May 1, 1958: President Eisenhower proclaimed the first Law Day in the U.S.
May 1, 1999: SpongeBob SquarePants premieres on Nickelodeon after the 1999 Kids’ Choice Awards.
May 2, 2011: Osama bin Laden is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
May 2, 1972: The Sunshine Mine Disaster in Idaho kills 91.
May 3, 1999: Moore, Oklahoma is devastated by an F5 tornado. 36 are killed and damages total over a billion dollars. Wind speeds of 301 mph were recorded in this storm. This is the strongest wind speed ever measured in a tornado.
May 3, 1802 – Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city.
May 4, 1897: The Bazar de la Charite fire in Paris kills 126 and injures over 200. Many of the dead are wealthy aristocrats. This fire is also noted as one of the earliest in which dental records were used to help identify fire victims.
May 4, 1970: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam.
May 5, 1886: The Bay View Massacre. State militia in Wisconsin fire into a crowd of workers marching for an eight-hour work day. 7 are killed.
May 6, 1853: The Norwalk Rail Accident kills 48 and injured 30. This was the first major rail accident in the United States. The Boston Express plunged off an open drawbridge into Norwalk Harbor in Connecticut.
May 7, 1840: The Great Natcheztornado kills at least 317 in Mississippi. Over 260 of those killed worked on boats that were destroyed on the Mississippi River. The remaining land death toll of 48 given at the time did not include the “hundreds” of slaves that were said to have been killed. This tornado, certainly an F5, was reported to be two miles wide.The city was completely destroyed, as were many plantations nearby.
May 7, 1915: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many formerly pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire
May 8, 1837: The passenger steamboat Ben Sherrod catches fire and burns on the Mississippi River. The steamship had been racing another craft down the river and the crew, after drinking heavily, overfed the boilers which then started the fire that consumed the ship. Over 150 die.
May 9, 1980: The Sunshine Skyway Bridge accident in Tampa kills 35. A freighter strikes the bridge sending several cars and a Greyhound bus into the water.
May 10, 1905: An F5 tornado decimates Snyder, Oklahoma. At least 97 are killed, and probably many more. This is the second deadliest tornado in Oklahoma history.
May 10, 1775: A small militia band led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captures Fort Ticonderoga from an even smaller British garrison.
May 11, 1833: The *Lady of the Lake* passenger brig hits an iceberg off Newfoundland. Up to 265 die. The ship is sometimes referred to as “the little Titanic”.
May 12, 1942: A mine explosion in Osage, West Virginia kills 56.
May 14, 2014: The Soma Mine Disaster kills 301 in Turkey. This is that country’s deadliest mine accident ever.