HISTORY TODAY: September 18

1793

President George Washington in a highly symbolic Masonic
ritual lays the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol.

''Knowing the past, we can make wise 

choices for a brighter, and more positive future.''

1758		James Abercromby is replaced as supreme commander of British forces after his defeat by French commander the Marquis of Montcalm at Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War.
1759		Quebec surrenders to the British after a battle which sees the deaths of both James Wolfe and Louis Montcalm, the British and French commanders.
1793		George Washington lays the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol.
1830		Tom Thumb, the first locomotive built in the United States, loses a nine-mile race in Maryland to a horse.
1850		Congress passes the second Fugitive Slave Bill into law (the first was enacted in 1793), requiring the return of escaped slaves to their owners.
1862		After waiting all day for a Union attack which never came at Antietam, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins a retreat out of Maryland and back to Virginia.
1863		Union cavalry troops clash with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.
1874		The Nebraska Relief and Aid Society is formed to help farmers whose crops were destroyed by grasshoppers swarming throughout the American West.
1911		Russian Premier Pyotr Stolypin dies four days after being shot at the Kiev opera house by socialist lawyer Dimitri Bogroff.
1914		The Irish Home Rule Bill becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I.
1929		Charles Lindbergh takes off on a 10,000 mile air tour of South America.
1934		The League of Nations admits the Soviet Union.
1939		A German U-boat sinks the British aircraft carrier Courageous, killing 500 people.
1948		Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first woman elected to the Senate without completing another senator's term when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten. Smith is also the only woman to be elected to and serve in both houses of Congress.
1960		Two thousand cheer Fidel Castro's arrival in New York for the United Nations session.
1961		UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold is killed in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the Congo.
1964		U.S. destroyers fire on hostile targets in Vietnam.
1973		East and West Germany and The Bahamas are admitted to United Nations.
1975		Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped by violent radical group SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army); she will later take part in some of the group's militant activities and will be captured by FBI agents.
1977		Voyager I takes first photo of Earth and the Moon together.
1980		Cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo, a Cuban, becomes the first black to be sent on a mission in space.
1998		ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is formed to coordinate unique identifying addresses for Websites worldwide.
2009		The US television soap opera The Guiding Light broadcasts its final episode, ending a 72-year run that began on radio.
Born on September 18
1709		Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer, essayist, poet and moralist.
1819		Leon Foucault, French physicist.
1827		John Townsend Trowbridge, poet and author of books for boys, wrote the Jack Hazzard and Toby Trafford series.
1839		John Aitken, physician and meteorologist.
1895		John G. Diefenbaker, prime minister of Canada from 1957 to 1963.
1905		Greta Garbo, actress nominated for Oscars for her roles in Anna Christie and Ninotcha.
1908		Viktor Hambardzumyan, a Soviet Armenian scientist who was among the founders of theoretical astrophysics.
1912		Maria de la Cruz, journalist, woman's suffrage advocate; the first woman ever elected to Chile's Senate (1953).
1923		Queen Anne of Romania.
1926		Joe Kubert, comic book artist (Sgt. Rock, Hawkman), inducted into Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame (1907) and Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame (1998); founder of The Kubert School.
1939		Frankie Avalon, singer ("Venus") , actor (The Alamo), playwright; teen idol of 1950s-60s.
1951		Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., African-American neurosurgeon.
1961		James Gandolfini, actor; won three Emmys, two Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild Awards (crime boss Tony Soprano in The Sopranos).
1971		Lance Armstrong (Lance Gunderson), cyclist; won record 7 Tour De France titles but was stripped of them and banned from competitive cycling for life after it was determined he had used performance-enhancing drugs.

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