http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Apr 26, 1954: Polio vaccine trials begin
On this day in 1954, the Salk polio vaccine field trials, involving 1.8 million children, begin at the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. Children in the United States, Canada and Finland participated in the trials, which used for the first time the now-standard double-blind method, whereby neither the patient nor attending doctor knew if the inoculation was the vaccine or a placebo. On April 12, 1955, researchers announced the vaccine was safe and effective and it quickly became a standard part of childhood immunizations in America. In the ensuing decades, polio vaccines would all but wipe out the highly contagious disease in the Western Hemisphere.
Polio, known officially as poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease that has existed since ancient times and is caused by a virus. It occurs most commonly in children and can result in paralysis. The disease reached epidemic proportions throughout the first half of the 20th century. During the 1940s and 1950s, polio was associated with the iron lung, a large metal tank designed to help polio victims suffering from respiratory paralysis breathe.
President Franklin Roosevelt was diagnosed with polio in 1921 at the age of 39 and was left paralyzed from the waist down and forced to use leg braces and a wheelchair for the rest of his life. In 1938, Roosevelt helped found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, later renamed the March of Dimes. The organization was responsible for funding much of the research concerning the disease, including the Salk vaccine trials.
The man behind the original vaccine was New York-born physician and epidemiologist Jonas Salk (1914-95). Salk's work on an anti-influenza vaccine in the 1940s, while at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, led him, in 1952 at the University of Pittsburgh, to develop the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), based on a killed-virus strain of the disease. The 1954 field trials that followed, the largest in U.S. history at the time, were led by Salk's former University of Michigan colleague, Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr.
In the late 1950s, Polish-born physician and virologist Albert Sabin (1906-1993) tested an oral polio vaccine (OPV) he had created from a weakened live virus. The vaccine, easier to administer and cheaper to produce than Salk's, became available for use in America in the early 1960s and eventually replaced Salk's as the vaccine of choice in most countries.
Today, polio has been eliminated throughout much of the world due to the vaccine; however, there is still no cure for the disease and it persists in a small number of countries in Africa and Asia.
Apr 26, 1986: Nuclear explosion at Chernobyl
On this day in 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident to date occurs at the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Kiev in Ukraine. The full toll from this disaster is still being tallied, but experts believe that thousands of people died and as many as 70,000 suffered severe poisoning. In addition, a large area of land may not be livable for as much as 150 years. The 18-mile radius around Chernobyl was home to almost 150,000 people who had to be permanently relocated.
The Soviet Union built the Chernobyl plant, which had four 1,000-megawatt reactors, in the town of Pripyat. At the time of the explosion, it was one of the largest and oldest nuclear power plants in the world. The explosion and subsequent meltdown of one reactor was a catastrophic event that directly affected hundreds of thousands of people. Still, the Soviet government kept its own people and the rest of the world in the dark about the accident until days later.
At first, the Soviet government only asked for advice on how to fight graphite fires and acknowledged the death of two people. It soon became apparent, however, that the Soviets were covering up a major accident and had ignored their responsibility to warn both their own people and surrounding nations. Two days after the explosion, Swedish authorities began measuring dangerously high levels of radioactivity in their atmosphere.
Years later, the full story was finally released. Workers at the plant were performing tests on the system. They shut off the emergency safety systems and the cooling system, against established regulations, in preparation for the tests. Even when warning signs of dangerous overheating began to appear, the workers failed to stop the test. Xenon gases built up and at 1:23 a.m. the first explosion rocked the reactor. A total of three explosions eventually blew the 1,000-ton steel top right off of the reactor.
A huge fireball erupted into the sky. Flames shot 1,000 feet into the air for two days, as the entire reactor began to melt down. Radioactive material was thrown into the air like fireworks. Although firefighting was futile, Pripyat's 40,000 people were not evacuated until 36 hours after the explosion. Potentially lethal rain fell as the fires continued for eight days. Dikes were built at the Pripyat River to contain damage from contaminated water run-off and the people of Kiev were warned to stay indoors as a radioactive cloud headed their way.
On May 9, workers began encasing the reactor in concrete. Later, Hans Blix of the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that approximately 200 people were directly exposed and that 31 had died immediately at Chernobyl. The clean-up effort and the general radioactive exposure in the region, however, would prove to be even more deadly. Some reports estimate that as many as 4,000 clean-up workers died from radiation poisoning. Birth defects among people living in the area have increased dramatically. Thyroid cancer has increased tenfold in Ukraine since the accident.
Apr 26, 1954: Geneva Conference begins
In an effort to resolve several problems in Asia, including the war between the French and Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina, representatives from the world's powers meet in Geneva. The conference marked a turning point in the United States' involvement in Vietnam.
Representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, France, and Great Britain came together in April 1954 to try to resolve several problems related to Asia. One of the most troubling concerns was the long and bloody battle between Vietnamese nationalist forces, under the leadership of the communist Ho Chi Minh, and the French, who were intent on continuing colonial control over Vietnam. Since 1946 the two sides had been hammering away at each other. By 1954, however, the French were tiring of the long and inclusive war that was draining both the national treasury and public patience. The United States had been supporting the French out of concern that a victory for Ho's forces would be the first step in communist expansion throughout Southeast Asia. When America refused France's requests for more direct intervention in the war, the French announced that they were including the Vietnam question in the agenda for the Geneva Conference.
Discussions on the Vietnam issue started at the conference just as France suffered its worst military defeat of the war, when Vietnamese forces captured the French base at Dien Bien Phu. In July 1954, the Geneva Agreements were signed. As part of the agreement, the French agreed to withdraw their troops from northern Vietnam. Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, pending elections within two years to choose a president and reunite the country. During that two-year period, no foreign troops could enter Vietnam. Ho reluctantly signed off on the agreement though he believed that it cheated him out of the spoils of his victory. The non-communist puppet government set up by the French in southern Vietnam refused to sign, but without French support this was of little concern at the time. The United States also refused to sign, but did commit itself to abide by the agreement. Privately, U.S. officials felt that the Geneva Agreements, if allowed to be put into action, were a disaster. They were convinced that national elections in Vietnam would result in an overwhelming victory for Ho, the man who had defeated the French colonialists. The U.S. government scrambled to develop a policy that would, at the least, save southern Vietnam from the communists. Within a year, the United States had helped establish a new anti-communist government in South Vietnam and began giving it financial and military assistance, the first fateful steps toward even greater U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Apr 26, 1915: Allies sign Treaty of London
On April 26, 1915, after receiving the promise of significant territorial gains, Italy signs the Treaty of London, committing itself to enter World War I on the side of the Allies.
With the threat of imminent war looming in July 1914, the Italian army under Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna had begun preparing for war against France, according to Italy's membership in the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Under the terms of that agreement, however, Italy was only bound to defend its allies if one of them was attacked first. Italian Prime Minister Antonio Salandra deemed the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia late that month an act of aggression, declaring that Italy was free of its alliance obligations, and was officially neutral. In the first year of war, both sides—the Central Powers and the Entente, as the British-French-Russian axis was known—attempted to recruit neutral countries including Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, to join the war on their side. Italy, more than any other country, was clear about its aims for joining the war effort: to gain the most possible territory for itself and raise its status from a minor to a great power.
In reality, Italy's geographical position—bounded on all sides by the sea, and thus subject to pressure from Britain's great navy—inclined it to favor the Entente. Moreover, past interactions between Italy and Austria-Hungary had been driven more by mutual animosity than alliance, as the Italians had been forced to push the Austrians out of their peninsula in order to achieve unification in 1860. In making a bid for Italy's allegiance in World War I, the Central Powers clashed over Germany's desire to promise the Italians the Trentino region (now occupied by Austria) in return for their entrance into the war. Though Austria-Hungary agreed to cede the Trentino in March 1915, their army's sorry performance against Russia gave the Italians more bargaining power and led them to demand even more territory.
The Entente, for its part, offered much more substantial gains of territory—most of which currently fell within the Austro-Hungarian Empire—and it was under these terms that Italy signed the Treaty of London on April 26, 1915. Italy was promised the fulfillment of its national dream: control over territory on its border with Austria-Hungary stretching from Trentino through the South Tyrol to Trieste. In the treaty, the Allies gave them that and more, including parts of Dalmatia and numerous islands along Austria-Hungary's Adriatic coast; the Albanian port city of Vlore (Italian: Valona) and a central protectorate in Albania; and territory from the Ottoman Empire.
Carrying out its part of the bargain, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary (but not on Germany) on May 23. The Allies seemingly faced a more difficult task in the fulfillment of their own obligations: another secret treaty, signed March 20, had promised Russia control of Constantinople and the Dardanelles. Both treaties depended on an Allied victory at the Gallipoli Peninsula for their promised gains, which at this point seemed in no way secure. A naval attack against the Dardanelles on March 18 had failed miserably; a massive Anglo-French land invasion, begun the day before the Treaty of London was signed, would soon be stymied by a stiff Turkish resistance.
Apr 26, 1894: Rudolf Hess is born
Rudolf Hess, Nazi party secretary and deputy to Adolf Hitler who caused an international sensation when he parachuted into Scotland in an attempt to negotiate a truce between Britain and Germany, is born on this day in Alexandria, Egypt.
Hess joined the Nazi Party as early as 1920 and became a friend and confidant to Hitler, editing much of Mein Kampf as it was dictated to him in Landsberg Prison, where both landed after the famous, and failed, November 1923 Munich beer hall putsch. On May 10, 1941, the day Hitler planned to invade Russia, Hess parachuted into Scotland, hoping to negotiate peace with Britain, in the person of the Duke of Hamilton, whom Hess claimed to have met at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Such a peace would have prevented Germany from fighting on two fronts and greatly increased Hess's own prestige within the Nazi regime, many of whose members saw Hess as little more than a yes-man and sycophant (his nickname was "the Brown Mouse").
