1. In 1778, Captain James Cook became the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands on January 18 during his third and final voyage.
2. In 1861, Washington Territory was created out of the eastern half of Oregon Territory by an act of Congress on January 18.
3. In 1943, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, famously known as "Galloping Gertie," collapsed due to high winds on January 18, only four months after it opened.
4. In 1965, the first public television station in Washington, KWSU-TV (now known as KTNW-TV), began broadcasting from Pullman on January 18.
5. In 1991, John A. Volpe, a former Secretary of Transportation under President Nixon and the 61st Governor of Massachusetts, passed away at his home in Nahant, Massachusetts on January 18. Volpe was originally from Washington and served as the state's Governor from 1957 to 1961.