What will the world be like without any history? With no background, no lineage, no culture. How dull our life would be without any identity. History connects us to the roots of our culture, race, religion, etc. History is not only important for historians but also to one’s identity and purpose in life. Let us now read the historical milestones of August 18.
1914: Oscar Egg sets new cycling hour record
On August 18, 1914, Egg, Oscar from Switzerland made a new cycling record on the Paris track. The distance covered there was 44, 247 km, which was 472 km more from the previous record set by Barthet, Marcel of France whose record was 43, 775 on the same track.
1920 –Tennessee grants women’s suffrage amendment.
Tennessee becomes the 36th state to ratify the nineteenth amendment granting women’s suffrage, completing the three-quarters necessary to put the amendment into effect. It granted women the right to vote. To pass the amendment, only three-fourths of state legislatures need to pass an amendment, or ratify it, as a support.
1929 – The first cross-country women’s air derby begins.
The Women’s Air Derby was the first official women-only air race in the United States that took place during the 1929 National Air Races. Today in 1929, nineteen pilots took off from Santa Monica, California. Louise McPhetridgeThadenwas the winner of the first prize in the heavier-plane division, while Phoebe FairgraveOmlie was the first one to finish in the lighter-plane category.
2017 – Civilian researchers led by Paul Allen re-discover the USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the Pacific surface, 72 years after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes
The death toll from the sinking of the Indianapolis was the highest in US naval history. It was sunk in the Philippine Sea during WWII on the 30th July 1945 by Japanese naval torpedoes a few days after delivering parts for the bomb that would level Hiroshima.
Of the 1196 men on board about 800 made it into the water after the ship sunk in 12 minutes. The remaining men began a horrendous 4-day ordeal in the water being picked off by sharks and suffering from heat, thirst and exhaustion. On the fourth day a US naval plane finally spotted the survivors, but by then only 300 had survived.
2018 – Archaeologists confirm first-ever cheese found from Ancient Egypt 3,200 years old in tomb of Ptahmes, mayor of Memphis
A few years ago, the team of archaeologists discovered broken jars in the tomb of Ptahmes, which is a high-ranking Egyptian official. The team found a “solidified whitish mass” in one of the jars which, they suspected was food but were unsure which kind. Now a study has identified it as cheese, dating from 3,200 years ago. (BBC)
Source: news.bbc.co.uk, en.wikipedia.org
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