On this day in History - Jul 18

• 390 BC - Battle of the Allia: A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.
• 0064 - Great fire of Rome: A fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control while Emperor Nero reportedly plays his lyre and sings while watching the blaze from a safe distance.
• 1195 - Battle of Alarcos, great victory of Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur over the Castilian King Alfonso VIII .
• 1216 - Início do pontificado do Papa Honorio III
• 1501 - Isabella of Burgundy, was born (d. 1526). Queen of Christian II of Denmark .
• 1534 - Zacharias Ursinus was born (d. 6 May 1583). German theologian.
• 1552 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor was born.
• 1610 - Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, dies (b. 1573). Italian artist.
• 1623 - Pope Gregory XV dies.
• 1634 - Johannes Camphuys, was born (d. 1695). Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
• 1635 - Robert Hooke, was born (d. 3 Mar 1703). English physicist, who discovered the law f elasticity, known as Hooke's law, and invented the balance spring for clocks. Hook is the author of Micrographia (1665)
• 1656 - Bernhard Fischer von Erlach was born. Architect.
• 1695 - Johannes Camphuys, dies (b. 1634). Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.
• 1697 - Padre António Vieira dies. Portuguese jesuit, writer and orator. / Morte, em São Salvador da Baía, no Brasil do Padre António Vieira, missionário jesuíta e diplomata português.
• 1698 - Johann Heinrich Heidegger dies. Swiss theologian.
• 1721 - Antoine Watteau dies. French painter
• 1730 - François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi dies (b. 1644). French soldier.
• 1792 - John Paul Jones dies. American naval commander .
• 1808 - Nascimento de José Joaquim Leite Guimarães. Barão de Nova Cintra - Portugal
• 1811 - William Makepeace Thackeray was born (d. 1863). English author.
• 1817 - Jane Austen dies in Winchester, Hampshire, (b. 16 Dec 1775). English novelist ( "Sense and Sensibility":published 1811; "Pride and Prejudice": published 1813; "Mansfield Park": published 1813; "Emma":published 1816; "Persuasion":published 1818"; Northanger Abbey":published 1818)
• 1821 - Pauline Garcia-Viardot was born (d. 1910). Singer and composer.
• 1830 - Uruguay adopts its first constitution.
• 1834 - Nascimento de Próspero Fernández Oreamunon. Presidente da Costa Rica (1882-1885)
• 1838 - Pierre-Louis Dulong dies. French physicist and chemist.
• 1841 - Coroação de D. Pedro II como Imperador do Brasil.
• 1845 - Tristan Corbière was born (d. 1875). French poet.
• 1847 - Morte de Bento Gonçalves, militar e chefe da Revolução Farroupilha.
• 1852 - Conde de Monsaraz ( António de Macedo Papança) was born in Reguengos (d. 17 Jul 1913). Portuguese poet and politician [Crepusculares (1876); Catarina de Ataíde (1880); Telas Históricas I – O Grande Marquês, II – A Lenda do Jesuitismo (1882); Obras de Macedo Papança, conde de Monsaraz Poesias (1882-1891) e Musa Alentejana (1908)].
• 1853 - Hendrik Antoon Lorentz was born (d. 4 Feb 1928). Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize for Physics colaureate (with Pieter Zeeman) in 1902 for his theory of the influence of magnetism upon electromagnetic radiation phenomena.
• 1857 - Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall's war on the French.
• 1863 - American Civil War: The first formal African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, unsuccessfully assaults Confederate-held Fort Wagner but their valiant fighting still proves the worth of African American soldiers during the war.
• 1863 - Robert Gould Shaw dies. Colonel of the 54th Massachusetts infantry.
• 1864 - Ricarda Huch, was born (†17 Nov 1947). German writer.
• 1864 - Phillip Snowden, was born († 1937). British politician.
• 1869 - Charles Palache was born (d. 5 Dec 1954). He was one of the most eminent crystallographers and mineralogists of the world.
• 1870 - O Concílio Vaticano I define o dogma da infalibilidade papal.
• 1872 - Benito Juárez, dies. President of Mexico
• 1873 - Oscar II of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway in Trondheim
• 1882 - Manuel Gálvez was born. Argentinian writer.
• 1883 - Ricardo Arenales was born. Colombian poet.
