May 18

Events
Up to 1900
44 BC - Comet Caesar is discovered by Chinese astronomers.
332 - Emperor Constantine announces distributions of food to citizens in Constantinople.
1152 - Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine.
1388 - During the Battle of Buyur Lake, General Lan Yu leads a Chinese army forward to crush the Mongol hordes of Toghus Temur, the Khan of Northern Yuan.
1498 - Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut, in southern India.
1499 - Alonso de Ojeda sets sail from Cadiz on a voyage to present-day Venezuela.
1565 - The Siege of Malta begins as the Ottomans unsuccessfully attempt to conquer Malta.
1631 - John Winthrop becomes the 1st Governor of Massachusetts.
1652 - Rhode Island passes the first law in North America that declares Slavery illegal.
1756 - The Seven Years' War begins as Great Britain declares war on France.
1763 - Fire destroys a large part of Montreal.
1803 - Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom declares war on France.
1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate.
1811 - Uruguayan forces under Jose Artigas defeat Spanish colonial troops in the Battle of Las Piedras.
1812 - John Bellingham is sentenced to death for killing Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Spencer Perceval.
1843 - Disruption in Edinburgh of the Free Church of Scotland from the Church of Scotland.
1848 - Opening of the first National Assembly of Germany opens in Frankfurt.
1860 - Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States, ahead of William H. Seward.
1863 - American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins.
1869 - One day after surrendering at the Battle of Hakodate, Emomoto Takeaki turns over Goryokaku to Japanese forces, signaling the collapse of the Republic of Ezo.
1896 - Khodynka tragedy: Mass panic at the coronation celebration of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in Moscow results in 1,389 people being killed.
1900 - The UK declares Tonga a British protectorate.
1901 2000
1910 - Earth passes through the tail of Halley's Comet.
1912 - The first Indian movie, Shree Mandalik, is released in Bombay.
1927 - Bath School disaster: 45 people are killed by bombs planted by Andrew Kehoe, who is also killed, at Bath School in Michigan.
1944 - World War II: German paratroopers abandon Monte Cassino after severe fighting.
1944 - Deporting of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Government begins.
1951 - In Lund, Sweden, Tetra Pak is introduced, developed by Erik Wallenberg, through an idea by Ruben Rausing.
1953 - Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
1955 - End of Operation Passage to Freedom: An evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French army from Communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam ends, following the end of the First Indochina War.
1956 - First ascent of Lhotse, in the Himalayas, at 8,516 metres above sea level, by a Swiss team.
1958 - An F-104 starfighter sets a world speed record at 1,404.19 miles per hour (2,259.82 kilometres per hour).
1969 - Apollo 10 is launched.
1974 - India tests nuclear weapons.
1974 - The Warsaw radio mast is completed. It collapses on August 8, 1991.
1980 - South Korean students in Gwangju begin pro-democracy protests, which are violently crushed, killing 297.
1980 - Mount St. Helens in Washington state erupts. A large amount of destruction is caused as many trees and wildlife die, and darkness falls over the nearby area. 57 people are killed, including Harry Randall Truman, who famously refused to leave the area prior to the eruption. It is the costliest volcanic disaster in US history.
1990 - In France, a modified TGV train achieves a new rail world speed record of 515.3 kilometers per hour/320.2 miles per hour.
1991 - Northern Somalia declares independence as the Republic of Somaliland, which, to this day, remains unrecognised internationally.
1991 - Helen Sharman becomes the first Briton in space.
1993 - In Denmark, most voters support the Maastricht Treaty, after previously rejecting it in 1992.
1995 - Former United States Army veteran Shawn Nelson goes on a tank rampage in San Diego, California.
1996 - Eimear Quinn, representing Ireland, wins the 41st Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo, Norway. It is Ireland's 4th win in 5 contests.
1999 - Carlo Azeglio Ciampi becomes President of Italy.
From 2001
2005 - The Hubble Space Telescope confirms the discovery of Pluto's moons Nix and Hydra.
2009 - The Sri Lankan Civil War comes to an end, as government forces defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
2012 - Facebook puts its shares onto the Stock Exchange.
2013 - In Malmo, southern Sweden, Emmelie de Forest wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 for Denmark, with the song Only Teardrops.
2015 - A landslide in Salgar, Colombia, kills at least 52 people.
2018 - 10 people are killed in the Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas.
2018 - Cubana de Aviacion Flight 972 crashes shortly after take-off from Havana Airport in Cuba, killing 110 people.
2019 - 2019 Australian federal election: Scott Morrison's conservative coalition scores an unexpected victory in a closely fought election over the Australian Labor Party under Bill Shorten.
2019 - Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache resigns as Vice-Chancellor of Austria after a video emerges of him being involved in a corruption controversy; Chancellor Sebastian Kurz calls for an early election.
