- May 1 Messerschmitt Me 262 Sturmvogel, 1st jet bomber, makes 1st flight
- May 1 Pulitzer prize awarded to American Martin Flavin for his novel "Journey in the Dark"
- May 1 Surprise attack on Weteringschans Amsterdam, fails
- May 2 WABD (WNEW, now WNYW) TV channel 5 in NYC (DUM/MET/FOX) 1st broadcast
- May 3 "Meet Me in St Louis" opens on Broadway
- May 3 Meat rationing ends in US
Film Premier
May 3 "Going My Way", directed by Leo McCarey and starring Bing Crosby premieres in New York (Best Picture 1945)
Bing Crosby
Film Release
May 4 "Gaslight", starring an 18-year-old Angela Lansbury in her film debut, is released
Angela Lansbury
Event of Interest
May 5 Mahatma Gandhi freed from prison
Mahatma Gandhi
- May 5 Soviet offensive against Sebastopol, Crimea
- May 6 70th Kentucky Derby: Conn McCreary aboard Pensive wins in 2:04.2
- May 6 KJR-AM in Seattle Washington swaps calls with KOMO
- May 7 German assault on Tito's hideout in Drvar Bosnia
- May 8 33 communist resistance fighter sentenced to death
- May 9 1st eye bank opens in New York
- May 9 Country singer Jimmie Davis becomes Governor of Louisiana
- May 9 Dutch resistance fighter Gerard Musch arrested
- May 9 Joe McCarthy returns as Yankee manager after an illness
- May 9 Russians recapture Crimea by taking Sevastopol
- May 10 Chinese offensive in West-Yunnan
- May 10 Smith v Allwright (excluding Blacks from primary voting) is illegal
- May 11 Opposition group surprise attack post office Washer
- May 11 Slomp Resistance fighter (Frits de Zwerver) freed from Arnhem prison
- May 12 900+ 8th US Air Force bombers attack Zwikau, Bohlen & Brux
- May 12 Crimea purged of Nazi troops
- May 12 German police arrest Dutch resistance member Gerrit van der Veen and later execute him
- May 13 69th Preakness: Conn McCreary aboard Pensive wins in 1:59.2
- May 14 91 German bombers harass Bristol
- May 14 British troops occupy Kohima
Assassination Attempt
Erwin Rommel
Adolf Hitler
Event of Interest
May 15 Eisenhower, Montgomery, Churchill & George VI discuss D-Day plan
Dwight D. Eisenhower
George VI
D-Day
May 17 General Eisenhower sets D-Day for June 5th
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- May 17 Operation Straightline: Allies land in Dutch New Guinea
- May 18 Polish 2nd Army corps captures convent of Monte Cassino, Italy
- May 18 Expulsion of more than 200,000 Tartars from Crimea by Soviet Union begins, they are accused of collaborating with the Germans
- May 19 240 gypsies transported to Auschwitz from Westerbork, Netherlands
- May 19 German defense line in Italy collapsed
- May 20 US Communist Party dissolves
Adolf Hitler
- May 23 British and Canadian troops occupy Pontecorvo, Italy
- May 23 Chinese counter offensive at Hunan front
- May 23 Operation Buffalo: Allied break out from Anzio bridgehead
- May 23 Polo Grounds host 1st NYC night game since 1941
- May 24 Enver Hoxha becomes head of Albania anti fascists
- May 24 Icelandic voters severe all ties with Denmark
- May 25 Partisan leader Tito escapes Germans surrounding Bosnia
- May 27 Allies land on Biak, Indonesia (operation Horlicks)
- May 27 Japanese advance in Hangkhou China
Event of Interest
May 27 Jean-Paul Sartres' "Huis Clos" premieres in Paris
Jean-Paul Sartre