December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 13 days remaining.

Events

• 218 BC - Battle of the Trebia, Hannibal's first great victory over the Roman Republic.
• 1352 - Innocent VI is elected Pope.
• 1642 - Abel Tasman lands at Mohua Golden Bay becoming the first European in New Zealand.
• 1776 - North Carolina's Constitution is ratified.
• 1787 - New Jersey is the third state to ratify the United States Constitution
• 1865 - Slavery is abolished in the United States, with the passing of the 13th Amendment
• 1894 - Women in South Australia become the first in Australia to gain the right to vote and to be elected to Parliament.
• 1912 - Piltdown Man "discovered"
• 1926 - The Makropulos Affair, an opera by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček, premiered in Brno, the Czech Republic.
• 1958 - Niger becomes an autonomous state within the French Community on December 4, 1958, after the establishment of the Fifth French Republic. Following full independence on August 3, 1960, however, membership was allowed to lapse.
• 1961 - Indonesia invaded New Guinea to annex West Papua, formerly known as Netherlands New Guinea.
• 1966 - Saturn's moon Epimetheus was discovered by Richard L. Walker, and then lost for 12 years
• 1973 - The Soyuz 13 was launched.
• 1996 - "Ebonics" was declared a language or dialect by the school board of Oakland, California.
• 1997 - HTML 4.0 is released by the World Wide Web Consortium
• 2002 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is the second Lord of the Rings movie to open in theaters.
• 2002 - California Governor Gray Davis announced that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier; the budget issue was used to support his 2003 recall from office.

Births

• 1507 - Ouchi Yoshitaka, Japanese warlord (d. 1551)
• 1626 - Queen Christina of Sweden (d. 1689)
• 1714 - Esterházy of Galántha, field marshal (d. 1790)
• 1786 - Carl Maria von Weber, German composer (d. 1826)
• 1835 - Lyman Abbott, American author (d. 1922)
• 1847 - Augusta Holmès, French composer (d. 1903)
• 1863 - Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (d. 1914)
• 1870 - Saki, writer (d. 1916)
• 1879 - Paul Klee, Swiss painter and graphic artist (d. 1940)
• 1886 - Ty Cobb, American baseball player (d. 1961)
• 1888 - Robert Moses, New York public works official (d. 1981)
• 1888 - Gladys Cooper, actress (d. 1971)
• 1890 - Edwin Armstrong, American inventor (d. 1954)
• 1897 - Fletcher Henderson, jazz musician (d. 1952)
• 1904 - George Stevens, American director (d. 1975)
• 1912 - Benjamin O. Davis Jr., American general (d. 2002)
• 1913 - Alfred Bester, American science fiction author (d. 1987)
• 1913 - Willy Brandt, German Chancellor (d. 1992)
• 1916 - Betty Grable, actress (d. 1973)
• 1917 - Ossie Davis, actor
• 1927 - Ramsey Clark, U.S. Attorney General during Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency
• 1928 - Józef Glemp, cardinal and primate of Poland
• 1934 - Boris Volynov, cosmonaut
• 1939 - Michael Moorcock, science fiction author
• 1943 - Keith Richards, British guitarist (the Rolling Stones)
• 1946 - Steven Spielberg, movie director
• 1946 - Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 1977)
• 1950 - Gillian Armstrong, film director
• 1950 - Leonard Maltin, movie critic
• 1955 - Ray Liotta, actor
• 1961 - Brian Orser, figure skater
• 1963 - Brad Pitt, American actor
• 1964 - Steve Austin, professional wrestler
• 1964 - Don Beebe, American football player
• 1964 - Star Cullars, musician (P Funk)
• 1970 - DMX, rapper
• 1971 - Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, tennis player
• 1973 - Miltiadis Paliouras, Canadian, geneticist
• 1974 - Peter Boulware, American football player
• 1975 - Trish Stratus, WWE performer
• 1978 - Katie Holmes, American actress
• 1980 - Christina Aguilera, American singer

Deaths

• 821 - Theodulf, bishop of Orléans (b. c.760)
• 1290 - Magnus I of Sweden, king of Sweden 1275-1290 (b. 1240)
• 1737 - Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker (b. 1644?)
• 1869 - Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer, pianist (b. 1829)
• 1936 - Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist (b. 1857)
• 1971 - Bobby Jones, golfer (b. 1902)
• 1974 - Harry Hooper, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1887)
• 1980 - Alexei Kosygin, former Soviet premier
• 1990 - Paul Tortelier, French musician (b. 1914)
• 1992 - Mark Goodson, game show producer (b. 1915)
• 1993 - Sam Wanamaker, actor (b. 1919)
• 1995 - Konrad Zuse, German engineer and computing pioneer (b. 1910)
• 1997 - Chris Farley, American actor, comedian (b. 1964)
• 1998 - Lev Demin, cosmonaut (b. 1926)
• 1999 - Robert Bresson, French film director (b. 1907)
• 2000 - Kirsty MacColl, British musician (b. 1959)
• 2001 - Gilbert Bécaud, singer (b. 1927)
• 2002 - Ray Hnatyshyn, former Canadian Governor-General (b. 1934)

Holidays and observances

• Republic Day in Niger (1958)

December 17 - December 19 - November 18 - January 18 -- listing of all days