Historical timeline for October 18

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.

Karachi bombing: A suicide attack on a motorcade carrying former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto kills 139 and wounds 450 more. Bhutto herself is uninjured.

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.

German Autumn: A set of events revolving around the kidnapping of Hanns Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight by the Red Army Faction (RAF) comes to an end when Schleyer is murdered and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide.

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.

Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Eva Duarte.

The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, stages a coup d'état against president Isaías Medina Angarita, who is overthrown by the end of the day.

World War II: Soviet Union begins the liberation of Czechoslovakia from Nazi Germany.

World War II: The state funeral of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel takes place in Ulm, Germany.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overrules the Supreme Court of Canada in Edwards v. Canada when it declares that women are considered "Persons" under Canadian law.

The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.