On This Day — 18 December
2000s
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
1900s
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
1939
World War II: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, takes place.
World War II
1935
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.
Lanka Sama Samaja Party
1932
The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans in the first NFL playoff game to win the NFL Championship.
Chicago Bears
1917
The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
1916
World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when the second French offensive pushes the Germans back two or three kilometres, causing them to cease their attacks.
World War I
1800s
1898
Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 63.159 km/h (39.245 mph) in a Jeantaud electric car.
Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat
1892
The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky premiers in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The Nutcracker
1878
The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar.
House of Thani
1867
A magnitude 7.0 earthquakes strikes off the coast of Taiwan, triggering a tsunami and killing at least 580 people.
1867 Keelung earthquake
1865
US Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the United States.
William H. Seward
1854
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada abolishes the seigneurial system.
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
1833
The national anthem of the Russian Empire, "God Save the Tsar!", is first performed.
National anthem
Before 1800
1787
New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
New Jersey
1777
The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the American rebels over British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga in October.
Thanksgiving (United States)
1655
The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.
Whitehall Conference
1622
Portuguese forces score a military victory over the Kingdom of Kongo at the Battle of Mbumbi in present-day Angola.
Portuguese Empire
1499
A rebellion breaks out in Alpujarras in response to the forced conversions of Muslims in Spain.
Rebellion of the Alpujarras (1499–1501)
1271
Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan dynasty of Mongolia and China.
Kublai Khan
1118
The city of Zaragoza is conquered by king Alfonso I of Aragon from the Almoravid.
Zaragoza