April 26

Pre-1600

• 1336 – Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux.
• 1478 – The Pazzi family attack on Lorenzo de' Medici in order to displace the ruling Medici family kills his brother Giuliano during High Mass in Florence Cathedral.
• 1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of birth is unknown).

1601–1900

• 1607 – The Virginia Company colonists make landfall at Cape Henry.
• 1721 – A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.
• 1777 – Sybil Ludington, aged 16, allegedly rode 40 miles (64 km) to alert American colonial forces to the approach of the British regular forces
• 1794 – Battle of Beaumont during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
• 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.
• 1803 – Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist.
• 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon.
• 1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia.
• 1900 – Fires destroy Canadian cities Ottawa and Hull, reducing them to ashes in 12 hours. Twelve thousand people are left without a home.

1901–present

• 1903 – Atlético Madrid Association football club is founded
• 1915 – World War I: Italy secretly signs the Treaty of London pledging to join the Allied Powers.
• 1916 – Easter Rising: Battle of Mount Street Bridge
• 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.
• 1923 – The Duke of York weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.
• 1925 – Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic.
• 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Göring.
• 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain, is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
• 1942 – Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1,549 Chinese miners dead.
• 1943 – The Easter Riots break out in Uppsala, Sweden.
• 1944 – Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
• 1944 – Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.
• 1945 – World War II: Battle of Bautzen: Last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
• 1945 – World War II: Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL and the American troops of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Division, United States Army liberate Baguio as they fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
• 1954 – The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
• 1954 – The first clinical trials of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, Virginia.
• 1956 – SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey, for Houston, Texas.
• 1958 – Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
• 1960 – Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after 12 years of dictatorial rule.
• 1962 – NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
• 1962 – The British space programme launches its first satellite, the Ariel 1.
• 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.
• 1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form the United Republic of Tanzania.
• 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.
• 1966 – A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
• 1970 – The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.
• 1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.
• 1986 – The Chernobyl disaster occurs in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
• 1989 – The deadliest known tornado strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
• 1989 – People's Daily publishes the April 26 Editorial which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests.
• 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.
• 1993 – The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on mission STS-55 to conduct experiments aboard the Spacelab module.
• 1994 – China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
• 1994 – South Africa begins its first multiracial election, which is won by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress.
• 2002 – Robert Steinhäuser kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before committing suicide.
• 2005 – Cedar Revolution: 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 (Syrian occupation of Lebanon).
• 2015 – Nursultan Nazarbayev is re-elected President of Kazakhstan with 97.7% of the vote, one of the biggest vote shares in Kazakhstan's history.

Pre-1600

• 121 – Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (d. 180)
• 757 – Hisham I of Córdoba (d. 796)
• 764 – Al-Hadi, Abbasid caliph (d. 786)
• 1284 – Alice de Toeni, Countess of Warwick (d. 1324)
• 1319 – John II of France (d. 1364)
• 1538 – Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter and academic (d. 1600)
• 1575 – Marie de' Medici, queen of Henry IV of France (d. 1642)

1601–1900

• 1647 – William Ashhurst, English banker, Sheriff of London, Lord Mayor of London and politician (d. 1720)
• 1648 – Peter II of Portugal (d. 1706)
• 1697 – Adam Falckenhagen, German lute player and composer (d. 1754)
• 1710 – Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher and academic (d. 1796)
• 1718 – Esek Hopkins, American commander (d. 1802)
• 1774 – Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist and paleontologist (d. 1853)
• 1782 – Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, Queen of France (d. 1866)
• 1785 – John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist and painter (d. 1851)
• 1787 – Ludwig Uhland, German poet, philologist, and historian (d. 1862)
• 1798 – Eugène Delacroix, French painter and lithographer (d. 1863)
• 1801 – Ambrose Dudley Mann, American politician and diplomat, 1st United States Assistant Secretary of State (d. 1889)
• 1804 – Charles Goodyear, American banker, lawyer, and politician (d. 1876)
• 1822 – Frederick Law Olmsted, American journalist and designer, co-designed Central Park (d. 1903)
• 1834 – Charles Farrar Browne, American author (d. 1867)
• 1856 – Joseph Ward, Australian-New Zealand businessman and politician, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
• 1862 – Edmund C. Tarbell, American painter and educator (d. 1938)
• 1865 – Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish artist (d. 1931)
• 1876 – Ernst Felle, German rower (d. 1959)
• 1877 – James Dooley, Irish-Australian politician, 21st Premier of New South Wales (d. 1950)
• 1878 – Rafael Guízar y Valencia, Mexican bishop and saint (d. 1938)
• 1879 – Eric Campbell, British actor (d. 1917)
• 1879 – Owen Willans Richardson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
• 1886 – Ma Rainey, American singer-songwriter (d. 1939)
• 1886 – Ğabdulla Tuqay, Russian poet and publicist (d. 1913)
• 1889 – Anita Loos, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1981)
• 1889 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-English philosopher and academic (d. 1951)
• 1894 – Rudolf Hess, Egyptian-German politician (d. 1987)
• 1896 – Ruut Tarmo, Estonian actor and director (d. 1967)
• 1896 – Ernst Udet, German colonel and pilot (d. 1941)
• 1897 – Eddie Eagan, American boxer and bobsledder (d. 1967)
• 1897 – Douglas Sirk, German-American director and screenwriter (d. 1987)
• 1898 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
• 1898 – John Grierson, Scottish director and producer (d. 1972)
• 1899 – Oscar Rabin, Latvian-English saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1958)
• 1900 – Eva Aschoff, German bookbinder and calligrapher (d. 1969)
• 1900 – Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist and physicist (d. 1985)
• 1900 – Hack Wilson, American baseball player (d. 1948)

