18 December
Notable Births
Syd Hartha
b. 2002
Filipino singer-songwriter
Giuliano Simeone
b. 2002
Argentine footballer (born 2002)
Billie Eilish
b. 2001
American singer-songwriter (born 2001)
Jalen Johnson
b. 2001
American basketball player (born 2001)
Jayden Daniels
b. 2000
American football player (born 2000)
Korapat Kirdpan
b. 2000
Thai actor, model and singer (born 2000)
Travon Walker
b. 2000
American football player (born 2000)
Ronald Acuña Jr.
b. 1997
Venezuelan baseball player (born 1997)
Alex DeBrincat
b. 1997
American ice hockey player (born 1997)
Barbora Krejčíková
b. 1995
Czech tennis player (born 1995)
Lim Na-young
b. 1995
South Korean actress (born 1995)
Gerard Gumbau
b. 1994
Spanish footballer (born 1994)
Natália Kelly
b. 1994
American-Austrian singer (born 1994)
Byron Buxton
b. 1993
American baseball player (born 1993)
Thomas Lam
b. 1993
Finnish footballer (born 1993)
Ryan Crouser
b. 1992
American track and field athlete (born 1992)
Bridgit Mendler
b. 1992
American actress, singer and entrepreneur (born 1992)
Marcus Butler
b. 1991
English YouTuber and model (born 1991)
DMX
b. 1970
American rapper (1970–2021)
Charles Wesley
b. 1707
English Methodist and hymn writer (1707–1788)
Notable Deaths
Jim Hunt
d. 2025
American politician (1937–2025)
Osman Hadi
d. 2025
Bangladeshi politician and activist (1993–2025)
Slim Dunlap
d. 2024
American guitarist and singer-songwriter (1951–2024)
John Marsden (writer)
d. 2024
Australian writer and educator (1950–2024)
Sayaka Kanda
d. 2021
Japanese actress (1986–2021)
Jerry Relph
d. 2020
American politician (1944–2020)
Jonghyun
d. 2017
South Korean singer-songwriter (1990–2017)
Zsa Zsa Gabor
d. 2016
Hungarian-American socialite and actress (1917–2016)
Helge Solum Larsen
d. 2015
Norwegian politician (1969–2015)
Donald J. Albosta
d. 2014
American politician (1925–2014)
Gideon Ben-Yisrael
d. 2014
Israeli politician (1923–2014)
Larry Henley
d. 2014
American musician (1937–2014)
Virna Lisi
d. 2014
Italian actress (1936–2014)
Mandy Rice-Davies
d. 2014
Welsh model (1944–2014)
Robert Simpson (meteorologist)
d. 2014
Meteorologist
Ken Hutcherson
d. 2013
American football player and Christian pastor (1952–2013)
Graham Mackay (businessman)
d. 2013
South African businessman
Mustafa Ould Salek
d. 2012
Mauritanian politician (1936–2012)
Anatoliy Zayayev
d. 2012
Václav Havel
d. 2011
Last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic (1936–2011)
On This Day in History
All 39 ›
2022
Argentina win the FIFA World Cup final, defeating title holders France 4–2 on penalties following a 3–3 draw after extra time.
Argentina national football team
2019
The United States House of Representatives impeaches Donald Trump for the first time.
First impeachment of Donald Trump
2017
Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501, derailed near DuPont, Washington, a city in United States near Olympia, Washington killing six people, and injuring 70 others.
Amtrak Cascades
2015
Kellingley Colliery, the last deep coal mine in Great Britain, closes.
Kellingley Colliery
2006
The first of a series of floods strikes Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding is at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced.
2006–2007 Southeast Asian floods
2006
United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.
United Arab Emirates
2005
The Chadian Civil War begins when rebel groups, allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan, launch an attack in Adré.
Chadian Civil War (2005–2010)
2002
California gubernatorial recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.
2003 California gubernatorial recall election
1999
NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
NASA
1995
A Lockheed L-188 Electra crashes in Jamba, Cuando, Angola, killing 141 people.
Lockheed L-188 Electra
1981
First flight of the Russian heavy strategic bomber Tu-160, the world's largest combat aircraft, largest supersonic aircraft and largest variable-sweep wing aircraft built.
Heavy bomber
1977
United Airlines Flight 2860 crashes near Kaysville, Utah, killing all three crew members on board.
United Airlines Flight 2860
1977
SA de Transport Aérien Flight 730 crashes near Madeira Airport in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, killing 36.
SA de Transport Aérien Flight 730
1973
Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
Soyuz programme
1972
Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th.
Vietnam War
1966
Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by astronomer Richard Walker.
Saturn
1958
Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.
SCORE (satellite)
1957
A violent F5 tornado wipes out the entire community of Sunfield, Illinois.
Tornado outbreak sequence of December 18–20, 1957
1944
World War II: XX Bomber Command responds to the Japanese Operation Ichi-Go offensive by dropping five hundred tons of incendiary bombs on a supply base in Hankow, China.
XX Bomber Command
1944
The Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Korematsu v. United States supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 which cleared the way for the incarceration of nearly all 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, born and raised in the United States.
Supreme Court of the United States