Tuesday, August 18, 2015

What Happened This Day In History - AUG 18

August 18
1587In the Roanoke Island colony, Ellinor and Ananias Dare become parents of a baby girl whom they name Virginia, the first English child born in what would become the United States.
1590John White, the leader of 117 colonists sent in 1587 to Roanoke Island (North Carolina) to establish a colony, returns from a trip to England to find the settlement deserted. No trace of the settlers is ever found.
1698After invading Denmark and capturing Sweden, Charles XII of Sweden forces Frederick IV of Denmark to sign the Peace of Travendal.
1759The French fleet is destroyed by the British under "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen at the battle of Lagos Bay.
1782Poet and artist William Blake marries Catherine Sophia Boucher.
1862Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart’s headquarters is raided by Union troops of the 5th New York and 1st Michigan cavalries.
1864Union General William T. Sherman sends General Judson Kilpatrick to raid Confederate lines of communication outside Atlanta. The raid is unsuccessful.
1870Prussian forces defeat the French at the Battle of Gravelotte during the Franco-Prussian War.
1898Adolph Ochs takes over the New York Times, saying his aim is to give "the news, all the news, in concise and attractive form, in language that is permissible in good society, and give it early, if not earlier, than it can be learned through any other medium."
1914Germany declares war on Russia while President Woodrow Wilson issues his Proclamation of Neutrality.
1920Tennessee becomes the thirty-sixth state to ratify the nineteenth amendment granting women’s sufferage, completing the three-quarters necessary to put the amendment into effect.
1929The first cross-country women’s air derby begins. Louise McPhetride Thaden wins first prize in the heavier-plane division, while Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie finishes first in the lighter-plane category.
1939The film The Wizard of Oz opens in New York City.
1942Japan sends a crack army to Guadalcanal to repulse the U.S. Marines fighting there.
1943The Royal Air Force Bomber Command completes the first major strike against the German missile development facility at Peenemunde.
1963James Meredith, the first African American to attend University of Mississippi, graduates.
1965Operation Starlite marks the beginning of major U.S. ground combat operations in Vietnam.
1966Australian troops repulse a Viet Cong attack at Long Tan.
1969Two concert goers die at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, one from an overdose of heroin, the other from a burst appendix.
1973Hank Aaron makes his 1,378 extra-base hit, surpassing Stan Musial’s record.
1974Luna 24, the USSR’s final major lunar exploration mission, soft-lands on moon.
1979Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini demands a "Saint War" against Kurds.
1982Pete Rose sets record with his 13,941st plate appearance.
1987Ohio nurse Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life terms for poisoning 24 patients.
1988Republican Convention in New Orleans nominate the George H.W. Bush-Dan Quayle ticket.
1991A group of hard-line communist leaders unhappy with the drift toward the collapse of the Soviet Union seize control of the government in Moscow and place President Mikhail S. Gorbachev under house arrest
1993Historic Kapelbrug (chapel bridge) in Luzern, Switzerland, burns, destroying 147 of its decorative paintings. It was built in 1365.
1992Dennis Rader, the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) killer receives 10 consecutive life sentences. He had terrorized Wichita, Kansas, murdering 10 people between 1974 and 1991.
2010Edelmiro Cavazos, mayor of Santiago, Nuevo Leon, is found handcuffed, blindfolded and dead following his abduction three days earlier. He had championed crackdowns on organized crime and police corruption.
2011Gold hits a record price of $1,826 per ounce.
Born on August 18
1774Meriwether Lewis, American explorer who led the Corps of Discovery with William Clark.
1792Lord John Russel, Prime Minister of England from 1846 to 1852 and 1865 to 1866.
1807Charles F. Adams, U.S. diplomat and public official whose father was John Quincy Adams.
1918Elsa Morante, Italian writer (History: A Novel).
1922Shelly Winters, actress who won an Academy Award for The Diary of Anne Frank.
1923Jimmy Witherspoon, blues singer.
1932Luc Montagnier, virologist who discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
1933Roman Polanski, Polish film director best known for Rosemary’s Baby andChinatown.
1934Roberto Clemente, outfielder for Pittsburgh Pirates, first Latin American enshrined in National Baseball Hall of Fame; died in plane crash while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua, Dec. 31, 1972.
1936Robert Redford, actor (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance KidThe StingThe Great Gatsby).
1937William George Rushton, London, actor, author, cartoonist; co-founder ofPrivate Eye satire magazine.
1940Frankie Avalon, singer ("Venus," 5 weeks at No. 1), actor (Beach Blanket Bingo); teen heartthrob of late 1950s–early 1960s.
1952Patrick Swayze, actor/dancer (Dirty DancingGhost).
1961Robert Warren "Bob" Woodruff, journalist, TV news anchor; critically wounded by roadside bomb while reporting on the war in Iraq, January 2006.
1962Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico 2006–2012.
1969Christian Slater, actor (HeathersRobin Hood: Prince of ThievesHard Rain).

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