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Click on a red link below to add an anniversary. When creating a new page, it is best practice to use the existing formatting template to ensure uniformity. The syntax is as follows:
{{subst:Portal:Hawaii/Selected anniversaries/Template
|year=year of event
|description=description of event with links
}}
Subsequent events that took place on the same day should be added by editing the resulting page directly.
May 1 edit
May 2 edit
- 1903 - The Honolulu Symphony performs its first concert.
May 3 edit
- 1936 - The Hawaii Clipper, the third of Pan Am's seaplanes, makes its inaugural flight to the Islands and is christened on arrival.
May 4 edit
- 1951 - The world premiere of "Go For Broke", the MGM motion picture story of the exploits of members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, is held at the Waikīkī Theatre.
May 5 edit
- 1957 - Color television comes to Hawaiʻi with the introduction of the Islands' fourth TV station, KHVH.
May 6 edit
- 1919 - Maj. Harold Clark died in an airplane accident in Colon, Panama. In 1918, Clark made the first interisland airplane flight.
May 7 edit
May 8 edit
- 1819 - Kamehameha I, who conquered the Hawaiian Islands and established the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, dies. His final resting place was never discovered.
- 1951 - Oren E. Long is inaugurated governor of Hawaiʻi. He is the 10th territorial governor.
May 9 edit
- 1999 - Eight people are killed and 50 hurt when tons of boulders crash onto the pool below Sacred Falls. The pali above the pool gave way at about 2:30 p.m. on a sunny Mother's Day.
May 10 edit
- 1927 - Oʻahu's second belt road, to be created by linking the Pali-Waimānalo road at Makapuʻu, is named Kalaniana'ole Highway in honor of the memory of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole.
May 11 edit
- 2000 - President Bill Clinton upgrades the World War II decorations of 21 Asian-American heroes to the Medal of Honor, including at least 10 men from Hawaiʻi. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye was one of the 10.
May 12 edit
- 1937 - Kuluwaimaka Kapihenui Palea, who had been chief chanter of the court of Kalākaua, dies. He was nearly 100.
May 13 edit
- 1908 - Congress approves $3.1 million for a naval station at Pearl Harbor.
May 14 edit
- 1958 - James Drummond Dole, the founder of Hawaiʻi's pineapple industry, dies at the age of 80.
May 15 edit
- 1963 - Air Force Maj. Gordon Cooper, a former University of Hawaiʻi student, orbits the Earth 22 times in the last of the Mercury space missions.
May 16 edit
- 1890 - A committee formed by Oʻahu Railway and Land Company unanimously selects the name Pearl City for "the town recently laid out at ʻEwa."
May 17 edit
- 1947 - The battle-scarred former battleship Oklahoma, veteran of two world wars, sinks while being towed to Honolulu.
May 18 edit
- 1910 - The United States Court of Federal Claims finds no merit in Queen Liliʻuokalani's claim for compensation for the loss of crown lands after the overthrow. The court said the lands were the property of the Government of Hawaiʻi, whatever that form of government may be, and thus were the property of the Territory of Hawaiʻi.
May 19 edit
May 20 edit
- 1941 - Monsignor James Joseph Sweeney of San Francisco is named the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.
May 21 edit
- 1926 - Bishop Estate trustees announce plans for a $2.5 million Kamehameha Schools campus.
- 1986 - Mary Kawena Pukui, author, researcher, translator, lexicographer, genealogist, composer and dean of Hawaiian scholars, dies at the age of 91.
May 22 edit
- 1933 - In a special message to Congress, President Roosevelt requests that the law requiring the Governor of Hawaiʻi be a resident be temporarily suspended.
May 23 edit
May 24 edit
- 1883 - Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani dies at age 65.
May 25 edit
- 1999 - Fiamalu Penitani of Waiʻanae, whose ring name was Musashimaru, is promoted to yokozuna, sumo's highest rank.
May 26 edit
May 27 edit
- 1910 - Dr. Alexander Graham Bell arrives in Honolulu on the SS Makura for a one-day stopover on an around-the-world tour.
May 28 edit
- 1857 - William Little Lee, first chief justice of the Kingdom of Hawaii, dies of Tuberculosis. He was 36.
May 29 edit
- 1866 - Princess Victoria Kamamalu dies at the age of 27.
May 30 edit
- 1962 - The Arizona Memorial is dedicated.