January 18

January 18 in recent years

2024 (Thursday)

2023 (Wednesday)

2022 (Tuesday)

2021 (Monday)

2020 (Saturday)

2019 (Friday)

2018 (Thursday)

2017 (Wednesday)

2016 (Monday)

2015 (Sunday)

January 18 is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 347 days remain until the end of the year (348 in leap years).

Events

• 350 – Generallus Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor.
• 474 – Leo II briefly becomes Byzantine emperor.
• 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople fail.
• 1126 – Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.
• 1486 – King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV.
• 1520 – King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Åsunden.
• 1535 – Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founded Lima, the capital of Peru.
• 1562 – Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session.
• 1591 – King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat, for which this date is now observed marked as Royal Thai Armed Forces day.
• 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".
• 1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay.
• 1866 – Wesley College, Melbourne is established.
• 1871 – Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed the first German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles ( France ) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The empire is known as the Second Reich to Germans.
• 1884 – Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom.
• 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.
• 1903 – President Theodore Roosevelt sends a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.
• 1911 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
• 1913 – A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos during the First Balkan War, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.
• 1915 – Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
• 1916 – A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite strikes a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri.
• 1919 – World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.
• 1919 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.
• 1919 – Bentley Motors Limited is founded.
• 1941 – World War II: British troops launch a general counter-offensive against Italian East Africa.
• 1943 – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
• 1944 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers are Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
• 1944 – Soviet forces liberate Leningrad, effectively ending a three year Nazi siege, known as the Siege of Leningrad.
• 1945 – Liberation of the Budapest ghetto by the Red Army.
• 1955 – Battle of Yijiangshan is fought.
• 1958 – Willie O'Ree, the first African Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut.
• 1960 – Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, killing all 50 aboard, the third fatal Capital Airlines crash in as many years.
• 1967 – Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler", is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
• 1969 – United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay killing all 32 passengers and six crew members.
• 1974 – A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.
• 1976 – Lebanese Christian militias overrun Karantina, Beirut, killing at least 1,000.
• 1977 – Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' 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.
• 1978 – The roof structure of the Hartford Civic Center collapses after a significant snowfall.
• 1981 – Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston skyscraper, becoming the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).
• 1983 – The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.
• 1990 – Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
• 1993 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is officially observed for the first time in all 50 states.
• 1994 – The Cando event, a possible bolide impact in Cando, Spain. Witnesses claim to have seen a fireball in the sky lasting for almost one minute.
• 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.
• 2000 – The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.
• 2002 – Sierra Leone Civil War is finally declared over.
• 2003 – A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.
• 2005 – The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France
• 2007 – The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people, Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Hurricane Kyrill, causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe.
• 2009 – Gaza War: Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other paramilitary groups announce they will accept Israel's offer of a ceasefire, ending the war.

