History's March 18
1996 50,000 swimmers raise 15 million for charity during BT's Swimathon '96
1995 STS 67 (Endeavour 8) lands after 16½ days
1995 Michael Jordan announces he is ending his 17 month NBA retirement
1994 Zsa Zsa Gabor files for bankruptcy
1994 South Africa Goldstone committee reveals existence of secret police
1994 Space shuttle STS-62 (Columbia 16), lands
1993 "Sisters Rosensweig" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 556 performances
1993 Amsterdam stock exchange hits record Ÿ12.2 billion
1993 Sri Lanka beat England in Test match by 5 wickets
1992 Zimbabwe beat England by 9 runs in World Cup at Albury
1992 Leona Helmsley sentence to 4 years for tax evasion
1992 "4 Baboons Adoring the Sun" opens at Beaumont Theater NYC for 38 perf
1992 Donna Summer gets a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame
1991 Reggie Miller (Indiana) ends NBA free throw streak of 52 games
1991 Mike Tyson beats Razor Ruddock in the 7th round
1991 Phila '76ers retires Wilt Chamberlain's #13 jersey
1990 32-day lockout by baseball owners ends
1990 1st free elections in East Germany, Conservatives beat Communists
1990 Largest art robbery in US history: 13 works of art worth over $500 million are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston
1990 Colleen Walker wins Circle K Tucson LPGA Golf Open
1990 A Tampa little leaguer dies after being struck by a pitch
1989 Dino Ciccarelli sets Washington Capital record of 7 pts in a game
1989 27th space shuttle mission, STS-29 (Discovery 8), returns to Earth
1989 California Quake amusement ride opens at Universal Studios
1989 In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops.
1987 Gerber survey find most popular names for newborns (Jessica & Matthew)
1987 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1986 US Treasury Dept announces plans to alter paper money
1986 Exciting draw in final gives NSW the Sheffield Shield over Queensland
1985 Capital Cities Communications Inc acquires ABC
1985 Commissioner Peter Ueberroth reinstates Willie Mays & Mickey Mantle
1984 Christa Johnson wins LPGA Tucson Conquistadores Golf Open
1982 Singer Teddy Pendergrass' spinal cord severed in a car accident
1981 Buffalo Sabres sets NHL record of 9 goals in 1 period (vs Toronto)
1980 Vostok rocket exploded on launch pad while being refueled, killing 50
1979 "On the 20th Century" closes at St James Theater NYC after 460 performances
1979 Battles between Kurds & Iranians break in Sananday, Iran
1979 Joanne Carner wins LPGA Honda Civic Golf Classic
1978 Former Pakistani premier Ali Bhutto sentenced to death
1978 250,000 attend rock concert California Jam II in Ontario, Calif
1977 The Clash release their first recording "White Riot"
1977 US restricts citizens from visiting Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea & Cambodia
1977 Vietnam hands over MIA to US
1975 Kurds end fight against Iraqi army
1974 Most Arab oil producing nations end embargo against US
1973 Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Orange Blossom Golf Classic
1973 "Seesaw" opens at Uris Theater NYC for 296 performances
1972 AIAW 1st basketball champs, Immaculata beats West Chester State 52-48
1972 Cornell NCAA hockey team shut out for 1st time in 225 games (Boston U)
1972 Memphis' Larry Miller sets ABA record of 67 pts in a game
1972 Ulster Vanguard hold a rally of 60,000 people in Belfast; William Craig tells the crowd: "if and when the politicians fail us, it may be our job to liquidate the enemy"
1972 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
1971 200 die in landslide into Lake Yanahuani, Chungar Peru
1970 Cambodia military coup under Gen Lon Nol, prince Sihanuk flees
1970 KAEC TV channel 19 in Lufkin, TX (ABC) suspends broadcasting
1970 Two-week US postal strike begins; it is against the government and is the largest wildcat strike in US history
1970 NFL selects Wilson as official football & scoreboard as official time
1970 Five Unionist Members of Parliament (MPs), including William Craig and Harry West, are expelled from the Unionist Parliamentary Party, Northern Ireland
1969 "Come Summer" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 7 performances
1968 WVTA TV channel 41 in Windsor, VT (PBS) begins broadcasting
1968 WVER TV channel 28 in Rutland, VT (PBS) begins broadcasting
1968 Congress repeals requirement for a gold reserve
1967 Oil tanker Torrey Canyon hits a rock off Cornwall & spills oil
1967 Beatles' "Penny Lane" single goes #1
1966 Scott Paper begins selling paper dresses for $1
1966 "Pousse Cafe" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 3 performances
1966 General Suharto forms government in Indonesia
1965 Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
1965 USSR launches Voshkod 2; Alexei Leonov makes 1st spacewalk (20 mins)
1965 Rolling Stones fined £5 each for public urination
1965 "Do I Hear a Waltz?" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 220 performances
1963 France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker, Algeria
1963 WGSF TV channel 31 in Newark, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting
1963 "Tovarich" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 264 performances
1962 Dmitri Shostakovitch becomes member of Supreme Soviet of USSR
1962 7th Eurovision Song Contest: Isabelle Aubret for France wins singing "Un premier amour" in Luxembourg
1962 Algerian War ends after 7½ yrs (250,000 die), Ben Bella flees
1961 Poppin' Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy introduced
1961 6th Eurovision Song Contest: Jean-Claude Pascal for Luxembourg wins "Nous les amoureux" in Cannes
1960 5th Eurovision Song Contest: Jacqueline Boyer for France wins singing "Tom Pillibi" in London
1959 Boston Celtic's Bill Sharman begins record of 56 straight free-throws
1959 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Hawaii statehood bill
1958 Dodgers announces mascot/clown Emmett Kelly will not perform in 1958
1957 WTWV (now WTVA) TV channel 9 in Tupelo-Columbus, MS (NBC) begins
1955 I Hatojama recognized as premier of Japan
1953 Boston Braves move to Milwaukee
1953 Earthquake strikes West Turkey, 250 die
1953 KGNC (now KAMR) TV channel 4 in Amarillo, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 NL approves Boston Braves move to Milwaukee (1st shift since 1903)
1953 15th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Indiana beats Kansas 69-68
1952 1st plastic lens for cataract patients fitted (Phila)
1951 Pat O'Sullivan wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship
1950 CCNY beats Bradley 69-61 for the NIT championship
1950 "Touch & Go" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 176 performances
1949 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Org) ratified
1949 WGAL TV channel 8 in Lancaster, PA (NBC) begins broadcasting
1948 Soviet consultants have left Yugoslavia in first sign of Tito-Stalin split.
1948 Philips begin experimental TV broadcasting
1948 France & Great Britain & Benelux sign Treaty of Brussels
1945 1,250 US bombers attacks Berlin
1945 Maurice "Rocket" Richard becomes the 1st NHLer to score 50 goals
1945 US Task Force 58 attacks targets on Kiushu
1944 Nazi Germany occupies Hungary
1944 2,500 women trample guards & floorwalkers to purchase 1,500 alarm clocks announced for sale in a Chicago Illinois dept store
1943 Red Army evacuates Belgorod
1943 James Oglethorpe (US) & Terkolei (Neth), torpedoed & sinks
1943 Agnes Moorehead appears in "Sorry, Wrong Number" on the radio program "Suspense", her most successful appearance
1942 Illegal Free Netherlands announces boycott of theaters
1942 2 black players, Jackie Robinson & Nate Moreland, request a tryout with the Chicago White Sox, they are allowed to work out
1940 Benito Mussolini joins Hitler in Germany's war against France & Britain
1938 Pres Cardena of Mexico nationalizes US & British oil companies
1938 NY 1st requires serological blood tests of pregnant women
1938 Mexico takes control of foreign-owned oil properties
1937 The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) outside Milan.
1937 Gas explosion in school in New London, Texas: 294 die
1933 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Roger Turner
1933 Radio Clube de Mocambique's 1st radio transmission
1933 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson
1932 91st Grand National: Tim Hamey aboard Forbra wins
1931 1st electric shavers go on sale in US (Schick)
1931 Juan Bautista Aznar becomes premier of Spain
1930 Boston Bruins win record 20th NHL home game
1929 Dmitri Shostakovitch's "The new Babylon" premieres in Leningrad
1925 (8) 60-MPH tornadoes speed Mo, In, Il, Ky, & Tn kills 689
1922 1st intercollegiate indoor polo championship (Princeton vs Yale)
1922 WBT-AM in Charlotte NC begins radio transmissions
1922 The first public celebration of Bat mitzvah, for the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, is held in New York City.