1901–present

• 1904 – Paul-Émile Léger, Canadian cardinal (d. 1991)
• 1904 – Xenophon Zolotas, Greek economist and politician, 177th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2004)
• 1905 – Jean Vigo, French director and screenwriter (d. 1934)
• 1907 – Ilias Tsirimokos, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1968)
• 1909 – Marianne Hoppe, German actress (d. 2002)
• 1910 – Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese screenwriter and producer (d. 1997)
• 1911 – Paul Verner, German soldier and politician (d. 1986)
• 1912 – A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-American author (d. 2000)
• 1914 – Bernard Malamud, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1986)
• 1914 – James Rouse, American real estate developer (d. 1996)
• 1916 – Eyvind Earle, American artist, author, and illustrator (d. 2000)
• 1916 – Ken Wallis, English commander, engineer, and pilot (d. 2013)
• 1916 – Morris West, Australian author and playwright (d. 1999)
• 1917 – Sal Maglie, American baseball player and coach (d. 1992)
• 1917 – I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect, designed the National Gallery of Art and Bank of China Tower (d. 2019)
• 1917 – Virgil Trucks, American baseball player and coach (d. 2013)
• 1918 – Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch sprinter and long jumper (d. 2004)
• 1921 – Jimmy Giuffre, American clarinet player, saxophonist, and composer (d. 2008)
• 1922 – J. C. Holt, English historian and academic (d. 2014)
• 1922 – Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian journalist and politician, Governor General of Canada (d. 1993)
• 1922 – Margaret Scott, South African-Australian ballerina and choreographer (d. 2019)
• 1924 – Browning Ross, American runner and soldier (d. 1998)
• 1925 – Vladimir Boltyansky, Russian mathematician, educator and author (d. 2019)
• 1925 – Gerard Cafesjian, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
• 1925 – Michele Ferrero, Italian entrepreneur (d. 2015)
• 1925 – Frank Hahn, British economist (d. 2013)
• 1926 – Michael Mathias Prechtl, German soldier and illustrator (d. 2003)
• 1927 – Jack Douglas, English actor (d. 2008)
• 1927 – Anne McLaren, British scientist (d. 2007)
• 1927 – Harry Gallatin, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
• 1927 – Granny Hamner, American baseball player (d. 1993)
• 1929 – Richard Mitchell, American author and educator (d. 2002)
• 1930 – Roger Moens, Belgian runner and sportscaster
• 1931 – Paul Almond, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
• 1931 – Bernie Brillstein, American talent agent and producer (d. 2008)
• 1931 – John Cain Jr., Australian politician, 41st Premier of Victoria (d. 2019)
• 1932 – Israr Ahmed, Indian-Pakistani theologian, philosopher, and scholar (d. 2010)
• 1932 – Shirley Cawley, English long jumper
• 1932 – Frank D'Rone, American singer and guitarist (d. 2013)
• 1932 – Francis Lai, French accordion player and composer (d. 2018)
• 1932 – Michael Smith, English-Canadian biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
• 1933 – Carol Burnett, American actress, singer, and producer
• 1933 – Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Puerto Rican-American general (d. 2005)
• 1933 – Arno Allan Penzias, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2024)
• 1937 – Jean-Pierre Beltoise, French racing driver and motorcycle racer (d. 2015)
• 1938 – Duane Eddy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2024)
• 1938 – Maurice Williams, American doo-wop/R&B singer-songwriter
• 1940 – Giorgio Moroder, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
• 1940 – Cliff Watson, English rugby league player (d. 2018)
• 1941 – Claudine Auger, French model and actress (d. 2019)
• 1942 – Svyatoslav Belza, Russian journalist, author, and critic (d. 2014)
• 1942 – Sharon Carstairs, Canadian lawyer and politician, Leader of the Government in the Senate
• 1942 – Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat, Canadian Ambassador to the United States
• 1942 – Bobby Rydell, American singer and actor (d. 2022)
• 1942 – Jadwiga Staniszkis, Polish sociologist, political scientist, and academic (d. 2024)
• 1943 – Gary Wright, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 2023)
• 1943 – Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect and academic, designed the Therme Vals
• 1944 – Richard Bradshaw, English conductor (d. 2007)
• 1945 – Howard Davies, English director and producer (d. 2016)
• 1945 – Dick Johnson, Australian racing driver
• 1945 – Sylvain Simard, Canadian academic and politician
• 1946 – Ralph Coates, English international footballer (d. 2010)
• 1946 – Marilyn Nelson, American poet and author
• 1946 – Alberto Quintano, Chilean footballer
• 1949 – Carlos Bianchi, Argentinian footballer and manager
• 1949 – Jerry Blackwell, American wrestler (d. 1995)
• 1950 – Junko Ohashi, Japanese singer (d. 2023)
• 1951 – John Battle, English politician
• 1954 – Tatyana Fomina, Estonian chess player
• 1954 – Alan Hinkes, English mountaineer and explorer
• 1955 – Kurt Bodewig, German politician
• 1956 – Koo Stark, American actress and photographer
• 1958 – John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, Scottish racing driver (d. 2021)
• 1958 – Giancarlo Esposito, American actor, director, and producer
• 1958 – Georgios Kostikos, Greek footballer, coach, and manager
• 1959 – John Corabi, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1959 – Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rican politician
• 1960 – H. G. Carrillo, American writer and academic (d. 2020)
• 1960 – Steve Lombardozzi, American baseball player and coach
• 1960 – Roger Taylor, English drummer
• 1961 – Joan Chen, Chinese-American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1961 – Chris Mars, American artist
• 1962 – Colin Anderson, English footballer
• 1962 – Debra Wilson, American actress and comedian
• 1963 – Jet Li, Chinese-Singaporean martial artist, actor, and producer
• 1963 – Colin Scotts, Australian-American football player
• 1963 – Cornelia Ullrich, German hurdler
• 1963 – Bill Wennington, Canadian basketball player
• 1965 – Susannah Harker, English actress
• 1965 – Kevin James, American actor and comedian
• 1967 – Glenn Thomas Jacobs, American professional wrestler, actor, businessman and politician
• 1967 – Marianne Jean-Baptiste, English actress and singer-songwriter
• 1967 – Toomas Tõniste, Estonian sailor and politician
• 1970 – Dean Austin, English footballer and manager
• 1970 – Melania Trump, Slovene-American model; 47th First Lady of the United States
• 1970 – Kristen R. Ghodsee, American ethnographer and academic
• 1970 – Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
• 1971 – Naoki Tanaka, Japanese comedian and actor
• 1971 – Jay DeMarcus, American bass player, songwriter, and producer
• 1972 – Jason Bargwanna, Australian racing driver
• 1972 – Kiko, Spanish footballer
• 1972 – Natrone Means, American football player and coach
• 1972 – Avi Nimni, Israeli footballer and manager
• 1973 – Geoff Blum, American baseball player and sportscaster
• 1973 – Jules Naudet, French-American director and producer
• 1973 – Chris Perry, English footballer
• 1973 – Óscar, Spanish footballer and coach
• 1975 – Joey Jordison, American musician and songwriter (d. 2021)
• 1975 – Rahul Verma, Indian social worker and activist
• 1976 – Václav Varaďa, Czech ice hockey player
• 1977 – Samantha Cristoforetti, Italian astronaut
• 1977 – Kosuke Fukudome, Japanese baseball player
• 1977 – Roxana Saberi, American journalist and author
• 1977 – Tom Welling, American actor
• 1978 – Stana Katic, Canadian actress
• 1978 – Peter Madsen, Danish footballer
• 1980 – Jordana Brewster, Panamanian-American actress
• 1980 – Marlon King, English footballer
• 1980 – Anna Mucha, Polish actress and journalist
• 1980 – Channing Tatum, American actor and producer
• 1981 – Caro Emerald, Dutch pop and jazz singer
• 1981 – Ms. Dynamite, English rapper and producer
• 1981 – Sandra Schmitt, German skier (d. 2000)
• 1982 – Novlene Williams-Mills, Jamaican sprinter
• 1983 – José María López, Argentinian racing driver
• 1983 – Jessica Lynch, American soldier
• 1985 – John Isner, American tennis player
• 1986 – Lior Refaelov, Israeli footballer
• 1986 – Yuliya Zaripova, Russian runner
• 1987 – Jorge Andújar Moreno, Spanish footballer
• 1989 – Melvin Ingram, American football player
• 1989 – Kang Daesung, South Korean singer
• 1990 – Jonathan dos Santos, Mexican footballer
• 1990 – Mitch Rein, Australian rugby league player
• 1990 – Nevin Spence, Northern Irish rugby player (d. 2012)
• 1990 – Joey Wendle, American baseball player
• 1991 – Peter Handscomb, Australian cricketer
• 1991 – Isaac Liu, New Zealand rugby league player
• 1992 – Aaron Judge, American baseball player
• 1992 – Delon Wright, American basketball player
• 1994 – Daniil Kvyat, Russian racing driver
• 1994 – Odysseas Vlachodimos, Greek international footballer
• 1996 – Jordan Pefok, American footballer
• 2001 – Thiago Almada, Argentine footballer

