February 18 in History

Historical Events on February 18

1865 American Civil War: Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia.

1873 Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.

1900 Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.

1938 Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee" and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.

1942 World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.

1954 The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

1957 Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.

2007 WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.

2014 At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kiev, Ukraine.

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Famous Birthdays on February 18

1933 Yoko Ono

1933 Bobby Robson

1965 Dr. Dre

1967 Roberto Baggio

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Famous Deaths on February 18

1294 Kublai Khan

1546 Martin Luther

1967 J. Robert Oppenheimer

2001 Dale Earnhardt

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