Cousin Sam: June 18 in history

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Events

618 – Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang Dynasty rule over China.

860 – Byzantine–Rus' War: A fleet of about 200 Rus' vessels sails into the Bosphorus and starts pillaging the suburbs of the Byzantine capital Constantinople.

1053 – Battle of Civitate: Three thousand horsemen of Norman Count Humphrey rout the troops of Pope Leo IX.

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.

1264 – The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.

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.

1633 – Charles I, is crowned King of Scots at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh.

1684 – The charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is revoked via a scire facias writ issued by an English court.

1757 – Battle of Kolín between Prussian forces under Frederick the Great and an Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven 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, Pennsylvania.

1799 – Action of 18 June 1799: A frigate squadron under Rear-admiral Perrée is captured by the British fleet under Lord Keith

1812 – Following a vote in the Senate and the House of Representatives to declare war on Great Britain, Canada, and Ireland. President James Madison signed the declaration into law, beginning the War of 1812. The war would last for more than two years and would see the United States teetering on the brink of extinction. Many battles would be fought throughout the United States and Canada, and by the end of the war, nearly 4,000 Americans and British troops would be dead. Additionally, Washington D.C. would be left in ruins, with the White House and the Capital Building burned.

1815 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.

1830 – French invasion of Algeria.

1858 – Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.

1859 – First ascent of Aletschhorn, second summit of the Bernese Alps.

1864 – Civil War: Union war hero Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was severely wounded during the Petersburg Campaign.

1873 – Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election in Rochester, NY.

1887 – The Reinsurance Treaty between Germany and Russia is signed.

1900 – Empress Dowager Longyu of China orders all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families.

1908 – Japanese immigration to Brazil begins when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the ship Kasato-Maru.

1908 – The University of the Philippines is established.

1923 – Checker Taxi puts its first taxi on the streets.

1928 – Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she is a passenger; Wilmer Stultz is the pilot and Lou Gordon the mechanic).

1930 – Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Franklin Institute are held.

1935 – Police in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada clash with striking longshoremen, resulting in a total 60 injuries and 24 arrests.

1940 – Appeal of June 18 by Charles de Gaulle.

1940 – "Finest Hour" speech by Winston Churchill.

1945 – William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") is charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II.

1946 – Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, a Socialist, calls for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa. A road is named after this date in Panjim.

1948 – Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, New York.

1953 – The Egyptian Revolution of 1952 ends with the overthrow of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty and the declaration of the Republic of Egypt.

1953 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns near Tachikawa, Japan, killing 129.

1954 – Pierre Mendès-France becomes Prime Minister of France.

1960 – Golfer Arnold Palmer makes the greatest comeback in the history of the U.S. Open when he makes up a 7-stroke deficit in the final round to win by 2 strokes over Jack Nicklaus.

1965 – Vietnam War: The United States uses B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam.

1971 – President Richard Nixon declares that illegal drugs are "public enemy number one", which becomes popularized as the "War on Drugs".

1972 – Staines air disaster: One hundred eighteen are killed when a BEA H.S. Trident crashes two minutes after take off from London Heathrow Airport.

1979 – SALT II is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.

1981 – The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology, makes its first flight.

1981 – The Treaty of Basseterre is signed, creating the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.

1983 – Space Shuttle program: STS-7: Astronaut Sally Ride became America’s first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger on a six-day mission.

1983 – Mona Mahmudnizhad together with nine other Bahá'í women, is sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran because of her Bahá'í Faith.

1984 – A major clash between about 5,000 police and a similar number of miners takes place at Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike.

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. It was crowded with people watching the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

2006 – The first Kazakh space satellite, KazSat is launched.

2007 – The Charleston Sofa Super Store fire happened in Charleston, South Carolina killing nine firefighters.

2009 – The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a NASA robotic spacecraft is launched.

Saints' Days and Holy Days

Traditional Western

Mark and Marcellian, Martyrs.

Contemporary Western

Elizabeth of Schönau
Gregorio Barbarigo
Leontius, Hypatius and Theodulus
Marina the Monk (Maronite Church, Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria)

Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran

Bernard Mizeki (Anglican and Episcopal Church)

Eastern Orthodox

June 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Saints

Martyrs Leontius, Hypatius and Theodulus at Tripoli in Syria (70-79)
Saint Leontius, clairvoyant of Dionysiou monastery on Mount Athos (1605)
Martyr Aetherus of Nicomedia
Saint Leontius of the Kiev Caves, canonarch (16th century)
Monk Erasmus
Saint Leontius the Shepherd, monk