- May 1 135 acre Disney's MGM studio theme park officially opens to public in Lake Buena Vista, Florida
- May 1 American jockey Chris Antley's record 64-day consecutive winning streak ends when he fails with 5 mounts at Aqueduct, NY; streak includes 147 winners from 486 mounts
- May 1 Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins: US Supreme Court rules employers have legal burden to prove non- discriminatory reasons for not hiring or promoting
Killin' Time
May 2 "Killin' Time" debut album by Clint Black is released (Billboard Album of the Year, 1990)
- May 2 Hungary's reform government led by Miklós Németh cuts a hole in the electric wire fence between it and Austria beginning the fall of the Iron Curtain [1]
- May 4 Junior Felix of Toronto Blue Jays becomes 53rd MLB player to hit HR on 1st at bat
- May 4 NASA launches Magellan probe to Venus from Space Shuttle Atlantis
- May 4 NASA launches space shuttle Atlantis (STS-30) from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Sports History
May 5 Mike Tyson gets 2nd speeding ticket for drag racing in Albany, New York
Field of Dreams
May 5 National release of "Field of Dreams", a sports fantasy drama film based on W. P. Kinsella's novel "Shoeless Joe", starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and Burt Lancaster in his final film role
Panamanian General Election
May 7 Panamanian voters reject dictator Manuel Noriega's bid for presidency
Sports History
May 8 Paul McCartney releases remake of "Ferry Cross the Mersey" in aid of those affected by the Hillsborough disaster, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool football fans
- May 8 US space shuttle STS-30 lands
- May 9 Journalist petition Chinese government for freedom of press
- May 9 NY Mets Kevin Elster, errors after 88 errorless games at shortstop
- May 9 NY Mets Rick Cerone, errors after 159 errorless games as catcher
- May 9 VP Quayle says in United Negro College Fund speech: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" instead of "a mind is terrible thing to waste"
- May 10 FC Barcelona of Spain win 29th European Cup Winner's Cup against Sampdoria of Italy 1-0 in Bern
- May 10 General Manuel Noriega's Panama government nullifies country's elections, which the opposition had won by a 3-1 margin
- May 10 NHL Clarence Campbell Conference Final: Calgary Flames beat Chicago Blackhawks, 4 games to 1
Television Finale
May 11 217th & final episode of TV soap opera "Dynasty" is aired
- May 11 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- May 11 Kenya announces worldwide ban on ivory to preserve its elephant herds
- May 11 NHL Prince of Wales Conference Final: Montreal Canadians beat Philadelphia Flyers, 4 games to 2
Operation Nimrod Dancer
May 11 US President George H. W. Bush orders 1,900 additional troops to Panama
- May 12 "Entertainment Tonight" makes its 2,000th TV performance
- May 12 Last graffiti covered NYC subway car retired
- May 12 Retired British pilot Jack Mann is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists
Event of Interest
May 13 Approximately 2,000 students begin a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, China to force a dialogue with the government ahead of a visit by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
Sports History
May 13 Minnesota Twin Kirby Puckett becomes 35th to hit 4 doubles in a game
- May 13 Trinidad & Tobago ties US 1-1, in 3rd round of 1990 world soccer cup
- May 14 1st Tour de Trump bicycle race run (Atlanta)
- May 14 Demonstration for democratic reforms in Beijing's Tiananmen square
- May 14 Final TV episode of "Family Ties" airs on NBC with a 36 million audience
- May 14 Minnesota Twin Kirby Puckett becomes 1st player to hit 6 doubles across two consecutive games since St. Louis Cardinal Red Schoendienst in 1948
- May 14 Moonlighting, TV Crime Drama last airs on ABC
- May 15 Maxwell House coffee runs ads during "Roe vs Wade" movie despite threat of boycott by right-to-lifers
- May 15 MLB Toronto Blue Jays fire manager Jimy Williams, and replace him with Cito Gaston
- May 15 Revival of Mitch Leigh and Ted Allen's musical closes at Ritz Theater, NYC, after 45 performances
- May 15 Soviet President Gorbachev visits Beijing for the 1st Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years
- May 15 US Basketball League cancels its summer schedule
- May 16 Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping meet in Beijing and formally end a 30-year rift
- May 17 Longest Cab Ride: 14,000 miles costs $16,000 (later surpassed)
Event of Interest
May 17 Nelson Mandela (70) receives a BA from University of South Africa
- May 19 Dow Jones Avg passes 2,500 mark for 1st time, closes at 2,501.1
TV Show Appearance
May 19 Sue Ellen's (Linda Gray) last appearance on TV show "Dallas"
- May 20 114th Preakness: Pat Valenzuela aboard Sunday Silence wins in 1:53.8
- May 20 China declares martial law in Beijing
Film & TV History
May 20 Toonces The Cat takes the wheel on "Saturday Night Live"
- May 20 Walter McConnel, 57, is oldest to reach 27,000' Mt Everest top
LPGA Championship
May 21 LPGA Championship Women's Golf, Jack Nicklaus GC: Nancy Lopez wins her 3rd LPGA C'ship by 3 strokes from Ayako Okamoto of Japan
- May 23 3rd American Comedy Award: Paula Poundstone
Cannes Film Festival
May 23 42nd Cannes Film Festival: "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" directed by Steven Soderbergh wins the Palme d'Or
- May 23 Angela Visser, 22, of Holland, crowned 38th Miss Universe
- May 23 Cleveland loses and drop to 21-22, this is the latest a sub .500 team is in 1st place (AL East)
- May 23 Lincoln Square in Bronx named
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
May 24 "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Harrison Ford, and produced by George Lucas' Lucasfilms premieres
- May 24 33rd European Cup: Milan beats Steaua Bucuresti 4-0 at Barcelona
- May 24 French Nazi war criminal Paul Touvier arrested at the Society of Saint Pius X monastery in Nice
Sports History
May 24 NHL's NY Rangers fire GM & coach Phil Esposito
- May 24 NY Yankee hurler Lee Gutterman sets record of pitching 30-2/3 innings before giving up his 1st run of season
- May 24 Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, is awarded £600,000 in damages after winning a libel action against satirical magazine Private Eye (later reduced to £60,000 on appeal).
Music Recording
May 24 Weird Al Yankovic records three tracks for his UHF movie soundtrack
- May 25 Eastern Airlines graduates it 1st class of non-union pilots
- May 25 Mariners trade Mark Langston to Montreal for Randy Johnson
- May 25 Mikhail Gorbachev elected Executive President in the Soviet Union
- May 25 Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: Calgary Flames beat Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 to win series 4 games to 2; Flames' first SC title
- May 25 Weird Al Yankovic records parody song "She Drives Like Crazy"
- May 26 American radio broadcasters go silent for 30 seconds at 7:42 am to honor the radio industry
- May 26 Danish parliament allows same-sex marriage
- May 26 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Indy 500
May 28 Indianapolis 500: Emerson Fittipaldi of Brazil first foreign winner since 1966; completes final lap under caution after crashing with Al Unser Jr
Sports History
May 29 Philadelphia Phillies 12-time All Star 3rd baseman Mike Schmidt retires from MLB at 39
Goddess of Democracy
May 29 Student pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, China construct a replica of the Statue of Liberty, naming it the Goddess of Democracy
Film & TV History
May 30 Margaret Ray pleads guilty to breaking into David Letterman's house
- May 31 "Rambling with Gambling" 20,000th radio program on WOR-AM (NYC)
- May 31 1st International Rock Awards in the US
- May 31 Speaker of US House of Representatives Jim Wright resigns
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies