May 1982 in History

Events in History

  • May 1 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville Tennessee opens
  • May 2 Falklands War: Argentine cruiser General Belgrano sunk by British submarine Conqueror, killing more than 350 men
  • May 3 NY Times reports that military will get 25% of NASA's budget

Event of interestEvent of Interest

May 3 President Reagan begins 5 minute weekly radio broadcasts

US President & Actor Ronald Reagan
US President & Actor
Ronald Reagan
  • May 4 British destroyer HMS Sheffield hit by Exocet rocket off Falkland Islands: 20 of her crew died.
  • May 7 IBM releases PC-DOS version 1.1
  • May 7 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • May 12 Pulitzer prize awarded to John Updike (Rabbit is Rich)
  • May 12 US Football League forms

Event of interestEvent of Interest

May 12 In Fatima Portugal, a Spanish Traditionalist priest who opposed Vatican II reforms and saw Pope John Paul II as a perpetrator of them, is stopped prior to his attempt to attack the Pope with a bayonet

264th Pope John Paul II
264th Pope
John Paul II
  • May 13 Braniff Airlines files for bankruptcy
  • May 13 Soyuz T-5 is launched-Berezovoi & Lebedev for 211 days in space
  • May 14 Guinea adopts constitution
  • May 16 Columbia moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating in preparation for STS-4
  • May 16 Salvador Jorge Blanco wins presidential election in Dominican Rep
  • May 18 Unification Church founder Rev Sun Myung Moon convicted of tax evasion
  • May 21 British troops land on Falkland Islands
  • May 23 Colin Wilson rides a surfboard 294 miles
  • May 23 Pope John Paul II declares "Peerke" Donders a saint
  • May 24 Liberation of Khorramshahr; Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran-Iraq War
  • May 25 Iranian troops reconquer Khorramshar
  • May 25 STS-4 vehicle moves to launch pad
  • May 26 British ship Atlantic Conveyor carrying Chinook helicopters and destroyer HMS Coventry hit in Falkland war: 39 crew members die
  • May 28 Pope John Paul II is 1st reigning pope to visit Great Britain (Adrian IV was born in England, as Nicholas Breakspear)
  • May 29 1st papal visit to Britain since 1531
  • May 29 Pentagon plans 1st strategy to fight a nuclear war
  • May 30 Spain becomes 16th member of NATO

Birthdays in History

  • May 5 Randall Gay, National Football League player
  • May 10 Daniel Harris, Australian rules footballer
  • May 10 Jeremy Gable, American playwright
  • May 13 Yoko Kumada, Japanese gravure idol
  • May 13 Oguchi Onyewu, American footballer
  • May 24 DaMarcus Beasley, American footballer
  • May 26 Yoko Matsugane, Japanese model

Deaths in History

  • May 7 Alfred Adam, dies at 72
  • May 8 Neil Bogart, American record executive (b. 1943)
  • May 10 Jean C M Picart le Doux, French designer, dies
  • May 10 Peter Weiss, German playwright (Marat-Sade), dies at 65
  • May 12 Humphrey Searle, writer (20th Century counterpoint), dies at 66
  • May 14 Baron Mariel-Henri Jaspar, Belgian minister/ambassador, dies
  • May 28 Lt Col 'H'. Jones VC, Commanding Officer, 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (British Army) (Falklands War) (b. 1940)