FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2008

Today is Friday, January 18, the 18th day of 2008. There are 348 days left in the year.

336 _ St. Mark begins his reign as Catholic pope

350 _ General Maxentius drives out Western Roman emperor Constans

1478 _ Grand Duke Ivan II of Moscow occupies Novgorod

1691 _ English King Willem III travels to The Hague

1919 _ WWI Peace Congress opens in Versailles, France

1929 _ Stalin proposes to ban Trotsky from the Politburo

1960 _ The U.S. and Japan sign a joint defense treaty

1962 _ The U.S. begins spraying foliage in Vietnam to reveal Viet Cong guerrillas

1974 _ Israel and Egypt sign a weapons accord

1981 _ Iran accepts U.S. offer of $7.9 billion in frozen assets

1990 _ Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry arrested in drug enforcement sting

1991 _ Iraq launches SCUD missiles against Israel

1991 _ The U.S. acknowledges CIA and U.S. Army paid Noriega $320,000 over his career