18 May
Notable Births
Travis Hunter
b. 2003
American football player (born 2003)
Alina Zagitova
b. 2002
Russian figure skater (born 2002)
Emma Navarro
b. 2001
American tennis player (born 2001)
Ryan Sessegnon
b. 2000
English footballer (born 2000)
Steven Sessegnon
b. 2000
English footballer (born 2000)
Laura Omloop
b. 1999
Belgian pop singer (born 1999)
Polina Edmunds
b. 1998
American figure skater (born 1998)
Jessica Watson
b. 1993
Australian sailor (born 1993)
Stuart Percy
b. 1993
Canadian ice hockey player (born 1993)
Adwoa Aboah
b. 1992
British fashion model
Yuya Osako
b. 1990
Japanese footballer (born 1990)
Josh Starling
b. 1990
Australian rugby league footballer
Taeyang
b. 1988
South Korean singer (born 1988)
Kevin Anderson (tennis)
b. 1986
South African tennis player
Oliver Sin
b. 1985
Tina Fey
b. 1970
American actress and comedian (born 1970)
Joan Eardley
b. 1921
British artist (1921–1963)
Pope John Paul II
b. 1920
Head of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005
Bertrand Russell
b. 1872
Mathematician and philosopher
Oliver Heaviside
b. 1850
British mathematician and electrical engineer (1850–1925)
Notable Deaths
Tony O'Reilly
d. 2024
Irish businessman and rugby union player (1936–2024)
Alice Stewart (commentator)
d. 2024
American political commentator (1966–2024)
Jim Brown
d. 2023
American football player and actor (1936–2023)
Charles Grodin
d. 2021
American actor (1935–2021)
Ken Osmond
d. 2020
American actor and police officer (1943–2020)
Austin Eubanks
d. 2019
American shooting survivor and activist
Roger Ailes
d. 2017
American TV executive and consultant (1940–2017)
Chris Cornell
d. 2017
American musician (1964–2017)
Jacque Fresco
d. 2017
American futurist (1916–2017)
Halldór Ásgrímsson
d. 2015
Icelandic politician
Raymond Gosling
d. 2015
British physicist (1926–2015)
Dobrica Ćosić
d. 2014
Serbian writer and politician
Hans-Peter Dürr
d. 2014
German physicist
Kaiketsu Masateru
d. 2014
Japanese sumo wrestler
Chukwuedu Nwokolo
d. 2014
Nigerian medical doctor
Wubbo Ockels
d. 2014
Dutch astronaut (1946–2014)
Aleksei Balabanov
d. 2013
Russian filmmaker (1959–2013)
Jo Benkow
d. 2013
Norwegian politician and writer
Steve Forrest (actor)
d. 2013
American actor (1925–2013)
George Meredith
d. 1909
British novelist and poet (1828–1909)
On This Day in History
All 61 ›
2019
United States presidential election: Joe Biden launches his presidential campaign.
2020 United States presidential election
2018
A school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas kills ten people.
Santa Fe High School shooting
2018
Cubana de Aviación Flight 972 crashes in Santiago de las Vegas after takeoff from José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba, killing 112 of the 113 people on board.
Cubana de Aviación Flight 0972
2015
At least 78 people die in a landslide caused by heavy rains in the Colombian town of Salgar.
2015 Colombian landslide
2009
The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
2006
The post Loktantra Andolan government passes a landmark bill curtailing the power of the monarchy and making Nepal a secular country.
2006 Nepalese revolution
2005
A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra.
Hubble Space Telescope
1994
Israeli troops finish withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, ceding the area to the Palestinian National Authority to govern.
Gaza Strip
1993
Riots in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, caused by the approval of the four Danish exceptions in the Maastricht Treaty referendum. Police open fire against civilians for the first time since World War II and injure 11 demonstrators.
Nørrebro
1991
Northern Somalia declares independence from the rest of Somalia as the Republic of Somaliland.
Somalia
1990
In France, a modified TGV train achieves a new rail world speed record of 515.3 km/h (320.2 mph).
TGV
1980
Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
Mount St. Helens
1980
Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations calling for democratic reforms.
Gwangju Uprising
1980
Rioting spreads to Miami's mostly African-American neighborhoods of Overtown and Liberty City following the previous day's courthouse protests.
1980 Miami riots
1977
Likud party wins the 1977 Israeli legislative election, with Menachem Begin, its founder, as the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.
Likud
1974
Nuclear weapons testing: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.
Nuclear weapons testing
1973
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.
Aeroflot Flight 109
1972
During approach to Kharkiv International Airport, Aeroflot Flight 1491 crashes near Ruska Lozova, killing all 112 aboard.
Kharkiv International Airport
1969
Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.
Apollo program
1965
Israeli spy Eli Cohen is hanged in Damascus, Syria.
Eli Cohen