Top World History Events: 1st – 31st May

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

May 1

All of the events that occurred in the 1960s

1931: The Empire State Building is completed

How Elvis Presley celebrated his divorce from Priscilla Ann Beaulieu

Warships and fighter bombers from 1982 British military forces bombed the Argentinean side of Port Stanley on the Falkland Islands in war.

When was the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville Tennessee

In 2006, The Great American Strike urged for immigrants to take one day off of work and school.

What Happened on May 2

Hoover Says Stock Market Crash Temporary Setback

What interesting milestones happened in the first half of 1952?

Tony Blair became aged 34 in 1997, and stepped up as the youngest UK prime minister in 185 years.

2008 Australia Ongoing Drought – Struggling to Survive

May 3

“The British Government declares a General Strike illegal…”

24.1% TB case increase in the US in the year 1932

1951: Festival of Britain is opened at the Royal Festival Hall by King George VI

Tha Inauguration of Margaret Thatcher in 1979

The Dallas TV Series Is Cancelled on May 31

May 4

1886 Haymarket Square Riot

1932: Al Capone was incarcerated and served 11 years after being convicted of Income Tax Evasion.

National Guards killed four protesters, injuring 10 others at Kent State University in 1970.

2010: Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster off Louisiana coast causes first oil to reach shore

May 5

1933 – Hitler Proclaims Himself The Head Of State, Effectively Taking Control Of Germany

Carnegie Hall Officially Opens in 1891

1925 : John Thomas Scopes was arrested for breaking the Butler Act. This law makes it illegal to teach evolution, in violation of Tennessee law.

1961: Alan B. Shepard Jr Learn about the first American in space

What happened on the 6th of May

The Congress of the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which barred Chinese immigrants from entering the United States for 10 years.

History of 1910, King Edward VII dies

The Hindenburg was the largest dirigible ever built and in 1937 it burst into flames

1954: How Roger Bannister became the first man to run 1 mile in less than 4 minutes

1994: The Queen and France’s president opened the Channel Tunnel in two ceremonies in France and Britain.

7th May

1915: The torpedo sank the ship and killed many people, there were about 1,200 casualties as a result.

1941: Glenn Miller recorded Chattanooga Choo Choo.

Early in 1941, Germany sent a large number of bombers carrying bombs to Liverpool, the North East, London and Bristol and the North West.

In 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally at Rheims in France, ending the war in Europe.

1956: A minister in the British government says that there is no evidence that smoking is bad for you. He says this despite a connection between Lung Cancer and smoking being found years later.

1977, Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby. Winning that race meant he completed the Triple Crown for three-year-old thoroughbred horses.

Celebrating the month of May

Today on 7th May : Tim McGraw turns 48

A Rock(y) History of 1st to 31st May

Steve Wozniak’s Birthday

What is Bing Crosby up to these days?

Edith’s Legacy: 1st to 31st May History

Audrey Hepburn in May

Brussels, Belgium born on May 4th, 1929

May 8

Timeline of Maternal History

A Brief History of Orson Welles

Celebrating the birth of Kenosha, Wisconsin native Cora

1945 VE Day

The Beatles released their final original album, “Let It Be”, shortly after the band announced the end of its existence.

How the 1973 Battle of Wounded Knee ended

1988 Marianne Pearl Murdered Via Cyanide In Excedrin Capsules

The Tate Modern opened its doors in 2000, attracting media attention. It was converted from a power station on Bankside in London.

May 9

1960, birth control became more accessible when the FDA approved the first contraceptive pill use.

1974 Nixon impeachments hearings

1974: Jon Landau wrote that he saw “rock and roll future” and it was Bruce Springsteen.

May 10

The FBI were created in 1924 and the BOI was changed to the FBI in 1936.

Increasing Unemployment of the General Strike of 1926

1940 Battle of France Begins

1965: Warren Buffet Acquires Control of Berkshire-Hathaway

Nelson Mandela was the first black president of South Africa after 1994.