Births

• 885 – Daigo, Emperor of Japan (d. 930)
• 1519 – Isabella Jagiełło, queen of Hungary (d. 1559)
• 1543 – (baptised) Alfonso Ferrabosco (I), Italian composer (d. 1588)
• 1641 – François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, French war minister (d. 1691)
• 1659 – Damaris Cudworth Masham, English philosopher (d. 1708)
• 1672 – Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer (d. 1731)
• 1688 – Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1765)
• 1689 – Montesquieu, French satirist and philosopher (d. 1755)
• 1743 – Louis Claude de Saint-Martin French philosopher, known as le philosophe inconnu. (d. 1803)
• 1779 – Peter Mark Roget, British lexicographer (d. 1869)
• 1782 – Daniel Webster, American statesman (d. 1852)
• 1795 – Anna Pavlovna of Russia, queen of The Netherlands (d. 1865)
• 1813 – Joseph Glidden, American farmer who patented barbed wire (d. 1906)
• 1815 – Constantin von Tischendorf, German biblical scholar (d. 1874)
• 1840 – Henry Austin Dobson, English poet (d. 1921)
• 1841 – Emmanuel Chabrier, French composer (d. 1894)
• 1842 – Albert Alonzo Ames, Mayor of Minneapolis (d. 1911)
• 1848 – Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer (d. 1925)
• 1849 – Sir Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1920)
• 1850 – Seth Low, American politician (d. 1916)
• 1853 – Marthinus Nikolaas Ras, South African Gunmaker (d. 1900)
• 1854 – Thomas Watson, American telephone pioneer (d. 1934)
• 1856 – Daniel Hale Williams, African-American surgeon (d. 1931)
• 1867 – Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan Journalist, Diplomat, Poet (d. 1916)
• 1877 – Samuel Zemurray, U.S. businessman (d. 1961)
• 1879 – Henri Giraud, French general (d. 1949)
• 1880 – Paul Ehrenfest, Austrian physicist (d. 1933)
• 1881 – Gaston Gallimard, French publisher (d. 1975)
• 1882 – A. A. Milne, English author (d. 1956)
• 1886 – Clara Nordström, German writer and translator (d. 1962)
• 1888 – Thomas Sopwith, British aviation pioneer (d. 1989)
• 1892 – Oliver Hardy, American comedian and actor (d. 1957)
• 1892 – Paul Rostock, German surgeon (d. 1956)
• 1896 – C. M. Eddy, Jr., American writer (d. 1967)
• 1901 – Ivan Petrovsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1973)
• 1904 – Anthony Galla-Rini, American accordionist (d. 2006)
• 1904 – Cary Grant, English actor (d. 1986)
• 1905 – Joseph Bonanno, Italian-born gangster (d. 2002)
• 1908 – Jacob Bronowski, Polish-born mathematician, poet, and physicist (d. 1974)
• 1908 – Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1972)
• 1910 – Kenneth E. Boulding, English economist (d. 1993)
• 1911 – José María Arguedas, Peruvian novelist, poet, and anthropologist (d. 1969).
• 1913 – Danny Kaye, American actor (d. 1987)
• 1913 – Giannis Papaioannou, Greek composer and musician (d. 1972)
• 1914 – Arno Schmidt, German author (d. 1979)
• 1914 – Vitomil Zupan, Slovenian writer (d. 1987)
• 1915 – Vassilis Tsitsanis, Greek singer and songwriter (d. 1984)
• 1917 – Wang Yung-ching, Taiwanese businessman (d. 2008)
• 1918 – Gustave Gingras, French Canadian physician (d. 1996)
• 1921 – Yoichiro Nambu, Japanese-born American Nobel Prize-winning physicist
• 1922 – Bob Bell, American clown (d. 1997)
• 1925 – Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (d. 1995)
• 1927 – Sundaram Balachander, Indian veena player (d. 1990)
• 1931 – Chun Doo-hwan, President of South Korea
• 1932 – Robert Anton Wilson, American author (d. 2007)
• 1933 – John Boorman, Irish film director
• 1933 – Ray Dolby, American inventor (Dolby noise reduction system)
• 1934 – Raymond Briggs, English writer and illustrator
• 1935 – Albert Millaire, Quebec actor and theatre director
• 1935 – Jon Stallworthy, English poet
• 1935 – Gad Yaacobi, Israeli minister (d. 2007)
• 1937 – John Hume, Northern Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998
• 1938 – Curt Flood, American baseball player (d. 1997)
• 1938 – Anthony Giddens, British sociologist
• 1940 – Pedro Rodriguez, Mexican racing driver (d. 1971)
• 1941 – Denise Bombardier, Quebec journalist, television host and novelist
• 1941 – Bobby Goldsboro, American country/pop singer
• 1941 – David Ruffin, American singer (The Temptations) (d. 1991)
• 1943 – Paul Freeman, British actor
• 1943 – Kay Granger, American politician
• 1944 – Paul Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia
• 1944 – Carl Morton, American baseball player (d. 1983)
• 1945 – José Luis Perales, Spanish singer
• 1946 – Joseph Deiss, Swiss Federal Councilor
• 1947 – Sachio Kinugasa, Japanese baseball player
• 1947 – Takeshi Kitano, Japanese actor and director
• 1949 – Bill Keller, American newspaper editor
• 1949 – Philippe Starck, French designer
