May 1 - The Coca-Cola Company introduces its first diet drink, Tab cola.

May 2 - Thousands of African Americans, many of them children, are arrested while protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor later unleashes fire hoses and police dogs on the demonstrators. - Berthold Seliger launches near Cuxhaven a 3 stage rocket with a maximum flight altitude of more than 62 miles (the only sounding rocket developed in Germany).

May 4 - The Le Monde Theater fire in Dioirbel, Senegal kills 64.

May 8 - Dr. No, the first James Bond film, is shown in U.S. theaters.

May 13 - A smallpox outbreak hits Stockholm, Sweden, lasting until July.

May 14 - Kuwait becomes the 111th member of the United Nations.

May 15 - Project Mercury: NASA launches Gordon Cooper on Mercury-Atlas 9, the last mission (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb tells Congress the program is complete).

May 23 - Fidel Castro visits the Soviet Union.

May 25 - The Organisation of African Unity is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

May 27 - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's second studio album, and most influential, opening with the song "Blowin' in the Wind", released by Columbia Records. (source: Wikipedia)