What are the important events that happened on May 18? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
May 18: Facts & Myths About This Day
May 18 is the 139th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 227 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Saturday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 5, 2024 – a Saturday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 1,715,990,400 seconds has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectatriacontaenneagon’ day.
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Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 256 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,166 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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May 18 Historical Events
- 1152 –Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine.
- 1268 –The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Battle of Antioch.
- 1756 –The Seven Years’ War begins when Great Britain declares war on France.
- 1783 –First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown (later called Saint John), New Brunswick, Canada after leaving the United States.
- 1917 –World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.
- 1926 –Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears while visiting a Venice, California beach.
- 1953 –Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
- 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, ends.
- 1958 –An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph (2,259.82 km/h).
- 2005 –A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons: Nix and Hydra.
Who were born on May 18?
- 1662 –George Smalridge, English bishop of Bristol (d. 1719)
- 1883 –Eurico Gaspar Dutra, President of Brazil (d. 1974)
- 1904 –Jacob K. Javits, American politician (d. 1986)
- 1913 –Charles Trenet, French singer and songwriter (d. 2001)
- 1933 –Don Whillans, English mountaineer (d. 1985)
- 1954 –Reinhold Heil, German composer
- 1959 –Jay Wells, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1977 –Lee Hendrie, English footballer
- 1986 –Ryan Lamb, English rugby union player
- 1988 –Taeyang, South Korean singer (Big Bang)
Who died on May 18?
- 1675 –Jacques Marquette, French Jesuit missionary and explorer (b. 1637)
- 1733 –Georg Böhm, German organist (b. 1761)
- 1800 –Alexander Suvorov, Russian general (b. 1729)
- 1963 –Ernie Davis, American football player (b. 1939)
- 1971 –Aleksandr Gennadievich Kurosh, Russian mathematician (b. 1908)
- 1973 –Jeannette Rankin, American politician and first U.S. Congresswoman (b. 1880)
- 1990 –Jill Ireland, English actress (b. 1936)
- 1995 –Elisha Cook, Jr., American actor (b. 1903)
- 2004 –Elvin Jones, American jazz drummer (b. 1927)
- 2007 –Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist (b. 1932)
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