TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, May 18, the 138th day of 2022. There are 227 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history
On May 18, 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing.
On this date
In 1652, Rhode Island became the first American colony to pass a law abolishing African slavery; however, the law was apparently never enforced.
In 1863, the Siege of Vicksburg began, ending July 4 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 1927, in America’s deadliest school attack, part of a schoolhouse in Bath Township, Mich., 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. (Authorities said Kehoe, who suffered financial difficulties, was seeking revenge for losing a township clerk election.)
In 1934, Congress approved, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed, the so-called “Lindbergh Act,” providing for the death penalty in cases of interstate kidnapping.
In 1973, Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was appointed Watergate special prosecutor by U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson.
In 1981, the New York Native, a gay newspaper, carried a story concerning rumors of “an exotic new disease” among homosexuals; it was the first published report about what came to be known as AIDS.
In 1998, the U.S. government filed an antitrust case against Microsoft, saying the powerful software company had a “choke hold” on competitors that was denying consumers important choices about how they bought and used computers. (The Justice Department and Microsoft reached a settlement in 2001.)
In 2015, President Barack Obama ended long-running federal transfers of some combat-style gear to local law enforcement in an attempt to ease tensions between police and minority communities, saying equipment made for the battlefield should not be a tool of American criminal justice.
Today’s birthdays
Actor Priscilla Pointer is 98. Baseball Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson is 84. Actor Candice Azzara is 81. Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson is 76. Former Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., is 74. Singer Joe Bonsall (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 74. Musician Rick Wakeman (Yes) is 73. Singer Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo) is 72. Actor James Stephens is 71. Singer George Strait is 70. International Tennis Hall of Famer Yannick Noah is 62. Singermusician Page Hamilton is 62. Singeractor Martika is 53. Actor-writer Tina Fey is 52. Singer Jack Johnson is 47.