April 26th

Today's Highlight in History:
On April 26th, 1986, the world's worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire killed at least 31 people and sent radioactivity into the atmosphere.

On this date:
In 1607, an expedition of English colonists, including Captain John Smith, went ashore at Cape Henry, Virginia, to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

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

In 1900, seismologist Charles Richter, who devised the earthquake-measuring scale that bears his name, was born in Hamilton, Ohio.

In 1937, planes from Nazi Germany raided the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

In 1945, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War Two, was arrested.

In 1961, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit the first of a record 61 home runs in a single season.

In 1964, the African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.

In 1968, the United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a one-megaton nuclear device called "Boxcar."

In 1970, the Broadway musical "Company" opened at the Alvin Theatre in New York.

In 1980, following an unsuccessful attempt by the United States to rescue the US Embassy hostages in Iran, the Tehran government announced the captives were being scattered to thwart any future rescue effort.

Ten years ago: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, leader of the right-wing Likud bloc, was chosen to form a new government after Labor Party leader Shimon Peres failed in his attempt to form a coalition.

Five years ago: One week after the Oklahoma City bombing, Americans observed a minute of silence in honor of the victims.

One year ago: The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Cornelio Sommaruga, met with three US soldiers held captive by Yugoslavia. BBC anchorwoman Jill Dando, the host of a crime-fighting program, was fatally shot on the steps of her London home.

"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called."

-- John Stuart Mill, English political philosopher (1806-1873).