Independent New Hampshire Journalism · Northfield, NHThe Nuremberg indictment was lodged in Berlin, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, and the Russian flag came down at Sitka; four more October 18 entries follow.
Audio edition (8:56): a synthetic voice reads the article. The images, fact check and sources are on this page.
October 18 is a day of documents. In 1945 Allied prosecutors filed the Nuremberg charges in Berlin, in 1685 a French king revoked a law of toleration, and in 1867 a flag change at Sitka completed a sale agreed in March. Seven entries follow, led by the indictment and the rules that came with it.
October 18, 1945
Four Allied prosecutors file the Nuremberg charges in Berlin
The charge sheet for the postwar reckoning with Nazi Germany was handed to a court in Berlin, not Nuremberg. On October 18, 1945, the International Military Tribunal held its opening session in the Grand Conference Room of the Allied Control Authority Building, with General Nikitchenko presiding. The Committee of the Chief Prosecutors lodged the indictment, according to the minutes of that session. The British and Soviet chief prosecutors, the French deputy chief prosecutor and a representative of the American prosecutor each filed a copy in his own language.
The document named 24 defendants. It was brought for the United States, France, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union over the names of Robert H. Jackson, Francois de Menthon, Hartley Shawcross and R. A. Rudenko, and it charged crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and a common plan or conspiracy. It reached past individuals, too: the indictment asked the court to declare listed groups criminal by reason of their aims and the means they used.
The procedural half of the Berlin session is the part worth rereading. The minutes promise each defendant the Charter and the indictment in German, and they set the trial for no fewer than 30 days after service. A defendant could conduct his own defense or pick qualified counsel, a clerk would advise him of his rights and take his instructions on choosing counsel, and if he could not get one, “the Tribunal will appoint counsel to defend him.” The same minutes announced that Lord Justice Lawrence would preside at the trial in Nuremberg.
That trial opened on November 20, 1945. On the first morning, the tribunal stated its authority, the Agreement of London dated August 8, 1945, and the Charter, signed by the same four powers. Then it ordered the indictment read aloud, with American, British, French and Soviet prosecutors taking turns.
The Allies could have punished a defeated leadership by decree. The Berlin record shows the tribunal doing something slower and harder to walk back: writing the charges down, serving them in the defendants’ language, fixing a waiting period and promising lawyers. That choice put the case on paper, where it could be tested.
October 18, 1685
Louis XIV takes back a grant of toleration
On October 18, 1685, Louis XIV formally revoked the Edict of Nantes, according to Encyclopædia Britannica. Henry IV had promulgated that edict at Nantes, in Brittany, on April 13, 1598. Britannica says the revocation deprived French Protestants of all religious and civil liberties.
The cost did not stay with the Huguenots. Within a few years, Britannica reports, more than 400,000 of them emigrated, to England, Prussia, Holland and America, and France lost what the encyclopedia calls its most industrious commercial class. A royal act that stripped one faith of legal protection sent a working population abroad.
October 18, 1860
British troops burn the Yuanmingyuan
On October 18 and 19, 1860, during the Second Opium War, the men of General Sir Hope Grant burned most of the Yuanmingyuan to the ground, the imperial palace grounds that period accounts call the summer palace. The MIT Visualizing Cultures unit on the war says the British envoy, Lord Elgin, intended it as retribution for the treatment of Western captives after he learned that European prisoners had died. G. J. Wolseley wrote that by the evening of October 19 the palace had ceased to exist.
Elgin later called the destruction “the least objectionable of the several courses open to me.” On October 20, by Loch’s account, Elgin received Prince Kung’s submission to the allies’ demands, and the prince asked for an early date to sign the convention and exchange ratifications of the Treaty of Tien-tsin.
