Today in History

October 18

1842 - The first telegraph cable is laid by Samuel Morse in New York harbour.

1892- The first long- distance telephone line is opened between Chicago and NewYork.

1944- Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia during Second WorldWar.

1945 - Venezuelan President Isaías Medina Angarita is overthrown in a military coup.

1985 - African National

Congress poet Benjamin Moloise is hanged in Pretoria central prison.

1991 - Commonwealth lifts ban on South Africa after 15 years.

2000- Fighting between Nigeria’s Hausa and Yoruba tribes leaves 100 dead in Lagos.

2015 - Renowned Egyptian novelist and journalist Jamal Al Gitani dies at a hospital in Cairo.

2019 - An explosion rocks a mosque in eastern Afghanistan, killing 69worshippers.