Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
Aug 18, 1227: Genghis Khan dies
Genghis Khan, the Mongol leader who forged an empire stretching from the east coast of China west to the Aral Sea, dies in camp during a campaign against the Chinese kingdom of Xi Xia. The great Khan, who was over 60 and in failing health, may have succumbed to injuries incurred during a fall from a horse in the previous year.
Genghis Khan was born as Temujin around 1162. His father, a minor Mongol chieftain, died when Temujin was in his early teens. Temujin succeeded him, but the tribe would not obey so young a chief. Temporarily abandoned, Temujin's family was left to fend for themselves in the wilderness of the Steppes.
By his late teens, Temujin had grown into a feared warrior and charismatic figure who began gathering followers and forging alliances with other Mongol leaders. After his wife was kidnapped by a rival tribe, Temujin organized a military force to defeat the tribe. Successful, he then turned against other clans and tribes and set out to unite the Mongols by force. Many warriors voluntarily came to his side, but those who did not were defeated and then offered the choice of obedience or death. The nobility of conquered tribes were generally executed. By 1206, Temujin was the leader of a great Mongol confederation and was granted the title Genghis Khan, translated as "Oceanic Ruler" or "Universal Ruler."
Khan promulgated a code of conduct and organized his armies on a system of 10: 10 men to a squad, 10 squads to a company, 10 companies to a regiment, and 10 regiments to a "Tumen," a fearful military unit made up of 10,000 cavalrymen. Because of their nomadic nature, the Mongols were able to breed far more horses than sedentary civilizations, which could not afford to sacrifice farmland for large breeding pastures. All of Khan's warriors were mounted, and half of any given army was made up of armored soldiers wielding swords and lances. Light cavalry archers filled most of the remaining ranks. Khan's family and other trusted clan members led these highly mobile armies, and by 1209 the Mongols were on the move against China.
Using an extensive network of spies and scouts, Khan detected a weakness in his enemies' defenses and then attacked the point with as many as 250,000 cavalrymen at once. When attacking large cities, the Mongols used sophisticated sieging equipment such as catapults and mangonels and even diverted rivers to flood out the enemy. Most armies and cities crumbled under the overwhelming show of force, and the massacres that followed a Mongol victory eliminated thoughts of further resistance. Those who survived--and millions did not--were granted religious freedom and protection within the rapidly growing Mongol empire. By 1227, Khan had conquered much of Central Asia and made incursions into Eastern Europe, Persia, and India. His great empire stretched from central Russia down to the Aral Sea in the west, and from northern China down to Beijing in the east.
On August 18, 1227, while putting down a revolt in the kingdom of Xi Xia, Genghis Khan died. On his deathbed, he ordered that Xi Xia be wiped from the face of the earth. Obedient as always, Khan's successors leveled whole cities and towns, killing or enslaving all their inhabitants. Obeying his order to keep his death secret, Genghis' heirs slaughtered anyone who set eyes on his funeral procession making its way back to Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol empire. Still bringing death as he had in life, many were killed before his corpse was buried in an unmarked grave. His final resting place remains a mystery.
The Mongol empire continued to grow after Genghis Khan's death, eventually encompassing most of inhabitable Eurasia. The empire disintegrated in the 14th century, but the rulers of many Asian states claimed descendant from Genghis Khan and his captains.
Aug 18, 1991: Soviet hard-liners launch coup against Gorbachev
On this day in 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest during a coup by high-ranking members of his own government, military and police forces.
Since becoming secretary of the Communist Party in 1985 and president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1988, Gorbachev had pursued comprehensive reforms of the Soviet system. Combining perestroika ("restructuring") of the economy--including a greater emphasis on free-market policies--and glasnost ("openness") in diplomacy, he greatly improved Soviet relations with Western democracies, particularly the United States. Meanwhile, though, within the USSR, Gorbachev faced powerful critics, including conservative, hard-line politicians and military officials who thought he was driving the Soviet Union toward its downfall and making it a second-rate power. On the other side were even more radical reformers--particularly Boris Yeltsin, president of the most powerful socialist republic, Russia--who complained that Gorbachev was just not working fast enough.
