Today in History
Aug 17, 2021, 9:00 PM | Updated: 11:08 pm
Today in History
Today is Wednesday, Aug. 18, the 230th day of 2021. There are 135 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 18, 1894, Congress established the Bureau of Immigration.
On this date:
In 1587, Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents to be born in present-day America, on what is now Roanoke Island in North Carolina. (However, the Roanoke colony ended up mysteriously disappearing.)
In 1846, during the Mexican-American War, U.S. forces led by Gen. Stephen W. Kearny occupied Santa Fe in present-day New Mexico.
In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing American women’s right to vote, was ratified as Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.
In 1954, during the Eisenhower administration, Assistant Secretary of Labor James Ernest Wilkins became the first Black official to attend a meeting of the president’s Cabinet as he sat in for Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell.
In 1958, the novel “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov was first published in New York by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, almost three years after it was originally published in Paris.
In 1963, James Meredith became the first Black student to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, wound to a close after three nights with a mid-morning set by Jimi Hendrix.
In 1983, Hurricane Alicia slammed into the Texas coast, leaving 21 dead and causing more than a billion dollars’ worth of damage.
In 1988, Vice President George H.W. Bush accepted the presidential nomination of the Republican National Convention in New Orleans.
In 1993, a judge in Sarasota, Fla., ruled that Kimberly Mays, the 14-year-old girl who had been switched at birth with another baby, need never again see her biological parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg, in accordance with her stated wishes. (However, Kimberly later moved in with the Twiggs.)
In 2014, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the National Guard to Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis convulsed by protests over the fatal shooting of a Black teen. Don Pardo, 96, a durable radio and television announcer known for his introductions with a booming baritone on “Saturday Night Live” and other shows, died in Tucson, Arizona.
In 2017, Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s top White House strategist, was forced out of his post by Trump. (Bannon would step down as Breitbart News chairman in January 2018 after the release of a book in which he criticized Trump and members of his family; he was pardoned by Trump in the final hours of Trump’s term after being charged with diverting money from donors who believed the money would be used to build a wall along the southern border.)
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama and European leaders demanded that Syrian President Bashar Assad resign, saying his brutal suppression of his people made him unfit to lead. Vice President Joe Biden met with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Five years ago: For the first time since declaring his presidential run, Republican Donald Trump offered an apology to those who might have been hurt by his caustic comments, saying he regretted some of what he had said “in the heat of debate.” Former NFL star Darren Sharper was sentenced by a federal judge in New Orleans to more than 18 years in prison for drugging women in order to rape them — double the sentence recommended by prosecutors. At the Rio Games, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt completed an unprecedented third consecutive sweep of the 100- and 200-meter sprints. Retired Army Gen. John W. Vessey, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, died in North Oaks, Minnesota, at age 94.
One year ago: Democrats formally made Joe Biden their 2020 presidential nominee at their all-virtual national convention. The Republican-led Senate intelligence committee concluded that the Kremlin had launched an aggressive effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential contest on behalf of Donald Trump, and that the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russian intelligence services had posed a “grave” counterintelligence threat. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he would “suspend” some operational changes to mail delivery until after the November election; critics had blamed the changes for widespread delays and warned that they could disrupt the voting. Wall Street clawed back the last of the losses unleashed by the coronavirus, as the S&P 500 reached a new all-time high.
Today’s Birthdays: Former first lady Rosalynn (ROH’-zuh-lihn) Carter is 94. Movie director Roman Polanski is 88. Actor-director Robert Redford is 85. Actor Henry G. Sanders is 79. Actor-comedian Martin Mull is 78. R&B singer Sarah Dash (LaBelle) is 76. Rock musician Dennis Elliott is 71. Comedian Elayne Boosler is 69. Actor Denis Leary is 64. Actor Madeleine Stowe is 63. Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (GYT’-nur) is 60. ABC News reporter Bob Woodruff is 60. The former president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, is 59. Actor Adam Storke is 59. Actor Craig Bierko (BEER’-koh) is 57. Rock singer-musician Zac Maloy (The Nixons) is 53. Rock singer and hip-hop artist Everlast is 52. Rapper Masta Killa (Wu-Tang Clan) is 52. Actor Christian Slater is 52. Actor Edward Norton is 52. Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner is 51. Actor Kaitlin Olson is 46. Rock musician Dirk Lance is 45. Actor-comedian Andy Samberg (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 43. Country musician Brad Tursi (Old Dominion) is 42. Actor Mika Boorem is 34. Actor Maia Mitchell is 28. Actor Madelaine Petsch is 27. Actor Parker McKenna Posey is 26.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
