May
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1 May – May Day, a pagan celebration in the Northern Hemisphere to celebrate Spring and which includes crowning the May Queen. Led Zeppelin referenced it in ‘Stairway to Heaven’: ‘if there’s a bustle in your hedge-row don’t be alarmed now, it’s just a spring clean for the May Queen‘.
1 May – International Workers Day, or Labour Day, which includes celebrating the introduction of the 8 hour work day: ‘8 hours labour, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours rest’.
1 May 1962 – First KMart store opens in Garden City, Michigan, USA. In 2005, the USA KMart merged with Sears, Roebucks and Company.
1 May 1967 – Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Ann Beaulieu in Las Vegas.
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2 May 1519 – death of Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian renaissance inventor, painter, sculptor, mathematician, writer. Born 15 April 1452.
2 May 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, second wife of King Henry VIII and mother of the future Queen Elizabeth I, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft.
2 May 1568 – Mary Queen of Scots escapes from Loch Leven Castle.
2 May 1611 – the King James Bible is published for the first time in London by Robert Barker.
2 May 1933 – Within months of becoming Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler bans trade unions. Hitler saw unions as organising the power of workers which could be a threat to his power. Police arrested union leaders and confiscated union money. The funds had essentially been provided by workers so to quell any worker uprisings, Hitler created the German Labour Force to replace the unions and to supposedly represent workers’ rights. The GLF was sold to the workers under a veil of patriotism. Strikes were banned and labelled un-German. He further duped the workers under the ‘Strength Through Joy’ movement that offered them subsided holidays and other events. To reduce unemployment he introduced forced labour. Any worker refusing to take up a job assigned to them, was imprisoned. Under the GLF wages dropped while the cost of living of increased 25%. (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/nazi-germany/trade-unions-and-nazi-germany/)
2 May 1986 – The Ukrainian city of Chernobyl is evacuated six days after the nuclear reactor disaster.
2 May 2011 – Osama bin Laden, founder and leader of Al Qaeda, FBI’s most wanted man, is killed by US Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Born 10 March 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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3 May 1913 – The Indian film industry (otherwise known as Bollywood) kicks off with the release of its first full-length feature film, Raja Harishchandra.
3 May 1915 – The iconic poem In Flanders Fields written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.
3 May 1919 – birth of Peter Seeger, American singer-songwriter, musician, activist. Died 27 January 2014.
3 May 1921 – birth of Sugar Ray Robinson (born Walker Smith Jr), American welterweight and middleweight professional boxer, declared to be the greatest boxer of all time. Sugar Ray stood at 5′ 11″ (1.80m). He fought 200 fights, winning 173 (108 by knock-out), lost 19, drew six, with two no contests. By 1946 Sugar Ray had won 40 fights straight, but was denied a shot at the world welterweight championship because he refused to cooperate with the mafia, which controlled much of boxing. In December 1946, he was finally allowed to contest the world championship and won. In 1947 Sugar Ray defended his welterweight title against Jimmy Doyle. In the eighth round, Doyle was knocked out and died later that night. Sugar Ray crossed weight classes and also won the world middleweight championship. In 1950, he broke the record for the shortest fight by knocking out Jose Basora 50 seconds into the first round. The record wasn’t broken for a further 38 years. in 1951, he fought Jake La Motta in what became known as the St Valentine’s Day massacre after the fight was stopped in the 13th round when La Motta was out on his feet, unable to even lift his arms throw a punch. That fight and some of the other matches with La Motta were adapted for the Martin Scorsese movie, Raging Bull. Died 12 April 1989.
3 May 1933 – birth of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. He died 25 December 2006.
3 May 1978 – the first spam email (unsolicited bulk email) is sent by a marketing representative for Digital Equipment Corporation to every ARPANET address on the West Coast of the USA.
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4 May – International Firefighters Day
4 May – Star Wars Day – May the Fourth be with you!
4 – 8 May 1942 – Battle of the Coral Sea, a major naval battle in the Pacific Theatre during World War 2, fought between the Japanese Imperial Navy and Allied forces from Australia and USA. Japan was attempting to occupy Port Moresby, but was repelled by the Allied forces.
4 May 1970 – National Guards open fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young wrote the song ‘Ohio’ about the incident.
4 May 1979 – Margaret Thatcher forms government in the UK. Her administration was controversial and ultra-conservative. Her policies of smaller government, privatisation, nationalism, lower taxes, and free markets gave rise to the term, ‘Thatcherism’. However, her policies were also seen as anti-worker and anti-Union. During the 1980s, United States President Ronald Reagan adopted similar economic conservatism which came to be known as Reaganism. Both Reagan and Thatcher ascribed to the economic theories espoused by neo-liberal economist Milton Friedman. Thatcher remained Prime Minister until her resignation in November 1990 after losing a leadership challenge from Michael Heseltine.
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5 May – Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for 5th of May), celebrates Mexican heritage and pride. It originated as a celebration of freedom for Mexicans following the victory by Mexican forces over the French at the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862.
5 May 1818 – birth of Karl Marx, German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist and revolutionary socialist. One of the most influential economists in history. Marx’s work included Das Kapital, as well as The Communist Manifesto which he co-authored with German social scientist, Friedrich Engels. He fathered modern communism and socialism with the aim of putting the means of production in the hands of the workers to end exploitation at the hands of the bourgeoisie. He believed in the redistribution of wealth for the benefit of all, rather than accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few. The wealth, he believed, was created by the workers and should therefore be shared amongst the workers. He stated that communism would not succeed in the individual nation unless other nations supported it, hence the adoption of L’internationale as the socialist anthem following the ‘First International’ conference held by Marx and Engels in 1864. His international theory perhaps makes him the world’s first globalisationist. He believed socialism would not succeed in poverty, but required the building of wealth to succeed and distribution of wealth to be sustainable. Died 14 March 1883.
5 May 1821 – death of Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor. Born 15 August 1769.
5 May 1970 – University of New Mexico is the scene of protests against the Vietnam War, US attacks on Cambodia and the Kent State University massacre (see 4 May 1970), the National Guard and police are called in. The National Guard fixed bayonets and attacked the protestors, resulting in eleven protestors and journalists being bayonetted.
5 May 1981 – death of Bobby Sands, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died following a hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze. He and other prisoners, were protesting against the removal of special category status which conferred a ‘Prisoner of War’ status on prisoners convicted of ‘Troubles-related’ offences in Ireland. Special Category Status meant they were subject to the Geneva Convention so didn’t have to wear prison uniforms or do prison work, were housed within paramilitary factions, received extra visits and more food. During his fast, Sands was elected to British Parliament as an anti-H-Block candidate (H-Block representing Maze Prison’s H-shaped block). Sands was one of 10 hunger strikers to die during the 1981 hunger strike. Born 9 March 1954.
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6 May – Following ‘May the Fourth be with you’, and Cinco de Mayo yesterday, does this make today ‘Revenge of the Sixth?’
6 May 1937 – the German passenger dirigible (Zeppelin), The Hindenburg, crashes bursts into flames, falling 200 feet to the ground, killing 37 people. The Hindenburg was the world’s largest hydrogen airship and the disaster marked the end of the airship era. The disaster was captured on camera and a newsreel released, which can be viewed on Youtube.
6 May 1945 – Hermann Göring, Hitler’s second in command and the most powerful Nazi alive, surrenders to US forces, effectively marking the end of the Second World War. The official surrender was announced by German officers on 8 May 1945.
6 May 1954 – Roger Bannister becomes the first man to break the 4 minute mile on foot. He ran the mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds at the Iffley Road Track, Oxford, England.
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7 May 351 – Jews in Palestine revolt against the rule of Constantius Gallus, Caesar of the East and brother-in-law of Emperor Constantius II, after he arrived in Antioch to take up his post.
7 May 1429 – Joan of Arc leads the victorious final charge in the Siege of Orleans, marking a turning point in the One Hundred Years war.
7 May 1718 – the city of New Orleans is founded on the banks of the Mississippi River in the American state of Louisiana, by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville.
7 May 1919 – birthday of Eva Perón, first lady of Argentina and second wife of Argentine President, Juan Perón. Her life was immortalised in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Evita, which included the hit song, ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’. Died 26 July 1952.
