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.

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 punishment".

Friday 26th of April 1872

Actor and film director William Desmond Taylor is born as William Cunningham Deane-Tanner in Evington House, Carlow, Leinster, Ireland.

Friday 26th of April 1889

Philosopher Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein is born in Wittgenstein Palace, Alleegasse 16, Wien, Wien, Austria-Hungary.

Thursday 26th of April 1894

Nazi leader and Stellvertreter des Führers Rudolf Walter Richard Hess is born in Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt.

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.

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.

Wednesday 26th of April 1905

Film director Jean Vigo is born in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Tuesday 26th of April 1910

Silent film actress Lingyu Ruan is born as Ruan Fenggen in Shanghai, China.

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."

Saturday 26th of April 1924

18-year-old 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.

Sunday 26th of April 1925

Chocolate maker Michele Ferrero known for inventing Nutella chocolate paste is born in Dogliani, Piemonte, Italy.

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."

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.

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.

Tuesday 26th of April 1938

Guitarist Duane Eddy is born in Corning, New York, United States.

Sunday 26th of April 1942

1.549 die in coal mine dust explosion in Honkeiko Colliery, Benxi, Liaoning, China.

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.

Friday 26th of April 1946

Multiple murderer Justin Lee May is born in Holmes County, Mississippi, United States.

Tuesday 26th of April 1949

Murderer, cannibal and writer Issei Sagawa aka The Loving Cannibal is born in Kobe, Honshu Island, Japan.

Wednesday 26th of April 1950

Imaginary serial killer Sture Ragnar Bergwall aka Thomas Quick aka Sätermannen is born in Falun, Källviken, Dalarna, Sweden.

Saturday 26th of April 1952

176 die in USS Hobson destroyer and USS Wasp aircraft carrier collision in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Sunday 26th of April 1959

Mass murderer Dirk De Winne is born in Scheldewindeke, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Friday 26th of April 1968

Collage artist John Heartfield dies of unknown causes at the age of 77 in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Saturday 26th of April 1969

Double murderess Teresa Wilson Bean Lewis is born in Danville, Virginia, United States.

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.

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.

Thursday 26th of April 1984

23-year-old Teresa Watson aka Nicole is found shot dead by serial killer Robert Hansen aka The Aviation Hunter in Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, United States.

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.

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.

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 considered 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 outside of the building.

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."

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 Los Angeles, Highland Park, California, United States.

Selby refused morphine on his deathbed although he was in pain.

Tuesday 26th of April 2005

Scenes of daily life in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia.

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.

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 New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.