November 18

326 – The old St. Peter’s Basilica on Vatican Hill in Rome is consecrated.

1095 – The Council of Clermont begins, leading to the First Crusade to the Holy Land.

1626 – The new St Peter’s Basilica is consecrated.

1872 – Susan B. Anthony and 14 other women are arrested in New York for voting illegally in the United States presidential election of 1872.

1883 – American and Canadian railroads institute 5 standard continental time zones, ending ‘local time’.

1901 – The Hay–Pauncefote Treaty is signed by Britain and the United States nullifying the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty and withdrawing British objections to an American controlled Panama Canal.

1903 – The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by Panama and the United States, giving the United States exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.

1909 – Due to 2 Americans, being included with 500 Nicaraguan revolutionaries and executed by order of President José Santos Zelaya, the U.S. sends 2 warships, USS Des Moines (CL-17) and USS Tacoma (CL-20) with 700 U.S. Marines aboard, along with other vessels to follow later, to stage an invasion and occupation of the country.

1928 – The animated short Steamboat Willie, noted as the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks debuts;  and this date is considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey’s birthday.

1961 – United States President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.

1963 – DTMF – Dual Tone Multi Frequency – “Touch Tone” telephone dialing goes into service.

1978 – In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple to a mass murder–suicide that claims 918 lives.

1993 – In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is approved by the House of Representatives.

1999 – At Texas A&M University, the ‘Aggie Bonfire’, a long standing annual tradition as part of the college rivalry with the University of Texas at Austin, collapses during construction, killing 12 students and injuring 27 others.

2002 – Under pwers of UN Security Council Resolution 1441, UN WMD weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.

2003 – The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that the state’s ban on homosexual marriage is unconstitutional.

2013 – NASA launches the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) probe on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, to Mars.

2020 – The Utah monolith, built sometime in 2016 in northern San Juan County, is discovered by state biologists of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources while carrying out an aerial survey of bighorn sheep