1st MAY
Rudolf of Habsburg (b. 1218)
Joseph Addison (b. 1672)
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (b. 1769)
Hilaire Chardonnet (b. 1839)
Calamity Jane (b. 1852)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (b. 1881)
Charley Patton (b. 1891)
Henry Koster (b. 1905)
Glenn Ford (b. 1916)
Joseph Heller (b. 1923)
Big Maybelle (b. 1924)
Terry Southern (b. 1924)
Little Walter (b. 1930)
Titus Turner (b. 1933)
Joan Hackett (b. 1942)
Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster (d. 1171)
John Dryden (d. 1700)
Arthur Thistlewood (d. 1820)
David Livingstone (d. 1873)
Antonín Dvorák (d. 1904)
Sir Ebenezer Howard (d. 1928)
Joseph Goebbels (d. 1945)
Martin Bormann (unconfirmed)(d. 1945)
William Fox (d. 1952)
Robb Wilton (d. 1957)
Spike Jones (d. 1965)
Sylvia Townsend Warner (d. 1978)
Aram Khachaturian (d. 1978)
Ranasinghe Premadasa (d. 1993)
Ayrton Senna (d. 1994)
Bo Widerberg (d. 1997)
Eldridge Cleaver (d. 1998)
Evil May Day riots take place, London, 1517
England declares war on France and Scotland, 1522
Battle of Crombdel, 1690
Tallest & longest-standing maypole erected, Strand, London, 1840
Folies-Bergere opened, Paris, 1869
Settle-Carlisle Midland Railway Extension opened to passengers, 1876
Construction of 1st skyscraper begins, Chicago IL, 1884
Union of Scotland and England proclaimed, 1707
Mozart's Marriage Of Figaro 1st performed, Vienna, 1786
1st UK railway-tunnel built, 1800
1st Penny Black stamps sold to public, 5 days before official issue, UK, 1840
London Library officially opened, 1841
1st 476 leave on emigrant trains, Independence MO, 1841
Great Exhibition opened by Queen Victoria, Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, 1851
Victoria proclaimed Empress of India, 1876
National coalition of labour groups strike in favor of 8-hour day, US, 1886
Battle of Manila Bay, 1898
1st commercial production of plasticine, Bathampton, 1900
1st tests of radium as cure for cancer, New York NY, 1905
Statue of Peter Pan installed, Kensington Gardens, London, 1912
Lusitania departs from New York on final voyage, 1915
Reclamation of Zuyder Zee begins, 1919
Cyprus becomes British Crown Colony, 1925
Hitler chairs 1st Nazi Party meeting, Berlin, 1927
1st airline cooked meals served, Imperial Airways, London-Paris, 1927
Empire State Building opened by Herbert Hoover, New York NY, 1931
1st Unit Trusts go on sale, marketed by M&G General Trust Fund, 1931
UK-India telephone service inaugurated, 1933
Batman, invented by Bob Kane, 1st appears, in Detective Comics, 1939
Citizen Kane premiered, New York, 1941
Berlin captured by Russians, 1945
Mammoth skeletons recovered, Tucson AZ, 1947
People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) proclaimed, 1948
Gas industry nationalised, UK, 1949
USSR shoots down US U-2 aircraft piloted by Gary Powers, 1960
Castro proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections, 1961
1st betting shops opened, UK, 1961
Liverpool 1st win FA Cup, 1965
Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu, Las Vegas NE, 1967
£750,000 gold bullion robbery occurs, Clerkenwell, 1967
Legoland Family Park completed, Denmark, 1968
Czech workers march in defiance of Soviet Union, Prague, 1968
