41st year - Nr 116 Sunday, 26 April 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nr 116 Sunday, 26 April 2026

26 April / Today's 41 Events:

---

(+) 228 years ago He Was Not His Father's Son Thursday 26th of April 1798 Romantic painter Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix is born in Charenton-Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne, France. There is reason to believe that Delacroix' father Charles-François was infertile at the time of Eugène's conception and that his real father was Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord who was a friend of the family and successor of Charles Delacroix as Minister of Foreign Affairs and whom the adult Eugène resembled in appearance and character.

---

(-) 161 years ago He Was the Instrument of His Punishment Wednesday 26th of April 1865 Actor and assassin John Wilkes Booth aka The Man Who Shot President Abraham Lincoln is tracked down and shot dead by Sergeant Boston Corbett in Richard H. Garrett's tobacco barn at the age of 27 in Port Royal, Virginia, United States. In Booth's pockets were found a compass, a candle, pictures of five women (actresses Alice Grey, Helen Western, Effie Germon, Fannie Brown and Booth's fiancée Lucy Hale), and his diary, where he had written of Lincoln's death, "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his pu nishment".

---

(+) 154 years ago Friday 26th of April 1872 Actor and film director William Desmond Taylor, originally William Cunningham Deane-Tanner is born in Evington House, Carlow, Leinster, Ireland.

---

(+) 137 years ago He Would Be Better Understood in the Future Friday 26th of April 1889 Philosopher Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein is born in Wittgenstein Palace, Alleegasse 16, Wien, Wien, Austria-Hungary.

---

(+) 132 years ago Thursday 26th of April 1894 Nazi leader and Stellvertreter des Führers Rudolf Walter Richard Hess is born in Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt.

---

(+) 126 years ago He Squeaked Thursday 26th of April 1900 Seismologist and physicist Charles Francis Richter known for creating the Richter magnitude scale is born in Overpeck, Ohio, United States.

---

(-) 125 years ago He Had Gained a Significant Amount of Weight Friday 26th of April 1901 Outlaw and murderer Tom Thomas E. Ketchum is executed by hanging at the age of 38 in Clayton, New Mexico, United States. Nobody in Clayton had any experience in conducting hangings, the rope was too long and since Ketchum had gained a significant amount of weight during his time in jail he was decapitated when he dropped through the trap door.

---

(+) 121 years ago L'Atalante Passait Wednesday 26th of April 1905 Film director Jean Vigo is born in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

---

(+) 116 years ago She Was a Spring Dream Tuesday 26th of April 1910 Silent film actress Lingyu Ruan, originally Ruan Fenggen is born in Shanghai, China.

---

(+) 114 years ago It Was a Terrible Period Friday 26th of April 1912 Science fiction writer Alfred Elton van Vogt is born in Edenburg, Manitoba, Canada. "Childhood was a terrible period for me. I was like a ship without anchor being swept along through darkness in a storm. Again and again I sought shelter, only to be forced out of it by something new."

---

(-) 102 years ago Saturday 26th of April 1924 Robert Witzel is killed and his meat sold by serial killer Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf in Das Mordhaus, Rote Reihe 4, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

---

(+) 101 years ago Sunday 26th of April 1925 Chocolate maker Michele Ferrero known for inventing Nutella chocolate paste is born in Dogliani, Piemonte, Italy.

---

(-) 97 years ago She was Discovered in a Cistern Friday 26th of April 1929 Eccentric painter Olive Edith May Branson is shot dead and dumped in a cistern by persons unkown at the age of 44 in Les Baux-de-Provence, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. Branson was discovered dead in a cistern on the grounds of her villa on 4 May 1929. She had been slain by a single bullet to the forehead that was fired, neighbors believed, around 9pm the previous evening. Initially local police theorized that Branson had committed suicide, but in England her family balked at this claim. Within a few days, however, Chief Inspector Alexandre Guibal of the Marseilles police judiciaire had taken charge of the case and announced that the family's darkest fears were correct: Branson's mysterious death was indeed a case of foul play. Guibal had discovered bloodstains within Branson's villa and he surmised from this, reasonably enough, that the artist "could not have shot herself and then walked to a tank 20 yards away in stockinged feet and a nightdress."

---

(x) 93 years ago He Founded a Reign of Terror Wednesday 26th of April 1933 The Gestapo is founded by 40-year-old Reichsmarschall and Nazi leader Hermann Wilhelm Göring in Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Gestapo was an abbreviation of Geheime Staatspolizei.

---

(x) 89 years ago Monday 26th of April 1937 The entire village is bombed the Nazi German Luftwaffe's Condor Legion and the Fascist Italian Aviazione Legionaria under the code name Operation Rügen in Guernica, Euskadi, Spain. Estimates between 150 and 1650 people were killed. The number of civilian fatalities is now set at between 170 and 300 people.

---

(+) 88 years ago Tuesday 26th of April 1938 Guitarist Duane Eddy is born in Corning, New York, United States.

---

(x) 84 years ago Sunday 26th of April 1942 1.549 die in coal mine dust explosion in Honkeiko Colliery, Benxi, Liaoning, China.

---

(-) 81 years ago Thursday 26th of April 1945 Nazi doctor Sigmund Rascher known for his ‘freezing experiments’ on behalf of the Luftwaffe is executed by the firing squad at the age of 36 in Konzentrationslager Dachau, Dachau, Bayern, Germany. In an attempt to please Himmler by demonstrating that population growth could be accelerated by extending the childbearing age, Rascher publicized the fact that his wife had given birth to three children even after becoming 48 years of age and Himmler used a photograph of Rascher's family as propaganda material. However during her fourth "pregnancy" Mrs. Rascher was arrested for trying to kidnap a baby and an investigation revealed that her other three children had been either bought or kidnapped. Himmler felt betrayed by this conduct and had Rascher and his wife sentenced to death.

---

(+) 80 years ago Friday 26th of April 1946 Multiple murderer Justin Lee May is born in Holmes County, Mississippi, United States.

---

(+) 77 years ago Tuesday 26th of April 1949 Murderer, cannibal and writer Issei Sagawa aka The Loving Cannibal is born in Kobe, Honshu Island, Japan.

---

(+) 76 years ago Wednesday 26th of April 1950 Imaginary serial killer Sture Ragnar Bergwall aka Thomas Quick aka Sätermannen is born in Källviken, Falun, Dalarna, Sweden.

---

(x) 74 years ago Saturday 26th of April 1952 176 die in USS Hobson destroyer and USS Wasp aircraft carrier collision in the North Atlantic Ocean.

---

(+) 67 years ago Sunday 26th of April 1959 Mass murderer Dirk De Winne is born in Scheldewindeke, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

---

(-) 58 years ago Friday 26th of April 1968 Collage artist John Heartfield, originally Helmut Herzfeld dies of unknown causes at the age of 77 in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

---

(+) 57 years ago Saturday 26th of April 1969 Double murderess Teresa Wilson Bean Lewis is born in Danville, Virginia, United States.

---

(x) 55 years ago Monday 26th of April 1971 25-year-old Performance and installation artist Chris Christopher Burden starts his 'Five Day Locker Piece' performance in University of California, Irvine, California, United States.

---

(x) 52 years ago Friday 26th of April 1974 19 Old Masters including a Goya, a Vermeer and a Gainsborough are stolen from the house of millionaire Sir Alfred Beit by the Irish Republican Army in Russborough House, Blessington, Leinster, Ireland. The IRA intended to hold the paintings to ransom in exchange for the transfer of IRA members Dolours Price and Marian Price who had been convicted of car-bombings in England. All the stolen paintings were recovered in County Cork a few weeks later.

---

(-) 42 years ago Thursday 26th of April 1984 Teresa Watson aka Nicole is found shot dead by serial killer Robert Hansen aka The Aviation Hunter in Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, United States.

---

(-) 42 years ago Thursday 26th of April 1984 Musician and bandleader Count William James Basie dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 80 in Hollywood, California, United States.

