Today in History: August 18, 19th Amendment is ratified

Today in History

Today is Thursday, Aug. 18, the 230th day of 2022. There are 135 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Aug. 18, 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.)

On this date:

In 1894, Congress established the Bureau of Immigration.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the United States out of World War I.

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 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 1993, a judge in Sarasota, Florida, 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 2004, in Athens, Paul Hamm (hahm) won the men’s gymnastics all-around Olympic gold medal by the closest margin ever in the event; controversy followed after it was discovered a scoring error cost Yang Tae-young of South Korea the title.

In 2005, a judge in Wichita, Kansas, sentenced BTK serial killer Dennis Rader to 10 consecutive life terms, the maximum the law would allow.

In 2011, Vice President Joe Biden met with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

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 18-year-old, Michael Brown.

In 2020, 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.

Ten years ago: Tropical Storm Helene quickly weakened into a tropical depression after moving ashore on Mexico’s Gulf Coast. Diana Nyad launched her latest attempt to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a wetsuit or a shark cage (she ended her bid three days later). Singer Scott McKenzie, 73, who performed “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair),” died in Los Angeles.

Five years ago: Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s top White House strategist, was forced out of his post by Trump. (Bannon would be 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; he was later convicted of contempt for defying a congressional subpoena from the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.)

One year ago: Taliban militants in Afghanistan attacked protesters who dared to take down the Taliban banner and replace it with the country’s flag, killing at least one person; the attack came as many Afghans hid at home or tried to flee the country. The United Arab Emirates confirmed that it had taken in Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his family on humanitarian grounds; the family had fled Afghanistan as the Taliban closed in on the capital. A federal appeals court in New Orleans upheld a Texas law outlawing a commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure. U.S. health officials announced plans to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and signs that the vaccines’ effectiveness was slipping.

Today’s Birthdays: Former first lady Rosalynn (ROH’-zuh-lihn) Carter is 95. Actor-director Robert Redford is 86. Actor Henry G. Sanders is 80. Actor-comedian Martin Mull is 79. Rock musician Dennis Elliott is 72. Comedian Elayne Boosler is 70. Actor Denis Leary is 65. Actor Madeleine Stowe is 64. Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (GYT’-nur) is 61. ABC News reporter Bob Woodruff is 61. The former president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, is 60. Actor Adam Storke is 60. Actor Craig Bierko (BEER’-koh) is 58. Rock singer-musician Zac Maloy (The Nixons) is 54. Rock singer and hip-hop artist Everlast is 53. Rapper Masta Killa (Wu-Tang Clan) is 53. Actor Christian Slater is 53. Actor Edward Norton is 53. Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner is 52. Actor Kaitlin Olson is 47. Rock musician Dirk Lance is 46. Actor-comedian Andy Samberg (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 44. Country musician Brad Tursi (Old Dominion) is 43. Actor Mika Boorem is 35. Actor Maia Mitchell is 29. Actor Madelaine Petsch is 28. Actor Parker McKenna Posey is 27.

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