May 1980 in History

Events in History

May 7 Yugoslav President Josip Tito is buried

May 8 1st non-stop trans-North American balloon flight departs Fort Baker, California. Maxie Anderson and son Kristian pilot the Kitty Hawk for five days.
May 8 World Health Organization announces smallpox has been eradicated
May 9 35 motorists die when roadway collapses after Liberian freighter 'Summit Venture' rams Sunshine Skyway Bridge, during a squall (Tampa Bay, Florida)
May 12 1st non-stop trans-North American balloon flight lands at Sainte-Félicité, Quebec. Maxie Anderson and son Kristian piloted the Kitty Hawk for five days.
May 14 Department of Health & Human Services begins operation
May 16 Former Buggles members Geoff Downes & Trevor Horn replace Jon Anderson & Rick Wakeman in Yes
May 17 Major race riot in Miami Florida - 16 killed, 300 injured
May 17 V. S. Kumar Anandan from Sri Lanka balances on one foot for 33 hours (Guinness World Record)
May 18 Belgium 3rd government of Martens forms
May 18 Fernando Belaunde Terry elected president of Peru
May 18 Gwangju Massacre: Students in Gwangju, South Korea begin demonstrations, calling for democratic reforms

May 18 Mount St Helens erupts in Washington state, causing the largest landslide in history, killing 57 people and costing $1 billion in damage

May 18 People's Republic of China launches 1st intercontinental rocket
May 20 710 families in Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, New York are evacuated due to linger effects of prior use as chemical waste disposal site [1]
May 20 Fire in nursing home in Kingston Jamaica, kills 157
May 20 In a referendum, 59.5% of Quebec voters reject separatism
May 21 US Coast Guard Ensign Jean Marie Butler is 1st woman to graduate from US service academy
May 24 Iran rejects a call to World Court to release US hostages

May 26 Soyuz 36 carries cosmonauts Valery Kubasov and 1st Hungarian in space Bertalan Farkas to Salyut 6

May 27 South Korean police ends people's uprising; 2,000 killed
May 27 The Gwangju Massacre: South Korean airborne and army troops retake city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 possibly many more
May 29 53rd National Spelling Bee: Jacques Bailly wins spelling elucubrate
May 29 Attempted assassination on Vernon Jordan Jr National Urban League president

May 29 JMW Turner's "Juliet & Her Nurse" sold for $6,400,000 in NYC

May 30 1st papal visit to France since 1814
May 30 Tiger reliever John Hiller, 37, (who had a 1971 heart attack), retires
May 30 Turner's painting "Juliet & Her Nurse" sells for $6.4 million
May 30 Twins Ken Landreaux ends his hitting streak after 31 games
May 31 Police & youthful rebels battle in Zurich

May 3 Marcel Vigneron, American chef (Top Chef), born in Bainbridge Island, Washington

May 12 British politician (British Chancellor 2020-22; Prime Minister, 2022-present), born in Southampton, England

May 1 Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko (49) weds Bobi Ladawa

May 17 Navy Liaison and future politician John McCain marries second wife teacher Cindy Lou Hensley

May 27 President of Haiti Jean-Claude Duvalier (28) weds Michele Bennett in Haiti

May 4 Yugoslav communist revolutionary and leader of Yugoslavia (1943-80), dies at 87

May 5 Edmond Vandercammen, French-Belgian painter and poet (Grand Combat), dies at 79
May 18 David A. Johnston, American volcanologist, dies in Mount St. Helens eruption at 30
May 18 Harry Truman, American victim of Mount St. Helens eruption, dies at 83
May 18 Reid Blackburn, American photojournalist for National Geographic & victim of Mount St. Helens eruption, dies at 28
May 28 Rolf Nevanlinna, Finnish mathematician (b. 1895)