Holidays Calendar for August 18, 2021
Tasu’a, also spelled Tassoua, is the day before Ashura, an Islamic holiday commemorating the Battle of Karbala and the martyrdom of Imam Husayn ibn Ali. While Ashura is a public holiday in a number of countries, Iran is the only country that celebrates Tasu’a as a public holiday as well.
World Breast Cancer Research Day is observed annually on August 18. It was created to raise awareness of the leading type of cancer in women and to highlight the importance of research aimed at ending breast cancer once and for all.
Army Day in North Macedonia is celebrated on August 18 every year. The holiday commemorates the creation of the Mirče Acev battalion in 1943. The battalion laid the foundation of the People's Liberation Army of Macedonia that fought against the Axis forces during WWII.
August 18 is Border Guard Day in Kazakhstan. This professional holiday was established by a presidential decree in 1992, but the date of the holiday was included to the calendar of professional holidays only in 2002.
Azerbaijani professional holiday Border Guard Day is celebrated every year on August 18. This is a professional holiday of all servicemen of the Border Troops of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Geographer’s Day is a Russian professional holiday that was officially created in May 2020. It is celebrated on August 18 to commemorate the foundation of the Russian Geographical Society on this day in 1845.
Tajik healthcare professionals celebrate their professional holiday on August 18. The date of Healthcare Professionals Day in Tajikistan was chosen to commemorate the birthday of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), a Persian polymath who is widely regarded as the father of modern medicine.
National Independent Worker Day is celebrated annually on August 18. It was created to highlight the economic contribution of independent contractors, freelancers, consultants, small business owners, and other self-employed individuals.
National Tree Planting Day (NTPD) in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is celebrated on August 18. The holiday was established in 2009 by the government and president of Pakistan in order to raise awareness of deforestation and other environmental issues.
National Science Day is observed in Thailand every year on August 18. This holiday celebrates the anniversary of a total solar eclipse in 1868 that had been predicted by King Mongkut two years earlier.
August 18 is Vietnam Veterans’ Day (also known as Long Tan Day) in Australia. This day commemorates the Battle of Long Tan that was fought near Long Tan during the Vietnam War. It resulted in decisive Australian victory over North Vietnamese units and Viet Cong.
Virginia Dare’s Birthday is an annual observance celebrated on August 18 on Roanoke Island in North Carolina, United States. It honors the first English child born in the New World. During the past four centuries, Virginia Dare has become a prominent figure in American folklore, partly because she and her parents were members of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.
Constitution Day (Hari Konstitusi Republik Indonesia) is celebrated in Indonesia on August 18 every year. It was established by a 2008 presidential decree to commemorate the ratification of the 1945 State Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.
Jesse Robredo Day (Araw ni Jesse Robredo) is observed in the Philippines annually on August 18. It was established to honor the memory of Jesse Robredo, the 23rd secretary of the interior and local government, who was killed in a plane crash on August 18, 2012.
A slice of delicious ice cream pie is a perfect dessert to cool off on a hot summer day. On August 18, indulge yourself with some ice cream pie as it is National Ice Cream Pie Day.
August 18 is the perfect day to indulge in Tex-Mex cuisine because it is National Fajita Day. It was created to celebrate a delicious grilled meat dish that has been around since the 1930s but didn’t become popular until the 1970s.
Pinot Noir Day, also referred to as National Pinot Noir Day and International Pinot Noir Day, is observed annually on August 18. It celebrates one of the most popular red wines that is produced in wine-growing regions ranging from Argentina to Australia.
Festivals on August 18, 2021
- Belgrade Beer Fest in Belgrade, Serbia
- Edinburgh International Film Festival in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Sorochyntsi Fair in Velyky Sorochyntsi, Ukraine
- Oslo Jazzfestival in Oslo, Norway
- Music in Old Kraków in Krakow, Poland
- Music in Old Lviv in Lviv, Ukraine
- Odesa International Film Festival in Odesa, Ukraine
- Edinburgh International Book Festival in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Taiwan International Balloon Festival in Luye, Taiwan
- Sarajevo Film Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival in Victoria (BC), Canada
- Festival of the Flowers in Medellín in Medellín, Colombia
- Hollywood Fringe Festival in Los Angeles, USA
- New Horizons International Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland
- Onam Festival in Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram, India
This Day in History
- 2024 Died: Alain Delon, French actor. Acknowledged as a cultural and cinematic leading man of the 20th century, Delon emerged as one of the foremost European actors of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
- 2009 Died: Kim Dae-jung, South Korean lieutenant and politician, the 15th President of South Korea. He is often called the Nelson Mandela of Asia for his achievements and political work.
- 2005 A massive power blackout hit the islands of Java and Bali in Indonesia, affecting some 100 million people. This blackout became one of the largest and most widespread outages in history.
- 2001 Died: David Peakall, American toxicologist whose research into the effects of DDE and DDT on eggshells contributed to the ban on DDT in the United States.
- 1983 Texas was hit by the powerful hurricane Alicia. 22 people were killed, and the hurricane caused over $1 billion in damage.
- 1969 Born: Christian Slater, American actor. He starred in many big budget and successful films, including Heathers, Interview with the Vampire, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Broken Arrow, and Hard Rain.
- 1965 Operation Starlite (also known in Vietnam as Battle of Van Tuong), the first major offensive action conducted by a purely U.S. military unit during the Vietnam War, began.
- 1958 Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita was published in the United States for the first time. It became the first since Gone with the Wind to sell 100,000 copies in its first three weeks.
- 1957 Born: Carole Bouquet, French model and actress who has appeared in more than 40 films since the end of the 1970s. She was known as Chanel's model in the 1980s-1990s.
- 1952 Born: Patrick Swayze, American actor and singer. He is best known for starring in The Outsiders, Dirty Dancing, Red Dawn, Road House, Ghost, Point Break.
- 1944 Died: Ernst Thälmann, German communist politician and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. He was shot dead by Hitler's personal order in Buchenwald.
- 1940 Died: Walter Chrysler, American industrial pioneer in the automotive industry, automotive industry executive and the founder and namesake of American Chrysler Corporation.
- 1936 Born: Robert Redford, American retired actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous accolades such as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.
- 1933 Born: Roman Polanski, French and Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and convicted sex offender. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award.
- 1932 Born: Luc Montagnier, French virologist. In 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency of virus (HIV).
- 1927 Born: Rosalynn Carter, American writer, activist, and humanitarian who served as the first lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981, as the wife of president Jimmy Carter.
- 1920 The United States Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing women's suffrage.
- 1917 30% of the city of Thessaloniki, Greece was destroyed in a fire that began by accident at a small house of refugees. The fire burned for 32 hours and destroyed 9,500 houses, leaving 70,000 people homeless.
- 1886 Died: Eli Whitney Blake, American inventor. He patented many inventions during his lifetime, including the mortise lock and the stone-crushing machine. The latter earned him a place in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
- 1877 American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Phobos, the larger of two inner natural satellites of Mars. The second moon, Deimos, was discovered by Hall on August 12 of the same year.
- 1868 French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovered helium, a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic gas.
- 1850 Died: Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.
- 1841 Died: Louis de Freycinet, French navigator and explorer, best remembered for circumnavigating the Earth and publishing the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of Australia.
- 1830 Born: Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary from 1848 until his death. At the end of his rule the Austro-Hungarian Empire was falling apart as a consequence of World War I.
- 1750 Born: Antonio Salieri, Italian composer and conductor, a pivotal figure in development of the late 18th-century opera. His most successful operas were Armida, Palmira, regina di Persia, and Axur, re d'Ormus.
- 1685 Born: Brook Taylor, English mathematician, best remembered for Taylor's theorem and Taylor series.
- 1620 Died: Wanli, Emperor of China from 1572 until his death. He ruled for 48 years and was the 13th emperor of the Ming Dynasty. During his rule, the dynasty witnessed a steady decline.
- 1612 The trial of the Pendle witches began at Lancaster Assizes. This trial became one of England's most famous witch trials.
- 1572 The Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre married Margaret of Valois in Paris. This marriage was an attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics.
- 1563 Died: Étienne de La Boétie, French magistrate, classicist, writer, poet and political theorist, best remembered for his intense and intimate friendship with essayist Michel de Montaigne.
- 1503 Died: Pope Alexander VI (born Rodrigo de Borja), head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes.