Today in History, 5/18

1152: Henry II marries Eleanor of Aquitaine.
1498: Vasco de Gama reaches the port of Calicut, India.1652: Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
1803: During the Napoleonic Wars, the United Kingdom revokes the Treaty of Amiens and declares war of France.
1804: Napoleon is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.
1868: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia is born.
1863: During the Civil War, the Siege of Vicksburg begins.
1872: Bertrand Russell, English philosopher and mathematician is born.1876: Wyatt Earp starts work in Dodge City, KS.
1897: Frank Capra is born. Here's part of his Why We Fight series that he made for the US government during WWII.

1896: The US Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that Jim Crow laws are constitutional.
1897: Bram Stoker publishes Dracula.1910: The Earth passes through the tail of Halley's Comet. Fortunately, nobody is turned to dust and no machines run wild.
1912: Perry Como is born.

1920: Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II is born.1928: Pernell Roberts is born. He played Adam Cartwright on Bonanza. He also played the smug, infallible airport manager Jim Conrad on the short-lived show San Francisco International which was featured on MST3K episode 614.

1931: Don Martin is born.1933: FDR signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
1934: Dwayne Hickman is born. He played the title character on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and later co-starred in a series of increasingly lame post-Annette Frankie Avalon buddy pictures like Ski Party and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine. I just typed that all out from memory, which is pretty sad.

1946: Reggie Jackson is born.1950: Mark Mothersbaugh, of Devo is born.

1958: An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph.1970: Another one of my future wives (on my polygamy ranch), Tina Fey is born.

1974: India becomes the sixth nation to successfully test a nuclear bomb.
1974: The Warsaw radio mast is completed, becoming the tallest construction ever. It would later collapse on August 8, 1991.1980: Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington State, killing 57 people.Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.