
October 18 is the 291th day of the year (292th in leap years) according to the Gregorian calendar. There are 74 days left until the end of the year.
Railways
- 18 October 1898 Il Wilhelm and his wife arrived in Istanbul on the yacht of Hohenzollern. The couple went on a trip to Anatolia with a private wagon allocated by Anadolu Railway Company on October 21. He made a positive impression about the German railways in Anatolia.
Events
- 439 – When the next Vey emperor T'ai-wu destroyed Chü-ch'ü (on 18 October 439), 500 households of Ashina rushed to the Dwarves and settled in the Chin-shan (Altai mountains).
- 1851 - Moby Dick, one month before its release in the USA The whale (Whale) was published in the UK.
- 1867 - The USA annexed Alaska from Russia for 7,2 million dollars.
- 1892 - The first long telephone line opens between Chicago and New York.
- 1898 - The United States became the owner of Puerto Rico.
- 1912 – The Treaty of Ushi is signed, ending the Tripoli War.
- 1920 – The Communist Party of Turkey was officially founded in Ankara.
- 1920 – Liberation of Saimbeyli
- 1922 – British broadcasting company BBC (British Broadcasting Company, later British Broadcasting Corporation) is founded.
- 1924 – The new building of the Turkish Grand National Assembly was opened.
- 1936 – Atatürk watched the horse races at the Ankara Hippodrome.
- 1943 – Ulvi Cemal Erkin and Necil Kazım Akses gave a successful concert in Berlin.
- 1944 – The Soviet Union occupied Czechoslovakia.
- 1954 - Texas Instruments company produces the first transistor radio.
- 1967 – The Soviet Union-launched Venera 4 spacecraft reaches planet Venus, becoming the first instrument to study the atmosphere of a planet other than Earth and conduct interplanetary broadcasts.
- 1968 – The World Olympic Committee penalizes two black athletes (Tommie Smith and John Carlos) for giving the black power salute during the medal ceremony.
- 1976 – Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel laid the foundation of the Karakaya Dam and hydroelectric power plant on the Euphrates river.
- 1977 – GSG-9 German anti-terrorist team raided the Lufthansa passenger plane hijacked by Palestinian guerrillas to Somalia's Mogadishu airport, killed the hijackers and rescued 86 hostages.
- 1979 – Right-wing militants Mustafa Pehlivanoğlu and İsa Armağan, two suspects of the Balgat massacre, were sentenced to death. On August 10, 1978, in Ankara Balgat, 4 coffee shops where leftists went were combed, 5 people died and 11 people were injured.
- 1982 – Ankara Dev-Yol trial started with 574 defendants: 186 people are on trial with a death sentence.
- 1988 – Four people alleged to be members of the Workers Peasants Liberation Army of Turkey (TİKKO) were killed on 7 October in Tuzla. A lawsuit was filed against 16 police officers involved in the incident, demanding 56 years of imprisonment each.
- 1989 - East Germany leader Erich Honecker resigns.
- 1991 - Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union. World Azerbaijanis, who became independent for the first time on May 28, 1918, celebrate this day as "Republic Day".
- 1993 – Second Prime Ministerial term of Andreas Papandreou started in Greece.
- 1996 – The trial regarding the murder of journalist Metin Göktepe by beating in custody started in Aydın.
- 1996 – The Supreme Court upheld the prison sentence of 1 year and 8 months given to Yaşar Kemal.
- 2002 – After a month of fighting in Ivory Coast, a ceasefire comes into effect between rebels and Government Troops.
- 2007 – Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, was the target of a bomb attack in his home country after 8 years of exile. Bhutto was unharmed in the attack, in which 126 people were killed and 248 injured.
- 2020 – Coronavirus outbreak: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 crosses 40 million worldwide.
