April 18
1775 - Paul Revere rode from Charlestown to Lexington to warn Massachusetts colonists of the arrival of British troops during the American Revolution.
1865 - Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham Station in North Carolina.
1906 - The Great San Francisco Earthquake destroyed four square miles of the city and killed more than 3,000 people.
1942 - During World War II, an air squadron led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
1946 - The League of Nations ceased to exist.
1949 - The Irish Republic was proclaimed.
1954 - Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power as he became prime minister of Egypt.
1955 - Physicist Albert Einstein died at age 76 in Princeton, New Jersey.
1956 - American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco.
1968 - The iconic London Bridge was sold to an American, who had it disassembled and rebuilt in Arizona.
1978 - The U.S. Senate voted to hand over control of the Panama Canal back to Panama, effective on December 31, 1999.
1983 - A suicide bomber killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
1989 - Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.
2002 - Afghanistan's former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, returned after 29 years in exile.
2002 - Police arrested actor Robert Blake in the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, nearly a year earlier (Blake was acquitted at his criminal trial but found liable in a civil trial).
2004 - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ordered a withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq.
2007 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld a federal ban on a medical procedure that opponents called partial-birth abortion.
2011 - Standard & Poor's lowered its long-term outlook for the U.S. government fiscal health from "stable" to "negative".
2012 - American Bandstand and New Year's Rockin' Eve host Dick Clark died of heart failure at age 82.
2012 - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta apologized for gruesome photographs published in the Los Angeles Times that purported to show U.S. soldiers posing with the bloodied remains of dead insurgents in Afghanistan two years earlier.
2015 - A ship believed to be carrying more than 800 migrants from Africa sank in the Mediterranean off Libya; only about 30 people were rescued.
2017 - Turning back to the economic populism that helped drive his election campaign, President Donald Trump signed an order affecting government contracts and U.S. trade agreements, one that he said should help American workers whose jobs were threatened by skilled immigrants; the signing took place at the headquarters of tool manufacturer Snap-on Inc., in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
2019 - The final report from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation was made public; it outlined Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election but did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government. (Mueller offered no conclusion on the question of whether the president obstructed justice.)
2021 - The government announced that half of all adults in the U.S., or almost 130 million people 18 or older, had received at least one COVID-19 shot.
Birthdays
20 - Tess Mon Pere (singer)
28 - Moises Arias (actor)
29 - Nathan Sykes (singer)
30 - Chloe Bennett (actress)
32 - Britt Robertson (actress)
33 - Alia Shawkat (actress)
34 - Vanessa Kirby (actress)
35 - Ellen Woglom (actress)
35 - Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (actress/model)
37 - Tom Hughes (actor)
38 - America Ferrera (actress)
39 - Miguel Cabrera (baseball player)
43 - Kourtney Kardashian (reality star)
45 - Bryce Johnson (actor)
46 - Kevin Rankin (actor)
46 - Sean Maguire (actor)
46 - Melissa Joan Hart (actress)
51 - David Tennant (actor)
51 - Tamara Braun (actress)
52 - Lisa Locicero (actress)
54 - David Hewlett (actor)
54 - Mary Birdsong (actress)
55 - Maria Bello (actress)
59 - Eric McCormack (actor)
59 - Conan O'Brien (TV host)
60 - Jeff Dunham (comedian/ventriloquist)
61 - Jane Leeves (actress)
66 - John James (actor)
66 - Eric Roberts (actor)
66 - Melody Thomas Scott (actress)
69 - Rick Moranis (actor)
75 - Cindy Pickett (actress)
75 - Dorothy Lyman (actress)
75 - James Woods (actor)
76 - Hayley Mills (actress)
85 - Robert Hooks (actor)
92 - Clive Revill (actor)
===========================================
Today in Sports History - April 18
1923 - The first game was played in Yankee Stadium ("the House that Ruth built"), with the New York Yankees beating the Boston Red Sox, 4-1.
1942 - The Toronto Maple Leafs defeat the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.
1959 - The Montreal Canadiens win their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup with a victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
1962 - Bill Russell (Boston Celtics) scored 30 points and got 40 rebounds in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. It was the fourth straight NBA title for the Celtics.
1963 - The Toronto Maple Leafs defeat the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.
1964 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers strikes out the side on just nine pitches, the third time he had accomplished that feat in his career.
1966 - Bill Russell was named player-coach of the Boston Celtics, becoming the NBA’s first Black coach.
1981 - A minor league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings becomes the longest game in professional baseball history at 32 innings.
1982 - The Atlanta Braves set a National League record when they won their eleventh straight game from the start of the season.
1985 - Tulane University abolished its 72-year-old basketball program. The reason was charges of fixed games, drug abuse, and payments to players.
1987 - Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies hit his 500th career home run.
1991 - John Stockton of the Utah Jazz breaks his own NBA single season assists record with 1,136.
1995 - Joe Montana announced his retirement from football.
1998 - The Indianapolis Colts select Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
1999 - Wayne Gretzky (New York Rangers) played his final game in the NHL. During the game Gretzky got his 2,857th NHL point. He retired as the NHL's all-time leading scorer and holder of 61 individual records.
2005 - It was announced the NFL's "Monday Night Football" would leave ABC in 2006 for a new home with ESPN. "Monday Night Football" had been on ABC since 1970.
2008 - The NBA's Board of Governors vote 28-2 to approve the relocation of the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City.
