On this day in History - Apr. 18

• 0309 or 310 - Pope Eusebius begins his pontificate (until Aug, 17).
• 1025 - Boleslaw I Chrobry is crowned as the first king of Poland.
• 1042 - Michael V attempts to remain sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire by sending his adoptive mother and co-ruler Zoë of Byzantium to a monastery.
• 1161 - Theobald of Bec dies. Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 1480 - Lucrezia Borgia was born (d. 1519). Renaissance ruler and daughter of Pope Alexander VI
• 1506 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.
• 1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen of Poland and married to Sigismund I of Poland.
• 1552 - John Leland dies (b. 1502). English antiquarian.
• 1556 - Luigi Alamanni dies (b. 1495). Italian poet.
• 1558 - Roxelana was born. Wife of Suleiman the Magnificent
• 1567 - Wilhelm von Grumbach dies (b. 1503). German adventurer.
• 1580 - Thomas Middleton was born (d. 1627). English dramatist.
• 1590 - Ahmed I was born (d. 1617). Ottoman Emperor
• 1605 - Giacomo Carissimi was born. Italian Baroque era composer .
• 1636 - Julius Caesar was born. English judge
• 1650 - Simonds d'Ewes dies (b. 1602). English antiquarian and politician.
• 1674 - John Graunt dies (b. 1620). English statistician .
• 1689 - George Jeffreys dies (b. 1648). British Chief Justice, presided over the Bloody Assizes.
• 1690 - Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine eas born (d. 1643). General of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1757 - Nascimento em Santarém de João Diogo de Barros Leitão de Carvalhosa (m. 12 Jan 1818). 1º Visconde de Santarém - Portugal.
• 1768 - Jean-Baptiste Debret was born (d. 11 Jun 1848). French painter and draftsman, active in Brazil.
• 1771 - Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg was born (d. 1820). Austrian field marshal
• 1772 - David Ricardo was born (d. 1823). English economist.
• 1775 - American Revolution: Two lanterns were hung in the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts, indicating British advancement by sea; Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
• 1775 - Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons. Only Prescott finishes the ride.
• 1792 - O poeta Tomás António Gonzaga foi condenado ao degredo para Moçambique.
• 1794 - Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden dies (b. 1714). Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.
• 1796 - Johan Wilcke dies (b. 1732). Swedish physicist.
• 1797 - Adolphe Thiers was born (d. 1877). French statesman.
• 1797 - Battle of Neuwied resulted in the victory of French under General Louis Lazare Hoche against Austrians under General Wermecek.
• 1802 - Erasmus Darwin dies (b. 1731). English physician and botanist, grand-father of Charles Darwin
• 1814 - Manuel Gomes de Sepúlveda dies. Portuguese general.
• 1819 - Carlos Manuel de Cespedes was born (d. 1874). Cuban revolutionist .
• 1819 - Franz von Suppé was born (d. 1895). Croatian - Austrian composer.
• 1838 - Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran was born (d. 28 May 1912). French chemist who developed improved spectroscopic methods which had recently been developed by Kirchhoff.
• 1842 - Antero de Quental was born (d. 1891). Portuguese writer / Nascimento de Antero de Quental, em Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel, Açores (d.11 Set 1891). Escritor português.
• 1857 - Clarence Darrow was born (d. 1938). American attorney.
• 1862 - Frederik Hansen Södring dies (b. 31 May 1809). Danish artist.
• 1863 - Leopold Graf Berchtold was born (d. 1942). Austro-Hungarian foreign minister.
• 1864 - Richard Harding Davis was born (d. 1916). American author.
• 1872 - Bernard Ogilvie Dodge was born (d. 9 Aug 1960). American botanist and pioneer researcher on heredity in fungi.
• 1873 - Justus von Liebig dies (b. 1803). German chemist.
• 1874 - Ivana Brlic-Mazuranic was born (d. 1938). Croatian writer.
• 1874 - Oskar Ernst Bernhardt was born (d. 1941). German author.
• 1880 - A F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 200.
