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 138th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 227 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Sunday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 5, 2025 – a Sunday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 485,424 hours 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 ‘hectatriacontaoctagon’ 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 275 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 4,531 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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May 18 Historical Events
- 1152 –Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine.
- 1652 –Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
- 1804 –Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.
- 1863 –American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins.
- 1926 –Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears while visiting a Venice, California beach.
- 1927 –After being founded for 20 years, the Government of the Republic of China approves Tongji University to be among the first national universities of the Republic of China.
- 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.
- 1974 –Nuclear test: under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.
- 1995 –Shawn Nelson, 35, goes on a tank rampage in San Diego.
- 2009 –Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.
Who were born on May 18?
- 1883 –Walter Gropius, German architect (d. 1969)
- 1892 –Ezio Pinza, Italian-born bass (d. 1957)
- 1907 –Carl Mydans, American photographer (d. 2004)
- 1911 –Big Joe Turner, American blues singer (d. 1985)
- 1919 –Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (d. 1991)
- 1922 –Kai Winding, Danish-born jazz trombonist and composer (d. 1983)
- 1937 –Brooks Robinson, American baseball player
- 1970 –Billy Howerdel, American guitarist (A Perfect Circle)
- 1978 –Marcus Giles, American baseball player
- 1990 –Gayoon, South Korean singer (4minute)
Who died on May 18?
- 1675 –Jacques Marquette, French Jesuit missionary and explorer (b. 1637)
- 1733 –Georg Böhm, German organist (b. 1761)
- 1889 –Isabella Glyn Dallas, Scottish Shakepearean actress (b. 1823)
- 1971 –Aleksandr Gennadievich Kurosh, Russian mathematician (b. 1908)
- 1980 –Ian Curtis, English musician, singer and lyricist (Joy Division) (b. 1956)
- 1980 –Victims of Mount St. Helens eruption: David A. Johnston, U.S. volcanologist (b. 1949)
- 1999 –Betty Robinson, American runner (b. 1911)
- 2003 –Barb Tarbox, Canadian anti-smoking crusader (b. 1961)
- 2007 –Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist (b. 1932)
- 2009 –Wayne Allwine, American voice actor (b.1947)
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