History Events on December 18

United Airlines Flight 2860 crashes near Kaysville, Utah, killing all three crew members on board.

#United_Airlines_Flight_2860

Premiere performance of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

#The_Nutcracker

World War II: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, takes place.

#World_War_II

Portuguese forces score a military victory over the Kingdom of Kongo at the Battle of Mbumbi in present-day Angola.

#Portuguese_Empire

Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501, derailed near DuPont, Washington, a city in United States near Olympia, Washington killing six people, and injuring 70 others.

#Amtrak_Cascades

World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of staff Erich von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French, and suffer 337,000 casualties.

#World_War_I

The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.

#Lanka_Sama_Samaja_Party

The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans in the first NFL playoff game to win the NFL Championship.

#Chicago_Bears

Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th.

#Vietnam_War

Kellingley Colliery, the last deep coal mine in Great Britain, closes.

#Kellingley_Colliery

The British Parliament abolishes feudalism and the seigneurial system in British North America.

#Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom

NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.

#NASA

Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.

#SCORE_(satellite)

First flight of the Russian heavy strategic bomber Tu-160, the world's largest combat aircraft, largest supersonic aircraft and largest variable-sweep wing aircraft built.

#Heavy_bomber

The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.

#Eighteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

California gubernatorial 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.

#California_gubernatorial_recall_election

New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

#New_Jersey

World War II: Seventy-seven B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.

#Boeing_B-29_Superfortress

List of bolides: A meteor exploded over the Bering Sea with a force over 10 times greater than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. On December 18, 2018 at 23:55 GMT

#List_of_bolides

The national anthem of the Russian Empire, "God Save the Tsar!", is first performed.

#National_anthem

US Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the USA.

#William_H._Seward

Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by astronomer Richard Walker.

#Saturn

The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the American rebels over British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga in October.

#Thanksgiving

Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia: Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic.

#Second_Punic_War

Surrender of the frigate La Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Samuel Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.

#Samuel_Hood,_1st_Viscount_Hood

United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.

#United_Arab_Emirates

A rebellion breaks out in Alpujarras in response to the forced conversions of Muslims in Spain.

#Rebellion_of_the_Alpujarras_(1499-1501)

Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.

#Soyuz_programme

The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook, Victoria Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.

#Upper_Ferntree_Gully,_Victoria

Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in a Jeantaud electric car.

#Gaston_de_Chasseloup-Laubat

Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (? yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan dynasty of Mongolia and China.

#Kublai_Khan

The first of a series of floods strikes Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding is at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced.

The Chadian Civil War begins when rebel groups, allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan, launch an attack in Adré.

The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar.

The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.