August 18th Facts, Fun Trivia and History |
August 18th History Highlights |
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August 18th is… |
Fajita Day Ice Cream Pie Day Mail Order Catalog Day Serendipity Day |
August 18th Birthday Quotes |
” If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don’t do that, you are wasting your time on this Earth.” “As I have always held it a crime to anticipate evils, I will believe it a good comfortable road until I am compelled to believe differently.” ” Like a guide dog, paintings help you see.” “I think on-stage nudity is disgusting, shameful, and damaging to all things American. But if I were 22 with a great body, it would be an artistic, tasteful, patriotic and progressive religious experience.” “Write. Write every day. Write honestly. Write something that doesn’t exist, and you wish did. Read. Learn. Study. Watch people. Listen to what they say, listen to how they say it, and listen to what they do not say. Surprise yourself. Scare yourself.” |
August 18th Birthdays |
1587 – Virginia Dare, the first child born to English parents in the Americas (date of death unknown) 1774 – Meriwether Lewis, American soldier, explorer, and politician (died in 1809) 1834 – Marshall Field, American businessman, founded Marshall Field’s (died in 1906) 1904 – Max Factor, Jr., American businessman (died in 1996) 1920 – Shelley Winters, American actress (died in 2006) 1927 – Rosalynn Carter, First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981 1933 – Roman Polanski, French-Polish director, and producer 1934 – Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (died in 1972) 1935 – Gail Fisher, American actress (died in 2000) 1943 – Martin Mull, American actor, and comedian 1952 – Elayne Boosler, American comedic actress 1952 – Patrick Swayze, American actor, and dancer (died in 2009) 1956 – Jon ‘Bermuda’ Schwartz, American drummer and producer 1958 – Madeleine Stowe, American actress 1961 – Bob Woodruff, American journalist, and author 1967 – Brian Michael Bendis, American comic book author, and illustrator 1969 – Edward Norton, American actor 1978 – Andy Samberg, American actor, and comedian 1993 – Maia Mitchell, Australian actress |
August 18th History |
1587 – Virginia Dare, the granddaughter of Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, became the first English child born in the Americas, to Ananias and Eleanor Dare. She and the rest of the colonists at Roanoke disappeared at some point before August 18, 1590. The only clue was the word “Croatoan” carved into a post. 1868 – French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovered helium. 1783 – The 1783 Great Meteor was observed from the British Isles. 1877 – Asaph Hall discovered the Martian moon Phobos. 1903 – German engineer Karl Jatho may have flown his own airplane, four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers. 1920 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women’s suffrage. 1956 – #1 Hit August 18, 1956 – November 2, 1956: Elvis Presley – Don’t Be Cruel / Hound Dog 1958 – Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel Lolita was published in the United States. 1958 – #1 Hit August 18, 1958 – August 24, 1958: Domenico Modugno – Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu) 1962 – Ringo Starr joined the Beatles, replacing Pete Best 1973 – #1 Hit August 18, 1973 – August 24, 1973: Diana Ross – Touch Me in the Morning 1977 – Steve Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under the ‘Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967’ in King William’s Town, South Africa. He died from injuries that occurred during his arrest. Peter Gabriel released a tribute to him, Biko, which became a hit in 1980. 1979 – #1 Hit August 18, 1979 – August 24, 1979: Chic – Good Times August 18, 1989 (fiction) Jurassic Park’s computer systems were sabotaged, Jurassic Park, Book/Film August 18, 1993 Birthday (fictional) Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book/Film 2001 – #1 Hit August 18, 2001 – September 7, 2001: Alicia Keys – Fallin’ 2005 – A massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people, one of the largest and most widespread power outages in history, and lasted just over six hours. |
Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts |
The cracking sound you hear from a whip is actually the whip breaking the speed of sound and creating a small sonic boom. In his 1225 essay on the nature of color (Du Luce/On Light), the English Bishop Robert Grosseteste described the birth of the Universe in an explosion and the crystallization of matter to form stars and planets in a set of nested spheres around Earth, seven centuries before the Big Bang theory. The Capital of Malta is Valletta All gerbils in the US descend from 20 caught in Mongolia in 1935 for research purposes. Roman citizens who did not have land were deemed unfit for battle since they would not have something to protect. Saying “slashed hashbrowns” in a hushed voice makes me sound like I’m speaking Parseltongue. #teamvoldemort “I feel the need… the need for speed!” – Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Lt.jg Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards) in Top Gun, 1986 Charlie Sheen stayed awake for 48 hours to achieve his wasted look for his cameo as a drugged-up thug in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. The Ouija board got its name after being asked what is should be called. When asked what it meant, the board allegedly replied, “good luck.” California has a larger GDP than any other country except for China, Japan, Germany, and the UK. Muhammad Ali recited, during a speech in 1975 at Harvard University, the “shortest poem ever written on what it’s like to be as great as Ali” by saying: “Me? Whee!” The Capital of Mali is Bamako “Tastes great!” … “Less filling!” (Miller Lite beer ad) |
More Pop Culture History Resources |
