Today in History: July 18, Nadia’s perfect 10

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Today in History

Today is Saturday, July 18, the 199th day of 2026. There are 166 days left in the year.

Today in History:

On July 18, 1976, at the Summer Olympics in Montreal, Nadia Comaneci of Romania became the first gymnast to receive a perfect score of 10 from Olympic judges for her performance on the uneven bars.

Also on this date:

In 1536, the English Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in England.

In 1863, during the Civil War, Union troops spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, made up of Black soldiers, charged Confederate-held Fort Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina. The Confederates were able to repel the Northerners, who suffered heavy losses; the 54th’s commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, was among those who were killed.

In 1918, South African anti-apartheid leader and future President Nelson Mandela was born in the village of Mvezo.

In 1925, Adolf Hitler published the first volume of his autobiographical manifesto, “Mein Kampf (My Struggle).”

In 1944, Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister because of setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.

In 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed a Presidential Succession Act which placed the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.

In 1964, nearly a week of rioting erupted in New York’s Harlem neighborhood following the fatal police shooting of a Black teenager, James Powell, two days earlier.

In 1984, James Huberty shot and killed 21 and injured 19 at a McDonald’s in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California, before he was killed by a police sniper.

In 1994, a bomb hidden in a van destroyed a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85 people.

In 2005, an unrepentant Eric Rudolph was sentenced in Birmingham, Alabama, to life in prison for an abortion clinic bombing that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse.

In 2013, Detroit became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, its finances ravaged and its neighborhoods hollowed out by a long, slow decline in population and auto manufacturing.

Today’s Birthdays: Olympic gold medal figure skater Tenley Albright is 91. Movie director Paul Verhoeven is 88. Singer Dion DiMucci is 87. Actor James Brolin is 86. Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Torre is 86. Singer Martha Reeves is 85. Business mogul Richard Branson is 76. Actor Margo Martindale is 75. Musician Ricky Skaggs is 72. World Golf Hall of Famer Nick Faldo is 69. Actor Elizabeth McGovern is 65. Actor Vin Diesel is 59. Author Elizabeth Gilbert is 57. Retired NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway is 55. Singer-songwriter M.I.A. is 51. Actor Elsa Pataky (“The Fast and the Furious” films) is 50. Movie director Jared Hess is 47. Actor Kristen Bell is 46. Actor Priyanka Chopra is 44. Actor Chace Crawford is 41. Boxer Canelo Alvarez is 36. Olympic sprinter Noah Lyles is 29.