Today in History

Today is Thursday, Aug. 18, the 230th day of 2011. There are 135 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight:

On Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guaranteed the right of all American women to vote, was ratified as Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.

On this date:

In 1587, Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents to be born on American soil, on what is now Roanoke Island in North Carolina. (However, the Roanoke colony ended up mysteriously disappearing.)

In 1838, the first marine expedition sponsored by the U.S. government set sail from Hampton Roads, Va.; the crews traveled the southern Pacific Ocean, gathering scientific information.

In 1846, U.S. forces led by General Stephen Kearny captured Santa Fe, N.M.

In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King dedicated the Thousand Islands Bridge connecting the United States and Canada.

In 1958, the novel “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov was first published in New York by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, almost three years after it was published in Paris.

In 1961, federal appeals court Judge Learned Hand, 89, died in New York.

In 1963, James Meredith became the first black student to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, N.Y., wound to a close after three nights with a mid-morning set by Jimi Hendrix.

In 1981, author and screenwriter Anita Loos (“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”) died in New York at age 93.

In 1983, Hurricane Alicia slammed into the Texas coast, leaving 21 dead and causing more than a billion dollars’ worth of damage.

Associated Press