Timeline August 2018

Events in August 2018 11

• 1927 – 2018 Neil Simon (1927-2018) Died 26 August 2018, aged 91 American playwright and screenwriter behind dozens of Broadway hits including The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park. He was among the most commercially successful playwrights in American theater history. His work also translated widely to film and television.
• 1932 – 2018 V.S. Naipaul (1932-2018) Died 11 August 2018, aged 85 Trinidad-born British writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001 for his body of fiction and travel writing. His novels, including A House for Mr Biswas, examined colonialism, displacement and postcolonial society. He was knighted for his services to literature.
• 1936 – 2018 John McCain (1936-2018) Died 25 August 2018, aged 81 American senator from Arizona and former Navy pilot who survived over five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He ran for president in 2000 and 2008 and was known for a reputation of bipartisan independence in the Senate. He died of brain cancer at his Arizona ranch.
• 1938 – 2018 Kofi Annan (1938-2018) Died 18 August 2018, aged 80 Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 for his work revitalizing the organization and its humanitarian efforts. He remained active in international diplomacy after leaving office.
• 1942 – 2018 Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) Died 16 August 2018, aged 76 American singer known as the "Queen of Soul", whose hits including "Respect" and "Chain of Fools" made her one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. She was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her voice became closely associated with the civil rights era.
• 2018 US Open 2018 Men: Novak Djokovic · Women: Naomi Osaka Naomi Osaka won her first Grand Slam in a controversial final where Serena Williams received code violations.
• 2018 Apple first $1 trillion company Unprecedented market valuation Apple became the first US publicly traded company to reach a market capitalisation of $1 trillion on August 2, 2018.
• 2018 2018 Kerala floods Worst flooding in the Indian state in nearly a century Unusually heavy monsoon rains caused severe flooding and landslides across the Indian state of Kerala, killing over 480 people and displacing more than a million. It was described as the worst flooding in the state in nearly 100 years. Dam releases compounded the flooding across low-lying districts.
• 2018 Parker Solar Probe launches NASA mission set to fly closer to the Sun than any spacecraft NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe on a mission to fly through the Sun's outer atmosphere, closer than any human-made object had gone before. The probe was designed to study solar wind and help forecast space weather events that affect Earth. It was named after physicist Eugene Parker, the first NASA mission named for a living person.
• 2018 Ponte Morandi collapse Motorway bridge collapses in Genoa, killing 43 A section of the Ponte Morandi viaduct in Genoa, Italy, collapsed during a storm, sending vehicles plunging and killing 43 people. The disaster raised questions about the maintenance of Italy's aging infrastructure. The bridge was demolished and replaced with a new structure that opened in 2020.
• 2018 Aretha Franklin dies in Detroit Aged 76 Dies at home in Detroit.