Hess did, in fact, find peace—in the Tower of London, where the British imprisoned him, the last man ever to be held there under lock and key. After the war, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Spandau prison by the Nuremberg tribunal. He died, in prison, in 1987.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
757 - Paolo Orsini replaces his brother Pope Stephen II, as
Paul I
1220 - German king Frederick II grants bishops sovereign
rights
1467 - The miraculous image in Our Lady of Good Counsel
appear in Genazzano, Italy.
1478 - Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de'Medici &
kill Giuliano de'Medici
1514 - Copernicus makes his 1st observations of Saturn
1532 - Sultan Suleiman through Hungary on away to Vienna
1607 - 1st British to establish an American colony land at
Cape Henry, Va
1654 - Jews are expelled from Brazil
1655 - Dutch West Indies Co denies Peter Stuyvesant's desire
to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam
1677 - Emperor Leopold I forms University of Innsbruck
1721 - Smallpox vaccination 1st administrated
1755 - 1st Russian university opens (Moscow)
1777 - Sybil Ludington, 16, rode from NY to Ct rallying her
fathers militia
1803 - Meteorites fall in L'Aigle, France
1814 - King Louis XVIII lands at Calais from England
1819 - Odd Fellows Lodge forms
1828 - Russia declares war on Turkey to support Greece's
independence
1835 - Frederic Chopins "Grand Polonaise
Brillante" premieres in Paris
1841 - "Bombay Gazette" begins publishing on silk
Composer Frederic ChopinComposer Frederic Chopin 1853 -
Dutch King William III disbands 2nd Chamber
1855 - Composer Gioacchino Rossini leaves Italy
1859 - Dan Sickles is acquitted of murder on grounds of
temporary insanity 1st time this defense is successfully used
1865 - Battle of Durham Station, NC (Greensboro)
1865 - Battle of Ft Tobacco, VA
1865 - Confederate Gen J E Johnston surrenders Army of Tenn,
at Durham NC
1887 - Huntsville Electric Co forms to sell electricity
1890 - Henry Morton Stanley inaugurated in London
1893 - 1st Cleveland Board of Park Commissioners forms
1900 - AL opener in Cleve draws 6,500
1904 - Bell Telephone Company of Antwerp Belgium forms
1905 - Cubs Jack McCarthy becomes only major league player
to throw out 3 runners at plate in 1 game, all were ends of a double play
1906 - 1st motion pictures shown in Hawaii
1907 - Jamestown, Va Tercentenary Exposition opens
1912 - 1st homerun hit at Fenway Park (Hugh Bradley, Red
Sox)
1913 - Panama-Pacific International Exposition opens in SF
1913 - Sun Yet San calls for revolt against pres Yuan Shikai
in China
1915 - Italy secretly signes Pact of London with Britain,
France & Russia
1920 - H Shapley & H D Curtis hold "great
debate" on nature of nebulae
1925 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Edna Ferber for "So
big"
1926 - Germany & Russia sign neutrality/peace treaty
1926 - Karachai Autonomous Region forms in RSFSR (until
1943)
1928 - Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition opens in London
1929 - 1st non-stop England to India flight lands
1931 - Lou Gehrig hits a HR but is called out for passing a
runner, mistake costs him AL home run crown; he & Babe Ruth tie for season
1932 - Jean Anouilh's "L'Ermine" premieres in
Paris
1933 - Jewish students are barred from school in Germany
1935 - Frank Boucher is given NHL's Lady Byng Trophy for
sportsmanship permanently for winning it 7 of 11 years
1936 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 4th Symphony
1937 - German Luftwaffe destroys Basque town of Guernica in
Spain
1938 - Austrian Jews required to register property above
5,000 Reichsmarks
1941 - A tradition begins, 1st organ at a baseball stadium
(Chicago Cubs)
1941 - Potatoes rationed in Holland
1942 - Coal mine explosion kills 1,549 at Honkeiko Manchuria
1942 - Luftwaffe bombs Bath
1944 - 1st B-29 attacked by Japanese fighters, one fighter
shot down
1944 - Papandreou government in Greece forms
1945 - Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, leader of France's
Vichy collaborationist regime during WW II, arrested for treason
1945 - World War II: Battle of Bautzen - last successful
German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
1947 - "Bless the Bride" musical opens in London
1950 - Last horse race at Havre de Grace Track in Md, is run
1950 - U of Miami ends William & Mary straight tennis
match victories at 82
1951 - Queen Juliana opens Brielsche Mausoleum
1952 - Patty Berg scores 64, best competitive round of golf
by a woman
1952 - US minesweeper Hobson rams aircraft carrier Wasp,
kills 176
1954 - Far Eastern Affairs conference opens in Geneva
1954 - Nationwide test of Salk anti-polio vaccine begins
1956 - First container ship left Port Newark, New Jersey for
Houston, Texas
1957 - Jamestown, Va 350th Anniversary Festival opens
1959 - Cuba invades Panama
