Historical Events in May, Month of May Events
Here is a list of some historical events in May. You can learn What major event happened in May?
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| May 23, 1873 | The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. |
| May 3, 1978 | The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States. |
| May 12, 2008 | An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people. |
| May 13, 1972 | A fire occurs in the Sennichi Department Store in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators result in 118 fatalities (many victims leaping to their deaths). |
| May 20, 1980 | In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, by 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada. |
| May 6, 1984 | One hundred and three Korean Martyrs are canonized by Pope John Paul II in Seoul. |
| May 17, 1933 | Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway. |
| May 25, 2012 | The SpaceX Dragon 1 becomes the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station. |
| May 19, 1971 | Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union. |
| May 3, 1928 | The Jinan incident begins with the deaths of twelve Japanese civilians by Chinese forces in Jinan, China, which leads to Japanese retaliation and the deaths of over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days. |
| May 30, 1959 | The Auckland Harbour Bridge, crossing the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, is officially opened by Governor-General Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham. |
| May 22, 1840 | The penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished. |
| May 8, 2019 | British 17-year-old Isabelle Holdaway is reported to be the first patient ever to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection.[16] |
| May 18, 1652 | Slavery in Rhode Island is abolished, although the law is not rigorously enforced. |
| May 19, 1959 | The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail. |
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