• 1950 – Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (d. 1982)
• 1951 – Bram Behr, Surinamese journalist (d. 1982)
• 1951 – Bob Latchford, English footballer
• 1952 – Michael Angelis, British actor
• 1952 – Michael Behe, American advocate of Intelligent Design
• 1952 – R. Stevie Moore, American singer, songwriter, and home recording pioneer
• 1953 – Brett Hudson, American musician
• 1954 – Ted DiBiase, Retired Professional Wrestler
• 1955 – Kevin Costner, American actor
• 1955 – Fergus Martin, Irish artist
• 1956 – Sharon Mitchell, American porn actress
• 1961 – Peter Beardsley, English footballer
• 1961 – Bobby Hansen, American basketball player
• 1961 – Mark Messier, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1961 – Jeff Yagher, American actor
• 1962 – Alison Arngrim, American actress
• 1962 – David O'Connor, American equestrian rider
• 1963 – Maxime Bernier, French Canadian politician
• 1963 – Martin O'Malley, Governor of Maryland
• 1963 – Yury Zakharevich, Soviet weightlifter
• 1964 – Brady Anderson, American baseball player
• 1964 – Jane Horrocks, British actress
• 1964 – Andrea Leand, American tennis player
• 1964 – Enrico Lo Verso, Italian actor
• 1965 – Dave Attell, American writer and comedian
• 1966 – Alexander Khalifman, Russian chess player
• 1966 – André Ribeiro, Brazilian racing driver
• 1967 – Kim Perrot, American basketball player (d. 1999)
• 1967 – Iván Zamorano, Chilean footballer
• 1968 – Frank Quitely, Scottish comic book artist
• 1969 – Dave Bautista, American professional wrestler
• 1969 – John Eder, American politician
• 1969 – Jesse L. Martin, American actor and singer
• 1969 – Jim O'Rourke, American musician and producer (Loose Fur and Wilco)
• 1970 – DJ Quik, American rapper
• 1970 – Peter van Petegem, Belgian cyclist
• 1971 – Jonathan Davis, American singer (KoЯn)
• 1971 – Christian Fittipaldi, Brazilian race car driver
• 1971 – Josep Guardiola, Spanish footballer
• 1971 – Fabian Ribauw, Nauruan politician
• 1971 – Seamus O'Regan, Canadian broadcast journalist
• 1972 – Vinod Kambli, Indian cricket player
• 1972 – Mike Lieberthal, American baseball player
• 1973 – Ben Jealous, African-American leader, president of the NAACP
• 1973 – Anthony Koutoufides, Australian rules footballer and Gladiator
• 1973 – Crispian Mills, British musician (The Jeevas and Kula Shaker)
• 1974 – Christian Burns, English musician (BBMak)
• 1974 – Princess Claire of Belgium
• 1974 – Devon Odessa, American actress
• 1974 – Maulik Pancholy, American actor
• 1974 – Michael Tunn, Australian television presenter and radio announcer
• 1976 – Laurence Courtois, Belgian tennis player
• 1976 – Damien Leith, Irish-born Australian singer, winner of Australian Idol 2006
• 1976 – Subhrajit Mitra, Indian filmmaker
• 1977 – Richard Archer, British singer (lead singer of Hard-Fi)
• 1977 – Curtis Cregan, American actor
• 1977 – Alina Jidkova, Russian tennis player
• 1977 – Richard Wall, Irish actor
• 1978 – Brian Falkenborg, American baseball player
• 1978 – Thor Hushovd, Norwegian cyclist
• 1978 – Bogdan Lobont, Romanian football player
• 1979 – Jay Chou, Taiwanese singer, producer, actor and director
• 1979 – Ruslan Fedotenko, Ukrainian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Paulo Ferreira, Portuguese footballer
• 1979 – Brian Gionta, American ice hockey player
• 1979 – Kenyatta Jones, American football player
• 1980 – Robert Green, English footballer
• 1980 – Julius Peppers, American football player
• 1980 – Jason Segel, American actor
• 1980 – Estelle Swaray, English singer
• 1981 – Kang Dong-won, South Korean model and actor
• 1981 – Olivier Rochus, Belgian tennis player
• 1981 – Khari Stephenson, Jamaican footballer
• 1982 – Quinn Allman, American Guitarist, The Used
• 1982 – Joanna Newsom, American harpist
• 1983 – Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress
• 1984 – Seung-Hui Cho, American spree killer (d. 2007)
• 1984 – Kristy Lee Cook, American singer
• 1984 – Ioannis Drymonakos, Greek swimmer
• 1984 – Makoto Hasebe, Japanese footballer
• 1984 – Michael Kearney, American child prodigy
• 1984 – Benji Schwimmer, American dancer
• 1985 – Dale Begg-Smith, Australian freestyle skier
• 1985 – Minissha Lamba, Indian actress and model
• 1985 – Riccardo Montolivo, Italian footballer
• 1986 – Grigoris Makos, Greek footballer
• 1986 – Marya Roxx, Estonian singer
• 1987 – Johan Djourou, Swiss footballer
• 1987 – Christopher Liebig, German rugby player
• 1988 – Ronnie Day, American singer-songwriter
• 1988 – Anastasios Kissas, Greek footballer
• 1991 – Diego Simões, Brazilian footballer
• 1993 – Morgan York, American actress
• 1994 – Gong Min-ji, South Korean pop singer, rapper, and dancer of 2NE1

