July 18

July 18 is the 199th day (200th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 166 days remaining.

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Events

• 390 BC – Battle of the Allia: A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.
• 64 – Great fire of Rome: A fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control while Emperor Nero reportedly plays his lyre and sings while watching the blaze from a safe distance.
• 1830 – Uruguay adopts its first constitution.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The first formal African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, unsuccessfully assaults Confederate-held Fort Wagner but their valiant fighting still proves the worth of African American soldiers during the war.
• 1873 – Oscar II of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway in Trondheim
• 1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of a new element and proposed to call it polonium.
• 1914 – The United States Army's Signal Corps is formed, giving definite status to its air service for the first time.
• 1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
• 1942 – World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.
• 1944 – World War II: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
• 1947 – President Harry S. Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act into law which places the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the United States Vice President.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: The two-day Honolulu Conference begins in Honolulu, Hawaii between US President Lyndon B. Johnson and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu.
• 1968  – Intel incorporated.
• 1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.
• 1969  – Apollo 11 makes preparations for landing on the Moon.
• 1976 – Gymnast Nadia Comaneci, aged 14, scores first ever perfect 10 at the Olympics.
• 1982 – 268 campesinos are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Ríos Montt's Guatemala.
• 1984 – McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: James Oliver Huberty kills 21 people in a fast-food emporium before being shot dead by police.
• 1986 – A tornado is broadcast live on KARE television in Minnesota when the station's helicopter pilot makes a chance encounter.
• 1986  – The motion picture Aliens opens in theaters.
• 1992 – The ten victims of the La Cantuta massacre are disappeared from their university in Lima.
• 1994 – In Buenos Aires, an explosion destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations killing 96 and injuring many more.
• 1995 – On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee.
• 1996 – Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River in Quebec, beginning one of Canada's costliest natural disasters ever.
• 1996  – In an event very similar to the Oklahoma tornado that would occur three years later, a tornado ranking as a F5 hit the town of Oakfield, Wisconsin.
• 2001 – In Baltimore, Maryland, a 60-car train derailment occurs in a tunnel sparking a fire that will last days and virtually shut down downtown Baltimore.

Births

• 1501 – Isabella of Burgundy, queen of Christian II of Denmark (d. 1526)
• 1552 – Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
• 1635 – Robert Hooke, scientist (d. 1703)
• 1811 – William Makepeace Thackeray, English author (d. 1863)
• 1821 – Pauline Garcia-Viardot, singer and composer (d. 1910)
• 1845 – Tristan Corbière, French poet (d. 1875)
• 1853 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate (d. 1928)
• 1863 – Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (d. 1914)
• 1864 – Ricarda Huch, writer (d. 1947)
• 1864  – Phillip Snowden, British politician (d. 1937)
• 1887 – Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian politician and traitor (d. 1945)
• 1890 – Frank Forde, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1983)
• 1894 – Isaac Babel, Ukrainian writer (d. 1940)
• 1902 – Nathalie Sarraute, French writer (d. 1999)
• 1902  – Jessamyn West, writer (d. 1984)
• 1902  – Chill Wills, actor (d. 1978)
• 1906 – Clifford Odets, writer (d. 1963)
• 1906  – S. I. Hayakawa, American semanticist and politician (d. 1992)
• 1909 – Andrei Gromyko, Soviet diplomat and President (d. 1989)
• 1909  – Mohammed Daoud Khan, Afghani President (d. 1978)
• 1911 – Hume Cronyn, American actor (d. 2003)
• 1913 – Red Skelton, American actor and comedian (d. 1997)
• 1918 – Nelson Mandela, South African revolutionary and president
• 1921 – John Glenn, American astronaut and politician
• 1922 – Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher (d. 1996)
• 1923 – Jerome H. Lemelson, American inventor (d. 1997)
• 1925 – Shirley Strickland, Australian athlete
• 1927 – Ludwig Harig, writer
• 1927  – Kurt Masur, Silesian-born conductor
• 1929 – Dick Button, figure skater
• 1929  – Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American singer (d. 2000)
• 1933 – Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet
• 1935 – Jayendra Saraswathi, Hindu religious leader
• 1937 – Roald Hoffman, chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
• 1937  – Hunter S. Thompson, journalist and author (d. 2005)
• 1940 – James Brolin, actor
• 1940  – Joe Torre, baseball player and manager
• 1941 – Martha Reeves, singer
• 1947 – Steve Forbes, entrepreneur, politician
• 1950 – Sir Richard Branson, entrepreneur
• 1963 – Martín Torrijos Espino, President of Panama
• 1963 – Mike Greenwell, baseball player
• 1967 – Vin Diesel, American actor, writer, and director
• 1975 – Torii Hunter, baseball player
• 1975  – Daron Malakian, guitarist (System of a Down)
• 1978 – Ben Sheets, baseball player

Deaths

• 1374 – Petrarch, Italian writer (b. 1304)
• 1610 – Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Italian artist (b. 1573)
• 1623 – Pope Gregory XV
• 1721 – Antoine Watteau, French painter
• 1792 – John Paul Jones, American naval commander
• 1817 – Jane Austen, English novelist (b. 1775)
• 1949 – Vitezslav Novák, composer
• 1988 – Nico, German-American model and singer
• 1990 – Yoon Boseon, President of South Korea
• 2001 – Fabio Taglioni, Italian automotive engineer
• 2004 – Paul Foot, British journalist

Holidays and observances

• Uruguay – Constitution Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

July 17 – July 19 – June 18 – August 18 — listing of all days