November 18 facts for kids

This day, November 18th, is packed with interesting events from history, famous birthdays, and important holidays around the world. Let's explore some of the cool things that happened on this date!

Events That Shaped History

Ancient Times and the Middle Ages (Before 1600)

• 326 – The original old St. Peter's Basilica, a very important church in Rome, was officially opened by Pope Sylvester I.
• 401 – The Visigoths, a powerful group led by King Alaric I, crossed the Alps mountains and entered northern Italy.
• 1095 – The Council of Clermont began. This meeting, called by Pope Urban II, led to the start of the First Crusade, a series of religious wars to the Holy Land.
• 1210 – Pope Innocent III took a big step by excommunicating Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV. This meant Otto was kicked out of the church for invading the Kingdom of Sicily after promising not to.
• 1421 – A terrible event known as St Elizabeth's flood happened in the Netherlands. A dike broke, causing massive flooding and leading to the deaths of about 10,000 people.
• 1493 – Explorer Christopher Columbus saw the island now known as Puerto Rico for the very first time.

From the 1600s to the 1900s

• 1626 – The new and much larger St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was officially opened. It's still a famous landmark today!
• 1730 – Frederick the Great, who would later become a famous king of Prussia, was pardoned by his father and set free.
• 1803 – The Battle of Vertières, the last major fight of the Haitian Revolution, took place. This battle led to Haiti becoming the first free black republic in the Western Hemisphere.
• 1863 – King Christian IX of Denmark signed a new law that made Schleswig part of Denmark. This decision caused problems and led to a war in 1864.
• 1867 – A strong earthquake hit the Virgin Islands, causing a huge tsunami (a giant ocean wave) that killed many people in the Caribbean.
• 1872 – Susan B. Anthony, a brave woman fighting for women's rights, was arrested along with 14 other women for voting illegally in the United States presidential election.
• 1883 – American and Canadian railroads started using five standard time zones. This made travel and scheduling much easier, ending the confusion of thousands of different local times.

The 20th and 21st Centuries

• 1903 – The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty was signed, giving the United States special rights over the land where the Panama Canal Zone would be built.
• 1905 – Prince Carl of Denmark became King Haakon VII of Norway, marking an important moment for Norway's independence.
• 1910 – On what became known as Black Friday, hundreds of suffragettes marched to the British Parliament in London to demand voting rights for women.
• 1916 – World War I: The terrible Battle of the Somme in France, which had started on July 1st, was finally called off by British commander Douglas Haig.
• 1918 – Latvia declared its independence from Russia, becoming its own country.
• 1928 – The animated short Steamboat Willie was released. This was a big deal because it was the first cartoon with fully synchronized sound!
• 1929 – The Grand Banks earthquake happened off the coast of Newfoundland. This powerful underwater earthquake caused a tsunami that damaged many communities.
• 1940 – World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano met to talk about Italy's difficult invasion of Greece.
• 1947 – The Ballantyne's Department Store fire in Christchurch, New Zealand, killed 41 people. It was the worst fire disaster in New Zealand's history.
• 1949 – The Iva Valley Shooting occurred in Nigeria. After coal miners went on strike for their wages, police shot and killed 21 miners and wounded 51 others.
• 1961 – United States President John F. Kennedy sent 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
• 1963 – The very first push-button telephone was put into service, making it easier to dial numbers.
• 1971 – Oman declared its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1978 – The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet made its first flight in Maryland, United States.
• 1985 – The first comic strip of Calvin and Hobbes, a beloved comic, was published in ten newspapers.
• 1987 – The King's Cross fire in London caused 31 deaths at the busy King's Cross St Pancras underground station.
• 1991 – After a long siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar surrendered to the Yugoslav People's Army.
• 1993 – In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was approved. This agreement aimed to make trade easier between the US, Canada, and Mexico.
• 1993 – In South Africa, 21 political parties agreed on a new constitution. This important step expanded voting rights and helped end white minority rule.
• 1999 – The Aggie Bonfire at Texas A&M University collapsed, sadly killing 12 students and injuring 27 others.
• 2002 – United Nations weapons inspectors, led by Hans Blix, arrived in Iraq to search for weapons.
• 2003 – The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was against the law. This made Massachusetts the first state in the US to allow same-sex couples to marry.
• 2013 – NASA launched the MAVEN probe, a spacecraft designed to study the atmosphere of Mars.
• 2020 – The mysterious Utah monolith, a tall metal structure, was discovered by state biologists in Utah.

People Born on This Day

Historical Figures (Before 1900)

• 709 – Emperor Kōnin of Japan was born.
• 1522 – Lamoral, Count of Egmont, a famous nobleman, was born.
• 1787 – Louis Daguerre, a French artist and inventor, known for his work in photography, was born.
• 1836 – W. S. Gilbert, an English playwright and poet, famous for his comic operas with Arthur Sullivan, was born.
• 1860 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski, a Polish pianist, composer, and politician who became Prime Minister of Poland, was born.
• 1882 – Wyndham Lewis, an English painter and critic, was born.
• 1882 – Frances Gertrude McGill, a pioneering Canadian forensic pathologist (someone who studies bodies to solve crimes), was born.
• 1897 – Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett, an English physicist and Nobel Prize winner, was born.