1959 - Wiffi Smith wins LPGA Betsy Rawls Golf Open
1961 - French paratroopers' revolt suppressed in Algeria
American Baseball Player Roger MarisAmerican Baseball Player
Roger Maris 1961 - Roger Maris hits 1st of 61 homers in 1961
1962 - 1st Lockheed A-12 flies
1962 - Ariel 1 Launch (1st UK Satellite)
1962 - Ranger 4 crash lands on (backside of) Moon
1962 - Red Sox Bill Monbouquette no-hits White Sox 1-0
1962 - US/UK launch Ariel; 1st international payload
1964 - 18th NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat SF
Warriors, 4 games to 1
1964 - Marilynn Smith wins LPGA Titleholders Golf
Championship
1964 - Tanganyika & Zanzibar form The United Republic of
Tanganyika & Zanzibar
1965 - Ives' 4th Symphony premieres
1966 - Arnold "Red" Auerbach retires as Boston
Celtic's coach
1966 - An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent,
Uzbekistan
1967 - "Hallelujah, Baby!" opens at Martin Beck
Theater NYC for 293 perfs
1967 - KSPS TV channel 7 in Spokane, WA (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1967 - San Marco 2 Launch (1st Equatorial Launch)
1968 - Students seize administration building at Ohio State
1968 - US underground nuclear test, "Boxcar," 1
megaton device
1969 - "Celebration" closes at Ambassador Theater
NYC after 110 performances
1969 - "George M!" closes at Palace Theater NYC
after 435 performances
1969 - Firestone World Bowling Tournament (Mercury Open) won
by Jim Godman
1970 - "Company" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for
690 performances
1971 - Heaviest rains ever in Bahia district of Brazil,
15" in 24 hrs
1971 - SF lightship replaced by automatic buoy
1971 - Turkey state of siege proclaimed
1973 - "2 Gentlemen of Verona" musical opens in
London
1973 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1974 - Landslide in Huancavelica Province Peru creates a
natural dam
1974 - Malta adopts constitution
1974 - Yankees trade Peterson, Beene, Kline & Buskey to
Indians for Chambliss, Tidrow & Upshaw
1975 - Mario Soares' Socialist Party wins 1st free election
in Portugal
1975 - Penguins 0-Isles 1-Quarterfinals-Isles win series 4-3
1975 - Phillies Mike Schmidt's 2 HRs ties NL record of 11
HRs in April
1976 - Pan Am begins non-stop flights NYC-Tokyo
1977 - NY's famed disco Studio 54 opens
1978 - France sends troops to Chad
1978 - NASA launches space vehicle S-201
1980 - Gerard Nijboer runs Dutch record marathon (2:09:01)
1980 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test
Site
1980 - Iran begins scattering US hostages from US Embassy
1980 - Longest jump by a jet boat is set at 120 feet
1980 - Phillies' Steve Carlton pitches his 6th 1-hitter
(beats Cards)
1981 - "Copperfield" closes at ANTA Theater NYC
after 13 performances
1981 - Beth Solomon wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic
1982 - Argentina surrenders to Britain on S Georgia near
Falkland Island
1982 - CBS radio begins youth oriented broadcast Radio Radio
1982 - Gene Michael becomes NY Yankee manager for 2nd time
Singer Rod StewartSinger Rod Stewart 1982 - Rod Stewart is
mugged, gunman steals his $50,000 Porsche
1983 - Bruins 2-Isles 5-Wales Conference Championship-Isles
hold 1-0 lead
1983 - Dow Jones Industrial Avg breaks 1,200 for 1st time
1983 - San Antonio spurs beat Denver Nuggets, 152-133 in NBA
playoff game
1984 - Liverpool's Cavern Club reopens
1984 - President Reagan visits China
1986 - Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won
by Marshall Holman
1986 - France performs nuclear test
1986 - Game between Angels & Twins delayed for 9 minutes
by strong winds
1986 - Worst nuclear disaster, 4th reactor at Chernobyl USSR
explodes, 31 die
1987 - "Barbara Cook: A Concert" closes at
Ambassador NYC after 13 perfs
1988 - 1st TNN Viewers choice awards-Randy Travis wins in 5
categories
1988 - NBA approves addition of 3rd referee in 1988-89
season
1988 - NY Met Davey Johnson becomes 2nd manager to record
400 victory in 1st 4 years (Al Lopez did it 1st)
1989 - AT&T announces NJ's 201 area code will split into
908 & 201
Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike TysonHeavyweight Boxing
Champion Mike Tyson 1989 - Mike Tyson is ticketed for driving 71 MPH in 30 mile
zone in Albany
1990 - "Accomplice" opens at Richard Rodgers
Theater NYC for 52 performances
1990 - 126 die in a (6.9) earthquake in China
1990 - Danny Wood of New Kids, steps on a stuffed animal
& twists his ankle
1990 - NY court of appeals ends 2½ year legal battle over
1988 America's Cup by refusing jurisdiction of case
1990 - Nolan Ryan ties Bob Feller's record of pitching 12
1-hitters
1991 - "Dinosaurs" premieres on ABC-TV
1991 - 23 killed in Kansas & Oklahoma by tornadoes
1991 - Soccer star Diego Maradona, suspended for using
cocaine, arrested in Argentina for possession & distribution of illegal
narcotics
1992 - "Grand Hotel" closes at Martin Beck Theater
