Today is Monday, Aug. 18, the 230th day of 2024
with 135 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Neptune and Saturn.
On this date in history:
In 1227, Genghis Khan, the Mongol leader who forged an empire stretching from the east coast of China west to the Aral Sea, died in camp during a campaign against the Chinese kingdom of Xi Xia.
In 1587, Virginia Dare was the first child of English parents to be born in the New World -- at Roanoke Island, part of what would become North Carolina.
In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was ratified by Tennessee, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. The law took effect eight days later.
In 1960, the first commercially produced oral contraceptives went on the market.
In 1963, James Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi. He was the first African American to attend the school, and his enrollment touched off deadly riots, necessitating the use of armed guards.
In 1976, U.S. President Gerald Ford was nominated in Kansas City, Mo., to head the Republican presidential ticket. He lost to Democrat Jimmy Carter in November.
In 1982, Lebanon and the Palestine Liberation Organization approved a plan for withdrawal of PLO fighters from besieged West Beirut. Israel approved it the following day.
In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev was removed as president of the Soviet Union in a coup and replaced by hard-line Communists led by Vice President Gennady Yanayev. The coup collapsed after three days due to efforts by Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
In 2005, Dennis Rader, the Kansas man who called himself BTK -- for bind, torture, kill -- and confessed to slaying 10 people, was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms.
In 2008, threatened by impeachment and badgered by faltering economy and security, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation.
In 2010, U.S. combat forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq but 50,000 American troops remained, primarily as trainers.
In 2012, a small plane carrying Philippine Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and three others crashed into the sea off the country's Masbate Island. A Robredo aide survived the crash. Divers later found the bodies of the secretary and two pilots.
In 2013, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, competing in Moscow, became the most decorated track and field athlete in World Championship history.
In 2023, a British court found nurse Lucy Letby guilty of murder for killing seven babies in her neonatal unit and attempting to kill six more. Days later, a judge sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
