April 18 is:
National Animal Crackers Day
International Jugglers Day
Newspaper Columnists Day
On April 18, 1506, the cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica was laid by Pope Julius II.
In 1775, at the start of the American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begins; Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside in Massachusetts of the troop movements. Immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere:
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
April 18, 1783, Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.
1861 – Colonel Robert E. Lee turned down an offer to command the Union armies during the U.S. Civil War.
April 18, 1906 – San Francisco earthquake: San Francisco, California, was hit by an earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale. Up to 3,000 people died. Over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed.
On April 18, 1923, Yankee Stadium, “The House that Ruth Built”, opened. The Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1. John Phillip Sousa’s band played the National Anthem. The original Yankee Stadium was demolished in 2010.
The first “Washateria” (laundromat) opened in Fort Worth, Texas in 1934.
1956 – Actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco were married. The religious ceremony took place April 19.
2019 – A redacted version of the Mueller Report was released to the United States Congress and the public.