TODAY IN HISTORY

On May 18, 1863, the Siege of Vicksburg began during the Civil War, ending with a Union victory.

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

In 1910, Halley’s Comet passed by earth, brushing it with its tail.

In 1911, composer-conductor Gustav Mahler died in Vienna, Austria, at age 50.

In 1920, Pope John Paul II was born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland.

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

In 1981, the New York Native, a gay newspaper, carried a story concerning rumors of “an exotic new disease,” what came to be known as AIDS.