August 18

1587 | First English child born in the New World, Virginia Dare.

1774 | Explorer Meriwether Lewis was born

1790 | POTUS: President Washington wrote the synagogue of Touro, Rhode Island, extolling the virtue of pluralism and religious tolerance, noting that government “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

1803 | SCOTUS: Justice Nathan Clifford was born.

1834 | Entrepreneur Marshall Field was born.

1838 | The Wilkes Expedition departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, on a four-year circumnavigation of the globe, mapping Antarctica and the Pacific Northwest.

1840 | The American Society of Dental Surgeons was founded.

1846 | Mexican-American War: U.S. forces under General Stephen W. Kearny capture Santa Fe, New Mexico, without firing a shot, claiming the Territory of New Mexico.

1872 | Entrepreneur Aaron Montgomery Ward issued the first “catalog.”

1900 | Civil Rights: Riots begin in Liberty County, Georgia.

1907 | Composer Howard Swanson was born.

1909 | The Mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki, presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees.

1920 | Actress Shelley Winters was born.

1920 | The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified with Tennessee’s approval.

1927 | First Lady Rosalynn Carter was born.

1936 | Actor Robert Redford was born.

1940 | Entrepreneur Walter Chrysler died.

1946 | The Golf Writers Association of America formed.

1952 | Actor Patrick Swayze was born.

1958 | Vladimir Nabokov published “Lolita” in the US.

1961 | Judge Learned Hand died.

1963 | Civil Rights: James Meredith becomes the first Black graduate of the University of Mississippi (”Ole Miss”), earning a degree in political science.

1969 | Actor Christian Slater was born.

1969 | Actor Edward Norton was born.

1970 | Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner was born.

1978 | Actor Andy Samberg was born.

1990 | Psychologist B.F. Skinner died.

2009 | Journalist Robert Novak died.

2024 | Media personality Phil Donahue died.