A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on August 18th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On August 18, 1587, Virginia Dare was born in the Roanoke Colony in what is now North Carolina. On August 18, 1612, the trials of the “Pendle Witches” began in England. On August 18, 1920, the United States ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. On August 18, 1940, an air battle was fought between the British RAF and the German Luftwaffe,…
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A Brief History On August 18, 1940, an air battle was fought between the British RAF and the German Luftwaffe, the largest air battle in history to that point as part of the Battle of Britain, July 10 through October 31, 1940. Digging Deeper German planners knew they had to defeat British air defenses in order to defeat Britain, and the best way to make that happen was to destroy the RAF Fighter Command. Despite September 15, 1940, being known as “Battle of Britain Day,” the purported climax of the Battle of Britain, it was “The Hardest Day” that saw…
A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on August 17th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On August 17, 1498, Cesare Borgia, the son of reigning Pope Alexander VI, resigned his office as Cardinal of the Catholic Church, becoming the first cardinal to do so. On August 17, 1943, the U.S. 8th Air Force, the main American unit of heavy bombers stationed in England, launched 376 B-17 bombers against Schweinfurt and Regensburg in Germany, a raid that came…
A Brief History On August 17, 1978, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman made ballooning history by becoming the first to pilot a manned balloon across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from Maine to France in the Double Eagle II, a Helium balloon. Today, we take a look at a few momentous balloon flights. Digging Deeper On November 21, 1783, the first ever manned balloon flight took place in France, when Francois Pilatrê de Rozier and Francois Laurent took flight in a hot air balloon made by the Montgolfier brothers. In 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries made history…
A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on August 16th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On August 16, 1812, General William Hull of the U.S. Army surrendered Fort Detroit to an inferior English force. On August 16, 1858, a date earlier than you may have thought, the advent of instant electronic communications between Europe and North America was inaugurated by President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria of the UK via the “Transatlantic Cable.” On August 17, 1914,…