http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Nov 18, 1863: President Lincoln travels to Gettysburg
On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln boards a train for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to deliver a short speech at the dedication of a cemetery of soldiers killed during the battle there on July 1 to July 3, 1863. The address Lincoln gave in Gettysburg became one of the most famous speeches in American history.
Lincoln had given much thought to what he wanted to say at Gettysburg, but nearly missed his chance to say it. Shortly before the trip, Lincoln's son, Tad, became ill with a fever. The president and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln were no strangers to juvenile illness: They had already lost two sons to disease. Prone to fits of hysteria, Mary Lincoln panicked when her husband prepared to leave. However, Lincoln felt the opportunity to speak at Gettysburg and present his defense of the war was too important to miss, so he boarded a train and headed to Pennsylvania.
Despite his son's illness, Lincoln was in good spirits during the journey. He was accompanied by an entourage that included Secretary of State William Seward, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, Interior Secretary John Usher, Lincoln's personal secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay, several members of the diplomat corps, some foreign visitors, a Marine band, and a military escort.
When Lincoln arrived in Gettysburg, he was handed a telegram that lifted his spirits: Tad was feeling much better. Lincoln enjoyed an evening dinner and a serenade by the Fifth New York Artillery Band before he retired to finalize his famous Gettysburg Address.
Nov 18, 1916: Battle of the Somme ends
On this day in 1916, British Commander in Chief Sir Douglas Haig calls a halt to his army's offensive near the Somme River in northwestern France, ending the epic Battle of the Somme after more than four months of bloody conflict.
With the French under heavy siege at Verdun since February, the Somme offensive was Haig's long-planned attempt to make an Allied breakthrough on the Western Front. After a full week of artillery bombardment, the offensive began in earnest on the morning of July 1, 1916, when soldiers from 11 British divisions emerged from their trenches near the Somme River in northwestern France and advanced toward the German front lines.
The initial advance was a disaster, as the six German divisions facing the advancing British mowed them down with their machine guns, killing or wounding some 60,000 men on the first day alone: the single heaviest day of casualties in British military history to that point. The failure of the advance was credited variously to the complete lack of surprise in the timing of the attack, incompetence on the part of Haig and the British command--namely, their failure to conceive that the Germans could build their trenches deep enough to protect their heavy weapons or bring them up so quickly once the artillery barrage had ended--and the inferior preparation of the British artillery, for which the infantry paid a heavy price.
Over the course of the next four-and-a-half months and no fewer than 90 attacks, the Allies were able to advance a total of only six miles in the Somme region, at the cost of 146,000 soldiers killed and over 200,000 more injured. On November 18, 1916, Haig finally called off the offensive, insisting in his official dispatch from the front that December that the Somme operation had achieved its objectives. "Verdun had been relieved; the main German forces had been held on the Western front; and the enemy's strength had been very considerably worn down. Any one of these three results is in itself sufficient to justify the Somme battle."
Despite its commander's positive assessment, the Battle of the Somme would remain one of the most controversial operations of World War I. In the war's aftermath, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, a nemesis of Haig's, roundly condemned Haig's offensive: "Over 400,000 of our men fell in this bullheaded fight and the slaughter amongst our young officers was appalling...Had it not been for the inexplicable stupidity of the Germans in provoking a quarrel with America and bringing that mighty people into the war against them just as they had succeeded in eliminating another powerful foe—Russia--the Somme would not have saved us from the inextricable stalemate."
Nov 18, 1987: Congress issues final report on Iran-Contra scandal
After nearly a year of hearings into the Iran-Contra scandal, the joint Congressional investigating committee issues its final report. It concluded that the scandal, involving a complicated plan whereby some of the funds from secret weapons sales to Iran were used to finance the Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, was one in which the administration of Ronald Reagan exhibited "secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law." Naming several members of the Reagan administration as having been directly involved in the scheme (including National Security Advisor John Poindexter and deceased CIA Director William Casey), the report stated that Reagan must bear "ultimate responsibility." A number of government officials were charged and convicted of various crimes associated with the scandal.A minority opinion by some of the Republican members of the committee contained in the report argued that the hearings had been politically motivated. They also suggested that while Reagan administration officials might have used poor judgment, the ultimate end-continuing the fight against the leftist regime in Nicaragua-was a worthy goal.The differences in opinion, while partially reflective of partisan biases, were also evidence of a question that had plagued U.S. policy makers since the early days of the Cold War: in the battle against communism, were the ends more important than the means?