The August 1991 coup was carried out by the hard-line elements within Gorbachev's own administration, as well as the heads of the Soviet army and the KGB, or secret police. Detained at his vacation villa in the Crimea, he was placed under house arrest and pressured to give his resignation, which he refused to do. Claiming Gorbachev was ill, the coup leaders, headed by former vice president Gennady Yanayev, declared a state of emergency and attempted to take control of the government.
Yeltsin and his backers from the Russian parliament then stepped in, calling on the Russian people to strike and protest the coup. When soldiers tried to arrest Yeltsin, they found the way to the parliamentary building blocked by armed and unarmed civilians. Yeltsin himself climbed aboard a tank and spoke through a megaphone, urging the troops not to turn against the people and condemning the coup as a "new reign of terror." The soldiers backed off, some of them choosing to join the resistance. After thousands took the streets to demonstrate, the coup collapsed after only three days.
Gorbachev was released and flown to Moscow, but his regime had been dealt a deadly blow. Over the next few months, he dissolved the Communist Party, granted independence to the Baltic states, and proposed a looser, more economics-based federation among the remaining republics. In December 1991, Gorbachev resigned. Yeltsin capitalized on his defeat of the coup, emerging from the rubble of the former Soviet Union as the most powerful figure in Moscow and the leader of the newly formed Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Aug 18, 1971: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw troops from Vietnam
Australia and New Zealand announce the end of the year as the deadline for withdrawal of their respective contingents from Vietnam. The Australians had 6,000 men in South Vietnam and the New Zealanders numbered 264. Both nations agreed to leave behind small training contingents. Australian Prime Minister William McMahon proclaimed that the South Vietnamese forces were now able to assume Australia's role in Phuoc Tuy province, southeast of Saigon and that Australia would give South Vietnam $28 million over the next three years for civilian projects. Total Australian losses for the period of their commitment in Vietnam were 473 dead and 2,202 wounded; the monetary cost of the war was $182 million for military expenses and $16 million in civilian assistance to South Vietnam.
Aug 18, 1941: Hitler suspends euthanasia program
On this day in 1941, Adolf Hitler orders that the systematic murder of the mentally ill and handicapped be brought to an end because of protests within Germany.
In 1939, Dr. Viktor Brack, head of Hitler's Euthanasia Department, oversaw the creation of the T.4 program, which began as the systematic killing of children deemed "mentally defective." Children were transported from all over Germany to a Special Psychiatric Youth Department and killed. Later, certain criteria were established for non-Jewish children. They had to be "certified" mentally ill, schizophrenic, or incapable of working for one reason or another. Jewish children already in mental hospitals, whatever the reason or whatever the prognosis, were automatically to be subject to the program. The victims were either injected with lethal substances or were led to "showers" where the children sat as gas flooded the room through water pipes. The program was then expanded to adults.
It wasn't long before protests began mounting within Germany, especially by doctors and clergy. Some had the courage to write Hitler directly and describe the T.4 program as "barbaric"; others circulated their opinions more discreetly. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and the man who would direct the systematic extermination of European Jewry, had only one regret: that the SS had not been put in charge of the whole affair. "We know how to deal with it correctly, without causing useless uproar among the people."
Finally, in 1941, Bishop Count Clemens von Galen denounced the euthanasia program from his pulpit. Hitler did not need such publicity. He ordered the program suspended, at least in Germany. But 50,000 people had already fallen victim to it. It would be revived in occupied Poland.
Aug 18, 1795: George Washington signs Jay Treaty with Britain
On this day in 1795, President George Washington signs the Jay (or "Jay's") Treaty with Great Britain.
