Saturday 18 May 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days
Calendars: Career Holidays (Recognition Holidays), Mexico, Smart events, US Holidays, Worldwide Holidays, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Chocolate holidays, Dog Holidays and Celebrations, El Salvador, Environmental Dates, Food holidays, Germany, Health Calendar, Pet and Animal Holidays, Sports and Fitness Special Days, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Unusual Holidays (Weird and Funny Holidays), Wine holidays
Holidays and observancesEvents- 1993 – Riots in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, caused by the approval of the four Danish exceptions in the Maastricht Treaty referendum. Police open fire against civilians for the first time since World War II and injure 11 demonstrators.
- 1980 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
- 1974 – Nuclear test: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.
- 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.
- 1953 – Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
- 1948 – The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.
- 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.
- 1917 – World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.
- 1912 – The first Indian film, Shree Pundalik by Dadasaheb Torne, is released in Mumbai.
- 1896 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional.
- 1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins.
- 1860 – Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.
- 1848 – Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany.
- 1811 – Battle of Las Piedras: The first great military triumph of the revolution of the Río de la Plata in Uruguay led by José Artigas.
- 1794 – Battle of Tourcoing during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
- 1783 – First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown (later called Saint John, New Brunswick), Canada, after leaving the United States.
- 1652 – Rhode Island passes the first law in English-speaking North America making slavery illegal.
- 1631 – In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.
- 1096 – First Crusade: Around 800 Jews are massacred in Worms, Germany.
- 872 – Louis II of Italy is crowned for the second time as Roman Emperor at Rome, at the age of 47. His first coronation was 28 years earlier, in 844, during the reign of his father Lothair I.
Births- 1998 – Polina Edmunds, American figure skater. Classic champion, and a two-time U.S. national silver medalist (2014, 2016).
- 1983 – Vince Young, American football player. Young was drafted by the Tennessee Titans with the third overall pick in the 2006 NFL Draft.
- 1980 – Reggie Evans, American basketball player. While limited in his offensive game, Evans was known for his rebounding, tenacity and hustle on the defensive end.
- 1979 – Jens Bergensten, Swedish video game designer, co-designed Minecraft. He became the lead designer and lead developer of the indie sandbox game Minecraft, after Markus "Notch" Persson stepped down from his position in December 2011, and has led it on to become the best selling video game of all time.
- 1978 – Marcus Giles, American baseball player. His older brother, Brian Giles, was an outfielder who also played in the Major Leagues.
- 1976 – Ron Mercer, American basketball player. After his career at the University of Kentucky, Mercer played for several teams in the National Basketball Association; he ended his career with the New Jersey Nets in 2005.
- 1974 – Nelson Figueroa, American baseball player and sportscaster. Figueroa also played for the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).
- 1973 – Donyell Marshall, American basketball player and coach. He is the head coach of the Central Connecticut men's basketball team.
- 1971 – Brad Friedel, American soccer player and sportscaster. Bradley Howard Friedel (born May 18, 1971) is a retired American soccer goalkeeper and the former head coach of Major League Soccer team New England Revolution.
- 1970 – Billy Howerdel, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. He has recorded four acclaimed studio albums with the former, and in 2008, Ashes Divide released their debut album, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright.
- 1970 – Tina Fey, American actress, producer, and screenwriter. Fey has also starred in Baby Mama (2008), Date Night (2010), Megamind (2010), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), Sisters (2015), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), and Wine Country (2019).
- 1969 – Martika, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress. Marta Marrero (born May 18, 1969), known as Martika, is an American singer-songwriter and actress, who released two internationally successful albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s, selling over four million copies worldwide.
- 1967 – Nancy Juvonen, American screenwriter and producer, co-founded Flower Films. She and Drew Barrymore own the production company Flower Films.
- 1966 – Michael Tait, American singer-songwriter and producer. Michael DeWayne Tait (born May 18, 1966) is a contemporary Christian music artist.
