Events Date 2021 May | History by KabAstro

Event of Interest

May 4 Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador makes an historic apology to the Mayan people for abuses against them in the five centuries since the Spanish conquest [1]

Politician, President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Event of Interest

May 4 US President Joe Biden announces new goal of 160 million people, nearly of 70% of adults, vaccinated by July 4

46th US President, Vice President and Senator Joe Biden

May 5 A week of mass protests and demonstrations against government tax reform and poverty in Colombia leaves 24 dead
May 5 Baltimore Orioles pitcher John Means no-hits Seattle Mariners, 6-0 at T-Mobile Park, Seattle
May 5 Canada is the first country to authorize the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 12-15 year olds

Event of Interest

May 5 Donald Trump's ban from Facebook upheld by the company's Oversight Board for a further six months

45th US President, Businessman and TV Personality Donald Trump

May 5 Evidence of Africa's earliest burial, a three-year-old boy, 78,000 years ago, in a cave in Kenya published [1]
May 5 The possible eviction of Palestinian families from a Jerusalem neighborhood begins days of unrest in the city, injuring hundreds
May 5 US President Joe Biden announces the US will support temporarily lifting patent protection on COVID-19 vaccines with the WHO
May 6 Armed police raid on drug traffickers kills 25 in cities deadliest ever, in a favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
May 7 Cincinnati Reds pitcher Wade Miley no-hits Cleveland Indians, 3-0 at Progressive Field, Cleveland
May 7 Former police officer and suspected serial killer Hugo Ernesto Osorio Chávez arrested in Chalchuapa, El Salvador, after a mass grave of 15-40 bodies found at his house

Philadelphia Museum of Art

May 7 Philadelphia Museum of Art unveils major interior renovation and expansion designed by American architect Frank Gehry

May 7 Ransomware attack on US Colonial pipeline by the DarkSide criminal group stops supply to half of east coast
May 7 The World Health Organization approves the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Sinopharm, its first made by a non-western country
May 8 Bombings outside a school in Kabul, Afghanistan, kill at least 50 people, mostly teenage girls, amid growing fears about US military withdrawal
May 8 Indian Medical Association calls for a national lockdown, criticizing President Modi's government's response as recorded COVID-19 deaths pass 4,000 a day

Film & TV History

May 8 Tesla chief executive Tesla Elon Musk hosts "Saturday Night Live" in the US

May 10 Chinese safari park in Fuyang forced to apologize for not informing the public that three leopards had escaped April 19 and been roaming nearby neighborhoods

Event of Interest

May 10 Kazungula road and rail bridge 1km long opens over the Zambezi River linking Botswana and Zambia, with a curve so it doesn't encroach on Zimbabwe (Robert Mugabe opposed it)

May 10 NBC says it will not televise the 2022 Golden Globes because of criticism of its lack of diversity [1]
May 10 US F.D.A. authorizes the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 12-to-15-year-olds
May 10 Violence escalates between Palestinians and Israelis after Israeli officers enter Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, rockets then fired from Gaza and airstrikes from Israel kill at least 31
May 10 World Health Organization classifies the Indian COVID-19 variant B.1.617 as a variant of global concern
May 11 China census figures show country's population 1.41 billion people, growth at its slowest since 1960s, (+0.53 down from +0.57) [1]
May 11 First major US offshore windfarm off the coast of Massachusetts approved by Biden administration
May 11 Northern Ireland inquest into 1971 Ballymurphy killing of ten people finds people were innocent and killed (nine by soldiers) using unjustified force [1]
May 12 US Republicans vote to demote their number three Liz Cheney from party leadership after she publicly rebuked Donald Trump for lies about the election
May 13 American CDC says people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can stop wearing masks
May 13 Gaza conflict has killed 103 people in Palestine, including 27 children, through Israeli airstrikes, more than 1000 rockets fired into Israel by Gaza militants killing seven, city of Lod center of street fighting [1]
May 13 World's largest iceberg 'A-76' at 1,667-square-miles (4,320 square km) calves off the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica [1]
May 15 China lands its Zhurong rover on Utopia Planitia, Mars, for the first time as part of the Tianwen-1 mission [1]
May 16 Death toll passes 200 from Gaza conflict as 42 people killed in Israeli airstrikes and three building flattened [1]
May 16 Taiwan imposes tough restrictions against COVID-19 as a recent spike in cases threatens their up-to-now pandemic success [1]
May 17 Cyclone Tauktae makes landfall in the Indian state of Gujarat with wind speeds of up to 160km/h (100mph)
May 17 Long working hours killed 745,000 people a year, in 2016, in the first study of its kind by the World Health Organization [1]
May 18 India records the highest recorded daily COVID-19 death toll to date in the world with 4,529 deaths
May 18 MLB Detroit Tigers pitcher Spencer Turnbull no-hits Seattle Mariners, 5-0 at Comerica Park, Detroit
May 19 Argentine President Alberto Fernandez announces a 'circuit-breaker lockdown' as the country records over 39,000 daily COVID-19 cases
May 19 BBC investigation finds their 1995 Princess Dianna interview was secured through 'deceitful behavior' by journalist Martin Bashir [1]
May 19 New York City begins re-opening after 423 days (March 2020) with the COVID-19 death toll at 33,000
May 19 New York Yankees pitcher Cory Kluber no-hits Texas Rangers, 2-0 at Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas
May 19 The EU agrees to open its borders to vaccinated travelers from safe countries
May 20 Israel and Hamas agree to a bilateral ceasefire in Gaza after nearly two weeks of fighting, amid international diplomatic efforts
May 20 One of Sri Lanka's worst ecological disasters as cargo ship MS X-Press Pearl, carrying toxic chemicals, catches fire off the country's coast and begins spilling debris
May 21 Most powerful cosmic ray since the Oh-My-God particle detected by Osaka University from Utah's Array Telescope measuring 240 exa-electronvolts (EeV; 1018 electronvolts) - nicknamed ‘Amaterasu’ [1]
May 22 30-year-old Scottish light-welterweight boxer Josh Taylor becomes Britain's first undisputed world champion in the four-belt era by beating Jose Ramirez by unanimous decision in Las Vegas
May 22 Eurovision Song Contest won by Italian metal band Maneskin with 524 points in Rotterdam
May 22 Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, sending rivers of lava towards the nearby city of Goma, prompting evacuations
May 23 21 runners die in freezing conditions during an ultramarathon in Yellow River Stone Forest Park, Gansu Province, China

