http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
May 18, 1920: Pope John Paul II born
On May 18, 1920, Karol Jozef Wojtyla is born in the Polish town of Wadowice, 35 miles southwest of Krakow. Wojtyla went on to become Pope John Paul II, history's most well-traveled pope and the first non-Italian to hold the position since the 16th century. After high school, the future pope enrolled at Krakow's Jagiellonian University, where he studied philosophy and literature and performed in a theater group. During World War II, Nazis occupied Krakow and closed the university, forcing Wojtyla to seek work in a quarry and, later, a chemical factory. By 1941, his mother, father, and only brother had all died, leaving him the sole surviving member of his family.
Although Wojtyla had been involved in the church his whole life, it was not until 1942 that he began seminary training. When the war ended, he returned to school at Jagiellonian to study theology, becoming an ordained priest in 1946. He went on to complete two doctorates and became a professor of moral theology and social ethics. On July 4, 1958, at the age of 38, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Krakow by Pope Pius XII. He later became the city's archbishop, where he spoke out for religious freedom while the church began the Second Vatican Council, which would revolutionize Catholicism. He was made a cardinal in 1967, taking on the challenges of living and working as a Catholic priest in communist Eastern Europe. Once asked if he feared retribution from communist leaders, he replied, "I’m not afraid of them. They are afraid of me."
Wojtyla was quietly and slowly building a reputation as a powerful preacher and a man of both great intellect and charisma. Still, when Pope John Paul I died in 1978 after only a 34-day reign, few suspected Wojtyla would be chosen to replace him. But, after seven rounds of balloting, the Sacred College of Cardinals chose the 58-year-old, and he became the first-ever Slavic pope and the youngest to be chosen in 132 years.
A conservative pontiff, John Paul II's papacy was marked by his firm and unwavering opposition to communism and war, as well as abortion, contraception, capital punishment, and homosexual sex. He later came out against euthanasia, human cloning, and stem cell research. He traveled widely as pope, using the eight languages he spoke (Polish, Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin) and his well-known personal charm, to connect with the Catholic faithful, as well as many outside the fold.
On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square by a Turkish political extremist, Mehmet Ali Agca. After his release from the hospital, the pope famously visited his would-be assassin in prison, where he had begun serving a life sentence, and personally forgave him for his actions. The next year, another unsuccessful attempt was made on the pope's life, this time by a fanatical priest who opposed the reforms of Vatican II.
Although it was not confirmed by the Vatican until 2003, many believe Pope John Paul II began suffering from Parkinson's disease in the early 1990s. He began to develop slurred speech and had difficulty walking, though he continued to keep up a physically demanding travel schedule. In his final years, he was forced to delegate many of his official duties, but still found the strength to speak to the faithful from a window at the Vatican. In February 2005, the pope was hospitalized with complications from the flu. He died two months later.
Pope John Paul II is remembered for his successful efforts to end communism, as well as for building bridges with peoples of other faiths, and issuing the Catholic Church's first apology for its actions during World War II. He was succeeded by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict XVI began the process to beatify John Paul II in May 2005.
336 - St Mark elected Catholic Pope
350 - General Maxentius drives out Western Roman emperor Constans
474 - Leo II briefly becomes Byzantine emperor.
532 - Nika uprising at Constantinople fails, 30-40,000 die
1126 - Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.
1302 - The weaver Peter de Coningk led a massacre of the Flemish oligarchs.
1307 - German king Albrecht I makes his son Rudolf king of Bohemia
1478 - Grand Duke Ivan II of Moscow occupies Novgorod
1520 - Christian II of Denmark & Norway defeats Swedes at Lake Asunde
1535 - Francisco Pizarro founds the city of Lima, Peru
1591 - King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat, for which this date is now observed marked as Royal Thai Armed Forces day.
1642 - Montreal, Canada, was founded.
1643 - Queen Anne, the widow of Louis XIII, was granted sole and absolute power as regent by the Paris parliament, overriding the late king's will.
1644 - Perplexed Pilgrims in Boston reported America's first UFO sighting
1650 - French Prince Louis II of Condé captured
1652 - In Rhode Island, a law was passed that made slavery illegal in North America. It was the first law of its kind.