7 May 1952 – the concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is published by Geoffrey W.A. Drummer.
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8 May 1911 – birthday of Robert Johnson. American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. Legend has it that Johnson met the devil at a crossroads and sold his soul in return for fame and fortune. One of the first musicians of the 20th century to join the 27 club. Died 16 August 1938.
8 May 1945 – VE day. Victory in Europe – the day that Nazi Germany formally surrendered in World War II.
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9 May – Russian Victory Day which marks the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
9 May 1960 – the ‘pill’, a contraceptive, is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. It is now used by 100 million women worldwide.
9 May 1970 – 100,000 protestors gather near the White House to protest US involvement in the war in Cambodia.
9 May 1994 – Nelson Mandela is chosen by the newly-elected South African parliament to be the country’s new President.
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10 May 1837 – the Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail and unemployment reaches record levels.
10 May 1893 – the Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883.
10 May 1908 – Mother’s Day first celebrated. Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia in the United States becomes the first place in the world to hold the first official Mother’s Day celebration. 407 women were in attendance that day. In 1872 Julie Ward Howe suggested a national holiday to celebrate peace and motherhood. At that time, many local groups held their own celebration of motherhood, but most were religious gatherings. Another influential figure was Anna Jarvis who campaigned for a national holiday following the death of her mother in 1905. Her mother, social activist Ann Jarvis used to hold an annual celebration, Mother’s Friendship Day, to help ease the pain of the US Civil War. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother’s Day a national holiday on the second Sunday of May. Anna Jarvis was arrested at a Mother’s Day celebration when she tried to stop the selling of flowers. She stated, ‘I wanted it to be a day of sentiment not of profit‘.
10 May 1924 – Edgard J. Hoover appointed Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A position he holds until his death in 1972.
10 May 1933 – in Germany, Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
10 May 1941 – Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess, parachutes into Scotland to negotiate a peace settlement between the UK and Germany. Hess was arrested and convicted of crimes against peace and spent the remainder of his life in jail. He died in 1987.
10 May 1954 – Bill Haley and His Comets release Rock Around the Clock, the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.
10 May 1960 – birth of Bono (Paul David Hewson), activist and Irish singer-songwriter with U2.
10 May 1994 – Nelson Mandela inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president.
10 May 2003 – The Golden Gumboot opens in Tully, North Queensland. It stands 7.9m tall and represents the record annual rainfall of 7900mm that Tully received in1950. Tully is officially Australia’s wettest town.
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11 May – World Keffiyeh Day, in solidarity with Palestine.
11 May 1904 – birth of Salvador Dali, Spanish surrealist painter. Died 23 January 1989.
11 May 1981 – death of Bob Marley, Jamaican reggae singer and musician. Born 6 February 1945.
11 May 1985 – death of Chester Gould, American creator of the cartoon strip, ‘Dick Tracy’. He drew the comic strip from 1931 to 1977. Born 20 November 1900.
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12 May 1932 – the body of the Lindbergh baby is found near to the Lindbergh residence. The baby was the son of famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh, and had been kidnapped days earlier. The kidnapper had accidentally killed the baby during the kidnapping and abandoned the body in a nearby forest.
12 May 1937 – King George VI is crowned King of Britain (and it’s colonies) at Westminster Abbey, following the abdication of his brother.
12 May 1980 – death of Bette Nesmith Graham. Bette is the inventor of Liquid Paper. Her son, Mike Nesmith, was a member of 1960s UK/American pop/rock band, The Monkees. Born 23 March 1924 in Dallas, Texas.
12 May 1994 – in response to thousands acts of violence in the USA against abortion clinics and their patients, a bill is submitted to President Clinton making it a federal crime to prevent access to an abortion clinic or to threaten or use force against people attending the clinics. The bill resulted in the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act 1994. Between 1978 and 1993 anti-abortion (or pro-life) activists had been responsible for at least 9 murders, 17 attempted murders, 406 death threats, 179 acts of assault, 5 kidnappings of abortion providers, 41 bombings, 96 attempted bombings or arsons, 692 bomb threats, 1993 incidents of trespassing, 1400 incidents of vandalism and 100 attacks with butyric acid (stink bombs).
