Events in History
Knighthood
May 5 Anna Wintour, the editor of US Vogue, is made a dame by Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace
- May 6 84 abducted schoolgirls released in exchange for Boko Haram suspects in Nigeria
- May 6 Bus crash in Arusha region, Tanzania kills 35
Election of Interest
May 7 Emmanuel Macron wins France's presidential election defeating Marine Le Pen
- May 9 Fossil of Chinese feathered baby dinosaur formally identified as Beibeilong sinensis (baby dragon in Chinese)
- May 9 Jakarta’s Christian governor Ahok jailed for 2 years for blasphemy
Election of Interest
May 9 Moon Jae-in elected President of South Korea after a snap election to replace Park Geun-hye
Event of Interest
May 9 US President Donald Trump dismisses FBI Director James Comey
- May 10 Apple becomes the first company to be worth more than $800 billion
- May 10 US President Donald Trump shares classified information about ISIS plot with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office
Boulder Glacier Melting
May 10 USGS releases a report saying that some glaciers in Montana have receded by 85% in the last 50 years
Canonization
May 13 Portuguese children Francisco and Jacinta Marto (died 1919 & 1920 aged 10 & 9 in flu epidemic) canonized by Pope Francis at Fátima - the youngest Catholic saints not to die as martyrs
- May 15 1st US prosecution under federal Hate Crimes Act of violence against transgender person, murder of Mercedes Williamson
- May 15 State of Emergency declared in Sanaa, Yemen after outbreak of cholera kills 115
- May 15 UN Security Council condemns North Korea missile test
- May 16 10-year-old girl granted special 20 week abortion request in Rohtak, India in land-mark case
- May 20 US President Donald Trump begins his 1st foreign trip arriving in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- May 22 Japanese researchers from University of Yamanashi report birth of mice from freeze-dried sperm stored on the International Space Station
- May 22 South Africa's Western Cape province declares a drought disaster - worst for 113 years
- May 23 Library of Al-Qarawiyyin, the world's oldest continually operating library, reopens after a major restoration by King Mohammed VI in Fez, Morocco [1]
- May 23 UK raises terror threat level to critical following Manchester bombing
- May 23 US President Donald Trump meets Pope Francis at the Vatican
Event of Interest
May 25 Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg receives an honorary degree from Harvard University, after dropping out in 2004
- May 25 Pitched battles between Islamic State-linked militants and Philippine government troops in and around Marawi, leave 43 dead, with thousands fleeing
- May 26 Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and Ricky John Best killed, Micah David-Cole Fletcher injured defending Muslim teenager in Portland, Oregon
- May 27 In Bangalore, India, white puffy toxic foam begins spilling out of Varthur Lake onto city streets
- May 28 Floods and landslides in Sri Lanka kill at least 151
- May 28 Tom Dumoulin wins the 100th Giro d’Italia in Milan; first Dutchman to win
- May 29 Violent storm and high winds in Moscow, Russia leaves 13 dead
- May 30 Bomb outside government pension office in Baghdad kills 14, injures 34, Islamic State claim respnsibility
- May 30 Car bomb outside ice cream shop in Baghdad kills 17, Islamic State claim responsibility
- May 30 Large suicide bomb in the diplomatic quarter of Kabul, Afghanistan kills more than 150 and injures 400
Event of Interest
May 30 South Korean President Moon Jae-in orders a probe into additional launchers for the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system
Event of Interest
May 31 Kenya's Madaraka Express, a Chinese-built high speed railway from Mombasa to Nairobi is opened by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta
Weddings in History
- May 20 Pippa Middleton (33), sister of the Duchess of Cambridge marries James Matthews (41) in Englefield, Berkshire
Deaths in History
- May 1 Mike Lowry, American politician (Rep-D-WA, 1979-89, Governor of Washington 1993-97), dies at 78
- May 1 Stan Weston, American toy licensing agent, had concept for G.I. Joe, dies at 84
- May 2 Abelardo Castillo, Argentine writer and novelist, dies at 82
- May 2 Leo Thorsness, American Vietnam War pilot (Medal of Honor), dies at 85
- May 4 William J. Baumol, American economist (Baumol’s cost disease), dies at 95
- May 9 Qian Qichen, Chinese diplomat & vice premier, dies at 89
- May 11 Jur Mellema, Dutch politician (CHU), dies at 93
- May 12 Mauno Koivisto, President of Finland (1982-94), dies at 93
- May 14 Elske ter Veld, Dutch politician (State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment), dies at 72
- May 15 Ian Brady [Ian Duncan Stewart], British serial killer (Moors Murders), dies in prison at 79
- May 18 Jacque Fresco, American industrial designer & founder of the Venus Project, dies at 101
- May 23 Alexander Burdonsky, Russian theater director and Joseph Stalin's grandson, dies at 75
- May 25 Sir Alistair Horne, British historian and journalist (A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962), dies at 91
- May 26 Zbigniew Brzezinski, Polish-American national security advisor to President Carter (1977-1981), dies at 89
- May 29 Constantine Mitsotakis [Konstantinos Mitsotakis], Prime Minister of Greece (1990 –1993), dies at 98
Manuel Noriega (1934-2017)
May 29 Panamanian general and dictator (1983-89), dies at 83
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists