May 1971 in History

Events in History

May 1 Amtrak Railroad begins operation
May 3 "All Things Considered" premieres on 112 National Public Radio stations

Event of Interest

May 3 Erich Honecker succeeds Walter Ulbricht as East German communist party leader

May 3 National Public Radio begins programming
May 3 Nixon administration arrests 13,000 anti-war protesters in 3 days
May 3 Pulitzer prize awarded to John Toland (Rising Sun)
May 5 Race riot in Brownsville section of Brooklyn (NYC)
May 9 Friends of Earth return 1500 non-returnable bottles to Schweppes
May 9 Largest walk in crowd (31,626) in Baltimore Oriole history
May 10 US special delivery rates go from 45 cents to 60 cents
May 13 Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane seriously injured in a car accident
May 15 Irish Republican Army member William 'Billy' Reid is shot dead by British soldiers in Belfast
May 15 Radio Nordsee International's ship bombed
May 16 Bulgaria adopts its constitution
May 16 US 1st class postage now costs 8 cents (was 6 cents)
May 17 Washington State bans sex discrimination
May 18 Bulgarian constitution goes into effect

Event of Interest

May 18 US President Richard Nixon rejects 60 demands of Congressional Black Caucus

May 18 Vampire rapist Wayne Boden's last victim found in Calgary, Alberta
May 19 USSR launches Mars 2, becomes the 1st spacecraft to crash land on Mars
May 20 Pentagon reports blacks constitute 11% of US soldiers in SE Asia
May 21 National Guard mobilizes to quell riot in Chattanooga, Tennessee

White Night Riots

May 21 White Night riots occur in San Francisco after Dan White is given a lenient sentence for assassinating Mayor George Moscone and the openly gay elected official Harvey Milk

Rioters outside San Francisco City Hall on the night of May 21, 1979

May 22 A British soldier is killed by members of the Official Irish Republican Army in Belfast
May 24 A commuter bus plunges into Panama Canal, killing 38 of 43 aboard
May 25 The Provisional Irish Republican Army throw a time bomb into Springfield Road British Army base in Belfast, killing British Army Sergeant Michael Willetts and wounding seven officers
May 25 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
May 28 USSR Mars 3 launched, 1st spacecraft to soft land on Mars
May 30 Train crash at Duivendrecht, Netherlands, 5 die
May 30 US Mariner 9 1st satellite to orbit Mars launched

Birthdays in History

May 3 Damon Dash, American entrepreneur and label executive (Roc-A-Fella Records), born in NYC, New York
May 7 Thomas Piketty, French economist and author ("Capital in the Twenty-First Century"), born in Clichy
May 9 Nicolas Ghesquière, French fashion designer (Louis Vuitton), born in Comines, France
May 14 Sofia Coppola, American director (Lost in Translation), born in NYC, New York
May 17 Gina Raimondo, American politician, 1st woman Governor of Rhode Island (2015-), born in Smithfield, Rhode Island
May 17 Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, Queen of the Netherlands (2013-present), born in Buenos Aires, Argentina
May 25 Marco Cappato, Italian politician (Member of the European Parliament), born in Milan, Italy
May 27 Glenn Ross, Northern Irish strongman
May 27 Kaur Kender, Estonian author
May 27 Wayne Carey, Australian rules footballer
May 28 Marco Rubio, American politician (Senate-R-Florida, 2011-), born in Miami, Florida

Deaths in History

May 4 Donald Dexter Van Slyke, American chemist (Micromanometric analysis), dies at 88
May 4 Joseph Csaky, Hungarian-French sculptor (Cubism), dies at 83
May 5 Harry Moorman, Dutch vice-admiral (KVP), dies at 71
May 5 Petro Scaglione, Italian procureur-general, killed by Mafia
May 5 Violet Jessop, Titanic survivor (b. 1887)
May 7 Willem Banning, Dutch theologist and sociologist (Karl Marx), dies at 83
May 11 Alan Mara Bateman, Canadian geologist (Yale professor), dies at 82
May 15 Donald F. Duncan Sr., American entrepreneur (Duncan Toys Company), dies at 78

Ogden Nash (1902-1971)

May 19 American humorous poet (I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Masquerade Party), dies at 68 [1]

May 20 Waldo Williams, Welsh poet (b. 1904)
May 25 Charles P. Cabell, American military and intelligence officer (US Air Force general; Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency , 1953–1962), dies of a heart attack at 67
May 25 Jo Etha Collier, young African American woman killed by 3 whites in Drew, Mississippi
May 31 Massimo Campigli, Italian painter and illustrator, dies at 75