TODAY IN HISTORY

Today

is Friday, April 26, the 117th day of 2024. There are 249 days left in the year.

Today’⏶ Highlight in Hi⏶tory:

On April 26, 1986, an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine caused radioactive fallout to begin spewing into the atmosphere. (Dozens of people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster while the long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is believed to number in the thousands.)

On thi⏶ date:

In 1607, English colonists went ashore at present-day Cape Henry, Virginia, on an expedition to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Port Royal, Virginia, and killed.

In 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.)

In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.

In 1968, the United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a 1.3 megaton nuclear device called “Boxcar.”

In 1984, bandleader Count Basie, 79, died in Hollywood, Florida.

In 1994, voting began in South Africa’s first allrace elections, resulting in victory for the African National Congress and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president.

Today’⏶ Birthday⏶: Actor-comedian Carol Burnett is 91. R&B singer Maurice Williams is 86. Rock musician Roger Taylor (Duran Duran) is 64. Actor Joan Chen is 63. Actor Jet Li (lee) is 61. Former first lady Melania Trump is 54.