November 18

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November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years), with 43 remaining.

Events

1307 (Legendary) - William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.
1421 - A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.
1477 - William Caxton produces "Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres", the first English book printed on a printing press.
1865 - Mark Twain's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press.
1883 - American and Canadian railroads institute four standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
1903 - The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the Americans exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.
1909 - Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of dictator Jose Santos Zelaya.
1916 - World War I: First Battle of the Somme ends - In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
1918 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
1928 - Cartoon star Mickey Mouse debuts in the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, Walt Disney's animated short Steamboat Willie.
1929 - 1929 Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area.
1938 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
1940 - World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
1943 - World War II: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 aviators.
1959 - William Wyler's film Ben-Hur premieres at Loew's Theater in New York City.
1970 - US President Richard Nixon asks the United States Congress for US$155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government (US$85 million was for military assistance in order to help prevent the overthrow of the government of Premier Lol Nol by the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnam).
1978 - Jonestown mass suicide: In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his People's Temple in a mass murder-suicide; 913 die, including 276 children.
1987 - Iran-Contra scandal: The United States Congress issues its final report on the Iran-Contra affair, stating that US President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides and his administration exhibited "secrecy, deception, and disdain for the law." .
1987 - Kings Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross.
1988 - War on Drugs: US President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers.
1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free.
1993 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
1996 - World-renowned bird expert Tony Silva is sentenced to seven years in prison without parole for leading an illegal parrot smuggling ring.
1998 - Alice McDermott wins the National Book Award with her novel Charming Billy.
1999 - In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 28 injured at Texas A&M University when a huge bonfire under construction collapses.
1999 - In Jasper, Texas, 24-year old Shawn Allen Berry is sentenced to life in prison, becoming the third person convicted in the racially-motivated dragging death of James Byrd, Jr.
2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.