Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 18

This is a list of selected April 18 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.

Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.

To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.

← April 17	April 19 →

Staging area

Images

Use only ONE image at a time

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  Damage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
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  Damage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
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  St. Peter's Basilica in 2004
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  Saint Peter's Basilica by Giovanni Paolo Pannini
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  A B-25 launching from the USS Hornet during Col. Doolittle's Raid
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  Ezra Pound
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  Roland Garros

Ineligible

Blurb	Reason
; Independence Day in Zimbabwe (1980)	refimprove sections
1506 – Construction of the current St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, to replace the old basilica built in the 4th century, began.	refimprove section
1847 – Mexican–American War: Winfield Scott's United States troops out-flanked and drove Santa Anna's larger Mexican army from a strong defensive position in the Battle of Cerro Gordo.	self-contradictory
1906 – A major earthquake and resulting fires devastated San Francisco, killing at least 3,000 people and leaving more than half of the city's population homeless.	lots of CN tags (7)
1923 – The New York Yankees of Major League Baseball began playing their games in the newly constructed Yankee Stadium.	refimprove section
1942 – World War II: Sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet carried out the Doolittle Raid, the first Allied attack on the Japanese home islands.	refimprove section
1947 – In one of the largest non-nuclear single explosive detonations in history, the Royal Navy set off 4,000 tonnes of surplus ammunition in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the island of Heligoland, Germany.	refimprove, self-contradictory
1961 – The Soviet Pluton planetary radar performed the first successful radiolocation of the planet Venus.	outdated
1983 – A suicide bomber destroyed the United States Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing over 60 people with a car bomb.	needs more footnotes
1988 – Iran–Iraq War: U.S. naval forces attacked Iranian forces in retaliation for damage to the American frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts due to mines in the Persian Gulf.	refimprove section

Eligible

• 1689 – Glorious Revolution: Provincial militia and citizens in Boston revolted, arresting officials of the Dominion of New England.
• 1738 – By royal decree, King Philip V established the Real Academia de la Historia, tasked with studying the history of Spain.
• 1949 – The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 came into force, declaring Ireland a republic and terminating its membership of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
• 1955 – Representatives from 29 African and Asian countries met in the inaugural Bandung Conference in Indonesia to promote economic and cultural cooperation.
• 1958 – Controversial American poet Ezra Pound was released from St. Elizabeths Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., in which he had been incarcerated for twelve years.
• Born/died: | Theobald of Bec |d|1161| Lucrezia Borgia |b|1480| John Leland |d|1552| Ludwig Levy |b|1854| Clara Elsene Peck |b|1883| Bertha Isaacs |b|1900| Pigmeat Markham |b|1904| Martha Ripley |d|1912| Robert Christgau |b|1942| Albert Einstein |d|1955| Universo 2000 |b|1963

Notes

• Battles of Lexington and Concord appears on April 19; the midnight ride and the 1689 revolt should not appear in the same year

April 18

Robert Mugabe

• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Colonists Paul Revere and William Dawes, who were later joined by Samuel Prescott, began a midnight ride to warn residents of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, about the impending arrival of British troops.
• 1915 – World War I: Hit by ground fire, French aviation pioneer Roland Garros landed his aircraft behind enemy lines and was taken prisoner.
• 1938 – Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster of DC Comics, made his debut in Action Comics #1, the first true superhero comic book.
• 1980 – Robert Mugabe (pictured) became the first prime minister of Zimbabwe after the Lancaster House Agreement brought an end to the unrecognized state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia.
• 1996 – Operation Grapes of Wrath: Israeli forces shelled Qana, Lebanon, killing at least 100 civilians and injuring more than 110 others at a United Nations compound.

• Ippolita Maria Sforza (b. 1445 or 1446)
• Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (b. 1838)
• Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (d. 1942)

More anniversaries:

• April 17
• April 18
• April 19