Nov 18, 1940: Hitler furious over Italy's debacle in Greece
On this day in 1940, Adolf Hitler meets with Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano over Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
Mussolini surprised everyone with a move against Greece; his ally, Hitler, was caught off guard, especially since the Duce had led Hitler to believe he had no such intention. Even Mussolini's own chief of army staff found out about the invasion only after the fact!
Despite being warned off an invasion of Greece by his own generals, despite the lack of preparedness on the part of his military, despite that it would mean getting bogged down in a mountainous country during the rainy season against an army willing to fight tooth and nail to defend its autonomy, Mussolini moved ahead out of sheer hubris, convinced he could defeat the inferior Greeks in a matter of days. He also knew a secret, that millions of lire had been put aside to bribe Greek politicians and generals not to resist the Italian invasion. Whether the money ever made it past the Italian fascist agents delegated with the responsibility is unclear; if it did, it clearly made no difference whatsoever—the Greeks succeeded in pushing the Italian invaders back into Albania after just one week. The Axis power spent the next three months fighting for its life in a defensive battle. To make matters worse, virtually half the Italian fleet at Taranto had been crippled by a British carrier-based attack.
At their meeting in Obersalzberg, Hitler excoriated Ciano for opening an opportunity for the British to enter Greece and establish an airbase in Athens, putting the Brits within striking distance of valuable oil reserves in Romania, which Hitler relied upon for his war machine. It also meant that Hitler would have to divert forces from North Africa, a high strategic priority, to Greece in order to bail Mussolini out. Hitler considered leaving the Italians to fight their own way out of this debacle—possibly even making peace with the Greeks as a way of forestalling an Allied intervention. But Germany would eventually invade, in April 1941, adding Greece to its list of conquests.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
326 - Old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated. Stood 4th - 16th century. Replaced by current St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
794 - Japanese emperor Kammu deallocates residence of Nara to Kioto
1105 - Maginulf elected anti-Pope Silvester I
1210 - Pope Innocent III excommunicates Roman Catholic Emperor Otto IV
1307 - William Tell shoots apple off his son's head
1421 - Southern sea floods 72 villages, killing estimated 10,000 in Netherlands
1424 - Storm flood ravages Dutch coast
1477 - 1st English printed book "Dictes & Sayengis of the Phylosophers"
1494 - French king Charles VIII occupies Florence
1497 - Vasco da Gama reached the Cape of Good Hope
1626 - St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated. Replaced an earlier basilica. Largest Christian basilica
1667 - Treaty of Bongaja: King Hassan-Udin of Makasar & VOC
1686 - Charles Francois Felix operates on King Louis XIV of France's anal fistula after practising the surgery on several peasants.
1718 - Voltaire's "Oedipe" premieres in Paris
1738 - France & Austria sign peace
1742 - Prussia & England sign anti-French military covenant
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlies troops occupy Carlisle
1755 - Worst quake in Mass Bay area strikes Boston; no deaths report
1776 - Hessians capture Ft Lee, NJ
French Enlightenment Philosopher VoltaireFrench Enlightenment Philosopher Voltaire 1787 - 1st Unitarian minister in US ordained, Boston
1793 - Louvre officially opens in Paris
1803 - Battle of Vertieres, in which Haitians defeat French
1804 - Palver Purim 1st celebrated to commemorate miraculous escape
1805 - 30 women meet at Mrs Silas Lee's home in Wiscasset Maine, organizes Female Charitable Society, first woman's club in America
1820 - Antarctica discovered by US Navy Capt Nathaniel B Palmer
1833 - Netherlands & Belgium sign Treaty of Zonhoven
1835 - -20] Charles Darwin travels to Tahiti
1852 - State funeral of Duke of Wellington (London)
1852 - Rose Philippine Duchesne dies in St. Charles, Missouri. She would be canonized on July 3, 1988 by Pope John Paul II.
1865 - Mark Twain publishes "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
1871 - American suffragette Susan B Anthony arrested after voting on the 5th November in Rochester NY
1874 - National Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizes in Cleveland
1883 - Antonin Dvorák's "Husitska" premieres
1883 - Standard time zones forms by railroads in US & Canada
Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1889 - Oahu Railway begins public service in Hawaii
1893 - Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Providentissimus Deus
1894 - 1st newspaper Sunday color comic section published (NY World)
1894 - 1st comic strip "Origin of a New Species" by Richard Outcault
1899 - Trumper scores 208 in 185 mins (1 five 25 fours) NSW v Qld
1902 - Bkln toymaker Morris Michton names teddy bear after Teddy Roosevelt
1903 - Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty gives US exclusive canal rights in Panama
1904 - General Esteban Huertas steps down after the government of Panama fears he wants to stage a coup.
1905 - George Bernard Shaws "Major Barbara" premieres in London
1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway
1906 - Langdon Mitchells "New York Idea" premieres in NYC
1909 - US invades Nicaragua, later overthrows Pres Zelaya
1911 - Britain's 1st seaplane flies
1911 - Opera "Lobetanz" 1st American performance
1912 - Albania declares independence from Turkey
Playwright George Bernard ShawPlaywright George Bernard Shaw 1913 - Lincoln Deachey performs 1st airplane loop-the-loop (San Diego)
1916 - Gen Douglas Haig finally calls off 1st Battle of the Somme in Europe
1917 - Sigma Alpha Rho, a Jewish high school fraternity, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1918 - Brussels free Stofnar
1918 - Latvia declares independence from Russia
1919 - H Tierney & J McCarthy's musical "Irene," premieres in NYC
1920 - Apollo Theater (Academy, Bryant) opens at 221 W 42nd St NYC
1922 - Turkish National Assembly nominates Abdul Medjid kalief
1926 - Pope Pius XI encyclical On persecution of Church in Mexico
1928 - Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse appears in NY in "Steamboat Willie"
1929 - Dr Vladimir K Zworykin demonstrates "kinescope"
1929 - Large quake in Atlantic breaks Transatlantic cable in 28 places
1929 - Stalin routes troops to Manchuria
1930 - Musical "Smiles" with Bob Hope and Fred Astaire premieres in NYC
1930 - Sjostakovitch' opera "The Nose" premiers in Lenningrad
Entertainer Bob HopeEntertainer Bob Hope 1930 - Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai, a Buddhist association later renamed Soka Gakkai, is founded by Japanese educators Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda.
1932 - "Flowers & Trees" receives 1st Academy Award for a cartoon
1932 - 1st tie for Best Actor Academy Award Wallace Beery & Fredric March
1936 - Germany & Italy recognized Spanish government of Francisco Franco
1936 - Main span of Golden Gate Bridge joined
1938 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
1939 - Neth KNSM passenger ship Simon Bolivar hits German mine, 86 die
1940 - George Matesky, New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison.
1941 - British troops open attack on Tobruk, North Africa
1941 - Jerome Chodorov/Joseph Fields' "Junior Miss," premieres in NYC
1941 - Mussolini's forces leave Abyssinia/Ethiopia
1942 - Thornton Wilders "Skin of our Teeth," premieres in NYC
1943 - 1st US ambassador to Canada, Ray Atherton, nominated
1943 - 444 British bombers attack Berlin
1943 - U-211 sinks in Atlantic Ocean
Italian Dictator Benito MussoliniItalian Dictator Benito Mussolini 1945 - Arnold Schoenberg's Prelude for orch & mixed choir, premieres
1949 - NL batting leader (.342) Jackie Robinson wins NL MVP
1950 - South Korea President Syngman Rhee forced to end mass executions
1951 - "See it Now" premieres on TV
1951 - British troops occupy Ismailiya Egypt
1951 - Former Cubs 1st baseman & future TV star of Rifleman Chuck Connors is 1st player to oppose the major league draft
1953 - Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) accept female suffrage
1954 - Yanks trade Woodling, Byrd, McDonald, Triandos, Miranada & Smith to Orioles for Turley, Larsen & Hunter as part of an 18 player deal
1955 - Bell X-2 rocket plane taken up for 1st powered flight
1956 - Morocco gains independence
1957 - Tunisia refuses Russian weapons
1958 - 1st true reservoir in Jerusalem opens
1958 - Indians minority stockholders sell their stock to William Delay
1959 - Wash Senator Bob Allison wins AL Rookie of Year
1960 - Charlie Finley makes a bid to purchase expansion LA Angels
First President of South Korea Syngman RheeFirst President of South Korea Syngman Rhee 1960 - Copyright office issues its 10 millionth registration
1961 - "Gay Life" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 113 performances
1961 - "Kwamina" closes at 54th St Theater NYC after 32 performances
1961 - JFK sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam
1961 - US Ranger 2 launched to Moon; failed
1963 - Bell Telephone introduces push button telephone
1963 - England's Dartford-Purfleet tunnel under Thames opens
1963 - King Hassan II opens 1st parliament in Morocco
1964 - Baltimore Oriole Brooks Robinson wins AL MVP
1964 - J. Edgar Hoover describes Martin Luther King as "most notorious liar"
1965 - Twins SS Zoilo Versalles is named AL MVP
1966 - Sandy Koufax announces his retirement due to arthritic left elbow
1966 - US RC bishops ends rules against eating meat on Fridays
1966 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1967 - British government devalues pound from US equivalent of $2.80 to $2.40
First Director of the FBI J. Edgar HooverFirst Director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover 1970 - Joe Frazier KOs Bob Foster in 2 for heavyweight boxing title
1970 - Johnny Bench wins NL MVP
1970 - Linus Pauling declares large doses of Vitamin C could ward off colds
1970 - Netherlands & Albania form diplomatic relations
1970 - Russia lands self propelled rover on Moon
1971 - China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC
1973 - Greek regime calls emergency crisis due to mass protests
1975 - Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver returns to US
1975 - Calvin Murphy (Houston) ends NBA free throw streak of 58 games
1976 - Spain's parliament establishes democracy after 37 yrs of dictatorship
1976 - Yanks sign free agent Don Gullett
1978 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1978 - In Jonestown Guyana 918 members of Peoples Temple are murdered/commit suicide under leadership of cult leader Jim Jones
1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini charges US ambassador/embassy espionage
1980 - "Heaven's Gate" premieres
Chemist & Peace Activist Linus PaulingChemist & Peace Activist Linus Pauling 1980 - Despite missing 45 games, George Brett wins AL MVP
1980 - Honduras & El Salvador signs peace (after "soccer war" 1969)
1981 - Phillies 3rd baseman Mike Schmidt wins his 2nd consecutive NL MVP
1982 - Mariasela Alvarez of Dominican Republic, crowned 32nd Miss World
1982 - Duk Koo Kim dies unexpectedly from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini in Las Vegas, Nevada, prompting reforms in the sport of boxing.
1984 - "3 Musketeers" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 9 performances
1984 - 72nd CFL Grey Cup: Win Blue Bombers defeats Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 47-17
1984 - Browns set team records for most sacks (11)
1984 - Flyers' Ron Sutter fails on 11th penalty shot against Islanders
1984 - NJ Devils shutout NY Rangers 6-0
1985 - Dwight Gooden (NL) & Bret Saberhagen (AL) win Cy Young
1985 - Enterprise (OV-101) flies from Kennedy Space Center to Dulles Airport
1985 - Howard Stern radio show returns to NYC (WXRK 92.3 FM-afternoons)
1985 - Paul McCartney releases "Spies Like Us"
1986 - Roger Clemens wins AL MVP
Musician & member of the Beatles Paul McCartneyMusician & member of the Beatles Paul McCartney 1987 - 31 die in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest tube station
1987 - Congressional committee reports on Iran-Contra affair
1987 - Cubs Andre Dawson is 1st from last-place club ever to win an MVP
1989 - Penn is 1st to restrict abortions after Supreme Court gave states the right to do so
1990 - "Fiddler on the Roof" opens at Gershwin Theater NYC for 241 perfs
1990 - 1st Solheim Cup: US beats Europe 11½-4½ at Lake Nona CC FLA
1990 - NFL NY Giants beat Det Lions 20-0, to run 1990 record to 10-0
1990 - Saddam offers to free an estimated 2,000 men held in Kuwait
1991 - France deports Marlon's daughter Cheyenne Brando to Tahiti
1991 - Moslem Shites release hostages Terry Waite & Thomas Sutherland
1991 - Auburn men's basketball team was placed on 2 yr probation for recruiting violations & is not eligble for post-season play in 1991-92
1992 - "Malcolm X" with Denzel Washington premieres in US
1992 - Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Las Vegas NV on KXTE 107.5 FM
1993 - 27 killed at prison in Morazan, El Salvador
1993 - Black & white leaders in South Africa approve new democratic constitution
Actor Denzel WashingtonActor Denzel Washington 1993 - NAFTA passes House
1993 - North-Siberia record cold for November (-55°C)
1993 - Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder arrested for public drunkiness
1993 - WWF boss Vince McMahon charged with steroid distribution
1994 - "Star Trek VII - Generations" premieres
1995 - Jacqueline Aguilera Marcano, 19, of Venezuela, crowned 45th Miss World
1995 - Sam's Town Bowling Invitational won by Michelle Mullen
1996 - Eappens hire Louise Woodward as nanny, later she's charged with murder
1997 - Arizona Diamondbacks & Tampa Bay Devil Rays expansion draft