Births
- 1127 – Go-Shirakawa, 77th emperor of Japan in traditional succession (d. 1192)
- 1130 – Zhu Xi, one of China's most important neoconfucian philosophers (d. 1200)
- 1405 – II. Pius, Pope (d. 1464)
- 1523 – Anna Jagiellon, queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania from 1575 to 1586 (d. 1596)
- 1634 – Luca Giordano, Italian painter and engraver (d. 1705)
- 1663 – Prince Eugen of Savoy, Austrian general (d. 1736)
- 1701 – Charles le Beau, French historian and writer (d. 1778)
- 1706 – Baldassare Galuppi, Venetian Italian composer (d. 1785)
- 1777 – Heinrich von Kleist, German poet, author of plays, short stories, and novellas (d. 1811)
- 1822 – Mithat Pasha, Ottoman statesman and grand vizier (d. 1884)
- 1831 – III. Frederick, king of Prussia and German emperor for 1888 days in 99 (d. 1888)
- 1859 – Henri Bergson, French philosopher and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
- 1862 – Mehmet Esat Bülkat, Turkish soldier and writer (d. 1952)
- 1870 – DT Suzuki, Japanese Buddhist scholar and author (d. 1966)
- 1872 – Mikhail Kuzmin, Russian poet, musician, and writer (d. 1936)
- 1873 – Ivanoe Bonomi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1951)
- 1880 – Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Russian-American Zionist leader and journalist (d. 1940)
- 1882 – Lucien Georges Mazan, French racing cyclist (d. 1917)
- 1895 – Thérèse Bertrand-Fontaine, French physician (d. 1987)
- 1898 – Lotte Lenya, Austrian-American singer and kneewriter in the United States (d. 1981)
- 1902 – Pascual Jordan, German physicist (d. 1980)
- 1905 – Félix Houphouët-Boigny, first president of Ivory Coast (d. 1993)
- 1918 – Konstandinos Mitsotakis, Greek politician (d. 2017)
- 1919 – Anita O'Day, American singer (d. 2006)
- 1919 – Pierre Trudeau, 15th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)
- 1920 – Melina Mercuri, Greek actress and former Minister of Culture (d. 1994)
- 1925 – Ramiz Alia, Albanian politician (d. 2011)
- 1926 – Klaus Kinski, German film actor (d. 1991)
- 1926 – Chuck Berry, American musician (d. 2017)
- 1927 – George C. Scott, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1927 Alba Solís, Argentine singer and actress (d. 2016)
- 1929 – Violeta Chamorro, Nicaraguan-born politician
- 1932 – Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuanian politician
- 1934 – Inger Stevens, Swedish-American film, television and stage actress
- 1934 – Sylvie Joly, French actress and comedian (d. 2015).
- 1935 Peter Boyle, American actor (d. 2006)
- 1938 – Dawn Wells, American actress, producer, model, and author (d. 2020)
- 1939 – Flavio Cotti, Swiss politician (d. 2020)
- 1939 Lee Harvey Oswald, American assassin (d. 1963)
- 1940 – Onur Oymen, Turkish diplomat and politician
- 1940 – Oral Sander, Turkish academic (d. 1995)
- 1942 – Aylin Özmenek, Turkish radio and TV presenter (d. 2021)
- 1943 – Christine Charbonneau, Canadian singer and composer (d. 2014)
- 1945 – Huell Howser, American comedian, actor, and voice actor (d. 2013)
- 1945 – Yıldo, Turkish entertainer and football player
- 1946 – Howard Shore, Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe winner, Canadian composer
- 1948 – Neset Ruacan, Turkish jazz musician
- 1948 – Ntozake Shange, American playwright, poet, and novelist (d. 2018)
- 1950 – Om Puri, Indian actor (d. 2017)
- 1952 – Chuck Lorre, American record producer, writer, director, and composer
- 1956 – Martina Navratilova, Czech tennis player
- 1956 – Eugene Yelchin, Russian-American artist
