December 18

2024 Calendar

December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 13 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

218 BC – Battle of the Trebia, Hannibal's first great victory over the Roman Republic.
1271 - Kublai Khan renames his Empire Yuan.
1352 – Innocent VI is elected Pope.
1622 - Portuguese forces score a military victory over the Kingdom of Kongo at the Battle of Mbumbi in present-day Angola.
1642 – Abel Tasman lands at Mohua Golden Bay becoming the first European in New Zealand.
1644 - Christina of Sweden reaches the age 18, allowing her to govern alone.
1776 – North Carolina's Constitution is ratified.
1777 - The United States celebrates it first Thanksgiving Day. The holiday is nowadays celebrated in late November.
1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1793 - Surrender of the frigate La Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Samuel Hood.
1865 – Slavery is abolished in the United States, with the passing of the 13th Amendment.
1867 - The last coach of a Lake Shore Railway train derails, plunges down a gully and catches fire in Angola, New York, killing 49 people.
1878 - The Al-Thani family takes over the government of Qatar.
1878 - French passenger steamer Byzantin collides with British steamer Rinaldo and sinks in a storm in the Dardanelles, Turkey, killing 150 people.
1884 - Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet is published for the first time.
1888 - Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law discover the ancient Native American ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde.
1892 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite premiers in St. Petersburg.
1894 – Women in South Australia become the first in Australia to gain the right to vote and to be elected to Parliament.
1898 - Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the officially recognized land-speed record of 39.245 miles per hour (63.159 kilometers per hour) in Jeantaud electric car.

1901 – 2000

1912 – Piltdown Man is "discovered". It is later revealed to be a hoax.
1914 – Egypt becomes a British Protectorate.
1916 – The Battle of Verdun ends in World War I.
1917 - The United States Congress passes the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, to enact prohibition of alcohol.
1921 - Soccer: Poland plays its first-ever match, losing 1-0 to Hungary.
1925 - António Maria da Silva becomes the last Prime Minister of the First Portuguese Republic.
1926 – The Makropulos Affair, an opera by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček, premieres in Brno, the Czech Republic.
1932 - The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in the first-ever NFL championship game in Chicago.
1939 - World War II: The Battle of Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, begins.
1944 – The first edition of the French newspaper Le Monde is published.
1944 – Typhoon Cobra hits the island of Luzon in the Philippines, killing 790 people.
1956 – Japan joins the UN.
1958 – Niger becomes an autonomous state within the French Community on December 4, 1958, after the establishment of the Fifth French Republic. Following full independence on August 3, 1960, however, membership was allowed to lapse.
1958 - Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.
1961 – Indonesia invades New Guinea to annex western New Guinea, formerly known as Netherlands New Guinea.
1961 - Indian troops enter the then-Portuguese colonies of Goa and Daman and Diu, leading to them becoming part of India.
1965 – Japan and South Korea begin formal relations
1966 – Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker, and then lost for 12 years
1969 – Capital punishment is ended in the United Kingdom.
1971 - The Capitol Reef National Park is created in Utah.
1971 - Alaska: The Alaska Native Claims Settlements Act takes effect.
1973 – The Soyuz 13 is launched.
1975 - Louis Sylvain Goma becomes Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo.
1978 – Dominica joins the UN.
1990 - International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families is adopted.
1992 – Kim Young-sam is elected President of South Korea, ending a period of military rule.
1995 - A Lockheed L-188 Electra of Congolese Trans Service Airlift airline crashes shortly after take-off from Jumba, Angola, killing 141 people, with 3 surviving the crash.
1996 – "Ebonics" is declared a language or dialect by the outgoing school board of Oakland, California, whose vote was overturned by the incoming board.
1997 - Kim Dae Jung is elected President of South Korea.
1997 – HTML 4.0 is released by the World Wide Web Consortium.

From 2001

2002 – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the second movie in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, opens in theaters.
2002 – California Governor Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier; the budget issue was used to support his 2003 recall from office.
2003 – The Simple English Wikipedia begins using the MediaWiki software.
2005 - Civil war begins in Chad.
2005 - Evo Morales is elected President of Bolivia.
2006 - Flooding begins in Malaysia, which will result in 118 deaths.
2006 - The United Arab Emirates holds its first elections.
2017 - Sebastian Kurz becomes Chancellor of Austria, leading a right-wing coalition government.
2019 - The United States House of Representatives votes for the first impeachment of Donald Trump.

