October 18
October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years). There are 74 days remaining.
Events
- 1009 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock.
- 1016 - The Danes defeat the Saxons in the Battle of Ashingdon.
- 1210 - Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV
- 1561 - Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima -- Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts
- 1648 - Boston Shoemakers form first U.S. labor organization.
- 1685 - Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes, which has protected French Protestants
- 1748 - Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.
- 1767 - Mason-Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.
- 1851 - Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.
- 1860 - The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.
- 1867 - United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.
- 1898 - United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.
- 1908 - Belgium annexes the Congo Free State.
- 1912 - The First Balkan War begins.
- 1922 - The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.
- 1925 - The Grand Ole Opry opens.
- 1944 - Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia.
- 1944 - Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia
- 1945 - The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the USA's plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory
- 1945 - A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, staged a coup d'etát against then president Isaías Medina Angarita, who was definitely overthrown by the end of the day.
- 1954 - Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.
- 1964 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes for its first season after a six-month run.
- 1968 - A police raid on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's flat finds 168 grams of marijuana. They later plead guilty and are fined £150.
- 1968 - The U.S. Olympic Committee suspends two black athletes for giving a "black power" salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games.
- 1968 - Bob Beamon sets a world record of 8.90m in the long jump at the Mexico City games. This becomes the longest unbroken track and field record in history, standing for 23 years, and is later named by Sports Illustrated magazine as one of the five greatest sporting moments of the 20th century.
- 1969 - Jefferson Airplane member Paul Kantner is charged with possession of marijuana in Hawaii.
- 1977 - German Autumn: a set of events revolving around the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight by the Red Army Faction (RAF) comes to an end when Schleyer is executed and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide. The West German government states that it would never again negotiate with terrorists.
- 1977 - Reggie Jackson hits three consecutive home runs, each on the first pitch, off three different Dodgers pitchers in World Series game 6.
- 1985 - Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States.
- 1989 - East German leader Erich Honecker resigns.
- 1991 - Azerbaijan declares independence from USSR
- 1993 - Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.
- 2003 - Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.
- 2006 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average surpasses the 12,000 point mark for the first time in its history.
Births
- 1127 - Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (d. 1192)
- 1405 - Pope Pius II (d. 1464)
- 1517 - Manoel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit in Brazil (d. 1570)
- 1547 - Justus Lipsius, Flemish humanist (d. 1606)
- 1569 - Giambattista Marini, Italian poet (d. 1625)
- 1595 - Edward Winslow, Plymouth Colony founder (d. 1655)
- 1634 - Luca Giordano, Italian artist (d. 1705)
- 1653 - Abraham van Riebeeck, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1713)
- 1662 - Matthew Henry, English non-conformist minister (d. 1714)
- 1668 - John George IV, Elector of Saxony (d. 1694)
- 1679 - Ann Putnam, Jr., American accuser in the Salem Witch Trials (d. 1716)
- 1701 - Charles le Beau, French historian (d. 1778)
- 1706 - Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (d. 1785)
- 1741 - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general and author (d. 1803)
- 1777 - Heinrich von Kleist, German writer (d. 1811)
- 1785 - Thomas Love Peacock, English satirist (d. 1866)
- 1854 - Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (d. 1911)
- 1859 - Henri Bergson, French philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1941)
- 1868 - Ernst Didring, Swedish author (d. 1931)
- 1870 - Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Japanese scholar (d. 1966)
- 1873 - Ivanoe Bonomi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1951)
- 1882 - Lucien Petit-Breton, Argentine-French cyclist (d. 1917)
- 1893 - Georges Ohsawa, Japanese founder of Macrobiotics (d. 1966)
- 1894 - H. L. Davis, American author (d. 1960)
- 1897 - Isabel Briggs Myers, American pyschological theorist (d. 1980)
- 1898 - Lotte Lenya, Austrian singer and actress (d. 1981)
- 1902 - Miriam Hopkins, American actress (d. 1972)
- 1902 - Pascual Jordan, German physicist (d. 1980)
- 1903 - Lina Radke, German athlete (d. 1983)
- 1904 - A. J. Liebling, American journalist (d. 1963)
- 1906 - James Brooks, American painter (d. 1992)
- 1909 - Norberto Bobbio, Italian philosopher and legal theorist (d. 2004)
- 1913 - Robert Gilruth, American aviation and space pioneer (d. 2000)
- 1915 - Victor Sen Yung, American actor (d. 1980)
- 1918 - Bobby Troup, American musician (d. 1999)
- 1919 - Anita O'Day, American singer (d. 2006)
- 1919 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau, fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)
- 1920 - Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and political activist (d. 1994)
- 1921 - Jesse Helms, U.S. Senator from North Carolina
- 1924 - Hugh Allan "Buddy" MacMaster, Canadian musician
- 1925 - Ramiz Alia, political leader of Albania
