On This Day 2026
Hello, … and welcome to day 108 of the year.

Saturday, April 18th

Today is International Amateur Radio Day, World Heritage Day, World Circus Day and Husband Appreciation Day. Your star sign is Aries and your birthstone is Diamond.
Did you know: All Fools’ Day, also known as April Fools’ Day is a day for practical jokes and hoaxes, but only until 12 noon. The earliest recorded association between 1st April and foolishness can be found in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1392).
Today’s birthdays
1940 – Mike Vickers (86), English musician and co-founder of 60s group Manfred Mann (“Do Wah Diddy Diddy”), born in Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey.
1946 – Hayley Mills (80), English actress (The Parent Trap, That Darn Cat!, Whistle Down the Wind), born in Marylebone, London.

1947 – James Woods (79), American actor (Once Upon a Time in America, Casino, John Carpenter’s Vampires), born in Vernal, Utah, United States.

1953 – Rick Moranis (73), Canadian actor (Spaceballs, Little Shop of Horrors, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Ghostbusters), born in Toronto, Canada.
1961 – Jane Leeves (65), English actress (The Resident), best known for her role as Daphne Moon in the sitcom Frasier, born in Ilford, Greater London.
1962 – Jeff Dunham (64), American ventriloquist and stand-up comedian (Spark of Insanity, Arguing with Myself), born in Dallas, Texas, United States.
1964 – Mark ‘Bez’ Berry (62), English percussionist and dancer with Happy Mondays (“Step On”) and Black Grape (“In The Name Of The Father”), born in Bolton, Greater Manchester.
1971 – David Tennant (55), Scottish actor (Doctor Who, Broadchurch, Des, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), born in West Lothian, Scotland.
1974 – Edgar Wright (52), English filmmaker and actor (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), born in Poole, Dorset.
1976 – Melissa Joan Hart (50), American actress (Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Clarissa Explains It All, Melissa and Joey), born in Smithtown, New York, United States.
1979 – Matthew Upson (47), English former professional footballer (England, Leicester City, West Ham United, Arsenal), born in Eye, Suffolk.
1979 – Kourtney Kardashian (47), American personality (Keeping Up with the Kardashians), socialite and businesswoman, born in Los Angeles, California, United States.
1987 – Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (39), English actress (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Mad Max: Fury Road), born in Plymouth, Devon.
Famous deaths
1949 – Will Hay (b. 1888), English comedian best known for playing authority figures with comic failings (The Goose Steps Out, Where’s That Fire).

1955 – Albert Einstein (b. 1879), German-born theoretical physicist who is widely held to be one of the greatest and most influential scientists of all time.

The day today
1909 – Joan of Arc was beatified in Rome by Pope Pius X in St. Peter’s Basilica, granting her the title of “Blessed”. This ceremony was the culmination of a process acknowledging her heroic virtue and miracles, following her declaration as venerable in 1904. She was later canonized as a saint on May 16, 1920.

1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brought 705 survivors to New York from the RMS Titanic that had sunk on on 15th April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton. Titanic’s engineers, who battled below decks to try and keep Titanic afloat are commemorated on a monument in Southampton.

1946 – The inaugural meeting of the International Court of Justice was held in The Hague, Netherlands. The International Court of Justice is one of the six key organizations under the banner of the United Nations and is used to settle disputes according to international law.
1949 – The first ‘Bob-a-Job week’ began when 440,000 British Scouts started a nationwide campaign to raise the £22,000 needed to cover the deficits of the Scout movement. In the first year £60,000 was raised. The variety of jobs undertaken included a 13 year old who spent four hours cleaning the silver at 10 Downing Street.
1949 – The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 came into force officially declaring Ireland a Republic and terminating its membership in the British Commonwealth. It repealed the Executive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936, abolishing the last remaining functions of the British King in Ireland and transferring them to the President of Ireland.
1960 – At least 60,000 demonstrators gathered in Trafalgar Square to mark the end of the Aldermaston to London ‘ban the bomb’ march.

1968 – London Bridge was sold for £1m to American oil tycoon Robert McCullough. He decided to knock it down, brick by brick, and have it re-built at Lake Havasu in the United States.

