Today in History - onthisday.com

 

Aug 18

1926 First televised weather map is broadcast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, DC

1590 Governor of Roanoke Island colony John White returns from England to find no trace of the colonists he left there three years earlier

1737 First public admission to the Salon de Paris art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris

1838 United States Exploring Expedition headed by Charles Wilkes departs for the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica

1886 French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium in the solar spectrum during an eclipse

1919 Anti-Cigarette League of America forms in Chicago, Illinois

1920 State Representative Harry T. Burn (24) casts the deciding vote in Tennessee's and thus America's ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, allowing women's suffrage after reading a letter from his mother

1940 Battle of Britain: Air battle known as "The Hardest Day" occurs; the Luftwaffe loses approximately 69 aircraft and the RAF 68 in one of the largest ever air battles

1956 Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reach #1 on the charts, staying for 11 weeks (a record for a single release) 

2008 Belarusian weightlifter Andrei Aramnau breaks three world records in the snatch, clean and jerk, and total on his way to winning the men's 105 kg gold medal at the Beijing Olympics