NYC after 1,018 perfs
1992 - "Growing Pains" final episode on ABC TV
1992 - "Jelly's Last Jam" opens at Virginia
Theater NYC for 569 performances
1992 - "Master Builder" closes at Belasco Theater
NYC after 45 performances
1992 - "Metro" closes at Minskoff Theater NYC
after 13 performances
1992 - "Who's The Boss" final episode after 8
years on ABC TV
Writer Alex HaleyWriter Alex Haley 1992 - Alex Haley,
(Roots), wins 1992 Ellis Island Award, posthumously
1992 - Maggie Will wins LPGA Sara Lee Golf Classic
1992 - Ozzie Smith steals his 500th base
1993 - "Shakespeare for My Father" opens at Helen
Hayes NYC for 266 perfs
1993 - Boeing 737 crashes at Aurangabad, kills 56
1993 - NBC announces Conan O'Brien to replace David
Letterman
1993 - STS-55 (Columbia) launches into orbit
1994 - 26.9°C in Prestebakke Norway (Norwegian April high
temp record)
1994 - Taiwan Airbus A-300 crashes at Nagoya Japan, 262
killed
1994 - 1st multi-racial election in South Africa begins [3
days] Dr Nomaza Paintin in NZ is 1st black South African to vote
1994 - Physicists announce first evidence of the top quark
subatomic particle.
1995 - Baseball season begins after lengthy strike
1995 - Coors Field, opens in Denver, Rockies beat Mets 11-9
in 14 innings
1996 - Shaun Pollock takes 4 wkts in 4 balls for
Warwickshire in B&H
1996 - Sotherby ends 4 day auction of Jackie O stuff-take in
$34.5 million
TV Host Conan O'BrienTV Host Conan O'Brien 1997 -
"Life" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC
2002 - Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 17 at
Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt,Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
2005 - Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the
last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year
military domination of that country.
2007 - Queen's Pier is officially closed by the Hong Kong
Government, after a bitter struggle by conservationists, in order to facilitate
land reclamation in Hong Kong's Central district
2012 - 70 people are killed by rocket attacks by the Syrian
Army on the city of Hama
2012 - Indonesia suspends imports of American beef after a
confirmed case of mad cow disease in California
2013 - 30 people are killed after a bus crashes following a
Taliban attack in southern Afghanistan
1478 - Pazzi conspirators attacked Lorenzo and killed Giuliano de'Medici. 1514 - Copernicus made his first observations of Saturn. 1607 - The British established an American colony at Cape Henry, Virginia. It was the first permanent English establishment in the Western Hemisphere. 1819 - The first Odd Fellows lodge in the U.S. was established in Baltimore, MD. 1865 - Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Sherman during the American Civil War. 1865 - John Wilkes Booth was killed by the U.S. Federal Cavalry. 1906 - In Hawaii, motion pictures were shown for the first time. 1921 - Weather broadcasts were heard for the first time on radio in St. Louis, MO. 1929 - First non-stop flight from England to India was completed. 1931 - New York Yankee Lou Gehrig hit a home run but was called out for passing a runner. 1931 - NBC premiered "Lum and Abner." It was on the air for 24 years. 1937 - German planes attacked Guernica, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War. 1937 - "LIFE" magazine was printed without the word "LIFE" on the cover. 1937 - "Lorenzo Jones" premiered on NBC radio. 1941 - An organ was played at a baseball stadium for the first time in Chicago, IL. 1945 - Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, was arrested. 1952 - Patty Berg set a new record for major women’s golf competition when she shot a 64 over 18 holes in a tournament in Richmond, CA. 1954 - Grace Kelly was on the cover of "LIFE" magazine. 1964 - The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania. 1964 - The Boston Celtics won their sixth consecutive NBA title. They won two more before the streak came to an end. 1968 - Students seized the administration building at Ohio State University. 1982 - The British announced that Argentina had surrendered on South Georgia. 1983 - Dow Jones Industrial Average broke 1,200 for first time. 1985 - In Argentina, a fire at a mental hospital killed 79 people and injured 247. 1986 - The world’s worst nuclear disaster to date occurred at Chernobyl, in Kiev. Thirty-one people died in the incident and thousands more were exposed to radioactive material. 1998 - Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera was bludgeoned to death two days after a report he'd compiled on atrocities during Guatemala's 36-year civil war was made public. 2000 - Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar purchased the NHL's New York Islanders. 2002 - In Erfurt, Germany, an expelled student killed 17 people at his former school. The student then killed himself.