October 18, 1867
The Russian flag comes down at Sitka
On the afternoon of October 18, 1867, American and Russian officials met near the foot of the flagstaff in front of the Governor’s House on Castle Hill in Sitka. The Russian flag was lowered and the American flag raised, the National Park Service records, with Brigadier General Lovell H. Rousseau representing the United States and Alexei Pestchouroff serving as commissioner of the Tsar. Detachments of American and Russian troops stood on the parapet beside the building.
The bargain was months old. The State Department’s Office of the Historian says Secretary of State William Seward agreed on March 30, 1867, to a proposal from the Russian minister in Washington, Edouard de Stoeckl, to buy Alaska for $7.2 million. The Senate approved the treaty on April 9, and President Andrew Johnson signed it on May 28. The office dates the formal transfer to October 18.
October 18, 1922
Radio makers form the British Broadcasting Company
On October 18, 1922, a group of leading wireless manufacturers formed the British Broadcasting Company, according to the archive description for the BBC Written Archives Centre. The company worked under a licence from the General Post Office and made its first radio broadcast on November 14, 1922, on the service known as 2LO. On January 1, 1927, it was reorganized as a public service under a Royal Charter and an agreement with the British government. The BBC started as a manufacturers’ venture licensed by the state and only later became a chartered public service.
October 18, 1977
West German border guards end a hijacking at Mogadishu
On October 13, 1977, four hijackers seized a Lufthansa airliner flying from Mallorca to Frankfurt am Main with 86 passengers and five crew aboard. The German History in Documents and Images collection describes them as Palestinian terrorists. On October 18, 1977, at Mogadishu Airport in Somalia, the GSG 9 unit of the Federal Border Guard freed the hostages. The collection reports that three hostage-takers were killed and that the hostages remained unharmed in the rescue.
A Federal Archives photograph in the same collection shows the special flight returning to Cologne/Bonn Airport on October 18, carrying Minister of State Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski and the GSG 9 team.
October 18, 1989
Erich Honecker steps down and Egon Krenz takes the party
On October 18, 1989, the Chronik der Wende records, “In the afternoon comes sensational news: Erich Honecker has resigned.” The chronicle, a day-by-day record of the East German upheaval from October 1989 to March 1990 hosted by the Berlin-Brandenburg broadcaster rbb, reports that the SED Central Committee elected Egon Krenz its new general secretary at Honecker’s suggestion. Two more Politburo members went out the same day: Günter Mittag, the secretary for the economy, and Joachim Herrmann, the secretary for the media, were removed from their posts.
What the date teaches
Most of these entries turn on paper: an edict granted and then revoked, a treaty approved and signed and then carried out with a flag, a licence that came before a charter, a resignation announced in an afternoon of news. The Berlin session leads because the tribunal bound itself as well as the accused. It promised notice, a translation, a waiting period and a lawyer, and the minutes put those promises in writing a month before the trial opened.
Your Turn
Tell us: does your family or town hold letters, photographs or papers tied to any of these dates, from the Nuremberg trials to the Huguenot emigration? Send them to granitestatereport@gmail.com. A reply that adds to the record may be added here with its date.
