Sun · 27 SepMoon 99%Field Kp 4 · active Quote · Marcus Aurelius Riddle of the day Card of the dayHow today feels →

This day in history

This day in history: 18 May

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

Share

← Previous day17 May

Events63

Born on this day · Died on this day219 · 105

Next day →19 May

Key facts

387 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 18 May.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2026: A shooting carried out by two gunmen at the Islamic Center of San Diego results in the deaths of five people, including the perpetrators.

Holidays and observances

Baltic Fleet Day (Russia)

Christian feast day: Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury

Christian feast day: Blessed Blandine Merten

Christian feast day: Eric IX of Sweden

Christian feast day: Felix of Cantalice

Christian feast day: May 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Pope John I

Christian feast day: Venantius of Camerino

Day of Remembrance of Crimean Tatar genocide (Ukraine)

Independence Day (Somaliland) (unrecognized)

International Museum Day

National Speech Pathologist Day (United States)

Events

2026A shooting carried out by two gunmen at the Islamic Center of San Diego results in the deaths of five people, including the perpetrators.

2019United States presidential election: Joe Biden launches his presidential campaign.

2018A school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas kills ten people.

2018Cubana de Aviación Flight 972 crashes in Santiago de las Vegas after takeoff from José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba, killing 112 of the 113 people on board.

2015At least 78 people die in a landslide caused by heavy rains in the Colombian town of Salgar.

2009The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.

2006The post Loktantra Andolan government passes a landmark bill curtailing the power of the monarchy and making Nepal a secular country.

2005A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra.

1994Israeli troops finish withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, ceding the area to the Palestinian National Authority to govern.

1993Riots in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, caused by the approval of the four Danish exceptions in the Maastricht Treaty referendum. Police open fire against civilians for the first time since World War II and injure 11 demonstrators.

1991Northern Somalia declares independence from the rest of Somalia as the Republic of Somaliland.

1990In France, a modified TGV train achieves a new rail world speed record of 515.3 km/h (320.2 mph).

1980Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.

1980Rioting spreads to Miami's mostly African-American neighborhoods of Overtown and Liberty City following the previous day's courthouse protests.

1980Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations calling for democratic reforms.

1977Likud party wins the 1977 Israeli legislative election, with Menachem Begin, its founder, as the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.

1974Nuclear weapons testing: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.

1973Aeroflot Flight 109 is hijacked mid-flight and the aircraft is subsequently destroyed when the hijacker's bomb explodes, killing all 82 people on board.

1972During approach to Kharkiv International Airport, Aeroflot Flight 1491 crashes near Ruska Lozova, killing all 112 aboard.

1969Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.

1965Israeli spy Eli Cohen is hanged in Damascus, Syria.

1962The French government and representatives of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic reach a settlement to end the Algerian war in the Évian Accords.

1955Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of the First Indochina War, ends.

1953Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.

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

1944Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union.

1944World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino: Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers evacuate Monte Cassino.

1933New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.

1927After being founded for 20 years, the Nationalist government approves Tongji University to be among its first national universities.

1927The Bath School disaster: Forty-five people, including many children, are killed by bombs planted by a disgruntled school-board member in Bath Township, Michigan.

1926Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears in Venice, California.

1922Seamus Woods and Roger McCorley lead an Irish Republican Army attack on the headquarters of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Belfast.

1917World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.

1912The first Indian film, Shree Pundalik by Dadasaheb Torne, is released in Mumbai.

1900The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.

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

1896The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional.

1863American Civil War: Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant begin the Siege of Vicksburg during the Vicksburg campaign in order to take full control of the Mississippi River.

1860United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.

1848Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany.

