Today in History for 27th April 2026

Historical Events

1296 – Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England
1877 – Rutherford B. Hayes removes Federal troops from Louisiana, Reconstruction ends
1905 – World Exposition opens in Liège
1976 – Stan Daniels’ musical “So Long 174th Street”, starring Robert Morse, opens at Harkness Theater, NYC; runs for 16 performances
1992 – NY Mets trade David Cone to Toronto Blue Jays for Jeff Kent

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Famous Birthdays

1875 – André Baillon, Belgian-French author (Un homme si simple), born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1932)
1905 – Julian Stryjkowski, Polish journalist and writer known for his radical leftist leanings, born in Stryi, Austro-Hungarian Empire (d. 1996)
1963 – Schae Harrison, American actress (Darla Forrester in “The Bold and the Beautiful”), born in Anaheim Hills, California
1969 – Grahame Cheney, Australian boxer, born in Lithgow, Australia
1995 – Nick Kyrgios, Australian tennis player (Australian Open doubles [Thanasi Kokkinakis] 2022; Wimbledon 2022 runner-up; Hopman Cup 2016), born in Canberra, Australia

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Famous Deaths

1876 – George Aiken, American playwright and actor famous for writing the most popular stage adaptation of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, dies at 45
1996 – William Colby, American C.I.A. director (1973-76), dies at 76
1997 – Paul Lambert, American character actor (Executive Suite, Spartacus), dies at 74
1999 – Cyril Washbrook, English cricket batsman (37 Tests, 6 x 100, HS 195; Lancashire CCC), dies at 84
2002 – Ruth Handler, American toy manufacturer (invented the Barbie doll), dies of cancer at 85

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Famous Deaths for 26th April 2026

1922 – Hans Sommer, German theatre composer, dies at 84
1944 – Violette Morris, French athlete and spy for Nazi Germany, dies at 51
1951 – Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist, dies at 82
1958 – Joan Collette, Dutch graphic artist and painter (New Church, Delft), dies at 68
1965 – Aaron Avshalomov, Russian-Jewish-American composer (Kuan Yin; The Great Wall), conductor (Shanghai Municipal Orchestra, 1943-46), and librarian, dies at 70
1983 – Bronislaw Kaper, Polish-American Academy Award-winning film composer (Green Dolphin Street; Lili; The Brothers Karamazov), dies at 81
2007 – Edward Seidensticker, American historian and translator of Japanese and classical works, dies at 86
2013 – Len Rempt-Halmmans de Jongh, Dutch politician (House of Representatives, 1975-79, 1982–94), dies at 85
2018 – Charles Neville, American vocalist and saxophonist (Neville Brothers), dies of pancreatic cancer at 79
2025 – Andy Bey, American jazz singer and pianist (Horace Silver; Gary Bartz), dies at 85

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Historical Events for 26th April 2026

1819 – Odd Fellows Lodge forms
1912 – First home run hit at Fenway Park by Hugh Bradley of the Red Sox
1956 – First modern container ship, the Ideal X, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas
1967 – Jule Styne, Adolph Green and Betty Comden’s musical “Hallelujah, Baby!”, starring Leslie Uggams, opens at Martin Beck Theater, NYC; runs for 293 performances and wins 2 Tony Awards
1976 – Pan Am begins nonstop flights between NYC and Tokyo
1983 – San Antonio spurs beat Denver Nuggets, 152-133 in NBA playoff game
1994 – Physicists announce the first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle
2012 – NFL Draft: Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck first pick by Indianapolis Colts

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Today in History for 26th April 2026

Historical Events

1906 – Motion pictures begin regular showings at the Orpheum Theater in Honolulu, Hawaii
1996 – Shaun Pollock takes 4 wkts in 4 balls for Warwickshire in BandH
2014 – Oratorio for chorus evoking Pennsylvania coal-mining life “Anthracite Fields” by composer Julia Wolfe premieres in Philadelphia (Pulitzer Prize for Music 2015)
2019 – Six suspected militants connected to Sri Lankan terror attacks killed along with ten others in a shootout with police in Sainthamaruthu
2023 – Brazilian Portuguese-language Michaelis dictionary adds “pelé” as a new adjective to its online edition, meaning “exceptional, incomparable, unique”

