On This Day in History for October 18
Events in History
- 707 John VII ends his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1009 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock
- 1016 Danes defeat Saxons at Battle of Assandun (Ashingdon)
- 1081 Battle of Dyrrhachium: Southern Italian Normans under Robert Guiscard defeat Byzantine army under Alexios I Komnenos (modern Durrës, Albania)
- 1240 Ukrainian city of Chernigov surrenders, despite this still sacked and pillaged by Mongolian army of Batu
- 1267 Battle at Marienholz: Henry III, Otto II van Gelre beat Keuls archbishop Engelbert III
- 1356 Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroys Basel in Switzerland.
- 1386 Opening of the University of Heidelberg
- More Events in History
Weddings in History
- 1869 Sardinia king Victor Emmanuel II (49) weds his mistress Rosa Vercellana (36) in Italy
- 1926 Communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh (36) weds midwife Zeng Xueming (21) in Guangzhou
More Weddings & Divorces in History
October in History
Death Railway Completed
'Bridge over the River Kwai' drawn by Leo Rawlings in 1943 depicting construction by POWs of the Burma Railway
October 17, 1943Women And Politics: The Passions of Palmerston
Queen Victoria had an intense dislike for her Prime Minister Lord Palmerston. But other women took a quite different view of the man dubbed ‘Lord Cupid’.
October 18, 1865Alaska Purchase
The check used by the United States to purchase Alaska at less than 2 cents an acre
October 18, 1867Sculptor’s Brainwave Produces Amazing Memorial
How do you commemorate Thomas Browne, one of the great thinkers of the 17th Century who was born on this day? Well, why not a giant sculpture of his brain?
October 19, 1605