On this day in History - Nov 18

• 0009 - Vespasian was born (d. 0079). Roman Emperor
• 0326 - The old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated.
• 1095 - The Council of Clermont began. The council was called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land.
• 1105 - Maginulf elected anti-Pope Silvester I
• 1154 - Adélaide de Maurienne dies (b. 1092). Queen of Louis VI of France
• 1302 - Pope Boniface VIII issued the Papal bull Unam sanctam ("The One Holy"), which historians consider one of the most extreme statements of Papal spiritual supremacy ever made.
• 1305 - John II, Duke of Brittany dies (b. 1239)
• 1307 - According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.
• 1313 - Constança dies. Dauhgher of Isabel, Queen of Portugal
• 1421 - A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.
• 1477 - William Caxton produces "Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres", the first English book printed on a printing press.
• 1497 - Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama reached the Cape of Good Hope
• 1493 - Christopher Columbus first sights what is now Puerto Rico. He will land on it the following day and name it San Juan Batista.
• 1522 - Lamoral, Count of Egmont was born (d. 1568).Flemish general and statesman
• 1559 - Cuthbert Tunstall dies (b. 1474). English churchman.
• 1590 - George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury dies (b. 1528). English statesman
• 1626 - St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated
• 1647 - Pierre Bayle was born (d. 1706). French philosopher
• 1686 - Charles Francois Felix operates on King of France Louis XIV's anal fistula after practicing the surgery on several peasants.
• 1724 - Bartolomeu de Gusmão dies (b. 1685). Portuguese naturalist
• 1772 - Louis Ferdinand of Prussia was born (d. 1806). German prince.
• 1785 - David Wilkie was born (d. 1841). Scottish artist
• 1785 - Louis Philip I, Duke of Orléans dies (b. 1725). French soldier and writer.
• 1786 - Carl Maria von Weber was born (d. 1826). German composer
• 1787 - Louis-Jacques Daguerre was born (d. 1851). French inventor and photographer.
• 1796 - Catharina II, "The Great" dies. Tsarina of Russia (1762-96).
• 1797 - Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat dies (b. 1719). French shipbuilder and merchant
• 1803 - the Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, is fought, leading to the establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere.
• 1804 - Alfonso Ferrero la Marmora was born (d. 1878). Italian general and statesman.
• 1810 - Asa Gray was born. American botanist and writer of Grays Anatomy of Plants.
• 1814 - William Jessop dies (b. 1745). English civil engineer
• 1814 - Aleijadinho (Francisco Antonio Lisboa) dies in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais (b. 1730). Brazilien sculptor and architect, known for his beautiful Rococo statues and his churches
• 1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to sight the continent of Antarctica.
• 1832 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld was born (d. 1901). Swedish explorer
• 1835 - Portugal: José Jorge Loureiro becomes Prime-Minister.
• 1836 - Sir William S. Gilbert was born (d. 1911). English dramatist (HMS Pinafore; The Pirates of Penzance).
• 1836 - Cesare Lombroso was born (d. 1909). Italian psychiatrist and founder of criminology.
• 1839 - August Kundt was born (d. 1894). German physicist.
• 1841 - Manuel Menéndez becomes President of Peru.
• 1856 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov was born (d. 1929). Grand Duke of Russia
• 1860 - Ignace Paderewski was born. Polish pianist and composer.
• 1861 - Dorothea Dix was born (d. 1887). American activist (not to be confused with journalist, Dorothy Dix)
• 1865 - Mark Twain's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press.
• 1870 - Dorothy Dix, pseudonym of US journalist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer was born (d. 1951)
• 1874 - Clarence Day was born (d. 1935). American author
• 1877 - Arthur Cecil Pigou was born. English economist.
• 1882 - Jacques Maritain was born (d. 1973). French philosopher.
• 1882 - Wyndham Lewis was born. English artist and writer who founded the abstract porticist movement, which, in painting and literature before World War I, sought to relate art to the industrial process.
• 1882 - Amelita Galli-Curci was born in Milan. Famed operatic soprano.
• 1883 - Carl Vinson was born (d. 1981). U.S. Congressman
• 1883 - American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
• 1886 - Máximo Tajes becomes President of Uruguay.
