Birthday Paper › What happened on …? › December 18

Events on December 18

• 1865 After the end of the Civil War, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States takes effect in the USA, abolishing slavery nationwide.
• 1892 Peter Tschaikowski's ballet The Nutcracker and opera Iolanta are premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg.
• 1911 Following the breakup of the New Artists' Association Munich, both its final exhibition and the first exhibition of the Blue Rider editorial office open.
• 1916 After a final major French offensive on the right bank of the Meuse, the costly Battle of Verdun, which began on February 21, ends in the First World War without any significant changes in the course of the front line.
• 1940 Adolf Hitler instructs the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) to plan the attack on the Soviet Union under the codename Operation Barbarossa.
• 1959 In Hamburg, the German Electron Synchrotron Foundation (DESY) is founded with research focuses on the development, construction and operation of particle accelerators, particle physics and research with photons.
• 1970 On the 283rd day of the trial, the Aachen Regional Court halts proceedings against employees of the pharmaceutical company Grünenthal over the sleeping drug Contergan, since only “minor guilt” can be established.
• 1988 The Davis Cup tennis competition, which had been held since 1900, is won for the first time by a men's team of the German Tennis Association featuring Boris Becker, Carl-Uwe Steeb, Eric Jelen and Patrik Kühnen against the team from Sweden.
• 2003 The former Chairman of the State Council of East Germany, Egon Krenz, is released early after just under four years in prison.
• 2017 At the Hofburg in Vienna, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen presides over the swearing-in of the new Austrian government, consisting of the ÖVP and FPÖ; Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) is thereby Europe's youngest head of government at 31.
• 2019 The American science fiction film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in German cinemas. It is the third and final installment of the sequel trilogy.
• 2022 The Argentine national football team wins the World Cup for the third time, 4:2 on penalties.

Born on December 18

• 1856 Joseph John Thomson, British physicist, discoverer of the electron, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1863 Franz Ferdinand, Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne
• 1913 Willy Brandt, German politician, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1922 Klaus Schwarzkopf, German actor and voice actor
• 1940 Klaus Wennemann, German actor
• 1951 Volker Bouffier, German politician
• 1970 Marlene Lufen, German television presenter
• 1980 Christina Aguilera, American pop singer
• 1990 Fabian Rießle, German Nordic combined skier
• 2001 Billie Eilish, American singer-songwriter

Is your birthday on December 18?

Then there is a newspaper that tells only the story of your day: what was going on in the world on December 18 of your birth year, which song was at the top, what the weather was like at your birthplace, plus birthday twins and a personal greeting.

• For every birth year from 1946
• 4 to 10 pages, always €14.90, as a PDF to print
• With a greeting page for voice and video messages

Create the paper for December 18 · €14.90

Day and month are already filled in, you only choose the birth year.

Source of events and birthdays: German Wikipedia article „18. Dezember“, licence CC BY-SA 4.0, selected, shortened and translated by Birthday Paper.

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