2019 - The 64th Eurovision Song Contest is held in Tel Aviv, Israel, and is won by Duncan Laurence of the Netherlands; this is the first Dutch victory of the contest since 1975.
Births
Up to 1900
1048 - Omar Khayyam, Persian mathematician, poet and philosopher (d. 1131)
1186 - Konstantin of Rostov, Prince of Novgorod (d. 1218)
1610 - Stefano della Bella, Italian printmaker (d. 1664)
1692 - Joseph Butler, English philosopher and bishop (d. 1752)
1778 - Andrew Ure, Scottish physician and chemist (d. 1857)
1781 - David Hazzard, Governor of Delaware (d. 1864)
1788 - Hugh Clapperton, Scottish naval officer and explorer (d. 1827)
1797 - King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony (d. 1854)
1822 - Matthew Brady, American photographer (d. 1896)
1848 - Hermann Alexander Diels, German philologist (d. 1922)
1850 - Oliver Heavside, English physicist (d. 1925)
1851 - James Budd, 19th Governor of California (d. 1908)
1852 - Gertrud Kaesebier, American photographer (d. 1934)
1854 - Bernard Zweers, Dutch composer and music teacher (d. 1924)
1862 - Josephus Daniels, 41st United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1948)
1868 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (d. 1918)
1872 - Bertrand Russell, British philosopher (d. 1970)
1873 - Lucy Beaumont, British actress (d. 1937)
1876 - Hermann Muller, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1931)
1878 - Johannes Terwogt, Dutch rower (d. 1977)
1882 - Babe Adams, American baseball player (d. 1968)
1883 - Eurico Gaspar Dutra, President of Brazil (d. 1974)
1883 - Walter Gropius, German architect (d. 1969)
1887 - Jeanie MacPherson, American actress and screenwriter (d. 1946)
1889 - Gunnar Gunnarsson, Icelandic writer (d. 1975)
1889 - Thomas Midgley, Jr., American chemist and inventor (d. 1944)
1891 - Rudolf Carnap, German philosopher (d. 1970)
1892 - Ezio Pinza, Italian bass (d. 1957)
1895 - Augusto Cesar Sandino, Nicaraguan rebel leader (d. 1934)
1896 - Eric Backman, Swedish long-distance runner (d. 1965)
1897 - Frank Capra, American movie director (d. 1991)
1901 1950
1901 - Vincent du Vigneaud, American chemist (d. 1978)
1902 - Meredith Wilson, American composer (d. 1984)
1904 - Jacob K. Javits, American politician (d. 1986)
1907 - Irene Hunt, American children's writer (d. 2001)
1909 - Fred Perry, British tennis player (d. 1995)
1911 - Big Joe Turner, American blues musician (d. 1985)
1912 - Walter Sisulu, South African activist (d. 2003)
1912 - Perry Como, American singer (d. 2001)
1912 - Richard Brooks, American director (d. 1992)
1913 - Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, President of India (d. 1996)
1913 - Charles Trenet, French singer and songwriter (d. 2001)
1914 - Georg von Tiesenhausen, German-American rocket scientist (d. 2018)
1914 - Robert J. Wilke, American actor (d. 1989)
1914 - Boris Christoff, Bulgarian opera singer (d. 1993)
1917 - Bill Everett, American comic book writer and artist (d. 1973)
1919 - Margot Fonteyn, British dancer (d. 1991)
1920 - Pope John Paul II (d. 2005)
1920 - Lucia Mannucci, Italian singer and actress (d. 2012)
1922 - Mario Casalinuovo, Italian politician (d. 2018)
1922 - Bill Macy, American actor
1922 - Kai Winding, Danish-American trombonist and composer (d. 1983)
1923 - Hugh Shearer, Prime Minister of Jamaica (d. 2004)
1924 - Priscilla Pointer, American actress
1926 - Martin Bregman, American film producer (d. 2018)
1928 - Pernell Roberts, American actor (d. 2010)
1931 - Kalju Pitksaar, Estonian chess player (d. 1995)
1933 - H. D. Deve Gowda, former Prime Minister of India
1933 - Bernadette Chirac, former First Lady of France
1934 - Dwayne Hickman, American actor and television presenter (d. 2022)
1936 - Rita Cadillac, French dancer, singer and actress (d. 1995)
1937 - Jacques Santer, Luxembourg statesman
1938 - Joan Blackman, American actress
1939 - Giovanni Falcone, Italian magistrate and anti-Mafia judge (d. 1992)
1939 - Peter Grunberg, German physicist (d. 2018)
1941 - Miriam Margolyes, British actress
