November 18th in History

Michael Dobson | November 18

William Tell, by Schranktür (1782)

On This Day in History

  • Wilhelm (William) Tell (according to legend) shoots an apple off his son’s head with a crossbow (1307)
  • The Battle of Vertières leads to the establishment of an independent Haiti (1803)
  • Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is published (1865)
  • American and Canadian railroads establish five standard time zones for the continent of North America (1883)
  • A treaty between the US and Panama gives the US control of the Panama Canal Zone (1903)
  • George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept his Nobel Prize money, saying,  “I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.” (1926)
  • Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks release the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, “Steamboat Willie” (1928)
  • The first push-button telephone goes into service (1963)
  • Jim Jones convinces the members of the Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guiana, to commit mass suicide by drinking poisoned Kool-Aid (1978)
  • The Howard Stern Show premiers on the radio (1985)
  • The Massachusetts Supreme Court rules that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, making that state the first in the US to allow legal marriage of same-sex couples (2003)

Births

  • Louis Daguerre, photographer (1787)
  • W. S. Gilbert, playwright (1836)
  • Ignacy Jan Paderewski, pianist and politician (1860 — O. S. November 6) (Paderewski was born when the Julian “Old Style” calendar was in effect but died under the modern Gregorian calendar, so his date of birth is shown on both calendars.)
  • Dorothy Dix, journalist (1861)
  • Clarence Day, author (1874)
  • Wyndham Lewis, author and painter (1882)
  • Carl Vinson, US politician (1883)
  • Eugene Ormandy, conductor (1899)
  • George Gallup, pollster (1901)
  • Imogene Coca, comedienne (1908)
  • Johnny Mercer, singer-songwriter (1909)
  • Alan Shepard, astronaut (1923)
  • Gene Mauch, baseball player and manager (1925)
  • Hank Ballard, singer-songwriter (1927)
  • Margaret Atwood, author (1939)
  • Brenda Vaccaro, actress (1939)
  • David Hemmings, actor (1941)
  • Linda Evans, actress (1942)
  • Alan Dean Foster, science fiction writer (1946)
  • Jack Tatum, football player (1948)
  • Alan Moore, author and illustrator (1953)
  • Kevin Nealon, SNL cast member (1953)
  • Sinbad, comedian (1956)
  • Elizabeth Perkins, actress (1960)
  • Len Bias, basketball player (1963)
  • Owen Wilson, actor (1968)
  • Peta Wilson, actress (1970)
  • Chloë Sevigny, actress (1974)

Deaths

  • Marcel Proust, author (1922)
  • Niels Bohr, physicist (1962)
  • Henry Wallace, 33rd US vice presient (1965)
  • Ted Heath, bandleader (1969)
  • Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., businessman and diplomat (1969)
  • Man Ray, photographer and painter (1979)
  • Jim Jones, cult leader (1978)
  • Freddie Fitzsimmons, baseball player (1979)
  • Cab Calloway, bandleader (1994)
  • James Coburn, actor (2002)
  • Red Robbins, basketball player (2009)

Holidays

  • Feast of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá (main day) (Maracaibo, Venezuela)
  • Independence Day (Latvia)
  • Independence Day (Morocco)
  • Married to a Scorpio Support Day (Wellcat Holidays and Herbs)
  • Mickey Mouse’s Birthday (Walt Disney Company)
  • National Day (Oman)
  • Prematurity Awareness Day (March of Dimes)
  • Push-Button Phone Day (US)

November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years), with 43 days remaining until year’s end.