Events for April 26
1920 – Ice hockey makes its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games with center Frank Fredrickson scoring seven goals in Canada's 12–1 drubbing of Sweden in the gold medal match.
1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.
1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Göring.
1991 – Fifty-five tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado.
1994 – South Africa begins its first multiracial election, which is won by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress.
1962 – The British space programme launches its first satellite, the Ariel 1.
1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France.
1721 – A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.
1336 – Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux.
1915 – World War I: Italy secretly signs the Treaty of London pledging to join the Allied Powers.
1993 – The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on mission STS-55 to conduct experiments aboard the Spacelab module.
1944 – Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.
1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form the United Republic of Tanzania.
1954 – The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
1966 – The magnitude 5.1 Tashkent earthquake affects the largest city in Soviet Central Asia with a maximum MSK intensity of VII (Very strong). Tashkent is mostly destroyed and 15–200 are killed.
1945 – World War II: Battle of Bautzen: Last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of birth is unknown).
1943 – The Easter Riots break out in Uppsala, Sweden.
1966 – A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
1903 – Atlético Madrid Association football club is founded
1954 – The first clinical trials of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, Virginia.
1986 – The Chernobyl disaster occurs in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
1963 – In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
Notable Births & Deaths for April 26
2001 – Thiago Almada, Argentine footballer
2023 – Jerry Apodaca, American politician, 24th Governor of New Mexico (b. 1934)
2015 – Jayne Meadows, American actress (b. 1919)
1991 – Ignacio Lores Varela, Uruguayan footballer
2013 – Jacqueline Brookes, American actress and educator (b. 1930)
2005 – Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan journalist, author, and academic (b. 1917)
2017 – Jonathan Demme, American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter (b. 1944)
2014 – Paul Robeson, Jr., American historian and author (b. 1927)
1990 – Mitch Rein, Australian rugby league player
1988 – Manuel Viniegra, Mexican footballer
1991 – Wojciech Pszczolarski, Polish bicycle racer
1987 – Jorge Andújar Moreno, Spanish footballer
1988 – Gareth Evans, English footballer
1991 – Srdjan Pejicic, Canadian/Bosnian basketball player
1986 – Yuliya Zaripova, Russian runner
2007 – Jack Valenti, American businessman, created the MPAA film rating system (b. 1921)
2005 – Elisabeth Domitien, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (b. 1925)
2022 – Klaus Schulze, German composer and musician (b. 1947)
2012 – Terence Spinks, English boxer and trainer (b. 1938)
1985 – John Isner, American tennis player
1989 – Melvin Ingram, American football player
1991 – Isaac Liu, New Zealand rugby league player
2010 – Urs Felber, Swiss engineer and businessman (b. 1942)
2015 – Marcel Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1930)
1985 – Andrea Koch Benvenuto, Chilean tennis player
1996 – Jordan Pefok, American footballer
2005 – Maria Schell, Austrian-Swiss actress (b. 1926)
2010 – Mariam A. Aleem, Egyptian graphic designer and academic (b. 1930)
1994 – Daniil Kvyat, Russian racing driver
2013 – George Jones, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1931)
2005 – Mason Adams, American actor (b. 1919)
1991 – Peter Handscomb, Australian cricketer
2002 – Meagan Best, Barbadian squash player
2023 – Tangaraju Suppiah, Singaporean drug trafficker (b. 1977)
2011 – Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1950)
1992 – Delon Wright, American basketball player
2013 – Earl Silverman, Canadian men's rights advocate (b. 1948)
1989 – Kang Daesung, South Korean singer
2014 – Gerald Guralnik, American physicist and academic (b. 1936)
2008 – Árpád Orbán, Hungarian footballer (b. 1938)
1990 – Nevin Spence, Northern Irish rugby player (d. 2012)
1991 – Lazaros Fotias, Greek footballer
2009 – Hans Holzer, Austrian-American paranormal investigator and author (b. 1920)
1986 – Lior Refaelov, Israeli footballer
2014 – DJ Rashad, American electronic musician, producer and DJ (b. 1979)
1992 – Aaron Judge, American baseball player
Quick Start
Our API is incredibly easy to use, check out the code samples below to get started:
Fetch Historical Events
All you need to do is send a request to https://today.zenquotes.io/api/[month]/[day]/[key] in order to generate a JSON array of historical events, including notable births and deaths. API data pulled from WikiPedia.
*[key] not required but recommended.
Sample Requests
https://today.zenquotes.io/api - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for current server time (UTC).
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/1/1 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for January 1.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/5/5 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for May 5.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/12/25 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for December 25.
Response
The result data is formatted as a JSON array, grouped by event type.
{ "info":"OnThisDay API", "date":"April_20", "updated":"1615972324",
"data":{
"Events":[
{
"text":"1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.[1]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1303\" title=\"1303\">1303</a> – The <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapienza_University_of_Rome\" title=\"Sapienza University of Rome\">Sapienza University of Rome</a> is instituted by a <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_bull\" title=\"Papal bull\">bull</a> of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII\" title=\"Pope Boniface VIII\">Pope Boniface VIII</a>."
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Births":[
{
"text":"1494 – Johannes Agricola, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)[8]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1494\" title=\"1494\">1494</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Agricola\" title=\"Johannes Agricola\">Johannes Agricola</a>, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)"
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Deaths":[
{
"text":"689 – Cædwalla, king of Wessex (b. 659)[21]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/689\" title=\"689\">689</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A6dwalla_of_Wessex\" title=\"Cædwalla of Wessex\">Cædwalla</a>, king of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex\" title=\"Wessex\">Wessex</a> (b. 659)" },
//.. MORE DATA ..//
}
]
} }Usage Limits and Attribution
Requests are restricted to 5 per 30 second period, an API key or registered IP is required for unlimited access and to enable Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers. We require that you show attribution with a link back to https://today.zenquotes.io/ when using the free version of this API. Contact support@zenquotes.io to chat with our friendly dev team and get registered.
Historical event data provided by <a href="https://today.zenquotes.io/" target="_blank">ZenQuotes.io</a>