1997 - FBI says no evidence of foul play in 1996 TWA 800 crash
1997 - 70s glam-rock star Gary Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) arrested by British police in child porn probe
1997 - Mavericks' A C Green ties Randy Smith's NBA record of 906 cons games
1997 - Rare black pearl necklace auctioned for record $902,000
1997 - Willem de Kooning painting "Two Standing Women" sold for $4,182,500
1999 - In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 27 injured at Texas A&M University when a massive bonfire under construction collapses.
2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
2003 - The congress of the Communist Party of Indian Union (Marxist-Leninist) decides to merge the party into Kanu Sanyal's CPI(ML).
2003 - In tEngland, the Local Government Act 2003, repealing controversial anti-gay amendment Section 28, becomes effective.
2004 - Russia officially ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.
2012 - Lewis Hamilton wins the 2012 US Formula One Grand Prix
2012 - Israeli Gaza rocket strikes kill 80 alleged terrorist targets
2012 - Brad Keselowski wins the 2012 Nascar Sprint Cup
1477 - William Caxton produced "Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres," which was the first book to be printed in England. 1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer became the first American to sight the continent of Antarctica. 1865 - Samuel L. Clemens published "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" under the pen name "Mark Twain" in the New York "Saturday Press." 1883 - The U.S. and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones. 1903 - The U.S. and Panama signed a treaty that granted the U.S. rights to build the Panama Canal. 1916 - Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I, called off the Battle of the Somme in France. The offensive began on July 1, 1916. 1928 - The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premiered in New York. It was Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie," starring Mickey Mouse. Disney movies, music and books 1936 - Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco. 1942 - "The Skin of Our Teeth," by Thornton Wilder opened on Broadway. 1951 - Chuck Connors (Los Angeles Angels) became the first player to oppose the major league draft. Connors later became the star of the television show "The Rifleman." 1959 - William Wyler's "Ben-Hur" premiered at Loew's Theater in New York City's Times Square. 1966 - U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays. 1969 - Apollo 12 astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean landed on the lunar surface during the second manned mission to the moon. 1976 - The parliament of Spain approved a bill that established a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship. 1978 - In Jonestown, Guyana, Reverend Jim Jones persuaded his followers to commit suicide by drinking a death potion. Some people were shot to death. 914 cult members were left dead including over 200 children. 1983 - Argentina announced its ability to produce enriched uranium for use in nuclear weapons. 1985 - Joe Theismann (Washington Redskins) broke his leg after being hit by Lawrence Taylor (New York Giants). The injury ended Theismann's 12 year National Football League (NFL) career. 1987 - The U.S. Congress issued the Iran-Contra Affair report. The report said that President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides. 1987 - 31 people died in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station. 1987 - CBS Inc. announced it had agreed to sell its record division to Sony Corp. for about $2 billion. 1988 - U.S. President Reagan signed major legislation provided the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill. 1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland. 1993 - The U.S. House of Representatives joined the U.S. Senate in approving legislation aimed at protecting abortion facilities, staff and patients. 1993 - American Airlines flight attendants went on strike. They ended their strike only 4 days later. 1993 - Representatives from 21 South African political parties approved a new constitution. 1994 - Outside a mosque in the Gaza Strip, 15 people were killed and more than 150 wounded when Palestinian police opened fire on rioting worshipers. 1997 - The FBI officially pulled out of the probe into the TWA Flight 800 disaster. They said the explosion that destroyed the Boeing 747 was not caused by a criminal act. 230 people were killed. 1997 - First Union Corp. announced its purchase of CoreStates Financial Corp. for $16.1 billion. To date it was the largest banking deal in U.S. history. 1999 - 12 people were killed and 28 injured when a huge bonfire under construction collapsed at Texas A&M in College Station, TX. 2001 - Nintendo released the GameCube home video game console in the United States.
