Wednesday, April 23, 2014

August 18 in history


________

AUG 17      INDEX      AUG 19
684 – Battle of Marj Rahit: Umayyad partisans defeat the supporters of Ibn al-Zubayr and cement Umayyad control of Syria.

1304 – The Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle is fought to a draw between the French army and the Flemish militias.

1487 – The Siege of Málaga ends with the taking of the city by Castilian and Aragonese forces.

1572 – Marriage in Paris, France, of the Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre to Margaret of Valois, in a supposed attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics.

1587 – Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, becomes the first English child born in the Americas.

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

1612 – The trial of the Pendle witches, one of England's most famous witch trials, begins at Lancaster Assizes.

1634 – Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.

1783 – A huge fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain as it passes over the east coast.

1795 – President George Washington signed the controversial Jay Treaty.

1838 – Charles Wilkes heads up the United States Exploring Expedition, which would explore the Puget Sound and Antarctica, as it weighs anchor at Hampton Roads.

1848 – Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutierrez are executed on the orders of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Globe Tavern: Union forces try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad.

1868 – French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Gravelotte is fought.

1877 – Asaph Hall discovers Martian moon Phobos.

1891 – Major hurricane strikes Martinique, leaving 700 dead.

1903 – German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.

1914 – President Woodrow Wilson issues "Proclamation of Neutrality"

1917 – A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.

1920 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.

1938 – The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York, United States with Ontario, Canada over the Saint Lawrence River, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1945 – Sukarno takes office as the first president of Indonesia, following the country's declaration of independence the previous day.

1950 – Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium is assassinated by far-right elements.

1955:  Hurricane Diane hits northern Pennsylvania, causing extreme flooding. Diane was the wettest tropical cyclone on record for the Northeast, causing many small rivers to rise above their banks and flooding towns throughout New England. At a creek near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, fifty people drowned when they were unable to escape the rising water.  whatwasthere.com

1958 – Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.

1958 – Brojen Das from Bangladesh swims across the English Channel in a competition, as the first Bangali and the first Asian to do so. He came first among 39 competitors.

1963 – American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

1965 – Vietnam War: Operation Starlite begins" United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle of the war.

1966 – Vietnam War: the Battle of Long Tan ensues after a patrol from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment clashes with a Viet Cong force in Phước Tuy Province.

1971 – Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.

1976 – In the Korean Demilitarized Zone at Panmunjom, the Axe murder incident results in the death of two US soldiers.

1977 – Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 in King William's Town, South Africa. He later dies from injuries sustained during this arrest bringing attention to South Africa's apartheid policies.

1983 – Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 22 people and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).

1989 – Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia.

1997 – Beth Ann Hogan became the first co-ed in the Virginia Military Institute’s 158-year history.

2005 – A massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people, the one of the largest and most widespread power outages in history.

2008 – President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigns under threat of impeachment.



Saints' Days and Holy Days

Traditional Western

Helen, Emepress of the Romans, Widow.     Double.
Commemoration of the Octave of the Assumption.
Commemoration of St. Agapitus, Martyr.


Contemporary Western

Agapitus of Palestrina
Alberto Hurtado
Fiacre
Helena of Constantinople


Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran

William Porcher DuBose (Episcopal Church)


Eastern Orthodox

August 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Afterfeast of the Dormition
Martyrs Florus and Laurus of Illyria, twin brothers who worked as stonemasons (2nd century)
The Holy Host of Paupers (300 martyrs), brought together by Saints Florus and Laurus,
      who smashed the statues of the pagan gods and were martyred by fire
Martyrs Hermes, Serapion, Polyaenus of Rome (2nd century)
Hieromartyr Emilian, Bishop of Trebia in Umbria, and lay martyrs Hilarion,
      Dionysius, Hermippus, and about 1,000 others, in Italy (c. 300)
Venerable Barnabas and his nephew Sophronius, founders of
      Mount Mela Monastery (Panagia Soumela), near Trebizond (412)
Venerable Christopher of Trebizond, Abbot of Mount Mela Monastery
      (Panagia Soumela) (668)
Saints John (674) and George (683), Patriarchs of Constantinople.
Martyr Juliana near Strobilos in Lycia.
Martyr Leo, drowned off the coast of Myra in Lycia.
The 4 Venerable Ascetics, reposed in peace.
Saint Macarius, Abbot of the Pelecete Monastery near Prusa, Bithynia (840)
Venerable John of Rila, founder and Abbot of Rila Monastery, Bulgaria (946)

Saint Agapitus of Palestrina, a fifteen-year-old who bravely confessed Christ
      and was martyred in Palestrina near Rome (c. 274)
Martyrs John and Crispus, priests in Rome who devoted themselves to recovering
      and burying the bodies of the martyrs, for which they also suffered martyrdom.
Saint Firminus of Metz, Greek or Italian by origin, he was
      Bishop of Metz in France for eight years, Confessor (496)
Saint Daig Maccairill (Daig, Dagaeus, Daganus), disciple of St Finian, he founded
      a monastery at Inis Cain Dega (Inniskeen), and was both abbot and bishop (586)
Saint Milo, a monk together with his father at Fontenelle Abbey in France,
      and later a hermit (c. 740)
Saint Inan (Evan),a hermit in Ayrshire in Scotland,
      where churches are dedicated to him (9th century)

Saint Christodoulus the Philosopher, called "the Ossetian," of Georgia (12th century)
Venerable Sophronius of St. Anne's skete on Mount Athos (18th century)
New Monk-martyr Demetrius the Vlach, of Samarina (Pindos), at Ioannina (1808)
New Hieromartyrs Archimandrite Augustine of Orans Monastery,
      and Archpriest Nicholas of Nizhni-Novgorod, and 15 people with them (1918)
New Hieromartyr Gregory Bronnikov, Priest, and Martyr Eugene Dmitriev
      and Michael Eregodsky (1937)

Uncovering of the Relics of Venerable Arsenios the New of Paros (1877)
Repose of Schemamonk Nicholas "the Turk," of Optina Skete (1893)
Icon of the Mother of God the "Directress" ("Hodegetria") of Trebizond,
      also known as "Panagia Soumeliotissa"


Coptic Orthodox





No comments:

Post a Comment