Important Events From This day in History – 26 April

Today in History

• 2005 Syria ends its military occupation of Lebanon after 29 years

  Syria yielded to domestic and international pressure following the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

• 1994 Germany makes Holocaust denial illegal

  The far-right NPD had asked Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court to validate its position that the Nazis’ genocide of six million Jews never occurred. They were defeated in court.

• 1989 The deadliest tornado in history kills about 1300 people

  The Daulatpur–Saturia Tornado devastated everything in its 50-mile long path across central Bangladesh.

• 1986 The worst nuclear disaster in history occurs in Chernobyl

  When reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, it contaminated large areas of Europe. Although the exact number of deaths caused by the disaster is unknown, experts predict that cancer caused by radioactive fallout will kill tens of thousands of people across Europe in the coming decades.

• 1925 Franz Kafka publishes his landmark novel The Trial

  The text, originally titled Der Process, is a terrifying account of a man being arrested and prosecuted by an anonymous authority for an unknown crime.