- 1963 – Sam Vincent, American basketball player and coach. James Samuel Vincent (born May 18, 1963) is an American retired professional basketball Player and Coach.
- 1953 – Alan Kupperberg, American author and illustrator (d. 2015), was an American comics artist known for working in both comic books and newspaper strips.
- 1952 – Diane Duane, American author and screenwriter. Her works include the Young Wizards young adult fantasy series and the Rihannsu Star Trek novels.
- 1952 – George Strait, American singer, guitarist and producer. He is known for his neotraditionalist country style, cowboy look, and being one of the first and main country artists to bring country music back to its roots and away from the pop country era in the 1980s.
- 1952 – Jeana Yeager, American pilot. The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds and covered 24,986 miles (40,211 km), more than doubling the old distance record set by a Boeing B-52 strategic bomber in 1962.
- 1951 – Jim Sundberg, American baseball player and sportscaster. A three-time All-Star player, Sundberg established himself as one of the top defensive catchers of his era by winning six consecutive Gold Glove Awards with the Texas Rangers.
- 1950 – Mark Mothersbaugh, American singer-songwriter and painter. Mark Allen Mothersbaugh (/ˈmʌðərzbɔː/; born May 18, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, author and visual artist.
- 1950 – Rod Milburn, American hurdler and coach (d. 1997), was an American athlete who won gold at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich in the 110m hurdles.
- 1948 – Joe Bonsall, American country/gospel singer. Joseph Sloan Bonsall, Jr. (born May 18, 1948 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American singer who has been the tenor of the country/gospel vocal quartet The Oak Ridge Boys since 1973.
- 1948 – Tom Udall, American lawyer and politician, 28th New Mexico Attorney General, United States Senator from New Mexico, was first elected to in 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the U.S.
- 1947 – Gail Strickland, American actress. Gail Strickland (born May 18, 1947) is an American actress who had prominent supporting roles in such films as The Drowning Pool (1975), Bound for Glory (1976), Who'll Stop the Rain (1978), Norma Rae (1979) and Protocol (1984), and appeared regularly on various network television shows.
- 1946 – Reggie Jackson, American baseball player and sportscaster. Reginald Martinez Jackson (born May 18, 1946) is an American former professional baseball right fielder who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, and California Angels.
- 1938 – Janet Fish, American painter and academic. DC Moore Gallery in New York City represents Janet Fish.
- 1937 – Brooks Robinson, American baseball player and sportscaster. He batted and threw right-handed, though he was a natural left-hander.
- 1936 – Leon Ashley, American singer-songwriter (d. 2013), was an American country music artist, known professionally as Leon Ashley. He is known mainly for his number 1 single "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)", which topped the country singles charts in 1967.
- 1934 – Dwayne Hickman, American actor and director. Love That Bob later, in syndication), and the blond title character in CBS's The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.
- 1933 – Bernadette Chirac, French politician, First Lady of France. Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac (born Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel; 18 May 1933) is a French politician and the widow of the former President Jacques Chirac.
- 1931 – Don Martin, American cartoonist (d. 2000). Don Martin is the name of:
- 1931 – Robert Morse, American actor. Robert Alan Morse (born May 18, 1931) is an American actor and singer, best known as the star of both the 1961 original Broadway production and 1967 film adaptation of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and as Bertram Cooper, from 2007 to 2015, in the AMC dramatic series Mad Men.
- 1930 – Fred Saberhagen, American soldier and author (d. 2007), was an American science fiction and fantasy author most famous for his Berserker series of science fiction short stories and S.F. novels.
- 1930 – Warren Rudman, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2012), was an American attorney and Republican politician who served as United States Senator from New Hampshire between 1980 and 1993. He was known as a moderate centrist, to such an extent that President Clinton approached him in 1994 about replacing departing Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen in Clinton's cabinet, an offer that Rudman declined.
- 1929 – Jack Sanford, American baseball player and coach (d. 2000), was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from 1956 through 1967.
