TMN STAFF
May 18
1642– The city of Montreal was founded by the French.
1804– Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate.
1896– The Supreme Court affirmed racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson as “separate but equal.”
1920– Pope John Paul II was born near Krakow, Poland.
1953– Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound.
1974– India became the 6th country to become a nuclear power.
1980– Mount St. Helens, in Washington State, erupted after being dormant for 123 years.
1994– Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza strip after three decades of occupation and Palestinians took over.
2000– A bill was finally passed that removed the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse.
2003– President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia declared martial law and sent 30,000 troops into Aceh.
2004– Sonia Gandhi stunned her party, the Indian National Congress, by refusing to accept the prime ministership of India.
Birthdays
1048– Omar Khayyam, poet (Rubaiyat) and mathematician
1872– Bertrand Russell, philosopher
1883– Walter Gropius, architect
1892– Ezio Pinza, singer
1919– Margot Fonteyn, ballerina
1920– Pope John Paul II
1946– Reggie Jackson, baseball Hall of Famer
1955– Chow Yun-Fat, actor