November 18
November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years), with 43 remaining.
Events
1095 - The Council of Clermont began. The council was called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land .
1302 - Pope Boniface VIII issued the Papal bull Unam sanctam 1307 - According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.
1421 - A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands .
1477 - William Caxton produces "Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres", the first English book printed on a printing press .
1626 - St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated
1686 - Charles Francois Felix operates on King of France Louis XIV 's anal fistula after practicing the surgery on several peasants.
1865 - Mark Twain 's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Saturday Press .
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 . The Panamanian army is disbanded the next day.
1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway .
1909 - Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of dictator José Santos Zelaya .
1916 - World War I : First Battle of the Somme ends - In France , British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1 , 1916.
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 Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks , featuring the second appearances of Cartoon stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse .
1929 - 1929 Grand Banks earthquake : Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean , a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake centered on Grand Banks , breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area.
1938 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations .
1940 - World War II : 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 aviators.
1959 - William Wyler 's film Ben-Hur New York City .
1970 - US President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for US$155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government (US$85 million was for military assistance in order to help prevent the overthrow of the government of Premier Lon Nol by the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnam ).
1970 - Singer Jerry Lee Lewis divorces his third wife, Myra Gail , after 12 years.
1971 - Hard rock band Led Zeppelin release an untitled album, often dubbed "Led Zeppelin IV ," featuring "Rock & Roll," "Stairway to Heaven" and other classic songs.
1978 - Jonestown mass suicide : In Jonestown , Guyana , Jim Jones leads his People's Temple in a mass murder-suicide; 913 die, including 276 children.
1982 - Duk Koo Kim died unexpectedly from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini in Las Vegas , prompting reforms in the sport of boxing .
1985 - Calvin and Hobbes comic strip by Bill Watterson , was first published.
1987 - Iran-Contra scandal : The U.S. Congress issues its final report on the Iran -Contra affair, stating that US President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides and his administration exhibited "secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law."
1987 - Kings Cross fire : In London , 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross .
1988 - War on Drugs : US President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers .
1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free.
1991 - After 3 month siege Vukovar is invaded by Serbians
1993 - In South Africa , 21 political parties approve a new constitution .
1996 - World-renowned bird expert Tony Silva is sentenced to seven years in prison without parole for leading an illegal parrot smuggling ring.
1997 - Gary Glitter is arristed in the United Kingdom on child porn charges.
1998 - Alice McDermott wins the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy .
1999 - In College Station, Texas , 12 are killed and 28 injured at Texas A&M University when a huge bonfire under construction collapses.
1999 - In Jasper, Texas , 24-year old Shawn Allen Berry is sentenced to life in prison, becoming the third person convicted in the racially-motivated dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. .
2001 - The Nintendo GameCube is released in North America
2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis : United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq .
2003 - The Local Government Act 2003 , repealing Section 28 , becomes effective.
2003 - Special Extended DVD Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 2004 - Russia officially ratified the Kyoto Protocol .
Births
9 - Vespasian , Roman Emperor (d. 79 )
1647 - Pierre Bayle , French philosopher (d. 1706 )
1786 - Carl Maria von Weber , German composer (d. 1826 )
1787 - Louis-Jacques Daguerre , French inventor, photographer (d. 1851 )
1836 - Sir William S. Gilbert , English dramatist (d. 1911 )
1836 - Cesare Lombroso , Italian professor of psychiatry , founder of criminology (d. 1909 )
1856 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov , Grand Duke of Russia (d. 1929 )
1860 - Ignacy Paderewski , Polish pianist, composer (d. 1941 )
1861 - Dorothea Dix , journalist, activist (d. 1951 )
1874 - Clarence Day , American author (d. 1935 )
1882 - Jacques Maritain , French philosopher (d. 1973 )
1883 - Carl Vinson , United States Congressman (d. 1981 )
1891 - Gio Ponti , Italian architect (d. 1979 )
1897 - Patrick Blackett , English physicist, 1948 Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1974 )
1898 - Joris Ivens , filmmaker (d. 1989 )
1899 - Eugene Ormandy , conductor (d. 1985 )
1901 - George Gallup , statistician, opinion pollster (d. 1984 )
1906 - Klaus Mann , publicist, dramatist and narrator (d. 1949 )
1906 - George Wald , American chemist, 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997 )
1908 - Imogene Coca , actress, comedienne (d. 2001 )
1909 - Johnny Mercer , lyricist (d. 1976 )
1916 - Amelita Galli-Curci , opera soprano (d. 1963 )
1923 - Alan Shepard , astronaut (d. 1998 )
1930 - J. G. Ballard , British author
1935 - Alain Barrière
1935 - Rudolf Bahro , dissident (d. 1997 )
1936 - Hank Ballard , musician (d. 2003 )
1939 - Brenda Vaccaro , actress
1939 - Margaret Atwood , writer
1941 - Gary Bettenhausen , automobile racer
1941 - David Hemmings , British actor (d. 2003 )
1942 - Linda Evans , actress
1944 - Susan Sullivan , actress
1946 - Alan Dean Foster , author
1948 - Andrea Marcovicci , singer, actress
1948 - Jack Tatum , American football star
1950 - Eric Pierpoint , actor
1950 - Jameson Parker , actor
1953 - Alan Moore , cartoonist
1956 - Warren Moon , Canadian football and American football star
1958 - Laura Miller , mayor of Dallas, Texas
1960 - Kim Wilde , singer
1962 - Kirk Hammett , Musician
1963 - Dante Bichette , baseball player
1966 - Jorge Camacho , poet in Spanish and Esperanto
1967 - Ronald L. L'Esperance
1968 - Owen Wilson , actor (Rushmore Zoolander The Royal Tenenbaums 1969 - Sam Cassell , NBA basketball player
1975 - David Ortiz , Major League Baseball All-Star
1983 - Jon Johansen , Norwegian software developer
Deaths
1814 - William Jessop , canal and railway engineer
1886 - Chester A. Arthur , 21st President of the United States
1922 - Marcel Proust , French novelist
1941 - Chris Watson , third Prime Minister of Australia
1952 - Paul Eluard , French poet (b. 1895 )
1953 - Frank Olson , US army scientist (suicide )
1962 - Niels Bohr , physicist
1965 - Henry A. Wallace , Vice President of the United States
1969 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. , patriarch of the Kennedy family
1976 - Man Ray , artist
1978 - Jim Jones , cult leader (suicide )
1978 - Leo Ryan , US congressman
1982 - Duk Koo Kim , boxer
1987 - Jacques Anquetil , cyclist (cancer )
1994 - Cab Calloway , band leader
1998 - Kenneth H. Erdody , civic leader
1999 - Paul Bowles , novelist
2002 - James Coburn , actor
2003 - Michael Kamen , composer
Holidays and observances
External links
November 17 - November 19 - October 18 - December 18 -- listing of all days
