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On this day in History Archives
 
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18 October, 2007
After 8 years in exile, Benazir Bhutto returns to her homeland Pakistan. The same night, suicide attackers blow themselves up near Bhuttos convoy, killing over 100 in the cheering crowd, including 20 police officers. Bhutto escaped uninjured. Oil Pricestrade over $90.00, with tension on the Iraqi-Turkish border and the weak USD.
18 October, 2003
Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.
18 October, 1991
Azerbaijan declares independence from USSR.
18 October, 1989
East German leader Erich Honecker resigns.
18 October, 1977
German Autumn: a set of events revolving around the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight by the Red Army Faction (RAF) comes to an end when Schleyer is executed and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide. The West German government states that it would never again negotiate with terrorists. The New York Yankees defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers four games to two to win the World Series. Reggie Jackson scored three homeruns from three different pitchers and would win the World Series MVP Award.
18 October, 1968
The U.S. Olympic Committee suspends two black athletes for giving a "black power" salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games. Bob Beamon sets a world record of 8.90m in the long jump at the Mexico City games. This becomes the longest unbroken track and field record in history, standing for 23 years, and is later named by Sports Illustrated magazine as one of the five greatest sporting moments of the 20th century.
18 October, 1967
The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.
18 October, 1964
The 1964-1965 New York Worlds Fair closes for its first season after a six-month run.
18 October, 1954
Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.
18 October, 1945
The USSRs nuclear program receives plans for the USAs plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, staged a coup detát against then president Isaías Medina Angarita, who was overthrown by the end of the day.
18 October, 1944
Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia. Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.
18 October, 1929
Women are considered "Persons" under Canadian law.
18 October, 1925
The Grand Ole Opry opens in Nashville, Tennessee.
18 October, 1924
University of Illinois halfback Red Grange scores four touchdowns in the first quarter of a game against the University of Michigan Wolverines.
18 October, 1922
The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.
18 October, 1912
The First Balkan War begins.
18 October, 1908
Belgium annexes the Congo Free State.
18 October, 1898
United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.
18 October, 1892
The First long distance phone call in the United States between Chicago and New York.
18 October, 1867
United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.
18 October, 1860
The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.
18 October, 1851
Herman Melvilles Moby Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.
18 October, 1775
African-American poet Phillis Wheatley freed from slavery.
18 October, 1767
Mason-Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.
18 October, 1748
Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.
18 October, 1685
Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes, which has protected French Protestants.
18 October, 1648
Boston Shoemakers form first U.S. labor organization.
18 October, 1561
Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima -- Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts.
18 October, 1356
Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroyed the town of Basel, Switzerland.
18 October, 1210
Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV .
18 October, 1081
The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.
18 October, 1016
The Danes defeat the Saxons in the Battle of Ashingdon.
18 October, 1009
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Churchs foundations down to bedrock.

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