On This Day: 26 April

Italian poet Petrarch climbs Mont Ventoux (1,909 metres, 6,263 feet) – according to his "possibly fictitious" account, written around 1350		1336
William Shakespeare is baptised in Stratford–upon–Avon		1564
English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia		1607
Great Plague begins in London		1665
John Wilkes Booth is shot dead by troops while trying to escape		1865
General Johnston surrenders at Durham Station		1865
John Wilkes Booth is shot dead by troops while trying to escape; General Johnston surrenders at Durham Station		1865
French art critic Louis Leroy coins the term 'Impressionism'		1874
British forces occupy Port Hamilton (So–Do), Korea		1885
Canadian cities of Hull and Ottawa swept by fire		1900
London's first motor cycle patrols begin operating		1921
Duke of York (later King George VI) marries Lady Elizabeth Bowes–Lyon, in Westminster Abbey		1923
Paul von Hindenburg becomes the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic		1925
Madame Tussaud's new building in London opens		1928
The Gestapo, Nazi Germany's official secret police force, is established		1933
German planes bomb Guernica in the Spanish Civil War		1937
Soviet and US troops meet near Torgau in eastern Germany		1944
FA Cup Final (Charlton v. Burnley): the ball bursts for the second consecutive year. Charlton (last year's losing finalists) win 1–0 after extra time		1947
Cubans invade Panama		1959
Revolt in the French army fails; leaders arrested		1961
NASA lands a spacecraft on the Moon for the first time – the Ranger IV rocket (sic) – but it fails to send back any pictures after all power on board failed two hours after launch		1962
Tanganyika and Zanzibar unite to form Tanzania		1964
Mario Soares, leader of Portugal's Socialist Party, emerges as the winner		1975
Labour party members vote to leave the EU, by almost a two–thirds majority		1975
Ronald Reagan begins a six–day visit to China – the first by a US president since Nixon in 1972		1984
Nuclear reactor melts down in Chernobyl, Ukraine (USSR)		1986
Bells ring out from the walled Kremlin for the first time since the Bolsheviks vowed to crush Christianity for ever, as Russians celebrate Orthodox Easter		1992
HM Government announces that the recession is over, after new figures show growth in the economy for the first time in two years		1993
South Africa holds its first all–race elections for the National Assembly and provincial parliaments		1994
TV presenter Jill Dando shot dead on the doorstep of her Fulham home		1999
Home Secretary Jack Straw witnesses nine people being caught attempting to enter the UK illegally as he inspects immigration procedures in Dover		2000
A 19–year–old failed student shoots dead 17 people, including 14 teachers, at the Johann Gutenberg grammar school in Erfurt, eastern Germany		2002
Attorney General Lord Goldsmith orders an enquiry into the handling of the Damilola Taylor murder case after all four defendants are acquitted		2002
Six British plane spotters sentenced to three years in jail in Kalamata, Greece, for spying (but are allowed to fly home while their lawyers appeal)		2002
Syria pulls the last of 14,000 troops out of Lebanon after occupying the country for 29 years		2005
The Daily Mirror reveals that deputy prime minister John Prescott, 67, had a two–year affair with his diary secretary Tracey Temple, 43		2006
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt is booed by the annual conference of the Royal College of Nursing in Bournemouth after she insists that there are now more nurses, shorter waiting times, and better results in the NHS than ever before		2006
American comedian Bill Cosby is found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Canadian basketball star Andrea Constand, 30 years his junior (one of 60 women to accuse him of similar offences); he was later (25 September) sentenced to between three and ten years in prison		2018

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On This Day: 26 April