Historical Events on August 18

Events 1 - 200 of 203

• 293 BC The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is founded, starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica (grape harvest festival)
• 440 St Sixtus III ends his reign as Catholic Pope
• 1201 The city of Riga is founded

• 1217 First historical record of Scottish scholar Michael Scot, signs and dates his translation of al-Bitruji's "On the Sphere" in Toledo, Spain
• 1289 Pope Nicolas IV publishes decree "Supra montem"

• 1541 A Portuguese ship drifts ashore in the ancient Japanese province of Higo (modern day Kumamoto Prefecture). (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1541)

• 1587 Saul Wahl is elected King of Poland (according to legend)
• 1605 Spanish army under of general Spinola conquers Lingen
• 1612 Pendle Witch trial begins with 10 people accused of witchcraft in Lancaster, England, key witness 9 year-old boy
• 1634 Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.
• 1636 The Covenant of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts is first signed.

• 1686 Giovanni Cassini reports seeing a satellite orbiting Venus

• 1700 Swedish, English & Dutch army lands on Seeland, Denmark
• 1735 Evening Post begins publishing (Boston, Mass)
• 1737 First public admittance to the Salon de Paris art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris
• 1759 -19] 2nd sea battle of Lagos: England vs France
• 1769 A lightning strike on the Bastion of San Nazaro in Brescia, Italy, ignites 90 tonnes of gunpowder, killing 3,000 people
• 1795 Curacao governor De Veer sends militia to stop rebellious slaves
• 1817 60-70ft sea serpent sightings reported offshore in Gloucester, Massachusetts
• 1826 Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing travelling across the Sahara, is the first European to reach the fabled trading city of Timbuktu (murdered near there a few weeks later)
• 1835 Last Pottawatomie Indians leave Chicago

• 1840 American Society of Dental Surgeons founded (NY)
• 1840 French colony established in Akaroa, South Island of New Zealand
• 1846 General Stephen W Kearney's US forces capture Santa Fe, New Mexico
• 1848 Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutierrez are executed on the orders of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas
• 1858 Netherlands & Japan sign trade agreement

• 1862 Sioux Indians begin uprising in Minnesota (it is later crushed)
• 1864 6th day of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia: Confederate assault
• 1864 Battle of Petersburg: Battle of Weldon Railroad day 1 of a 3 day battle
• 1868 French Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium in solar spectrum during eclipse
• 1870 Battle at Gravelotte Privat: Prussia beat France, 32,000 casualties
• 1872 Aaron Montgomery Ward issues the first "catalog" for his mail-order business, it is one sheet listing 163 available items
• 1873 1st ascent of Mount Whitney, California (14,494')
• 1886 Carr Baker Neel & Samuel Neel win US Lawn Tennis Association doubles
• 1891 Hurricane hits Martinique, about 700 die
• 1896 Adolph Ochs (39) buys NY Times

• 1914 -20] Belgian army withdraws to Antwerp
• 1914 French troops under general Dubail occupy Sarrebourg
• 1914 Swiss track and road bicycle racer Oscar Egg sets new hour world record of 44.247 km at the outdoor Vélodrome Buffalo in Paris; record stands until 1933

• 1915 Braves Field opens in Boston to see Braves beat St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1
• 1917 A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.
• 1917 Dutch Naval Air Force forms (MLD)

• 1919 Anti-Cigarette League of America forms in Chicago, Illinois
• 1920 1st class cricket debut of Walter Hammond

• 1924 France begins withdrawing troops from the Ruhr
• 1925 Belgium & US sign treaty about war debts
• 1925 Cardinal Mercier warns Belgians against socialism/liberalism
• 1926 Weather map televised for 1st time
• 1930 Eastern Airlines begins passenger service

• 1932 Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns reach 16,201m in a balloon launched from Dübendorf, Switzerland
• 1932 Englishman James Mollisson is 1st to fly east to west over Atlantic

• 1937 1st FM radio construction permit issued (W1X0J (WGTR) in Boston MA)

• 1941 German concentration camp Amersfoort opens
• 1941 Phillies commit 8 errors in a baseball game
• 1942 Carlson's Raiders land on Makin, Gilbert islands, kill 350 Japanese

• 1943 Otto Skorzeny's Heinkel-111 shot down at Sardinia

• 1944 Paris rail workers strike against Nazi occupiers
• 1944 US 15th Army Corps reaches Mantes-Gassicourt near Paris
• 1945 Scheduled demonstrations at Polo Grounds & Ebbets Field to end segregation in organized baseball are called off

