History of 18 May
1904 – Brigand Raizuli kidnapped American Ion H. Perdicaris in Morocco.
1917 – The U.S. Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which called up soldiers to fight in World War I.
1926 – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while visiting a beach in Venice, CA. She reappeared a month later with the claim that she had been kidnapped.
1931 – Japanese pilot Seiji Yoshihara crashed his plane in the Pacific Ocean while trying to be the first to cross the ocean nonstop. He was picked up seven hours later by a passing ship.
1933 – The Tennessee Valley Authority was created.
1934 – The U.S. Congress approved an act, known as the “Lindberg Act,” that called for the death penalty in interstate kidnapping cases.
1942 – New York ended night baseball games for the duration of World War II.
1944 – Monte Cassino, Europe’s oldest Monastic house, was finally captured by the Allies in Italy.
1949 – Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America was incorporated
1951 – The United Nations moved its headquarters to New York City.
1953 – The first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound, Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour.
1974 – India became the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.
1980 – Mt. Saint Helens erupted in Washington state. 57 people were killed and 3 billion in damage was done.
1983 – The U.S. Senate revised immigration laws and gave millions of illegal aliens legal status under an amnesty program.
1994 – Israel’s three decades of occupation in the Gaza Strip ended as Israeli troops completed their withdrawal and Palestinian authorities took over.
1998 – The U.S. federal government and 20 states filed a sweeping antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., saying the computer software company had a “choke hold” on competitors which denied consumer choices by controlling 90% of the software market.
1998 – U.S. federal officials arrested more than 130 people and seized $35 million. This was the end to an investigation of money laundering being done by a dozen Mexican banks and two drug-smuggling cartels.
2012 – Facebook Inc. held its initial public offering and began trading on the NASDAQ. The company was valued at $104 billion making it the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public company.
2014 – Russian President Putin signed a bill to absorb Crimea into the Russian Federation.
2015 – At least 78 people die in a landslide caused by heavy rains in the Colombian town of Salgar.
2018 – A school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas kills 10 people.
2018 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 972 crashes in Havana’s José Martí International Airport.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Mahamadou Diarra, Malian footballer
- 1981 – Ashley Harrison, Australian rugby league player
- 1982 – Jason Brown, English footballer
- 1982 – Marie-Ève Pelletier, a Canadian tennis player
- 1983 – Gary O’Neil, English footballer
- 1983 – Luis Terrero, Dominican baseball player
- 1983 – Vince Young, American football player
- 1984 – Ivet Lalova, Bulgarian sprinter
- 1984 – Simon Pagenaud, French race car driver
- 1984 – Darius Šilinskis, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1984 – Joakim Soria, Mexican baseball player
- 1984 – Niki Terpstra, Dutch cyclist
- 1985 – Oliver Sin, Hungarian painter
- 1985 – Henrique Sereno, Portuguese footballer
- 1986 – Ahmed Hamada, Egyptian race car driver
- 1986 – Kevin Anderson, South African tennis player
- 1990 – Dimitri Daeseleire, Belgian footballer
- 1988 – Taeyang, member of popular Korean boyband Big Bang
- 1990 – Yuya Osako, Japanese footballer
- 1990 – Josh Starling, Australian rugby league player
- 1992 – Adwoa Aboah, British fashion model
- 1993 – Stuart Percy, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1993 – Jessica Watson, Australian sailor
- 1998 – Polina Edmunds, American figure skater
- 1999 – Laura Omloop, Belgian singer-songwriter
- 2000 – Faim Aydogdiyev, Russian football player
- 2002 – Alina Zagitova, Russian figure skater