January 18
January 18 is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar . There are 347 days remaining (348 in leap years )
Events
350 - General Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans , proclaims himself Emperor.
474 - Leo II becomes briefly Byzantine emperor
532 - Nika riots in Constantinople fail.
1520 - King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Asunde.
1535 - Lima , Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro .
1670 - Henry Morgan captures Panama .
1701 - Frederick I becomes King of Prussia .
1778 - James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands , which he names the "Sandwich Islands ".
1861 - Georgia joins the Confederacy .
1862 - The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the American Civil War at the Battle of Mill Springs .
1871 - Wilhelm I of Germany becomes the first German Emperor .
1884 - Dr William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the UK.
1886 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England .
1896 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.
1911 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship
1915 - Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands " to China in a bid to increase its power in east Asia .
1916 - A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite struck a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri .
1919 - World War I : The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles , France .
1919 - Bentley Motors is founded.
1939 - Louis Armstrong records Jeepers Creepers .
1943 - World War II : Soviet officials announce they have broken the Wehrmacht 's siege of Leningrad .
1943 - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising : The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto .
1944 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City for the first time hosts a jazz concert; the performers are Louis Armstrong , Benny Goodman , Lionel Hampton , Artie Shaw , Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden .
1945 - Liberation of the Budapest Ghetto by the Red Army
1958 - Willie O'Ree , the first African American National Hockey League player, make his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins .
1964 - Plans are revealed for the World Trade Center in New York City .
1964 - The Beatles appear on the Billboard magazine charts for the first time.
1967 - Albert DeSalvo , the "Boston Strangler ," is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life in prison.
1975 - The Jeffersons debuts on CBS .
1977 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious "legionnaire's disease ."
1977 - Australia 's worst rail disaster occurs at Granville , Sydney killing 83.
1978 - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland , but not guilty of torture .
1983 - The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe Olympic medals to his family.
1990 - Former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother Peggy McMartin Buckey are acquitted in a Los Angeles, California court of 52 child molestation charges.
1990 - Washington, DC , Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
1991 - Eastern Airlines shuts down after 62 years citing financial problems.
1993 - For the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is officially observed in all 50 United States states .
1995 - In southern France near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc a network of caves are discovered that contain paintings and engravings that are 17,000 to 20,000 years old.
1997 - In north west Rwanda , Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound one other.
1997 - Boerge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.
1998 - Lewinsky scandal : Matt Drudge breaks the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky affair story on his website The Drudge Report .
2002 - A Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying anhydrous ammonia derails outside of Minot, North Dakota , killing one man and calling into question the maintenance of CP track and the policy of voice-tracking used by Clear Channel Communications .
2003 - Canberra firestorm
2005 - A U.N. World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan begins
Births
1689 - Montesquieu , French writer (d. 1755 )
1779 - Peter Roget , lexicographer (d. 1869 )
1782 - Daniel Webster , statesman (d. 1852 )
1840 - Henry Austin Dobson , poet (d. 1921 )
1842 - Albert Alonzo Ames , notorious mayor of Minneapolis (d. 1911 )
1848 - Ioan Slavici , Transylvanian writer of Romanian origin (d. 1925 )
1849 - Edmund Barton , first Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1920 )
1850 - Seth Low , American politician
1854 - Thomas Watson (inventor) , telephone pioneer
1882 - A. A. Milne , author (d. 1956 )
1888 - Thomas Sopwith , British aviation pioneer (d. 1989 )
1892 - Oliver Hardy , comedian, actor (d. 1957 )
1892 - Paul Rostock , German doctor during World War II (d. 1956 )
1903 - Werner Hinz , actor (d. 1985 )
1904 - Cary Grant , actor (d. 1986 )
1905 - Joseph Bonanno , gangster (d. 2002 )
1908 - Jacob Bronowski , mathematician, poet, physicist (d. 1974 )
1913 - Danny Kaye , actor (d. 1987 )
1914 - Arno Schmidt , author (d. 1979 )
1914 - William Stafford , American poet (d. 1993 )
1922 - Bob Bell , (Bozo the Clown ) (d. 1997 )
1932 - Robert Anton Wilson , author
1931 - Chun Doo-hwan , President of South Korea
1933 - John Boorman , director
1937 - John Hume , politician, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998
1938 - Curt Flood , baseball star (d. 1997 )
1940 - Ted Lewis , British novelist (d. 1982 )
1941 - David Ruffin , singer (d. 1991 )
1941 - Doodles Weaver , Amnerican singer
1943 - Kay Granger , American politician
1944 - Paul Keating , twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia
1946 - Joseph Deiss , member of the Swiss Federal Council
1947 - Takeshi Kitano , actor and director
1949 - Philippe Starck , French designer
1950 - Gilles Villeneuve , Canadian racing driver (d. 1982 )
1951 - Mark Collie , country music singer
1953 - Brett Hudson , American actor
1955 - Kevin Costner , actor
1961 - Mark Messier , hockey star
1962 - Jeff Yagher , actor
1964 - Jane Horrocks , British actress
1965 - Dave Attell , American writer, comedian
1967 - Kim Perrot , American basketball player (d. 1999 )
1969 - Jesse L. Martin , American actor
1969 - David Bautista , professional wrestler
1970 - DJ Quik , rapper
1971 - Jonathan Davis , American musician (Korn )
1973 - Crispian Mills , British musician (The Jeevas & Kula Shaker )
1974 - Michael Tunn , TV /radio presenter from Australia
1979 - Jonathan Davis , Lead Singer of KoRn
1983 - Samantha Mumba , Irish singer and actress
Deaths
52 BC - Publius Clodius Pulcher , murdered in the Via Appia (b. ca. 92 BC )
474 - Leo I , emperor of the Byzantine Empire (b. 457 )
1367 - King Peter I of Portugal
1862 - John Tyler , former President of the United States , member of the Congress of the Confederate States of America (b. 1790 )
1873 - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton , author (b. 1803 )
1927 - Empress Carlotta of Mexico (b. 1840 )
1936 - Rudyard Kipling , British writer (b. 1865 )
1940 - Kazimierz Tetmajer , full name Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Polish poet and writer (b. 1865 )
1952 - Curly Howard , actor, comedian, member of the Three Stooges
1954 - Sydney Greenstreet , actor (b. 1879 )
1966 - Kathleen Norris , writer
1967 - Goose Tatum , American basketball player
1970 - David O. McKay , president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1873 )
1978 - Junius Matthews , American voice actor
1978 - Carl Betz , American actor
1980 - Sir Cecil Beaton , fashion designer (b. 1904 )
1982 - Trent Lehman , American actor
1984 - Vassilis Tsitsanis , Greek singer and song writer of rebetiko (b. 1915 )
1985 - Wilfrid Brambell , Irish actor
1990 - Rusty Hamer , American actor
1991 - Leo Hurwitz , documentary film producer
1997 - Paul Tsongas , United States Senator from Maryland
2000 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky , architect (b. 1897 )
2000 - Jester Hairston , American actor
2001 - Virginia O'Brien , American actress
2001 - Al Waxman , Canadian actor
2001 - Laurent-Désiré Kabila , former President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
2003 - Richard Crenna , actor (b. 1927 )
2003 - Edward "The Sheik" Farhat , professional wrestler
2005 - Lamont Bentley , television and film actor (b. 1973 )
Holidays and observances
External links
January 17 - January 19 - December 18 - February 18 -- listing of all days
Top Encyclopedia Articles