April 18th Major News Events

1960 UK Ban The Bomb March

1960: Tens of thousands of people joined the Aldermaston "ban the bomb" March organized by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) that ended with a rally in Trafalgar Square with an estimated 60,000 - 100,000 present.

1968 UK London Bridge / Rennie's Bridge Sold To America

1968: London Bridge is sold for 1 million to an American oil magnate to be reassembled back at Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The bridge was disassembled, and each piece was numbered to aid reassembly.

1978 Panama Canal to be given to Panamanian Control

1978: The US Senate has backed a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama. The building of the Panama Canal was started by the French in 1880 but in 1904 the US took over the construction of the canal which was completed 10 years later.

1983 Lebanon Car Bomb US Embassy

1983: A car bomb is used as a terrorist weapon successfully in an attack on the U.S. embassy complex in Beirut, Lebanon killing 12 people. The terrorist a member of Islamic Jihad drove at high speed up the main drive of the consulate in a truck containing 500 kg of high explosive exploding in front of the U.S. embassy.

1988 Israel Ivan the Terrible Found Guilty

1988: A retired US car worker identified as "Ivan the Terrible" is found guilty of Nazi war crimes in a court in Israel and is sentenced to the death penalty. Ivan the Terrible was a guard at the Treblinka death camp in Poland during World War II. His conviction was quashed in 1993 by the Israeli Supreme Court, after evidence suggested that another Ukrainian was Ivan the Terrible and returned to the US, he was later deported back to Ukraine when a US judge ruled that even if Demjanjuk were not Ivan the Terrible, there was enough evidence to prove he had been a death camp guard.

1994 Rwanda Ethnic Violence

1994: The ethnic violence which started in the Rwandan capital Kigali following the death of Rwanda's president in a plane crash is now spreading throughout the country. Reports have come in that soldiers have been hacking Tutsi civilians to death with machetes in the streets in Kigali.

1996 Egypt Greek Tourists Killed By Gunmen

1996: Egyptian gunmen open fire on a group of tourists outside the Europa Hotel in Cairo, killing Seventeen Greek tourists and an Egyptian tour guide. The terrorist Islamic group, al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, admitted it was behind the attack but thought the tourists were Israelis.

1997 USA Flooding

1997: Major floods in Grand Forks North Dakota caused by the Red River breaching a dike gave way causing flooding in the city and 50,000 residents were forced to leave homes and in some areas only roofs of houses were seen when the river broke it's banks and could not be held up any longer.

2002 USA Robert Blake Arrested

2002: Actor Robert Blake is arrested in the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. Blake was later acquitted of murder but found liable in a civil case.

2003 USA Scott Peterson Arrested

2003: Scott Peterson is arrested in San Diego for the murder of his wife, Laci, who was eight months pregnant when she vanished on Christmas Eve. He was later convicted and sentenced to death.

2004 Spain Withdraws Troops From Iraq

2004: Following commuter trains bombing in Madrid in Spain which caused 191 deaths and outrage all over Spain. The new Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero orders a withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq.

2007 Nearly 200 Dead Bombings in Baghdad

2007: At least 172 people, including women and children, have been killed in a spate of bombs in Baghdad. The deadliest bombing was a Sunni car-bomb that exploded close to a market in central Baghdad's al-Sadriyah district, which has killed about 122 people. This part of the city is mainly inhabited by Kurdish and Shi'ite residents. The number of fatalities is likely to increase, as 145 people are reported to have been injured in the blast. The number of dead does vary, but this had been bloodiest day since U.S. troops invaded the city.

2008 Texas Gets Custody of 416 Y.F.Z. Children

2008: A Texas District Judge has ruled that the state will be keeping temporary custody of the 416 children that were taken from a polygamous sect's (Y.F.C.'s) West Texas compound. A child psychiatrist has testified that the children at the Y.F.Z. Ranch have lived in a "destructive environment" that encourages the sexual assault of young girls. Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry said it will be difficult to break the cycle because it is ingrained in the sect's culture. "Part of what they do is very destructive," he said. State Child Protective Services investigator Angie Voss has testified that there were more than twenty girls among the children that were pregnant or had young children.

2009 Iran Roxana Saberi

2009: Roxana Saberi an Iranian / US citizen and journalist is sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage. Following her appeal against the charges by an Iranian appeals court she was freed from prison on May 11th after the appeals court suspended her eight-year jail sentence.

2010 Europe Air Travel Disruption Continues

2010: Air travel in Europe is still disrupted 4 days after Eyjafjöll in Iceland begins volcanic eruptions, the reason for flights are cancelled is that the Volcanic Eruptions are below the Jet Stream which then carried the ash over to Europe, The reason aircraft are grounded is the ash enters the air intakes and due to it's composition can cause engine failure. European Air traffic continued to be disrupted for the next 2 days.

2011 Toyota Restarts Production in Japan

2011: Japanese car maker Toyota officially restarted production in all of its Japanese plants for the first time since a massive earthquake ravaged the country in March of 2011. The plants were only set to produce at half the normal level of production and representatives stated the company was unsure when it would be capable of producing at a full capacity. The company had experienced a production loss of 260,000 cars since the March 11 earthquake.

2012 United States TV Personality Dick Clark Dies

2012: One of the most well-known television personalities from the US, Dick Clark, died at the age of eighty-two from a heart attack. Clark gained his popularity through hosting the American Bandstand show that introduced up and coming music stars to the nation and had also hosted ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve. Clark also ran a production company that produced several movies, game shows, beauty contests, and music programs like the American Music Awards. Clark had suffered a stroke in 2004 but kept working.

2014 Algerian President Elected For Fourth Term

2014: President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won his fourth term in the Algerian presidential election. Bouteflika won the election with more than eighty percent of the vote. Bouteflika is seventy-seven years old and had recently had a stroke, making it difficult for him to appear in public. Turn-out was low with only a little over fifty percent of the voting population showing up. There were several protests against Bouteflika, saying that he was unfit to stay in charge due to health problems.