On this day...
July 18

Ted Kennedy in 1967
Ted Kennedy in 1967
1806 – A gunpowder magazine explosion in Birgu, Malta, killed around 200 people.
1841 – Pedro II, the last Emperor of Brazil, having reigned in minority since 1831, was acclaimed, crowned and consecrated.
1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, United States Senator Ted Kennedy (pictured) drove his car off a bridge, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker.
1976 – At the Olympic Games in Montreal, Nadia Comăneci became the first person to score a perfect 10 in a modern Olympics gymnastics event.
2012 – A suicide bomber attacked an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria, which led the European Union to list the military branch of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.