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This month’s anniversaries

1 May 1873 death of David Livingstone, British explorer of Africa
1 May 1924 birth of Grégoire Kayibanda, second (first elected) president of Rwanda (1962–1973)
1 May 2008 death of Anthony Joseph Mamo, first president of Malta (1974–1976)
4 May 1827 birth of John Hanning Speke, British explorer of Africa who discovered the source of the Nile
4 May 1948 proclamation of independence of State of Israel (from British Mandate of Palestine)
5 May 1972 death of Fulbert Youlou, first president of the Republic of the Congo [Brazzaville] (1960–1963)
6 May 1879 birth of Bedřich Hrozný, Czech Assyriologist, founder of Hittitology, decipherer of Hittite language, nicknamed „Czech Champollion“
7 May 1998 death of Allan MacLeod Cormack, South African-American physicist and mathematician, recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1979
8 May 2000 death of Coutoucou Hubert Maga, first president of Dahomey, present-day Benin (1960–1963)
9 May 1874 birth of Howard Carter, British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun (4 Nov 1922)
9 May 1947 birth of Michael Levitt, American-British-Israeli biophysicist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013
9 May 1993 death of Freya Madeline Stark, British traveller in the Middle East, writer
10 May 1904 death of Henry Morton Stanley, British traveller in Africa
11 May 1996 death of Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe, first president of Nigeria (1963–1966)
12 May 1929 birth of Samuel Daniel Shafiishuna Nujoma, first president of Namibia (1990–2005)
16 May 1916 signing of secret agreement between United Kingdom and France (Mark Sykes– François Georges-Picot agreement) defining spheres of influence in Southwestern Asia
16 May 1924 birth of Dawda Kairaba Jawara, prime minister (1962–1970) and first president of the Gambia (1970–1924)
16 May 1977 death of Modibo Keita (Kéïta), first president of Mali (1960–1968)
18 May 1048 birth of Omar Khayyam, born Ghiyath ad-Din Abu'l-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrahim Khayyam Nishapuri, Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer
18 May 1933 birth of Jaroslav Oliverius, Czech Arabist and Hebraist
19 May 1881 birth of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first president of Republic of Turkey (1923–1938)
19 May 1935 death of Thomas Edward Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), British Arabist and archaeologist who in 1916 organized the Arab Revolt against Turkey
20 May 1972 creation of unitary state in Cameroon
22 May 1990 unification of North and South Yemen, creation of Republic of Yemen
24 May 1993 independence of Eritrea (from Ethiopia)
25 May  986 death of Persian astronomer ‘Abd ar-Rahman bin Omar Sufi (Azophi)
25 May 1946 independence of Jordan (from League of Nations mandate administered by United Kingdom)
25 May 1963 creation of the Organization of African Unity
25 May 1981 creation of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC)
26 May 2001 creation of the African Union
28 May 1886 birth of Jan Rypka, Czech Iranologist and Turkologist
28 May 1991 overthrow of pro-Soviet regime in Ethiopia
29 May 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Ottoman Empire, end of Byzantine Empire
29 May 1500 death of Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese explorer, the first European to sail around the southernmost tip of Africa (1488)
29 May 1970 death of Jaroslav Černý, Czech Egyptologist
30 May 2009 death of Luís Severino de Almeida Cabral, first president of Guinea-Bissau (1974–1980)
31 May 1910 creation of the Union of South Africa
31 May 1961 creation of the Republic of South Africa
31 May 2008 death of Vladimír Sadek, Czech Hebraist