- May 1 80th Kentucky Derby: Raymond York wins aboard Determine, his only Derby success
- May 1 Bishops publish Mandement (member socialist org forbidden)
- May 1 HSA-UWC Forms (Unification Church) (Moonies)
- May 1 Preston North End defender Joe Marston becomes the first Australian to play in an FA Cup Final, a 3-2 loss to WBA
- May 1 The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form the American Motors Corporation [1]
- May 1 WAPA TV channel 4 in San Juan, PR (NBC/SFN) begins broadcasting
Baseball Record
May 2 MLB St. Louis Cardinal Stan Musial hits 5 HRs in a doubleheader against the New York Giants at Busch Stadium
- May 3 KTEN TV channel 10 in Ada-Ardmore, Oklahoma(ABC) begins broadcasting
Event of Interest
May 3 Pulitzer prizes awarded to Charles Lindbergh for his biography "The Spirit of St. Louis" and John Patrick for drama for his play "The Teahouse of August Moon"
- May 3 WHA TV channel 21 in Madison, Wisconsin (PBS) begins broadcasting
- May 4 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
Coup d'état
May 5 General Alfredo Stroessner leads a military coup in Paraguay, overthrowing the government of President Federico Chávez
Sports History
May 6 English athlete Roger Bannister becomes first to run a sub-4 minute mile, recording 3:59:4 at Iffley Road Track, Oxford
- May 7 French surrender to Vietminh after 55-day siege at Dien Bien Phu
- May 7 US, Great Britain & France reject Russian membership of NATO
- May 8 1st shot-put throw over 60' (18.29 m) by American Parry O'Brien, Los Angeles, California
- May 10 Bolshoi Ballet does not appear in Paris
- May 13 Chinese Middle School students in Singapore take part in anti-National Service riots
- May 13 Labour Party wins British municipal elections
- May 13 Richard Adler and Jerry Ross' musical "The Pajama Game", starring John Raitt and Janis Paige, opens at St James Theater, NYC; runs for 1063 performances and wins a Tony Award for Best musical
- May 13 Robin Roberts gives up a HR then retires next 27 men in a row
- May 13 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enewetak Atoll
- May 14 Belgium shortens military conscription from 20 to 18 months
- May 15 KGLO (now KIMT) TV channel 3 in Mason City, IA (CBS) 1st broadcast
Baseball History
May 16 Ted Williams gets 8 hits in 1st game (DH) since breaking collarbone
- May 16 WGAN (now WGME) TV channel 13 in Portland, ME (CBS) 1st broadcast
- May 17 US Supreme Court unanimously rules on Brown v Topeka Board of Education reverses 1896 "separate but equal" Plessy v Ferguson decision ruling racial segregation in public schools as illegal
- May 19 Postmaster General Summerfield approves CIA mail-opening project
Chiang Kai-shek President
May 20 Chiang Kai-shek becomes president of Nationalist China
- May 21 US Twenty-sixth amendment to give 18-year-olds right to vote is defeated
- May 22 79th Preakness: Johnny Adams aboard Hasty Road wins in 1:57.4
- May 22 KREX TV channel 5 in Grand Junction, CO (CBS) begins broadcasting
- May 22 Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan is Bar Mitzvahed
- May 24 1st rocket attains 150 mi (241 km) altitude, White Sands, New Mexico
- May 24 Dr Peter Murray Marshall becomes 1st African American to head an American Medical Association unit (New York County)
- May 24 German airline Lufthansa forms
- May 24 IBM announces vacuum tube "electronic" brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour
- May 29 British runner Diane Leather becomes first woman to run the mile in under 5 minutes; 4:59.6 at Alexander Sports Ground in Birmingham, England
- May 29 First of the annual Bilderberg conferences, fostering relations between Europe and North America held at Oosterbeek, Netherlands
French Open Men's Tennis
May 29 French Championships Men's Tennis: Tony Trabert beats Art Larsen 6-4, 7-5, 6-1 for first of 2 straight French singles titles
French Open Women's Tennis
May 29 French Championships Women's Tennis: Maureen Connolly retains her title; beats Ginette Bucaille of France 6-4, 6-1
- May 30 Dutch bishops forbid membership to non-catholic sporting clubs
- May 30 Emile Zatopek runs world record 5K (13:57.2)
- May 30 Hector Villa-Lobos' "Odisseia de Uma Raca" premieres
- May 31 Indianapolis 500: Bill Vukovich takes the lead on lap 150 to win his second consecutive 500; sets then record 130.840 mph average race speed
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
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