Bob Marley & the Wailers record Top Gear session, BBC, 1973
May Day becomes public holiday, UK, 1978
Jubilee Line opened, Charing Cross-Stanmore, 1979
Billie Jean King admits to affair with woman who is suing her for support, 1981
War declared on Argentina by UK, Falklands, 1982
1.5 million blacks boycott jobs and schools in apartheid protest, S Africa, 1986
Vietnam-installed government changes flag and becomes Republic of Cambodia, 1989
Raven egg at Tower of London hatches, 1st in over 300 years, 1989
Radio 1 begins 24-hour broadcasting, 1991
Labour return to power under Tony Blair, with 419 seats, 1997
Beatles play last UK concert, NME Poll Winners Concert, Empire Pool, Wembley, 1966
Poor People's March to Washington DC begins, Memphis TN, 1968
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia join the European Union, 2004

2nd MAY
Alessandro Scarlatti (b. 1660)
Catherine the Great (b. NS 1729)
Novalis (b. 1772)
E Cobham Brewer (b. 1810)
Augustus Egg (b. 1816)
Jerome K Jerome (b. 1859)
Baron Manfred von Richtofen (b. 1892)
Lorenz Hart (b. 1895)
Henry Hall (b. 1898)
Robert ES Wyatt (b. 1901)
Brian Aherne (b. 1902)
Benjamin Spock (b. 1903)
Bing Crosby (b. 1903)
Axel Springer (b. 1912)
Peggy Mount (b. 1916)
Joe (Mr Piano) Henderson (b. 1920)
Satyajit Ray (b. 1921)
Clive Jenkins (b. 1926)
Link Wray (b. 1929)
Robbie McIntosh (b. 1950)
Leonardo da Vinci (d. 1519)
Giacomo Meyerbeer (d. 1864)
Joseph McCarthy (d. 1957)
Lady (Nancy) Astor (d. 1964)
Edward Hopper (d. 1967)
J Edgar Hoover (d. 1972)
Hylda Baker (d. 1986)
Milly Good (d. 1993)
Sir Michael Hordern (d. 1995)
Aelred Watkin (d. 1997)
Justin Fashanu (d. 1998)
Oliver Reed (d. 1999)
Ted Rogers (d. 2001)
Raisa Struchkova (d. 2005)
Anne Boleyn sent by Henry VIII to Tower of London, 1536
Charter of incorporation granted to Chippenham, 1554
Authorised (King James) Version of the Bible published, 1611
William II of Orange marries Princess Mary, 1641
Hudson Bay Company chartered by King Charles II, 1670
British Navy mutiny at the Nore, 1797
1st Penny Black stamp posted, Bath, 1840
1st non-stop flight across US, Long Island-San Diego, 1923
US forces arrive after coup to restore order, Nicaragua, 1926
Jack Benny's 1st radio show debuts, NBC Blue Network, 1932
Hitler bans trade unions, Germany, 1933
1st performance of Prokofiev's Peter And The Wolf, Moscow, 1936
HMS Edinburgh sunk, Barents Sea, N Norway, 1942
Battle for Berlin ends with German surrender, 1945
Northwest Airlines inaugurates 1st transatlantic flight between Glasgow and US, 1952
Stanley Matthews causes Blackpool to defeat Bolton Wanderers, FA Cup Final, 1953
Public VHF broadcasting introduced in UK, 1955
1st nuclear power station in Scotland opened, Chapelcross, 1959
Horizon 1st broadcast, BBC, 1964
1st UK programme broadcast via satellite reaches 300 million viewers, 1965
Labour Government decides to seek membership of European Common Market, 1967
Black Panthers make arms protest, California State Assembly, 1967
Students riot, Paris, 1968
Queen Elizabeth II sets sail on maiden voyage, Southampton, 1969
Joy Division play final live performance, Birmingham, 1980
Sunday Mail launched, 1982
368 die when submarine HMS Conqueror torpedoes and sinks General Belgrano, 1982
