April 18
April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). There are 257 days remaining.
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Events
- 1025 - Bolesław I Chrobry is crowned as the first king of Poland.
- 1042 - Michael V attempts to remain sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire by sending his adoptive mother and co-ruler Zoë of Byzantium to a monastery.
- 1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen of Poland.
- 1775 - Two lanterns were hung from the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts. Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons. Only Prescott finishes the ride.
- 1797 - Battle of Neuwied resulted in the victory of French under General Louis Lazare Hoche against Austrians under General Wermecek.
- 1906 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.8, destroys much of San Francisco, California. (See 1906 San Francisco earthquake)
- 1906 - The Los Angeles Times ran a front page story on the Azusa Street Revival, launching Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
- 1915 - Early French aviator and a fighter aircraft pilot Roland Garros was shot down and glided to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
- 1923 - Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built", opens.
- 1934 - The first washateria opens in Fort Worth, Texas.
- 1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo occurs.
- 1942 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.
- 1945 - World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany, leaving nothing standing.
- 1946 - The League of Nations is dissolved.
- 1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force.
- 1954 - Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
- 1958 - A U.S. federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound be released from an insane asylum.
- 1972 - The Roland Corporation is founded in Osaka, Japan.
- 1974 - Italian prosecutor Mario Sossi is kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
- 1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.
- 1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
- 1988 - U.S. launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in retaliation for the April 14 mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. The one-day action is the world's largest naval battle since World War II.
- 1992 - General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolted against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allied with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.
- 1994 - Brian Lara scores 375 in one inning of a test cricket match, beating Garfield Sobers's previous record of 365.
- 1996 - In Lebanon, 102 Lebanese civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Qana (see Qana Massacre).
- 2002 - A new order of insects, Mantophasmatodea, is announced.
- 2005 - Papal conclave begins at the Sistine Chapel after death of Pope John Paul II
- 2005 - Laonastidae, first new family of mammals since the 1920s, is described.
- 2005 - GameStop and EB Games announced that they would merge.
Births
- 1480 - Lucrezia Borgia, Renaissance ruler and daughter of Pope Alexander VI (d. 1519)
- 1590 - Ahmed I, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1617)
- 1605 - Giacomo Carissimi, Baroque era composer (d. 1674)
- 1772 - David Ricardo, economist (d. 1823)
- 1797 - Adolphe Thiers, French statesman (d. 1877)
- 1819 - Franz von Suppé, Croatian–Austrian composer (d. 1895)
- 1838 - Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French scientist (d. 1912)
- 1857 - Clarence Darrow, attorney (d. 1938)
- 1864 - Richard Harding Davis, author (d. 1916)
- 1874 - Ivana Brlic-Mazuranic, Croat writer (d. 1938)
- 1880 - Sam Crawford, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1968)
- 1882 - Leopold Stokowski, Polish conductor (d. 1977)
- 1888 - Duffy Lewis, Major League Baseball player (d. 1979)
- 1893 - Jo Swerling, writer (d. 1964)
- 1897 - Ardito Desio, Italian topographer and mountaineer (d. 2001)
- 1901 - László Németh, author (d. 1975)
- 1902 - Giuseppe Pella, former Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1981)
- 1904 - Pigmeat Markham, comedian (d. 1981)
- 1907 - Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian-American composer (d. 1995)
- 1918 - Cliff Hillegass, founder of Cliffs Notes (d. 2001)
- 1921 - Jean Richard, actor (d. 2001)
- 1921 or 1922 - Barbara Hale, actress
- 1924 - Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American musician
- 1924 - Henry Hyde, American politician
- 1927 - Samuel P. Huntington, political scientist
- 1928 - Otto Piene, painter
- 1934 - James Drury, American actor
- 1936 - Tommy Ivo, American drag racer
- 1939 - Thomas J. Moyer, Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court
- 1940 - Robert N. Kucey, Canadian author
- 1946 - Hayley Mills, actress
- 1947 - James Woods, actor, poker player
- 1947 - Kathy Acker, author (d. 1997)
- 1947 - Dorothy Lyman, American actress, director, producer
- 1947 - Cindy Pickett, American actress
- 1949 - Geoff Bodine, automobile racer
- 1954 - Rick Moranis, Canadian comedian
- 1956 - Anna Kathryn Holbrook, soap opera actress
- 1956 - Melody Thomas Scott, soap opera actress
- 1956 - Eric Roberts, American actor
- 1958 - Malcolm Marshall, West Indian cricketer (d. 1999)
- 1961 - Jane Leeves, British actress
- 1962 - Emile Baroody, Lebanese media figure
- 1963 - Conan O'Brien, American comedian
- 1963 - Eric McCormack, Canadian actor
- 1964 - Niall Ferguson, British historian
- 1965 - Steven Stayner, abduction victim (d. 1989)
- 1966 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian javelin thrower
- 1967 - Maria Bello, American actress
- 1968 - David Hewlett, Canadian actor (Cube, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis)
- 1969 - Princess Sayako of Japan's Imperial Family
- 1970 - Greg Eklund, American musician (Everclear)
- 1973 - Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian athlete
- 1976 - Melissa Joan Hart, actress
- 1979 - Michael Bradley, NBA basketball player
- 1989 - Alia Shawkat, American actress
- 1989 - Eric Gonzalez, High School Student.
Nichole Haan
Deaths
- 186 - Saint Apollonius, Roman statesman and Christian apologist
- 1161 - Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1674 - John Graunt, statistician (b. 1620)
- 1689 - George Jeffreys, British Chief Justice, presided over the Bloody Assizes (b. 1648)
- 1802 - Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist, grand-father of Charles Darwin (b. 1731)
- 1873 - Justus von Liebig, German chemist (b. 1803)
- 1898 - Gustave Moreau, French painter (b. 1826)
- 1943 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral. (b. 1884)
- 1945 - Ernie Pyle, American journalist (b. 1900)
- 1945 - John Ambrose Fleming, physicist and electrical engineer (b. 1849)
- 1947 - Josef Tiso, Slovak leader (b. 1887)
- 1955 - Albert Einstein, scientist (b. 1879)
- 1964 - Ben Hecht, playwright, screenwriter (b. 1894)
- 1996 - Piet Hein, Danish mathematician, inventor (b. 1905)
- 1998 - Terry Sanford, American politician
- 2002 - Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer on the Kon-Tiki expedition (b. 1914)
- 2002 - Wahoo McDaniel, American football player, wrestler (b. 1938)
- 2003 - Edgar F. Codd, Founder of theory of relational databases (b. 1923)
- 2003 - Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1976)
- 2004 - Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister and later President of Fiji (b. 1920)
Holidays and observances
- Feast days of
- Saint Apollonius (d. 186)
- Saint Perfecto (d. 850)
- Saint Galdino (d. 1176)
- Eusebius (d. 526)
- Saint Agia (d. 707
- Marie de L'incarnation (1566 – 1618)
- Good Friday (2003)
- Easter (1976)
- Zimbabwe – Independence Day
- Massachusetts – Patriots Day (2005)
External links
April 17 - April 19 - March 18 - May 18 – listing of all days
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