• 1946 Golf Writers Association of America forms
• 1947 Naval torpedo & mine factory explodes at Cadiz, Spain killing 300
• 1949 Hungary adopts constitution
• 1949 Ralph Flanagan & his Orchestra records "You're Breaking My Heart"
• 1950 Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium is assassinated by far-right elements.
• 1954 James E. Wilkins is 1st black to attend a US cabinet meeting
• 1955 -19] Hurricane Diane, kills 400 in US
• 1955 46.1 cm rainfall at Westfield, Massachusetts (state record)
• 1955 Sjukri al-Quwatli re-elected president of Syria
• 1956 Cincinnati Reds (8) & Cubs (2) combine to hit 10 HRs in a 9 inning game

• 1957 Amelia Wershoven sets record of female throwing a baseball (252'4½")
• 1957 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1958 Actress Betsy Palmer joins Today Show panel

• 1958 Perez Prado "Mambo King" receives one of the 1st gold records
• 1958 TV game show scandal investigation starts
• 1958 United Kingdom issues regional stamps (N Ireland, Scotland & Wales)
• 1958 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands
• 1958 Verne Gagne beats Edouard Carpentier in Omaha, to become NWA champ

• 1960 1st photograph bounced off a satellite, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Richardson, Texas
• 1960 Milwaukee Braves pitcher Lew Burdette no-hits Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at County Stadium, Milwaukee
• 1960 The Beatles give their 1st public performance at the Indra Club in Hamburg, Germany
• 1962 Peter, Paul & Mary release their first hit "If I Had a Hammer"

• 1964 Charles Helu elected president of Lebanon
• 1964 South Africa banned from Olympic Games because of apartheid policies
• 1964 The Beatles arrive in San Francisco, California on their second US visit, and first cross-country tour, encompassing 32 shows in 25 cities over 31 days
• 1964 USSR launch 3 Kosmos satellites
• 1965 Dutch soccer team FC Den Bosch (successor to BVV 1906 and Wilhelmina 1890) is established at 's-Hertogenbosch

• 1967 Boston Red Sox Tony Conigliaro is beaned by Angels Jack Hamilton at Fenway Park; injuries including a fractured cheekbone, dislocated jaw, and eye damage kept him from returning for a year and a half, and led to improvements in batting helmets

• 1969 Mick Jagger accidentally shot while filming "Ned Kelly" in Australia; he survives

• 1973 Hank Aaron's record 1,378 extra base hit surpasses Stan Musial record

• 1976 USSR's Luna 24 soft-lands on Moon
• 1977 2 girls are killed by a runaway car outside of Graceland

• 1977 South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko is arrested at a roadblock (dies of police beating 12 September)
• 1978 Memphis Tenn settles with striking police officers & firefighters

• 1979 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan

• 1981 Football running back, Herschel Walker, of U of Georgia, takes out a Lloyd's of London insurance policy for $1 million

• 1982 Japanese election law is amended to allow for proportional representation.
• 1982 Longest baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago IL, ends after 22 innings - before LA Dodgers beat Cubs 2-1 (game started Aug 17th)
• 1982 NYSE tops 100m shares traded for the 1st time, sets a new record of 132.69m shares traded

• 1983 Hurricane Alicia battered Houston & Galveston, Texas

• 1983 Samantha Druce, age 12y 119d becomes the youngest woman to swim English Channel
• 1983 Survey of recently discovered Bronze Age Uluburun shipwreck (ca. 1320 B.C.) off the coast of Turkey, finds rich cargo of glass, spices, and enough tin and cooper for 5,000 swords [1]
• 1983 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
• 1984 Triangle Oil Corp, above-ground storage tank at Jacksonville Fla, spills 2.5 m gallons of oil burned after lightning sparked a fire
• 1985 Suisei Launch (Halley's Comet Flyby)