$291.9m bonds snatched from messenger by a mugger, 1990
Northwest Airlines inaugurates 1st transatlantic flight between Glasgow and US, 1990
Susan Thompson becomes 1st professional woman pool player, 1992
1st UK sighting of lesser short-toed lark, Portland Bill, 1992
Nelson Mandela elected President, South Africa, 1994

3rd MAY
Pedro Gonzáles de Mendoza (b. 1428)
Niccolò Machiavelli (b. 1469)
Richard D'Oyly Carte (b. 1844)
François Coty (b. 1874)
Marcel Dupré (b. 1886)
Beulah Bondi (b. 1892)
Golda Meir (b. 1898)
Prince Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1905)
Mary Astor (b. 1906)
Edgar Lustgarten (b. 1907)
William Inge (b. 1913)
Homesick James Williamson (b. 1914)
Betty Comden (b. 1919)
Sugar Ray Robinson (b. 1921)
Norman Thelwell (b. 1923)
James Brown (b. 1933)
Dame Sheila McKechnie (b. 1948)
Red Rum (b. 1965)
Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh (d. 1691)
Elisabeth Bach (d. 1694)
William Kidd (d. OS 1701)
Thomas Hood (d. 1845)
Sara Coleridge (d. 1852)
Herbert Farjeon (d. 1945)
Rodney Collin (d. 1956)
Les Harvey (d. 1972)
Robert Alda (d. 1986)
Paul Butterfield (d. 1987)
Hughie Green (d. 1997)
Lady (Barbara) Castle of Blackburn (d. 2002)
Evgeny Svetlanov (d. 2002)
Wally Schirra (d. 2007)
Columbus discovers Jamaica, 1494
Battle of Cape Finisterre, 1747
Battle of Briar Creek, 1779
1st daily evening paper, The Star & Evening Advertiser, published, London, 1788
Washington DC incorporated as a city, 1802
La Pique dies in 1st duel between hot-air balloons, France, 1808
Byron swims Dardanelles Strait in 1 hr 10 minutes, 1810
1st electric train runs, Mersey Railway Tunnel, 1903
Hitler meets Mussolini to set up military alliance, Rome, 1938
Indian forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese, 1945
Ireland Bill introduced, 1949
Royal Festival Hall & Festival of Britain opened, London, 1951
Newcastle United win 2nd successive FA Cup, 1952
1st landing by an aeroplane at geographic North Pole, 1952
Range of 13,000 ft mountains discovered, Antarctic, 1956
George Blake convicted of spying for USSR, 1961
The Times 1st puts news on the front page, 1966
May Events begin with student/police confrontations, France, 1968
Dr Donald Ross performs 1st UK heart transplant, London, 1968
Les Harvey of Stone the Crows electrocuted on stage, Swansea, 1972
1st unsolicited commercial e-mail message sent, to Arpanet users, 1978
The Times 1st national UK newspaper to be set by photocomposition, 1982
White House admits Nancy Reagan used astrology in planning President's schedule, 1988
1st UK newt tunnels opened, Stanground, near Peterborough, 1989
Katrina and the Waves win Eurovision Song Contest for UK, 1997
15,000 die when Cyclone Nargis reaches Burma, 2008

4th MAY
Bartolommeo Cristofori (b. 1655)
Charlotte Smith (b. 1749)
Joseph Rowntree (b. 1820)
TH Huxley (b. 1825)
John Speke (b. 1827)
Alice Liddell (b. 1852)
Terry Scott (b. 1927)
Audrey Hepburn (b. 1929)
Jacob Miller (b. 1952)
Keith Haring (b. 1958)
Edward, Prince of Wales (d. 1471)
Augustus Pitt-Rivers (d. 1900)
Edith Nesbit (d. 1924)
Georges Enesco (d. 1955)
Edith Nesbit (d. 1958)
Sir Osbert Sitwell (d. 1969)
Josip Broz Tito (d. 1980)
Joe (Mr Piano) Henderson (d. 1980)
