By Dominic Sandbrook

Published: Thursday, 18 November 2021 at 12:00 am


18 November 1210

Holy Roman emperor Otto IV, the grandson of Henry II of England, was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III, his rival for power in Italy.


18 November 1421

Start of a heavy overnight storm in the North Sea which led to severe flooding in the Netherlands. Thirty villages were engulfed and at least 2,000 lives lost.


18 November 1787

Birth near Paris of the artist and photographic pioneer Louis Daguerre.


18 November 1809

A French flotilla of two frigates and a sloop under the command of Commodore Jacques Hamelin captured three East India Company ships in the Bay of Bengal.


18 November 1978

More than 900 followers of cult leader Jim Jones take part in a mass suicide by drinking cyanide at the People’s Temple Agricultural Project in Jonestown, Guyana.

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