On July 18:
- 64 - The Great fire of Rome burned completely out of control while Emperor Nero reportedly played his lyre and sang while watching the blaze from a safe distance.
- 1863 - American Civil War: The first formal African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, saw action against Confederacy's Fort Wagner.
- 1925 - Adolf Hitler published his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
- 1969 - After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy drove an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned.