SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2009

Today is Saturday, April 18, the 108th day of 2009. There are 257 days left in the year.

1834 _ Charles Darwin sails to Rio Santa Cruz up Patagonia

1853 _ First train in Asia (Bombay to Tanna, 36 km)

1906 _ San Francisco earthquake and fire kills nearly 4,000 and destroys 75 percent of the city

1906 _ Calvinist Reformed Union in Netherlands Church forms in Utrecht

1909 _ Joan of Arc declared a saint

1948 _ International Court of Justice opens at Hague Netherlands

1949 _ Republic of Ireland withdraws from British Commonwealth

1975 _ John Lennon releases ``Stand by Me"

1977 _ Alex Haley, author of ``Roots," awarded Pulitzer Prize

1994 _ Former President Richard Nixon suffers a stroke and dies four days later