120 things happened on 18 December, from 1075 to 2023. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1792 · 234 years ago
English-born writer Thomas Paine was found guilty of seditious libel, which means publishing words meant to turn people against the government. The trial was about the second part of his book Rights of Man. William Pitt's government feared that the ideas of t…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
Oliver Cromwell had called together merchants, clergymen and lawyers to debate whether Jews should be allowed back into England. When the Whitehall Conference ended, it decided that no law stopped them from returning. In 1290, King Edward I had ordered all Jews to leave the Kingdom of England. It was the first time a European state is known to have banned Jewish people for good.
UK story
English-born writer Thomas Paine was found guilty of seditious libel, which means publishing words meant to turn people against the government. The trial was about the second part of his book Rights of Man. William Pitt's government feared that the ideas of the French Revolution might spread to England. Paine's earlier writings had helped inspire Americans to declare independence from Great Britain.
UK story
On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the sixth James Bond film, had its premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. It is the only Bond film to star George Lazenby, a model who had never acted in a film before. He took over after Sean Connery decided to stop playing Bond. James Bond is a British secret agent created by the writer Ian Fleming.
UK story
Kellingley Colliery in North Yorkshire, the last deep coal mine in Great Britain, closed. It was known affectionately as the 'Big K'. A colliery is a coal mine together with its buildings. Coal has been widely used to make electricity since the 1880s.
UK story
The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the American rebels over British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga in October.
UK story
The school board of Oakland, California, passed a controversial resolution officially declaring African-American Vernacular English to be a separate language or dialect.
Kublai Khan gave his empire the name 'Great Yuan', marking the official start of the Yuan dynasty. Kublai was the fifth khagan, or great ruler, of the Mongol Empire. The Yuan dynasty ruled China until 1368, coming after the Song dynasty and before the Ming dynasty. Kublai ruled until his death in 1294.
US Secretary of State William Seward announced that the Thirteenth Amendment was now part of the United States Constitution. The amendment made slavery illegal across the country, except as a punishment for a crime. It had been passed by Congress and then approved by 27 of the 36 states. It was the first of three changes to the Constitution made after the American Civil War.
The Nutcracker, a ballet with music by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was first performed in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is set on Christmas Eve around a Christmas tree, in a child's imagination, and features a Nutcracker doll. The story goes back to The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffmann. Tchaikovsky also wrote the music for the ballets Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty.
French count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat set the first officially recognised land speed record. He reached 63.159 km/h (39.245 mph) in an electric car made by Jeantaud. The land speed record is the highest speed a person has reached driving a vehicle on land.
The United States launched SCORE, the world's first purpose-built communications satellite. It sent the first broadcast of a human voice from space. Its nicknames were 'The Talking Atlas' and 'Chatterbox'. It was also the first time an Atlas rocket was successfully used to launch something into space.
Argentina beat France, the defending champions, in the FIFA World Cup final at Lusail Stadium in Qatar. The match finished 3–3 after extra time, and Argentina won the penalty shoot-out 4–2. A record 1.5 billion people watched on television. It was Argentina's third World Cup win, after 1978 and 1986.
The city of Zaragoza is conquered by king Alfonso I of Aragon from the Almoravid.
Muslims in Granada began a rebellion against their Castilian rulers in response to forced conversions to Catholicism.
Portuguese forces and their Imbangala allies defeated the Kongo army at the Battle of Mbumbi.
New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
The national anthem of the Russian Empire, "God Save the Tsar!", is first performed.
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada abolishes the seigneurial system.
The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar.
The Jew's Christmas, the first American film to include a rabbi as a character, was released.
World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when the second French offensive pushes the Germans back two or three kilometres, causing them to cease their attacks.
The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.
Playing indoors at Chicago Stadium on a modified American football field, the Chicago Bears defeated the Portsmouth Spartans in the first playoff game of the National Football League.
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.
The Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Korematsu v. United States supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 which cleared the way for the incarceration of nearly all 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, born and raised in the United States.
A violent F5 tornado wipes out the entire community of Sunfield, Illinois.
Epimetheus, one of the moons of Saturn, was discovered, but was mistaken for Janus; it took twelve years to determine that they are two distinct objects sharing the same orbit.
Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
California gubernatorial recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.
The Chadian Civil War begins when rebel groups, allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan, launch an attack in Adré.
United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.
The United States House of Representatives impeaches Donald Trump for the first time.
A series of mass protests began in Belgrade, Serbia, alleging electoral irregularities in the Serbian parliament and Belgrade city assembly elections.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “Thomas Paine is found guilty over his book Rights of Man”?
B: 1792. 1792 — that’s 234 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “On Her Majesty's Secret Service has its premiere in London”?
B: 1969. 1969 — that’s 57 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
A: The Whitehall Conference finds no law keeping Jews out of England. 1655: The Whitehall Conference finds no law keeping Jews out of England · 1792: Thomas Paine is found guilty over his book Rights of Man · 1969: On Her Majesty's Secret Service has its premiere in London Find it on the page
“J. J. Thomson” happened in 1856. How many years ago was that?
C: 170 years. 2026 − 1856 = 170. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 18 December.
UK story
Sir J. J. Thomson was a British physicist. In 1897 he showed that cathode rays were made of tiny particles with a negative electric charge, much smaller than atoms. These particles, called electrons, were the first subatomic particles ever discovered. Thomson won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906.
UK story
Charles Wesley was an English clergyman and one of the leaders of the Methodist movement. He was a hymn writer who wrote more than 6,500 hymns during his life. His best-known works include 'Love Divine, All Loves Excelling' and the Christmas carol 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing'.
Well-known people who died on 18 December.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 18 December somewhere in the world.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “December 18” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.