (died 2019)

Dame Catherine Margaret Mary Scott, was a South African-born pioneering ballet dancer who found fame as a teacher, choreographer, and school administrator in Australia. As the first director of the Australian Ballet School, she is recognised as one of the founders of the strong ballet tradition of her adopted country.

26/04/1921

Jimmy Giuffre, American clarinet player, saxophonist, and composer (died 2008)

James Peter Giuffre, Italian pronunciation: [dʒufˈfre]; April 26, 1921 – April 24, 2008) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He is known for developing forms of jazz which allowed for free interplay between the musicians, anticipating forms of free improvisation.

26/04/1918

Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch sprinter and long jumper (died 2004)

Francina Elsje "Fanny" Blankers-Koen was a Dutch track and field athlete, best known for winning four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She competed there as a 30-year-old mother of two, earning her the nickname "the Flying Housewife", and was the most successful athlete at the event.

26/04/1917

Sal Maglie, American baseball player and coach (died 1992)

Salvatore Anthony Maglie was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB), and later a scout and a pitching coach. He played from 1945 to 1958 for the New York Giants, Cleveland Indians, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, and St. Louis Cardinals. Maglie was known as "Sal the Barber", because he gave close shaves—that is, pitched inside to hitters. A gentle personality off the field went unnoticed during games, his foreboding physical appearance contributing to his menacing presence on a pitcher's mound. He was the last of 14 players to play for the Giants, Dodgers and Yankees at a time when all three teams were in New York City. During a 10-year major league baseball career, Maglie compiled 119 wins, 862 strikeouts, and a 3.15 earned run average.

I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect, designed the National Gallery of Art and Bank of China Tower (died 2019)

Ieoh Ming Pei was a Chinese-American architect.

Virgil Trucks, American baseball player and coach (died 2013)

Virgil Oliver "Fire" Trucks was an American professional baseball pitcher in Major League Baseball with the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Athletics and New York Yankees between 1941 and 1958. He batted and threw right-handed.

26/04/1916

Eyvind Earle, American artist, author, and illustrator (died 2000)

Eyvind Earle was an American artist, author and illustrator, noted for his contribution to the background illustration and styling of Disney's animated films in the 1950s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rahr West Art Museum, Phoenix Art Museum and Arizona State University Art Museum have purchased Earle's works for their permanent collections. His works have also been shown in many one-man exhibitions throughout the world.

Ken Wallis, English commander, engineer, and pilot (died 2013)

Wing Commander Kenneth Horatio Wallis was a British aviator, engineer, and inventor. During the Second World War, Wallis served in the Royal Air Force and flew 28 bomber missions over Germany; after the war, he moved on to research and development, before retiring in 1964. He later became one of the leading exponents of autogyros and earned 34 world records, still holding eight of them at the time of his death in 2013.

Morris West, Australian author and playwright (died 1999)

Morris Langlo West was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Devil's Advocate (1959), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963) and The Clowns of God (1981). His books were published in 27 languages and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. Each new book he wrote after he became an established writer sold more than one million copies.

26/04/1914

Bernard Malamud, American novelist and short story writer (died 1986)

Bernard Malamud was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Norman Mailer and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel The Natural was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel The Fixer, about antisemitism in the Russian Empire, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

James Rouse, American real estate developer (died 1996)

James Wilson Rouse was an American businessman and founder of The Rouse Company. Rouse was a pioneering American real estate developer, urban planner, civic activist, and later, free enterprise-based philanthropist. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award, for his lifetime achievements.

26/04/1912

A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-American author (died 2000)

Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born American science fiction writer. His fragmented, bizarre narrative style influenced later science fiction writers, including Philip K. Dick. He was one of the most popular and influential practitioners of science fiction in the mid-twentieth century, the genre's so-called Golden Age, and one of the most complex. The Science Fiction Writers of America named him their 14th Grand Master in 1995.

26/04/1911

Paul Verner, German soldier and politician (died 1986)

Paul Verner was a German communist politician. He joined the communist movement at a young age and went into exile during Adolf Hitler's rule. Verner became a prominent political personality in the German Democratic Republic after the war.

26/04/1910

Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese screenwriter and producer (died 1997)

Tomoyuki "Yūkō" Tanaka was a Japanese film producer, best known as the creator of Godzilla. He produced most of the installments in the Godzilla series, beginning in 1954 with Godzilla and ending in 1995 with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. He was one of the most prolific Japanese producers of all time, having worked on more than 200 films, including over 80 tokusatsu films and six of Akira Kurosawa's films, notably Yojimbo and Kagemusha.

26/04/1909

Marianne Hoppe, German actress (died 2002)

Marianne Hoppe was a German theatre and film actress.

26/04/1907

Ilias Tsirimokos, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1968)

Ilias Tsirimokos was a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece for a very brief period.

26/04/1905

Jean Vigo, French director and screenwriter (died 1934)

Jean Vigo was a French film director who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s. His work influenced French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

26/04/1904

Paul-Émile Léger, Canadian cardinal (died 1991)

Paul-Émile Léger was a Canadian Catholic prelate, educator, missionary, and humanitarian. A member of the Society of Saint-Sulpice, he served as Archbishop of Montreal from 1950 to 1967 and was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 1953 by Pope Pius XII. Known for his eloquent preaching, progressive leadership during the Second Vatican Council, and dedication to the poor, Léger resigned his archdiocese in 1967 to pursue missionary work among lepers and the disabled in Africa, where he established numerous aid projects. His humanitarian efforts extended globally, founding several foundations that continue to operate as of 2025. Léger's legacy endures through institutions bearing his name, such as the Centre National de Réhabilitation des Personnes Handicapées Cardinal Paul-Émile Léger in Cameroon, and commemorations marking his contributions to ecumenism, social justice, and church reform. He was the elder brother of Jules Léger, who served as Governor General of Canada from 1974 to 1979.

Xenophon Zolotas, Greek economist and politician, 177th Prime Minister of Greece (died 2004)

Xenophon Euthymiou Zolotas was a Greek economist who served as an interim non-party Prime Minister of Greece.

26/04/1900

Eva Aschoff, German bookbinder and calligrapher (died 1969)

Eva Aschoff was a German visual artist known for her bookbinding and calligraphy.

Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist and physicist (died 1985)

Charles Francis Richter was an American seismologist and physicist. He is the namesake and one of the creators of the Richter scale, which, until the development of the moment magnitude scale in 1979, was widely used to quantify the size of earthquakes. Inspired by Kiyoo Wadati's 1928 paper on shallow and deep earthquakes, Richter first used the scale in 1935 after developing it in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg; both worked at the California Institute of Technology.

Hack Wilson, American baseball player (died 1948)

Lewis Robert "Hack" Wilson was an American Major League Baseball player who played 12 seasons for the New York Giants, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite his diminutive stature, he was one of the most accomplished power hitters in the game during the late 1920s and early 1930s. His 1930 season with the Cubs is widely considered one of the most memorable individual single-season hitting performances in baseball history. Highlights included 56 home runs, the National League record for 68 years, and 191 runs batted in, an MLB record yet to be approached; the closest any player has come to having that many RBIs came in the very next season, when Lou Gehrig had 185 for the New York Yankees. "For a brief span of a few years," wrote a sportswriter of the day, "this hammered down little strongman actually rivaled the mighty Ruth."

26/04/1899

Oscar Rabin, Latvian-English saxophonist and bandleader (died 1958)

Oscar Rabin was a Latvian-born English bandleader and musician. He was the musical director of his own big band.

26/04/1898

Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1984)

Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars". He was part of the Generation of '27.

John Grierson, Scottish director and producer (died 1972)

John Grierson was a Scottish filmmaker, film theorist, and critic, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Flaherty's Moana. In 1939, Grierson established the all-time Canadian film institutional production and distribution company The National Film Board of Canada controlled by the Government of Canada.

26/04/1897

Eddie Eagan, American boxer and bobsledder (died 1967)

Edward Patrick Francis Eagan was an American athlete who won a gold medal as a light-heavyweight boxer at the 1920 Summer Olympics and a gold medal in four-man bobsled at the 1932 Winter Olympics. Few athletes have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games; Eagan is the only one to have won gold in each in different events.

Douglas Sirk, German-American director and screenwriter (died 1987)

Douglas Sirk was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. However, he also directed comedies, westerns, and war films. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for Hollywood in 1937 after his Jewish wife was persecuted by the Nazis.

26/04/1896

Ruut Tarmo, Estonian actor and director (died 1967)

Ruut Tarmo was an Estonian stage and film actor and stage director whose career spanned more than five decades.