This treaty, known officially as the "Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and The United States of America" attempted to diffuse the tensions between England and the United States that had risen to renewed heights since the end of the Revolutionary War. The U.S. government objected to English military posts along America's northern and western borders and Britain's violation of American neutrality in 1794 when the Royal Navy seized American ships in the West Indies during England's war with France. The treaty, written and negotiated by Supreme Court Chief Justice (and Washington appointee) John Jay, was signed by Britain's King George III on November 19, 1794 in London. However, after Jay returned home with news of the treaty's signing, Washington, now in his second term, encountered fierce Congressional opposition to the treaty; by 1795, its ratification was uncertain.
Leading the opposition to the treaty were two future presidents: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. At the time, Jefferson was in between political positions: he had just completed a term as Washington's secretary of state from 1789 to 1793 and had not yet become John Adams' vice president. Fellow Virginian James Madison was a member of the House of Representatives. Jefferson, Madison and other opponents feared the treaty gave too many concessions to the British. They argued that Jay's negotiations actually weakened American trade rights and complained that it committed the U.S. to paying pre-revolutionary debts to English merchants. Washington himself was not completely satisfied with the treaty, but considered preventing another war with America's former colonial master a priority.
Ultimately, the treaty was approved by Congress on August 14, 1795, with exactly the two-thirds majority it needed to pass; Washington signed the treaty four days later. Washington and Jay may have won the legislative battle and averted war temporarily, but the conflict at home highlighted a deepening division between those of different political ideologies in Washington, D.C. Jefferson and Madison mistrusted Washington's attachment to maintaining friendly relations with England over revolutionary France, who would have welcomed the U.S. as a partner in an expanded war against England.
Wow! Today was actually a very busy, but fascinating, day in history! Ghengis Khan died on this day in history. The City of Riga was founded. George Washington signed the Jay Treaty with Great Britain on this day. The Mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki, presented the city of Washington with 2,000 cherry blossoms, which President Howard Taft decided should be planted near the Potomac. FDR opened the Thousand Islands Bridge between New York State, USA) and Ontario, Canada. Hitler ended the euthanasia program in Nazi Germany. Scheduled protests at the Polo Grounds and Ebbotts Field to end racial segregation in professional baseball were called off (in 1945!). South Africa was banned from participating in the Olympics because of it's official policy of apartheid. Jimi Hendrix closed out the Woodstock Music Festival with his set on the Monday morning, the 18th of August. A couple of years after Woodstock, Australia and New Zealand both pulled out of Vietnam on this day! There was the very brief August Coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev back in 1991, an event that I actually remember!
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
293 BC - The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is founded, starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica.
410 - King Alarik I's Visigoten occupies & plunders Rome
1201 - The city of Riga is founded.
1289 - Pope Nicolaus IV publishes degree "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)
1564 - Spanish king Philip II joins Council of Trente
1587 - Saul Wahl is elected King of Poland, according to legend.
1591 - Governor of Roanoke Island colony returns from England & found everyone in the colony had disappeared [or Aug 17, 1590]
1605 - Spanish army under of general Spinola conquerors Lingen
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.
1674 - Jean Racine's "Iphigénie," premieres in Versailles
1686 - Cassini reports seeing a satellite orbiting Venus
1698 - Russian czar Peter the Great arrives in Zaandam
1700 - Swedish, English & Dutch army lands on Seeland, Denmark
1735 - Evening Post begins publishing (Boston Mass)
1759 - -19] 2nd sea battle of Lagos: England vs France
1769 - Gunpowder in Brescia Italy church explodes, killing 3,000
1795 - Curacao governor De Veer sends miltia to stop rebellious slaves
1817 - Gloucester, Mass, newspapers tells of wild sea serpent seen offshore
1834 - Mt Vesuvius erupts
1835 - Last Pottawatomie Indians leave Chicago
1838 - 1st US marine expedition
1840 - Organization of American Society of Dental Surgeons founded (NY)
1846 - Gen Stephen W Kearney's US forces captures Santa Fe NM
1848 - Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutierrez are executed on the orders of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.
