July 18
64 - A great fire began that ultimately destroyed most of Rome. The emperor Nero blamed the blaze on Christians and began the first Roman persecution of them.
1536 - The English Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in England.
1863 - During the Civil War, Union troops spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, made up of Black soldiers, charged Confederate-held Fort Wagner on Morris Island in South Carolina. The Confederates were able to rebel the Northerners, who suffered heavy losses; the 54th's commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, was among those killed in action.
1918 - South African anti-apartheid leader and president Nelson Mandela was born in the village of Mvezo.
1925 - The first volume of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf (My Struggle)" was published.
1936 - The Spanish Civil War began.
1944 - Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister because of setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.
1944 - American forces in France captured the Normandy town of St. Lo during World War II.
1947 - President Harry S. Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act into law, which placed the Speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in line of succession after the vice president, followed by the members of the president's cabinet.
1964 - Nearly a week of rioting erupted in New York's Harlem neighborhood following the fatal police shooting of a Black teenager, James Powell, two days earlier.
1969 - Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) left a party on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard with Mary Jo Kopechne, age 28; Kennedy's car later went off a bridge and into the water. Kennedy was able to escape but Kopechne drowned.
1984 - Gunman James Huberty opened fire at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California, killing 21 people before being shot dead by police.
1984 - Walter F. Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination in San Francisco.
1994 - A bomb hidden in a van destroyed a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85.
1994 - Tutsi rebels declared an end to Rwanda's 14-week-old civil war.
2005 - An unrepentant Eric Rudolph was sentenced in Birmingham, Alabama, to life in prison for an abortion clinic bombing that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse.
2013 - Once the very symbol of American industrial might, Detroit became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, its finances ravaged and its neighborhoods hollowed out by a long, slow decline in population and auto manufacturing.
2013 - Romanian investigators found the remains of paint, canvas and nails in the oven of a woman whose son was charged with stealing seven paintings by Picasso, Monet and Matisse from a Dutch gallery in October 2012. Three Romanian men would later plead guilty to the thefts.
2018 - The 12 Thai youth soccer teammates and their coach who were trapped in a flooded cave for more than two weeks were released from the hospital.
2018 - European regulators fined Google a record $5 billion for forcing cellphone makers that use the company's Android operating system to install Google's search and browser apps.
2018 - California's Supreme Court decided that a measure to divide the state into three parts would not appear on the November ballot.
2022 - Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, said he planned to retire by the end of President Joe Biden's term in January 2025. Fauci, 81, was appointed director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984 and advised seven presidents, leading research in HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, Ebola, Zika and the coronavirus.
Birthdays
29 - Taylor Russell (actress)
33 - Mandy Rose (professional wrestler/model)
37 - Travis Milne (actor)
38 - James Norton (actor)
38 - Chace Crawford (actor)
41 - Priyanka Chopra (actress)
41 - Ryan Cabrera (singer)
42 - Michiel Huisman (actor)
43 - Kristen Bell (actress)
44 - Jason Weaver (actor)
47 - Elsa Pataky (actress/model)
48 - M.I.A. (singer)
51 - Eddie Matos (actor)
51 - Elizabeth Cook (singer)
52 - Penny Hardaway (basketball player)
55 - Grant Bowler (actor)
56 - Vin Diesel (actor)
59 - Wendy Williams (TV host)
61 - Jack Irons (musician)
62 - Elizabeth McGovern (actress)
63 - Anne-Marie Johnson (actress)
66 - Nick Faldo (golfer)
67 - Audrey Landers (actress)
69 - Ricky Skaggs (singer)
72 - Margo Martindale (actress)
73 - Richard Branson (entrepreneur)
82 - Martha Reeves (singer)
83 - Joe Torre (baseball player/manager)
83 - James Brolin (actor)
94 - Dick Button (figure skater)
=======================================
Today in Sports History - July 18
1921 - Babe Ruth hits his 139th career home run to become MLB's all-time leader, surpassing Roger Connor.
1927 - Ty Cobb set a major league baseball record by getting his 4,000th career hit. He hit 4,191 before he retired in 1928.
1960 - The National League votes to expand with two new franchises, one in Houston and one in New York City.
1970 - Willie Mays becomes the 10th player in MLB history with 3,000 career hits.
1970 - Ron Hunt of the San Francisco Giants was hit by a pitch for a record 119th time in his career.
1976 - Fourteen-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci earned the first perfect score, a 10, at the Olympic Games and went on to score six more 10s and won three gold medals.
1982 - Tom Watson wins his fourth British Open.
1999 - David Cone of the New York Yankees threw the 16th perfect game in MLB history in a 6-0 win over the Montreal Expos.
2020 - Canadian officials said the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team would not be able to play its home games in Toronto during the shortened 2020 season because it wasn't safe for players to travel back and forth from the United States. (The Blue Jays would play "home" games in the ballpark of their minor league affiliate in Buffalo, New York.)
