What happened on August 18 ?
Events
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 III 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.
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.
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.
1920 - 19th Amendment to US constitution passes, 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.
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 North Korea at Panmunjom, two US soldiers are killed while trying to chop down part of a tree in the DMZ which had obscured their view.
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.
1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is put under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Crimea.
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.
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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