May 18 On This Day

Some little things that happened in American History on May 18:

1631 - John Winthrop is elected 1st Governor of the Massachusetts Bay 1652 - Rhode Island enacts 1st law declaring slavery illegal
1852 - Massachusetts rules all school-age children must attend school
1860 - Republican Party nominates Abraham Lincoln for president
1863 - Siege of Vicksburg, MS begins
1896 - US Supreme court affirms legitimacy of racial separation (Plessy v Ferguson)
1897 - American baseball NY Giant William (Bill) Joyce sets record of 4 triples in 1 game
1916 - US pilot Kiffin Rockwell shoots down German aircraft
1917 - US Congress passes Selective Service Act, authorizing the federal government to raise a national army for the American entry into World War I through compulsory enlistment
1917 - First units of the American Expeditionary Force, commanded by GeneralJohn J. Pershing, is ordered to France
1918 - TNT explosion in chemical factory in Oakdale, Pennsylvania, kills 200
1927 - "Slide Lake" in Gros Ventre, Wyoming, collapses
1927 - Grauman's Chinese Theater opens in Hollywood Calif
1927 - Bath School Disaster, Bath MI. Andrew Kehoe blows up Bath Consolidated School killing 38 children, 2 teachers.
1929 - 55th Kentucky Derby: Linus McAtee on Clyde Van Dusen wins in 2:10.8
1929 - Dodgers beat Phillies 20-16 & lost 8-6 in 2nd game (record 50 runs)
1933 - Tennessee Valley Act (TVA) Act signed by FDR, to build dams
1933 - 1st major league All-Star Game announced for July 6 at Comiskey Park It will be played as part of the Chicago World's Fair
1934 - Academy Award 1st called Oscar in print (Sidney Skolsky)
1934 - Congress approves "Lindbergh Act" making kidnapping a capital offense

1934 - Jimmie Foxx hits 1st HR in Comiskey Park center field bleachers
1934 - TWA began commercial service
1951 - UN moves HQ to NYC
1951 - US General Collins predicts use of atom bomb in Korea
1953 - 1st woman to break sound barrier (Jacqueline Cochrane, USA)
1956 - Mickey Mantle hits HR from both sides of plate for record 3rd time
1964 - US Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional to deprive naturalized citizens of citizenship if they return to home country for more than 3 years
1965 - Gene Roddenberry suggests 16 names for Star Trek Captain; they include Kirk
1967 - Tennessee Governor Ellington approves the repeal of the Butler Act or "Monkey Law", upheld in 1925 Scopes Trial
1969 - Apollo 10 (Stafford/Cernan/Young) launched toward lunar orbit
1971 - US President Richard Nixon rejects 60 demands of Congressional Black Caucus
1972 - John Sebastian makes 63 consecutive free throws while blindfolded
1974 - "Streak" by Ray Stevens hits #1
1980 - Mount St Helens blows its top in Washington State, 60 die
1983 - Senate revises immigration laws, gives millions of illegal aliens legal status under an amnesty program
1992 - US Supreme Court rules states could not force mentally unstable criminal defendants to take anti-psychotic drugs
1998 - United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft.