August 18th

August 18 is the 231st day of the year.  There are 135 days remaining until the end of the year.

1835 Last Potawatomie Indians leave Chicago for the ‘burbs

1872 1st mail-order catalog is issued by Aaron Montgomery Ward without a discreet section for men’s undergarments

1909 Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River.

1920 Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing suffrage for people who have sex.

1926 Weather map is televised for 1st time and some people have not changed the channel since

1963 James Meredith becomes 1st black graduate from University of Mississippi

1977 Steve Biko is arrested "with prejudice" at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 in King William's Town, South Africa. Uh-oh. How do you say "martyr" in Afrikaans?

1986 Crockett's Tavern and Whorehouse opens in Fort Wilderness

1988 FDA approves Minoxidil as a hair loss treatment but warns of minimal but possible side effects

2005 A Massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people, the largest and most widespread power outage and orgy in history

1774 Meriwether Lewis, maybe gay US explorer/soldier/governor 

1906 Marcel Carné, maybe gay French director 

1941 Christopher Jones [William "Billy" Frank Jones], US actor 

1952 Patrick Swayze, US actor/dancer/songwriter 

1957 Denis Leary, US actor/comedian/writer/director 

1958 Reg E Cathey, maybe gay US actor 

1962 Brian Buzzini, maybe gay US model/actor (Playgirl's Man of the Year 1986)  

1966 Paul Carrigan [Manning Paul Tillman], gay US pornographic actor 

1969 Christian Slater, US actor 

1969 Edward Norton, US actor 

1975 Ricardo Tozzi, Brazilian actor 

1978 Wendell Ramos, Filipino actor/model 

1983 Mica Penniman, bisexual English singer 

1850 Honoré de Balzac, French Novelist, does not find this human comedy the least bit funny despite having a last name that sounds like "ball-sack"

1992 Christopher McCandless, maybe gay US non-survivalist, goes into the wild