Today in History.....May 18

On this day in …

* 1804, the French Senate proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte emperor

* 1896, the Supreme Court endorsed "separate but equal" racial segregation with its Plessy v. Ferguson decision, a ruling that was overturned 58 years later by Brown v. Board of Education

* 1944, during World War II, Allied forces finally occupied Monte Cassino in Italy after a four-month struggle that claimed some 20,000 lives

* 1951, the United Nations moved out of its temporary headquarters in Lake Success, N.Y., for its permanent home in Manhattan

* 1969, astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Thomas P. Stafford and John W.
Young blasted off aboard Apollo 10

* 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing. ALSO: In the South Korean city of Kwangju, townspeople and students began a nine-day uprising that was finally put down by troops

* 1994, in a move of sheer political genius, Israeli troops completed their vacating the Gaza Strip as "Palestinian" authorities took over

* 1995, triumphant Republicans pushed a historic budget through the House that they said would wring an unprecedented $1.4 trillion dollars in savings from federal budgets over the next seven year

* 1996, President Clinton, seeking to deflect Republican criticism that he was weak on welfare reform, endorsed Wisconsin's welfare-to-work plan in his Saturday radio address

* 2001, exactly 7 years after Israel vacated the Gaza Strip, a "Palestinian" suicide bomber blew himself up at a shopping mall in Netanya, killing five Israelis; Israel retaliated with air strikes against security targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

* 2005, President Bush offered his unqualified support for Egypt's political reform process as he received Prime Minister Ahmed Nazief at the White House