Billboard Music Awards

May 23 28th Billboard Music Awards: The Weeknd wins 10; Pop Smoke wins 5

May 23 Belarus accused of “state-sponsored hijacking" after diverting commercial Ryanair flight to Minsk to arrest dissident journalist Roman Protasevich

PGA Championship

May 23 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Ocean Course Kiawah Island: Phil Mickelson becomes oldest major winner in history (50); wins his 6th major by 2 strokes over Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen

May 24 Constitutional crisis deepens in Samoa after Speaker of the House shuts out Fiame Naomi Mata’afa from being sworn in as the country's first woman leader in 56 years [1]

Event of Interest

May 24 Deposed Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi appears in court against charges laid by the military government

May 24 India's official COVID-19 death toll passes 300,000 (303,720), the third country to do so, with experts saying it is a vast undercount [1]
May 25 Coup in Mali as military Colonel Assimi Goïta ousts country's civilian President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane arresting and detaining them
May 25 New research show impact of 'climate racism' in the US, with black people facing double (+3.12C) the amount of heat stress in urban areas [1]
May 25 US CDC says half of all US adults are now fully vaccinated, with 61% having had their first shot
May 26 A super "blood" moon, the first total lunar eclipse for two years, visible across the Pacific
May 26 Amazon says it will buy 97-year-old film and television studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $8.45 billion
May 26 Ferry sinks carrying about 150 people in Nigeria between Niger state and Kebbi state, with only 20 people rescued

COVID-19 Pandemic

May 26 Former advisor Dominic Cummings gives a damming report to MPs into UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government's handling of the COVID-19 crisis

May 26 In landmark case oil giant Royal Dutch Shell ordered by a Hague court to cut its global carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 [1]
May 26 Nine people shot and killed by their colleague, a public transit employee in San Jose, California
May 26 President Joe Biden orders US intelligence services to intensify their efforts to investigate the origins of COVID-19
May 26 Russia reports it has started vaccinating domestic animals against COVID-19, using the Karnivak-Kov vaccine [1]

Film & TV History

May 27 "Friends" reunion screens, 17 years after the TV sitcom series ended

May 27 English playwright William Shakespeare reported to have died after receiving COVID-19 vaccine by Argentine news channel Chanal 26 (case of mistaken identity, the Bard died in 1616)

Rwandan Genocide

May 27 French President Emmanuel Macron recognizes France's role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide after a meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Kigali, Rwanda

Skulls of genocide victims at the Nyamata Memorial Site in Rwanda

May 27 US President Joe Biden calls for a ceasefire in the Tigray conflict, north Ethiopia, citing killings and "widespread sexual violence" as a weapon of war
May 28 Discovery of a mass grave with the remains of 215 children from Kamloops Indian Residential School announced by First Nation in British Columbia, Canada [1]
May 29 UEFA Champions League Final, Porto: Kai Havertz scores just before halftime to give Chelsea a 1-0 win over Manchester City in an all-English final; Blues' second CL title
May 30 Indianapolis 500: Brazilian Hélio Castroneves wins his record 4th title in 2:37:19.3846; new record for fastest running of the race with average speed 190.690 mph

March Against Bolsonaro

May 30 Tens of thousands of people march in Brazilian cities against President Jair Bolsonaro and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic

May 31 China's ruling Communist Party announces it will allow married couples to have three children, in effort to boost falling birthrates [1]

Osaka Leaves the French Open

May 31 Naomi Osaka pulls out of the French Open citing her mental health, after refusing to appear at compulsory post match press conferences

May 31 Peru says its COVID-19 death toll is three times higher than its official count (180,764 vs 68,000), making it one of the hardest hit countries per capita
May 31 Tulsa, Oklahoma, marks 100 year anniversary of the massacre of hundreds of black residents by a white mob in the Greenwood neighborhood