May 18 is International Museum Day
No Dirty Dishes Day
Visit Your Relatives Day
National Cheese Souffle Day
“I love Reese’s” Day
In 1631, English colony at Massachusetts Bay granted voting rights to “Members of some of the churches” in the colony. To become eligible to vote, a man was subject to detailed questioning by a church elder.
John Winthrop was elected first governor of Massachusetts on May 18, 1631. Still aboard the ship Arbella, Winthrop admonished the future Massachusetts Bay colonists that their new community would be a “city upon a hill”, watched by the world as an example of righteousness.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada founded May 18, 1642. Named after “Mount Royal”, a hill in the heart of the city. It is on the Island of Montreal.
In 1652 Rhode Island enacted first law declaring slavery illegal. The law was not enforced. By 1774, the slave population of Rhode Island was 6.3%, nearly twice as high as any other New England colony.
1830 – Edwin Budding of England signed an agreement for manufacture of his invention, the lawn mower.
In 1852, the Massachusetts General Court passed a law requiring every town to create and operate a grammar school. Fines were imposed on parents who did not send their children to school and the government took the power to take children away from their parents and apprentice them to others if government officials decided that the parents were “unfit to have the children educated properly”.
1917 – Six weeks after the U.S. formally entered WW I, the U.S. passed Selective Service Act requiring all males aged 21 to 30 to register for military service.
1934 – Congress approved “Lindbergh Act,” making kidnapping a capital offense.
1944 – Expulsion of more than 200,000 Tartars (central Asian peoples, including Mongols and Turks) from Crimea by Soviet Union began; they were accused of collaborating with the Germans.
Apollo 10: Thomas Stafford, Eugene Cernan, and John Young launched toward lunar orbit in 1969.
1971 – Formation of the Congressional Black Caucus.
In 1991 the Democrats in the House of Representatives organized the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In the 116th Congress, there are 97 declared Progressives, including 95 voting Representatives, one non-voting Delegate and one Senator (Bernie Sanders).
May 18, 1980 – Mount Saint Helens erupted in Washington State, killing 57 people, and changing the surrounding landscape completely.