Today in History in 1867 the United States takes possession of Alaska, celebrated annually in the state as (Alaska Day). On this day, Alaska also changes from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, and the International Date Line is shifted to the west.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 74 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

320 - Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes a solar eclipse and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer.

629 - King Dagobert is crowned King of the Franks.

1009 – The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the "mad" Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock.

1016 – The Danes defeat the Saxons in the Battle of Ashingdon.

1081 - The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.

1210 - Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV.

1356 - An earthquake destroys Basel, Switzerland.

1386 - Opening of the University of Heidelberg.

1502 - Opening of the University of Wittenberg.

1540 - Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto's forces destroy the fortified town of Mabila in present-day Alabama.

1561 – Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima: Takeda Shingen beats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts

1599 - Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia defeats the army of Andrew Bathory in the Battle of Selimbar, leading to the first recorded unification of the Romanian people.

1685 – Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes, which has protected French Protestants. Roman Catholicism is reinstated as the state religion in France.

1748 – Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.

1767 – Mason–Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.

1775 - American Revolutionary War: The burning of Falmouth, present-day Portland, Maine, prompts the Continental Congress to create the Continental Navy.

1779 - American Revolutionary War: The French-American Siege of Savannah is ended.

1797 - The Treaty of Campo Formio is signed by France and Austria.

1851 – Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.

1860 – The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.

1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska, celebrated annually in the state as (Alaska Day). On this day, Alaska also changes from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, and the International Date Line is shifted to the west.

1898 – United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.

1908 – Belgium annexes the Congo Free State.

1912 – The First Balkan War begins.

1913 - The monument to the 1813 Battle of the Nations is completed in Leipzig.

1921 - The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is founded.

1922 – The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.

1925 – The Grand Ole Opry opens.

1929 - Women are officially declared "Persons" under Canadian law.

1944 – Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia.

1944 – Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia

1945 – The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States's plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1945 - A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces stages a military coup, overthrowing President Isaias Medina Anguarita.

1945 - Juan Peron marries Eva Peron.

1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio

1964 – The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes for its first season after a six-month run.

1967 - Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere under another planet.

1968 - 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City: Bob Beamon jumps 8.90 metres in the long jump, known as the 'jump into the 21st century'.

1968 – A police raid on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's flat finds 168 grains of marijuana. They later plead guilty and are fined £150.

1969 – Jefferson Airplane member Paul Kantner is charged with possession of marijuana on Hawaii.

1974 – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre opens in theaters.

1975 - The Saint Nazaire Bridge in western France is opened to traffic.

1976 - Bangladesh is recognized by China and established diplomatic ties with Dacca.

1977 – German Autumn: a set of events revolving around the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight by the Red Army Faction (RAF) comes to an end when Schleyer is executed and various RAF members commit suicide. The German government states that it would never again negotiate with terrorists.

1989 – Erich Honecker resigns as leader of East Germany.

1989 – The Galileo space probe is launched.

1991 - The Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopts a declaration of Independence from the Soviet Union.

1993 – Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.

2003 – Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.

2004 - World Chess Championship: Vladimir Kramnik defends his title against Hungary's Peter Leko.

2007 – A bomb attack in Karachi kills 139 people and injures 450. Benazir Bhutto, returning from exile, escapes unhurt.

2011 – Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is released by Palestinians after over five years. In exchange, Israel releases 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

2019 - A bomb attack in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, kills at least 62 people.

2019 - Astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch perform the first all-female spacewalk.