18th of August

It is the 230th day of the year, with 135 days remaining.

293 BC - The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is founded, starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica.

1587 AD - Virginia Dare, granddaughter of governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, becomes the first English child born in the Americas.

1590 - John White, the governor of the Colony of Roanoke, returns from a supply trip to England and finds his settlement deserted.

1634 - Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudon, France.

1774 - American explorer, who explored the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, Meriwether Lewis is born.

1864 - Union forces try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad.  It will be known as the Battle of Globe Tavern.

1868 - French astronomer Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen discovers helium.

1903 - German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright Brothers.  It is neither confirmed or denied.

1920 - The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.  This guarantees women's suffrage, or the right to vote.

1921 - Lydia Lotviak, one of the world's only two female fighter aces, for the Soviet Air Force during World War II, claimed 12 solo victories.

1934 - Puerto Rican baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Roberto Clemente is born.

1936 - American actor, film director, and producer, Robert Redford is born.

1940 - American machinist, automotive industry executive, and founder of the Chrysler Corporation, Walter Chrysler, dies at the age of 65.

1941 - Adolf Hitler orders a temporary halt to Nazi Germany's systematic T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and the handicapped due to protests.

1965 - Operation Starlite begins with United States Marines destroying a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle ofthe war.

1966 - The Battle of Long Tan occurs, when a patrol of 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment encounter the Viet Cong.

1971 - Both Australia and New Zealand make a conscious decision to withdraw their fighting troops from the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam.

2005 - Dennis Rader is sentenced to 175 years in prison for being charged with the BTK serial killings.  It is estimated that he killed ten people between 1974 and 1991 and received his moniker, BTK, which stands for Bind, Torture, Kill.  It is known in the law enforcement world as his "signature."