Portal:United States/Anniversaries/May/May 18

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• 1631 - In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.
• 1652 - Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal.
• 1869 - The Public Credit Act is passed by Ulysses S. Grant, one of his first actions as President of the United States. The Act endorsed the payment of the national debt after the American Civil War in gold currency instead of greenbacks.
• 1896 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal is constitutional.
• 1927 - The Bath School Disaster: Forty-five people are killed by bombs planted by a disgruntled school-board member in Michigan.
• 1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• 1969 - Apollo 10 launches.
• 1980 - 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption: Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
• 1992 - The Archivist of the United States issues a proclamation to officially announce that the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been ratified, despite more than 200 years for completion of the ratification process by the state legislatures.
• 1998 - United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft.