November 18
Events
Pre-1600
- 326 - The old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated by Pope Sylvester I.
- 401 - The Visigoths, led by king Alaric I, cross the Alps and invade northern Italy.
- 1095 - The Council of Clermont begins: called by Pope Urban II, it led to the First Crusade to the Holy Land.
- 1105 - Maginulfo is elected Antipope Sylvester IV in opposition to Pope Paschal II.
- 1210 - Pope Innocent III excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV for invading the Kingdom of Sicily after promising to recognize papal control over it.
- 1302 - Pope Boniface VIII issues the Papal bull Unam sanctam, claiming spiritual supremacy for the papacy.
- 1421 - St Elizabeth's flood: A dike in the Grote Hollandse Waard in the Netherlands breaks, killing about 10,000 people.
- 1493 - Christopher Columbus first sights the island now known as Puerto Rico.
1601–1900
- 1601 - Tiryaki Hasan Pasha, an Ottoman provincial governor, routs the Habsburg forces commanded by Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria who were besieging Nagykanizsa.
- 1626 - The new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is consecrated.
- 1730 - The future Frederick the Great of Prussia is granted a pardon by his father and is released from confinement.
- 1760 - The rebuilt debtors' prison, at the Castellania in Valletta, receives the first prisoners.
- 1803 - The Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, is fought, leading to the establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere.
- 1809 - Napoleonic Wars: In a naval action, French frigates defeat British East Indiamen in the Bay of Bengal.
- 1812 - Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Krasnoi ends in French defeat, but Marshal of France Michel Ney's leadership leads to him becoming known as "the bravest of the brave".
- 1863 - King Christian IX of Denmark signs the November constitution that declares Schleswig to be part of Denmark. This is seen by the German Confederation as a violation of the London Protocol and leads to the German–Danish war of 1864.
- 1867 - An earthquake strikes the Virgin Islands, triggering the largest tsunami witnessed in the Caribbean and killing dozens.
- 1872 - Susan B. Anthony and 14 other women are arrested for voting illegally in the United States presidential election of 1872.
- 1883 - In the "day of two noons", American and Canadian railroad companies institute four standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
- 1889 - Elisha P. Ferry is inaugurated as first governor of Washington.
1901–present
- 1901 - Britain and the United States sign the Hay–Pauncefote Treaty, which nullifies the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty and withdraws British objections to an American-controlled canal in Panama.
- 1903 - The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the United States exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
- 1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.
- 1909 - Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries are executed by order of José Santos Zelaya.
- 1910 - In their campaign for women's voting rights, hundreds of suffragettes march to the British Parliament in London. Several are beaten by police, newspaper attention embarrasses the authorities, and the march is dubbed Black Friday.
- 1916 - World War I: First Battle of the Somme: In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
- 1918 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
- 1928 - Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon.
- 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 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula.
- 1940 - World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous Italian invasion of Greece.
- 1943 - World War II: In the first action of the Berlin Air Offensive, four hundred and forty Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses nine aircraft and 53 air crew.
- 1944 - The Popular Socialist Youth is founded in Cuba.
- 1947 - The Ballantyne's Department Store fire in Christchurch, New Zealand, kills 41; it is the worst fire disaster in the history of New Zealand.
- 1949 - The Iva Valley Shooting occurs after the coal miners of Enugu in Nigeria go on strike over withheld wages; 21 miners are shot dead and 51 are wounded by police under the supervision of the British colonial administration of Nigeria.
- 1961 - Vietnam War: United States President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
- 1963 - The Bell Telephone Company introduces the first push-button telephone.
- 1970 - U.S. President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for $155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government.
- 1971 - Oman declares its independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1978 - The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet makes its first flight, at the Naval Air Test Center in Maryland, United States.
- 1978 - In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple to a mass murder–suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children.
- 1983 - Aeroflot Flight 6833 is hijacked en route from Tbilisi to Leningrad. After returning to Tbilisi, the aircraft is subsequentialy raided on the ground, resulting in seven deaths.
- 1985 - The first comic of Calvin and Hobbes is published in ten newspapers.
- 1987 - King's Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station, King's Cross St Pancras.
- 1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon release Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland.
- 1991 - After an 87-day siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar capitulates to the besieging Yugoslav People's Army and allied Serb paramilitary forces.
- 1991 - The autonomous Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, which would in 1993 become a republic, was established in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- 1993 - In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement is approved by the House of Representatives.
- 1993 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution, expanding voting rights and ending white minority rule.
- 1996 - A fire occurs on a train traveling through the Channel Tunnel from France to England causing several injuries and damaging approximately 500 metres of tunnel.
- 1999 - At Texas A&M University, the Aggie Bonfire collapses killing 12 students and injuring 27 others.
- 2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
- 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 180days to change the law making Massachusetts the first state in the United States to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples.
- 2012 - Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria becomes the 118th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.
- 2013 - NASA launches the MAVEN probe to Mars.
- 2020 - The Utah monolith, built sometime in 2016 is discovered by state biologists of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Births
Pre-1600
- 701 - Itzam K'an Ahk II, Mayan ruler
- 709 - Emperor Kōnin of Japan
- 1522 - Lamoral, Count of Egmont
- 1571 - Hippolytus Guarinonius, Italian physician and polymath
- 1576 - Philipp Ludwig II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
1601–1900
- 1630 - Eleonora Gonzaga, Italian wife of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor
- 1647 - Pierre Bayle, French philosopher and author
- 1727 - Philibert Commerson, French physician and explorer
- 1736 - Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch, German harpsichord player and composer
- 1756 - Thomas Burgess, English bishop and philosopher
- 1772 - Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia
- 1774 - Wilhelmine of Prussia, Queen of the Netherlands
- 1785 - David Wilkie, Scottish painter and academic
- 1786 - Carl Maria von Weber, German composer and conductor
- 1787 - Louis Daguerre, French artist, photographer and inventor
- 1804 - Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, Italian general and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Italy
- 1810 - Asa Gray, American botanist and academic
- 1832 - Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, Finnish-Swedish geologist and explorer
- 1833 - James Patterson, English-Australian politician, 17th Premier of Victoria
- 1836 - W. S. Gilbert, English playwright, poet, and illustrator
- 1839 - August Kundt, German physicist and educator
- 1856 - Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia
- 1860 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish pianist, composer, and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
- 1862 - John Matthew Moore, American politician
- 1866 - Henry Daglish, Australian politician, Premier of Western Australia
- 1871 - Robert Hugh Benson, English Catholic priest and novelist
- 1874 - Clarence Day, American author and poet
- 1876 - Victor Hémery, French racing driver
- 1880 - Naum Torbov, Bulgarian architect, designed the Central Sofia Market Hall
- 1882 - Amelita Galli-Curci, Italian-American soprano
- 1882 - Wyndham Lewis, English painter and critic
- 1882 - Jacques Maritain, French philosopher and author
- 1882 - Frances Gertrude McGill, pioneering Canadian forensic pathologist
- 1883 - Carl Vinson, American judge and politician
- 1886 - Ferenc Münnich, Hungarian soldier and politician, 47th Prime Minister of Hungary
- 1888 - Frances Marion, American screenwriter, novelist and journalist
- 1889 - Stanislav Kosior, Polish-Russian politician
- 1891 - Gio Ponti, Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer, artist, and publisher.
- 1897 - Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1899 - Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-American violinist and conductor
- 1899 - Howard Thurman, American author, philosopher and civil rights activist