Happy Birthday May 18

Nicholas II of Russia was born in Alexander Palace, Saint Petersburg on May 18, 1868. He was the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III, who was a repressor of all liberal ideas. His mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia (formerly Princess Dagmar of Denmark), was the sister of Britain's Queen Alexandra.

Nicholas, unbreeched at two years old, with his mother, Maria Feodorovna, in 1870

Nicholas was seen as too soft by his hard, demanding father who, not anticipating his own premature death, did nothing to prepare his son for the crown. When his father passed away on November 1, 1894, the 26-year-old Nicholas was poorly prepared to rule. He faced the task of being autocrat of Russia in a time of major turmoil. Nicholas reportedly said “what am I to do. What is to become of Russia? I am not yet prepared to be Tsar.”

During his reign the Russian Empire fell from one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. Nicholas II chose to abdicate as Russian Tsar at the end of the "February Revolution" of 1917. After the Bolsheviks seized power Nicholas and his family were all killed by a firing squad.

Pope Saint John Paul II was born in the Polish town of Wadowice on May 18, 1920. He was the youngest of three children born to Karol Wojtyła, an ethnic Pole and Emilia Kaczorowska. In mid-1938, Wojtyła enrolled at the Jagiellonian University. While studying such topics as philology and various languages, he learned as many as 12 foreign languages, nine of which he used extensively as pope. Karol Wojtyla was ordained to the priesthood on November 1, 1946.

For more May 18 anniversaries, including the marriage of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, the founding of Boston by John Winthrop and the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history, check out OnThatDay.