Montgomery Supreme Commander
May 1 Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery appointed British supreme commander
- May 1 Mrs Emma Clarissa Clement named "American Mother of Year" by the American Mothers Committee of the Golden Rule Foundation in New York
- May 1 Start of the three-year Pilbara strike by indigenous Aboriginals in Western Australia for better wages and conditions [1]
- May 1 The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy
The Postman Always Rings Twice
May 2 "The Postman Always Rings Twice" film based on the novel by James M. Cain, directed by Tay Garnett, starring Lana Turner and John Garfield is released
- May 2 The "Battle of Alcatraz" takes place, killing two guards and three inmates
- May 3 International military tribunal in Tokyo begins
- May 4 5 die in a 2 day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco bay
- May 4 72nd Kentucky Derby: Warren Mehrtens aboard Assault wins in 2:06.6
- May 4 Wash's Cecil Travis gets 6 straight hits before being stopped
Event of Interest
May 6 Pulitzer Prize for History awarded to Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. for his novel "The Age of Jackson"
- May 7 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees
- May 7 William H. Hastie inaugurated as 1st black governor of Virgin Islands
- May 8 Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial that preceded the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn
- May 8 MLB Boston Red Sox shortstop Johnny Pesky scores 6 runs in 14-10 win over visiting Chicago White Sox
- May 9 1st hour long entertainment TV show, "NBC's Hour Glass" premieres
Victor Emmanuel III Abdicates
May 9 King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by his son Umberto II who reigns for only 34 days before the monarchy is abolished
- May 10 Red Sox win 15th straight beat Yanks 5-4, DiMaggio hits Grand Slam
- May 11 1st night game at Boston Braves Field (Giants 5, Braves 1)
- May 11 71st Preakness: Warren Mehrtens aboard Assault wins in 2:01.4
- May 11 United Malays National Organisation is created.
- May 13 Sarwate & Banerjee add 249 for 10th wkt for Indians v Surrey
- May 13 US sentences 58 camp guards of Mauthausen concentration camp to death
- May 13 Winston Churchill welcomed in Rotterdam
For Those We Love
May 14 Paul Hindemith's requiem "For Those We Love" premieres
Annie Get Your Gun
May 16 Irving Berlin, Dorothy and Herbert Fields' musical "Annie Get Your Gun" starring Ethel Merman and featuring "There's No Business Like Show Business" opens at Imperial Theater, NYC
- May 17 KVP Labor/Communists win 1st post-WW2 Dutch parliamentary elections
- May 17 US President Harry Truman seizes control of nation's railroads to delay a strike
- May 19 Dutch Cooperation for Sexual Reform (NVSH) forms in Amsterdam
- May 20 Cubs Claude Passeau makes his 1st error since September 21, 1941, ending pitcher's fielding record of 273 consecutive errorless chances
- May 21 Physicist Louis Slotin is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation while preparing a plutonium core experiment at the Los Alamos lab, he dies 9 days later and the accident ends all hands-on nuclear assembly work at Los Alamos
- May 22 Yankees turn triple-play & defeat Tigers 5-3
Bill Dickey for the Yankees
May 24 Bill Dickey replaces Joe McCarthy as New York Yankees manager
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
May 26 Darius Milhaud's 3rd Concerto for Piano and Orchestra premieres in Prague
- May 28 1st night game at Yankee stadium (Senators 2, Yanks 1)
President Manuel Roxas
May 28 Manuel Roxas is inaugurated as the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines
- May 28 US Patent filed for a hydrogen bomb
- May 29 KVP wins Provincial National election in Netherlands
- May 30 Bama Rowell hits a home run in a baseball match - the ball shatters Bulova Clock in Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York
- May 30 Indianapolis 500: Race resumes after WWII hiatus, George Robson wins by 44 seconds ahead of rookie Jimmy Jackson
- May 30 United flight 521 crashes on takeoff at LaGuardia Airport (NY) 42 die
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