April 26 is:
Hug an Australian Day
National Pretzel Day
Richter Scale Day
Cape Henry Day, designated annually by proclamation of the governor of Virginia as a commemoration of the first landing on American soil of the expedition that founded Jamestown in 1607.
Birthday of John James Audubon on April 26, 1785, American ornithologist and artist.
His major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon identified 25 new species.
In 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte signed a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Régime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.
Birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted (1822), American landscape architect, noted for his design of Central Park in New York City and for planning for Yosemite National Park and the Niagara Falls Park project. Known as the Father of Landscape architecture.
On April 26, 1865, Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
April 26, 1925 – Paul von Hindenburg defeated Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933).
On this day in 1931, Lou Gehrig hit a Home Run but was called “out” for passing a runner; the mistake cost him the American League home run crown;
The ball bounced back onto the field, was fielded by Sam Rice of the Senators, and thrown back towards the infielders. Lyn Lary, who was on first base, thought the ball was caught so after rounding third he headed into the dugout. Gehrig touched home (passing the runner), was called out, and credited by the official scorer with a triple, costing him a home run and eventually the exclusive home run title for the 1931 season. He and Babe Ruth tied for season.
The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, was established in 1933.
April 26, 1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
April 26, 1986 – A reactor explosion occurs at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in present-day Ukraine, with radiation spreading around Europe and the world.