Today in History October 18
1648 The ?shoemakers of Boston??the first labor organization in what would become the United States?was authorized by
the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1685 Edict of Nantes lifted by Louis XIV. The edict, signed at Nantes, France, by King Henry IV in 1598, gave the
Huguenots religious liberty, civil rights and security. By revoking the Edict of Nantes, Louis XIV abrogated their religious
liberties.
1813 The Allies defeat Napoleon Bonaparte at Leipzig.
1833 Charles Darwin reaches river mouth of Parana
1867 The Alaska territory is formally transferred to the U.S. from Russian control.
1867 The rules for American football are formulated at meeting in New York among delegates from Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton and Yale universities.
1883 The weather station at the top of Ben Nevis, Scotland, the highest mountain in Britain, is declared open. Weather
stations were set up on the tops of mountains all over Europe and the Eastern United States in order to gather information for the
new weather forecasts.
1910 M. Baudry is the first to fly a dirigible across the English Channel?from La Motte-Breil to Wormwood Scrubbs.
1912 The First Balkan War breaks out between the members of the Balkan League?Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and
Montenegro?and the Ottoman Empire.
1918 Czechs seize Prague and renounce Hapsburg?s rule.
1919 Madrid opens a subway system.
1921 Russian Soviets grant Crimean independence.
1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt bans war submarines from U.S. ports and waters.
1944 Lt. General Joseph Stilwell is recalled from China by president Franklin Roosevelt.
1950 The First Turkish Brigade arrives in Korea to assist the U.N. forces fighting there.
1967 A Russian unmanned spacecraft makes the first landing on the surface of Venus.
Born on October 18
1896 H.L. Davis, novelist and poet.
1904 A.J. Libeling, journalist and author.
1926 Chuck Berry, rock ?n? roll performer.
1939 Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
1926 Ntozake Shange (Paulette Williams), poet, playwright and novelist.
1950 Wendy Wasserstein, playwright (The Heidi Chronicles).
1951 Terry McMillan, novelist (Waiting to Exhale).
1956 Martina Navratilova, Czechoslovakian-born tennis player
Famous Deaths
460 ? Eudocia Aelia Athenais, empress Oostromeinse Rich/poetess, dies
1139 ? Henry X the Trotse, duke of Bayern (1126-38), dies
1676 ? Christopher Gibbons, composer, dies at 61
1713 ? Archibald Pitcairne, Scottish physician (b. 1652)
1740 ? Karl VI, German emperor (1711-40), dies
1740 ? Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1685)
2002 ? Barbara Berjer, American actress (b. 1920)
2002 ? Bernard Fresson, French actor (b. 1931)
2003 ? Jack Elam, American actor (b. 1918)
2007 ? Paul Raven, British bass-player (Killing Joke, Ministry) (b. 1961)
2008 ? Gene Hickerson, American football Hall of Famer (b. 1935)
2010 ? Bob Guccione, American publisher (Penthouse magazine) (b. 1930)
