205 Fun Facts About Month of May

In Greek myth, Maia, whose name is tied to the month of May, was the eldest of which seven sisters?

The Pleiades were seven daughters of Atlas, with Maia the eldest; in myth they were turned into the star cluster that is still nicknamed the Seven Sisters.

In one etymology Ovid records, May honours the 'maiores'; what does that word mean?

Elders, or ancestors, is the meaning of maiores; in Ovid's Fasti the Muse Urania argues that May honours the old because the next month, June, is named for the young.

Which of these months has 31 days, like May?

July has 31 days, like May; in the knuckle trick, every month that lands on a knuckle has 31 days and every month in a dip between knuckles has fewer.

Which South American country's Muzo mines yield some of the world's finest emeralds, May's birthstone?

Colombia's Muzo people mined emeralds long before the Spanish arrived; the conquistadors needed decades to subdue them, then forced them to work the same mines.

One of May's birth flowers, the lily of the valley, is notable for being what?

Lily of the valley is highly poisonous if eaten, right down to the orange-red berries that follow its sweetly scented white bells.

Which zodiac sign covers the first three weeks of May?

Taurus, the bull, runs from late April to about 20 May; in one Greek telling the bull is Zeus in disguise, carrying the princess Europa off across the sea.

Which zodiac sign begins around 21 May?

Gemini begins around 21 May; its twins are Castor and Pollux, placed among the stars together after Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his immortality with his brother.

In the Southern Hemisphere, May is the seasonal equivalent of which Northern Hemisphere month?

November is May's seasonal twin: Earth's tilted axis gives the two hemispheres opposite seasons, so May is late autumn in the south, just as November is in the north.

In old May Day folklore, washing your face in what on 1 May was said to bring beauty?

Morning dew gathered on May Day was thought to keep skin youthful: by Edinburgh tradition, people climb Arthur's Seat at dawn to wash their faces in it.

Which patriotic observance did the US Congress fix on 1 May in 1958 to counter communist May Day rallies?

Loyalty Day began in 1921 as 'Americanization Day', an explicit replacement for International Workers' Day during the first Red Scare; Congress made it official in 1958.

Cinco de Mayo, on 5 May, celebrates Mexico's 1862 victory over French forces near which city?

Puebla is where an outnumbered Mexican army beat the French on 5 May 1862, though the French came back with reinforcements and took the city a year later.

Which American poet and suffragist called for a Mother's Day for peace decades before the May holiday began?

Julia Ward Howe wrote the Civil War anthem 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' in 1861; nine years later she urged mothers everywhere to unite for peace, and went on to ask for a peace day every 2 June.

Which US president proclaimed Mother's Day a national observance in 1914?

Woodrow Wilson issued the proclamation on 9 May 1914; founder Anna Jarvis, who had campaigned for it, later tried to have the holiday rescinded over its commercialisation.

Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the US summer, falls on which day of May?

Memorial Day falls on the last Monday of May; Congress moved it there from the fixed 30 May date by a 1968 law that took effect in 1971.

Memorial Day began in 1868 under what earlier name?

It was called Decoration Day: an 1868 Grand Army of the Republic order set 30 May for decorating the graves of Civil War dead with flowers.

Which flower completes the Kentucky Derby's nickname, 'The Run for the ___'?

The winning horse is draped in a blanket of roses; the race lasts only about two minutes.

The first Kentucky Derby, in May 1875, was run at which track?

Churchill Downs hosted the first Derby on 17 May 1875; the track is named for John and Henry Churchill, who leased the land to their nephew, the race's founder.

What does the Indianapolis 500 winner traditionally drink in victory lane?

Milk became the winner's drink in the 1930s, when a thirsty winner asked for buttermilk, the drink his mother had told him would refresh him on a hot day.

Why is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway nicknamed the 'Brickyard'?

It was first paved in brick in the fall of 1909, after its original surface of crushed stone and tar broke up; one yard of those bricks still shows at the start-finish line.

The pun 'May the Fourth be with you' appeared in a 1979 London newspaper ad addressed to which incoming British prime minister?

Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives placed the ad, addressed to 'Maggie', in the London Evening News around her 1979 election win; Star Wars fans later adopted the pun for their own annual day.

Which country hosted and won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956?

Switzerland staged the first contest in Lugano and won it with Lys Assia's 'Refrain'; the voting was held in secret, and juries could even vote for their own country's songs.

As of the 2026 contest, which two countries shared the Eurovision record of seven wins each?

Ireland and Sweden each had seven wins as of 2026; Sweden caught up in 2023 with Loreen's 'Tattoo', matching a tally Ireland had built between 1970 and 1996.

Canadians nickname the Victoria Day weekend 'May Two-Four', a pun on a case of 24 what?

Beers: a 'two-four' is Canadian slang for a case of 24, a popular buy for the long weekend, and the nickname doubles as a nod to the date the holiday falls around.

International Nurses Day is observed on 12 May because it is the birthday of whom?

Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820; her night rounds among wounded soldiers in the Crimean War made her famous as 'the Lady with the Lamp'.

Which Ohio university saw National Guardsmen kill four students on 4 May 1970?

Kent State's shootings fuelled a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close.

Japan's Golden Week ends on Children's Day, when families fly streamers shaped like which fish?

Carp streamers, koinobori, fly for Children's Day on 5 May; the carp stands for strength because a Chinese legend has one swim up a waterfall and turn into a dragon.

The Ascension feast, usually in May, recalls Jesus rising to heaven from which hill?

The Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem, is the traditional site; Acts sets the Ascension forty days after the Resurrection, which is why the feast falls on a Thursday.

Charles Lindbergh flew solo nonstop from New York to Paris in May 1927 aboard which aircraft?

The Spirit of St. Louis was named in honour of Lindbergh's backers in St. Louis, Missouri; its 33½-hour flight on 20–21 May 1927 won him the $25,000 Orteig Prize.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened in May 1937 painted in which distinctive colour?

The bridge was painted International Orange, chosen by consulting architect Irving Morrow; the US Navy had lobbied for black with yellow stripes for visibility.

When it opened in May 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the world's longest example of which design?

The Brooklyn Bridge was the world's longest suspension bridge until 1903; a year after it opened, P. T. Barnum paraded 21 elephants across it, easing doubts about its strength.

Napoleon died on 5 May 1821 in exile on which island?

Saint Helena, a lonely South Atlantic island, was his second exile: he had escaped the first, on Elba, in under a year and marched on Paris to retake power.

The ocean liner Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat on 7 May 1915 off the coast of which country?

The Lusitania went down off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, about 11 miles out; nearly 1,200 died, and the sinking turned US opinion against Germany.

Mount St. Helens erupted in May 1980, causing which of these events?

The 18 May 1980 collapse of the mountain's north face was the largest landslide in recorded history, a debris avalanche that preceded the lateral blast; 57 people died.

Which Beatles album, rush-released in May 1967, won the Album of the Year Grammy?

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band took the 1968 prize; the Beatles recorded it as a fictional alter-ego band, which freed them to experiment beyond their own image.

Which New York skyscraper opened on 1 May 1931?

The Empire State Building opened when President Hoover pressed a button in the capital to switch on its lights; in the Depression, only about a quarter of its offices had been let a year later.

May's emerald is a green variety of beryl; which pale blue gem is another variety of the same mineral?

Aquamarine is beryl in its blue to blue-green form, and its name is Latin for 'sea water'; pure beryl has no colour at all until traces of other elements tint it.

Which Gaelic festival, marking the start of summer, is May Day's older counterpart?

Beltane, celebrated around 1 May, marked the start of summer in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland with bonfires through which cattle were driven for protection.

Memorial Day opens the unofficial US summer season; which holiday traditionally closes it?

Labor Day, the first Monday of September, closes the season, which is why it was long considered the last day it was acceptable to wear white.

In Greek myth, Maia, whose name is tied to the month of May, was the mother of which god?

Hermes was born to Maia and Zeus in a cave on Mount Cyllene; in the Homeric Hymn he slips out as a newborn and steals Apollo's cattle before his first day is over.

The woman who founded Mother's Day held the first celebration in 1908 in which US state?

Anna Jarvis held the first service at a church in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May 1908; the building is now the International Mother's Day Shrine.

Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500, in May 1911, using which device instead of a mechanic?

A rear-view mirror on his Marmon Wasp made up for racing alone: in an era of two-man cars, the mechanic riding alongside normally warned the driver of rivals coming up to pass.

News that Everest was climbed on 29 May 1953 broke in London on the morning of which royal event?

Elizabeth II's coronation on 2 June 1953 opened with news of Hillary and Tenzing's climb, carried from Base Camp by runner and then sent on to London as a coded message.

Which meteor shower, visible from late April, peaks around May 6?

The Eta Aquariids are debris shed by Halley's Comet; they peak in early May and are best seen from the Southern Hemisphere.

Who was burned at the stake in Rouen on 30 May 1431, aged about 19?

Joan of Arc was condemned for heresy by a pro-English church court; a retrial cleared her name 25 years later, and she was canonised in 1920.

Traders sprinkled themselves and their goods with water on 15 May at the festival of which Roman god?

Mercury, god of commerce, was honoured at the Mercuralia; Ovid has a trader sprinkle himself and his wares and pray that his past lies be washed away and tomorrow's go unpunished.

Which primates take their name from the restless ghosts that Romans appeased with black beans each May?

Lemurs are named after the lemures, the ghosts of Rome's Lemuria on 9, 11 and 13 May; Linnaeus chose the word because the animals roam slowly by night.

Besides lily of the valley, which blossom, itself nicknamed 'may', is a May birth flower?

Hawthorn, also called the May tree, shares the month with lily of the valley; its white blossom was the 'May' gathered on May Day mornings.

The trailing arbutus, nicknamed "Mayflower", is the floral emblem of Massachusetts and which Canadian province?

Nova Scotia made the mayflower, or trailing arbutus, its floral emblem in 1901; Massachusetts guards its state flower by law, with a fine for anyone who digs one up.

In Catholic tradition, May is dedicated to whom?

The Blessed Virgin Mary is honoured all month as the 'Queen of May', and many parishes hold a 'May crowning' of her statue with flowers.

Which group's US heritage is celebrated throughout May?

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are honoured in May partly because the first Japanese immigrant to the United States, Nakahama Manjirō, arrived on 7 May 1843.

Which food does the US celebrate with a national month in May?

Burgers get National Hamburger Month every May; the White Castle chain says it began the observance as a promotion in 1992.

Which Japanese term describes new students and workers tiring of their routine after Golden Week?

Gogatsu-byō, literally 'May sickness', names the malaise that hits newcomers after Golden Week, since Japan's school and fiscal years both begin on 1 April.

What was a tsarist-era 'mayovka'?

A picnic disguising an illegal May Day rally is what mayovka came to mean; the word also named an ordinary spring outing to the countryside, which gave the workers' meetings outside town their cover.

