707 John VII ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1009 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock.
1016 Danes defeat Saxons at Battle of Assandun (Ashingdon)
1081 The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.
1210 Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV .
1356 Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroyed the town of Basel, Switzerland.
1386 Opening of the University of Heidelberg
1561 Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima -- Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts
1648 1st US labor organization forms (Boston Shoemakers)
1685 Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes, outlaws Protestantism
1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, ends War of Austrian Succession
1767 Boundary between Maryland from Pennsylvania, the Mason Dixon line, agreed upon
1775 African-American poetess Phillis Wheatley freed from slavery.
1776 Col John Glover and Marblehead regiment meet British Forces in Bronx
1776 In a NY bar decorated with bird tail, customer orders "cock tail"
1842 The world's first telegraph cable is laid by Samuel Morse - across New York harbour from Governor's Island. It lasts only 24 hours because a 200 foot stretch is wrecked when a ship weighs anchor
1851 Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.
1860 The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.
1867 United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.
1890 John Owen is 1st man to run 100 yd dash in under 10 seconds
1891 1st international 6-day bicycle race in US (MSG, NYC) begins
1892 1st commercial long-distance phone line opens (Chicago-NY)
1898 American flag raised in Puerto Rico
1908 Belgium annexes Congo Free State
1909 Comte de Lambert of France sets airplane altitude record of 300 m
1910 The trial of English murderer Dr Crippen begins at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London
1912 Beginning of the 1st Balkan War
1912 Italo-Turkish war ends
1914 The Schoenstatt Movement is founded in Germany.
1922 The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.
1930 Joseph Sylvester becomes 1st jockey to win 7 races in 1 day
1944 Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia during WW II
1944 Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia.
1944 Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.
1945 The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the USA's plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
1945 A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, staged a coup d'etát against then president Isaías Medina Angarita, who was overthrown by the end of the day.
1954 Hurricane Hazel (3rd of 1954) becomes most severe to hit US
1954 Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.
1955 Track and Field names Jesse Owens all-time track athlete
1960 In Britain, the News Chronicle and Daily Mail merge, and The London Evening Star merges with the Evening News
1962 Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers record "Let's Dance"
1962 US launches Ranger 5 for lunar impact; misses Moon
1962 Dr Watson (US) and Drs Crick and Wilkins (Britain) win Nobel Prize for Medicine for work in determining structure of DNA
1963 British prime minister Harold Macmillan resigns
1963 IOC votes Mexico City to host 1968 Olympics
1967 Soviet Venera 4 becomes the 1st probe to send data back from Venus
1967 Walt Disney's "Jungle Book" is released
1968 Circus Circus opens in Las Vegas
1968 Police find 219 grains of cannabis resin in John and Yoko's apartment
1968 US Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith and John Carlos for giving "black power" salute as a protest during victory ceremony
1968 Bob Beamon sets a world record of 8.90m in the long jump at the Mexico City games. This becomes the longest unbroken track and field record in history, standing for 23 years, and is later named by Sports Illustrated magazine as one of the five greatest sporting moments of the 20th century.
1969 US Federal government bans use of cyclamates artificial sweeteners
1969 Soyuz 8 returns to Earth
1977 German anti-terrorist troops storm a high-jacked Lufthansa airliner at Mogadishu Airport in Somalia - killing 3 of the 4 Palestinian terrorists and freeing all the hostages
1977 German terrorist leader Andrew Baader and two other members of the Baader/Meinhoff terrorist group, comit suicide
1979 "Beatlemania" opens in London and closes in New York
1988 Israel's supreme court uphold's ban on Kahane`s Kach Party as racist
1989 With the end of Communist rule, Hungary is proclaimed a free republic
1989 East German leader Erich Honecker resigns.
1991 Azerbaijan declares independence from USSR.
1995 Red Rum, three times winner of the Grand National at Aintree, dies at the age of 30 - an exceptional age for a horse
1998 Richard Bacon, presenter of the BBC TV programme 'Blue Peter' is sacked for taking cocaine
2003 Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.
2007 After 8 years in exile, Benazir Bhutto returns to her homeland Pakistan. The same night, suicide attackers blow themselves up near Bhutto's convoy, killing over 100 in the cheering crowd, including 20 police officers. Bhutto escaped uninjured.