The Sinn Fein leaders voted to accept the peace agreement in 1998. This legislation led to the end of violence between Northern Ireland and the republic of Ireland, and as a result, people on all sides felt safer.

May 11,

1934 The dust storm was huge and three thousand miles long, with a height of twelve-thousand feet.

In 1953, the F5 tornado struck Waco, Texas where 48 were known dead and more than 250 injured.

In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue Computer defeated Garry Kasparov to win a six-game chess match.

May 12

1932: Charles Lindbergh’s kidnapped baby son was found dead, only a few miles away from the Lindbergh home.

1937: The coronation of King George VI

In 2008, a 7.8 earthquake struck near Chengdu, China’s provincial capital in southwestern China and more than 60 thousand people were killed.

The events of May 13

1938: Louis Armstrong’s popular song, “When the Saints Go Marching In” was recorded

1940 Churchill became Prime Minister

In 1985, the Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb from a helicopter containing C-4 and Tovex on MOVE’s residence.

May 14: Newton’s Laws of Motion are translated into Latin.

Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden created the Local Defence Volunteers in 1940, who later became known as “The Home Guard”.

1942: How World War II influences the creation of the WACS

In 1948, a Jewish state was proclaimed after British rule over Palestine had come to a close.

Rationing for petrol in 1957 ended after five months when the crisis had passed.

1991 : Winnie Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s wife and an activist, was given a six-year prison sentence for her part in the kidnap of four youths suspected of being police informers. One of the kidnapped boys died from injuries sustained during the kidnapping after it was found that they had been planning to unofficially protect their neighborhood from abductors and thieves.

Historical events for May 15

1940 marked the first time that nylon stockings were made and sold for general use. Wallace Carothers came up with the idea of nylon in 1935 and started mass production in 1940.

1941: History of jet aircraft flies successfully over Cranwell

A brief look back on 1942, when gas rationing was in effect across 27 states

1957 Britain tested their first hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean

The 1950’s: A turning point in history

A Year in History from a variety of sources

May 16

1927: In the wake of Louisiana’s flooding a total of 20 people have been found dead. The death toll is only going to increase as rescue workers continue to search flooded houses.

1927: The first ever Academy Awards was given to winners who were in attendance at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

1943: The German occupation of Warsaw concludes as Nazi police, SS units, and the Wehrmacht using tanks and other armored vehicles to take back control of the Jewish ghetto. The uprising lasted for 1 month before being crushed by German forces.

Protests took place in 1969 on California campuses against the Vietnam War. Guardsmen were deployed to maintain order with weapons and fixed bayonets in Berkley of the University of California area.

2005: Army Specialist Sabrina Harman was convicted at Fort Hood of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.

What happened on May 17

1943: The Lancaster bombers developed a bomb that would roll downwards to avoid defences on dam walls.

The 1954 United States Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional after ruling unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education, which was 14 years after the landmark case Plessy v. Ferguson

1973: The Senate investigation of Watergate begins televised hearings on the Watergate scandal.

What happened on May 18?

1980, Mount St. Helens erupted and blasted 1,300 ft off it’s top that sent hot mud, gas and ashes running down it’s slopes

May 19

In 1921, the Emergency Quota Act was passed into law. Which is an act that limits the number of immigrants admitted into the US.

1962: Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday for President Kennedy at a birthday party.

May 20:

1927, Charles Lindbergh leaves from New York and goes to Paris in his airplane. He beats the others to get there, completing the trip in record time.

In 1961, an angry mob consisting of only White people attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama.

In 1973, the British Navy sent three frigates to protect its trawlers, in order to stop the Icelandic government from confiscating British fishing vessels.

What’s the May 21 story?

How the American Red Cross was established in 1881

Lindbergh landed in Paris in 1927, completing a nonstop flight across the Atlantic

In 1932, a woman called Amelia Earhart became the first female to solo cross the Atlantic Ocean by air.

1991 Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister who assassinated

2010: Scientists in the US successfully created artificial life by creating the first live cell to be controlled by synthetic DNA.

