October 18 - Events

Events

• 320 – Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the sun and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer (Almagest).
• 1009 – The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock.
• 1016 – The Danes defeat the Saxons in the Battle of Ashingdon.
• 1081 – The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.
• 1210 – Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV.
• 1356 – Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroys the town of Basel, Switzerland.
• 1386 – Opening of the University of Heidelberg.
• 1540 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto's forces destroy the fortified town of Mabila in present-day Alabama, killing Tuskaloosa.
• 1599 – Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia, defeats the Army of Andrew Bathory in the Battle of Şelimbăr, leading to the first recorded unification of the Romanian people.
• 1648 – Boston Shoemakers form first U.S. labor organization.
• 1748 – Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.
• 1775 – African-American poet Phillis Wheatley freed from slavery.
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Burning of Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) prompts the Continental Congress to establish the Continental Navy.
• 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Franco-American Siege of Savannah is lifted.
• 1797 – Treaty of Campo Formio is signed between France and Austria
• 1851 – Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.
• 1860 – The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.
• 1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.
• 1898 – United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.
• 1912 – First Balkan War: Peter I of Serbia issues a declaration "To the Serbian People", as Serbia joins the war.
• 1914 – The Schoenstatt Movement is founded in Germany.
• 1921 – The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is formed as part of the RSFSR.
• 1922 – The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.
• 1929 – The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overrules the Supreme Court of Canada in Edwards v. Canada when it declares that women are considered "Persons" under Canadian law.
• 1944 – Soviet Union begins liberation of Czechoslovakia.
• 1945 – The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• 1945 – A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, stages a coup d'état against then president Isaías Medina Angarita, who is overthrown by the end of the day.
• 1945 – Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Eva Perón.
• 1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.
• 1964 – The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes for its first season after a six-month run.
• 1967 – The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.

• 1968 – The U.S. Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith and John Carlos for giving a "black power" salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games.
• 1977 – German Autumn: a set of events revolving around the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight by the Red Army Faction (RAF) comes to an end when Schleyer is murdered and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide.
• 1991 – The Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopts a declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
• 2003 – Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.
• 2004 – Myanmar prime minister Khin Nyunt is ousted and placed under house arrest by the State Peace and Development Council on charges of corruption.
• 2007 – Karachi bombings: A suicide attack on a motorcade carrying former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto kills 139 and wounds 450 more. Bhutto herself is not injured.