Today in History: Atatürk Watched Horse Races at Ankara Hippodrome

October 18 is the 291th (292th in leap years) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 74.

Railways

• 18 October 1898 Il Wilhelm and his wife arrived in Istanbul on the yacht of Hohenzollern. The couple went on a trip to Anatolia with a private wagon allocated by Anadolu Railway Company on October 21. He made a positive impression about the German railways in Anatolia.

Events 

• 439 – When the next Vey emperor T'ai-wu destroyed Chü-ch'ü (on 18 October 439), 500 households of Ashina rushed to the Dwarves and settled in the Chin-shan (Altai mountains).
• 1851 - Moby Dick, one month before its release in the USA The whale (Whale) was published in the UK.
• 1867 - The USA annexed Alaska from Russia for 7,2 million dollars.
• 1892 - The first long telephone line opens between Chicago and New York.
• 1898 - The United States became the owner of Puerto Rico.
• 1912 – The Treaty of Ushi is signed, ending the Tripoli War.
• 1920 – The Communist Party of Turkey was officially founded in Ankara.
• 1920 – Liberation of Saimbeyli
• 1922 – British broadcasting company BBC (British Broadcasting Company, later British Broadcasting Corporation) is founded.
• 1924 – The new building of the Turkish Grand National Assembly was opened.
• 1936 – Atatürk watched the horse races at the Ankara Hippodrome.
• 1943 – Ulvi Cemal Erkin and Necil Kazım Akses gave a successful concert in Berlin.
• 1944 – The Soviet Union occupied Czechoslovakia.
• 1954 - Texas Instruments company produces the first transistor radio.
• 1967 – The Soviet Union-launched Venera 4 spacecraft reaches planet Venus, becoming the first instrument to study the atmosphere of a planet other than Earth and conduct interplanetary broadcasts.
• 1968 – The World Olympic Committee penalizes two black athletes (Tommie Smith and John Carlos) for giving the black power salute during the medal ceremony.
• 1976 – Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel laid the foundation of the Karakaya Dam and hydroelectric power plant on the Euphrates river.
• 1977 – GSG-9 German anti-terrorist team raided the Lufthansa passenger plane hijacked by Palestinian guerrillas to Somalia's Mogadishu airport, killed the hijackers and rescued 86 hostages.
• 1979 – Two defendants of the Balgat massacre, Mustafa Pehlivanoğlu and İsa Armağan, were sentenced to death. On August 10, 1978, in Ankara Balgat, 4 coffee shops where leftists went were combed, 5 people died and 11 people were injured.
• 1982 – Ankara Dev-Yol trial started with 574 defendants: 186 people are on trial with a death sentence.
• 1988 – Four people alleged to be members of the Workers Peasants Liberation Army of Turkey (TİKKO) were killed on 7 October in Tuzla. A lawsuit was filed against 16 police officers involved in the incident, demanding 56 years of imprisonment each.
• 1989 - East Germany leader Erich Honecker resigns.
• 1991 - Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union. World Azerbaijanis, who became independent for the first time on May 28, 1918, celebrate this day as "Republic Day".
• 1993 – Second Prime Ministerial term of Andreas Papandreou started in Greece.
• 1996 – The trial regarding the murder of journalist Metin Göktepe by beating in custody started in Aydın.
• 1996 – The Supreme Court upheld the prison sentence of 1 year and 8 months given to Yaşar Kemal.
• 2002 – After a month of fighting in Ivory Coast, a ceasefire comes into effect between rebels and Government Troops.
• 2007 – Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, was the target of a bomb attack in his home country after 8 years of exile. Bhutto was unharmed in the attack, in which 126 people were killed and 248 injured.
• 2020 – Coronavirus outbreak: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 crosses 40 million worldwide.

Births 

• 1127 – Go-Shirakawa, 77th emperor of Japan in the traditional succession order (d. 1192)
• 1130 – Zhu Xi, one of China's most important neoconfucian philosophers (d. 1200)
• 1405 – II. Pius, Pope (d. 1464)
• 1523 – Anna Jagiellon, queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania from 1575 to 1586 (d. 1596)
• 1634 – Luca Giordano, Italian painter and engraver (d. 1705)
• 1663 – Prince Eugen of Savoy, Austrian general (d. 1736)
• 1701 – Charles le Beau, French historian and writer (d. 1778)
• 1706 – Baldassare Galuppi, Venetian Italian composer (d. 1785)
• 1777 – Heinrich von Kleist, German poet, author of plays, short stories, and novellas (d. 1811)
• 1822 – Mithat Pasha, Ottoman statesman and grand vizier (d. 1884)
• 1831 – III. Frederick, king of Prussia and German emperor for 1888 days in 99 (d. 1888)
• 1859 – Henri Bergson, French philosopher and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
• 1862 – Mehmet Esat Bülkat, Turkish soldier and writer (d. 1952)
• 1870 – DT Suzuki, Japanese Buddhist scholar and author (d. 1966)
• 1872 – Mikhail Kuzmin, Russian poet, musician, and writer (d. 1936)
• 1873 – Ivanoe Bonomi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1951)
• 1880 – Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Russian-American Zionist leader and journalist (d. 1940)
• 1882 – Lucien Georges Mazan, French racing cyclist (d. 1917)
• 1895 – Thérèse Bertrand-Fontaine, French physician (d. 1987)
• 1898 – Lotte Lenya, Austrian-American singer, knee-jerk (d. 1981) living in the United States
• 1902 – Pascual Jordan, German physicist (d. 1980)
• 1905 – Félix Houphouët-Boigny, first president of Ivory Coast (d. 1993)
• 1918 – Konstandinos Mitsotakis, Greek politician (d. 2017)
• 1919 – Anita O'Day, American singer (d. 2006)
• 1919 – Pierre Trudeau, 15th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)
• 1920 – Melina Mercuri, Greek actress and former Minister of Culture (d. 1994)
• 1925 – Ramiz Alia, Albanian politician (d. 2011)
• 1926 – Klaus Kinski, German film actor (d. 1991)
• 1926 – Chuck Berry, American musician (d. 2017)
• 1927 – George C. Scott, American actor (d. 1999)
• 1927 Alba Solís, Argentine singer and actress (d. 2016)
• 1929 – Violeta Chamorro, Nicaraguan-born politician
• 1932 – Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuanian politician
• 1934 - Inger Stevens was a Swedish-American film, television and stage actress
• 1935 Peter Boyle, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1938 – Dawn Wells, American actress, producer, model, and author (d. 2020)
• 1939 – Flavio Cotti, Swiss politician (d. 2020)
• 1939 Lee Harvey Oswald, American assassin (d. 1963)
• 1940 – Onur Oymen, Turkish diplomat and politician
• 1940 – Oral Sander, Turkish academic (d. 1995)
• 1943 – Christine Charbonneau, Canadian singer and composer (d. 2014)
• 1945 – Huell Howser, American comedian, actor, and voice actor (d. 2013)
• 1945 – Yıldo, Turkish entertainer and football player
• 1946 – Howard Shore, Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe winner, Canadian composer
• 1948 – Neset Ruacan, Turkish jazz musician
• 1948 - Ntozake Shange is an American playwright, poet, and novelist. (d. 2018)
• 1952 – Chuck Lorre, American record producer, writer, director, and composer
• 1956 – Martina Navratilova, Czech tennis player
• 1956 – Eugene Yelchin, Russian-American artist
• 1959 Kirby Chambliss, American commercial pilot, aerobatic pilot
• 1959 - Mauricio Funes, Former President of El Salvador
• 1959 – Milčo Mančevski, Macedonian screenwriter and filmmaker
• 1960 – Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgian film actor
• 1960 - Erin Moran is an American actress.
• 1961 – Wynton Marsalis, American trumpeter, composer, teacher, music educator
• 1964 – Charles Stross, British novelist and short story writer, software developer
• 1965 – Zakir Naik, Indian orator giving speeches on Islam and Comparative religions
• 1965 – Petra Schersing, German athlete
• 1971 – Teoman Kumbaracıbaşı, Turkish film actor
• 1971 – Ana Beatriz das Chagas, Brazilian volleyball player
• 1971 – Yoo Sang-Chul, South Korean football player and manager
• 1972 – Emre Karayel, Turkish actor
• 1972 - Kurt Caceres, American actor
• 1973 – James Foley, American photojournalist and journalist (d. 2014)
• 1975 - Josh Sawyer is an American video game designer
• 1978 – Dağhan Külegeç, Turkish actor
• 1979 – Jaroslav Drobný, Czech national goalkeeper
• 1979 - Ne-Yo is an American R&B singer, songwriter, producer, actor, and dancer.
• 1980 – Birsen Bekgöz, Turkish athlete
• 1982 – Simon Gotch, American professional wrestler
• 1983 - Dante is a Brazilian football player
• 1984 - Freida Pinto, Indian actress and professional model
• 1984 – Lindsey Vonn, American skier
• 1984 – Milo Yiannopoulos, English right-wing political commentator, polemicist, speaker, and author
• 1985 – Hamza Zarini, Iranian volleyball player
• 1986 – Wilma Elles, German-Turkish actress
• 1986 – Lukas Yorkas, Cypriot singer
• 1987 – Zac Efron, American actor
• 1990 - Brittney Griner, American professional basketball player
• 1991 – Tyler Posey, American actor and musician
• 1993 – Ivan Cavaleiro is a national football player who plays in the midfield position.
• 1993 – Zarina Diyas, Kazakh tennis player

