Tuesday, April 26

This Day In History

• 1607   An expedition of English colonists went ashore at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
• 1785   Naturalist and artist John James Audubon was born in Haiti.
• 1865   John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded and killed by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va.
• 1900   Seismologist Charles Richter was born in Hamilton, Ohio.
• 1921   Weather broadcasts were heard for the first time on radio when WEW in St. Louis, MO aired weather news. Weather forecasts continue to be the top reason why people listen to radio; rating higher than music, news, sports and commercials! A sunny day to you wherever you may be on the planet...
• 1937   Planes from Nazi Germany raided the Basque 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   The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.
• 1986 The world's worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere; at least 31 Soviets died immediately.
• 1989   Actress-comedian Lucille Ball died at age 77.
• 1998   Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, a leading human rights activist in Guatemala, 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.
• 2001   Junichiro Koizumi was elected prime minister of Japan by the lower house of Japan's parliament.
• 2002   An expelled student went on a shooting rampage at a school in Erfurt, Germany, killing 17 people, including himself.

Happy Birthday To

• 1785   John James Audubon (ornithologist, artist: the original Birdman; died Jan 27, 1851)
• 1822   Frederick Law Olmsted (landscape architect: Yosemite National Park, Central Park in New York City and other city parks in Boston, MA, Hartford, CT and Louisville, KY; died Aug 28, 1903)
• 1933   Carol Burnett (Emmy Award-winning comedienne, actress: Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall [1962-1963], Carol & Company [1962-1963], Mad About You [1996-1997]; The Carol Burnett Show, Carol Burnett and Friends, The Garry Moore Show)