On this day in History - Oct. 18

• 0033 - Agripina dies. Calígula's mother.
• 0707 - Pope John VII dies.
• 1009 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the "mad" Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock.
• 1016 - The Danes defeat the Saxons in the Battle of Ashingdon.
• 1035 - Sancho III of Navarre dies.
• 1081 - The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.
• 1101 - Hugh of Vermandois dies (b. 1053). Son of Henry I of France.
• 1127 - Emperor Go-Shirakawa was born (d. 1192). Emperor of Japan.
• 1141 - Margrave Leopold IV of Austria dies.
• 1210 - Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV.
• 1356 - Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps destroyed the town of Basel, Switzerland.
• 1382 - James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormonde dies (b. 1331).
• 1386 - Opening of the University of Heidelberg.
• 1405 - Pope Pius II was born (d. 1464).
• 1417 - Pope Gregory XII dies.
• 1442 - João Duque de Aveiro dies (b. 13 Jan 1400). Prince of Portugal, son of the King D. João I and Queen Filipa de Lencastre.
• 1503 - Pope Pius III dies (b. 1439).
• 1517 - Manoel da Nóbrega was born (d. 18.Oct.1570). Portuguese Jesuit in Brazil.
• 1541 - Margaret Tudor dies (b. 1489). Queen of Scotland.
• 1545 - John Taverner dies. English composer.
• 1547 - Justus Lipsius was born (d. 1606). Flemish humanist.
• 1558 - Maria of Austria dies (b. 1505). Queen of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia.
• 1561 - Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima - Takeda Shingen beats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts.
• 1564 - Johannes Acronius Frisius dies (b. 1520). German physician and mathematician.
• 1569 - Giambattista Marini was born (d. 1625). Italian poet.
• 1570 - Manoel da Nóbrega dies (b. 18.Oct.1517). Portuguese Jesuit in Brazil.
• 1595 - Edward Winslow was born (d. 1655). Plymouth Colony founder.
• 1604 - Igram van Achelen dies (b. 1528). Dutch statesman.
• 1634 - Luca Giordano was born (d. 1705). Italian artist.
• 1646 - Isaac Jogues dies (b. 1607). French Jesuit missionary.
• 1648 - Boston Shoemakers form first U.S. labor organization.
• 1653 - Abraham van Riebeeck was born (d. 1713). Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.
• 1662 - Matthew Henry was born (d. 1714). English non-conformist minister.
• 1667 - Fasilides dies. Emperor of Ethiopia.
• 1668 - John George IV, Elector of Saxony was born (d. 1694).
• 1678 - Jacob Jordaens dies (b. 1593). Flemish painter.
• 1679 - Ann Putnam, Jr. was born (d. 1716). American accuser in the Salem Witch Trials.
• 1685 - Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes, which has protected French Protestants.
• 1701 - Charles le Beau was born (d. 1778). French historian.
• 1706 - Baldassare Galuppi was born (d. 1785). Italian composer.
• 1739 - António José da Silva (O Judeu / The Jewish) dies (b. 1705). Brazilian-born Portuguese dramatist.
• 1741 - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos was born (d. 1803). French general and author.
• 1744 - Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough dies (b. 1660). English friend of Anne of England
• 1748 - Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.
• 1762 - Mestre Ataíde was born (d. 1830). Brazilian painter.
• 1767 - Mason-Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.
• 1770 - John Manners, Marquess of Granby dies (b. 1721). British soldier.
• 1775 - African-American poet Phillis Wheatley freed from slavery.
• 1775 - Christian August Crusius dies (b. 1715). German philosopher and theologian.
• 1777 - Heinrich von Kleist was born (d. 1811). German writer.
• 1785 - Thomas Love Peacock was born (d. 1866). English satirist.
• 1817 - Etienne-Nicolas Méhul dies (b. 1763). French composer.
• 1817 - Gomes Freire de Andrade dies hanged at Forte de São Julião da Barra (b. 27 Jan 1757). Portuguese militar.
• 1818 - Jose da Silva Mendes Leal was born. Portuguese author, Gloria e Martirio
• 1842 - Walhalla temple near Regensburg at the Danube is inaugurated.
• 1851 - Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.
• 1854 - Billy Murdoch was born (d. 1911). Australian cricketer.
• 1859 - Henri Bergson was born (d. 1941). French philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1860 - The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking ith the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.
• 1860 - Casimiro de Abreu dies (4 Jan 1839). Brazilian poet.
• 1865 - Arie de Jong was born (d. 1957). Dutch linguist.
