Today is Wednesday, May 18, the 139th day of 2016. There are 227 days left in the year.
On this date:
In 1765, about one-fourth of Montreal was destroyed by a fire.
In 1910, Halley’s Comet passed by Earth, brushing it with its tail.
In 1934, Congress approved, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed, the so-called “Lindbergh Act,” providing for the death penalty in cases of interstate kidnapping.
In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces finally occupied Monte Cassino in Italy after a four-month struggle with Axis troops.
In 1969, astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Thomas P. Stafford and John W. Young blasted off aboard Apollo 10 on a mission to orbit the moon.
In 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing.
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