Boxing Title Fight
May 1 Floyd Patterson scores 11th round KO of Englishman Brian London in Indianapolis; his 4th World Heavyweight Boxing title defence
- May 1 West Germany introduces a 5-day work week
Kentucky Derby
May 2 85th Kentucky Derby: Bill Shoemaker aboard Tomy Lee wins in 2:02.2
First Grammy Awards:
May 4 First Grammy Awards: Perry Como & Ella Fitzgerald win major awards
Pulitzer Prize to Macleish
May 4 Pulitzer Prize for Drama awarded to Archibald Macleish for his play "J.B."
- May 6 Iceland gunboats shoot at British fishing vessels
Roy Campanella Night
May 7 "Roy Campanella Night" Largest baseball crowd at 93,103 at the LA Coliseum see Yankees beat Dodgers 6-2 in exhibition game
- May 8 3-deck Nile River excursion steamer springs a leak panicking passengers who capsized ship; 200 drown just yards from shore
Little Caesars Pizza Founded
May 8 Little Caesars Pizza is founded by Mike Ilitch and his wife Marian Ilitch in Garden City, Michigan
Rigney Family Resign
May 9 Dorothy Rigney, husband John, and Hank Greenberg resign from White Sox
Once Upon A Mattress
May 11 Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer's musical "Once Upon A Mattress", starring Carol Burnett and directed by George Abbott, opens at Phoenix Theatre, NYC, later transferring to the Alvin Theater; runs for 244 performances
Sports History
May 11 New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra's errorless streak of 148 games ends
Music History
May 12 "Nervous Set" opens at Henry Miller's Theater NYC for 23 performances
Television Finale
May 13 Kraft Music Hall with Milton Berle last airs on NBC-TV
- May 15 100th anniversary of 1st college baseball game, between Amherst & Williams Teams reenact the original contest
- May 15 12th Cannes Film Festival: "Black Orpheus" directed by Marcel Camus wins the Palme d'Or
- May 16 84th Preakness: William Harmatz aboard Royal Orbit wins in 1:57
- May 16 WTOM-TV channel 4 in Cheboygan, Michigan begins broadcasting (NBC)
Sanctuary of Christ the King
May 17 Sanctuary of Christ the King inaugurated, a 28 meter (92 ft) high monument and shrine overlooking Lisbon, Portugal by sculptor Francisco Franco de Sousa
- May 18 "Castin' My Spell" by The Johnny Otis Show hits #52
- May 18 "Judy" by David Seville hits #86
- May 18 "Russian Band Stand" by Spencer & Spencer hits #91
- May 19 Jan de Quay becomes premier of the Netherlands
- May 19 The USS Triton, the first submarine with two nuclear reactors, is completed
- May 20 Ford wins battle with Chrysler to call its new car "Falcon"
- May 20 Japanese-Americans regain their citizenship
Event of Interest
May 20 Shah of Persia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi visits Netherlands
- May 20 Yanks sink to last place, 1st time since May 25, 1940
- May 21 Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Children's Petting Farm opens (Cleveland, Ohio)
Music History
May 21 Jules Styne and Stephen Sondheim's musical "Gypsy", starring Ethel Merman and Jack Klugman, opens at Broadway Theatre (later transferring to the Imperial), NYC; runs for 702 performances
- May 22 Benjamin O Davis Jr becomes 1st black major general in US Air Force
Music History
May 23 Musical revue "A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green" return engagement closes at John Golden Theatre, NYC, after 44 performances
- May 24 1st house with built-in bomb shelter exhibited (Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania)
- May 24 Empire Day renamed Commonwealth Day in Great Britain
Soviet History
May 25 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visits Angola
- May 25 US Supreme Courtt rules Louisiana prohibiting black-white boxing unconstitutional
- May 26 MLB Pittsburgh Pirates Harvey Haddix pitches 12 perfect innings, loses in 13th to Braves at Milwaukee County Stadium
- May 26 Wreck of WWII bomber 'Lady Be Good' in the Libyan Desert is reached by a recovery team from US Air Force's Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli; plane had crashed returning from initial mission on 1943 [1]
- May 28 Congressional Committee of Astronautics meets Project 7 astronauts
- May 28 Johnson & Bart's musical "Lock Up Your Daughters" premieres in London
- May 28 Monkeys Able & Baker zoom 300 miles (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile, become 1st animals retrieved from a space mission
Event of Interest
May 29 Charles de Gaulle forms French government
- May 29 Saunders-Roe SR.N1, the first practical hovercraft, performs its first engine run
- May 30 "Nervous Set" closes at Henry Miller's Theater NYC after 23 performances
- May 30 58th Men's French Championships: Nicola Pietrangeli beats Ian Vermaak (3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1)
- May 30 58th Women's French Championships: Christine Truman beats Zsuzsi Kormoczy (6-4, 7-5)
First Impressions
May 30 George Weiss, Bo Goldman, and Glenn Paxton musical "First Impressions", adapted from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", starring Polly Bergen; Farley Granger, and Hermione Gingold, closes at Alvin Theater, NYC, after 84 performances
- May 30 Indianapolis 500: Rodger Ward earns first of 2 career Indy 500 victories as a record 16 cars complete full 500 miles; for the first time all cars required to have roll bars
- May 30 Iraq withdraws from the Baghdad Pact (Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom)
- May 30 President Luis Somoza Debayle ends emergency crisis in Nicaragua
- May 30 President Stroessner disbands Paraguay's parliament
- May 30 The Auckland Harbour Bridge is officially opened in Auckland, New Zealand.
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