October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years), with 75 days remaining until year’s end. (Map of Alaska created by NASA SRTM, Gnu 3.2. The US took possession of Alaska on October 18, 1867.)

Today in History

• Moby Dick is published (1851)
• The Second Opium War ends (1860)
• The US takes possession of Alaska (1867)
• The BBC is founded (1922)
• The Soviet Union receives plans for the US plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs, a German physicist working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (1945)
• Juan and Eva Perón marry (1945)
• The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus (1967)
• Azerbaijan declares independence from the Soviet Union (1991)

Birthdays

• Isabel Briggs Myers, co-creator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (1897)
• Lotte Lenya, singer and actress (1898)
• Miriam Hopkins, actress (1902)
• Anita O’Day, singer (1919)
• Pierre Trudeau, Canadian prime minister (1919)
• Melina Mercouri, actress, singer, and politician (1920)
• Jesse Helms, politician (1921)
• Chuck Berry, singer-songwriter (1926)
• Klaus Kinski, actor (1926)
• George C. Scott, actor (1927)
• Forrest Gregg, football player (1933)
• Inger Stevens, actress (1934)
• Peter Boyle, actor (1935)
• Dawn Wells, Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island (1938)
• Mike Ditka, football coach (1939)
• Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin (1939)
• Joe Morton, actor (1947)
• Laura Nyro, singer-songwriter (1947)
• Wendy Wasserstein, playwright (1950)
• Pam Dawber, actress (1951)
• Terry McMillan, author (1951)
• Chuck Lorre, sitcom producer (1952)
• Martina Navrátilová, tennis player (1956)
• Thomas Hearns, boxer (1958)
• Erin Moran, actress (1960)
• Jean-Claude Van Damme, martial artist and actor (1960)
• Wynton Marsalis, trumpet player (1961)
• Rick Moody, author (1961)
• Charles Stross, science fiction writer (1964)
• Ne-Yo, singer-songwriter
• Zac Efron, actor (1987)
• Bristol Palin, teen pregnancy prevention spokesperson and reality television personality (1990)

Deaths

• Sarah Churchill, duchess (1744)
• Charles Babbage, inventor of the mechanical computer (1871)
• Alfred Binet, psychologist (1911)
• Thomas Edison, inventor (1931)
• Elizabeth Arden, cosmetics tycoon (1966)
• S. S. Kresge, K-Mart founder (1966)
• Walt Kelly, Pogo creator (1973)
• Andreas Baader, German militant (1977)
• Ramón Mercader, assassin of Leon Trotsky (1978)
• Bess Truman, first lady (1982)
• Willie Jones, baseball player (1983)
• Jon-Eric Hexum, actor (1984)
• Julie London, singer and actress (2000)
• Gwen Verdon, dancer and actress (2000)
• Sylvia Kristel, actress (2012)
• Slater Martin, basketball player (2012)

Holidays

• Alaska Day (Alaska)
• Independence Day (Chile)
• International Credit Union Day (International)
• Lukesmas (Christianity)
• National Chocolate Cupcake Day (US)
• Necktie Day (Croatia)
• No Beard Day (US, informal)
• Persons Day (Canada)
• World Menopause Day (International Menopause Society)