Events
293 BC - The oldest known Roman temple to
Venus was founded, starting the institution of
Vinalia Rustica.1201 - The
city of
Riga is founded.1541 - A
Portuguese ship drifts ashore in the ancient
Japanese province of
Higo (modern day
Kumamoto Prefecture). (Traditional
Japanese date:
July 27, 1541)1572 -
Wedding in
Paris of the
Huguenot King
Henry IV of
Navarre with
Marguerite de Valois, in a supposed attempt to reconcile
Protestants and
Catholics.1587 -
Virginia Dare, granddaughter of
Gov. John White of the
Colony of Roanoke, becomes the first
English child born in the
Americas.1590 -
John White, the
governor of the
Colony of Roanoke, returns from a supply-trip to
England and finds his settlement deserted.
1634 -
Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, burned alive in
Loudun,
France.
1636 - The
Covenant of the Town of
Dedham,
Massachusetts was first signed.
1775 - The
Spanish established a presidio (fort) and the town came to be called
Tucson,
Arizona.
1848 -
Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutierrez executed on orders by Argentine dictator
Juan Manuel de Rosas.
1864 -
American Civil War:
Battle of Globe Tavern -
Union forces try to cut a vital
Confederate supply-line into
Petersburg,
Virginia, by attacking the
Weldon Railroad.
1868 -
French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen discovers helium.
1870 -
Franco-Prussian War:
Battle of Gravelotte is fought.
1877 -
Asaph Hall discovers
Martian moon
Phobos.
1903 -
German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding
airplane four months before the first flight of the
Wright Brothers.
1904 -
Chris Watson resigns as
Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by
George Reid.
1909 -
Tokyo mayor Yukio Ozaki presents
Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which
President Taft decides to plant near the
Potomac River.
1917 - A
Great Fire in
Thessaloniki,
Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.
1920 -
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified, guaranteeing women's
suffrage.
1938 - The
Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting
New York State,
United States with
Ontario,
Canada over the
St. Lawrence River, is dedicated by
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1941 -
Adolf Hitler orders a temporary halt to
Nazi Germany's systematic
euthanasia of
mentally ill and
handicapped due to protests.
1946 - Around 70 people died in the
Vergarolla explosion.
1950 -
Julien Lahaut, the
chairman of the
Communist Party of Belgium is assassinated by far-right elements.
1958 -
Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel
Lolita is published in the
United States.
1963 -
American civil rights movement:
James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the
University of Mississippi.
1965 -
Vietnam War:
Operation Starlite begins -
United States Marines destroy a
Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major
American ground battle of the war.
1966 -
Vietnam War: The
Battle of Long Tan occurs, when a patrol of
Royal Australian Regiment encounter the
Viet Cong.
1969 -
Jimi Hendrix plays the unofficial last day of
Woodstock.
1971 -
Vietnam War:
Australia and
New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from
Vietnam.
1976 - In the
Korean Demilitarized Zone at
Panmunjeom, the
Axe Murder Incident results in the death of two
US soldiers.
1977 -
Steve Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 in
King William's Town,
South Africa. He would later die of the injuries sustained during this arrest bringing attention to
apartheid.
1982 -
Japanese election law is amended to allow for
proportional representation.
1983 -
Hurricane Alicia hits the
Texas coast, killing 22 people and causing over
USD $1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).
1989 - Leading presidential hopeful
Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near
Bogotá in
Colombia.
1992 -
Wang Laboratories files for
bankruptcy.1992 -
NBA basketball player Larry Bird announces his retirement after winning an
Olympic gold medal as a member of the
U.S. Dream Team.
2000 - federal jury found the
US EPA guilty of discrimination against Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, under the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, later inspiring passage of the
No FEAR Act.
2002 -
MTR Tseung Kwan O Line officially opened. *
2004 - In
Dublin,
Ireland the
Dublin Port Tunnel excavation works are completed.
2005 -
Dennis Rader is sentenced to 175 years in prison for the
BTK serial killings.2005 -
Massive power blackout hits the
Indonesian island of
Java, affecting almost 100 million people.
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18. August
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