April 26: This Day in History

Today in History Featured Fact, 1986:
Thirty-one people die when the worst nuclear disaster in history occurs at Chernobyl, USSR; an unknown number die subsequently of radiation sickness and cancer caused by fallout. The disaster turns public opinion against nuclear energy.

Also Today:
1607: The first British to establish an American colony land at Cape Henry, VA.
1655: The Dutch West Indies Company denies Peter Stuyvesant's request to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam (the future New York).
1937: The German Luftwaffe destroys the Basque town of Guernica in Spain.
1954: A successful nationwide test of the Salk polio vaccine begins.
1968: Students seize the administration building at Ohio State to protest the Vietnam War.
1977: Studio 54, the famous (and infamous) disco, opens in New York City.

April is National Poetry Month. Today:
1564: William Shakespeare, the greatest English poet, is baptized at Stratford-on-Avon, England.

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