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Updated April 25, 2012, 2:28 pm
On April 26, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere; at least 31 Soviets died immediately.
Go to article »On April 26, 1914, Bernard Malamud, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, was born. Following his death on March 18, 1986, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1607 An expedition of English colonists went ashore at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere. (They later settled at Jamestown.) 1785 Naturalist and artist John James Audubon was born in Haiti. 1865 John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded and killed by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va. 1937 Planes from Nazi Germany raided the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. 1945 Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France’s Vichy government during World War II, was arrested. 1964 The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania. 1989 Actress-comedian Lucille Ball died at age 77. 1998 Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, a leading Guatemalan human rights activist, was bludgeoned to death two days after a report he’d compiled on atrocities during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war was made public. 2000 Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation’s first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions. 2005 Syria’s 29-year military presence in Lebanon ended as Syrian soldiers completed a withdrawal brought about by international pressure and Lebanese street protests. 2008 Police in Austria arrested a man accused of holding his daughter captive in a windowless cellar for 24 years, fathering her seven children and killing one of them. (Josef Fritzl is serving life in a psychiatric ward.) Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actress-comedian Carol Burnett turns 79 years old today.
AP Photo/Vince Bucci
Actor Jet Li turns 49 years old today.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
1938 Duane Eddy, Rock musician, turns 74 1942 Bobby Rydell, Singer, turns 70 1960 Roger Taylor, Rock musician (Duran Duran), turns 52 1961 Joan Chen, Actress, turns 51 1967 Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Actress (“Without a Trace”), turns 45 1971 Jay DeMarcus, Country musician (Rascal Flats), turns 41 1980 Jordana Brewster, Actress, turns 32 1980 Marnette Patterson, Actress, turns 32 1980 Channing Tatum, Actor, turns 32
Historic Birthdays
Bernard Malamud 4/26/1914 – 3/18/1986 American novelist and short-story writer.Go to obituary »
66 John James Audubon 4/26/1785 – 1/27/1851
West Indian-born American ornithologist, artist and naturalist71 Friedrich Flotow 4/26/1812 – 1/24/1883
German-born French composer75 Alfred Krupp 4/26/1812 – 7/14/1887
German industrialist; developed and sold armaments81 Frederick Law Olmsted 4/26/1822 – 8/28/1903
American landscape architect; designed Central Park in New York City72 Harold Rothermere 4/26/1868 – 11/26/1940
English newspaperman; built a journalistic empire in England53 Ma Rainey 4/26/1886 – 12/22/1939
American singer; known as “the mother of the blues”62 Ludwig Wittgenstein 4/26/1889 – 4/29/1951
Austrian-born English philosopher92 Anita Loos 4/26/1889 – 8/18/1981
American novelist and Hollywood screenwriter89 Cass Canfield 4/26/1897 – 3/27/1986
American publisher and editor83 Morris West 4/26/1916 – 10/9/1999
Australian novelist
MORNING
“God, even our own God.”
Psalm 67:6It is strange how little use we make of the spiritual blessings which God gives us, but it is stranger still how little use we make of God himself. Though he is “our own God,” we apply ourselves but little to him, and ask but little of him. How seldom do we ask counsel at the hands of the Lord! How often do we go about our business, without seeking his guidance! In our troubles how constantly do we strive to bear our burdens ourselves, instead of casting them upon the Lord, that he may sustain us! This is not because we may not, for the Lord seems to say, “I am thine, soul, come and make use of me as thou wilt; thou mayst freely come to my store, and the oftener the more welcome.” It is our own fault if we make not free with the riches of our God. Then, since thou hast such a friend, and he invites thee, draw from him daily. Never want whilst thou hast a God to go to; never fear or faint whilst thou hast God to help thee; go to thy treasure and take whatever thou needest–there is all that thou canst want. Learn the divine skill of making God all things to thee. He can supply thee with all, or, better still, he can be to thee instead of all. Let me urge thee, then, to make use of thy God. Make use of him in prayer. Go to him often, because he is thy God. O, wilt thou fail to use so great a privilege? Fly to him, tell him all thy wants. Use him constantly by faith at all times. If some dark providence has beclouded thee, use thy God as a “sun;” if some strong enemy has beset thee, find in Jehovah a “shield,” for he is a sun and shield to his people. If thou hast lost thy way in the mazes of life, use him as a “guide,” for he will direct thee. Whatever thou art, and wherever thou art, remember God is just what thou wantest, and just where thou wantest, and that he can do all thou wantest.
EVENING
“The Lord is King forever and ever.”
