What happened on October 18 ?

Choose another date »

 
 

 

Events

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.

1016 - The Danes defeat the Saxons in the Battle of Ashingdon.

1210 - Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV

1561 - Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima -- Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts

1685 - Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes, which has protected French Protestants

1748 - Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.

1767 - Mason-Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed

1851 - Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.

1860 - The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.

1867 - United States takes possession of Alaska, from Russia, celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day ($7.2 million paid).

1898 - United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.

1908 - Belgium annexes the Congo Free State.

1912 - The First Balkan War begins.

 
 

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.

1925 - The Grand Ole Opry opens.

1926 - Musician Chuck Berry born in St. Louis, Missouri.

1944 - Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia.

1944 - Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia

1945 - The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the USA's 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, staged a coup d'etát against then president Isaías Medina Angarita, who was definitely overthrown by the end of the day.

1954 - Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio

1964 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes for its first season after a six-month run.

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 suspends 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.

1969 - Jefferson Airplane member Paul Kantner is charged with possession of marijuana in Hawaii.

 
 

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 allegedly commit suicide. The (West) German government states that it would never again negotiate with terrorists.

1977 - Reggie Jackson hits three consecutive home runs.

1985 - Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States.

1988 - Green Day plays their first ever concert.

1989 - East German leader Erich Honecker resigns.

1993 - Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.

2003 - Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.

2004 - "The day TV died", according to Mark Pesce.

2005 - The second Airbus A380 takes to the skies.

 

Events Births Deaths Holidays