Today is Friday, August 18, 2017, the 230th day of the year with 135 days remaining.
- Sunrise: 6:28am
- Sunset: 7:58pm
...giving us 13 hours and 30 minutes of daylight. 20% of the waning moon will be visible, setting at 5:44pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 10:31am/9:26pm
- Low: 3:22am/3:09pm
Special celebrations today…
- Bad Poetry Day
- Mail Order Catalog Day
- Men's Grooming Day
- National Fajita Day
- National Ice Cream Pie Day
On this day in…
1227 - The Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan died.
1587 - Virginia Dare became the first child to be born on American soil of English parents. The colony that is now Roanoke Island,NC, mysteriously vanished.
1735 - The "Evening Post" of Boston,MA, was published for the first time.
1840 - The American Society of Dental Surgeons was founded in New York City,NY.
1846 - Gen. Stephen W. Kearney and his U.S. forces captured Santa Fe,NM.
1894 - The Bureau of Immigration was established by theU.S. Congress.
1914 - The "Proclamation of Neutrality" was issued byU.S. President Woodrow Wilson. It was aimed at keeping theU.S. out of World War I.
1916 - Abraham Lincoln's birthplace was made into a national shrine.
1919 - The "Anti-Cigarette League of America" was formed in ChicagoIL.
1920 -Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to theU.S. Constitution. The Amendment guaranteed the right of all American women to vote.
1937 - The first FM radio construction permit was issued in Boston,MA. The station went on the air two years later.
1938 - The Thousand Islands Bridge was dedicated byU.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The bridge connects theU.S. and Canada.
1940 - Canada and theU.S. established a joint defense plan against the possible enemy attacks during World War II.
1958 - Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Lolita" was published.
1963 - James Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi. He was the first black man to accomplish this feat.
1966 - The first pictures of earth taken from moon orbit were sent back to the U.S.
1980 - George Brett (Kansas City Royal) had his batting average reach the .400 mark.
1981 - Herschel Walker of the University of Georgia took out an insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London. The all-American was insured for one million dollars.
1982 - The volume on the New York Stock Exchange topped the 100-million level for the first time at 132.69 million shares traded.
1982 - The longest baseball game played at Wrigley Field in Chicago,IL, went 21 innings before the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Cubs 2-1.
1987 - Earl Campbell announced his retirement from the National Football League (NFL).
1990 - The first shots were fired by theU.S. in the Persian Gulf Crisis when aU.S. frigate fired rounds across the bow of an Iraqi oil tanker.
1991 - An unsuccessful coup was attempted in against President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The Soviet hard-liners were responsible. Gorbechev and his family were effectively imprisoned for three days while vacationing in Crimea.
1992 - Larry Bird, after 13 years with the Boston Celtics, announced his retirement.
1997 - Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed in the Virginia Military Institute's 158-year history.
1997 - Patrick Swayze received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - Mrs. Field's Original Cookies announced that they would acquire the Great American Cookie Co.
2004 - Donald Trump unveiled his board game (TRUMP the Game) where players bid on real estate, buy big ticket items and make billion-dollar business deals.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- Meriwether Lewis 1774
- Max Factor 1904
- Caspar Weinberger 1917
- Shelley Winters 1920
- Rosalynn Carter 1927
- Grant Williams 1930
- Roman Polanski 1933
- Gail Fisher 1935
- Rafer Johnson 1935
- Robert Redford 1937
- Johnny Preston 1939
- Christopher Jones 1941
- Martin Mull 1943
- Carl Wayne (The Move) 1944
- Dennis Elliot (Foreigner) 1950
- Patrick Swayze 1952
- Ron Strykert (Men at Work) 1957
- Madeleine Stowe 1958
- James Latulippe 1961
- Zac Maloy (The Nixons) 1968
- Everlast 1969
- Edward Norton 1969
- Christian Slater 1969
- Malcolm-Jamal Warner 1970
