March 18

Historic Events

2025

Israel launches widespread aerial bombardments and attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 591 people, including children. ›

2015

The 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. ›

2014

The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty. ›

1997

The 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. ›

1996

A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162 people. ›

1994

Bosnia'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. ›

1990

Germans in the German Democratic Republic vote in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship. ›

1990

In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $500 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. ›

1980

A Vostok-2M rocket at Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 explodes during a fueling operation, killing 48 people. ›

1974

Güzel İstanbul, a nude sculpture by Gürdal Duyar in Istanbul, is torn down in the middle of the night. ›

1971

Peru: A landslide crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200 people at the mining camp of Chungar. ›

1970

Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. ›

1969

The United States begins secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam. ›

1968

Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency. ›

1967

The supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Cornish coast. ›

1966

United Arab Airlines Flight 749 crashes on approach to Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing 30 people. ›

1965

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space. ›

1962

The Évian Accords end the Algerian War of Independence, which had begun in 1954. ›

1959

The Hawaii Admission Act is signed into law. ›

1953

An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing at least 1,070 people. ›

1948

Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in the first sign of the Tito–Stalin split. ›

1945

World 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. ›

1944

Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupts, killing 26 people, causing thousands to flee their homes, and destroying dozens of Allied bombers. ›

1942

The War Relocation Authority is established in the United States to take Japanese Americans into custody. ›

1940

World 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. ›

1938

Mexico creates Pemex by expropriating all foreign-owned oil reserves and facilities. ›

1937

The New London School explosion in New London, Texas, kills 300 people, mostly children. ›

1937

Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara. ›

1925

The 1925 Tri-State tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people. ›

1922

In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience, of which he serves only two. ›

1921

The second Peace of Riga is signed between Poland and the Soviet Union. ›

1921

The Kronstadt rebellion is suppressed by the Red Army. ›

1921

Mongolian 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. ›

1915

World War I: During the Battle of Gallipoli, three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles. ›

1913

King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki. ›

1902

Macario Sakay issues Presidential Order No. 1 of his Tagalog Republic. ›

1901

The Kumasi Mutiny of 1901 begins. ›

1899

Phoebe, a satellite of Saturn, becomes the first to be discovered with photographs, taken in August 1898, by William Henry Pickering. ›

1871

Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders the evacuation of Paris. ›

1865

American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States adjourns for the last time. ›

1861

Spain would annex annex the Dominican Republic, which would last for four years. ›

1848

The premiere of William Henry Fry's Leonora in Philadelphia is the first known performance of a grand opera by an American composer. ›

1848

Revolutions of 1848: A rebellion arises in Milan which in five days of street fighting drove Marshal Radetzky and his Austrian soldiers from the city. ›

1834

Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union. ›

1793

The first modern republic in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann. ›

1793

Flanders Campaign of the French Revolution, Battle of Neerwinden. ›

1766

American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act. ›

1741

New York governor George Clarke's complex at Fort George is burned in an arson attack, starting the New York Conspiracy of 1741. ›

1673

English lord John Berkeley sells his half of New Jersey to the Quakers. ›

1644

The Third Anglo-Powhatan War begins in the Colony of Virginia. ›

1608

Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia. ›

1571

Valletta is made the capital city of Malta. ›

1438

Albert II of Habsburg becomes King of the Romans. ›

1314

Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake. ›

1241

First Mongol invasion of Poland: Mongols overwhelm Polish armies in Kraków in the Battle of Chmielnik and plunder the city. ›

1229

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares himself King of Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade. ›

1068

An earthquake in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula leaves up to 20,000 dead. ›

417

Pope Zosimus is elected following the death of Pope Innocent I. ›

37

Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (aka Caligula = Little Boots) emperor. ›