Godfather of AI Sounds Alarm
May 1 Geoffrey Hinton 'the Godfather of AI" resigns from Google to speak out about the dangers of AI - eliminating jobs and creating a world where many may “not be able to know what is true anymore” [1]
Russian Losses Mount
May 1 US White Houses estimates Russia has lost 100,000 troops so far in 2023 invading Ukraine, with 20,000 killed. Half of those losses from Wagner mercenaries. [1]
- May 2 40-year-old US weight loss company Jenny Craig announces it will close after failing to secure further financial backing [1]
- May 2 First non-invasive mind reader developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin by combing functional magnetic resonance imaging with AI (results hit and miss so far) [1]
- May 2 Joel Embiid wins the NBA Most Valuable Player Award
- May 2 Writers Guild of America votes to begin striking over pay and industry changes, bringing television production to a halt [1]
- May 3 13-year-old Serbian student shoots and kills nine people at his Belgrade school, eight students and a security guard, before handing himself in [1]
Ajay Banga Elected to World BanK
May 3 Ajay Banga is elected President of the World Bank after being nominated by US President Joe Biden [1]
Sports History
May 3 Manchester City's Norwegian striker Erling Haaland scores in a 3-0 win over West Ham to set a new record for most goals scored in a single Premier League season (35)
- May 3 MLB LA Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani joins NY Yankee legend Babe Ruth as only pitcher to strike out 500 batters and hit over 100 career home runs in 6-4 over the Cardinals in St. Louis
Drone Attack on the Kremlin
May 3 Mysterious explosive drone attack on the Kremlin in Moscow has no clear motive or link to people behind it, despite Russian claim it was attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin, amid Ukrainian and US denials [1]
- May 4 "Primary" Trust" written by Eboni Booth and starring William Jackson Harper premieres at the Roundabout Theater in New York - 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama [1]
Walk of Fame Star for Carrie Fisher
May 4 Actress and writer Carrie Fisher, best known as Princess Leia from the Star Wars films, is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame [1]
Ed Sheeran Cleared of Copyright Infringement
May 4 Ed Sheeran found not guilty of copying Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On" for his 2014 single “Thinking Out Loud" by a Manhattan federal jury; copyright infringement suit was filed by the heirs of Gaye's co-writer Ed Townsend [1]
- May 4 In 2022 Covid-19 slipped from third to fourth leading cause of death in the US (behind heart disease, cancer and unintentional injuries) according to National Center for Health Statistics [1]
- May 4 WHO declares Covid-19 over as a global health emergency, but remains a significant threat, with seven million known deaths (real total likely to be 20 million) [1]
- May 6 149th Kentucky Derby: Venezuelan jockey Javier Castellano and trainer Gustavo Delgado win their first Derby with 15-1 chance Mage
- May 6 Canadian province Alberta declares a state of emergency over unprecedented wildfires, more than 100, that have forced the evacuation of 25,000 people [1]
- May 6 Coronation of King Chares III and Queen Camilla at Westminster Abbey, London - first monarch crowned in the UK in 70 years [1]
- May 7 Man rams car into group of migrants waiting at a bus stop in Brownsville, Texas, killing eight people and injuring at least 10 [1]
- May 7 Syria is readmitted into the influential Arab League, more than ten year after being thrown out for repressing pro-democracy protesters [1]
- May 8 Death toll from flash floods and landslides in Kalehe, Congo, passes 400 with President Felix Tshisekedi declaring a national day of mourning for the victims [1]
The Little Mermaid
May 8 Disney live-action film musical "The Little Mermaid" starring Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy, directed by Robb Marshall, premieres in the US [1]
PM Imran Khan Arrested
May 9 Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan dramatically arrested at the High Court in Islamabad, prompting violent protests between his supporters and security forces [1]
Trump Guilty in E. Jean Carroll Trial