Ernst Udet, leading German fighter pilot in World War I and Chief of Procurement and Supply in the Luftwaffe (died 1941)

Ernst Udet was a German pilot during World War I and a Luftwaffe Colonel-General (Generaloberst) during World War II.

26/04/1894

Rudolf Hess, German politician and Deputy Führer in Nazi regime until 1941 (died 1987)

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a German politician, convicted war criminal, and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Germany. Appointed Deputy to the Führer in 1933, Hess held that position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate the United Kingdom's exit from the Second World War. He was taken prisoner and eventually convicted of crimes against peace. He was still serving his life sentence and 93 years old at the time of his suicide in 1987.

26/04/1889

Anita Loos, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (died 1981)

Corinne Anita Loos was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 1912, she became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put her on the payroll at Triangle Film Corporation. She is best known for her 1925 comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, her screenplay of the 1939 adaptation of The Women, and her 1951 Broadway adaptation of Colette's novella Gigi.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-English philosopher and academic (died 1951)

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austro-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language.

26/04/1886

Ma Rainey, American singer-songwriter (died 1939)

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey was an American blues singer and influential early-blues recording artist. Dubbed the "Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers. Rainey was known for her powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a "moaning" style of singing. Her qualities are present and most evident in her early recordings "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues".

Ğabdulla Tuqay, Russian poet and publicist (died 1913)

Ğabdulla Möxəmmətğərif ulı Tuqay was a Tatar poet, critic, publisher, and towering figure of Tatar literature. Tuqay is often referred to as the founder of modern Tatar literature and the modern Tatar literary language, which replaced Old Tatar.

26/04/1879

Eric Campbell, British actor (died 1917)

Alfred Eric Campbell was an English actor. He was a key member of Charlie Chaplin's film ensemble, invariably playing an intimidating bully, and appeared in eleven of Chaplin's films before he was killed in a car crash at the age of 38. He is the subject of a 1996 documentary by filmmaker Kevin Macdonald.

Owen Willans Richardson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1959)

Sir Owen Willans Richardson was a British physicist who received the 1928 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on thermionic emission and for the discovery of Richardson's law.

26/04/1878

Rafael Guízar y Valencia, Mexican bishop and saint (died 1938)

Rafael Guízar y Valencia was a Mexican bishop of the Roman Catholic Church who was persecuted during the Mexican Revolution. Named Bishop of Xalapa in 1919, he was driven out of his diocese and forced to live the remainder of his life in hiding in Mexico City. Pope Benedict XVI canonized Guízar on 15 October 2006.

26/04/1877

James Dooley, Irish-Australian politician, 21st Premier of New South Wales (died 1950)

James Thomas Dooley was an Australian political figure who served twice, briefly, as Premier of New South Wales during the early 1920s.

26/04/1876

Ernst Felle, German rower (died 1959)

Ferdinand Ernst Felle was a German rower who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics. He was part of the German boat Ludwigshafener Ruderverein, which won the bronze medal in the coxed four final B.

26/04/1865

Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish artist (died 1931)

Akseli Gallen-Kallela was a Finnish painter and a leading figure of Finnish romantic nationalism around the turn of the 20th century. He is considered a pioneer of a distinctly Finnish national art, and his work is regarded as a very important aspect of Finnish national identity.

26/04/1862

Edmund C. Tarbell, American painter and educator (died 1938)

Edmund Charles Tarbell was an American Impressionist painter. A member of the Ten American Painters, his work hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, DeYoung Museum, National Academy Museum and School, New Britain Museum of American Art, Worcester Art Museum, and numerous other collections. He was a leading member of a group of painters which came to be known as the Boston School.

26/04/1856

Joseph Ward, Australian-New Zealand businessman and politician, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1930)

Sir Joseph George Ward, 1st Baronet, was a New Zealand politician who served as the 17th prime minister of New Zealand from 1906 to 1912 and from 1928 to 1930. He was a dominant figure in the Liberal and United ministries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

26/04/1834

Charles Farrar Browne, American author (died 1867)

Charles Farrar Browne was an American humor writer, better known under his nom de plume, Artemus Ward. Ward was the character of an illiterate rube with "Yankee common sense", whom Browne also played in public performances. He is considered to be America's first stand-up comedian. His birth name was Brown but he added the "e" after he became famous.

26/04/1822

Frederick Law Olmsted, American journalist and designer, co-designed Central Park (died 1903)

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the United States. Olmsted was famous for co-designing many well-known urban parks with his partner Calvert Vaux, beginning with Central Park in New York City, which led to numerous other urban park designs including Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Cadwalader Park in Trenton, New Jersey, and Forest Park in Portland, Oregon.

26/04/1804

Charles Goodyear, American banker, lawyer, and politician (died 1876)

Charles Goodyear was a banker, attorney, and politician from New York. He was most notable for his service as a United States representative from 1845 to 1847 and 1865 to 1867.

26/04/1801

Ambrose Dudley Mann, American politician and diplomat, 1st United States Assistant Secretary of State (died 1889)

Ambrose Dudley Mann was the first United States Assistant Secretary of State and a commissioner for the Confederate States of America.

26/04/1798

Eugène Delacroix, French painter and lithographer (died 1863)

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.

26/04/1787

Ludwig Uhland, German poet, philologist, and historian (died 1862)

Johann Ludwig Uhland was a German poet, philologist, literary historian, lawyer and politician.

26/04/1785

John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist and painter (died 1851)

John James Audubon was a French-American artist, entrepreneur, naturalist, explorer, and ornithologist. His combined interests in painting and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictorial record of all the bird species of North America. He was notable for his extensive studies of American birds and for his detailed illustrations, which were engraved in Scotland and England for a large-format color-plate (intaglio) book titled The Birds of America (1827–1838), and five volumes of accompanying text entitled Ornithological Biography (1831–1839).

26/04/1782

Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, Queen of France (died 1866)

Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily was Queen of the French by marriage to Louis Philippe I, King of the French. She was the last Queen of the French.

26/04/1774

Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist and paleontologist (died 1853)

Christian Leopold von Buch, usually cited as Leopold von Buch, was a German geologist and paleontologist born in Stolpe an der Oder and is remembered as one of the most important contributors to geology in the first half of the nineteenth century. His scientific interest was devoted to a broad spectrum of geological topics: volcanism, petrology, fossils, stratigraphy and mountain formation. His most remembered accomplishment is the scientific definition of the Jurassic system.

26/04/1718

Esek Hopkins, American commander (died 1802)

Commodore Esek Hopkins was a Continental Navy officer and privateer. He served as the only commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, when the Continental Congress appointed him to the position in December 1775. Hopkins is known for carrying out the successful raid of Nassau in the Bahamas, which captured large amounts of military supplies. His legacy today has become controversial due to Hopkins' involvement in the Atlantic slave trade and for torturing British prisoners of war.

26/04/1710

Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher and academic (died 1796)

Thomas Reid was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher best known for his philosophical method, his theory of perception, and its wide implications on epistemology, and as the developer and defender of an agent-causal theory of free will. He also focused extensively on ethics, theory of action, language and philosophy of mind.

26/04/1697

Adam Falckenhagen, German lute player and composer (died 1754)

Adam Falckenhagen was a German lutenist and composer of the Baroque period.

26/04/1648

Peter II of Portugal (died 1706)

Dom Pedro II, nicknamed the Pacific was King of Portugal from 1683 until his death, previously serving as regent for his brother Afonso VI from 1668 until his own accession. He was the fifth and last child of John IV and Luisa de Guzmán.

26/04/1647

William Ashhurst, English banker, Sheriff of London, Lord Mayor of London and politician (died 1720)

Sir William Ashhurst was a British banker, merchant and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1689 to 1710. He also served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1693.

26/04/1575

Marie de' Medici, wife of Henry IV of France (died 1642)

Marie de' Medici was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV. Marie served as regent of France between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Her mandate as regent legally expired in 1614, when her son reached the age of majority, but she refused to resign and continued as regent until she was removed by a coup in 1617.

26/04/1538

Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter and academic (died 1600)

Gian Paolo Lomazzo was an Italian artist and writer on art. Praised as a painter, Lomazzo wrote about artistic practice and art theory after blindness compelled him to pursue a different professional path by 1571. Lomazzo's written works were especially influential to second generation Mannerism in Italian art and architecture.

