Today in History 4-26-15

Today is Sunday, April 26, the 116th day of 2015. There are 249 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On April 26, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Port Royal, Virginia, and killed. (As he lay dying, Booth looked at his hands and supposedly gasped, "Useless, useless.")

On this date:

In 1564, William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

In 1915, silent film comedian John Bunny, 51, died in New York.

In 1923, Britain's Prince Albert, Duke of York (the future King George VI), married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.

In 1937, German and Italian warplanes raided the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War; estimates of the number of people killed vary from the hundreds to the thousands.

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

In 1952, the destroyer-minesweeper USS Hobson sank in the central Atlantic after colliding with the aircraft carrier USS Wasp with the loss of 176 crew members.

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

In 1972, the first Lockheed L-1011 TriStar went into commercial service with Eastern Airlines.

In 1986, a major nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union).

In 1989, actress-comedian Lucille Ball died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at age 77.

In 1994, voting began in South Africa's first all-race elections, resulting in victory for the African National Congress and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president. China Airlines Flight 140, a Taiwanese Airbus A-300, crashed while landing in Nagoya, Japan, killing 264 people (there were seven survivors).

In 2000, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation's first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.

Ten years ago: Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon ended as Syrian soldiers completed a withdrawal brought about by international pressure and Lebanese street protests. Actress Maria Schell died in Preitenegg, Carinthia, Austria, at age 79. Actor Mason Adams, known for his Emmy-nominated role on the TV series "Lou Grant" and as the voice behind the Smucker's jelly commercials (among many other ads), died in New York at age 86.

Five years ago: A Haitian judge dismissed kidnapping and criminal association charges against 10 American missionaries who'd been detained for trying to take a busload of children out of the country after the January 2010 earthquake, but said that Laura Silsby, the last of the 10 still in jail, would face a lesser charge. (Silsby was freed in May 2010 after being convicted of arranging illegal travel and sentenced to time served.)

One year ago: President Barack Obama opened the first visit by a U.S. president in nearly half a century to Malaysia, the third stop on his weeklong goodwill trip through Asia. A British helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing five NATO troops. Workers for a documentary film production company recovered "E.T." Atari game cartridges from a heap of garbage buried deep in the New Mexico desert. (The video game had been consigned to the ground after being called the worst ever made.)

Today's Birthdays: Architect I.M. Pei is 98. Movie composer Francis Lai is 83. Actress-comedian Carol Burnett is 82. Rhythm-and-blues singer Maurice Williams is 77. Songwriter-musician Duane Eddy is 77. Singer Bobby Rydell is 73. Rock musician Gary Wright is 72. Actress Nancy Lenehan is 62. Actor Giancarlo Esposito is 57. Rock musician Roger Taylor (Duran Duran) is 55. Actress Joan Chen is 54. Rock musician Chris Mars is 54. Actor-singer Michael Damian is 53. Actor Jet Li is 52. Rock musician Jimmy Stafford (Train) is 51. Actor-comedian Kevin James is 50. Record company executive Jeff Huskins is 49. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey is 49. Actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste is 48. Country musician Joe Caverlee (Yankee Grey) is 47. Rapper T-Boz (TLC) is 45. Actress Shondrella Avery is 44. Country musician Jay DeMarcus (Rascal Flatts) is 44. Country musician Michael Jeffers (Pinmonkey) is 43. Rock musician Jose Pasillas (Incubus) is 39. Actor Jason Earles is 38. Actor Leonard Earl Howze is 38. Actor Tom Welling is 38. Actor Pablo Schreiber is 37. Actor Nyambi Nyambi is 36. Actress Jordana Brewster is 35. Actress Stana Katic is 35. Actress Marnette Patterson is 35. Actor Channing Tatum is 35. Actor Aaron Weeks is 29.

Thought for Today: "Perfect order is the forerunner of perfect horror." -- Carlos Fuentes, Mexican author (1928-2012).