• 1885 - Marino Moretti was born in Cesenatico. Italian poet and prose writer who will become a leader of the Crepuscolarismo movement in the early 20th century. His first major collection of poetry, Poesie scritte col lapis, ("Poems Written With a Pencil"), will be published in 1910 and achieve critical acclaimed.
• 1886 - António Duarte was born. Portuguese actor.
• 1887 - Vidkun Quisling was born (d. 1945). Norwegian politician and traitor.
• 1890 - Frank Forde was born (d. 1983). Fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia.
• 1894 - Isaac Babel was born (d. 1940). Ukrainian writer.
• 1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of a new element and proposed to call it polonium.
• 1899 - Felipe Pinglo Alva was born († 13 May 1936). Peruvian poet and composer
• 1902 - Nathalie Sarraute was born (d. 1999). French writer.
• 1902 - Jessamyn West was born (d. 1984). writer.
• 1902 - Chill Wills was born (d. 1978). Actor.
• 1906 - Clifford Odets was born (d. 1963). Writer.
• 1906 - S. I. Hayakawa was born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 1992). American semanticist and politician. The author of Language in Thought and Action will maintain: "In a real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read.... It is not true that we have only one life to live, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish."
• 1909 - Andrei Gromyko was born (d. 1989). Soviet diplomat and President.
• 1909 - Mohammed Daoud Khan was born (d. 1978). Afghani President.
• 1909 - María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez (Lupe Vélez) was born (d. 13 Dec 1944). Mexican actress.
• 1911 - Hume Cronyn was born (d. 2003). American actor.
• 1913 - Red Skelton was born (d. 1997). American actor and comedian .
• 1914 - The United States Army's Signal Corps is formed, giving definite status to its air service for the first time.
• 1918 - Nelson Mandela was born. South African revolutionary and president .
• 1921 - John Glenn was born. American astronaut and politician.
• 1922 - Thomas Kuhn was born (d. 1996). American philosopher. Author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), one of the most influential works of history and philosophy written in the 20th century.
• 1923 - Jerome H. Lemelson was born (d. 1997). American inventor.
• 1924 - Àngel Guimerà dies. Poet and dramatist.
• 1925 - Shirley Strickland, was born. Australian athlete.
• 1925 - Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
• 1927 - Ludwig Harig was born. Writer .
• 1927 - Kurt Masur was born. Silesian-born conductor .
• 1929 - Dick Button was born. Figure skater.
• 1929 - Screamin' Jay Hawkins was born (d. 2000). American singer.
• 1930 - Inauguração do Estádio Centenário - Uruguai
• 1933 - Yevgeny Yevtushenko was born. Russian poet (Babi Yar)
• 1934 - Francisco de Lacerda dies. Portuguese conductor and composer.
• 1935 - Jayendra Saraswathi, was born. Hindu religious leader
• 1937 - Roald Hoffman, was born. Polish-born American chemist and Nobel Prize for Chemistry co-laureate in 1981, with Fukui Kenichi of Japan, for their independent investigations of the mechanisms of chemical reactions.
• 1937 - Hunter S. Thompson, was born (d. 2005). journalist and author.
• 1938 - Paul Verhoeven was born. Dutch film director.
• 1940 - James Brolin was born. Actor.
• 1940 - Joe Torre was born. Baseball player and manager.
• 1941 - Martha Reeves was born. Singer.
• 1942 - World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.
• 1942 - Giacinto Facchetti was born. Italian football player.
• 1944 - World War II: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
• 1947 - President Harry S. Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act into law which places the Speaker of the United Stated House of Representatives Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the United States Vice President.
• 1947 - Steve Forbes was born. Entrepreneur, politician.
• 1948 - Hartmut Michel was born. German biochemist who, along with Johann Deisenhofer and Robert Huber, received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988 for their determination of the three-dimensional structure of certain proteins that are essential for photosynthesis.
• 1949 - Vítězslav Novák, dies. Composer.
• 1950 - Sir Richard Branson, was born. Entrepreneur .
• 1951 - Jersey Joe Walcott KOs Ezzard Charles in 5 for heavyweight belt.
• 1958 - Henri Farman dies (b. 1874). French aviator and aircraft constructor who developed ailerons (1908) to solve the enormously difficult and dangerous problems of lateral control
• 1962 - Jack Irons, was born. Original Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer.
• 1962 - Golpe militar no Perú depõe o presidente Manuel Prado
• 1963 - Martín Torrijos Espino was born. President of Panama .
