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January 18 is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 347 days remaining (348 in leap years)
Events
- 350 - General Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans, proclaims himself Emperor.
- 474 - Leo II becomes briefly Byzantine emperor
- 532 - Nika riots in Constantinople fail.
- 1520 - King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Asunde.
- 1535 - Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro.
- 1670 - Henry Morgan captures Panama.
- 1701 - Frederick I becomes King of Prussia.
- 1778 - James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".
- 1861 - Georgia joins the Confederacy.
- 1862 - The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the American Civil War at the Battle of Mill Springs.
- 1871 - Wilhelm I of Germany becomes the first German Emperor.
- 1886 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
- 1896 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.
- 1911 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship
- 1915 - Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to China in a bid to increase its power in east Asia.
- 1919 - World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.
- 1919 - Bentley Motors is founded.
- 1939 - Louis Armstrong records Jeepers Creepers.
- 1943 - World War II: Soviet officials announce they have broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad.
- 1943 - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
- 1944 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City for the first time hosts a jazz concert; the performers are Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
- 1945 - Liberation of the Budapest Ghetto by the Red Army
- 1958 - Willie O'Ree, the first African American National Hockey League player, make his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins.
- 1964 - Plans are revealed for the World Trade Center in New York City.
- 1964 - The Beatles appear on the Billboard magazine charts for the first time.
- 1967 - Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler," is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life in prison.
- 1975 - The Jeffersons debuts on CBS.
- 1977 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious "legionnaire's disease."
- 1977 - Australia's worst rail disaster occurs at Granville, Sydney killing 83.
- 1978 - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
- 1983 - The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe Olympic medals to his family.
- 1990 - Former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother Peggy McMartin Buckey are acquitted in a Los Angeles, California court of 52 child molestation charges.
- 1990 - Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
- 1991 - Eastern Airlines shuts down after 62 years citing financial problems.
- 1993 - For the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is officially observed in all 50 United States states.
- 1995 - In southern France near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc a network of caves are discovered that contain paintings and engravings that are 17,000 to 20,000 years old.
- 1997 - In north west Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound one other.
- 1997 - Boerge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.
- 1998 - Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky affair story on his website The Drudge Report.
- 2002 - A Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying anhydrous ammonia derails outside of Minot, North Dakota, killing one man and calling into question the maintenance of CP track and the policy of voice-tracking used by Clear Channel Communications.
- 2003 - Canberra firestorm
- 2005 - A U.N. World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan begins
Births
- 1689 - Montesquieu, French writer (d. 1755)
- 1779 - Peter Roget, lexicographer (d. 1869)
- 1782 - Daniel Webster, statesman (d. 1852)
- 1840 - Henry Austin Dobson, poet (d. 1921)
- 1842 - Albert Alonzo Ames, notorious mayor of Minneapolis (d. 1911)
- 1848 - Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer of Romanian origin (d. 1925)
- 1849 - Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1920)
- 1850 - Seth Low, American politician
- 1854 - Thomas Watson (inventor), telephone pioneer
- 1882 - A. A. Milne, author (d. 1956)
- 1888 - Thomas Sopwith, British aviation pioneer (d. 1989)
- 1892 - Oliver Hardy, comedian, actor (d. 1957)
- 1903 - Werner Hinz, actor (d. 1985)
- 1904 - Cary Grant, actor (d. 1986)
- 1905 - Joseph Bonanno, gangster (d. 2002)
- 1908 - Jacob Bronowski, mathematician, poet, physicist (d. 1974)
- 1913 - Danny Kaye, actor (d. 1987)
- 1914 - Arno Schmidt, author (d. 1979)
- 1914 - William Stafford, American poet (d. 1993)
- 1922 - Bob Bell, (Bozo the Clown) (d. 1997)
- 1932 - Robert Anton Wilson, author
- 1931 - Chun Doo-hwan, President of South Korea
- 1933 - John Boorman, director
- 1937 - John Hume, politician, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998
- 1938 - Curt Flood, baseball star (d. 1997)
- 1940 - Ted Lewis, British novelist (d. 1982)
- 1941 - David Ruffin, singer (d. 1991)
- 1941 - Doodles Weaver, Amnerican singer
- 1943 - Kay Granger, American politician
- 1944 - Paul Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia
- 1946 - Joseph Deiss, member of the Swiss Federal Council
- 1947 - Takeshi Kitano, actor and director
- 1949 - Philippe Starck, French designer
- 1950 - Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian racing driver (d. 1982)
- 1951 - Mark Collie, country music singer
- 1953 - Brett Hudson, American actor
- 1955 - Kevin Costner, actor
- 1961 - Mark Messier, hockey star
- 1964 - Jane Horrocks, British actress
- 1965 - Dave Attell, American writer, comedian
- 1967 - Kim Perrot, American basketball player (d. 1999)
- 1969 - Jesse L. Martin, American actor
- 1970 - DJ Quik, rapper
- 1971 - Jonathan Davis, American musician (Korn)
- 1974 - Michael Tunn, TV/radio presenter from Australia
- 1979 - Jonathan Davis, Lead Singer of KoRn
- 1983 - Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress
Deaths
- 52 BC - Publius Clodius Pulcher, murdered in the Via Appia (b. ca. 92 BC)
- 474 - Leo I, emperor of the Byzantine Empire (b. 457)
- 1367 - King Peter I of Portugal
- 1862 - John Tyler, former President of the United States, member of the Congress of the Confederate States of America (b. 1790)
- 1873 - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, author (b. 1803)
- 1927 - Empress Carlotta of Mexico (b. 1840)
- 1936 - Rudyard Kipling, British writer (b. 1865)
- 1940 - Kazimierz Tetmajer, full name Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Polish poet and writer (b. 1865)
- 1952 - Curly Howard, actor, comedian, member of the Three Stooges
- 1954 - Sydney Greenstreet, actor (b. 1879)
- 1966 - Kathleen Norris, writer
- 1967 - Goose Tatum, American basketball player
- 1970 - David O. McKay, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1873)
- 1978 - Junius Matthews, American voice actor
- 1978 - Carl Betz, American actor
- 1980 - Sir Cecil Beaton, fashion designer (b. 1904)
- 1982 - Trent Lehman, American actor
- 1984 - Vassilis Tsitsanis, Greek singer and song writer of rebetiko (b. 1915)
- 1985 - Wilfrid Brambell, Irish actor
- 1990 - Rusty Hamer, American actor
- 1991 - Leo Hurwitz, documentary film producer
- 1997 - Paul Tsongas, United States Senator from Maryland
- 2000 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, architect (b. 1897)
- 2000 - Jester Hairston, American actor
- 2001 - Virginia O'Brien, American actress
- 2001 - Al Waxman, Canadian actor
- 2001 - Laurent-Désiré Kabila, former President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- 2003 - Richard Crenna, actor (b. 1927)
- 2003 - Edward "The Sheik" Farhat, professional wrestler
Holidays and observances
January 17 - January 19 - December 18 - February 18 -- listing of all days
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