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13 May 1941 – birth of Richard Steven Valenzuela, otherwise known as Richie Valens. 1950s rock and roll star, famous for songs such as, ‘Come On, Let’s Go’, and ‘La Bamba. Died in a plane crash on 3 February 1959 with other musicians, Buddy Holly, J.P. ‘Big Bopper’ Richardson and the pilot, Roger Peterson. Their deaths were immortalised in the Don McLean song, ‘American Pie’, when he sang about the day the music died.
13 May 1981 – Pope John Paul II is injured in front of 2,000 people in St Peter’s Square after being shot by Turkish man, Mehmet Ali Agca.
13 May 1985 – Philadelphia Police drop two bombs on a house inhabited by black rights organisation, MOVE. The bombing results in a fire that destroys 65 neighbouring houses, killing 11 people (six adults including MOVE leader John Africa, and five children) and leaving more than 200 homeless. MOVE had previously been declared a terrorist organisation. Prior to the bombing, police had obtained arrest warrants for four members of MOVE, but when they attempted to execute the warrants, they claim a gunfight broke out which they used to justify using a helicopter to drop the bombs.
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14 May 1796 – Edward Jenner gives the first smallpox vaccination.
14 May 1879 – the first group of indentured Indians labourers arrive in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.
14 May 1919 – death of Henry John Heinz, founder of Heinz Company, responsible for canned baked beans. Born 11 October 1844.
14 May 1929 – Wilfred Rhodes takes his 4,000th first-class wicket at Leyton, after bowling 9/39. He played 58 test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. He was the first Englishman to complete both 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test cricket. He went on to achieve the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in individual first-class seasons a record 16 times. He retired with first-class totals of 4,204 wickets and 39,969 runs. In Tests he retired with 127 wickets and 2,325 runs.
14 May 1939 – Lina Medina (born 27 September 1933 in Peru) becomes the world’s youngest confirmed mother at the age of five. She gave birth by a caesarean section, to a boy, weighing 2.7kg (6.0lb). He was named Gerardo after the doctor who delivered him. He was raised believing Lina was his sister and was told the truth at the age of 10. Gerardo died in 1979, aged 40, of a bone marrow disease. Following Gerardo’s birth, Lina was diagnosed with extreme ‘precocious puberty’, in which puberty occurs at an unusually early age. It was initially reported that she hit puberty by the age of three, however, a further medical report indicated she had commenced puberty by eight months old. Lina never revealed who the father was or the circumstances of her impregnation. Lina later married and had a second child in 1972, when she was 39. She presently lives in Lima, Peru.
14 May 1948 – the modern nation of Israel is established by proclamation of the Jewish Agency headed by David Ben-Gurion, following the United Nations adoption of Resolution 181 on 29 November 1947.
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15 May – The Nakba (Day of the Catastrophe), Palestine – commemoration of the displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians and the depopulation and destruction of at least 400 villages during the establishment of Israel in 1948.
15 May 1970 – At Jackson State University in Mississippi, police open fire on students who were protesting against the Vietnam and Cambodian Wars, killing two and injuring twelve.
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16 May 1920 – Joan of Arc is canonised (declared a saint) by the Catholic Church. In 1431, the Catholic Church accused her of heresy. She was subsequently ex-communicated and burnt at the stake. The church later nullified her ex-communication, declaring her a matyr who was unjustly executed because of a vendetta by the English (who controlled the Inquisitorial Court in occupied France). She was beatified (given the title of Blessed and the ability to intercede on behalf of those who pray to her) in 1909 prior to her canonisation in 1920.
16 May 1990 – death of Jim Henson, American muppeteer (Sesame Street, the Muppet Show). Born 24 September 1936.
16 May 1944 – birth of Danny Trejo, American actor (Desperado, Machete, Con-Air).
16 May 1945 – birth of Nicky Chinn, British songwriter and record producer. In conjunction with Queensland-born Mike Chapman, he wrote hit singles for Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Mud, Racey, Smokie and Tina Turner.
