April 18th in History

Events:
1025 - Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.

1506 - The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.

1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland.

1775 - American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begin; riders warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

1797 - The Battle of Neuwied - French victory against the Austrians.

1880 - An F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100.

1881 - Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.

1899 - The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.

1906 - The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroys much of San Francisco, California.

1906 - The Los Angeles Times story on the Azusa Street Revival launches Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.

1909 - Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.

1912 - The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York.

1915 - French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.

1923 - Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built", opens.

1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan occurs.

1942 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.

1943 - World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.

1945 - Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany.

1945 - Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Bolivia are established.

1946 - The League of Nations is dissolved.

1949 - The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force.

1949 - The aircraft carrier USS United States (CVA-58) is laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. However, United States was canceled five days later, resulting in the Revolt of the Admirals.

1954 - Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.

1958 - A U.S. federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound be released from an insane asylum.

1961 - CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.

1974 - The Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurates Lahore Dry port.

1974 - Italian prosecutor Mario Sossi is kidnapped by the Red Brigades.

1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.

1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.

1988 - U.S. launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.

1992 - General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolts against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allies with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.

1993 - President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolves the National Assembly and dismisses the Cabinet.

1996 - In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Quana.

2007 - The US Supreme Court upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.

2007 - 32 Chinese steel workers burn to death in the Qinghe Special Steel Corporation disaster.

2008 - Earthquake 5.2 magnitude. The epicenter of the earthquake was Bellmont, IL. Shaking and some damage was experienced throughout the entire midwest.[1]


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Births:
1480 - Lucrezia Borgia, Florentine ruler and daughter of Pope Alexander VI (d. 1519)

1580 - Thomas Middleton, English dramatist (d. 1627)

1590 - Ahmed I, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1617)

1605 - Giacomo Carissimi, Italian composer (d. 1674)

1771 - Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, Austrian field marshal (d. 1820)

1772 - David Ricardo, English economist (d. 1823)

1797 - Adolphe Thiers, French statesman (d. 1877)

1819 - Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Cuban Revolutionary (d. 1874)

1819 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (d. 1895)

1838 - Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French scientist (d. 1912)

1857 - Clarence Darrow, American attorney (d. 1938)

1863 - Leopold Graf Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (d. 1942)

1864 - Richard Harding Davis, American author (d. 1916)

1874 - Oskar Ernst Bernhardt, German author (d. 1941)

1875 - Ivana Brlic-Mazuranic, Croatian writer (d. 1938)

1877 - Vicente Sotto, Filipino patriot, author (d. 1950)

1880 - Sam Crawford, baseball player (d. 1968)

1882 - Leopold Stokowski, Polish conductor (d. 1977)

1888 - Duffy Lewis, American baseball player (d. 1979)

1889 - Jessie Street, Australian suffragette, feminist, and human rights activist (d. 1970)

1893 - Violette Morris, French athlete (d. 1944)

1897 - Ardito Desio, Italian topographer (d. 2001)

1901 - Al Lewis, American lyricist (d. 1967)

1902 - Giuseppe Pella, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1981)

1902 - Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Hasidic Judaism leader (d. 1994)

1904 - Pigmeat Markham, American comedian (d. 1981)

1905 - George H. Hitchings, American scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)

1907 - Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian-born composer (d. 1995)

1915 - Joy Gresham, American writer (d. 1960)

1917 - Ty LaForest, Canadian baseball player (d. 1947)

1917 - Frederika of Hanover, Queen Consort of Greece (d. 1981)

1918 - Cliff Hillegass, American publisher (d. 2001)

1918 - Tony Mottola, American guitarist (d. 2004)

1919 - Virginia O'Brien, American singer and actress (d. 2001)

1921 - Jean Richard, French actor (d. 2001)

1922 - Barbara Hale, American actress

1924 - Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American musician (d. 2005)

1924 - Henry Hyde, American politician (d. 2007)

1927 - Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist

1930 - Clive Revill, New Zealand born actor

1934 - George Shirley, American tenor

1936 - Tommy Ivo, American race car driver

1937 - Jan Kaplický, British architect of Czech origin

1939 - Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran

1939 - Thomas J. Moyer, American judge

1940 - Joseph L. Goldstein, American scientist, Nobel laureate

1940 - Mike Vickers, British guitarist and saxophonist (Manfred Mann)

1942 - Jochen Rindt, German-Austrian racer and F1 (posthumous) world champion (d. 1970)

1942 - Steve Blass, American professional baseball player

1945 - Margaret Hassan, Irish-born aid worker (d. 2004)

1946 - Hayley Mills, English actress

1947 - Kathy Acker, American author (d. 1997)

1947 - Dorothy Lyman, American actress

1947 - Herbert Mullin, American serial killer

1947 - Cindy Pickett, American actress

1947 - James Woods, American actor

1949 - Geoff Bodine, American race car driver

1950 - Kenny Ortega, American film and TV producer and choreographer

1951 - Ricardo Fortaleza, Australian-Filipino boxer

1951 - Pierre Pettigrew, Canadian politician

1953 - Rick Moranis, Canadian comedian

1956 - Anna Kathryn Holbrook, American actress

1956 - Eric Roberts, American actor

1956 - Melody Thomas Scott, American actress

1956 - Poonam Dhillon, Indian actress

1958 - Malcolm Marshall, Barbadian West Indies cricketer (d. 1999)