1607 Colonists land at Cape Henry, Va., They would found Jamestown the next month. 1865 John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin, was surrounded by federal troops in a barn in Virginia. He was shot and killed, either by the soldiers or by his own hand. 1937 The German Luftwaffe (air force) destroyed the Spanish town of Guernica. 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to form Tanzania. 1986 The worst nuclear power plant accident in history occurred at Chernobyl, near Kiev, U.S.S.R. 1994 The first multi-racial elections were held in South Africa. 2000 Vermont Governor Howard Dean signed the nation's first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr26.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
Okay, I was feeling lousy yesterday, with a lack of sleep and a nagging headache that just did not seem to want to go away. So, apologies about missing the 25th, but I want to get back on track today with the 26th. So, here goes:
Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
757 - Paolo Orsini replaces his brother Pope Stephen II, as Paul I
1220 - German king Frederick II grants bishops sovereign rights
1467 - The miraculous image in Our Lady of Good Counsel appear in Genazzano, Italy.
1478 - 1st Easter
1478 - Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de'Medici & kill Giuliano de'Medici
1514 - Copernicus makes his 1st observations of Saturn
1532 - Sultan Suleiman through Hungary on away to Vienna
1564 - William Shakespeare baptized
1607 - 1st British to establish an American colony land at Cape Henry, Va
1654 - Jews are expelled from Brazil
1655 - Dutch West Indies Co denies Peter Stuyvesant's desire to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam
1677 - Emperor Leopold I forms University of Innsbruck
1721 - Smallpox vaccination 1st administrated
1755 - 1st Russian university opens (Moscow)
1777 - Sybil Ludington, 16, rode from NY to Ct rallying her fathers militia
1803 - Meteorites fall in L'Aigle, France
1814 - King Louis XVIII lands on Calais, from England
1819 - Odd Fellows Lodge forms
1828 - Russia declares war on Turkey to support Greece's independence
1835 - Frederic Chopins "Grand Polonaise Brillante," premieres in Paris
1841 - "Bombay Gazette" begins publishing on silk
1853 - Dutch King William III disbands 2nd Chamber
1855 - Composer Gioacchino Rossini leaves Italy
1859 - Dan Sickles is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity. It marks the first time this defense is successfully used.
1865 - Battle of Durham Station, North Carolina (Greensboro)
1865 - Battle of Ft Tobacco, Virginia
1865 - Confederate Gen J E Johnston surrenders Army of Tennessee, at Durham North Carolina
1887 - Huntsville Electric Co forms to sell electricity
1890 - Henry Morton Stanley inaugurated in London
1893 - 1st Cleveland Board of Park Commissioners forms
1900 - AL opener in Cleve draws 6,500
1904 - Bell Telephone Company of Antwerp Belgium forms
1905 - Cubs Jack McCarthy becomes only major league player to throw out 3 runners at plate in 1 game, all were ends of a double play
1906 - 1st motion pictures shown in Hawaii
1907 - Jamestown, Va Tercentenary Exposition opens
1912 - 1st homerun hit at Fenway Park (Hugh Bradley, Red Sox)
1913 - Panama-Pacific International Exposition opens in SF
1913 - Sun Yet San calls for revolt against pres Yuan Shikai in China
1915 - Italy secretly signes Pact of London with Britain, France & Russia
1920 - H Shapley & H D Curtis hold "great debate" on nature of nebulae
1925 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Edna Ferber for "So big"
1926 - Germany & Russia sign neutrality/peace treaty
1926 - Karachai Autonomous Region forms in RSFSR (until 1943)
1928 - Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition opens in London
1929 - 1st non-stop England to India flight lands
1931 - Lou Gehrig hits a HR but is called out for passing a runner, mistake costs him AL home run crown; he & Babe Ruth tie for season
1932 - Jean Anouilh's "L'Ermine," premieres in Paris
1933 - Jewish students are barred from school in Germany
1935 - Frank Boucher is given NHL's Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship permanently for winning it 7 of 11 years
1936 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 4th Symphony
1937 - German Luftwaffe destroys Basque town of Guernica in Spain
1938 - Austrian Jews required to register property above 5,000 Reichsmarks
1941 - A tradition begins, 1st organ at a baseball stadium (Chicago Cubs)
1941 - Potatoes rationed in Holland
1942 - Coal mine explosion kills 1,549 at Honkeiko Manchuria
1942 - Luftwaffe bombs Bath
1944 - 1st B-29 attacked by Japanese fighters, one fighter shot down
1944 - Papandreou government in Greece forms
1945 - Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, leader of France's Vichy collaborationist regime during WW II, arrested for treason
1945 - World War II: Battle of Bautzen - last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
1947 - "Bless the Bride" musical opens in London
1950 - Last horse race at Havre de Grace Track in Md, is run
1950 - U of Miami ends William & Mary straight tennis match victories at 82
1951 - Queen Juliana opens Brielsche Mausoleum
1952 - Patty Berg scores 64, best competitive round of golf by a woman
1952 - US minesweeper "Hobson" rams aircraft carrier "Wasp," kills 176
1954 - Far Eastern Affairs conference opens in Geneva
1954 - Nationwide test of Salk anti-polio vaccine begins
1956 - First container ship left Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas
1957 - Jamestown, Va 350th Anniversary Festival opens
1959 - Cuba invades Panama
1959 - Wiffi Smith wins LPGA Betsy Rawls Golf Open
1961 - French paratroopers' revolt suppressed in Algeria
1961 - Roger Maris hits 1st of 61 homers in 1961
1962 - 1st Lockheed A-12 flies
1962 - Ariel 1 Launch (1st UK Satellite)
1962 - Ranger 4 crash lands on (backside of) Moon
1962 - Red Sox Bill Monbouquette no-hits White Sox 1-0
1962 - US/UK launch Ariel; 1st international payload
1964 - 18th NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat SF Warriors, 4 games to 1
1964 - Marilynn Smith wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship
1964 - Tanganyika & Zanzibar form United Republic of Tanganyika & Zanzibar
1965 - Ives' 4th Symphony premieres
1966 - Arnold "Red" Auerbach retires as Boston Celtic's coach
1966 - An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.
