On this day: 18/01/474
Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later.
On this day: 18/01/532
Nika riots in Constantinople fail.
On this day: 18/01/1126
Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.
On this day: 18/01/1486
King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, uniting the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
On this day: 18/01/1562
Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session.
On this day: 18/01/1670
Henry Morgan captures Panama.
On this day: 18/01/1701
Frederick I crowns himself King of Prussia in Königsberg.
On this day: 18/01/1778
James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".
On this day: 18/01/1788
The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay.
On this day: 18/01/1806
Jan Willem Janssens surrenders the Dutch Cape Colony to the British.