Historical Events
- May 1 Longacre Theater opens at 220 W 48th St NYC
- May 6 King Nikita I of Montenegro vacates Skoetari, northern Albania
- May 7 An ambassadorial conference in St Petersburg, Russia, awards the town of Silistria to Rumania in compensation for Bulgaria's other territorial gains in the First Balkan War
- May 7 British House of Commons rejects women's right to vote
- May 7 Plot by English suffragettes to blow up part of St Paul's cathedral thwarted when the bomb is discovered [1]
- May 10 39th Kentucky Derby: Roscoe Goose aboard Donerail wins in 2:04.8
- May 10 Yanks commit 8 errors & still beat Tigers 10-9 in 10 innings
- May 12 English runner Harry Green runs world record marathon 2:38:16.2 in the Polytechnic Marathon in London, England
1st Four-Engine Plane
May 13 1st four-engined aircraft built and flown (Igor Sikorsky, Russia)
- May 14 Frans Hals museum opens in Haarlem, Netherlands
Johnson Ends Scoreless Streak
May 14 Washington Senator Walter Johnson ends MLB record scoreless streak at 56 innings
The Rite of Spring
May 29 Igor Stravinsky's avant-garde ballet score "Le Sacre du Printemps" (The Rite of Spring) for the Ballets Russes premieres at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, provoking a riot
- May 30 Indianapolis 500: Frenchman Jules Goux becomes first non-American to win race in a car owned by French manufacturer Peugeot
- May 30 John McGraw joins Fred Clarke, Cap Anson, Frank Selee, & Connie Mack as managers who have won 1,000 games
- May 30 Treaty of London signed by the Great Powers, the Ottoman Empire and the victorious Balkan League (Serbia, Greece, Kingdom of Bulgaria, and Montenegro) bringing an end to the First Balkan War
- May 31 Alexis Ahlgren runs world record maraton (2:36:06.6)
- May 31 US 17th amendment (direct election of senators) declared ratified
Famous Birthdays
- May 1 Balraj Sahni [Yudhishthir], Indian Bollywood actor (Dharti Ke Lal), born in Rawalpindi, Punjab (d. 1973)
- May 1 Louis Nye, American comedian and actor (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Steve Allen Plymouth Show), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 2005)
- May 1 Marvin 'Bud' Ward, American golfer (1939, 1941 US Amateur), born in Elma, Washington (d. 1968)
- May 1 Walter Susskind, Czech conductor and pianist, born in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia (now Czech Republic) (d. 1980)
- May 3 Earl Blackwell, American society impresario (Celebrity Register), born in Atlanta, Georgia (d. 1995)
- May 3 William M. Inge, American playwright (Picnic-Pulitzer 1953), born in Independence, Kansas (d. 1973)
- May 4 Charles Curtis "Curt" Conway, American actor (Raw Deal; The Twilight Zone), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1974)
- May 4 Lady Katherine Brandram, Princess of Greece, the last surviving great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, born in Athens, Greece (d. 2007)
- May 6 Carmen Cavallaro, American actor and pianist (Hollywood Canteen; Diamond Horseshoe), born in New York City (d. 1989)
- May 6 Gyula David, Hungarian composer (Viola Concerto) and violinist, born in Budapest (d. 1977)
- May 6 Jack [John T] Aitken, British anatomist (d. 1992)
- May 6 Ronald Harris, British 1st Church Estates Commissioner, born in Cornwall Gardens, Kensington, London (d. 1995)
- May 6 Stewart Granger, English actor (Prisoner of Zenda, King Solomon's Mines), born in London, England (d. 1993)
- May 8 Sid James [Solomon Joel Cohen], South African-born British character and comedy actor (Hancock's Half Hour, Carry On), born in Johannesburg, Transvaal Province (d. 1976)
- May 9 John Hayes, British Naval Officer and Naval Secretary, born in Southcote, Bermuda (d. 1998)
- May 9 Victor Smith, Australian Admiral (Australian Chief of Naval Staff, 1st RAN officer promoted to admiral), born in Sydney, Australia (d. 1998) [1]
