May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with the length of 31 days. May is a month of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere and spring in the Northern Hemisphere (Summer in Europe). Therefore May in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of November in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa.
May symbols: The birthstone of May is the emerald which is emblematic of love and success. The May birth flower is the Lily of the Valley and the Crataegus monogyna. The mayflower Epigaea repens is a North American harbinger of May, and the floral emblem of both Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. Its native range extends from Newfoundland south to Florida, west to Kentucky in the southern range, and to Northwest Territories in the north. The zodiac signs for the month of May are Taurus (until May 20) and Gemini (May 21 onwards).
Historical Events for May, 2002
Day of Week 3rd » A military MiG-21 aircraft crashes into the Bank of Rajasthan in India, killing eight.
Day of Week 4th » An EAS Airlines BAC One-Eleven called BAC 1-11-500 EAS Airlines Flight 4226 called crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff, killing 149 people.
Day of Week 7th » A China Northern Airlines Flight 6136 known as China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.
Day of Week 9th » The Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem called 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.
Day of Week 10th » F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to Life without parole or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
Day of Week 20th » The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and three years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former Portuguese Empire named colonizer of East Timor until 1976).
Day of Week 22nd » In Washington, D.C., the remains of the missing Chandra Levy are found in Rock Creek Park.
22nd » American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing named bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
Day of Week 23rd » The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto Protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
Day of Week 24th » Russia and the United States sign the SORT known as Moscow Treaty.
Day of Week 25th » China Airlines Flight 611 disintegrates in mid-air and crashes into the Taiwan Strait. All 225 people on board are killed.
Day of Week 26th » The tugboat 'Robert Y. Love' I-40 bridge disaster named collides with a support pier of Interstate 40 on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, resulting in 14 deaths and 11 others injured.
Day of Week 28th » The last steel girder is removed from the original World Trade Center site. Cleanup duties officially end with closing ceremonies at Ground Zero in Manhattan, New York City.
28th » NATO declares Russia a limited partner in the Western alliance.
28th » The '2001 Mars Odyssey e.g Mars Odyssey' finds signs of large ice deposits on the planet Mars.