1775 - Paul Revere rode from Charlestown to Lexington to warn Massachusetts colonists of the arrival of British troops during the American Revolution.
1865 - Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman near Durham Station in North Carolina.
1906 - The Great San Francisco Earthquake destroyed four square miles of the city and killed more than 3,000 people.
1942 - During World War II, an air squadron led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
1946 - The League of Nations ceased to exist.
1949 - The Irish Republic was proclaimed.
1954 - Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power as he became prime minister of Egypt.
1955 - Physicist Albert Einstein died at age 76 in Princeton, New Jersey.
1956 - American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco.
1968 - The iconic London Bridge was sold to an American, who had it disassembled and rebuilt in Arizona.
1978 - The U.S. Senate voted to hand over control of the Panama Canal back to Panama, effective on December 31, 1999.
1983 - A suicide bomber killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
1989 - Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.
2002 - Afghanistan's former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, returned after 29 years in exile.
2002 - Police arrested actor Robert Blake in the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, nearly a year earlier (Blake was acquitted at his criminal trial but found liable in a civil trial).
2004 - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ordered a withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq.
2007 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld a federal ban on a medical procedure that opponents called partial-birth abortion.
2011 - Standard & Poor's lowered its long-term outlook for the U.S. government fiscal health from "stable" to "negative".
2012 - American Bandstand and New Year's Rockin' Eve host Dick Clark died of heart failure at age 82.
2012 - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta apologized for gruesome photographs published in the Los Angeles Times that purported to show U.S. soldiers posing with the bloodied remains of dead insurgents in Afghanistan two years earlier.
2015 - A ship believed to be carrying more than 800 migrants from Africa sank in the Mediterranean off Libya; only about 30 people were rescued.
2017 - Turning back to the economic populism that helped drive his election campaign, President Donald Trump signed an order affecting government contracts and U.S. trade agreements, one that he said should help American workers whose jobs were threatened by skilled immigrants; the signing took place at the headquarters of tool manufacturer Snap-on Inc., in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
2019 - The final report from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation was made public; it outlined Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election but did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government. (Mueller offered no conclusion on the question of whether the president obstructed justice.)
2021 - The government announced that half of all adults in the U.S., or almost 130 million people 18 or older, had received at least one COVID-19 shot.
Birthdays
20 - Tess Mon Pere (singer)
28 - Moises Arias (actor)
29 - Nathan Sykes (singer)
30 - Chloe Bennett (actress)
32 - Britt Robertson (actress)
33 - Alia Shawkat (actress)
34 - Vanessa Kirby (actress)
35 - Ellen Woglom (actress)
35 - Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (actress/model)
37 - Tom Hughes (actor)
38 - America Ferrera (actress)
39 - Miguel Cabrera (baseball player)
43 - Kourtney Kardashian (reality star)
45 - Bryce Johnson (actor)
46 - Kevin Rankin (actor)
46 - Sean Maguire (actor)
46 - Melissa Joan Hart (actress)
51 - David Tennant (actor)
51 - Tamara Braun (actress)
52 - Lisa Locicero (actress)
54 - David Hewlett (actor)
54 - Mary Birdsong (actress)
55 - Maria Bello (actress)
59 - Eric McCormack (actor)
59 - Conan O'Brien (TV host)
60 - Jeff Dunham (comedian/ventriloquist)
61 - Jane Leeves (actress)
66 - John James (actor)
66 - Eric Roberts (actor)
66 - Melody Thomas Scott (actress)
69 - Rick Moranis (actor)
75 - Cindy Pickett (actress)
75 - Dorothy Lyman (actress)
75 - James Woods (actor)
76 - Hayley Mills (actress)
85 - Robert Hooks (actor)
92 - Clive Revill (actor)
===========================================
Today in Sports History - April 18
1923 - The first game was played in Yankee Stadium ("the House that Ruth built"), with the New York Yankees beating the Boston Red Sox, 4-1.
1942 - The Toronto Maple Leafs defeat the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.
1959 - The Montreal Canadiens win their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup with a victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
1962 - Bill Russell (Boston Celtics) scored 30 points and got 40 rebounds in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. It was the fourth straight NBA title for the Celtics.
1963 - The Toronto Maple Leafs defeat the Detroit Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup.
1964 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers strikes out the side on just nine pitches, the third time he had accomplished that feat in his career.
1966 - Bill Russell was named player-coach of the Boston Celtics, becoming the NBA’s first Black coach.
1981 - A minor league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings becomes the longest game in professional baseball history at 32 innings.
1982 - The Atlanta Braves set a National League record when they won their eleventh straight game from the start of the season.
1985 - Tulane University abolished its 72-year-old basketball program. The reason was charges of fixed games, drug abuse, and payments to players.
1987 - Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies hit his 500th career home run.
1991 - John Stockton of the Utah Jazz breaks his own NBA single season assists record with 1,136.
1995 - Joe Montana announced his retirement from football.
1998 - The Indianapolis Colts select Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
1999 - Wayne Gretzky (New York Rangers) played his final game in the NHL. During the game Gretzky got his 2,857th NHL point. He retired as the NHL's all-time leading scorer and holder of 61 individual records.
2005 - It was announced the NFL's "Monday Night Football" would leave ABC in 2006 for a new home with ESPN. "Monday Night Football" had been on ABC since 1970.
2008 - The NBA's Board of Governors vote 28-2 to approve the relocation of the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City.
