January 18

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.
• 1884 - Dr William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the UK.
• 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.
• 1916 - A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite struck a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri.
• 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)
• 1892 - Paul Rostock, German doctor during World War II (d. 1956)
• 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
• 1962 - Jeff Yagher, actor
• 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
• 1969 - David Bautista, professional wrestler
• 1970 - DJ Quik, rapper
• 1971 - Jonathan Davis, American musician (Korn)
• 1973 - Crispian Mills, British musician (The Jeevas & Kula Shaker)
• 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
• 2005 - Lamont Bentley, television and film actor (b. 1973)
  

  Holidays and observances

• Christian ecumenism - Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins
  

  External links

• BBC: On This Day