Pre-1600

• 499 – Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei (b. 467)
• 645 – Richarius, Frankish monk and saint (b. 560)
• 680 – Mu'awiya I, Umayyad caliph (b. 602)
• 757 – Pope Stephen II (b. 715)
• 893 – Chen Jingxuan, general of the Tang Dynasty
• 962 – Adalbero I, bishop of Metz
• 1192 – Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (b. 1127)
• 1366 – Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1392 – Jeong Mong-ju, Korean civil minister, diplomat and scholar (b. 1338)
• 1444 – Robert Campin, Flemish painter (b. 1378)
• 1478 – Giuliano de' Medici, Italian ruler (b. 1453)
• 1489 – Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shōgun (b. 1465)
• 1558 – Jean Fernel, French physician (b. 1497)

1601–1900

• 1686 – Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, Swedish statesman and military man (b. 1622)
• 1716 – John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, English jurist and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1651)
• 1784 – Nano Nagle, Irish nun and educator, founded the Presentation Sisters (b. 1718)
• 1789 – Petr Ivanovich Panin, Russian general (b. 1721)
• 1809 – Bernhard Schott, German music publisher (b. 1748)
• 1865 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1838)
• 1881 – Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, German general (b. 1815)
• 1895 – Eric Stenbock, Estonian-English author and poet (b. 1860)