- May 11 Clare Grundman, American composer, born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1996)
- May 11 Robert Jungk, Austrian publicist (d. 1994)
- May 11 [Salvador] Tutti Camarata, American composer and producer (Vic Damone Show), born in New Jersey (d. 2005)
- May 13 William Tolbert, Liberian politician (President Liberia 1971-80), born in Bensonville, Liberia (d. 1980)
- May 16 Woody Herman, American jazz clarinetist and composer (Thundering Herds), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (d. 1987)
- May 17 Desmond Barel Hirshfield, Lord Hirshfield, British chartered accountant, born in Birmingham (d. 1993)
- May 17 Hans Ruesch, Swiss racing driver (d. 2007)
- May 18 Charles Trenet, French pop singer and songwriter ("Boum!"; "La Mer"), born in Narbonne, France (d. 2001)
- May 19 Bert Hardy, English photographer (Picture Post), born in London (d. 1995)
- May 19 Sanjiva Reddy, Indian politician, sixth President of India (1977-82), born in Illur, British India (d. 1996)
- May 20 Henry Cadbury Brown, English architect (Royal College of Art), born in Sarratt, England (d. 2009)
- May 20 Ion Dumitrescu, Romanian classical and film score composer (The Sun Rises), born in Otesani, Romania (d. 1996)
Bill Hewlett (1913-2001)
May 20 American engineer and businessman (co-founder Hewlett-Packard), born in Ann Arbor, Michigan
- May 21 Gina Bachauer, Greek classical pianist of Austrian heritage, born in Athens, Greece (d. 1976)
- May 22 Carlyle Blackwell Jr, American actor (The Pilgrim Lady, The Triumph of the Rat), born in Los Angeles County, California (d. 1974)
- May 24 Audrey Brown, British 4 X 100m runner (Olympic silver 1936), born in Bankura, India (d. 2005)
- May 24 Willi Daume, German olympic organizer, born in Hückeswagen, Germany (d. 1996)
- May 25 (Virginia) "Ginny" Simms, American singer (Kay Kyser Band), actress (Night and Day), and radio star, born in San Antonio, Texas (d. 1994) [1]
- May 25 J. Peter Grace, American businessman and industrialist, born in Manhasset, New York (d. 1995)
- May 25 Richard Dimbleby, British journalist and broadcaster, born in Richmond, Surrey, England (d. 1965)
- May 26 Fred Bertrand, Belgian politician, born in Bilzen, Belgium (d. 1986)
Peter Cushing (1913-1994)
May 26 English actor (Dracula, Star Wars, Dr Who), born in Kenley, Surrey, England
- May 27 Arthur Mervyn Stockwood, Anglican bishop (Southwark England), born in Bridgend, Glamorgan, Wales (d. 1995)
- May 27 Wols [Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze], German cartoonist and painter, born in Berlin (d. 1951)
- May 28 Gordon Wolstenholme, British physician (Ciba Foundation), born in Sheffield, England (d. 2004)
- May 29 Douglas Black, Scottish physician and medical scientist (played a key role in the development of the National Health Service), born in Delting, Shetland (d. 2002)
- May 29 Tony Zale, American boxer (World Middleweight Champion 1940-47, 48), born in Gary, Indiana (d. 1997)
- May 30 Cedric Thorpe Davie, British composer of film scores and pedagogue (The Green Man; St. Andrews University), born in Lewisham, London (d. 1983)
- May 31 Albert Delvaux, Belgian composer (Symphonia Burlesca), born in Louvain, Belgium (d. 2007)
- May 31 Jimmy Shirley, American jazz and R&B electric guitarist, and early proponent of the Vibrola vibrato arm ("whammy bar"), born in Union, South Carolina (d. 1989)
Famous Deaths
- May 1 John Barclay Armstrong, Texas Ranger and U.S. Marshal (b. 1850)
- May 16 Louis Perrier, Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council, dies at 63
- May 17 Dwijendralal Ray, Bengali poet, playwright and lyricist (Dwijendrageeti), dies of epilepsy at 49
- May 18 Otto Reubke, German organist, conductor, and composer, dies at 70
- May 28 Lord Avebury [John Lubbock], British banker and politician, dies at 79
- May 28 Lunsford L. Lomax, American Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 77
