- May 1 7th National Film Awards (India): "Apur Sansar" wins the Golden Lotus
- May 1 India's Bombay state split into Gujarat & Maharashtra states
Event of Interest
May 1 Russia shoots down Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk
- May 2 Allen Drury wins Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel "Advise and Consent"
Music Concert
May 2 Harry Belafonte's 2nd Carnegie Hall performance (New York City)
- May 2 US House of Representative investigating committee, looking into payola questions in broadcasting
- May 3 Musical "Fantasticks" by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, opens in Greeenwich Village, NYC, becomes “the longest-running musical in the universe”
Event of Interest
May 3 The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Event of Interest
May 6 US President Eisenhower signs Civil Rights Act of 1960
- May 7 86th Kentucky Derby: Bill Hartack on Venetian Way wins in 2:02.4
- May 7 Dodgers Larry & Norm Sherry are baseball's 10th brother battery
- May 7 LA Dodger Norm Sherry's 11th HR wins the game for brother Larry
Soviet History
May 7 Leonid Brezhnev replaces Kliment Voroshilov as President of USSR
Chess Championship
May 7 Michael Tal beats Mikhail Botvinnik 12½-8½ for world chess championship
- May 7 Musical review "From A to Z" closes at Plymouth Theater, NYC, after 21 performances
Flower Drum Song
May 7 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's musical "Flower Drum Song", directed by Gene Kelly, and starring Miyoshi Umeki, closes at St James Theater. NYC, after 602 performances and 1 Tony Award win
- May 7 USSR announces Francis Gary Powers confesses to being a CIA spy
- May 7 Webster and Fain's musical "Christine", based on Hilda Wernher's novel "My Indian Family", closes at 46th St Theater, NYC, after 12 performances
- May 8 1st performance of Ferde Grofé's "San Francisco Suite", with Grofé conducting, in San Francisco
- May 8 USSR & Cuba resume diplomatic relations
- May 9 Nigeria becomes a member of British Commonwealth
- May 9 The United States becomes the first country to legalize the birth control pill
Event of Interest
May 10 John F. Kennedy wins presidential primary in West Virginia
- May 10 US atomic submarine USS Triton completes 1st submerged circumnavigation of the globe
- May 11 French liner "France" launched
'The Banality of Evil'
May 11 Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires
TV Show Appearance
May 12 Elvis Presley appears on a Frank Sinatra television special; Elvis sings Sinatra's 1957 Cy Coleman hit "Witchcraft", and Frank performs Presley's 1956 classic "Love Me Tender"
- May 13 1st launch of Delta satellite launching vehicle; it failed
- May 13 Phillies lose 3rd consecutive 1-0 game
- May 13 WOLE TV channel 12 in Aguadillo, PR
- May 14 Michael Flanders and Donald Swann's musical review "At the Drop of a Hat" closes at John Golden Theater, NYC, after 216 performances
- May 14 USSR launch 1st (unmanned) space capsule
- May 14 Virgil Thomson's "Missa Pro Defunctis" premieres in Potsdam, NY
- May 15 "L'Avventura", Italian film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, starring Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti. premieres at Cannes
- May 15 Chic Cub Don Cardwell no-hits St Louis Cards, 4-0
Music History
May 15 Dmitri Shostakovich's 7th String quartet premieres in Leningrad
- May 15 KHVO TV channel 13 in Hilo, HI (ABC) begins broadcasting
- May 15 Sputnik 4 launched into Earth orbit; later recovery failed
- May 15 Taxes took 25% of earnings in US
- May 16 Big 4 summit in Paris collapses as USSR levels spy charges against US
- May 16 Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California
- May 17 1st atomic reactor system patented by J W Flora of Canoga Park, California
- May 18 Eillen Fulton begins playing Lisa on As the World Turns (for almost 30 yrs)
European Cup Final
May 18 European Cup Final, Glasgow: Ferenc Puskás scores 4, Alfredo Di Stéfano 3 as Real Madrid routs Eintracht Frankfurt, 7-3; 5th consecutive title for Los Blancos
Le Balcon
May 18 Jean Genet's play "Le Balcon" (The Balcony) premieres in Paris
- May 19 Alan Freed & eight other radio DJs accused of taking radio payola (bribes from record companies)
- May 19 Belgian parliament requires rest day for self employed
Baseball History
May 19 SF Giants rookie Juan Marichal beats Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0 on debut at Candlestick Park; first National League hurler since 1900 to debut with a one-hitter
- May 19 USAF Major Robert M. White takes X-15 to 33,222 m
Cannes Film Festival
May 20 13th Cannes Film Festival: "The Sweet Life" directed by Federico Fellini wins the Palme d'Or
- May 20 Baseball game in Milwaukee postponed due to dense fog
- May 21 85th Preakness: Bobby Ussery aboard Bally Ache wins in 1:57.6
Music History
May 21 Leontyne Price becomes the first African American to sing the lead at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in "Aida"
- May 22 A magnitude 9.4-9.6 earthquake strikes near the city of Valdivia in Chile, the strongest ever recorded, causing multiple tsunamis and killing 1,000-7,000 people
- May 22 Tsunami generated by a magnitude 9.4-9.6 earthquake in Chile strikes Hilo, Hawaii at 01:04 AM, severely damaging virtually all coastal towns between the 37th and 44th parallels
- May 23 "Got A Girl" by The Four Preps hits #24
Execution
May 23 Israel announces capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina
- May 23 Revival of Burton Lane and Yip Harburg's musical "Finian's Rainbow" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 12 performances
- May 23 WGTV TV channel 8 in Athens-Atlanta, GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
- May 23 WKBM TV (now WLII) channel 11 in Caguas/San Juan, PR 1st broadcast
- May 23 WRCA radio changes call letters back to WNBC (NYC)
- May 24 1 millionth Dutch telephone installed
- May 25 George Crowe's record 11th pinch-hit HR
- May 27 Baltimore manager Paul Richards devises oversized catcher's mitt, used by Baltimore Oriole Clint Courtney
- May 27 Military coup overthrows democratic government of Turkey
- May 28 59th Men's French Championships: Nicola Pietrangeli beats Luis Ayala (3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3)
French Open Women's Tennis
May 28 59th Women's French Championships: Darlene Hard beats Yola Ramirez (6-3, 6-4)
Greenwillow
May 28 Frank Loesser's musical "Greenwillow", starring Anthony Perkins, closes at Alvin Theater, NYC, after 95 performances
#1 in the Charts
May 29 Everly Brothers single "Cathy's Clown" hits #1
- May 30 Indianapolis 500: Greatest two-man duel in race history; winner Jim Rathmann and Rodger Ward battle out then-record 29 lead changes until Ward slows with tire trouble
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies