It happened today

April 26, 2018 · 0 Comments

In this week’s offering, we take a look back through history and note some of the interesting happenings from April 26 over the years.

– In 757, Paolo Orsini replaces his brother, Pope Stephen II, as Paul I.
– In 1564, William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. That’s the English Statford, not the nearby Canadian Stratford, for the geographically challenged!
– In 1828, Russia declared war on Turkey in an apparent show of support for Greece’s independence.
In 1859, Dan Sickles is acquitted of murderon grounds of temporary insanity – the first time this defense is used successfully in the United States.
– In 1912, Hugh Bradley of the Boston Red Sox became the first man to hit a homerun at Fenway Park.
– In 1915, Italy secretly signs the Pact of London, along with the UK, France and Russia.
– In 1962, NASA’S Ranger 4 carash lands on the moon.
– In 1982, Argentina surrenders to Great Britain on South Georgia Island, near the Falkland Islands, bringing an end to the brief Falklands Conflict.
– In 1986, the fourth reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power station in the then USSR explodes, killing 31 people and leaving the region a radioactive wasteland.
– In 1993, NBC announces Conan O’Brien to replace David Letterman.
– In 1994, physicists announce the first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle.
– In 2005, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of the country.
– In 2015, Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7 percent of the vote. Is nice!
– In 2017, Gift Ngoepe becomes the first black African to play in Major League Baseball, representing the Pittsburgh Pirates.