Under Tuesday, January 18, the book of history records, among other things:
1562: Beginning of the third and final session of the Council of Trent, which has been in session with interruptions since 1545.
1912: Briton Robert Falcon Scott becomes the second person to reach the South Pole, more than three weeks after Norwegian Roald Amundsen. The way back ends in tragedy for the polar explorer and his completely exhausted companion; all expedition members die in the snowstorm.
1932: A year before the Nazis seized power in Germany, Joachim Hossenfelder, Gerhard Gensichen and other Protestant clergy called for the formation of a Nazi pastoral association. A list of “Evangelical National Socialists” is drawn up for the church elections. One of the main exponents is Hitler’s confidant Ludwig Müller, who later became the “Reich Bishop”.
1942: At Demjansk, 95,000 German soldiers are surrounded by the Soviet army.
1952: Chinese communists begin land reform in East Tibet, land property of monasteries is confiscated, beginning of resistance in Kham and Amdo.
1957: Three American jet bombers of the type “B-52” circumnavigate the earth for the first time and land in Los Angeles. They need 45 hours and 19 minutes for the approximately 40,000 km long route.
1962: In Algeria, the right-wing extremist French underground organization OAS begins a new wave of bloody attacks.
1972: The Wilton minesweeper, the world’s first warship with a fiberglass hull, is launched in Southampton.
1982: Three Yugoslav exiles are murdered in Untergruppenbach near Heilbronn.
1997: Chancellor Franz Vranitzky announces his resignation, the SPÖ Presidium nominates Finance Minister Viktor Klima as his successor.
1997: Norwegian adventurer Børge Ousland becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and without any aids. It takes him 64 days to travel the 2,830 km. In 1993 he became the first person to reach the North Pole on his own.
2007: The longstanding Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU chairman Edmund Stoiber announces his resignation from both top offices on September 30th.
2007: At least 43 dead, hundreds of thousands of people without electricity and damage in the billions are the devastating results of hurricane “Kyrill” in Europe. There is also a large amount of property damage in Austria.
2012: The Austrian ÖVP delegation leader Othmar Karas is elected one of 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament, making him the highest-ranking Austrian in the EU Parliament.
2017: Outgoing US President Barack Obama pardons whistleblower Chelsea Manning shortly before he leaves the White House. The 29-year-old, who now lives as a woman, served as soldier Bradley Manning in Iraq and leaked around 700,000 secret military documents to the disclosure platform Wikileaks in order to promote a public debate about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2013, she was initially sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking secrets and espionage, which was later reduced to seven years.
2017: In a series of earthquakes in central Italy, an avalanche buried a hotel in the village of Farindola on the Gran Sasso massif. 29 people are killed. Nine people – including four children – were rescued alive from the rubble two days later. Several suspects are being investigated for involuntary manslaughter.
birthdays: Paul Léautaud, French poet (1872-1956); Alan Alexander Milne, British writer (1882-1956); Oliver Hardy, US film comedian (1892-1957); János Ferencsik, Hungarian conductor (1907-1984); Wilhelm Herz, German motorcycle racer (1912-1998); David Rousset, French writer (1912-1997); Christa Berndl, German actress (1932-2017); Walter Heinzinger, Austria politician (1937-1993); John Hume, Irish politician, Nobel Prize 1998 (1937-2020); Luzius Wildhaber, Swiss lawyer; 1998-2007 President of the European Court of Human Rights (1937-2020); Kitano Takeshi, Japanese director/actor (1947); Anton Hofer, Austria Musician (“Paldauer”) (1967); Jean-Patrick Nazon, French cyclist (1977).
days of death: Pietro Bembo, Italian cardinal/poet (1470-1547); Thyde Monnier, French writer (1887-1967); Carl Zuckmayer, German writer (1896-1977); Max Reimann, German politician (1898-1977); Margarete Fries, Austria theater actress (1911-2012); Renato Guttuso, Italian painter (1912-1987); Leif Panduro, Danish writer (1923-1977); Paul E. Tsongas, US politician, 1992 presidential candidate (1941-1997).
name days: Priska, Regina, Leonhard, Margit, Ulfried, Margareta, Odila, Susanne.