Notable People (1900-Present)

• 1901 – George Gallup, an American statistician who created the Gallup Poll, was born.
• 1906 – Alec Issigonis, a Greek-English car designer who created the famous Mini car, was born.
• 1906 – George Wald, an American neurobiologist and Nobel Prize winner, was born.
• 1909 – Johnny Mercer, an American singer-songwriter who co-founded Capitol Records, was born.
• 1917 – Pedro Infante, a beloved Mexican actor and singer, was born.
• 1923 – Alan Shepard, a famous American astronaut, was born.
• 1927 – Hank Ballard, an American R&B singer-songwriter, was born.
• 1939 – Margaret Atwood, a well-known Canadian author, was born.
• 1939 – Amanda Lear, a Hong Kong-French singer-songwriter and actress, was born.
• 1941 – David Hemmings, an English actor and director, was born.
• 1942 – Linda Evans, an American actress, was born.
• 1945 – Mahinda Rajapaksa, a Sri Lankan lawyer and politician who became President of Sri Lanka, was born.
• 1952 – Delroy Lindo, an English-American actor and director, was born.
• 1953 – Alan Moore, an English author known for his comic books, was born.
• 1953 – Kevin Nealon, an American comedian and actor, was born.
• 1956 – Warren Moon, a famous American football player, was born.
• 1960 – Kim Wilde, an English singer-songwriter, was born.
• 1961 – Steven Moffat, a Scottish screenwriter and producer, known for TV shows like Doctor Who, was born.
• 1962 – Kirk Hammett, the guitarist for the famous thrash metal band Metallica, was born.
• 1963 – Peter Schmeichel, a Danish footballer and sportscaster, was born.
• 1968 – Owen Wilson, an American actor, was born.
• 1970 – Megyn Kelly, an American lawyer and journalist, was born.
• 1974 – Chloë Sevigny, an American actress and model, was born.
• 1975 – Anthony McPartlin, an English comedian and actor, was born.
• 1975 – David Ortiz, a Dominican-American baseball player, was born.
• 1981 – Nasim Pedrad, an Iranian-American actress, was born.
• 1982 – Justin Knapp, an American Wikipedia editor, was born.
• 1985 – Allyson Felix, a very successful American sprinter, was born.
• 1987 – Jake Abel, an American actor, was born.
• 1992 – Nathan Kress, an American actor and director, was born.

People Who Passed Away on This Day

Historical Figures (Before 1900)

• 942 – Odo of Cluny, a Frankish abbot and saint, passed away.
• 1170 – Albert the Bear, a German margrave, passed away.
• 1482 – Gedik Ahmed Pasha, an Ottoman politician and Grand Vizier, passed away.
• 1590 – George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, an English commander, passed away.
• 1830 – Adam Weishaupt, a German philosopher who founded the Illuminati, passed away.
• 1886 – Chester A. Arthur, the 21st President of the United States, passed away.

Notable People (1900-Present)

• 1922 – Marcel Proust, a famous French author, passed away.
• 1941 – Walther Nernst, a German chemist and Nobel Prize winner, passed away.
• 1941 – Chris Watson, the 3rd Prime Minister of Australia, passed away.
• 1952 – Paul Éluard, a French poet, passed away.
• 1962 – Niels Bohr, a Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner, known for his work on atomic structure, passed away.
• 1965 – Henry A. Wallace, the 33rd Vice President of the United States, passed away.
• 1969 – Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., an American businessman and diplomat, and father of President John F. Kennedy, passed away.
• 1976 – Man Ray, a famous American-French photographer and painter, passed away.
• 1978 – Leo Ryan, an American politician, passed away.
• 1994 – Cab Calloway, an American singer-songwriter and bandleader, passed away.
• 1999 – Paul Bowles, an American composer and author, passed away.
• 2002 – James Coburn, an American actor, passed away.
• 2003 – Michael Kamen, an American composer and conductor, passed away.
• 2015 – Jonah Lomu, a legendary New Zealand rugby player, passed away.
• 2016 – Sharon Jones, an American soul and funk singer, passed away.
• 2017 – Malcolm Young, the Scottish-Australian guitarist for the band AC/DC, passed away.
• 2020 – Kirby Morrow, a Canadian actor and voice artist, passed away.

Holidays and Celebrations

• Day of Army and Victory (Haiti)
• Independence Day (Morocco), celebrating Morocco's independence from France and Spain in 1956.
• National Day (Oman)
• Proclamation Day of the Republic of Latvia, celebrating Latvia's independence from Russia in 1918.
• Remembrance Day of the Sacrifice of Vukovar in 1991 (Croatia)

See also

In Spanish: 18 de noviembre para niños