On This Day 2026
Hello, … Welcome to day 18 of the year.

Sunday, January 18th

Today is National Peking Duck Day, Thesaurus Day, Winnie The Pooh Day and World Religion Day. Your star sign is Capricorn and your birthstone is Garnet.
2005 – France revealed the world’s largest commercial aircraft, nicknamed the superjumbo. Officially called the Airbus A380, it’s a double-decker 262 ft carrier and has a capacity of 555 passengers.
France revealed the world’s largest commercial aircraft, nicknamed the superjumbo. Officially called the Airbus A380, it’s a double-decker 262 ft carrier and has a capacity of 555 passengers.
Famous deaths
2018 – Chas Hodges (b. 1943), English musician and singer. He was the lead vocalist, pianist and guitarist of the musical duo Chas & Dave.
Today’s birthdays
1955 – Kevin Costner (71), American actor (The Bodyguard, Waterworld, Yellowstone, Field of Dreams), born in Lynwood, California, United States.
1956 – Tom Bailey (70), English singer-songwriter and lead vocalist with the new wave band the Thompson Twins (“Hold Me Now”), born in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
1964 – Jane Horrocks (62), English actress (Little Voice, Absolutely Fabulous, Hunting Venus) and voice actress (Chicken Run, Little Princess), born in Rossendale, Lancashire.
1973 – Crispian Mills (53), English singer-songwriter and front man of band, Kula Shaker (“Hush”, “Tattva”, “Hey Dude”), born in Hammersmith, London.
1980 – Estelle Swaray (46), English singer and rapper known mononymously as Estelle (“American Boy” featuring Kayne West”), born in Hammersmith, London.
1983 – Samantha Mumba (43), Irish pop and R&B singer (“What’s It Gonna Be”) and actress (The Time Machine), born in Dublin, Ireland.
1983 – Katie White (43), English singer, musician and member of the pop duo the Ting Tings (“That’s Not My Name”, “Shut Up and Let Me Go”), born in Wigan, Greater Manchester.
Famous deaths
1936 – Rudyard Kipling (b. 1865), English author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate. His notable works include The Jungle Book, Kim, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and Just So Stories.

2009 – Tony Hart (b. 1925), English painter and television host (Hartbeat, Blue Peter). Hart’s contributions to children’s television include the design of the ship logo used by Blue Peter and the show’s badges, and the animated character of Morph.

The day today
1919 – Bentley Motors Limited was founded by Walter Owen Bentley, but the manufacturer did not make a complete car for 27 years, only engines and chassis. Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I. He also designed and made production cars that won the Le Mans 24 hours in the 1920s. Bentley was purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1931, which itself was purchased by the Volkswagen Group of Germany in 1998, although the business is still based in Crewe.
1919 – The Paris Peace Conference began in France. During the conference, five major peace treaties were created: the Treaty of Versailles, the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the Treaty of Neuilly, the Treaty of Trianon, and the Treaty of Sevres.
1934 – The first arrest was made in Britain as a result of issuing pocket radios to police. A Brighton shoplifter was arrested just 15 minutes after stealing three coats.
1958 – Bunty was launched by publishers D.C. Thompson. It was the first comic aimed at a young female readership.
1972 – Brian Faulkner, then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, placed a ban all parades and marches in Northern Ireland, aiming to prevent violence, but the ban was defied, notably by the anti-internment march in Derry that led to Bloody Sunday just days later.
1973 – The final episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus Season 3, titled “Grandstand / The British Showbiz Awards,” aired on the BBC. This marked the end of the main series run which ran from October 1972, though a short fourth series followed later.
1978 – Geoff Boycott captained England for the first time in the Third Test against Pakistan in Karachi, stepping in after regular captain Mike Brearley broke his arm on tour.
2005 – France revealed the world’s largest commercial aircraft, nicknamed the superjumbo. Officially called the Airbus A380, it’s a double-decker 262 ft carrier and has a capacity of 555 passengers. Its first flight was on April 27, 2005.
2014 – Lewis Clarke, a 16-year-old boy from Bristol set a new record by becoming the youngest person to trek to the South Pole. He spent 48 days at temperatures as low as -50C (-58F) and winds of up to 120 mph (193 kmh), covering a distance of 702 miles.
2022 – Microsoft announces it is buying Activision Blizzard, publisher of online games “Call of Duty”, “World of Warcraft” and “Candy Crush” for $70 billion – the biggest-ever gaming and tech takeover.
Today in music
1964 – The Beatles made their US chart debut when I Want to Hold Your Hand entered the chart at No.45 just ten days after its release, making it the fastest-breaking and the fastest selling single in Capitol Records history. It went on to spend seven weeks at the No.1 position on the US chart before being replaced by their follow-up single ‘She Loves You’. ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ became the Beatles’ best-selling single worldwide, selling more than 12 million copies.

