Osun Defender History Corner: March 18 In Focus

Today, on the history corner, we take a trip in the realm of flashbacks and recall some events that marked this day.

March 18, 235

Maximinus Thrax is proclaimed emperor. He is the first foreigner to hold the Roman throne.

March 18, 1314

Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.

March 18, 1438

Albert II of Habsburg becomes Holy Roman Emperor.

March 18, 1741

New York governor George Clarke’s complex at Fort George is burned in an arson attack, starting the New York Conspiracy of 1741.

March 18, 1850

American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.

March 18, 1921

The second Peace of Riga is signed between Poland and the Soviet Union.

March 18, 1922

In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience against British rule.

March 18, 1937

Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republicans and anarchists in Catalonia declare the establishment of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party.

March 18, 1940

World War II: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.

March 18, 1965

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.

March 18, 1970

The United States Postal Service is created as an independent agency.

March 18, 1980

At Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, 50 people are killed in an explosion of a Vostok-2M rocket on its launch pad during a fueling operation.

March 18, 1990

Twelve paintings, collectively worth $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. This remains the largest unsolved art theft in history.

March 18, 2003

FBI agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama, on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company’s top executives.

March 18, 2018

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announces that he will impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, sparking fears of a global trade war.

March 18, 2020

The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.

March 18, 2021

China’s National People’s Congress approves sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system, effectively reducing democratic representation in the city.

March 18, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a decree recognizing the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, escalating tensions in the region.

Please note that these are just a few historical events that happened on March 18. History is full of numerous other significant events on this day, ranging from politics and warfare to cultural and scientific milestones.