Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in May 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)
Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)
We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries (an average of eight newsworthy anniversaries for every day of the year).
1 May 1964 – 60 years ago
The computer programming language BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was released.
It was designed to teach non-scientists/mathematicians how to program, and was released into the public domain.
2 May 1974 – 50 years ago
Former U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals after being convicted of tax evasion and resigning as vice president. He had hoped to resume his career as a lawyer, but founded a business consultancy instead.
3 May 1999 – 25 years ago
The Bridge Creek–Moore tornado, Oklahoma, USA.
An exceptionally powerful F5 tornado devastated southern Oklahoma, particularly Bridge Creek, Del City, Midwest City, Moore, and Oklahoma City. 41 people were killed and 583 were injured, and it caused over $1 billion in damage.
It produced the highest wind-speed ever recorded on Earth: 302 mph, measured in Bridge Creek.
(Another tornado struck parts of the same area, and adjacent areas, in May 2013, killing 24 people.
4 May 1924 – 100 years ago
Death of E. Nesbit, (Edith Nesbit), British children’s writer and poet.
Best known for The Railway Children, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, and Five Children and It.
Co-founder of the Fabian Society.
5 May 1949 – 75 years ago
The Council of Europe was founded
6 May 1949 – 75 years ago
EDSAC – the Electronic Delayed Storage Automatic Computer – ran its first program.
It was the first practical stored-program computer, and was built by Maurice Wilkes at Cambridge University, UK.
7 May 1824 – 200 years ago
The first performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, in Vienna, Austria.
It is regarded as Beethoven’s greatest work, and is one of the most-performed symphonies in the world.
8 May 1984 – 40 years ago
The Soviet Union announced that it was boycotting the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California, USA.
9 May 1949 – 75 years ago
Britain’s first self-service coin-operated laundrette opened in Bayswater, London.
10 May 1824 – 200 years ago
The National Gallery in London opened to the public.
It was located in Pall Mall. It moved to its present building in Trafalgar Square in 1838.
11 May 1964 – 60 years ago
The song I Get Around by the Beach Boys was released.
In July it became their first #1 hit single.
12 May 1924 – 100 years ago
Birth of Tony Hancock, British comedian and actor.
Best known for the radio/TV series Hancock’s Half Hour. (Died 1968.)
13 May 1949 – 75 years ago
The English Electric Canberra jet bomber made its first flight.
In 1951 it became the first jet to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. It could fly higher than any other aircraft of that era, and set an altitude record of 70,310 feet. Over 900 were produced, and it remained in service with the British RAF until 2006.
14 May 1964 – 60 years ago
The first stage of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed, and the reservoir began filling.
The dam was completed in 1970 and the reservoir reached full capacity in 1976.
15 to 16 May 1974 – 50 years ago
The Ma’alot massacre, Israel.
Palestinian terrorists took 115 people (including 105 students) hostage at the Netiv Meir Elementary School.
Israeli Defence Forces stormed the school the following day.
The terrorists killed 25 of the hostages, and about 70 others were injured. Three terrorists were killed.
Israel retaliated by bombing Palestinian villages and refugee camps in southern Lebanon, killing at least 27 people and injuring 138.
16 May 1874 – 150 years ago
The Mill River flood, Williamsburg, Massachusetts, USA.
The Williamsburg Reservoir Dam burst and sent 600 million gallons of water down the valley in a 20-foot wave.
Four towns were devastated. 139 people were killed and about 800 people were left homeless.
It was the first recorded dam disaster in the USA.
(Cause: cost cutting – the dam’s strength was insufficient to hold back the amount of water.)
17 May 1999 – 25 years ago
SETI@home released a free screensaver. It used spare processing power on personal computers to analyse data from the Arecibo radio telescope for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.
18 to 19 May 1964 – 60 years ago
Thousands of Mods and Rockers rioted at seaside towns along the south coast of England, most notably in Brighton, but also in Margate, Hastings and Broadstairs. Many of them received prison sentences as a result.
The Brighton riots are depicted in the film Quadrophenia.
19 May 1924 – 100 years ago
Engineers at AT&T in the USA sent fifteen photographs by fax from Cleveland, Ohio to New York City.
Their system transmitted the photos as audio signals over telephone lines rather than using radio, which had previously been used.
20 May 1949 – 75 years ago
The Armed Forces Security Agency (now the National Security Agency) was established in the USA.
21 May 1924 – 100 years ago
Two wealthy students from the University of Chicago in Illinois, USA kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks.
Nathan Leopold (aged 19) and Richard Loeb (18) lured the boy into their rented car, killed him with a chisel, then dumped his body in a culvert. In September they were both sentenced to life imprisonment for murder + 99 years for kidnapping.
They committed the crime as a demonstration of their ‘intellectual superiority’ and believed it was the ‘perfect crime’.
The murder inspired numerous books, plays and films.
22 May 1984 – 40 years ago
Hewlett-Packard launched the LaserJet laser printer.
It was the first laser printer for IBM PC compatible personal computers.
23 May 1949 – 75 years ago
The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was established.
24 May 1964 – 60 years ago
The Estadio Naciona disaster, Lima, Peru. The worst disaster in football history.
A referee disallowed a goal during an Olympic qualifying match between Peru and Argentina. Peruvian fans invaded the pitch, and police fired tear gas into the crowd. Fans tried to flee the stadium but found the exits locked.
328 people were killed in the crush, and 500 were injured.
25 to 27 May 1994 – 30 years ago
The First International Conference on the World Wide Web was held at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
It is held annually and is now known as the Web Conference.
26 May 1999 – 25 years ago
The National Assembly for Wales (now the Senedd) was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
27 May 1774 – 250 years ago
Birth of Francis Beaufort, Irish hydrographer and an officer in the British Royal Navy.
Best known for creating the Beaufort scale for measuring wind speed, and for creating the Beaufort cipher encryption system.
28 May 1964 – 60 years ago
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was founded.
29 May 1874 – 150 years ago
Birth of G. K. Chesterton, British novelist, short story writer, philosopher and critic.
Best known for his Father Brown stories.
30 May 1964 – 60 years ago
Death of Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-born American nuclear physicist.
He conceived and helped create the first sustained nuclear chain reaction, which led to the development of the atomic bomb.
31 May 1924 – 100 years ago
Birth of Patricia Roberts Harris, American politician and diplomat.
The first African American woman to serve in a Presidential cabinet (Jimmy Carter).
She was also the first African American woman to become a U.S. ambassador, and the first to sit on the board of a Fortune 500 company.
More anniversaries:
You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.
How to use the anniversaries:
If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.
It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.