Today In History For April 26th

Today is Tuesday, April 26, the 116th day of 2011. There are 249 days left in the year.

On April 26, 1986, a major nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl (chur-NOH'-bul) plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) as an explosion and fire caused radioactive fallout to begin
spewing into the atmosphere. At least 31 people died fighting the plant fire, but the number of other deaths resulting from the disaster remains in dispute.

In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va., and killed.

In 1961, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit the first of his 61 home runs during a 162-game season (compared to Babe Ruth's 60 home runs during a 154-game season) as he hit a roundtripper off Paul Foytack at Tiger Stadium.