On This Day - August 18
On August 18, 1590 Gov. John White arrived at Roanoke Island to find that his colony had been long deserted by its settlers.
The few clues about the colonists' whereabouts included letters carved into a tree that read "CRO" and an inscription on a post of their fort, which said "CROATOAN".
The word "Croatoan" refers to both the nearby island and a local tribe of Native Americans.
The Governor had agreed before his departure that a message would be carved into a tree if the colonists had moved, and an image of a Maltese Cross would indicate whether or not they'd been forced to leave. White found no such cross and was unable to search the area for surviving colonists. He returned to Ireland, living on the estate of Sir Walter Raleigh, hopeful that his family and friends were still alive somewhere off the coast of North Carolina.
The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the best-documented witch trials in English history.
The twelve accused lived near Pendle Hill in Lancashire and were charged with the murders of ten people through witchcraft.
All but two of the Northumberland witches were tried at Lancaster Assizes on 18-19 August 1612, along with other cases that have become known as the Lancashire witch trials.
Of the eleven defendants who went to trial, ten were found guilty and executed by hanging; one was acquitted.
1920 - The Nineteenth Amendment is ratified, guaranteeing women’s suffrage
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the country and its states from denying citizens voting rights based on sex.
The amendment, which granted women the right to vote in America for the first time, was part of a decades-long movement for female suffrage at both state and national levels-and part of an international push towards granting women equal rights.
In 1878, the first women's suffrage amendment was introduced into Congress. However, it took many years for an amendment to pass both houses of Congress-in 1919 (House) and June 4th 1919 (Senate).
The amendment was then sent to the states for ratification, with Tennessee becoming the deciding 36th state on August 18, 1920.
Image Attributions:
Graham Demaline, CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
Graham Demaline, CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
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