May 18
1910: The Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet.
1980: Mount St. Helens in Washington erupted, destroying several square miles of forest and blanketing the Pacific Northwest with ash, causing $3 billion damage.
2010: Police officer James Crooker is asked to leave the Red and Black Café in Portland, Oregon after co-owner John Langley claimed Crooker’s uniformed presence made him uncomfortable.
2014: Swiss voters reject a $25 per hour minimum wage.
May 19
1743: French physicist, mathematician and astronomer Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale.
1780: A combination of thick smoke and heavy cloud cover caused complete darkness to fall on Eastern Canada and New England of the United States at 10:30 a.m.
1961: Venera 1 became the first man-made object to fly-by another planet when it passed Venus. (The probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data.)
1962: A pre-birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy was held at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight was Marilyn Monroe’s rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Kennedy’s birthday was May 29.
2019: US billioniare Robert F. Smith announces he will pay off college loans of nearly 400 students of the graduating class of Morehouse College, Atlanta.
May 20
1609: Shakespeare’s sonnets were first published in London by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
1873: Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
1899: The first traffic ticket in the U.S. was issued when New York City taxi driver Jacob German was arrested for driving 12 miles per hour on Lexington Street.
1927: Charles Lindbergh took off at 7:52 a.m. from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world’s first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. (He touched down at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 10:22 p.m. the next day.)
1983: The discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS was published by Luc Montagnier in the journal Science.
2013: Yahoo purchases Tumbler for $1.1 billion.
May 21
1881: The American Red Cross was established in Washington, D.C., by Clara Barton.
1927: Charles Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1934: Oskaloosa, Iowa, became the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
1966: The Ulster Volunteer Force declared war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
1972: Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City was damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
1992: After 30 seasons, Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode, and the last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.
May 22
1826: HMS Beagle departed on its first voyage, with young Charles Darwin on board.
1849: Abraham Lincoln was issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, the only patent ever issued to a U.S. president.
1869: Montana’s first recorded earthquake occurred in Helena.
1906: The Wright brothers were granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine.”
1915: Lassen Peak in Northern California erupted with a powerful force. It was the only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous U.S. during the 20th century.
1960: The strongest earthquake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5, hit southern Chile.
1980: Namco of Tokyo released the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.
1990: Microsoft released the Windows 3.0 operating system.
2012: Philip Philips is crowned the eleventh American Idol.
May 23
1789: South Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution.
1829: The accordion patent was granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire.
1934: Bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow) were gunned down in an ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
1995: The first version of the Java programming language was released.
2018: Hamburg, Germany becomes the first city to ban diesel cars on some roads.
2019: The last slave ship to smuggle slaves to America from Africa, the Clotilda (sunk 1860), is found in Mobile River, Alabama.
May 24
1784: The U.S. Treasury Board was established with $21,000.
1830: Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale was published in Boston.
1844: Samuel Morse sent the message “What hath God wrought” from the old Supreme Court chamber in the U.S. Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Md., to inaugurate the first telegraph line.
1883: The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City was opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.
1935: The first night game in Major League Baseball history was played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.
2018: U.S. President Donald Trump signs into law the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act easing financial regulations and reducing oversight for banks.
ON THIS DAY… MAY 18 – MAY 24
May 18
NATIONAL CHEESE SOUFFLE DAY
This has become a popular dessert as well as a main course.
May 19
NATIONAL DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE DAY
Rich in flavor and moist in texture, devil’s food cake is a favorite for chocolate-lovers.
May 20
NATIONAL ENDANGERED SPECIES DAY
This is a day to consider the dwindling populations of certain animals and work together to help.
May 21
EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES DAY
The increase in obesity and lifestyle diseases among American people is a major concern nowadays. This is a day to remind us of the importance of fresh food.
May 22
NATIONAL SOLITAIRE DAY
Let’s acknowledge the brilliance behind the game and how it helped entertain us for years.
May 23
NATIONAL LUCKY PENNY DAY
The discovery of pennies is often associated with good luck.
May 24
NATIONAL BROTHER’S DAY
Call your brother and tell him you love him, even though he’ll say you’re weird afterwards.