Portal:United States/On this day/November 18
On this day for the United States
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Events
- 1865 – Mark Twain's short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press.
- 1883 – American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
- 1903 – The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the United States exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
- 1909 – Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of José Santos Zelaya.
- 1928 – Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. This is also considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey's birthday.
- 1938 – Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
- 1961 – United States President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
- 1970 – U.S. President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for $155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government.
- 1987 – Iran–Contra affair: the U.S. Congress issues its final report on the Iran–Contra affair.
- 1988 – War on Drugs: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law allowing the death penalty for drug traffickers.
- 1993 – In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is ratified by the House of Representatives.
- 1999 – In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 27 injured at Texas A&M University when the 59-foot-tall (18 m) Aggie Bonfire, under construction for the annual football game against the University of Texas, collapses at 2:42am.
- 2003 – The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules 4 to 3 in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and gives the state legislature 180 days to change the law making Massachusetts the first state in the United States to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples.