more events on October 18
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2007
Suicide attack on a motorcade in Karachi, Pakistan, kills at least 139 and wounds 450; the subject of the attack, Pakistan’s former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is not harmed.
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2003
Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resigns in the wake of protests centered around Bolivia’s natural gas resources.
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1970
Jose Padilla, American terrorist convicted of conspiring with overseas terrorists in death plots; held from May 8, 2002, as an enemy combatant, he was tried in a civilian court in 2006
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1968
US athletes Tommi Smith and John Carlos suspended by US Olympic Committee for giving “black power” salute while receiving their medals at the Olympic Games in Mexico City.
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1967
A Russian unmanned spacecraft makes the first landing on the surface of Venus.
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1961
Wynton Marsalis, Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter; presently (2013) artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
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1960
Jean-Claude Van Damme, martial artist, actor, director (Bloodsport, The Expendables 2).
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Erin Moran, actress; best known for her role as Joanie Cunningham on Happy Days TV series and its spinoff Joanie Loves Chachi.
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1956
Martina Navratilova, Czechoslovakian-born tennis player; won a record 9 Wimbledon singles competitions.
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Craig Bartlett, animator, writer; known for his work on Rugrats , Hey Arnold! and Dinosaur Train animated TV series.
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1952
Bao Ninh (Hoang Au Phuong), Vietnamese author known for his novel The Sorrow of War about the Vietnam War, in which he served.
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Chuck Lorre (Charles Levine), TV writer, director, producer and composer. Created several successful sitcoms including Dharma & Greg and The Big Bang Theory.
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1951
Terry McMillan, novelist (Waiting to Exhale).
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1950
Wendy Wasserstein, playwright (The Heidi Chronicles).
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The First Turkish Brigade arrives in Korea to assist the U.N. forces fighting there.
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1944
Lt. General Joseph Stilwell is recalled from China by president Franklin Roosevelt.
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1939
Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt bans war submarines from U.S. ports and waters.
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1926
Ntozake Shange (Paulette Williams), poet, playwright and novelist.
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Chuck Berry, rock ‘n’ roll performer.
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1921
Russian Soviets grant Crimean independence.
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1919
Madrid opens a subway system.
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1918
Czechs seize Prague and renounce Hapsburg’s rule.
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1912
The First Balkan War breaks out between the members of the Balkan League–Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro–and the Ottoman Empire.
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1910
M. Baudry is the first to fly a dirigible across the English Channel–from La Motte-Breil to Wormwood Scrubbs.
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1904
A.J. Liebling, journalist and author.
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1896
H.L. Davis, novelist and poet.
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1883
The weather station at the top of Ben Nevis, Scotland, the highest mountain in Britain, is declared open. Weather stations were set up on the tops of mountains all over Europe and the Eastern United States in order to gather information for the new weather forecasts.
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1867
The rules for American football are formulated at meeting in New York among delegates from Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton and Yale universities.
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The Alaska territory is formally transferred to the U.S. from Russian control.
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1813
The Allies defeat Napoleon Bonaparte at Leipzig.
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1685
Edict of Nantes lifted by Louis XIV. The edict, signed at Nantes, France, by King Henry IV in 1598, gave the Huguenots religious liberty, civil rights and security. By revoking the Edict of Nantes, Louis XIV abrogated their religious liberties.
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1648
The “shoemakers of Boston”–the first labor organization in what would become the United States–was authorized by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.