Historical Events - May 18

1804 : Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor of France.

1888 : First gramophone record played in America.

1912 : Pundalik, a silent film made entirely in India, was released.

1974 : India conducted the first successful nuclear test at Pokhran.

1991 : Helen Sherman became the first British woman astronaut to travel through Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

2009 : Sri Lankan government defeated the LTTE, ending nearly 26 years of war.

Famous Birthdays  - May 18

1048: Omar Khayyam, a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet.

1853: Behramji Malabari, an Indian poet, publicist, author, and social reformer.

1872: Bertrand Russell, a British polymath.

1933: H.D. Deve Gowda, the 11th Prime Minister of India.

1969: Robert Vadra, an Indian businessman, and entrepreneur.

Death Anniversaries - May 18

1966: Panchanan Maheswari, a prominent Indian botanist.

1997: Kamlabai Gokhale, one of the first actresses in Indian cinema.

2009: Velupillai Prabhakaran, a Sri Lankan Tamil guerrilla and the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

2009: K. Pattabhi Jois, an Indian yoga teacher and Sanskrit scholar.

2017: Reema Lagoo, an Indian theatre and screen actress.

2017: Roger Ailes, an American television executive, and media consultant.

1536 : Anne Boleyn, the wife of King Henry VIII of England, was beheaded for adultery.