June 18
1178 Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the
Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon's distance from the Earth (on the order of meters) are a result of this collision.
1429 French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the
Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the
Hundred Years' War.
1767
Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sights
Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island.
1778 American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia.
1812
War of 1812: The U.S. Congress declares war on Great Britain, Canada, and Ireland.
1815
Napoleonic Wars: The
Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blόcher forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.
1873
Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.
1923
Checker Taxi puts its first taxi on the streets.
1930 Groundbreaking ceremonies for the
Franklin Institute are held.
1940 Charles de Gaulle makes his
Appeal of 18 June.
"Finest Hour" speech by Winston Churchill.
1948
Columbia Records introduces the
long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
1971 President Richard Nixon declares that illegal drugs are "public enemy number one", which becomes popularized as the "
War on Drugs".
1974 - Peter Hoorelbeke drummer with US band
Rare Earth was arrested after a concert for throwing his drumsticks into the crowd.
1977,
Johnny Rotten and
Paul Cook of the
Sex Pistols were stabbed and beaten when they were attacked in a car park outside a London pub. They objected to the Pistols' anti-monarchist song
'God Save the Queen'. The next day, another member of the Pistols, [possibly Jamie Reed, there is a misprint in the article], was beaten by a gang armed with iron pipes.
1981 The
Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk
, the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology, makes its first flight.
1983 Space Shuttle program:
STS-7, Astronaut
Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
Swiss band
Yello (
"Oh Yeah") released the first three- dimensional picture disc, complete with 3-D glasses.
1994 The Troubles: Members of the
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) attack a crowded pub with assault rifles in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland. Six Catholic civilians are killed and five wounded.
2010 - John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to The Beatles song
'A Day In The Life' sold for $1.2m (£810,000) at an auction at Sotheby's in New York.
Births
1854 E. W. Scripps; 1877 James Montgomery Flagg; 1886 George Mallory; 1903 Jeanette MacDonald; 1913 Sammy Cahn, Robert Mondavi; 1914 E. G. Marshall; 1915
Red Adair; 1917 Richard Boone; 1936 Barack Obama Sr.; 1939 Lou Brock; 1942 Roger Ebert, Paul McCartney; 1944 Sandy Posey; 1952 Carol Kane; 1956 Brian Benben; 1961 Randy Spears (porn actor/director); 1976 Blake Shelton
Deaths
1959 Ethel Barrymore; 1982 John Cheever; 1992 Peter Allen; 2000 Nancy Marchand (played 'Tony Soprano's' mother on
"The Sopranos"); 2002 Jack Buck; 2011 Clarence Clemons