May 9 Former US President Donald Trump is found guilty of sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in a New York court and ordered to pay $5 million for battery and defamation [1]
'Here Comes The Sun' Hits 1B Streams
May 9 George Harrison's "Here Comes The Sun" becomes 1st Beatles song to register a billion streams on Spotify, it is also the oldest song to do so
Renaissance World Tour
May 10 Beyoncé begins her Renaissance World tour in Stockholm, Sweden, her first solo tour in seven years [1]
- May 10 Boston Red Sox reliever Kenley Jansen becomes seventh MLB pitcher to earn 400 career saves, in 5-2 victory over Braves in Atlanta
- May 10 First children born in the UK with DNA from three people, using mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) - in attempt to prevent baby from inheriting mitochondrial DNA mutations [1]
- May 10 First draft of a human ‘pangenome’ published, with DNA from 47 people, including from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe in effort to capture entirety of human genetic variation, "like going from black-and-white television to 1080p” [1]
- May 10 Heaviest fighting in months between Israel and Palestinian militants as both sides launch air attacks, leaving over 20 dead in Gaza [1]
Linda Yaccarino Joins Twitter
May 12 Elon Musk announces NBCUniversial executive Linda Yaccarino will replace him as CEO of Twitter [1]
- May 12 US pandemic-era expulsion policy Title 42, which expelled most migrants, expires [1]
- May 13 67th Eurovision Song Contest: Loreen wins for Sweden, for the second time, singing "Tattoo", in Liverpool, England, hosting on behalf of Ukraine [1]
- May 14 Cyclone Mocha makes landfall on Rakhine coast, Myanmar, near southern border of Bangladesh with at least 400 killed. Second strongest storm on record in the North Indian Ocean. [1]
- May 14 Thai General Election: Military-backed government loses out to other parties with the Move Forward Party securing 36% of the vote [1]
Cover Model Martha Stewart
May 15 Martha Stewart is Sports Illustrated oldest-ever cover model at 81, appearing as part of its swimsuit issue [1]
- May 16 "Ëxceptional" missile attack on Kyiv by Russian forces largely repelled by Ukrainian air defense [1]
- May 16 ChatGPT developer OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, supports oversight of AI, in appearance before US Senate Committee saying they “might consider a combination of licensing and testing requirements" [1]
- May 16 Intense floods in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy causes 23 rivers to burst their banks, resulting in at least 13 deaths and cancellation of the F1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix [1]
- May 17 Montana is the first US state to ban TikTok, with Governor Greg Gianforte signing legislation to ban the Chinese-owned social media network to protect against alleged intelligence gathering [1]
- May 17 Nepali Sherpa Kami Rita Sherpa (53) climbs of Mt. Everest for a record 27th time [1]
- May 17 Scientists discover comb jellies (ctenophores) are the closest relative to the very first animals that evolved half a billion years ago, by focusing on groups of genes on chromosomes [1]
- May 17 The oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible, The Codex Sassoon, from late 9th / early 10th century, sold for $38.1 million at Sotheby's in New York, one of the highest prices for a book at auction [1]
- May 17 World now likely to pass the key warming threshold of 1.5C, with scientists predicting 66% this will happen chance between now and 2027 [1]
- May 17 World's oldest architectural plans revealed on two stone monoliths mapping huge prehistoric stone structures called desert kites - thought to trap wild animal herds, in Southeastern Jordan and Northern Saudi Arabia [1]
- May 18 Harrison Ford is presented with an honorary Palme d'Or lifetime achievement award at the Cannes Film Festival in France
Seven Psalms
May 19 Owl/Legacy Recordings releases "Seven Psalms", the fifteenth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon
- May 19 Pop-R&B vocal group the Spinners donate nearly 400 stage outfits to the Motown Museum in Detroit, Michigan
- May 20 English ITV This Morning TV presenter Phillip Schofield resigns after 20 years in the role. It later emerges he was having an affair with a younger colleague and lied about it.
- May 21 First female Arab astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi, from Saudi Arabia goes into space on Axiom Space's second private mission, with fellow Saudi Ali Alqarni and Americans, Peggy Whitson and John Shoffner [1]
- May 21 Greek General Election: ruling conservative party New Democracy, led by PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis leads opposition Syriza party by 20% [1]
- May 21 Iam Tongi wins season 21 of American idol - first person of Pacific Island descent to win [1]
- May 21 Popocatépetl volcano eruption causes Mexican authorities to warn 3 million people living nearby to prepare for a possible evacuation [1]
Josh Freese Joins the Foo Fighters
May 21 Rock band Foo Fighters introduce new drummer Josh Freese in a live stream event promoting new album and tour
G7 Summit
May 21 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes a surprise appearance at G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, with world leaders also making a statement to condemn Chinese acts of "economic coercion" [1]
- May 22 New deal cutting water usage of the Colorado River agreed by California, Arizona and Nevada, aims to conserve 3 million acre-feet of water by 2026 [1]
- May 22 US and Papua New Guinea bilateral defense cooperation agreement signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Prime Minister James Marape in Port Moresby, as US and China strive for influence in the region [1]
- May 23 451 Illinois Catholic clergy sexually abused nearly 2,000 children over 70 years, according to state's attorney general’s office [1]
- May 23 International Booker Prize awarded to "Time Shelter" by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel is announced in London [1]
Election of Interest
May 24 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' launch of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Twitter is marred by glitches and outages [1]
Censorship in Florida
May 24 Former US Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's poem, “The Hill We Climb” is placed on a restricted reading list at Bob Graham Education Center, Miami Lakes, amid increasing censorship across Florida
- May 24 Man with paralysis walks naturally for the first time in 12 years after a Swiss team created a neurological link between the brain and spinal cord, findings published in "Nature" [1]
- May 24 Mercenary Wagner Group says it is handing over the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, after capturing it for Russia, in one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war so far [1]
- May 24 Test for a possible alien transmission to earth to see if humans can decode it, sent from ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, the spacecraft orbiting Mars [1]
- May 25 Oath Keepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years in prison for organizing Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol - first person to be sentenced for seditious conspiracy and longest sentence so far [1]
- May 25 US population aged at its fastest rate for 130 years, over 65 years olds grew by a third (2010 - 2020), median age of an American jumps from 37.2 to 38.8, according to new census figures [1]
- May 26 At least 828 civilians have now died and 3,688 have been injured over six weeks of fighting in Sudan, according to the Sudanese American Physicians Association [1]
- May 26 Philadelphia Phillies reliever Craig Kimbrel becomes eighth MLB pitcher to earn 400 career saves, in 6-4 victory over Braves in Atlanta
- May 27 76th Cannes Film Festival: French director Justine Triet's "Anatomy of a Fall" wins the Palme d'Or [1]
- May 27 Texas House of Representatives votes to impeach Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton - just the third official in Texan history [1]
Harris Delivers Commencement Address
May 27 Vice President Kamala Harris becomes 1st woman to deliver commencement address at US Military Academy graduation ceremony in West Point, New York
New Parliament House
May 28 India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates India's new parliament building, amid a boycott by opposition parties (who wanted the President to open it) [1]
- May 28 Indianapolis 500: Josef Newgarden produces an audacious pass of defending champion Marcus Ericsson for his first Indy victory; team owner Roger Penske 19th race win
- May 28 Surgeons complete world's first whole eyeball transplant with a partial facial transplant, for a US veteran lineman injured in an accident, at NYU Langone Health [1]
Erdoğan Re-elected
May 28 Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan re-elected after a run-off election, beating Kemal Kilicdaroglu with 52.14% of the vote, for an historic third term [1]
- May 28 TV Comedy Drama "Succession" created by Jesse Armstrong bows out after four seasons
- May 29 Canadian hiker Delaney Irving (19) wins perilous Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling in Brockworth, Glocestershire, England, despite being knocked unconscious [1]
- May 29 IPL Cricket Final, Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad: Ravinda Jadeja hits a boundary off the final ball for the Chennai Super Kings to beat the Gujarat Titans by 5 wickets; CSK 5th title
- May 30 400 leading AI industry experts sign letter warning “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” [1]
- May 30 A drone strike on Moscow is the first attack on a Russian residential neighbourhood (with no casualties) since the invasion of Ukraine began [1]
Holmes Begins Prison Sentence
May 30 Former American start-up founder Elizabeth Holmes begins her 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors with her blood-testing company Theranos [1]
- May 31 Latvia elects its Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics as President - first openly gay leader of a Baltic state [1]
- May 31 Los Angeles County jury convicts American actor Danny Masterson on two of three counts of forcible rape
- May 31 NASA panel investigating unidentified flying objects at its first open meeting highlights stigma involved in reporting sightings and lack of high-quality data (mysterious radio signals turned out to be a local microwave) [1]
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