A closer look at the key events on March 18 in history:

In 2000, Chen Shui-bian is elected President of Taiwan
The leader of the pro-independence movement sought national independence of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Chen Shui-bian , was elected president breaking the Nationalist Party‘s 55-year rule.
On March 18 2000

Chen Shui Bian, 2005/ Jamali Jack/ Wikimedia Commons

In 1990, the biggest art heist takes places
At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, two men pretending to be police officers stole a total of 13 works, including Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer paintings. The art was never recovered.
On March 18 1990

Empty frames of the stolen Rembrandt pieces, A Lady and Gentleman in Black (left) and The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (right). Chris Dignes/Wikimedia Commons

In 1990, East Germany holds its first and only free parliamentary elections

The election was held for seats in the 400-seat Volkskammer. The event took place on March 18 right between the demise of the German Democratic Republic in 1989 and just a few months before German reunification in 1990.

Seats in the Volkskammer after the 1990 elections/ Wikimedia Commons

In 1965, the first person walks in space

 Russian cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov performed the first tethered spacewalk, which lasted 12 minutes, walking up to 10 meters from his spacecraft.

March 18

Aleksej A. Leonov (left) and Valeri Kubasov ahead of the launch of Soyuz 19, July 15, 1975. Soyuz 19 was part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. NASA

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