• 1880 - Sam Crawford was born (d. 1968). Baseball Hall of Famer.
• 1882 - Leopold Stokowski was born (d. 1977). English conductor.
• 1882 - Jose Bento Monteiro Lobato was born in Taubaté (d. 4 Jul 1948). Brazilian writer
• 1884 - Ludwig Meidner was born (d. 14 May 1966). German Expressionist painter, draftsman, graphic artist, writer, and teacher.
• 1888 - Duffy Lewis was born (d. 1979). Major League Baseball player.
• 1890 - Caetano da Costa Alegre was born in Vila da Trindade, São Tomé (d. 1890). Portuguese poet.
• 1893 - Jo Swerling was born (d. 1964). American writer.
• 1893 - Violette Morris was born (d. 1944). French athlete.
• 1897 - Ardito Desio was born (d. 2001). Italian topographer and mountaineer.
• 1898 - Gustave Moreau dies (b. 06 Apr 1826). French Symbolist painter. He was a strongly individual artist whose highly wrought interpretations of mythical and religious scenes were widely admired during his lifetime.
• 1899 - St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria
• 1901 - László Németh was born (d. 1975). Author.
• 1901 - Bento de Jesus Caraça was born (d. 25 Jun 1948). Portuguese mathematician./ Nasce em Vila Viçosa o professor, matemático, escritor e político português Bento de Jesus Caraça (m. 25 Jun 1948) .
• 1902 - Giuseppe Pella was born (d. 1981). Prime Minister of Italy.
• 1902 - Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born (d. 1994). Hasidic Judaism leader.
• 1904 - Pigmeat Markham was born (d. 1981). American comedian.
• 1905 - George H. Hitchings was born (d. 27 Feb 1998). American pharmacologist who, along with Gertrude B. Elion and Sir James W. Black, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for their development of drugs that became essential in the treatment of several major diseases.
• 1906 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.8, destroys much of San Francisco, California. It was responsible for some 3.000 deaths and catastrophic damages.
• 1906 - The Los Angeles Times runs a front-page story on the Azusa Street Revival, launching Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
• 1906 - Augusto Frederico Schmidt was born in Rio de Janeiro (d. 8 Feb 1965). Brazilian poet.
• 1906 - Luis Martín dies (b. 1846). Spanish Superior-General of the Society of Jesus.
• 1907 - Lars Valerian Ahlfors was born (d. 11 Oct 1996). Finnish mathematician who was awarded one of the first two Fields Medals in 1936 for his work with Riemann surfaces. He also won the Wolf Prize in 1981.
• 1907 - Miklós Rózsa was born (d. 1995). Hungarian-born composer.
• 1911 - Maurice Goldhaber was born. U.S. physicist whose contributions to nuclear physics include the discovery that the nucleus of the deuterium atom consists of a proton and a neutron.
• 1912 - The RMS Carpathia arrives in New York Harbor with the 706 survivors of the Titanic disaster.
• 1915 - Early French aviator and a fighter aircraft pilot Roland Garros was shot down and glided to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
• 1915 - Joy Gresham was born (d. 1960). American writer.
• 1917 - Ty LaForest was born (d. 1947). Canadian baseball player.
• 1917 - Vladimir Serbsky dies (b. 1858). Russian psychiatrist.
• 1918 - Cliff Hillegass was born (d. 2001). American publisher.
• 1918 - Tony Mottola was born (d. 2004). American guitarist.
• 1919 - Virginia O'Brien was born (d. 2001). American singer and actress.
• 1921 - Jean Richard was born (d. 2001). French actor.
• 1921 - Barbara Hale was born. American actress.
• 1923 - Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built", opens.
• 1924 - Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was born. American musician.
• 1924 - Henry Hyde was born. American politician
• 1925 - Portugal: Tentativa de golpe militar, contra o regime republicano, que incluía monárquicos e nacionalistas.
• 1927 - Samuel P. Huntington was born. American political scientist
• 1928 - Otto Piene was born. German artist.
• 1928 - José Vicente de Freitas assume o cargo de primeiro-ministro de Portugal.