• 1963 - Mike Greenwell was born. Baseball player
• 1967 - Castello Branco dies (b. 1900). 35th President of Brasil (15 Apr1964 - 15 Mar 1967).
• 1967 - Vin Diesel was born. American actor
• 1968 - Vietnam War: The two-day Honolulu Conference begins in Honolulu, Hawaii between US President Lyndon B. Johnson and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu.
• 1968 - Intel ( inventor of the microchip), is incorporated.
• 1968 - Corneille Heymans dies (b. 28 Mar 1892). Belgian physiologist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1938 for his discovery of the regulatory effect on respiration of sensory organs associated with the carotid artery in the neck and with the aortic arch leading from the heart (1927-29).
• 1969 - Masanori Murakawa was born. Japanese professional wrestler
• 1969 - After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne dies.
• 1969 - Barbara Pepper dies at 57. Actress (Doris Ziffel-Green Acres)
• 1969 - Apollo 11 makes preparations for landing on the Moon.
• 1974 - Portugal - Tomada de posse do 2º. Governo Provisório: Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves assume o cargo de primeiro-ministro. Vitorino Magalhães Godinho é o Ministro da Educação e Cultura.
• 1975 - Torii Hunter was born. Bbaseball player
• 1975 - Daron Malakian was born. Guitarist (System of a Down)
• 1976 - Gymnast Nadia Comaneci, aged 14, scores first ever perfect 10 at the Olympics.
• 1977 - Morte, em Coimbra, do psiquiatra português Elysio de Moura (n. 3 Ago 1877, em Braga)
• 1978 - Ben Sheets, was born. Baseball player.
• 1980 - Rocco Pitanga was born in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actor.
• 1980 - Catalina Maya was born in Medellin, Colombia. Top model and actress.
• 1982 - 268 campesinos are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Ríos Montt's Guatemala.
• 1984 - McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food resturant, James Oliver Huberty kills 21 people and injures 19 others before being shot dead by police.
• 1986 - A tornado is broadcast live on KARE television in Minnesota when the station's helicopter pilot makes a chance encounter.
• 1986 - The motion picture Aliens opens in theaters.
• 1987 - Gilberto Freyre, dies (b. 1900). Brasilian writer. Organizer of the first northeastern regionalist congress in Recife. Casa-grande e senzala (The Masters and the Slaves, 1933), the story of Brazil's Portuguese colonizers and their African slaves, is his best-known work.
• 1988 - Nico dies. German-American model and singer.
• 1988 - Joly Braga Santos dies (b. 14 May 1924). Portuguese composer
• 1989 - Rebecca Schaeffer, actress (My Sister Sam), is shot by a fan at 21
• 1990 - Yoon Boseon dies. President of South Korea
• 1990 - Eliana Macedo dies. Brazilian actress.
• 1992 - The ten victims of the La Cantuta massacre disappeared from their university in Lima.
• 1994 - In Buenos Aires, an explosion destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations killing 85 and injuring many more.
• 1995 - On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee.
• 1996 - Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River in Quebec, beginning one of Canada's costliest natural disasters ever.
• 1996 - In an event very similar to the Oklahoma tornado that would occur three years later, a tornado ranking as a F5 hit the town of Oakfield, Wisconsin.
• 1997 - 8000 low-caste Indians riot in Mumbai (Bombay) following a funeral for 10 children who had been killed by police.
• 1997 - Gene Shoemaker dies (b. 28 Apr 1928). American planetary geologist.
• 2001 - In Baltimore, Maryland, a 60-car train derails in a tunnel, sparking a fire that will ast days and virtually shut down downtown Baltimore.
• 2001 - Fabio Taglioni dies. Italian automotive engineer.
• 2002 - Gerson de Abreu dies. Brazilian actor.
• 2004 - Paul Foot dies. British journalist.
• 2004 - Selecção brasileira masculina de Voleibol vence a Itália e conquista o 4º título da Liga Mundial
• 2005 - Lançada a Antologia República dos Poetas, no Museu da República, no Rio de Janeiro (Brasil). É a primeira marca oficial do movimento poético que explodia na cidade desde 1999.
• Uruguay - Constitution Day
• Japan - Marine Day (3rd Monday of July, 2005)
• Dia Nacional de Espanha.
• Dia de Santa Marinha, virgem e mártir.
• Portugal: Dia Nacional dos Bombeiros.