Which Hawaiian celebration falls on May 1?

Lei Day grew out of poet Don Blanding's call in the late 1920s for a day to honour the lei; columnist Grace Tower Warren proposed 1 May with the line 'May Day is Lei Day'.

Which UN-recognised international day is observed on May 3?

World Press Freedom Day falls on 3 May, the anniversary of the 1991 Windhoek Declaration, in which African newspaper journalists set out principles for a free press.

Which profession is honoured worldwide on May 4, the feast day of its patron saint, Florian?

International Firefighters' Day began in 1999 after five firefighters died in a wildfire at Linton in Australia; supporters wear a red and blue ribbon on the day.

Which two East Asian countries celebrate Children's Day on May 5?

Japan and South Korea both mark 5 May; Japan's holiday grew out of Tango no Sekku, a festival for boys, and a 1948 law made it a day to celebrate the happiness of all children.

Which humanitarian movement has its world day on May 8?

World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day falls on 8 May, the birthday of founder Henry Dunant, who was moved to act by the untended wounded he saw after the Battle of Solferino.

Liberation Day, 9 May, marks the end of wartime occupation of which British islands?

The Channel Islands were the only British territory in Europe to be occupied in the war; the garrison surrendered aboard HMS Bulldog off Guernsey on 9 May 1945, and Sark was freed a day later.

Golden Spike Day on May 10 marks the 1869 completion of what at Promontory Summit, Utah?

The first transcontinental railroad was finished when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific met; Leland Stanford swung at the last spike and missed, but the telegraph flashed 'done' anyway.

Which US state, nicknamed the North Star State, joined the Union on 11 May 1858?

Minnesota became the 32nd state on 11 May 1858; its nickname comes from its motto, L'Étoile du Nord, 'the star of the north', the only state motto in French.

Which landlocked South American country celebrates its independence on 14 and 15 May?

Paraguay set up its own ruling junta on the night of 14–15 May 1811, months after beating back an army from Buenos Aires that had come to claim it as a province.

Which awareness day is observed internationally on 17 May?

The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia falls on 17 May, the date in 1990 when the WHO removed homosexuality from its classification of diseases.

Which cultural institution type is celebrated internationally on May 18?

Museums have had International Museum Day since 1977; its first official poster, in 1997, called on museums to fight the illicit trade in cultural property and was adapted in 28 countries.

Which US civil-rights figure has a commemorative day on May 19, his birthday?

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little in Omaha on 19 May 1925, took the X to stand for the African family name he could never know, in place of the surname slavery had imposed.

Which Southeast Asian nation became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on 20 May 2002?

East Timor, also called Timor-Leste, voted in 1999 to end the Indonesian occupation that began in 1975; the United Nations then ran the territory until it became independent.

Which subculture, born of British post-punk bands like Bauhaus, has its own world day on 22 May?

Goths got World Goth Day after BBC Radio 6 ran a week of shows on music subcultures in May 2009, with goth airing on the 22nd; British goth DJs then made the date annual.

Which insects have a UN world day on 20 May, honouring an 18th-century Slovenian pioneer of keeping them?

Bees have World Bee Day in honour of Anton Janša, a pioneer of modern beekeeping baptised on 20 May 1734; Slovenia proposed the day and the UN approved it in 2017.

Which two saints, known as the 'Apostles to the Slavs', are honoured with an Eastern Orthodox feast on 24 May?

Saints Cyril and Methodius were Byzantine brothers who devised the Glagolitic script for the Slavs; the Cyrillic alphabet named after Cyril was developed later, probably by their disciples.

Which fan observance on May 25 honours Douglas Adams?

Towel Day, first held on 25 May 2001 two weeks after Douglas Adams died, has fans carry a towel, the indispensable item from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Which country's 25 May national day marks an 1810 revolution that ousted a Spanish viceroy in its capital?

Argentina's May Revolution replaced the viceroy in Buenos Aires with a local junta on 25 May 1810, but independence was formally declared only six years later, in 1816.

Which English observance on May 29 celebrates the Restoration of the monarchy?

Oak Apple Day, 29 May, marks Charles II's 1660 return to London on his 30th birthday; people wore oak sprigs recalling his hiding in the Boscobel oak.

Which health observance falls on May 31?

World No Tobacco Day began as a single 'world no-smoking day' on 7 April 1988; the World Health Assembly then made it an annual event and fixed it on 31 May.

Who became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, on 20–21 May 1932?

Amelia Earhart set off five years to the day after Lindbergh, bound for Paris; ice and mechanical trouble forced her down in a farm pasture near Derry instead.

Which major US horse race is run on the third Saturday in May?

The Preakness Stakes was first run at Pimlico in 1873, two years before the first Kentucky Derby; its winner wears a blanket of flowers made up to look like black-eyed Susans.

Which US observance, paired with a secular Day of Reason, falls on the first Thursday of May?

The National Day of Prayer was created by a 1952 law signed by Harry Truman after evangelist Billy Graham called for one; a 1988 amendment fixed it on the first Thursday of May.

Which comics event shares the first Saturday of May with the Kentucky Derby?

Free Comic Book Day began in May 2002, timed to the opening weekend of the first Spider-Man film so that comic shops could ride the film's publicity.

Tokyo's Sanja Matsuri, on the third weekend of May, carries portable shrines through which old temple district?

Asakusa's festival honours the three men who founded Sensō-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple, after two fishermen brothers netted a statue of Kannon in the Sumida River.

