April 26
1607 - Colonists land at Cape Henry, Virginia to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere; they would found the Jamestown colony the following month.
1785 - Naturalist and artist John James Audubon was born in Haiti.
1865 - John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops in a barn in Virginia; he was shot and killed, either by the soldiers or by his own hand.
1913 - Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old worker at a Georgia pencil factory, was strangled; Leo Frank, the factory superintendent, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death. (Frank’s death sentence was commuted, but he was lynched by an anti-Semitic mob in 1915.)
1933 - Nazi Germany’s infamous secret police, the Gestapo, was created.
1937 - The German Luftwaffe destroyed the Spanish town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
1945 - Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, was arrested.
1964 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of Tanzania.
1968 - The United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a 1.3 megaton nuclear device called “Boxcar.”
1977 - The legendary nightclub Studio 54 had its opening night in New York.
1986 - The world's worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union, near Kiev, Ukraine. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactive material into the atmosphere; at least 31 Soviets died immediately. (The long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is believed to number in the thousands.)
1989 - Actress-comedian Lucille Ball died at age 77.
1994 - The first multi-racial elections were held in South Africa, resulting in victory for the African National Congress and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president.
1998 - Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, a leading Guatemalan human rights activist, 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 - Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation's first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.
2005 - Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon ended as Syrian soldiers completed a withdrawal brought about by international pressure and Lebanese street protests.
2008 - Police in Austria arrested a man accused of holding his daughter captive in a windowless cellar for 24 years, fathering her seven children and killing one of them. (Josef Fritzl is serving life in a psychiatric ward.)
2009 - The United States declared a public health emergency as more possible cases of swine flu surfaced from Canada to New Zealand; officials in Mexico City closed everything from concerts to sports matches to churches in an effort to stem the spread of the virus.
2016 - Republican Donald Trump roared to victory in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island while Democrat Hillary Clinton prevailed in four of those states, ceding Rhode Island to Bernie Sanders.
2018 - Bill Cosby was convicted of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004; it was the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era and completed the spectacular downfall of a comedian who broke racial barriers on his way to TV superstardom. (Cosby was later sentenced to three to 10 years in prison.)
Birthdays
20 - Sterling Griffith (actress)
22 - Keara Graves (actress)
29 - Aaron Judge (baseball player)
31 - Riley Voelkel (actress)
34 - Jessica Lee Rose (actress)
35 - Aaron Weeks (actor)
37 - Emily Wickersham (actress)
37 - Lilly Hiatt (singer)
41 - Channing Tatum (actor)
41 - Marnette Patterson (actress)
41 - Stana Katic (actress)
41 - Jordana Brewster (actress)
43 - Pablo Schreiber (actor)
44 - Tom Welling (actor)
44 - Amin Joseph (actor)
44 - Leonard Earl Howze (actor)
44 - Jason Earles (actor)
50 - Shondrella Avery (actress)
51 - Melania Trump (wife of President Donald Trump)
51 - T-Boz (rapper)
54 - Marianne Jean-Baptiste (actress)
54 - Glen "Kane" Jacobs (professional wrestler)
56 - Kevin James (actor/comedian)
58 - Jet Li (actor)
59 - Michael Damian (actor/singer)
60 - Joan Chen (actress)
68 - Nancy Lenehan (actress)
79 - Bobby Rydell (singer)
83 - Maurice Williams (singer)
88 - Carol Burnett (actress/comedian)
=======================================
Today in Sports History - April 26
1941 - An organ was played at a baseball stadium for the first time, at a Cubs game in Chicago.
1952 - Patty Berg set a new record for major women's golf competition when she shot a 64 over 18 holes at a tournament in Richmond, California.
1964 - The Boston Celtics won their sixth consecutive NBA championship, defeating the San Francisco Warriors in five games.
1966 - Red Auerbach announced his retirement as head coach of the Boston Celtics.
1983 - The Baltimore Colts select Stanford quarterback John Elway with the first pick in the NFL Draft; Elway is then traded to the Denver Broncos several days later.
1983 - The following Huskers are selected in the 1983 NFL Draft: C - Dave Rimington (1st round, 25th pick, Cincinnati Bengals); RB - Roger Craig (2nd round, San Francisco 49ers); TE - Jamie Williams (3rd round, New York Giants); WR - Todd Brown (6th round, Detroit Lions); DT - Jeff Merrell (10th round, San Francisco 49ers); DE - Toby Williams (10th round, New England Patriots); and QB - Bruce Mathison (10th round, San Diego Chargers).
1988 - The NBA approved the addition of a third referee for the 1988-89 season.
1990 - Nolan Ryan ties Bob Feller's record of pitching 12 career one-hit games.
1992 - The Indianapolis Colts select Washington defensive end Steve Emtman with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
1992 - The following Huskers were selected in the 1992 NFL Draft: TE - Johnny Mitchell (1st round, 15th pick, New York Jets); CB - Tyrone Legette (3rd round, New Orleans Saints); RB - Nate Turner (6th round, Buffalo Bills); DB - Curtis Cotton (7th round, Los Angeles Raiders); WR - Jon Bostick (7th round, Denver Broncos); LB - Mike Petko (11th round, New England Patriots); and QB - Keithen McCant (12th round, Cleveland Browns).
1997 - Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) played what was billed as his last NHL game. He later came out of retirement to play for the Penguins as an owner/player.
2003 - The Cincinnati Bengals select USC quarterback Carson Palmer with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
2003 - The following Huskers were selected in the 2003 NFL Draft: DE - Chris Kelsay (2nd round, Buffalo Bills); CB - DeJuan Groce (4th round, St. Louis Rams); K - Josh Brown (7th round, Seattle Seahawks); and LB - Scott Shanle (7th round, St. Louis Rams).
2008 - The Miami Dolphins select Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
2008 - The following Huskers were selected in the 2008 NFL Draft: CB - Zackary Bowman (5th round, Chicago Bears); OT - Carl Nicks (5th round, New Orleans Saints); and LB - Bo Ruud (6th round, New England Patriots).
2012 - The Indianapolis Colts select Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
2012 - The following Huskers were selected in the 2012 NFL Draft: LB - Lavonte David (2nd round, Tampa Bay Buccaneers); DE - Jared Crick (4th round, Houston Texans); CB - Alfonzo Dennard (7th round, New England Patriots); and OT - Marcel Jones (7th round, New Orleans Saints).
2018 - The Cleveland Browns select Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield with the first pick in the NFL Draft; for the first time in Draft history, four quarterbacks are selected in the first ten picks.
2018 - The following Huskers were selected in the 2018 NFL Draft: QB - Tanner Lee (6th round, Jacksonville Jaguars).
1607 - Colonists land at Cape Henry, Virginia to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere; they would found the Jamestown colony the following month.
1785 - Naturalist and artist John James Audubon was born in Haiti.
1865 - John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops in a barn in Virginia; he was shot and killed, either by the soldiers or by his own hand.
1913 - Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old worker at a Georgia pencil factory, was strangled; Leo Frank, the factory superintendent, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death. (Frank’s death sentence was commuted, but he was lynched by an anti-Semitic mob in 1915.)
1933 - Nazi Germany’s infamous secret police, the Gestapo, was created.
1937 - The German Luftwaffe destroyed the Spanish town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
1945 - Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, was arrested.
1964 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of Tanzania.
1968 - The United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a 1.3 megaton nuclear device called “Boxcar.”
1977 - The legendary nightclub Studio 54 had its opening night in New York.
1986 - The world's worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union, near Kiev, Ukraine. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactive material into the atmosphere; at least 31 Soviets died immediately. (The long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is believed to number in the thousands.)
1989 - Actress-comedian Lucille Ball died at age 77.
1994 - The first multi-racial elections were held in South Africa, resulting in victory for the African National Congress and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president.
1998 - Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, a leading Guatemalan human rights activist, 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 - Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation's first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.
2005 - Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon ended as Syrian soldiers completed a withdrawal brought about by international pressure and Lebanese street protests.
2008 - Police in Austria arrested a man accused of holding his daughter captive in a windowless cellar for 24 years, fathering her seven children and killing one of them. (Josef Fritzl is serving life in a psychiatric ward.)
2009 - The United States declared a public health emergency as more possible cases of swine flu surfaced from Canada to New Zealand; officials in Mexico City closed everything from concerts to sports matches to churches in an effort to stem the spread of the virus.
2016 - Republican Donald Trump roared to victory in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island while Democrat Hillary Clinton prevailed in four of those states, ceding Rhode Island to Bernie Sanders.
2018 - Bill Cosby was convicted of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004; it was the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era and completed the spectacular downfall of a comedian who broke racial barriers on his way to TV superstardom. (Cosby was later sentenced to three to 10 years in prison.)
Birthdays
20 - Sterling Griffith (actress)
22 - Keara Graves (actress)
29 - Aaron Judge (baseball player)
31 - Riley Voelkel (actress)
34 - Jessica Lee Rose (actress)
35 - Aaron Weeks (actor)
37 - Emily Wickersham (actress)
37 - Lilly Hiatt (singer)
41 - Channing Tatum (actor)
41 - Marnette Patterson (actress)
41 - Stana Katic (actress)
41 - Jordana Brewster (actress)
43 - Pablo Schreiber (actor)
44 - Tom Welling (actor)
44 - Amin Joseph (actor)
44 - Leonard Earl Howze (actor)
44 - Jason Earles (actor)
50 - Shondrella Avery (actress)
51 - Melania Trump (wife of President Donald Trump)
51 - T-Boz (rapper)
54 - Marianne Jean-Baptiste (actress)
54 - Glen "Kane" Jacobs (professional wrestler)
56 - Kevin James (actor/comedian)
58 - Jet Li (actor)
59 - Michael Damian (actor/singer)
60 - Joan Chen (actress)
68 - Nancy Lenehan (actress)
79 - Bobby Rydell (singer)
83 - Maurice Williams (singer)
88 - Carol Burnett (actress/comedian)
=======================================
Today in Sports History - April 26
1941 - An organ was played at a baseball stadium for the first time, at a Cubs game in Chicago.
1952 - Patty Berg set a new record for major women's golf competition when she shot a 64 over 18 holes at a tournament in Richmond, California.
1964 - The Boston Celtics won their sixth consecutive NBA championship, defeating the San Francisco Warriors in five games.
1966 - Red Auerbach announced his retirement as head coach of the Boston Celtics.
1983 - The Baltimore Colts select Stanford quarterback John Elway with the first pick in the NFL Draft; Elway is then traded to the Denver Broncos several days later.
1983 - The following Huskers are selected in the 1983 NFL Draft: C - Dave Rimington (1st round, 25th pick, Cincinnati Bengals); RB - Roger Craig (2nd round, San Francisco 49ers); TE - Jamie Williams (3rd round, New York Giants); WR - Todd Brown (6th round, Detroit Lions); DT - Jeff Merrell (10th round, San Francisco 49ers); DE - Toby Williams (10th round, New England Patriots); and QB - Bruce Mathison (10th round, San Diego Chargers).
1988 - The NBA approved the addition of a third referee for the 1988-89 season.
1990 - Nolan Ryan ties Bob Feller's record of pitching 12 career one-hit games.
1992 - The Indianapolis Colts select Washington defensive end Steve Emtman with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
1992 - The following Huskers were selected in the 1992 NFL Draft: TE - Johnny Mitchell (1st round, 15th pick, New York Jets); CB - Tyrone Legette (3rd round, New Orleans Saints); RB - Nate Turner (6th round, Buffalo Bills); DB - Curtis Cotton (7th round, Los Angeles Raiders); WR - Jon Bostick (7th round, Denver Broncos); LB - Mike Petko (11th round, New England Patriots); and QB - Keithen McCant (12th round, Cleveland Browns).
1997 - Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) played what was billed as his last NHL game. He later came out of retirement to play for the Penguins as an owner/player.
2003 - The Cincinnati Bengals select USC quarterback Carson Palmer with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
2003 - The following Huskers were selected in the 2003 NFL Draft: DE - Chris Kelsay (2nd round, Buffalo Bills); CB - DeJuan Groce (4th round, St. Louis Rams); K - Josh Brown (7th round, Seattle Seahawks); and LB - Scott Shanle (7th round, St. Louis Rams).
2008 - The Miami Dolphins select Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
2008 - The following Huskers were selected in the 2008 NFL Draft: CB - Zackary Bowman (5th round, Chicago Bears); OT - Carl Nicks (5th round, New Orleans Saints); and LB - Bo Ruud (6th round, New England Patriots).
2012 - The Indianapolis Colts select Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
2012 - The following Huskers were selected in the 2012 NFL Draft: LB - Lavonte David (2nd round, Tampa Bay Buccaneers); DE - Jared Crick (4th round, Houston Texans); CB - Alfonzo Dennard (7th round, New England Patriots); and OT - Marcel Jones (7th round, New Orleans Saints).
2018 - The Cleveland Browns select Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield with the first pick in the NFL Draft; for the first time in Draft history, four quarterbacks are selected in the first ten picks.
2018 - The following Huskers were selected in the 2018 NFL Draft: QB - Tanner Lee (6th round, Jacksonville Jaguars).