October 18......

October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 74 days remaining in the year on this date.

EVENTS

● 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.

● 1210 - Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV

● 1561 - Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima -- Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts

● 1685 - Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes, which had established the legal toleration and protection of France's Protestant population, the Huguenots.

● 1748 - Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.

● 1767 - Mason-Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed

● 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, from Russia, celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day ($7.2 million paid).

● 1892 - The first long distance telephone line between Chicago and New York was opened.

● 1898 - The American flag was raised in Puerto Rico shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the United States.

● 1908 - Belgium annexes the Congo Free State.

● 1912 - The First Balkan War begins.

● 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.

● 1925 - The Grand Ole Opry opens.

● 1926 - Musician Chuck Berry born in St. Louis, Missouri.

● 1944 - Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia.

● 1944 - Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia

● 1945 - The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the USA's 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, staged a coup d'etát against then president Isaías Medina Angarita, who was definitely overthrown by the end of the day.

● 1950 - Connie Mack announced he was retiring after 50 seasons as manager of baseball's Philadelphia Athletics.

● 1954 - Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio

● 1962 - Dr. James D. Watson of the United States, and Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. Maurice Wilkins of Britain, were named winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for their work in determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA.

● 1963 - Aristocrat is new prime minister; A Scottish Earl, Lord Home, wins a bitter contest for the leadership of the Conservative Party to become Britain's new prime minister.

● 1964 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes for its first season after a six-month run.

● 1967 - Soviets glimpse beneath clouds of Venus; The Soviet Union sends a space probe beneath the cloud cover around Venus for the first time.

● 1968 - A police raid on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's flat finds 168 grams of marijuana. They later plead guilty and are fined £150.

● 1968 - The United States Olympic Committee suspended two black athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, for giving a "black power" salute as a protest during a victory ceremony in Mexico City.

● 1968 - Bob Beamon sets a world record of 8.90m in the long jump at the Mexico City games. This becomes the longest unbroken track and field record in history, standing for 23 years, and is later named by Sports Illustrated magazine as one of the five greatest sporting moments of the 20th century.

● 1969 - Jefferson Airplane member Paul Kantner is charged with possession of marijuana in Hawaii.

● 1969 - The federal government banned artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of evidence they cause cancer in laboratory rats.

● 1976 - Funeral of Mafia boss held in NY; The funeral of Carlo Gambino takes place in New York following his death on Friday.

● 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 executed and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide. The (West) German government states that it would never again negotiate with terrorists.

● 1977 - Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees became the second player to hit three home runs, his were the first three consecutive home runs, in a World Series game as he led New York to an 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the deciding Game 6.

● 1985 - Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States.

● 1988 - Green Day plays their first ever concert.

● 1989 - East Germany leader ousted; The Communist leader of East Germany for 18 years, Erich Honecker, is forced to step down as leader of the country after a series of health problems.

● 1991 - Azerbaijan declares independence from USSR

● 1993 - Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.

● 2000 - Hurley mocked at premiere; Liz Hurley has been greeted by protesters at the Los Angeles premiere of her new film Bedazzled.

● 2001 - Four defendants were convicted in New York for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

● 2001 - It was announced that a New Jersey letter carrier and an employee in CBS news anchorman Dan Rather's office had tested positive for skin anthrax.

● 2003 - Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.

BIRTHS

● 1127 - Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (d. 1192)

● 1405 - Pope Pius II (1458-64) (d. 1464)

● 1517 - Manoel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit in Brazil (d. 1570)

● 1547 - Justus Lipsius, Flemish humanist (d. 1606)

● 1569 - Giambattista Marini, Italian poet (d. 1625)

● 1595 - Edward Winslow, English Plymouth Colony founder (d. 1655)

● 1634(32? NYT) - Luca Giordano, Italian artist (d. 1705)

● 1653 - Abraham van Riebeeck, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1713)

● 1662 - Matthew Henry, English non-conformist minister (d. 1714)

● 1668 - John George IV, Elector of Saxony (d. 1694)

● 1679 - Ann Putnam, Jr., American accuser in the Salem Witch Trials (d. 1716)

● 1697 - Canaletto, Italian painter (d. 1768)

● 1701 - Charles le Beau, French historian (d. 1778)

● 1706 - Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (d. 1785)

● 1741 - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general and author (d. 1803)

● 1777 - Heinrich von Kleist, German writer (d. 1811)

● 1785 - Thomas Love Peacock, English satirist (d. 1866)

● 1787 - Robert L. Stevens, American poet (d. 1856)

● 1799 - Christian Friedrich Schonbein, German chemist (d. 1868)

