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On this day › July 18

What happened on July 18 in American history

July 18 is the 199th day of the year (the 200th in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 8 stories from July 18 spanning 1863 to 2013. Among them: in 1863, Shaw is killed at the parapet; the 54th Massachusetts storms Fort Wagner; and in 1899, Newsboys overturn a Journal wagon in Long Island City; the strike spreads across New York.

1863

Shaw is killed at the parapet; the 54th Massachusetts storms Fort Wagner

One of the first Black regiments in the Union Army leads the beach assault on Charleston harbor's fort, suffering heavy losses but silencing doubts about whether these soldiers will fight.
1899Member story · 1776 Club

Newsboys overturn a Journal wagon in Long Island City; the strike spreads across New York

Thousands of boys walk off their corners, demanding Pulitzer and Hearst roll back the bundle price that outlasted the war it was raised to profit from.
1914

Congress creates an aviation section inside the Signal Corps; $250,000 to get it started

Public Law 143 gives the Army's handful of planes a formal home, but keeps aviation folded inside the Signal Corps rather than making it a branch of its own.
1944Member story · 1776 Club

Saipan's fall costs Tojo his post; Japan's elder statesmen tell the Emperor he must go

Kuniaki Koiso succeeds him as prime minister after the loss of Saipan puts American B-29s within striking range of Japanese cities.
1966

Young and Collins ride Agena's engine to 412 nautical miles; no human has flown higher

Gemini 10 docks with its target vehicle hours after liftoff from Cape Kennedy, with Collins set to walk outside and retrieve hardware from a second Agena still drifting in orbit.
1968Member story · 1776 Club

Moore and Noyce quit Fairchild and incorporate a semiconductor memory company in Mountain View

Backed by Arthur Rock and registered today as NM Electronics, the new venture already has a third man: chemical engineer Andy Grove, employee number three.
1989Member story · 1776 Club

Robert Bardo shoots Rebecca Schaeffer at her door; she dies at Cedars-Sinai at 21

Bardo, 19, had stalked her for three years and paid a detective $250 to pull her home address from California DMV records.
2013Member story · 1776 Club

Kevyn Orr files Chapter 9; Detroit lists debts of up to $20 billion

The city of 700,000 becomes the largest by population ever to seek bankruptcy protection, its revenue down more than 20 percent since 2008.