What Happened on January 18

Important Events

  • 532 Nika uprising against Emperor Justinian in Constantinople fails, 30,000 killed by troops loyal to the Emperor in the Hippodrome
  • 1591 King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat, date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces day
  • 1788 First elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony
  • 1817 José de San Martín leads a revolutionary army over the Andes to attack Spanish royalists in Chile
  • 1871 Second German Empire proclaimed by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck
  • 1943 Soviets announce they have broken the long siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany by opening a narrow land corridor, though the siege would not be fully lifted until a year later
More Historical Events

January 18 in Film & TV

  • 1974 "$6 Million Man" starring Lee Majors premieres on ABC TV

January 18 in Music

January 18 in Sport

  • 1983 IOC restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals (Pentathlon & Decathlon victories) 70 years after they were taken from him for being paid $25 in semi-pro baseball

Did You Know?

World's 62 richest people are now as wealthy as half the world's population according to a report published by Oxfam

On January 18, 2016

Famous Birthdays

More Famous Birthdays

Would You Believe?

Perplexed Pilgrims in Boston reported America's 1st UFO sighting

On January 18, 1644

Famous Weddings

  • 1486 King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV
  • 1893 British Poet and writer Rudyard Kipling (26) marries Carrie Balestier (29) in London
  • 1949 South African Rev Andries P Treurnicht marries Engela Dreyer

Famous Divorces

More Weddings & Divorces

Famous Deaths

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January in History