18 November
November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years), with 43 remaining.
Events
- 1307 (Legendary) - William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.
- 1421 - A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.
- 1477 - William Caxton produces "Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres", the first English book printed on a printing press.
- 1626 - St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated
- 1865 - Mark Twain's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press.
- 1883 - American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
- 1903 - The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the Americans exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
- 1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.
- 1909 - Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of dictator Jose Santos Zelaya.
- 1916 - World War I: First Battle of the Somme ends - In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
- 1918 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
- 1926 - George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."
- 1928 - Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the second appearances of Cartoon stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
- 1929 - Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area.
- 1938 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
- 1940 - World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
- 1943 - World War II: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 aviators.
- 1959 - William Wyler's film Ben-Hur premieres at Loew's Theater in New York City.
- 1970 - US President Richard Nixon asks the United States Congress for US$155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government (US$85 million was for military assistance in order to help prevent the overthrow of the government of Premier Lon Nol by the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnam).
- 1978 - Jonestown mass suicide: In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his People's Temple in a mass murder-suicide; 913 die, including 276 children.
- 1987 - Iran-Contra scandal: The United States Congress issues its final report on the Iran-Contra affair, stating that US President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides and his administration exhibited "secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law."
- 1987 - Kings Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross.
- 1988 - War on Drugs: US President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers.
- 1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free.
- 1993 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
- 1996 - World-renowned bird expert Tony Silva is sentenced to seven years in prison without parole for leading an illegal parrot smuggling ring.
- 1998 - Alice McDermott wins the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy.
- 1999 - In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 28 injured at Texas A&M University when a huge bonfire under construction collapses.
- 1999 - In Jasper, Texas, 24-year old Shawn Allen Berry is sentenced to life in prison, becoming the third person convicted in the racially-motivated dragging death of James Byrd, Jr.
- 2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
- 2002 - New Jersey schools ban dodgeball and tag.
Births
- 1757 - William Blake, poet (d. 1827)
- 1786 - Carl Maria von Weber, composer (d. 1826)
- 1787 - Louis-Jacques Daguerre, inventor, photographer (d. 1851)
- 1836 - Sir William S. Gilbert, dramatist (d. 1911)
- 1836 - Cesare Lombroso, professor of psychiatry, founder of criminology (d. 1909)
- 1856 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (d. 1929)
- 1860 - Ignacy Paderewski, pianist, composer (d. 1941)
- 1861 - Dorothea Dix, journalist, activist (d. 1951)
- 1874 - Clarence Day, American author (d. 1935)
- 1882 - Jacques Maritain, French philosopher (d. 1973)
- 1883 - Carl Vinson, United States Congressman (d. 1981)
- 1891 - Gio Ponti, Italian architect (d. 1979)
- 1897 - Patrick Blackett, English physicist, 1948 Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1974)
- 1898 - Joris Ivens, filmmaker (d. 1989)
- 1899 - Eugene Ormandy, conductor (d. 1985)
- 1901 - George Gallup, statistician, opinion pollster (d. 1984)
- 1906 - Klaus Mann, publicist, dramatist and narrator (d. 1949)
- 1906 - George Wald, American chemist, 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)
- 1908 - Imogene Coca, actress, comedienne (d. 2001)
- 1909 - Johnny Mercer, lyricist (d. 1976)
- 1916 - Amelita Galli-Curci, opera soprano (d. 1963)
- 1923 - Alan Shepard, astronaut (d. 1998)
- 1935 - Alain Barrière
- 1935 - Rudolf Bahro, dissident (d. 1997)
- 1936 - Hank Ballard, musician (d. 2003)
- 1939 - Brenda Vaccaro, actress
- 1939 - Margaret Atwood, writer
- 1941 - Gary Bettenhausen, automobile racer
- 1941 - David Hemmings, British actor (d. 2003)
- 1942 - Linda Evans, actress
- 1944 - Susan Sullivan, actress
- 1946 - Alan Dean Foster, author
- 1948 - Andrea Marcovicci, singer, actress
- 1948 - Jack Tatum, American football star
- 1950 - Jameson Parker, cator
- 1956 - Warren Moon, Canadian football and American football star
- 1958 - Laura Miller, mayor of Dallas, Texas
- 1960 - Kim Wilde, singer
- 1962 - Kirk Hammett, Musician
- 1963 - Dante Bichette, baseball player
- 1966 - Jorge Camacho, poet in Spanish and Esperanto
- 1968 - Owen Wilson, actor
- 1975 - David Ortiz, Major League Baseball All-Star
Deaths
- 1814 - William Jessop, canal and railway engineer
- 1886 - Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States
- 1941 - Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia
- 1962 - Niels Bohr, physicist
- 1965 - Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States
- 1969 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., patriarch of the Kennedy family
- 1976 - Man Ray, artist
- 1978 - Jim Jones, cult leader (suicide)
- 1982 - Duk Koo Kim, boxer
- 1987 - Jacques Anquetil, cyclist (cancer)
- 1994 - Cab Calloway, band leader
- 1999 - Paul Bowles, novelist
- 2002 - James Coburn, actor
Holidays and observances
November 17 - November 19 - October 18 - December 18 -- listing of all days