Which Quebec holiday falls on the same Monday as Victoria Day?

Quebec's National Patriots' Day, first held in 2003, honours the Patriote rebels of 1837–38; it replaced the Fête de Dollard, the name French Canadians had informally given Victoria Day since the 1920s.

Which Atlantic territory treats its late-May holiday as the year's first sea swim?

Bermuda marks Bermuda Day, long held on 24 May, with a big parade as well as the first dip of the year.

Which Roman goddess's festival games ran from 28 April into the first days of May?

Flora's festival, the Floralia, ran from 28 April to 3 May; its games became yearly only after blighted crops led the Senate to vow her an annual festival if the harvest recovered.

On 1 May 1707 the Acts of Union joined England with which kingdom to create Great Britain?

Scotland, short of money after the failure of its Darien colony in Panama, was promised open trade with England in return for union; the two kingdoms became Great Britain on 1 May 1707.

On 6 May 1954 Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile in which city?

Oxford's Iffley Road track is where Roger Bannister, then a medical student paced by two friends, ran 3:59.4 on 6 May 1954; he quit racing that year and spent his career as a neurologist.

In 1955 the Pope made 1 May the feast of which saint, honoured as 'the Worker'?

Saint Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, was given the 1 May feast by Pius XII as a Catholic counter-celebration to the communists' May Day, stressing the dignity of work.

Which fading May Day tradition involves leaving small gifts anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps?

May baskets of flowers and sweets were hung on a neighbour's door on May Day; the giver knocked and ran, and a recipient who caught them could claim a kiss.

In the Rhineland, young men leave which ribboned tree at a sweetheart's house on May Eve?

Birch: the suitor decks a young tree with crepe streamers and sets it up overnight; in leap years the roles can reverse, with women leaving trees for their men.

Which German range, crowned by the Brocken, is the witches' Walpurgisnacht meeting place?

The Harz Mountains: folklore held that witches gathered on the Brocken on the night of 30 April, a scene Goethe put into Faust, and hillside fires were lit to ward them off.

In Sweden, most maypole traditions are held at which festival instead of May Day?

Midsummer is when Swedes raise their pole, clad in leaves and flowers for ring dances in late June; 30 April is marked instead with Walpurgis Night bonfires and spring songs.

Which English folk dance, performed with bells strapped to the legs, is a traditional part of May Day celebrations?

Morris dancing teams often 'dance the sun up' at dawn on 1 May; the dancers wear bells on their legs, and the dances are still felt to bring luck.

In the traditional North American almanac names for each month's full moon, what is May's called?

The Flower Moon is named for the blossoms that spread in May; the Old Farmer's Almanac drew such names from Native American, colonial and European traditions, and each once covered the whole lunar month.

The first national Memorial Day ceremony, in 1868, was held at which cemetery on General Lee's former estate?

Arlington National Cemetery hosted the first national observance on 30 May 1868, when future president James Garfield spoke and about 5,000 people came to honour the 20,000 soldiers buried there.

On Memorial Day, the US flag is flown at half-staff until what time, then raised to the top?

Noon is the hour set by the US Flag Code: the flag is raised briskly to the peak, lowered to half-staff for the morning, then hoisted to the top for the rest of the day.

VE Day, marked on 8 May, celebrates the 1945 surrender of which Axis power?

Germany's surrender took effect late on 8 May 1945, when it was already past midnight in Moscow, which is why Russia marks Victory Day on 9 May.

A 1968 law moved Memorial Day off 30 May to create what?

Three-day weekends were the aim of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act; it shifted Veterans Day as well, but Congress sent that one back to 11 November from 1978.

Which Canadian army doctor wrote 'In Flanders Fields', the May 1915 poem behind the remembrance poppy?

John McCrae began it after conducting the burial of a friend, Alexis Helmer, killed at the Second Battle of Ypres, where poppies were blooming in the churned earth.

Which French port's beaches saw over 330,000 Allied troops rescued by sea between 26 May and 4 June 1940?

Dunkirk's beaches were too shallow for big warships, so hundreds of civilian craft, the 'little ships', helped lift more than 338,000 troops across the Channel.

What turned Cinco de Mayo into a nationwide party in the United States?

Alcohol advertising did it: brewers and tequila makers promoted the day so hard that it is now a bigger occasion in the United States than in most of Mexico.

Which composer's The Rite of Spring premiered in Paris on 29 May 1913?

Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring opened at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées to an audience arguing so loudly that the dancers struggled to hear the orchestra, one of music's most notorious first nights.

On 5 May 1961, who became the first American in space?

Alan Shepard rode Freedom 7 on a 15-minute suborbital hop, 23 days after Gagarin's orbit; ten years later, commanding Apollo 14, he hit two golf balls on the Moon.

Which city fell to the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II on 29 May 1453 after a siege of nearly two months?

Constantinople's great land walls were finally breached with the help of huge Ottoman cannon; the city's fall ended the Byzantine Empire, and Mehmed made it his capital.

Cinco de Mayo is often mistaken for which other Mexican holiday, actually held in September?

Independence Day falls on 16 September, recalling the morning in 1810 when the priest Miguel Hidalgo called on Mexicans to rise against Spanish rule; the battle behind Cinco de Mayo came 52 years later.

In which country is Mother's Day kept during Lent, as Mothering Sunday, instead of in May?

Britain keeps Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Lent, once the day people went back to their home parish, their 'mother church', and so to their mothers.

Which flower did the founder of Mother's Day send by the hundred to its first church service in 1908?

