On August 18, but in 1960, the first female contraceptive pill went on sale in the United States.
Other ephemeris:
1480.- The expedition organized by the Catholic Monarchs led by Pedro de Vera disembarks on the island of Gran Canaria to conquer the archipelago.
1492.- Publication of the first edition of the “Grammar on the Castilian Language”, by Antonio Nebrija.
1502.- The navigator originally from Spain at the service of the Crown of Portugal, Joao da Nova, discovers an islet to which he gave the name of the saint of the day: Santa Elena.
1849.- Buenaventura Báez is elected president of the Dominican Republic.
1920.- The nineteenth constitutional amendment that recognizes the right to vote for women in the US is ratified.
1936.-Federico García Lorca is assassinated along with several people, near Granada, a month after the start of the Civil War.
1947.- The Government of the Paraguayan general Higinio Morínigo defeats the military rebels since March 7 of that year, in what is known as the Civil War of 47th Revolution of the Pynandí, thanks to the support received by the Argentine general Perón .
1958.- Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov publishes his novel Lolita in the United States.
1962.- First performance of the Beatles with the definitive formation at the Horticulture Society Dance in Birkenhead, United Kingdom.
1963.- James Meredith becomes the first African-American graduate to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
1964.- The IOC suspends South Africa from participating in the Olympic Games for its apartheid policy.
1973. Irapuato, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, suffers the worst floods in its history with hundreds of deaths and disappearances.
1976.- The Luna 24” probe, from the Soviet Union, lands on the lunar surface to collect samples and take them back to Earth. It was the last ship sent to the Moon by the USSR.
1977.- The South African police arrest Steve Biko on charges of an act of terrorism in King William’Town in 1967. He will die days later from police torture by the apartheid regime.
1985.- Julia Arévalo, Uruguayan and the first woman parliamentarian in South America, dies.
1987.- The Sandinista government of Nicaragua lifts the state of exception, in force since March 1982, in compliance with a peace agreement.
1989.- Assassinated in Bogotá by drug traffickers and with the alleged complicity of state agents, the senator and Liberal candidate for the Presidency Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento.
1992.- The legendary forward of the Boston Celtics, Larry Bird, announces his retirement from the American professional basketball league (NBA).
1993.- A violent fire destroys the wooden bridge of Lucerne, symbol of that Swiss city and the oldest monument of this type that was preserved in Europe.
1994.- The Parliament of Panama approves the abolition of the Army.
2003.- Argentina communicates to the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, the arrest of all those claimed for crimes of genocide, terrorism and torture committed during the military dictatorship (1976-1983).
2005.- The Polisario Front frees the last 404 Moroccan prisoners of war in Tindouf (Algeria).
2006.-The Chilean Supreme Court confirms the impeachment of the dictator Augusto Pinochet for embezzlement of public funds.
2008.- The president of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigns from his post after being threatened with impeachment.
2009.- Georgia officially leaves the CIS due to the 2008 Russian military intervention in its territory.
2015.- In Syria, the Islamic State (IS) beheads the archaeologist and head of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums in Palmyra, Khaled al Asaad, for being the “director of the idols”.
2018.- Former cricket world champion Imran Khan takes office as Pakistan’s prime minister.
2020.- Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, under house arrest, resigns from his seat in the Senate, a measure with which he opens a new path to the process against him for alleged procedural fraud and bribery of witnesses.
2022.- A report from the Commission for Truth and Access to Justice concludes that the disappearance of the 43 Mexican students from Ayotzinapa was a “State crime”.
births
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1830.- Francisco José I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.
1920.- Shelley Winters, American actress.
1927.- Rosalynn Carter, former first lady of the United States.
1929.- Anatoli V. Kuznetzov, Soviet writer.
1930.- Agustín Ibarrola, Spanish painter and sculptor.
1932.- Luc Montagnier, French Nobel Prize in Medicine virologist.
1933.- Roman Polanski, Polish filmmaker.
1936.- Robert Redford, American actor and film director.
1952.- Patrick Swayze, American actor.
1957.- Carole Bouquet, French actress.
1958.- Madeleine Stowe, American actress.
1962.- Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, former president of Mexico.
1969.- Edward Norton, American actor.
1983.- Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr. known as Mika, British-Lebanese singer.
1985.- Beatrice Borromeo, Italian aristocrat wife of Pierre Casiraghi of Monaco.
deaths
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1850.- Honoré de Balzac, French novelist.
1987.- Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet.
1994.- Yeshayahu Leibowich, Israeli philosopher.
1995.- Julio Caro Baroja, Spanish anthropologist.
2004.- Elmer Berstein, American composer of soundtracks.
2009.- Kim Dae-Jung, former president of South Korea and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
2018.- Kofi Annan, Ghanaian, former UN Secretary General.
2019.- Encarna Paso, Spanish actress.
2020.- Mohammad Ali Tashiri, Iranian cleric.
2022.- Virginia Patton, American actress. EFE
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