16 May 2010 – death of Ronald James Padavona, otherwise known as Ronny James Dio, heavy metal singer. Dio replaced Ozzy Osbourne as lead singer of Black Sabbath, for two years before leaving after disagreements with other band members. Dio was also associated with Rainbow, Dio, and Elf. Born 12 July 1942.
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17 May – 17 May – International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT Day).
17 May 2000 – Thomas Blanton Jr and Bobby Frank Cherry, former Ku Klux Klan members, are arrested and charged with murder for the 1963 bombing of a church in Alabama which killed four girls. The two men were sentenced to life in prison.
17 May 2012 – Disco singer, Donna Summer dies from lung cancer. She was born on 31 December 1948.
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18 May – World Whiskey Day (3rd Saturday in March)
18 May 1910 – The Earth passes through the tail of Halley’s Comet.
18 May 1980 – Volcanic eruption from Mt St Helens in Washington State, USA, killing 57 people.
18 May 1989 – Over 1,000,000 people march in Beijing, demanding democracy. The Chinese government violently suppressed the protests, bringing them to an end on 4 June 1989 following the massacre of more than 10,000 protestors in Tiananmen Square.
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19 May 1536 – Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, incest and treason.
19 May 1568 – Queen Elizabeth I orders the arrest of Mary, Queen of Scots.
19 May 1895 – Death of José Julián Martí Pérez, (José Martí), Cuban national hero, nicknamed The Maestro. He was a poet, essayist, revolutionary philosopher. Fought for Cuba’s independence from Spain. Martí’s poetry is respected across the globe. One of his poems was adapted into the song, Guantanamera. Born 28 January 1853.
19 May 1897 – Oscar Wilde released from Reading Gaol.
19 May 1909 – birth of Sir Nicholas Winton, MBE, British humanitarian who rescued 669 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938, shortly after Kristallnacht. Most of the children were Jewish. He arranged their safe passage to Britain and found homes for them. As war loomed, Winton registered as a conscientious objector and registered for work with the Red Cross. He rescinded his objection in 1940 and served with the Royal Air Force. Winton kept quiet about the rescue of the 669 children, not even telling his wife, Grete. It wasn’t until 1988, when Grete found a scrapbook in their attic that detailed the children, their parents’ names, and the names and addresses of the people they moved in with in Britain. She was able to locate 80 of the children. Later that year, she took Nicholas along to the filming of the BBC-TV show That’s Life. Unexpectedly for Winton, his scrapbook was shown on camera and his exploits detailed. When the host asked if anyone in the audience owed their life to Winton, more than two dozen people stood up, surrounding and applauding him.
19 May 1925 – birth of Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. He campaigned for the rights of African-Americans. At the age of 20, while in prison, he joined the ‘Nation of Islam’, a group that preached black supremacy. He eventually became disillusioned with it and its leader, Elijah Muhammad. On 8 March 1964, he publicly announced he had left the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X founded Muslim Mosque Inc and the Organisation of Afro-American Unity. He converted to Sunni Islam, revoked black supremacy and preached equal rights. He was assassinated on 21 February 1965 by three members of the Nation of Islam; Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan), Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson. All three were convicted, although Butler and Johnson maintained their innocence.
19 May 1962 – Marilyn Monroe sings a seductive version of ‘Happy Birthday‘ to President John F. Kennedy for his 45th birthday. She was introduced to the stage as the ‘late’ Marilyn Monroe. Less than three months later, Monroe was found dead. The dress Monroe wore was designed by Jean Louis and sold at auction in 1999 for more than $1,200,000. It was a sheer, flesh coloured dress with 2,500 rhinestones.
19 May 2014 – Death of Sir John Arthur ‘Jack’ Brabham AO OBE, Australian racing legend, 3 times Formula One world champion (1959, 1960, 1966). Born 2 April 1926.
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20 May 325 – commencement of the First Council of Nicea, a cabal of 1800 bishops convened by Roman Emperor Constantine I (Constantine the Great) to gain consensus within the church for various doctrinal issues, such as the divinity of Christ, the Holy Trinity and the date for Easter which were articulated in the ‘Creed of Nicea’. The Council concluded on 25 August 325.
