Events in Sport
- May 3 78th Kentucky Derby: Eddie Arcaro aboard Hill Gail wins his record fifth Derby
- May 4 Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Fresno Golf Open
- May 5 Ron Necciai of Pitts Pirate's Bristol Twins Class D farm team, strikes out 27, as he no-hits Welch Minors, 4 Minors do reach base
- May 13 Minor-league Bristol pitcher Ron Necciai strikes out 27 in 9-innings
- May 15 Johnny Longden becomes 2nd jockey to ride 4,000 winners
- May 17 77th Preakness: Conn McCreary aboard Blue Man wins in 1:57.4
- May 21 Booklyn Dodgers score 15 runs in their 1st inning to beat Cincinnati Reds 19-1
- May 30 Charlie Grimm succeeds Tommy Holmes as manager of Boston Braves
- May 30 Indianapolis 500: Troy Ruttman wins in 3:52:41.930 (207.480 km/h)
Birthdays in Sport
- May 3 Allen Wells, Scottish 100m sprinter (Olympic gold-1980), born in Edinburgh, Scotland
- May 11 Mike Lupica, American sports journalist and newspaper columnist (New York Daily News, ESPN), born in Oneida, New York
- May 13 Sew Shivnarine, cricketer (3 Tests for WI 1978, later USA captain)
- May 14 M J Smith, LPGA golfer
- May 15 Rick Waits, baseball pitcher (Rangers, Indians, Twins)
- May 19 Bert van Marwijk, Dutch football manager
- May 20 Roger Milla, Cameroonian footballer
- May 22 R W Eaks, American professional golfer, born in Colorado Springs, Clorado
- May 23 "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, NJ, middleweight boxing champ (1982-83)
Deaths in Sport
- May 16 Alec Hearne, cricketer (scored 9 in Test for Eng v South Africa 1892), dies