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Other Notable Events, January 18

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Published in History & Quotes

In 1778, James Cook became the first European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. He called them the Sandwich Islands.

In 1871, William of Prussia was declared the first German emperor.

In 1943, Moscow announced the 16-month Nazi siege of Leningrad had been lifted.

In 1966, Indira Gandhi, daughter of the late Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, became prime minister of India.

In 1968, the United States and Soviet Union agreed on a draft of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

In 1983, The International Olympic Committee restored Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family. They had been rescinded for Thorpe's having played professional baseball. He won gold medals in 1912 in the pentathlon and decathlon.

In 1990, Washington Mayor Marion Barry was arrested in an FBI sting at a downtown hotel and charged with buying and smoking crack cocaine.

In 1994, Iran-Contra independent counsel Lawrence Walsh issued his final report on the scandal. He blasted former U.S. President George H.W. Bush for his Christmas Eve 1992 pardons of six Iran-Contra defendants.

In 1995, officials in Paris announced the discovery of a magnificent display of Paleolithic cave art in southern France.

In 1996, Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, filed for divorce from Michael Jackson after 20 months of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences.

In 1997, Norwegian Borge Ousland completed a 1,675-mile trek across Antarctica, the first time anyone traversed the continent alone.

In 2004, at least 23 people were killed when a car bomb exploded in Baghdad.

 

In 2006, bodies of 36 Iraqis were found in mass graves in two towns north of Baghdad. Officials said many of the victims were police recruits.

In 2007, Venezuelan lawmakers voted to allow President Hugo Chavez to rule by decree for 18 months.

In 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush urged passage of a $145 billion stimulus package to provide tax relief for individuals and businesses to boost a sagging U.S. economy.

Also in 2008, after major presidential primary tests in Iowa and New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton led Barack Obama in the Democratic race and Mike Huckbee and John McCain shared wins among the Republicans.

In 2009, the three-week assault by Israel on Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip came to an end with a truce. The offensive was aimed at stopping Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.

In 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama earned a 57 percent job approval rating for his first year in office, a rating pulled down by negative responses over the last six months, a Gallup poll indicated.

Also in 2010, the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 was released from a Turkish prison after 29 years behind bars.

In 2011, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest in a group of police recruits in Tikrit, Iraq, killing at least 60 people and wounding 150 others.

Also in 2011, former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier; who recently returned to Port-au-Prince from exile, was charged with corruption and embezzlement.

In 2012, the Obama administration rejected a bid to expand the controversial cross-country Keystone XL pipeline because the congressional deadline was considered too short for a necessary impact review. A multibillion-dollar pipeline expansion to 1,700 miles was being sought in a project intended to carry crude oil from Canada's oil sands in Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.


Copyright 2013 by United Press International

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