May 4th 2010
An auction at Christie’s in New York sets a record for the most expensive work of art sold at auction when it sells Pablo Picasso’s ‘Nude, Green Leaves and Bust’ for $106 million

May 5th 1926
Sinclair Lewis refuses his Pulitzer Prize for “Arrowsmith”

May 6th 1970
Yuchiro Miura of Japan skies down Mount Everest

May 7th 1982
IBM releases PC-DOS version 1.1

May 8th 1971
Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden

May 9th 1960
U.S. is 1st country to use the birth control pill legally

May 10th 1857
Indian Mutiny begins with revolt of Sepoys of Meerut

May 11th 1916
Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity presented

May 12th 1997
Russia and Chechnya sign peace deal after 400 years of conflict

May 13th 1952
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru becomes premier of India

May 14th 1971
The Rolling Stones leave England for France to escape taxes

May 15th 1991
Edith Cresson becomes France’s 1st female premier

May 16th 1975
Japanese Junko Tabei became 1st woman to reach Mount Everest’s summit

May 17th 1980
Kumar Anandan balanced on one foot for 33 hours

May 18th 1986
Chung Kwung Ying did 2,750 atomic hand-stand push-ups

May 19th 2010
Buildings across Bangkok are set on fire by red shirt protesters after the military stormed a protest camp in the center of the city

May 20th 1940
Igor Sikorsky unveils his helicopter invention

May 21st 1945
German war criminal Heinrich Himmler captured

May 22nd 1972
Ceylon becomes Republic of Sri Lanka as its constitution is ratified

May 23rd 1922
Walt Disney incorporates his 1st film company Laugh-O-Gram Films

May 24th 1958
Cuban President Batista opens offensive against Fidel Castro’s rebellion

May 25th 2008
NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft lands in the polar region on Mars

May 26th 1987
Great offensive against Tamil-rebellion in Jaffra Sri Lanka

May 27th 1977
New York City fines George Willig 1 cent for each of 110 stories he climbed

May 28th 1980
Joe Darby does a standing long jump of 12’5"

May 29th 1849
Lincoln says “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and of people some of time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of time”

May 30th 1896
1st car accident occurs, Henry Wells hit a bicyclist (New York City)

May 31st 1879
Madison Square Garden opens