Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 18
This is a list of selected May 18 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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F-104 Starfighter -
Eruption of Mount St. Helens
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1268 – Baibars and his Mamluk forces captured Antioch, capital of the crusader state, the Principality of Antioch. | requires expansion |
| 1848 – During the aftermath of the March Revolution in the German Confederation, the Frankfurt Parliament opened in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main. | needs more footnotes |
| 1869 – One day after surrendering at the Battle of Hakodate, Enomoto Takeaki turned over Goryōkaku to Japanese forces, signaling the collapse of the Republic of Ezo. | tagged {{ibid}} |
| 1926 – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappeared near California's Venice Beach, and sparked days-long media coverage. She was later found 35 days later in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. | tagged {{ibid}} |
| 1933 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act establishing the Tennessee Valley Authority to stimulate the economic development of the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly impacted by the Great Depression. | needs more footnotes |
| 1948 – The first session of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China convened in the then-Chinese capital of Nanjing. | refimprove section |
| 1974 – India conducted its first nuclear test explosion at Pokhran, the first confirmed nuclear test by a nation outside the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. | refimprove |
Eligible
- 1896 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Plessy v. Ferguson, upholding the legality of racial segregation in public transportation under the "Separate but equal" doctrine.
- 1927 – Disgruntled school board member Andrew Kehoe set off two bombs in an elementary school in Bath Township, Michigan, killing 45, the deadliest mass murder in a school in United States history.
- 1944 – World War II: Polish forces under Lieutenant General Władysław Anders captured Monte Cassino, Italy, after a four-month battle.
- 1955 – Operation 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, ended.
- 1958 – The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a supersonic interceptor aircraft, set a then-world speed record of 1,404.19 miles per hour (2,259.82 km/h).
- 1980 – The stratovolcano Mount St. Helens erupted (pictured), killing 57 people in southern Washington State, reducing hundreds of square miles to wasteland, and causing over a billion U.S. dollars in damage.
- 2009 – The Sri Lanka Army killed Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader and founder of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to bring an end to the 26-year Sri Lankan Civil War.
Notes
- Brown v. Board of Education appears on May 17, so Plessy v. Ferguson should not appear the same year (if possible) for variety's sake
May 18: Flag and Universities Day in Haiti; Day of Revival, Unity, and the Poetry of Magtymguly in Turkmenistan
- 1652 – Rhode Island passed the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
- 1944 – The Soviet Union forcibly deported the entire population of Crimean Tatars as special settlers to Uzbek SSR and elsewhere in the country.
- 1980 – A popular uprising against the nationwide martial law imposed by South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan's government began in Gwangju, but it was ultimately crushed by the South Korean army about nine days later.
- 1991 – The Somali National Movement declared the independence of Somaliland (flag pictured), a de facto state that is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia, following the collapse of central government during the Somali Civil War.
- 2006 – The Parliament of Nepal unanimously voted to strip King Gyanendra of many of his powers.