On this day in history: Important events that took place on December 18

Several important events have taken place on December 18 throughout history, making it a notable date in both India and around the world.

On December 18, 1957, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania became operational, marking a milestone as the first civilian nuclear facility in the United States to produce electricity.

On this date in 1888, Robert Moses was born. The influential American public servant later oversaw the development of several iconic New York landmarks, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Shea Stadium. After his death on July 29, 1981, his obituary was published in The New York Times.

Key Events

1787: New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1886: Baseball legend Ty Cobb was born in Narrows, Georgia.

1892: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1915: President Woodrow Wilson, widowed the previous year, married Edith Bolling Galt.

1944: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans.

1957: The Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the first U.S. nuclear plant to generate electricity, went online.

1958: The United States launched the world’s first communications satellite aboard an Atlas rocket.

1969: Britain’s Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.

1972: The U.S. launched its heaviest bombing campaign of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

1987: Ivan F. Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison for orchestrating one of Wall Street’s largest insider-trading scandals.

2003: In Seattle, confessed Green River killer Gary Ridgway received 48 consecutive life sentences.

2003: A jury in Chesapeake, Virginia, convicted Lee Boyd Malvo of two murder counts in the Washington-area sniper attacks; he was later sentenced to life without parole.

2008: A U.N. tribunal in Tanzania convicted former Rwandan army colonel Théoneste Bagosora of genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1994 massacres.

2009: Reality television personalities Jon and Kate Gosselin finalized their divorce.

Historic Birthdays

Robert Moses (1888–1981): American public works planner known for overseeing projects such as Lincoln Center and Shea Stadium.

Sir J. J. Thomson (1856–1940): English physicist.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863–1914): Austrian royal figure.

Paul Klee (1879–1940): Swiss painter.

Ty Cobb (1886–1961): American baseball great.

Dame Gladys Cooper (1888–1971): English actress.

George Stevens (1904–1975): American film director.

Willy Brandt (1913–1992): German statesman.

Betty Grable (1916–1973): American actress and entertainer.