December 18
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Contents |
Births [change]
- 1626 – Christina, Queen of Sweden (d. 1689)
- 1661 – Christopher Polhem, Swedish scientist and inventor (d. 1751)
- 1778 – Joseph Grimaldi, English clown (d. 1837)
- 1825 - Charles Griffin, American general (d. 1876)
- 1835 – Lyman Abbott, American author (d. 1922)
- 1849 – Henrietta Edwards, Canadian Women's rights activist (d. 1931)
- 1856 – J. J. Thomson, English physicist (d. 1940)
- 1861 - Lionel Monckton, English composer (d. 1924)
- 1863 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (d. 1914)
- 1879 – Joseph Stalin, Georgian-born leader of the Soviet Union (d. 1953)
- 1879 – Paul Klee, Swiss-born painter (d. 1940)
- 1886 – Ty Cobb, American baseball player (d. 1961)
- 1888 – Gladys Cooper, English actress (d. 1971)
- 1911 – Jules Dassin, American film director (d. 2008)
- 1913 – Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1992)
- 1916 – Betty Grable, American actress (d. 1973)
- 1927 – Romeo LeBlanc, 25th Governor-General of Canada (d. 2009)
- 1927 - Ramsey Clark, 66th United States Attorney General
- 1931 – Allen Klein, American music manager (d. 2009)
- 1939 – Harold E. Varmus, American scientist
- 1943 – Keith Richards, English guitarist
- 1946 – Steven Spielberg, American film director
- 1946 – Steve Biko, South African anti-Apartheid activist (d. 1977)
- 1949 – David A. Johnston, American volcanologist (d. 1980)
- 1950 – Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lankan military commander and politician
- 1951 – Volker Bouffier, German politician
- 1951 - Alvin E. Roth, American economist.
- 1954 - Ray Liotta, American actor
- 1963 – Pierre Nkurunziza, President of Burundi
- 1963 – Charles Oakley, American basketball player
- 1963 – Brad Pitt, American actor
- 1964 - Robson Green, English actor
- 1964 – Steve Austin, American professional wrestler
- 1966 – Gianluca Pagliuca, Italian footballer
- 1968 – Mario Basler, German footballer
- 1968 - Rachel Griffiths, Australian actress
- 1968 - Alejandro Sanz, Spanish singer
- 1968 – Casper Van Dien, American actor
- 1968 - Nina Wadia, English actress
- 1969 – Santiago Canizares, Spanish footballer
- 1972 - Rob Van Dam, American wrestler.
- 1978 – Katie Holmes, American actress
- 1979 – Mamady Sidibe, Malian footballer
- 1980 - Julie Fleeting, Scottish footballer
- 1980 – Christina Aguilera, American singer
- 1985 – Heidi Andreasen, Faroese swimmer
- 1987 – Ayaka, Japanese singer
- 1987 – Miki Ando, Japanese figure skater
- 1987 - Dan Lydiate, Welsh rugby player
- 1988 - Lizzie Armitstead, British cyclist
- 1989 - Ashley Benson, Amerrican actress
Deaths [change]
- 821 – Theodulf, Bishop of Orléans
- 1290 – King Magnus I of Sweden (b. 1240)
- 1495 – King Alphonso I of Naples (b. 1448)
- 1737 – Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker
- 1803 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (b. 1744)
- 1848 – Bernard Bolzano, Czech mathematician (b. 1781)
- 1869 – Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer and pianist (b. 1829)
- 1936 – Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist (b. 1857)
- 1969 - Charles Dvorak, American athlete (b. 1878)
- 1971 – Bobby Jones, American golfer (b. 1902)
- 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 – 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 film director (b. 1907)
- 2000 – Kirsty MacColl, British musician (b. 1959)
- 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)
- 2008 – W. Mark Felt, American Watergate agent, known as 'Deep Throat' (b. 1913)
- 2010 – Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Italian banker and politician (b. 1940)
- 2011 – Václav Havel, Czech playwright, statesman and President of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic (b. 1936)
Events [change]
- 218 BC – Battle of the Trebia, Hannibal's first great victory over the Roman Republic.
- 1352 – Innocent VI is elected Pope.
- 1642 – Abel Tasman lands at Mohua Golden Bay becoming the first European in New Zealand.
- 1776 – North Carolina's Constitution is ratified.
- 1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1865 – Slavery is abolished in the United States, with the passing of the 13th Amendment.
- 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.
- 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
- 1926 – The Makropulos Affair, an opera by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček, premieres in Brno, the Czech Republic.
- 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.
- 1946 – 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.
- 1961 – Indonesia invades New Guinea to annex western New Guinea, formerly known as Netherlands New Guinea.
- 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.
- 1973 – The Soyuz 13 is launched.
- 1978 – Dominica joins the UN.
- 1992 – Kim Young-sam is elected President of South Korea, ending a period of military rule.
- 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 – HTML 4.0 is released by the World Wide Web Consortium.
- 2002 – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the second film 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.
- 2006 - The United Arab Emirates holds its first elections.
Observances [change]
- National Day of Qatar
- New Jersey Day
- Republic Day (Niger)
- International Migrants Day
- UN day of the Arabic language
