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On April 26, 1986, reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine (then USSR) exploded during a safety test, releasing 400 times more radiation than the Hiroshima bomb. The accident, the worst in civilian nuclear history, caused the evacuation of 350,000 people and contaminated vast regions of Europe. The long-term consequences for health and the environment are still debated.

On April 26, 1937, aircraft from the German Condor Legion and Italian aviation in the service of General Franco bombed Guernica, the sacred city of the Basque people, causing between 150 and 1,600 civilian casualties. The attack — the first aerial bombing of a civilian population in modern history — was immortalised by Pablo Picasso in his painting Guernica, a universal symbol of the horror of war.

On April 26, 1994, voting began in the first multiracial general elections in South Africa's history, in which all citizens — regardless of race — were able to vote for the first time. Nelson Mandela won the elections with 62% of the vote and became on May 10 the first Black president of South Africa, ending decades of apartheid.