September 18 facts for kids

September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 104 days remain until the end of the year. September 18th is a day filled with many important events throughout history, from ancient battles and the start of famous companies to scientific discoveries and major political changes. Many notable people were also born or passed away on this day. Let's explore some of the most interesting moments and figures connected to September 18th!

Historical Events

Ancient Times and Middle Ages

• 96 – Emperor Domitian was killed in a plot by his wife and two guards. After this, Nerva was named the new emperor of Rome.
• 324 – Constantine the Great won a big battle against Licinius at Chrysopolis. This victory made Constantine the only ruler of the Roman Empire.
• 1048 – A combined army from the Byzantine Empire and Georgia fought against a Seljuq army in the Battle of Kapetron.
• 1066 – King Harald Hardrada of Norway landed in England with Tostig Godwinson. This marked the beginning of his invasion of England.
• 1180 – Philip Augustus became the King of France when he was just fifteen years old.
• 1454 – During the Thirteen Years' War, the Polish army was defeated by the Teutonic knights in the Battle of Chojnice.
• 1544 – The expedition led by Juan Bautista Pastene reached San Pedro Bay in southern Chile. They claimed this land for Spain.

17th to 19th Centuries

• 1714 – George I arrived in Great Britain. He had become king on August 1st.
• 1739 – The Treaty of Belgrade was signed. This agreement meant that Austria gave up lands south of the Sava and Danube rivers to the Ottoman Empire.
• 1759 – During the French and Indian War, the Articles of Capitulation of Quebec were signed. This document marked the surrender of Quebec.
• 1793 – The first stone for the United States Capitol building was laid by George Washington.
• 1809 – The Royal Opera House in London opened its doors.
• 1810 – The First Government Junta was formed in Chile. Although it was meant to rule only during a war in Spain, it was the first step towards Chile's independence. This day is celebrated as a national holiday in Chile.
• 1812 – The Great Fire of Moscow finally died down after burning more than three-quarters of the city. Napoleon returned to the Moscow Kremlin, which had been saved from the fire.
• 1837 – Tiffany & Co. (originally called Tiffany & Young) was started by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City. It began as a "stationery and fancy goods emporium."
• 1850 – The U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
• 1851 – The first edition of The New-York Daily Times was published. This newspaper later became The New York Times.
• 1860 – During the Second Opium War, British and French forces defeated a larger Chinese army at Zhangjiawan as they marched towards Beijing.
• 1862 – The Confederate States celebrated Thanksgiving Day for the first and only time.
• 1863 – The American Civil War's Battle of Chickamauga began. This battle had the second-highest number of casualties of any Civil War battle, after Gettysburg.
• 1870 – Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park was observed and given its famous name by Henry D. Washburn.
• 1872 – King Oscar II became the king of Sweden–Norway.
• 1873 – The bank Jay Cooke & Company went bankrupt, which helped cause the Panic of 1873, a major financial crisis.
• 1879 – The Blackpool Illuminations, a famous light display, were turned on for the first time in England.
• 1895 – Booker T. Washington gave his important Atlanta Exposition Speech about race relations.

20th and 21st Centuries

• 1906 – A powerful 1906 Hong Kong typhoon hit Hong Kong, causing the deaths of about 10,000 people.
• 1914 – The Irish Home Rule Act became law, but its implementation was delayed until after World War I.
• 1919 – Fritz Pollard became the first African American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.
• 1922 – The Kingdom of Hungary was allowed to join the League of Nations.
• 1927 – The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) began broadcasting.
• 1928 – Juan de la Cierva made the first Autogyro crossing of the English Channel. An autogyro is a type of aircraft that looks like a helicopter but flies more like an airplane.
• 1931 – Imperial Japan started the Mukden Incident as an excuse to invade and take over Manchuria.
• 1934 – The Soviet Union was admitted to the League of Nations.
• 1939 – World War II: The Polish government, led by Ignacy Mościcki, fled to Romania.
• 1939 – World War II: The radio show Germany Calling began broadcasting Nazi propaganda.
• 1943 – World War II: Adolf Hitler ordered the deportation of Danish Jews.
• 1944 – World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoed the Jun'yō Maru ship, causing the deaths of 5,600 people, mostly forced laborers and prisoners of war.
• 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Arracourt began.
• 1945 – General Douglas MacArthur moved his main headquarters from Manila to Tokyo.
• 1947 – The National Security Act was passed in the United States. This law reorganized the government's military and intelligence services.
• 1948 – Operation Polo ended after the Indian Army accepted the surrender of the army of Hyderabad.
• 1948 – Margaret Chase Smith from Maine became the first woman to be elected to the United States Senate without first finishing another senator's term.
• 1954 – Finnish president J. K. Paasikivi became the first Western head of state to receive the highest honor from the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin.
• 1960 – Fidel Castro arrived in New York City as the leader of the Cuban group attending the United Nations.
• 1961 – U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld died in an airplane crash while trying to make peace in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• 1962 – Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda, and Trinidad and Tobago were admitted as members of the United Nations.
• 1973 – The Bahamas, East Germany, and West Germany were admitted to the United Nations.
• 1974 – Hurricane Fifi hit Honduras with strong winds, killing 5,000 people.
• 1977 – Voyager I took the first distant photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.
• 1980 – Soyuz 38 carried two cosmonauts (one from Cuba) to the Salyut 6 space station.
• 1981 – The Assemblée Nationale (French Parliament) voted to end capital punishment (the death penalty) in France.
• 1982 – The Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon came to an end.
• 1984 – Joe Kittinger completed the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1988 – The 8888 Uprising in Myanmar ended.
• 1988 – General Henri Namphy, the president of Haiti, was removed from power in a coup d'état led by General Prosper Avril.
• 1990 – Liechtenstein became a member of the United Nations.
• 1997 – United States media boss Ted Turner donated US$1 billion to the United Nations.
• 1997 – The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which aims to ban landmines, was adopted.
• 2001 – The first anthrax letters were mailed from Trenton, New Jersey, starting the 2001 anthrax attacks.
• 2007 – Buddhist monks joined anti-government protests in Myanmar, beginning what some called the Saffron Revolution.
• 2011 – The 2011 Sikkim earthquake was felt across northeastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and southern Tibet.
• 2014 – Scotland voted against becoming independent from the United Kingdom, with 55% voting no and 45% voting yes.

Famous Births

Born Before 1900

• AD 53 – Trajan, a Roman emperor.
• 524 – Kan B'alam I, a ruler of the ancient Mayan city of Palenque.
• 1091 – Andronikos Komnenos, a Byzantine prince and general.
• 1434 – Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress.
• 1501 – Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford.
• 1587 – Francesca Caccini, an Italian singer-songwriter and lute player.
• 1606 – Zhang Xianzhong, a Chinese rebel leader.
• 1643 – Gilbert Burnet, a Scottish bishop, historian, and theologian.
• 1709 – Samuel Johnson, a famous English writer who created one of the first English dictionaries.
• 1733 – George Read, an American lawyer and politician, who was the 3rd Governor of Delaware.
• 1752 – Adrien-Marie Legendre, a French mathematician.
• 1765 – Pope Gregory XVI.
• 1779 – Joseph Story, an American lawyer and judge.
• 1786 – Christian VIII of Denmark, King of Denmark.
• 1819 – Léon Foucault, a French physicist known for the Foucault pendulum.
• 1838 – Anton Mauve, a Dutch painter.
• 1844 – Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, an American artist famous for his paintings of dogs playing poker.
• 1846 – Richard With, a Norwegian captain and businessman who founded a shipping company.
• 1857 – John Hessin Clarke, an American lawyer and judge.
• 1859 – John L. Bates, an American lawyer and politician, who was the 41st Governor of Massachusetts.
• 1870 – Clark Wissler, an American anthropologist.
• 1876 – James Scullin, an Australian journalist and politician, who was the 9th Prime Minister of Australia.
• 1878 – James O. Richardson, an American admiral.
• 1885 – Uzeyir Hajibeyov, an Azerbaijani composer and conductor.
• 1888 – Grey Owl, an English-Canadian environmentalist and author.
• 1893 – Arthur Benjamin, an Australian pianist, composer, and conductor.
• 1895 – John Diefenbaker, a Canadian lawyer and politician, who was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1900 – Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, a Mauritian politician, who was the 1st Prime Minister of Mauritius.

