November 18

1883: The U.S. and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones due a decision of the American Railway Association. 1903: The U.S. and Panama signed a treaty that granted the U.S. rights to build the Panama Canal. 1913: The first airplane in the U.S. to perform a loop-the-loop was piloted by Lincoln Beachey in San Diego, CA. 1923: Alan Shepard, America's first man in space and one of only 12 humans who have walked on the Moon, was born. 1949: Frank Jewett, the first president of Bell Telephone Labs, died. 1962: Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr, developer of the planetary Bohr atomic model, died. 1963: The first telephone in the U.S. with push buttons instead of a rotary dial was placed in commercial service. 1999: 12 Aggies were killed when a ritual bonfire at Texas A&M collapsed on them during construction.