Major Events
- 618 Coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries of the Tang Dynasty's rule over China
- 1812 War of 1812 begins as the US declares war against Britain
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon Bonaparte and France defeated by British forces under Duke of Wellington and Prussian troops under Field Marshall von Blücher
- 1928 American aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean (as a passenger), landing at Burry Port, Wales
- 1940 Winston Churchill gives his "this was their finest hour" speech to the House of Commons urging perseverance in the war after the Dunkirk evacuation and the fall of France
- More June 18 Events
Jun 18 in Film & TV
- 1969 "The Wild Bunch", directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring William Holden and Ernest Borgnine, is released
Jun 18 in Music
- 1991 "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" single released by Bryan Adams (Billboard Song of the Year, 1991)
Jun 18 in Sport
- 1995 All Black Jonah Lomu scores the try of the Rugby World Cup, running over Mike Catt in New Zealand's 45-29 defeat of England
Did You Know?
Richard Martin of London takes out first life insurance policy, on William Gibbons; premium was £383
Édouard Daladier
Anastasia Nikolaevna
Idriss Déby
Dudley Herschbach
Thabo Mbeki
Isabella Rossellini
Kurt Browning
Blake Shelton
Richard Madden
Paul McCartney
George Mallory
George Mikan
Lou Brock
Fun Fact About June 18
Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane
Famous Weddings
- 1839 Dutch prince Willem Alexander (later William III) weds cousin Princess Sophia
- 1858 Norwegian modernist playwright "The Doll's House" Henrik Ibsen (30) marries Suzannah Thoresen (21) in Oslo
- 1953 Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. (24) weds fellow activist and singer Coretta Scott (26) on the lawn of her parent’s home in Marion, Alabama; ceremony officiated by his father
Famous Divorces
- 1971 Aviator Howard Hughes divorces 2nd wife Jean Peters after 14 years of marriage
- 2010 American "Saved by the Bell" actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar (36) divorces former model Lisa Ann Russell (39) due to irreconcilable differences after 14 years of marriage
- 2012 "The L Word" actress Laurel Holloman (41) divorces architect Paul Macherey (44) due to irreconcilable differences after 9 years of marriage
More June 18 Weddings
Piet Heyn
Roald Amundsen
Maxim Gorky
Georgy Zhukov
XXXTentacion
Willie MaysArticles, Photos and Quiz
Battle of Waterloo
'Wellington at Waterloo', by Robert Alexander Hillingford, depicting Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, during the final confrontation against Napoleon
June 18, 1815
First Photo of Lightning?
Cabinet card photo of a daguerreotype by Thomas Martin Easterly, showing streaks of lightning
June 18, 1847
Fort Knox-style Security for Folger Library
In 2020 a First Folio of William Shakespeare’s works was sold at auction in New York for nearly ten million dollars. And the Folger Library has 82 of them.
June 18, 1857