- 1928 – Pernell Roberts, American actor (d. 2010), was an American stage, film and television actor, as well as a singer. In addition to guest-starring in over 60 television series, he was best known for his roles as Ben Cartwright's eldest son Adam Cartwright on the Western television series Bonanza (1959–1965), and as chief surgeon Dr.
- 1927 – Ray Nagel, American football player and coach (d. 2015), was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He was the head football coach at the University of Utah from 1958 to 1965 and the University of Iowa from 1966 to 1970, compiling a career college football coaching record of 58–71–3 (.455).
- 1925 – Lillian Hoban, American author and illustrator (d. 1998), was an American illustrator and children's writer best known for picture books created with her husband Russell Hoban. According to OCLC, she has published 326 works in 1,401 publications in 11 languages.
- 1924 – Jack Whitaker, American sportscaster, was an American sportscaster who worked for both CBS and ABC. Whitaker was a decorated veteran of World War II.
- 1924 – Priscilla Pointer, American actress. Later, Pointer moved to Hollywood to act in films and on television.
- 1922 – Bill Macy, American actor, was an American television, film and stage actor, best known for his role in the CBS television series Maude (1972–78).
- 1922 – Kai Winding, Danish-American trombonist and composer (d. 1983), was a Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is known for his collaborations with trombonist J.
- 1917 – Bill Everett, American author and illustrator (d. 1973), was a comic book writer-artist best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner as well as co-creating Zombie and Daredevil with writer Stan Lee for Marvel Comics. He was allegedly a descendant of the childless poet William Blake and of Richard Everett, founder of Dedham, Massachusetts.
- 1914 – Pierre Balmain, French fashion designer, founded Balmain (d. 1982), was a French fashion designer and founder of leading post-war fashion house Balmain. Known for sophistication and elegance, he described the art of dressmaking as "the architecture of movement."
- 1912 – Perry Como, American singer and television host (d. 2001), was an American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing with the label in 1943. "Mr.
- 1912 – Richard Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1992), was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and film producer. Nominated for eight Oscars in his career, he was best known for Blackboard Jungle (1955), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Elmer Gantry (1960; for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay), In Cold Blood (1967) and Looking for Mr.
- 1907 – Irene Hunt, American author and educator (d. 2001), was an American children's writer known best for historical novels. She was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal for her first book, Across Five Aprils, and won the medal for her second, Up a Road Slowly.
- 1904 – Jacob K. Javits, American colonel and politician, 58th New York Attorney General (d. 1986), was an American politician who represented New York in both houses of Congress.
- 1904 – Shunryū Suzuki, Japanese-American monk and educator (d. 1971). Zen / Chán in the USA
- 1902 – Meredith Willson, American playwright and composer (d. 1984), was an American flautist, composer, conductor, musical arranger, bandleader and playwright & author, best known for writing the book, music, and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical The Music Man. He wrote three other Broadway musicals and composed symphonies and popular songs.
- 1901 – Vincent du Vigneaud, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978). He won the 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone," a reference to his work on the cyclic peptide oxytocin.
- 1897 – Frank Capra, Italian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1991), was an Italian-American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, his rags-to-riches story has led film historians such as Ian Freer to consider him the "American Dream personified."
- 1892 – Ezio Pinza, Italian-American actor and singer (d. 1957). He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas.
- 1891 – Rudolf Carnap, German-American philosopher and academic (d. 1970), was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism.
- 1886 – Jeanie MacPherson, American actress and screenwriter (d. 1946), was an American actress, writer, and director from 1908 until the late 1940s. She was a pioneer for women in the film industry.
- 1883 – Walter Gropius, German-American architect, designed the John F. Kennedy Federal Building (d. 1969), was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He is a founder of Bauhaus in Weimar (1919).
- 1882 – Babe Adams, American baseball player, manager, and journalist (d. 1968), was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1906 to 1926 who spent nearly his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Noted for his outstanding control, his career average of 1.29 walks per 9 innings pitched was the second lowest of the 20th century; his 1920 mark of 1 walk per 14.6 innings was a modern record until 2005.
