History Events on February 18

Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.

#Daegu_subway_fire

World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.

#World_War_II

Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.

#Wah_Mee_massacre

Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee" and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.

#Second_Sino-Japanese_War

First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to mountains.

#First_Indochina_War

George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.

#George_Plantagenet,_1st_Duke_of_Clarence

The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

#Church_of_Scientology

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.

#Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn

Richard Petty wins a then-record sixth Daytona 500 after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash on the final lap of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.

#Richard_Petty

FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

#Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation

Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.

#Amda_Seyon_I

Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.

#Admission_to_the_Union

Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.

#Édouard_de_Laveleye

Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.

#Brussels_Airport_diamond_heist

Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.

#Kenya

Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.

#Bulgaria

French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.

#French_Revolutionary_Wars

The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.

#Airmail

Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.

#Operation_Teapot

Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.

#Second_Boer_War

The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

#The_Gambia

The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.

#Sixth_Crusade

American Civil War: Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia.

#American_Civil_War

In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

#Montgomery,_Alabama

The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.

#Space_Shuttle_Enterprise

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).

#Fourth_Anglo-Dutch_War

Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.

#Eighty_Years'_War

John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

#John_Tunstall

Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.

#Nishapur

The Empire of Japan declares a puppet state of Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) independent from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.

#Empire_of_Japan

Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.

#Napoleonic_Wars

Battle of Wesenberg between the Livonian Order and Dovmont of Pskov.

#Battle_of_Wesenberg_(1268)

World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.

#Joseph_Goebbels

With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.

#Italian_unification

WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.

#WikiLeaks

At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kiev, Ukraine.

Samjhauta Express bombings occurred around midnight in Diwana near the Indian city of Panipat, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of New Delhi, India.

Sampit conflict: Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, ultimately resulting in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.

The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.

The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.

The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.

Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors

World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.

Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.

While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.