1858 - Netherlands and Japan sign trade agreement
1862 - General Lee's adjutant major Stuart captured
1862 - Sioux Indians begin uprising in Minnesota (it is later crushed)
1864 - 6th day of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia: Confederate assault
1864 - Petersburg Campaign-Battle of Weldon Railroad day 1 of 3 days
1868 - Pierre Janssan discovers helium in solar spectrum during eclipse
1870 - Battle at Gravelotte Privat: Prussia beat France, 32,000 casualties
1872 - 1st mail-order catalog issued by A M Ward
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
1894 - Congress creates Bureau of Immigration
1896 - Adolph Ochs (39) buys NY Times
1904 - Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by George Reid.
1909 - Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River.
1914 - Oscar Egg sets new cycling hour record (44,247 km)
1914 - -20] Belgian army withdraws to Antwerp
1914 - French troops under general Dubail occupy Sarrebourg
1914 - Pres Wilson issues "Proclamation of Neutrality"
1915 - Braves Field opens in Boston to see Braves beat Cards 3-1
1917 - Dutch Naval Air Force forms (MLD)
1917 - A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.
1919 - Anti-Cigarette League of America forms in Chicago Illinois
1920 - 1st class debut of Walter Hammond
1920 - 19th Amendment on women's suffrage ratified
1923 - 37th US Womens Tennis: Helen Wills Moody beats Molla B Mallory (62 61)
1924 - France begins retracting troops out of Ruhrgebied
1924 - France begins withdrawing troops from the Ruhr
1925 - Belgian & US sign treaty about war debts
1925 - Cardinal Mercier warns Belgians against socialism/liberalism
1926 - England regain Ashes with 5th Test Cricket win, to take series 1-0
1926 - Weather map televised for 1st time
1930 - Eastern Airlines begins passenger service
1931 - Lou Gehrig hitless in Detroit, his 1,000th consecutively played game
1932 - Auguste Piccard/Max Cosijns reach 16,201m in a balloon
1932 - Englishman James Mollisson is 1st to fly east to west over Atlantic
1934 - 48th US Womens Tennis: Helen Jacobs beats Sarah H Cooke (61 64)
1934 - Bradman scores 244 in 5th Test Cricket, 316 mins, 32 fours 1 six
1934 - Ponsford & Bradman make 451 partnership in 316 minutes v Eng
1936 - 106.5°F-Hottest afternoon ever in Iowa
1937 - 1st FM radio construction permit issued (W1X0J (WGTR) in Boston MA)
1938 - FDR dedicates Thousand Islands Bridge connecting US and Canada
1940 - 71 German aircrafts shot down above England
1941 - German concentration camp Amersfoort opens
1941 - Phillies commit 8 errors in a game
1942 - Carlson's Raiders land on Makin, Gilbert islands, kill 350 Japs
1943 - Carl Hubbell wins his 253rd & final game, all with Giants
1943 - Final convoy of Jews from Salonika Greece arrive at Auschwitz
1943 - Otto Skorzeny's Heinkel-111 shot down at Sardinia
1944 - Paris railroad workers strike against nazi occupiers
1944 - US 15th Army corp reaches Mantes-Gassicourt near Paris
1944 - US 20th Army corp conquers Chartres
1945 - Scheduled demonstrations at Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field to end segregation in organized baseball are called off
1946 - Golf Writers Associaton 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.