• 1865 - Logan Pearsall Smith was born (d. 1946). American essayist and critic.
• 1865 - Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston dies (b. 1784). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1866 - Philipp Franz von Siebold dies (b. 1796). German physician.
• 1867 - United States takes possession of Alaska, celebrated annually in the state as (Alaska Day).
• 1867 - Eugénio de Paula Tavares was born in Ilha Brava, Cabo Verde. Journalist, writer, poet.
• 1868 - Ernst Didring was born (d. 1931). Swedish author.
• 1870 - Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki was born. Japanese scholar.
• 1871 - Charles Babbage dies (b. 1791). English mathematician and inventor.
• 1873 - Ivanoe Bonomi was born (d. 1951). Prime Minister of Italy.
• 1882 - Lucien Petit-Breton was born (d. 1917). Argentine-French cyclist.
• 1886 - Amílcar Ramada Curto dies (b. 1961). Portuguese writer.
• 1886 - Philipp Franz von Siebold dies (b. 1796). German physician.
• 1889 - Antonio Meucci dies (b. 1808). Italian inventor.
• 1893 - Charles Gounod dies (b. 1818). French composer (Faust, Romeo et Juliette, La reine the Saba).
• 1893 - Georges Ohsawa was born (d. 1966). Japanese founder of Macrobiotics.
• 1894 - H. L. Davis was born (d. 1960). American author.
• 1897 - Isabel Briggs Myers was born (d. 1980). American pyschological theorist.
• 1898 - United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.
• 1898 - Lotte Lenya was born (d. 1981). Austrian singer and actress.
• 1898 - Shin'ichi Suzuki was born (d. 1998). Japanese violinist.
• 1898 - United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.
• 1898 - Leopoldo Neves de Almeida was born in Lisbon. Portuguese sculptor.
• 1900 - Lotte Lenya was born (d. 1981). Austrian singer and actress.
• 1902 - Miriam Hopkins was born (d. 1972). American actress.
• 1902 - Pascual Jordan was born (d. 1980). German physicist.
• 1903 - Lina Radke was born (d. 1983). German athlete.
• 1904 - A. J. Liebling was born (d. 1963). American journalist.
• 1905 - Jan Gies was born (d. 1993). Dutch resistance fighter.
• 1906 - James Brooks was born (d. 1992). American painter.
• 1908 - Belgium annexes the Congo Free State.
• 1909 - Norberto Bobbio was born (d. 2004). Italian philosopher and legal theorist.
• 1911 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was born. Indian guru.
• 1911 - Alfred Binet dies (b. 1857). French psychologist.
• 1912 - The First Balkan War begins.
• 1913 - Robert Gilruth was born (d. 2000). American aviation and space pioneer.
• 1914 - The Schoenstatt Movement is founded in Germany.
• 1915 - Grande Otelo (Sebastião Bernardes de Sousa Prata) was born in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais. Brazilian actor.
• 1915 - Victor Sen Yung was born (d. 1980). American actor.
• 1918 - Fortaleza Esporte Clube is founded (Brazil)
• 1918 - Bobby Troup was born (d. 1999). American musician.
• 1919 - Madrid opened a subway system.
• 1919 - Anita O'Day was born. American singer.
• 1919 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau was born (d. 2000). Fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1919 - Ric Nordman was born (d. 1996). Canadian politician.
• 1920 - Melina Mercouri was born (d. 1994). Greek actress.
• 1921 - Jesse Helms was born. U.S. Senator from North Carolina.
• 1921 - King Ludwig III of Bavaria dies (b. 1845).
• 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.
• 1924 - University of Illinois Fighting Illini college football halfback Red Grange scores four touchdowns in the first quarter of a game against the University of Michigan Wolverines.
• 1924 - Hugh Allan "Buddy" MacMaster was born. Canadian musician.
• 1925 - The Grand Ole Opry opens.
• 1925 - Melina Mercouri was born. Greek actress and singer.
• 1925 - Ramiz Alia was born. political leader of Albania.
• 1926 - Chuck Berry was born. American musician.
• 1926 - Klaus Kinski was born (d. 1991). German actor.
• 1927 - George C. Scott was born (d. 1999). American actor.
• 1928 - Keith Jackson was born. American football commentator.
• 1928 - Hugh Allan "Buddy" MacMaster was born. Canadian musician.
• 1929 - Women are considered "Persons" under law in Canada.
• 1929 - Violeta Chamorro was born. President of Nicaragua.