• 1930 - Clive Revill was born. New Zealand born actor
• 1934 - The first "washateria" opens in Fort Worth, Texas.
• 1935 - Panait Istrati dies (b. 1884). Romanian writer.
• 1936 - Tommy Ivo was born. American race car driver.
• 1936 - Ottorino Respighi dies (b. 1879). Italian composer.
• 1937 - Jan Kaplický was born. British architect of Czech origin
• 1939 - Ali Khamenei was born. Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic
• 1939 - Thomas J. Moyer was born. Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court
• 1940 - Robert N. Kucey was born. Canadian author .
• 1940 - Joseph L. Goldstein was born. American molecular geneticist who, along with Michael S. Brown, was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their elucidation of the process of cholesterol metabolism in the human body.
• 1940 - Mike Vickers was born. British guitarist and saxophonist (Manfred Mann)
• 1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo occurs.
• 1942 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1942 - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney dies (b. 1875). American socalite.
• 1943 - World War II: "Operation Peacock", Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over the Solomon Islands.
• 1943 - Isoroku Yamamoto dies (b. 1884). Japanese admiral.
• 1943 - Adelino Amaro da Costa was born. Portuguese politician (CDS party) who died in aircraft crash.
• 1944 - 48th Boston Marathon won by Gerard Coté of Canada in 2:31:50.4
• 1945 - World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany, leaving nothing standing.
• 1945 - Margaret Hassan was born (d. 2004). Irish-born aid worker.
• 1945 - Ernie Pyle dies (b. 1900). American journalist.
• 1945 - John Ambrose Fleming dies (b. 1849). English physicist and electrical engineer.
• 1946 - The League of Nations dissolves. (3 months after the UN starts) .
• 1946 - Hayley Mills was born. English actress .
• 1947 - James Woods was born. American actor ( The Onion Field, Holocaust, The Way We Were, Night Moves, Against All Odds, Salvador, Casino, Nixon)
• 1947 - While destroying German naval installations on Heligoland, the British Royal Navy detonate 6800 tons of explosive in an attempt to demolish the island.
• 1947 - Kathy Acker was born (d. 1997). American author.
• 1947 - Dorothy Lyman was born. American actress, director, producer
• 1947 - Cindy Pickett was born. American actress.
• 1947 - Herbert Mullin was born. American serial killer
• 1947 - Josef Tiso dies (b. 1887). Slovakian leader.
• 1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force. (withdraws from British Commonwealth).
• 1949 - Charles Louis Fefferman was born. American mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1978 for his work in classical analysis.
• 1949 - Geoff Bodine was born. Automobile racer .
• 1949 - Antonio Fagundes was born. Brazilian actor.
• 1951 - Marechal Óscar Carmona dies. Portuguese President / Morre o ex- Presidente da República Portuguesa Marechal Carmona [António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona].
• 1951 - Ricardo Fortaleza was born. Australian-Filipino retired boxer.
• 1951 - Pierre Pettigrew was born. Canadian politician.
• 1953 - Rick Moranis was born. Canadian comedian.
• 1954 - Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
• 1955 - Iniciou-se a Conferência Afro-Asiática de Bandung .
• 1955 - Albert Einstein dies (b. 14 Mar 1879). (E=MC²),German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect dies .
• 1956 - Prince Rainier of Monaco and Grace Patricia Kelly get married in the civil ceremony in the palace's baroque throne room. The day after they would celebrate, at the St. Nicholas Cathedral, the religious wedding ceremony.
• 1956 - Anna Kathryn Holbrook was born. American actress.
• 1956 - Eric Roberts was born. American actor.
• 1956 - Melody Thomas Scott was born. American actress
• 1958 - A U. S. federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound should be released from an insane asylum.
• 1958 - Malcolm Marshall was born (d. 1999). West Indian cricketer.
• 1958 - William Joscelyn Arkell dies (b. 9 Jun 1904). English paleontologist, an authority on Jurassic fossils.
• 1958 - Maurice Gamelin dies (b. 1872). French general.