• 1886 - Chester A. Arthur dies (b. 1829). 21st President of the United States
• 1889 - William Allingham dies. Irish author
• 1897 - Patrick Blackett was born (d. 1974). English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1898 - Joris Ivens was born (d. 1989). Dutch filmmaker.
• 1899 - Eugene Ormandy was born in Budapest (d. 1985). Hungarian-born, American conductor.
• 1901 - George Gallup was born (d. 1984). American statistician and opinion pollster.
• 1903 - The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the Americans exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
• 1904 - General Esteban Huertas steps down after the government of Panama fears he wants to stage a coup. The Panamanian army is disbanded the next day.
• 1904 - Jean Paul Lemieux was born (d. 1990). Quebec painter.
• 1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.
• 1906 - Klaus Mann was born (d. 1949). German writer.
• 1906 - George Wald was born (d. 1997). American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1907 - Compay Segundo was born (d. 2003).Cuban musician (Buena Vista Social Club)
• 1908 - Imogene Coca was born (d. 2001). American actress and comedienne
• 1909 - Johnny Mercer was born (d. 1976). American lyricist.
• 1909 - Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries including two Americans) are executed by order of dictator José Santos Zelaya.
• 1911 - Attilio Bertolucci was born. Italian poet.
• 1914 - Iberê Camargo was born in Restinga Seca-RS (d. 1994). Brazilian painter.
• 1915 - Ken Burkhart was born (d. 2004). Baseball player.
• 1916 - Amelita Galli-Curci, was born (d. 1963).Italian soprano.
• 1916 - World War I: First Battle of the Somme ends - In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
• 1918 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
• 1919 - Jocelyn Brando was born (d. 2005). American actress.
• 1921 - Estréia oficial da Selecção Portuguesa de Futebol.
• 1921 - Natália Nunes was born in Lisbon. Portuguese writer.
• 1922 - Luis Somoza Debayle was born (d. 1967). Nicaraguan president.
• 1922 - Marcel Proust dies (b. 1871). French novelist.
• 1923 - Alan Shepard was born (d. 21 Jul 1998). Astronaut who was the first American to travel in space.
• 1924 - Alexander Mackenzie Stuart, Baron Mackenzie-Stuart was born (d. 2000). President of the European Court of Justice.
• 1925 - Gene Mauch was born (d. 2005). Baseball manager.
• 1925 - Ênio Silveira was born (d. 1996). Brazilian sociologist.
• 1926 - George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."
• 1927 - Hank Ballard was born (d. 2003). American musician.
• 1928 - Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the second appearances of Cartoon stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
• 1928 - Otar Gordeli was born. Georgian composer
• 1929 - D. Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira is nominated Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal.
• 1929 - 1929 Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area.
• 1932 - "Flowers and Trees" receives 1st Academy Award for a cartoon
• 1935 - Rudolf Bahro was born (d. 1997). German dissident.
• 1936 - Don Cherry was born (d. 1995). American jazz trumpeter.
• 1938 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
• 1939 - Margaret Atwood was born. Canadian writer
• 1939 - Brenda Vaccaro was born. American actress
• 1940 - Qaboos ibn Sa’id was born. Sultan of Oman
• 1940 - World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
• 1941 - David Hemmings was born (d. 2003). English actor.
• 1941 - John Christian Watson dies in Sydney.The first Labour prime minister of Australia
• 1941 - Walther Nernst dies (b. 1864). German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1941 - Chris Watson dies (b. 1867). third Prime Minister of Australia
• 1941 - Émile Nelligan dies (b. 1879). Quebec poet.
• 1942 - Holocaust: German SS carry out selection of Jewish ghetto in Lviv, western Ukraine, arresting 5.000 "unproductive Jews". All get deported to Belzec death camp.
• 1942 - Linda Evans was born. American actress
• 1942 - Susan Sullivan was born. American actress
• 1943 - World War II: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 aviators.
• 1943 - Holocaust: Aktion Emtefest: Nazis liquidate Janowska concentration camp in Lviv, western Ukraine, murdering at least 6.000 surviving Jews. German SS leader Fritz Katzman declares Lviv (Lemberg) to be Judenfrei (free from the Jews).
• 1944 - Susan Sullivan was born. American actress
• 1944 - Wolfgang Joop was born. German artist, fashion designer and art collector.