- 1959 Kirby Chambliss, American commercial pilot, aerobatic pilot
- 1959 - Mauricio Funes, Former President of El Salvador
- 1959 – Milčo Mančevski, Macedonian screenwriter and filmmaker
- 1960 – Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgian film actor
- 1960 - Erin Moran, American actress
- 1961 – Wynton Marsalis, American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and music educator
- 1964 – Charles Stross, British novelist and short story writer and software developer
- 1965 – Zakir Naik, Indian orator giving speeches on Islam and Comparative religions
- 1965 – Petra Schersing, German athlete
- 1971 – Teoman Kumbaracıbaşı, Turkish film actor
- 1971 – Ana Beatriz das Chagas, Brazilian volleyball player
- 1971 – Yoo Sang-Chul, South Korean football player and manager
- 1972 – Emre Karayel, Turkish actor
- 1972 - Kurt Caceres, American actor
- 1973 – James Foley, American photojournalist and journalist (d. 2014)
- 1975 – Josh Sawyer, American video game designer
- 1978 – Dağhan Külegeç, Turkish actor
- 1979 – Jaroslav Drobný, Czech national goalkeeper
- 1979 – Ne-Yo, American R&B singer, songwriter, producer, actor, and dancer
- 1980 – Birsen Bekgöz, Turkish athlete
- 1982 – Simon Gotch, American professional wrestler
- 1983 – Dante, Brazilian football player
- 1984 - Freida Pinto, Indian actress and professional model
- 1984 – Lindsey Vonn, American skier
- 1984 – Milo Yiannopoulos, English right-wing political commentator, polemicist, speaker, and author
- 1985 – Hamza Zarini, Iranian volleyball player
- 1986 – Wilma Elles, German-Turkish actress
- 1986 – Lukas Yorkas, Cypriot singer
- 1987 – Zac Efron, American actor
- 1990 – Brittney Griner, American professional basketball player
- 1991 – Tyler Posey, American actor and musician
- 1993 – Ivan Cavaleiro, national football player who played in the midfield position
- 1993 – Zarina Diyas, Kazakh tennis player
Deaths
- 31 – Sejanus, friend, confidant and Praefectus praetorios of Roman Emperor Tiberius (b. 20 BC)
- 707 – VII. John, pope from 1 March 705 until his death (b. 650)
- 1081 – Nikephoros Paleologos, 11th century Byzantine general
- 1417 – XII. Gregory, pope from 1406-15 (b. 1325)
- 1480 – Uhwudong, Korean dancer, writer, artist, painter, poet, and calligrapher (b. unknown)
- 1503 – III. Pius, Italian pope (b. 1439)
- 1511 – Philippe de Commines, lyric poet of the early French literature (b. 1447)
- 1541 – Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (b. 1489)
- 1744 – Sarah Churchill, English princess (b. 1660)
- 1865 – Henry John Temple, English statesman (b. 1784)
- 1871 – Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor (b. 1791)
- 1889 – Antonio Meucci, Italian inventor (b. 1808)
- 1893 – Charles Gounod, French opera composer (b. 1818)
- 1911 – Alfred Binet, French psychologist (b. 1857)
- 1918 – Koloman Moser, Austrian painter and designer (b. 1868)
- 1931 – Thomas Edison, American scientist (b. 1847)
- 1934 – Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish pathologist, histologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1852)
- 1935 – Gaston Lachaise, French-American figurative sculptor (b. 1882)
- 1948 – Walther von Brauchitsch, artillery officer of the German Empire and marshal of Nazi Germany (b. 1881)
- 1949 – Enis Behiç Koryürek, Turkish poet (b. 1891)
- 1955 – Jose Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher (b. 1883)
- 1957 – Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın, Turkish journalist and writer (b. 1875)
- 1964 – Halil Dikmen, Turkish painter (b. 1906)
