Events on June 18 46
Year 618
Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang dynasty rule over China.
Year 860
Byzantine-Rus' War: A fleet of about 200 Rus' vessels sails into the Bosphorus and starts pillaging the suburbs of the Byzantine capital Constantinople.
Year 1053
Battle of Civitate: Three thousand horsemen of Norman Count Humphrey rout the troops of Pope Leo IX.
Year 1178
Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon's distance from the Earth (on the order of meters) are a result of this collision.
Year 1264
The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.
Year 1429
French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
Year 1684
The charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is revoked via a scire facias writ issued by an English court.
Year 1757
Battle of Kolín between Prussian forces under Frederick the Great and an Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven Years' War.
Year 1799
Action of 18 June 1799: A frigate squadron under Rear-admiral Perrée is captured by the British fleet under Lord Keith
Year 1812
The United States declaration of war upon the United Kingdom is signed by President James Madison.
Year 1815
Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.
Year 1858
Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.
Year 1873
Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.
Year 1900
Empress Dowager Cixi of China orders all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families.
Year 1908
Japanese immigration to Brazil begins when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the ship Kasato-Maru.
Year 1928
Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she is a passenger; Wilmer Stultz is the pilot and Lou Gordon the mechanic).
Year 1935
Police in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, clash with striking longshoremen, resulting in a total 60 injuries and 24 arrests.
Year 1945
William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") is charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II.
Year 1946
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, a Socialist, calls for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa.
Year 1948
Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
Year 1953
The Egyptian revolution of 1952 ends with the overthrow of the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the declaration of the Republic of Egypt.
Year 1953
A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns near Tachikawa, Japan, killing 129.
Year 1954
Carlos Castillo Armas leads an invasion force across the Guatemalan border, setting in motion the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état
Year 1965
Vietnam War: The United States uses B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam.
Year 1972
Staines air disaster: One hundred eighteen are killed when a BEA H.S. Trident crashes two minutes after take off from London's Heathrow Airport.
Year 1981
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology, makes its first flight.
Year 1982
Italian banker Roberto Calvi's body is discovered hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London, England.
Year 1983
Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
Year 1983
Mona Mahmudnizhad together with nine other Bahá'í women, is sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran over her religious beliefs.
Year 1984
A major clash between about 5,000 police and a similar number of miners takes place at Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the 1984-85 UK miners' strike.
Year 1994
The Troubles: Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) attack a crowded pub with assault rifles in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland. Six Catholic civilians are killed and five wounded. It was crowded with people watching the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
Year 2007
The Charleston Sofa Super Store fire happened in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine firefighters.