November 18
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
November 18 is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 42 days remaining until the end of the year.
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[change] Events
- 1095 - The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land, begins.
- 1302 - Pope Boniface VIII issues the Papal bull Unam sanctam ("The One Holy").
- 1307 - According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off of his son's head.
- 1421 - A seawall at the Zuiderzee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.
- 1493 - Christopher Columbus first sights what is now Puerto Rico.
- 1803 - The Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, is fought, leading to the establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere.
- 1883 - American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
- 1903 - The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the Americans exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
- 1904 - General Esteban Huertas steps down after the government of Panama fears he wants to stage a coup.
- 1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.
- 1918 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
- 1926 - George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."
- 1928 - Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the second appearances of cartoon stars Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. This is also considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey's birthday.
- 1940 - German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
- 1943 - World War II: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 air crew.
- 1978 - In Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple cult in a mass murder-suicide. 918 people died, 909 of them at Jonestown itself, including over 270 children.
- 1987 - In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross St Pancras.
- 1988 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law allowing the death penalty for murder in regards to drug traffickers.
- 1993 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
- 2002 - United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
- 2004 - Russia officially ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.
[change] Births
- 1786 - Carl Maria von Weber, German composer (d. 1826)
- 1927 - Hank Ballard, American musician (d. 2003)
- 1939 - Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer
- 1987 - Jake Abel, American actor
[change] Deaths
- 1827 - Wilhelm Hauff, German poet (b. 1802)
- 1886 - Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States (b. 1829)
- 1941 - Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1867)
- 1962 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize winner (b. 1885)
- 1978 - Jim Jones, American cult leader (suicide) (b. 1931)
- 2002 - James Coburn, American actor (b. 1928)
[change] Holidays and observances
- Latvia - Independence Day (1918)
- Oman - National holiday
- Venezuela - Feast of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá, also known as la Chinita, in the western state of Zulia
