6 Pound Gun & Crew aboard the USS Whipple at Sea
May 18, 1918

The USS Whipple was a destroyer named in honor of Abraham Whipple who was a key figure in both American naval history and early settlement. He was one of the founders of Marietta, Ohio, the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory. His maritime achievements included becoming the first to unfurl the Star-Spangled Banner in London and leading the first ocean-going voyage from Ohio down the Mississippi River to the Caribbean, helping to establish trade routes for the growing nation.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US

Mathew B. Brady may have been born on May 18, 1822, the records are unclear. Very clear, though, were Brady’s striking studio portraits of 19th century Americans. He and his assistants also documented the Civil War in the field. Brady is shown just after the First Battle of Manassas, still wearing a sword he’d acquired.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, copyright not renewed public domain in the US

On May 18, 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the nomination for President of The United States at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

Image: Lincoln in 1860 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Over 210 years before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued, the Colony of Rhode Island abolished slavery on May 18, 1652.

Image of an early map of The Colony of Rhode Island via Digital Commonwealth Massachusetts, no known restrictions

On May 18, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority act which created an electric utility company to serve all of Tennessee and portions of other states in the South.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Infantry of the 163rd Regiment, 41st Division, pinned down on the beach at Wakde on
May 18, 1944.

The first American troops landed a little after 9am that morning and came under heavy fire.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens in Washington State violently erupted after a series of earthquakes. The mountain was ranked the 5th highest peak in the state but is now only the 52nd tallest peak in the state after losing more than 1,300 feet in height.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Big Joe Turner, the man who recorded a version of “Shake, Rattle and Roll” four months before Bill Haley & His Comets did in 1954, was born on May 18, 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Image of Big Joe Turner in 1955 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Thomas P. Stafford & Eugene A. Cernan getting ready to board Apollo 10 before launch

– May 18, 1969

Image: NASA via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

American film director Frank Capra who served in the U.S. Army during WWI and WWII was born on May 18, 1897 in Sicily.

He won three Academy Awards in the 1930s.

Image of Capra cutting an Army film in the 1940s via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Fifteen inch Rodman gun at Battery Rodgers, Alexandria, Virginia on May 18, 1864

The Fifteen inch Rodman took 12 men to load and fire. It weighed about 50,000 pounds and could fire a 400 pound shot a distance of nearly 3 miles.

Some of these Rodman guns were placed along the coast during the Spanish-American war in the event of a Spanish naval attack on the U.S. east coast in 1898.

Image via LOC, no known restrictions

Happy 100th birthday to American actress Priscilla Pointer who was born on May 18, 1924 in New York City.

Priscilla began her career in the late 1940s, appeared in a number of films between the 1970s and 1990s and was a regular guest star (44 episodes) of the TV series Dallas in the 1980s.

She is Amy Irving’s mother.

Image of Priscilla in the 1980s by Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch via Alamy

American entertainer Perry Como was born on May 18, 1912 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania

Image: Gene Tierney kissing Perry Como in 1946
via Wikimedia Commons, public domain