• 1961 - CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.
• 1961 - Jane Leeves was born. British actress .
• 1961 - Steve Lombardi was born. American professional wrestler
• 1963 - Conan O'Brien was born. American comedian.
• 1963 - Eric McCormack was born. Canadian actor.
• 1964 - Rithy Panh was born. Cambodian film director.
• 1964 - Niall Ferguson was born. British historian.
• 1964 - Ben Hecht dies (b. 1894). American playwright and screenwriter.
• 1965 - Rob Stenders was born. Dutch radio discjockey.
• 1965 - Guillermo González Camarena dies (b. 1917). Mexican inventor.
• 1966 - 38th Annual Academy Awards celebration at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Bob Hop the host received a gold medal, the Honorary Award for unique and distinguished service to the film industry and the Academy. Other award recipients included Shelley Winters for her Best Supporting Actress role in "A Patch of Blue"; Martin Balsam, Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "A Thousand Clowns". The Best Actor Oscar went to Lee Marvin ("Cat Ballou"); and Julie Christie picked up the Best Actress Oscar ("Darling"). The Oscar for the Best Music/Song from a 1965 movie was "The Shadow of Your Smile" from "The Sandpiper" (Johnny Mandel-music, Paul Francis Webster-lyrics).The Best Director and Best Picture winner was "The Sound of Music" (Robert Wise, producer and director).
• 1966 - Trine Hattestad was born. Norwegian athlete
• 1966 - Valeri Kamensky was born. Russian ice hockey player
• 1967 - Maria Bello was born. American actress.
• 1967 - Karl Miller dies (b. 1913). German footballer.
• 1968 - David Hewlett was born. Canadian actor.
• 1969 - Princess Sayako of Japan's Imperial Family was born.
• 1969 - Keith R.A. DeCandido was born. American author
• 1970 - Rico Brogna was born. Major League Baseball player, Philadelphia Phillies
• 1970 - Greg Eklund was born. American musician (Everclear)
• 1971 - David Tennant was born. Scottish actor.
• 1971 - Oleg Petrov was born. Russian ice hockey player
• 1971 - Tamara Braun was born. American actress
• 1971 - David Tennant was born. Scottish actor
• 1971 - Oleg Petrov was born. Russian ice hockey player
• 1972 - The Roland Corporation is founded in Osaka, Japan.
• 1972 - Eli Roth was born. American film director.
• 1973 - Derrick Brooks was born. American football player
• 1973 - Haile Gebrselassie was born. Ethiopian athlete.
• 1974 - Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurates Lahore Dry port.
• 1974 - Italian prosecutor Mario Sossi is kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
• 1974 - Mark Tremonti was born. American musician.
• 1974 - Edgar Wright was born. British director.
• 1974 - Marcel Pagnol dies (b. 1895). French novelist, playwright and filmmaker.
• 1976 - Justin Ross was born. American politician.
• 1976 - Melissa Joan Hart was born in Sayville NY. American actress (Clarissa, Sabrina) .
• 1976 - Fayray was born. Japanese singer.
• 1976 - Henrik Dam dies (b. 1895). Dutch biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1977 - 6th Boston Women's Marathon won by Miki Gorman of California in 2:48:33 .
• 1977 - 81st Boston Marathon won by Jerome Drayton of Canada in 2:14:46 .
• 1977 - Alex Haley, author of "Roots", awarded Pulitzer Prize.
• 1979 - Michael Bradley was born. American basketball player.
• 1979 - Vahid Rahbani was born. Iranian actor and director
• 1979 - Matthew Upson was born. English footballer.
• 1979 - Kourtney Kardashian was born. American reality series star
• 1979 - Anthony Davidson was born. British formula 1 driver
• 1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being.
• 1980 - Robyn Regehr was born. Canadian hockey player.
• 1981 - A Minor League baseball game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island becomes the longest professional baseball game in history: 8 hours and 25 minutes/33 innings (the 33rd inning was not played until June 23rd).
• 1981 - Audrey Tang was born. Taiwanese free software programmer.
