On May 18th...

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1642 Montreal, Canada, was founded.

1652 Rhode Island became the first American colony to outlaw slavery.

1675 Father Jacques Marquette, French missionary and explorer, died.

1756 Britain declared war on France.

1843 The United Free Church of Scotland was formed.

1852 Massachusetts became the first state to require children to attend school.

1863 The Seige of Vicksburg, Mississippi, began.

1868 Czar Nicholas II of Russia was born.

1872 Bertrand Russell, philosopher and mathematician, was born.

1880 George Lewis rode Fonso to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1883 Architect Walter Gropius was born.

1892 Operatic tenor Ezio Pinza was born.

1896 The U. S. Supreme Court ruled racial separation constitutional (Plessy v Ferguson).
1896 A mass panic during the festivities of Tsar Nicolas II's coronation left 1,389 persons dead.

1897 Herbert Henry Dow founded Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan.
1897 Bram Stoker's Dracula was published.
1897 Film director Frank Capra was born.

1900 The United Kingdom proclaimed a protectorate over the Kingdom of Tonga.

1911 Composer Gustav Mahler died.

1912 Singer Perry Como was born.

1917 The U. S. Congress passed the Selective Service Act.
1917 The first units of the American Expeditionary Force was ordered to France.

1918 A TNT explosion in an Oakdale, Pennsylvania, chemical factory killed 200 people.

1919 Ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn was born.

1920 Clarence Kummer rode Man o' War to victory in the Preakness.
1920 Karol Jósef Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) was born.

1922 Actor Bill Macy was born.

1926 Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished in Venice, California.

1927 Andrew Kehoe blew up the Bath (Michigan) Consolidated School, killing 38 children and 2 teachers.
1927 Grauman's Chinese Theatre opened in Hollywood, California.

1928 Actor Pernell Roberts was born.

1929 Linus McAtee rode Clyde Van Dusen to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

1931 Artist Don Martin was born.

1933 U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Act.

1934 The Academy Award was first called "Oscar" in print by Sidney Skolsky.

1937 Baseball player Brooks Robinson was born.

1946 Baseball player Reggie Jackson was born.

1948 The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convened in Nanking.

1949 The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America was incorporated.
1949 Keyboardist Rick Wakeman was born.

1952 Singer George Strait was born.

1953 Jacqueline Cochrane became the first woman to break the sound barrier.

1955 Educator Mary McLeod Bethune died.

1957 Eddie Arcaro rode Bold Ruler to victory in the Preakness.

1963 The Indonesian People's Consultative Congress named President Sukarno Chief of State for Life.
1963 Bill Shoemaker rode Candy Spots to victory in the Preakness.

1968 Ismael Valenzuela rode Forward Pass to victory in the Preakness.

1969 The United States launched Apollo X toward the Moon.

1970 Actress Tina Fey was born.

1971 The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Chicago Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup.

1973 The Senate Watergate Committee began nationally televised hearings.
1973 Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, died.

1974 India became the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.
1974 Miguel Rivera rode Current Little to victory in the Preakness.

1980 Mount St. Helens in Washington erupted.

1985 Pat Day rode Tank's Prospect to victory in the Preakness.

1990 Actress Jill Ireland died.

1991 Jerry Bailey rode Hansel to victory in the Preakness.

1994 Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip.

1995 Braveheart premiered at the Seattle Film Festival.
1995 Ballet dancer Alexander Godunov died.
1995 Actress Elizabeth Montgomery died.

1996 Pat Day rode Louis Quatorze to victory in the Preakness.

1997 Christa Johnson won the LPGA Championship.

2002 Victor Espinoza rode War Emblem to victory in the Preakness.

2004 Actor Tony Randall died.

2013 Gary Stevens rode Oxbow to victory in the Preakness.

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This page was last updated on May 17, 2018.