History Of 18 March
1900 – Ajax (Amsterdam Football Club) was formed.
1902 – In Turkey, the Sultan granted a German syndicate the first concession to access Baghdad by rail.
1903 – France dissolved the Catholic religious orders.
1906 – In Morocco, it was reported that France and Germany were in a deadlock at the Algeciras Conference.
1909 – Einar Dessau of Denmark used a short wave transmitter to become the first person to broadcast as a “ham” operator.
1910 – The first opera by a U.S. composer performed at the Met in New York City.
1911 – Theodore Roosevelt opened the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona. It was the largest dam in the U.S. at the time.
1911 – North Dakota enacted a hail insurance law.
1913 – Greek King George I was killed by an assassin. Constantine, I succeeded him.
1916 – Russia countered the Verdun assault with an attack at Lake Naroch. The Russians lost 100,000 men and the Germans lost 20,000.
1917 – The Germans sank the U.S. ships, City of Memphis, Vigilante, and Illinois, without any warning.
1919 – The Order of DeMolay was established in Kansas City.
1920 – Greece adopted the Gregorian calendar.
1921 – Poland was enlarged with the second Peace of Riga.
1921 – The steamer “Hong Koh” ran aground off of Swatow China. Over 1,000 people were killed.
1922 – Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience in India. He served only 2 years of the sentence.
1922 – Princeton and Yale played the first intercollegiate indoor polo championship.
1931 – Schick Inc. displayed the first electric shaver.
1937 – More than 400 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, TX.
1938 – Mexico took control of all foreign-owned oil properties on its soil.
1938 – New York first required serological blood tests of pregnant women.
1940 – The soap opera “Light of the World” was first heard on NBC radio.
1940 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass. The Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany’s war against France and Britain during the meeting.
1942 – The third military draft began in the U.S. because of World War II.
1943 – The Reich called off its offensive in the Caucasus.
1943 – American forces took Gafsa in Tunisia.
1944 – The Russians reached the Rumanian border in the Balkans during World War II.
1945 – 1,250 U.S. bombers attacked Berlin.
1945 – Maurice “Rocket” Richard became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 50 goals.
1948 – France, Great Britain, and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.
1949 – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was ratified.
1950 – Nationalist troops landed on the mainland of China and capture Communist held Sungmen.
1952 – In Philadelphia, PA, the first plastic lenses were fitted for a cataract patient.
1953 – An earthquake hit West Turkey killing 250 people.
1954 – RKO Pictures was sold for $23,489,478. It became the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual. The person was Howard Hughes.
1959 – U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.
1962 – French and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce.
1963 – “Tovarich” opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City for 264 performances.
1963 – France performed an underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria.
1963 – The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Miranda decision concerning legal counsel for defendants.
1965 – Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to spacewalk when he left the Voskhod II space capsule while in orbit around the Earth. He was outside the spacecraft for about 20 minutes.
1966 – The government of Indonesia was formed by General Suharto.
1966 – Scott Paper began selling paper dresses for $1.
1968 – The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve.
1969 – U.S. President Nixon authorizes Operation Menue. It was the ‘secret’ bombing of Cambodia.
1970 – The U.S. Postal Service experienced the first postal strike.
1970 – The NFL selected Wilson to be the official football and scoreboard as the official time.
1971 – U.S. helicopters airlifted 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers out of Laos.
1971 – A landslide in Lake Yanahuani, Chungar Peru, killed 200.
1974 – Most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their five-month embargo against the United States, Europe, and Japan.
1975 – Saigon abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi.
1975 – The Kurds ended their fight against Iraq.
1977 – Vietnam turned over an MIA to a U.S. delegation.
1979 – Iranian authorities detained American feminist Kate Millett. The next day she was deported.
1980 – The Vostok rocket exploded on the launch pad killing 50.
1981 – The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966.
1986 – Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson.
1986 – The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.
1987 – The U.S. performed nuclear tests at a Nevada test site.
1990 – Thirteen paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The value was $100 million making it the largest art robbery in history.
1989 – A 4,400-year-old mummy was discovered at the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.
1990 – The first free elections took place in East Germany.
1990 – The 32-day lockout of baseball players ended.
1990 – In Tampa, FL, a little league player was killed after being hit with a pitch.
1992 – Leona Helmsley was sentenced to 4 years in prison for tax evasion.
1992 – White South Africans voted for constitutional reforms that would give legal equality to blacks.
1994 – Zsa Zsa Gabor filed for bankruptcy.
1997 – A Russian AN-24 crashed killing 50 people.
2003 – China’s new president, Hu Jintao, announced that his country must deepen reforms and raise living standards of workers and farmers.
2014 – The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty.
2015 – The Bardo National Museum in Tunisia is attacked by gunmen. 23 people, almost all tourists, are killed, and at least 50 other people are wounded.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Tom Starke, German footballer
- 1981 – Doug Warren, American soccer player
- 1981 – Lovro Zovko, a Croatian tennis player
- 1982 – Mantorras, Angolan footballer
- 1982 – Chad Cordero, American baseball player
- 1982 – Timo Glock, German race car driver
- 1982 – Adam Pally, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1983 – Ethan Carter III, American wrestler
- 1983 – Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro, a French tennis player
- 1983 – Andy Sonnanstine, American baseball player
- 1983 – Tomasz Stolpa, Polish footballer
- 1984 – Simone Padoin, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Rajeev Ram, an American tennis player
- 1984 – Vonzell Solomon, American singer, and actress
- 1985 – Ana Beatriz, Brazilian race car driver
- 1985 – Marvin Humes, English singer
- 1985 – Vince Lia, Australian footballer
- 1986 – Lykke Li, Swedish singer-songwriter
- 1986 – Abdennour Chérif El-Ouazzani, Algerian footballer
- 1987 – Rebecca Soni, American swimmer
- 1989 – Francesco Checcucci, Italian footballer
- 1989 – Lily Collins, English-American actress
- 1989 – Shreevats Goswami, Indian cricketer
- 1989 – Kana Nishino, Japanese singer-songwriter
- 1989 – Paul Marc Rousseau, Canadian guitarist, and producer
- 1991 – Dylan Mattingly, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1991 – Sam Williams, Australian rugby league player
- 1992 – Ryan Truex, American race car driver
- 1992 – Takuya Terada, Japanese singer, actor, and model
- 1997 – Ciara Bravo, American actress
- 1997 – Rieko Ioane, New Zealand rugby union player