Today in History: November 18, more than 900 die at Jonestown

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 18, the 322nd day of 2026. There are 43 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 18, 1978, U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan of California and four others were killed at an airstrip in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide, resulting in the deaths of more than 900 cult members.

Also on this date:

In 1803, Haitian revolutionary forces defeated French colonial troops at the Battle of Vertières, clearing the way for Haiti to win independence and become the world's first independent Black republic weeks later.

In 1916, the World War I Battle of the Somme, an offensive by French and British forces against German troops, came to an end with more than 1 million casualties on both sides.

In 1928, “Steamboat Willie,” the first cartoon with fully synchronized sound as well as the first release of the character Mickey Mouse, debuted onscreen at the Colony Theater in New York.

In 1963, Bell Telephone introduced the first commercial service for an electronic push-button, touch-tone telephone in Carnegie and Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

In 1987, a fire broke out in the King’s Cross St. Pancras Underground subway station in London, killing 31 people.

In 1991, Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland, the American dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut.

In 1999, 12 people were killed and 27 others were injured when a huge bonfire under construction at Texas A&M University collapsed in College Station. The stack of thousands of logs more than 50 feet tall gave way ahead of an annual bonfire tradition marking the Texas A&M-Texas football game rivalry.

In 2005, eight months after actor Robert Blake was acquitted at trial of killing his wife, a civil jury found him liable for Bonny Lee Bakley's death and ordered him to pay her children $30 million.

In 2021, more than half a century after the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X, two men convicted in his killing were exonerated; a New York judge dismissed the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam after prosecutors and their lawyers said a renewed investigation had found new evidence undermining the case against them.

Today’s Birthdays: Author Margaret Atwood is 87. Actor Linda Evans is 84. Comedian Kevin Nealon is 73. Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Moon is 70. Guitarist Kirk Hammett (Metallica) is 64. Author and lecturer Brené Brown is 61. Actor Owen Wilson is 58. Actor Chloë Sevigny is 52. Baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz is 51. Rapper Fabolous is 49. NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin is 46. Seven-time Olympic track and field gold medalist Allyson Felix is 41. Fashion designer Christian Siriano is 41. Actor Nathan Kress is 34. Actor Micheal Ward is 29. NFL quarterback Caleb Williams is 25.