Events for January 18
1941 – World War II: British troops launch a general counter-offensive against Italian East Africa.
1586 – The magnitude 7.9 Tenshō earthquake strikes Honshu, Japan, killing 8,000 people and triggering a tsunami.
1932 – Alt Llobregat insurrection breaks out in Central Catalonia, Spain.
1911 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
1919 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.
2008 – The Euphronios Krater is unveiled in Rome after being returned to Italy by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1988 – China Southwest Airlines Flight 4146 crashes near Chongqing Baishiyi Airport, killing all 98 passengers and 10 crew members.
2007 – The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people and Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Cyclone Kyrill causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe.
1978 – The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom's government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
1486 – King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, uniting the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
1977 – SFR Yugoslavia's Prime minister, Džemal Bijedić, his wife and six others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1913 – First Balkan War: A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.
1967 – Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler", is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
1919 – World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.
1915 – Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
1866 – Wesley College is established in Melbourne, Australia.
1960 – Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, killing all 50 aboard, the third fatal Capital Airlines crash in as many years.
1958 – Willie O'Ree, the first Black Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins.
2012 – More than 115,000 websites engage in an online protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act in the US.[citation needed] The websites involved viewed the laws as infringing on the right to free speech and many of them temporarily shut down in protest.
1701 – Frederick I crowns himself King in Prussia in Königsberg.
1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay.
1943 – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Notable Births & Deaths for January 18
2014 – Michael Botmang, Nigerian politician, 17th Governor of Plateau State (b. 1938)
2013 – Lewis Marnell, Australian skateboarder (b. 1982)
2017 – Peter Abrahams, South African-Jamaican writer (b. 1919)
2017 – Roberta Peters, American coloratura soprano (b. 1930)
1999 – Mateus Ward, American actor
1997 – Denis Malgin, Swiss ice hockey player
2013 – Ron Nachman, Israeli lawyer and politician (b. 1942)
2022 – André Leon Talley, American fashion journalist (b. 1948)
1993 – Juan Fernando Quintero, Colombian footballer
2023 – David Crosby, American singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
1992 – Francesco Bardi, Italian footballer
2016 – Glenn Frey, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (b. 1948)
1999 – Gary Trent Jr., American basketball player
1993 – Sean Keenan, Australian actor
2002 – Ki-Jana Hoever, Dutch footballer
2014 – Kathryn Abbe, American photographer and author (b. 1919)
2016 – Michel Tournier, French journalist and author (b. 1924)
1998 – Éder Militão, Brazilian footballer
1991 – Douglas Wreden, a.k.a. DougDoug, American streamer
2016 – Johnny Bach, American basketball player and coach (b. 1924)
1999 – Djorkaeff Reasco, Ecuadorian footballer
2016 – T. S. Sinnathuray, Judge of the High Court of Singapore (b. 1930)
2014 – Sarah Marshall, English actress (b. 1933)
1994 – Ilona Kremen, Belarusian tennis player
2019 – John Coughlin, American figure skater (b. 1985)
2014 – Eugenio Cruz Vargas, Chilean poet and painter (b. 1923)
2010 – Sophia Reid-Gantzert, Canadian actress and dancer
1995 – Samu Castillejo, Spanish footballer
2017 – Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint, English cricketer, businesswoman and philanthropist (b. 1939)
2015 – Alberto Nisman, Argentinian lawyer and prosecutor (b. 1963)
2014 – Andy Graver, English footballer (b. 1927)
2015 – Piet van der Sanden, Dutch journalist and politician (b. 1924)
2022 – Yvette Mimieux, American actress (b. 1942)
1995 – Leonard Fournette, American football player
2015 – Tony Verna, American director and producer, invented instant replay (b. 1933)
2015 – Christine Valmy, Romanian cosmetologist and author (b. 1926)
1998 – Aitana Bonmatí, Spanish footballer
1998 – Lisandro Martínez, Argentinian footballer
1995 – Bryce Alford, American basketball player
2002 – Anastasia Zakharova, Russian tennis player
1990 – Zeeko Zaki, Egyptian-American actor
2022 – Francisco Gento, Spanish football player (b. 1933)
2014 – Dennis Frederiksen, American singer-songwriter (b. 1951)
1999 – Karan Brar, American actor
2002 – Karim Adeyemi, German footballer
1999 – Tee Higgins, American football player
1994 – Kang Ji-young, South Korean singer
Quick Start
Our API is incredibly easy to use, check out the code samples below to get started:
Fetch Historical Events
All you need to do is send a request to https://today.zenquotes.io/api/[month]/[day]/[key] in order to generate a JSON array of historical events, including notable births and deaths. API data pulled from WikiPedia.
*[key] not required but recommended.
Sample Requests
https://today.zenquotes.io/api - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for current server time (UTC).
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/1/1 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for January 1.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/5/5 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for May 5.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/12/25 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for December 25.
Response
The result data is formatted as a JSON array, grouped by event type.
{ "info":"OnThisDay API", "date":"April_20", "updated":"1615972324",
"data":{
"Events":[
{
"text":"1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.[1]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1303\" title=\"1303\">1303</a> – The <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapienza_University_of_Rome\" title=\"Sapienza University of Rome\">Sapienza University of Rome</a> is instituted by a <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_bull\" title=\"Papal bull\">bull</a> of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII\" title=\"Pope Boniface VIII\">Pope Boniface VIII</a>."
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Births":[
{
"text":"1494 – Johannes Agricola, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)[8]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1494\" title=\"1494\">1494</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Agricola\" title=\"Johannes Agricola\">Johannes Agricola</a>, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)"
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Deaths":[
{
"text":"689 – Cædwalla, king of Wessex (b. 659)[21]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/689\" title=\"689\">689</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A6dwalla_of_Wessex\" title=\"Cædwalla of Wessex\">Cædwalla</a>, king of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex\" title=\"Wessex\">Wessex</a> (b. 659)" },
//.. MORE DATA ..//
}
]
} }Usage Limits and Attribution
Requests are restricted to 5 per 30 second period, an API key or registered IP is required for unlimited access and to enable Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers. We require that you show attribution with a link back to https://today.zenquotes.io/ when using the free version of this API. Contact support@zenquotes.io to chat with our friendly dev team and get registered.
Historical event data provided by <a href="https://today.zenquotes.io/" target="_blank">ZenQuotes.io</a>