August 18Birthdays & History

On this day: August 18 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 684Battle of Marj Rahit: Umayyad partisans defeat the supporters of Ibn al-Zubayr and cement Umayyad control of Syria.Middle East
2. 707Princess Abe accedes to the imperial Japanese throne as Empress Genmei.Asia
3. 1136Following the surrender of Baghdad, Seljuk Sultan Mas'ud replaces Abbasid caliph Al-Rashid Billah with his uncle Al-Muqtafi.Middle East
4. 1304The Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle is fought to a draw between the French army and the Flemish militias.Europe
5. 1487The Siege of Málaga ends with the taking of the city by Castilian and Aragonese forces.Europe
6. 1492The first grammar of the Spanish language (Gramática de la lengua castellana) is presented to Queen Isabella I.Europe
7. 1572The Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre marries the Catholic Margaret of Valois, ostensibly to reconcile the feuding Protestants and Catholics of France.Europe
8. 1590John White, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, returns from a supply trip to England and finds his settlement deserted.Europe
9. 1612The trials of the Pendle witches and Samlesbury witches, one of England's most famous witch trials, begin at the Lancaster Assizes.Europe
10. 1634Father Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.Europe
11. 1721The city of Shamakhi in Safavid Shirvan is sacked.Middle East
12. 1759Beginning of the battle of Lagos, in which a British fleet defeats a French fleet trying to slip through Gibraltar.AfricaEurope
13. 1783A huge fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain as it passes over the east coast.Europe
14. 1809The Senate of Finland is established in the Grand Duchy of Finland after the official adoption of the Statute of the Government Council by Tsar Alexander I of Russia.Europe
15. 1826Major Gordon Laing becomes the first European to enter Timbuktu.EuropeAfrica
16. 1838The Wilkes Expedition, which would explore the Puget Sound and Antarctica, weighs anchor at Hampton Roads.North America
17. 1864American Civil War: Battle of Globe Tavern: Union forces try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad.North America
18. 1868French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.Europe
19. 1870Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Gravelotte is fought.Europe
20. 1877American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Phobos, one of Mars's moons.North America
21. 1891A major hurricane strikes Martinique, leaving 700 dead.Latin America
22. 1903German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.Europe
23. 1917A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece, destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.Europe
24. 1920The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.North America
25. 1923The first British Track and Field championships for women are held in London, Great Britain.Europe
26. 1933The Volksempfänger is first presented to the German public at a radio exhibition; the presiding Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, delivers an accompanying speech heralding the radio as the 'eighth great power'.Europe
27. 1937A lightning strike starts the Blackwater Fire of 1937 in Shoshone National Forest, killing 15 firefighters within three days and prompting the United States Forest Service to develop their smokejumper program.North America
28. 1938The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York, United States, with Ontario, Canada, over the Saint Lawrence River, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.North America
29. 1940World War II: The Hardest Day air battle, part of the Battle of Britain, takes place. At that point, it is the largest aerial engagement in history with heavy losses sustained on both sides.Europe
30. 1945Soviet-Japanese War: Battle of Shumshu: Soviet forces land at Takeda Beach on Shumshu Island and launch the Battle of Shumshu; the Soviet Union's Invasion of the Kuril Islands commences.EuropeAsia
31. 1945Sukarno takes office as the first president of Indonesia, following the country's declaration of independence the previous day.Asia
32. 1949Kemi strike: Two protesters die in the scuffle between the police and the strikers' protest procession in Kemi, Finland.Europe
33. 1950Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium, is assassinated. The Party newspaper blames royalists and Rexists.Europe
34. 1958Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.North America
35. 1958Brojen Das from Bangladesh swims across the English Channel in a competition as the first Bengali and the first Asian to do so, placing first among the 39 competitors.AsiaEurope
36. 1963Civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.AfricaNorth America
37. 1965Vietnam 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.AsiaNorth America
38. 1966Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Tan ensues after a patrol from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment clashes with a Viet Cong force in Phước Tuy Province.AsiaOceania
39. 1971Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.AsiaOceania
40. 1973Aeroflot Flight A-13 crashes after takeoff from Baku-Bina International Airport in Azerbaijan, killing 56 people and injuring eight.Europe
41. 1976The Soviet Union's robotic probe Luna 24 successfully lands on the Moon.Europe
42. 1976The Korean axe murder incident in Panmunjom results in the deaths of two US Army officers.AsiaNorth America
43. 1977Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under Terrorism Act No. 83 of 1967 in King William's Town, South Africa. He later dies from injuries sustained during this arrest, bringing attention to South Africa's apartheid policies.Africa
44. 1983Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 21 people and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).North America
45. 1989Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia.Latin America
46. 1993American International Airways Flight 808 crashes at Leeward Point Field at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, injuring the three crew members.North AmericaLatin America
47. 2003One-year-old Zachary Turner is murdered in Newfoundland by his mother, who was awarded custody despite facing trial for the murder of Zachary's father. The case was documented in the film Dear Zachary and led to reform of Canada's bail laws.North America
48. 2005A massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java; affecting almost 100 million people, it is one of the largest and most widespread power outages in history.Asia
49. 2008War of Afghanistan: The Uzbin Valley ambush occurs.Asia
50. 2008The President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, resigns under threat of impeachment.Asia
51. 2011A terrorist attack on Israel's Highway 12 near the Egyptian border kills 16 and injures 40.Middle East
52. 2017The Turku terror attack occurs in Finland when a knifeman kills two and injures eight.Europe
53. 2019One hundred activists, officials, and other concerned citizens in Iceland hold a funeral for Okjökull glacier, which has completely melted after having once covered six square miles (15.5 km2).Europe

Source: Wikipedia "August 18" / CC BY-SA 4.0