Deaths 

• 31 – Sejanus, friend, confidant and Praefectus praetorios of Roman Emperor Tiberius (b. 20 BC)
• 707 – VII. John, pope from 1 March 705 until his death. (b. 650)
• 1081 – Nikephoros Paleologos, 11th century Byzantine general
• 1417 – XII. Gregory, pope from 1406-15 (b. 1325)
• 1480 – Uhwudong, Korean dancer, writer, artist, painter, poet, and calligrapher (b. unknown)
• 1503 – III. Pius, Italian pope (b. 1439)
• 1511 – Philippe de Commines, lyric poet of the early French literature (b. 1447)
• 1541 – Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (b. 1489)
• 1744 – Sarah Churchill, English princess (b. 1660)
• 1865 – Henry John Temple, English statesman (b. 1784)
• 1871 – Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor (b. 1791)
• 1889 – Antonio Meucci, Italian inventor (b. 1808)
• 1893 – Charles Gounod, French opera composer (b. 1818)
• 1911 – Alfred Binet, French psychologist (b. 1857)
• 1918 – Koloman Moser, Austrian painter and designer (b. 1868)
• 1931 – Thomas Edison, American scientist (b. 1847)
• 1934 – Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish pathologist, histologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1852)
• 1935 – Gaston Lachaise, French-American figurative sculptor (b. 1882)
• 1948 – Walther von Brauchitsch, artillery officer of the German Empire and marshal of Nazi Germany (b. 1881)
• 1949 – Enis Behiç Koryürek, Turkish poet (b. 1891)
• 1955 – Jose Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher (b. 1883)
• 1957 – Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın, Turkish journalist and writer (b. 1875)
• 1964 – Halil Dikmen, Turkish painter (b. 1906)
• 1966 – Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businesswoman (founded cosmetics empire) (b. 1878)
• 1967 – Richard Loudon McCreery, British soldier (b. 1898)
• 1973 – Walt Kelly, American animator and cartoonist (b. 1913)
• 1973 – Leo Strauss, German philosopher (b. 1899)
• 1975 – Al Lettieri, American actor (b. 1928)
• 1977 – Andreas Baader, one of the leading leaders of the Red Army Faction in Germany and Baader-Meinhof one of the two known names of the band (b. 1943)
• 1977 – Gudrun Ensslin, co-founder of the Red Army Faction (b. 1940)
• 1978 – Ramón Mercader, Spanish communist (assassinator of Leon Trotsky) (b. 1914)
• 1982 – Pierre Mendes France, former prime minister of France (b. 1907)
• 1996 – Kemalettin Tuğcu, Turkish storyteller (b. 1902)
• 2000 – Julie London, American actress and singer (b. 1926)
• 2000 – Gwen Verdon, American actress and dancer (b. 1925)
• 2004 – Pakize Tarzi, Turkish medical doctor, Turkey's first gynecologist and the first woman to swim across the Bosphorus (b. 1910)
• 2005 – Johnny Haynes, English former international footballer (b. 1934)
• 2007 – Lucky Dube, South African reggae artist
• 2011 – Behruz Çinici, Turkish architect (b. 1932)
• 2012 – Sylvia Kristel, Dutch actress and model (b. 1952)
• 2012 – Slater Martin, American professional basketball player (b. 1925)
• 2013 – Norman Geras, British Professor Emeritus of Political Science (b. 1943)
• 2014 – Joanne Borgella, US singer, vocalist, songwriter, and model (b. 1982)
• 2015 – Jamal al-Gitani, Egyptian poet, writer and journalist (b. 1945)
• 2015 – Ankaralı Namık, Turkish musician, songwriter, composer and actor (b. 1976)
• 2016 – Sergey Likhachev, Azerbaijan-born Soviet Russian-Azerbaijani tennis player (b. 1940)
• 2017 – Brent Briscoe, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1961)
• 2017 – Eamonn Campbell, Irish musician (b. 1946)
• 2017 – Yeoh Tiong Lay, Malaysian industrialist and businessman (b. 1929)
• 2017 – Firuz Kanatlı, Turkish businessman and founder of Eti Group of Companies (b. 1932)
• 2018 – Abdul Raziq Achagzai is a senior police officer and soldier in the Afghanistan National Police Department (b. 1979)
• 2018 – Anthea Bell, English translator and writer (b. 1936)
• 2018 – Ake Ortmark, Swedish journalist, radio broadcaster and TV presenter (b. 1929)
• 2018 – Lisbet Palme, Swedish psychologist and public official (b. 1931)
• 2019 – Rui Jordão, Portuguese football player (b. 1952)
• 2019 – Kalidas Karmakar, Bangladeshi painting and graphic artist (b. 1946)
• 2019 – Nuri Pakdil, Turkish writer and lawyer (b. 1934)
• 2020 – Bekir Coşkun, Turkish journalist and writer (b. 1945)
• 2020 – Sid Hartman, American sports journalist (b. 1920)
• 2020 – Stanisław Kogut, Polish politician (b. 1953)
• 2020 – Naâma, Distinguished Tunisian singer (b. 1934)
• 2020 – Gérard Sulon, Belgian professional football player (b. 1938)
• 2020 – Jill Paton Walsh, English children's book author and novelist (b. 1937)

Holidays and special occasions 

• Azerbaijan republic day
• Storm: Kozkavuran Storm