This day in History 18/04

April 18

Portrait of St. Eusebius
310: St. Eusebius of Vercelli starts his rule as Catholic Pope.

Painting of Martin Luther
1521: Martin Luther stands up to the sovereign Charles V, declining to withdraw views which prompted his
excommunication.

1676: Sudbury, Massachusetts is assaulted by native Indians.

Painting of Paul Revere

Painting of William Dawes
1775: American revolutionaries Paul Revere and William Dawes ride through the towns of Massachusetts warning that "the British are coming."

Portrait of Louis XVI
1791: National Guardsmen stop Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.

1818: A regiment of Indians and blacks is vanquished at the Battle of Suwannee, in Florida, finishing the First Seminole War.

Portrait of William Lamb
1834: William Lamb becomes the prime minister of England.

Commodore Charles Wilkes, commander of the Expedition
1838: The Wilkes' expedition toward the South Pole sets sail.

1847: U.S. forces vanquish Mexicans at Cerro Gordo in one of the bloodiest skirmish's of the Mexican-American War.

1853: The first train in Asia starts running from Bombay to Tanna.

Photo of Colonel Robert E. Lee
1861: Colonel Robert E. Lee turns down an offer to take charge of the Union armed forces.

1895: The First Sino-Japanese War closes.

1906: An enormous earthquake hits San Francisco, measuring 8.25 on the Richter scale.

Photo of Babe Ruth
1923: Yankee Stadium opens with Babe Ruth hitting a three-run homer as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1.

Photo of Leon Trotsky
1937: Leon Trotsky calls for the ousting of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

Photo of General James H. Doolittle
1942: General James H. Doolittle bombs Tokyo and other Japanese urban areas.

Photo of Isoroku Yamamoto
1943: Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the genius of the assault on Pearl Harbor, is shot down by American P-38 fighter planes.

1946: The League of Nations breaks down.

1949: The Republic of Ireland withdraws from the British Commonwealth.

1950: The first transoceanic jet passenger plane flight is completed.

Photo of Gamal Abdel Nasser (middle)
1954: Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes control of Egypt.

1978: The U.S. Senate supports the exchange of the Panama Canal to Panama.

1980: Zimbabwe's (Rhodesia) formal freedom from Britain is proclaimed.

1983: A suicide plane murders U.S. Marines at the U.S. Government office in Lebanon.

                                      Born on April 18

Painting of Lucretia Borgia
1480 Lucretia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI.

Portrait of George Henry Lewes
1817: George Henry Lewes, philosophical essayist.

Photo of Clarence S. Darrow
1857: Clarence S. Darrow, legal advisor.

Photo of Richard Harding Davis
1864: Richard Harding Davis, columnist.

1918: Clifton Keith Hillegass, founder of the study guides known as Cliff's Notes.

1940: Ed Garvey, labor leader.

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