Mon. May 18

1992—The 27th Amendment, prohibiting any Congress from raising its own pay, is ratified 202 years after its submission.

1982—The Rev. Sun Myung Moon is convicted of tax fraud.

1980—Mt. St. Helens cuts loose for the first time in 123 years.

1974—India successfully tests a nuclear weapon in an operation named Smiling Buddha.

1969—At Hamburger Hill, casualties mount as the fight goes on. The commander orders helicopters out of the area after more friendly fire deaths.

1958—CIA pilot Al Pope is shot down while strafing an Indonesian port. The U.S. Ambassador claims he’s a mere “soldier of fortune.” Documents found on Pope prove it’s a lie.

1935—The propaganda plane Maxim Gorky, equipped with a printing plant and loudspeakers audible from the ground, crashes after it’s hit by an escorting fighter plane; 45 die.

1927—Andrew Kehoe, angry at having to pay taxes to support the Bath, Mich. school system, blows up the school killing 43 people including 39 grade-schoolers. He then kills his wife, loads his truck with dynamite and nails, and blows up the school superintendent and himself.

1918—Congress creates the draft. Emma Goldman protests, for which she’s soon arrested.

1896—The Supreme Court OKs racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson.

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