18th August, on this day

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)
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 becomes the first child born of English parents in the New World - 7 days after the arrival of Sir Walter Raleigh's second expedition in North Carolina
1587 Saul Wahl was elected King of Poland, according to legend.
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.
1686 Cassini reports seeing a satellite orbiting Venus
1743 John Broughton, heavyweight boxing champion of England, drafts the first official rules of boxing
1775 The Spanish established a presidio (fort) and the town came to be called Tucson, Arizona.
1812 French troops commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte are defeated by the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk
1817 Gloucester, Mass, newspapers tells of wild sea serpent seen offshore
1825 Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing becomes the first European to reach Timbuktu - now in Mali. Laing is murdered there less than a month later
1834 Mt Vesuvius erupts
1835 Last Pottawatomie Indians leave Chicago
1838 Wilkes Expedition - 1st US marine expedition
1846 Gen Stephen W Kearney's US forces captures Santa Fe, NM
1848 Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutierrez executed on orders by Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.
1856 Patenting of condensed milk
1864 Petersburg Campaign-Battle of Weldon Railroad day 1 of 3 days
1868 Pierre Janssan discovers helium in solar spectrum during eclipse
1870 Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Gravelotte is fought.
1873 1st ascent of Mount Whitney, Calif (14,494')
1877 Asaph Hall discovers Martian moon Phobos.
1891 Major hurricane strikes Martinique, leaving 700 dead.
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.
1914 Pres Wilson issues Proclamation of Neutrality
1917 At Verdun a French offensive, well supported by massive heavy artillery deployment, took place recapturing the Mort-Homme and Hill 304 ridges on the left bank of the Meuse river.
1917 A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.
1920 Tennessee ratifies 19th Amendment, guarantees women voting right
1930 Eastern Airlines begins passenger service
1930 The official joining of the two halves of Sydney Bridge in the centre of Sydney Harbour, Australia - seven years after building work began
1938 FDR dedicates Thousand Islands Bridge connecting US and Canada
1939 In America, the film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, opens in New York
1941 Formation of British National Fire Service
1941 Adolf Hitler orders a temporary halt to Nazi Germany's systematic euthanasia of mentally ill and handicapped due to protests.
1943 Final convoy of Jews from Salonika, Greece arrive at Auschwitz
1947 Naval torpedo and mine factory explodes at Cadiz, Spain killing 300
1948 Future British champion jockey,12 year old Lester Piggott, saddles his first winner in only his 7th professional ride
1950 Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium is assassinated by far-right elements.
1957 Argentinian driver Juan Manuel Fangio wins his last world championship aged 46
1958 Fidel Castro makes a speech on Cuban pirate radio Rebelde
1958 Great Britain issues regional stamps (N Ireland, Scotland and Wales)
1958 Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov, published
1958 In US, TV game show scandal investigation starts
1960 The birth control pill - the first oral contraceptive - is launched by the Searle Drug Company in the United States
1960 1st photograph bounced off a satellite, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
1961 Construction on Berlin Wall completed
1962 Peter, Paul and Mary release their 1st hit "If I Had a Hammer"
1963 James Meredith became 1st black graduate from U of Mississippi
1964 South Africa is banned from participating in the Olympic Games because of its racial policies
1966 Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Tan occurs, when a patrol of Royal Australian Regiment encounter the Viet Cong.
1966 Official opening of the Tay Bridge by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
1969
Jimi Hendrix plays the unofficial last day of Woodstock.
1971 Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.
1972 Police fine Paul and Linda McCartney $800 in Sweden cannabis possession
1976 USSR's Luna 24 soft-lands on Moon
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.
1977 An estimated 130,000 mourners pay their last respects to American rock star Elvis Presley before his burial in Mempis, Tennesse
1978 Memphis, Tenn, settles with striking police officers and firefighters
1982 Japanese election law is amended to allow for proportional representation.
1983 Hurricane Alicia battered Houston and Galveston, Texas
1983 Samantha Druce, age 12y 119d is youngest woman to swim English Channel
1984 Triangle Oil Corp, above-ground storage tank at Jacksonville Fla, spills 2.5 m gallons of oil burned after lightning sparked a fire
1987 Philip Rush of NZ, set record for triple crossing English Channel. His time 28:21, 10 hours faster than the 1st man to do it
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 Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia
1992 Wang Laboratories files for bankruptcy.
1998 Pilot Peter Diamond is jailed for 2 years for helping businessman Asil Nadir escape from Britian in May 1993
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.
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.