Carnations: she sent 500 white ones to the 1908 service as a tribute to her late mother, then grew so angry at the holiday's commercialisation that she tried to have it rescinded.

Since the 1950s, Victoria Day has also marked what in Canada?

The monarch's official birthday is marked on Victoria Day whatever the real date; in 1939 the day also stood in for the birthday of George VI, a December baby then touring Canada.

Where does Victoria Day always fall among the Mondays of May?

The penultimate one: the holiday sat on 24 May itself until 1952, when Canada fixed it to the Monday before 25 May, which stopped it falling midweek.

Which 1886 Chicago event is commemorated by the choice of 1 May for International Workers' Day?

The Haymarket affair: a bomb thrown at police at a Chicago labour rally on 4 May 1886 set off deadly gunfire, and in 1889 the Second International made 1 May a workers' day in its memory.

Which demand drove the first International Workers' Day demonstrations in 1890?

The eight-hour day was the cause of the 1890 marches, called by a Paris congress as a 'great international demonstration'; the next congress, in 1891, made the day an annual event.

Which horse's 1973 Kentucky Derby record of 1:59.40 still stood in 2025?

Secretariat ran each quarter-mile faster than the one before, so he was still speeding up at the end of the Derby's 1¼ miles, a distance fixed in 1896.

The Kentucky Derby was inspired by a race at which English racecourse, visited by its founder in 1872?

Epsom has staged the original Derby since 1780; legend says a coin toss named it for the Earl of Derby and not his friend Sir Charles Bunbury, whose horse then won the first running.

What is the traditional drink of the Kentucky Derby?

The mint julep, bourbon with mint and sugar over crushed ice, has been promoted as the Derby's drink since 1938, and almost all are served in collectible glasses that racegoers keep.

Which Virginia colony, founded in May 1607, became England's first permanent settlement in North America?

Jamestown nearly died young: after the 'Starving Time' winter of 1609–10 the survivors had already set sail to abandon it when an arriving relief fleet turned them back.

How many cars make up the Indianapolis 500 starting field?

The field is 33 cars, lined up in eleven rows of three, a limit dating from a 1912 safety formula of one car per 400 feet of track.

Which song is traditionally sung just before the command to start engines at the Indianapolis 500?

'Back Home Again in Indiana' has had its chorus sung before the race since 1946; Jim Nabors performed it most years from 1972 to 2014, and for decades thousands of balloons were released as it played.

Which first American space station was launched on 14 May 1973, only to be damaged on the way up?

Skylab lost part of its shielding during launch; its first crew cooled the station by pushing a parasol-like sunshade out through a small port, and it finally fell to Earth over Australia in 1979.

Which Italian music festival inspired the creation of Eurovision?

Sanremo, held since 1951, gave Europe's broadcasters a ready-made model when they wanted a show that would test live television links between countries.

Which French phrase from Eurovision voting names the top score a country can award?

Douze points, twelve, has been the top score since 1975, when countries began ranking ten songs 1–8, 10 and 12; 'nul points', the press's phrase for a zero, isn't even correct French.

Which rock band won Eurovision after its cancelled 2020 contest?

Måneskin won for Italy in 2021 with 'Zitti e buoni', a year after COVID-19 forced the contest's first cancellation; their cover of 'Beggin'' then became a worldwide hit.

Which trace element gives emerald its green colour?

Chromium, in trace amounts, turns the mineral beryl into green emerald, with vanadium sometimes doing the job; the same element is what makes rubies red.

Which Ancient Greek word for a green gem gave English 'emerald' and Spanish 'Esmeralda'?

Smáragdos passed through Latin smaragdus and Old French esmeraude into English; in Hugo's 'Notre-Dame de Paris', Esmeralda guesses she is named for the green-glass charm at her neck.

What is the French name for lily of the valley, often used for perfumes?

Muguet is the French name, borrowed by perfumes that imitate the scent; on 1 May the French sell and give sprigs of it, a custom that took hold in the early 20th century.

Adult mayflies, named for the month they often emerge in, are famous for what?

Living only a day or two is all an adult mayfly gets: its mouthparts don't work, so it never eats and exists only to mate; the order's name, Ephemeroptera, shares a root with 'ephemeral'.

Japan's 3 May holiday marks a 1947 constitution that renounced what?

Waging war is renounced in Article 9 of the constitution, which took effect on 3 May 1947 and also turned the emperor from sovereign ruler into a symbol of the state.

Japan's Greenery Day, now 4 May, began as the birthday holiday of which plant-loving emperor?

Hirohito's 29 April birthday was renamed Greenery Day after his death in 1989, honouring his love of plants without using his name; in 2007 it moved to 4 May.

Which feast, often in late May, comes ten days after Ascension Thursday?

Pentecost falls on the fiftieth day counting from Easter Sunday, so its date moves with Easter each year and can land in either May or June.

Geek Pride Day, 25 May, began in 2006 as the 'Día del Orgullo Friki' in which country?

Spain: a blogger launched the day there in 2006, picking 25 May because the first Star Wars film opened on that date in 1977.

Which fixed holiday formally replaced the movable Whit Monday as a British day off in 1971?

The Spring Bank Holiday, fixed at the end of May, replaced Whit Monday after a trial that began in 1965, so the day off no longer wandered through May and June with the date of Easter.

King Charles III was crowned on 6 May 2023 in which church?

Westminster Abbey has been the coronation church since 1066; Charles sat in the oak Coronation Chair that Edward I had made around 1300 to hold the Stone of Scone.

