Some historical anniversaries for 2018

This is a list of some relevant historical anniversaries that will be celebrated in 2018:

• 1018: Abd ar-Rahman IV became Caliph of Cordoba.

JANUARY

• 1st January 1993: Czechoslovakia ceased to exist as the Czech Republic and Slovakia separated in the so-called Velvet Divorce.
• 1st January 1993: The European Economic Community eliminated trade barriers and created a European single market.
• 20th January 1993:  Bill Clinton became the 42nd President of the United States.
• 22nd January 1918: Ukraine proclaimed its independence from Russia.
• 1st January 1818: Frankenstein was published by Mary Shelley.

FEBRUARY

• 24th February 1918: Estonia became independent from Russia.

MARCH

• 4th March 1918: the flu pandemic of 1918 began. It killed between 50 to 100 million people worldwide.
• 22nd March 1518: Magellan convinced King Charles I to support his voyage to Spice Islands.

APRIL

• 4th April 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

MAY

• 23rd May 1618: The Thirty Years' War started in Europe. The conflict involved most of the European powers at that time.
• 15th May 1648: The Peace of Westphalia put an end to the Thirty Years' War in Europe.

JUNE

• 14th June 2008: Expo 2008 started in Zaragoza, with the topic "Water and sustainable development".
• 5th June 1968: Robert F. Kennedy (John F. Kennedy's brother) was assassinated in Los Angeles.

JULY

• 18th July 1918: Nelson Mandela was born.

AUGUST

• 7th August 2008: Georgia invaded the breakaway state of South Ossetia, starting a war with Russia as the latter intervened in support of the separatists in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
• 30th August 1993: Russian troops left Lithuania.

SEPTEMBER

• 17th September 1993: Russian troops left Poland.

OCTOBER

• 16th October 1968: US athletes protested against racial discrimination during the Olympic games in Mexico City.

NOVEMBER

• 4th November 2008: Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the USA.
• 11th November 1918: End of World War I (1914-1918), the first major catastrophe of the 20th century.

DECEMBER

• 24th December 1968: Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to orbit the Moon.
• 3rd December 1818: Illinois becomes the 21st state of the Union (the United States of America).