20 May 1896 – a 6 ton chandlier falls from the ceiling of the Palais Garnier, Paris, onto the crowd below. One person is killed and many injured. The theatre was used as the setting for Gaston Leroux’s novel, Phantom of the Opera.
20 May 1944 – birth of Joe Cocker. English rock and blues singer. His first big hit was in 1968 with his cover of the Beatles song, ‘With a Little Help from my Friends’, which he performed at Woodstock the year later. In 1972, while touring Australia, he and six band members were arrested in Adelaide for possession of cannabis. The following day he was charged with assault following a brawl in Melbourne. Australian Federal Police gave him 48 hours to leave the country and banned him from re-entry. From this he earned the nickname ‘Mad-dog’. The incident raised the profile of cannabis legalisation in Australia. He toured Australia again in 1975, after the new Labor government allowed him back into the country. He won a Grammy Award in 1983 and was awarded an OBE in 2007. Died 22 December 2014.
20 May 1998 – The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) was formally announced. It was formed by major technology companies, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia to develop a standard low-range radio standard that could connect disparate items, such as phones to headsets, regardless of the manufacturers. After considering a number of names for the technology, including Flirt (with the catchphrase ‘getting close, but not touching’), the SIG settled on the name Bluetooth, which was named after a 10th century Viking king, Harald Blatand, which translates as Bluetooth. He was so named because he had a dead tooth that turned blue from all the blueberries he ate. The name was proposed by Jim Kardach of Intel, who was reading a historical novel about vikings, by Frans G. Bengtsson called The Long Ships. Harald Bluetooth had united disparate Dane tribes to form a united Denmark. The Bluetooth logo is a bind rune which combines the two runic letters H and B, for Harald Bluetooth.
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21 May – World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.
21 May 1929 – Charles Lindbergh lands in Paris after completing the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight. He had departed the day before from New York. Lindbergh was competing for the Orteig Prize which was to be awarded to the first person to make the transatlantic flight. Lindbergh won $25,000 in prize money. Six people had previously lost their lives in competing for the Orteig Prize.
21 May 1932 – Amelia Earhart flies from Newfoundland to Ireland, becoming the first woman to make a solo transatlantic flight.
21 May 1960 – An 8.5 magnitude earthquake hits Chile, causing massive land-slides and tsunamis, including an 8 metre wave. More than 5,000 people are killed and 2 million left homeless.
21 May 1979 – Dan White is convicted of voluntary manslaughter following being charged with first degree murder after assassinating Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. His defence team had successfully argued for conviction on the lesser charge because they claimed his mental state was diminished as he was suffering depression, evidenced by his consumption of Twinkies and other sugary foods. The defence became known as the ‘Twinkie Defence’.
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22 May – International Day of Biodiversity
22 May 1927 – A 7.9 magnitude earthquake hits the city of Xining in the Chinese province of Quinghai, killing up to 200,000 people. It is the 5th deadliest earthquake recorded.
22 May 1972 – Ceylon changes its name to Sri Lanka to break away from its colonial past. Ceylon had been the colonial name given by Great Britain to the island. The name itself was derived from Portuguese when part of the island was a colony of Portugal.
22 May 2010 – Jordan Romero, a 13 year old U.S. boy, becomes the youngest person to conquer Mt Everest.
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23 May 1568 – the Netherlands declares independence from Spain.
23 May 1934 – notorious bank robbers, Bonny Parker and Clyde Barrow, are killed in a shoot-out with police in Black Lake, Louisiana. Bonny and Clyde have been immortalised in songs and movies.
23 May 1944 – birth of John Newcombe, Australian tennis player.
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24 May 1930 – Amy Johnson, flying a Gypsy Moth, lands in Darwin. She is the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.
24 May 1941 – Birth of Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman), American singer-songwriter, author and painter. One of the most influential figures in music since the 1960s, when he became a reluctant ‘voice of a generation’. Songs included ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’ and ‘The Times They Are a-Changing’, which became anthems for the civil rights movement and anti-war movement. Initially, Dylan only used an acoustic guitar. However, on 25 July 1965, Dylan performed live at the Newport Folk Festival, playing an electric guitar. Some members of the audience booed Dylan and accused him of selling out and abandoning his acoustic roots. Dylan has continued performing for five decades.