18th August 2006

UN plea for European peacekeepers

Chinese drought affects millions

Canaries 'facing migrant crisis'

18th August 2007

Grim quake toll from Peru church

Turkish hijacking ends peacefully

Hurricane churns up the Caribbean

18th August 2008

Pakistan's Musharraf resigns

Nine die in Afghan suicide blast

Sudan's 'sham' justice condemned

18th August 2009

Deadly pre-poll attack hits Kabul

Russia detains ship 'hijackers'

Taliban 'confirms Mehsud's death'

18th August 2010

India school building collapse kills 18 children

Aid boost for flood-hit Pakistan

South African strike begins

Birthdates which occurred on 18th August :

472 Flavius Ricimer general of the Western Roman Empire, kingmaker
1587 Virginia Dare 1st American born of English parents
1685 Brook Taylor England, mathematician, discoverer of Taylor's Theorem
1750 Antonio Salieri Italy, composer (Tatare)
1778 Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen 1st to circumnavigate Antarctica
1792 John 1st Earl Russell, British Whig PM (1846-52, 1865-66)
1834 Marshall Field founded Chicago-based store chain
1873 Otto Harbach songwriter (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes)
1896 Alan Mowbray London England, actor (Dante, Colonel Flack)
19-- Karen Jensen SF Calif, actress (Rachel Holt-Bracken's World)
19-- Taylor Miller New Orleans, actress (All My Children, Another World)
1900 Walter O'Keefe Hartford Ct, songwriter/TV host (Mayor of Hollywood)
1904 Max Factor Jr CEO (Max Factor Cosmetics)
1904 Sterling W Cole (Rep-R-NY)
1906 Andre Van Gyseghem England, actor (Search for the Nile)
1907 Enoch Light Canton Ohio, orch leader (Gulf Road Show with Bob Smith)
1916 Elsa Morante Italy, writer (L'isola di Arturo)
1916 Moura Lympany Saltash England, pianist (OBE-1979)
1917 Casper Weinberger US Secretary of Defense (1981-87)
1919 Walter J Hickel (Gov-R-Alaska)/US Secretary of Interior (1969-71)
1922 Alain Robbe-Grillet France, novelist (Voyeur)
1922 Shelley Winters [Schrift], St Louis Mo, actress (Poisidon Adventure)
1924 Mohammad Zia Ul-Haq pres of Pakistan (1978-88)
1927 Rosalynn Carter Georgia, 1st lady, Pres Carter's main lust
1930 Grant Williams NYC, actor (Greg-Hawaiian Eye)
1930 Johnny Preston Port Arthur, Tx, rocker (Feel So Fine)
1933 Roman Polanski director (Knife in the Water, Repulsion)
1934 Rafer Lewis Johnson US, decathalete (Olympic-gold-1960)
1934 Roberto Clemente pro baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates)
1935 Gail Fisher Orange NJ, actress (Peggy-Mannix)
1937 Robert Redford Calif, actor (Sting, Candidate, Natural, Great Gatsby)
1941 Christopher Jones Jackson TN, actor (Wild in the Streets)
1943 Martin Mull Chic Ill, actor/comedian (Bad Manners, Flick, Serial)
1945 Nona Hendryx Trenton NJ, rocker (LaBelle-Lady Marmalade)
1948 Rudy Hartono Kurniawan Indonesia, All-England tennis champ
1951 Candice Earley actress (Donna Tyler-All My Children)
1952 Patrick Swayze Houston Tx, actor/dancer (Dirty Dancing, Ghost)
1961 John Viscardi NYC, actor (Father Tony-One Life to Live)
1967 Blas Elias Gomez Kennedy TX, rock drummer (Slaughter-Stick it Live)
1967 Tracy Tracy rocker (Primitives-Lovely, Lump of Coal)
1968 Greta Lind actress (Katie Kennicott-All My Children)
1970 Malcolm Jamal Warner Jersey City NJ, actor (Theodore-Cosby Show)
1971 Trey Ames Canton Oh, actor (David-A Year in the Life)

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Deaths which occurred on August 18th:
1227 Genghis Khan Mongol conqueror, died
1952 Ralph Byrd actor (Dick Tracy TV Show), dies at 43
1959 Harvey Glatmin executed
1961 Learned Hand Chief judge of US court of Appeals, dies at 89
1968 Cy Walter pianist (3's Company), dies at 52
1982 Beverly Bayne actress, dies at 87
1988 Frederick Ashton choreographer (Cinderella), dies at 83
1990 B.F. Skinner psychologist (Skinner Box), dies from Leukemia at 86