📜 This Day in History
October 18
320Pappus of Alexandria, one of the last great Greek mathematicians of antiquity, observed an eclipse that allowed historians to calculate the approximate dates of his life.- 1565The first recorded naval battle between Europeans and the Japanese occurred when a flotilla of samurai attacked two Portuguese trade vessels at the Battle of Fukuda Bay in Nagasaki.
- 1775American Revolutionary War: In an act of retaliation against ports that supported Patriot activities in the early stages of the war, the Royal Navy destroyed what is now Portland, Maine.
- 1906The Robert Burns Memorial Statue, the first public statue erected in New Brunswick, was dedicated in Fredericton.
- 1967The Soviet space probe Venera 4 became the first spacecraft to perform direct in situ analysis of the environment of another planet (Venus).
- 2019Protests in Santiago that started 11 days prior escalated into open battle against the Chilean national police, forcing President Sebastián Piñera to declare a state of emergency.
