TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Tuesday, May 18, the 138th day of 2021. There are 227 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1291 — After 100 years under Crusader control, Acre is the last Crusader stronghold reconquered and destroyed by the Mamluks (nonMuslim slave soldiers) under Sultan alAshraf Khalil.
1781 — Peruvian revolutionary Tupac Amaru II is executed by the Spanish in Cuzco’s main plaza.
1804 — Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of France.
1830 — Edwin Budding, of England, signs an agreement for the manufacture of his invention, the lawnmower.
1860 — Abraham Lincoln is nominated for United States president.
1896 — The Khodynka Tragedy occurs due to a human stampede on Khodynka Field, Moscow, during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II, resulting in the deaths of 1389 people.
1897 — A public reading of Bram Stoker’s new novel, Dracula, is staged in London.
1899 — An international peace conference is convened at The Hague in the Netherlands.
1917 — Prince Lvov reconfigures his cabinet in Russia to include socialists.
1919 — Australian pilot Harry Hawker with observer Kenneth MackenzieGrieve attempts the first nonstop direct westeast crossing of the Atlantic in a Sopwith Atlantic singleengine biplane, but engine failure brings them down in the ocean, where they are rescued.
1937 — The only organised New Zealand contingent to serve in the Spanish Civil War is detained in Auckland before its eventual departure. New Zealand Spanish Medical Aid Committee (SMAC) nurses Rene Shadbolt, Isobel Dodds and Millicent Sharples eventually arrived in Spain on July 15.
1944 — The Monte Cassino Benedictine monastery in Italy is taken from German forces after bitter fighting in World War 2.
1951 — The United Nations moves its headquarters to New York City.
1953 — Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier when she pilots a Canadair F86 Sabre over Rogers Dry Lake, California.
1954 — An additional protocol adds new fundamental rights to those protected under the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.
1966 — Koroki Te Rata Mahuta Tawhiao Potatau Te Wherowhero, the fifth Maori king, dies at Ngaruawahia.
1974 — India becomes the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.
1977 — The US, the Soviet Union and 29 other nations sign a UN pact banning artificial use of the weather as a weapon of war, pledging never to attack each other by triggering storms, earthquakes or tidal waves; Menachem Begin becomes prime minister of Israel.
1980 — Mt St Helens volcano in Washington state explodes, taking 400m off its top, causing the largest landslip in recorded history, and leaving 57 people dead.
1986 — The South African army occupies Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
1988 —
Cheering crowds greet the first group of about 1300 Soviet soldiers to cross the border in withdrawal from Afghanistan.
1990 — The two German states sign a monetary union treaty, the first step to reunification.
1991 — Helen Sharman becomes the first Briton to rocket into space, aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.
1995 — Scientists in California announce that they have revived a 25millionyearold bacteria from the gut of a bee trapped in a piece of amber.
2018 — All of Chile’s 34 Roman Catholic bishops offer their resignation to Pope Francis in the wake of a child sex scandal.
2019 — The Australian election is won by Scott Morrison’s coalition government in what was considered a surprise result.
Today’s birthdays:
Nicholas II, last tsar of Russia (18681918); Christopher (James) Parr, New Zealand politician (18691941); Nathaniel (Ranji) Wilson, All Black player/selector (18861953); Tom Heeney (the Hard Rock from Down Under), New Zealand boxer and world heavyweight challenger in 1928 (18981984); Arthur Stubbs, New Zealand war veteran (19042008); Peter Adams, New Zealandborn actor (193899); Rick Wakeman, English keyboardist (1949); Chow YunFat, Hong Kong actor (1955); Allen Leech, Irish actor (1981); Jossi Wells, New Zealand freestyle skier (1990).
Quote of the day:
‘‘Just the other day, it seems, the kids were running through the house, slamming doors, breaking glass, making noise. Time goes by so quickly. Sometimes everything seems so fleeting.’’ — Perry Como, US singer/actor who was born on this day in 1912. He died in 2001 aged 88.