Unix Timestamp: 1051315200
Saturday, April 26. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone at The Hague delivers its verdict in the trial of former President of Liberia Charles Taylor on charges of arming Sierra Leone's rebels in return for blood diamonds in the 1990s. He is convicted on charges related to aiding and abetting war crimes but acquitted of charges of ordering them. //www.france24.com/en/20120426-hague-court-verdict-liberia-charles-taylor-special-court-sierra-leone-rebels-blood-diamonds?ns_caign=editorialns_source=RSS_publicns_mchannel=RSSns_fee=ns_linkname=20120426_hague_court_verdict_liberia_charles_taylorutm_source=dlvr.itutm_medium (AFP via France 24) //www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17852488 (BBC)

U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) submits Resolution //thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.RES.333.IH: HRES 333, calling for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney. //www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID27Ak04.html (Asia Times) //www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/25/politics/main2726626.shtml (AP via CBS News)

"Bronze Night": Russians riot in the city of Tallinn, Estonia, about moving the Bronze Soldier war memorial, a SovietWorld War II memorial. One person is killed after two of the worst nights of rioting in Estonian history.

Facing international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country.

Junichiro Koizumi becomes Prime Minister of Japan.

Regional security treaty signed by the “Shanghai Five”.

A bomb explodes in Bhaiperu, Pakistan, killing more than 60 people.

May ndash Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM supervises the destruction of Al-Hakam, Iraq's main production facility of biological warfare agents.

Port Arthur massacre: Martin Bryant kills 35 people at the Port Arthur, Tasmania tourist site, Australia.

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro appoints Carlo Azeglio Cii Prime Minister of Italy.

Eritrea: Eritrean independence was declared as a result of a referendum held with UN verification.

Yemeni parliamentary election, 1993: The General People's Congress wins a plurality of 121 seats.

All members of the Zambia national football team die in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal.

The Chernobyl disaster: A mishandled safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union killed at least 4056 people and damaged almost $7 billion of property.ref name=bks/ Radioactive fallout from the accident concentrated near Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and at least 350,000 people were forcibly resettled away from these areas. After the accident, traces of radioactive deposits unique to Chernobyl were found in nearly every country in the northern hemisphere.ref name=bksBenjamin K. Sovacool. The costs of failure: A preliminary assessment of major energy accidents, 1907–2007, "Energy Policy" 36 (2008), p. 1806.

Sultan Iskandar, Sultan of Johor, becomes the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

British retake South Georgia during Operation Paraquet

Monarcas Morelia ascended to the Mexican Primera division.

May ndash Daniel K. Ludwig abandons the Jari project in the Amazon Basin.

French presidential election: A first-round runoff results between Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterrand

Louise and Charmian Faulkner disappear from outside their flat in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia.

This first day of trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange

The Lockheed L-1011 Tristar enters service with Eastern Airlines.

The government of Turkey declares a state of siege in 11 provinces, Ankara included, due to violent demonstrations.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The nuclear weapon Boxcar is tested at the Nevada Test Site in the biggest detonation of Operation Crosstie.

A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.

Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.

International conference on Korea and Indo-China opens in Geneva.

The United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp collides with the destroyer USS Hobson while on sea exercises in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 175 men.

Academy-Award winning "Tom and Jerry" cartoon, "The Cat Concerto", is released to theatres.

U.S. Ordnance troops find the coffins of Frederick Wilhelm I, Frederick the Great, Paul von Hindenburg, and his wife.

WWII: Battle of Bautzen: The last successful German panzer-offensive in Bautzen ends with the city recaptured.

The Western Allies flatly reject any offer of surrender by Germany other than unconditional on all fronts.

April 26 ndash WWII: The Nazis surrender to the British/Canadian front who now control the Swiss border from Basle to Lake Constance.

Kidnap of General Kreipe on Crete, Greece.

WWII: The Reichstag meets for the last time, dissolving itself and proclaiming Adolf Hitler the Supreme Judge of the German People, granting him the power of life and death over every German citizen.

Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain is bombed. In his report of the Falangist attack on Guernica, British journalist George Steer reports finding German bomb casings, connecting Luftwaffe planes with the attack.

17 million unemployed in the USA.

The Dáil Éireann passes the Executive Authority (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937, which abolishes the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State, retrospectively dated to December 1936.

Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his death ray in London but fails to convince the British War Office.

The Prince Albert, Duke of York (later George VI, King of the United Kingdom) marries Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) in Westminster Abbey.

The Khorezm People\'s Soviet Republic is officially created by Bolshevist Russia as the successor to the Khanate of Khiva.

The Khorezm People's Soviet Republic is officially created by Bolshevist Russia as the successor to the Khanate of Khiva.

Hibernian FC won the Scottish Cup 1–0 against Glasgow Celtic FC, the last time in their history they have won the competition.

The Hull-Ottawa fire in Canada kills seven and leaves 15,000 homeless.

American Civil War: The besieged Confederate garrison at Fort Macon, North Carolina surrenders.

Giovanni Schiaparelli discovers the asteroid 69 Hesperia.

Austro-Sardinian War: Giuseppe Garibaldi's Hunters of the Alps confront Austrian forces led by Field Marshal-Lieutenant Carl Baron Urban at Varese.

The first Public Aquarium opens at the London Zoo.

Foundation of Indian Railways. Opening of first railway in India from Bombay to Thana, Maharashtra: 22 miles, 36 km.

An outbreak of yellow fever kills 7,790 in New Orleans.

Treaty of Commerce and Navigation signed between Brazil and Denmark, establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries.//books.google.dk/books?id=FZsAAAAAYAAJpg=PA717dq=hl=daei=2DswTeTRJoXtOdTuuKwKsa=Xoi=book_resultct=resultresnum=2ved=0CCgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepageq=%22denmark%20and%20brazil%22f=false British and foreign state papers

May 24 ndash The Royal Netherlands Navy's British-built paddle steamer "Curaçao" makes the first Transatlantic Crossing by steam, from Hellevoetsluis to Paramaribo.

Henry Addington resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

A general amnesty signed by Napoleon Bonaparte allows all but about 1,000 of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture to make peace with the various factions of the "Ancien Regime" that ultimately consolidates his own rule.

France annexes Geneva.

The "Whydah Gally", flagship of Black Sam Bellamy, is wrecked in a storm off Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The "Whydah" sinks with a reputed four and a half tons of treasure on board, and all but 2 of her crew are lost, including Bellamy.

The Dutch West India Company denies Peter Stuyvesant's request to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam (Manhattan).

English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia, later moving up the James River to found Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States.

Battle of Las Salinas: Almagro is defeated by Francisco Pizarro, who then seizes Cuzco.

Martin Luther leaves Worms and disappears for a year ndash he is rumored to be murdered, but is actually in hiding at the Wartburg Castle.

November ndash Eskender succeeds his father Baeda Maryam as Emperor of Ethiopia at the age of six.

The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de\\' Medici, and kill his brother Giuliano, during High Mass in the Florence Cathedral.

The Gothic chapel Sainte-Chapelle is consecrated in Paris, France.

Crown prince Xuan Wu Di, age 16, succeeds his father Xiao Wen Di and becomes emperor of Northern Wei. He appoints his uncle Yuan Xie to provincial governor, who serves temporarily as regent to form a new government.

Emperor Xiao Wen Di dies of starvation in his capital at Luoyang after a 27-year reign in which he has Sinicized his tribal relatives (Tuoba clan). He also created a Chinese-style government and instituted a land-reform program.