History for May 18

History for May 18 - On-This-Day.com

Pope John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyla) 1920

• 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.
• 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.
• 1994 - Israel's three decades of occupation in the Gaza Strip ended as Israeli troops completed their withdrawal and Palestinian authorities took over.
• 1998 - The U.S. federal government and 20 states filed a sweeping antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., saying the computer software company had a "choke hold" on competitors which denied consumer choices by controlling 90% of the software market.