History of the Day for:
April 18
- 1775: Paul Revere began his ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass., to warn the colonists the British were coming.
- 1846: The telegraph ticker was patented by R.E. House of New York City.
- 1906: A devastating earthquake of 8.3 on the Richter scale hit San Francisco and was followed by raging fires, killing about 700 and leaving 250,000 homeless.
- 1923: The first game was played in Yankee Stadium as New York defeated the Boston Red Sox, 4-1.
- 1924: The first crossword puzzle book was published by Simon & Schuster.
- 1934: The first coin-operated laundry was opened in Fort Worth, Texas.
- 1942: Four months after Pearl Harbor, an air squadron led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle raided the Japanese mainland.
- 1942: Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.
- 1943: World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.
- 1945: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany.
- 1945: Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Bolivia are established.
- 1945: American correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese gunfire on le Shima off Okinawa.
- 1946: The League of Nations dissolved and was replaced by the United Nations.
- 1955: Physicist Albert Einstein died in Princeton, N.J.
- 1956: Actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco in a civil ceremony. The church ceremony took place the following day.
- 1949: The aircraft carrier USS United States (CVA-58) is laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. However, the United States is canceled five days later, resulting in the Revolt of the Admirals.
- 1978: The Senate voted to turn the Panama Canal over to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999.
- 1983: A suicide bomber killed 62 people, including 17 Americans, at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
- 1988: The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
- 1992: General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolts against President Mohammad Najibullah of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and allies with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture Kabul.
- 1993: President of Pakistan, Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolves the National Assembly and dismisses the Cabinet.
- 1996: In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Quana where more than 800 civilians had taken refuge.
- 2007: The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.