TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, Aug. 18, the 230th day of 2019. There are 135 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On August 18, 1963, James Meredith became the first black student to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

On this date:

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

In 1862, Dakota Indians began an uprising in Minnesota (the revolt was crushed by U.S. forces some six weeks later).

In 1894, Congress established the Bureau of Immigration.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the United States out of World War I.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing all American women’s right to vote, was ratified as Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.

In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, wound to a close after three nights with a midmorning set by Jimi Hendrix.

In 1976, two U.S. Army officers were killed in Korea’s demilitarized zone as a group of North Korean soldiers wielding axes and metal pikes attacked U.S. and South Korean soldiers.

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

In 1993, a judge in Sarasota, Fla., ruled that Kimberly Mays, the 14-year- old girl who had been switched at birth with another baby, need never again see her biological parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg, in accordance with her stated wishes. (However, Kimberly later moved in with the Twiggs.)

In 1995, Shannon Faulkner, who’d won a 2 ½-year legal battle to become the first female cadet at The Citadel, quit the South Carolina military college after less than a week, most of it spent in the infirmary.

In 2004, in Athens, Paul Hamm ( hahm) won the men’s gymnastics all-around Olympic gold medal by the closest margin ever in the event; controversy followed after it was discovered a scoring error cost Yang Taeyoung of South Korea the title.