---

(x) 41 years ago Friday 26th of April 1985 26-year-old Serial killer Thomas Rath aka Der Moormörder is sentenced to life imprisonment in an asylum for the criminally insane in Bremen, Freie Hansestadt Bremen, Germany.

---

(x) 40 years ago There Was an Incredible Amount of Radiation Saturday 26th of April 1986 42 die in nuclear reactor explosion in Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Pripyat, Ukraine, Russia. The reactor explosion killed two of the reactor operating staff. In the emergency response that followed 134 firemen and station staff were hospitalized with acute radiation syndrome due to absorbing high doses of ionizing radiation. Of these 134 people, 28 died in the days to months afterward. Model predictions with the greatest confidence values of the eventual total death toll in the decades ahead from Chernobyl releases vary from 4.000 fatalities when solely assessing the three most contaminated former Soviet states to about 9.000 to 16.000 fatalities when assessing the total continent of Europe. It is c onsidered the worst nuclear disaster in history and is one of only two nuclear energy disasters rated at seven—the maximum severity—on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

---

(-) 37 years ago Lucy Was not Here Wednesday 26th of April 1989 Actress, comedian, model and producer Lucille Désirée Ball known from her self-produced sitcom I Love Lucy dies of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm at the age of 78 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, United States.

---

(-) 35 years ago Friday 26th of April 1991 SS-Sturmbannführer Walter Reder aka The Butcher of Marzabotto dies of undisclosed causes at the age of 76 in Wien, Wien, Austria.

---

(-) 32 years ago Tuesday 26th of April 1994 Murderer Larry Norman Anderson is executed by lethal injection at the age of 42 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

---

(x) 32 years ago Tuesday 26th of April 1994 264 die in China Airlines Airbus A300B4-622R Flight 140 crash in Nagoya Airfield, Nagoya, Chūbu, Japan. There were 7 survivors. 31-year-old Noriyasu Shirai said that a flight attendant announced that the plane would crash after the aircraft stalled.

---

(-) 24 years ago Friday 26th of April 2002 Spree killer Alton Coleman is executed by lethal injection at the age of 47 in Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, Lucasville, Ohio, United States. Coleman was the only condemned person in the United States to have death sentences in three states. Coleman's last meal request was for a well-done filet mignon smothered with mushrooms, fried chicken breasts, a salad with French dressing, sweet potato pie topped with whipped cream, French fries, collard greens, onion rings, cornbread, broccoli with melted cheese, biscuits and gravy, and Cherry Coke. So many victims and survivors of Coleman's crimes were allowed to witness the execution that prison officials had to set up a closed-circuit viewing venue outs ide of the building.

---

(-) 24 years ago Reichte es für Heute Friday 26th of April 2002 School shooter Robert Steinhäuser commits suicide by a shot in the head at the age of 19 in Gutenberg-Gymnasium, Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany. Earlier that day Steinhäuser shot and killed 13 faculty members, 2 students and one police officer with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a 9mm Glock 17. Before Steinhäuser committed suicide he was confronted by one of his teachers who said, "Du kannst mich jetzt erschießen." Steinhäuser is said to have answered, "Herr Heise, für heute reicht's."

---

(-) 22 years ago Monday 26th of April 2004 Writer Hubert Selby known for his novel ‘Last Exit to Brooklyn’ dies of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the age of 76 in Highland Park, Los Angeles, California, United States. Selby refused morphine on his deathbed although he was in pain.

---

21 years ago The Eyes had it Tuesday 26th of April 2005 Scenes of daily life in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia.

---

(-) 19 years ago Thursday 26th of April 2007 Double murderer Ryan Heath Dickson is executed by lethal injection at the age of 31 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States. Dickson's last meal request was for fried chicken, fried eggs, french fries with white gravy, apple pie and ice cream, five biscuits, chili with jalapeno peppers and cheese, lemonade and five containers of milk.

---

(-) 9 years ago The Lamb Went Silent Wednesday 26th of April 2017 Film director Jonathan Robert Demme known for his movie The Silence of the Lambs dies of esophageal cancer and heart disease at the age of 73 in Manhattan, New York, New York, United States.

---