Shuji Terayama (d. 1983)
Diana Dors (d. 1984)
Paul Butterfield (d. 1987)
Bernie Winters (d. 1991)
Bonny Lee Blakley (d. 2001)
Coxsone Dodd (d. 2004)
Treaty of Northampton ratified, renouncing Scotland, 1328
Battle of Tewkesbury, Wars of the Roses, 1471
Shakespeare buys New Place for £60, Stratford, 1597
Minuit lands on what is now Manhattan island, US, 1626
Rhode Island declared its freedom from England, US, 1776
1st Derby takes place, won by Diomed, Epsom, 1780
Cunard shipping line founded, 1839
Natal proclaimed a British colony, 1843
Alice's fictional adventures in Wonderland take place, 1859
Maoris rebel against UK, New Zealand, 1863
Workers and police clash in Haymarket Riots, Chicago IL, 1886
Sherlock Holmes meets supposed death at hands of Moriarty, 1891
Daily Mail 1st published, 1896
Charles Rolls & Henry Royce sign agreement to build cars, UK, 1904
General Strike begins, UK, 1926
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences founded, US, 1927
Al Capone, convicted of tax evasion, enters federal penitentiary, Atlanta, 1932
Leicester Square tube opened, with world's longest escalator, 1935
Douglas Hyde elected 1st president of Irish Republic, 1938
Battle of Coral Sea begins, 1942
German armies in NW Germany, Holland and Denmark surrender, 1945
5 die in 2-day prisoner revolt, Alcatraz, San Francisco Bay CA, 1946
Gene Vincent records Be-Bop A Lula, Nashville, 1957
Wedgwood Benn wins by-election caused by his elevation to peerage, Bristol, 1961
Moody Blues formed, 1964
Mary Hopkins sings on Opportunity Knocks, UK, 1968
4 students shot by National Guard at Vietnam war demo, Kent State University, 1970
1st US network TV nudity, Valerie Perrine in Steambath, 1973
Waltzing Matilda adopted as national anthem, Australia, 1976
Margaret Thatcher becomes 1st woman Prime Minister, UK, 1979
20 die when HMS Sheffield sunk by Exocet missiles, Falklands, 1982
London Chess Centre opened by Gary Kasparov, Clapham, 1989
Atlantis launched bearing Magellan, Cape Canaveral FL, 1989
Latvia declared an independent democratic republic, 1990
Israel signs accord with PLO giving them self-rule in West Bank and Gaza Strip, 1994
Theodore Kaczynski given over 4 life sentences by federal judge, Sacramento CA, 1998

5th MAY
Louis Hachette (b. 1800)
Sören Kierkegaard (b. 1813)
Karl Marx (b. 1818)
Nellie Bly (b. 1867)
Sylvia Pankhurst (b. 1882)
Tyrone Power (b. 1913)
Alice Faye (b. 1915)
Delia Derbyshire (b. 1937)
Johnnie Taylor (b. 1938)
Tammy Wynette (b. 1942)
Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1821)
Francis Bret Harte (d. 1902)
William Friese-Greene (d. 1921)
Austin Reed (d. 1954)
Rev Blind Gary Davis (d. 1972)
Bobby Sands (d. 1981)
Cal Tjader (d. 1982)
Mikhail Botvinnik (d. 1995)
Syd Lawrence (d. 1998)
Theodore Maiman (d. 2007)
JS Bach works as a cantor, St Thomas's, Leipzig, 1583
Charles I surrendered to Scotland, Newark, 1646
St Helena occupied by Capt John Dutton of East India Co, 1659
Earl Ferrers hanged, 1st use of hangman's drop, Tyburn, 1760
Battle of Fuentes de Onoro, 1811
Battle of Williamsburg, 1862
Battle of the Wilderness begins, American Civil War, 1864
1st US train robbery occurs, near North Bend OH, 1865
