On this day in history - August 18

What Happened On This Day – August 18

• 2005 Indonesia suffers a Massive Power Outage

  Thought to be one of the biggest power outages in recent history, the Java-Bali outage affected about 100 million people. Electricity was restored to most areas within 6 hours.

• 1958 Lolita is First Published in the US

  The highly controversial novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabakov detailed an adult man’s obsession over 12-year-old Dolores Haze, who he secretly calls Lolita.

• 1920 The State of Tennessee Passes the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution

  This action by the Tennessee legislature brought the number of states passing the 19th amendment to 36 and provided the necessary majority to ratify the amendment, which extended universal suffrage to women.

• 1877 Martian Moon Phobos is Discovered

  One of the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos, was discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. Hall also discovered Deimos, the other Martian Moon. Named after the Greek God of fear, Phobos orbits only 3700 miles from the surface of Mars, making it the Moon to orbit closest to its planet in the Solar System. Because of this, Phobos completes an orbit around Mars in 7 hours and 39 minutes.

• 1612 The Pendle witch trials begin

  11 people - 9 women and 2 men - are tried for practicing witch craft in one of UK's most well documented and followed witch trials. The trial lasts for two days and 10 of the accused are found guilty and executed on August 20.