On Sept. 18, 1947, the National Security Act, which unified the Army, Navy and newly formed Air Force, went into effect.
On Sept. 18, 1905, Greta Garbo, the Swedish-born American film icon, was born. Following her death on April 15, 1990, her obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On Sept. 18, 1961, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold was killed in a plane crash in northern Rhodesia.
On This Date
| 1759 | The French surrendered Quebec to the British. |
|---|---|
| 1793 | President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol. |
| 1810 | Chile declared its independence from Spain. |
| 1850 | Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed slaveowners to reclaim slaves who had escaped to other states. |
| 1851 | The first edition of The New York Times was published. |
| 1905 | Actress Greta Garbo was born in Stockholm, Sweden. |
| 1927 | The Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System (later CBS) debuted with a network of 16 radio stations. |
| 1947 | The National Security Act, which unified the Army, Navy and newly formed Air Force into a national military establishment, went into effect. |
| 1970 | Rock musician Jimi Hendrix died of a drug overdose at age 27. |
| 1975 | Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was captured by the FBI in San Francisco, 19 months after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. |
| 1997 | Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse agreed to merge to create the world's biggest accounting firm. |
| 2009 | Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in defiance of Iran's Islamic leadership, clashing with police and confronting state-run anti-Israel rallies. |
Historic Birthdays
Greta Garbo
9/18/1905 - 4/15/1990
Swedish-born American film star of silent and talking movies.Go to obituary »
| 75 |
Samuel Johnson 9/18/1709 - 12/13/1784 English critic, biographer, essayist and poet |
|---|---|
| 65 |
Joseph Story 9/18/1779 - 9/10/1845 American associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court (1811-45) |
| 48 |
Jean-Bernard Foucault 9/18/1819 - 2/11/1868 French physicist and inventor of the "Foucault pendulum" |
| 87 |
Sir John Kerr 9/18/1869 - 4/21/1957 English embryologist and pioneer in naval camouflage |
| 83 |
John Diefenbaker 9/18/1895 - 8/16/1979 Canadian attorney, statesman and prime minister |
| 88 |
Agnes de Mille 9/18/1905 - 10/7/1993 American dancer and choreographer |
| 83 |
Edwin McMillan 9/18/1907 - 9/7/1991 American Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist (1951) |
| 83 |
Raymond Geiger 9/18/1910 - 4/1/1994 American editor of the Farmers' Almanac |
| 78 |
Rossano Brazzi 9/18/1916 - 12/24/1994 Italian attorney, actor and director |