April 18 is the 108th day of the year (109th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 257 days remaining until the end of the year. [edit] Events - 1025 – Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.
- 1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.
- 1518 – Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland.
- 1738 – Real Academia de la Historia ("Royal Academy of History") founded in Madrid.
- 1775 – American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begins; Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements.
- 1783 – Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.
- 1797 – The Battle of Neuwied – French victory against the Austrians.
- 1831 – The University of Alabama is founded.
- 1848 – American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opens the way for invasion of Mexico.
- 1880 – An F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100.
- 1881 – Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
- 1899 – The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria.
- 1902 – Quetzaltenango, second largest city of Guatemala, destroyed by Earthquake.
- 1906 – The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroys much of San Francisco, California.
- 1906 – The Los Angeles Times story on the Azusa Street Revival launches Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
- 1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
- 1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.
- 1915 – French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
- 1923 – Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built," opens.
- 1924 – Simon & Schuster publishes the first Crossword puzzle book.
- 1930 – BBC Radio infamously announce that there is no news on that day.
- 1942 – World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya bombed.
- 1942 – Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.
- 1943 – World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.
- 1945 – Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany.
- 1945 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Bolivia are established.
- 1946 – The League of Nations is dissolved.
- 1949 – The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force.
- 1949 – The aircraft carrier USS United States (CVA-58) is laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. However, the United States is canceled five days later, resulting in the Revolt of the Admirals.
- 1954 – Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
- 1955 – Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.
- 1958 – A United States federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound is to be released from an insane asylum.
- 1961 – CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.
- 1974 – The Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto inaugurates Lahore Dry port.
- 1980 – The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President.
- 1983 – A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
- 1988 – The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
- 1992 – General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolts against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allies with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.
- 1993 – President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolves the National Assembly and dismisses the Cabinet.
- 1996 – In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Quana where more than 800 civilians had taken refuge.
- 2007 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.
[edit] Births - 1480 – Lucrezia Borgia, Florentine ruler and daughter of Pope Alexander VI (d. 1519)
- 1580 – Thomas Middleton, English dramatist (d. 1627)
- 1590 – Ahmed I, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1617)
- 1605 – Giacomo Carissimi, Italian composer (d. 1674)
- 1771 – Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, Austrian field marshal (d. 1820)
- 1772 – David Ricardo, English economist (d. 1823)
- 1797 – Adolphe Thiers, French statesman (d. 1877)
- 1813 – James McCune Smith, African-American doctor and abolitionist (d. 1865)
- 1819 – Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Cuban Revolutionary (d. 1874)
- 1819 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (d. 1895)
- 1838 – Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French scientist (d. 1912)
- 1857 – Clarence Darrow, American attorney (d. 1938)
- 1863 – Leopold Graf Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (d. 1942)
- 1864 – Richard Harding Davis, American author (d. 1916)
- 1874 – Oskar Ernst Bernhardt, German author (d. 1941)
- 1874 – Ivana Brlic-Mazuranic, Croatian writer (d. 1938)
- 1877 – Vicente Sotto, Filipino patriot, author (d. 1950)