1922 British magistrates in India sentence Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years imprisonment for disobedience
1921 80th Grand National: Fred Rees aboard Shaun Spadah wins
1921 2nd Peace of Riga, Poland enlarged
1921 Steamer "Hong Koh" runs aground off Swatow China killing 1,000
1920 Greece adopts the Gregorian calendar
1919 Order of DeMolay forms in Kansas City
1918 Soccer team SON OF Meerssen forms
1918 Socialist Youth AJC organizes in Amsterdam
1915 Failed British attack in Dardanelles
1915 French battleship Bouvet explodes, 640 killed
1914 White Wolf gang beats government army in Jingdezhen China
1913 King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.
1911 North Dakota enacts a hail insurance law
1910 1st opera by an US composer (Converse) performed at the Met, NYC
1910 72nd Grand National: Bob Chadwick aboard Jenkinstown wins
1909 Einar Dessau of Denmark makes 1st ham broadcast
1909 Russia and Bulgaria reach an agreement in which late 19th century Russian financial claims are cancelled to meet compensation due to Turkey from Bulgaria
1904 First performance of Edward Elgar's "In the South (Alassio)"
1903 Following through on its attacks on Roman Catholic institutions, the French Government dissolves the Catholic religious orders
1902 Turkey grants Germany syndicate the first concession to construct a railroad through Turkish territory to Baghdad, to be linked to Berlin
1902 Enrico Caruso becomes 1st well-known performer to make a record
1902 Arnold Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht" premieres in Vienna
1900 Ajax (Amsterdam Football Club), forms
1900 Japan uses its influence over Korea to deny Russia's efforts to obtain a naval station at Korean Port of Masampo, the lead up to the Russo-Japanese war
1899 Phoebe, a moon of Saturn is discovered by William Pickering
1895 200 blacks leave Savannah, Ga for Liberia
1892 Lord Stanley presents silver challenge cup for hockey (Stanley Cup)
1891 Britain is linked to the continent by Telephone
1890 1st US state naval militia organized (Massachusetts)
1882 Morgan Earp is assassinated by outlaws while playing billiards in Tombstone
1881 Barnum & Bailey's "Greatest Show on Earth" opens (Madison Square Garden)
1877 President Hayes appoints Frederick Douglass marshal of Wash DC
1875 36th Grand National: Mr Tommy Pickernell aboard Pathfinder wins
1874 Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.
1871 Communards revolt in Paris
1870 1st US National Wildlife Preserve (Lake Meritt in Oakland California)
1865 Congress of Confederate States of American adjourns for last time
1865 Battle of Wilson's raid to Selma, AL
1864 Dale Dike on Humber River crumbles drowning some 240
1859 Vera Cruz besieged by Miramon (Cons) in Mexican War of Reform
1858 Dutch Van der Brugghen government resigns
1850 Henry Wells & William Fargo forms American Express in Buffalo
1847 1st Dutch public telegram
1835 Charles Darwin departs Santiago Chile on his way to Portillo Pass
1834 Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.
1834 1st railroad tunnel in US completed, in Penn (275 m long)
1818 Congress approves 1st pensions for government service
1813 David Melville, Newport, RI, patents apparatus for making coal gas
1810 "Converse", 1st US opera, premieres in NY
1793 The first republican state in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.
1793 2nd Battle at Neerwinden: Austria army beats France
1781 Charles Messier rediscovers global cluster M92
1773 Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" premieres in London
1754 Duke of Newcastle becomes British premier
1673 Lord Berkley sells his half of New Jersey to the Quakers
1608 Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.
1583 Dutch States General & Anjou sign treaty
1582 Prince William of Orange injured in attack at Antwerp
1541 Hernando de Soto observes 1st recorded flood in America (Mississippi River)
1532 English parliament bans payments by English church to Rome
1509 Emperor Maximilian I names Margaretha land guardians of Netherlands
1438 Albrecht II of Habsburg becomes king of Germany
1325 According to legend, Tenochtitlan is founded on this date. The event is depicted on the Mexican coat of arms.
1314 Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.
1241 Kraków is ravaged by Mongols.
1229 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II crowns himself King of Jerusalem
1190 Crusaders kill 57 Jews in Bury St Edmunds, England
1184 Battle of Ichi-no-Tani near Kobe, Japan
1167 Battle of El-Babein, Egypt: Franks under Amalrik vs Syrians
1123 1st Latern Council (9th ecumenical council) opens in Rome, agreements of the Concordat of Worms ratified
731 St Gregory III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
633Ridda wars: The Arabian Peninsula is united under the central authority of Caliph Abu Bakr.
417 St Zosimus begins his reign as Catholic Pope
37The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’s will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
37 Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (aka Caligula = Little Boots) emperor
