Messerschmitt Me 262 (Illustration: Herbert Ringlstetter, CC BY-SA 2.0 Germany)

Today in History

• King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, which banishes all Jews from England (1290)
• American Civil War: The African-American 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry leads an unsuccessful assault on Fort Wagner, featured in the film Glory (1863)
• Aviation gains an official role in the US Army with the formation of the Aviation Section of the US Signal Corps (1914)
• Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf (1925)
• The Messerschmitt Me262 flies using its jet engines for the first time (1942)
• US Space Program: Gemini 10 lifts off (1966)
• Intel is founded (1968)
• US Senator Ted Kennedy crashes his car into a tidal basis on Chappaquiddick Island, Masssachusetts, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne (19969)
• Nadia Comaneci scores a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics. She is the first gymnast in history to do so (1976)
• The city of Detroit files for bankruptcy (2013)

Birthdays

• William Makepeace Thackeray, author (1811)
• Hendrik Lorentz, physicist (1853)
• Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., US general (1886)
• Vidkun Quisling, Nazi-sponsored president of Norway (1887)
• Koichi Kido, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan, advisor to the Emperor (1889)
• Machine Gun Kelly, gangster (1895 — born and died on the same day of the year)
• Jessamyn West, author (1902)
• Chill Wills, actor (1902)
• S. I. Hayakawa, academic and politician (1906)
• Clifford Odets, playwright and director (1906)
• Lupe Vélez, actress and dancer (1908)
• Andrei Gromyko, Soviet minister of foreign affairs (1909)
• Harriet Nelson, singer and actress (1909)
• Hume Cronyn, actor (1911)
• Red Skelton, comedian (1913)
• Nelson Mandela, activist and South African president (1918)
• John Glenn, astronaut (1921)
• Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, singer-songwriter (1929)
• Yevgeny Yevtushenko, poet and playwright (1933)
• Hunter S. Thompson, journalist and author (1937)
• Paul Verhoeven, filmmaker (1938)
• James Brolin, actor (1940)
• Martha Reeves, singer (1941)
• Steve Forbes, publisher and politician (1947)
• Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group (1950)
• Ricky Skaggs, bluegrass musician (1954)
• Elizabeth McGovern, actress (1961)
• Vin Diesel, actor (1967)
• Kristen Bell, actress (1980)

Deaths

• Caravaggio, painter (1610)
• John Paul Jones, US admiral (1792)
• Jane Austen, author (1817)
• Robert Gould Shaw, white commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, featured in the film Glory (1863)
• Benito Juárez. Mexican president (1872)
• Thomas Cook, travel agent (1892)
• Horatio Alger, author (1899)
• Machine Gun Kelly, gangster (1954 — born and died on the same day of the year)
• Vaughn Bode, illustrator (1975)
• William Westmoreland, US general (2005)
• Alex Rocco, actor (2015)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Constitution Day (Uruguay)
• National Caviar Day
• National Sour Candy Day
• Nelson Mandela International Day

July 18 is the 199th day of the year (200th in leap years). There are 166 days remaining until the end of the year.