What Happened on March 18th in History
30 historical events on this date
In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience, of which he serves only two.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from...
The 1925 Tri-State tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.
In the midday and afternoon hours of Wednesday, March 18, 1925, the deadliest tornado in United States history and second-deadliest worldwide moved through Eastern Missouri, Southern Illinois and...
The New London School explosion in New London, Texas, kills 300 people, mostly children.
The New London School explosion occurred on March 18, 1937, when a natural gas leak caused an explosion that destroyed the London School in New London, Texas, United States. The disaster killed 295...
Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.
The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic...
Mexico creates Pemex by expropriating all foreign-owned oil reserves and facilities.
Pemex is the Mexican state-owned petroleum corporation managed and operated by the Mexican government. It was formed in 1938 by nationalization and expropriation of all private oil companies in...
World War II: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
The War Relocation Authority is established in the United States to take Japanese Americans into custody.
The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency...
Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupts, killing 26 people, causing thousands to flee their homes, and destroying dozens of Allied bombers.
Mount Vesuvius is a sommaâstratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9Â km (5.6Â mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes...
World War II: 40th Infantry Division, spearheaded by the 185th US Infantry Regiment, lands unopposed in Tigbauan, forcing the Japanese forces to surrender and General Macario Peralta and Gen. Gen. Eichelberger to declare the Liberation of Panay, Romblon and Guimaras.
Tigbauan, officially the Municipality of Tigbauan, is a municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 65,657 people.
Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in the first sign of the TitoâStalin split.
The TitoâStalin split or the SovietâYugoslav split was the culmination of a conflict between the political leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, under Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin,...
An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing at least 1,070 people.
The 1953 YeniceâGönen earthquake occurred at 21:06 local time on 18 March in the province of Ăanakkale and Balıkesir in the Marmara region at western Turkey. It had a surface-wave magnitude of 7.5...
The Hawaii Admission Act is signed into law.
The Admission Act, formally An Act to Provide for the Admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union is a statute enacted by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D....
The Ăvian Accords end the Algerian War of Independence, which had begun in 1954.
The Ăvian Accords were a set of declarations between the French Government and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic on 18 March 1962 in Ăvian-les-Bains which outlined the agreements...
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
An astronaut is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space...
United Arab Airlines Flight 749 crashes on approach to Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing 30 people.
United Arab Airlines Flight 749 was a scheduled international passenger flight on 18 March 1966 that crashed while attempting to land in Cairo, Egypt. All thirty passengers and crew on board were...
The supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Cornish coast.
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude...
Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is defined by a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from...
The United States begins secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.
Operation Menu was a covert United States Strategic Air Command (SAC) tactical bombing campaign conducted in eastern Cambodia from 18 March 1969 to 26 May 1970 as part of the Vietnam War. The...
Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.
Lon Nol was a Cambodian military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice, as well as serving repeatedly as defence minister and provincial governor. As a right-wing...
Peru: A landslide crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200 people at the mining camp of Chungar.
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered to the north by Ecuador and Colombia, to the east by Brazil, to the southeast by Bolivia, to the south by...
GĂŒzel Ä°stanbul, a nude sculpture by GĂŒrdal Duyar in Istanbul, is torn down in the middle of the night.
GĂŒzel Ä°stanbul is a concrete public sculpture of a nude female figure by GĂŒrdal Duyar that is located in Yıldız Park in Istanbul, Turkey.
A Vostok-2M rocket at Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 explodes during a fueling operation, killing 48 people.
Vostok-2M was an expendable carrier rocket used by the Soviet Union between 1964 and 1991. Ninety-three were launched, of which one failed. Another was destroyed before launch. It was originally...
Germans in the German Democratic Republic vote in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship.
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany on 3 October 1990. Until...
In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $500Â million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Art theft is the stealing of paintings, sculptures, or other forms of visual art from galleries, museums or other public and private locations. Stolen art is often resold or used by criminals as...
Bosnia's Bosniaks and Croats sign the Washington Agreement, ending war between the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, often referred to as Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the...
A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162 people.
The Ozone Disco fire in Quezon City, Philippines, occurred on March 18, 1996, leaving 162 people dead. It is officially acknowledged as the worst fire in Philippine history, and among the ten worst...
The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en route to Turkey, causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 people on board.
The Antonov An-24 is a 44-seat twin turboprop regional airliner designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau. Later variants saw other uses, such as military transport and...
The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty.
Crimea is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the...
The Bardo National Museum in Tunisia is attacked by gunmen. Twenty-four people, almost all tourists, are killed, and at least 50 other people are wounded.
The Bardo National Museum or Bardo Palace is an arts and North African history museum in Le Bardo, Tunis, Tunisia. It is one of the most important museums in the Mediterranean region and the second...
Israel launches widespread aerial bombardments and attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 591 people, including children.
In the early hours of 18 March 2025, Israel launched a surprise attack on the Gaza Strip, effectively ending the January 2025 Gaza war ceasefire. Israel's missile and artillery attack killed more...