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Famous Birthdays

1798 – Eugène Delacroix, French painter and etcher (Journal), born in Charenton-Saint-Maurice, Île-de-France, France (d. 1863)
1931 – Bernie Brillstein, American talent agent, manager and producer (The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 2008)
1955 – Mike Scott, American baseball pitcher (NL Cy Young Award and NLCS MVP 1986, NL wins leader 1989; 3 × MLB All-Star Houston Astros), born in Santa Monica, California
1957 – Rosa Briceño, Venezuelan conductor, and educator, born in Caracas, Venezuela (d. 2018)
1975 – Joey Jordison, American drummer (Slipknot, 1995-2013 – “All Hope Is Gone”), born in Des Moines, Iowa (d. 2021)

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Famous Deaths

1196 – Alfonso II, King of Aragon (1162-96), dies at 39
1984 – May McAvoy, American actress (Ben Hur), dies from heart attack at 84
2003 – Max Nicholson, Irish environmentalist, dies at 98
2017 – Jonathan Demme, American film director (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia), dies at 73
2021 – Al Schmitt, American Grammy Award-winning recording engineer and record producer (Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand), dies at 91

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Famous Deaths for 25th April 2026

1295 – Sancho IV, the Brave, scholar/king of Castile/Leon, dies
1828 – Johannes Goldberg, Dutch politician and first Agent of the National Economy, dies at 64
1911 – Emilio Salgari, Italian novelist (b. 1862)
1946 – Joseph Vine, cricketer (batted in two Tests Eng v Aust 1911-12), dies
1949 – Jankel Adler, Polish painter and printmaker, dies at 53
1972 – George Sanders, Russian actor (All About Eve-Academy Award 1950), commits suicide at 65
1995 – Ginger Rogers [Virginia McMath], American vaudeville, stage and screen dancer, singer (Top Hat), and Academy Award-winning actress (Kitty Foyle; Stage Door), dies at 83
1999 – Michael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin, Irish journalist, author, sports official and 6th President of the International Olympic Committee (1972-80), dies at 84
2023 – Sir Winfried Bischoff, German-British banker and chairman of Lloyds Banking Group, dies at 81
2023 – Vera Krepkina, Russian athlete (Olympic gold USSR long jump 1960; WR 4×100m relay 1956, tied WR 100m 11.3s 1958), dies at 90

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Historical Events for 25th April 2026

1829 – Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom
1875 – Latest date for measurable snow in NYC (3″)
1901 – Erve Beck hits American League’s 1st home run
1950 – Chuck Cooper becomes the 1st African American to be drafted into the NBA (for Boston Celtics)
1982 – USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1984 – USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
2012 – The United Kingdom dips back into recession after the economy shrank 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012
2018 – Danish inventor Peter Madsen found guilty of killing and desecrating body of journalist Kim Wall aboard submarine, sentenced to life imprisonment

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Today in History for 25th April 2026

Historical Events

1952 – American Bowling Congress approves use of an automatic pinsetter
1955 – Captiol Records releases “In the Wee Small Hours”, the ninth studio album by American vocalist Frank Sinatra; collection of melancholy ballads with arrangements by Nelson Riddle was an early example of a concept album and helped popularize the 12-inch format for non-classical recordings
1959 – St Lawrence Seaway linking Atlantic and the Great Lakes opens to shipping
1994 – Tsutomu Hata elected premier of Japan
2015 – 7.8-magnitude earthquake near Kathmandu in Nepal, killing 8000, leaving over 100,000 homeless, destroying many historic sites

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Famous Birthdays

1867 – Jean Demoor, Belgian physician and physiologist, born in Etterbeek, Belgium (d. 1941)
1869 – Karl Prohaska, Austrian composer, born in Mödling, Austria (d. 1927)
1923 – Anita Björk, Swedish actress (Miss Julie, Loving Couples, Night People), born in Tällberg, Sweden (d. 2012)
1949 – Michael Brown, American musician and songwriter (Don’t Walk Away Renee), born in New York City (d. 2015)
1994 – Sam Fender, English singer-songwriter and actor (Seventeen Going Under), born in South Shields, England

