in World & History

January 18: Fun Facts about Today in History

by James updated April 20, 2022, 1:01 pm

Today in History

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Learn about the most intriguing events and historical facts that occurred on January 18 throughout history. The Gregorian calendar’s eighteenth day is January 18th. On this day in history, Australia’s worst-ever train tragedy happened in Sydney, killing 83 people; a plane landed on a ship for the first time off the coast of San Francisco; and King Henry VII married Elizabeth of York.

Capricorn is the zodiac sign for January 18. Kevin Costner, Angelique Kerber, and Cary Grant all have famous birthdays. National Winnie the Poo Day and National Thesaurus Day both fall on January 18th.

Event
(January 18, 1871) Towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War, Wilhelm I of Germany is declared Kaiser Wilhelm in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles (France). Wilhelm had had the title of German Emperor since the 1 January 1871 constitution, but he had been hesitant to accept it.
Advertisements (January 18, 1882) A.A. Milne, the English humorist who created the wildly popular stories of Christopher Robin and his stuffed animal, Winnie-the-Pooh, was born.
(January 18, 1896) H. L. Smith exhibits an X-ray generating machine for the first time.
(January 18, 1911) On the battleship Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay, American pilot Eugene Ely made the first landing on a ship's flight deck.
(January 18, 1983) The gold medals of American athlete Jim Thorpe, who won the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm but was later stripped of his medals due to suspicions that he was not an amateur athlete, have been officially reinstated by the International Olympic Committee.
(Died on January 18, 2019) John Coughlin, American figure skater (b. 1985).

Written by James

James has always been intrigued by dinosaurs, the universe, technology, and animals. With a Bachelor of Computer Science and years of writing expertise, he joined World Amazing Facts in 2021 as a staff writer.

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