Historical Events and Current Affairs on July 18

64: Great fire of Rome: A fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control while Emperor Nero reportedly plays his lyre and sings while watching the blaze from a safe distance.,
390: BC - Roman-Gaulish Wars: Battle of the Allia - A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.
1334: The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundational stone laid for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone.,
1656: Polish-Lithuanian forces clashes with Sweden and its Brandenburg allies in the start of what is to be known as The Battle of Warsaw which ends in a decisive Swedish victory.,
1857: Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall's war on the French.,
1863: American Civil War: Battle of Fort Wagner/Morris Island - The first formal African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, unsuccessfully assaults Confederate-held Battery Wagner but their valiant fighting still proves the worth of African American soldiers during the war.,
1914: The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, this gives definite status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.,
1925: Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.,
1942: World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.,
1944: World War II: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.,
1965: Zond 3 launched.,
1966: Gemini 10 launched.,
1969: After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.,
1972: Staines air disaster - 118 killed as plane crashes 2 minutes after take off from London Heathrow Airport,
1982: 268 campesinos (peasants or country people) are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Ríos Montt's Guatemala.,
1984: McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police.,
1986: A tornado is broadcast live on KARE television in Minnesota when the station's helicopter pilot makes a chance encounter.,
1992: The ten victims of the La Cantuta massacre disappeared from their university in Lima.,
1995: On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee.,
1996: Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Québec's costliest natural disasters ever.,

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