Holidays Calendar for March 18, 2026
After 10 days of International Women's Day Mongolia celebrates Men's and Soldier's Day. March 18 is a holiday of Mongolian men and also the anniversary of military establishment in Mongolia.
March 18 is National Anthem and Flag Day in Aruba. It is celebrated to commemorate the adoption of the national anthem and flag of Aruba in 1976. The celebration is full of different events, such as carnivals and fairs.
March 18 is annual celebration of Marien Ngouabi Day in the Republic of the Congo. This holiday commemorates the military president of the Republic of the Congo from 1969 to 1977.
Sheikh Al Maarouf Day is a public holiday in the Comoros, a small archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean. It is celebrated every year on March 18 to honor Said Muhammad bin Sheikh Ahmed, also known as Al Maarouf.
Global Recycling Day is celebrated annually on March 18. It was created to raise global awareness of the importance of recycling, ask people around the globe to lead a more sustainable lifestyle, and foster international cooperation in waste reduction.
Trisomy 18 Awareness Day, also known as Edwards Syndrome Awareness Day, is observed annually on March 18. It was created to raise awareness of a genetic disorder affecting many parts of the body, including the head and heart.
Day of Internal Troops is annually celebrated on March 18 in Belarus. This professional holiday was established on the anniversary of creation of the Internal Troops of Belarus in 1918.
Ordnance Factory Day in India is celebrated on March 18. This professional observance was created to commemorate the foundation anniversary of the country’s oldest ordnance factory and to highlight the importance of India’s defense industry.
Every year engineers in Belgium and the Netherlands celebrate a special day, that praises their skills and inventions. It's Engineer's Day and it's annually celebrated on the third Wednesday in March.
National Public Defender Day, also known as National Public Defense Day, is observed in the United States on March 18 every year. It was created to honor lawyers representing criminal defenders who cannot afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in court.
National Festival of Trees (or Nationale Boomfeestdag) is annually celebrated in the Netherlands on the third Wednesday in March. This festival is mostly organized for children to encourage them to plant at least one tree.
Biodiesel is an environmentally friendly and renewable alternative to conventional hydrocarbon-based diesel fuel that sometimes doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. National Biodiesel Day is celebrated annually on March 18 to educate the general public about the benefits of biodiesel and encourage people to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.
Gallipoli Memorial Day is annually observed in Turkey on March 18. This day commemorates the naval operation in the Dardanelles Campaign, carried out by the Turks during the First World War.
The Mexicans annually celebrate Anniversary of the Oil Expropriation on March 18. This holiday celebrates the oil expropriation by President Lázaro Cárdenas in 1938.
The devastating COVID-19 pandemic, which was still ongoing as of March 2022, has resulted in millions of deaths across the world. Italy was one of the first countries to be heavily hit by the spread of the new disease. To pay tribute to those who died of COVID-19, the Italian government declared March 18 as the National Day in Remembrance of COVID-19 Victims (Giornata nazionale in memoria delle vittime dell’epidemia di coronavirus).
Panay Liberation Day (Araw ng Liberasyon ng Panay) is celebrated every March 18 on the Philippine islands of Panay, Guimaras and Romblon. It commemorates the liberation of Panay from the Japanese occupation during the 1945 Battle of Visayas.
March 18 is National Lacy Oatmeal Cookie Day. Thin and lacy cookies are perfect teatime companions!
March 18 is an excellent day to have a delicious sandwich with ground beef for lunch or dinner because it is National Sloppy Joe Day. This amazing food holiday was created to celebrate one of America’s all-time favorite sandwiches.
On March 18, the day after St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish celebrate Sheelah’s Day, also known as Sheelagh’s Day or St. Sheela’s Day. It is a folk holiday dedicated to the alleged wife or mother of the primary patron saint of Ireland. Although it is no longer officially celebrated in Ireland, it is still popular throughout the Irish diaspora in Canada and Australia.
This Day in History
- 2017 Died: Chuck Berry, American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he was a major influence on subsequent rock music.
- 2014 Russian and Crimean parliaments signed an accession treaty laying out the terms for the immediate admission of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as federal subjects of Russia and part of the Russian Federation.
- 2008 Died: Anthony Minghella, English award-winning director and screenwriter. He is best known for the films The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and The Reader.
- 1997 The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane broke off while en route to Turkey, causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 people on board.
