On This Day - What happened 18 July

He believed himself a god and decided to build an opulent palace for himself. The so-called Domus Aurea, meaning golden house in Latin, was constructed atop the burnt remains of Rome after the Great Fire of Rome (64). Nero was ultimately responsible for the fire. By this time Nero was hugely unpopular despite his attempts to blame the Christians for most of his regime's problems.

The Sack of Aquileia occurred in 452 and was carried out by the Huns under the leadership of Attila.

Branson was born in Blackheath, London, to Eve Branson, a former ballet dancer and air hostess, and Edward James Branson (1918–2011), a barrister.

Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo in Umtata, then part of South Africa's Cape Province. Given the forename Rolihlahla,

Following 18 July 1936 pronunciamiento, Franco assumed the leadership of the 30,000 soldiers of the Spanish Army of Africa. The first days of the insurgency were marked with a serious need to secure control over the Spanish Moroccan Protectorate. On one side, Franco had to win the support of the natives and their (nominal) authorities, and, on the other, had to ensure his control over the army.

On July 18, he was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in state prison, along with Betillo and others.

His tasks for the Abwehr included collecting information on railways, military installations, and troop movements, as well as recruiting other spies within Czechoslovakia, in advance of a planned invasion of the country by Nazi Germany. He was arrested by the Czech government for espionage on 18 July 1938 and immediately imprisoned but was released as a political prisoner under the terms of the Munich Agreement, the instrument under which the Czech Sudetenland was annexed into Germany on 1 October.

In 1955, the American nuclear arms policy became one aimed primarily at arms control as opposed to disarmament. The failure of negotiations over arms until 1955 was due mainly to the refusal of the Russians to permit any sort of inspections. In talks located in London that year, they expressed a willingness to discuss inspections; the tables were then turned on Eisenhower when he responded with an unwillingness on the part of the U.S. to permit inspections. In May of that year, the Russians agreed to sign a treaty giving independence to Austria and paved the way for a Geneva summit with the US, UK, and France. At the Geneva Conference, Eisenhower presented a proposal called "Open Skies" to facilitate disarmament, which included plans for Russia and the U.S. to provide mutual access to each other's skies for open surveillance of military infrastructure. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev dismissed the proposal out of hand.

After Khrushchev's "secret speech" of February 1956, which denounced Stalin and his protégés, Rákosi was deposed as General Secretary of the Party and replaced by Ernő Gerő on 18 July 1956.

Pelé's last international match was on 18 July 1971 against Yugoslavia in Rio de Janeiro.

The San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was an act of mass murder which occurred at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California on July 18, 1984. The perpetrator, 41-year-old James Huberty, fatally shot 21 people and wounded 19 others, before being killed by a police sniper approximately 77 minutes after he had first opened fire. The San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was considered the worst mass shooting in the United States (in terms of number of fatalities) until 1991 and remains the eighth deadliest mass shooting in American history.

After moving to Greece in 1992, Charles had a second child, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, who later made a massive name in the basketball scene.

Mandela's relationship with Machel had intensified; in February 1998, he publicly stated that he was "in love with a remarkable lady", and under pressure from Tutu, who urged him to set an example for young people, he organised a wedding for his 80th birthday, in July that year.The following day, he held a grand party with many foreign dignitaries.

Modi's cabinet had an emergency meeting on 19 July 2002, after which it offered its resignation to the Gujarat Governor S. S. Bhandari, and the state assembly was dissolved.

A bridge bank, IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB, was established to assume control of IndyMac Bank's assets, its secured liabilities, and its insured deposit accounts. The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) announced plans to open IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB on July 14, 2008.

On 17 July 2012, Paris Saint-Germain confirmed that they had reached an agreement to acquire the sporting and economic rights of Ibrahimović from Milan, having already agreed personal terms with the striker, for a transfer fee of €20 million. Valued at €180 million, these combined fees eclipsed those commanded by Nicolas Anelka. His three-year contract would see him receive a net annual salary of €14 million including bonuses (which would be €2 million more than what he was earning per year just before he left Milan), and make him the second best paid footballer in the world behind Samuel Eto'o. The following day, Ibrahimović signed the contract.

On July 18, Facebook established a subsidiary named Lianshu Science & Technology in Hangzhou City, China, with $30 million of capital. All its shares are held by Facebook Hong. Approval of the registration of the subsidiary was then withdrawn, due to a disagreement between officials in Zhejiang province and the Cyberspace Administration of China.

On July 18, 2018, the European Commission fined Google €4.34 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules.

The Gauls destroyed many of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 BC (according to Varro; according to Polybius, the battle occurred in 387/6), and what remained eventually fell prey to time or to theft. With no contemporary records of the kingdom surviving, all accounts of the Roman kings must be carefully questioned.

The Prince of Changyi was appointed emperor of Han by Huo Guang.

The German composer Friedrich Fleischmann was born in Germany in 1766.