On this day in history

December 18

30 births · 14 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

46 years ago

Born this day

1878

Joseph Stalin

Would be 147

Photo (modified): Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain Photographs · Public domain

Oldest record

633rd

John VIII Palaiologos

birth anniversary

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Famous births30

1392 · 633 yrs

John VIII Palaiologos

John VIII Palaiologos (Greek: Ἰωάννης Παλαιολόγος, romanized: Iōánnēs Palaiológos; 18 December 1392 – 31 October 1448) was the penultimate Roman emperor to rule in Constantinople.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 55

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1856 · 169 yrs

Joseph John Thomson

Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was a British physicist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 83

View profile Photo (modified): Bain News Service, publisher · Public domain

1863 · 162 yrs

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria (Francis Ferdinand, 18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 50

View profile Photo (modified): Ferdinand Schmutzer · Public domain

1870 · 155 yrs

Saki

Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916), popularly known by his pen name Saki and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirise Edwardian society and culture.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 45

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1878 · 147 yrs

Joseph Stalin

Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; 18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who ruled the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953, holding the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952 and the…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 147

View profile Photo (modified): Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain Photographs · Public domain

1913 · 112 yrs

Willy Brandt

Willy Brandt (German:; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1974.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 112

View profile Photo (modified): Engelbert Reineke · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1921 · 104 yrs

Yuri Nikulin

Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin (Russian: Юрий Владимирович Никулин; 18 December 1921 – 21 August 1997) was a Soviet and Russian actor and clown who starred in many popular films.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 104

View profile Photo (modified): Anastasiya Fedorenko · CC BY-SA 3.0

1933 · 92 yrs

Laura Mancinelli

Laura Mancinelli (18 December 1933 – 7 July 2016) was an Italian writer, Germanist, medievalist and university professor. Mancinelli also wrote academic texts, children's books, essays (numerous of medieval history), and novels.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 92

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1939 · 86 yrs

Harold E. Varmus

Harold Eliot Varmus (born December 18, 1939) is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He is currently the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a senior associate at the New York Genome Center.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceAge 86

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1943 · 82 yrs

Keith Richards

Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicAge 82

View profile Photo (modified): Siebbi · CC BY 3.0

1946 · 79 yrs

Steve Biko

Bantu Stephen Biko OMSG (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismWould be 79

View profile Photo (modified): Cape Argus · Public domain

1946 · 79 yrs

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmAge 79

View profile Photo (modified): Raph_PH · CC BY 4.0

Showing 12 of 30

Famous deaths14

1803 · 222 yrs

Johann Gottfried Herder

Johann Gottfried von Herder ( HUR-dər; German:; 25 August 1744 – 18 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic. Herder is associated with the Age of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 59

View profile Photo (modified): Anton Graff · Public domain

1829 · 196 yrs

Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck

Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (French:), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biological evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 85

View profile Photo (modified): Charles Thévenin · Public domain

1848 · 177 yrs

Bernard Bolzano

Bernard Bolzano (UK:, US:; German:; Italian:; born Bernardus Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano; 5 October 1781 – 18 December 1848) was a Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher, theologian and Catholic priest of Italian extraction, also known for his liberal views. Bolzano wrote in German, his native language.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 67

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1892 · 133 yrs

Richard Owen

Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 88

View profile Photo (modified): Lock and Whitfield, published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington (see [1] · Public domain

1932 · 93 yrs

Eduard Bernstein

Eduard Bernstein (German:; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German social democratic politician and socialist theorist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 82

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1955 · 70 yrs

Park Hon-young

Pak Hon-yong (Korean: 박헌영; Hanja: 朴憲永; 28 May 1900 – 18 December 1955), courtesy name Togyong (덕영), was a Korean independence activist, politician, philosopher, and Communist activist, and one of the main leaders of the Korean Communist movement during Japan's colonial rule (1910–1945).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 126

View profile Photo (modified): 朝鮮共産黨, Коммунистическая партия Кореи · Public domain

1980 · 45 yrs

Aleksey Nikolayevich Kosygin

Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin (21 February 1904 – 18 December 1980) was a Soviet statesman who served as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1964 to 1980. Following Nikita Khrushchev's removal from power, he briefly led the Soviet Union as part of a triumvirate in the mid-to-late 1960s.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 122

View profile Photo (modified): United Press International ; processing by Roman Kubanskiy · Public domain

1982 · 43 yrs

Hans-Ulrich Rudel

Hans-Ulrich Rudel (2 July 1916 – 18 December 1982) was a German ground-attack pilot during World War II and a post-war neo-Nazi activist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

AviationWould be 110

View profile Photo (modified): Video: Kameramann des Special Film Project 186 der United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) / Screenshot: Lewenstein · Public domain

1995 · 30 yrs

Konrad Zuse

Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse (German:; 22 June 1910 – 18 December 1995) was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program-controlled Turing-complete Z3 became operational in May 1941.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

TechnologyWould be 116

View profile Photo (modified): Wolfgang Hunscher, Dortmund · CC BY-SA 3.0

1999 · 26 yrs

Robert Bresson

Robert Bresson (French:; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French filmmaker. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson made a notable contribution to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have led his works to be regarded as preeminent examples of minimalist film.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 125

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2011 · 14 yrs

Václav Havel

Václav Havel (Czech:; 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 90

View profile Photo (modified): Ondřej Sláma · CC BY-SA 3.0

2014 · 11 yrs

Virna Lisi

Virna Lisa Pieralisi (Italian:; 8 November 1936 – 18 December 2014), known as just Virna Lisi, was an Italian actress. Her international film appearances included How to Murder Your Wife (1965), Not with My Wife, You Don't!

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 89

View profile Photo (modified): user:Zweig92 · Public domain

Showing 12 of 14

Events5

1978 · 47 yrs

Chinese economic reform

Reform and opening-up, also known as the Chinese economic reform or Chinese Economic Miracle or Chinese Growth Miracle, refers to a variety of economic reforms in the People's Republic of China (PRC) that began in the late 20th century, after Mao Zedong's death in 1976.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1979 · 46 yrs

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly. Described as an international bill of rights for women, it was instituted on 3 September 1981 and has been ratified by 189 states.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2010 · 15 yrs

Tunisian revolution

The Tunisian revolution (Arabic: الثورة التونسية), also called the Jasmine Revolution and Tunisian Revolution of Dignity, was an intensive 28-day campaign of civil resistance.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2022 · 3 yrs

2022 FIFA World Cup Final

The final match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the 22nd edition of FIFA's competition for men's national football teams, was played at Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, on 18 December 2022 (Qatari National Day), and was contested by Argentina and defending champions France.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

2023 · 2 yrs

Operation Prosperity Guardian

Operation Prosperity Guardian was a United States-led military operation by a multinational coalition formed in December 2023 to respond to Houthi-led attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

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