Which country's Constitution Day on 17 May is led by children's parades rather than a military march?

Norway signed its constitution at Eidsvoll on 17 May 1814; in the 1820s King Karl Johan tried to suppress the celebrations, which he took as a protest against the union with Sweden.

The distress call 'Mayday' comes from a French phrase meaning what?

'Help me' is the sense of French m'aider: Croydon Airport radio officer Frederick Mockford proposed the word in the 1920s because so much of his traffic flew between London and Paris.

The EU's Europe Day on 9 May commemorates which 1950 proposal?

The Schuman Declaration proposed pooling French and West German coal and steel under one authority, so that war between the two would be 'not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible'.

Which Strasbourg-based body marks its own Europe Day on 5 May, the anniversary of its 1949 founding?

The Council of Europe was founded on 5 May 1949 and has kept Europe Day on that date since 1964; the EU chose 9 May instead in 1985, so the continent has two Europe Days.

As of 2025, which Formula One race, run in late May, was exempt from the 305-km minimum distance?

The Monaco Grand Prix covers only about 260 km because its tight street circuit is so slow that the full distance would take far longer than a normal race.

Which London club won the first FA Cup final at the rebuilt Wembley, in May 2007?

Chelsea beat Manchester United 1–0 with a Didier Drogba extra-time goal on 19 May 2007, the first FA Cup final at the rebuilt Wembley.

The French Open, which starts in late May, is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament played on which surface?

Clay slows the ball and makes it bounce higher, blunting big serves and rewarding patient baseline play; Rafael Nadal won the title a record 14 times on it.

France planned the Cannes Film Festival, now held each May, as a rival to which older festival?

Venice was the target: France pulled out of the Italian festival in the fascist era and planned its own for 1939, but war delayed the first full edition until 1946.

Which magazine's editor became chair of the Met Gala, held on the first Monday of May, in 1995?

Vogue's Anna Wintour took the chair in 1995; the gala is the chief fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute and opens its big annual exhibition.

London's May flower show is staged at a retirement home for whom?

Army veterans live at the Royal Hospital, whose grounds hosted a one-off international flower show in 1912; the site worked so well that the RHS moved its own spring show there a year later.

Which newspaper created the Giro d'Italia in 1909 to boost its sales?

La Gazzetta dello Sport launched the Giro in May 1909 to beat its rival Corriere della Sera to the idea; the paper's pink pages gave the leader's maglia rosa its colour.

The French Open's stadium is named after a French pioneer in which field?

Aviation: Roland Garros made the first flight across the Mediterranean in 1913 and died a fighter pilot in 1918; the stadium bearing his name was built ten years later for France's first Davis Cup defence.

Which UEFA member has no league competition and so cannot enter the Champions League?

Liechtenstein's seven clubs play in the Swiss league system, so the country has no champion to enter; its cup winner, usually FC Vaduz, enters the Conference League instead.

The Hindenburg burst into flames on 6 May 1937 while landing in which state?

New Jersey's Lakehurst naval air station was the end of its Atlantic crossing from Frankfurt; 36 people died, yet 62 of the 97 on board survived the fire.

Which cry came from a radio reporter watching the Hindenburg burn?

'Oh, the humanity' was never heard live: Herbert Morrison of Chicago's WLS was recording for later use, and his tearful report first aired the next day.

Mount St. Helens, which erupted on 18 May 1980, stands in which US state?

Washington felt it most: ash from the blast turned midday to darkness in Spokane, 250 miles away, and the cloud circled the Earth in 15 days.

Which 1919 treaty decision sparked the May Fourth Movement protests in Beijing?

Letting Japan keep Shandong territories that Germany had held brought some 3,000 Beijing students onto the streets on 4 May 1919; in the end China refused to sign the treaty.

Which Supreme Court ruling of 17 May 1954 declared segregated public schools unconstitutional?

Brown v. Board of Education was decided 9–0: Chief Justice Earl Warren worked to win over the last doubters so that the South would have no dissent to rally behind.

Who read out Israel's Declaration of Independence at the Tel Aviv Museum on 14 May 1948?

David Ben-Gurion took 16 minutes to read it, at a ceremony timed for 4 p.m. on a Friday so that it would end before the Sabbath; the British Mandate expired at midnight.

Which country falls silent for two minutes at 8pm on 4 May, the eve of its Liberation Day?

The Netherlands holds its Remembrance of the Dead on 4 May: at 8pm public transport and traffic stop for two minutes, with the main ceremony at the National Monument on Amsterdam's Dam Square.

In ancient Rome, May was considered an unlucky month to do what?

Get married in May and you defied Roman custom: the month held rites for the restless dead, and Ovid quotes the proverb that only bad women wed in May.

'The darling buds of May' is a phrase from a famous sonnet by which poet?

William Shakespeare wrote it in Sonnet 18, 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'; H. E. Bates borrowed the phrase for his 1958 novel The Darling Buds of May.

What type of cheese is chased down Cooper's Hill in a famous English race held each late May?

A 7 to 9 pound wheel of Double Gloucester is given a one-second head start down the steep slope, and the first runner over the line wins it.

After police warned its cheese-maker in 2013, the Cooper's Hill cheese-rolling used a replica made of what?

Foam it was: police told the event's 86-year-old cheese-maker she could be held responsible for injuries, so a lightweight replica rolled in 2013; the real cheese was back a year later.

For three days of Hong Kong's Cheung Chau Bun Festival, held around May, the whole island gives up what?

