- May 1 1st Suriname union congress at Paramaribo
Radio Premiere
May 2 American comedian Jack Benny's 1st radio show premieres (NBC Blue Network)
Event of Interest
May 2 Pulitzer Prize for Literature awarded to novelist Pearl S. Buck for "The Good Earth", the first American woman to win
- May 3 24 tourists begin 1st air-charter holiday from London, England to Basel, Switzerland
- May 5 Japan and China sign t he Shanghai Ceasefire Agreement. making Shanghai a demilitarized zone
- May 7 58th Kentucky Derby: Eugene James aboard Burgoo King wins in 2:05.2
- May 9 57th Preakness: Eugene James aboard Burgoo King wins in 1:59.8
- May 9 Piccadilly Circus, London, first lit by electricity
- May 9 WOC-AM in Davenport Iowa merges with WHO to become WHO-WOC
- May 10 Government declares "Wilhelmus" as the Netherlands' national anthem
- May 10 Senate chairman Albert Lebrun becomes President of France
Lindbergh Kidnapping
May 12 Body of kidnapped son of Charles Lindbergh is found in Hopewell, New Jersey
- May 14 "We Want Beer!" parade in NY
- May 15 The 15th May Incident: in an attempted coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is shot and killed by Navy officers in his home
- May 16 Yanks 4th straight shutout to equal record set by Cleveland & Boston
- May 17 US Congress changes name "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico"
Amelia Earhart Departs Newfoundland
May 20 Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland on her journey to become the 1st woman to fly solo and nonstop across the Atlantic
- May 20 Engelbert Dollfuss becomes chancellor of Austria
- May 21 1st Curtis Cup for Women's team amateur golf: US wins, 5½-3½ at Wentworth Club (Wentworth, England)
Earhart Crosses the Atlantic
May 21 After flying for 17 hours from Newfoundland, Amelia Earhart lands near Londonderry, Northern Ireland, completing the first transatlantic solo flight by a woman
- May 23 Australian cyclist Hubert Opperman sets paced world records 1,384km in 24 hours, and 1,609km (1,000 miles) in 28 hours, 55 minutes, 39 seconds at Melbourne Motordrome
- May 25 Goofy, aka Dippy Dawg, 1st appears in 'Mickey's Revue' by Walt Disney
- May 26 Admiral Makoto Saito forms parliament in Tokyo
- May 28 Netherlands closes off the Zuiderzee - a new system of dams and dykes to reclaim land and provide flood protection. The country's largest hydraulic engineering project of the 20th century.
- May 29 The Bonus Army of World War I veterans begins to assemble in Washington, D.C. to request cash bonuses promised to them to be paid in 1945
- May 30 Indianapolis 500: Fred Frame takes lead for good on lap 152, winning from 27th on starting grid; accompanied by riding mechanic Jerry Houck
- May 30 Yankees dedicate a plaque to Miller Huggins
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