• 1945 - Wilma Mankiller was born. Former chief of the Cherokee Nation.
• 1946 - Alan Dean Foster was born. American author
• 1947 - Jameson Parker was born. American actor
• 1948 - Andrea Marcovicci was born. American singer and actress
• 1948 - Jack Tatum was born. American football player
• 1950 - Eric Pierpoint was born. American actor
• 1951 - Justin Raimondo was born. American author
• 1952 - Delroy Lindo was born in London. Actor
• 1952 - Paul Eluard dies (b. 1895). French poet
• 1953 - Frank Olson dies (suicide). American scientist
• 1953 - Alan Moore was born. English comic book writer and novelist
• 1954 - John Parr was born. British pop singer
• 1956 - Warren Moon was born. American football player
• 1956 - Noel Brotherston was born (d. 1995). Northern Irish footballer.
• 1957 - Seán Mac Falls was born. Irish-born poet
• 1958 - Laura Miller was born. mayor of Dallas, Texas
• 1958 - Claudia Jimenez was born in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actress
• 1959 - William Wyler's film Ben-Hur premieres at Loew's Theater in New York City.
• 1959 - Jimmy Quinn was born. Northern Irish footballer and football manager.
• 1960 - Elizabeth Perkins was born in Queens, New York. American actress,
• 1960 - Kim Wilde was born. English singer
• 1962 - Kirk Hammett was born. American guitarist (Metallica)
• 1962 - Jamie Moyer was born. Baseball player
• 1962 - Niels Bohr dies (b. 1885). Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in 1922.
• 1963 - Dante Bichette was born. baseball player
• 1963 - Peter Schmeichel was born. Danish football player
• 1963 - Len Bias was born (d. 1986). American basketball player.
• 1965 - Henry A. Wallace dies (b. 1888). Vice President of the United States.
• 1966 - Jorge Camacho was born. Spanish poet
• 1966 - Jean Peugeot dies. French auto manufacturer.
• 1967 - Luis Somoza Debayle dies (b. 1922). Nicaraguan president
• 1968 - Owen Wilson was born in Dallas, Texas. American actor
• 1969 - Sam Cassell was born. American basketball player
• 1969 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. dies (b. 1888). American politician
• 1969 - Ted Heath was born (d. 1902). British musician and bandleader.
• 1970 - US President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for US$155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government (US$85 million was for military assistance in order to help prevent the overthrow of the government of Premier Lon Nol by the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnam).
• 1970 - Joe Frazier KOs Bob Foster in 2 for heavyweight boxing title.
• 1970 - Singer Jerry Lee Lewis divorces his third wife, Myra Gail, after 12 years.
• 1970 - Peta Wilson was born. Australian actress
• 1971 - Hard rock band Led Zeppelin release an untitled album, often dubbed "Led Zeppelin IV," featuring "Rock & Roll," "Stairway to Heaven" and other classic songs.
• 1972 - Danny Whitten dies (b. 1943). American musician and songwriter.
• 1973 - Nic Pothas was born. South African/English Wicket-keeper
• 1974 - Chloë Sevigny was born in Darien, Connecticut. American actress
• 1975 - David Ortiz was born. Dominican Major League Baseball player
• 1975 - Anthony McPartlin was born. British actor and television presenter
• 1976 - Spain's parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.
• 1976 - Martin Bertram was born. Author of Vanity of Vanities.
• 1976 - Man Ray dies (b. 1890). American artist
• 1977 - Trent Barrett was born. Australian rugby league player
• 1977 - Fabolous was born. American rapper
• 1977 - Kurt Schuschnigg dies (b. 1897). Austrian politician.
• 1978 - Damien Johnson was born. Irish football player
• 1978 - Jonestown mass suicide: In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his People's Temple in a mass murder-suicide; 913 die, including 276 children.
• 1978 - The Blues Brothers appear for the first time on Saturday Night Live.
• 1978 - Jim Jones dies suicide (b. 1931). American cult leader
• 1978 - Leo Ryan dies (b. 1905). U.S. Congressman.
• 1979 - Freddie Fitzsimmons dies (b. 1901). Baseball player.
• 1980 - Conn Smythe dies (b. 1895). NHL coach 1927-1931.
• 1981 - Christina Vidal was born. American actress.
