May 18, 2009 (Monday)
- Dalia Grybauskaitė is elected as the first female President of Lithuania. (BBC)
- National League for Democracy General Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi's trial for violating house arrest begins in Burma. (BBC)
- Sri Lanka's government declares an end to its civil war with the Tamil Tigers. (AFP)
- Chad admits that its military has performed three incursions into Sudan. (BBC)
- Somalia requests international assistance to establish an anti-piracy coast guard. (BBC)
- Twenty members of the United Kingdom's Parliament demand House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin's resignation, amid at the 2009 expenses scandal. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
- The European Commission's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, is evacuated because of a fire. (RTÉ)
- Former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is accused of quoting the Bible while briefing then-President George W. Bush. (BBC)
- U.S. President Barack Obama urges Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a Palestinian state. (BBC) (Reuters)
- Italian Camorra leader Raffaele Amato is arrested in Marbella, Spain. (BBC)