- 1926 - Chuck Berry, American musician
- 1926 - Klaus Kinski, German actor (d. 1991)
- 1927 - George C. Scott, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1928 - Keith Jackson, American football commentator
- 1929 - Violeta Chamorro, President of Nicaragua
- 1931 - Chris Albertson, American jazz historian
- 1932 - Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuanian politician, one of the political destroyers of the Soviet Union
- 1933 - Forrest Gregg, American football player
- 1934 - Inger Stevens, Swedish actress (d. 1970)
- 1934 - Chuck Swindoll, American evangelist
- 1935 - Peter Boyle, American actor
- 1938 - Dawn Wells, American actress
- 1939 - Mike Ditka, American football player, coach, and commentator
- 1939 - Lee Harvey Oswald, purported American assassin of John F. Kennedy (d. 1963)
- 1939 - Flavio Cotti, member of the Swiss Federal Council
- 1940 - Cynthia Weil, American songriter (with husband, Barry Mann)
- 1942 - Larry Pickering, Australian newspaper cartoonist
- 1945 - Huell Howser, American TV host
- 1945 - Yıldo, Turkish famous showmen ,football player
- 1946 - James Robert Baker, American novelist, screenwriter
- 1946 - Howard Shore, Canadian film composer
- 1947 - Joe Morton, American actor
- 1947 - Laura Nyro, American singer and songwriter (d. 1997)
- 1948 - Ntozake Shange, American author
- 1949 - Joe Egan, British musician (Stealers Wheel)
- 1949 - George Hendrick, baseball player
- 1949 - Gary Richrath, American musician (REO Speedwagon)
- 1950 - Om Puri, Indian actor
- 1950 - Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright (d. 2006)
- 1951 - Terry McMillan, American author
- 1951 - Pam Dawber, American actress
- 1952 - Bảo Ninh, Vietnamese novelist
- 1954 - Liz Burch, Australian actress
- 1955 - Timmy Mallett, British TV presenter
- 1956 - Martina Navrátilová, Czech-born tennis player
- 1956 - Craig Bartlett, American animator
- 1958 - Kjell Samuelsson, National Hockey League defenseman
- 1959 - Milčo Mančevski, Macedonian film director and screenwriter
- 1959 - John Nord,Former American pro-wrestler
- 1960 - Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgian actor
- 1961 - Wynton Marsalis, American musician
- 1961 - Rick Moody, American author
- 1961 - Erin Moran American actress
- 1962 - Vincent Spano, American actor
- 1968 - Basil White, American comedian
- 1970 - Jose Padilla, American gang member and suspected terrorist
- 1970 - Doug Mirabelli, baseball player
- 1974 - Robbie Savage, Welsh footballer
- 1974 - Peter Svensson, Swedish musician (The Cardigans)
- 1975 - Alex Cora, baseball player
- 1977 - Ryan Nelsen, New Zealander footballer
- 1987 - Zac Efron, American actor
Deaths
- 707 - Pope John VII
- 1035 - Sancho III of Navarre
- 1101 - Hugh of Vermandois, son of Henry I of France (b. 1053)
- 1141 - Margrave Leopold IV of Austria
- 1417 - Pope Gregory XII
- 1503 - Pope Pius III (b. 1439)
- 1545 - John Taverner, English composer
- 1558 - Maria of Austria, wife of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1505)
- 1564 - Johannes Acronius Frisius, German physician and mathematician (b. 1520)
- 1570 - Manoel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit in Brazil (b. 1517)
- 1604 - Igram van Achelen, Dutch statesman (b. 1528)
- 1646 - Isaac Jogues, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1607)
- 1667 - Fasilides, Emperor of Ethiopia
- 1678 - Jacob Jordaens, Flemish painter (b. 1593)
- 1739 - Antônio José da Silva, Brazilian-born dramatist (b. 1705)
- 1744 - Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, English friend of Anne of England (b. 1660)
- 1770 - John Manners, Marquess of Granby, British soldier (b. 1721)
- 1775 - Christian August Crusius, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1715)
- 1817 - Etienne-Nicolas Méhul, French composer (b. 1763)
- 1871 - Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor (b. 1791)
- 1865 - Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1784)
- 1886 - Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician (b. 1796)
- 1889 - Antonio Meucci, Italian inventor (b. 1808)
- 1893 - Charles Gounod, French composer (b. 1818)
- 1911 - Alfred Binet, French psychologist (b. 1857)
- 1921 - King Ludwig III of Bavaria (b. 1845)
- 1931 - Thomas Edison, American inventor (b. 1847)
- 1942 - Mikhail Nesterov, Russian painter (b. 1862)
- 1948 - Walther von Brauchitsch, German field marshal (b. 1881)
- 1959 - Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete
- 1961 - Tsuru Aoki, Japanese-born American actress (b. 1892)
- 1966 - Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businesswoman (b. 1878)
- 1966 - Sebastian S. Kresge, American merchant (Kmart) (b. 1867)
- 1973 - Margaret Caroline Anderson, American magazine publisher (b. 1886)
- 1973 - Leo Strauss, German-American philosopher (b. 1899)
- 1975 - Al Lettieri, American actor (b. 1928)
- 1978 - Ramón Mercader, Assassin of Leon Trotsky (b. 1914)
- 1982 - Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States (b. 1885)
- 1982 - Dwain Esper, American film director (b. 1892)
- 1982 - Pierre Mendès-France, French politician (b. 1907)
- 1982 - John Robarts, Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario (b. 1917)
- 1983 - Willie Jones, baseball player (b. 1925)
- 2000 - Julie London, American singer and actress (b. 1926)
- 2000 - Gwen Verdon, American dancer and actress (b. 1925)
- 2001 - Micheline Ostermeyer, French athlete and musician (b. 1922)
- 2002 - Nikolai Rukavishnikov, cosmonaut (b. 1932)
- 2002 - Roman Tam, Hong Kong singer (b. 1950)
- 2003 - Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Spanish writer (b. 1939)
- 2003 - Preston Smith, Governor of Texas (b. 1912)
- 2004 - Veerappan, Indian bandit and smuggler (b. 1945)
- 2005 - John Hollis, British actor (b. 1931)
- 2005 - Johnny Haynes, English footballer (b. 1934)
- 2006 - Mario Francesco Cardinal Pompedda (b. 1929)
- 2006 - Anna Russell, English music satirist (b. 1911)
Holidays and observances
External links
October 17 - October 19 - September 18 - November 18 - more historical anniversaries
Categories
October