May 1

The Battle of Tory Island, painted by Nicholas Pocock.
The Battle of Tory Island, painted by Nicholas Pocock.

The Battle of Tory Island was a naval action fought on 12 October 1798 off the north coast of Ireland. The battle contested an attempted French invasion of Donegal in support of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, with a French squadron under Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart facing a hastily assembled Royal Navy blockade squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren. Bompart's force had been dispatched from Brest the month before with orders to reinforce a French army under Jean Humbert which had landed two months earlier. Unbeknown to Bompart's force, Humbert's army and the rebellion as a whole had been defeated by the British Army a week before Bompart departed France. Bompart's squadron too was woefully understrength consisting of only a single ship of the line and eight frigates carrying 3,000 men. (Full list...)


May 5

There are 48 registered historic parks and gardens in Monmouthshire, a county and principal area of Wales. The Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales was established in 2002 and given statutory status in 2022. Sites are listed at one of three grades, matching the grading system used for listed buildings. Grade I is the highest grade, for landscapes of exceptional interest; Grade II*, the next highest, denotes parks and gardens of more than special interest; while Grade II denotes nationally important sites of special interest. Five sites in Monmouthshire are listed at Grade I, nine at Grade II*, and thirty-four at Grade II. They include two deer parks, three urban parks, a cemetery and, the most common categories, the gardens of private houses and the parklands of country estates. (Full list...)


May 8

Brillante Mendoza, who directed two Philippine submissions
Brillante Mendoza, who directed two Philippine submissions

The Philippines has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since the inception of the category in 1956. The Film Academy of the Philippines appoints a committee to choose one film among those released that year to be submitted as the Philippines's official entry to the Academy for a nomination for "Best International Feature Film" the following year. From 1956 until the establishment of the Film Academy in 1981, only four films were submitted for consideration: Child of Sorrow (1956), The Moises Padilla Story (1961), Because of a Flower (1967), and Ganito Kami Noon... Paano Kayo Ngayon? (1976). Afterwards, the Philippines submitted Of the Flesh in 1984 and This Is My Country in 1985, but made no further submissions until 1995's Harvest Home. Since then, a Filipino film has been submitted in most years. (Full list...)


May 12

Hurricane Patricia
Hurricane Patricia

The 2015 Pacific hurricane season was the second-most active Pacific hurricane season on record, and featured the strongest tropical cyclone ever observed in the Western Hemisphere: Hurricane Patricia (pictured). The 2015 season officially started on May 15 in the Eastern Pacific—east of 140°W—and on June 1 in the Central Pacific—between the International Date Line and 140°W—and ended on November 30. Throughout the season, 31 tropical depressions developed, 26 of which became tropical storms, a record-tying 16 of them reached hurricane strength, and a record-breaking 11 achieved major hurricane intensity. Activity in the Central Pacific shattered records, with 16 tropical cyclones forming in or entering the basin; the previous record was 11, set during the 1992 and 1994 seasons. Activity in the basin was boosted by the strong 2014–2016 El Niño event, which brought anomalously high sea surface temperatures and low vertical wind shear that helped the numerous systems form and intensify. (Full list...)


May 15

Paolo Rossi
Paolo Rossi

The first Italy international football player to score a hat-trick was Pietro Lana, who scored three times in a 6–2 victory against France on 15 May 1910. The highest individual score in a single match is four goals, which has been achieved by six players: Carlo Biagi, Francesco Pernigo, Omar Sívori, Alberto Orlando, Gigi Riva, and Roberto Bettega. Five players have scored a hat-trick more than once: Giuseppe Meazza, Angelo Schiavio, Silvio Piola, Riva and Paolo Rossi (pictured). The highest number of Italy hat-tricks in a single match is three, which occurred during the third-place match at the 1928 Summer Olympics, an 11–3 victory over Egypt in which Angelo Schiavio, Elvio Banchero and Mario Magnozzi each scored three goals. In the 1982 FIFA World Cup second group-stage match, Italy won 3–2 against Brazil; Rossi scored a hat-trick in the match that allowed Italy to progress to the semi-finals. (Full list...)


May 19

Telopea aspera, a waratah species
Telopea aspera, a waratah species

The basal eudicots are a group of 13 related families of flowering plants in four orders: Buxales, Proteales, Ranunculales and Trochodendrales. Like the core eudicots (the rest of the eudicots), they have pollen grains with three colpi (grooves) or other derived structures, and usually have flowers with four or five petals (sometimes multiples of four or five, sometimes reduced or fused). Unlike other eudicots, these orders sometimes have flowers with petals in twos or multiples of two. They include trees, shrubs, woody vines and herbaceous plants. Cultivars of Buxus are used for hedges and topiary, and the high-quality wood is commonly used for decorative carvings and musical instruments. The sacred lotus is the national flower of India and Vietnam, and the waratah is the floral emblem of the Australian state of New South Wales. (Full list...)


May 22

MV Galaxy, from which Radio London was transmitted
MV Galaxy, from which Radio London was transmitted

The Fab 40 number-one singles topped the playlist for the station Wonderful Radio London. Also known as Big L, Wonderful Radio London was a British pirate radio station that operated from MV Galaxy (pictured), about three and a half miles (5.6 km) out from the coast of Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. It was founded by American Don Pierson with a backing of around £500,000, and first aired shortly before Christmas 1964. The station closed on 14 August 1967 when the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act came into effect, with the last Fab 40 chart show presented the previous week by Tommy Vance. The Fab 40 had a significantly higher turnover of singles than the Record Retailer chart; it had 118 different singles top the chart between 23 January 1965 and 12 August 1967. On the Fab 40, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones each had eight number-ones, and the Hollies had seven. (Full list...)


May 26

Angkor
Angkor

Cambodia has three sites on the list of World Heritage Sites, as designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites have been nominated by signatories to the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Cambodia ratified the convention on 28 November 1991. Angkor (pictured) was listed in 1992 when the country was briefly governed by the United Nations mission after the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, in line with the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements. The site was immediately placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in order to quickly and efficiently deal with urgent problems of conservation. In 2004, Angkor was removed from the endangered list. The Temple of Preah Vihear was listed in 2008 and the Sambor Prei Kuk temple complex in 2018. (Full list...)


May 29

James Gandolfini
James Gandolfini

Eighty-six episodes of The Sopranos, an American crime drama television series created by David Chase, aired over six seasons. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfinipictured), an Italian-American mobster, as he struggles with various personal and professional obstacles. The Sopranos premiered on January 10, 1999, on HBO and concluded on June 10, 2007. Broadcast syndication followed in the United States and internationally. The first five seasons of the series each consisted of 13 episodes, while the final season consisted of twenty-one episodes aired in two parts. The series was released to widespread critical acclaim and received numerous accolades. It is often credited with ushering in the Second Golden Age of Television and is considered among the most influential series ever. (Full list...)