Historical timeline for November 18

The Utah monolith, built sometime in 2016 is discovered by state biologists of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

NASA launches the MAVEN probe to Mars.

Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria becomes the 118th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules 4–3 in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and gives the state legislature 180 days to change the law making Massachusetts the first state in the United States to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples.

Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.

At Texas A&M University, the Aggie Bonfire collapses killing 12 students and injuring 27 others.

A fire occurs on a train traveling through the Channel Tunnel from France to England causing several injuries and damaging approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) of tunnel.

In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution, expanding voting rights and ending white minority rule.

In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is approved by the House of Representatives.

After an 87-day siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar capitulates to the besieging Yugoslav People's Army and allied Serb paramilitary forces.

Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon release Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland.

The autonomous Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, which would in 1993 become a republic, was established in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

King's Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station, King's Cross St Pancras.

The first comic of Calvin and Hobbes is published in ten newspapers.

Aeroflot Flight 6833 is hijacked en route from Tbilisi to Leningrad. After returning to Tbilisi, the aircraft is subsequently raided on the ground, resulting in seven deaths.

In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple to a mass murder–suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children.

The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet makes its first flight, at the Naval Air Test Center in Maryland, United States.

Oman declares its independence from the United Kingdom.

U.S. President Richard Nixon asks the U.S. Congress for $155 million in supplemental aid for the Cambodian government.

The Bell Telephone Company introduces the first push-button telephone.