May 18

Events

• 1498 - Vasco da Gama reaches the port of Calicut, India
• 1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.
• 1863 - American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins.
• 1897 - Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker is published.
• 1917 – World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.
• 1933 - New Deal: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• 1944 – World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino – Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers ("Fallschirmjäger") evacuate Monte Cassino.
• 1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.
• 1980 - Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington

Births

• 1868 - Nicholas II of Russia, Tsar of Russia (d. 1918)
• 1872 - Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, English mathematician, writer and philosopher, Nobel laureate (d. 1970)
• 1904 – Jacob K. Javits, American politician (d. 1986)
• 1920 - Pope John Paul II (d. 2005)

Deaths

• 1675 - Stanisław Lubieniecki, Polish astronomer (b. 1623)
• 1675 - Jacques Marquette, French Jesuit missionary and explorer (b. 1637)
• 1911 - Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
• 1941 - Werner Sombart, German economist and sociologist (b. 1863)
• 1945 - William Joseph Simmons, founder of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (b. 1880)