Thursday, January 18, 2018

TODAY IN HISTORY ― JANUARY 18

January 18 is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 347 days remaining until the end of the year (348 in leap years). This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday (58 in 400 years each) than on Saturday or Sunday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Tuesday or Thursday (56).

NATIONAL THESAURUS DAY  

532 ― The Nika uprising in Constantinople fails, 30,000-40,000 die.


1535 ― Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro González, founds the city of Lima, Peru.  


1671 ― Welsh pirate, Sir Henry Morgan, defeats Spanish defenders and captures Panama. Morgan earned a reputation as one of the most notorious and successful privateers in history.

1778 ― On his final voyage, English Captain James Cook stumbles over the South Sandwich Islands, naming and claiming them for England. HE was later killed at Kealakekua Bay inthe Hawiian Islands. Statues of him stands in Waimea, Kauai, Hawaii and Greenwish, ENgland.


1788 ― The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony.

1871 ― The second German Empire is proclaimed by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck at the Versailles Palace in the Hall of Mirrors in France


1884 ― Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Iesu Grist (Welsh for Jesus Christ) Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom.


1902 ― Despite reports that favor the United States building a route through Nicaragua for a canal, a "supplementary report" recommends the route through Panama. Driven by President Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. formally took control of the Panama property on May 4, 1904.


1912 ― After a two-month ordeal, the expedition of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott arrives at the South Pole only to find that Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, had preceded them by just over a month. 

1915 ― Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.


1919 ― At the Palace of Versailles, outside of Paris,  some of the most powerful people in the world meet to begin the long, complicated peace negotiations that would officially mark the end of the First World War.

1930 ― Record low temperature of -27°F (-33°C) in Watts, Oklahoma (state record).



1943 ― The Soviet Union announced they broken the long Nazi siege of Leningrad (872 days) during WWII. The seige resulted in the deaths of up to 1,500,000 soldiers and civilians and the evacuation of 1,400,000 more, mainly women and children, many of whom died during evacuation due to starvation and bombardment.

1943 - The United States rations bread and metal during WWI. The banning pre-sliced bread was to reduce bakery demand for metal parts.



1957 ― There Boeing B-52 jet bombers set the record for around-the-world flight, 45 hr 19 min.

1962 ― The United States begins spraying foliage in Vietnam to reveal Viet Cong guerrillas.


1967 ― Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler, is sentenced to life in prison.

1980 ― The price of gold reaches $1,000 an ounce.

1981 ― Iran accepts US offer of $7.9 billion in frozen assets as part of the release of 60 Americans hostages held for 444 days in Tehran.



1989 ― Astronomers discover a pulsar in remnants of Supernova 1987A (LMC).



1990 ― At the end of a joint sting operation by FBI agents and District of Columbia police, Mayor Marion Barry is arrested and charged with drug possession and the use of crack, a crystalline form of cocaine. Ah, Democrats.



1993 ― The Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is observed in all 50 states for the first time.

1997 ― Boerge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.

2007 ― The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people, Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Hurricane Kyrill, causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe. Other losses include the Container Ship MSC Napoli destroyed by the storm off the coast of Devon, England.

2012 ― Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) blackout becomes the largest protest in the history of the internet.



TODAY'S BIRTHS

1782 – Daniel Webster, American lawyer and politician, 14th United States Secretary of State (d. 1852)

1854 – Thomas A. Watson, American assistant to Alexander Graham Bell (d. 1934)

1882 – A. A. Milne, English author, poet, and playwright (d. 1956)

1908 – Jacob Bronowski, Polish-English mathematician, historian, and television host (d. 1974)

1933 – Ray Dolby, American engineer and businessman, founded Dolby Laboratories (d. 2013)

Wikipedia and Google, ex as noted.

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