● 1854 - Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (d. 1911)

● 1859 - Henri Bergson, French philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1941)

● 1868 - Ernst Didring, Swedish author (d. 1931)

● 1870 - Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Japanese scholar

● 1873 - Ivanoe Bonomi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1951)

● 1882 - Lucien Petit-Breton, Argentine-French cyclist (d. 1917)

● 1893 - Georges Ohsawa, Japanese founder of Macrobiotics (d. 1966)

● 1897 - Isabel Briggs Myers, American pyschological theorist

● 1898 - Lotte Lenya, Austrian singer and actress (d. 1981)

● 1900 - Lotte Lenya, Austrian singer and actress (d. 1981)

● 1902 - Miriam Hopkins, American actress (d. 1972)

● 1902 - Pascual Jordan, German physicist (d. 1980)

● 1903 - Lina Radke, German athlete (d. 1983)

● 1906 - James Brooks, American painter (d. 1992)

● 1909 - Norberto Bobbio, Italian philosopher and legal theorist (d. 2004)

● 1913 - Robert Gilruth, American aviation and space pioneer (d. 2000)

● 1915 - Victor Sen Yung, American actor (d. 1980)

● 1918 - Bobby Troup, American musician (d. 1999)

● 1919 - Anita O'Day, American singer

● 1919 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau, fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada (1968-79) (1980-84) (d. 2000)

● 1920 - Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and political activist (d. 1994)

● 1921 - Jesse Helms, Former U.S. Senator from North Carolina

● 1925 - Melina Mercouri, Greek actress (d. 1994)

● 1925 - Ramiz Alia, political leader of Albania

● 1926 - Chuck Berry, American musician

● 1926 - Klaus Kinski, German actor (d. 1991)

● 1927 - George C. Scott, American actor (d. 1999)

● 1928 - Keith Jackson, American football commentator

● 1928 - Hugh Allan "Buddy" MacMaster, Canadian musician

● 1929 - Violeta Chamorro, President of Nicaragua

● 1931 - Chris Albertson, American jazz historian

● 1932 - Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuanian politician, one of the political destroyers of the Soviet Union

● 1933 - Forrest Gregg, American football player

● 1934 - Inger Stevens, Swedish actress (d. 1970)

● 1934 - Chuck Swindoll, American evangelist

● 1935 - Peter Boyle, American actor ("Everybody Loves Raymond")

● 1936 - Cynthia Weil, American songriter (with husband, Barry Mann)

● 1939 - Mike Ditka, American football player, coach, commentator, and Hall of Fame member

● 1939 - Lee Harvey Oswald, purported American assassin of John F. Kennedy (d. 1963)

● 1939 - Flavio Cotti, member of the Swiss Federal Council

● 1942 - Larry Pickering Australian newspaper cartoonist

● 1945 - Huell Howser, American TV host

● 1946 - Howard Shore, Canadian film composer

● 1947 - Joe Morton, American actor

● 1947 - Laura Nyro, American singer and songwriter (d. 1997)

● 1948 - Ntozake Shange, American author

● 1949 - George Hendrick, baseball player

● 1950 - Om Puri, Indian actor

● 1950 - Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright

● 1951 - Terry McMillan, American author

● 1951 - Pam Dawber, American actress (''Mork and Mindy'')

● 1952 - Bảo Ninh, Vietnamese novelist

● 1953 - Vickie Winans, Gospel singer

● 1954 - Liz Burch, Australian actress

● 1955 - Timmy Mallett, British TV presenter

● 1956 - Martina Navrátilová, Czech-born tennis player

● 1956 - Craig Bartlett, American animator

● 1956 - Jim Talent, U.S. senator, R-MO

● 1958 - Kjell Samuelsson, National Hockey League defenseman

● 1959 - Milčo Mančevski, Macedonian film director and screenwriter

● 1960 - Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgian actor

● 1961 - Wynton Marsalis, American musician

● 1961 - Erin Moran American actress (''Happy Days'')

● 1962 - Vincent Spano, American actor

● 1966 - Tim Cross, Rock musician (Sponge)

● 1968 - Basil White, American comedian

● 1970 - Jose Padilla, American gang member and suspected terrorist

● 1970 - Doug Mirabelli, baseball player

● 1973 - Nonchalant, R&B singer

● 1974 - Robbie Savage, Welsh footballer

● 1974 - Peter Svenson, Rock musician (The Cardigans)

● 1975 - Alex Cora, baseball player

● 1976 - Azlea Antistia, American actress

● 1977 - Ryan Nelsen, New Zealander footballer

● 1978 - Wesley Jonathan, Actor

● 1980 - Josh Gracin, Singer (''American Idol'')

