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

The first terrorist attack ever sentenced as a crime in Finland kills two and injures eight.

A massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people, one of the largest and most widespread power outages in history.

One 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 led to reform of Canada's bail laws.

Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia.

Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under the 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.

Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Tan ensues after a patrol from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment clashes with a Viet Cong force in Ph??c Tuy Province.

Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium is assassinated by far-right elements.

First British Track and Field championships for women, London.

Major hurricane strikes Martinique, leaving 700 dead.

Marriage in Paris, France, of the Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre to Margaret of Valois, in a supposed attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics.