March 18Birthdays & History

On this day: March 18 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 37Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (aka Caligula = Little Boots) emperor.Europe
2. 417Pope Zosimus is elected following the death of Pope Innocent I.Europe
3. 1068An earthquake in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula leaves up to 20,000 dead.Middle East
4. 1229Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares himself King of Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade.EuropeMiddle East
5. 1241First Mongol invasion of Poland: Mongols overwhelm Polish armies in Kraków in the Battle of Chmielnik and plunder the city.AsiaEurope
6. 1314Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.Europe
7. 1438Albert II of Habsburg becomes King of the Romans.Europe
8. 1571Valletta is made the capital city of Malta.Europe
9. 1608Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.Africa
10. 1644The Third Anglo-Powhatan War begins in the Colony of Virginia.North America
11. 1673English lord John Berkeley sells his half of New Jersey to the Quakers.EuropeNorth America
12. 1741New York governor George Clarke's complex at Fort George is burned in an arson attack, starting the New York Conspiracy of 1741.North America
13. 1766American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act.North AmericaEurope
14. 1793Flanders Campaign of the French Revolution, Battle of Neerwinden.Europe
15. 1793The first modern republic in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.Europe
16. 1834Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.EuropeOceania
17. 1848Revolutions of 1848: A rebellion arises in Milan which in five days of street fighting drove Marshal Radetzky and his Austrian soldiers from the city.Europe
18. 1848The premiere of William Henry Fry's Leonora in Philadelphia is the first known performance of a grand opera by an American composer.North America
19. 1861Spain would annex annex the Dominican Republic, which would last for four years.EuropeLatin America
20. 1865American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States adjourns for the last time.North America
21. 1871Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders the evacuation of Paris.Europe
22. 1899Phoebe, a satellite of Saturn, becomes the first to be discovered with photographs, taken in August 1898, by William Henry Pickering.World
23. 1901The Kumasi Mutiny of 1901 begins.Africa
24. 1902Macario Sakay issues Presidential Order No. 1 of his Tagalog Republic.Asia
25. 1913King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.Europe
26. 1915World War I: During the Battle of Gallipoli, three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.Europe
27. 1921The second Peace of Riga is signed between Poland and the Soviet Union.Europe
28. 1921Mongolian Revolution of 1921: The Mongolian People's Army defeats local Chinese forces at Altanbulag, Selenge (then known as Maimachen). This battle was seen as the birthday of the People's Army and completed the expulsion of Chinese militants in Mongolia.Asia
29. 1921The Kronstadt rebellion is suppressed by the Red Army.Europe
30. 1922In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience, of which he serves only two.Asia
31. 1925The 1925 Tri-State tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.North America
32. 1937Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.Europe
33. 1937The New London School explosion in New London, Texas, kills 300 people, mostly children.EuropeNorth America
34. 1938Mexico creates Pemex by expropriating all foreign-owned oil reserves and facilities.Latin America
35. 1940World War II: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.Europe
36. 1942The War Relocation Authority is established in the United States to take Japanese Americans into custody.North AmericaAsia
37. 1944Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupts, killing 26 people, causing thousands to flee their homes, and destroying dozens of Allied bombers.Europe
38. 1945World War II: 40th Infantry Division, spearheaded by the 185th US Infantry Regiment, lands unopposed in Tigbauan, forcing the Japanese forces to surrender and General Macario Peralta and Gen. Gen. Eichelberger to declare the Liberation of Panay, Romblon and Guimaras.North AmericaAsia
39. 1948Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in the first sign of the Tito–Stalin split.Europe
40. 1953An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing at least 1,070 people.Middle East
41. 1959The Hawaii Admission Act is signed into law.North America
42. 1962The Évian Accords end the Algerian War of Independence, which had begun in 1954.Africa
43. 1965Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.World
44. 1966United Arab Airlines Flight 749 crashes on approach to Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing 30 people.Middle East
45. 1967The supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Cornish coast.Europe
46. 1968Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.North America
47. 1969The United States begins secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.North AmericaAsia
48. 1970Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.Asia
49. 1971Peru: A landslide crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200 people at the mining camp of Chungar.Latin America
50. 1974Güzel İstanbul, a nude sculpture by Gürdal Duyar in Istanbul, is torn down in the middle of the night.Middle East
51. 1980A Vostok-2M rocket at Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 explodes during a fueling operation, killing 48 people.Europe
52. 1990In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $500 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.North America
53. 1990Germans in the German Democratic Republic vote in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship.Europe
54. 1994Bosnia's Bosniaks and Croats sign the Washington Agreement, ending war between the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.EuropeNorth America
55. 1996A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162 people.Asia
56. 1997The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en route to Turkey, causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 people on board.EuropeMiddle East
57. 2014The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty.Europe
58. 2015The Bardo National Museum in Tunisia is attacked by gunmen. Twenty-four people, almost all tourists, are killed, and at least 50 other people are wounded.Africa
59. 2025Israel launches widespread aerial bombardments and attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 591 people, including children.Middle East

Source: Wikipedia "March 18" / CC BY-SA 4.0