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18th August

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1227: Genghis Khan dies


Genghis Khan, the Mongol leader who forged an empire stretching from Peking to the Caspian Sea, dies in camp during a campaign in China. The son of a Mongol chieftain, Khan united the many Mongol clans and tribes using both diplomacy and force, and was the leader of a great confederation by the age of twenty-five. He organized fearful armies of up to 250,000 men fighting on horseback, and enemy armies and cities crumbled under their overwhelming show of force. The massacres that followed the invasions eliminated notions of further resistance. Those who survived--and millions did not--were granted religious freedom and protection within the rapidly growing Mongol Empire. Genghis Khan carefully picked his successors, and his massive Asian empire lasted for another 150 years.

1998

Pilot Peter Diamond is jailed for 2 years for helping businessman Azil Nadir escape from Britian in May 1993.

1977

An estimated 130,000 mourners pay their last respects to American rock star Elvis Presley before his burial in Mempis, Tennesse.

1966

Official opening of the Tay Bridge by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

1964

South Africa is banned from participating in the Olympic Games because of its racial policies.

1960

The birth control pill - the first oral contraceptive - is launched by the Searle Drug Company in the United States.

1957

Argentinian driver Juan Manuel Fangio wins his last world championship aged 46.

1948

Future British champion jockey,12 year old Lester Piggott, saddles his first winner in only his 7th professional ride.

1941

Formation of British National Fire Service.

1939

In America, the film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, opens in New York.

1930

The official joining of the two halves of Sydney Bridge in the centre of Sydney Harbour, Australia - seven years after building work began.

1917

World War I: Beginning of the Verdun offensive

1856

Patenting of condensed milk.

1825

Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing becomes the first European to reach Timbuktu - now in Mali. Laing is murdered there less than a month later

1812

French troops commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte are defeated by the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk.

1743

John Broughton, heavyweight boxing champion of England, drafts the first official rules of boxing.

1587

Virginia Dare becomes the first child born of English parents in the New World - 7 days after the arrival of Sir Walter Raleigh's second expedition in North Carolina.

1943

Film director Roman Polanski born in Paris of Polish parents.

1937

US film actor Robert Redford.

1931

American jockey Willlie Shoemaker.

1922

American film actress Shelley Winters.

1920

English Test cricketer Godfrey Evans.

1917

US politician Caspar Weinberger

1774

American explorer Meriwether Lewis.

1999

Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin aged 56.

1227

Genghis Khan, Mongol emperor who conquered more than 1 million square miles of land , dies after falling from his horse.