• 1982 - Mariasela Alvarez of Dominican Republic, crowned 32nd Miss World
• 1982 - Duk Koo Kim died unexpectedly from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini in Las Vegas, prompting reforms in the sport of boxing.
• 1982 - Duk Koo Kim dies (b. 1959). Korean boxer.
• 1983 - Jon Johansen was born. Norwegian software developer
• 1984 - Ferrari (Wrestler) was born. Female American independent professional wrestler
• 1984 - Nayanthara was born. Indian actress
• 1984 - Jonathan "Johnny Christ" Seward was born. American musician (Avenged Sevenfold)
• 1984 - Ryohei Chiba was born. Japanese singer and dancer (member of the boy band w-inds).
• 1984 - Mary Hamman dies (b. 1907). American writer and editor, modern living editor LIFE and eidtor in chief Bride & Home.
• 1985 - Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip by Bill Watterson, was first published.
• 1985 - Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theisman breaks his leg on Monday Night Football, ending his pro football career.
• 1985 - Rex Goudie was born. Canadian singer.
• 1986 - Gia Carangi dies (b. 1960). American model.
• 1987 - Iran-Contra scandal: The U.S. Congress issues its final report on the Iran-Contra affair, stating that US President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides and his administration exhibited "secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law."
• 1987 - King's Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross St Pancras.
• 1987 - Jacques Anquetil dies (b. 1934). French cyclist.
• 1988 - War on Drugs: US President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers.
• 1990 - Chris Eubank defeats Nigel Benn in arguably the greatest British boxing match ever.
• 1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free.
• 1991 - After the 3-month siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar is invaded by Serbians
• 1991 - Gustáv Husák dies (b. 1913). President of Czechoslovakia.
• 1993 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
• 1994 - Cab Calloway dies (b. 1907). American bandleader.
• 1995 - Jacqueline Aguilera Marcano, 19, of Venezuela, crowned 45th Miss World
• 1996 - World-renowned bird expert Tony Silva is sentenced to seven years in prison without parole for leading an illegal parrot smuggling ring.
• 1996 - A fire occurs in the Channel Tunnel soon after it opened.
• 1997 - Gary Glitter is arrested in the United Kingdom on child porn charges.
• 1998 - Alice McDermott wins the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy.
• 1999 - In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 28 injured at Texas A&M University when a huge bonfire under construction collapses.
• 1999 - In Jasper, Texas, 24-year old Shawn Allen Berry is sentenced to life in prison, becoming the third person convicted in the racially-motivated dragging death of James Byrd, Jr..
• 1999 - Paul Bowles dies (b. 1910). American novelist.
• 2001 - The Nintendo GameCube is released in North America
• 2001 - Georgi Parvanov os elected President of Bulgaria.
• 2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
• 2002 - The state of New Jersey banned the game Dodgeball from public schools.
• 2002 - James Coburn dies (b. 1928). American actor.
• 2003 - The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the right to same sex marriage was guaranteed by the state constitution.
• 2003 - In the UK the Local Government Act 2003, repealing the controversial anti-gay amendment Section 28, becomes effective.
• 2003 - The congress of the Communist Party of Indian Union (Marxist-Leninist) decides to merge the party into Kanu Sanyal's CPI(ML).
• 2003 - Michael Kamen dies (b. 1948). American composer
• 2004 - The UN Security Council held a two-day session in Nairobi. This was the first time it had convened outside of New York headquarters.
• 2004 - Russia officially ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.
• 2004 - Cy Coleman dies (b. 1929). American composer, songwriter and pianist.
• 2004 - Borjalo dies (b. 1925). Brazilian cartoonist.
• 2005 - Robert Blake was found liable for the wrongful death of his wife in a civil trial. The jury has ordered him to pay $30 million.
• 2006 - Number one ranked Ohio State plays against number two ranked rival University of Michigan.
• 2006 - Kathie Holmes /Tom Cruise wedding
• Latvia - Independence Day (1918)
• In Catholicism, the feast of St. Odo of Cluny, St Romanus of Antioch, St Mawes, and St Rose Philippine Duchesne Calvin and Hobbes Day (1985)
• Oman - National Holiday
• Venezuela - Feast of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá, also known as la Chinita, in the western state of Zulia