1477 - William Caxton produced "Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres," which was the first book to be printed in England. 1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer became the first American to sight the continent of Antarctica. 1865 - Samuel L. Clemens published "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" under the pen name "Mark Twain" in the New York "Saturday Press." 1883 - The U.S. and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones. 1903 - The U.S. and Panama signed a treaty that granted the U.S. rights to build the Panama Canal. 1916 - Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I, called off the Battle of the Somme in France. The offensive began on July 1, 1916. 1928 - The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premiered in New York. It was Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie," starring Mickey Mouse. Disney movies, music and books 1936 - Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco. 1942 - "The Skin of Our Teeth," by Thornton Wilder opened on Broadway. 1951 - Chuck Connors (Los Angeles Angels) became the first player to oppose the major league draft. Connors later became the star of the television show "The Rifleman." 1959 - William Wyler's "Ben-Hur" premiered at Loew's Theater in New York City's Times Square. 1966 - U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays. 1969 - Apollo 12 astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean landed on the lunar surface during the second manned mission to the moon. 1976 - The parliament of Spain approved a bill that established a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship. 1978 - In Jonestown, Guyana, Reverend Jim Jones persuaded his followers to commit suicide by drinking a death potion. Some people were shot to death. 914 cult members were left dead including over 200 children. 1983 - Argentina announced its ability to produce enriched uranium for use in nuclear weapons. 1985 - Joe Theismann (Washington Redskins) broke his leg after being hit by Lawrence Taylor (New York Giants). The injury ended Theismann's 12 year National Football League (NFL) career. 1987 - The U.S. Congress issued the Iran-Contra Affair report. The report said that President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides. 1987 - 31 people died in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station. 1987 - CBS Inc. announced it had agreed to sell its record division to Sony Corp. for about $2 billion. 1988 - U.S. President Reagan signed major legislation provided the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill. 1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland. 1993 - The U.S. House of Representatives joined the U.S. Senate in approving legislation aimed at protecting abortion facilities, staff and patients. 1993 - American Airlines flight attendants went on strike. They ended their strike only 4 days later. 1993 - Representatives from 21 South African political parties approved a new constitution. 1994 - Outside a mosque in the Gaza Strip, 15 people were killed and more than 150 wounded when Palestinian police opened fire on rioting worshipers. 1997 - The FBI officially pulled out of the probe into the TWA Flight 800 disaster. They said the explosion that destroyed the Boeing 747 was not caused by a criminal act. 230 people were killed. 1997 - First Union Corp. announced its purchase of CoreStates Financial Corp. for $16.1 billion. To date it was the largest banking deal in U.S. history. 1999 - 12 people were killed and 28 injured when a huge bonfire under construction collapsed at Texas A&M in College Station, TX. 2001 - Nintendo released the GameCube home video game console in the United States.
1820 Captain Nathaniel Palmer discovered Antarctica. 1883 Standard time began in the United States. 1886 Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States (1881–1885), died in New York at 56. 1928 Mickey Mouse made his debut in Steamboat Willie. 1976 Spain's parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship. 1978 Jim Jones, a U.S. pastor, led 914 of his followers to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana, by drinking a cyanide-laced fruit drink. Cult members who refused to swallow the drink were shot. 2003 The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the right to same sex marriage was guaranteed by the state constitution. 2004 The UN Security Council held a two-day session in Nairobi. This was the first time it had convened outside of New York headquarters.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/nov18.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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