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October 18 in History

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The Dawn Raid on Nagazakicho

October 18, 1941

The Dawn Raid on Nagazakicho

When Japanese police knocked on an Azabu villa at dawn on October eighteenth, nineteen forty-one, they seized Adolf Hitler's favorite journalist in Tokyo. Could the German ambassador ever believe that his closest adviser was the Soviet master spy who had just saved Moscow?

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Also on this day

More that happened on October 18

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  1. 1009Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem down to its foundations.
  2. 1356A massive earthquake devastated the Swiss city of Basel, causing widespread destruction across the upper Rhine region.
  3. 1685King Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, revoking the religious liberties granted to French Protestants under the Edict of Nantes.
  4. 1748European powers signed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in Aachen, bringing the War of the Austrian Succession to an end.
  5. 1813Coalition armies decisively defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Leipzig, forcing French forces to retreat across the Rhine.
  6. 1867The Russian Empire formally transferred possession of Alaska to the United States during a flag-raising ceremony at Sitka.
  7. 1908The Belgian parliament formally annexed King Leopold II's privately held Congo Free State, reorganizing the territory as the Belgian Congo.
  8. 1912The First Balkan War began after the Balkan League nations of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro attacked the Ottoman Empire.
  9. 1922A consortium of British and international manufacturers established the British Broadcasting Company in London to launch regular radio transmissions.
  10. 1929The British Privy Council ruled that women are legally recognized as persons, allowing them to serve in the Canadian Senate.
  11. 1959The Soviet robotic space probe Luna 3 transmitted humanity's first photographs of the far side of the Moon.
  12. 1968The United States Olympic Committee suspended sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos following their Black Power protest in Mexico City.

Chosen from the October 18 pages of HistoryNet and OnThisDay.com, retold in our own words.