• 1930 - Frank Carlucci was born. National Security Adviser/Sec of Defense, 1987-89
• 1931 - Thomas Edison dies (b. 1847). American inventor.
• 1931 - Chris Albertson was born. American jazz historian.
• 1932 - Vytautas Landsbergis was born. Lithuanian politician, one of the political destroyers of the Soviet Union.
• 1932 - Ioannis Chrysafis dies (b. 1873). Greek gymnast.
• 1933 - Forrest Gregg was born. American football player.
• 1933 - Garrincha was born (d. 1983). Famous Brazilian football player.
• 1934 - Calvin Lockhart was born (d. 2007). Bahamian actor.
• 1934 - Chuck Swindoll wwas born. American evangelist.
• 1934 - Inger Stevens was born (d. 1970). Swedish actress.
• 1935 - Peter Boyle was born (d. 2006). American actor.
• 1937 - Cynthia Weil was born. American songwriter.
• 1938 - Dawn Wells was born. American actress.
• 1939 - Mike Ditka was born. American football player, coach, and commentator.
• 1939 - Lee Harvey Oswald was born (d. 1963). American assassin of John F. Kennedy.
• 1939 - Flavio Cotti was born. Member of the Swiss Federal Council.
• 1940 - Cynthia Weil was born. American songriter (with husband, Barry Mann).
• 1941 - Manuel Teixeira Gomes dies (b. 1862). 7th President of Portugal (1923 - 1925) and writer.
• 1942 - Larry Pickering was born. Australian newspaper cartoonist.
• 1942 - Mikhail Nesterov dies (b. 1862). Russian painter.
• 1943 - Birthe Rønn Hornbech was born. Danish politician.
• 1944 - Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia.
• 1944 - Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.
• 1944 - Nelson Freire was born. Brazilian pianist.
• 1945 - The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the USA's plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• 1945 - Nazi war crime trial opens in Nuremberg.
• 1945 - A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, staged a coup d'etát against then president Isaías Medina Angarita, who was definitely overthrown by the end of the day.
• 1945 - Chris Shays was born. Member of the United States Congress from Connecticut.
• 1945 - Huell Howser was born. American TV host.
• 1945 - Yıldo was born. Turkish famous showman and football player.
• 1946 - James Robert Baker was born. American novelist, screenwriter.
• 1946 - Howard Shore was born. Canadian film composer.
• 1947 - Job Cohen was born. Dutch politician, mayor of Amsterdam.
• 1947 - Joe Morton was born. American actor.
• 1947 - Laura Nyro was born (d. 1997). American singer and songwriter.
• 1947 - Paul Chuckle was born. British comedian.
• 1948 - Ntozake Shange was born. American author.
• 1948 - Walther von Brauchitsch dies (b. 1881). German field marshall.
• 1949 - George Hendrick was born. Baseball player.
• 1949 - Joe Egan was born. British musician (Stealers Wheel).
• 1949 - Gary Richrath was born. American musician (REO Speedwagon).
• 1950 - Sheila White was born. English actress.
• 1950 - Om Puri was born. Indian actor.
• 1950 - Wendy Wasserstein was born (d. 2006). American playwright.
• 1951 - Mike Antonovich was born. American ice hockey player and executive.
• 1951 - Terry McMillan was born. American author.
• 1951 - Pam Dawber was born. American actress.
• 1952 - Bao Ninh was born. Vietnamese novelist.
• 1952 - Jerry Royster was born. American baseball player.
• 1954 - Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.
• 1954 - Liz Burch was born. Australian actress.
• 1955 - David Twohy was born. American movie director and screenwriter.
• 1955 - Rita Verdonk was born. Dutch politician.
• 1955 - Vanessa Briscoe Hay was born. American singer and songwriter (Pylon (band) & Supercluster (band)).
• 1955 - José Ortega y Gasset dies (b. 1883). Spanish philosopher.
• 1956 - Craig Bartlett was born. American animator.
• 1956 - Jim Talent was born. American politician.
• 1956 - Martina Navratilova was born. Czech-born tennis player. Wimbledon winner (1989, 79, 82-87).
• 1957 - Catherine Ringer was born. French singer and songwriter (Les Rita Mitsouko).
• 1957 - Doug Isaacson was born. Alaskan politician.
• 1958 - Corinne Bohrer was born. American actress.
• 1958 - Thomas Hearns was born. American boxer.
• 1958 - Kjell Samuelsson was born. National Hockey League defenseman.
• 1959 - Milčo Mančevski was born. Macedonian film director and screenwriter.
