July 18 - Events

Events

• 390 BC – Roman-Gaulish Wars: Battle of the Allia – a Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.
• 362 – Roman–Persian Wars: Emperor Julian arrives at Antioch with a Roman expeditionary force (60,000 men) and stays there for nine months to launch a campaign against the Persian Empire.
• 1290 – King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B'Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities.
• 1334 – The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone.
• 1342 –Mu'izz al-Din Husayn defeats the Sarbadars in the Battle of Zava.
• 1389 – Kingdom of France and Kingdom of England agree to the Truce of Leulinghem, inaugurating a 13-year peace; the longest period of sustained peace during the Hundred Years' War.
• 1391 – Tokhtamysh–Timur war: Battle of the Kondurcha River – Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde in present day southeast Russia.
• 1555 – The College of Arms was reincorporated by Royal charter signed by Queen Mary I of England and King Philip II of Spain.
• 1656 – Polish-Lithuanian forces clash with Sweden and its Brandenburg allies in the start of what is to be known as The Battle of Warsaw which ends in a decisive Swedish victory.
• 1812 – The Treaties of Orebro end both the Anglo-Russian and Anglo-Swedish Wars.
• 1857 – Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall's war against the French.
• 1862 – First ascent of Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Wagner/Morris Island – the first formal African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, supported by several white regiments, attempts an unsuccessful assault on Confederate-held Battery Wagner.
• 1870 – The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility.
• 1914 – The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving definite status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.
• 1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
• 1936 – Army uprising in Spanish Morocco starts Spanish Civil War.
• 1942 – World War II: the Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 using only its jet engines for the first time.
• 1944 – World War II: Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
• 1955 – The first Disneyland theme park, in Anaheim, California, officially opens to the public.
• 1966 – Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.
• 1968 – Intel is founded in Santa Clara, California.
• 1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.
• 1976 – Nadia Comăneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
• 1982 – 268 campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Ríos Montt's Guatemala.
• 1984 – McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: in a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others 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.
• 1992 – The ten victims of the La Cantuta massacre disappear from their university in Lima.
• 1994 – The bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Jewish Community Center) in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300.
• 1995 – On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufrière 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, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever: the Saguenay Flood.
• 1996 – Battle of Mullaitivu. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army's base, killing over 1200 Army soldiers.