1967 - "Hallelujah, Baby!" opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC for 293 perfs
1967 - KSPS TV channel 7 in Spokane, WA (PBS) begins broadcasting
1967 - San Marco 2 Launch (1st Equatorial Launch)
1968 - Students seize administration building at Ohio State
1968 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 - US underground nuclear test, "Boxcar," 1 megaton device
1969 - "Celebration" closes at Ambassador Theater NYC after 110 performances
1969 - "George M!" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 435 performances
1969 - Firestone World Bowling Tournament (Mercury Open) won by Jim Godman
1970 - "Company" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 690 performances
1971 - Heaviest rains ever in Bahia district of Brazil, 15" in 24 hrs
1971 - SF lightship replaced by automatic buoy
1971 - Turkey state of siege proclaimed
1973 - "2 Gentlemen of Verona," musical opens in London
1973 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1974 - Landslide in Huancavelica Province Peru creates a natural dam
1974 - Malta adopts constitution
1974 - Yankees trade Peterson, Beene, Kline & Buskey to Indians for Chambliss, Tidrow & Upshaw
1975 - Mario Soares' Socialist Party wins 1st free election in Portugal
1975 - Penguins 0-Isles 1-Quarterfinals-Isles win series 4-3
1975 - Phillies Mike Schmidt's 2 HRs ties NL record of 11 HRs in April
1976 - Pan Am begins non-stop flights NYC-Tokyo
1977 - NY's famed disco Studio 54 opens
1978 - France sends troops to Chad
1978 - NASA launches space vehicle S-201
1980 - Gerard Nijboer runs Dutch record marathon (2:09:01)
1980 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1980 - Iran begins scattering US hostages from US Embassy
1980 - Longest jump by a jet boat is set at 120'
1980 - Phillies' Steve Carlton pitches his 6th 1-hitter (beats Cards)
1981 - "Copperfield" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 13 performances
1981 - Beth Solomon wins LPGA Birmingham Golf Classic
1982 - Argentina surrenders to Britain on S Georgia near Falkland Island
1982 - CBS radio begins youth oriented broadcast Radio Radio
1982 - Gene Michael becomes NY Yankee manager for 2nd time
1982 - Rod Stewart is mugged, gunman steals his $50,000 Porsche
1983 - Bruins 2-Isles 5-Wales Conference Championship-Isles hold 1-0 lead
1983 - Dow Jones Industrial Avg breaks 1,200 for 1st time
1983 - San Antonio spurs beat Denver Nuggets, 152-133 in NBA playoff game
1984 - Liverpool's Cavern Club reopens
1984 - Pres Reagan visits China
1986 - Firestone World Bowling Tournament of Champions won by Marshall Holman
1986 - France performs nuclear test
1986 - Game between Angels & Twins delayed for 9 minutes by strong winds
1986 - Worst nuclear disaster, 4th reactor at Chernobyl USSR explodes, 31 die
1987 - "Barbara Cook: A Concert..." closes at Ambassador NYC after 13 perfs
1988 - 1st TNN Viewers choice awards-Randy Travis wins in 5 categories
1988 - NBA approves addition of 3rd referee in 1988-89 season
1988 - NY Met Davey Johnson becomes 2nd manager to record 400 victory in 1st 4 years (Al Lopez did it 1st)
1989 - AT&T announces NJ's 201 area code will split into 908 & 201
1989 - Mike Tyson is ticketed for driving 71 MPH in 30 mile zone in Albany
1990 - "Accomplice" opens at Richard Rodgers Theater NYC for 52 performances
1990 - 126 die in a (6.9) earthquake in China
1990 - Danny Wood of New Kids, steps on a stuffed animal & twists his ankle
1990 - NY court of appeals ends 2½ year legal battle over 1988 America's Cup by refusing jurisdiction of case
1990 - Nolan Ryan ties Bob Feller's record of pitching 12 1-hitters
1991 - "Dinosaurs" premieres on ABC-TV
1991 - 23 killed in Kansas & Oklahoma by tornadoes
1991 - Soccer star Diego Maradona, suspended for using cocaine, arrested in Argentina for possession & distribution of illegal narcotics
1992 - "Grand Hotel" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 1,018 perfs
1992 - "Growing Pains," final episode on ABC TV
1992 - "Jelly's Last Jam" opens at Virginia Theater NYC for 569 performances
1992 - "Master Builder" closes at Belasco Theater NYC after 45 performances
1992 - "Metro" closes at Minskoff Theater NYC after 13 performances
1992 - "Who's The Boss," final episode after 8 years on ABC TV
1992 - Alex Haley, (Roots), wins 1992 Ellis Island Award, posthumously
