Today in History....June 18

On this day in …


* 1586, English colonists sailed from Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America

* 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War

* 1812, the United States declared war against Britain

* 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium

* 1928, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a journey with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours

* 1940, during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, "This was their finest hour."

* 1948, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights finished drafting an International Declaration of Human Rights

* 1979, President Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna

* 1983, astronaut Sally K. Ride became America's first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger

* 2002, a practitioner of that "religion of peace" detonated a nail-studded bomb in a Jerusalem bus, killing 19 passengers and himself. ALSO: President Bush sent to Congress his detailed proposal for creation of a new Homeland Security Department. AND: Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura announced he would not seek a second term.