1980 – Rhodesia officially gained independence from Britain, becoming the new nation of Zimbabwe. Following a 21-gun salute at midnight, the Union Jack was replaced by the new Zimbabwean flag, signaling the end of white minority rule. Canaan Banana became the first President and Robert Mugabe became the first Prime Minister.
1984 – Michael Jackson underwent surgery at Brotman Medical Center in Los Angeles to treat severe second- and third-degree burns sustained to his scalp. The injury occurred on January 27, 1984, during the filming of a Pepsi commercial, where pyrotechnics malfunctioned, setting his hair on fire and causing significant damage.
1986 – IBM became the first manufacturer to use a 1-megabit DRAM chip in a commercial product, the Model 3090 mainframe. This milestone chip, capable of storing 1 million bits of data (approximately 100 pages of typewritten text), was a significant advancement in memory density and a key victory for US computer technology against emerging competition.
1988 – In the House of Commons, the 16th-century symbol of the Speaker’s authority, the Mace, was damaged by Ron Brown, Labour MP for Leith, when he flung it to the floor during a debate. It was described by his own supporters as ‘a childish stunt’ and led to his 20 day suspension.
1994 – West Indian batsman Brian Lara broke the record for the highest individual score in Test Cricket when he scored 375 against England in Antigua.
2011 – After hyping the game up for years, Valve finally released Portal 2 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. The final part of Portal 2’s hype campaign allowed would-be players to unlock the game early by playing a specific set of thirteen indie games sold in a bundle on Steam on April Fool’s Day. Players worldwide came together for the cause, with their efforts leading to Portal 2 releasing ten hours ahead of schedule.
2013 – The death of Hillsborough justice campaigner Anne Williams, at the age of 60. She fought relentlessly for the new inquest into her son Kevin’s death in the 1989 football tragedy. He was one of 96 Liverpool fans who died as a result of a crush during an FA Cup match at the Sheffield stadium.
2013 – “Iron Man 3” starring Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, premieres at the Odeon Leicester Square. The event was rescheduled from April 17 to April 18 to avoid conflicts with the funeral of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The film was released in UK cinemas on April 26.
2017 – Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo becomes first player to score 100 goals in the Champions League with a hat-trick in Real Madrid’s 4-2 win over Bayern Munich.
2019 – Irish Journalist Lyra McKee is shot and killed (gunshot to the head), whilst covering the rioting in the city of Londonderry, Northern Ireland with the dissident republican group the New IRA claiming responsibility.

2024 – Fossilized remains of a giant snake thought to be around 66 million years old and estimated to be 15 meters long were discovered in the Panandhro lignite mine in the Kutch district of Gujarat, India. Scientists recovered 27 vertebrae, some still connected, measuring between 38 to 62 millimeters in length and 62 to 111 millimeters in width.

Today in music
1964 – The Beatles appeared on the UK TV comedy program The Morecambe and Wise Show, playing ‘This Boy’, ‘All My Loving’, and I Want to Hold Your Hand and also participate in comedy sketches with Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. The Beatles held the UK and US No.1 position on this day with ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’.
1987 – Aretha Franklin and George Michael started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘I Knew You Were Waiting’ also a No.1 in the UK.
1992 – Annie Lennox went to No.1 on the UK album chart with her debut solo release ‘Diva.’ The album won the Brit Award for British Album of the Year at the 1993 Brit Awards and received nominations for Album of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Long Form Music Video, winning the latter award at the Grammy Awards the same year.
1995 – Oasis drummer Tony McCarrol was told by phone that he was being sacked from the group. McCarrol sued the Manchester group for unpaid royalties and in 1996 Oasis agreed to pay him a one-off sum of £550,000
2004 – R&B singer Eamon started a four week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘F**k It, (I Don’t Want You Back)’ his debut single. The song earned a listing on the Guinness World Record for “the most expletives in a No.1 song”, with 33.
2005 – Reebok pulled a UK TV ad featuring 50 Cent after a mother whose son was shot dead complained it glamorised gun crime. Lucy Cope, from London went to the Advertising Standards Authority about the campaign featuring the US rapper. The ASA had been investigating 54 other complaints from viewers over a reference to the rapper having been shot nine times.
2006 – A line from U2’s 1992 hit ‘One’ was voted the UK’s favourite song lyric after in a poll of 13,000 people by music channel VH1. The line “One life, with each other, sisters, brothers” came top. The Smiths lyric “So you go, and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home, and you cry, and you want to die” from the song ‘How Soon is Now’ came second in the poll, followed by “I feel stupid and contagious, here we are now, entertain us”, from Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ which was voted into third place.
2020 – Paul McCartney, Elton John, Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and several other stars performed from their homes on the One World: Together At Home concert during the coronavirus pandemic. The event organised by Global Citizen of New York City and curated by singer Lady Gaga was in support of the World Health Organization.
2013 – Storm Thorgerson, whose album cover artwork includes Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon died aged 69. A childhood friend of the founding members of the band, he became their designer-in-chief. His credits also include albums by Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel and Muse.
2020 – The official music video for ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries became the first song by an Irish band to reach over one billion views on YouTube. The song released in 1994 was written by the lead singer, Dolores O’Riordan, about the young victims of a bombing in Warrington, England, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Today in history
1506 – The construction of St Peter’s Basilica began in the Vatican. The building (completed 18 November 1626), is the largest church in the world and is known as one of the world’s most holy Catholic shrines.
1689 – The death of Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys, known as the Hanging Judge. He led the Taunton Assize trials that came in the aftermath of the Battle of Sedgemoor, the battle that ended the Monmouth Rebellion in England. The trials took place in the Great Hall of Taunton Castle. Of more than 500 prisoners brought before the court, 144 were hanged and their remains displayed around the county.
1740 – The birth of Sir Francis Baring, English merchant banker. Barings was the oldest merchant bank in London until it collapsed in 1995 after one of the bank’s employees, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million on speculative investing.
1775 – At the start of the War of American Independence, US patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes left Boston, bound for Concord, to warn people that British troops were advancing. After Revere’s and Dawes’s arrest en route, the ride to Concord was completed by compatriot rider and escapee Dr. Samuel Prescott.
1881 – The Natural History Museum in London first opened its doors providing a permanent home for the ever-growing collection of natural history specimens originally housed in the British Museum.
1899 – The St. Andrew’s Ambulance Association was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria. The Association seeks to preserve the lives of people in Scotland by the provision of education and emergency first aid at events throughout Scotland.
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