[Rors]

On This Day: August 18

This is the 231st day of the year.

Fact of the Day: mail order catalog

The first mail-order catalog was published by Montgomery Ward & Co. (of Chicago) in 1872. It was only a single sheet of paper! Ward started the company in 1872 with $2,400 capital and the aim of buying large quantities of merchandise wholesale and then selling it directly to farmers in rural areas without the help of retail intermediaries. Such an operation would provide goods to farmers at low prices but still yield Ward acceptable profits. To accomplish this, Ward began distributing the catalog and backed up his sales with a money-back guarantee. By 1904, the Montgomery Ward catalog weighed four pounds. In 1985, the company closed its 113-year-old catalog operation and in 2000 it announced the closing of its retail stores.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Helena, Saints Florus and Laurus, St. Agapitus, St. Alipius, and St. Beatrice or Brites da Silva.

Events

1853 - The milk condensation process was patented by Gail Borden.

1872 - The first mail-order catalog was published, by Montgomery Ward.

1894 - Congress established the Bureau of Immigration.

1920 - The 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was ratified by Tennessee, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it law.

1963 - James Meredith became the first African-American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

2004 - The internet search engine Google went public and the price of shares was $85.

Lebanon Related Events

1987 - American journalist Charles Glass escaped his kidnappers in Beirut after 62 days in captivity. Glass had been abducted June 17 with two Lebanese who were released after a week.
(AP, 8/18/97)

1997 - Militiamen under the South Lebanon Army, a key ally of Israel, shelled the port city of Sidon and killed at least 6 people while injuring over 3 dozen. In apparent retaliation northern Israel was hit by dozens of Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A8)

2006 - The Lebanese army reached the country's southern border with Israel for the first time in decades, sending a lone jeep on patrol through Kfar Kila, a battered stronghold of support for Hezbollah militants. At least 845 Lebanese were killed in the 34-day war: 743 civilians, 34 soldiers and 68 Hezbollah. Israel says it killed about 530 guerrillas. On the Israeli side, 157 were killed, 118 soldiers and 39 civilians, many from the 3,970 Hezbollah rockets. The Lebanese government estimated infrastructure damages at $2.5 billion. The Lebanese death toll was later raised to 1200 and economic costs put to some $12 billion.
(AP, 8/18/06)(SFC, 8/19/06, p.C1)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.51)

2007 - In northern Lebanon gunbattles with Islamic extremists in a Palestinian refugee camp left one soldier dead. Another died of wounds the next day.
(AP, 8/19/07)


Births

1587 - Virginia Dare, the first child of English parents to be born on American soil, on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
1750 - Antonio Salieri, Italian composer.
1774 - Meriwether Lewis, American explorer of Lewis & Clark.
1830 - Franz Josef I, Austro-Hungarian emperor.
1834 - Marshall Field, American department store mogul.
1904 - Max Factor, American cosmetic mogul.
1934 - Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican-born American baseball great.
1937 - Robert Redford, American actor, director.

Deaths

1227 - Genghis Khan, Mongolian warrior and ruler.