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Today in History: August 18
1587
In the Roanoke Island colony, Ellinor and Ananias Dare become parents of a baby girl whom they name Virginia, the first English child born in what would become the United States.

1590
John White, the leader of 117 colonists sent in 1587 to Roanoke Island (North Carolina) to establish a colony, returns from a trip to England to find the settlement deserted. No trace of the settlers is ever found.

1698
After invading Denmark and capturing Sweden, Charles XII of Sweden forces Frederick IV of Denmark to sign the Peace of Travendal.

1759
The French fleet is destroyed by the British under "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen at the Battle of Lagos Bay.

1862
Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart's headquarters is raided by Union troops of the 5th New York and 1st Michigan cavalries.

1864
Union General William T. Sherman sends General Judson Kilpatrick to raid Confederate lines of communication outside Atlanta. The raid is unsuccessful.

1914
Germany declares war on Russia while President Woodrow Wilson issues his Proclamation of Neutrality.

1920
Tennessee becomes the thirty-sixth state to ratify the nineteenth amendment granting women's suffrage, completing the three-quarters necessary to put the amendment into effect.

1939
The film The Wizard of Oz opens in New York City.

1942
Japan sends a crack army to Guadalcanal to repulse the U.S. Marines fighting there.

1943
The Royal Air Force Bomber Command completes the first major strike against the German missile development facility at Peenemunde.

1963
James Meredith, the first African American to attend University of Mississippi, graduates.

1965
Operation Starlite marks the beginning of major U.S. ground combat operations in Vietnam.

1966
Australian troops repulse a Viet Cong attack at Long Tan.

1969
Two concert goers die at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, one from an overdose of heroin, the other from a burst appendix.

1973
Hank Aaron makes his 1,378 extra-base hit, surpassing Stan Musial's record.

1974
Luna 24, the USSR's final major lunar exploration mission, soft-lands on moon.

1979
Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini demands a "Saint War" against Kurds.

1982
Pete Rose sets record with his 13,941st plate appearance.

1987
Ohio nurse Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life terms for poisoning 24 patients.

1988
Republican Convention in New Orleans nominate the George H.W. Bush-Dan Quayle ticket.

1991
A group of hard-line communist leaders unhappy with the drift toward the collapse of the Soviet Union seize control of the government in Moscow and place President Mikhail S. Gorbachev under house arrest

1992
Dennis Rader, the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) killer receives 10 consecutive life sentences. He had terrorized Wichita, Kansas, murdering 10 people between 1974 and 1991.

1993
Historic Kapelbrug (chapel bridge) in Luzern, Switzerland, burns, destroying 147 of its decorative paintings. It was built in 1365.

2011
Gold hits a record price of $1,826 per ounce.

Today in History: Born on August 18
1774
Meriwether Lewis, American explorer who led the Corps of Discovery with William Clark.

1922
Shelly Winters, actress who won an Academy Award for The Diary of Anne Frank.

1923
Jimmy Witherspoon, blues singer.

1932
Luc Montagnier, virologist who discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

1933
Roman Polanski, Polish film director best known for Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown.

1934
Roberto Clemente, outfielder for Pittsburgh Pirates, first Latin American enshrined in National Baseball Hall of Fame; died in plane crash while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua, Dec. 31, 1972.

1936
Robert Redford, actor (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Great Gatsby).

1940
Frankie Avalon, singer ("Venus," 5 weeks at No. 1), actor (Beach Blanket Bingo); teen heartthrob of late 1950s–early 1960s.

1952
Patrick Swayze, actor/dancer (Dirty Dancing, Ghost).

1961
Robert Warren "Bob" Woodruff, journalist, TV news anchor; critically wounded by roadside bomb while reporting on the war in Iraq, January 2006.

1969
Christian Slater, actor (Heathers, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Hard Rain).

JOTD
My Lesbian neighbours Jane and Caroline asked me to help them conceive a child recently.
They said they wouldn't mind if we did it the old fashioned way as they were desperate to have a baby.

For six months now we've been trying but I just don't have the heart to tell them I had a vasectomy last year.