Important events that occured on August 18th throughout history:
43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul.
1504 - Battle of Knockdoe.
1692 - Salem witch trials: in Salem, Massachusetts, Province of Massachusetts Bay five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
1745 - Jacobite Rising, Prince Charles Edward Stuart lands from a French warship in Glenfinnan, raises his standard and marches on London - the start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion known as “the 45″.
1768 - Saint Isaac’s Cathedral is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1772 - Gustavus III of Sweden stages a Coup d’état, in which he assumes power and enacts a new constitution that divides power between the Riksdag and the King.
1782 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Blue Licks - the last major engagement of the war, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Lord Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.
1812 - War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning her nickname “Old Ironsides”.
1839 - Presentation of Jacque Daguerre’s new photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences.
1848 - California Gold Rush: the New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).
1862 - Indian Wars: during an uprising in Minnesota, Lakota warriors decide not to attack heavily-defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.
1895 - American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.
1915 - World War I: the Battle of Van begins
1919 - Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom.
1934 - The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.
1934 - The creation of the position Führer is approved by the German electorate with 89.9% of the popular vote.
1942 - World War II: Operation Jubilee - the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an amphibious assault by allied forces on Dieppe, France.
1944 - World War II: Liberation of Paris - Paris rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
1945 - Vietnam War: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
1953 - Cold War: the CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
1955 - In the Northeast United States, severe flooding caused by Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives.
1960 - Cold War: in Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
1960 - Sputnik program: Sputnik 5 - the Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants.
1965 - Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa.
1980 - Saudia Flight 163, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar burns after making an emergency landing at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 301 people.
1981 - Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.
1987 - Hungerford Massacre: in the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with an assault rifle and then commits suicide.
1989 - Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist Prime Minister in 42 years.
1989 - Raid on offshore pirate station, Radio Caroline in North Sea by British and Dutch governments.
1990 - Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union, August Coup: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Crimea.
1991 - Hurricane Bob hits the Northeast.
1999 - In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević.
2002 - A Russian Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside of Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
2003 - A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency’s top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
2003 - A Hamas planned suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem kills 23 Israelis, 7 of them children in the Jerusalem bus 2 massacre.
2005 - The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.
2005 - A series of strong storms lashes Southern Ontario spawning several tornadoes as well as creating extreme flash flooding within the city of Toronto and its surrounding communities. In Toronto, it is also dubbed as the Toronto Supercell.
