218 BC Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia - Hannibal's Carthaginian army heavily defeat Roman forces on Italian soil
1271 Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China
1603 First fleet of the Dutch East India Company under Admiral Steven van der Haghen departs for the East-Indies
1642 Abel Tasman's expedition sails around Farewell Spit and into Golden Bay, first sighting local Māori in New Zealand
1917 The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, authorizing prohibition of alcohol, is approved by the US congress and sent to the states for ratification
1957 World's 1st full scale nuclear power plant, for peacetime use only, begins to generate electricity at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania
2019 US House of Representatives votes to impeach President Donald Trump for abuse of power (230-197) and obstruction of Congress (229-198)
Project SCORE, world’s 1st communications satellite launched from Cape Canaveral
On December 18, 1958
#Famous Weddings::👰
1915 28th US President Woodrow Wilson, widowed the year before marries second wife Edith Bolling Galt, a descendant of native American Pocahontas
1926 Actor George Murphy (24) weds ballroom dancing partner Juliette Henkel
1932 Civil rights activist Rosa McCauley (19) weds Raymond Parks (29) in Montgomery, Alabama
*famous birthdays::🎂
1778 Joseph Grimaldi, English pantomimist and the "greatest clown in history", born in London (d. 1837)
1878 Joseph Stalin, Dictator and General Secretary of the Soviet Union (1922-53), born in Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1953)
1886 Ty Cobb, American Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder (AL MVP 1911; Triple Crown 1909; 12 × AL batting champion; Detroit Tigers) and manager (Detroit Tigers 1921-26), born in Narrows, Georgia (d. 1961)
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