Daily post that discusses fun, interesting, historic and important events from today's date. Maybe you need a topic of conversation between family, friends or coworkers. Perhaps you need something to celebrate or remember. If anything, you can learn a thing or two, which is never a bad thing! Give me an upvote and/or follow to show you enjoyed this and I'll make sure to keep up with this.

What happened on May 18th?

First woman breaks the sound barrier (1953)

On this date in 1953, Jackie Cochran (born Bessie Lee Pittman) because the first woman to "go supersonic," that is, break the sound barrier.

At 47 years old, she decided to challenge the women's world speed record, previously held by Jacqueline Auriol. With permission from the Canadian Minister of Defence, she was able to borrow 19200, the sole Sabre 3. With this, she set a new speed record of 1,050.15 kh/h (652.5 mph).

She had accrued a few more records, one of the being the record for peak altitude in 1961. She is also credited to be a very important contributor to the formation of the wartime Women's Auxiliary Army Corps and the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

Apollo 10 is launched (1969)

Apollo 10 was one of the manned missions in the Apollo space program, the program of NASA that would eventually lead to humans landing on the moon. It was the fourth manned mission and the second to orbit the earth.

Successfully launching "Snoopy," the name of the Lunar Module, required over 98,000 pounds to be lifted into Earth's orbit. This mission was the "rehearsal" for the actual landing on the moon. It was to test components and procedures right up until the descent onto the moon. The mission was a huge success and would enable the successful landing onto the moon with the Apollo 11 mission on May 26th of the same year.

According to 2002 Guinness World Records, Apollo 10 set the record for highest speed attained by a manned vehicle: 39,897 kh/h (24,791 mph) during it's return from the moon. That's pretty fast...

Two additional moons of Pluto discovered (2005)

Despite the fact that Pluto isn't a planet, we still care! On this date in 2005, a photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the fact that Pluto had two additional moons, previously unknown: Nix and Hydra.

Nix was formally declared the name in 2006 and was from the Greek goddess of darkness and night. It orbits Pluto and tumbles chaotically, so the axial tilt and length of day can vary dramatically. At it's longest, it is 54 kilometers. In the images provided by Hubble, Nix is 6,300 times fainter than Pluto itself.

Hydra is the outermost moon of Pluto. It's surface is thought to be covered with water ice and measures 50 kilometers at its longest. The name comes from the nine-headed serpent that battled Heracles in Greek mythology, reference to Pluto's tenure of being the 9th planet.

Thanks for reading!

Hopefully you learned a thing or two. See you tomorrow!