Phonograph 1st publically demonstrated, Grand Opera House, 1878
Excavation of Corinth Canal begins, Greece, 1882
Carnegie Hall opened (as Music Hall), New York NY, 1891
Irn-Bru 1st produced, Glasgow, 1901
Pravda 1st published, USSR, 1912
Amy Johnson begins solo flight to Australia, Croydon, 1930
Addis Ababa captured by Italian forces, 1936
Hailé Selassié returns from exile, Ethiopia, 1941
UK forces invade Madagascar, 1942
Exeter heavily bombed, 1942
Council of Europe set up, London, 1949
Federal Republic of Germany becomes a sovereign state, 1955
2-week London Transport bus strike begins, 1958
Alan Shepard becomes 1st US man in space, in Freedom 7, 1961
Keith Richard buys his 1st Gibson Fuzzbox, 1965
Ariel III, 1st UK satellite, launched, California, 1967
Buffalo Springfield play final concert, Long Beach CA, 1968
Friends of the Earth founded, UK, 1971
Scottish Daily News, 1st workers co-operative national newspaper, published, 1975
5 terrorists die when SAS storm Iranian embassy, London, 1980
Jim Kerr and Chrissie Hynde marry, Central Park NY, 1984
1st live TV pictures transmitted from summit of Everest, 1988
1st 2-man flight across Channel in a microlight made, Cherbourg-Shampton, 1989
Space probe Magellan launched from Atlantis on its journey to Venus, 1989
Tribute concert to John Lennon takes place, Pier Head, Liverpool, 1990
Civil War erupts between Croats and Serbs, Yugoslavia, 1991
Ken Livingstone voted London Mayor, 2000

6th MAY
Lorenzo Lippi (b. 1606)
Maximilien Robespierre (b. 1758)
Sigmund Freud (b. 1856)
Robert Peary (b. 1856)
Nicholas II (b. OS 1868)
Rudolph Valentino (b. 1895)
Max Ophüls (b. 1902)
Stewart Granger (b. 1913)
Orson Welles (b. 1915)
Sydney Carter (b. 1915)
Andreas Baader (b. 1943)
Sandra Tilley (b. 1946)
Cornelius Jansen (d. 1638)
Catherine I, Empress of Russia (d. OS 1727)
Maria Brontë (d. 1825)
Henry David Thoreau (d. 1862)
Edward VII, King of Gt Britain (d. 1910)
L Frank Baum (d. 1919)
Maurice Maeterlinck (d. 1949)
Maria Montessori (d. 1952)
Wilfrid Hyde Wight (d. 1991)
Marlene Dietrich (d. 1992)
Ann Todd (d. 1993)
Ivy Benson (d. 1993)
Clarence Paul (d. 1995)
Johnny Morris (d. 1999)
Otis Blackwell (d. 2002)
Barney Kessel (d. 2004)
4,000 die when German troops sack Rome, 1527
Henry VIII orders a bible to be present in every church, 1536
Peter Minuit buys Manhattan Island from American Indians for trinkets worth $24, 1626
1st official postage stamps, Penny Black & Twopenny Blue, issued, UK, 1840
Yale lock patented by Linus Yale, 1851
Refrigeration machine patented by John Farrie, 1851
Arkansas secedes from the Union, US, 1861
Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, 1863
Battle of the Wilderness ends, 1864
Victoria dedicates Epping Forest for perpetual use of the people, 1882
Lord Cavendish and Henry Burke murdered by Fenians, Phoenix Park, Dublin, 1882
George V accedes to throne, 1910
36 die when Graf Zeppelin Hindenburg burns, Lakehurst NJ, 1937
Stalin becomes leader of USSR government, 1941
Corregidor surrenders to Japan, 1942
White Christmas, best selling record of all time, published, 1942
Roger Bannister runs 1st sub four-minute mile (3:59_4), Oxford, 1954
Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones, Westminster Abbey, 1960
