📜 This Day in History

December 18

• 1499Muslims in Granada began a rebellion against their Castilian rulers in response to forced conversions to Catholicism.
• 1867In Angola, New York, the last coach of a Lake Shore Railway train derailed, plunged 40 feet (12 m) down a gully, and caught fire, resulting in approximately 49 deaths.
• 1939Second World War: The Luftwaffe won a victory over the Royal Air Force in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight, greatly influencing both sides' future aerial warfare strategy.
• 1963Ghanaian and other African students organized a protest in Moscow's Red Square in response to the alleged murder of medical student Edmund Assare-Addo.
• 1979Mohammad Mofatteh, an Iranian philosopher, was assassinated by the Furqan Group.
• 2023A series of mass protests began in Belgrade, Serbia, alleging electoral irregularities in the Serbian parliament and Belgrade city assembly elections.

Born on this day

• 1878Joseph Stalin, Georgian-Russian marshal and politician,General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (died 1953)
• 1946Steven Spielberg, American director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded DreamWorks
• 1963Brad Pitt, American actor and producer
• 1980Christina Aguilera, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress