What Happened on January 18

Significant 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
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 semipro 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

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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
  • 1969 Actress Audrey Hepburn marries 2nd husband Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti
  • 1974 Author Maya Angelou (45) weds Paul Bernard Du Feu

Famous Divorces

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Famous Deaths

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January in History