1942 - Albert Hammond, British musician
1942 - Nobby Stiles, English footballer
1946 - Frank Hsieh, Taiwanese Premier
1946 - Bruce Gilbert, English guitarist
1946 - Gerd Langguth, German political scientist and author (d. 2013)
1946 - Ameril Umbra Kato, Filipino warlord (d. 2015)
1947 - John Bruton, Irish Taoiseach
1948 - Tom Udall, American politician
1949 - Bill Wallace, Canadian bassist
1949 - Rick Wakeman, British musician
1950 - Thomas Gottschalk, German entertainer
1950 - Mark Mothersbaugh, American singer, musician and composer
1951 1975
1951 - Angela Voigt, German long jumper (d. 2013)
1951 - Ben Feringa, Dutch chemist, Nobel laureate
1952 - Jeana Yeager, American pilot
1953 - Alan Kupperberg, American comic book artist (d. 2015)
1955 - Chow Yun-Fat, Hong Kong actor
1956 - Catherine Corsini, French movie director and screenwriter
1957 - Michael Cretu, German-Romanian musician
1958 - Toyah Willcox, British actress and singer
1958 - Ruben Omar Romano, Argentine football manager
1959 - Ranga Yogeshwar, Luxembourgish science journalist, physicist and presenter
1960 - Brent Ashton, Canadian ice hockey player
1960 - Jari Kurri, Finnish ice hockey player, coach and manager
1960 - Yannick Noah, French tennis player and singer
1962 - Nanne Gronvall, Swedish singer
1962 - Sandra, German singer
1963 - Marty McSorley, Canadian ice hockey player, coach and actor
1964 - Ignasi Guardans, Catalan politician
1966 - Michael Tait, American singer-songwriter and producer
1967 - Heinz-Harald Frentzen, German racing driver
1968 - Sergey Martynov, Belarusian target shooter
1969 - Martika, Cuban-American singer-songwriter, producer and actress
1970 - Tina Fey, American actress and comedienne
1971 - Brad Friedel, American soccer player
1971 - Mark Menzies, Scottish politician
1974 - Nelson Figueroa, American baseball player
1975 - Flozell Adams, American football player
1975 - John Higgins, Scottish snooker player
1975 - Jem, Welsh singer
1975 - Jack Johnson, American singer, songwriter and surfer
1975 - Just Jack, English singer
1975 - Princessa, Spanish singer and songwriter
From 1976
1976 - Oleg Tverdovsky, Ukrainian-Russian ice hockey player
1976 - Ron Mercer, American basketball player
1977 - Danny Mills, English footballer
1978 - Ricardo Carvalho, Portuguese footballer
1978 - Charles Kamathi, Kenyan long-distance runner
1979 - Mariusz Lewandowski, Polish footballer
1979 - Milivoje Novakovic, Slovenian footballer
1980 - Michael Llodra, French tennis player
1980 - Diego Perez, Uruguayan footballer
1981 - Mahamadou Diarra, Malian footballer
1984 - Ivet Lalova, Bulgarian sprinter
1985 - Joseph Roisman, American former navy sailor
1985 - Francesca Battistelli, American singer-songwriter
1986 - Kevin Anderson, South African tennis player
1987 - Luisana Lopilato, Argentine actress, singer and model
1988 - Taeyang, South Korean singer
1989 - Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri, Iranian footballer
1990 - Gayoon, South Korean singer and dancer
1990 - Yuya Osako, Japanese footballer
1992 - Spencer Breslin, American actor
1993 - Jessica Watson, Australian sailor
1998 - Polina Edmunds, American figure skater
1999 - Laura Omloop, Belgian singer
Deaths
Up to 1900
526 - Pope John I
1401 - Wladyslaw Opolczyk, Central European politician (b. 1332)
1550 - Jean, Cardinal of Lorraine, French cardinal (b. 1498)
1551 - Domenico di Pace Beccafumi, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1486)
1584 - Ikeda Motosuke, Japanese samurai commander (b. 1559)
1675 - Jacques Marinette, French-American missionary and explorer (b. 1637)
1675 - Stanislaw Lubieniecki, Polish astronomer, theologian and historian (b. 1623)
1721 - Dawit III of Ethiopia (b. 1695)
1781 - Tupac Amaru II, Peruvian Indian revolutionary (b. 1742)
1799 - Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, French playwright (b. 1732)
1800 - Alexander Suvorov, Russian general (b. 1729)
1807 - John Douglas, Anglican bishop (b. 1721)
1808 - Elijah Craig, important to the invention of bourbon (b. 1738?)
