May 5th
 

1807 ~ Death of P. D. Q. Bach, fictitious Composer.

1813 ~ Birthday of Søren Kierkegaard, Philosopher.

1818 ~ Birthday of Karl Marx, Political Philosopher.

1821 ~ Death of Napoleon Bonaparte, Ruler of France.

1891 ~ Carnegie Hall had its grand opening and first public performance, with Pyotr Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

1904 ~ Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans threw the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.

1925 ~ Dayton, Tennessee biology teacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

1980 ~ Operation Nimrod: The Special Air Service stormed the Iranian embassy in London after a six day siege.

1992 ~ Wolfenstein 3D was released, the first-ever first-person shooter computer game.

1995 ~ Death of Mikhail Botvinnik, world chess champion.

May 6th
 

1758 ~ Birthday of Maximilien Robespierre, Revolutionary.

1856 ~ Birthday of Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist, founder of Psychoanalysis.

1889 ~ The Eiffel Tower was officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

1915 ~ Birthday of T.H. White, Writer.

1915 ~ Birthday of Orson Welles, Director.

1937 ~ The German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed in a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

1940 ~ John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

1953 ~ Birthday of Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1954 ~ Roger Bannister becomes the first man to run the mile in under four minutes.

1994 ~ Queen Elizabeth and French President François Mitterrand inaugurate the opening of the Chunnel.

May 7th
 

1824 ~ Premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna.

1825 ~ Death of Antonio Salieri, Composer.

1833 ~ Birthday of Johannes Brahms, Composer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1915 ~ World War I: a German U-boat sank the RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people.

1919 ~ Birthday of Eva Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron.

1933 ~ Birthday of Johnny Unitas, American football star.

1945 ~ World War II: General Alfred Jodl signed unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war.

1954 ~ Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ended in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).

1999 ~ Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers were killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft “mistakenly” bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

May 8th
 

1541 ~ Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River, naming it Río de Espíritu Santo.

1794 ~ Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier was tried, convicted, and guillotined all on one day in Paris.

1828 ~ Birthday of Jean Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1873 ~ Death of John Stuart Mill, Empiricist Philosopher.

1895 ~ Birthday of Fulton J. Sheen, bishop and television personality.

1902 ~ Mount Pelée erupted in Martinique, destroying the town of St. Pierre and killing over 30,000 people.

1984 ~ The Soviet Union announced that it would boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics.

1985 ~ Death of Theodore Sturgeon, Science Fiction writer.

1988 ~ Death of Robert A. Heinlein, Science Fiction writer.

1999 ~ Nancy Mace became the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel military college.



Holidays and observances

Mother's Day

May 9th
 

1429 ~ Joan of Arc defeated the English troops besieging Orléans.

1837 ~ Birthday of Adam Opel, German engineer and industrialist.

1860 ~ Birthday of J. M. Barrie, Author, creator of Peter Pan.

1874 ~ Birthday of Howard Carter, British archaeologist.

1887 ~ Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opened in London.

1901 ~ Australia opened its first parliament in Melbourne.

1903 ~ Death of Paul Gauguin, French Post-Impressionist painter.

1986 ~ Death of Tenzing Norgay, Mountaineer.

1994 ~ Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

2002 ~ In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb exploded during a holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130.

May 10th
 

1801 ~ First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declared war on the United States.

1818 ~ Death of Paul Revere, engraver, American Patriot.

1838 ~ Birthday of John Wilkes Booth, actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

1857 ~ Indian Mutiny: In India, the Sepoys revolted against the British Army.

1872 ~ Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for President of the U.S.

1899 ~ Birthday of Fred Astaire, Singer, Dancer & Actor.

1933 ~ Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.

1954 ~ Bill Haley and the Comets released Rock Around the Clock, the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the charts.

1960 ~ The nuclear submarine USS Triton completed the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.

2002 ~ FBI agent Robert Hanssen was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Russia.

May 11th
 

1857 ~ Indian Mutiny: Indian rebels seized Delhi from the British.

1904 ~ Birthday of Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter.

1918 ~ Birthday of Richard Feynman, American Physicist

1930 ~ Birthday of Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist.

1960 ~ The first contraceptive pill is put on the market.

1984 ~ A transit of Earth from Mars took place, but no one was there to observe it.

1987 ~ The first heart-lung transplant takes place in Baltimore, Maryland.

1988 ~ Death of Kim Philby, Spy.

1997 ~ IBM's Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.

2001 ~ Death of Douglas Adams, Science Fiction author.

May 12th
 

1820 ~ Birthday of Florence Nightingale, Nurse.

1845 ~ Birthday of Gabriel Fauré, Composer.

1884 ~ Death of Bedřich Smetana, Composer.

1889 ~ Death of John Cadbury, Chocolate Entrepreneur.

