18 May History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 526    -    St. John I ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
  • 1643    -    Queen Anne, the widow of Louis XIII, is granted sole and absolute power as regent by the Paris parliament, overriding the late king's will.
  • 1652    -    A law is passed in Rhode Island banning slavery in the colonies but it causes little stir and seems unlikely to be enforced.
  • 1792    -    Russian troops invade Poland.
  • 1802    -    Britain declares war on France.
ADVERTISEMENTS
  • 1804    -    Napoleon Bonaparte becomes the Emperor of France.
  • 1828    -    The Battle of Las Piedras, between Uruguay and Brazil, ends.
  • 1860    -    Abraham Lincoln is nominated for president.
  • 1864    -    The fighting at Spotsylvania in Virginia, reaches its peak at the Bloody Angle.
  • 1896    -    The Supreme Court's decision on Plessy v. Ferguson upholds the "separate but equal" policy in the United States.
  • 1904    -    Brigand Raizuli kidnaps American Ion H. Perdicaris in Morocco.
ADVERTISEMENTS
  • 1917    -    The U.S. Congress passes the Selective Service act, calling up soldiers to fight World War I.
  • 1931    -    Japanese pilot Seiji Yoshihara crashes his plane in the Pacific Ocean while trying to be the first to cross the ocean nonstop. He is picked up seven hours later by a passing ship.
  • 1933    -    President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Tennessee Valley Authority Act.
  • 1942    -    New York ends night baseball games for the rest of World War II.
  • 1944    -    The Allies finally capture Monte Cassino in Italy.
  • 1951    -    The United Nations moves its headquarters to New York city.
ADVERTISEMENTS
  • 1969    -    Two battalions of the 101st Airborne Division assault Hill 937 but cannot reach the top because of muddy conditions.
  • 1974    -    India becomes sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.
  • 1980    -    After rumbling for two months, Mount Saint Helens, in Washington, erupts 3 times in 24 hours.

  • 18 May Birthdays

  • 1836    -    Wilhelm Steinitz, chess champion.
  • 1868    -    Nicholas II, the last Russian czar.
  • 1872    -    Bertrand Russell, English mathematician, philosopher and social reformer.
  • 1897    -    Frank Capra, film director (It's A Wonderful Life).
  • 1902    -    Meredith Willson, composer and lyricist (The Music Man).
  • 1911    -    Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner, blues singer.
  • 1918    -    John Paul II [Karol Jozef Wojtyla], Roman Catholic pope.
  • 1919    -    Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer.