Osun Defender History Corner: November 18th In Focus

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

November 18th, 326

The old St. Peter’s Basilica is consecrated in Rome.

November 18th, 1307

William Tell shoots an apple off his son’s head.

November 18th, 1493

Christopher Columbus first sights the island now known as Puerto Rico.

November 18th, 1803

The Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, is fought.

November 18th, 1886

Friedrich Soennecken first patents the hole punch.

November 18th, 1883

The U.S. and Canada adopt a system of standard time zones.

November 18th, 1926

George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, “I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.”

November 18th, 1928

Mickey Mouse makes his debut in the animated short film “Steamboat Willie.”

November 18th, 1929

Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake, centered on the Grand Banks, breaks 12 transatlantic undersea telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula.

November 18th, 1943

World War II: The Royal Air Force begins Operation Hydra, the first air raid of the Turkish cities of Ankara and Afyonkarahisar.

November 18th, 1961

United States President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.

November 18th, 1963

The first push-button telephone goes into service.

November 18th, 1970

U.S. President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for $155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government.

November 18th, 1978

Jonestown Massacre: In Guyana, over 900 members of the Peoples Temple are murdered or commit suicide under the leadership of Jim Jones.

November 18th, 1987

King’s Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city’s busiest underground station.

November 18th, 1991

After an 87-day siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar capitulates to the Yugoslav People’s Army and allied Serb paramilitary forces.

November 18th, 1993

In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.

November 18th, 2002

Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.

November 18th, 2003

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules 4-3 in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and gives the state legislature 180 days to change the law.

November 18th, 2013

NASA launches the MAVEN probe to Mars.

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