Today in History, March 18th
On March 18, 1965, Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk. Plus the Stamp Act repeal and the Gardner Museum art heist.
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March 18 is best known as the day in 1965 when Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to walk in space. The date also saw Parliament repeal the Stamp Act in 1766 and thieves strip 13 works of art from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.
The big story: Alexei Leonov Takes the First Spacewalk (1965)
On March 18, 1965, the Soviet spacecraft Voskhod 2 was circling Earth with two men aboard, Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov. Leonov crawled through an inflatable airlock and pushed off into open space, tethered by a cord about 18 feet long. He stayed outside for roughly 12 minutes. The hard part was getting back in. His suit swelled and stiffened in the vacuum, his hands and feet lost feeling, and he could not reach his camera’s shutter. To squeeze back through the hatch, he let air out of his own suit, dropping the pressure below what was considered safe. It worked. The trip home was rough too. The capsule came down far off course the next day, and the two men spent a freezing night waiting for rescuers. Still, the Soviets had beaten the United States to another milestone in the space race.
More events on March 18
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1662 | The first public carriage line in Paris, credited to Blaise Pascal, began running between the rue Saint-Antoine and the Luxembourg Palace for a fare of five sols. It is often called the first public bus service. |
| 1766 | Parliament repealed the Stamp Act after colonial protests. The same day it passed the Declaratory Act, insisting it still had full power to make laws for the colonies. |
| 1871 | The French government’s attempt to seize National Guard cannons in Paris set off an uprising that became the Paris Commune. |
| 1922 | A British judge in Ahmedabad sentenced Mohandas Gandhi to six years in prison for sedition. Gandhi pleaded guilty. |
| 1925 | The Tri-State Tornado tore across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, killing at least 695 people. It remains the deadliest tornado in U.S. history. |
| 1937 | A natural gas explosion destroyed the school in New London, Texas, killing about 298 students and teachers. Texas then required gas to carry a smell so leaks could be detected. |
| 1959 | President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill to admit Hawaii as a state. Hawaii officially became the 50th state that August. |
| 1990 | Two thieves dressed as police officers stole 13 works, including paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer, from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. |
| 2003 | Britain’s House of Commons voted 412 to 149 to back military action against Iraq. |
| 2014 | Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty absorbing Crimea into Russia. Ukraine and most of the world did not recognize the annexation. |
Born on March 18
- 1837: Grover Cleveland, the first U.S. president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
- 1858: Rudolf Diesel, German engineer who invented the diesel engine.
- 1893: Wilfred Owen, British poet of World War I, killed in action a week before the armistice.
- 1932: John Updike, American novelist best known for the Rabbit Angstrom books.
- 1970: Queen Latifah (Dana Owens), rapper, actress and producer.
Sources
- EVA at 50: Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov Took 1st Spacewalk, Space.com
- Public Transportation in the 17th Century, EBSCO Research Starters
- Today in History: The Stamp Act Repeal, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan
- Commune of Paris, Britannica
- Court Room, Circuit House, Ahmedabad, Gandhi Heritage Portal
- The Tri-State Tornado of 1925, National Weather Service Heritage
- New London School Explosion, Texas State Historical Association
- Hawaii Statehood, Eisenhower Presidential Library
- Theft Story, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
- Crimea, Britannica
Basically, not a happy day, uh?
Ha ha, yeah… It is an ongoing pattern. Not a lot of happy days to be found. Maybe when I finish up a year, I can then start a list of happy events. Lol!