Event of Interest
May 4 Pulitzer Prize for Literature awarded to Ernest Hemingway for "The Old Man & The Sea"
Ernest Hemingway
- May 6 St. Louis Browns pitcher Bobo Holloman MLB debut; no-hits Philadelphia A's, 6-0
- May 7 "Can Can" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 892 performances
- May 7 Record 537-kg swordfish is caught by LE Marron, in Chile
- May 8 WIPB TV channel 49 in Muncie, IN (PBS) begins broadcasting
- May 10 KCBD TV channel 11 in Lubbock, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
- May 11 Tornado kills 114 in Waco Texas ($39M damage)
Event of Interest
May 11 Winston Churchill criticizes US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles' domino theory
Winston Churchill
John Foster Dulles
- May 12 KUHT TV channel 8 (PBS) in Houston, TX, begins broadcasting
Baseball Record
May 13 NY Giants Willie Mays & Darryl Spencer each hit 2 HRs & a triple
Willie Mays
Boxing Title Fight
May 15 In his first world heavyweight title defence, Rocky Marciano KOs former champion Jersey Joe Walcott in the 1st round at Chicago Stadium
Rocky Marciano
Jersey Joe
- May 15 Osip Zadkine's monument to "The destroyed city" unveiled in Rotterdam
- May 16 Phillies Curt Simmons gives up a single, then retires next 27 in a row
- May 17 Yanks & Browns use record 41 players in a game
- May 18 1st woman to break sound barrier (Jacqueline Cochran, USA)
- May 19 Nuclear explosion in Nevada (fall-out in St George, Utah)
- May 21 French government of Mayer resigns
Event of Interest
May 22 US President Eisenhower signs Offshore Oil Bill
Dwight D. Eisenhower
- May 25 1st atomic cannon electronically fired at Frenchman Flat, Nevada
- May 25 1st non-commercial educational television station-Houston, Texas
- May 25 Braves Max Surkont strikes out record 8 Reds in a row
- May 26 Dutch Convair crashes at Schipholweg, 2 die
- May 27 Dutch social democratic/Dutch Liberal Party win municipal elections
- May 28 Premier of 1st animated 3-D cartoon in Technicolor-"Melody"
Tenzing Norgay on the Summit of Mount Everest
May 29 Edmund Hillary (NZ) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) are first to reach the summit of Mount Everest as part of a British Expedition
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Event of Interest
May 29 500th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople and the end of the Byzantine Empire (to Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II)
Mehmed the Conqueror
French Open Men's Tennis
May 30 French Championships Men's Tennis: Ken Rosewall of Australia wins his 2nd Grand Slam title, beating American Vic Seixas 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2
Ken Rosewall
Vic Seixas
- May 30 French Championships Women's Tennis: Maureen Connolly beats fellow American Doris Hart 6-2, 6-4 for the 2nd leg of her Grand Slam
- May 31 Lebanese president Camille Shamun disbands government
- May 31 WSUN TV channel 38 in St Petersburg-Tampa, FL (IND) 1st broadcast