What Happened This Day In History .... April 26

TODAY IN HISTORY

April 26

757		Stephen II ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
1478		Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo and kill Giuliano de'Medici.
1514		Copernicus makes his first observations of Saturn.
1564		William Shakespeare is baptized.
1607		The British establish a colony at Cape Henry, Virginia.
1865		Joseph E. Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee to Sherman.
1915		Second Lieutenant Rhodes-Moorhouse becomes the first airman to win the Victoria Cross after conducting a successful bombing raid.
1929		The first non-stop flight from England to India is completed.
1931		New York Yankee Lou Gehrig hits a home run but is called out for passing a runner, the mistake ultimately costs him the home run record.
1937		The ancient Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain is bombed by German planes.
1941		The first organ is played at a baseball stadium in Chicago.
1968		Students seize the administration building at Ohio State University.
1983		The Dow Jones Industrial Average breaks 1,200 for first time.
1986		The world's worst nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl power plant in the Soviet Union.
1994		Nelson Mandela wins the presidency in South Africa's first multiracial elections.
Born on April 26
1718		Esek Hopkins, first commodore of the United States Navy.
1785		John James Audubon, artist and naturalist.
1812		Alfred Krupp, German arms merchant.
1822		Frederick Law Olmstead, landscape architect, designed New York's central park.
1875		Syngman Rhee, South Korean statesman.
1893		Anita Loos, novelist and screenwriter (Gentleman Prefer Blondes).
1894		Rudolf Hess, Nazi leader.
1900		Charles Richter, physicist and seismologist.
1914		Bernard Malamud, novelist and short story writer (The Natural).