On This Day - February 18th

On this day in the year 3102 before the common era (BCE) the 432,000 year epoch of Kali Yuga began; it is the fourth and final epoch in the Hindu cosmological cycle, believed to be the "Age of Darkness and Vice;" the beginning of the age is marked by the death of Krishna. It is characterized by severe moral decline, materialism, conflict and a loss of spiritual, mental, and physical well-being. This period also sees the wide spread development of agriculture in the Nile, Mesopotamian and Indus river valleys, the institution of slavery (known in India as the code of Manu) and the rise of so-called civilization; four thousand, six hundred and twenty-one years later, Hernán Cortés leaves Cuba for the Yucatán Peninsula in modern Mexico, with eleven ships and five hundred men to begin a reign of terror among the Aztec and Mayan peoples.

On this day in the year 1735 of the common era (CE) the opera Flora is performed in Charleston, South Carolina; it is the first opera to be conducted in America.

On this day in the year 1787 CE the holy Roman emperor Joseph II bans children under eight years old from participating in the labor force, a law which was widely regarded as unenforceable.

On this day in 1804 CE the Ohio state legislature approves the establishment of Ohio University at Athens, it is the first university in Ohio; and the first land-grant college in the United States.

In 1861 CE, the traitor Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the president of the of the southern confederacy in a bid to destroy the United States, it occurs in Montgomery, Alabama; one hundred and four years later, the church deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson is beaten and shot during a peaceful march in Marion, Alabama, he dies from his injuries eight days later and this tragedy inspires the Selma to Montgomery marches led by the reverend Martin Luther King Jr.. Thirty-three after that, two white separatists are arrested in Nevada, they are accused of plotting a biological attack on the New York city subway system.

In 1876 CE a direct telegraph link is established between Great Britain and New Zealand.

In 1884 CE, Russian police seize all copies of Leo Tolstoy's book What I Believe In; one year later Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twenty-eight years after that the French modernist painting Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp causes an uproar when shown in New York, New York; ninety-seven years later the Bibliothèque Nationale de France purchases the memoirs of Giacomo Casanova for seven million pounds.

In 1901 CE, H, Cecil Booth patents a dust removing suction cleaner…the Vacuum.

In 1922 CE the Capper-Volstead Act allows farmers to buy and sell cooperatively without the risk of prosecution under antitrust laws; six years later the United States & Canada begin diplomatic relations.

In 1930 CE, American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers the dwarf planet Pluto; ninety-nine years later the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (N.A.S.A’s.) Perseverance Rover successfully lands at Jezero Crater, Mars, on a mission to find microfossils as evidence for life the presence of life on Mars.

In 1943 CE, Josef Goebbells, the Nazi minister of propaganda demands "total war" from German citizens in speech at Berlin Sportpalast; eight years later Nepal becomes a constitutional monarchy. Thirteen years after that, in 1954 CE the Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California; eighteen years later the California Supreme Court abolishes the death penalty.

In 1978 CE the first Iron Man Triathlon is held (swim 2.4 miles in rough water, bike ride 112 miles around the island of O’ahu, run a marathon 26.2 mils), beginning and ending at the Aloha Tower in Honolulu Harbor of Hawaii; eight years later the first anti-smoking television advertisement airs, featuring Academy Award winning actor Yul Brynner; who dieds of smoking-induced lung cancer on October 10, 1985.

In 1988 CE, Anthony Kennedy is sworn in as the 106th Justice of the United States Supreme Court; thirty-two years later, the Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy as a means of suspending the claims and official investigations into hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits.

In 2014 CE the Ukrainian Revolution begins as protesters, riot police and unknown shooters take part in violent events in the capital, Kiev, culminating after five days in the ouster of president Viktor Yanukovych, a known agent of Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation.

In 2025 CE the royal tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose II (reigning from about 1493 to 1479 BCE) is discovered west of the Valley of Kings; it is the first tomb of a pharaoh found since that of Tutankhamun in 1922.