April 18: Encyclopedia - April 18

April 18

April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). There are 257 days remaining.

April 18 - Events

• 1025 - Bolesław I Chrobry is crowned as the first king of Poland.
• 1042 - Michael V attempts to remain sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire by sending his adoptive mother and co-ruler Zoë of Byzantium to a monastery.
• 1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen of Poland.
• 1775 - Two lanterns were hung from the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts. Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons. Only Prescott finishes the ride.
• 1797 - Battle of Neuwied resulted in the victory of French under General Louis Lazare Hoche against Austrians under General Wermecek.
• 1880 - A F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 200.
• 1906 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.8, destroys much of San Francisco, California. (See 1906 San Francisco earthquake)
• 1906 - The Los Angeles Times runs a front-page story on the Azusa Street Revival, launching Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
• 1915 - Early French aviator and a fighter aircraft pilot Roland Garros was shot down and glided to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
• 1923 - Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built", opens.
• 1934 - The first washateria opens in Fort Worth, Texas.
• 1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo occurs.
• 1942 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.
• 1945 - World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany, leaving nothing standing.
• 1946 - The League of Nations is dissolved.
• 1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force.
• 1954 - Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
• 1958 - A U.S. federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound be released from an insane asylum.
• 1961 - CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.
• 1972 - The Roland Corporation is founded in Osaka, Japan.
• 1974 - Italian prosecutor Mario Sossi is kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
• 1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.
• 1981 - A Minor League baseball game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island becomes the longest professional baseball game in history: 8 hours and 25 minutes/33 innings (the 33rd inning was not played until June 23rd).
• 1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
• 1987 - Mike Schmidt becomes the 14th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• 1988 - U.S. launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in retaliation for the April 14 mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will. The one-day action is the world's largest naval battle since World War II.
• 1992 - General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolted against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allied with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.
• 1996 - In Lebanon, 102 Lebanese civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Qana (see Qana Massacre).
• 2002 - A new order of insects, Mantophasmatodea, is announced.
• 2005 - Papal conclave begins at the Sistine Chapel after death of Pope John Paul II

April 18 - Births

• 1480 - Lucrezia Borgia, Florentine ruler and daughter of Pope Alexander VI
• 1580 - Thomas Middleton, English dramatist (d. 1627)
• 1590 - Ahmed I, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1617)
• 1605 - Giacomo Carissimi, Italian composer (d. 1674)
• 1771 - Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, Austrian field marshal (d. 1820)
• 1772 - David Ricardo, English economist (d. 1823)
• 1797 - Adolphe Thiers, French statesman (d. 1877)
• 1819 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (d. 1895)
• 1838 - Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French scientist (d. 1912)
• 1857 - Clarence Darrow, American attorney (d. 1938)
• 1864 - Richard Harding Davis, American author (d. 1916)
• 1874 - Ivana Brlic-Mazuranic, Croatian writer (d. 1938)
• 1880 - Sam Crawford, baseball player (d. 1968)
• 1882 - Leopold Stokowski, Polish conductor (d. 1977)
• 1888 - Duffy Lewis, baseball player (d. 1979)
• 1897 - Ardito Desio, Italian topographer and mountaineer (d. 2001)
• 1902 - Giuseppe Pella, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1981)
• 1904 - Pigmeat Markham, American comedian (d. 1981)
• 1905 - George H. Hitchings, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1998)
• 1907 - Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian-born composer (d. 1995)
• 1917 - Ty Laforest, Canadian aseball player (d. 1947)
• 1918 - Cliff Hillegass, American publisher (d. 2001)
• 1921 - Jean Richard, French actor (d. 2001)
• 1924 - Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American musician
• 1924 - Henry Hyde, American politician
• 1927 - Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist
• 1936 - Tommy Ivo, American race car driver
• 1939 - Thomas J. Moyer, Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court
• 1940 - Joseph L. Goldstein, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1940 - Robert N. Kucey, Canadian author
• 1945 - Margaret Hassan, Irish-born aid worker (d. 2004)
• 1946 - Hayley Mills, English actress
• 1947 - Kathy Acker, American author (d. 1997)
• 1947 - Dorothy Lyman, American actress, director, producer
• 1947 - Cindy Pickett, American actress
• 1947 - James Woods, American actor and poker player
• 1949 - Geoff Bodine, American race car driver
• 1954 - Rick Moranis, Canadian comedian
• 1956 - Anna Kathryn Holbrook, American actress
• 1956 - Eric Roberts, American actor
• 1956 - Melody Thomas Scott, American actress
• 1958 - Malcolm Marshall, West Indian cricketer (d. 1999)
• 1961 - Jane Leeves, British actress
• 1963 - Eric McCormack, Canadian actor
• 1963 - Conan O'Brien, American comedian
• 1964 - Niall Ferguson, British historian
• 1966 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian athlete
• 1967 - Maria Bello, American actress
• 1968 - David Hewlett, Canadian actor
• 1969 - Princess Sayako of Japan
• 1970 - Greg Eklund, American musician (Everclear)
• 1971 - David Tennant, Scottish actor
• 1973 - Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian athlete
• 1976 - Melissa Joan Hart, American actress
• 1979 - Michael Bradley, American basketball player
• 1979 - Matthew Upson, English footballer
• 1981 - Audrey Tang, Taiwanese free software programmer
• 1989 - Alia Shawkat, American actress

April 18 - Deaths

• 1161 - Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1552 - John Leland, English antiquarian (b. 1502)
• 1556 - Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet (b. 1495)
• 1567 - Wilhelm von Grumbach, German adventurer (b. 1503)
• 1558 - Roxelana, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent
• 1636 - Julius Caesar, English judge
• 1650 - Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian and politician (b. 1602)
• 1674 - John Graunt, English statistician (b. 1620)
• 1689 - George Jeffreys, British Chief Justice (b. 1648)
• 1690 - Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, general of the Holy Roman Empire (b. 1643)
• 1794 - Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1714)
• 1796 - Johan Wilcke, Swedish physicist (b. 1732)
• 1802 - Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (b. 1731)
• 1873 - Justus von Liebig, German chemist (b. 1803)
• 1898 - Gustave Moreau, French painter (b. 1826)
• 1936 - Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer (b. 1879)
• 1943 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral. (b. 1884)
• 1945 - John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and electrical engineer (b. 1849)
• 1945 - Ernie Pyle, American journalist (b. 1900)
• 1947 - Josef Tiso, Slovakian leader (b. 1887)
• 1955 - Albert Einstein, German-born Jewish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
• 1964 - Ben Hecht, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1894)
• 1976 - Henrik Dam, Dutch biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1895)
• 1996 - Piet Hein, Danish mathematician and inventor (b. 1905)
• 1998 - Terry Sanford, American politician (b. 1917)
• 2002 - Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer (b. 1914)
• 2002 - Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and wrestler (b. 1938)
• 2003 - Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist (b. 1923)
• 2003 - Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1976)
• 2004 - Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister of Fiji and President of Fiji (b. 1920)
• 2005 - Sam Mills, American football linebacker (b. 1959)

April 18 - Holidays and observances

• Feast days of
  • Saint Apollonius (d. 186)
  • Saint Perfecto (d. 850)
  • Saint Galdino (d. 1176)
  • Eusebius (d. 526)
  • Saint Agia (d. 707
  • Marie de l'Incarnation (1566 – 1618)
• Good Friday (2003)
• Easter (1976)
• Zimbabwe – Independence Day
• Massachusetts – Patriots Day (2005)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "April 18", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki