On This Day in History - April 26th - Almanac

Today is Wednesday, April 26, the 116th day of 2017 with 249 to follow.

The moon is new. Morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Venus. Evening stars are Mercury, Mars and Jupiter.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Scottish philosopher David Hume in 1711; naturalist John James Audubon in 1785; German industrialist Alfred Krupp in 1812; landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1822; author Anita Loos in 1893; Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy, in 1894; inventor Charles Richter, responsible for the Richter scale of earthquake measurement, in 1900; baseball Hall of Fame member Hack Wilson in 1900; writer A.E. van Vogt in 1912; writer Bernard Malamud in 1914; architect I.M. Pei in 1917 (age 100); actor/comedian Carol Burnett in 1933 (age 84); guitarist Duane Eddy in 1938 (age 79); pop singer Bobby Rydell in 1942 (age 75); actor Giancarlo Esposito in 1958 (age 59); actor Joan Chen in 1961 (age 56); actor Kevin James in 1965 (age 52); first lady Melania Trump in 1970 (age 47).

On this day in history:

In 1607, the first British colonists to establish a permanent settlement in America landed at Cape Henry, Va.

In 1933, Nazi Germany's secret police, better known as the Gestapo, is formed by Hermann Göring.

In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, German-made planes destroyed the Basque town of Guernica, Spain.

In 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged, forming the country of Tanzania.

In 1986, a fire and explosion at the Soviet Union's Chernobyl nuclear reactor north of Kiev, Ukraine, resulted in the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster. About 30 deaths were reported in the days following the accident. It is believed that hundreds of people eventually died from high doses of radiation from the plant and that thousands of cases of cancer could be linked to the crisis.

In 1994, South Africans began going to the polls in the country's first election that was open to all. Four days of voting would elect Nelson Mandela president.

In 2002, a German youth who had been expelled from the Gutenberg school in Erfurt, Germany, returned to the school and shot 16 people to death.

In 2005, the last of Syria's troops left Lebanon, ending a 29-year military presence.

In 2007, New Hampshire lawmakers approved a measure legalizing civil unions between same-sex couples.

In 2010, longtime Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, sought by the International Criminal Court in connection with reputed crimes against humanity in the Darfur section of western Sudan, was re-elected president in a controversial vote.

In 2011, Mexican authorities announced the discovery of mass graves containing nearly 300 bodies. The dead were believed to be victims of drug wars that had claimed close to 35,000 lives since 2006.

In 2012, a U.N.-backed court convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor of war crimes, including murder, acts of terrorism, rape, sexual slavery and use of child soldiers, for aiding rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

In 2013, law enforcement officers in Turkey captured accused drug kingpin Cumhur Yakut, "the father of godfathers," who had been wanted by Interpol and by the United States for 13 years.

A thought for the day: Joyce Brothers said, "The best proof of love is trust."