Today is Tuesday, Aug. 18, the 231st day of 2020. There are 135 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing all American women’s right to vote, was ratified as Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.
On this date:
In 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.)
In 1838, the first marine expedition sponsored by the U.S. government set sail from Hampton Roads, Virginia; the crews traveled the southern Pacific Ocean, gathering scientific information.
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the United States out of World War I.
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, came to a close after three nights with a mid-morning set by Jimi Hendrix.
In 1993, a judge in Sarasota, Fla., 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 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 teen.
In 2017, Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s top White House strategist, was forced out of his post by Trump; Bannon returned immediately as executive chairman to Breitbart News, which he led before joining Trump’s campaign. (Bannon would step down as Breitbart chairman in January 2018 after the release of a book in which he criticized Trump and members of his family.)
Today’s Birthdays: Former first lady Rosalynn Carter is 93. Movie director Roman Polanski is 87. Olympic gold medal decathlete Rafer Johnson is 85. Actor-director Robert Redford is 84. Actor Henry G. Sanders is 78. Actor-comedian Martin Mull is 77. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sarah Dash (LaBelle) is 75. Rock musician Dennis Elliott is 70. Actor Denis Leary is 63. Actor Madeleine Stowe is 62. Actor Adam Storke is 58. Actor Craig Bierko is 56. Rock singer-musician Zac Maloy (The Nixons) is 52. Rock singer and hip-hop artist Everlast is 51. Rapper Masta Killa (Wu-Tang Clan) is 51. Actor Christian Slater is 51. Actor Edward Norton is 51. Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner is 50.