Marianne Faithfull marries John Dunbar, Cambridge, 1965
Keith Richard writes riff for (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Clearwater FL, 1965
Myra Hindley and Ian Brady found guilty, Chester, 1966
Elton John changes name from Reg Dwight during transatlantic flight, 1968
Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne perform at Royal Festival Hall, London, 1972
British Telecom introduce 071- & 081- codes, London, 1990
Channel Tunnel inaugurated by Elizabeth II and Mitterrand, 1994
Paula Jones files suit of sexual harassment in 1991 against Bill Clinton, 1994
Virgin Radio and Capital Radio announce merger, UK, 1997
Bank Of England freed to set own interest rates by Gordon Brown, 1997
Dennis Tito completes space flight as 1st commercial passenger, Kazakhstan, 2001
Chris Evans and Billie Piper marry, Las Vegas NE, 2001
Final episode of Friends 1st broadcast, to 51.1 million people, US, 2004

7th MAY
Robert Browning (b. 1812)
Johannes Brahms (b. 1833)
Lord (Archibald) Primrose (b. 1847)
Rabindraneth Tagore (b. 1861)
Samuel Courtauld (b. 1876)
Archibald MacLeish (b. 1892)
Marshal (Tito) Josip Broz (b. 1892)
Gary Cooper (b. 1901)
Valentine Dyall (b. 1908)
Edwin Land (b. 1909)
Sir Huw Weldon (b. 1916)
David Tomlinson (b. 1917)
Eva Perón (b. 1919)
Anne Baxter (b. 1923)
Cornelius Cardew (b. 1936)
Angela Carter (b. 1940)
Justin Hinds (b. 1942)
Jerry Nolan (b. 1951)
Otto The Great (d. 973)
Mary of Modena (d. 1718)
Niccolò Piccinni (d. 1800)
Antonio Salieri (d. 1825)
Caspar David Friedrich (d. 1840)
James Nasmyth (d. 1890)
Lord (William) Leverhulme of Bolton-le-Moors (d. 1925)
Sir James Frazer (d. 1941)
Warner Baxter (d. 1951)
Josef Hoffman (d. 1956)
Eliot Ness (d. 1957)
Max Miller (d. 1963)
Alison Uttley (d. 1976)
Kai Winding (d. 1983)
Dawn Addams (d. 1985)
Colin Blakeley (d. 1987)
Ray Buckton (d. 1995)
1st Theatre Royal, Drury Lane opened, 1663
HMS Victory launched, Chatham, 1768
William Moorcroft becomes 1st UK veterinary surgeon, 1791
Beethoven's 9th Symphony 1st presented, 1824
Greece proclaimed an independent kingdom, 1832
Battle of Vicksburg begins, 1863
Battle of Spotsylvania, American Civil War, 1864
Kodak box camera patented by George Eastman, 1888
1st Isle of Man TT Race held, 1907
1st Old Age Pension legislated, UK, 1908
1,198 die when Lusitania sunk by German submarine, off Old Head Of Kinsale, 1915
Women's voting age reduced from 30 to 21 (Flapper's Vote), UK, 1928
Germany surrenders unconditionally to Allies, 1945
Brezhnev becomes chief of state, USSR, 1960
Telstar II launched, 1963
Frank Sinatra performs at Royal Festival Hall, London, 1970
Clash play the Rainbow, Finsbury Park, 1977
1st gathering of alien abductees, Boston MA, 1988
Mike Golding ends east-west world yacht voyage in record 167 days, Southhampton, 1994
Jacques Chirac elected new President of France, 1995
Putin takes oath of office in Russia's 1st democratic transfer of power, 2000
Ronald Biggs arrested on return to UK, 2001

8th MAY
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (b. 1753)
Henri Dunant (b. 1828)
Harry S Truman (b. 1884)
Edmund Wilson (b. 1895)
John Snagge (b. 1904)
Roberto Rossellini (b. 1906)
Robert Johnson (b. 1911)
Sid James (b. 1914)
Jack Jones (b. 1924)
Sonny Liston (b. 1932)
Rick Nelson (b. 1940)
Antoine Lavoisier (d. 1794)
John Stuart Mill (d. 1873)
Gustave Flaubert (d. 1880)
Paul Gauguin (d. 1903)
Eadweard Muybridge (d. 1904)
Oswald Spengler (d. 1936)
Harry Selfridge (d. 1947)
Graham Bond (d. 1974)
Duncan Grant (d. 1978)
Lord (Emanuel) Shinwell (d. 1986)
Robert A Heinlein (d. 1988)
Rudolf Serkin (d. 1991)
George Peppard (d. 1994)
Sir Dirk Bogarde (d. 1999)
Douglas Fairbanks Jr (d. 2000)
Eddy Arnold (d. 2008)
Hernando de Soto discovers Mississippi river, 1541
Elizabeth I signs Act of Uniformity, 1559
UK Monarchy restored, UK, 1660
Captain Kidd tried for piracy, Old Bailey, 1701
People's Charter issued by Working Men's Ass., 1838
1st major battle of the Mexican War fought, Palo Alto TX, 1846
1st Coca-Cola produced, by Dr John Pemberton, Atlanta GA, 1886
Last Tasmanian aborigini, Tuganini, dies, 1876
10,000 die when Mt Pelée erupts near St Pierre, Martinique, 1902
1st performance of Honegger's Pacific 3-2-1, 1924
1st UK Speedway racing event, Camberley Heath, 1927
Battle of Coral Sea ends, 1942
Battle of Cassino ends, Italy, 1944
Official end of World War II against Germany, 0001 hr, VE Day, 1945
Such A Night by Johnny Ray banned by BBC, UK, 1954
Look Back In Anger 1st performed, Royal Court Th, 1956
George Blake sentenced to 61 years on espionage charges, 1961
Trolleybuses final day of service, London, 1962
Let It Be, final Beatles album, released, 1970
Mariner 8 launched for Mars, Cape Kennedy FL, 1971
David R Berkowitz pleads guilty to Son Of Sam killings, Brooklyn NY, 1978
Ken Livingstone becomes leader of GLC, 1981
GLC Thames Flood Barrier opened, 1984
Space shuttle Endeavour 1st launched, Cape Canaveral FL, 1992
South Africa votes for a new constitution, 1996
Ken Livingstone formally takes up post as London Mayor, 2000

9th MAY
John Brown (b. 1800)
Sir JM Barrie (b. 1860)
Howard Carter (b. 1873)
Dame Lilian Baylis (b. 1874)
Barbara Woodhouse (b. 1910)
Hank Snow (b. 1914)
Carlo Maria Giulini (b. 1914)
Arthur English (b. 1919)
Pancho Gonzales (b. 1928)
Joan Sims (b. 1930)
Roger Hargreaves (b. 1935)
Dave Prater (b. 1937)
William Bradford (d. 1657)
Nicolaus Zinzendorf (d. 1760)
Friedrich Schiller (d. 1805)
Helena Blavatsky (d. 1891)
Joseph Dent (d. 1926)
LTC Rolt (d. 1974)
Ulrike Meinhoff (d. 1976)
Edmond O'Brien (d. 1985)
Tenzing Norgai (d. 1986)
Ciaran Bourke (d. 1988)
Dame Freya Stark (d. 1993)
Marco Ferreri (d. 1997)
Alice Faye (d. 1998)
Lincoln Cathedral consecrated, 1092
Columbus begins 4th voyage, Cadiz, 1502
Blood attempts to steal Crown Jewels, Tower of London, 1671
1st Horseless Motor Carriage Show opened to trade, London, 1896
Fire kills Gt Lafayette during act, Empire Th, Edinburgh, 1911
Battle of Aubers Ridge begins, 1915
Carlo Maria Giulini (1914) North Pole 1st flown over, by RE Byrd & Floyd Bennett, 1926
Canberra inaugurated as new capital, Australia, 1927
John Masefield appointed Poet Laureate, 1930
Piccadilly Circus 1st lit by electricity, 1932
Hitler orders burning of 25,000 "Un-German" books, Berlin, 1933
Ethiopia annexed by Italy, 1936
Russians take Sebastapol, recapturing Crimea, 1944
Channel Islands liberated from German occupation, 1945
Prince Rainier III becomes Head of State, Morocco, 1949
1st UK self-service launderette opens, 184 Queensway, Bayswater, 1949
Food and Drug Administration approve use of birth control pill, US, 1960
Brian Epstein meets George Martin with Beatles demos at EMI, 1962
Light beam 1st reflected from Moon by laser, 1962
Paul McCartney meets Jane Asher, Royal Albert Hall, 1963
Ronald and Reggie Kray arrested, 1968
Impeachment proceedings against Nixon begin, 1974
Nelson Mandela becomes 1st black president, South Africa, 1994

10th MAY
Rouget de Lisle (b. 1760)
John Wilkes Booth (b. 1838)
Clarence Brown (b. 1890)
Dmitri Tiomkin (b. 1894)
Joe Keppel (b. 1895)
Fred Astaire (b. 1899)
Karl Ernst Krafft (b. 1900)
David Selznick (b. 1902)
Anatole Litvak (b. 1902)
Maybelle Carter (b. 1909)
Arthur Marshall (b. 1910)
Monica Dickens (b. 1915)
Sir Denis Thatcher (b. 1915)
Nancy Walker (b. 1921)
Mel Lewis (b. 1929)
Larry Williams (b. 1935)
Arthur Alexander (b. 1940)
Danny Rapp (b. 1941)
Lee Brilleaux (b. 1952)
Sid Vicious (b. 1957)
Maximinus the Thracian (d. 238)
Louis XV (d. 1774)
George Vancouver (d. 1798)
Paul Revere (d. 1818)
Katsushika Hokusai (d. 1849)
Thomas J (Stonewall) Jackson (d. 1863)
Sir Henry M Stanley (d. 1904)
John Wesley Hyatt (d. 1920)
Joan Crawford (d. 1977)
JB Morton (Beachcomber) (d. 1979)
Woody Shaw (d. 1989)
England captures Jamaica from Spanish, 1655
Battle of Lodi Bridge, 1796
Indian mutiny begins with revolt of Sepoys, Meerut, 1857
Confederate President Jefferson Davis captured by Union troops, 1865
Coventry Machinists Co becomes 1st bicycle manufacturer, 1869
Central Pacific/Union Pacific link completes 1st US transcontinental railway, 1869
Imperial Institute opened, London, 1893
Mother's Day 1st celebrated, by Anna May Jarvis, Philadelphia PA, 1908
Zeppelins drop 100 tons of bombs, Southend-on-Sea, 1915
1st commercial air schedule begins, Manchester-Southport, 1919
Dr Ivy Williams 1st woman to be called to English bar, 1922
Carter Family record Wildwood Flower, 1928
Adler Planetarium, 1st to open to public, Chicago IL, 1930
Nazis stage massive public book burnings, Germany, 1933
Police Training College, Hendon, opened, 1934
Asparagus 1st frozen food to go on sale in UK, 1937
Battle of Flanders begins, 1940
Chamberlain resigns as prime minister, replaced by Churchill and Attlee, 1940
Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland invaded and occupied by German forces, 1940
House of Commons and Empire Th destroyed in last major air raid, London, 1941
Rudolf Hess parachutes and lands, Eaglesham, Glasgow, 1941
Rolling Stones record 1st single, Come On, London, 1963
Mick Jagger & Keith Richard charged with drugs possession, Chichester, 1967
Brian Jones charged with drug possession, London, 1967
Peace talks on Vietnam begin, Paris, 1968
Jeremy Thorpe resigns leadership of Liberal Party, 1976
Liverpool win European Cup for 2nd successive year, 1978
Traffic lights 1st installed, Marble Arch, London, 1991
Nelson Mandela inaugurated as 1st black president, South Africa, 1994
2,400 die in severe earthquakes, north-eastern Iran, 1997
Sinn Féin agree to UK peace deal, 1998
7 die in train derailment, Potters Bar, 2002

Last updated: May 30, 2008