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* On May 1, 1955, golfer Babe Didrikson Zaharias won the Peach Blossom LPGA Tournament in Spartanburg, S.C., the 41st and final LPGA title of her career, even as she was battling the colon cancer that would end her life the following year.
* On May 2, 1963, more than a thousand Black schoolchildren marched through Birmingham, Alabama, in a protest against segregation that became known as the Children's Crusade and Children's March. Nearly 800 of them were arrested, including a 6-year-old girl, primarily for parading without a permit. * On May 3, 1986, Willie Shoemaker, at age 54, beat 18:1 odds to become the oldest jockey to win the Kentucky Derby. After retiring in 1990, he returned to the track as a trainer for another seven years. Shoemaker also authored three best-selling murder mysteries featuring jockey-turned-sleuth Coley Killebrew. * On May 4, 2002, an Executive Airline Services twin-engine plane crashed and exploded in a densely populated section of the Nigerian town of Kano, after shearing off the roofs of dozens of homes and two mosques, killing 149 people and destroying almost three full blocks of buildings. An investigation ruled the cause of the crash to be pilot error. * On May 5, 1945, Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children were killed while attempting to drag a Japanese balloon out of the woods. The balloon was armed and exploded soon after they began tinkering with it. They were the only known American civilians to be killed in the continental United States during World War II. * On May 6, 2013, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were rescued from a Cleveland, Ohio, house where they'd been held captive for years by their abductor, Ariel Castro. Also rescued from the house was Berry's 6-year-old daughter, who was fathered by Castro. * On May 7, 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered in Vienna even as the composer was suffering from severe hearing loss. The performance earned him five standing ovations and also caused a stir with its use of voices during "Ode to Joy" in its final movement. * On May 8, 1886, the first-ever serving of Coca-Cola, created by Dr. John Pemberton, advertised as a health tonic and originally including coca leaf extract, made its debut at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. While it originally sold at the rate of about nine glasses per day, by its 50th anniversary it had become an American icon. * On May 9, 1671, Thomas "Colonel" Blood, disguised as a priest, was captured while attempting to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Remarkably, King Charles II was impressed enough by Blood's nerve that he restored the would-be thief's Irish estates and even made him a member of the royal court, with an annual pension. * On May 10, 1970, Boston Bruins star Bobby Orr slipped the winning goal past St. Louis Blues goaltender Glenn Hall during Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final, then leaped into the air before landing flat and sliding into the embrace of his teammates -- a moment immortalized by photographer Ray Lussier, whose image remains one of the most famous sports photographs in history. * On May 11, 1987, Klaus Barbie, former Nazi Gestapo chief of German-occupied Lyon, France, went on trial in Lyon and was charged with 177 crimes against humanity. Convicted two months later, he died of cancer in a prison hospital in 1991. * On May 12, 1896, New York City passed America's first anti-spitting law in an effort to combat tuberculosis, imposing fines and even jail time on unruly protesters who demonstrated their discontent by expectorating on anti-spitting signs. By 1910, more than 2,500 arrests had been made. * On May 13, 1846, in response to a request by President James Polk, the U.S. Congress declared war on Mexico. The conflict, which ended two years later with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, eventually cost the lives of 11,300 American soldiers and resulted in the annexation of lands that became parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah and Colorado. * On May 14, 1998, legendary crooner, actor and show business icon Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack in Los Angeles at the age of 82. A heartthrob who married four times and divorced three, Sinatra's career spanned more than five decades, including a notable comeback in the 1950s. * On May 15, 1948, 3-year-old June Devaney of Blackburn, England, was abducted from the hospital where she was recuperating from pneumonia. After her body was found two hours later, the detective inspector assigned to the case ordered the fingerprinting of the more than 40,000 men residing in Blackburn, which took nearly three months but eventually led to the killer, who was convicted and executed later that year. * On May 16, 1975, Junko Tabei of Japan became the first woman to summit Mount Everest. She later gained further fame as the first woman to scale all Seven Summits, the tallest mountains on each continent. * On May 17, 2000, the final episode of "Beverly Hills, 90210" aired after 10 seasons. * On May 18, 2012, Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO) and raised $16 billion. It was the largest technology IPO in American history at the time and third-largest IPO in the United States, after those of Visa and General Motors. When it went public, the social network was valued at $104 billion and boasted some 900 million registered users around the world. * On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn, the unfortunate second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded at the Tower of London on charges including adultery, incest and conspiracy against the king, after just three years of marriage. * On May 20, 1992, in an attempt to end the blight of graffiti vandalism, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance banning the retail sale of spray paint and large markers within city limits, describing them as "weapons of terror." * On May 21, 1758, 10-year-old Mary Campbell was abducted from her home in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, by members of the Lenape tribe and ended up becoming an icon of the French and Indian War. At age 16, she was returned to a European settlement in the captive release orchestrated by Colonel Henry Bouquet at the conclusion of Pontiac's War. * On May 22, 1802, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, widow of President George Washington, died of a "severe fever" at her Mount Vernon home at the age of 70. Though she was a devoted wife, she did not entirely enjoy her role as "Lady Washington" and once confessed that she felt "more like a state prisoner than anything else." * On May 23, 1979, rocker Tom Petty declared bankruptcy in an effort to free himself from his contract with Shelter Records. * On May 24, 1964, a referee's call in the last minutes of a close soccer match between Peru and Argentina at the National Stadium in Lima, Peru, sparked a riot that resulted in the deaths of more than 300 fans. Another 500 people were injured. * On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis policeman who knelt on his neck for nearly 10 minutes. Floyd's death was recorded by bystanders and incited nationwide protests resulting in the imposition of curfews in more than 200 American cities and the activation of the National Guard throughout half the country. Chauvin was arrested on multiple charges and eventually sentenced to more than two decades in prison. © 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.
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