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April 26, 1991: Austin Mayor John O’Rourke and Albert Lea Mayor Marvin Wangen held a press conference at Riverland Community College to announce that the rival communities would work together toward economic development.

April 26, 1991: Air Force Staff Sgt. Kelvin R. Hessling, Albert Lea, was among 100 U.S. armed forces members honored by the United Service Organization (USO) in a Six-Star Salute.

April 30, 1991: William Matthies, Albert Lea, was honored by Thorne Crest South as the center’s Volunteer of the Year. Matthies gave 379 volunteer hours to the retirement center.

National/international

1519: Artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France, at age 67.

1670: The Hudson’s Bay Co. was chartered by England’s King Charles II.

1863: During the Civil War, Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Virginia; he died eight days later.

1890: The Oklahoma Territory was organized.

1927: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell, upheld 8-1 a Virginia law allowing the forced sterilization of people to promote the “health of the patient and the welfare of society.”

1945: During World War II, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp. Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun inside his “Fuhrerbunker” and designated Adm. Karl Doenitz president.

1957: Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

1972: A fire at the Sunshine silver mine in Kellogg, Idaho, claimed the lives of 91 workers who succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. Longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover died in Washington at age 77.

1982: The Weather Channel made its debut.

1991: A cyclone began striking the South Asian country of Bangladesh; it ended up killing more than 138,000 people, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

1994: Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the wake of South Africa’s first democratic elections; President F.W. de Klerk acknowledged defeat.

2000: Tens of thousands of angry Cuban-Americans marched peacefully through Miami’s Little Havana, protesting the raid in which armed federal agents yanked 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from the home of relatives.

2005: Pfc. Lynndie England, the young woman pictured in some of the most notorious Abu Ghraib photos, pleaded guilty at Fort Hood, Texas, to mistreating prisoners. (However, a judge later threw out the plea agreement; England was later convicted in a court-martial and received a three-year sentence, of which she served half.)

2010: Record rains and flash floods in Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee caused more than 30 deaths and submerged the Grand Ole Opry House stage. Actor Lynn Redgrave died in Kent, Connecticut, at age 67.

2011: Osama bin Laden was killed by elite American forces at his Pakistan compound, then quickly buried at sea after a decade on the run. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper won a coveted majority government in Canadian elections while the opposition Liberals and Quebec separatists suffered a shattering defeat.

2018: Two Black men who’d been arrested for sitting at a Philadelphia Starbucks without ordering anything settled with the company for an undisclosed sum and an offer of a free college education; they settled separately with the city for a symbolic $1 each and a promise to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs.

2019: North Carolina lawyer Cheslie Kryst won the Miss USA crown; for the first time, Black women held the titles of Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss America.

2016: The first U.S. cruise ship in nearly 40 years pulled into Havana Harbor, restarting commercial travel on waters that had served as a stage for a half-century of Cold War hostility.

2020: A New York City police officer was caught on video pointing a stun gun at a man and violently taking him to the ground over an alleged social distancing violation. (The officer was stripped of his gun and badge and placed on desk duty the next day; he and other officers later faced disciplinary charges.) Russia and Pakistan each reported their biggest one-day spikes in new coronavirus infections. Texas topped 1,000 new coronavirus cases for the third day in a row, numbers that coincided with the expiration of the state’s “stay at home” order. “Game of Thrones” actor Hafthor Bjornsson set a deadlift world record by lifting 1,104 pounds at a gym in his native Iceland.