#TodayInHistory – January 18

January 18 – Some important events on this day

350 👉🏼 Roman Emperor Constans is deposed by General Magnentius who proclaims himself the new Emperor
532 👉🏼 Nika uprising against Emperor Justinian I in Constantinople fails, 30,000 killed by troops loyal to the Emperor in the Hippodrome
1535 👉🏼 Francisco Pizarro founds the city of Lima in Peru
1591 👉🏼 King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat, date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces day
1644 👉🏼 Perplexed Pilgrims in Boston reported America’s 1st UFO sighting
1788 👉🏼 First elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony
1817 👉🏼 José de San Martín leads a revolutionary army over the Andes to attack Spanish royalists in Chile
1871 👉🏼 Second German Empire proclaimed by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck

1943 👉🏼 Soviets announce they have broken the long Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany by opening a narrow land corridor, though the siege would not be fully lifted until a year later.
The Siege of Leningrad was one of the deadliest and most destructive sieges in the history of the world – quite possibly the deadliest ever. It would last for 872 days, and there would be more than a million Soviet civilian casualties, plus another million Soviet military casualties and half a million German casualties.
The effect of the siege on the city was infamous. Food shortages were chronic, deaths from starvation, disease and cold were constant and cannibalism occurred throughout the years of the siege. The number of deaths in Leningrad was the single largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.
The Soviets managed to break the siege on this day by opening a narrow land corridor, but it would not be fully lifted until 27 January 1944 when they managed to fully repel the Germans on their drive west.

1980 👉🏼 Pink Floyd’s album “The Wall” hits #1
2005 👉🏼 The world’s largest commercial jet, the Airbus A380, is unveiled in France
2016 👉🏼 World’s 62 richest people are now as wealthy as half the world’s population according to a report published by Oxfam