Unix Timestamp: 1697587200
Wednesday, October 18. 2023, 12:00:00 AM UTC

United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton makes an unannounced visit to the Libyan capital Tripoli, aiming to strengthen ties between the United States and the National Transitional Council, which has established itself as Libya's ruling body following the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. //www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15349335 (BBC)

Israel and the Palestinian militant organization Hamas begin a major prisoner swap, in which the captured Israeli Army soldier Gilad Shalit is released by Hamas in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli-Arab prisoners held in Israel, including 280 prisoners serving life sentences for planning and perpetrating terror attacks.

Arab Spring and the Libyan civil war: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is killed in Sirte, with National Transitional Council forcestaking control of the city, and ending the war.

Basqueseparatist militant organisation ETA declares an end to its 43-year caign of political violence, which has killed over 800 people since 1968.

Israel and the Palestinian militant organization Hamas begin a major prisoner swap, in which the captured Israeli Army soldier Gilad Shalit is released by Hamas in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli-Arab prisoners held in Israel. Among the prisoners released are 280 prisoners serving life sentences for planning and perpetrating terror attacks. //www.cnn.com/2011/10/18/world/meast/israel-prisoner-swap/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 (CNN) //www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/18/gilad-shalit-release-palestinian-exchange ("The Guardian") //www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=242250 ("The Jerusalem Post")

NASA launches Interstellar Boundary Explorer satellite that will study the edge of solar system. //www.efluxmedia.com/news_NASAs_Spacecraft_Ibex_Will_Study_Boundaries_Of_Solar_System_26943.html (eFlux)

Asia – International relations: Leaders of Pacific-rim nations gather in Bangkok ahead of the 11th Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3201744.stm//interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/10180000aaa07407.upiSys=siteiaFid=LATEBRKNType=NewsFilter=Late%20Breaking//www.nytimes.com/2003/10/18/international/asia/18CHIN.html?th President George W. Bush arrives in Thailand ahead of an APEC summit of 21 Asia-Pacific government leaders which is likely to be dominated by discussions of the War on Terrorism and trade friction between rich and poor nations (trade and currency).

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, visiting Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, is whisked out of Kabul owing to reports of a rocket attack. The reports turn out to be unfounded. //www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/10/18/pm_kabul031018

The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments.

Former Ku Klux KlanGrand WizardDavid Duke wins a spot in the runoff election for governor of Louisiana, ultimately losing to Edwin Edwards.

The Harare Declaration lays down the membership criteria for the Commonwealth of Nations.

October 18 ndash The Soviet Union restores diplomatic relations with Israel, which had been suspended since the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Nintendo Entertainment System, including the Super Mario Bros.pack-in game is released.

The Fraser Government is re-elected for a third consecutive term in Australia with a reduced majority.

Ford officially launches volume production of Fiesta car at its Valencia plant.

The Copyright Act of 1976 extends copyright duration for an additional 20 years in the United States.

The Battle of Aishiya is fought in Lebanon.

The Chimpanzee ("Pan troglodytes") is placed on the list of endangered species.

The Clarkston explosion in Scotland kills 22 people.

U.S. President Richard Nixon nominates Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In New York City, the Knapp Commission begins public hearings on police corruption.

The Indonesian government outlaws the Communist Party of Indonesia.

The NY World's Fair closes for the year (it reopens April 21, 1965).

"West Side Story" is released as a film.

Isaías Medina Angarita, president of Venezuela, is overthrown by a military coup.

WWII: The Volkssturm is founded on Hitler's orders.

Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as President of China.

General Hideki Tojo becomes the 40th Prime Minister of Japan.

October 19 ndash WWII: Thirty-two ships are sunk from Convoy SC 7 and Convoy HX 79 by the most effective wolfpack of the war including U-boat aces Kretschmer, Prien and Schepke

The German government expels 12,000 Polish Jews living in Germany the Polish government accepts 4,000 and refuses admittance to the remaining 8,000, who are forced to live in the no-man's land on the German-Polish frontier.

October 21 ndash Spanish Civil War: The whole Spanish northern seaboard falls into the Falangists' hands Republican forces in Gijon, Spain, set fire to petrol reserves prior to retreating before the advancing Falangists.

Women are announced to be persons by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain. Women can be appointed to the Canadian Senate, an achievement by five Canadian women called the Famous Five.

The Italian steamer ship "Principessa Mafalda" capsizes off Porto Seguro, Brazil. At least 314 people are killed.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands opens the Meuse-Waal Canal in Nijmegen, Holland

The first flight of Pan American Airways takes off from Key West, Florida, bound for Havana, Cuba.

At 5:50 a.m. a ground fault gives way, causing the mine and part of the town of Worthington to collapse into a large chasm located in Ontario. Nobody is injured in the incident, as the area had been evacuated the night before after a mine foreman noticed abnormal rock shifts in the mine.

The British Broadcasting Company is formed.

Thousands of unemployed demonstrate in London 50 are injured.

The Washington Declaration proclaims the independent Czechoslovak Republic.

Italy and the Ottoman Empire signed a treaty in Ouchy near Lausanne ending the Italo-Turkish War.

