History for May 18

History for May 18 - On-This-Day.com
Frank Capra 1897 - Film director ("It's a Wonderful Life"), Robert Meredith Willson 1902 - Composer, songwriter, conductor, playwright, Perry Como 1912 - Singer, television personality


Pope John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyla) 1920, Dwayne Hickman 1934 - Actor, Reggie Jackson 1946 - Baseball player


1642 - Montreal, Canada, was founded.


1652 - In Rhode Island, a law was passed that made slavery illegal in North America. It was the first law of its kind.


1896 - The U.S. Supreme court upheld the "separate but equal" policy in the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision. The ruling was overturned 58 years later with Brown vs. Board of Education.


1934 - The U.S. Congress approved an act, known as the "Lindberg Act," that called for the death penalty in interstate kidnapping cases.


1953 - The first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound, Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour.


1974 - India became the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.


1980 - Mt. Saint Helens erupted in Washington state. 57 people were killed and 3 billion in damage was done.


1983 - The U.S. Senate revised immigration laws and gave millions of illegal aliens legal status under an amnesty program.