Historical eventApril 181946

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson makes his regular season debut for the Montreal Royals of the International League, to make them the first integrated modern professional baseball team.

80th anniversary in 2026

Everything on April 18Original source

In context

When
Thursday, April 18 194680 years ago
Category
Historical eventA dated happening — a battle, treaty, launch, discovery, disaster or decision — recorded on this calendar day.
Era
20th century · 1940s
Anniversary
80th in 2026
Recorded from
Wikipedia “On this day” feed

At a glance

Dates: From 1946.

Type: human.

What happened

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was an American professional baseball player who was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. The Dodgers signing Robinson heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.

April 18 through the years

Other entries on the same calendar day, in order.

  1. 1946Jackie Robinson
  2. 1988John Demjanjuk
  3. 1996Qana massacre
  4. 1996Operation Grapes of Wrath
  5. 2007Qinghe Special Steel Corporation disaster
  6. 2018Protests against Daniel Ortega
  7. 2018King of Eswatini
  8. 2019Mueller report
  9. 2019United States Department of Justice
  10. 2023Fox News
  11. 20262026 Kyiv shooting

Also in 1946

  • October 22Operation OsoaviakhimOver twenty-two hundred engineers and technicians from eastern Germany are forced to relocate to the Soviet Union, along with their famil…
  • July 5Bikini AtollNamed after Bikini Atoll, the site of the nuclear-weapons test Operation Crossroads in the Marshall Islands, the modern bikini was introd…
  • October 271946 Bihar riotsInter-religious riots in which Hindu mobs targeted Muslim families began in the Indian state of Bihar, resulting in 2,000 to 30,000 deaths.
  • May 1Pilbara strikeStart of three-year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.
  • July 22King David Hotel bombingKing David Hotel bombing: A Zionist underground organisation, the Irgun, bombs the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, site of the civil admin…
  • December 26Bugsy SiegelAmerican gangster Bugsy Siegel opened The Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, the oldest casino still in operation on the Las Vegas Strip.
  • June 21946 Italian institutional referendumBirth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After the referendum, King U…
  • August 7Turkish StraitsThe Soviet Union informed Turkey that the way in which the latter was handling the Turkish Straits no longer represented the security int…

Everything we record for 1946 →

Sources

Cite this page

“Jackie Robinson”, What's On This Date, https://whatsonthisdate.com/app/event/jackie-robinson-1946-april-18, accessed October 24, 2026.

Cite the underlying source as well — the source links above go to the record this entry is adapted from.

Questions about this entry

When did Jackie Robinson happen?

April 18 1946 — 80 years ago, on a Thursday.

Where does this text come from?

Wikipedia “On this day” feed. Summaries are short adaptations that link back to the source, not reprints.

How do I cite this page?

Use the ready-made citation near the sources at the bottom of the page, and follow the source link to cite the underlying record as well.

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