May 1991

Friday 03:

The last episode of the soap opera Dallas airs.

Saturday 04:

In Rome, Italy, Carola wins the thirty-sixth Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden singing "Fångad av en stormvind" (Trapped in a storm wind).

Wednesday 15:

Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister.

Sunday 19:

Willy T. Ribbs becomes the first African-American driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

Tuesday 21:

Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.

Friday 24:

Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

Sunday 26:

Lauda Air Flight 004 explodes over rural Thailand, killing 223.

Tuesday 28:

The capital city of Addis Ababa, falls to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, ending both the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Civil War.