The US space probe Mariner 9 is launched, on May 30, 1971, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, toward Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. More
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What Happened in May?
Battles, revolts, and explorations. Learn about the noteworthy events in May that have taken place throughout the ages. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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The Republic of Cameroon's National Day. It is commemorated annually, celebrating the 1972 Cameroonian constitutional referendum, where citizens voted to dissolve the federal state structure and establish a single, unitary republic.
French Cameroon achieved independence from France on January 1, 1960 becoming the Republic of Cameroon. This marked the start of the decolonization process. The nation was later unified with the former British Cameroons to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon on October 1, 1961.
U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, signed on May 26, 1972 the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) agreements in Moscow,
Skylab, the United States, first space station, Skylab, is launched by NASA on May 14, 1973, aboard the final Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center. Three separate, three-man crews occupied the Skylab workshop for a total of 171 days and 13 hours, between May 1973 and February 1974, validating long-duration human spaceflight.
It was the site of nearly 300 scientific and technical experiments, including medical experiments on humans’ adaptability to zero gravity, solar observations and detailed Earth resources experiments. Skylab is no longer in space. After completing its missions, Skylab re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and broke apart, with debris falling in Western Australia in 1979. More
The US Senate Watergate Committee begins, on May 17, 1973, its public hearings to investigate the burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.
The public hearings, shown on TV at prime time, were a major event in the 1972 Presidential campaign. They were chaired by Senators Sam Ervin and Howard Baker and were a key part of the investigation into the Watergate scandal. The investigations led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. More
The U.S. House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee begins formal televised hearings, on May 9, 1974, in the impeachment investigation of President Richard M. Nixon., regarding his involvement in the Watergate scandal cover-up.
India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon, on May 18, 1974, in the Rajasthan Desert in the municipality of Pokhran. becoming the world’s sixth nuclear power and the first nation outside the five members of the U.N. Security Council—the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, China and France. More
Japanese pioneering mountaineer Junko Tabei, accompanied by her Sherpa guide Ang Tsering becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest on, May 16, 1975 and the 40th person to do so. She went on to become the first woman to ascend all the "Seven Summits", the highest mountains on every continent on June 28, 1992, when she summited Puncak Jaya in Australasia.
Just 12 days before her Mt. Everest success, on May 4, 1975, her camp was buried by an avalanche, leaving her injured but determined to continue. More
The last weld of the 800 miles (1,300 km), 48 inches in diameter, Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is completed, on May 31, 1977, to allow oil transportation from Prudhoe Bay in northern Alaska to the Valdez Marine Terminal in Prince William Sound.
Construction began in April 1974, with the actual pipeline construction starting on March 27, 1975. The project cost $8 billion to complete. The first oil flowed on June 20, 1977.
Image: View of the Denali Fault after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake of 3 November 2002, Alaska, USA, along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in the zone where it was engineered to cross the fault (the pipeline rests on sliders rather than rigid pillar supports). The fault trace passes beneath the pipeline between the 2nd and 3rd slider supports at the far end of the zone. A large arc in the pipe can be seen in the pipe on the right, due to shortening of the zigzag-shaped pipeline trace within the fault zone. It was snowing when the photo was taken. More
Margaret Thatcher, a member of the Conservative Party is elected Prime Minister of Britain, on May 4, 1979, becoming the first woman in Europe to hold that post. Thatcher went on to serve three terms as Prime Minister and held the office consecutively for eleven and a half years, becoming the longest continuously serving British premier since 1827. More
American Airlines Flight 191 - a Douglas DC-10 aircraft crashed as it was taking off from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, on May 25, 1979, when its left engine detached from the wing, causing a loss of control.
The aircraft crashed about 4,600 feet (1,400 m) from the end of runway. All 258 passengers and 13 crew on board and two people on the ground were killed. The total of 273 fatalities, makes it the deadliest aviation accident to have occurred in the United States. More
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Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington State, on May 18, 1980 causing the most destructive volcanic event in U.S. history, killing 57 people, turning Hundreds of square miles of wilderness into wasteland and reducing Mt St. Helens summit elevation by approximately 1,300 feet. More
Pope John Paul II was shot four times and critically wounded on May 13, 1981, by Mehmet Ali Agca in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.
The Philadelphia Police Department drops a satchel bomb on May 13, 1985 on 6221 Osage Ave. in West Philadelphia, where members of the Black liberation advocacy group MOVE lived. Eleven people were killed, including five children. One adult and one child survived. More
Three scientists from the British Antarctic Survey Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner, and Jonathan Shanklin, shocked the world on May 16, 1985, when they announced their discovery of the ozone hole in the scientific journal, Nature.
Their findings led to the Montreal Protocol, a global treaty phasing out CFCs, Their discovery, became an important example of mankind's ability to damage the Earth's atmosphere as well as one of the most famous success stories in the history of climate activism. More
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev visits Beijing on May 16, 1989; the first visit by a Soviet leader in 30 years. He met with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping formally ending a rift between the two communist aiming to normalize state-to-state ties and restore party-to-party relations. More
Latvian Independence is celebrated on May 4 to commemorate the 1990 declaration that initiated the end of Soviet occupation and restored the Republic of Latvia, as 138 members of the Supreme Council voted for freedom, setting a transitional period toward full independence, which was officially realized in August 1991
Somaliland claimed its independence on May 18, 1991. Officially the Republic of Somaliland, it is an unrecognized de facto sovereign state in the Horn of Africa. Its claimed territory has an area of 68,000 square miles with approximately 5.7 million residents.
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Indian politician Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated, on May 21, 1991 while campaigning for the upcoming general elections in a suicide bombing attack in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
The attack was conducted by a member of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). He had served as the country's prime minister from 1984 to 1989, More.
Eritrea independence day is celebrated on May 24, commemorating achieving independence on May 24, 1991. Eritrea's history is characterized by ancient trade routes, colonial rule, and a long struggle for independence. It has roots in ancient civilizations like the Kingdom of Axum, experienced Italian colonial rule, and a 30-year war for liberation.