May 18 Birthday
On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington State. The blast was lateral — aimed horizontally, not vertically — and devastated 230 square miles of forest. The eruption was triggered by an earthquake that caused the mountain's north face to slide, releasing the pressure that had been building inside. Fifty-seven people died, including Harry Truman — not the president, but an eighty-three-year-old lodge owner who refused to evacuate. He had been on the mountain for fifty years and said he would not leave. The eruption reduced the mountain's height by 1,314 feet and produced an ash cloud that circled the globe. The blast zone, once thought barren, recovered faster than scientists expected. The Bath School disaster occurred on May 18, 1927, in Bath Township, Michigan. Andrew Kehoe, a school board member and farmer who was facing foreclosure, detonated explosives beneath the Bath Consolidated School. Thirty-eight children and six adults were killed. Kehoe then drove his truck — loaded with explosives and shrapnel — to the school and detonated it, killing himself and the school superintendent. Kehoe had murdered his wife and set fire to his farm before coming to the school. He had been installing explosives under the school for months. The Bath disaster was the deadliest school massacre in American history until Virginia Tech in 2007. Frank Capra, born this day in 1897, directed It's a Wonderful Life (1946), which was a box office failure that lost $525,000. The copyright lapsed in 1974 because a clerk forgot to renew it. Television stations began showing it for free, and it became a Christmas classic through repetition. The copyright was restored in 1993. Tina Fey, born this day in 1970, became the first female head writer of Saturday Night Live in 1999. Her Sarah Palin impression in 2008 was so effective that polls showed voters could not distinguish between Palin's actual words and Fey's parody. People born on May 18 fall under the zodiac sign of Taurus. The birthstone is Emerald and the birth flower is Lily of the Valley. Historical events on May 18 include 1927: Bath School disaster — 44 killed in worst school massacre in US history before Columbine, 1980: Mount St. Helens erupts, killing 57, 1991: Helen Sharman becomes first Briton in space. Famous people born on May 18 include Frank Capra (1897), Robert Morse (1931), Tina Fey (1970).