Deaths

• 52 BC – Publius Clodius Pulcher (b. 93 BC)
• 474 – Leo I, Byzantine Emperor (b. 401)
• 1213 – Queen Regnant Tamar of Georgia (b. c. 1160)
• 1367 – King Peter I of Portugal (b. 1320)
• 1425 – Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, English politician (b. 1391)
• 1471 – Emperor Go-Hanazono of Japan (b. 1419)
• 1586 – Margaret of Austria, regent of The Netherlands (b. 1522)
• 1664 – Moses Amyraut, French theologian (b. 1596)
• 1677 – Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch merchant (b. 1619)
• 1803 – Ippolit Bogdanovich, Russian poet (b. 1743)
• 1862 – John Tyler, 10th President of the United States (b. 1790)
• 1873 – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English author (b. 1803)
• 1878 – Antoine César Becquerel, French physicist (b. 1788)
• 1886 – Baldassare Verazzi, Italian painter (b. 1819)
• 1892 – Anton Anderledy, Swiss religious figure (b. 1819)
• 1896 – Charles Floquet, French statesman (b. 1828)
• 1923 – Wallace Reid, American actor (b. 1891)
• 1936 – Rudyard Kipling, British writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1865)
• 1940 – Kazimierz Tetmajer, Polish writer (b. 1865)
• 1951 – Amy Carmichael, Irish missionary (b. 1867)
• 1952 – Curly Howard, American actor and comedian (b. 1903)
• 1954 – Sydney Greenstreet, English actor (b. 1879)
• 1963 – Hugh Gaitskell, English politician (b. 1906)
• 1966 – Kathleen Norris, American writer (b. 1880)
• 1967 – Goose Tatum, American basketball player (b. 1921)
• 1969 – Hans Freyer, German sociologist (b. 1887)
• 1970 – David O. McKay, American religious figure (b. 1873)
• 1971 – Virgil Finlay, American horror illustrator (b. 1914)
• 1975 – Gertrude Olmstead, American actress (b. 1897)
• 1978 – Hasan Askari, Pakistani philosopher and writer (b. 1919)
• 1978 – Carl Betz, American film and television actor (b. 1921)
• 1978 – Walter H. Thompson, English Scotland Yard detective (b. 1890)
• 1980 – Sir Cecil Beaton, English fashion designer (b. 1904)
• 1984 – Vassilis Tsitsanis, Greek singer and songwriter (b. 1915)
• 1985 – Wilfrid Brambell, Irish actor (b. 1912)
• 1989 – Bruce Chatwin, English novelist (b. 1940)
• 1990 – Rusty Hamer, American actor (b. 1947)
• 1993 – Eleanor Hibbert, English writer (b. 1906)
• 1995 – Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1903)
• 1995 – Ron Luciano, American baseball umpire (b. 1937)
• 1996 – Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, Indian actor and politician (b. 1923)
• 1997 – Paul Tsongas, American politician (b. 1941)
• 2000 – Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (b. 1897)
• 2001 – Al Waxman, Canadian actor (b. 1935)
• 2003 – Edward Farhat, American professional wrestler (b. 1926)
• 2005 – Lamont Bentley, American actor (b. 1973)
• 2006 – Jan Twardowski, Polish poet (b. 1915)
• 2007 – Brent Liles, American musician (Agent Orange/Social Distortion) (b. 1963)
• 2008 – Georgia Frontiere, American football team owner (b. 1927)
• 2008 – Frank Lewin, American composer and music theorist (b. 1925)
• 2008 – John Stroger, American politician (b. 1929)
• 2009 – Tony Hart, British artist and TV presenter (b. 1925)
• 2009 – Grigore Vieru, Romanian poet (b. 1935)
• 2009 – Bob May, American actor (b. 1939)
• 2009 – Nora Kovach, Hungarian-born American ballerina (b. 1931)
• 2011 – Sargent Shriver, American politician (b. 1915)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Athanasius of Alexandria (Eastern Orthodox Church)
  • Cyril of Alexandria
  • Margaret of Hungary
  • Prisca
  • Volusianus of Tours
  • January 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Confession of Peter (Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches)
• Feast of the Cross (Eastern Orthodox Church)
• Revolution Day (Tunisia)
• Royal Thai Armed Forces Day (Thailand)
• The first day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Christianity)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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