This Day in History - July 18th

64 AD: Fire of Rome

On July 18, 64 A.D., a fire breaks out in Rome, spreading rapidly throughout the market area in the center of the city. When the flames finally died out more than a week later, nearly two-thirds of Rome had been destroyed. Emperor Nero used the fire as an opportunity to rebuild Rome in a more orderly Greek style and began construction on a massive palace called the Domus Aureus. Some speculated that the emperor had ordered the burning of Rome to indulge his architectural tastes, but he was away in Antium when the conflagration began. According to later Roman historians, Nero blamed members of the mysterious Christian cult for the fire and launched the first Roman persecutions of Christians in response.

Also On This Day

1997

All 230 passengers and crew on board a TWA Jumbo Jet are killed when it explodes over the Atlantic Ocean shortly after leaving New York bound for Paris.

1994

More than 100 are killed by car bomb in the main Jewish centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1984

On a Wednesday in America, a gunman massacres 20 people at a MacDonalds' restaurant in California - blaming it on the fact that 'I don't like Mondays'.

1969

American Senator Edward Kennedy crashes his car into Chappaquiddick River near Martha's Vineyard on the USA's east coast. Kennedy escapes, but his companion, Mary Jo Kopechne drowns.

1947

Convicted Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess, once deputy to German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, is moved to Spandau Prison in Berlin.

1947

In Britain, Parliament passes the Indian Independence Bill.

1925

German politician Adolf Hitler publishes the first volume of his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.

1919

Unveiling of the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London - a World War I memorial designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.