May 18th
Today in America's Present Past
1631 | Pilgrim John Winthrop is elected 1st Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1652 | Civil Rights: Rhode Island enacts the first law declaring slavery illegal.
1783 | Pro-Britain Tories flee the United States en masse as the First United Empire Loyalists reach Canada.
1852 | Massachusetts mandates that all school-age children must attend school.
1861 | Civil War: Battle of Sewall's Point, Virginia.
1863 | Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins.
1869 | Civil Rights: Robert Tanner Freeman was the first African American to graduate from Harvard Dental School.
1896 | SCOTUS: The Court decided Plessy v. Ferguson.
1897 | In Midland, Michigan, entrepreneur Herbert Henry Dow founded Dow Chemical.
1889 | Civil Rights: Race riots start in Forest City, Arkansas.
1897 | Director Frank Capra was born.
1904 | Politician Jacob Javits was born.
1917 | POTUS: Democrat President Wilson signs a national draft.
1917 | WWI: First units of the American Expeditionary Force, commanded by General John J. Pershing, are ordered to France.
1927 | War on Terror: Bath, Michigan school massacre.
1946 | Baseball Pro Reggie Jackson was born.
1949 | Historian James Truslow Adams died.
1952 | Aviator Jeana Yeager was born.