April 26, 1777
Sixteen year old
Sybil Ludington rides forty miles to alert Colonial forces to the approach of the British.
1865
Presidential assassin
John Wilkes Booth is killed by Union forces.
1933
The
Gestapo is established.
1962
Ranger 4, the first U.S. spacecraft to reach another celestial body, crashes into the far side of the moon.
1966
An earthquake destroys most of
Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
1986
The
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explodes and burns, resulting in the world's worst nuclear power plant accident.
1989
A tornado strikes Bangladesh, killing 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving almost 80,000 homeless. It is the
world's deadliest tornado.
1991
A tornado outbreak sees
70 tornadoes form over the central U.S..
Births
Marcus Aurelius-121; John James Audubon-1785; Frederick Law Olmsted-1822; Rudolf Hess-1894; Charles Francis Richter-1900; Carol Burnett-1933; Gary Wright-1943; Jet Li-1963
Deaths
John Wilkes Booth-1865; Gypsy Rose Lee-1970; Jim Davis-1981; Count Basie-1984; Broderick Crawford-1986; Lucille Ball-1989; A. B. Guthrie, Jr.-1991; George Jones-2013; Jayne Meadows-2015