- 1880 – Sam Crawford, baseball player (d. 1968)
- 1882 – Leopold Stokowski, Polish conductor (d. 1977)
- 1888 – Duffy Lewis, American baseball player (d. 1979)
- 1889 – Jessie Street, Australian suffragette, feminist, and human rights activist (d. 1970)
- 1893 – Violette Morris, French athlete (d. 1944)
- 1897 – Ardito Desio, Italian topographer (d. 2001)
- 1901 – Al Lewis, American lyricist (d. 1967)
- 1902 – Giuseppe Pella, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1981)
- 1902 – Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Hasidic Judaism leader (d. 1994)
- 1904 – Pigmeat Markham, American comedian (d. 1981)
- 1905 – George H. Hitchings, American scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)
- 1907 – Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian-born composer (d. 1995)
- 1915 – Joy Gresham Lewis, American writer, wife of C. S. Lewis (d. 1960)
- 1917 – Ty LaForest, Canadian baseball player (d. 1947)
- 1917 – Frederika of Hanover, Queen Consort of Greece (d. 1981)
- 1918 – Cliff Hillegass, American publisher (d. 2001)
- 1918 – Tony Mottola, American guitarist (d. 2004)
- 1918 – Gabriel Axel, Danish film director
- 1919 – Virginia O'Brien, American singer and actress (d. 2001)
- 1921 – Jean Richard, French actor (d. 2001)
- 1922 – Barbara Hale, American actress
- 1924 – Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American musician (d. 2005)
- 1924 – Henry Hyde, American politician (d. 2007)
- 1927 – Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist (d. 2008)
- 1930 – Clive Revill, New Zealand born actor
- 1934 – George Shirley, American tenor
- 1936 – Tommy Ivo, American race car driver
- 1937 – Jan Kaplický, British architect of Czech origin
- 1939 – Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran
- 1939 – Thomas J. Moyer, American judge
- 1940 – Joseph L. Goldstein, American scientist, Nobel laureate
- 1940 – Mike Vickers, British guitarist and saxophonist (Manfred Mann)
- 1942 – Jochen Rindt, German-Austrian racer and F1 (posthumous) world champion (d. 1970)
- 1942 – Steve Blass, American professional baseball player
- 1942 – Robert Christgau, American music critic
- 1945 – Margaret Hassan, Irish-born aid worker (d. 2004)
- 1946 – Hayley Mills, English actress
- 1946 – Skip Spence, Canadian-born guitarist, singer and songwriter (Jefferson Airplane) (d. 1999)
- 1947 – Kathy Acker, American author (d. 1997)
- 1947 – Dorothy Lyman, American actress
- 1947 – Herbert Mullin, American serial killer
- 1947 – Cindy Pickett, American actress
- 1947 – James Woods, American actor
- 1949 – Geoff Bodine, American race car driver
- 1950 – Kenny Ortega, American film and TV producer and choreographer
- 1950 – Paul Callery, AFL Player
- 1951 – Ricardo Fortaleza, Australian-Filipino boxer
- 1951 – Pierre Pettigrew, Canadian politician
- 1953 – Rick Moranis, Canadian comedian
- 1956 – Anna Kathryn Holbrook, American actress
- 1956 – Eric Roberts, American actor
- 1956 – Melody Thomas Scott, American actress
- 1956 – Poonam Dhillon, Indian actress
- 1958 – Malcolm Marshall, Barbadian West Indies cricketer (d. 1999)
- 1961 – Jane Leeves, British actress
- 1961 – Steve Lombardi, American wrestler
- 1962 – Jeff Dunham, American Comedian
- 1963 – Eric McCormack, Canadian actor
- 1963 – Conan O'Brien, American comedian
- 1964 – Niall Ferguson, British historian
- 1964 – Rithy Panh, Cambodian film director
- 1964 – Jim Ellison, musician
- 1964 – Mark Berry, aka Bez, Dancer in Happy Mondays
- 1965 – Rob Stenders, Dutch radio discjockey
- 1966 – Trine Hattestad, Norwegian athlete
- 1966 – Valeri Kamensky, Russian ice hockey player
- 1967 – Maria Bello, American actress
- 1968 – Mary Birdsong, American actress
- 1968 – David Hewlett, English born Canadian actor
- 1969 – Princess Sayako of Japan
- 1969 – Keith R.A. DeCandido, American author
- 1970 – Greg Eklund, American musician
- 1970 – Rico Brogna, American baseball player
- 1971 – Tamara Braun, American actress
- 1971 – Russell Payne, English writer
- 1971 – David Tennant, Scottish actor
- 1971 – Oleg Petrov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1971 – Fredro Starr, American rapper (Onyx)
- 1972 – Rosa Clemente, American activist and hip-hop artist
- 1972 – Eli Roth, American film director
- 1973 – Derrick Brooks, American football player
- 1973 – Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian athlete
- 1973 – Brady Clark, American baseball player
- 1974 – Mark Tremonti, American musician
- 1974 – Millie Corretjer, Puerto Rican singer
- 1974 – Edgar Wright, British director
- 1976 – Melissa Joan Hart, American actress
- 1976 – Bjørn Bjercke, Norwegain Snowboarder
- 1976 – Fayray, Japanese singer
- 1976 – Jo Gibb, Scottish Actress
- 1976 – Justin Ross, American politician
- 1977 – Dan Lacouture, NHL hockey player