1901–present

• 1910 – Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian-French author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1832)
• 1915 – John Bunny, American actor (b. 1863)
• 1915 – Ida Hunt Udall, American diarist (b. 1858)
• 1916 – Mário de Sá-Carneiro, Portuguese poet and writer (b. 1890)
• 1920 – Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician and theorist (b. 1887)
• 1932 – William Lockwood, English cricketer (b. 1868)
• 1934 – Arturs Alberings, Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia (b. 1876)
• 1940 – Carl Bosch, German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
• 1944 – Violette Morris, French footballer, shot putter, and discus thrower (b. 1893)
• 1945 – Sigmund Rascher, German physician (b. 1909)
• 1945 – Pavlo Skoropadskyi, German-Ukrainian general and politician, Hetman of Ukraine (b. 1871)
• 1946 – James Larkin White, American miner, explorer, and park ranger (b. 1882)
• 1950 – George Murray Hulbert, American lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1881)
• 1951 – Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist and academic (b. 1868)
• 1956 – Edward Arnold, American actor (b. 1890)
• 1957 – Gichin Funakoshi, Japanese martial artist, founded Shotokan (b. 1868)
• 1964 – E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet and author (b. 1882)
• 1968 – John Heartfield, German illustrator and photographer (b. 1891)
• 1969 – Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, founded aikido (b. 1883)
• 1970 – Erik Bergman, Swedish minister and author (b. 1886)
• 1970 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress, striptease dancer, and writer (b. 1911)
• 1973 – Irene Ryan, American actress and philanthropist (b. 1902)
• 1976 – Sidney Franklin, American bullfighter (b. 1903)
• 1976 – Sid James, South African-English actor (b. 1913)
• 1976 – Armstrong Sperry, American author and illustrator (b. 1897)
• 1980 – Cicely Courtneidge, Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer (b. 1893)
• 1981 – Jim Davis, American actor (b. 1909)
• 1984 – Count Basie, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1904)
• 1986 – Broderick Crawford, American actor (b. 1911)
• 1986 – Bessie Love, American actress (b. 1898)
• 1986 – Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (b. 1899)
• 1987 – Shankar, Indian composer and conductor (b. 1922)
• 1987 – John Silkin, English lawyer and politician, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons (b. 1923)
• 1989 – Lucille Ball, American model, actress, comedian, and producer (b. 1911)
• 1991 – Leo Arnaud, French-American composer and conductor (b. 1904)
• 1991 – Carmine Coppola, American composer and conductor (b. 1910)
• 1991 – A. B. Guthrie, Jr., American novelist and historian, (b. 1901)
• 1991 – Richard Hatfield, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1931)
• 1994 – Masutatsu Ōyama, Japanese martial artist, founded Kyokushin kaikan (b. 1923)
• 1996 – Stirling Silliphant, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1918)
• 1999 – Adrian Borland, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1957)
• 1999 – Jill Dando, English journalist and television personality (b. 1961)
• 2003 – Rosemary Brown, Jamaican-Canadian academic and politician (b. 1930)
• 2003 – Yun Hyon-seok, South Korean poet and author (b. 1984)
• 2003 – Edward Max Nicholson, Irish environmentalist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (b. 1904)
• 2004 – Hubert Selby, Jr., American author, poet, and screenwriter (b. 1928)
• 2005 – Mason Adams, American actor (b. 1919)
• 2005 – Elisabeth Domitien, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (b. 1925)
• 2005 – Maria Schell, Austrian-Swiss actress (b. 1926)
• 2005 – Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan journalist, author, and academic (b. 1917)
• 2007 – Jack Valenti, American businessman, created the MPAA film rating system (b. 1921)
• 2008 – Árpád Orbán, Hungarian footballer (b. 1938)
• 2009 – Hans Holzer, Austrian-American paranormal investigator and author (b. 1920)
• 2010 – Mariam A. Aleem, Egyptian graphic designer and academic (b. 1930)
• 2010 – Urs Felber, Swiss engineer and businessman (b. 1942)
• 2011 – Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1950)
• 2012 – Terence Spinks, English boxer and trainer (b. 1938)
• 2013 – Jacqueline Brookes, American actress and educator (b. 1930)
• 2013 – George Jones, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1931)
• 2013 – Earl Silverman, Canadian men's rights advocate (b. 1948)
• 2014 – Gerald Guralnik, American physicist and academic (b. 1936)
• 2014 – Paul Robeson, Jr., American historian and author (b. 1927)
• 2014 – DJ Rashad, American electronic musician, producer and DJ (b. 1979)
• 2015 – Jayne Meadows, American actress (b. 1919)
• 2015 – Marcel Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1930)
• 2016 – Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist (b. 1937)
• 2017 – Jonathan Demme, American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter (b. 1944)
• 2022 – Klaus Schulze, German composer and musician (b. 1947)
• 2023 – Jerry Apodaca, American politician, 24th Governor of New Mexico (b. 1934)
• 2023 – Tangaraju Suppiah, Singaporean drug trafficker (b. 1977)

• Chernobyl disaster related observances:
  • Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy (Belarus)
  • Memorial Day of Radiation Accidents and Catastrophes (Russia)
• Christian feast day:
  • Aldobrandesca (or Alda)
  • Franca Visalta
  • Lucidius of Verona
  • Our Lady of Good Counsel
  • Pope Anacletus and Marcellinus
  • Rafael Arnáiz Barón
  • Riquier
  • Paschasius Radbertus
  • Peter of Rates (or of Braga)
  • Robert Hunt (Episcopal Church (USA))
  • Stephen of Perm, see also Old Permic Alphabet Day
  • Trudpert
  • April 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Confederate Memorial Day (Florida, United States)
• Union Day (Tanzania)
• World Intellectual Property Day

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• Historical Events on April 26