Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August 18
- 293 BC - Oldest known Roman temple to Venus was founded, starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica.
- 1590 - John White, the governor of the Colony of Roanoke, returned from a supply-trip to England and found his settlement deserted.
- 1877 - Asaph Hall discovered Mars's largest moon, Phobos.
- 1903 - German inventor Karl Jatho flew with his self-made motored gliding airplane, four months before the first flight of the Wright Brothers.
- 1963 - James Meredith became the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.