• 1959 - Kirby Chambliss was born. Aerobatic pilot and Red Bull Air Racer.
• 1959 - John Nord was born. Former American pro wrestler.
• 1959 - Chris "Mad Dog" Russo was born. American sports talk show host.
• 1959 - Steve Swayne was born. Dartmouth Professor.
• 1959 - Boughera El Ouafi dies (b. 1898). Algerian athlete.
• 1960 - Erin Moran was born. American actress.
• 1960 - Jean-Claude Van Damme was born. Belgian actor.
• 1960 - Ricardo Coutinho was born. Brazilian politician.
• 1961 - Rick Moody was born. American author.
• 1961 - Wynton Marsalis was born. American musician.
• 1961 - Tsuru Aoki dies (b. 1892). Japanese-born American actress.
• 1962 - Dr. James D. Watson of the United States and Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. Maurice Wilkins (d.2004) of Britain, were named winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for their work in determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA.
• 1962 - Vincent Spano was born. American actor.
• 1963 - Cláudio Carneyro dies (b. 27 Jan 1895). Portuguese composer. Son of the great painter António Carneiro and Rosa Queiroz Costa, Cláudio Carneyro was born on 27 January 1895, in Rua do Bonfim, Porto.
• 1964 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes for its first season after a six-month run.
• 1964 - Dan Lilker was born. American musician, bassist for Anthrax, S.O.D., Nuclear Assault, and Brutal Truth.
• 1965 - Curtis Stigers was born. American jazz vocalist and saxophonist.
• 1965 - Zakir Naik was born. Indian Islamic speaker and doctor.
• 1965 - Henry Travers dies (b. 1874). British actor.
• 1966 - Angela Visser was born in Netherland. Miss Universe 1989.
• 1966 - Elizabeth Arden dies (b. 1878). Canadian businesswoman.
• 1966 - Sebastian S. Kresge dies (b. 1867). American merchant (Kmart).
• 1967 - Nobel prize for physics awarded to Hans A. Bethe.
• 1967 - The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.
• 1968 - A police raid on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's flat finds 168 grains of marijuana. They later plead guilty and are fined £150.
• 1968 - The U.S. Olympic Committee suspended two black athletes for giving a "black power" salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games.
• 1968 - Bob Beamon sets a world record of 8.90m in the long jump at the Mexico City games. This becomes the longest unbroken track and field record in history, standing for 23 years, and is later named by Sports Illustrated magazine as one of the five greatest sporting moments of the 20th century.
• 1968 - Basil White was born. American comedian.
• 1968 - Michael Stich was born. German tennis star.
• 1969 - Jefferson Airplane member Paul Kantner is charged with possession of marijuana on Hawaii.
• 1969 - Álvaro Henríquez was born. Chilean musician.
• 1969 - Nelson Vivas was born. Argentine former footballer.
• 1970 - Jose Padilla was born. American gang member and suspected terrorist.
• 1970 - Doug Mirabelli was born. Baseball player.
• 1970 - Nadir was born. Portuguese Just for Feelings (blog) webmaster.
• 1972 - Alex Tagliani was born. Quebec racing driver.
• 1972 - Jake Farrow was born. American actor.
• 1973 - Nobel prize for economy awarded to Wassily Leontief.
• 1973 - Michalis Kapsis was born. Greek footballer.
• 1973 - Leo Strauss dies (b. 1899). German-American Philosopher.
• 1973 - Margaret Caroline Anderson dies (b. 1886). American magazine publisher.
• 1974 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre opens in theaters.
• 1974 - Candy Lo was born. Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actress.
• 1974 - Peter Svensson was born. Swedish musician (The Cardigans).
• 1974 - Robbie Savage was born. Welsh footballer.
• 1974 - Candy Lo was born. Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actress.
• 1975 - Alex Cora was born. Puerto Rican baseball player.
• 1975 - Rebeca Tamez was born. Miss Mexico Universe 1997.
• 1975 - Al Lettieri dies (b. 1928). American actor.
• 1976 - Azlea Antistia was born. American actress.
• 1976 - Zhou Xun was born. Chinese actress and singer.
• 1976 - Kavi Samrat Viswanatha Satyanarayana dies (b. 1895). Telugu writer.
• 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 executed and various RAF members commit suicide. The (West) German government states that it would never again negotiate with terrorists.
• 1977 - Reggie Jackson hits three consecutive home runs.
• 1977 - O filme Trás-os-Montes, dos realizadores António Reis e Margarida Martins Cordeiro, conquista o grande prémio da XXVI Semana Internacional de Cinema de Mannheim.
