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May 18.
1152. King Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine, which among other notable effects, results in a movie with Peter O'Toole as the King and Katherine Hepburn as his wife some 800 years later (the Lion in Winter).
1860. Abraham Lincoln wins the Republican nomination for President, defeating rivals William Seward (who will go on to be Secretary of State and become better known for being involved in "Seward's Folly", the monumentally stupid (as it was then thought at the time) idea of buying Alaska from Russia for $7.2MM) and abolitionist Salmon Chase (who will become Secretary of the Treasury).
1863. The Siege of Vicksburg begins.
1896. The US Supreme Court hands down Plessy v. Ferguson, declaring that the "separate but equal" doctrine passes Constitutional muster.
1980. Mount St. Helen's erupts in Washington state, killing 53 people and causing approximately $3 billion in damage.
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