Psalm 10:16Jesus Christ is no despotic claimant of divine right, but he is really and truly the Lord’s anointed! “It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.” God hath given to him all power and all authority. As the Son of man, he is now head over all things to his church, and he reigns over heaven, and earth, and hell, with the keys of life and death at his girdle. Certain princes have delighted to call themselves kings by the popular will, and certainly our Lord Jesus Christ is such in his church. If it could be put to the vote whether he should be King in the church, every believing heart would crown him. O that we could crown him more gloriously than we do! We would count no expense to be wasted that could glorify Christ. Suffering would be pleasure, and loss would be gain, if thereby we could surround his brow with brighter crowns, and make him more glorious in the eyes of men and angels. Yes, he shall reign. Long live the King! All hail to thee, King Jesus! Go forth, ye virgin souls who love your Lord, bow at his feet, strew his way with the lilies of your love, and the roses of your gratitude: “Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all.” Moreover, our Lord Jesus is King in Zion by right of conquest: he has taken and carried by storm the hearts of his people, and has slain their enemies who held them in cruel bondage. In the Red Sea of his own blood, our Redeemer has drowned the Pharaoh of our sins: shall he not be King in Jeshurun? He has delivered us from the iron yoke and heavy curse of the law: shall not the Liberator be crowned? We are his portion, whom he has taken out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow: who shall snatch his conquest from his hand? All hail, King Jesus! we gladly own thy gentle sway! Rule in our hearts forever, thou lovely Prince of Peace.
Never mistake motion for action.
– Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961)
Updated April 24, 2012, 2:28 pm
On April 25, 1945, the United Nations Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco.
Go to article »On April 25, 1908, Edward R. Murrow, the influential American radio and television broadcaster during the industry’s early years, was born. Following his death on April 27, 1965, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1792 Highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by guillotine. 1859 Ground was broken for the Suez Canal. 1874 Radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy. 1898 The United States declared war on Spain. 1901 New York became the first state to require automobile license plates. 1915 Allied soldiers invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Ottoman Turkish Empire out of World War I. 1945 U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, in central Europe, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany. 1945 Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations. 1959 The St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping. 1972 Polaroid Corp. introduced its SX-70 folding camera, which ejected self-developing photographs. 1990 Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua, ending 11 years of leftist Sandinista rule. 1990 The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery. 1992 Islamic forces took control of most of the Afghan capital Kabul following the collapse of the Communist government. 2007 The Dow Jones industrial average topped 13,000 for the first time, ending the day at 13,089.89. 2011 President Bashar Assad of Syria sent the military into the southern city of Daraa, where an anti-government uprising had begun the previous month. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actor Al Pacino turns 72 years old today.
AP Photo/Matt Sayles
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. turns 70 years old today.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
1930 Paul Mazursky, Actor, director, turns 82 1932 Meadowlark Lemon, Basketball player (Harlem Globetrotters), turns 80 1945 Bjorn Ulvaeus, Singer (ABBA), turns 67 1946 Talia Shire, Actress, turns 66 1964 Hank Azaria, Actor, turns 48 1967 Jane Clayson, TV host, turns 45 1969 Gina Torres, Actress, turns 43 1969 Renee Zellweger, Actress, turns 43 1970 Jason Lee, Actor (“My Name is Earl”), turns 42 1976 Tim Duncan, Basketball player, turns 36 1988 Sara Paxton, Actress, turns 24
Historic Birthdays
Edward R. Murrow 4/25/1908 – 4/27/1965 American radio and television broadcaster.Go to obituary »
59 Oliver Cromwell 4/25/1599 – 9/3/1658
English soldier and statesman; Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland (1653-8)53 Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky 4/25/1840(O.S.) – 10/25/1893(O.S.)
Russian composer90 John Frank Stevens 4/25/1853 – 6/2/1943
American chief civil engineer of the Panama Canal (1905-7)89 Howard Garis 4/25/1873 – 11/6/1962
American creator of the Uncle Wiggily series of children’s stories63 Guglielmo Marconi 4/25/1874 – 7/20/1937
Italian Nobel Prize-winning physicist and inventor (1909)58 Wolfgang Pauli 4/25/1900 – 12/15/1958
Austrian-born Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1945)91 William Brennan 4/25/1906 – 7/24/1997
American associate justice of the Supreme Court (1956-90)82 Claude Mauriac 4/25/1914 – 3/22/1996
French novelist, journalist and critic79 Ella Fitzgerald 4/25/1917 – 6/15/1996
American jazz singer