- 1979 – Michael Bradley, American basketball player
- 1979 – Anthony Davidson, British Formula One driver
- 1979 – Nuria Fergó, Spanish singer
- 1979 – Matthew Upson, English footballer
- 1979 – Kourtney Kardashian, American reality television star
- 1980 – Robyn Regehr, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1981 – Brian Buscher, American baseball player
- 1982 – Marie-Élaine Thibert, Canadian singer
- 1982 – Scott Hartnell, NHL hockey player
- 1982 – Darren Sutherland, Irish boxer (d. 2009)
- 1983 – Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1983 – Fodil Hadjadj, Algerian footballer
- 1984 – America Ferrera, American actress
- 1985 – Łukasz Fabiański, Polish footballer
- 1985 – Karl Reindler, Australian racing driver
- 1985 – Elena Temnikova, Russian singer (Serebro)
- 1986 – Maurice Edu, American soccer player
- 1986 – Billy Butler, American baseball player
- 1987 – Brett Deledio, Australian Rules Football
- 1987 – Danny Guthrie, English footballer
- 1987 – Sandra Lyng Haugen, Norwegian singer
- 1989 – Alia Shawkat, American actress
- 1989 – Simas Buterlevičius, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1994 – Moises Arias, American actor
- 1996 – Alexey Zhigalkovich, Belarusian singer
- 2007 – Hayah bint Hamzah, Princess of Jordan
[edit] Deaths - 1161 – Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1552 – John Leland (antiquary), English antiquarian (b. 1502)
- 1556 – Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet (b. 1495)
- 1567 – Wilhelm von Grumbach, German adventurer (b. 1503)
- 1558 – Roxelana, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent
- 1636 – Julius Caesar, English judge
- 1650 – Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian (b. 1602)
- 1674 – John Graunt, English statistician (b. 1620)
- 1689 – George Jeffreys, British Chief Justice (b. 1648)
- 1732 – Louis Feuillée, French explorer (b. 1660)
- 1794 – Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1714)
- 1796 – Johan Wilcke, Swedish physicist (b. 1732)
- 1802 – Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (b. 1731)
- 1873 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist (b. 1803)
- 1898 – Gustave Moreau, French painter (b. 1826)
- 1906 – Luis Martín, Spanish Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1846)
- 1917 – Vladimir Serbsky, Russian psychiatrist (b. 1858)
- 1935 – Panait Istrati, Romanian writer (b. 1884)
- 1936 – Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer (b. 1879)
- 1942 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American socialite (b. 1875)
- 1943 – Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral. (b. 1884)
- 1945 – John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and engineer (b. 1849)
- 1945 – Ernie Pyle, American journalist (b. 1900)
- 1945 – Prince William of Wied, sovereign Prince of Albania (b. 1876)
- 1947 – Josef Tiso, Slovakian leader (b. 1887), Nazi collaborator and puppet ruler.
- 1949 – Will Hay, English comedian and actor (b. 1888)
- 1951 – António Óscar Carmona, 97th Prime Minister of Portugal and 11th President of Portugal (b. 1869)
- 1955 – Albert Einstein, German physicist known for his famous Theory of General Relativity (b. 1879)
- 1958 – Maurice Gamelin, French general (b. 1872)
- 1963 – Meyer Jacobstein, American politician (b. 1880)
- 1964 – Ben Hecht, American writer (b. 1894)
- 1965 – Guillermo González Camarena, Mexican inventor (b. 1917)
- 1967 – Karl Miller, German footballer (b. 1913)
- 1974 – Marcel Pagnol, French novelist, playwright and filmmaker (b. 1895)
- 1976 – Mahmoud Younis, Suez Canal nationalization Engineer (b. 1911)
- 1988 – Pierre Desproges, French humorist (b. 1939)
- 1990 – Gory Guerrero, professional wrestler (b. 1921)
- 1992 – Frankie Howerd, English comedian and comic actor (b. 1917)
- 1993 – Masahiko Kimura, Japanese judoka (b. 1917)
- 1995 – Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (b. 1908)
- 1996 – Brook Berringer, American football player (b. 1973)
- 1996 – Bernard Edwards, American record producer (b. 1952)
- 1998 – Terry Sanford, American politician (b. 1917)
- 2002 – Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer (b. 1914)
- 2002 – Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and professional wrestler (b. 1938)
- 2003 – Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist (b. 1923)
- 2004 – Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister of Fiji and President of Fiji (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Sam Mills, American football player (b. 1959)
- 2007 – Iccho Itoh, mayor of Nagasaki (b. 1945)
- 2009 – Stephanie Parker, Welsh actress (b. 1987)
[edit] Holidays and observances In the Roman Catholic Church: [edit] External links
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