24 May 2012 – Tens of thousands of Norwegian public servants go on strike demanding pay rises and improvements in working conditions. It is the first such strike in Norway since 1984.
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25 May – Towel Day. A tribute to Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which states that a towel is ‘about the most massively useful thing that an interstellar hitchhiker can have‘. First held in 2001, two weeks after the death of Adams. Fans carry a towel with them on this day in appreciation of Adams and his work.
25 May 1999 – Bill Morgan, who had been resuscitated after spending 14 minutes clinically dead following a heart-attack, wins a $27,000 car from a Tatts Scratch lotto ticket. During a reenactment of the event for a Melbourne TV station, Bill won $250,000 from a Scratch-It ticket. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBYuxQBSc0o
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26 May – National Sorry Day. Since 1998, National Sorry Day occurs on 26 May every year to commemorate the maltreatment of Australia’s indigenous population.
26 May 1890 – Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, is released in England.
26 May 1913 – birth of Peter Cushing OBE, English actor who mostly appeared in Hammer Horror films, including The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula (in which he played vampire hunter, Van Helsing). Died 11 August 1994.
26 May 2012 – death of Festus, our beloved and most awesome budgie.
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27 May – 3 June – National Reconciliation Week, which is celebrated in Australia every year on these dates. The dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey — the anniversaries of the successful 1967 referendum (27 May) and the High Court Mabo decision (3 June 1992). The 1967 referendum saw over 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and recognise them in the national census. On 3 June, 1992, the High Court of Australia delivered its landmark Mabo decision which legally recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a special relationship to the land—that existed prior to colonisation and still exists today. This recognition paved the way for land rights called Native Title. 2012 marked the 20th anniversary of the Mabo decision. http://www.reconciliation.org.au/nrw
27 May 1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the Russian city of St Petersburg.
27 May 1907 – bubonic plague breaks out in San Francisco.
27 May 1911 – birth of Vincent Price, American actor, starred in a number of horror films, including House of Wax, House of Usher and The Raven. He also acted in the 1960s television series Batman, in which he played the evil mastermind, Egghead; a master criminal with a fixation on eggs. Price provided a voice-over on Alice Cooper’s 1975 album Welcome to My Nightmare. In 1976, Price recorded a cover version of Bobby Pickett song, Monster Mash. Died 25 October 1993.
27 May 1922 – birth of Christopher Lee, CBE, English actor and singer. Lee starred in hammer horror movies, including Dracula (in which he played the title character), Dracula has risen from the grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, and Scars of Dracula. Fearing that he would become type-cast in horror roles as had happened to Vincent Price and Peter Cushing, he went in search of other roles. Lee starred in the 1974 James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun. He played Saruman in Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogies, and Count Dooku in two of the Star Wars prequel films, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Died 7 June 2015.
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28 May 1867 – President Johnson signs a treaty with Russia to transfer Alaska to the United States.
28 May 1901 – Signing of the D’Arcy Concession between Mozzafar al-Din (Shah of Persia) and William Knox D’Arcy, a British businessman and one of the principal founders of the oil industry in Iran. D’Arcy was born in England, but had grown up in Rockhampton, Australia. In 1909, Knox became a director of the newly founded Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) which later became British Petroleum (BP). On 26 May 1908, almost exactly seven years after signing the D’Arcy Concession, commercial quantities of oil were discovered. The D’Arcy Concession gave rights to D’Arcy and by extension, APOC to mine and export the oil with a small kick-back paid to Persia. The D’Arcy Concession is one of the most important documents of the 20th century and has led to much of the conflict being experienced to this day. Britain’s attack on the Ottoman Empire during World War I, as well as it’s allegiance with Russia during that war was largely to protect its oil interests in Persia from both Russia and the Ottomans. Iran itself has experienced significant animosity towards Britain over the exploitation of its oil fields to the point that the Iranian revolution and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism was a revolt against Western profiteering and influence over Persian leaders which was often against the best interests of the Iranian people.
