October 18Birthdays & History

On this day: October 18 in history

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

1. 33Heartbroken by the deaths of her sons Nero and Drusus, and banished to the island of Pandateria by Tiberius, Agrippina the Elder dies of self-inflicted starvation.Europe
2. 320Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the Sun and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer (Almagest).Middle EastEurope
3. 614King Chlothar II promulgates the Edict of Paris (Edictum Chlotacharii), a sort of Frankish Magna Carta that defends the rights of the Frankish nobles while it excludes Jews from all civil employment in the Frankish Kingdom.Europe
4. 629Dagobert I is crowned King of the Franks.Europe
5. 1009The 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.Middle East
6. 1016The Danes defeat the English in the Battle of Assandun.Europe
7. 1081The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.Europe
8. 1166Michael the Syrian, one of the most important Syriac historians, is consecrated as Syriac Orthodox Patriarch at the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery.Middle East
9. 1281Pope Martin IV excommunicates King Peter III of Aragon for usurping the crown of Sicily (a sentence renewed on 7 May and 18 November 1282).Europe
10. 1356Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroys the town of Basel, Switzerland.Europe
11. 1540Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto's forces destroy the fortified town of Mabila in present-day Alabama, killing Tuskaloosa.EuropeNorth America
12. 1561In Japan the fourth Battle of Kawanakajima is fought between the forces of Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen, resulting in a draw.Asia
13. 1565Ships belonging to the Matsura clan of Japan fail to capture the Portuguese trading carrack in the Battle of Fukuda Bay, the first recorded naval battle between Japan and the West.AsiaEurope
14. 1597King Philip II of Spain sends his third and final armada against England, but it ends in failure due to storms. The remaining ships are captured or sunk by the English.Europe
15. 1599Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia, defeats the Army of Andrew Báthory in the Battle of Șelimbăr, leading to the first recorded unification of the Romanian people.Europe
16. 1630Frendraught Castle in Scotland, the home of James Crichton of Frendraught, burns down.Europe
17. 1648Boston shoemakers form the first American labor organization.North America
18. 1748Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.Europe
19. 1775American Revolutionary War: The Burning of Falmouth (now Portland, Maine).North America
20. 1775African-American poet Phillis Wheatley is freed from slavery.AfricaNorth America
21. 1779American Revolutionary War: The Franco-American Siege of Savannah is lifted.North America
22. 1851Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.Europe
23. 1860The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.Asia
24. 1867United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.North AmericaEurope
25. 1887Johannes Brahms conducts the premiere of his Double Concerto, composed for violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann.Europe
26. 1898The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain.North AmericaLatin AmericaEurope
27. 1900Count Bernhard von Bülow becomes chancellor of Germany.Europe
28. 1912First Balkan War: King Peter I of Serbia issues a declaration "To the Serbian People", as his country joins the war.Europe
29. 1914The Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement is founded in Germany.Europe
30. 1921The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is formed as part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.Europe
31. 1922The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.Europe
32. 1929The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overrules the Supreme Court of Canada in Edwards v. Canada when it declares that women are considered "Persons" under Canadian law.North America
33. 1944World War II: Soviet Union begins the liberation of Czechoslovakia from Nazi Germany.Europe
34. 1944World War II: The state funeral of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel takes place in Ulm, Germany.Europe
35. 1945A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, stages a coup d'état against president Isaías Medina Angarita, who is overthrown by the end of the day.Latin AmericaMiddle East
36. 1945The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.EuropeNorth America
37. 1945Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Eva Duarte.Latin America
38. 1954Texas Instruments announces the Regency TR-1, the first mass-produced transistor radio.North America
39. 1963Félicette, a black and white female Parisian stray cat, becomes the first cat launched into space.AfricaEurope
40. 1967The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.Europe
41. 1977German 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 murdered and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide.Europe
42. 1978Based on the world's first children's art museum, the Henrik Igityan National Centre for Aesthetics opened in Yerevan.Europe
43. 1979The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) begins allowing people to have home satellite earth stations without a federal government license.North America
44. 1989The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-34 to deploy the Jupiter-bound Galileo space probe.North America
45. 1991The Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopts a declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.Europe
46. 1992Merpati Nustantara Airlines Flight 5601 crashes into Mount Papandayan near the town of Garut in West Java, Indonesia, killing 31.Asia
47. 2003Bolivian gas conflict: Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.Latin America
48. 2007Karachi bombing: A suicide attack on a motorcade carrying former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto kills 139 and wounds 450 more. Bhutto herself is uninjured.Asia
49. 2019NASA Astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch take part in the first all-female spacewalk when they venture out of the International Space Station to replace a power controller.North America
50. 2019Riots in Chile's capital Santiago escalate into open battles, with attacks reported at nearly all of the city's 164 Metro stations. President Sebastián Piñera later announces a 15-day state of emergency in the capital.Latin America

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