History Events on January 18

King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV uniting the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

#Henry_VII_of_England

Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.

#Field_hockey

Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session.

#Pope_Pius_IV

Henry Morgan captures Panama.

#Henry_Morgan

The Euphronios Krater is unveiled in Rome after being returned to Italy by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

#Euphronios_Krater

Sierra Leone Civil War is declared over.

#Sierra_Leone_Civil_War

Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston skyscraper, becoming the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).

#BASE_jumping

A bushfire kills four people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.

#2003_Canberra_bushfires

Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.

#Emperor_Huizong_of_Song

Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler", is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life imprisonment.

#Albert_DeSalvo

James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".

#James_Cook

First Balkan War: A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.

#First_Balkan_War

Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.

#Marion_Barry

The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom's government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.

#European_Court_of_Human_Rights

Jan Willem Janssens surrenders the Dutch Cape Colony to the British.

#Jan_Willem_Janssens

Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, killing all 50 aboard, the third fatal Capital Airlines crash in as many years.

#Capital_Airlines_Flight_20

World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.

#World_War_I

Lebanese Christian militias kill at least 1,000 in Karantina, Beirut.

#Christianity_in_Lebanon

Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.

#Ignacy_Jan_Paderewski

A bus catches fire on the Samara-Shymkent road in Yrgyz District, Aktobe, Kazakhstan. The fire kills 52 passengers, with three passengers and two drivers escaping.

#Samara

SFR Yugoslavia's Prime minister, Džemal Bijedi?, his wife and six others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

#Socialist_Federal_Republic_of_Yugoslavia

Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later.

#Leo_II_(emperor)

Nika riots in Constantinople fail.

#Nika_riots

Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.

#Twenty-One_Demands

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.

#Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising

Frederick I crowns himself King of Prussia in Königsberg.

#Frederick_I_of_Prussia

Willie O'Ree, the first Black Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins.

#Willie_O'Ree

The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.

#International_Olympic_Committee

World War II: Liberation of Kraków, Poland by the Red Army.

#Kraków

An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith.

#X-ray

World War II: British troops launch a general counter-offensive against Italian East Africa.

#World_War_II

The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France

#Airbus_A380

The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay.

#First_Fleet

United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay killing all 32 passengers and six crew members.

#United_Airlines_Flight_266

King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Mingyi Swa of Burma in single combat, for which this date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces day.

#Naresuan

Australia's worst rail disaster occurs at Granville, Sydney killing 83.

#Granville_rail_disaster

The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people and Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Cyclone Kyrill causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is officially observed for the first time in all 50 states.

Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.

A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.

Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.

Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed Kaiser Wilhelm in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles (France) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. Wilhelm already had the title of German Emperor since the constitution of 1 January 1871, but he had hesitated to accept the title.

Wesley College is established in Melbourne, Australia.