Event of Interest
May 1 "L'Ordine Nuovo" Italian socialist weekly newspaper established in Turin by Antonio Gramsci, Angelo Tasca and Palmiro Togliatti
Event of Interest
May 1 British naval officer David Beatty is promoted to Admiral of the Fleet
- May 1 Mount Kelud (Indonesia) erupts, boiling crater lake which broke through crater wall killing 5,000 people in 104 small villages
- May 3 Afghanistan Emir Amanoellah begins war against Great Britain
- May 4 1st legal Sunday baseball game in NYC, 35,000 watch the Phillies beat the NY Giants 4-3
- May 4 Demonstrates organised by students erupt in China, after news from the Paris Peace Conference that the Allies intend to give Shangtung to Japan
- May 6 Paris Peace Conference disposes of German colonies; German East Africa is assigned to Britain and France, German South West Africa to South Africa
- May 7 A draft of the Versailles Treaty is shown to Germans
- May 8 1st transatlantic flight take-off by a navy seaplane
- May 8 Appingedam soccer team forms
End of World War I
May 8 Edward George Honey first proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, leads to the creation of Remembrance Day
Sports History
May 11 Washington Senators future Baseball Hall of Fame ace Walter Johnson pitches 12 scoreless innings in a famous 0-0 duel with Jack Quinn of the NY Yankees at the Polo Grounds
- May 12 New York Yankees and Washington Senators play second straight extra inning tie, 4-4 in 15 innings at the Polo Grounds; 0-0 in 12 the previous day
- May 12 The Transvaal British Indian Association calls a mass meeting to organise opposition to the proposed Asiatics (Land and Trading) Amendment Act; in the Act, Transvaal Indians are prohibited from owning shares in limited companies
- May 14 44th Preakness: Johnny Loftus aboard Sir Barton wins in 1:53 on way to first Triple Crown
- May 14 Pope Benedictus XV publishes encyclical In hac tanta
- May 15 Brooklyn Dodgers score 10 runs in 13th to beat Reds 10-0
Music History
May 17 Maurice Ravel's orchestral piece "Alborada del gracioso" premieres in Paris by the Pasdeloup Orchestra
- May 17 UK War Department orders use of National Star Insignia on all airplanes
- May 19 Kelud volcano on Java, erupts killing 5,160
Event of Interest
May 19 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Black Sea coast, beginning the Turkish War of Independence
Event of Interest
May 22 A. E. Douglass establishes the relative dates of two archaeological sites using ancient wood samples, marking a major step forward in the dating of archaeological sites
Sports History
May 25 Casey Stengel releases a sparrow from under his baseball cap
Historic Expedition
May 29 Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, that when light passes a large body, gravity will bend the rays confirmed by Arthur Eddington's expedition to photograph a solar eclipse on the island of Principe, West Africa
Historic Invention
May 29 Charles Strite files patent for the automatic pop-up toaster
- May 29 The Republic of Prekmurje founded - a short-lived, unrecognised state, which on June 6, 1919 was incorporated into the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed "Yugoslavia" in 1929)
- May 31 Indianapolis 500: Howdy Wilcox accompanied by riding mechanic Leo Banks win; driver Arthur Thurman dies in a crash on lap 45; lap 96, Louis LeCocq and riding mechanic Robert Bandini wrecked in turn 2, both burned to death
- May 31 NC-4 aircraft commanded by AC Read completes 1st crossing of Atlantic