July 18

It’s National Caviar Day and National Ice Cream Day

ON THIS DAY…
0390BC A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome
0064 Two-thirds of the city of Rome burns; the emperor Nero rebuilds the city afterward but remains unpopular and is driven from Rome four years later
1536 The authority of the Pope is declared void in England
1853 Trains begin running over the first North American international railroad between Portland, Maine and Montreal, Quebec
1863 Nearly half of the men in the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, one of the first black U.S. Army regiments, are killed or wounded in an assault on Confederate Fort Wagner in South Carolina
1872 Britain introduces voting by secret ballot
1876 A Royal Commission on Noxious Vapours was appointed by the British government to inquire into the management of chemical works, to determine the effects of certain gases and vapors emitted, and investigate means of prevention
1914 The United States Army’s Signal Corps is formed, giving definite status to its air service for the first time
1925 Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf
1936 Led by generals Francisco Franco and Emilio Mola, a rebellion of the army against the Spanish Second Republic begins the Spanish Civil War
1936 The first Oscar-Mayer Wienermobile was completed at Chicago’s General Body Company
1942 Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe, Germany’s first operational jet fighter, takes first flight
1947 President Harry S. Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act into law which places the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the United States Vice President
1963 The first implantation of an intrathoracic left artificial ventricle in a human being was made by Dr. E. Stanley Crawford, at the Baylor University College of Medicine, Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX
1968 The Intel Corporation, inventor of the microchip, was incorporated
1969 Senator Edward Kennedy drives his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, MA; although his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowns, he fails to report the accident until the following morning
1976 Gymnast Nadia Comaneci, aged 14, scores first ever perfect 10 at the Olympics
1977 Vietnam joins the United Nations
1984 Beverly Lynn Burns becomes first woman Boeing 747 airline captain in the world
1986 Videotapes, taken by the deep-sea Alvin submersible, showing Titanic’s remains were released
1999 Golfer Paul Lawrie wins the British Open despite beginning the last round 10 shots behind, after Jean Van de Velde blows a three-shot lead on the final hole

BORN:
1867 Margaret Brown, an American socialite, philanthropist, and activist who became famous as one of the survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic; she became known after her death as “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”, although she was never called Molly during her life
1911 Hume Cronyn, 3-time Emmy Award-winning actor (Age-Old Friends, Broadway Bound, To Dance with the White Dog, Cocoon, The World According to Garp, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), The Seventh Cross)
1912 Harriet Nelson, singer and actress (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet)
1913 Red Skelton, actor, writer, composer, producer, comedian (The Red Skelton Show, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes, I Dood It, Du Barry Was a Lady)
1914 Roy Huggins, TV show creator, writer, producer, and director (Alias Smith and Jones, Maverick, The Fugitive, The Rockford Files, Baretta, Hunter)
1918 Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in fully representative democratic elections but before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress and its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe; he spent 27 years in prison, much of it on Robben Island, on convictions for crimes that included sabotage committed while he spearheaded the struggle against apartheid
1920 Dolph Sweet, tough, barrel-chested character actor (Reds, Finian’s Rainbow, The Out of Towners, The Lord’s of Flatbush, Heaven Can Wait (1978), The Wanderers)
1921 John Glenn, former United States Senator who first rose to fame as the first American to orbit the Earth as an astronaut in NASA’s Mercury program
1926 Robert Sloman, an actor who later worked at The Sunday Times circulation department for more than 20 years, becoming distribution manager; but is best known for his work as a writer for television most notably for Doctor Who during the Jon Pertwee era
1930 Burt Kwouk, actor (Last of the Summer Wine, A Shot in the Dark, Goldfinger, The Brides of Fu Manchu)
1937 Hunter S. Thompson, journalist and author, most famous for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; he is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories
1938 Paul Verhoeven, director, producer, writer (Soldier of Orange, Flesh+Blood, RoboCop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers)
1940 James Brolin, Emmy Award-winning actor (Marcus Welby, M.D., Von Ryan’s Express, The Car, The Amityville Horror, Hotel, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure)
1967 Vin Diesel, actor, producer, director (Saving Private Ryan, Pitch Black, Find Me Guilty, Babylon A.D.)
1967 Paul Cornell, writer of non-fiction books, novels, comics and screenplays (Doctor Who, Captain Britain, Casualty, Coronation Street)
1980 Kristen Bell, actress (Veronica Mars, Gossip Girl, Heroes, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pootie Tang)

DIED:
1792 John Paul Jones, America’s first well-known naval hero in the American Revolutionary War, dies at 45
1817 Jane Austen, novelist whose realism, biting social commentary and masterful use of free indirect speech, burlesque and irony have earned her a place as one of the most widely-read and best-loved writers in British literature, dies of Addison’s disease at 41
1948 Max Linder, influential French pioneer of silent film, kills himself in a suicide pact with his wife at 46
1966 Bobby Fuller, rock singer and guitar player best known for his single “I Fought the Law”, was found dead in a parked automobile (the police determined it was suicide, however many people still believe he was murdered) at 23
1973 Jack Hawkins, actor (Tales That Witness Madness, Nicholas and Alexandra, Oh! What a Lovely War, Lawrence of Arabia, Ben-Hur), dies at 62
1988 Nico (Christa Päffgen), singer-songwriter, fashion model, actress, keyboard player and a Warhol Superstar, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 49
2006 David Maloney, director and producer (Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, The Day of the Triffids (1981), Strike it Rich), dies at 72