Historical Events on February 18

  • 1791: After existing for almost 15-years as an independent, and mostly unrecognized state, the U.S Congress finally passes a law that admits Vermont into the Union as a State. This bill goes into effect March 4th of 1791.
  • 1797: During the French Revolutionary War, Sir Ralph Abercromby leads a fleet of eighteen British war vessels on an invasion of Trinidad.
  • 1814: The Battle of Montereau begins during the Napoleonic Wars.
  • 1861: Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the Provisional Confederate President in Montgomery, Alabama.
  • 1865: Union forces led by Major General William T. Sherman set torches to the South Carolina State House.
  • 1878: The Lincoln County War erupts in Lincoln County, New Mexico when outlaw Jesse Evans murders John Tunstall.
  • 1885: Mark Twain published the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the U.S.
  • 1930: Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto while he was examining pictures that were taken the previous month.
  • 1930: During a International Air Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, Ellie Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an airplane. It also became the first cow milked in flight as the plane traveled from Bismark, Missouri to St. Louis.
  • 1942: The Imperial Japanese Army starts systematically extermination parts of the Chinese population in Singapore in order to destroy elements they deem hostile or undesirable.
  • 2003: During a fire in Daegu Subway in South Korea, two hundred people die.
  • 2007: The soldier Chelsea Manning disclosed thousands of documents to WikiLeaks—which they publish on this day.
  • 2013: At a Brussels Airport in Belgium, armed thieves steal approximately $50 million USD of diamonds.
  • 2014: As riot police and demonstrators clash in the city of Kiev in the Ukraine, over 76 people are killed and hundred more are injured.

Famous Birthdays on February 18

  • Italian physicist and inventor of the battery, Allessandro Volta is born in 1745.
  • American General Lewis Armistead is born in 1817.
  • American stained glass artist, Louis Comfort Tiffany is born in 1848.
  • American actor and director, Matt Dillon is born in 1964.
  • American rapper and producer, Dr. Dre is born in 1965.
  • American actress Molly Ringwald is born in 1968.
  • American actress and singer, Susan Egan is born in 1970.