1992 - Maggie Will wins LPGA Sara Lee Golf Classic
1992 - Ozzie Smith steals his 500th base
1993 - "Shakespeare for My Father" opens at Helen Hayes NYC for 266 perfs
1993 - Boeing 737 crashes at Aurangabad, kills 56
1993 - NBC announces Conan O'Brien to replace David Letterman
1993 - STS-55 (Columbia) launches into orbit
1994 - 26.9°C in Prestebakke Norway (Norwegian April high temp record)
1994 - Taiwan Airbus A-300 crashes at Nagoya Japan, 262 killed
1994 - 1st multi-racial election in South Africa begins [3 days] Dr Nomaza Paintin in NZ is 1st black South African to vote
1994 - Physicists announce first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle.
1995 - Baseball season begins after lengthy strike
1995 - Coors Field, opens in Denver, Rockies beat Mets 11-9 in 14 innings
1996 - Shaun Pollock takes 4 wkts in 4 balls for Warwickshire in B&H
1996 - Sotherby ends 4 day auction of Jackie O stuff-take in $34.5 million
Comedian David Letterman
1997 - "Life," opens at Barrymore Theater NYC
2002 - Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 17 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt,Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
2005 - Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country.
2007 - Queen's Pier is officially closed by the Hong Kong Government, after a bitter struggle by conservationists, in order to facilitate land reclamation in Hong Kong's Central district
2012 - 70 people are killed by rocket attacks by the Syrian Army on the city of Hama
2012 - Indonesia suspends imports of American beef after a confirmed case of mad cow disease in California
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr26.htm
1478 - Pazzi conspirators attacked Lorenzo and killed Giuliano de'Medici.
1514 - Copernicus made his first observations of Saturn.
1607 - The British established an American colony at Cape Henry, Virginia. It was the first permanent English establishment in the Western Hemisphere.
1819 - The first Odd Fellows lodge in the U.S. was established in Baltimore, MD.
1865 - Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Sherman during the American Civil War.
1865 - John Wilkes Booth was killed by the U.S. Federal Cavalry.
1906 - In Hawaii, motion pictures were shown for the first time.
1921 - Weather broadcasts were heard for the first time on radio in St. Louis, MO.
1929 - First non-stop flight from England to India was completed.
1931 - New York Yankee Lou Gehrig hit a home run but was called out for passing a runner.
1931 - NBC premiered "Lum and Abner." It was on the air for 24 years.
1937 - German planes attacked Guernica, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War.
1937 - "LIFE" magazine was printed without the word "LIFE" on the cover.
1937 - "Lorenzo Jones" premiered on NBC radio.
1941 - An organ was played at a baseball stadium for the first time in Chicago, IL.
1945 - Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, was arrested.
1952 - Patty Berg set a new record for major women’s golf competition when she shot a 64 over 18 holes in a tournament in Richmond, CA.
1954 - Grace Kelly was on the cover of "LIFE" magazine.
1964 - The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.
1964 - The Boston Celtics won their sixth consecutive NBA title. They won two more before the streak came to an end.
1968 - Students seized the administration building at Ohio State University.
1982 - The British announced that Argentina had surrendered on South Georgia.
1983 - Dow Jones Industrial Average broke 1,200 for first time.
1985 - In Argentina, a fire at a mental hospital killed 79 people and injured 247.
1986 - The world’s worst nuclear disaster to date occurred at Chernobyl, in Kiev. Thirty-one people died in the incident and thousands more were exposed to radioactive material.
1998 - Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera was bludgeoned to death two days after a report he'd compiled on atrocities during Guatemala's 36-year civil war was made public.
2000 - Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar purchased the NHL's New York Islanders.
2002 - In Erfurt, Germany, an expelled student killed 17 people at his former school. The student then killed himself.
http://www.historyorb.com/today/
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/apr26.htm
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