• 1986 Crockett's Tavern opens in Fort Wilderness
• 1986 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Philadelphia PA on WYSP 94.1 FM
• 1986 Jim Kelly signs with NFL Buffalo Bills ($75 million for 5 years)
• 1986 John Tesh's 1st appearance on Entertainment Tonight
• 1986 WYSP-FM Philadelphia begins simulcasting Howard Stern Show
• 1987 Houston Oiler Earl Campbell, retires from NFL
• 1987 Ohio health care worker Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life for poisoning 24 patients
• 1987 Philip Rush of NZ, set record for triple crossing English Channel his time 28:21, 10 hours faster than 1st man to do it
• 1987 Straatsburg: Manuela Stellmach, Astrid Strauss, Anke Mohring and Heike Friedrich swims female world record 4x200m freestyle (7:55.47)
• 1988 FDA approves Minoxidil as a hair loss treatment
• 1988 Largest house (130 rooms) on Long Island sold for $22 million
• 1988 Republican Convention in New Orleans select Bush-Quayle ticket
• 1989 ArenaBowl III, Joe Louis Arena, Detroit: Detroit Drive beats Pittsburgh Gladiators 39-26, George LaFrance MVP
• 1989 Arturo Barrios of Mexico sets 10K record (27:08.23) in Berlin
• 1989 Bucky Dent replaces Dallas Green as NY Yankee manager
• 1989 Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia.
• 1991 Hurricane Bob hits NC with 115 MPH wind
• 1991 Pan American games close in Havana
• 1993 Historical Kapelbrug in Luzern Switzerland, destroyed by fire
• 1994 15th Commonwealth Games open in Victoria, Canada
• 1994 5.6 earthquake in Algeria, kills 171
• 1996 Record 6,654 tap at Macy's Tap-o-mania in NYC
• 2000 A Federal jury finds the US Environmental Protection Agency guilty of discrimination against Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, later inspiring passage of the No FEAR Act.
• 2004 Dutch swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband wins the coveted 100m freestyle gold medal in 48.17 ahead of Roland Schoeman of South Africa at the Athens Olympics
• 2004 Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima wraps up the 100/200m breaststroke double at the Athens Olympics when he wins the 200m in 2:09.44, an Olympic record
• 2004 Shot put event at the Athens Olympics held in Ancient Olympia, site of the ancient Olympic Games; first time women ever compete in venue; Yumileidi Cumbá of Cuba wins women's gold; American Adam Nelson men's gold
• 2004 US women's 4 × 200m freestyle relay team of Natalie Coughlin, Carly Piper, Dana Vollmer & Kaitlin Sandeno smash long-standing world record set by GDR in 1987 to win gold at the Athens Olympics (7:53.42)
• 2005 Dennis Rader is sentenced to 175 years in prison for the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) serial killings in Sedgwick County, Kansas.
• 2005 Massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people.
• 2008 An American 1-2-3 in the 400m hurdles at the Beijing Olympics; Angelo Taylor wins gold in 47.25 ahead of Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson
• 2008 Belarus weightlifter Andrei Aramnau breaks 3 world records, for the snatch, clean & jerk, and total, on the way to winning the men's 105kg gold medal at the Beijing Olympics
• 2008 Emulating the Chinese women, the men win the team table tennis gold medal at the Beijing Olympics without losing a match; win all 10 singles and all 5 doubles matches
• 2008 President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf resigns due to pressure from opposition
• 2008 Russian pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva sets a new world record of 5.05m to win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics; her 24th world record
• 2011 The "West Memphis Three" are released from prison after 18 years in imprisonment
• 2012 Al-Qaeda militants kill 14 people in an attack in Aden, Yemen
• 2012 NATO air strikes kill at least 13 militants in Afghanistan
• 2013 6 people are killed by a bomb blast on a bus in West Bengal, India
• 2016 Great Britain's Alistair Brownlee records time of 1:45.01 to retain his Olympic men's triathlon title at the Rio de Janeiro Games; 0:06 in front of second-place finisher, brother Jonathan Brownlee

• 2016 Ukranine canoeist Yuriy Cheban sets an Olympic record 39.279 to win the men's C-1 200m gold at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; retains title he won in London 2012

• 2018 Archaeologists confirm first-ever cheese found from Ancient Egypt 3,200 years old in tomb of Ptahmes, mayor of Memphis
• 2018 Australian mare Winx wins her Australasian record 26th consecutive race, the renamed Winx Stakes at Royal Randwick in Sydney; 19th Group One win for thoroughbreds

• 2019 1.7 million take part in pro-democracy protest peacefully in Hong Kong, a quarter of the population
• 2019 Iceland holds a funeral for the first glacier lost to climate change at site of Okjökull glacier
• 2019 US President Donald Trump confirms he is interested in buying Greenland for the US

• 2020 Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta resigns amid a military coup condemned by the UN Security Council
• 2021 MLB Los Angeles Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani becomes fastest player in team history to reach 40 home runs in a season, also pitches 8 innings in 3-1 win at Detroit
• 2022 Huge megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones announced discovered at La Torre-La Janera, Huelva, southern Spain [1]
• 2022 New way to break down "forever chemicals" PFAS compounds responsible for cancers, low birth weights and lowered immunity published by scientists in journal "Science" [1]

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