History of 18 April
- 1999 – Wayne Gretzky (New York Rangers) played his final game in the NHL. He retired as the NHL’s all-time leading scorer and holder of 61 individual records.
- 2000 – The Nasdaq had the biggest one-day point gain in its history.
- 2000 – Joan Lunden and Jeff Konigsberg were married.
- 2002 – Actor Robert Blake and his bodyguard were arrested in connection with the shooting death of Blake’s wife about a year before.
- 2002 – The Amtrack Auto Train derailed in a remote area of north Florida. Four people were killed and 133 were injured.
- 2002 – The city legislature of Berlin decided to make Marlene Dietrich an honorary citizen. Dietrich had gone to the United States in 1930. She refused to return to Germany after Adolf Hitler came to power.
- 2007 – A series of bombings, two of them being suicides, occur in Baghdad, killing 198 and injuring 251.
- 2013 – A suicide bombing in a Baghdad cafe kills 27 people and injures another 65.
- 2018 – King Mswati III of Swaziland announces that his country’s name will change to Eswatini.
- 2019 – A redacted version of the Mueller Report is released to the United States Congress and the public.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Brian Buscher, American baseball player
- 1981 – Milan Jovanović, Serbian footballer
- 1981 – Aldo Ramírez, Colombian footballer
- 1981 – Audrey Tang, Taiwanese computer scientist and academic
- 1982 – Ibrahim al-Asiri, Saudi Arabian terrorist
- 1982 – Greg Camarillo, American football player
- 1982 – Ricardo Colclough, Canadian-American football player
- 1982 – Simone Farina, Italian footballer
- 1982 – Scott Hartnell, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1982 – Blair Late, American singer-songwriter and journalist
- 1982 – Darren Sutherland, Irish boxer (d. 2009)
- 1982 – Marie-Élaine Thibert, Canadian singer
- 1983 – Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1983 – Reeve Carney, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1984 – Red Bryant, American football player
- 1984 – America Ferrera, American actress and producer
- 1985 – Łukasz Fabiański, Polish footballer
- 1986 – Billy Butler, American baseball player
- 1986 – Maurice Edu, American soccer player
- 1986 – Taylor Griffin, American basketball player
- 1986 – Conrad Logan, Irish footballer
- 1986 – Efraín Velarde, Mexican footballer
- 1987 – Brett Deledio, Australian footballer
- 1987 – Danny Guthrie, English footballer
- 1987 – Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, English model and actress
- 1987 – Samantha Jade, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
- 1987 – Ivan Tričkovski, Macedonian footballer
- 1988 – Andre Frolov, Estonian footballer
- 1988 – Alexander Hauck, South African-German rugby player
- 1989 – Jessica Jung, Korean American singer, songwriter, actress, and fashion designer
- 1990 – Henderson Álvarez, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1990 – Anna van der Breggen, Dutch cyclist
- 1990 – Jake Howells, English footballer
- 1990 – Wojciech Szczęsny, Polish footballer
- 1990 – Junior Torunarigha, Nigerian footballer
- 1993 – Matt Salisbury, English cricketer
- 1993 – Nathan Sykes, English singer-songwriter
- 1995 – Divock Origi, Belgian footballer
- 1996 – Mariah Bell, American figure skater
- 1996 – Ioana Ducu, Romanian tennis player
- 1997 – Matthias Blübaum, German chess grandmaster
- 1997 – Donny van de Beek, Dutch footballer