Last updated 09:02, Thursday, 01 May 2008

A look at the month of May

Audrey Hepburn: Born in May 1929

OUR man with the facts and figures at his fingertips gives us the anniversaries for May:

May 1 1786: Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” opens in Vienna

May 2 1952: de Haviland Comet goes into service

May 3 1791: Polish constitution signed: first modern constitution in Europe

May 4 1929: Audrey Hepburn born

May 5 2000: Conjunction of all the traditional planets

May 6 1954: Roger Bannister runs first 4-minute mile in 3’59.4”

May 7 1915: British liner “Lusitania” sunk by German U-boat: 1198 lives lost

May 8 1903: Fernandel (Fernand Contandin) born

May 9 1932: Piccadilly first lit by electricity

May 10 1941: Rudolf Hess crash-lands in Scotland

May 11 1981: “Cats” opens in West End: closes 11.5.02 after 8949 performances

May 12 1924: Tony Hancock born

May 13 1913: Igor Sikorsky first man to pilot four-engined aircraft

May 14 1957: Petrol rationing ends after the Suez crisis

May 15 1940: Nylon stockings go on sale in USA

May 16 1920: Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc

May 17 1970: Thor Heyerdahl sets sail on papyrus boat Ra II

May 18 1920: Pope John Paul II born Karel Woytyla

May 19 1980: Mt St Helens, Washington State, erupts

May 20 1907: SS Izaro, largest ship to be wrecked at St Bees, runs aground

May 21 1904: Fats Waller (Thomas Wright) born

May 22 1859: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle born

May 23 1931: Whipsnade Zoo opens

May 24 1883: Brooklyn Bridge, New York, opens

May 25 1939: Ian McKellen born

May 26 1907: John Wayne (Marion Michael Morrison) born

May 27 1941: Bismarck sunk

May 28 1944: Rudolf Giuliani born

May 29 1953: Everest conquered by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing

May 30 1778: Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) dies

May 31 1930: Clint Eastwood born.