1671 - Pirate Henry Morgan defeats Spanish defenders, captures Panama
1691 - English king Willem III travels to The Hague
1701 - Frederick I and Sophie Charlotte van Hanover crowned king/queen of Prussia
1733 - First polar bear exhibited in America (Boston)
1776 - James Wright, Royal Governor of Georgia, is placed under house arrest by Major Joseph Habersham
1777 - San Jose California, founded
1778 - Capt James Cook stumbles over Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands)
1788 - The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to setup a penal colony
1792 - Russian troops invaded Poland.
1795 - French admitted to Amsterdam without resistance
1795 - Governor/viceroy Willem V flees Scheveningen to England
1798 - The first Secretary of the U.S. Navy was appointed. He was Benjamin Stoddert.
1802 - Great Britain declared war on Napoleon's France.
1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed emperor by the French Senate.
1817 - San Martinleads a revolutionary army over Andes
1828 - Battle of Las Piedras ended the conflict between Uruguay and Brazil.
1840 - Electro-Magnetic Intelligencer, 1st US electrical journal, appears
1850 - British blockade Piraeus, Greece to enforce mercantile claims
1854 - Filibuster William Walker proclaims Republic of Sonora in NW Mexico
1861 - American Civil War - Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in seceding from the United States.
1862 - Confederate Territory of Arizona forms
1865 - Battle of Ft Moultrie, SC
1869 - Elegant California Theater opens in SF
1871 - Second German Empire proclaimed by Kaiser Wilhelm I & Bismarck
1884 - General Charles Gordon departs London for Khartoum
1884 - Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom.
1886 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
1895 - Amsterdam's AFC soccer team forms
1896 - The U.S. Supreme court upheld the "separate but equal" policy in the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision. The ruling was overturned 58 years later with Brown vs. Board of Education.
1896 - First demonstration of an X-ray machine in US (NYC)
1896 - British troops occupy Kumasi, West Africa
1897 - A public reading of Bram Stoker's new novel, "Dracula, or, The Un-dead," was performed in London.
1900 - Jan Blockx's "Tÿl Uilenspiegel" premieres in Brussels
1901 - Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Graves De Communi Re
1904 - Brigand Raizuli kidnapped American Ion H. Perdicaris in Morocco.
1905 - French government of Combes falls
1908 - Frederick Delius' "Brigg Fair," premieres
1911 - First shipboard landing of a plane (Tanforan Park to USS Pennsylvania)
1913 - Turkish-Greek sea battle near Troy
1915 - Train crashes at Colima-Guadalajara Mexico, about 600 die
1915 - Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
1916 - A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite stikes a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri.
1917 - The U.S. Congress passed the Selective Service act, which called up soldiers to fight in World War I.
1919 - WW I Peace Congress opens in Versailles, France 1919 - Bentley Motors Limited is founded.
1921 - William Archer's "Green Goddess," premieres in NYC
1922 - Irish author Liam O'Flaherty & others occupy Rotunda in Dublin
1923 - First radio telegraph message from Netherlands to Dutch East Indies
1926 - Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while visiting a beach in Venice, CA. She reappeared a month later with the claim that she had been kidnapped.
1929 - "NY Daily Mirror" columnist Walter Winchell debuts on radio
1929 - Stalin proposes to ban Trotsky from the Politburo
1930 - -27°F (-33°C), Watts, Oklahoma (state record)
1930 - Shostakovitch' opera "The Nose," premieres in Leningrad
1931 - Japanese pilot Seiji Yoshihara crashed his plane in the Pacific Ocean while trying to be the first to cross the ocean nonstop. He was picked up seven hours later by a passing ship.
1933 - White Sands National Monument, NM established
1933 - The Tennessee Valley Authority was created.
1934 - The U.S. Congress approved an act, known as the "Lindberg Act," that called for the death penalty in interstate kidnapping cases.
1934 - Eugene O'Neill's "Days Without End," premieres in NYC
1938 - Bradman scores 104* for South Australia v NSW at the SCG
1938 - Pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander is elected to Hall of Fame
1939 - SA wicketkeeper Bradman gets his 6th straight ton, 135* v NSW
1942 - Nazi's arrest Frans Goedhart & Wiardi Beckman
1942 - New York ended night baseball games for the duration of World War II.