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Famous Deaths

1960 – Amanullah Khan, Emir and King of Afghanistan (1919-28), dies at 67
1969 – Margarita Xirgu, Catalan stage actress, director and political radical (Bloody Wedding, Mariana Pineda), dies at 80
1990 – Dexter Gordon, American jazz tenor saxophonist Go!; The Other Side of ‘Round Midnight), and actor (‘Round Midnight), dies of kidney failure at 67
2000 – Lucien le Cam, French mathematician (b. 1924)
2009 – John J. Marchi, American politician (NY Senate 1957-2006), dies at 87

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Famous Deaths for 24th April 2026

1731 – Daniel Defoe, English novelist (Robinson Crusoe), dies at about 70
1776 – Carolus van de Abeele, Flemish Jesuit, dies at 84
1852 – Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet and leading figure in Russian literature, dies at 69
1945 – Hubert Bath, British film score and light music composer (Cornish Rhapsody), and music director, dies at 61
1957 – Andries Cornelis Dirk de Graeff, Dutch politician (Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies 1926-31), dies at 84
1961 – Lee Moran, American actor (Circus Clown), dies of heart ailment at 72 (b. 1888)
1967 – Frank Overton, American actor (Fail Safe; 12 O’Clock High (TV series, not film)), dies of a heart attack at 49
1988 – Bob Newson, South African cricket fast bowler (3 Tests, 4 wickets; Transvaal; Rhodesia), dies at 87
2000 – Alma Heflin, American commercial airplane test pilot and child psychologist, dies at 89
2021 – Christa Ludwig, German soprano (Vienna State Opera, 1955-94; Metropolitan Opera, 1959-93), dies at 93

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Historical Events for 24th April 2026

1288 – Jews of Troyes France are accused of ritual murder
1910 – German Catholic youth movement Quickborn forms
1917 – NY Yankees left-handed pitcher George Mogridge no-hits Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Fenway Park
1921 – First municipal elections for men and women in Belgium
1950 – Leonard Bernstein’s musical “Peter Pan”, starring Jean Arthur and Boris Karloff, opens at Imperial Theater, NYC; runs for 320 performances
1955 – Gaullists lose elections in France
1965 – “Comedy in Music-Opus 2” closes at John Golden NYC after 192 performances
1990 – Brian Friel’s stage drama “Dancing at Lughnasa” opens at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland; later wins Olivier Award, Tony Award, and Drama Desk Award for Best Play

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Today in History for 24th April 2026

Historical Events

1910 – German Catholic youth movement Quickborn forms
1915 – Leaders of the Armenian community in Constantinople (now Istanbul) are arrested by Ottoman authorities, and many later killed, marking the start of the Armenian Genocide
1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for ice-trapped ship Endurance
1949 – 3rd Tony Awards: “Death of a Salesman” and “Kiss Me Kate” win
1976 – American composer Steve Reich’s “Music for 16 Musicians,” scored for four pianos, multiple percussion instruments, two clarinets, a violin, a cello, and four wordless and amplified women’s voices, a violin, has its world premiere at Town Hall in New York City

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Famous Birthdays

1743 – Edmund Cartwright, English inventor (power loom), born in Marnham, Nottinghamshire, England (d. 1823)
1904 – Willem De Kooning, Dutch artist (North Atlantic Light), born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1997)
1941 – Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat (Assistant Secretary of State, UN Ambassador) and author, born in New York City (d. 2010)
1948 – Paul Cellucci, American politician, 69th Governor of Massachusetts and former United States Ambassador to Canada, born in Hudson, Massachusetts (d. 2013)
1961 – Roger Mayweather, American boxer, (WBA and lineal super featherweight titles 1983-84, WBC light welterweight 1987-89; IBO light welterweight; IBO welterweight 1994-95), born in Grand Rapids, Michigan (d. 2020)

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Famous Deaths

1776 – Giuseppe Paolucci, Italian composer, dies at 49
1824 – Herman Muntinghe, Dutch theologian and writer (History of Mankind), dies at 71
1948 – Rosita Marstini, actress (I Cover Waterfront, Big Parade), dies at 54
1967 – Frank Overton, American actor (Fail Safe; 12 O’Clock High (TV series, not film)), dies of a heart attack at 49
1988 – Bob Newson, South African cricket fast bowler (3 Tests, 4 wickets; Transvaal; Rhodesia), dies at 87

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