1918 ~ Birthday of Julius Rosenberg, Spy.

1926 ~ General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a 9-day general strike by trade unions failed.

1949 ~ Cold War: The Soviet Union lifted its Blockade of Berlin.

1962 ~ Douglas MacArthur delivered his famous "Duty, Honor, Country" valedictory speech at West Point.

1972 ~ The Rolling Stones released Exile On Main Street, considered by some their best album.

2000 ~ The Tate Modern art gallery opened in London.

May 13th
 

1787 ~ Captain Arthur Phillip left Portsmouth, England with eleven ships of convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia.

1842 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert & Sullivan, Composer.

1861 ~ American Civil War: Queen Victoria of Britain issued a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognized the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.

1888 ~ Brazil abolished slavery.

1907 ~ Birthday of Dame Daphne du Maurier, Author.

1912 ~ The Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) was established in the U.K..

1937 ~ Birthday of Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction author.

1940 ~ World War II: Winston Churchill maked his "blood, tears, toil and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.

1948 ~ 1948 Arab-Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre was committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.

1981 ~ Mehmet Ali Ağca attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Square in Rome.

if i may add one....a very sad day in philadelphia...
1985 ~ The violent confrontation between the MOVE organization and Philadelphia's city government, which left 11 MOVE members and one police officer dead and 61 homes destroyed by fire.

May 14th
 

1265 ~ Birthday of Dante Alighieri, Italian Poet.

1787 ~ In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates began arriving to write a new Constitution for the United States.

1796 ~ Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccination.

1885 ~ Birthday of Otto Klemperer, Conductor.

1925 ~ Death of H. Rider Haggard, Author.

1944 ~ Birthday of George Lucas, film Director and Producer.

1955 ~ Cold War: Eight communist bloc countries including the Soviet Union signed a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.

1973 ~ Skylab, the first American space station, was launched.

1978 ~ Death of Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia

2004 ~ Piers Morgan was fired as editor of the Daily Mirror, when photographs that had been published in the newspaper of alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers were proved to be fake.

May 15th
 

1567 ~ Birthday of Claudio Monteverdi, Italian Composer.

1864 ~ American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia - Students from the Virginia Military Institute fought alongside the Confederate Army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.

1869 ~ Woman's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association.

1886 ~ Death of Emily Dickinson, Poet.

1914 ~ Birthday of Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa and mountaineer.

1919 ~ The Winnipeg General Strike began. By 11 AM, virtually the entire working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job.

1930 ~ Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess, on a flight from Oakland, California to Chicago, Illinois.

1957 ~ Britain tested its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

1988 ~ Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army began its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

2004 ~ The largest prime number to be discovered, 2^24036583 − 1, was found by Josh Findley and the GIMPS collaborative effort.

May 16th
 

1620 ~ Death of William Adams, English Navigator and Japanese Samurai. In James Clavell's Shogun, John Blackthorne is loosely based on Adams.

1770 ~ 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year old Louis-Auguste who later became king of France.

1866 ~ Charles Elmer Hires invented root beer.

1912 ~ Birthday of Louis "Studs" Terkel, Author.

1919 ~ Birthday of Liberace, American pianist.

1929 ~ In Hollywood, California the first Academy Awards are handed out.

1955 ~ Birthday of Olga Korbut, gymnast.

1966 ~ Birthday of Janet Jackson, Singer & Super Bowl Half Time Flasher.

1969 ~ Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.

2002 ~ Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones opened in theaters.

May 17th
 

1749 ~ Birthday of Edward Jenner, inventor of vaccination.

1829 ~ Death of John Jay, first Chief Justice of the U.S.

1838 ~ Death of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, French diplomat.

1846 ~ The saxophone patented by Adolphe Sax.

1900 ~ Birthday of Ayatollah Khomeini.

1900 ~ Boer War: British troops relieved Mafeking.

1935 ~ Death of Paul Dukas, French composer.

1954 ~ The U.S. Supreme Court handed down their decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

1974 ~ Thirty-three people were killed by terrorist bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland.

2004 ~ Same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts.

May 18th
 

1765 ~ Fire destroyed a large part of Montreal, Quebec.

1783 ~ First United Empire Loyalists reach New Brunswick, Canada after leaving the U.S.

1850 ~ Birthday of Oliver Heaviside, Physicist.

1910 ~ The Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet.

1911 ~ Death of Gustav Mahler, Austrian Composer.

1919 ~ Birthday of Dame Margot Fonteyn, Ballet dancer.

1937 ~ Birthday of Brooks Robinson, Baseball Hall of Famer.

1974 ~ Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon, becoming the sixth nuclear nation.

1975 ~ Death of Leroy Anderson, American Composer.

1980 ~ Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington state, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.