26/04/1319

John II of France (died 1364)

John II, called John the Good, was King of France from 1350 until his death in 1364. When he came to power, France faced several disasters: the Black Death, which killed between a third and a half of its population; popular revolts known as Jacqueries; free companies of routiers who plundered the country; and English aggression during the Hundred Years' War that resulted in catastrophic military losses, including the Battle of Poitiers of 1356, in which John was captured.

26/04/1284

Alice de Toeni, Countess of Warwick (died 1324)

Alice de Toeni, Countess of Warwick was a wealthy English heiress and the second wife of Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick, an English nobleman in the reign of kings Edward I and Edward II. He was one of the principal opponents of Piers Gaveston, a favourite of Edward II. Alice married three times; Guy was her second husband.

26/04/0764

Al-Hadi, Abbasid caliph (died 786)

Abū Muḥammad Mūsā ibn al-Mahdī al-Hādī better known by his laqab al-Hādī (الهادي‎) was the fourth Abbasid caliph who succeeded his father al-Mahdi and ruled from 169 AH until his death in 170 AH. His short reign ended with internal chaos and power struggles with his mother.

26/04/0757

Hisham I of Córdoba (died 796)

Year 757 (DCCLVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 757 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

26/04/0121

Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (died 180)

Year 121 (CXXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Verus and Augur. The denomination 121 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Lives Remembered on 26th April

On 26th April, 91 remarkable people passed away — from 499 to 2023. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

26/04/2023

Jerry Apodaca, American politician, 24th Governor of New Mexico (born 1934)

Jerry Apodaca was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as the 24th governor of New Mexico from 1975 to 1979 and chair of the president's council on physical fitness and sports from 1978 to 1980.

26/04/2022

Klaus Schulze, German composer and musician (born 1947)

Klaus Schulze was a German electronic music pioneer, composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried and was a member of the Krautrock bands Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, and the Cosmic Jokers before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across six decades.

26/04/2017

Jonathan Demme, American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter (born 1944)

Robert Jonathan Demme was an American filmmaker. His career of directing, producing, and screenwriting spanned more than 30 years and 70 feature films, documentaries, and television productions. In addition to being an Academy Award and a Directors Guild of America Award winner, he received nominations for a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three Independent Spirit Awards.

26/04/2016

Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist (born 1937)

Harry Wu was a Chinese-American human rights activist. Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps, and he became a resident and citizen of the United States. In 1992, he founded the Laogai Research Foundation.

26/04/2015

Jayne Meadows, American actress (born 1919)

Jayne Meadows was an American stage, film and television actress, as well as an author and lecturer. She was nominated for three Emmy Awards during her career and was the wife of original Tonight Show host Steve Allen. She was the elder sister of actress, banker, and memoirist Audrey Meadows.

Marcel Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1930)

Joseph René Marcel Pronovost was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. He played in 1,206 games over 20 National Hockey League (NHL) seasons for the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs between 1950 and 1970. A top defenceman, Pronovost was named to four post-season NHL All-Star teams and played in 11 All-Star Games. He was a member of four Stanley Cup championship teams with the Red Wings, the first in 1950, and won a fifth title with the Maple Leafs in 1967. Pronovost was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a player in 1978.

26/04/2014

Gerald Guralnik, American physicist and academic (born 1936)

Gerald Stanford "Gerry" Guralnik was the Chancellor’s Professor of Physics at Brown University. In 1964, he co-discovered the Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson with C. R. Hagen and Tom Kibble (GHK). As part of Physical Review Letters' 50th anniversary celebration, the journal recognized this discovery as one of the milestone papers in PRL history. While widely considered to have authored the most complete of the early papers on the Higgs theory, GHK were controversially not included in the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Paul Robeson, Jr., American historian and author (born 1927)

Paul Leroy Robeson Jr. was an American author, archivist and historian.

DJ Rashad, American electronic musician, producer and DJ (born 1979)

Rashad Hanif Harden, known as DJ Rashad, was a Chicago-based electronic musician, producer and DJ known as a pioneer in the footwork genre and founder of the Teklife crew. He released his debut studio album Double Cup on Hyperdub in 2013 to critical praise. He died in April 2014 from a drug overdose.

26/04/2013

Jacqueline Brookes, American actress and educator (born 1930)

Jacqueline Victoire Brookes was an American film, television, and stage actress, best known for her work both off-Broadway and on Broadway.

George Jones, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1931)

George Glenn Jones was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for a long list of hit records, and is well known for his distinctive voice and phrasing. For the last two decades of his life, he was frequently referred to as "the greatest living country singer", "The Rolls-Royce of Country Music".

Earl Silverman, Canadian men's rights advocate (born 1948)

Earl Silverman was a Canadian domestic abuse survivor, activist and men's rights advocate who founded the Men's Alternative Safe House (MASH), the only privately funded domestic abuse shelter for men in Canada, and the Family of Men society, which operated phone lines to assist victims. He also served as the Canadian Liaison for the National Coalition for Men. June 14 is unofficially "Earl Silverman Day."

26/04/2012

Terence Spinks, English boxer and trainer (born 1938)

Terence George Spinks MBE was an English boxer, who won the gold medal in the flyweight division at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. In the final he defeated Mircea Dobrescu of Romania on points. He was also British featherweight champion from 1960 to 1961.

26/04/2011

Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1950)

Phoebe Snow was an American roots music singer-songwriter and guitarist, known for her hit 1974 and 1975 songs "Poetry Man" and "Harpo's Blues", and her credited guest vocals on Paul Simon’s "Gone at Last". She was described by The New York Times as a "contralto grounded in a bluesy growl and capable of sweeping over four octaves". Snow also sang numerous commercial jingles for many U.S. products during the 1980s and 1990s, including General Foods International Coffees, Salon Selectives, and Stouffer's. Snow experienced success in Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s with five top 100 albums in that country. In 1995 she recorded a gospel album with Sisters of Glory.

26/04/2010

Mariam A. Aleem, Egyptian graphic designer and academic (born 1930)

Mariam A. Aleem was an Egyptian artist and art professor specializing in printed design. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the Faculty of Fine Arts Cairo in 1954 and her Master of Fine Arts in graphic printing 1957 from the University of Southern California. Beginning in 1958, Aleem taught printmaking at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria. In 1968 she became an assistant professor, heading the Printmaking Department. Aleem became a full professor in 1975 and led the Design Department from 1985 to 1990. She earned her Ph.D. in the history of art from Helwan University in Cairo. Aleem exhibited worldwide, with shows in the United States, Lebanon, Egypt, Germany, Italy, and Norway.

Urs Felber, Swiss engineer and businessman (born 1942)

Urs Felber, a pioneer of furniture design, was the CEO of Vitra USA. Felber was also the board director for several companies including Swissflex and was chairman and principal shareholder for the furniture company Dietiker AG.

26/04/2009

Hans Holzer, Austrian-American paranormal investigator and author (born 1920)

Hans Holzer was an American writer and parapsychologist. He wrote more than 120 books on supernatural and occult subjects for the popular market as well as several plays, musicals, films, and documentaries, and hosted a television show, Ghost Hunter.

26/04/2008

Árpád Orbán, Hungarian footballer (born 1938)

Árpád Orbán was a Hungarian Olympic champion football player.

26/04/2007

Jack Valenti, American businessman, created the MPAA film rating system (born 1921)

Jack Joseph Valenti was an American political advisor and lobbyist who served as a Special Assistant to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was also the longtime president of the Motion Picture Association of America. During his 38-year tenure in the MPAA, he created the MPAA film rating system, and was generally regarded as one of the most influential pro-copyright lobbyists in the world.

26/04/2005

Mason Adams, American actor (born 1919)

Mason Adams was an American actor. From the late 1940s until the early 1970s, he was heard in numerous radio programs and voiceovers for countless television commercials, the latter of which he resumed in the 1980s and 1990s. In the early 1970s, he moved into acting and from 1977 to 1983 held perhaps his best-known role, that of Managing Editor Charlie Hume on Lou Grant. He also acted in numerous other television and movie roles, most prominently Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981) and F/X (1986).

Elisabeth Domitien, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (born 1925)

Elisabeth Domitien served as the prime minister of the Central African Republic from 1975 to 1976. She was the first and to date only woman to hold the position, and was the first woman to serve as prime minister of a country in Africa.

Maria Schell, Austrian-Swiss actress (born 1926)

Maria Margarethe Anna Schell was an Austrian-Swiss actress. She was one of the leading stars of German cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1954, she was awarded the Cannes Best Actress Award for her performance in Helmut Käutner's war drama The Last Bridge, and in 1956, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for Gervaise.

Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan journalist, author, and academic (born 1917)

Augusto Roa Bastos was a Paraguayan novelist and short story writer. As a teenager he fought in the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and he later worked as a journalist, screenwriter and professor. He is best known for his complex novel Yo el Supremo and for winning the Premio Miguel de Cervantes in 1989, Spanish literature's most prestigious prize. Yo el Supremo explores the dictations and inner thoughts of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, the eccentric dictator of Paraguay who ruled with an iron fist, from 1814 until his death in 1840.

26/04/2004

Hubert Selby, Jr., American author, poet, and screenwriter (born 1928)

Hubert "Cubby" Selby Jr. was an American novelist. Two of his books, Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964) and Requiem for a Dream (1978), were adapted into films, both of which he appeared in.

26/04/2003

Rosemary Brown, Jamaican-Canadian academic and politician (born 1930)

Rosemary Brown was a Canadian politician, social worker, and human rights advocate. As a member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly from 1972 to 1986, she was the first black woman elected to a legislature in Canada at either the provincial or federal level. In 1975, she also became the first black woman to run for the leadership of a federal political party, finishing second in the New Democratic Party leadership race. Her work focused on anti-racism, gender equality, and expanding social supports for marginalized communities.

Yun Hyon-seok, South Korean poet and author (born 1984)

Yun Hyon-seok was a South Korean LGBT poet, writer, and activist. He wrote under the pen names Yuk Wu-dang and Seolheon, and was also known by his nickname Midong or Donghwa.

Edward Max Nicholson, Irish environmentalist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (born 1904)

Edward Max Nicholson was a pioneering environmentalist, ornithologist and internationalist, and a founder of the World Wildlife Fund.

26/04/1999

Adrian Borland, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1957)

Adrian Kelvin Borland was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer, best known as the frontman of post-punk band The Sound.

Jill Dando, English journalist and television personality (born 1961)

Jill Wendy Dando was an English journalist, television presenter and newsreader. She spent most of her career at the BBC and was the corporation's Personality of the Year in 1997. At the time of her death, her television work included co-presenting the BBC One programme Crimewatch with Nick Ross.

26/04/1996

Stirling Silliphant, American screenwriter and producer (born 1918)

Stirling Dale Silliphant was an American screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his screenplay for In the Heat of the Night, for which he won an Academy Award in 1967, and for creating the television series Naked City, Perry Mason, and Route 66. Other features as screenwriter include the Irwin Allen productions The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure.

26/04/1994

Masutatsu Ōyama, Japanese martial artist, founded Kyokushin kaikan (born 1923)

Masutatsu Ōyama, commonly known outside Japan as Mas Oyama, was a Korean-Japanese karateka. He was the founder of Kyokushin Karate, considered the first and most influential style of full contact karate.

26/04/1991

Leo Arnaud, French-American composer and conductor (born 1904)

Noël Léon Marius Arnaud, known professionally as Leo Arnaud, was a French American arranger, composer, and trombonist. He composed "Bugler's Dream", which is used as the theme by television networks presenting the Olympic Games in the United States.

Carmine Coppola, American composer and conductor (born 1910)

Carmine Valentino Coppola was an American composer, flutist, pianist, and songwriter who contributed original music to the films The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders, The Black Stallion, and The Godfather Part III. He is the father of film director Francis Ford Coppola. In the course of his career, he won both the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, in addition to nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Music and Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

A. B. Guthrie, Jr., American novelist and historian, (born 1901)

Alfred Bertram "Bud" Guthrie Jr. was an American novelist, screenwriter, historian, and literary historian known for writing western stories. His novel The Way West won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and his screenplay for Shane (1953) was nominated for an Academy Award.

Richard Hatfield, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Premier of New Brunswick (born 1931)

Richard Bennett Hatfield was a Canadian politician who served as the premier of New Brunswick from 1970 to 1987. He was the longest-serving premier in New Brunswick history.

26/04/1989

Lucille Ball, American model, actress, comedian, and producer (born 1911)

Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, actress, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by Time in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for her work in all four of these areas. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She earned many honors, including the Women in Film Crystal Award, an induction into the Television Hall of Fame, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Additionally, she posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush in 1989.

26/04/1987

Shankar, Indian composer and conductor (born 1922)

Shankar–Jaikishan, consisting of Shankar Singh Ram Singh Raghuvanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal, also known as S-J, were an Indian composer duo of the Hindi film industry, who worked together from 1949 to 1971. They are widely considered to be the greatest music composers of the Hindi film industry. From 1949 until Jaikishan's death in 1971, they composed musical scores for 136 films, introducing a new level of orchestral richness in film music. S-J collaborated with legendary singers such as Mukesh (singer), Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Talat Mahmood, Lata Mangeshkar, Suman Kalyanpur, Asha Bhosle and Sharda (singer). They also worked extensively with lyricists Shailendra (lyricist) and Hasrat Jaipuri, with whom they created some of the most memorable songs in their career.

John Silkin, English lawyer and politician, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons (born 1923)

John Ernest Silkin was a British left-wing Labour politician and solicitor.

26/04/1986

Broderick Crawford, American actor (born 1911)

William Broderick Crawford was an American actor. Known for his "bulldog face and barking voice", he was initially a character actor often cast tough-guy or slob roles, but gained widespread acclaim for his portrayal of Willie Stark in the 1949 film adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. His performance earned him both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor. He was later known for his starring role as Dan Mathews on the television series Highway Patrol (1955–59).

Bessie Love, American actress (born 1898)

Bessie Love was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned nearly seven decades—from silent film to sound film, including theatre, radio, and television—and her performance in The Broadway Melody (1929) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (born 1899)

Dechko Uzunov was a Bulgarian painter. He was born in Kazanluk and died in Sofia at the age of 87. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics.

26/04/1984

Count Basie, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (born 1904)

William James "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, his minimalist piano style, and others.

26/04/1981

Jim Davis, American actor (born 1909)

Jim Davis was an American actor, best known for his roles in television Westerns. In his later career, he became famous as Jock Ewing in the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas, a role he continued until he was too ill from multiple myeloma to perform. In 1981, his performance on the series earned him a posthumous nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

26/04/1980

Cicely Courtneidge, Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer (born 1893)

Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge was an Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of the producer and playwright Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West End by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.

26/04/1976

Sidney Franklin, American bullfighter (born 1903)

Sidney Franklin was the first American to become a successful matador, the most senior level of bullfighter.

Sid James, South African-English actor (born 1913)

Sidney James was a South African–British actor and comedian whose career encompassed radio, television, stage and screen. Noted for his distinctive laugh, he was best known for numerous roles in the Carry On film series.

Armstrong Sperry, American author and illustrator (born 1897)

Armstrong Wells Sperry was an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. His books include historical fiction and biography, often set on sailing ships, and stories of boys from Polynesia, Asia and indigenous American cultures. He is best known for his 1941 Newbery Medal-winning book Call It Courage.

26/04/1973

Irene Ryan, American actress and philanthropist (born 1902)

Irene Ryan was an American actress and comedienne who found success in vaudeville, radio, film, television, and Broadway. She is most widely known for her portrayal of Daisy May "Granny" Moses, mother-in-law of Buddy Ebsen's character Jed Clampett on the long-running TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). She was nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1963 and 1964 for the role.

26/04/1970

Erik Bergman, Swedish minister and author (born 1886)

Erik Henrik Fredrik Bergman was a Swedish parish minister of the Lutheran Church and the father of diplomat Dag Bergman, novelist Margareta Bergman, and film director Ingmar Bergman.

Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress, striptease dancer, and writer (born 1911)

Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer, stripper, actress, author, playwright and vedette, famous for her striptease act. Her 1957 memoir, Gypsy: A Memoir, was adapted into the 1959 stage musical Gypsy.

26/04/1969

Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, founded aikido (born 1883)

Morihei Ueshiba was a Japanese martial artist and founder of the martial art of aikido. He is often referred to as "the founder" Kaiso (開祖) or Ōsensei (大先生/翁先生), "Great Teacher".

26/04/1968

John Heartfield, German illustrator and photographer (born 1891)

John Heartfield was a German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his most famous photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements. Heartfield also created book jackets for book authors, such as Upton Sinclair, as well as stage sets for contemporary playwrights, such as Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator.

26/04/1964

E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet and author (born 1882)

Edwin John Dove Pratt, who published as E. J. Pratt, was a Canadian poet. Originally from Newfoundland, Pratt lived most of his life in Toronto, Ontario. A three-time winner of the country's Governor General's Award for poetry, he has been called "the foremost Canadian poet of the first half of the century."

26/04/1957

Gichin Funakoshi, Japanese martial artist, founded Shotokan (born 1868)

Gichin Funakoshi was the founder of Shotokan karate. He is known as a "father of modern karate". Following the teachings of Anko Itosu and Anko Asato, he was one of the Okinawan karate masters who introduced karate to the Japanese mainland in 1922, following its earlier introduction by his teacher Itosu. He taught karate at various Japanese universities and became honorary head of the Japan Karate Association upon its establishment in 1949. In addition to being a karate master, Funakoshi was an avid poet and philosopher. His son, Gigō Funakoshi, is widely credited with developing the foundation of the modern karate Shotokan style.

26/04/1956

Edward Arnold, American actor (born 1890)

Günther Edward Arnold Schneider was an American actor of the stage and screen.

26/04/1951

Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist and academic (born 1868)

Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in both atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and mentored many students for the new era of theoretical physics.

26/04/1950

George Murray Hulbert, American lawyer, judge, and politician (born 1881)

George Murray Hulbert was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who was a United States representative from New York and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in the early 20th century.

26/04/1946

James Larkin White, American miner, explorer, and park ranger (born 1882)

James Larkin White was a cowboy, guano miner, cave explorer, and park ranger for the National Park Service. He is best remembered as the discoverer, early promoter and explorer of what is known today as Carlsbad Caverns in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico.

26/04/1945

Sigmund Rascher, German physician and SS member, conductor of human experiments in the concentration camps (born 1909)

Sigmund Rascher was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) doctor. He conducted deadly experiments on humans pertaining to high altitude, freezing and blood coagulation under the patronage of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, to whom his wife Karoline "Nini" Diehl had direct connections. When police investigations uncovered that the couple had defrauded the public with their supernatural fertility by 'hiring' and kidnapping babies, she and Rascher were arrested in April 1944. He was accused of financial irregularities, murder of his former lab assistant, and scientific fraud, and brought to Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps before being executed. After his death, the Nuremberg trials judged his experiments as inhumane and criminal.

Pavlo Skoropadskyi, German-Ukrainian general and politician, Hetman of Ukraine (born 1871)

Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadsky was a Ukrainian aristocrat, military leader and statesman who served as the hetman of the Ukrainian State throughout 1918 following a coup d'état on 29 April, of the same year. However, he would abdicate on 14 December.

26/04/1944

Violette Morris, French footballer, shot putter, and discus thrower (born 1893)

Violette Morris was a French athlete and Nazi collaborator who won two gold and one silver medal at the Women's World Games in 1921–1922. She was later banned from competing for violating "moral standards". She was invited to the 1936 Summer Olympics by Adolf Hitler and was an honored guest. During World War II, she collaborated with Nazis and the Vichy France regime. She became known as the "Hyena of the Gestapo" and was killed by the French Resistance.

26/04/1940

Carl Bosch, German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1874)

Carl Bosch was a German chemist and engineer and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. He was a pioneer in the field of high-pressure industrial chemistry and founder of IG Farben, at one point the world's largest chemical company.

26/04/1934

Arturs Alberings, Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia (born 1876)

Arturs Alberings was the 6th Prime Minister of Latvia. He held office from 7 May 1926 to 18 December 1926.

Konstantin Vaginov, Russian poet and novelist (born 1899)

Konstantin Konstantinovich Vaginov was a Russian poet and novelist.

26/04/1932

William Lockwood, English cricketer (born 1868)

William Henry Lockwood was an English Test cricketer, best known as a fast bowler and the unpredictable, occasionally devastating counterpart to the amazingly hard-working Tom Richardson for Surrey in the early County Championship. A capable enough batsman against weaker bowling sides who scored over 10,000 runs in first-class cricket, stronger bowling tended to show flaws in his technique.

26/04/1920

Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician and theorist (born 1887)

Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar was an Indian mathematician who worked during the early 20th century. He made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems then considered unsolvable.

26/04/1916

Mário de Sá-Carneiro, Portuguese poet and writer (born 1890)

Mário de Sá-Carneiro was a Portuguese poet and writer. He is one of the best known authors of the Geração de Orpheu, and is usually considered their greatest poet, after Fernando Pessoa.

26/04/1915

John Bunny, American actor (born 1863)

John Bunny was an American actor. Bunny began his career as a stage actor, but transitioned to a film career after joining Vitagraph Studios around 1910. At Vitagraph, Bunny made over 150 short films – many of them domestic comedies with the comedian Flora Finch – and became one of the most well-known actors of his era.

Ida Hunt Udall, American diarist (born 1858)

Ida Frances Hunt Udall was an American diarist, homesteader, and teacher in territorial Utah and Arizona. A lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Udall participated in the church's historical practice of plural marriage as the second wife of Latter-day Saint bishop David King Udall and co-wife of former telegraphist Ella Stewart Udall and of Mary Ann Linton Morgan Udall, a widow of John Hamilton Morgan.

26/04/1910

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian-French author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1832)

Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit". The first Norwegian Nobel laureate, he was a prolific polemicist and extremely influential in Norwegian public life and Scandinavian cultural debate. Bjørnson is considered to be one of "the four greats" of Norwegian literature, alongside Ibsen, Lie, and Kielland. He is also celebrated for his lyrics to the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet". The composer Fredrikke Waaler based a composition for voice and piano on a text by Bjørnson, as did Anna Teichmüller.

26/04/1895

Eric Stenbock, Estonian-English author and poet (born 1860)

Graf Eric Stanislaus Stenbock was a Baltic Swedish poet and writer of macabre fantastic fiction.

26/04/1881

Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, German general (born 1815)

Ludwig Samson Heinrich Arthur Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen was a Bavarian general.

26/04/1865

John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (born 1838)

John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated United States president Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland, he was a noted actor who was also a Confederate sympathizer; denouncing Lincoln, he lamented the then-recent abolition of slavery in the United States.

26/04/1809

Bernhard Schott, German music publisher (born 1748)

Bernhard Peter Schott was a German clarinetist and music publisher. He founded the predecessor of Schott Music, a major German music publishing company which continues to this day.

26/04/1789

Petr Ivanovich Panin, Russian general (born 1721)

Count Pyotr (Petr) Ivanovich Panin was a Russian soldier who later served as a general-in-chief in the Imperial Russian Army.

26/04/1784

Nano Nagle, Irish nun and educator, founded the Presentation Sisters (born 1718)

Honora "Nano" Nagle was an Irish Catholic religious sister who served as a pioneer of Catholic education in Ireland despite legal prohibitions. She founded the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commonly known as the Presentation Sisters, now a worldwide Catholic institute of women religious. She was declared venerable on 31 October 2013 by Pope Francis.

26/04/1716

John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, English jurist and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1651)

John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, was an English jurist and Whig statesman. Somers first came to national attention in the trial of the Seven Bishops where he was on their defence counsel. He published tracts on political topics such as the succession to the crown, where he elaborated his Whig principles in support of the Exclusionists. He played a leading part in shaping the Revolution settlement. He was Lord High Chancellor of England under King William III and was a chief architect of the union between England and Scotland achieved in 1707 and the Protestant succession achieved in 1714. He was a leading Whig during the twenty-five years after 1688; with four colleagues he formed the Whig Junto.

26/04/1686

Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, Swedish statesman and military man (born 1622)

Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie was a Swedish statesman and military man. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1647 and came to be the holder of three of the five offices counted as the Great Officers of the Realm, namely Lord High Treasurer, Lord High Chancellor and Lord High Steward. He also served as Governor-General in the Swedish dominion of Livonia.

26/04/1558

Jean Fernel, French physician (born 1497)

Jean François Fernel was a French physician who introduced the term "physiology" to describe the study of the body's function. He was the first person to describe the spinal canal. The lunar crater Fernelius is named after him.

26/04/1489

Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shōgun (born 1465)

Ashikaga Yoshihisa was the 9th shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1473 to 1489 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshihisa was the son of the eighth shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa with his wife Hino Tomiko.

26/04/1478

Giuliano de' Medici, Italian ruler (born 1453)

Giuliano de' Medici was the second son of Piero de' Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. As co-ruler of the Florentine Republic, with his brother Lorenzo the Magnificent, he complemented his brother's image as the "patron of the arts" with his own image as the handsome, sporting "golden boy". He was killed in a plot known as the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478.

26/04/1444

Robert Campin, Flemish painter (born 1378)

Robert Campin now usually identified with the Master of Flémalle, was a master painter who, along with Jan van Eyck, initiated the development of early Netherlandish painting, a key development in the early Northern Renaissance.

