What are the important events that happened on December 18? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

December 18: Facts & Myths About This Day

December 18 is the 353^rd day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 13 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Wednesday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is December 5, 2024 – a Wednesday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 1,734,480,000 seconds has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘trihectapentacontatrigon’ day.

Sagittarius is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Turquoise is the modern birthstone for this month. Onyx is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 42 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,380 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

December 18 Historical Events

• 218 BC –
  Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia – Hannibal’s Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic.
• 1642 –
  Abel Tasman becomes first European to land in New Zealand.
• 1777 –
  The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.
• 1958 –
  Project SCORE, the world’s first communications satellite, is launched.
• 1973 –
  Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
• 1978 –
  Dominica joins the United Nations.
• 1987 –
  Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language.
• 1989 –
  The European Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.
• 1996 –
  The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring “Ebonics” a language or dialect.
• 2006 –
  United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.

Who were born on December 18?

• 1911 –
  Jules Dassin, American film director (d. 2008)
• 1913 –
  Ray Meyer, American basketball coach (d. 2006)
• 1927 –
  Roméo LeBlanc, 25th Governor General of Canada (d. 2009)
• 1935 –
  Jacques Pépin, French chef
• 1954 –
  John Booth, British racing driver, founder of Manor Motorsport
• 1958 –
  Geordie Walker, English rock musician and lead guitarist for post-punk band Killing Joke
• 1967 –
  Toine van Peperstraten, Dutch sports journalist
• 1970 –
  Victoria Pratt, Canadian actress and fitness model
• 1974 –
  Peter Boulware, American football player
• 1978 –
  Katie Holmes, American actress

Who died on December 18?

• 1290 –
  King Magnus I of Sweden (b. 1240)
• 1848 –
  Bernard Bolzano, Bohemian mathematician and priest (b. 1781)
• 1869 –
  Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer and pianist (b. 1829)
• 1971 –
  Bobby Jones, American golfer (b. 1902)
• 1973 –
  Allama Rasheed Turabi, Pakistani orator and philosopher (b. 1908)
• 1996 –
  Yulii Borisovich Khariton, Russian physicist (b. 1904)
• 2001 –
  Dimitris Dragatakis, Greek composer (b. 1914)
• 2006 –
  Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist (b. 1911)
• 2006 –
  Mike Dickin, British radio broadcaster (b. 1943)
• 2007 –
  Jack Linkletter, American television host; son of Art Linkletter (b. 1937)