Editing 1951 (section)

===May===
* [[May 1]] – The [[Grand Théâtre de Genève|opera house of Geneva]], Switzerland is almost destroyed in a fire.
* [[May 3]]
** King [[George VI]] opens the [[Festival of Britain]] in London, including the [[Royal Festival Hall]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/3/newsid_2481000/2481099.stm |title=King George opens Festival of Britain |work=BBC News |access-date=2008-02-03 |date=3 May 1951 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307120423/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/3/newsid_2481000/2481099.stm |archive-date=7 March 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>
** The [[U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services]] and [[U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]] begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S Truman.
* [[May 8]] – [[Operation Greenhouse]]: The first [[thermonuclear]] weapon is tested in the "George" test on [[Enewetok]] Atoll in the [[Marshall Islands]] by the United States.
* [[May 15]] – A [[military coup]] occurs in [[Bolivia]].
* [[May 23]] – The [[Tibet (1912–51)|Tibetan government]] signs the [[Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet]] with the People's Republic of China.
* [[May 24]] – Operation Greenhouse: The first atomic bomb "boosted" by the inclusion of [[tritium]] is tested in the "Item" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the United States.
* [[May 25]]–[[May 26|26]] – British spies [[Guy Burgess]] and [[Donald Maclean (spy)|Donald Maclean]] leave the United Kingdom to defect to the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite book |authorlink=Christopher Andrew (historian) |first=Christopher |last=Andrew |title=[[The Defence of the Realm]] |location=London |publisher=Penguin Books|orig-year=2009 |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-141-02330-4 |pages=425–426}}</ref>