On This Day June 18

1983
First U.S. woman in space: Sally Ride aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

1961
A Soviet K-19 nuclear submarine develops a radioactive leak on its maiden voyage. Fourteen sailors die in the effort to prevent a reactor explosion.

1928
First transatlantic flight by a woman: Amelia Earhart lands in the Friendship. She had begun the previous day.

1815
Napoleon - Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon is defeated by the Duke of Wellington.

1964 d. 2003
Uday Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti, eldest son of Saddam Hussein and his first wife. In 1988, at a party thrown in the honor of the wife of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Uday beat to death his father's personal valet with a cane in front of horrified guests before finishing him off with an electric carving knife. The valet had recently introduced his father Saddam to a beautiful, younger woman who later became Saddam's second wife. Uday took this as an insult to his mother.

1952
Isabella Rossellini, Italian model, actress. Model: Lancome cosmetics. Film: Blue Velvet (1986) and Wild at Heart (1990).

1952
Carol Kane, American Emmy-winning actress. TV: Taxi (Latka's wife Simka).

1942
Roger Ebert, American film critic. He won the first Pulitzer Prize for film criticism (1975) and wrote the screenplay for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970).

1924
George Lawrence Mikan Jr., American basketball player. He was the first professional player to score 10,000 points.

1916 d. 1981
Richard Boone, American actor. TV: Have Gun, Will Travel (Paladin).

1913 d. 1993
Sammy Cahn, American Oscar-winning lyricist. Music: Call Me Irresponsible, Three Coins in a Fountain (1954, Oscar), High Hopes, and Love And Marriage (theme to Married...With Children).

1910
E.G. Marshall (Everett G. Marshall), American Emmy-winning actor. TV: The Defenders (Emmy, as Lawrence Preston).

1904 d. 1991
Keye Luke, Chinese-born American actor. Film: Charlie Chan's No. 1 son. TV: Kung Fu (Master Po).

1877 d. 1960
James Montgomery Flagg, American artist, creator of the "I Want You" Uncle Sam recruiting poster (1917). He used his own face as the model for the poster.

1850 d. 1933
Cyrus H.K. Curtis, American publisher, founder of Ladies' Home Journal (1883).

1992 b. 1944
Peter Allen, Oscar-winning songwriter, actor. Music: Arthur's Theme (Oscar) and I Honestly Love You (hit for Olivia Newton-John).

1963 b. 1912
Pedro Armendariz, Mexican actor. Film: From Russia with Love (British spymaster Ali Kerim Bey). His death was attributed to radiation exposure received from an A-bomb test near the filming of a movie in 1953.

1961 b. 1925
Edward Carl Gaedel, American baseball player, midget (3 foot, 7 inches tall), he was a pinch hitter for the St. Louis Browns. He was walked on his only time at bat (1951).

1880 b. 1803
John Augustus Sutter, German-born American explorer, trader. He was prosperous until gold was discovered on his mill (1848) - the incoming prospectors stole his land and his workers quit to seek their own fortunes.

1865 b. 1794
Edmund Ruffin, American agriculturist. He fired the first shot of the attack on Fort Sumter starting the Civil War. According to legend, he wrapped himself in the Confederate flag and committed suicide after the collapse of the Confederacy.

June 18

Events

Birthdays

Deaths