May 18th

Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund, saying he wanted to devote all his energy to battling the sexual assault charges he faced in New York. (The charges were later dropped.).

Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.

Randy Johnson, 40, became the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game, leading the Arizona Diamondbacks over the Atlanta Braves 2-0.

'Les Miserables', the third-longest running show in Broadway history, closed after more than 16 years and 6,680 performances.

A bill was finally passed that removed the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse.

The federal government filed a sweeping antitrust case against Microsoft Corp.

Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza strip after three decades of occupation and Palestinians took over.

Mount St. Helens, in Washington state, erupted after being dormant for 123 years.

India becomes the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.

Apollo 10 was launched on a mission that served as a dress rehearsal for the first moon landing.

Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound.

The United Nations moved out of its temporary headquarters in Lake Success, N.Y., for its permanent home in Manhattan.

The Tennessee Valley Authority was created.

45 people die in the United States' worst school massacre. In the Bath school disaster, a disgruntled school board member set off several bombs at the Bath Consolidated School and other locations in Michigan.

Pope John Paul II was born near Krakow, Poland.

Composer Gustav Mahler died in Vienna, Austria, at age 50.

A public reading of Bram Stoker's new novel "Dracula, or, The Un-dead" was staged in London.

The Supreme Court endorsed the concept of "separate but equal" racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, a precedent that was overturned in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

The Republican Party convention in Chicago nominated Abraham Lincoln for president.

The first German National Assembly gathers in Frankfurt. The assembly constituted the first freely elected parliament of Germany. It produced a constitution that provided the basis for today's constitution of Germany (Grundgesetz).

Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate.

The city of Montreal was founded by the French.

Mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Khalil and his forces take the last Christian stronghold of Acre.