May 22

In 1927, an earthquake measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale struck Xining in the eastern part of Qinghai province and caused around 200,000 deaths.

Images From 1965 Anti Vietnam Protests At Berkeley University

Sri Lanka makes a jump from Ceylon to the island

1981: Peter Sutcliffe found guilty of killing 13 women

1989 Students occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing

23 May

1929 begins in the gold rush days of Australia

After robbing a bank, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death by the police.

In 1988, the median price for a home was $87,700

3 out of 4 voters in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic voted “Yes” on the referendum for Good Friday peace agreement, and it passed with 75. 30% percent of the eligible population voting.

24 May History

1883: The Brooklyn Bridge opens

1934 Midwest Drought Continues

Did you know that Germany’s battleship Bismarck sank the HMS Hood in 1941?

In 1960, the Freedom Riders set out on a bus tour to prove that state laws forbidding integrated buses were unconstitutional. The riders rode buses into southern states to nonviolently protest segregation, as well as laws prohibiting riding other than in separate designated sections for whites and blacks.

Concorde service from 1976 and British Airways from London began, cutting the flight time from 7 hours to 3 1/2, bringing a wider range of tourists to Washington.

May 25

1925: John T. Scopes, a high school science teacher, was indicted for teaching the theory of evolution because it violated Tennessee’s state law by instructing public school children on the topic.

1935: Jesse Owens broke three World Records at the Big Ten Meet, including Broad Jump, the 220-yard dash, and the Low Hurdles.

1961: Kennedy wanted $531 million for America to put someone on the moon before 1970. In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon after being given a budget of $531 million by Kennedy.

In 1968 , the Gateway Arch in St. Louis was opened, at a height of 630 feet, and a width of 630 feet at the base.

1977, the first Star Wars movie opens

May 26

In 1896, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was created with 12 initial stocks at an average price of 40.94 per share.

In 1940, “Operation Dynamo” was launched for the evacuation of British, French and Belgian soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France

Wars, Royal Weddings, Victorian Fashion: Life in Britain 1950-1970

In 1969, Beatle John Lennon and his wife staged a ‘bed in’, going to bed for seven days in Montreal.

27 May

1923, the first Le Mans 24 hour race

In 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrians and people crossed for a day.

The German battleship, Bismarck, is sunk in the Atlantic by the Royal Naval ships. Dorsetshire sinks the German warship on May 27 and King George V and Rodney complete the task on May 27 when they fire three torpedoes each into the vessel.

In 1997, a F5 tornado struck Texas, killing 27 people and destroying the town. The tornado was over 800 feet wide and had winds faster than 260 mph.

28th of May

One event that happened on the first day of May 1977

In 1987, a 19-year old man named Mathias Rust was able to fly from Helsinki to Moscow in a light aircraft undetected and land safely on Red Square.

29 May in history

In 1932, around 10,000 World War I veterans gathered in Washington to demand they be paid bonuses they hadn’t been scheduled to receive until many years later. These World War I veterans are known as the “Bonus Army.”

1942, Bing Crosby records the record that would become the top seller ever.

In 1953, Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal became the first explorers to reach the top of Mount Everest.

1985 Heysel Stadium Disaster in Belgium

30 – May

1911- The first ever running of the Indianapolis 500

In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was built to honor United States President Abraham Lincoln.

In 1937, 10 union demonstrators are killed and 84 are wounded when police opened fire in front of the South Chicago Republic Steel plant.

In 1959, the SR-N1 hovercraft is launched. Designed by Sir Christopher Cockerell, the craft is tested off the coast of Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

History of 31

The famous bell clock known as Big Ben was introduced to the United Kingdom in 1859.

1889: a day of infamy when Johnstown, Pennsylvania was destroyed

World War I Battle Highlights from 1916

1935 Earthquake Hits Northwestern India Leaving 20,000 People Dead

In 1970, an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 causes a landslide that buries two Peruvian towns with 50,000 people. The landslide was caused by the earthquake that was off the coast of Casma, Peru at magnitude 7.9.