Today in History June 18

1155		German-born Frederick I, Barbarossa, is crowned emperor of Rome.
1667		The Dutch fleet sails up the Thames River and threatens London.
1778		British troops evacuate Philadelphia.
1812		The War of 1812 begins when the United States declares war against Great Britain.
1815		At the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte is defeated by an international army under the Duke of Wellington.
1863		After repeated acts of insubordination, General Ulysses S. Grant relieves General John McClernand during the Siege of Vicksburg.
1864		At Petersburg, Union General Ulysses S. Grant realizes the town can no longer be taken by assault and settles into a siege.
1873		Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote for president.
1918		Allied forces on the Western Front begin their largest counter-attack yet against the German army.
1928		Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane.
1936		Mobster Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano is found guilty on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution.
1942		The U.S. Navy commissions its first black officer, Harvard University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson.
1944		The U.S. First Army breaks through the German lines on the Cotentin Peninsula and cuts off the German-held port of Cherbourg.
1945		Organized Japanese resistance ends on the island of Mindanao.
1951		General Vo Nguyen Giap ends his Red River Campaign against the French in Indochina.
1953		South Korean President Syngman Rhee releases Korean non-repatriate POWs against the will of the United Nations.
1959		A Federal Court annuls the Arkansas law allowing school closings to prevent integration.
1966		Samuel Nabrit becomes the first African American to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.
1979		President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the Salt II pact to limit nuclear arms.
1983		Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
Born on June 18
1581		Sir Thomas Overbury, English poet and courtier.
1812		Ivan Goncharov, Russian novelist (Oblomov).
1857		Henry Clay Folger, American lawyer and businessman, co-founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
1877		James Montgomery Flagg, American artist and author.
1896		Blanche Sweet, film actress.
1937		Gail Godwin, writer (The Perfectionists, The Southern Family).
1942		Paul McCartney, songwriter and singer, member of the Beatles.
1949		Chris Van Allsburg, children’s author and illustrator (Jumanji, The Polar Express).