Events on March 18 49
Events on this day include: Ridda wars: The Arabian Peninsula is united under the central authority of Caliph Abu Bakr. (633); An earthquake affects the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, leaving up to 20,000 dead. (1068); Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares himself King of Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade. (1229).
See the full March 18 overview.
Ridda wars: The Arabian Peninsula is united under the central authority of Caliph Abu Bakr.
An earthquake affects the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, leaving up to 20,000 dead.
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares himself King of Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade.
First Mongol invasion of Poland: Mongols overwhelm Polish armies in Kraków in the Battle of Chmielnik and plunder the city.
Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.
New York governor George Clarke's complex at Fort George is burned in an arson attack, starting the New York Conspiracy of 1741.
The first modern republic in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.
Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.
March Revolution: In Berlin there is a struggle between citizens and military, costing about 300 lives.
American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States adjourns for the last time.
Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders the evacuation of Paris.
Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledges to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada the Stanley Cup.
King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.
World War I: During the Battle of Gallipoli, three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience, of which he serves only two.
The Tri-State Tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.
The New London School explosion in New London, Texas, kills 300 people, mostly children.
Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.
Mexico creates Pemex by expropriating all foreign-owned oil reserves and facilities.
World War II: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
The War Relocation Authority is established in the United States to take Japanese Americans into custody.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 people and causes thousands to flee their homes.
The Évian Accords end the Algerian War of Independence, which had begun in 1954.
Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
The United States begins secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.
Peru: a landslide crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200 people at the mining camp of Chungar.
A Vostok-2M rocket at Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 explodes during a fueling operation, killing 48 people.
Germans in the German Democratic Republic vote in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship.
In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Bosnia's Bosniaks and Croats sign the Washington Agreement, ending war between the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 people on board.
The Bardo National Museum in Tunisia is attacked by gunmen. 23 people, almost all tourists, are killed, and at least 50 other people are wounded.