1943 - Presliced bread sale banned to reduce bakery demand for metal parts
1943 - Soviets announce they broke long Nazi siege of Leningrad
1943 - US rations bread and metal
1944 - First Chinese naturalized US citizen since repeal of exclusion acts
1944 - Monte Cassino, Europe's oldest Monastic house, was finally captured by the Allies in Italy.
1944 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
1945 - Warsaw freed by Soviet army
1947 - "Red Mill" closes at Ziegfeld Theater NYC after 831 performances
1947 - Detroit Tigers sell Hank Greenberg to Pirates (for $25-35,000)
1947 - Small river steamer sank on Yangtze River, kills 400
1948 - First courses begin at University of Ibadan, Nigeria
1948 - Ted Mack's "Original Amateur Hour" begins, DuMont (later NBC/ABC/CBS)
1949 - "They Stand Accused" courtroom drama premieres on CBS (later DuMont)
1949 - First US Congressional standing committee headed by Negro (W Dawson)
1949 - Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America was incorporated hour.
1950 - Christopher Fry's "Venus Observed," premieres in London
1950 - Indians pitcher Bob Feller, after 15-14 season, takes $20,000 salary cut to $45,000, pay cut is Feller's own suggestion
1951 - First use of lie detector in Netherlands
1951 - Hermann Flake sentenced to death due to "hate campaign against GDR"
1951 - NFL rules tackles, guards & centers ineligible for forward pass
1951 - NFL takes control of failing Baltimore Colts
1951 - The United Nations moved its headquarters to New York City.
1953 - The first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound, Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-
1954 - Fanfani forms Italian government
1955 - Battle of Yijiangshan occurred.
1956 - German DR forms own army (National People's Army)
1957 - 3 B-52's set record for around-the-world flight, 45 hr 19 min
1958 - 1st black in NHL (William O'Ree, Boston Bruins)
1959 - Ruth Jessen wins LPGA Tampa Golf Open
1960 - US & Japan sign joint defense treaty
1961 - Zanzibar's Afro-Shirazi party wins 1 seat by a single vote & parliament by a single seat
1962 - Southern University closed due to demonstrations
1962 - US begins spraying foliage in Vietnam to reveal Viet Cong guerrillas
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 - Reinier Paping wins Dutch 11-Cities Skating Race (10:59)
1964 - Beatles first appear on Billboard Chart (I Want to Hold Your Hand-#35)
1964 - Plans for World Trade Center announced (NYC)
1965 - H L de Vries appointed Dutch governor of Suriname
1966 - Robert C Weaver, confirmed as 1st black cabinet member (HUD)
1967 - 20th NHL All-Star Game: Montreal beat All-Stars 3-0 at Montreal
1967 - Albert DeSalvo (Boston Strangler) sentenced to life in prison
1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1967 - Yellowknife replaces Ottawa as capital of NW Territories, Canada
1968 - "Happy Time" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 286 performances
1968 - Hester and Appolinar's musical "Your Own Thing," premieres in NYC
1968 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1969 - Expanded 4 party Vietnam peace talks began in Paris
1970 - Hasse Borjes skates world record 500m in 38.9 sec
1970 - NFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 16-13
1971 - Ivan Koloff beats Bruno Sammartino in NY, to become WWF champ
1973 - Boston Red Sox sign Orlando Cepeda as 1st player signed as a DH
1973 - Islanders break 12 game losing streak, 20 game road winless streak
1973 - John Cleese's final episode on "Monty Python's Flying Circus," on BBC
1974 - India became the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.
1974 - "$6 Million Man" starring Lee Majors premieres on ABC TV
1974 - Israel and Egypt sign weapons accord
1975 - "Jeffersons" spinoff from "All in the Family" premieres on CBS
1977 - Imran Khan takes 12 wickets in match for Pakistan win at the SCG
1977 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.
1978 - Geoff Boycott captains England for the 1st time, v Pak Karachi
1978 - Roof of 3-yr-old Civic Center in Hartford, Ct collapses (no injuries)
1978 - Thiokol conducts 2nd test firing of space shuttle's SRB
1979 - Peter Jenkins finishes "A Walk Across America," Florence Oregon
1980 - Gold reaches $1,000 an oz
1980 - Mt. Saint Helens erupted in Washington state. 57 people were killed and 3 billion in damage was done.
1980 - Pink Floyd's "Wall" hits #1
1980 - Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell & Ian Schrager sentenced to 3½ years in prison for tax evasion and fined $20,000
1981 - Iran accepts US offer of $7.9 billion in frozen assets
1981 - Wendy O Williams arrested in Milwaukee for on-stage obscenity
1983 - The U.S. Senate revised immigration laws and gave millions of illegal aliens legal status under an amnesty program.
1983 - IOC restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals 70 years after they were taken from him for being paid $25 in semipro baseball
1984 - 80th Islander and 3rd dual hat trick (Carroll and Bossy) 9-1 win
1985 - US renounces jurisdiction of World Court despite previous promise
1986 - 24th Space Shuttle (61-C) Mission-Columbia 7-returns to Earth
1986 - AIDS charity record "That's What Friends are For," hits #1
1986 - NY Lotto pays $30.5 million to one winner (#s are 19-20-27-34-41-46)
1987 - 11th Soap Opera Digest Poll Awards - Days of Our Live wins
1988 - Airliner crashes in SW China, killing all 108 on board
1989 - Astronomers discover pulsar in remnants of Supernova 1987A (LMC)
1989 - IBM announces earnings up 10.4% in 1988
1989 - Otis Redding, Dion, Rolling Stones, Temptations & Stevie Wonder
1989 - West Indies beat Australia 2-1 to win the World Series Cup
1990 - South Africa says its reconsidering ban on African Natl Congress
1990 - Wash DC, Mayor Marion Barry arrested in drug enforcement sting
1991 - Iraq launches SCUD missiles against Israel
1991 - US acknowledges CIA and US Army paid Noriega $320,000 over his career
1991 - WLAF's NY Knights become NY-NJ Knights
1991 - Longest tennis match at the Australian Open, Boris Becker beats Italy's Omar Camporese in 5 hours and 11 mins
1991 - Eastern Air Lines goes out of business after 62 years, citing financial problems.
1992 - 43rd NHL All-Star Game: Campbell beat Wales 10-6 at Phila
1992 - 49th Golden Globes
1992 - Comedian Pat McCormick injured in a car accident
1992 - NHL All Star Game - Campbell-10, Wales-6 (Brett Hull, MVP) at Phila
1993 - Martin Luther King Jr holiday observed in all 50 states for first time
1993 - West Indies win the World Series Cup, beating Australia 2-0
1994 - Israel's three decades of occupation in the Gaza Strip ended as Israeli troops completed their withdrawal and Palestinian authorities took over.
1994 - The Cando event, a possible bolide impact in Cando, Spain. Witnesses claim to have seen a fireball in the sky lasting for almost one minute.
1995 - Kumble takes 16-99 in match for Karnataka v Kerala
1995 - Pope John Paul II begins visit to Australia
1996 - Baseball owners unanimously approve interleague play in 1997
1997 - 47th NHL All-Star Game: East beat West 11-7 at San Jose Arena
1997 - In north west Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound one other.
1997 - Boerge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.
1998 - U.S. federal officials arrested more than 130 people and seized $35 million. This was the end to an investigation of money laundering being done by a dozen Mexican banks and two drug-smuggling cartels.
1998 - The U.S. federal government and 20 states filed a sweeping antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., saying the computer software company had a "choke hold" on competitors which denied consumer choices by controlling 90% of the software market.
1998 - "Ragtime," opens at Ford Theater NYC
1998 - 48th NHL All-Star Game: North America beats World 8-7 at Vancouver
1998 - ABL All-Star Game at Disney complex in Orlando
1998 - Boston Celtics retire Robert Parrish's #00
1998 - Kelly Robbins wins Healthsouth Golf Inaugural
1998 - UCP Telethon
2000 - The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.
2002 - Sierra Leone Civil War was finally declared over.
2003 - A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.
2007 - The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people, Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Hurricane Kyrill, causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe. Other losses include the Container Ship MSC Napoli destroyed by the storm off the coast of Devon, England.
2012 - Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) blackout becomes the largest protest in the history of the internet
These are the web pages that I used to complete this blog:
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may18.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.historyorb.com/day/january/18
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
No comments:
Post a Comment