● 1981 - Jesse Littleton, Country musician (Marshall Dyllon)

● 1987 - Zac Efron, American actor

● 1989 - Joy Lauren, Actress (''Desperate Housewives'')

● 1991 - Tyler Posey, Actor

● 1994 - Alessandro Iannella, Italian singer

DEATHS

● 707 - Pope John VII

● 1035 - Sancho III of Navarre

● 1101 - Hugh of Vermandois, son of Henry I of France (b. 1053)

● 1141 - Margrave Leopold IV of Austria

● 1417 - Pope Gregory XII

● 1503 - Pope Pius III (b. 1439)

● 1545 - John Taverner, English composer

● 1558 - Maria of Austria, wife of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1505)

● 1564 - Johannes Acronius Frisius, German physician and mathematician (b. 1520)

● 1570 - Manoel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit in Brazil (b. 1517)

● 1604 - Igram van Achelen, Dutch statesman (b. 1528)

● 1646 - Isaac Jogues, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1607)

● 1667 - Fasilides, Emperor of Ethiopia

● 1678 - Jacob Jordaens, Flemish painter (b. 1593)

● 1739 - Antônio José da Silva, Brazilian-born dramatist (b. 1705)

● 1744 - Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, English friend of Anne of England (b. 1660)

● 1770 - John Manners, Marquess of Granby, British soldier (b. 1721)

● 1775 - Christian August Crusius, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1715)

● 1817 - Etienne-Nicolas Méhul, French composer (b. 1763)

● 1886 - Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician (b. 1796)

● 1871 - Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor (b. 1791)

● 1893 - Charles Gounod, French composer (b. 1818)

● 1911 - Alfred Binet, French psychologist (b. 1857)

● 1921 - King Ludwig III of Bavaria (b. 1845)

● 1931 - Thomas Alva Edison in West Orange, NJ, American inventor (b. 1847)

● 1942 - Mikhail Nesterov, Russian painter (b. 1862)

● 1948 - Walther von Brauchitsch, German field marshal (b. 1881)

● 1959 - Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete

● 1961 - Tsuru Aoki, Japanese-born American actress (b. 1892)

● 1966 - Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businesswoman (b. 1878)

● 1966 - Sebastian S. Kresge, American merchant (Kmart) (b. 1867)

● 1973 - Leo Strauss, German-American Philosopher (b. 1899)

● 1975 - Al Lettieri, American actor (b. 1928)

● 1978 - Ramón Mercader, Assassin of Leon Trotsky (b. 1914)

● 1982 - Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States (1945-53) (b. 1885)

● 1982 - Dwain Esper, American film director (b. 1892)

● 1982 - Pierre Mendès-France, French politician (b. 1907)

● 1982 - John Robarts, Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario (b. 1917)

● 1983 - Willie Jones, baseball player (b. 1925)

● 2000 - Julie London, American singer and actress (b. 1926)

● 2000 - Gwen Verdon, American dancer and actress (b. 1925)

● 2001 - Micheline Ostermeyer, French athlete and musician (b. 1922)

● 2002 - Nikolai Rukavishnikov, cosmonaut (b. 1932)

● 2002 - Roman Tam, Hong Kong singer (b. 1950)

● 2003 - Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Spanish writer (b. 1939)

● 2003 - Preston Smith, Governor of Texas (b. 1912)

● 2004 - Veerappan, Indian bandit and smuggler (b. 1945)

● 2005 - John Hollis, British actor (b. 1931)

● 2005 - Johnny Haynes, English footballer (b. 1934)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic Church, Anglican communion, et al - Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist

● USA : Alaska: Alaska Day

● French Republican Calendar - Piment (Chili Pepper) Day, twenty-seventh day in the Month of Vendémiaire

● October 18 - Eastern Orthodox liturgics
● All fixed commemorations below are observed on October 31 by Old Calendarists
● Saints:
● Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke (1st century)
● Martyr Marinus the Elder of Anazarbus (4th century)
● Saint Julian the Hermit of Mesopotamia (4th century)
● Saint Didymus the Blind of Mesopotamia (4th century)
● Saint Mnason of Cyprus, bishop (1st century)
● Saint David of Serpukhov, abbot (1520)
● Martyrs Gabriel and Cirmidol of Egypt (1522)
● Saints Symeon, Theodore, and Euphrosynus, monks who found the Icon of the Theotokos in the Great Cave of the Peloponnesus
● Saint Peter of Montenegro, metropolitan


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

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