This Day in History
Today: January 18, 2026
474
Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor.[1] He dies ten months later.
532
Nika riots in Constantinople fail.
1126
Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.[2]
1486
King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, uniting the House of Lancaster and the House of York.[3]
1562
Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session.
1586
The magnitude 7.9 Tenshō earthquake strikes Honshu, Japan, killing 8,000 people and triggering a tsunami.[4]
1670
Henry Morgan captures Panama.
1701
Frederick I crowns himself King in Prussia in Königsberg.
1778
James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".
1788
The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay.
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