Born After 1900

• 1905 – Greta Garbo, a famous Swedish-American actress.
• 1907 – Edwin McMillan, an American physicist and chemist who won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• 1908 – Victor Ambartsumian, an Armenian astrophysicist and astronomer.
• 1914 – Jack Cardiff, an English director and cinematographer.
• 1917 – June Foray, an American voice actress known for many cartoon characters.
• 1920 – Jack Warden, an American actor.
• 1923 – Queen Anne of Romania.
• 1926 – Joe Kubert, an American author and illustrator who founded a famous art school.
• 1933 – Scotty Bowman, a Canadian ice hockey coach, one of the most successful in history.
• 1933 – Fred Willard, an American actor and comedian.
• 1939 – Jorge Sampaio, a Portuguese lawyer and politician, who was the 18th President of Portugal.
• 1940 – Frankie Avalon, an American singer and actor.
• 1944 – Rocío Jurado, a Spanish singer and actress.
• 1945 – John McAfee, a British-American computer programmer who founded the McAfee antivirus company.
• 1947 – Drew Gilpin Faust, an American historian and academic.
• 1949 – Peter Shilton, a famous English footballer.
• 1950 – Darryl Sittler, a Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1951 – Ben Carson, an American neurosurgeon and politician.
• 1951 – Dee Dee Ramone, an American singer-songwriter and bass player for the band The Ramones.
• 1954 – Steven Pinker, a Canadian-American psychologist and author.
• 1956 – Peter Šťastný, a Slovak ice hockey player and politician.
• 1958 – Ryne Sandberg, an American baseball player and coach.
• 1961 – James Gandolfini, an American actor.
• 1962 – Joanne Catherall, an English singer from the band The Human League.
• 1968 – Toni Kukoč, a Croatian basketball player.
• 1971 – Lance Armstrong, an American cyclist.
• 1971 – Jada Pinkett Smith, an American actress.
• 1973 – James Marsden, an American actor.
• 1974 – Sol Campbell, an English footballer and politician.
• 1974 – Xzibit, an American rapper, actor, and television host.
• 1975 – Jason Sudeikis, an American actor and comedian.
• 1976 – Ronaldo, a famous Brazilian footballer.
• 1978 – Billy Eichner, an American actor and comedian.
• 1984 – Dizzee Rascal, a British hip hop musician.
• 1989 – Serge Ibaka, a Congolese-Spanish basketball player.
• 1998 – Christian Pulisic, an American soccer player.
• 2003 – Aidan Gallagher, an American actor and musician.

Notable Deaths

• 96 – Domitian, a Roman emperor.
• 1180 – Louis VII, a king of France.
• 1598 – Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a powerful Japanese leader (daimyō).
• 1783 – Leonhard Euler, a famous Swiss mathematician and physicist.
• 1830 – William Hazlitt, an English philosopher and writer.
• 1872 – Charles XV of Sweden, a king of Sweden.
• 1890 – Dion Boucicault, an Irish-American actor and playwright.
• 1896 – Hippolyte Fizeau, a French physicist.
• 1905 – George MacDonald, a Scottish minister, author, and poet.
• 1911 – Pyotr Stolypin, a Russian lawyer and politician, who was the 3rd Prime Minister of Russia.
• 1915 – Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree.
• 1949 – Frank Morgan, an American actor.
• 1961 – Dag Hammarskjöld, a Swedish economist and diplomat, who was the 2nd Secretary-General of the United Nations and won a Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1967 – John Cockcroft, an English physicist who won a Nobel Prize in Physics.
• 1970 – Jimi Hendrix, a very famous American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
• 1980 – Katherine Anne Porter, an American short story writer and novelist.
• 1987 – Américo Tomás, a Portuguese admiral and politician, who was the 14th President of Portugal.
• 1992 – Mohammad Hidayatullah, an Indian lawyer and judge, who was the 6th Vice President of India.
• 2001 – Ernie Coombs, an American-Canadian television host, famous for Mr. Dressup.
• 2002 – Bob Hayes, an American sprinter and football player.
• 2013 – Ken Norton, an American boxer.
• 2020 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a justice on the United States Supreme Court.

Holidays and Observances

• Christian feast day:

* Constantius (Theban Legion) * Edward Bouverie Pusey (Episcopal Church) * Eustorgius I * Joseph of Cupertino * Juan Macias * Methodius of Olympus * Richardis * September 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Day of National Music (Azerbaijan)
• Island Language Day (Okinawa Prefecture, Japan)
• National Day or Dieciocho (Chile)
• National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (United States)
• Navy Day (Croatia)
• World Water Monitoring Day

See also

In Spanish: 18 de septiembre para niños