On This Day — 18 March

2000s

📅

2025

Israel launches widespread aerial bombardments and attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 591 people, including children.

March 2025 Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip

2015

The Bardo National Museum in Tunisia is attacked by gunmen. Twenty-four people, almost all tourists, are killed, and at least 50 other people are wounded.

Bardo National Museum (Tunis)

2014

The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty.

Crimea

1900s

1997

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.

Antonov An-24

1996

A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162 people.

Ozone Disco fire

1994

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.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

1990

Germans in the German Democratic Republic vote in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship.

East Germany

1990

In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $500 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Art theft

1980

A Vostok-2M rocket at Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 explodes during a fueling operation, killing 48 people.

Vostok-2M

1974

Güzel İstanbul, a nude sculpture by Gürdal Duyar in Istanbul, is torn down in the middle of the night.

Güzel İstanbul

1971

Peru: A landslide crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200 people at the mining camp of Chungar.

Peru

1970

Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

Lon Nol

1969

The United States begins secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.

Operation Menu

1968

Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.

Gold standard

1967

The supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Cornish coast.

Oil tanker

1966

United Arab Airlines Flight 749 crashes on approach to Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing 30 people.

United Arab Airlines Flight 749

1965

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.

Astronaut

1962

The Évian Accords end the Algerian War of Independence, which had begun in 1954.

Évian Accords

1959

The Hawaii Admission Act is signed into law.

Hawaii Admission Act

1953

An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing at least 1,070 people.

1953 Yenice–Gönen earthquake

📅

1948

Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in the first sign of the Tito–Stalin split.

Tito–Stalin split

1945

World War II: 40th Infantry Division, spearheaded by the 185th US Infantry Regiment, lands unopposed in Tigbauan, forcing the Japanese forces to surrender and General Macario Peralta and Gen. Gen. Eichelberger to declare the Liberation of Panay, Romblon and Guimaras.

Tigbauan

1944

Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupts, killing 26 people, causing thousands to flee their homes, and destroying dozens of Allied bombers.

Mount Vesuvius

1942

The War Relocation Authority is established in the United States to take Japanese Americans into custody.

War Relocation Authority

1940

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.

World War II

1938

Mexico creates Pemex by expropriating all foreign-owned oil reserves and facilities.

Pemex

1937

The New London School explosion in New London, Texas, kills 300 people, mostly children.

New London School explosion

1937

Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.

Spanish Civil War

1925

The 1925 Tri-State tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.

1925 Tri-State tornado

1922

In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience, of which he serves only two.

Mahatma Gandhi

1921

The second Peace of Riga is signed between Poland and the Soviet Union.

Treaty of Riga

1921

The Kronstadt rebellion is suppressed by the Red Army.

Kronstadt rebellion

1921

Mongolian Revolution of 1921: The Mongolian People's Army defeats local Chinese forces at Altanbulag, Selenge (then known as Maimachen). This battle was seen as the birthday of the People's Army and completed the expulsion of Chinese militants in Mongolia.

Mongolian Revolution of 1921

1915

World War I: During the Battle of Gallipoli, three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.

World War I

1913

King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.

George I of Greece

1902

Macario Sakay issues Presidential Order No. 1 of his Tagalog Republic.

Macario Sakay

📅

1901

The Kumasi Mutiny of 1901 begins.

Kumasi Mutiny of 1901

1800s

1899

Phoebe, a satellite of Saturn, becomes the first to be discovered with photographs, taken in August 1898, by William Henry Pickering.

Phoebe (moon)

1871

Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders the evacuation of Paris.

Paris Commune

1865

American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States adjourns for the last time.

American Civil War

1848

The premiere of William Henry Fry's Leonora in Philadelphia is the first known performance of a grand opera by an American composer.

William Henry Fry

1848

Revolutions of 1848: A rebellion arises in Milan which in five days of street fighting drove Marshal Radetzky and his Austrian soldiers from the city.

Revolutions of 1848