October 18th 2005

Bird flu declared 'global threat'

Open up Kashmir, Pakistan urges

Storm Wilma upgraded to hurricane

October 18th 2006

Iraq attacks kill 10 US soldiers

Dow Jones breaks through 12,000

Plea for action on child poverty

October 18th 2007

Huge crowds greet Bhutto return

French strike action to continue

Putin wants US date to quit Iraq

October 18th 2008

Iraqis stage mass anti-US rally

Russians ambushed in Ingushetia

Bush holds crisis talks with EU

October 18th 2009

Iranian commanders assassinated

Street fighting in Taliban bases

Canadians intercept migrant ship

Birthdates which occurred on October 18th:

1697 Canaletto Venetian painter (Venicei A Regatta on Grand Canal)
1777 Heinrich von Kleist Germany, dramatist/poet (Penthesilea)
1785 Thomas Love Peacock English author (Headlong Hall)
1859 Henri Bergson France, philosopher (Creative Evolution-Nobel 1927)
1877 Florence Dahl Walrath humanitarian, founded Cradle society
1878 James Truslow Adams historian (Pul-1921-Founding of New England)
1889 Fannie Hurst novelist (1019?)
1893 Sir Sidney Holland NZ, PM of New Zealand (1949-57)
1898 Lotte Lenya Vienna Austria, actor/singer (Appointment, Semi-Tough)
19-- Mark LaMura actor (All My Children)
1915 Victor Sen Yung SF Calif, actor (Bonanza, Bachelor Family)
1918 Bobby Troup Harrisburg Pa, pianist/actor (Emergency, Acapulco)
1919 Pierre Elliot Trudeau (L) 15th Canadian PM (1968-79, 1980-84)
1921 Jesse Helms (Sen-R-NC) right-wing
1922 Little Orphan Annie comic strip character
1922 Richard Stankiewicz US sculptor (1974 Akston Award, 1966 Brandeis)
1924 Allyn Ferguson San Jose Calif, orch leader (Andy Williams Show)
1925 Melina Mercouri Athens Greece, actress/politician (Never on a Sunday)
1926 Chuck Berry St Louis, rocker (Roll over Beethoven)
1926 George C Scott Wise Va, actor (Patton, Bible, Taps, Hardcore)
1927 Katherine Fanning Chicago, editor (Christian Science Monitor-1983)
1928 Keith Jackson Carrolton Ga, sportscaster (ABC Monday Night Football)
1930 Frank Carlucci National Security Adviser/Sec of Defense (1987-89)
1933 Forrest Gregg NFL tackle (Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys)
1933 Peter Boyle Phila, actor (Joe, Candidate)
1934 Inger Stevens Stockholm Sweden, actress (Katy-Farmer's Daughter)
1935 John B Coleman Boston, hotel magnate (Ritz Carlton)
1939 Lee Harvey Oswald JFK assassin, born
1939 Mike Ditka coach/tight-end (Bears, Cowboys, NFL rookie year 1961)
1942 Willie Horton baseball slugger (Detroit Tigers)
1947 Joe Morton NYC, actor (Hal-Grady)
1947 John Johnson NBA (Seattle SuperSonic)
1947 Laura Nyro Bronx, singer/songwriter (Eli's Coming, Stoney End)
1950 Merry Martin Camden Mich, actress (Leslie-Peter Loves Mary)
1951 Pam Dawber Detroit, actress (Mindy-Mork & Mindy, My Sister Sam)
1956 Martina Navratilova Prague Czech, tennis (Wimbledon 1989,79,82-87)
1958 Jean-Claude Van Damme Belgium, actor (Kickboxer, No Retreat)
1960 Emily Arth Evanston Ill, playmate (Jun, 1988)
1961 Erin Moran Burbank Calif, actress (Happy Days, Joanie Loves Chachi)
1961 Wynton Marsalis New Orleans La, jazz trumpeter (Grammy 1983)
1962 Vincent Spano Brooklyn NY, actor (Alphabet City, Maria's Lovers)
1966 Angela Visser Miss Universe (1989)
1971 Karen J McNenny Missoula Montana, Miss Montana-America (1991)
1977 Chris McKenna Queens NY, actor (Joey-One Live to Live)
1981 Richard Vuu actor (Last Emperor)

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Deaths which occurred on October 18th:
1676 Nathaniel Bacon rallied against Virginian govt, killed at 29
1862 James Creighton dies of ruptured bladder hitting HR on Oct 14th
1876 Francis Preston Blair newspaper editor (Washington Globe), dies at 85
1931 Thomas Alva Edison inventor, dies in West Orange, NJ, at 84
1965 Henry Travers actor (Bells of St Mary, High Sierra), dies at 91
1973 Frank Knight TV announcer (Chronoscope), dies at 79
1982 Bess Truman former 1st lady, dies in Independence, Mo at 97
1984 Florence Rinard TV panelist (20 Questions), dies at 82
1984 Jon-Erik Hexum actor, dies at 26 by a gun loaded with blanks
1987 Theodore Brameld author (Use of Explosive Ideas), dies at 83

Golden Link 1 On this day 18th October

Golden Link 2 On this day 18th October

Golden Link 3 On this day 18th October