26/04/1392

Chŏng Mong-ju, Korean civil minister, diplomat and scholar (born 1338)

Chŏng Mongju, also known by his art name P'oŭn (포은), was a Korean statesman, diplomat, philosopher, poet, calligrapher and reformist of the Goryeo period. He was a major figure of opposition to the transition from the Goryeo (918–1392) to Joseon (1392–1897) periods.

26/04/1366

Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury

Simon Islip was an English prelate. He served as Archbishop of Canterbury between 1349 and 1366.

26/04/1192

Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (born 1127)

Emperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His de jure reign spanned the years from 1155 through 1158, though arguably he effectively maintained imperial power for almost thirty-seven years through the insei system – scholars differ as to whether his rule can be truly considered part of the insei system, given that the Hōgen Rebellion undermined the imperial position. However, it is broadly acknowledged that by politically outmaneuvering his opponents, he attained greater influence and power than the diminished authority of the emperor's position during this period would otherwise allow.

26/04/0962

Adalbero I, bishop of Metz

Adalbero I was the bishop of Metz from 929 till 954.

26/04/0893

Chen Jingxuan, general of the Tang Dynasty

Chen Jingxuan (陳敬瑄) was a general of the Tang dynasty of China, who came to control Xichuan Circuit (西川), headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan by virtue of his being an older brother of the eunuch Tian Lingzi, who controlled the court of Emperor Xizong during most of Emperor Xizong's reign. Later, when Emperor Xizong's brother and successor Emperor Zhaozong tried to recall Chen, Chen refused, leading to a general campaign against him. He was eventually defeated and killed by Wang Jian, who took over his territory and later founded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Former Shu.

26/04/0757

Pope Stephen II (born 715)

Year 757 (DCCLVII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 757 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

26/04/0680

Mu'awiya I, Umayyad caliph (born 602)

Mu'awiya I was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the four Rashidun ('rightly-guided') caliphs. Unlike his predecessors, who had been close, early companions of Muhammad, Mu'awiya was a relatively late follower of Muhammad.

26/04/0645

Richarius, Frankish monk and saint (born 560)

Richarius of Celles was a Frankish hermit, monk, and the founder of two monasteries. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

26/04/0499

Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei (born 467)

Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei ( 魏孝文帝), personal name Tuoba Hong (拓跋宏), later Yuan Hong (元宏), was an emperor of China's Northern Wei dynasty, reigning from September 20, 471 to April 26, 499.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 26th April

Chernobyl disaster related observances: Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy (Belarus)

National holidays in Belarus are classified into state holidays and other holidays and commemorative days, including religious holidays. Nine of them are non-working days.

Chernobyl disaster related observances: Memorial Day of Radiation Accidents and Catastrophes (Russia)

The following is the list of official public holidays recognized by the Government of Russia. On these days, government offices, embassies, schools, companies and some shops, are closed. If the date of observance falls on a weekend, the following Monday will be a day off in lieu of the holiday.

Christian feast day: Aldobrandesca (or Alda)

Aldobrandesca was an Italian saint and mystic. A short description of her life was published in 1584, which was later translated into Latin and published in the Acta Sanctorum.

Christian feast day: Lucidius of Verona

Saint Lucidius was a 4th century bishop of Verona, Italy and is a Roman Catholic saint.

Christian feast day: Our Lady of Good Counsel

Our Mother of Good Counsel formerly known as Our Lady of Paradise is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a purported miraculous painting of the Madonna and Child enshrined within the namesake Minor Basilica at Genazzano, Italy.

Christian feast day: Pope Anacletus and Marcellinus

Pope Anacletus, also known as Cletus, was the bishop of Rome, following Peter and Linus. Anacletus served between c. AD 80 and his death, c. AD 92. Cletus was a Roman who, during his tenure as pope, ordained a number of priests and is traditionally credited with setting up about twenty-five parishes in Rome. Although the precise dates of his pontificate are uncertain, he "died a martyr, perhaps about 91". Cletus is mentioned in the Roman Canon of the mass; his feast day is April 26.

Christian feast day: Rafael Arnáiz Barón

Rafael Arnáiz Barón, OCSO, also named María Rafael in religion, was a Spanish Trappist conventual oblate. He studied architecture in Madrid, but decided to cease his studies in favor of the religious life. This was often interrupted due to his struggle with type 1 diabetes and his being called for active military service. But these never hindered his religious call and he did as best as he could to deal with his diabetes through his constant life of reflection and writing on spiritual subjects in his letters.

Christian feast day: Riquier

Richarius of Celles was a Frankish hermit, monk, and the founder of two monasteries. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Christian feast day: Paschasius Radbertus

Paschasius Radbertus (785–865) was a Carolingian theologian and the abbot of Corbie, a monastery in Picardy founded in 657 or 660 by the queen regent Bathilde with a founding community of monks from Luxeuil Abbey. His most well-known and influential work is an exposition on the nature of the Eucharist written around 831, entitled De Corpore et Sanguine Domini. He was canonized in 1073 by Pope Gregory VII. His feast day is 26 April.

Christian feast day: Robert Hunt (Episcopal Church (USA))

Robert Hunt, a vicar in the Church of England, was chaplain of the expedition that founded the first successful English colony in the New World, at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.

Christian feast day: Blessed Stanisław Kubista

Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. Beati is the plural form, referring to those who have undergone the process of beatification; they possess the title of "Blessed" before their names and are often referred to in English as "a Blessed" or, plurally, "Blesseds".

Christian feast day: Stephen of Perm, see also Old Permic Alphabet Day

Stephen of Perm was a Russian Orthodox bishop, painter and missionary. He is known as being one of the most successful missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church. Stephen is credited with the conversion of the Komi peoples to Christianity. He settled in Ust-Vym and became the first bishop of Perm in 1383.

Christian feast day: Trudpert

Saint Trudpert was a missionary in Germany in the seventh century. He is generally called a Celtic monk from Ireland, but some consider him to be German.

Christian feast day: April 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

April 25 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - April 27

Confederate Memorial Day (Florida, United States)

Confederate Memorial Day is a holiday observed in several Southern U.S. states on various dates since the end of the American Civil War. The holiday was originally publicly presented as a day to remember the estimated 258,000 Confederate soldiers who died during the American Civil War.

Union Day (Tanzania)

Public holidays in Tanzania are in accordance with the Public Holidays Act, amended among others in December 1964, August 1966, July 2022, and are observed throughout the nation.

World Intellectual Property Day

World Intellectual Property Day is observed annually on 26 April. The event was established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2000 to "raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life" and "to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of economies and societies across the globe". 26 April was chosen as the date for World Intellectual Property Day because it coincides with the date on which the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization entered into force in 1970. World Intellectual Property Day is WIPO’s largest intellectual property (IP) public outreach campaign.

What Happened on 26th April?

53 significant events took place on Wednesday, 26th April — stretching from 1289 to 2025. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

26/04/2025

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 people dead and at least 32 more injured, making it the deadliest attack in Vancouver's history. It stands as the deadliest vehicle-ramming incident in Canadian history, alongside the 2018 Toronto van attack. According to the Vancouver Police Department, the car attack was not an act of terrorism.

26/04/2015

Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote, one of the biggest vote shares in Kazakhstan's history.

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 Security Council from 1991 to 2022.

26/04/2005

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).

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 popular movement was remarkable for its avoidance of violence, peaceful approach, and its total reliance on methods of civil resistance.

26/04/2002

Robert Steinhäuser 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 Steinhäuser shot and killed 16 people, including a police officer before killing himself. One person was also wounded by a bullet fragment. According to students, he ignored them and aimed only for the teachers and administrators, although two students were unintentionally killed by shots fired through a locked door.

26/04/1999

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 cause the virus to activate on different days, ranging from once a month to once a year. The most widespread variant first activated on April 26, 1999, causing widespread damage to hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide and resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of losses. CIH is notorious for its destructive payload, which overwrites critical areas of a computer's hard drive, leaving the data inaccessible. On some systems, it also intentionally corrupts the system's flash BIOS firmware stored on the motherboard. This makes the computer unable to boot, leaving the computer unusable until the BIOS chip or the entire motherboard is replaced.

26/04/1994

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 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 the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini; and it encloses Lesotho. Covering an area of 1,221,037 square kilometres, the country has a population of over 63 million people, making it the sixth-most populated country in Africa. Pretoria is the administrative capital, while Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament, is the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein is regarded as the judicial capital. The largest and most populous city is Johannesburg, followed by Cape Town and Durban.