1989 – At just 38 years old, Stevie Wonder became the youngest living person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At a ceremony held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, other inductees include The Rolling Stones, The Temptations, Otis Redding and Dion DiMucci.

1990 – English singer Mel Appleby died of Pneumonia aged 23 following treatment for metastatic paraganglioma. Appleby was one half of the duo Mel and Kim who had the 1997 UK No.1 ‘Respectable’. She initially worked as a glamour model, (in 1987 she did a photo shoot for Mayfair).
1993 – Elton John resigned his directorship of Watford Football Club. Having supported Watford Football Club since growing up locally, Elton John became the club’s chairman and director in 1976, investing large sums of money as the club rose three divisions into the English First Division.
1997 – Tori Amos was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Professional Widow’ (It’s Got To Be)’. The song had been remixed by Armand Van Helden and was rumoured to be about Courtney Love the former wife of Kurt Cobain.
2001 – Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher was granted a quickie divorce from Meg Matthews at the High Court in London. The couple had split last September, eight months after Meg had given birth to their daughter, Anais.
2006 – Animals in Michael Jackson’s private zoo were declared to be in good health after officials paid a surprise visit to the singer’s Neverland ranch. A medical officer from the US department of agriculture inspected the property following concerns voiced by the animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Jackson had earlier moved out of Neverland and had taken up residence in Bahrain in the Middle East.
2007 – Islington Green School in North London was fighting plans to turn it into an academy. The school, which found fame when some of its pupils sang on Pink Floyd’s hit ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’ wrote a new version of the song to sing outside Islington Town Hall as part of their protest. They hoped lyrics such as ‘We don’t need no business control’ and ‘Hey bankers leave our kids alone’ could persuade authorities to reject the proposal.
2016 – The Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey died at the age of 67 in New York City from complications arising from rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia. Frey co-founded the Eagles in 1971 with Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner.
Today in history
1486 – After 30 years of civil war the Royal Houses of Lancaster and York were united by the marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV.
1670 – Henry Morgan captured Panama. Morgan was a privateer who made a name for himself during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements. The privateers were private people or ships, authorised by a government to attack foreign shipping during wartime. It was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers. Morgan was one of the most notorious and successful privateers of all time, and one of the most ruthless.
1778 – English navigator Captain James Cook became the first European to visit the Hawaiian Islands. He named them the Sandwich Islands, after Lord Sandwich, who was then first Lord of the Admiralty. Captain Cook had associations with Whitby as a merchant navy apprentice and there is a monument to him at the top of the town.
1779 – The birth of Peter Mark Roget, English doctor and lexicographer, who produced his Roget’s Thesaurus in 1852 after 47 years’ work. It was originally called ‘Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition.’
1788 – A British fleet of eleven ships and 800 convicts landed at Botany Bay, Australia. They created the first British penal colony, in Port Jackson – Sydney.
1884 – Dr. William Price, a vegetarian nudist who believed in free love and herbal remedies, was arrested for cremating the body of his infant son, Iesu Grist (the Welsh for Jesus Christ), in front of onlookers on a Llantrisant hillside. Price was arrested and put on trial by those who believed that cremation was illegal in Britain. However, he successfully argued that there was no legislation that specifically outlawed it, which paved the way for the Cremation Act of 1902.