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This Day In History
Eruption of Mount St. Helens: 18 May 1980 - This Day in History
On this day in 1980, following an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter scale, Mount St. Helens in Washington erupted in one of the greatest volcanic explosions ever recorded in North America.
More Events on this day:
1974: India detonated a nuclear weapon in the Rajasthan desert.
1956: Swiss climbers Fritz Luchsinger and Ernest Reiss made the first ascent of the Lhotse I mountain in the Himalayan range.
1953: American aviator Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier.
1940: Brussels fell to the invading German army in World War II and was subjected to harsh terms of occupation.
1933: The U.S. government established the Tennessee Valley Authority to control floods and produce electrical power along the Tennessee River and its tributaries.
1899: The first of a series of international conferences that produced the Hague Convention began at The Hague in the Netherlands.
1860: Abraham Lincoln became the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency on the third ballot at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
John Paul II: Biography of the Day
Born this day in Poland in 1920, Pope John Paul II traveled widely during his pontificate (1978–2005), campaigning for human rights and world peace, and played a key role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991).
Concise Encyclopedia Book and CD-ROM: Special Price from The Britannica Store
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