26/04/1993

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 female personification of the United States, Columbia was the first of five Space Shuttle orbiters to fly in space, debuting the Space Shuttle launch vehicle on its maiden flight on April 12, 1981 and becoming the first spacecraft to be re-used after its first flight when it launched on STS-2 on November 12, 1981. As only the second full-scale orbiter to be manufactured after the Approach and Landing Test vehicle Enterprise, Columbia retained unique external and internal features compared with later orbiters, such as test instrumentation and distinctive black chines. In addition to a heavier aft fuselage and the retention of an internal airlock throughout its lifetime, these made Columbia the heaviest of the five spacefaring orbiters: around 1,000 kilograms heavier than Challenger and 3,600 kilograms heavier than Endeavour when originally constructed. Columbia also carried ejection seats based on those from the SR-71 during its first six flights until 1983, and from 1986 onwards carried an imaging pod on its vertical stabilizer.

26/04/1991

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.

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 moved northeast through a moist and highly unstable environment. A total of 55 tornadoes were confirmed, many of which were strong, F2 or greater on the Fujita scale. A widely documented F5 tornado tore through Andover, Kansas, killing 17 people. Additional fatalities occurred from significant tornadoes in other portions of Kansas and Oklahoma, with 21 deaths recorded in total. An F4 tornado was detected by a mobile doppler weather radar team which observed winds up to 270 mph (430 km/h) at the top of the funnel, the first time winds of F5 intensity were measured by radar, and the highest winds recorded by radar at the time. A news team filming an F2 tornado sought shelter under a Kansas Turnpike overpass, causing a misconception that overpasses can provide adequate shelter during a tornado. This outbreak occurred within a transition period for the National Weather Service and proved the value of NEXRAD radars, which were utilized in Oklahoma to provide advanced warning to residents.

26/04/1989

The deadliest known tornado strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.

The Daulatpur–Saturia 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 the death toll. Official estimates from the World Meteorological Organization indicate that it killed approximately 1,300 people, which would make it the deadliest tornado in history. The tornado affected the cities of Daulatpur and Saturia the most, moving east through Daulatpur and eventually northeast into Saturia. Previously, the area that the tornado hit had been in a state of drought for six months.

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). Published by the People's Daily Press, it provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP in multiple languages. It is the largest newspaper in the People's Republic of China (PRC).

26/04/1986

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, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, exploded. With dozens of direct casualties and thousands of health complications stemming from the disaster, it is one of only two nuclear accidents rated at the maximum severity on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. The response involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles. It remains the worst nuclear disaster and the most expensive disaster in history, with an estimated cost of US$700 billion.

26/04/1981

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 fetal treatment center in the U.S. He is often referred to as the father of fetal surgery. He is currently a professor of surgery and pediatrics and the director emeritus of the UCSF Fetal Treatment Center.

26/04/1970

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).

26/04/1966

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.

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 3–8 kilometers (1.9–5.0 mi). The earthquake caused massive destruction to Tashkent, destroying most of the buildings in the city, killing between 15 and 200 people and leaving between 200,000 and 300,000 homeless. Following the disaster, most of the historic parts of Tashkent had been destroyed and the city was rebuilt, based on Soviet architectural styles. Soviet authorities created an institute of seismology in order to forecast future earthquakes.

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 bordered to the west by Gabon, to the northwest by Cameroon, to the northeast by the Central African Republic, to the southeast by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south by the Angolan exclave of Cabinda, and to the southwest by the Atlantic Ocean.

26/04/1964

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 9 December 1961 as a Commonwealth realm headed by Queen Elizabeth II before becoming a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations as the Republic of Tanganyika a year later. After signing the Articles of Union on 22 April 1964 and passing an Act of Union on 25 April, Tanganyika officially joined with the People's Republic of Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar on Union Day, 26 April 1964. The new state changed its name to the United Republic of Tanzania within a year.

26/04/1963

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, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest. With an area of almost 1.8 million km2 (700,000 sq mi), Libya is the fourth-largest country in Africa and the Arab world, and the 16th-largest in the world. The country claims 32,000 square kilometres of southeastern Algeria, south of the Libyan town of Ghat. The capital and largest city is Tripoli, located in the northwest and containing over a million of Libya's seven million people.

26/04/1962

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 space. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across the U.S. and is organized into three mission directorates: Human Spaceflight, Research and Technology, and Science. Established in 1958, NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the U.S. space program a distinct civilian orientation focused on peaceful applications. Since then, it has led most American spaceflight programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the Apollo program, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS) and the ongoing multi-national Artemis program.

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 scientific knowledge and provide benefits to all citizens."

26/04/1960

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, which led to Rhee's resignation.

26/04/1958

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.

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 until 1987, when it was merged into the Chessie System. Its lines are today controlled by CSX Transportation (CSX).

26/04/1956

SS 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.

26/04/1954

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 April to 21 July 1954. The part of the conference on the Korean question ended without adopting any declarations or proposals and so is generally considered less relevant. On the other hand, the Geneva Accords that dealt with the dismantling of French Indochina proved to have long-lasting repercussions.

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 and New York University School of Medicine.

26/04/1945

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 pitched street fighting between forces of the Polish Second Army under elements of the Soviet 52nd Army and 5th Guards Army[a] on one side and elements of German Army Group Center in the form of the remnants of the 4th Panzer and 17th armies on the other.

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.

26/04/1944

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 1952, in the governments of Nikolaos Plastiras and Sofoklis Venizelos. He served numerous times as a cabinet minister, starting in 1923, in a political career that spanned more than five decades.

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 roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

26/04/1943

The Easter Riots break out in Uppsala, Sweden.

The Easter Riots is the name given to a period of unrest in Uppsala, Sweden, during the Easter of 1943. The fascist group Swedish Socialist Union held its national congress in Uppsala, amid the Second World War and only days after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The unrest climaxed on 26 April, when the SSS ended the congress by holding a demonstration at the Royal Mounds of Old Uppsala.

26/04/1942

Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1,549 Chinese miners dead.

Benxihu (Honkeiko) Colliery was a coal mine in Benxi, Liaoning, China, first mined in 1905. Originally an iron and coal mining project under joint Japanese and Chinese control, the mine came under predominantly Japanese control. In the early 1930s, Japan invaded the northeast of China, and Liaoning province became part of the Japanese-controlled puppet state of Manchukuo. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese forced Chinese labourers—some of whom had been captured from local military organizations—to work the colliery under very poor conditions. Food was scarce and workers did not have sufficient clothing. Working conditions were harsh, and diseases such as typhoid and cholera flourished due to poor sanitation and water supplies. Typically, miners worked 12-hour shifts or longer. The Japanese controllers were known to beat workers with pick handles, and the perimeter of the mine was fenced and guarded. Many describe the conditions as slave labour.

26/04/1937

Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain, is bombed by the German Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria.

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 of what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

26/04/1933

The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Göring.

The Geheime Staatspolizei, was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.

26/04/1925

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.

Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg was a German military officer and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934. Though ideologically opposed to Nazism, he played a key role in the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 through his appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.

26/04/1923

The Duke of York (the future King George VI) weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.

George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first Head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949.

26/04/1920

Ice hockey makes its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games with center Frank Fredrickson scoring seven goals in Canada's 12–1 drubbing of Sweden in the gold medal match.

Ice hockey, known simply as hockey in North America and parts of Europe, is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. The two opposing teams score by using their sticks to control and advance a vulcanized rubber hockey puck, and then shooting it into the net of the other team. Each goal is worth one point. The team with the highest score after an hour of gameplay, broken down into three 20-minute periods, is declared the winner; ties are broken in overtime or a shootout. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, including a goaltender. It is a full contact game and one of the more physically demanding team sports.

26/04/1916

Easter Rising: Battle of Mount Street Bridge.

The Easter Rising, also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an independent Irish Republic while the United Kingdom was fighting the First World War. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798 and the first armed conflict of the Irish revolutionary period. Sixteen of the Rising's leaders were executed starting in May 1916. The nature of the executions, and subsequent political developments, ultimately contributed to an increase in popular support for Irish independence.

26/04/1915

World War I: Italy secretly signs the Treaty of London pledging to join the Allied Powers.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

26/04/1903

Atlético Madrid Association football club is founded.

Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D., commonly referred to in English as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético and colloquially as Atleti, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home games at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano, which has a capacity of 70,692.

26/04/1900

Fires destroy Canadian cities Ottawa and Hull, reducing them to ashes in 12 hours. Twelve thousand people are left without a home.

The Hull-Ottawa fire of 1900 was a devastating fire in 1900 that destroyed much of Hull, Quebec, and large portions of Ottawa, Ontario.

26/04/1865

Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia.

The Union is a term used to refer to the federal government and loyal states of the United States during the American Civil War. Its military forces and civilian population resisted the purported secession of the slave states that formed the Confederate States of America following the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States. Lincoln's administration asserted the permanency of the federal government and the continuity of the United States Constitution, and it refused to recognize the Confederate government.

26/04/1805

First Barbary War: United States Marines capture Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.

The First Barbary War (1801–1805), also known as the Tripolitan War and the Barbary Coast War, was a conflict during the 1801–1815 Barbary Wars, in which the United States fought against Ottoman Tripolitania. Tripolitania had declared war against the United States over disputes regarding tributary payments in exchange for a cessation of Tripolitanian commerce raiding at sea. United States president Thomas Jefferson refused to pay this tribute. The First Barbary War was the first major American war fought outside the New World, and in the Arab world, besides the smaller American–Algerian War (1785–1795).

26/04/1803

Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist.

L'Aigle is an L6 meteorite that fell on 26 April 1803 over L'Aigle, Lower Normandy, France, during a meteor shower. Before the event, meteorites were generally considered a superstition and were mistrusted by the scientific community. Ernst Chladni had theorised and published a book in 1794 saying that meteorites originated beyond Earth. Although some other meteor showers occurred, none sparked significant interest in investigating their origins until the L'Aigle event.

26/04/1802

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.

Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815. He rose to prominence as a general during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe and the Middle East during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. As a statesman, he implemented numerous legal and administrative reforms in France and Europe.

26/04/1794

Battle of Beaumont during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.

The Battle of Beaumont-en-Cambrésis 26 April 1794 was an action forming part of a multi-pronged attempt to relieve the besieged fortress of Landrecies, during the Flanders Campaign of the French Revolutionary War. The British and Austrians under the Duke of York defeated a French advance northwards from Cambrai commanded by René Chapuis (Chapuy). Rudolf von Otto, York's Austrian subordinate, led the main attack, which smashed the French flank and Chapuis was captured as a result.

26/04/1777

Sybil Ludington, aged 16, allegedly rides 40 miles (64 km) to alert American colonial forces to the approach of British regular forces.

Sybil Ludington was a heroine of the American Revolution and daughter of Patriot colonel Henry Ludington. Relatives of Ludington have stated that on April 26, 1777, at age 16, she made an all-night horseback ride 40 miles (64 km) to stir American militiamen to attack British forces near Danbury, Connecticut. According to the legend, Ludington rode near the Connecticut–New York border after British forces raided and burned Danbury, rallying combatants for the Battle of Ridgefield the following day.

26/04/1721

A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.

The 1721 Tabriz earthquake occurred on April 26, with an epicenter near the city of Tabriz, Iran. It leveled some three-quarters of the city, including many prominent mosques and schools in the city, and resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. The total number of casualties caused by the earthquake is between 8,000 and 250,000; it was most likely approximately 80,000. At the time that it occurred, the earthquake was popularly interpreted as an omen of misfortune, or a demonstration of godly wrath. The destruction that the earthquake caused was a significant factor in the successful Ottoman Empire takeover of Tabriz in 1725, as well as contributing to Tabriz's economic difficulties during that period. It also caused the destruction of some of the city's significant historical monuments. Accounts of the earthquake are often confused with descriptions of the 1727 Tabriz earthquake.

26/04/1607

The Virginia Company colonists make landfall at Cape Henry.

The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the objective of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day Maine to the Carolinas. The company's shareholders were Londoners, and it was distinguished from the Plymouth Company, which was chartered at the same time and composed largely of gentlemen from Plymouth, England.

26/04/1564

Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of birth is unknown).

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

26/04/1478

The Pazzi family attack on Lorenzo de' Medici in order to displace the ruling Medici family kills his brother Giuliano during High Mass in Florence Cathedral.

The Pazzi were a powerful family in the Republic of Florence. Their main trade during the fifteenth century was banking. In the aftermath of the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478, members of the family were banished from Florence and their property was confiscated; the family name and coat-of-arms were permanently suppressed by order of the Signoria.

26/04/1336

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux.

Francis Petrarch was an Italian scholar and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanists.

26/04/1326

The kingdom of France and the kingdom of Scotland agree on a treaty of mutual aid at Corbeil.

The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from the High Middle Ages to 1848 during its dissolution. It was also an early colonial power, with colonies in Asia and Africa, and the largest being New France in North America geographically centred on the Great Lakes. In the 16th to the 18th centuries, the French colonial empire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over 10 million square kilometres, the second-largest empire in the world at the time behind the Spanish Empire.

26/04/1289

Following weeks of bombardment, the city of Tripoli falls to the Mamluks under Qalawun. The Mamluks massacre all men they find and enslave the women and children.

The Fall of Tripoli was the capture and destruction of the Crusader state of the County of Tripoli by the Mamluk Sultanate based in Cairo. The battle occurred in 1289 and was an important event in the Crusades, as it marked the capture of one of the few remaining major Crusader possessions. The event is depicted in a rare surviving illustration from a now-fragmentary manuscript known as the 'Cocharelli Codex', thought to have been created in Genoa in the 1330s. The image shows the countess Lucia, Countess of Tripoli and Bartholomew Mansel, Bishop of Tortosa sitting in state in the centre of the fortified city, and Qalawun's assault in 1289, with his army depicted massacring the inhabitants fleeing to boats in the harbour and to the nearby island of Saint Thomas.

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Personality Profile

Fun Facts About 26th April

Famous Birthdays on 26th April

Alex Sarr, French basketball player

Thiago Almada, Argentine footballer

Kirill Kaprizov, Russian ice hockey player

Amber Midthunder, American actress

Calvin Verdonk, Indonesian footballer

Jordan Pefok, American footballer

Daniil Kvyat, Russian racing driver

Odysseas Vlachodimos, Greek international footballer

Aaron Judge, American baseball player

Delon Wright, American basketball player

Peter Handscomb, Australian cricketer

Isaac Liu, New Zealand rugby league player

Jonathan dos Santos, Mexican footballer

Mitch Rein, Australian rugby league player

Nevin Spence, Northern Irish rugby player (died 2012)

Joey Wendle, American baseball player

Melvin Ingram, American football player

Kang Daesung, South Korean singer

Jorge Andújar Moreno, Spanish footballer

Lior Refaelov, Israeli footballer

Yuliya Zaripova, Russian runner

John Isner, American tennis player

José María López, Argentinian racing driver

Jessica Lynch, American soldier

Novlene Williams-Mills, Jamaican sprinter

Caro Emerald, Dutch pop and jazz singer

Ms. Dynamite, English rapper and producer

Sandra Schmitt, German skier (died 2000)

Jordana Brewster, Panamanian-American actress

Marlon King, English footballer

Anna Mucha, Polish actress and journalist

Channing Tatum, American actor and producer

Stana Katic, Canadian actress

Peter Madsen, Danish footballer

Samantha Cristoforetti, Italian astronaut

Kosuke Fukudome, Japanese baseball player

Roxana Saberi, American journalist and author

Tom Welling, American actor

Václav Varaďa, Czech ice hockey player

Joey Jordison, American musician and songwriter (died 2021)

Rahul Verma, Indian social worker and activist

Geoff Blum, American baseball player and sportscaster

Jules Naudet, French-American director and producer

Chris Perry, English footballer

Óscar, Spanish footballer and coach

Jason Bargwanna, Australian racing driver

Kiko, Spanish footballer

Natrone Means, American football player and coach

Avi Nimni, Israeli footballer and manager

Naoki Tanaka, Japanese comedian and actor

Jay DeMarcus, American bass player, songwriter, and producer

Dean Austin, English footballer and manager

Melania Trump, Slovene-American model; 47th First Lady of the United States

Kristen R. Ghodsee, American ethnographer and academic

Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress

Glenn Thomas Jacobs, American professional wrestler, actor, businessman and politician

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, English actress and singer-songwriter

Toomas Tõniste, Estonian sailor and politician

Susannah Harker, English actress

Kevin James, American actor and comedian

Jet Li, Chinese-Singaporean martial artist, actor, and producer

Colin Scotts, Australian-American football player

Cornelia Ullrich, German hurdler

Bill Wennington, Canadian basketball player

Colin Anderson, English footballer

Debra Wilson, American actress and comedian

Joan Chen, Chinese-American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter

Chris Mars, American artist

H. G. Carrillo, American writer and academic (died 2020)

Steve Lombardozzi, American baseball player and coach

Roger Taylor, English drummer

John Corabi, American singer-songwriter and guitarist