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What happened in history on this day: April 18?
On April 18 in ...
- 1775 - In Massachusetts, Paul Revere and William Dawes ride calling "the British are coming!" to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams to escape.
- 1806 - US Congress passes an act forbidding imports of certain goods from Great Britain.
- 1846 - R.E. House of New York City receives a US patent for the telegraph ticker.
- 1853 - US Vice President William King dies a month after his inauguration.
- 1861 - Union forces marching from Pottsville, Pennsylvania to Washington DC encounter hostile crowd of Southern supporters in Baltimore. Oliver Christian Bosbyshell is hit by a brick, first Union injury of the war.
- 1861 - Battle of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
- 1861 - Colonel Robert E Lee turns down offer to command US armies.
- 1862 - Union ships begin assault on New Orleans, beginning with mortar shelling of forts Saint Philip and Fort Jackson.
- 1864 - Battle of Poison Springs, Arkansas (Camden Expedition).
- 1865 - Confederate General Johnson surrenders to USA General Tecumseh Sherman in North Carolina.
- 1879 - Trial begins of Standing Bear-Crook on Indians' citizen rights.
- 1890 - New York Commission of Emigration ends, closing Castle Clinton.
- 1906 - At 5:13 a.m., an earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, California, caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a segment about 275 miles long. An estimated 3,000 people die from the quake and fires. Almost 30,000 buildings are destroyed, including most of the city's homes and nearly all the central business district.
- 1924 - First crossword puzzle book published (in USA by Simon and Schuster).
- 1925 - World's fair opens in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- 1934 - First "Washateria" (laundromat) opens (Fort Worth, Texas).
- 1936 - Pan-Am Clipper begins regular passenger flights from San Francisco, California to Honolulu, Hawaii.
- 1942 - Stars and Stripes paper for US armed forces starts.
- 1942 - (about 1215 hours) Sixteen American B-25 bombers lead by Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle bomb Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kobe, Japan. The planes were launched from the carrier Hornet 668 miles off Tokyo. 73 of the 80 crew survive as the planes land in China.
- 1950 - Canadian Avro Jetliner makes first international jet transport flight in North America, from Toronto to New York.
- 1968 - 178,000 employees of US Bell Telephone System go on strike.
- 1968 - London Bridge is sold to US oil company (to be erected in Arizona).
- 1968 - San Francisco's Old Hall of Justice is demolished.
- 1968 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
- 1976 - 30th Tony Awards: Travesties and Chorus Line win.
- 1978 - The U.S. Senate votes 68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.
- 1983 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Alice Walker for The Color Purple.
- 1983 - The U.S Embassy is bombed in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
- 1983 - The Disney Channel, a cable-TV network, begins broadcasting, at 7:00 AM, with a show called Good Morning, Mickey. The service runs for 18 hours per day.
- 1986 - Robert M Gates becomes deputy director of US Central Intelligence Agency.
- 1986 - Titan rocket explodes seconds after liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
- 1987 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia.
- 1988 - United States Navy retaliates for the Roberts mining with Operation Praying Mantis, in a day of strikes against Iranian oil platforms and naval vessels.
- 1990 - Bankruptcy court forces Frank Lorenzo to give up Eastern Airlines.
- 1990 - US Supreme Court rules that states could make it a crime to possess or look at child pornography, even in one's home.
- 1991 - US Census Bureau says it failed to count up to 63 million in 1990 census.
- 1991 - US Congress ends railroad workers' one day strike.
- 1995 - Houston Post newspaper folds after 116 years.
- 1997 - The Red River of the North breaks through dikes and floods Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, causing US$2 billion in damage.
- 2008 - A 5.2-5.4-magnitude earthquake rocks Illinois, USA, centered near West Salem, the largest in the region in 40 years, and felt 350 miles away.
- 2018 - NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is launched.
- 2022 - The US government announces a unilateral moratorium on antisatellite missile tests.
Births on April 18
- 1911 - Birth of George Huntington Hartford II in New York City, New York, USA; A&P heir.
- 1918 - Birth of Tony Mottola in Kearney, New Jersey, USA; guitarist (studio musician, CBS studio orchestra, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Melody Street TV show, arranger for Perry Como's TV variety show), president of Sony Music Entertainment.
- 1922 - Birth of Barbara Hale in Dekalb, Illinois, USA; actress (Della Street - Perry Mason).
- 1924 - Birth of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown in Vinton, Louisiana, USA; blues singer ("Mary is Fine").
- 1925 - Birth of Bob Hastings in Brooklyn, New York, USA; actor (McHale's Navy, All in the Family).
- 1934 - Birth of James Drury in New York City, New York, USA; actor (The Virginian, Firehouse).
- 1937 - Birth of Robert Hooks in Washington DC, USA; actor (Fast Walking, Aaron Loves Angela, Dynasty, The Hoop Life, Supercarrier).
- 1940 - Birth of Joseph L Goldstein in Sumter, South Carolina, USA; physician (Nobel Prize 1985).
- 1940 - Birth of Skip Stephenson in Omaha, Nebraska, USA; comedian (Real People).
- 1947 - Birth of Dorothy Lyman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; actress (All My Children, Naomi - Mama's Family, Life Goes On).
- 1947 - Birth of James Woods in Warwick, Rhode Island, USA; actor (Salvador, Against All Odds, Shark).
- 1947 - Birth of Lori Martin in Glendale, California, USA; actress (Velvet - National Velvet).
- 1948 - Birth of Catherine Malfitano in New York City, New York, USA; soprano (Metropolitan Opera).
- 1948 - Birth of Skip Stephenson in Omaha, Nebraska, USA; comedian (Real People).
- 1952 - Birth of Jim Scholten in Midland, Michigan, USA; country singer/bassist (Sawyer Brown - "Betty's Bein' Bad").
- 1956 - Birth of David Wayne Edwards in Neosho, Missouri, USA; PGA golfer (1980 Walt Disney).
- 1956 - Birth of Eric Roberts in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA; actor (Pope of Greenwich Village, King of Gypsies, Heroes, Less Than Perfect).
- 1956 - Birth of John James in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; actor (Jeff Colby - Dynasty, The Colbys).
- 1956 - Birth of Melody Thomas Scott in Los Angeles, California, USA; actress (Nikki - The Young and the Restless).
- 1959 - Birth of Jim Eisenreich in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, USA; outfielder (Philadelphia Phillies, Florida Marlins).
- 1961 - Birth of Jeff Cook in Muncie, Indiana, USA; Nike golfer (1990 Greater Ozarks Open).
- 1963 - Birth of Conan [Christopher] O'Brien in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA; TV host (Late Night).
- 1966 - Birth of Chuck Wade in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, USA; diver (Olympics-1996).
- 1971 - Birth of Kerry Lynn Kemper; Miss Nebraska-USA (1996).
- 1973 - Birth of James "Jamie" Koven in Morristown, New Jersey, USA; rower (Olympics-5th-1996).
- 1976 - Birth of Melissa Joan Hart in Sayville, New York; actress (Clarissa, Sabrina the Teenage Witch).
Deaths on April 18
- 1853 - US Vice President William King dies a month after his inauguration.
- 1945 - Ernest T Pyle, British/US newscaster, killed by Japanese gunfire on Okinawa, Japan, at age 44.
- 1955 - Death of Albert Einstein; German/American physicist (E=MC^2, Theory of Relativity, Nobel Prize for Physics 1921 for work on photoelectric effects), dies.
- 1993 - Arthur P Smith, US founder of Miami Planetarium, dies at age 76.
- 2023 - Death of Keith Nale at age 62 of cancer in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; reality show contestant (Survivor TV show).
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