18 June History
- 1155 - German-born Frederick I, Barbarossa, is crowned emperor of Rome.
- 1667 - The Dutch fleet sails up the Thames River and threatens London.
- 1778 - British troops evacuate Philadelphia.
- 1812 - The War of 1812 begins when the United States declares war against Great Britain.
- 1815 - At the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon is defeated by an international army under the Duke of Wellington.
- 1863 - After repeated acts of insubordination, General Ulysses S. Grant relieves General John McClernand during the siege of Vicksburg.
- 1864 - At Petersburg, Union General Ulysses S. Grant realizes the town can no longer be taken by assault and settles into a siege.
- 1873 - Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote for president.
- 1918 - Allied forces on the Western Front begin their largest counter-attack yet against the German army.
- 1928 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane.
- 1936 - Mobster Charles 'Lucky' Luciano is found guilty on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution.
- 1942 - The U.S. Navy commissions its first black officer, Harvard University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson.
- 1944 - The U.S. First Army breaks through the German lines on the Cotentin Peninsula and cuts off the German-held port of Cherbourg.
- 1945 - Organized Japanese resistance ends on the island of Mindanao.
- 1951 - General Vo Nguyen Giap ends his Red River Campaign against the French in Indochina.
- 1953 - South Korean President Syngman Rhee releases Korean non-repatriate POWs against the will of the United Nations.
- 1959 - A Federal Court annuls the Arkansas law allowing school closings to prevent integration.
- 1966 - Samuel Nabrit becomes the first African American to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.
- 1979 - President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the Salt II pact to limit nuclear arms.
- 1983 - Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
18 June Birthdays
- 1581 - Sir Thomas Overbury, English poet and courtier.
- 1812 - Ivan Goncharov, Russian novelist (Oblomov).
- 1857 - Henry Clay Folger, American lawyer and businessman, co-founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
- 1877 - James Montgomery Flagg, American artist and author.
- 1896 - Blanche Sweet, film actress.
- 1937 - Gail Godwin, writer (The Perfectionists, The Southern Family).
- 1942 - Paul McCartney, songwriter and singer, member of the Beatles.
- 1949 - Chris Van Allsburg, children's author and illustrator (Jumanji, The Polar Express).