May 18: What Happened on This Day in History (High_school Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1652 - Rhode Island passes the first law in English-speaking North America making slavery illegal.
2. 1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.
3. 1860 - Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.
4. 1896 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional.
5. 1910 - The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley.
6. 1917 - World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.
7. 1933 - New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating theTennessee Valley Authority.
8. 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.
9. 1980 - 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens: Mount St. Helens erupts inWashington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
10. 2005 - A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons: Nix and Hydra.
11. Famous Birthdays: John George Children (English chemist, mineralogist, and zoologist ), Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (English mathematician, historian, and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate), Walter Gropius (German-American architect, designed the John F. Kennedy Federal Building ), Thomas Midgley, Jr. (American chemist and engineer), Vincent du Vigneaud (American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: May 17

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: May 19

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.