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.
Today’s Birthdays
Omar Khayyam
poet and mathematician (1048)
Bertrand Russell
philospher (1872)
Walter Gropius
architect (1883)
Ezio Pinza
singer (1892)
Margot Fonteyn
ballerina (1919)
John Paul II
Pope (1978–2005), a Pole named Karol Jozef Wojtyla (1920)
Reggie Jackson
baseball player (1946)
Chow Yun-Fat
actor (1955)