History Events on July 18

The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone.

#Florence

A gunpowder magazine explosion in Birgu, Malta, kills around 200 people.

#1806_Birgu_polverista_explosion

The College of Arms is reincorporated by Royal charter signed by Queen Mary I of England and King Philip II of Spain.

#College_of_Arms

Intel is founded in Mountain View, California.

#Intel

McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police.

#San_Ysidro_McDonald's_massacre

On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufrière Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital, forcing most of the population to flee.

#Montserrat

Battle of Alarcos: Almohad forces defeat the Castilian army of Alfonso VIII and force its retreat to Toledo.

#Battle_of_Alarcos

Chinese forces under general Li Shiji besiege the strategic fortress city of Anshi (Liaoning) during the Goguryeo-Tang War.

#Li_Shiji

Coronation of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil.

#Pedro_II_of_Brazil

The Ballot Act 1872 in the United Kingdom introduced the requirement that parliamentary and local government elections be held by secret ballot.

#Ballot_Act_1872

A racially charged incident in a bar sparks the six-day Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio; 1,700 Ohio National Guard troops intervene to restore order.

#Hough_riots

Chappaquiddick incident: U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy crashes his car into a tidal basin at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing his passenger, Boiler Room Girl Mary Jo Kopechne.

#Chappaquiddick_incident

King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B'Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities.

#Edward_I_of_England

The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving official status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.

#United_States_Congress

First ascent of Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps.

#Dent_Blanche

Rwandan genocide: The Rwandan Patriotic Front takes control of Gisenyi and north western Rwanda, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the genocide.

#Rwandan_genocide

Two hundred sixty-eight Guatemalan campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre.

#Guatemala

World War II: During the Beisfjord massacre in Norway, 15 Norwegian paramilitary guards help members of the SS to kill 288 political prisoners from Yugoslavia.

#World_War_II

In Brussels, Prince Charles I, is crowned Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders, a year after inheriting the title.

#Brussels

The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

#Government_of_Detroit

A man sets fire to an anime studio in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan, killing at 35 people and injuring dozens of others.

#Kyoto_Animation_arson_attack

The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 using its jet engines for the first time.

#Messerschmitt_Me_262

At least seven people are killed and 32 others are injured after a bomb explodes on an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria.

#2012_Burgas_bus_bombing

American Civil War: Second Battle of Fort Wagner: One of the first formal African American military units, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, supported by several white regiments, attempts an unsuccessful assault on Confederate-held Battery Wagner.

#American_Civil_War

Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf.

#Adolf_Hitler

Battle of Mullaitivu: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army's base, killing over 1200 soldiers.

#Battle_of_Mullaitivu_(1996)

Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever.

#Saguenay_flood

Tokhtamysh-Timur war: Battle of the Kondurcha River: Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde in present-day southeast Russia.

#Tokhtamysh-Timur_war

France and England agree to the Truce of Leulinghem, inaugurating a 13-year peace, the longest period of sustained peace during the Hundred Years' War.

#Kingdom_of_France

The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility.

#First_Vatican_Council

Nadia Com?neci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

#Nadia_Com?neci

Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall's war against the French.

#Louis_Faidherbe

On the Spanish mainland, a faction of the army supported by fascists, rises up against the Second Spanish Republic in a coup d'etat starting the 3-year-long Civil War, resulting in the longest dictatorship in modern European history.

#Spanish_coup_of_July_1936

Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.

#Human_spaceflight

The bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Jewish Community Center) in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300.

A picture of Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web.

World War II: Hideki T?j? resigns as Prime Minister of Japan because of numerous setbacks in the war effort.

The Treaties of Orebro end both the Anglo-Russian and Anglo-Swedish Wars.

Sack of Aquileia: After an earlier defeat on the Catalaunian Plains, Attila lays siege to the metropolis of Aquileia and eventually destroys it.

Roman-Persian Wars: Emperor Julian arrives at Antioch with a Roman expeditionary force (60,000 men) and stays there for nine months to launch a campaign against the Persian Empire.

Roman-Gaulish Wars: Battle of the Allia: A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.

Battle of the Cremera as part of the Roman-Etruscan Wars. Veii ambushes and defeats the Roman army.