• 1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
• 1983 - Miguel Cabrera was born. Major League Baseball player.
• 1983 - 12th Boston Women's Marathon won by Joan Benoit Samuelson in 2:22:43 .
• 1983 - 87th Boston Marathon won by Greg Meyer of Massachusetts in 2:09:00
• 1983 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Alice Walker for "The Color Purple" .
• 1983 - Miguel Cabrera was born. Venezuelan Major League Baseball player.
• 1984 - America Ferrera was born. American actress
• 1985 - Łukasz Fabiański was born. Polish football player
• 1986 - Denice Klarskov was born. Danish porn star
• 1987 - Mike Schmidt becomes the 14th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• 1988 - U.S. launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in retaliation for the April 14 mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. The one-day action is the world's largest naval battle since World War II.
• 1988 - 17th Boston Women's Marathon won by Rosa Mota of Portugal in 2:24:30
• 1988 - 92nd Boston Marathon won by Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya in 2:08:43.
• 1989 - Alia Shawkat was born. American actress.
• 1990 - Gory Guerrero dies (b. 1921). Wrestler.
• 1991 - Gabriel Celaya dies (b. 1911). Spanish poet.
• 1992 - General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolted against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allied with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.
• 1992 - Benny Hill dies. English comedian.
• 1993 - 54th PGA Seniors Golf Championship Tom Wargo.
• 1993 - President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolves the National Assembly and dismisses Cabinet.
• 1993 - Masahiko Kimura dies (b. 1917). Famous Judoka.
• 1994 - Brian Lara scores 375 in one inning of a test cricket match, beating Garfield Sobers's previous record of 365.
• 1994 - 23rd Boston Women's Marathon won by Uta Pippig of Germany in 2:21:45
• 1994 - 98th Boston Marathon won by Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya in 2:07:15 .
• 1994 - Former President Richard Nixon suffers a stroke and dies 4 days later .
• 1994 - Killing spreads in Rwanda: The ethnic violence in Rwandan capital Kigali is spreading throughout the country, aid officials say.
• 1995 - Arturo Frondizi dies. President of Argentina (1958-1962).
• 1996 - In Lebanon, 102 Lebanese civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Qana (see Qana Massacre).
• 1996 - Seventeen Greek tourists and an Egyptian tour guide have been killed by gunmen in Cairo.
• 1996 - Brook Berringer dies (b. 1973). American football player.
• 1996 - Bernard Edwards dies (b. 1952). American record producer.
• 1996 - José Luis López Aranguren dies (b. 1909). Spanish philosopher, theologian and essayist.
• 1996 - Piet Hein dies (b. 1905). Danish poet and scientist.
• 1997 - Inder Kumar Gujral é nomeado primeiro-ministro da Índia.
• 1998 - Terry Sanford dies (b. 1917). American politician.
• 1999 - Hockey player Wayne Gretzky's number (99) is retired league wide in the NHL.
• 1999 - Ordenação episcopal de D. António Maria Bessa Taipa na Sé do Porto.
• 1999 - Povo suíço aceita uma nova Constituição (Bundesverfassung)
• 2002 - A new order of insects, Mantophasmatodea, is announced.
• 2002 - Thor Heyerdahl dies (b. 1914). Norwegian explorer on the Kon-Tiki (1947) and Ra (1969-70) expeditions.
• 2002 - Wahoo McDaniel dies (b. 1938). American football player and wrestler.
• 2003 - Edgar F. Codd dies (b. 1923). English computer scientist, founder of relational databases
• 2003 - Daijiro Kato dies (b. 1976). Japanese motorcycle racer.
• 2004 - O primeiro-ministro José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero ordena a retirada das tropas espanholas no Iraque.
• 2004 - Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara dies (b. 1920). First Prime Minister of Fiji and President of Fiji
• 2005 - Adobe Systems announced an agreement to acquire Macromedia.
• 2005 - Sam Mills dies (b. 1959). American football linebacker.
• Iran - Army Day
• Zimbabwe – Independence Day.