May 9, 1956: Manasluis summited for the first time.
May 9, 1974: The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.
May 10, 1993: The Kader Toy Factory fire kills 188 in Thailand. Over 450 are injured. This is the worst factory fire in history.
May 11, 1953: An F5 tornado kills 114 in Waco, Texas. Here are some *Life *Magazine pictures.
May 11, 1960: In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents capture fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who is living under the alias of Ricardo Klement.
May 12, 2008: The Sichuan earthquakein China kills nearly 90,000 people.
May 12, 1846: The Donner Party of pioneers departs Independence, Missouri, for California, on what will become a year-long journey of hardship and cannibalism.
May 15, 1929: The Cleveland Clinic X-ray Firekills 123. Nitrocellulose x-ray film in the basement of a Cleveland, Ohio clinic catches fire and sends a poisonous cloud through the building. Many of those who died, died instantly. There were reports of bodies found slumped at their desks, writing stopped in mid-sentence. Though the fire was extensive, all deaths were recorded as having been due to the toxic gas cloud. This tragedy helped start a national dialog on fire and hazardous material storage safety, as well as the need for gasmasks for firefighters.
May 15, 1928: Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse premieres in his first cartoon, “Plane Crazy”.
May 16, 1874: The Mill River Dam in western Massachusetts fails, sending a wall of water into several towns. 139 die. Though investigators would determine that extremely poor construction of the dam led to the disaster, no one is held accountable.
May 16, 1866: The U.S. Congress eliminates the “half dime” coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or “nickel”.
May 17, 1984: The Severomorsk Disaster in Russia kills somewhere between 200 and 300 people. A carelessly discarded match on May 13th may have led to this huge munitions blast four days later. At least 900 missiles and torpedoes exploded. It was said to look like a nuclear detonation.
May 17, 1990: The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.
May 18, 1927: The Bath School Massacre, the deadliest school mass murder in United States history, occurs when Andrew Philip Kehoe set off bombs under a school in Bath Township, Michigan. He later drives up to the scene of the disaster and sets off more explosives in his truck, killing himself and others. Earlier that morning Kehoe had killed his wife and set their farm on fire. 45 are dead, including Kehoe, his wife and dozens of schoolchildren. Many of the bombs planted under the school failed to detonate. Had they done so the death toll would likely have been much much higher.
May 18, 1980: Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington State, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
May 19, 1780: New England’s Dark Day. The day the sunlight went away and the End of the World seemed upon them.
May 19, 1962: A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe’s rendition of “Happy Birthday”.
May 20, 2013: An F5 tornado in Moore, Oklahomakills 24 and causes 2 billion dollars worth of damage. The path is similar to the path of the May 3, 1999 storm.
May 20, 1891: The first public display of Thomas Edison’s prototype kinetoscope.
May 21, 1944: The West Loch Disaster, AKA the Second Pearl Harbor Disaster, occurs when accidental munitions explosions and fire kill 160 and wound 400 at the Pearl Harbor Navy base. 9 ships are destroyed. News of the event was not allowed at the time. The disaster was classified until 1960.