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History of the Day for:
March 18
- 1766: Yielding to colonial pressure, Britain repealed the Stamp Act.
- 1837: The 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, was born in Caldwell, N.J.
- 1909: Einar Dessau of Denmark used a shortwave transmitter to converse with a government radio post about six miles away in what's believed to have been the first broadcast by a "ham" operator.
- 1922: British magistrates in India sentenced Mohandas Gandhi to six years in prison for acts of civil disobedience.
- 1931: Schick Inc. marketed the first electric razor.
- 1940: Benito Mussolini agreed to join with Adolf Hitler in Germany's war against France and Britain.
- 1953: The National League approved the Boston Braves relocation to Milwaukee, making it the first relocation of a major league franchise since 1903.
- 1954: Howard Hughes purchased RKO Pictures, making it the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual.
- 1959: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill; Bill Sharman of the Boston Celtics began what was to be the longest string of successful consecutive free throws (56 in a row) to set a NBA record.
- 1962: France and the Algerian nationalists agree to a truce ending the Algeria War.
- 1965: The first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov left his Voskhod 2 capsule and remained outside the spacecraft for 20 minutes.
- 1974: Most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the United States.
- 1980: A Vostok rocket exploded on its launch pad while being refueled, killing 50 at the Plesetsk Space Center in the U.S.S.R.
- 1985: ABC announced plans to merge with Capital Cities Communications to form Cap Cities/ABC; a pro football record was set by Denver and Houston of the USFL with a total of 112 passes thrown in a game. Houston went airborne 69 times, and Denver took to the air 43 times.
- 1986: The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.