Person report

★18 Jul 1863
American Civil War: Led by Union Army Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the first formal African American military unit, spearheaded an assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina.

★15 Jan 1865
American Civil War: The Union Army captured Fort Fisher, the last seaport of the Confederacy.

★28 Jul 1866
At the age of 18, Vinnie Ream became the youngest artist and first woman to receive a commission from the United States government for a statue—that of Abraham Lincoln currently in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.

★18 Aug 1868
Astronomer Pierre Jules Janssen discovered helium while analysing the chromosphere of the sun during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India.

★04 Apr 1873
The Kennel Club, the world's oldest kennel club, was founded in the United Kingdom after Sewallis Shirley became frustrated by trying to organise dog shows without a consistent set of rules.

★02 Jul 1890
The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first United States government action to limit monopolies.

★22 Jul 1894
Jules-Albert de Dion finished first in the world's first motor race, but did not win as his steam-powered car was against the rules.

★09 May 1901
The first Parliament of Australia opened in the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, exactly 26 years before it moved to Canberra's Provisional Parliament House, and exactly 87 years before it moved into the Parliament House in Canberra.

★06 Mar 1902
Real Madrid, one of the world's richest football clubs, was founded as Madrid Football Club.

★17 Mar 1902
The Dorchester Heights Monument, memorializing the siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War, was dedicated.

Historical data by Wikipedia Contributors CC BY-SA 3.0.