Volume 13 , Issue 16

This Day In History (April 18)

On this day in history, April 18, 1906, a major earthquake struck San Francisco and set off raging fires. More than 3,000 people died. It was 5:13 in the morning when a terrific earthquake shock shook the whole city and surrounding country. One shock apparently lasted two minutes, and there was almost immediate collapse of flimsy structures all over the city.

On April 18, 1857, Clarence Darrow, the defense attorney in many dramatic criminal trials, was born. Following his death on March 13, 1938, his obituary appeared in The Times.

On This Date, April 18:
1808 - A law prohibiting the importation of slaves into the United States went into effect.

1892 - The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York opened.

1898 - New York City was consolidated into five buroughs.

1901 - The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed.

1919 - J.D. Salinger, author of "The Catcher in the Rye," was born in New York City.

1953 - Country singer Hank Williams Sr., 29, died of a drug and alcohol overdose.

1958 - Treaties establishing the European Economic Community went into effect.

1959 - Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista.

1979 - The United States and China established diplomatic relations.

1984 - AT&T was divested of its 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement.

1990 - David Dinkins was sworn in as New York City's first African-American mayor.

1993 - Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---