May 31

Poet Walt Whitman born (1819); London’s Big Ben ticks for the first time (1859); HBD Clint Eastwood (1930); HBD Brooke Shields (1965); Watergate secret source ‘Deep Throat’ is revealed (2005).

May 30

Joan of Arc is burned at the stake (1431); RIP historian and philosopher Voltaire (1778); First Indianapolis 500 is held (1911); Lincoln Memorial is dedicated (1922); HBD musician CeeLo Green (1974).

May 29

Comedian Bob Hope born (1903); John F. Kennedy born (1917); Edmund Hillary & Tenzing Norgay are first to reach Mt. Everest summit (1953); Danica Patrick is first woman to lead at Indy 500 (2005).

May 28

Native American athlete Jim Thorpe born (1887); Volkswagen founded in Germany (1937); HBD singer Gladys Knight (1944); PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, is founded in Jerusalem (1964); RIP poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou (2014).

May 24

Samuel Morse sends first commercial telegraph message (1844); The Brooklyn Bridge is opened in NYC (1883); HBD Bob Dylan (1941); HBD musician Patti LaBelle (1944); RIP jazz legend Duke Ellington (1974).

May 23

Infamous bank robbers Bonnie & Clyde are killed by police (1934); RIP John D. Rockefeller (1937); German Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann is captured in Argentina (1960); HBD musician Jewel (1974); RIP James Bond actor Roger Moore (2017).

May 22

RIP (first) First Lady Martha Washington (1802); Associated Press is founded (1900); RIP poet Langston Hughes (1967); HBD Naomi Campbell (1970); Manchester Arena bombing kills 22 during Ariana Grande concert (2017).

May 21

HBD American Red Cross (1881); Amelia Earhart is 1st woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (1932); RIP social worker Jane Addams (1935); HBD actor Mr. T (1952); Rapper Notorious B.I.G. born (1972).

May 20

Christopher Columbus dies (1506); Charles Lindbergh makes first non-stop flight across the Atlantic (1927); HBD singer-songwriter Cher (1946); 1st photograph from space sent from Hubble Space Telescope (1990).

May 17

Aristides is 1st winner of Kentucky Derby (1875); Brown v Board of Education decision (1954); HBD boxer Sugar Ray Leonard (1956); 1st same-sex marriages performed in US (2004); RIP singer Donna Summer (2012).

May 16

1st Academy Awards hosted (1929); Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends (1943); HBD Janet Jackson (1966); RIP comedian Andy Kaufman (1984); RIP Muppets creator Jim Henson (1990).

May 15

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton found National Woman Suffrage Association (1869); RIP poet Emily Dickinson (1886); Mickey Mouse makes first cartoon appearance (1928); HBD former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (1937); First McDonald’s opens in California (1940).

May 14

Jamestown is settled as first permanent English colony in the Americas (1607); Lewis and Clark begin their western expedition (1804); HBD Cate Blanchett (1969); 1st US space station, Skylab, is launched (1973); RIP Frank Sinatra (1998).

May 13

US declares war against Mexico in dispute of Texas (1846); Legendary boxer Joe Louis born (1914); Golden Girls actress Bea Arthur born (1922); HBD Stevie Wonder (1950); Pope John Paul II is shot, survives assassination attempt (1981).

May 10

RIP Paul Revere (1818); 1st American transcontinental railroad is completed (1869); Winston Churchill becomes PM of the UK (1940); RIP actress Joan Crawford (1977); Nelson Mandela inaugurated as president of South Africa (1994).

May 9

HBD Billy Joel (1949); L. Ron Hubbard, creator of Scientology, publishes Dianetics (1950); HBD rapper Ghostface Killah (1970); Impeachment proceedings begin against President Nixon (1974); RIP singer and civil rights activist Lena Horne (2010).

May 8

Poet Phillis Wheatley born (1753); President Harry S. Truman born (1884); Boxing legend Sonny Liston born (1932); V-E (Victory in Europe) Day after Germany’s surrender in WWII (1945); Smallpox is eradicated (1980).

May 7

Germany submarine sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 (1915); Eva 'Evita' Peron born (1919); Football legend Johnny Unitas born (1933); Germany unconditionally surrenders, ending its participation in WWII (1945); The Scream is recovered undamaged after being stolen for three months (1994).

May 6

Famed neurologist Sigmund Freud born (1856); HBD baseball great Willie Mays (1931); Hindenburg disaster as a German zeppelin catches fire, killing 36 (1937); Roger Bannister becomes first person to run a mile in under four minutes (1954); RIP actress and singer Marlene Dietrich (1992).

May 3

Niccolo Machiavelli born (1469); Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson born (1921); Musician James Brown born (1933); Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer for Gone with the Wind (1937); First bulk spam email is sent (1978). 

May 2

RIP Leonardo da Vinci (1519); Playwright Tennessee Williams wins Pulitzer Prize (1955); HBD Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (1972); HBD singer-songwriter Lily Allen (1985); Osama bin Laden is killed by US special forces (2011).

May 1

American frontierswoman Calamity Jane born (1852); Dwarf planet Pluto is named (1930); Empire State Building opens in NYC (1931); The polio vaccine is first made available to the public (1956); HBD Tim McGraw (1967).