1961 - Jane Leeves, British actress

1961 - Steve Lombardi, American wrestler

1963 - Eric McCormack, Canadian actor

1963 - Conan O'Brien, American comedian

1964 - Niall Ferguson, British historian

1964 - Rithy Panh, Cambodian film director

1964 - Jim Ellison, musician

1964 - Mark Berry, aka Bez, Dancer in Happy Mondays

1965 - Rob Stenders, Dutch radio discjockey

1966 - Trine Hattestad, Norwegian athlete

1966 - Valeri Kamensky, Russian ice hockey player

1967 - Maria Bello, American actress

1968 - Mary Birdsong, American actress

1968 - David Hewlett, English born Canadian actor

1969 - Princess Sayako of Japan

1969 - Keith R.A. DeCandido, American author

1970 - Greg Eklund, American musician

1970 - Rico Brogna, American baseball player

1971 - Tamara Braun, American actress

1971 - David Tennant, British actor

1971 - Oleg Petrov, Russian ice hockey player

1972 - Eli Roth, American film director

1973 - Derrick Brooks, American football player

1973 - Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian athlete

1973 - Brady Clark, American baseball player

1974 - Mark Tremonti, American musician

1974 - Millie Corretjer, Puerto Rican singer

1974 - Edgar Wright, British director

1976 - Melissa Joan Hart, American actress

1976 - Fayray, Japanese singer

1976 - Justin Ross, American politician

1977 - Dan Lacouture, NHL hockey player

1979 - Michael Bradley, American basketball player

1979 - Anthony Davidson, British Formula One driver

1979 - Nuria Fergó, Spanish singer

1979 - Matthew Upson, English footballer

1980 - Robyn Regehr, Canadian ice hockey player

1981 - Brian Buscher, American baseball player

1982 - Marie-Élaine Thibert, Canadian singer

1983 - Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan baseball player

1984 - America Ferrera, American actress

1985 - Łukasz Fabiański, Polish footballer

1985 - Karl Reindler, Australian racing driver

1986 - Maurice Edu, American soccer player

1986 - Billy Butler, American baseball player

1987 - Danny Guthrie, English footballer

1987 - Sandra Lyng Haugen, Norwegian singer

1989 - Alia Shawkat, American actress

1996 - Alexey Zhigalkovich, Belarusian Singer

2007 - Hayah bint Hamzah, Princess of Jordan

2007 - Prince Lerotholi Seeiso, son of King Letsie III of Lesotho


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Deaths:
1161 - Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury

1552 - John Leland, English antiquarian (b. 1502)

1556 - Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet (b. 1495)

1567 - Wilhelm von Grumbach, German adventurer (b. 1503)

1558 - Roxelana, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent

1636 - Julius Caesar, English judge

1650 - Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian (b. 1602)

1674 - John Graunt, English statistician (b. 1620)

1689 - George Jeffreys, British Chief Justice (b. 1648)

1732 - Louis Feuillée, French explorer (b. 1660)

1794 - Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1714)

1796 - Johan Wilcke, Swedish physicist (b. 1732)

1802 - Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (b. 1731)

1873 - Justus von Liebig, German chemist (b. 1803)

1898 - Gustave Moreau, French painter (b. 1826)

1906 - Luis Martín, Spanish Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1846)

1917 - Vladimir Serbsky, Russian psychiatrist (b. 1858)

1935 - Panait Istrati, Romanian writer (b. 1884)

1936 - Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer (b. 1879)

1942 - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American socalite (b. 1875)

1943 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral. (b. 1884)

1945 - John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and engineer (b. 1849)

1945 - Ernie Pyle, American journalist (b. 1900)

1945 - Prince William of Wied, sovereign Prince of Albania (b.1876)

1947 - Josef Tiso, Slovakian leader (b. 1887)

1949 - Will Hay, English comedian and actor (b. 1888)

1951 - António Óscar Carmona, 97th Prime Minister of Portugal and 11th President of Portugal (b. 1869)

1955 - Albert Einstein, Nobel laureate (b. 1879)

1958 - Maurice Gamelin, French general (b. 1872)

1963 - Meyer Jacobstein, American politician (b. 1880)

1964 - Ben Hecht, American writer (b. 1894)

1965 - Guillermo González Camarena, Mexican inventor (b. 1917)

1967 - Karl Miller, German footballer (b. 1913)

1974 - Marcel Pagnol, French novelist, playwright and filmmaker (b. 1895)

1976 - Mahmoud Younis, Suez Canal nationalization Engineer (b. 1911)

1988 - Pierre Desproges, French humorist (b. 1939)

1990 - Gory Guerrero, professional wrestler (b. 1921)

1992 - Benny Hill, British comedian (b. 1924)

1993 - Masahiko Kimura, Japanese judoka (b. 1917)

1995 - Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (b. 1908)

1996 - Brook Berringer, American football player (b. 1973)

1996 - Bernard Edwards, American record producer (b. 1952)

1998 - Terry Sanford, American politician (b. 1917)

2002 - Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer (b. 1914)

2002 - Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and professional wrestler (b. 1938)

2003 - Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist (b. 1923)

2004 - Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister of Fiji and President of Fiji (b. 1920)

2005 - Sam Mills, American football player (b. 1959)

2007 - Iccho Itoh, mayor of Nagasaki (b. 1945)


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Holidays and observances:
-Iran – Army Day

-Zimbabwe – Independence Day.

-In the Roman Catholic Church:
Saint Apollonius (d. 185/6)
Saint Galdino (d. 1176)
Saint Perfecto (d. 850)
Saint Laserian
Saint Emma

"Thor"? Cool... Well, not anymore since he's dead, but it's cool to see people named after gods.

Yeah? Well, my god has a hammer.

:bump: