THURSDAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, May 18, the 138th day of 2017. There are 227 days left in the year.

Highlight in History:

On May 18, 1927, in America’s deadliest school attack, part of a schoolhouse in Bath Township, Michigan, was blown up with explosives planted by local farmer Andrew Kehoe, who then set off a bomb in his truck; the attacks killed 38 children and six adults, including Kehoe, who’d earlier killed his wife.

On this date:

In 1642, the Canadian city of Montreal was founded by French colonists.

In 1765, about one-fourth of Montreal was destroyed by a fire.

In 1896, the Supreme Court, in Plessyv. Ferguson, endorsed “separate but equal” racial segregation, a concept renounced 58 years later in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces occupied Monte Cassino in Italy after a four-month struggle with Axis troops.

In 1967, Tennessee Gov. Buford Ellington signed a measure repealing the law against teaching evolution that was used to prosecute John T. Scopes in 1925.

In 1973, Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was appointed Watergate special prosecutor by U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson.

In 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing.

Ten years ago: The White House and Congress failed to strike a deal after exchanging competing offers on an Iraq war spending bill that Democrats said should set a date for U.S. troops to leave.

Five years ago: The Olympic flame arrived in Britain, the country hosting the 2012 Olympics.

One year ago: In an unusual move, Republican candidate Donald Trump released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court justices he would consider if elected president (not included was Trump’s eventual first pick for the nation’s highest bench, Neil Gorsuch).

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Bill Macy is 95. Actress Priscilla Pointer is 93. Hall-of-Fame sportscaster Jack Whitaker is 93. Actor Robert Morse is 86. Baseball Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson is 80. Actress Candice Azzara is 76. Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson is 71. Country singer George Strait is 65. Actor Chow Yun-Fat is 62. Comedian-writer Tina Fey is 47. Rapper Special Ed is 43. Christian singer Francesca Battistelli is 32.

Thought for Today: “The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.” — Fred Astaire, American dancer-actor (1899-1987).