26 April History
- 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.
26 April Birthdays
- 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).