April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). There are 257 days remaining.
Events
- 1775 - Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons. Only Prescott finishes the ride.
- 1906 - 1906 San Francisco earthquake, estimated magnitude 7.8, destroys much of San Francisco, California.
- 1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo occurs.
- 1942 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1945 - A thousand-bomber raid on the small island of Heligoland leaves nothing standing; 128 people, mostly anti-aircraft crew, were killed.
- 1946 - The League of Nations dissolves.
- 1947 - While destroying German naval installations on Heligoland, the British Royal Navy detonate 6800 tons of explosive in an attempt to demolish the island.
- 1954 - Gamal Abdal Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
- 1958 - A federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound should be released from an insane asylum.
- 1972 - The Roland Corporation founded in Osaka.
- 1974 - Italian prosecutor Mario Sossi is kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
- 1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) came into being.
- 1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
- 1989 - The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin.
- 1994 - Brian Lara scores 375 in an innings of a test cricket match, beating Garfield Sobers's previous record of 365.
- 1996 - Over 100 Lebanese civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Qana.
- 2002 - A new order of insects, Mantophasmatodea, is announced.
Births
- 1480 - Lucrezia Borgia, Renaissance ruler and daughter of Pope Alexander VI
- 1722 - David Ricardo, economist († 1823)
- 1819 - Franz von Suppé, composer († 1895)
- 1857 - Clarence Darrow, attorney († 1938)
- 1864 - Richard Harding Davis, author († 1916)
- 1882 - Leopold Stokowski, conductor and founder of the American Symphony Orchestra († 1977)
- 1893 - Jo Swerling, writer († 1964)
- 1897 - Ardito Desio, Italian topographer and mountaineer († 2001)
- 1901 - László Németh, author († 1975)
- 1904 - Pigmeat Markham, comedian († 1981)
- 1921 - Jean Richard, actor
- 1921 - Barbara Hale, actress
- 1928 - Otto Piene, painter
- 1940 - Robert N. Kucey, author
- 1946 - Hayley Mills, actress
- 1947 - James Woods, actor
- 1949 - Geoff Bodine, automobile racer
- 1954 - Rick Moranis, comedian
- 1963 - Conan O'Brien, comedian
- 1966 - Trine Hattestad, javelin thrower
Deaths
- 1674 - John Graunt, statistician
- 1689 - George Jeffreys, British Chief Justice, presided over the "Bloody Assizes"
- 1873 - Justus von Liebig, chemist
- 1945 - Ernie Pyle, American journalist
- 1964 - Ben Hecht, playwright, screenwriter
- 1955 - Albert Einstein, scientist
- 2002 - Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer on the Kon-Tiki expedition
- 2003 - Edgar F. Codd, Founder of theory of relational databases
- 2003 - Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer
Holidays and observances
See Also:
April 17 - April 19 - March 18 - May 18 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December