April 18 - Events

Events

• 1025 – Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.
• 1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.
• 1518 – Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland.
• 1738 – Real Academia de la Historia ("Royal Academy of History") founded in Madrid.
• 1775 – American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begins; Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements.
• 1783 – Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.
• 1797 – The Battle of Neuwied – French victory against the Austrians.
• 1831 – The University of Alabama is founded.
• 1848 – American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opens the way for invasion of Mexico.
• 1857 – Released "The Spirits Book", which marked the birth of Spiritualism in France, by Allan Kardec.
• 1880 – An F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100.
• 1881 – Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
• 1899 – The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.
• 1902 – Quetzaltenango, second largest city of Guatemala, destroyed by Earthquake.
• 1906 – The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroys much of San Francisco, California.
• 1906 – The Los Angeles Times story on the Azusa Street Revival launches Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
• 1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
• 1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.
• 1915 – French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
• 1923 – Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built," opens.
• 1924 – Simon & Schuster publishes the first Crossword puzzle book.
• 1930 – BBC Radio announces that there is no news on that day.
• 1942 – World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya bombed.
• 1942 – Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.
• 1943 – World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters overBougainville Island.
• 1945 – Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany.
• 1949 – The aircraft carrier USS United States (CVA-58) is laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. However, the United States is canceled five days later, resulting in the Revolt of the Admirals.
• 1954 – Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
• 1955 – Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.
• 1958 – A United States federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound is to be released from an insane asylum.
• 1961 – CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.
• 1974 – The Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurates Lahore Dry port.
• 1980 – The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.
• 1981 – The longest professional baseball game is begun in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The game was suspended at 4:00 the next morning and finally completed on June 23.
• 1983 – A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
• 1988 – The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
• 1992 – General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolts against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allies with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.
• 1996 – In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Quana where more than 800 civilians had taken refuge.
• 2007 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.
• 2007 – A series of bombings, two of them being suicides, occur in Baghdad, killing 198 and injuring 251.