History of the Day for:
December 18
- 1719: Thomas Fleet of Boston published his mother-in-law's tales, "Mother Goose's Melodies For Children."
- 1787: New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
- 1796: The first Sunday newspaper, the "Monitor," was published in Baltimore.
- 1865: The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect.
- 1892: "The Nutcracker Suite," Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet, premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.
- 1920: The first U.S postage stamps printed without the words United States or the initials U.S. were issued.
- 1936: Su-Lin, the first giant panda to come to the U.S. from China, arrived in San Francisco. She was sold to the Brookfield Zoo for $8,750.
- 1956: "To Tell the Truth" debuted on CBS-TV.
- 1961: Britain's EMI Records rejected the Beatles, although the record company executives later changed their minds.
- 1964: "The Pink Panther" cartoon series premiered with the episode titled "The Pink Phink."
- 1964: Funeral services were held in Chicago for Sam Cooke. Hundreds of fans caused damage to the A.R. Leak Funeral Home, where Cooke's body was on display.
- 1966: Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" aired for the first time on CBS.
- 1976: "Wonder Woman" debuted on ABC.
- 1987: Ivan F. Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street's biggest insider trading scandal.
- 1996: TV industry executives agreed to adopt a ratings system similar to the one used for movies.
- 1996: The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring "Ebonics" a language or dialect.
- 1997: HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium.
- 1999: NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
- 2002: 2003 California recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.