- 1966 – Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businessman (founded cosmetics empire) (b. 1878)
- 1967 – Richard Loudon McCreery, British soldier (b. 1898)
- 1973 – Walt Kelly, American animator and cartoonist (b. 1913)
- 1973 – Leo Strauss, German philosopher (b. 1899)
- 1975 – Al Lettieri, American actor (b. 1928)
- 1977 – Andreas Baader, one of the leading leaders of the Red Army Faction in Germany and Baader-Meinhof one of the two known names of the band (b. 1943)
- 1977 – Gudrun Ensslin, co-founder of the Red Army Faction (b. 1940)
- 1978 – Ramón Mercader, Spanish communist (assassinator of Leon Trotsky) (b. 1914)
- 1982 – Pierre Mendes France, former prime minister of France (b. 1907)
- 1996 – Kemalettin Tuğcu, Turkish storyteller (b. 1902)
- 2000 – Julie London, American actress and singer (b. 1926)
- 2000 – Gwen Verdon, American actress and dancer (b. 1925)
- 2004 – Pakize Tarzi, Turkish medical doctor, Turkey's first gynecologist and the first woman to swim across the Bosphorus (b. 1910)
- 2005 – Johnny Haynes, English former international football player (b. 1934)
- 2007 – Lucky Dube, South African reggae artist
- 2011 – Behruz Çinici, Turkish architect (b. 1932)
- 2012 – Sylvia Kristel, Dutch actress and model (b. 1952)
- 2012 – Slater Martin, American professional basketball player (b. 1925)
- 2013 – Norman Geras, British Professor Emeritus of Political Science (b. 1943)
- 2014 – Joanne Borgella, US singer, vocalist, songwriter, and model (b. 1982)
- 2015 – Jamal al-Gitani, Egyptian poet, writer and journalist (b. 1945)
- 2015 – Ankaralı Namık, Turkish musician, songwriter, composer and actor (b. 1976)
- 2016 – Sergey Likhachev, Azerbaijan-born Soviet Russian-Azerbaijani tennis player (b. 1940)
- 2017 – Brent Briscoe, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1961)
- 2017 – Eamonn Campbell, Irish musician (b. 1946)
- 2017 – Yeoh Tiong Lay, Malaysian industrialist and businessman (b. 1929)
- 2017 – Firuz Kanatlı, Turkish businessman and founder of Eti Group of Companies (b. 1932)
- 2018 – Abdul Raziq Achagzai, senior police officer and soldier in the Afghanistan National Police Department (b. 1979)
- 2018 – Anthea Bell, English translator and writer (b. 1936)
- 2018 – Ake Ortmark, Swedish journalist, radio broadcaster and TV presenter (b. 1929)
- 2018 – Lisbet Palme, Swedish psychologist and public official (b. 1931)
- 2019 – Rui Jordão, Portuguese football player (b. 1952)
- 2019 – Kalidas Karmakar, Bangladeshi painting and graphic artist (b. 1946)
- 2019 – Nuri Pakdil, Turkish writer and lawyer (b. 1934)
- 2020 – Bekir Coşkun, Turkish journalist and writer (b. 1945)
- 2020 – Sid Hartman, American sports journalist (b. 1920)
- 2020 – Stanisław Kogut, Polish politician (b. 1953)
- 2020 – Naâma, Distinguished Tunisian singer (b. 1934)
- 2020 – Gérard Sulon, Belgian professional football player (b. 1938)
- 2020 – Jill Paton Walsh, English children's book author and novelist (b. 1937)
- 2021 – Jack Angel, American actor, comedian and voice actor (b. 1930)
- 2021 – Jo-Carroll Dennison, American model and actress (b. 1923)
- 2021 – Sami Kohen, Turkish writer and journalist (b. 1928)
- 2021 – Colin Powell, American soldier and politician (b. 1937)
- 2021 – Sami Kohen, Turkish writer and journalist (b. 1928)
- 2022 – Robert Gordon, American rock singer, musician and actor (b. 1947)
- 2022 – Bülend Özveren, Turkish television presenter and sports announcer (b. 1943)
- 2022 – Valeri Rubakov, Soviet-Russian theoretical physicist (b. 1955)
Holidays and special occasions
- Azerbaijan republic day
- Storm: Kozkavuran Storm