Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

September 18

• 96 – Nerva is proclaimed Roman Emperor after Domitian is assassinated.
• 324 – Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire.
• 1180 – Philip Augustus becomes king of France.
• 1454 – In the Battle of Chojnice, the Polish army is defeated by the Teutonic army during the Thirteen Years' War.
• 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his fourth, and final, voyage.
• 1635 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria declares war on France.
• 1679 – New Hampshire becomes a county of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1739 – The Treaty of Belgrade is signed, ceding Belgrade to the Ottoman Empire.
• 1759 – The British capture Quebec City.
• 1793 – The first cornerstone of the Capitol building is laid by George Washington.
• 1809 – The Royal Opera House in London opens.
• 1810 – First Government Junta in Chile. Though supposed to rule only in the absence of the king, it is in fact the first step towards independence from Spain, and is commemorated as such.
• 1812 – The 1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three quarters of the city. Napoleon returns from the Petrovsky Palace to the Moscow Kremlin, spared from the fire.
• 1837 – Tiffany and Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City. The store is called a "stationery and fancy goods emporium".
• 1838 – The Anti-Corn Law League is established by Richard Cobden.
• 1850 – The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
• 1851 – First publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times.
• 1870 – Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone.
• 1872 – King Oscar II accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway.
• 1873 – Panic of 1873: The U.S. bank Jay Cooke & Company declares bankruptcy, triggering a series of bank failures.
• 1879 – The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.
• 1882 – The Pacific Stock Exchange opens.
• 1885 – Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.
• 1895 – Booker T. Washington delivers the "Atlanta Compromise" address.
• 1895 – Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment.
• 1898 – Fashoda Incident – Lord Kitchener's ships reach Fashoda, Sudan.
• 1906 – A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.
• 1910 – In Amsterdam, 25,000 demonstrate for general suffrage.
• 1911 – Russian Premier Peter Stolypin is shot at the Kiev Opera House.
• 1914 – The Irish Home Rule Act becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I.
• 1914 – World War I: South African troops land in German South West Africa.
• 1919 – The Netherlands gives women the right to vote.
• 1919 – Fritz Pollard becomes the first African-American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.
• 1922 – Hungary is admitted to League of Nations.
• 1927 – The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.
• 1928 – Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro crossing of the English Channel.
• 1931 – The Mukden Incident gives Japan the pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria.
• 1934 – The USSR is admitted to League of Nations.
• 1939 – World War II: Polish government of Ignacy Mościcki flees to Romania.
• 1939 – The Nazi propaganda broadcaster known as Lord Haw-Haw begins transmitting.
• 1943 – World War II: The Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór.
• 1943 – World War II: Adolf Hitler orders the deportation of Danish Jews.
• 1944 – World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Junyō Maru, 5,600 killed.
• 1945 – General Douglas MacArthur moves his command headquarters to Tokyo.
• 1947 – The United States Air Force becomes an independent branch of the United States armed forces.
• 1947 – The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency were established in the United States under the National Security Act.
• 1948 – Communist Madiun uprising in Dutch Indies.
• 1948 – Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the US Senate without completing another senator's term, when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten.
• 1959 – Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth orbit.
• 1960 – Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations.
• 1961 – U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• 1962 – Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations.
• 1964 – Constantine II of Greece marries Danish princess Anne-Marie.
• 1964 – North Vietnamese Army begins infiltration of South Vietnam.
• 1973 – The Bahamas, East Germany and West Germany are admitted to the United Nations.
• 1974 – Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, killing 5,000 people.
• 1975 – Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.
• 1977 – Voyager I takes first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.
• 1980 – Soyuz 38 carries 2 cosmonauts (including 1 Cuban) to Salyut 6 space station.
• 1981 – Assemblée Nationale votes to abolish capital punishment in France.
• 1982 – Christian militia begin killing six-hundred Palestinians in Lebanon.
• 1984 – Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic.
• 1988 – End of pro-democracy uprisings in Myanmar after a bloody military coup by the State Law and Order Restoration Council. Thousands, mostly monks and civilians (primarily students) are killed by the Tatmadaw.
• 1990 – Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations.
• 1991 – Yugoslavia begins a naval blockade of 7 Adriatic port cities.
• 1992 – An explosion rocks Giant Mine at the height of a labor dispute, killing 9 replacement workers.
• 1997 – United States media magnate Ted Turner donates USD 1 billion to the United Nations.
• 1998 – ICANN is formed.
• 2001 – First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
• 2007 – Pervez Musharraf announces that he will step down as army chief and restore civilian rule to Pakistan, but only after he is re-elected president.
• 2007 – Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some called the Saffron Revolution.
• 2009 – The 72 year run of the soap opera The Guiding Light ends as its final episode is broadcast.