On January 18th...

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1535 Francisco Pizarro founded Lima, Peru.

1591 King Naresuan of Siam killed Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat.

1671 Pirate Henry Morgan captured Panama City, Panama, from its Spanish defenders.

1701 Frederick I and Sophie Charlotte of Hanover were crowned King and Queen of Prussia.

1777 San Jose, California, was founded.

1778 Captain James Cook discovered the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands.

1779 Author Peter Mark Roget was born.

1782 Daniel Webster, U. S. Representative, Senator, and Secretary of State, was born.

1788 The first convicts from England arrived at Botany Bay, Australia.

1793 King Louis XVI of France was found guilty of treason.

1813 Inventor Joseph Glidden was born.

1862 The Confederate Territory of Arizona was formed.
1862 John Tyler, 10th President of the United States, died.

1866 Wesley College was established in Melbourne, Australia.

1871 Otto von Bismarck was proclaimed the first Chancellor of Germany.

1882 Playwright and author Alan Alexander Milne was born.

1886 Modern field hockey was born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.

1892 Oliver Hardy, half of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team, was born.

1896 The first demonstration of an X-ray machine in the United States was given in New York City, New York.

1903 The first transatlantic radio transmission to originate in the United States was sent by a transmitter in Massachusetts.

1904 Actor Cary Grant was born.

1913 Entertainer Danny Kaye was born.

1915 A train crash at Colima-Guadalajara, Mexico, killed about 600 people.

1919 The Versailles Peace Conference opened.
1919 Bentley Motors Limited was founded.

1927 Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA, died.

1930 Maria de Lurdes Pintassilgo, Prime Minister of Portugal, was born.

1933 White Sands National Monument was created in New Mexico.

1936 Author Rudyard Kipling died.

1937 Irish politician John Hume was born.

1941 Singer Bobby Goldsboro was born.
1941 Singer David Ruffin was born.

1943 The United States banned pre-sliced bread to reduce bakery demand for metal parts.

1945 Warsaw, Poland, was liberated by the Soviet Army.

1948 The University of Ibadab (Nigeria) opened.
1948 Ted Mack's "Original Amateur Hour"premiered on the DuMont Network.

1951 Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea erupted, killing 2,942 persons.
1951 The NFL ruled tackles, guards, and centers ineligible to receive a forward pass.

1952 Curly Howard, one of the original Three Stooges, died.

1955 Actor Kevin Costner was born.

1956 The German Democratic Republic formed its own army.

1957 Three U. S. Air Force Stratofortresses completed a record non-stop flight around the world in 45 hours 19 minutes.

1958 William O'Ree became the first black player in the National Hockey League, with the Boston Bruins.
1958 Lumbee Indians raided a Ku Klux Klan rally near Maxton, North Carolina.

1960 The U. S. Supreme Court held as unconstitutional military trials for civilian employees and dependents of armed forces serving overseas in peacetime.
1960 The Kenya Constitutional Convention opened in London, England.
1960 A Capitol Airlines Viscount crashed in fog near Holdcroft, Virginia, killing all 50 persons aboard.

1962 The deposed Council of State of the Dominican Republic regained control of the country.

1963 Several British colonies on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula were combined into the Federation of South Arabia.

1969 A United Airlines 727 crashed into Santa Monica Bay soon after taking off from Los Angeles International Airport, killing all 38 persons aboard.
1969 Actor Jesse L. Martin was born.

1974 "Six-Million Dollar Man" premiered on ABC-TV.

1975 "Jeffersons" premiered on CBS-TV.

1976 The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 21-17, in Miami, Florida, to win Super Bowl X.

1977 A train crash in Sydney, Australia, killed 83 persons.

1983 The International Olympic Committee restored the medals it had taken away from Jim Thorpe 70 years earlier.

1991 Eastern Air Lines went out of business.

1997 Boerge Ousland became the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.

2003 Actor Richard Crenna died.

2005 The Airbus A380 was unveiled in France.

2008 Bobby Fischer, chess grandmaster, died.

2011 Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps, died.

2016 Musician Glenn Frey died.

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This page was last updated on January 18, 2019.