#TodayInHistory – September 18

September 18 – Some important events on this day.

96 👉🏼 Nerva is proclaimed Roman Emperor after Domitian is assassinated
1454 👉🏼 In the Battle of Chojnice, the Polish army is defeated by the Teutonic army during the Thirteen Years’ War.
1793 👉🏼 US President George Washington lays the cornerstone of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
1809 👉🏼 Royal Opera House in London opens
1811 👉🏼 British East India Company force led by Baron Minto conquers Java, part of the Dutch East Indies, Stamford Raffles appointed lieutenant governor

1812 👉🏼 Great Fire of Moscow burns out after 5 days, 75% of the city destroyed and 12,000 killed.
In 1812, French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte launched his disastrous invasion of Russia in order to pressure Alexander I to stop trading with British merchants so the UK would sue for peace with France. Scorched-earth tactics were employed by the Russians consistently during the invasion, and as a result the French found it difficult to supply their massive army.
As Napoléon approached Moscow, Fyodor Rostopchin who was the Governor-General of the city, ordered several important buildings be burned. Most buildings in Moscow were made of wood, so what started as a series of small fires quickly turned into a city-wide conflagration.
Napoleon entered the Kremlin on September 15, and was later relocated as the fires threatened the complex. The French army occupied the city for a month, waiting for a peace offer from the Tsar, which never came. It is estimated that 3/4 of all buildings in Moscow were destroyed, and more than 12,000 were dead. The French were devastated in Russia; their army was reduced to a fraction of its strength, and Napoléon’s reputation was significantly weakened.

1873 👉🏼 Government bond agent Jay Cooke & Co collapses, causing panic on Wall St, the start of the panic of 1873 and the Long depression

1879 👉🏼 Blackpool’s celebrated illuminations were switched on for the first time on this day, making the seaside resort in Northern England the first in the world to have electric street lighting. It happened a month before electricity was generally available in London.

1914 👉🏼 Irish Home Rule bill receives Royal assent
1931 👉🏼 To create a pretext for the invasion of Manchuria, China, a railway explosion is faked by the Japanese
1947 👉🏼 The Central Intelligence Agency officially comes into existence after being established by President Truman in July
1951 👉🏼 “A Streetcar Named Desire”, directed by Elia Kazan and based on Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play of the same name, starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, is released
1976 👉🏼 Mao Zedong’s funeral takes place in Beijing

1981 👉🏼 Canada mall sets parking-lot record.
On this day, the 20,000-car parking lot at Canada’s West Edmonton Mall makes the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest parking lot in the world. The mall has held other records, too: At one time or another it’s been the World’s Largest Shopping Mall (about 48 city blocks), the World’s Largest Indoor Amusement Park and the World’s Largest Indoor Water Park (which includes the World’s Largest Indoor Lake and the World’s Largest Indoor Wave Pool).
The West Edmonton Mall has more than 800 stores, 100 restaurants, and 19 movie theaters. It also has a full-size ice-skating rink, two hotels, a chapel and a sizeable handful of nightclubs. The mall is arranged in a series of wings themed: there is, for istance, an opulent 19th-century European boulevard, a faux Bourbon Street, and a Chinatown wing arranged around a koi pond, but also a replica of Christopher Columbus’ famous Santa Maria that shares a lagoon with real submarines and exotic fish. When the mall opened in 1981, its developer offered this dedication: “What we have done means you don’t have to go to New York or Paris or Disneyland or Hawaii,” he said. “We have it all here for you in one place, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada!”
Though the mall has held the world’s largest parking-lot record for years, some people argue that it shouldn’t: Because the lot is half indoors and half outdoors, they say, it’s actually not one parking structure but two. By that calculation, you can find the world’s largest parking lot at Seattle’s Sea-Tac airport, which has 13,000 parking spaces under one roof.
In any case, huge lots seem to be everywhere: Universal Studios has two 10,000-car garages, the Denver airport has two 7,000-car lots, and the Baltimore airport has two garages that hold almost 14,000 cars in all…

1987 👉🏼 Hundreds are accidentally poisoned in Brazil.
On this day, cesium-137 is removed from an abandoned cancer-therapy machine in Brazil. Hundreds of people were eventually poisoned by radiation from the substance, highlighting the danger that even relatively small amounts of radiation can pose.
2015 👉🏼 Government of Uttar Pradesh, India, confirms 2.3 million people applied for 238 menial office jobs