1951 - Cricket 1st-class debut of Raymond Illingworth
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 - Cin Reds (8) & Cubs (2) combine to hit 10 HRs in a 9 inning game
Singer & Cultural Icon Elvis PresleySinger & Cultural Icon Elvis Presley 1956 - Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel" reaches #1
1957 - Amelia Wershoven sets record of female throwing a baseball (252'4½")
1957 - Betty Dodd wins LPGA Colonial Golf Open
1957 - Juan-Manuel Fangio, wins his last auto World Championship at 46
1957 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1958 - "Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov, published
1958 - Betsy Palmer joins Today Show panel
1958 - Fidel Castro makes a speech on Cuban pirate radio Rebelde
1958 - Floyd Patterson TKOs Roy Harris in 13 for heavyweight boxing title
1958 - Great Britain issues regional stamps (N Ireland, Scotland & Wales)
1958 - Perez Prado "Mambo King," receives one of the 1st gold records
1958 - TV game show scandal investigation starts
1958 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
1958 - Verne Gagne beats Edouard Carpentier in Omaha, to become NWA champ
1959 - Branch Rickey resigns as Pirates' CEO to be pres of Continental League
1960 - 1st commercial oral contraceptive, Enovid 10 debuts in Skokie Ill
1960 - 1st photograph bounced off a satellite, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Richardson, Texas
1960 - Beatles give their 1st public performance (Kaiserkeller in Hamburg)
1960 - Lew Burdette pitches to just 27 for a 1-0 no-hitter against Phillies
1962 - Peter, Paul & Mary release their 1st hit "If I Had a Hammer"
1963 - James Meredith becomes 1st black graduate from U of Mississippi
1963 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Albuquerque Swing Parade Golf Tournament
1964 - Beatles arrive in SF, 2nd US visit
1964 - Charles Helu elected president of Lebanon
1964 - South Africa banned from Olympic Games because of apartheid policies
1964 - USSR launch 3 Kosmos satellites
1965 - Hank Aaron loses a HR, because he hit it out of batter's box
1965 - Orioles' Brooks Robinson hits into his record tying (George Sisler)
1967 - Red Sox Tony Conigliaro is beaned by Angels Jack Hamilton
Baseball Player Hank AaronBaseball Player Hank Aaron 1967 - Rolling Stones release "We Love You"
1967 - WCBS radio in NYC goes all-news
1968 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Holiday Inn Golf Classic
1969 - Mick Jagger accidentally shot while filming "Ned Kelly"
1969 - Woodstock Music and Art Fair closes with Jimi Hendrix / Band of Gypsys as the final act
1972 - Police fine Paul & Linda McCartney ś800 in Sweden cannabis possession
1973 - Gene Krupa, drummer, plays for final time with Benny Goodman Quartet
1973 - Hank Aaron's record 1,378 extra base hit surpasses Stan Musial record
1974 - Joanne Carner wins LPGA St Paul Keller Golf Open
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 - 2 girls are killed by a runaway car outside of Graceland
1977 - Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton throws his NL record tying 5th one-hitter
1978 - Memphis Tenn settles with striking police officers & firefighters
1979 - Iran Ayatollah Khomeini demands Saint War against Kurds
1979 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1980 - KC Royals' George Brett, batting avg reach .400
1981 - "My Fair Lady" opens at Uris Theater NYC for 119 performances
1981 - Jerry Lewis appears on "Donahue" to defend Telethons
1981 - Football running back, Herschel Walker, of U of Georgia, takes out a Lloyd's of London insurance policy for $1 million
1982 - 1st time NYSE tops 100 M figure, 132.69 M shares traded
1982 - LA Dodgers beat Chicago Cubs, 6-5, in 21 innings (game started 8/17)
1982 - NYSE sets trading record of 132,690,000 shares traded
1982 - Pete Rose sets record with his 13,941st plate appearance
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 - Japanese election law is amended to allow for proportional representation.
