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May 1
Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna had 41 Formula One Grand Prix wins in his career. Senna achieved his first victory in Formula One at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix on 21 April. John Blunsden of The Times described the win as "one of the most telling examples of supreme driving ability". He won two races in each of his three years with Lotus before moving to McLaren for the 1988 season. He secured his first Formula One world championship that year and enjoyed his most successful season in terms of race wins. His eight victories that year set a new record for the most wins in a season, breaking the previous record of seven by Jim Clark. In the subsequent three seasons with McLaren, he won six or more races each season, securing two more Formula One world championship titles in 1990 and 1991. Senna managed only three victories in 1992. His final win in Formula One came at the final race of the 1993 season at the Australian Grand Prix. Senna's largest margin of victory was 1:23.199 at the 1993 European Grand Prix, while the narrowest margin was at the 1986 Spanish Grand Prix, when he beat Nigel Mansell by 0.014 seconds, one of the closest finishes in Formula One. (Full list...)
May 5
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The breastwork monitors of the Royal Navy were developed during the 1860s by Sir Edward Reed, Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy, as an improvement of the basic monitor design developed by John Ericsson during the American Civil War. Reed gave these ships a superstructure to increase seaworthiness and raise the freeboard of the gun turrets so they could be worked in all weathers. The superstructure was armoured to protect the bases of the turrets, the funnels and the ventilator ducts in what he termed a breastwork. The ships were conceived as harbour defence ships with little need to leave port. This meant that they could dispense with the masts, sails and rigging needed to supplement their coal-fired steam engines over any distance. Reed designed the first ship, HMVS Cerberus (pictured), at the request of the Colony of Victoria; the India Office then ordered another of the same design (HMS Magdala) as well as a less expensive version (HMS Abyssinia). The four Cyclops-class ships, enlarged versions of Cerberus, were ordered in 1870 for local defence of English ports. (Full list...)
May 8
In the course of his career, American filmmaker and television director David Lynch has received multiple awards and nominations. Among them are three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and a nomination for best screenplay. Lynch has twice won France's César Award for Best Foreign Film, as well as the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival. The French government has awarded him the Legion of Honour, the country's top civilian distinction, honoring him first as a Chevalier in 2002 and then as an Officier in 2009. His films include The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive. Lynch's television debut, Twin Peaks, earned five Emmy Award nominations for its first season. (Full list...)
May 12
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The British Overseas Territory of Bermuda has a long history of encounters with Atlantic tropical cyclones, many of which inflicted significant damage and influenced the territory's development. A small archipelago comprising about 138 islands and islets, Bermuda occupies 21 square miles (54 km2) in the North Atlantic Ocean, roughly 650 miles (1,050 km) east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The islands are situated far outside the main development region for Atlantic hurricanes, but within the typical belt of recurving tropical cyclones. According to the Bermuda Weather Service, the islands of Bermuda experience a damaging tropical cyclone once every six to seven years, on average. Due to the small area of the island chain, landfalls and direct hits are rare. Events have caused Bermuda widely varying degrees of damage. A hurricane in 1609 was responsible for the first permanent settlement on Bermuda: in late July, the Jamestown-bound, British ship Sea Venture nearly foundered in the storm and sought refuge on the islands, which the passengers found surprisingly hospitable. Hurricane Fabian was the most intense storm to impact the territory in modern times. (Full list...)
May 15
There are forty Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in Bedfordshire, designated by Natural England. Bedfordshire is a county in the East of England. It has an area of 1,235 square kilometres (477 sq mi), and population estimated in 2015 at 630,000, with an increase of 10% over the previous ten years. Thirty-five of the county's SSSIs are listed for their biological interest, and five for their geological interest. Southern Bedfordshire is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. North and mid Bedfordshire are undulating claylands with broad river valleys of the River Great Ouse and its tributaries, and the Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge. Jurassic and Cretaceous clays are overlaid by Quaternary glacial deposits of chalky boulder clay. Three of the sites are also National nature reserves, twelve are in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and eleven are managed wholly or partly by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. (Full list...)
May 19
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Eleven cricketers have taken twelve five-wicket hauls in women's Twenty20 International cricket (T20I). A notable achievement, it refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. The first to reach the milestone was New Zealand's Amy Satterthwaite (pictured) against England in 2007. Taking six wickets for 17 runs, this is the best bowling figures by a player in the international women's format and the sole six-wicket haul. The most recent five-wicket haul was taken by Molly Strano of Australia against New Zealand in February 2017. The youngest player to take five wickets in an innings is Shaquana Quintyne of the West Indies aged 17 while the oldest at 29 years of age is India's Jhulan Goswami. West Indian cricketer Anisa Mohammed is the only bowler to have achieved the feat twice. (Full list...)
May 22
The fourth season of the American animated comedy series Family Guy marked the show's return after a three-year hiatus. Due to low ratings, Fox cancelled the series after the conclusion of its third season in 2002. Increasing DVD sales and the popularity of its reruns on the Adult Swim network convinced Fox to revive the program, the first time a TV series was brought back on the basis of its DVD sales. The season, consisting of thirty episodes, premiered on May 1, 2005, and ran until May 21, 2006. The season's final three episodes, edited for content in broadcast form, were originally produced as a single standalone film called Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, which was released on DVD on September 27, 2005. Critical reception for the season was mostly positive. Two episodes from season four were nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. (Full list...)
May 26
Twenty-two singles topped the Alternative Songs record chart in the 1980s. Published by the music industry magazine Billboard, it ranks the most-played songs on American modern rock radio stations. The chart was created in the midst of the growing popularity of alternative music on rock radio in the late 1980s. Billboard introduced the chart in response to demand within the music industry for consistent information on the commercial performance of alternative music. During the decade, it was known as the Modern Rock Tracks chart and tabulated based on weighted reports from twenty-nine radio stations. The Modern Rock Tracks chart debuted in the September 10, 1988 issue of Billboard, with the inaugural number-one single being "Peek-a-Boo" by English alternative rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. Upon its debut, several publications noted the presence of more independent artists on Modern Rock Tracks compared to its companion chart, Album Rock Tracks. Alternative rock band R.E.M. and new wave group The B-52's (pictured) each scored two number-one singles on the Modern Rock Tracks chart during the 1980s, the most for any artist within the decade. (Full list...)
May 29
Audie Murphy was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II, receiving every U. S. Army combat award for valor available at that time, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. He served in nine World War II campaigns, receiving the Medal of Honor after single-handedly holding off an entire company of German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France. After his 1945 discharge at the end of the war, he advocated for combat stress disorder treatment for veterans. He later became a successful film actor, and joined the Texas National Guard during the Korean War, serving as a reserve officer until 1969. Murphy died May 28, 1971, in a plane crash in Virginia, and was interred with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. The Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital in San Antonio was dedicated in 1973 in his honor. The Texas government recognized Murphy's National Guard service by awarding him the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor in 2013. (This list is part of a featured topic: Audie Murphy.)