On This Day in History - January 18th - Almanac

Today is Thursday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2018 with 347 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Saturn. Evening stars are Neptune, Uranus and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include English physician Peter Roget, who compiled Roget's Thesaurus, in 1779; American orator and statesman Daniel Webster in 1782; English author A.A. Milne, who wrote Winnie the Pooh, in 1882; comedian Oliver Hardy of the Laurel and Hardy movie team, in 1892; actor Cary Grant in 1904; American inventor Ray Dolby in 1933; filmmaker John Boorman in 1933 (age 85); former Northern Ireland politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate John Hume in 1937 (age 81); former baseball star Curt Flood in 1938; singer David Ruffin in 1941 (age 77); singer Bobby Goldsboro in 1941 (age 77); actor Kevin Costner in 1955 (age 63) ; actor Jesse L. Martin in 1969 (age 49); actor/wrestler Dave Bautista in 1969 (age 49); rocker Jonathan Davis (Korn) in 1971 (age 47); actor Jason Segel in 1980 (age 38); actor Becca Tobin in 1986 (age 32); actor Ashleigh Murray in 1988 (age 30); actor Samuel Joslin in 2002 (age 16).

On this date in history:

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 1919, world leaders gathered in Paris to begin a peace conference after the end of World War I. President Woodrow Wilson used the negotiations to push his idea of an international peacekeeping organization, the League of Nations.

In 1935, an additional 98 individuals were sentenced, 19 to prison and 79 to exile, for playing a role in the assassination of Sergei Kirov as Josef Stalin ruled unchallenged throughout Soviet Russia.

In 1969, as he prepared for the peaceful transfer of power, President Lyndon Johnson put his faith in history that his record of public service and accomplishments would serve as a fitting legacy.

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 They had been rescinded for Thorpe's having played professional baseball.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, authorities arrested Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry on narcotics charges after he was caught on camera smoking crack cocaine by a woman who agreed to record him in exchange for a reduced sentence on a previous charge.

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

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

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

In 2010, Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 and was later forgiven by the pontiff, was released from a Turkish prison.

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

In 2013, Algerian forces freed more than 600 hostages held by Islamist militants at a gas plant in In Amenas.

In 2014, a stampede killed 18 people and injured about 40 in a section of Mumbai where tens of thousands of people gathered to mourn the death of a Muslim spiritual leader.

In 2017, NOAA and NASA announced 2016 was the hottest year in modern history, the third-consecutive year that record had been broken.

A thought for the day: "Don't compare yourself with anyone in this world. If you do so, you are insulting yourself." -- Bill Gates