Meat and seafood come off the menu: the island turns vegetarian for three of the festival's seven days, and even the local McDonald's goes meat-free.

Hıdırellez, a spring festival on the night of 5–6 May, is celebrated chiefly in which country?

Turkey keeps Hıdırellez as the night the prophets Hızır and İlyas are said to meet on Earth; people jump over bonfires and leave written wishes in the garden.

Poland's Constitution of 3 May 1791 ended a rule that had let any single deputy do what?

Block all legislation: under the liberum veto, one deputy's objection could undo everything a session of parliament had passed, which is why the reformers of 1791 abolished it.

Poland's Constitution of 3 May 1791 lasted under 19 months before an invasion by which neighbouring empire?

Russia's army, sent by Catherine the Great in support of Polish nobles who opposed the reforms, won the war of 1792; a parliament meeting in 1793 then declared the constitution void.

Which singer-songwriter, born Robert Zimmerman on 24 May 1941, later won the Nobel Prize in Literature?

Bob Dylan received the literature prize in 2016, twenty years after an American professor first nominated him for it.

Which inventor officially opened America's Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph line with a message on 24 May 1844?

Samuel Morse had already made his name as a portrait painter before he turned to the telegraph in middle age.

Which astronomer, who placed the Sun rather than Earth at the centre of the universe, died on 24 May 1543?

Copernicus is said to have been handed the final printed pages of his great book on the very day he died.

Which nursery rhyme, possibly inspired by a real schoolgirl, did Sarah Josepha Hale publish on 24 May 1830?

Mary Had a Little Lamb went on to be the first audio Thomas Edison recorded on his newly invented phonograph, in 1877.

At the 'Judgment of Paris' blind tasting on 24 May 1976, wines from which US state beat France's best?

California wines, both from Napa, were rated best among the reds and the whites alike, by French judges who tasted blind.

Which German battleship sank the Royal Navy's battlecruiser HMS Hood in the Denmark Strait on 24 May 1941?

Bismarck hit Hood near her ammunition magazines: she exploded and sank within three minutes, and all but three of her crew were lost.

Which bird did Emily Roebling carry on the first carriage ride across the Brooklyn Bridge, opened 24 May 1883?

A rooster was her sign of victory: Emily Roebling had helped run the project for over ten years after caisson disease left her husband, the chief engineer, bedridden.

Which African country on the Red Sea celebrates its independence on 24 May, the day fighters took Asmara?

Eritrea dates its independence to 1991, when its fighters moved into Asmara and ended a 30-year war against Ethiopia's military regime.

Which pilot landed in Darwin on 24 May 1930, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia?

Amy Johnson made the 11,000-mile trip in a second-hand Gipsy Moth that she named Jason, after her father's business trademark.

Which American astronaut circled Earth three times in the capsule Aurora 7 on 24 May 1962?

Scott Carpenter came down about 250 miles off course after a targeting error, which delayed his recovery by an hour.

Which soft drink was first sold on 8 May 1886, at five cents a glass in an Atlanta pharmacy?

Coca-Cola was first sold as a patent medicine: its inventor claimed it cured headaches, indigestion and nerve disorders.

Which composer's Ninth Symphony, with its choral finale, was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824?

Ludwig van Beethoven was still conducting, several bars off, when a singer gently turned him round to see the audience applauding.

Which ceremony was first held on 16 May 1929, as a private dinner in a Hollywood hotel?

The Academy Awards started small: 270 guests paid $5 a ticket, and the whole ceremony lasted 15 minutes.

Which disease did Edward Jenner first vaccinate against on 14 May 1796, using pus from a milkmaid's blisters?

Smallpox was the target: the milkmaid had caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom, whose hide still hangs in a London medical school library.

Which wife of Henry VIII was beheaded at the Tower of London on 19 May 1536?

Anne Boleyn was spared the common axe: Henry brought an expert swordsman over from France to carry out the sentence.

Which chess computer beat world champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game rematch that ended on 11 May 1997?

Deep Blue had lost to Kasparov 4–2 a year earlier; IBM then doubled its speed, and it took the rematch 3½–2½.

Which Russian city did a reforming tsar found on 27 May 1703, weeks after capturing a Swedish fortress nearby?

St Petersburg takes its name from the apostle Saint Peter rather than from its founder, and began as a fortress on Hare Island.

In which French city was Joan of Arc burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen?

Rouen was the main English headquarters in France; she was read her sentence and burned in its Old Marketplace.

In which South African city was Nelson Mandela inaugurated as president on 10 May 1994?

Pretoria is the executive capital, one of three South African capitals; a billion viewers around the world watched the ceremony on television.

Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed and killed by a posse on 23 May 1934 on a highway in which US state?

Louisiana's Bienville Parish was where the posse, led by retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, lay in wait for the couple.

Which L. Frank Baum children's novel had its first copy come off the press on 17 May 1900?

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz went on to sell three million copies before it left copyright; Baum assembled that first copy by hand and gave it to his sister.

Which scandal's US Senate hearings opened on 17 May 1973 and were broadcast live into millions of homes?

Watergate gripped the country: PBS replayed each day's hearings at night, from gavel to gavel, on more than 150 stations.

Which Italian Renaissance painter of The Birth of Venus died on 17 May 1510?

Botticelli spent almost his whole life in one neighbourhood of his home city, leaving for Rome in 1481 to fresco walls of the Sistine Chapel.

Which Canadian city was founded on 17 May 1642 as a French settlement called Ville-Marie?

Montreal now takes its name from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked mountain that the early settlement was built around.

