Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars, was burned at the stake on March 18, 1314 in front of Notre Dame cathedral. Perhaps the most famous (and powerful) chivalric order of the Middle Ages had been wiped out by Philip the Fair, and not even the Pope – who apparently wanted to spare de Molay – could do nothing against the iron will of the sovereign. Legend has it that the last Grand Master launched a curse against the royal house of France, destined to come true a few centuries later. A strange burning – in effigy – of great characters took place on the night of March 18, 1925 in London. A vast fire broke out in the wax museum Madame Tussauds: the firefighters engaged in the fight against the flames, in front of a crowd of thousands of onlookers, tried to bring to safety some figures more close at hand, above all famous criminals of the “Chamber of Horrors”. For the others there was little to do. A witness who lived in the building opposite told the Guardian that the sizzling of the burning statues could be clearly heard.
Born of the day
Stéphane Mallarmé, March 18, 1842, French poet, writer and playwright
Arthur Neville Chamberlain, March 18, 1869, British politician
Bobby Solo, March 18, 1945, singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
Walter Tobagi, March 18, 1947, journalist and writer
Ivan Cattaneo, March 18, 1953, singer-songwriter
Luc Besson, March 18, 1959, French director, screenwriter and film producer
Massimo Giletti, 18 March 1962, journalist and television presenter
Vanessa Lynn Williams, born March 18, 1963, American actress and singer
Francesco Boccia, 18 March 1968, politician and economist
Queen Latifah, March 18, 1970, American singer, rapper, actress
Adam Levine born March 18, 1979, singer-songwriter and member of the musical group Maroon 5
LP, March 18, 1981, pseudonym of Laura Pergolizzi, American singer-songwriter
Pierluigi Gollini, 18 March 1995, footballer
Dead of the day
Laurence Sterne, March 18, 1768, Irish writer and religious
Gerard Adriaan Heineken, born March 18, 1893, Dutch entrepreneur
Giuseppe Mercalli, 18 March 1914, geologist, seismologist and volcanologist
Benjamin Glazer, March 18, 1956, American screenwriter and film producer
Tamara De Lempicka, March 18, 1980, Polish painter
Ludwig Guttmann, 18 March 1980, neurologist, German naturalized British sports manager
Erich Fromm, born March 18, 1980, German psychologist, psychoanalyst and philosopher
Umberto II of Savoy, 18 March 1983, king
Anthony Minghella, March 18, 2008, British director and screenwriter
Natasha Richardson March 18, 2009, British actress
Chuck Berry, March 18, 2017, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Saint of the day
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop of Jerusalem and Greek theologian. We have little news of his childhood, the only information is contained in the writings of his contemporaries Rufino, Geronimo and Epifanio and by the historians Socrates, Sozomeno and Teodoro. He participated in the most important theological disputes of the time and became bishop in 347 from Acacius bishop of Cesarea, with whom he had strong frictions that cost him the exile sentence. He was readmitted to his office in 361. He was exiled again from 367 to 378 and, after the Council of Constantinople in 381, he managed to spend the last five years of his life in peace. He died on March 18, 386.