Events in History
- May 1 About 1,000 citizens of Demmin in Germany, commit suicide provoked by occupation by Soviet Red Army
- May 1 Admiral Karl Doenitz forms German government
- May 1 Australian & Dutch troops land on Tarakan
- May 1 General Belgian Labor Union (ABVV) party forms
- May 1 Radio Budapest, Hungary re-enters shortwave broadcasting after WW II
- May 1 Seys-Inquart flees to Flensburg
- May 1 Soviet army reaches Rostock
- May 2 Allies occupy Wismar, Northern Germany
- May 2 Dutch Queen Wilhelmina & Princess Juliana reach Gilze-Rijen
- May 2 More than 1,000,000 German soldiers officially surrender to the Western Allies in Italy and Austria
Raising a Flag over the Reichstag
May 2 World War II: Battle of Berlin ends as Soviet army takes Berlin and General Weidling surrenders
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- May 2 Yugoslav troops occupy Trieste
- May 3 1st Polish Armoured Division of the Polish Armed Forces in the West occupies Wilhelmshafen in Germany
- May 3 Allies arrest German physicist Werner Heisenberg
- May 3 British troop join in Rangoon
- May 3 World War II: German ship "Cap Arcona" laden with prisoners sunk by Royal Air Force in East Sea, 5,800 killed - one of largest maritime losses of life
Event of Interest
May 4 German forces in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands surrender unconditionally to British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery at Luneburg Heath
Bernard Montgomery
- May 4 German forces in Bavaria surrender unconditionally to American commander Jacob L. Devers
- May 5 Mauthausen Concentration camp in Austria liberated by US forces from 41st Reconnaissance Squadron
- May 5 Netherlands & Denmark liberated from Nazi control
- May 5 Uprising against occupying SS troops in Prague
- May 5 Premier Gerbrandy on Radio Orange tells Dutch they are liberated
Battle of Interest
May 5 World War II: Admiral Karl Dönitz, leader of Germany after Hitler's death, orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases
Karl Dönitz
Event of Interest
May 7 World War II: Unconditional German surrender to the Allies signed by General Alfred Jodl at Rheims
Alfred Jodl
Nazi Germany Surrenders
May 8 German General Wilhelm Keitel formally surrenders to the Allies represented by the United States, the UK, France and the Soviet Union in Berlin
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- May 8 V-E Day: WWII ends in Europe after Germany signs an unconditional surrender
- May 9 Czechoslovakia liberated from Nazi occupation (National Day)
- May 9 Nazi propagandist Max Blokzijl arrested
- May 9 Norwegian nazi collaborators Vidkun Quisling arrested
- May 9 Victory celebration at Red Square
- May 9 World War II: Partisans liberate Ljubljana.
Event of Interest
May 9 World War II: Hermann Goering is captured by the United States Army
Hermann Goering
- May 9 World War II: The Soviet Union marks Victory Day
- May 9 World War II: The Channel Islands are formally liberated by the British
- May 10 Allies capture Rangoon from the Japanese
- May 10 Soviet troops occupied Prague
- May 11 US Marines conquer Awatsha Draw, Okinawa
- May 13 US troops conquer Dakeshi Okinawa
- May 14 Kamikaze Zero strikes US aircraft carrier Enterprise
- May 14 US offensive on Okinawa, Sugar Loaf conquered
Event of Interest
May 14 Physician Joseph G. Hamilton injects misdiagnosed cancer patient Albert Stevens (CAL-1) with 131 kBq (3.55 µCi) of plutonium without his knowledge. Stevens lives another 20 years, surviving the highest known accumulated radiation dose in any human
Albert Stevens
Joseph Gilbert Hamilton
Event of Interest
May 21 Nazi SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler captured
Heinrich Himmler
- May 22 6th US Marine division reaches suburbs of Naha Okinawa
- May 22 NSB-Fuhrer Rost van Tonningen makes failed suicide attempt
- May 23 The Allies arrest the members of the Nazi Flensburg government, including Admiral Karl Donitz, formally dissolving Nazi Germany
- May 23 German island of Helgoland in the North Sea surrenders to British
- May 23 Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) arrested at Danish boundary
- May 25 Arthur C Clark proposes relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit
