Person report

★18 Mar 1938
Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas created Pemex, the national petroleum company, by expropriating all foreign-owned oil reserves and facilities.

★11 Jan 1946
Albania was proclaimed the People's Republic of Albania, with Enver Hoxha as the de facto head of state.

★11 Jun 1956
The six-day Gal Oya riots, the first ethnic riots targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils in post-independent Sri Lanka, began, eventually resulting in the deaths of at least 150 people and 100 injuries.

★24 Dec 1964
The Viet Cong bombed the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, killing two U.S. Army officers, raising fears of an escalation in the Vietnam War.

★03 Jun 1969
During a SEATO exercise HMAS Melbourne of the Royal Australian Navy collided with the U.S. Navy's USS Frank E. Evans, cutting the latter in two.

★01 Apr 1970
The first of over 670,000 AMC Gremlins were released into North America to compete with foreign imported cars.

★28 Mar 1979
British Prime Minister James Callaghan was defeated by one vote in a motion of no confidence by the House of Commons after his government struggled to cope with widespread strikes during the "Winter of Discontent".

★25 Oct 1980
Proceedings on the Hague Abduction Convention, a multilateral treaty providing an expeditious method to return a child taken from one member nation to another, concluded at The Hague.

★22 Dec 1984
While riding a New York City Subway train, Bernhard Goetz shot four African American youths who attempted to rob him, sparking a nationwide debate on vigilantism, racism, and the legal limits of self-defense.

★02 Sep 1985
Hurricane Elena, an unpredictable and damaging tropical cyclone that affected eastern and central portions of the United States Gulf Coast, made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi as a Category 3 major hurricane.

Historical data by Wikipedia Contributors CC BY-SA 3.0.