March 18th

President Barack Obama demanded that Moammar Gadhafi halt all military attacks on civilians and said that if the Libyan leader did not stand down, the United States would join other nations in launching military action against him.

President Barack Obama signed into law a $38 billion jobs bill containing a modest mix of tax breaks and spending designed to encourage the private sector to start hiring again.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama confronted America's racial divide with a speech in Philadelphia. It was prompted by incindiary racial remarks made by Obama's African-American pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Doctors in Florida, acting on orders of a state judge, removed Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. (The brain-damaged woman died 13 days later.).

A small asteroid made the closest approach to Earth ever recorded, only about 26,500 miles away.

Taiwan ended more than a half century of Nationalist Party rule by electing opposition leader Chen Shui-bian president.

The biggest art theft in U.S. history occurs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The works, including pieces by Vermeer and Rembrandt, were never recovered.

Most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the United States.

A 100 feet (30 meter) high wave destroys a Peruvian mining camp and kills hundreds of people. The tsunami was caused by a massive rock avalance that crashed into Lake Yanahuani from a height of 1300 feet (400 meters).

The oil tanker Torrey Canyon was wrecked off the Cornish coast of England, spilling 919,000 barrels of oil into the sea.

Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.

The Supreme Court held in Gideon v. Wainwright that public defenders must be provided for indigent defendants in felony cases.

France and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce after more than seven years of war.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the War Relocation Authority, which was put in charge of interning Japanese-Americans.

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass during which the Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war against France and Britain.

Schick Inc. marketed the first electric razor.

The most violent single tornado in U.S. history, the “Tri-State Tornado,” hit Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois, killing 689 people and injuring 13,000 others.

British magistrates in India sentence Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years imprisonment for disobedience.

Japan uses its influence over Korea to deny Russia's efforts to obtain a naval station at Korean Port of Masampo, the lead up to the Russo-Japanese war.

Lord Stanley of Preston pledges to donate a challenge cup for the best ice hockey team in Canada. Today, the Stanley Cup is the world's most prestigious ice hockey trophy.

Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, was born in Caldwell, N.J.

After months of American protests, Britain repealed the Stamp Act.

Russian czar Ivan IV, or Ivan “The Terrible,” died at age 53.

According to legend, Tenochtitlan is founded on this date. The event is depicted on the Mexican coat of arms.

Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake by King Philip IV of France.

1st Latern Council (9th ecumenical council) opens in Rome, agreements of the Concordat of Worms ratified.