Events in History
- May 1 1st BASIC program runs on a computer (Dartmouth)
- May 2 First ascent of Shishapangma the fourteenth highest mountain in the world and lowest of the Eight-thousanders
- May 2 Mad Dog Vachon beats Verne Gagne in Omaha, to become NWA champ
- May 4 "Another World" premieres on TV in the US
- May 4 70 GATT-countries confer in Geneva
- May 4 Pulitzer prize awarded to Richard Hofstadter (Anti-intellectualism)
- May 5 Separatists riot in Quebec
- May 6 Joe Orton's play "Entertaining Mr Sloan" premieres in London
Event of Interest
May 9 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev visits Egypt
- May 12 Italian diplomat and politician Manlio Brosio chosen as secretary-general of NATO
- May 15 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- May 16 USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- May 16 Verne Gagne beats Mad Dog Vachon in Omaha, to become NWA champ
- May 18 US Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional to deprive naturalized citizens of citizenship if they return to home country for more than 3 years
- May 19 US diplomats find at least 40 secret microphones in Moscow embassy
- May 21 1st nuclear-powered lighthouse begins operations (Chesapeake Bay)
- May 21 Fire in Belgian resort kills 19
- May 21 US begin intelligence flights above Laos
- May 25 Ground is broken for new Busch Memorial Stadium in St Louis; opens in 1966, demolished in 2005
- May 25 US Supreme Court rules closing schools to avoid desegregation is unconstitutional
Event of Interest
May 28 Jawaharlal Nehru cremated in New Delhi
- May 28 Palestine National Congress forms the PLO in Jerusalem
- May 28 Unmanned Apollo 2 Saturn test launched into Earth orbit
- May 30 Giants sweep Mets 5-3 & 8-6 in 23 inn, records include elapsed time of 9:50, 47 strikeouts, 7:22 for 2nd game & NY's 22 K's in 2nd games
- May 31 Charles Schmid kills first Pied Piper victim
Birthdays in History
- May 1 Ruth Picardie, journalist
- May 1 Sarah Armstrong-Jones, daughter of princess Margaret & Lord Snowdon
- May 4 Zsuzsa Mathe, Hungarian painter and visual artist, founder of transrealism
- May 7 Brian Kilmeade, American TV and radio host (Fox and Friends, The Brian Kilmeade Show), born in Massapequa, New York
- May 7 Mustapha Zerqti, Moroccan Dutch writer (Ihtidaar hub fi el-mahd)
- May 13 Ronnie Coleman, American bodybuilder
- May 14 James M. Kelly, Capt USAF/astronaut, born in Burlington, Iowa
- May 20 Earl Charles Spencer, English peer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, born in London, England
- May 20 Joseph Sinnott Edwards, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List), born in Chicago, Illinois
- May 20 Paul W Richards, astronaut, born in Scranton, Pennsylvania
- May 23 Ruth Metzler-Arnold, member of the Swiss Federal Council
- May 25 Ivan Bella, Slovak cosmonaut who was the 1st Slovak citizen to fly in space, born in Brezno, Czechoslovakia
- May 31 Leonard Asper, Canadian businessman (CanWest), born in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Deaths in History
Nancy Astor (1879-1964)
May 2 American born British politician, 1st female MP in UK House of Commons, dies at 84
- May 5 Howard Zahniser, American environmental activist (father of Wilderness Act), dies of heart failure at 58
- May 10 Mikhail Larionov, Russian painter (b. 1881)
- May 15 Cornelis Hendrik Edelman, Dutch geologist, dies at 61
- May 15 Vladko Maček, Kingdom of Yugoslavia deputy prime minister (b. 1879)
- May 17 Otto V. Kuusinen, Finnish politician (founder of the Finnish Communist Party), dies at 82
- May 21 James Franck, German-born American physicist (Nobel Prize for Physics 1925), dies at 81
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964)
May 27 1st Prime Minister of India (1947-64) and important leader of the Indian independence movement, dies of an assumed heart attack at 74
Leó Szilárd (1898-1964)
May 30 Hungarian-German-American nuclear physicist (Manhattan Project) and peace activist, dies at 66
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists