August 18

1227 – Genghis Khan dies in Yinchuan, China

1487 – The city of Málaga in the Emirate of Granada, Spain falls to the combined forces of Castile and Aragon during the final years of the Reconquista.

1590 – John White, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, returns from a supply trip to England and finds his settlement deserted.

1636 –  The Covenant of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts is signed.

1774 – Meriwether Lewis is born in Ivy, Virginia.

1826 – British Brevet Major Gordon Laing becomes the first European to enter the city of Timbuktu.

1838 – The United States Exploring Expedition to explore Puget Sound and Antarctica, under the command of Lt Charles Wilkes, weighs anchor at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

1846 – During the Mexican–American War, General Stephen W Kearney’s US forces capture Santa Fe.

1864 – Union forces attempt for the second time to cut the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad supply line into Petersburg, Virginia near the Globe Tavern.

1868 – Pierre Janssen discovers helium.

1920 – The 19th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified

1938 – The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting Wellesley Island in New York with Ontario, Canada over the Saint Lawrence River, is dedicated by President Roosevelt.

1945 – U.S. Army photographer SGT Anthony J. Marchione is the last American to die in WWII when the B-32 he is flying in over Tokyo is damaged by enemy fire.

1958 –  Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is published in the United States.

1965 – Operation Starlite, the first major combat ground operation by purely U.S forces begins when U.S. Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula.

1976 – While attempting to cut down a tree that blocked the line of sight between a United Nations Command checkpoint and an observation post, in the Joint Security Area in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, North Korean soldiers kill two US Army officers supervising the operation.

1983 – Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas Gulf coast, killing 21 people and causing over US$1 billion in damage.

1989 – Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá

1993 – American International Airways Cargo Flight 808,  a McDonnell Douglas DC-8, crashes on landing at Leeward Point Field at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, injuring the 3 crew members aboard.

2005 – Dennis Rader is sentenced to 175 years in prison for the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) serial killings in Sedgwick County, Kansas.