History Events on August 18

A huge fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain as it passes over the east coast.
#1783_Great_Meteor

Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.
#Vietnam

World War II: The Hardest Day air battle, part of the Battle of Britain. At that point, the largest aerial engagement in history with heavy losses sustained on both sides.
#World_War_II

Major Gordon Laing becomes the first non-Muslim to enter Timbuktu.
#Alexander_Gordon_Laing

German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.
#Karl_Jatho

100 activists, officials, and other concerned citizens in Iceland hold a funeral for Okjökull glacier, which has completely melted after once covering six square miles (15.5 km2).
#Iceland

A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.
#Great_Thessaloniki_Fire_of_1917

The trial of the Pendle witches, one of England's most famous witch trials, begins at Lancaster Assizes.
#Pendle_witches

Battle of Marj Rahit: Umayyad partisans defeat the supporters of Ibn al-Zubayr and cement Umayyad control of Syria.
#Battle_of_Marj_Rahit_(684)

The 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.
#Thousand_Islands_Bridge

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.
#Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

The Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle is fought to a draw between the French army and the Flemish militias.
#Battle_of_Mons-en-Pévèle

Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Gravelotte is fought.
#Franco-Prussian_War

The Wilkes Expedition, which would explore the Puget Sound and Antarctica, weighs anchor at Hampton Roads.
#United_States_Exploring_Expedition

Sukarno takes office as the first president of Indonesia, following the country's declaration of independence the previous day.
#Sukarno

President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigns under threat of impeachment.
#Pervez_Musharraf
Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, becomes the first English child born in the Americas.
#Virginia_Dare

John White, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, returns from a supply trip to England and finds his settlement deserted.
#John_White_(colonist_and_artist)

Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.
#Urbain_Grandier

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.
#Vietnam_War

Civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
#Civil_rights_movement

Brojen Das from Bangladesh swims across the English Channel in a competition, as the first Bengali and the first Asian to do so. He came first among 39 competitors.
#Brojen_Das

Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutierrez are executed on the orders of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.
#Camila_O'Gorman
The Siege of Málaga ends with the taking of the city by Castilian and Aragonese forces.
#Siege_of_Málaga_(1487)

In the Korean Demilitarized Zone at Panmunjom, the Axe murder incident results in the death of two US soldiers.
#Korean_Demilitarized_Zone

Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 21 people and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).
#Hurricane_Alicia

War of Afghanistan: Uzbin Valley ambush occurs.
#Uzbin_Valley_ambush

American 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.
#American_Civil_War

Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.
#Vladimir_Nabokov

French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.
#Astronomy