Today is Monday, May 18, the 138th day of 2009. There are 227 days left in the year.
1804 _ Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor of France
1933 _ Tennessee Valley Act (TVA) Act signed by FDR, to build dams
1934 _ Congress approves ``Lindbergh Act," making kidnapping a capital offense
1944 _ Expulsion of more than 200,000 Tartars from Crimea by Soviet Union begins, they are accused of collaborating with the Germans
1953 _ First woman to break the sound barrier (Jacqueline Cochrane, USA)
1956 _ Mickey Mantle hits homerun from both sides of plate for record third time
1974 _ India becomes sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb
1978 _ Italy legalizes abortion
1982 _ Unification Church founder Reverend Moon Sun-myung convicted of tax evasion
1990 _ East and West Germany sign a monetary union treaty