Historic Event
May 4 Pulitzer Prize for Literature awarded to Ernest Hemingway for "The Old Man & The Sea"
Music Premiere
May 7 Cole Porter's musical "Can-Can" opens at the Shubert Theatre, NYC; runs for 892 performances
Historic Event
May 11 Winston Churchill criticizes US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles' domino theory
- 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
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
- 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 American Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier
- May 19 Nuclear explosion in Nevada (fall-out in St George, Utah)
- May 21 French government of René Mayer resigns
Historic Event
May 22 US President Eisenhower signs Offshore Oil Bill
- 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
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
French Open Women's Tennis
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