Updated July 17, 2012, 2:28 pm
On July 18, 1936, the Spanish Civil War began as Gen. Francisco Franco led an uprising of army troops based in North Africa.
On July 18, 1909, Andrey Gromyko, the Soviet foreign minister from 1957 to 1985, was born. Following his death on July 2, 1989, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1536 Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in England. 1872 Britain enacted voting by secret ballot. 1927 Baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb got his 4,000th career hit. 1969 A car driven by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s Vineyard. His passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, died. 1989 Actress Rebecca Schaeffer, 21, was shot to death at her Los Angeles home by an obsessed fan. (The killing prompted California in 1990 to pass the nation’s first anti-stalking law.) 1998 A 23-foot tsunami along the coast of Papua New Guinea killed nearly 3,000 people. 1999 David Cone of the New York Yankees pitched the 14th perfect game in modern major league baseball history in a game against the Montreal Expos. 2005 An unrepentant Eric Rudolph was sentenced in Birmingham, Ala., to life in prison for an abortion clinic bombing that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse. 2011 Gen. David Petraeus handed over command of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan to Gen. John Allen. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Retired baseball player-manager Joe Torre turns 72 years old today.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. turns 62 years old today.
AP Photo/Charles Dharapak
1918 Nelson Mandela, Former South African president, turns 94 1921 John Glenn, Astronaut; former U.S. senator, D-Ohio, turns 91 1929 Dick Button, Figure skater, sportscaster, turns 83 1938 Paul Verhoeven, Director (“Basic Instinct,” “Robocop”), turns 74 1939 Dion DiMucci, Rock singer (Dion and the Belmonts), turns 73 1940 James Brolin, Actor, turns 72 1941 Martha Reeves, R&B singer (Martha and the Vandellas), turns 71 1949 Craig Fuller, Rock singer (Little Feat, Pure Prairie League), turns 63 1954 Ricky Skaggs, Country singer, turns 58 1961 Elizabeth McGovern, Actress, turns 51 1967 Vin Diesel, Actor, turns 45 1975 Torii Hunter, Baseball player, turns 37 1975 M.I.A., Singer, songwriter, turns 37 1980 Kristen Bell, Actress (“Veronica Mars”), turns 32 1985 Chace Crawford, Actor (“Gossip Girl”), turns 27
Historic Birthdays
Andrey Gromyko 7/18/1909 – 7/2/1989 Soviet statesman.Go to obituary »
41 Hermann Von Reichenau 7/18/1013 – 9/24/1054
German poet, astronomer and mathematician67 Robert Hooke 7/18/1635 – 3/3/1703
English physicist69 Royall Tyler 7/18/1757 – 8/26/1826
American lawyer, teacher and dramatist52 William Makepeace Thackeray 7/18/1811 – 12/24/1863
English novelist72 Philip Snowden 7/18/1864 – 5/15/1937
English Labor Party leader58 Vidkun Quisling 7/18/1887 – 10/24/1945
Norwegian official; collaborated with Germany during World War II76 Victor Gruen 7/18/1903 – 2/14/1980
Austrian-born American architect and city planner85 S. I. Hayakawa 7/18/1906 – 2/27/1992
Canadian-born American scholar and U. S. senator (1977-83)57 Clifford Odets 7/18/1906 – 8/14/1963
American stage and motion-picture writer and director
