May 18 in history — What Happened Today in History

Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.

Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations calling for democratic reforms.

Rioting spreads to Miami's mostly African-American neighborhoods of Overtown and Liberty City following the previous day's courthouse protests.

Likud party wins the 1977 Israeli legislative election, with Menachem Begin, its founder, as the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.

Nuclear weapons testing: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.

Aeroflot Flight 109 is hijacked mid-flight and the aircraft is subsequently destroyed when the hijacker's bomb explodes, killing all 82 people on board.

During approach to Kharkiv International Airport, Aeroflot Flight 1491 crashes near Ruska Lozova, killing all 112 aboard.

Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.

Israeli spy Eli Cohen is hanged in Damascus, Syria.

The French government and representatives of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic reach a settlement to end the Algerian war in the Évian Accords.

Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of the First Indochina War, ends.

Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.

The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.

World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino: Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers evacuate Monte Cassino.

Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union.

New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The Bath School disaster: Forty-five people, including many children, are killed by bombs planted by a disgruntled school-board member in Bath Township, Michigan.

After being founded for 20 years, the Nationalist government approves Tongji University to be among its first national universities.

Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears in Venice, California.

Seamus Woods and Roger McCorley lead an Irish Republican Army attack on the headquarters of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Belfast.

World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.

The first Indian film, Shree Pundalik by Dadasaheb Torne, is released in Mumbai.

The United Kingdom proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.

The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional.

Khodynka Tragedy: A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people.

American Civil War: Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant begin the Siege of Vicksburg during the Vicksburg campaign in order to take full control of the Mississippi River.

United States presidential election: Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican Party presidential nomination over William H. Seward, who later becomes the United States Secretary of State.

Opening of the first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) in Frankfurt, Germany.

Dimitri Daeseleire, Belgian footballer

Yuya Osako, Japanese footballer

Josh Starling, Australian rugby league player

Taeyang, South Korean singer

Kevin Anderson, South African tennis player

Oliver Sin, Hungarian painter

Henrique Sereno, Portuguese footballer

Ivet Lalova, Bulgarian sprinter

Simon Pagenaud, French race car driver

Darius Šilinskis, Lithuanian basketball player

Joakim Soria, Mexican baseball player

Niki Terpstra, Dutch cyclist

Gary O'Neil, English footballer

Halldór Ásgrímsson, Icelandic accountant and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Iceland (born 1947)

Raymond Gosling, English physicist and academic (born 1926)

Jean-François Théodore, French businessman (born 1946)

Dobrica Ćosić, Serbian politician, 1st President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (born 1921)

Hans-Peter Dürr, German physicist and academic (born 1929)

Kaiketsu Masateru, Japanese sumo wrestler (born 1948)

Chukwuedu Nwokolo, Nigerian physician and academic (born 1921)

Wubbo Ockels, Dutch physicist and astronaut (born 1946)

Aleksei Balabanov, Russian director and screenwriter (born 1959)

Jo Benkow, Norwegian soldier and politician (born 1924)

Steve Forrest, American actor (born 1925)

David McMillan, American football player (born 1981)

Lothar Schmid, German chess player (born 1928)