On This Day in History April 26, 2018

Historical Events 1478  Pazzi conspirators attack Lorenzo de'Medici and kill Giuliano de'Medici in Florence 1607  1st English colony in American lands at Cape Henry, Virginia 1920  Harlow Shapley and Heber D. Curtis hold "great debate" on the nature of nebulae, galaxies and size of the universe at US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. 1945  Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, leader of France's Vichy collaborationist regime during WW II, arrested for treason 1956  First modern container ship, the Ideal X, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas 1986  World's worst nuclear disaster: 4th reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power station in USSR explodes, 31 die, radioactive contamination reaches much of Western Europe 2005  Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country. More Historical Events Famous Birthdays Frederick Law Olmsted (1822 - 1903) Jet Li 55th Birthday Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180) Rudolf Hess (1894 - 1987) More Famous Birthdays Famous Deaths John Wilkes Booth (1838 - 1865) Lucille Ball (1911 - 1989) More Famous Deaths April 26th: Oscar Wilde Presses Self-Destruct Button When Oscar Wilde sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel over a sodomite slur, he opened the door to social and financial ruin that would lead to his death. Read the Article