18th November

[chenrezig]

1493 – Christopher Columbus first sights the island now known as Puerto Rico.

1852 - The state funeral of the Duke of Wellington took place at St Paul’s Cathedral. It was one of the biggest ever held in London.

1910 More than 100 were arrested by police when suffragettes tried to storm the House of Commons at Westminster, London.

1916 – World War I: First Battle of the Somme – in France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.

1926 – George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize".

1928 – Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. This is also considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey's birthday.

1929 – 1929 Grand Banks earthquake: off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake, centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula.

1963 – The first push-button telephone goes into service.

1983 The world's first all-girl sextuplets were born, to Mrs. Janet Walton at Liverpool Maternity Hospital. They were named Hannah, Lucy, Ruth, Sarah, Kate and Jenny.

1987 – King's Cross fire: in London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station, King's Cross St Pancras.

1991 - Church envoy Terry Waite was freed by the Islamic extremists who kidnapped him in Beirut in 1987.

1993 – In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution, expanding voting rights and ending white minority rule.

2003 – In the United Kingdom, the Local Government Act 2003, repealing controversial anti-gay amendment Section 28, becomes effective.

Births
1836 – W. S. Gilbert, English playwright, poet, and illustrator (d. 1911)
1906 – Alec Issigonis, Greek-English car designer, designed the mini car (d. 1988)
1923 – Alan Shepard, American astronaut (d. 1998)
1941 – David Hemmings, English actor, singer, director, and producer (d. 2003)
1942 – Linda Evans, American actress
1953 – Alan Moore, English author and illustrator
1967 – Gavin Peacock, English footballer

Deaths
1922 – Marcel Proust, French author (b. 1871)
1976 – Man Ray, American-French photographer and painter (b. 1890)
2005 – Harold J. Stone, American actor (b. 1911)
2012 – Kenny Morgans, Welsh footballer (b. 1939)

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