• 1977 - David Vuillemin was born. Pro Motocross Rider
• 1977 - Ryan Nelsen was born. New Zealander football player.
• 1977 - Red Army Faction Stammheim Prison suicides: Andreas Baader dies (b. 1943); Gudrun Ensslin dies (b. 1940) and Jan-Carl Raspe (b. 1944) commite suicide in the high security block during the night of October 18, 1977, which became known as the "Death Night".
• 1978 - Mike Tindall was born. English rugby union player.
• 1978 - Wesley Jonathan was born. American actor.
• 1978 - Ramón Mercader dies (b. 1914). Assassin of Leon Trotsky.
• 1981 - Poland General Jaruzelski was elected party leader.
• 1981 - Andreas Papandreous' PASOK wins Greek elections.
• 1982 - Ne-Yo was born. American singer.
• 1982 - Bess Truman dies (b. 1885). First Lady of the United States.
• 1982 - Dwain Esper dies (b. 1892). American film director.
• 1982 - John Robarts dies (b. 1917). Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario.
• 1982 - Pierre Mendès-France dies (b. 1917). French politician.
• 1983 - Diego Abad de Santillán dies (b. 1897). Spanish anarchist.
• 1983 - Willie Jones dies (b. 1925). Baseball player.
• 1984 - Jon-Erik 1984 - Lindsey Vonn, American alpine skier.
• 1984 - Lindsey Vonn was born. American alpine skier.
• 1984 - Henri Michaux dies (b. 1899). French painter and poet.
• 1985 - Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States.
• 1987 - Freja Beha Erichsen was born. Danish model.
• 1987 - Zac Efron was born. American actor.
• 1988 - Green Day plays their first ever concert.
• 1989 - East German leader Erich Honecker resigns.
• 1989 - Hungary revises constitution.
• 1990 - Carly Schroeder was born. American actress.
• 1991 - Azerbaijan declares independence from USSR.
• 1991 - Tyler Posey was born. American actor.
• 1993 - Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.
• 1994 - Alessandro Iannella was born. Italian singer.
• 1998 - In Oporto, Portugal, 21 member nations met for the Ibero-American summit. 19 Latin American countries were represented along with Spain and Portugal. A document was prepared urging the industrialized nations to help stave off economic recession / A Cimeira Ibero-Americana é aberta, no Porto, com a presença dos chefes de estado e de governo dos paises latino-americanos.
• 1998 - Julia Wróblewska was born. Polish child actress.
• 2000 - Julie London dies (b. 1926). American singer and actress.
• 2000 - Gwen Verdon dies (b. 1925). American dancer and actress.
• 2001 - Annelise Manojlovic was born. English child actress.
• 2001 - Micheline Ostermeyer dies (b. 1922). French athlete and musician.
• 2002 - Nikolai Rukavishnikov dies (b. 1932). Cosmonaut.
• 2002 - Roman Tam dies (b. 1950). Hong Kong singer.
• 2003 - Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia. Carlos Mesa takes the place of President of Bolivia.
• 2003 - Manuel Vázquez Montalbán dies (b. 1939). Spanish writer.
• 2003 - Preston Smith dies (b. 1912). Governor of Texas.
• 2004 - Veerappan dies (b. 1945). Indian bandit and smuggler.
• 2005 - The Nameless Novel aka Book The Twelfth of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is released to the public.
• 2005 - Bill King dies (b. 1927). American sports broadcaster.
• 2005 - John Hollis dies (b. 1931). British actor.
• 2005 - Johnny Haynes dies (b. 1934). English footballer.
• 2006 - Anna Russell dies (b. 1911). English music satirist.
• 2006 - Mario Francesco Cardinal Pompedda dies (b. 1929). Italian Cardinal.
• 2007 - After 8 years in exile, Benazir Bhutto returns to her homeland Pakistan. The same night, suicide attackers blow themselves up near Bhutto's convoy, killing over 100 in the cheering crowd, including 20 police officers. Bhutto escaped uninjured.
• 2007 - Alan Coren dies (b. 1938). English writer and satirist.
• 2007 - Lucky Dube dies (b. 1964). South African musician.
• 2007 - Vincent DeDomenico dies (b. 1915). American entrepreneur.
• 2007 - William J. Crowe dies (b. 1925). American admiral and ambassador.
• USA Alaska: Alaska Day.
• R.C. Church, Anglican communion, et alii - Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist.
• French Republican Calendar - Piment (Chili Pepper) Day, twenty-seventh day in the Month of Vendémiaire.