28 May 1908 – birth of Ian Fleming, British author of the ‘James Bond’ novels. Died 12 August 1964.
28 May 1964 – establishment of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), which was founded with the purpose of liberating Palestine through armed struggle. It has since rejected violence and been recognised as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by the United Nations.
28 May 1987 – West German, Matthias Rust, illegally flies his Cessna 172 from Finland to Moscow, landing in Red Square. Rust claimed that he wanted to build an imaginary bridge between the Soviet Union and the West. Rust was charged and convicted of hooliganism, disregard of aviation laws and breaching the Soviet border. He was sentenced to four years in a general-regime labour camp, but spent his imprisonment in the high security Lefortovo. During Rust’s imprisonment, US President Reagan and the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mikhael Gorbachev signed an intermediate-range nuclear weapons treaty. As a sign of good faith following the signing of the treaty, the Supreme Soviet ordered Matthias Rust be released in August 1988.
28 May 2014 – death of Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Ann Johnson), American author, poet and civil rights activist. Maya wrote seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poems. She had numerous occupations, including fry cook, dancer, actor, director and journalist. Her civil rights activism saw her work with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Born 4 April 1928.
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29 May 1874 – birth of Gilbert Keith Chesterton (otherwise known as G.K. Chesterton), English writer, lay theologian, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, literary and art critic, biographer and Christian apologist. Died 14 June 1936.
29 May 1917 – birthday of John F. Kennedy. 35th president of the United States. Assassinated 22 November 1963.
29 May 1953 – Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepalese sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, become the first men to reach the summit of Mt Everest.
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30 May 1778 – death of François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire. French enlightment writer, historian and philosopher. A man of wit who advocated freedom of religion, freedom of expression and separation of church and state. Voltaire wrote more than 20,000 letters, 2,000 books and pamphlets. He criticised intolerance, religious dogma and social institutions. Born 21 November 1694.
30 May 1814 – birth of Mikhail Bakunin, Russian revolutionary, founder of collective anarchism. Considered the most influential person in socialist anarchism. Died 1 July 1876.
30 May 1911 – death of Milton Bradley, U.S. board-game maker, credited with launching the board-game industry. Born 8 November 1836.
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31 May 1921 – 1 June 1921 – The Tulsa Race Riots in which a large group of white people attacked the black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, including aerial attacks that dropped bombs and fired on the community. It resulted in the Greenwood District, also known as the ‘Black Wall Street’ being burned to the ground. The Greenwood District was the wealthiest black community in the USA at the time.More than 800 people were admitted to white hospitals after two hospitals in the black community were burned down. Police arrested or detained more than 6,000 black residents. More than 10,000 were left homeless and 35 city blocks comprising of 1,256 destroyed. Official figures state that 39 people were killed, however, other sources estimate that between 55 and 300 black residents were killed with 9 white people killed. The riots were precipitated when a black man was suspected of raping a white girl in an elevator. White residents gathered with rumours of a lynching to happen. As the whites descended on Greenwood, a group of black men assembled to confront them. During this, some of the whites began torching buildings
31 May 1930 – birth of Clint Eastwood, American actor, director, producer and politician.
31 May 1948 – birth of John Bonham, Led Zeppelin drummer. Died 25 September 1980.
31 May 1965 – birth of Brooke Shields, American actor, model and producer.
31 May 1996 – death of Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author. Leary was a major proponent of the use of psychedelic drugs, particularly LSD and psilocybin (mushrooms). He conducted numerous psychiatric experiments using psychedelics, particularly during the 1950s and and 1960s, when the drugs were legal. LSD was banned by the USA in 1966. Leary popularised 1960’s catch-phrases such as ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’, ‘set and setting’, and ‘think for yourself and question authority’. He was friends with beat generation poets, such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Leary was arrested numerous times over his possession and use of drugs. He wrote a number of books on the benefits of psychedelic drugs. Leary became fascinated with computers, declaring that ‘the PC is the LSD of the 1990s’. He encouraged bohemians to ‘turn on, boot up, jack in’. Leary was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1995. He chose to stream his dying moments over the internet. Seven grams of Leary’s ashes were placed aboard a Pegasus rocket, launched on 21 April 1997. It remained in orbit around the Earth for six years until it burned up in atmosphere. Born 22 October 1920.