18 October 1993

Protests in Santiago that started 11 days prior escalated into open battle against the Chilean national police, forcing President Sebastián Piñera to declare a state of emergency.

Nihilism, the first professional runway show from the British designer Alexander McQueen, was staged in London.

The Soviet space probe Venera 4 became the first spacecraft to perform direct in situ analysis of the environment of another planet (Venus).

The first cat in space, later known as Félicette, launched aboard a French Véronique rocket.

The Robert Burns Memorial Statue, the first public statue erected in New Brunswick, was dedicated in Fredericton.

Johannes Brahms (pictured) conducted the premiere of his Double Concerto, composed for violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann.

American Revolutionary War: In an act of retaliation against ports that supported Patriot activities in the early stages of the war, the Royal Navy destroyed what is now Portland, Maine.

The War of the Austrian Succession ended with the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

Filipino sailors disembarked from the Manila galleon Nuestra Señora de Buena Esperanza in what is now Morro Bay, California, the first documented instance of Asians in the Americas.

The first recorded naval battle between Europeans and the Japanese occurred when a flotilla of samurai attacked two Portuguese trade vessels at the Battle of Fukuda Bay in Nagasaki.

The most significant earthquake to have occurred in Central Europe in recorded history destroyed Basel, Switzerland.

Byzantine–Norman wars: Robert Guiscard led an invasion of the Byzantine Empire, capturing Dyrrhachium in present-day Albania.

Pappus of Alexandria, one of the last great Greek mathematicians of antiquity, observed an eclipse that allowed historians to calculate the approximate dates of his life.

NASA Astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch take part in the first all-female spacewalk when they venture out of the International Space Station to replace a power controller.

Riots in Chile's capital Santiago escalate into open battles, with attacks reported at nearly all of the city's 164 Metro stations. President Sebastián Piñera later announces a 15-day state of emergency in the capital.

Bolivian gas conflict: Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.

Merpati Nustantara Airlines Flight 5601 crashes into Mount Papandayan near the town of Garut in West Java, Indonesia, killing 31.

The Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopts a declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-34 to deploy the Jupiter-bound Galileo space probe.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) begins allowing people to have home satellite earth stations without a federal government license.

Based on the world's first children's art museum, the Henrik Igityan National Centre for Aesthetics opened in Yerevan.

The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.

Félicette, a black and white female Parisian stray cat, becomes the first cat launched into space.

Texas Instruments announces the Regency TR-1, the first mass-produced transistor radio.