- May 26 US drop fire bombs on Tokyo
- May 29 US 1st Marine division conquers Shuri Castle, Okinawa
Birthdays in History
- May 3 Jeffrey C. Hall, American geneticist (Nobel Prize 2017 behavioral rhythms of the fly), born in New York City
- May 4 Monika van Paemel, Belgian writer (Accursed Fathers), born in Poesele, Belgium
- May 4 Narasimhan Ram, Indian journalist (The Hindu), born in Madras, British India
- May 5 Jiří Svoboda, Czech director and politician (2nd Chairman of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia), born in Kladno, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
- May 7 Wim A. Mateman, Dutch politician (CDA), born in Aalten, Netherlands
- May 8 Arthur Docters van Leeuwen, jurist (Holland's secret service)
- May 10 John Laws, Lord Justice of Appeal (1999- )
- May 12 Patrick Ricard, French businessman and CEO of Pernod Ricard, born in Marseille, France (d. 2012)
- May 15 Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, heir to the Portuguese crown
- May 16 Brewster H Shaw Jr, Mich, Col USAF/astro (STS-9, STS 61B, STS-28)
- May 16 James Moran, (Rep-D-Virginia)
- May 17 D A S Pennefather, Maj-General/Commandant (General Royal Marines)
- May 17 George Miller, American politician (Rep-D-CA, 1975-2015), born in Richmond, California
- May 18 John Richard Patterson, businessman
- May 18 Maarten van Traa, Dutch politician (PvdA)
- May 20 Harold E Ford, (Rep-D-TN, 1975- )
- May 20 Lord Hollick, CEO (MAI)
- May 20 Nikolai Nikolayevich Fefelov, Russian colonel and cosmonaut
- May 20 Wally Herger, (Rep-R-California)
- May 20 Vladimiro Montesinos, Peruvian politician
- May 21 Ernst Willi Messerschmid, Reutlingen Germany, astronaut (STS 22)
- May 23 Elliott Bernerd, English broker/multi-millionaire
- May 24 Richard Ottaway, British politician (C), born in Sonning, Berkshire
- May 24 Steven Norris, British Conservative politician, born in Liverpool, England
- May 25 Dave Lee Travis [David Griffin], British DJ and presenter (Top of the Pops], convicted of indecent assault, born in Buxton, Derbyshire
- May 28 Hunter "Patch" Adams, American doctor
- May 28 John N. Bambacus, American politician
- May 29 Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, Minister of State (Scotland)
- May 31 Linda Davies, British Judge
- May 31 Bernard Goldberg, American journalist
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
May 22 Paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren (18) weds partner Ed Warren (18)
Lorraine Warren
Ed Warren
Deaths in History
Joseph Goebbels
May 1 Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi Minister of Propaganda, commits suicide aged 47 with his wife (43) and arranges the death of their 6 children, Heidrun (4), Hedwig (6), Holdine (8), Helmut (9), Hildegard (11), and Helga (12)
Joseph Goebbels
Martin Bormann
May 2 Martin Bormann, German Nazi leader (Hitler's secretary, chief of the Party Chancellery), most likely commits suicide age 44 [remains identified in 1972]
Martin Bormann
- May 2 Ludwig Stumpfegger, German SS doctor and Hitler's personal surgeon commits suicide at 34
- May 5 Peter Van Pels, Jewish Refugee (b. 1926)
- May 5 Elsie Mitchell and five Sunday school students become the only people to die during World War II on US soil when they are killed by a Japanese fire balloon that lands in the forest of Gearhart Mountain, near Bly, Southern Oregon
- May 8 Bernhard Rust, Nazi education minister (b. 1883)
- May 10 Richard Glücks, German SS officer and concentration camp administrator, committed suicide at 56
- May 14 Heber J. Grant, seventh president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1856)
- May 15 Major Courtney, US medal of honor marine, dies in battle of Sugar Loaf
- May 15 Charles Williams, British poet and writer, dies at 58
- May 17 Jan van Geenen, resistance fighter, dies
- May 17 Sasaki Shigetsu Sokei-an, founder 1st Zen Institute of America, dies
- May 19 Philipp Bouhler, German nazi leader (b. 1889)
- May 22 Carel A Lion Cachet, lithographer/wood carver, dies
Heinrich Himmler
May 23 Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi leader (head of the SS), commits suicide while in Allied custody at 44
Heinrich Himmler