- 1996 A fire started in the nightclub Ozone Disco Club in Quezon City, Philippines. 162 people were killed.
- 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, was robbed. 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, were stolen, making it the largest art theft in U.S. history.
- 1989 Born: Lily Collins, English-American actress and model, best known for roles in the films Mirror Mirror, Rules Don't Apply, To the Bone, as well as for starring in the series Emily in Paris.
- 1986 Died: Bernard Malamud, American author, best remembered for his novels The Magic Barrel, The Fixer, and Man in the Drawer. The PEN/Malamud Award was introduced to honor his memory.
- 1980 Born: Sophia Myles, English actress. She is best known in film for portraying Isolde in Tristan & Isolde, Darcy in Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Freya in Outlander.
- 1980 Died: Erich Fromm, German psychologist and philosopher of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. He introduced the term Consumer society, which is widely used to describe modern society.
- 1979 Born: Danneel Ackles, American actress known for her roles as Shannon McBain on One Life to Live, Rachel Gatina on One Tree Hill, and Sister Jo / Anael on Supernatural.
- 1979 Born: Adam Levine, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor, best known as the lead vocalist for Maroon 5.
- 1978 Died: Peggy Wood, American actress, best remembered for the roles as Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music and as Mama Marta Hansen in the long-lasting TV series Mama.
- 1977 Born: Zdeno Chára, Slovak former professional ice hockey defenseman. He played 24 seasons in the NHL for the New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins, and Washington Capitals between 1997 and 2022.
- 1976 Born: Giovanna Antonelli, Brazilian actress and producer, best known for roles in the Brazilian TV series Tropichot, The Clone, and Family Ties.
- 1975 Born: Sutton Foster, American actress, singer, and dancer. She is best known for her Broadway roles in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Shrek the Musical, Anything Goes, The Music Man, and other musicals.
- 1970 Born: Queen Latifah, American rapper, actress and singer. Her accolades include a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two NAACP Image Awards (as of 2024).
- 1969 The U.S. began secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by Communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.
- 1965 Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov left his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becoming the first person to walk in space.
- 1964 Died: Sigfrid Edström, Swedish businessman, the 4th President of the International Olympic Committee. Edström helped organized the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.
- 1959 Born: Irene Cara, American singer and actress who rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in Fame. She also co-wrote and sang the song "Flashdance... What a Feeling" from the film Flashdance.
- 1959 Born: Luc Besson, French filmmaker and author, best known for his films Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
- 1950 Born: Brad Dourif, American actor. He gained fame for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. His other credits include the Child's Play franchise, Mississippi Burning, Ragtime, Dune, The Lord of the Rings, and Deadwood.
- 1947 Died: William C. Durant, American businessman, co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet.
- 1944 Mount Vesuvius, east of Naples, Italy, erupted, killing 26 people. Thousand had to flee their homes.
- 1937 The New London School in New London, Texas, exploded; 300 people were killed, most of them children. The explosion was caused by an electric sander switch spark that ignited the gas-air mixture.
- 1932 Born: John Updike, American author, poet, and critic. Updike is best remembered for his Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbis Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; Rabbit Remembered), the chronicles of the life of the middle-class everyman Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom.
- 1918 Died: Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, American architect, best known for his designs of hotels and apartment buildings. His most notable work is the Plaza Hotel in New York.
- 1913 Died: George I of Greece, King of Greece from 1863 till his death in 1913. His reign was characterized by territorial gains as Greece established its place in pre-war Europe.
- 1907 Died: Marcellin Berthelot, French chemist and politician, noted for the synthesis of many organic compounds from inorganic substances.
- 1907 Born: Rosita Moreno, Spanish actress, who worked in Hollywood, Spanish, Argentinian, and Mexican cinema. She appeared in more than 30 films over two decades.
- 1904 Born: Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian poet who is today considered one of Central Europe's major modernist poets. Kosovel is widely regarded as a Slovenian poetic icon.
- 1858 Born: Rudolf Diesel, German engineer, the inventor of the diesel engine.
- 1850 Henry Wells and William Fargo founded American Express, an American multinational financial service.
- 1845 Died: John Chapman, often called Johnny Appleseed, American environmentalist, a pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia.
- 1793 The Republic of Mainz, the first republic in Germany, was declared by Andreas Joseph Hoffman.
- 1634 Born: Madame de La Fayette, French author best known for her novel La Princesse de Clèves. It was France's first historical novel and one of the earliest novels in literature.