History for July 18

History for July 18 - On-This-Day.com:
Harriet Nelson 1912, Richard "Red" Skelton 1913, Nelson Mandela 1918 - President of South Africa 


John Glenn 1921 - Astronaut, Hunter S. Thompson 1937, Dion DiMucci (Dion and the Belmonts) 1939 


Martha Reeves (Martha and the Vandellas) 1941, Elizabeth McGovern 1961, Vin Diesel 1967 - Actor 


0064 - The Great Fire of Rome began. 


1789 - Robespierre, a deputy from Arras, France, decided to back the French Revolution. 

1872 - The Ballot Act was passed in Great Britain, providing for secret election ballots. 


1914 - Six planes of the U.S. Army helped to form an aviation division called the Signal Corps. 

1935 - Ethiopian King Haile Selassie urged his countrymen to fight to the last man against the invading Italian army. 


1936 - The first Oscar Meyer Wienermobile rolled out of General Body Company’s factory in Chicago, IL. 


1936 - The Spanish Civil War began as Gen. Francisco Franco led an uprising of army troops based in Spanish North Africa. 

1942 - The German Me-262, the first jet-propelled aircraft to fly in combat, made its first flight. 

1947 - U.S. President Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act, which placed the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.