Today is Friday, July 18, the 199th day of 2025. There are 166 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On July 18, 1976, at the Summer Olympics in Montreal, Nadia Comaneci of Romania became the first gymnast to receive a perfect score of 10 from Olympic judges for her performance on the uneven bars.
Also on this date:
In 1536, the English Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in England.
In 1863, during the Civil War, Union troops spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, made up of Black soldiers, charged Confederate-held Fort Wagner on Morris Island, S.C. The Confederates were able to repel the Northerners, who suffered heavy losses; the 54th’s commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, was among those who were killed.
In 1918, South African anti-apartheid leader and president Nelson Mandela was born in the village of Mvezo.
In 1925, Adolf Hitler published the first volume of his autobiographical manifesto, “Mein Kampf (My Struggle).”
In 1944, Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister because of setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed a Presidential Succession Act which placed the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.
In 1964, nearly a week of rioting erupted in New York’s Harlem neighborhood following the fatal police shooting of a Black teenager, James Powell, two days earlier.
In 1994, a bomb hidden in a van destroyed a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85.
In 2005, an unrepentant Eric Rudolph was sentenced in Birmingham, Alabama, to life in prison for an abortion clinic bombing that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse.
In 2013, Detroit became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, its finances ravaged and its neighborhoods hollowed out by a long, slow decline in population and auto manufacturing.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Olympic gold medal figure skater Tenley Albright is 90.
- Movie director Paul Verhoeven is 87.
- Singer Dion DiMucci is 86.
- Actor James Brolin is 85.
- Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Torre is 85.
- Singer Martha Reeves is 84.
- Business mogul Richard Branson is 75.
- Actor Margo Martindale is 74.
- Musician Ricky Skaggs is 71.
- World Golf Hall of Famer Nick Faldo is 68.
- Actor Elizabeth McGovern is 64.
- Actor Vin Diesel is 58.
- Author Elizabeth Gilbert is 56.
- Retired NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway is 54.
- Singer-songwriter M.I.A. is 50.
- Actor Elsa Pataky (“The Fast and the Furious” films) is 49.
- Movie director Jared Hess is 46.
- Actor Kristen Bell is 45.
- Actor Priyanka Chopra is 43.
- Actor Chace Crawford is 40.
- Boxer Canelo Alvarez is 35.
- Olympic sprinter Noah Lyles is 28.
