October 18

Historic Events

2019

NASA 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. ›

2019

Riots 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. ›

2007

Karachi bombing: A suicide attack on a motorcade carrying former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto kills 139 and wounds 450 more. Bhutto herself is uninjured. ›

2003

Bolivian gas conflict: Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada is forced to resign and leave Bolivia. ›

1992

Merpati Nustantara Airlines Flight 5601 crashes into Mount Papandayan near the town of Garut in West Java, Indonesia, killing 31. ›

1991

The Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopts a declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. ›

1989

The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-34 to deploy the Jupiter-bound Galileo space probe. ›

1979

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) begins allowing people to have home satellite earth stations without a federal government license. ›

1978

Based on the world's first children's art museum, the Henrik Igityan National Centre for Aesthetics opened in Yerevan. ›

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 murdered and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide. ›

1967

The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet. ›

1963

Félicette, a black and white female Parisian stray cat, becomes the first cat launched into space. ›

1954

Texas Instruments announces the Regency TR-1, the first mass-produced transistor radio. ›

1945

The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States 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, stages a coup d'état against president Isaías Medina Angarita, who is overthrown by the end of the day. ›

1945

Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Eva Duarte. ›

1944

World War II: Soviet Union begins the liberation of Czechoslovakia from Nazi Germany. ›

1944

World War II: The state funeral of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel takes place in Ulm, Germany. ›

1929

The 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. ›

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. ›

1921

The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is formed as part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. ›

1914

The Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement is founded in Germany. ›

1912

First Balkan War: King Peter I of Serbia issues a declaration "To the Serbian People", as his country joins the war. ›

1900

Count Bernhard von Bülow becomes chancellor of Germany. ›

1898

The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain. ›

1887

Johannes Brahms conducts the premiere of his Double Concerto, composed for violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann. ›

1867

United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day. ›

1860

The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty. ›

1851

Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London. ›

1779

American Revolutionary War: The Franco-American Siege of Savannah is lifted. ›

1775

African-American poet Phillis Wheatley is freed from slavery. ›

1748

Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession. ›

1648

Boston shoemakers form the first American labor organization. ›

1630

Frendraught Castle in Scotland, the home of James Crichton of Frendraught, burns down. ›

1599

Michael 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. ›

1597

King 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. ›

1565

Ships 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. ›

1561

In Japan the fourth Battle of Kawanakajima is fought between the forces of Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen, resulting in a draw. ›

1540

Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto's forces destroy the fortified town of Mabila in present-day Alabama, killing Tuskaloosa. ›

1356

Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroys the town of Basel, Switzerland. ›

1281

Pope Martin IV excommunicates King Peter III of Aragon for usurping the crown of Sicily (a sentence renewed on 7 May and 18 November 1282). ›

1166

Michael the Syrian, one of the most important Syriac historians, is consecrated as Syriac Orthodox Patriarch at the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery. ›

1081

The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium. ›

1016

The Danes defeat the English in the Battle of Assandun. ›

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. ›

629

Dagobert I is crowned King of the Franks. ›

614

King 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. ›

320

Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the Sun and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer (Almagest). ›

33

Heartbroken 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. ›