History Events on March 18

In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $500 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

#Art_theft

The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty.

#Crimea

Mexico creates Pemex by expropriating all foreign-owned oil reserves and facilities.

#Pemex

American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.

#American_Express

Mount Vesuvius in Naples, Italy erupts killing 26 people and causing thousands to flee their homes.

#Mount_Vesuvius

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.

#Astronaut

The second Peace of Riga is signed between Poland and the Soviet Union.

#Peace_of_Riga

Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders the evacuation of Paris.

#Paris_Commune

Macario Sakay issues Presidential Order No. 1 of his Tagalog Republic.

#Macario_Sakay

The first modern republic in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.

#Republic

King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.

#George_I_of_Greece

New York governor George Clarke's complex at Fort George is burned in an arson attack, starting the New York Conspiracy of 1741.

#George_Clarke_(governor)

Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledges to donate a silver challenge cup as an award for the best hockey team in Canada; it was later named after him as the Stanley Cup.

#Frederick_Stanley,_16th_Earl_of_Derby

Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.

#Gold_standard

The New London School explosion in New London, Texas, kills 300 people, mostly children.

#New_London_School_explosion

American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act.

#American_Revolution

Bosnia's Bosniaks and Croats sign the Washington Agreement, ending war between the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

#Bosnia_and_Herzegovina

First Mongol invasion of Poland: Mongols overwhelm Polish armies in Kraków in the Battle of Chmielnik and plunder the city.

#First_Mongol_invasion_of_Poland

Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.

#Spanish_Civil_War

Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

#Lon_Nol

The Tri-State Tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.

#Tri-State_Tornado

World War I: During the Battle of Gallipoli, three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.

#World_War_I

The Évian Accords end the Algerian War of Independence, which had begun in 1954.

#Évian_Accords

An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing 265 people.

#1953_Yenice-Gönen_earthquake

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares himself King of Jerusalem in the Sixth Crusade.

#Frederick_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor

The Third Anglo-Powhatan War begins in the Colony of Virginia.

#Anglo-Powhatan_Wars

The War Relocation Authority is established in the United States to take Japanese Americans into custody.

#War_Relocation_Authority

Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.

#Tolpuddle_Martyrs

The Hawaii Admission Act is signed into law.

#Hawaii_Admission_Act

The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 people on board.

#Antonov_An-24

World War II: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.

#World_War_II

Peru: a landslide crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200 people at the mining camp of Chungar.

#Peru

American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States adjourns for the last time.

#American_Civil_War

The United States begins secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.

#Operation_Menu

Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trade rights.

#Hawaii

Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.

#Jacques_de_Molay

An earthquake in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, leaves up to 20,000 dead.

#1068_Near_East_earthquake

The Bardo National Museum in Tunisia is attacked by gunmen. 23 people, almost all tourists, are killed, and at least 50 other people are wounded.

A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162 people.

Germans in the German Democratic Republic vote in the first democratic elections in the former communist dictatorship.

A Vostok-2M rocket at Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43 explodes during a fueling operation, killing 48 people.

The supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Cornish coast.

Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in the first sign of the Tito-Stalin Split.

In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience, of which he serves only two.

March Revolution: In Berlin there is a struggle between citizens and military, costing about 300 lives.

Flanders Campaign of the French Revolution, Battle of Neerwinden.

Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.

Albert II of Habsburg becomes Holy Roman Emperor.