May 1946 in History

Events in History

Appointment of Interest

May 1 Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery appointed British supreme commander

May 1 Mrs Emma Clarissa Clement named "American Mother of Year"
May 1 Start of 3 year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.
May 1 The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy
May 2 The "Battle of Alcatraz" takes place, killing two guards and three inmates
May 3 International military tribunal in Tokyo begins
May 4 5 die in a 2 day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco bay
May 4 Wash's Cecil Travis gets 6 straight hits before being stopped
May 6 Pulitzer prize awarded to Arthur M Schlesinger (Age of Jackson)"
May 7 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees
May 7 William H Hastie inaugurated as 1st black governor of Virgin Islands
May 8 Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial that preceded the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn

Victor Emmanuel III Abdicates

May 9 King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by his son Umberto II who reigns for only 34 days before the monarchy is abolished

May 11 United Malays National Organisation is created.
May 13 Sarwate & Banerjee add 249 for 10th wkt for Indians v Surrey
May 13 US sentences 58 camp guards of Mauthausen concentration camp to death

Event of Interest

May 13 Winston Churchill welcomed in Rotterdam

May 17 KVP Labor/Communists win 1st post-WW2 Dutch parliamentary elections
May 17 US President Harry Truman seizes control of nation's railroads to delay a strike
May 19 Dutch Cooperation for Sexual Reform (NVSH) forms in Amsterdam
May 21 Physicist Louis Slotin is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation while preparing a plutonium core experiment at the Los Alamos lab, he dies 9 days later and the accident ends all hands-on nuclear assembly work at Los Alamos
May 22 First US rocket (WAC Corporal) to reach edge of space fired from White Sands Missile Range New Mexico
May 25 Jordan gains independence from Britain (National Day); Abdullah ibn Hussein becomes King of Jordan
May 26 Communist Party Leader Klement Gottwald becomes Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia

Event of Interest

May 28 Manuel Roxas was inaugurated as the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines

May 28 US Patent filed for a hydrogen bomb
May 29 KVP wins Provincial National election in Netherlands
May 30 United flight 521 crashes on takeoff at LaGuardia Airport (NY) 42 die

Birthdays in History

May 1 John Woo, Hong Kong director
May 4 Richard L. Brodsky, American lawyer and NY State Assemblyman (D) (1983-2010), born in Brooklyn, New York
May 6 Jim Ramstad, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota), born in Jamestown, North Dakota
May 7 Brian Turner, British celebrity chef, born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England
May 8 André Boulerice, Quebec politician and gay rights activist, born in Joliette, Quebec
May 11 Robert Jarvik, American scientist and researcher (developed the Jarvik-7 artificial heart), born in Midland, Michigan
May 12 L. Neil Smith, American sci-fi author (Lando Calrissian novels), born in Denver, Colorado
May 16 Jessi B Wilson, Mississippi, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List)
May 17 F. Paul Wilson, American horror and sci-fi novelist (Repairman Jack), and medical doctor, born in Jersey City, New Jersey
May 18 Frank Hsieh, Taiwanese politician, Premier of Taiwan (2005-6), born in Taipei, Taiwan
May 19 Claude Lelièvre, Belgian commissioner for children's rights
May 23 H. Paul Shuch, American scientist who coordinated radio amateurs to search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), born in Chicago, Illinois
May 24 Jeremy Treglown, English scholar and editor (TLS)
May 25 David A. Hargrave, American role-playing games (RPGs) designer (d. 1988)
May 25 Janet Morris, American sci-fi author (Golden Sword, Tempus), born in Boston, Massachusetts
May 25 Tommy Cecil, Irish ferryman, born on Rathlin Island, County Antrim (d. 1997)
May 28 Satchidanandan, Indian poet
May 29 Fernando Buesa, Basque politician (d. 2000)
May 30 Candy Lightner, American political activist/founder (MADD), born in Pasadena, California
May 31 Ted Baehr, American Christian media critic

Deaths in History

May 7 Anton Mussert, Dutch fascist and leader of the Nationalist Socialist Movement, executed for high treason at 51
May 19 Booth Tarkington, American novelist (The Magnificent Ambersons) and playwright, dies at 76
May 20 Jacob Ellehammer, Danish watchmaker and inventor (powered flight), dies at 74
May 26 Friedrich German prince, last ruler of Waldeck and Pyrmont, dies at 81
May 29 Martin Gottfried Weiss, Commandant of Dachau concentration camp (b. 1905)
May 30 Louis Slotin, Canadian Physicist and Chemist (Manhattan Project, Los Alamos) who assembled the plutonium core for 'Trinity', the first detonated atomic device, dies of radiation poisoning at 35 (b. 1910)