1983 - Hurricane Alicia battered Houston & Galveston, Texas
1983 - Samantha Druce, age 12y 119d is youngest woman to swim English Channel
1983 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1983 - Royals defeat Yanks, 5-4, completing "pine-tar" game (12 minutes). Hal McRae strikes out & Dan Quisenberry retires Yankees in order
Comedian Jerry LewisComedian Jerry Lewis 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 - Amy Alcott wins LPGA Nestle World Championship of Women's Golf
1985 - Muffin Spencer-Devlin wins MasterCard International Pro-Am Golf Tourn
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 nurse Donald Harvey sentence to triple life (poisoned 24)
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/ 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 - 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 - Cindy Rarick wins LPGA Northgate Computer Golf Classic
1991 - Hurricane Bob hits NC with 115 MPH wind
1991 - Pan Am games closes in Havana
1992 - "Real Inspector Hound" opens at Criterion NYC for 61 perfs
1993 - Historical Kapelbrug in Luzern Switz, destroyed by fire
1994 - 5.6 earthquake in Algeria, kills 171
1995 - Cards reliever Tom Henke earns his 300th career save
1996 - Emilee Klein wins LPGA Weetabix Women's British Golf Open
1996 - Record 6,654 tap at Macy's Tap-o-mania in NYC
2000 - A Federal jury finds 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.
2008 - President Of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf resigned due to pressure from opposition.
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
1227 - The Mongol conqueror Ghengis Khan died. 1587 - Virginia Dare became the first child to be born on American soil of English parents. The colony that is now Roanoke Island, NC, mysteriously vanished. 1735 - The "Evening Post" of Boston, MA, was published for the first time. 1840 - The American Society of Dental Surgeons was founded in New York City, NY. 1846 - Gen. Stephen W. Kearney and his U.S. forces captured Santa Fe, NM. 1894 - The Bureau of Immigration was established by the U.S. Congress. 1914 - The "Proclamation of Neutrality" was issued by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. It was aimed at keeping the U.S. out of World War I. 1916 - Abraham Lincoln's birthplace was made into a national shrine. 1919 - The "Anti-Cigarette League of America" was formed in Chicago IL. 1920 - Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Amendment guaranteed the right of all American women to vote. 1937 - The first FM radio construction permit was issued in Boston, MA. The station went on the air two years later. 1938 - The Thousand Islands Bridge was dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The bridge connects the U.S. and Canada. 1940 - Canada and the U.S. established a joint defense plan against the possible enemy attacks during World War II. 1958 - Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Lolita" was published. 1963 - James Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi. He was the first black man to accomplish this feat. 1966 - The first pictures of earth taken from moon orbit were sent back to the U.S. 1980 - George Brett (Kansas City Royal) had his batting average reach the .400 mark. 1981 - Herschel Walker of the University of Georgia took out an insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London. The all-American was insured for one million dollars. 1982 - The volume on the New York Stock Exchange topped the 100-million level for the first time at 132.69 million shares traded. 1982 - The longest baseball game played at Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL, went 21 innings before the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Cubs 2-1. 1987 - Earl Campbell announced his retirement from the National Football League (NFL). 1990 - The first shots were fired by the U.S. in the Persian Gulf Crisis when a U.S. frigate fired rounds across the bow of an Iraqi oil tanker. 1991 - An unsuccessful coup was attempted in against President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The Soviet hard-liners were responsible. Gorbechev and his family were effectively imprisoned for three days while vacationing in Crimea. 1992 - Larry Bird, after 13 years with the Boston Celtics, announced his retirement. 1997 - Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed in the Virginia Military Institute's 158-year history. 1997 - Patrick Swayze received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 1998 - Mrs. Field's Original Cookies announced that they would acquire the Great American Cookie Co. 2004 - Donald Trump unveiled his board game (TRUMP the Game) where players bid on real estate, buy big ticket items and make billion-dollar business deals.
1227 Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan died in China. 1587 Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents born in North America. 1894 Congress established the Bureau of Immigration, forerunner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. 1920 When Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the three-quarters of the states necessary was achieved and American women got the right to vote. 1936 Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca was shot and killed by Franco's soldiers during the Spanish Civil War . 1958 Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita was published. 1963 James Meredith became the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/aug18.htm
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