On this day: April 18

Events on April 18

• 1521 Trial of Martin Luther begins its second day during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. He refuses to recant his teachings despite the risk of excommunication. Wikipedia
• 1689 Glorious Revolution: Provincial militia and citizens in Boston revolted, arresting officials of the Dominion of New England. Wikipedia
• 1689 Bostonians rise up in rebellion against Sir Edmund Andros. Wikipedia
• 1738 Real Academia de la Historia ("Royal Academy of History") is founded in Madrid. Wikipedia
• 1797 War of the First Coalition: The Peace of Leoben is signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Maximilian, Count of Merveldt, creating an armistice between France and Austria, setting the stage for the Treaty of Campo Formio and ending the War of the First Coalition.[citation needed] Wikipedia
• 1864 American Civil War: African-American Union soldiers were massacred and mutilated during and after the Battle of Poison Spring. Wikipedia
• 1897 The Greco-Turkish War is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia
• 1899 The St. Andrew's Ambulance Association is granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria. Wikipedia
• 1902 The 7.5 Mw Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800 and 2,000. Wikipedia
• 1906 The 7.9 Mwearthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California, killing more than 3,000 people, making one of the worst natural disasters in American history. Wikipedia
• 1909 Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome. Wikipedia
• 1915 World War I: Hit by ground fire, French aviation pioneer Roland Garros landed his aircraft behind enemy lines and was taken prisoner by German forces. Wikipedia
• 1915 World War I: French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya are bombed. Wikipedia
• 1945 Italian resistance movement: In Turin, despite the harsh repressive measures adopted by Nazi-fascists, a great pre-insurrectional strike begins. Wikipedia
• 1946 The final session of the League of Nations concluded in Geneva, with delegates agreeing to transfer much of its assets to the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1946 The International Court of Justice holds its inaugural meeting in The Hague, Netherlands. Wikipedia
• 1949 The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 came into force, describing Ireland as a republic and ending its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. Wikipedia
• 1949 The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force, declaring Éire to be a republic and severing Ireland's "association" with the Commonwealth of Nations. Wikipedia
• 1954 Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt. Wikipedia
• 1972 East African Airways Flight 720 crashes during a rejected takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 43. Wikipedia
• 1980 The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country's first President. The Zimbabwean dollar replaces the Rhodesian dollar as the official currency. Wikipedia
• 1988 The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II. Wikipedia
• 1996 The Israeli military commits the Qana massacre in a deliberate shelling of a United Nations compound near the village of Qana in southern Lebanon, killing 106 Lebanese civilians who were taking shelter there and wounding over 100 more. Wikipedia
• 2018 King Mswati III of Swaziland announces that his country's name will change to Eswatini. Wikipedia
• 2026 Seven people are killed and fourteen others are injured in a mass shooting in Kyiv, Ukraine Wikipedia

Born on April 18

• 359 Gratian, Roman emperor (died 383) Wikipedia
• 1480 Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI (died 1519) Wikipedia
• 1590 Ahmed I, Ottoman Emperor (died 1617) Wikipedia
• 1772 David Ricardo, British economist and politician (died 1823) Wikipedia
• 1902 Giuseppe Pella, Italian politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (died 1981) Wikipedia
• 1905 George H. Hitchings, American physician and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1927 Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist, author, and academic (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1927 Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Polish journalist and politician, Prime Minister of Poland (died 2013) Wikipedia
• 1940 Joseph L. Goldstein, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1941 Michael D. Higgins, Irish sociologist and politician, 9th President of Ireland Wikipedia
• 1947 James Woods, American actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1963 Conan O'Brien, American television host, comedian, and writer Wikipedia
• 1970 Saad Hariri, Saudi Arabian-Lebanese businessman and politician, 33rd Prime Minister of Lebanon Wikipedia
• 1971 David Tennant, Scottish actor Wikipedia
• 1973 Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian runner Wikipedia
• 1976 Melissa Joan Hart, American actress Wikipedia
• 1979 Kourtney Kardashian, American television personality Wikipedia
• 1984 America Ferrera, American actress Wikipedia
• 1985 Łukasz Fabiański, Polish footballer Wikipedia
• 1988 Vanessa Kirby, English actress Wikipedia
• 1990 Wojciech Szczęsny, Polish footballer Wikipedia
• 1995 Divock Origi, Belgian footballer Wikipedia

Died on April 18

• 727 Agallianos Kontoskeles, Byzantine commander and rebel leader Wikipedia
• 850 Perfectus, Spanish monk and martyr Wikipedia
• 909 Dionysius II, Syriac Orthodox patriarch of Antioch Wikipedia
• 963 Stephen Lekapenos, co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire Wikipedia
• 1802 Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (born 1731) Wikipedia
• 1873 Justus von Liebig, German chemist and academic (born 1803) Wikipedia
• 1898 Gustave Moreau, French painter and academic (born 1826) Wikipedia
• 1943 Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (born 1884) Wikipedia
• 1945 John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and engineer, invented the vacuum tube (born 1849) Wikipedia
• 1947 Jozef Tiso, Slovak priest and politician, President of Slovakia (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 1955 Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic (born 1879) Wikipedia
• 1958 Maurice Gamelin, Belgian-French general (born 1872) Wikipedia
• 1974 Marcel Pagnol, French author, playwright, and director (born 1895) Wikipedia
• 2002 Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian ethnographer and explorer (born 1914) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Anthusa of Constantinople Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Cyril VI of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eleutherius and Antia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Galdino della Sala Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Marie of the Incarnation Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Molaise of Leighlin Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Perfectus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Savina Petrilli Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: April 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Army Day (Iran) Wikipedia
• Coma Patients' Day (Poland) Wikipedia
• Friend's Day (Brazil) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Zimbabwe) Wikipedia
• International Day For Monuments and Sites Wikipedia
• Invention Day (Japan) Wikipedia
• Victory over the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of the Ice (Russia; Julian Calendar) Wikipedia
• World Amateur Radio Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “April 18” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.