18th May is the 138th day of the year (139th in leap years). 227 days remain until the end of the year. Today also marks the International Museum Day and World AIDS Vaccine Day. Find out some important events that occurred on this day, 18th May, in history.

 

Historical events

1096 — Crusaders massacre the Jews of Worms.

1593 — Dramatist and playwright Thomas Kyd’s accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe.

1619 — Hugo Grotius sentenced to life in prison in Loevestein Castle in the Netherlands.

1631 — Founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony John Winthrop is elected as the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1642 — Montreal, Canada, founded.

1652 — Rhode Island enacts the first law declaring slavery illegal.

1756 — Great Britain declares war on France.

1765 — Fire destroys a large part of Montreal, Quebec.

 

18th May in the 19th Century

1804 — Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate.

1830 — Edwin Budding of England signs an agreement for the manufacture of his invention, lawn mower. Saturdays are destroyed forever.

1843 — United Free Church of Scotland forms.

1851 — Amsterdam-Nieuwediep telegraph connection linked.

1852 — Massachusetts rules all school-age children must attend school.

1860 — Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for president of the United States of America.

1869 — Robert Tanner Freeman is the first African American to graduate from Harvard Dental School.

1896 — US Supreme court affirms the legitimacy of racial separation (Plessy v Ferguson).

1896 — Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field, Moscow, during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II, results in the deaths of 1,389 people.

1897 — Irish Music Festival the first held in Dublin.

1897 — “Dracula” by Irish author Bram Stoker is published by Archibald Constable and Company in London.

 

 

18th May in the 20th Century

1916 — US pilot Kiffin Rockwell shoots down German aircraft.

1918 — TNT explosion in a chemical factory in Oakdale, Sylvania, kills 200.

1926 — Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanishes in Venice, California She shows up a month later saying she’s been kidnapped.

1927 — Bath School Disaster, Bath MI. Andrew Kehoe blows up Bath Consolidated School killing 38 children, 2 teachers.

1934 — Academy Award first called Oscar in print by Sidney Skolsky.

1948 — Saudi Arabia joins invasion of Israel.

1951 — US General Collins predicts the use of atom bomb in Korea.

1953 — The first woman to break the sound barrier is Jacqueline Cochran, USA.

1958 — 11th Cannes Film Festival: “The Cranes Are Flying” directed by Mikhail Kalatozov wins the Palme d’Or.

1964 — US Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional to deprive naturalized citizens of citizenship if they return to home country for more than three years.

1970 – Tina Fey, American actress, producer, and screenwriter, is born.

1971 — Bulgarian constitution goes into effect.

1971 — Vampire r****t Wayne Boden’s last victim found in Calgary, Alberta.

1974 — India becomes the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.

1974 — Nigeria announces 55% government participation in all oil concessions.

1977 — Menachem Begin becomes Prime Minister of Israel.

1977 — The US, USSR and other nations sign the Environmental Modification Convention which prohibits weather warfare having widespread, long-lasting or severe effects.

1978 — Italy legalises abortion.

 

More dates

1980 — the People’s Republic of China launches the first intercontinental rocket.

1980 — Mount St Helens erupts in Washington state, causing the largest landslide in history. It kills 57 people and costs $1 billion in damage.

1983 — Senate revises immigration laws, gives millions of illegal aliens legal status under an amnesty program.

1985 — The first remote location for “Nightline” is South Africa.

1986 — David Goch finishes swimming 55,682 miles in a 25-yard pool.

1986 — South African army occupies Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

1992 — The US Supreme Court rules states could not force mentally unstable criminal defendants to take anti-psychotic drugs.

1992 — Adwoa Aboah, a British fashion model, is born.

1995 — “Braveheart” directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mel Gibson and Sophie Marceau premieres at the Seattle Film Festival. It wins the Best Picture in 1996.

1998 — United States vs. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft.

1999 — “Millennium” 3rd studio album by the Backstreet Boys is released. It becomes one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 30 million copies sold.

 

18th May in the 21st Century

2001 — DreamWorks Pictures “Shrek”, starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz in voice-over roles, debuts.

2009 — Lithuania elects first female president, Dalia Grybauskaite.

2011 — Don Gorske of the state of Wisconsin, ate his record-breaking 25,000th Bic Mac. The retired prison guard had been keeping track of his consumption of the McDonald’s burger for thirty-nine years and keeps close track of his overall consumption. Despite doctors not recommending this diet, Gorske maintained a healthy weight and low cholesterol.

2012 — Maryland recognises same-s*x divorce, even though same-s*x marriage is not yet legal. Gay marriage would not come into effect until January of the following year.

2013 – French president, Francois Hollande, signs gay marriage bill. France becomes the ninth European country to legalise gay marriage, and the fourteenth in the world to do so.

2018 — Mexican Damojh airlines flight crashes near Havana airport, Cuba. It kills 110, leaving just three survivors.

2018 — All of Chile’s 34 Roman Catholic bishops offer their resignation to Pope Francis in wake of a child s*x scandal.

2018 — K-pop boy band BTS release their album “Love Yourself: Tear”. It sells 135,000 in its first week.