May  

1980  Barbara Glouden is appointed Deputy of Tourism, succeeding Desmond Henry who has become Director of Tourism.

2nd
1919  The first batch of Jamaican volunteers who joined the British armed services to fight in World War I return home.

1938  St William Grant leads a crowd of about 3000 unemployed people through the streets of Kingston. He persuades a press photographer to join them and take pictures of the living conditions of the poor and unemployed.

3rd
1940  The new Holy Cross Church in Half Way Tree is consecrated and declared open by Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Emmett.

1962  The remaining appointments to the first Legislative Council of Independent Jamaica are made. These are: Edwin Allen, Vivian Blake, Rudolph Burke, Clifford Campbell, Rupert Chen See, Howard Cooke, Frederick Duhaney, Douglas Fletcher, Gerald Mair, Michael Manley, Kenneth McNeill, Joseph McPherson, Sydney Phillips, Austin Taylor, Dudley Thompson, Frank Worrell, Hector Wynter and Esme Grant as the sole woman. Hugh Shearer, Neville Ashenheim and Wilton Hill have already been appointed.

4th
1934  J Wray & Nephew ships 4000 gallons of rum to the US. This is the largest shipment of alcohol by Jamaica to the US since that country repealed Prohibition.

 5th
1937  Neville Willoughby is born in Kingston to T Newton Willoughby, solicitor, and Zena Willoughby, Legal Secretary.

1940  Eric Anthony Abrahams is born in St Andrew to businessman Eric Abrahams and his wife Lucille.

1941  The Webster Memorial United Church is inaugurated. It is named for a Scots elder who donated 1000 pounds to start the Church.

1960  Jamaica's first Drive-In Cinema is opened on Washington Boulevard in Kingston. The movie being shown is "Next to No Time".

1986  Jamaica's first female Senior Puisne Judge, Madge Morgan, is appointed.

9th
1943  Marie Elizabeth (Mitzie) Constantine is born to Bet and Violet Constantine.

10th
1942  Chinese businessmen in Kingston report to the police that they have received letters demanding that they keep £10 "to deliver to us" to avoid destruction of life and property.

1948  The last Constant Spring tram pulls into the shed on Orange St. marking the end of Kingston's tramcar service. The Rockfort route will continue for a short time longer.

1960  Merlene Ottey is born in Hanover.

1974  The Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay is declared open by newly appointed Minister of Health, Ken McNeill.

14th
1924  Delegates from Barbados, British Guiana, Trinidad, The Leeward & Winward Islands and Jamaica meet in Port of Spain, Trinidad to agree to the formation of a Cricket Board of Control for the West Indies.

1934  Acting Governor, Sir Arthur Jeff, and other officials visit the Moneague Lake in St Ann. The lake, which started rising on 15th August last year, has become a recreational spot for Jamaicans and visitors. Historical records show that the lake has risen before in 1811 and on several other occasions. This latest inundation has covered hundreds of acres of land, roads as well as 18 houses.

17th
1938 A crew of 12 men start clearing the widest part of the Palisadoes strip where the new airport for land planes is to be built.

18th
1923  Hugh Shearer is born at Martha Brae in Trelawny.

21st
1938  Eleven Frenchmen, released and set adrift from the notorious Devil's Island prison, wreck their boat south of Port Royal. The men are rescued by fishermen and the Water Police and are taken to the Salvation Army hostel while the authorities decide what to do with them.

1952  The Department of Agriculture reports the development of a new breed of dairy cattle by the young veterinarian, T P Lecky, at the Government's Experimental Farm at Hope in St Andrew. Dr Leakey hopes that this breed, a cross of Jersey and Indian, will be called "Hope Jamaica".

22nd
1938  Workers on the wharves in Kingston demand one shilling per hour and two shillings for overtime. Bustamante offers to negotiate but they decide to strike immediately. The United Fruit Company offers American sailors in port five shillings per hour to unload the ships but they refuse and, in fact, take up a contribution to help feed the striking workers.

1948 Jamaican poet and author, Claude McKay, dies in Chicago in the US at the age of 58. He was the first Jamaican poet to gain international recognition and was the first black author to write an international bestseller.

23rd
1832  Sam Sharpe is hanged at the Montego Bay Square for instigating the Christmas Rebellion of 1831. He goes to the gallows with a "firm and dignified step" dressed in an elegant white suit made for him by members of the family who owned him.

1989  Carlton Alexander, businessman and philanthropist, dies at the age of 73.

24th
1938  Alexander Bustamante is charged with sedition and inciting people to unlawful assembly. St William Grant is also charged with inciting unlawful assembly. This is in regard to the strike by dock workers in Kingston.

25th
1923  The Jamaica Public Service Company is registered and begins to supply 3,958 customers with electricity.

26th
1927  Mr Coke-Kerr, Custos of St James, throws the switches to start the power plant which will provide electricity to Montego Bay for the first time.

1936  A generating plant is installed at Seville in St Ann to provide electricity to St Ann's Bay for the first time.

28th
1930  Edward Phillip George Seaga is born in Boston, Massachusetts to Jamaican parents, Phillip George and Erna Maxwell Seaga.

1956  Peter Jeffrey Leroy Dujon is born to Leroy and Olga Dujon.

29th
1977 The huge Tom Cringle cotton tree, at Ferry in St Catherine, is completely destroyed by fire. The oldest documented tree in the Island had a diameter of 76ft.