Historical Events in May 1896

May 1 Seven days after parliament was dissolved, Charles Tupper is sworn in as the 6th Prime Minister of Canada

May 4 1st edition of London Daily Mail (halfpenny)
May 4 Grease fire ignites half ton of dynamite at Cripple Creek, Colorado
May 6 22nd Kentucky Derby: Willie Simms aboard Ben Brush wins first Derby held at the current distance of 1.25 miles (2.0km)
May 6 Samuel Pierpont Langley flies his unpiloted Number 5 aircraft using a catapult launch from a boat on the Potomac River, USA. The aircraft travels almost 3/4 of a mile - ten times further than any previous heavier-than-air flying machine.
May 8 Bobby Peel scores 210 not out as Yorkshire is dismissed for 887 in drawn County Cricket match against Warwickshire in Birmingham
May 9 1st horseless carriage show in London (featured 10 models)
May 14 Lowest US temperature in May recorded (-10°F /-23°C at Climax, Colorado)
May 15 Tornado kills 78 in Texas
May 18 US Supreme court affirms legitimacy of racial separation (Plessy v Ferguson), a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal"

May 19 1st auto (Karl Benz) arrives in Netherlands

May 20 The six ton chandelier of the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris falls on the crowd resulting in the death of one and the injury of many others
May 26 Dow Jones index begins with an average of 12 industrial stocks (closing is 40.94)

May 26 Last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, crowned

May 26 James Dunham murders six people in Campbell, California
May 27 Bay District Race Track in San Francisco closes
May 27 Tornado hit St Louis, killing 255, leaving thousands homeless
May 30 First car accident occurs; Henry Wells hits a cyclist in NYC
May 30 Khodynka Tragedy: Stampeding crowd on Khodynka Field, Moscow, during the festivities for coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II, results in the deaths of about 1,300 people