Fact check
| # | Claim | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The International Military Tribunal held its opening session in Berlin on October 18, 1945, in the Grand Conference Room of the Allied Control Authority Building, with General Nikitchenko presiding. | VERIFIED | IMT minutes, opening session, Avalon Project, Yale Law School |
| 2 | The Committee of the Chief Prosecutors lodged the indictment that day; four prosecutors filed copies in their own languages; the indictment named 24 defendants. | VERIFIED | IMT minutes, opening session; Indictment, Avalon Project |
| 3 | The indictment was brought for the U.S., France, the U.K. and the USSR over the names of Jackson, de Menthon, Shawcross and Rudenko; it charged crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and a common plan or conspiracy, and asked that listed groups be declared criminal. | VERIFIED | Indictment, Avalon Project |
| 4 | The minutes promise copies in German, a trial no sooner than 30 days after service, a clerk to take instructions on counsel and appointed counsel for a defendant who cannot get one; Lawrence to preside at Nuremberg. | VERIFIED | IMT minutes, opening session |
| 5 | The trial opened November 20, 1945, under the Agreement of London of August 8, 1945, and the Charter; the indictment was read by American, British, French and Soviet prosecutors. | VERIFIED | IMT proceedings, November 20, 1945, Avalon Project |
| 6 | Louis XIV formally revoked the Edict of Nantes on October 18, 1685; Henry IV promulgated it at Nantes on April 13, 1598; the revocation deprived French Protestants of religious and civil liberties. | VERIFIED | Encyclopædia Britannica, “Edict of Nantes” |
| 7 | More than 400,000 Huguenots emigrated within a few years, to England, Prussia, Holland and America. | ATTRIBUTED | Britannica’s figure; attributed in the text |
| 8 | General Sir Hope Grant’s men burned most of the Yuanmingyuan on October 18 and 19, 1860; Elgin called it retribution for the treatment of captives; Wolseley wrote it had ceased to exist by the evening of October 19; Elgin’s quoted defense. | ATTRIBUTED | MIT Visualizing Cultures, “The Opium Wars in China II,” essay section 5, quoting participants’ accounts |
| 9 | On October 20, 1860, Elgin received Prince Kung’s submission; the prince asked for an early date to sign the convention and exchange ratifications of the Treaty of Tien-tsin. | ATTRIBUTED | Loch’s account, as reproduced by MIT Visualizing Cultures |
| 10 | The flag transfer at Sitka took place on the afternoon of October 18, 1867, at the flagstaff before the Governor’s House on Castle Hill, with Rousseau and Pestchouroff and troop detachments of both countries. | VERIFIED | National Park Service, American Flag Raising Site |
| 11 | Seward agreed March 30, 1867, to de Stoeckl’s proposal; price $7.2 million; Senate approval April 9; Johnson signed May 28; formal transfer October 18, 1867. | VERIFIED | U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, “Purchase of Alaska, 1867” |
| 12 | The British Broadcasting Company was formed October 18, 1922, by leading wireless manufacturers under a GPO licence; first broadcast November 14, 1922, on 2LO; reorganized January 1, 1927, as a public service under Royal Charter. | VERIFIED | BBC Written Archives Centre collection description, Archives Hub (GB 898 BBC) |
| 13 | Four hijackers seized a Lufthansa airliner from Mallorca to Frankfurt on October 13, 1977, with 86 passengers and five crew; GSG 9 freed the hostages at Mogadishu on October 18, 1977; three hostage-takers were killed; the hostages remained unharmed. | ATTRIBUTED | German History in Documents and Images, image 2397 and abstract; casualty description attributed in the text |
| 14 | The special flight returned to Cologne/Bonn Airport on October 18, 1977, with Wischnewski and GSG 9. | VERIFIED | Bundesarchiv photograph B 145 Bild-F051866-0010, via GHDI |
| 15 | Honecker resigned October 18, 1989; Krenz was elected SED general secretary at Honecker’s suggestion; Mittag and Herrmann were removed. | VERIFIED | Chronik der Wende, October 18, 1989 (Ch. Links Verlag / rbb) |
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Related GSR coverage: October 17 in World History.
Editor’s note. The Nuremberg entry rests on the tribunal’s own minutes, indictment and transcript as published by the Avalon Project. The 1860 entry rests on participants’ accounts reproduced by MIT Visualizing Cultures, which dates the burning to October 18 and 19; this edition runs it on the first of those days. The 1867 date is the one given by the National Park Service and the State Department’s Office of the Historian. The 1977 date and casualty description are those of German History in Documents and Images; the 1989 entry follows the Chronik der Wende. No New Hampshire connection was located in these sources, and none is claimed.
Corrections: Granite State Report corrects verified errors promptly and appends a dated note identifying what changed and when. The corrections policy and the corrections register are public, and correction notes are never removed.