64 - A great fire began that ultimately destroyed most of Rome. The emperor Nero blamed the blaze on Christians and began the first Roman persecution of them.
1536 - The English Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in England.
1863 - During the Civil War, Union troops spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, made up of Black soldiers, charged Confederate-held Fort Wagner on Morris Island in South Carolina. The Confederates were able to rebel the Northerners, who suffered heavy losses; the 54th's commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, was among those killed in action.
1918 - South African anti-apartheid leader and president Nelson Mandela was born in the village of Mvezo.
1925 - The first volume of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf (My Struggle)" was published.
1936 - The Spanish Civil War began.
1944 - Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister because of setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.
1944 - American forces in France captured the Normandy town of St. Lo during World War II.
1947 - President Harry S. Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act into law, which placed the Speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in line of succession after the vice president, followed by the members of the president's cabinet.
1964 - Nearly a week of rioting erupted in New York's Harlem neighborhood following the fatal police shooting of a Black teenager, James Powell, two days earlier.
1969 - Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) left a party on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard with Mary Jo Kopechne, age 28; Kennedy's car later went off a bridge and into the water. Kennedy was able to escape but Kopechne drowned.
1984 - Gunman James Huberty opened fire at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California, killing 21 people before being shot dead by police.
1984 - Walter F. Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination in San Francisco.
1994 - A bomb hidden in a van destroyed a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85.
1994 - Tutsi rebels declared an end to Rwanda's 14-week-old civil war.
2005 - An unrepentant Eric Rudolph was sentenced in Birmingham, Alabama, to life in prison for an abortion clinic bombing that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse.
2013 - Once the very symbol of American industrial might, Detroit became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, its finances ravaged and its neighborhoods hollowed out by a long, slow decline in population and auto manufacturing.
2013 - Romanian investigators found the remains of paint, canvas and nails in the oven of a woman whose son was charged with stealing seven paintings by Picasso, Monet and Matisse from a Dutch gallery in October 2012. Three Romanian men would later plead guilty to the thefts.
2018 - The 12 Thai youth soccer teammates and their coach who were trapped in a flooded cave for more than two weeks were released from the hospital.
2018 - European regulators fined Google a record $5 billion for forcing cellphone makers that use the company's Android operating system to install Google's search and browser apps.
2018 - California's Supreme Court decided that a measure to divide the state into three parts would not appear on the November ballot.
2022 - Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, said he planned to retire by the end of President Joe Biden's term in January 2025. Fauci, 81, was appointed director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984 and advised seven presidents, leading research in HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, Ebola, Zika and the coronavirus.
Birthdays
29 - Taylor Russell (actress)
33 - Mandy Rose (professional wrestler/model)
37 - Travis Milne (actor)
38 - James Norton (actor)
38 - Chace Crawford (actor)
41 - Priyanka Chopra (actress)
41 - Ryan Cabrera (singer)
42 - Michiel Huisman (actor)
43 - Kristen Bell (actress)
44 - Jason Weaver (actor)
47 - Elsa Pataky (actress/model)
48 - M.I.A. (singer)
51 - Eddie Matos (actor)
51 - Elizabeth Cook (singer)
52 - Penny Hardaway (basketball player)
55 - Grant Bowler (actor)
56 - Vin Diesel (actor)
59 - Wendy Williams (TV host)
61 - Jack Irons (musician)
62 - Elizabeth McGovern (actress)
63 - Anne-Marie Johnson (actress)
66 - Nick Faldo (golfer)
67 - Audrey Landers (actress)
69 - Ricky Skaggs (singer)
72 - Margo Martindale (actress)
73 - Richard Branson (entrepreneur)
82 - Martha Reeves (singer)
83 - Joe Torre (baseball player/manager)
83 - James Brolin (actor)
94 - Dick Button (figure skater)
=======================================
Today in Sports History - July 18
1921 - Babe Ruth hits his 139th career home run to become MLB's all-time leader, surpassing Roger Connor.
1927 - Ty Cobb set a major league baseball record by getting his 4,000th career hit. He hit 4,191 before he retired in 1928.
1960 - The National League votes to expand with two new franchises, one in Houston and one in New York City.
1970 - Willie Mays becomes the 10th player in MLB history with 3,000 career hits.
1970 - Ron Hunt of the San Francisco Giants was hit by a pitch for a record 119th time in his career.
1976 - Fourteen-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci earned the first perfect score, a 10, at the Olympic Games and went on to score six more 10s and won three gold medals.
1982 - Tom Watson wins his fourth British Open.
1999 - David Cone of the New York Yankees threw the 16th perfect game in MLB history in a 6-0 win over the Montreal Expos.
2020 - Canadian officials said the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team would not be able to play its home games in Toronto during the shortened 2020 season because it wasn't safe for players to travel back and forth from the United States. (The Blue Jays would play "home" games in the ballpark of their minor league affiliate in Buffalo, New York.)
