March 18 in History

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Historical Events on March 18

AD 37

The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius's will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
633

Ridda wars: The Arabian Peninsula is united under the central authority of Caliph Abu Bakr.
1068

An earthquake affects the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, leaving up to 20,000 dead.
1229

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares himself King of Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade.
1241

First Mongol invasion of Poland: Mongols overwhelm Polish armies in Kraków in the Battle of Chmielnik and plunder the city.
1314

Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.
1438

Albert II of Habsburg becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
1608

Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.
1644

The Third Anglo-Powhatan War begins in the Colony of Virginia.
1741

New York governor George Clarke's complex at Fort George is burned in an arson attack, starting the New York Conspiracy of 1741.
1766

American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act.
1793

The first modern republic in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.
1793

Flanders Campaign of the French Revolution, Battle of Neerwinden.
1834

Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.
1848

March Revolution: In Berlin there is a struggle between citizens and military, costing about 300 lives.
1850

American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
1865

American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States adjourns for the last time.
1871

Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders the evacuation of Paris.
1874

Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trade rights.
1892

Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledges to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada the Stanley Cup.
1913

King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.
1915

World War I: During the Battle of Gallipoli, three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
1921

The second Peace of Riga is signed between Poland and the Soviet Union.
1922

In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience, of which he serves only two.
1925

The Tri-State Tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.
1937

The New London School explosion in New London, Texas, kills 300 people, mostly children.
1937

Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.
1938

Mexico creates Pemex by expropriating all foreign-owned oil reserves and facilities.
1940

World War II: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
1942

The War Relocation Authority is established in the United States to take Japanese Americans into custody.
1944

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 people and causes thousands to flee their homes.
1948

Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in the first sign of the Tito-Stalin Split.
1953

An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing 265 people.
1959

The Hawaii Admission Act is signed into law.
1962

The Évian Accords end the Algerian War of Independence, which had begun in 1954.
1965

Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
1967

The supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Cornish coast.
1968

Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
1969

The United States begins secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.
1970

Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.
1971

Peru: a landslide crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200 people at the mining camp of Chungar.
1980

A Vostok-2M rocket at Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 explodes during a fueling operation, killing 48 people.
1990

Germans in the German Democratic Republic vote in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship.
1990

In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
1994

Bosnia's Bosniaks and Croats sign the Washington Agreement, ending war between the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1996

A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162 people.
1997

The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 people on board.
2014

The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty.
2015

The Bardo National Museum in Tunisia is attacked by gunmen. 23 people, almost all tourists, are killed, and at least 50 other people are wounded.

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