A Brief History
This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on October 18th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event.
Digging Deeper
On October 18, 1356, Basel, Switzerland was destroyed by what may have been the most significant historic earthquake ever to occur north of the Alps.
On October 18, 1851, the Herman Melville classic, Moby Dick, was first published under its original or alternate title, The Whale.
On October 18, 1945, the Soviet nuclear program received American atomic bomb (plutonium implosion type) plans from scientist, Klaus Fuchs, a German refugee from the Third Reich.
On October 18, 1979, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) of the United States first began allowing private citizens to receive satellite television signals in their own homes, making television available to people living outside of the range of broadcast television and giving the public an alternative to cable television.
On October 17 or 18, 2012, Sylvia Kristel, the first soft-core adult film star, died at age 60.
On October 18, 2012, Marvin Lambert was found dead, believed to have committed suicide.
On October 18, 2016, we addressed how as the NFL completed week 5 of the 2016 football season, Forbes informed us that the sit down, kneel down protest mania sparked by San Francisco Forty Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick was hitting the NFL where it counts, costing the venerable football league as many as a third of its valued television viewers.
On October 18, 2017, in honor of the month that brings us Halloween, perhaps the greatest of all holidays, we listed our 10 favorite horror themed television series that were airing that month, some of which may have finished their season in October and others that were just starting.
On October 18, 2019, a recent hike in subway fares served as the tipping point for disaffected citizens of Santiago, Chile, upset about a variety of social issues they had been protesting for the previous couple weeks turning into a full-scale set of riots and battles with authorities that claimed 36 lives, 11,564 injuries, and 28,000 people arrested.
On October 18, 2021, we took the time to offer our review of another historical account by Stephen Dando-Collins, an Australian writer who has written extensively on the subject of Ancient Rome (at least 44 books of all types so far).
On October 18, 2024, we trucked off to our local cinema to watch a re-release of a cult classic stop-motion animated film that has delighted adults and children since 1993.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Which event that occurred on today’s date would you like to learn more about?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Andrews, John and Matt Baker. Timeline of World History. Thunder Bay Press, 2020.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.