January 18 in History

Historical Events on January 18

350

General Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor.
474

Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later.
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.
1535

Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founds 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 Mingyi Swa of Burma in single combat, for which this date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces day.
1670

Henry Morgan captures Panama.
1701

Frederick I crowns himself King of Prussia in Königsberg.
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 Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay.
1866

Wesley College, Melbourne, is established.
1871

Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed Kaiser Wilhelm in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles (France) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. Wilhelm already had the title of German Emperor since the constitution of 1 January 1871, but he had hesitated to accept the title.
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 hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
1896

An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith.
1911

Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
1913

First Balkan War: A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos, 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.
1919

World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.
1919

Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.
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.
1945

World War II: Liberation of Kraków, Poland by the Red Army.
1958

Willie O'Ree, the first African Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins.
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 kill at least 1,000 in Karantina, Beirut.
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.
1977

SFR Yugoslavia's Prime minister, Džemal Bijedić, his wife and six others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1978

The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom's government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
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.
2002

Sierra Leone Civil War is declared over.
2003

A bushfire kills four 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 and 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 announces they will accept Israel Defense Forces offer of a ceasefire, ending the assault.

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