Which city's school board was the losing side in Brown v. Board of Education, decided on 17 May 1954?

Topeka, Kansas, lost by a unanimous 9–0 vote: the justices ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional even when the facilities were equal.

Which sport featured in America's first televised sporting event, a Columbia–Princeton game on 17 May 1939?

Baseball beat football to American screens by more than four months: NBC broadcast the college game from Columbia's Baker Field.

Which engineer invented the bouncing bombs that the RAF dropped on German dams on the night of 16–17 May 1943?

Barnes Wallis designed the weapon to bounce across the water, then sink beside the dam and explode; he later invented the Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs too.

Which ancient Greek device, often called the first analogue computer, had a gear wheel spotted in it on 17 May 1902?

The Antikythera mechanism had lain in a shipwreck since about 70–60 BC; an archaeologist noticed a gear wheel embedded in a lump of rock from the wreck.

Which tree gave its name to the 17 May 1792 brokers' agreement that founded Wall Street's stock exchange?

Buttonwood was the tree the brokers traditionally met beneath on Wall Street; legend has the deal signed in its shade.

Which Boer War siege was lifted on 17 May 1900, sparking celebrations so wild they gave English a new verb?

Mafeking's relief set off such rowdy public parties that 'to maffick' entered the language, and it made the town's commander, Robert Baden-Powell, a national hero.

Which modern city, then called Constantinople, fell to Sultan Mehmed II's Ottoman army on 29 May 1453?

Istanbul only became the city's official name in 1930; Mehmed II had made it the Ottoman capital straight after his conquest.

Which future US president, the youngest person ever elected to the office, was born on 29 May 1917?

John F. Kennedy was 43 when elected; Theodore Roosevelt was a year younger on taking office, but he succeeded an assassinated president rather than winning a vote.

Which festive song, the world's best-selling single, did Bing Crosby record in 18 minutes on 29 May 1942?

White Christmas is put at more than 50 million physical copies sold; Crosby cut it for Decca with an orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers.

Which UN personnel, recognised by their blue helmets, are honoured by an international day every 29 May?

Peacekeepers get 29 May because the first UN mission of the kind was created on that date in 1948, to supervise a truce in the Arab–Israeli war.

Which event on 29 May 1919 let Arthur Eddington put Einstein's general relativity to the test?

A total solar eclipse darkened the sky enough to measure how the Sun's gravity bent starlight passing close to it; the news made Einstein world famous.

Which club became the first from England to win the European Cup, beating Benfica at Wembley on 29 May 1968?

Manchester United needed extra time: it was 1–1 after ninety minutes before three more goals made it 4–1, with Bobby Charlton scoring twice.

Which comedian, born in London on 29 May 1903, spent fifty years entertaining American troops overseas?

Bob Hope made 57 tours for the USO between 1941 and 1991, and lived to the age of 100.

Which state became the last of the original thirteen to ratify the US Constitution, on 29 May 1790?

Rhode Island had boycotted the convention that drafted the document, and gave in only under threat of heavy trade tariffs from the other states.

Which formerly enslaved abolitionist gave a celebrated women's rights speech in Akron, Ohio, on 29 May 1851?

Sojourner Truth spoke off the cuff; she had chosen her name in 1843, after feeling called by God to leave the city and preach.

Which driver became the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500, on 29 May 1977?

Janet Guthrie had been an aerospace engineer before she raced; she made the 500 a year after failing to qualify for it.

Which arcade game, its hero inspired by a pizza missing a slice, first appeared in Tokyo on 22 May 1980?

Pac-Man was first called Puck Man; the name changed for North America for fear that vandals would alter the P on the cabinets.

Which French author of Les Misérables died on 22 May 1885 and drew over two million people to his funeral?

Victor Hugo was given a state funeral and laid to rest in the Panthéon; no funeral in France has drawn a bigger crowd.

Which island nation dropped the name Ceylon when it became a republic on 22 May 1972?

Sri Lanka's old Arabic and Persian name, Sarandib, is where the English word 'serendipity' comes from.

Arthur Conan Doyle, born on 22 May 1859, did which job before Sherlock Holmes made him famous?

A doctor, like his Dr Watson: he served as a ship's surgeon on two sea voyages, then set up an unsuccessful practice in Portsmouth.

Which country was struck on 22 May 1960 by the strongest earthquake ever recorded?

Chile's quake, which devastated the city of Valdivia, sent a tsunami across the ocean: waves over ten metres high struck Hilo, Hawaii, 10,000 km away.

Which host stepped down from The Tonight Show on 22 May 1992, three decades after taking it over?

Johnny Carson had fronted the NBC show since 1962, and he retired from show business altogether the day he left, aged 66.

Which US president, the only one to hold a patent, was granted it on 22 May 1849 for a boat-lifting device?

Abraham Lincoln's design fixed large expandable bellows to a boat's sides, to buoy it over shoals and other river obstructions.

Which sport's first World Cup kicked off on 22 May 1987, co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia?

Rugby union's first tournament drew 16 nations, and co-host New Zealand won it, beating France 29–9 in the Auckland final.

Which Belgian cartoonist, the creator of Tintin, was born Georges Remi in Brussels on 22 May 1907?

Hergé is how French speakers pronounce his initials in reverse: R.G., for Remi, Georges.

Which Arabian country was formed on 22 May 1990 when its northern and southern states merged?

Yemen joined a south built on Britain's former Aden Protectorate to a northern republic, with Sanaa agreed as the capital of the new state.