Today in History - History - June 18th

1912The Chicago national Republican Convention splits between President Taft and Theodore Roosevelt; after Taft is nominated, Roosevelt and progressive elements of the Party form the Progressive Party (also known as the 'Bull Moose Party')

1815Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon and France defeated by British forces under Wellington and Prussian troops under Blucher

2014Ian McKellen is awarded an honorary degree by Cambridge University, becoming a Doctor of Letters

1989Laura Davies wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf Open

1928American aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the 1st woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean landing at Burry Port, Wales

1991Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia, arrives in US

1682William Penn founds Philadelphia, US

1940Gen Charles de Gaulle on BBC tells French to defy nazi occupiers

1927Paavo Nurmi runs world record 2000 m: 5:24.6

1529Blackfriars begin: Henry VIII & Catharina of Aragon

1886George Mallory, England, mountain climber ("because it is there")

1952Isabella Rossellini, Rome Italy, actress (Big Night, Blue Velvet)

1924George Mikan, Joliet Illinois, NBA center (6-time all-pro)

1942Paul McCartney, Liverpool UK, English musician and member of The Beatles

1955Former World No. 1 tennis player Lew Hoad (20) weds tennis player Jenny Staley (21) at St Mary's Church in Wimbledon, England

1965Actress and singer Rita Moreno (33) weds cardiologist Leonard Gordon

2002Jack Buck, American baseball announcer, dies at 77

2010José Saramago, Portuguese writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)

1673Jeanne Mance, French Canadian settler and founder of the first hospital in North America, dies at 66

1936Maxim Gorky, [Alexei M Peshkov], Russian writer (Mother), dies at 68