Today In History
On The Way To Today... April 18th
1328 - Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV, or Louis the Bavarian, deposed
Pope
John XXII in Rome in a quarrel over who exercised superior authority.
Peter of Corbara was elected anti-pope as Nicholas V.
1775 - Paul Revere rode from Charlestown to Lexington to warn the
Massachussetts colonists of the arrival of British troops at the start
of the American Revolution.
1796 - In New York City, Benjamin Carr's "The Archers", the first
opera written by an American composer, was performed.
1846 - R.E. House of New York City patented the telegraph ticker.
1847 - In the American-Mexican War, Gen. Winfield Scott with 8,500 men
attacked and defeated Gen. Santa Anna with 12,000 men at the battle of
Cerro-Gordo.
1877 - Charles Cros wrote a paper describing the process of recording
and reproducing sound. In France, Cros is though of as the inventor of
the
phonograph, but in the United States, Thomas Edison is credited.
1895 - New York State passed an act establishing free public baths
that were open 14 hours a day, providing patrons with hot and cold
water.
1906 - At 5:13 am the city of San Francisco, California was struck by
an enormous earthquake. Most of the damage came not from the shock but
from the fire that followed. Flames swept the city for four days.
Although an exact count was impossible, it is known that more than
1000 people died and about 25,000 buildings were destroyed.
1909 - 15th century French heroine Joan of Arc was beatified at a
ceremony at the Vatican.
1910 - Walter R. Brookins made the first night time airplane flight,
as he flew over Montgomery, Alabama.
1924 - The first "Crossword Puzzle Book" was published by Simon and
Schuster, Inc.
1929 - On Brunswick Records, Red Nichols and His Five Pennies recorded
the Glenn Miller arrangement of "Indiana". Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa
and Jack Teagarden were part of the recording session held in New York
City.
1934 - J.F. Cantrell opened the first "washateria" in Fort Worth,
Texas, with a grand total of four machines. This was the first
laundromat.
1942 - In World War II, U.S. aircraft commanded by James Doolittle
bombed Tokyo for the first time as well as Yokohama and Nagoya.
1945 - Ernie Pyle, one of the most famous war correspondents of World
War
II, was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ii Shima
in the Pacific. The 1945 film "G.I. Joe" was about his coverage of the
Italian campaign.
1946 - The League of Nations dissolved itself and all its assets were
handed over to the United Nations.
1949 - Southern Ireland came into being with the passing of the
Republic of Ireland Act.
1954 - Gamal Abdel Nasser became prime minister of Egypt.
1968 - London Bridge was sold to American Robert McCullough for 1
million pounds. It was later re-erected in Arizona.
1978 - The United States Senate ratified the second Panama Canal
Treaty, providing for the operation and defense of the canal until
1999.
1980 - Rhodesia gained legal independence as Zimbabwe under President
Canaan Banana.
1983 - A suicide bomb shattered the United States embassy in Beirut,
killing at least 63 people.
1996 - Britain withdrew an expulsion order on Saudi dissident Mohammed
al
-Masari, whose presence had threatened lucrative arms deals with
Riyadh, and said he could stay in the country for four more years.
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