Hague Convention revised by (second) Hague Peace Conference (effective 26 January1910).

The University of Wales, Bangor (UK) is founded.

21 ndash Beijing's Old Summer Palace is burned to the ground by orders of British general Lord Elgin in retaliation for mistreatment of several prisoners of war during the Second Opium War.

The first Convention of Peking formally ends the Second Opium War.

Troops under Colonel Robert E. Lee overpower Brown at the Federal arsenal.

The Great Exhibition in London is closed.

October 20 ndash Second Battle of Polotsk ndash Russia

Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland: Anglo-Russian expedition forces surrender in North Holland.

Louis XV of France authorizes a 5% income tax on every individual regardless of social status the Parlement of Paris protests.

The building of Sveaborg begins near Helsinki.

Adam Smith begins to deliver public lectures in Edinburgh.

Leonhard Euler publishes "Introductio in analysin infinitorum".

Henry Fielding organizes the forerunner of the Bow Street Runners in London (8 men at first).

War of the Austrian Succession: The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle is signed to end the war. Great Britain obtains Madras, in India, from France, in exchange for the fortress of Louisbourg in Canada.

Montesquieu publishes "De l'Esprit des lois".

The ruins of Pompeii are discovered.

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock publishes the first three cantos of his epic poem "Der Messias" in hexameters (anonymously) in "Bremer Beiträge" (Leipzig).

The Qianlong Emperor succeeds Yongzheng and begins a 60-year-long reign of the Qing Dynasty.

Leonhard Euler solves the Basel problem, first posed by Pietro Mengoli in 1644, and the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem.

Russo-Turkish War, 1735-1739: Russian forces fail to occupy the Crimea due to rasputitsa.

Augusta, Georgia, is founded.

The King's Highway (Charleston to Boston) is completed.

Cobalt is discovered and isolated by Georg Brandt.

A shipbuilding industry begins in Mumbai.

Quebec: Construction begins on the "Chemin du roy" between Quebec and Montreal.

Linnaeus publishes his "Systema Naturae".

Adam Baldridge finds a pirate base at Île Sainte-Marie in Madagascar.

The Chinese army of the Qing Dynasty attacks a Russian post at Albazin, during the reigns of the Kangxi Emperor and the dual Russian rulers Ivan V of Russia and Peter I of Russia. The events lead to the Treaty of Nerchinsk.Roberts, J: "History of the World", Penguin, 1994.

October 19 ndash Louis XIV issues the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revokes the Edict of Nantes and declares Protestantism illegal, thereby depriving Huguenots of civil rights.

Louis XIV is married to Madame de Maintenon in a secret ceremony.

Richard Hoare becomes a partner in the Londongoldsmith's business which, as private banking house C. Hoare Co., will survive through to the 21st century.

Treaty of Buchach between the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Ruy López de Segura develops modern techniques of chess playing in Spain.

Between 1561 and 1670 3,229 witches are executed in southwestern Germany, most by burning.

Publication of the Anglo-Genevan metrical psalter including the Old 100th, the version of the hymn All People That on Earth Do Dwell made from Psalm 100, attributed to the probably-Scottish clergyman and biblical translator William Kethe, exiled in Geneva.

Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima: Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts.

The first Calvinists settle in England after fleeing Flanders.

Huguenots post placards all over France attacking the Catholic Mass, provoking a violent sectarian reaction.

Rozhdestvensky monastery is built in Muscovy.

The Timurid Empire raids Georgia and takes King Bagrat V prisoner. Bagrat is subsequently freed by an army led by his son, George.

John of Gaunt leaves England to make good his claim to the throne of Castile by right of his second marriage to Constanza of Castile in 1371.

Hundred Years War ndash Battle of Margate: The English defeat an invading French and Castilian naval force.

The mother and sister of Queen Jadwiga of Poland are kidnapped by Jadwiga's brother-in-law.

Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, the oldest university in Germany, is founded.

Abu al-Abbas is reinstated as ruler of the Marinid dynasty in present day Morocco.

Construction begins on the Brancacci Chapel in Florence.

The Venetians take control of the island of Corfu.

The Basel earthquake destroys the city of Basel in Switzerland.

Peter I of Aragon conquers Barbastro (North) from the hands of the Almoravids.

Corfu is taken from the Byzantine Empire by Robert Guiscard, Norman King of Southern Italy.

Byzantine emperor Nicephorus III is overthrown by Alexius I Comnenus, ending the Middle Byzantine period and beginning the Comnenan dynasty.

Turkish emir Tzachas conquers İzmir and founds a short lived principality and emerges as the first sea power in Turkish history.

Alexius I helps defend Albania from the Normans (the first recorded mention of Albania), but is defeated at the Battle of Dyrrhachium (Durazzo). The Normans govern Albania from Italy until around 1100.

Construction begins on Saint Canute's Cathedral in Odense.

Battle of Ashingdon: The Danes under Canute the Great defeat the English under Edmund Ironside.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is destroyed by Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.

Death of Pope John VII. Prolonged "sede vacante" until the ratification of the election of Pope Sisinnius by the Exarch of Ravenna in early 708.

Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the sun and writes a commentary on "The Great Astronomer" ("Almagest").