- 1873 – Lucy Beaumont, English-American actress (d. 1937), was an English actress of the stage and screen from Bristol.
- 1862 – Josephus Daniels, American publisher and politician, 41st United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1948), was an American newspaper editor and publisher from the 1880s until his death; he controlled the Raleigh News and Observer, at the time North Carolina's largest newspaper, for decades. Viewed as a progressive Democrat, he was appointed by United States President Woodrow Wilson to serve as Secretary of the Navy during World War I.
- 1855 – Francis Bellamy, American minister and author (d. 1931), was an American Christian socialist minister and author, best known for writing the original version of the US Pledge of Allegiance in 1892.
- 1852 – Gertrude Käsebier, American photographer (d. 1934). She was known for her images of motherhood, her portraits of Native Americans, and her promotion of photography as a career for women.
- 1851 – James Budd, American lawyer and politician, 19th Governor of California (d. 1908), was an American lawyer and Democratic politician. Involved in federal and state politics, Budd was a member of the U.S.
- 1835 – Charles N. Sims, American Methodist preacher and 3rd chancellor of Syracuse University (d. 1908). Sims Hall on the Syracuse campus is named for him.
- 1822 – Mathew Brady, American photographer and journalist (d. 1896). Brady (c. 1822 – January 15, 1896) was one of the earliest photographers in American history, best known for his scenes of the Civil War.
Deaths- 2017 – Chris Cornell, American singer (b. 1964)
- 2017 – Jacque Fresco, American engineer and academic (b. 1916)
- 2017 – Roger Ailes, American businessman (b. 1940)
- 2015 – T. J. Moran, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Alan Oakley, English bicycle designer, designed the Raleigh Chopper (b. 1927)
- 2009 – Velupillai Prabhakaran, Sri Lankan rebel leader, founded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (b. 1954)
- 2008 – Joseph Pevney, American actor and director (b. 1911)
- 2004 – Elvin Jones, American drummer and bandleader (b. 1927)
- 2001 – Irene Hunt, American author and illustrator (b. 1907)
- 2000 – Stephen M. Wolownik, Russian-American composer and musicologist (b. 1946)
- 1999 – Betty Robinson, American runner (b. 1911)
- 1995 – Alexander Godunov, Russian-American ballet dancer and actor (b. 1949)
- 1995 – Elisha Cook, Jr., American actor (b. 1903)
- 1995 – Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (b. 1933)
- 1989 – Dorothy Ruth, American horse breeder and author (b. 1921)
- 1981 – Arthur O'Connell, American actor (b. 1908)
- 1981 – William Saroyan, American novelist, playwright, and short story writer (b. 1908)
- 1980 – Victims of Mount St. Helens eruption: - David A. Johnston, American volcanologist and geologist (b. 1949)
- 1980 – Victims of Mount St. Helens eruption: - Reid Blackburn, American photographer and journalist (b. 1952)
- 1975 – Leroy Anderson, American composer and conductor (b. 1908)
- 1973 – Jeannette Rankin, American social worker and politician (b. 1880)
- 1963 – Ernie Davis, American football player, coach, and manager (b. 1939)
- 1955 – Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator and activist (b. 1875)
- 1947 – Hal Chase, American baseball player and manager (b. 1883)
- 1844 – Richard McCarty, American lawyer and politician (b. 1780)
- 1808 – Elijah Craig, American minister, inventor, and educator, invented Bourbon whiskey (b. 1738)
- 1780 – Charles Hardy, English-American admiral and politician, 29th Colonial Governor of New York (b. 1714)
- 1675 – Jacques Marquette, French-American missionary and explorer (b. 1637)
May 18, year 2024; May 18, year 2025 see also: May 18, year 2016; May 18, year 2017; May 18, year 2018; May 18, year 2019; May 18, year 2020; May 18, year 2021; May 18, year 2022; May 18, year 2023 calendar
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