“The Parliament of World Religions (PWR) 2009 has been awarded by the Chicago based Council of the Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR) and is managed by a local Board of Directors in Association with the CPWR.”
http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/index.cfm?n=6&sn=6
Also see Peace Next
“December 18, 1917 • Bolsheviks Bore Down on Russian Orthodox Church”
“On December 4, 1917, the Bolsheviks confiscated church lands. A week later, they took control of schools that had once provided religious education. Students would now be force-fed Communist propaganda. On this day, December 18, 1917 the Communists completed their first offensive campaign against the church by making marriage a civil, not a religious, ordinance.”
http://www.christianhistorytimeline.com/DAILYF/2003/12/daily-12-18-2003.shtml
1865
Slavery is abolished in the United Staes. The 13th Amendment is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution, ensuring that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
1915
In a single night, about 20,000 Australian and New Zealand troops withdraw from Gallipoli, Turkey, undetected by the Turks defending the peninsula.
1916
The Battle of Verdun ends with the French and Germans each having suffered more than 330,000 killed and wounded in 10 months. It was the longest engagement of World War I.
1940
Adolf Hitler issues his secret plans for the invasion of the Soviet Union–Operation Barbarossa.
1941
Japan invades Hong Kong.
http://www.historynet.com/tdih1218.htm
Context of ‘December 18, 2002: Rumsfeld Declares Taliban, Al-Qaeda ‘Gone’ from Afghanistan’
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a121802allgone
The siege of Mecca (birth of AQ)
“The date was the First of Muharram of Islam’s year 1400”
http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/siegeofmecca/theBook_excerpt.php
Does it count that December 18th is my birthday?
Jesus4Shariah, per Pam’s article:
THE BIG DEBATE :: JESUS4SHARIAH (18/12/09)
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/12/jesus-4-shariah.html
“196....I have never heard before of the events I am about to describe and it was a completely unexpected discovery.
A couple of weeks earlier, the body of Edmondo Asare-Addo, a student of Kalinin Medical Institute from Ghana, was found near Moscow. On 18 December, African students in Moscow organized a rally in memory of Asare-Addo on the Red Square. They were convinced that their mate was stabbed by a Soviet student. The accounts of this rally are extremely scarce. I have found only three sources. One of them is a transcript of a program by RFE/RL, broadcasted on 19 December 1963: Africans March on the Kremlin”
http://minaev.blogspot.com/2007/12/december-18-in-russian-history.html