Born on this day

2009Hala Finley, American actress

2003Travis Hunter, American football player

2002Alina Zagitova, Russian figure skater

2001Emma Navarro, American tennis player

2001Grace Reiter, American actress, comedian, and content creator

2000Ryan Sessegnon, English footballer

2000Steven Sessegnon, English footballer

1999Laura Omloop, Belgian singer-songwriter

1998Polina Edmunds, American figure skater

1993Jessica Watson, Australian sailor

1993Stuart Percy, Canadian ice hockey player

1992Adwoa Aboah, British fashion model

1990Dimitri Daeseleire, Belgian footballer

1990Josh Starling, Australian rugby league player

1990Yuya Osako, Japanese footballer

1988Taeyang, South Korean singer

1986Kevin Anderson, South African tennis player

1985Henrique Sereno, Portuguese footballer

1985Oliver Sin, Hungarian painter

1984Darius Šilinskis, Lithuanian basketball player

1984Ivet Lalova, Bulgarian sprinter

1984Joakim Soria, Mexican baseball player

1984Niki Terpstra, Dutch cyclist

1984Simon Pagenaud, French race car driver

1983Gary O'Neil, English footballer

1983Luis Terrero, Dominican baseball player

1983Vince Young, American football player

1982Jason Brown, English footballer

1982Marie-Ève Pelletier, Canadian tennis player

1981Ashley Harrison, Australian rugby league player

1981Mahamadou Diarra, Malian international footballer

1980Diego Pérez, Uruguayan footballer

1980Michaël Llodra, French tennis player

1980Reggie Evans, American basketball player

1979Jens Bergensten, Swedish video game designer, co-designed Minecraft

1979Julián Speroni, Argentinian footballer

1979Mariusz Lewandowski, Polish footballer

1979Michal Martikán, Slovak slalom canoeist

1979Milivoje Novaković, Slovenian footballer

1978Charles Kamathi, Kenyan runner

Died on this day

2026Tom Kane, American voice actor (born 1962)

2024Alice Stewart, American political commentator (born 1966)

2024Bruce Nordstrom, American businessman (born 1933)

2024Tony O'Reilly, Irish rugby player and businessman (born 1936)

2023Jim Brown, American football player, civil rights activist, and actor (born 1936)

2021Charles Grodin, American actor and talk show host (born 1935)

2021Yolanda Tortolero, Venezuelan politician

2020Ken Osmond, American actor and police officer (born 1943)

2019Austin Eubanks, American addiction recovery advocate, survivor of the Columbine shooting (born 1981)

2017Chris Cornell, American singer (born 1964)

2017Jacque Fresco, American engineer and academic (born 1916)

2017Roger Ailes, American businessman (born 1940)

2015Halldór Ásgrímsson, Icelandic accountant and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Iceland (born 1947)

2015Jean-François Théodore, French businessman (born 1946)

2015Raymond Gosling, English physicist and academic (born 1926)

2014Chukwuedu Nwokolo, Nigerian physician and academic (born 1921)

2014Dobrica Ćosić, Serbian politician, 1st President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (born 1921)

2014Hans-Peter Dürr, German physicist and academic (born 1929)

2014Kaiketsu Masateru, Japanese sumo wrestler (born 1948)

2014Wubbo Ockels, Dutch physicist and astronaut (born 1946)

2013Aleksei Balabanov, Russian director and screenwriter (born 1959)

2013David McMillan, American football player (born 1981)

2013Jo Benkow, Norwegian soldier and politician (born 1924)

2013Lothar Schmid, German chess player (born 1928)

2013Steve Forrest, American actor (born 1925)

2012Alan Oakley, English bicycle designer, designed the Raleigh Chopper (born 1927)

2012Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German opera singer and conductor (born 1925)

2012Peter Jones, English-Australian drummer and songwriter (born 1967)

2009Dolla, American rapper (born 1987)

2009Velupillai Prabhakaran, Sri Lankan rebel leader, founded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (born 1954)

Quote of the day

“The mind is everything. What you think you become.”

attributed to the Buddha

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

This day in history

Every question has its own page

Journal

What you should know, before others do

Weekly insights. One article. One practice. No noise.

Cookies

We use essential cookies to run the platform. Analytics and marketing cookies are only turned on once you consent — you can change your choice at any time.