On This Day - January 18, 2026

Thomas Jefferson asks Congress to appropriate funds that would support the Corps of Discovery. At the time, Jefferson made the request secretly. Led by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark, the expedition departed on May 14, 1804.

The first landing of an aircraft on the deck of a ship took place in San Francisco Harbor. Pilot Lt. Eugene B. Ely successfully landed his Curtiss pusher biplane safely on a 119-ft landing platform placed on the deck of the U.S.S. Pennsylvania.

The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's gold medals after more than seventy years. In 1912, the phenomenal athlete won gold in the decathlon and pentathlon events at the Stockholm Olympics in Sweden. Six months later, the Olympic Committee stripped him of his medals because he had been paid to play baseball in 1909 and 1910. However, an Olympic rule in effect in 1912 required the committee to contest the athlete's amateur status within 30 days. January 18th Celebrated Birthdays