1812 - John Bellingham, assassin of Spencer Perceval
1829 - Maria Josepha of Saxony, Queen Consort of Spain (b. 1803)
1844 - Richard McCarty, American politician (b. 1780)
1853 - Lionel Kieseritzky, Baltic-German/French chess player (b. 1806)
1896 - Daniel Pollen, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1813)
1900 - Jean Gaspard Felix Ravaisson-Mollien, French philosopher (b. 1813)
1901 2000
1909 - George Meredith, English novelist and poet (b. 1828)
1909 - Isaac Albeniz, Spanish pianist and composer (b. 1860)
1910 - Pauline Garcia-Viardot, singer, composer (b. 1821)
1911 - Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
1922 - Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French doctor, won the 1907 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1845)
1927 - Andrew Kehoe, perpetrator of Bath School disaster
1943 - Onishiki Daigoro, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1883)
1955 - Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator and activist (b. 1875)
1956 - Maurice Tate, English cricketer (b. 1895)
1969 - Prentice Cooper, American politician, 43rd Governor of Tennessee (b. 1895)
1971 - Aleksandr Gennadievich Kurosh, Russian mathematician (b. 1908)
1973 - Jeannette Rankin, first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives (b. 1880)
1975 - Leroy Anderson, American composer (b. 1908)
1978 - Selwyn Lloyd, British politician (b. 1904)
1980 - Deaths in the Mt. St. Helens eruption:
Harry Randall Truman, Guardian of Mt. St. Helens (b. 1896)
David A. Johnston, American volcanologist (b. 1949)
Reid Blackburn, American photojournalist (b. 1952)
1980 - Ian Curtis, British musician, singer/lyricist with Joy Division (b. July 15, 1956)
1981 - William Saroyan, American writer (b. 1908)
1988 - Daws Butler, voice actor (b. 1916)
1995 - Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (b. 1933)
1995 - Alexander Godunov, ballet dancer and actor (b. 1949)
1995 - Elisha Cook Jr., actor (b. 1903)
1995 - Shawn Nelson, US Army veteran (b. 1959)
1999 - Augustus Pablo, Jamaican singer (b. 1954)
1999 - Betty Robinson, Olympic runner (b. 1911)
2000 - Stephen M. Wolownik, Russian musician and arranger (b. 1946)
From 2001
2001 - Irene Hunt, American children's writer (b. 1907)
2003 - Anna Santisteban, organizer of the Miss Universe contest (b. 1914)
2003 - Barb Tarbox, anti-smoking crusader (b. 1961)
2004 - Elvin Jones, jazz drummer (b. 1927)
2007 - Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist (b. 1932)
2009 - Velupillai Prabhakaran, Sri Lankan leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (b. 1954)
2009 - Wayne Allwine, American actor (b. 1947)
2009 - Dolla, American rapper (b. 1987)
2010 - Edoardo Sanguineti, Italian writer (b. 1930)
2012 - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German baritone and conductor (b. 1925)
2013 - Jo Benkow, Norwegian politician (b. 1924)
2013 - Nam Duck-woo, 12th Prime Minister of South Korea (b. 1924)
2013 - Steve Forrest, American actor (b. 1925)
2014 - Wubbo Ockels, Dutch physicist and astronaut (b. 1946)
2014 - Dobrica Cosic, Serbian writer and politician, President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (b. 1921)
2014 - Jerry Vale, American singer and actor (b. 1930)
2014 - Gordon Willis, American cinematographer (b. 1931)
2014 - Hans-Peter Durr, German physicist (b. 1929)
2014 - Per Almar Aas, Norwegian politician (b. 1929)
2014 - Kaiketsu Masateru, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1946)
2014 - Morris Weiss, American cartoonist (b. 1915)
2015 - Halldor Asgrimsson, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1947)
2015 - Raymond Gosling, British scientist (b. 1926)
2015 - Aruna Shanbaug, Indian nurse (b. 1948)
2016 - Fritz Stern, German-American historian (b. 1926)
2016 - Boris Schnaiderman, Ukrainian-born Brazilian translator, writer and essayist (b. 1917)
2017 - Reema Lagoo, Indian actress (b. 1958)
2017 - Anil Madhav Dave, Indian politician (b. 1956)
2017 - Roger Ailes, American television executive (Fox News) (b. 1940)
2017 - Jacque Fresco, American futurist (b. 1916)
2017 - Daniele Piombi, Italian television and radio presenter (b. 1934)
2018 - Stephanie Adams, American model and author (b. 1947)
2018 - Billy Cannon, American football player (b. 1937)
2018 - John Carrick, Australian politician (b. 1918)
2018 - Ayad Futayyih Al-Rawi, Iraqi military officer (b. 1942)
2018 - Sir Des Champs, Irish racehorse (b. 2006)
2018 - Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Colombian cardinal (b. 1929)
2018 - Eric McLuhan, Canadian communications theorist and media ecologist (b. 1942)
2018 - Yrsa Stenius, Finnish-Swedish journalist (b. 1945)
2019 - Analia Gade, Argentine actress (b. 1931)
2019 - Jurgen Kissner, German cyclist (b. 1942)
2019 - Quentin Pongia, New Zealand rugby league player (b. 1970)
Observances
International Museum Day
World AIDS vaccine Day
Independence Day (Somaliland)
Battle of Las Piedras Day (Uruguay)
Days of the year