Erik Thackrey

On This Day in 1986, Soviet engineer Vladimir Nikolaevich Shashenok died at Pripyat Hospital, Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, aged 35. #OnThisDay #History #Chernobyl #Weremember

On This Day in 1986, Soviet engineer Valery Khodemchuk (Pictured) who was the night shift circulating pump operator at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant died at the age of 35, his body was never found. #OnThisDay #History #Chernobyl #weremember

April 26, 1986 #OTD Chernobyl disaster: A mishandled safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union "killed at least 4,056 people and damaged almost $7 billion of property". #OnThisDay #History #Chernobyl

April 26, 1945 #OTD World War II: Philippe Pétain (Pictured) was arrested on the border between Switzerland and France. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1945 #OTD World War II: German pilot Eduard Schallmoser's Me 262 jet fighter was shot down by an American fighter. Amazingly, he parachuted into his mother's garden, who told him to clean up while she cooked him dinner. Schallmoser would return to base on the next day.

April 26, 1945 #OTD World War II: Battle of Berlin A Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-52/3m upon landing in Berlin, Germany, the plane struck a tree and crashed, one crew member died in the crash, one is MIA and two crew members were injured. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1945 #OTD World War II: Battle of Bautzen Last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht. Pictured: German snipers at Kubschutz near the German town of Bautzen. April 25, 1945. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1945 #OTD World War II: 20,000 German troops at Pillau, East Prussia, Germany (now Baltiysk, Russia) surrendered after two weeks of heavy fighting. Pictured: Destroyed Tiger I heavy tank, Pillau, East Prussia, Germany, 1945. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1945 #OTD World War II: Battle of Berlin Vasily Chuikov's 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army fought their way through the southern suburbs and attacked Tempelhof Airport (Pictured), where they met stiff resistance from the Müncheberg Division. #OnThisDay

April 26, 1945 #OTD World War II: Battle of Halbe The German 9th Army was cut off in the Halbe pocket in eastern Germany. Pictured: A destroyed Wehrmacht convoy near Spree Forest, April 1945. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1945 #OTD World War II: General Walther Wenck's (Pictured) German 12th Army started to move in an attempt to relieve Berlin, Germany, but this attempt was repulsed by Soviet forces. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1945 #OTD World War II: At AH's bunker in Berlin, Germany, Generaloberst Robert Ritter von Greim (Pictured) was promoted to the rank of Generalfeldmarschall and was named by AH as Hermann Göring's replacement as Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1945 #OTD World War II: The garrison at Bremen, Germany surrendered to British and Canadian forces. Pictured: German prisoners, led by senior naval officers, are marched into captivity in Bremen, 26 April 1945. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1944 #OTD World War II: Marshal Philippe Pétain (Pictured) made his first and only visit to Paris, France to inspect damage from Allied bombings. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1943 #OTD World War II: Witold Pilecki (Pictured) and two other inmates escaped from Auschwitz concentration camp with documents stolen from the Germans. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1942 #OTD World War II: HMS Edinburgh (Pictured) embarked 5 tons of Soviet gold worth about £5,000,000 at Murmansk, Russia; it was meant to be the down payment for US war goods. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1942 #OTD World War II: The German parliament held its final meeting at the Kroll Opera House in Berlin, Germany. Pictured: Ruins of the Kroll Opera with an 88mm Flak cannon in the foreground, May 1945. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1942 #OTD World War II: German submarine U-66 sank US ship Alcoa Partner (Pictured) 80 miles north of Bonaire in the Caribbean Sea at 0830 hours; 10 were killed, 25 survived. The Alcoa Partner was carrying 8500 tons of bauxite ore. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1941 #OTD World War II: German paratroopers attacked the Corinth Canal bridge in Greece early in the morning; the bridge was blown up as the German approached. #OnThisDay #History

April 26, 1941 #OTD World War II: General Georgy Zhukov (Pictured), the recently appointed Soviet Chief of Staff, ordered a creeping mobilization to begin, in response to widespread evidence that German forces were moving eastward. #OnThisDay #History