What Happened on November 18th in History
30 historical events on this date
World War I: First Battle of the Somme: In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
World War I, or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the...
Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It...
Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon.
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by Disney Cartoons and was released by Pat Powers' Celebrity...
Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake, centered on the Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula.
The 1929 Grand Banks earthquake occurred on November 18, 1929. The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.2 and a maximum RossiâForel intensity of VI and was centered in the Atlantic Ocean off the south...
World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous Italian invasion of Greece.
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...
World War II: In the first action of the Berlin Air Offensive, four hundred and forty Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses nine aircraft and 53 air crew.
The Battle of Berlin was a bombing campaign against Berlin by RAF Bomber Command, along with raids on other German cities to keep German defences dispersed. The attacks were a part of the bombing of...
The Popular Socialist Youth is founded in Cuba.
The Popular Socialist Youth was a youth organization in Cuba, the youth wing of the Popular Socialist Party. RaĂșl ValdĂ©s VivĂł was the general secretary of the organization. By 1960, the organization...
The Ballantyne's Department Store fire in Christchurch, New Zealand, kills 41; it is the worst fire disaster in the history of New Zealand.
On Tuesday, 18 November 1947, a fire engulfed the Ballantynes department store in central Christchurch, New Zealand, resulting in the death of 41 people. It remains the deadliest fire in New...
The Iva Valley Shooting occurs after the coal miners of Enugu in Nigeria go on strike over withheld wages; 21 miners are shot dead and 51 are wounded by police under the supervision of the British colonial administration of Nigeria.
Iva Valley is a locality located in the Nigerian. Ngwo township in Enugu city
Vietnam War: United States President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
The Bell Telephone Company introduces the first push-button telephone.
The Bell Telephone Company was an American telecommunications company active from 1877 to 1899. It was the initial corporate entity from which the Bell System originated to build a continental...
U.S. President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for $155Â million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government.
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the...
Oman declares its independence from the United Kingdom.
Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country in the southeastern Arabian Peninsula in West Asia. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman's...
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet makes its first flight, at the Naval Air Test Center in Maryland, United States.
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather supersonic, twin-engined, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and ground attack aircraft. Designed by...
In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple to a mass murderâsuicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children.
The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name Jonestown, was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, an American religious cult under the...
Aeroflot Flight 6833 is hijacked en route from Tbilisi to Leningrad. After returning to Tbilisi, the aircraft is subsequently raided on the ground, resulting in seven deaths.
Aeroflot Flight 6833, en route from Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, to Leningrad, Russian SFSR, with an intermediate stop in Batumi, was the scene of an attempted aircraft hijacking by seven young Georgians...
The first comic of Calvin and Hobbes is published in ten newspapers.
Calvin and Hobbes is an American daily comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. The strip centers on Calvin, a six-year-old boy...
King's Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station, King's Cross St Pancras.
The King's Cross fire occurred in 1987 at King's Cross St Pancras tube station in London, England, causing 31 fatalities. It began under a wooden escalator before spreading into the ticket hall in a...
Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon release Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland.
Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It is rooted in the belief that the Islamic prophet Muhammad explicitly designated his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib as his rightful...
After an 87-day siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar capitulates to the besieging Yugoslav People's Army and allied Serb paramilitary forces.
The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of Vukovar in eastern Croatia by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various paramilitary forces from Serbia, between August and November 1991....
The autonomous Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, which would in 1993 become a republic, was established in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia was an unrecognized geopolitical entity and quasi-state in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was proclaimed on 18 November 1991 under the name Croatian Community of...
In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is approved by the House of Representatives.
The North American Free Trade Agreement, referred to colloquially in the Anglosphere as NAFTA, was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that created a trilateral trade bloc...
In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution, expanding voting rights and ending white minority rule.
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. Its nine provinces are bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres of coastline that stretches along...
A fire occurs on a train traveling through the Channel Tunnel from France to England causing several injuries and damaging approximately 500 metres (1,600Â ft) of tunnel.
The Channel Tunnel fire of 18 November 1996 occurred on a train carrying Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) and their drivers through the Channel Tunnel from France to the United Kingdom. The fire was seen...
At Texas A&M University, the Aggie Bonfire collapses killing 12 students and injuring 27 others.
Texas A&M University is a public land-grant research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University...
Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
In the Iraq disarmament crisis of the early 2000s, Iraq, led by president Saddam Hussein, was pressured by the United States and its other adversaries to destroy alleged stockpiles of weapons of...
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules 4â3 in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and gives the state legislature 180Â days to change the law making Massachusetts the first state in the United States to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the...
Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria becomes the 118th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.
Pope Tawadros II is the 118th and current Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, succeeding the late Pope Shenouda III as leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. He...
NASA launches the MAVEN probe to Mars.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and...
The Utah monolith, built sometime in 2016 is discovered by state biologists of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
The Utah monolith was a metal pillar that stood in a sandstone slot canyon in northern San Juan County, Utah, United States. The pillar was 9.5Â ft (2.9Â m) tall and made of metal sheets riveted into...