GMT

Today in History: May 18

0526 St. John I ends his reign as Catholic Pope.

1643 Queen Anne, the widow of Louis XIII, is granted sole and absolute power as regent by the Paris parliament, overriding the late king's will.

1652 A law is passed in Rhode Island banning slavery in the colonies but it causes little stir and seems unlikely to be enforced.

1802 Britain declares war on France.

1804 Napoleon Bonaparte becomes the Emperor of France.

1917 The U.S. Congress passes the Selective Service act, calling up soldiers to fight World War I.

1942 New York ends night baseball games for the rest of World War II.

1951 The United Nations moves its headquarters to New York city.

1974 India becomes the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.

1980 After rumbling for two months, Mount Saint Helens, in Washington, erupts 3 times in 24 hours.

2001 101-year-old Harold Stilson becomes oldest golfer to record a hole-in-one when he aces the 108-yard, par-3, 16th hole at Deerfield CC, FL

2014 Swiss voters reject a $25 per hour minimum wage

2021 India records the highest recorded daily COVID-19 death toll to date in the world with 4,529 deaths

2022 Amid a nationwide US baby formula shortage, President Joe Biden invokes the Defense Production Act, requiring suppliers to fulfil orders to baby formula manufacturers first

Born on May 18

1836 Wilhelm Steinitz, chess champion.

1868 Nicholas II, the last Russian czar.

JOTD

I’m from Alabama and I don’t appreciate all the jokes Reddit makes about my home state. I told my dad, my uncle, and my grandpa about it.

When he found out he was madder than hell.