TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2018
On this day in history:
0064 - The Great Fire of Rome began.
1536 - The authority of the pope was declared void in England. 1789 - Robespierre, a deputy from Arras, France, decided to back the French Revolution. 1799 - Matthew Flinders first sights and names Red Cliff Point, now Redcliffe, in Queensland.
1812 - Great Britain signed the Treaty of Orebro, making peace with Russia and Sweden. 1830 - Uruguay adopted a liberal constitution.
1872 - The Ballot Act was passed in Great Britain, providing for secret election ballots.
1900 - Sydney completes its Bubonic Plague Cleansing Operations.
1935 - Ethiopian King Haile Selassie urged his countrymen to fight to the last man against the invading Italian army. 1936 - The Spanish Civil War began as Gen. Francisco Franco led an uprising of army troops based in Spanish North Africa. 1942 - The German Me-262, the first jet-propelled aircraft to fly in combat, made its first flight. 1944 - Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister due to setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.
1971 - New Zealand and Australia announced they would pull their troops out of Vietnam. 1992 - A picture of Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web. 1995 - On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufrière Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital, forcing most of the population to flee. 1996 - Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever. 1996 -Battle of Mullaitivu: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army's base, killing over 1200 soldiers. 2012 - At least seven people are killed and 32 others are injured after a bomb explodes on an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria.
2013 - The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.