Births

Deaths

Up to 1900

821 – Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans
1075 - Edith of Wessex (b. 1025)
1133 - Hildebert, French poet and scholar (b. 1055)
1290 – King Magnus I of Sweden (b. 1240)
1495 – King Alphonso I of Naples (b. 1448)
1591 - Marigje Arriens, Dutch woman accused of witchcraft (b. 1520)
1737 – Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker
1803 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (b. 1744)
1829 - Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French soldier and biologist (b. 1744)
1848 – Bernard Bolzano, Czech mathematician (b. 1781)
1869 – Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer and pianist (b. 1829)
1880 - Michel Chasles, French mathematician (b. 1793)
1892 - Richard Owen, English biologist (b. 1804)

1901 – 2000

1922 - Carl Meyer, 1st Baronet, German-English banker and businessman (b. 1851)
1936 - Leonardo Torres y Quevedo, Spanish mathematician and inventor (b. 1852)
1936 – Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist (b. 1857)
1954 - Pedro Luna, Chilean painter (b. 1896)
1969 - Charles Dvorak, American athlete (b. 1878)
1971 – Bobby Jones, American golfer (b. 1902)
1971 – Diana Lynn, American actress (b. 1926)
1974 – Harry Hooper, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1887)
1980 – Alexei Kosygin, Soviet premier (b. 1904)
1982 – Hans-Ulrich Rudel, highly decorated German pilot during World War II (b. 1916).
1990 - Anne Revere, American actress (b. 1903)
1990 – Paul Tortelier, French musician (b. 1914)
1991 – George Abecassis, English race car driver (b. 1913)
1992 – Mark Goodson, game show producer (b. 1915)
1993 – Sam Wanamaker, American actor (b. 1919)
1995 – Konrad Zuse, German engineer and computing pioneer (b. 1910)
1997 – Chris Farley, American actor and comedian (b. 1964)
1998 – Lev Demin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1926)
1999 – Robert Bresson, French movie director (b. 1907)
2000 – Kirsty MacColl, British musician (b. 1959)

From 2001

2001 – Gilbert Bécaud, singer (b. 1927)
2002 – Ray Hnatyshyn, Governor General of Canada (b. 1934)
2004 – Princess Takamatsu of Japan (b. 1911)
2006 – Joseph Barbera, American animator (b. 1911)
2006 - Ruth Bernhard, American photographer (b. 1905)
2008 – Mark Felt, American Watergate agent, known as 'Deep Throat' (b. 1913)
2010 – Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Italian banker and politician (b. 1940)
2010 - Jacqueline de Romilly, French philologist, writer and scholar (b. 1913)
2011 – Václav Havel, Czech playwright, statesman and President of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic (b. 1936)
2012 - Mustafa Ould Salek, President of Mauritania (b. 1936)
2013 - Ronnie Biggs, British train robber (b. 1929)
2014 - Virna Lisi, Italian actress (b. 1936)
2014 - Mandy Rice-Davies, British model and media personality (b. 1944)
2014 - Ingvar Kjellson, Swedish actor (b. 1923)
2014 - Gideon Ben-Yisrael, Israeli politician (b. 1922)
2014 - Larry Smith, American record producer (b. 1951)
2014 - Robert Simpson, American meteorologist (b. 1912)
2015 - Helge Solum Larsen, Norwegian politician (b. 1969)
2016 - Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and socialite (b. 1917)
2017 - Janet Benshoof, American activist and lawyer (b. 1947)
2017 - Jonghyun, South Korean singer-songwriter (b. 1990)
2017 - Altero Matteoli, Italian politician (b. 1940)
2017 - Arseny Roginsky, Russian dissident and historian (b. 1946)
2018 - David C. H. Austin, British rose breeder (b. 1926)
2018 - Alex Badeh, Nigerian politician and air force officer (b. 1957)
2018 - Steve Daskewisz, American actor and stuntman (b. 1944)
2018 - Tulsi Giri, Nepalese politician (b. 1926)
2018 - Kazimierz Kutz, Polish film director and politician (b. 1929)
2018 - Peter Masterson, American playwright (b. 1934)
2018 - Robert Neild, British economist (b. 1924)
2018 - Shinobu Sekine, Japanese judoka (b. 1943)
2018 - Bill Slater, English footballer (b. 1927)
2018 - Raimo Vartia, Finnish basketball player (b. 1937)
2019 - Claudine Auger, French actress (b. 1941)
2019 - Alain Barrière, French pop singer (b. 1935)
2019 - Herman Boone, American football coach (b. 1935)
2019 - Zafar Chaudhry, Pakistani military officer (b. 1926)
2019 - Geulah Cohen, Israeli politician (b. 1925)
2019 - Leandro Despouy, Argentine politician and activist (b. 1947)
2019 - Ibrahim Diarra, French rugby union player (b. 1983)
2019 - Kenny Lynch, English singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1938)
2019 - Abbey Simon, American pianist (b. 1920)

Observances

National Day of Qatar
New Jersey Day
Republic Day (Niger)
International Migrants Day
UN day of the Arabic language

Events

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Births

Up to 1900

1901 – 1950

1951 – 1975

From 1976

Deaths

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Observances