| 5/1/1878 | Idlewild Park first opens. |
| 5/1/1890 | Elitch Gardens first opens to the public. |
| 5/1/1915 | Construction begins on the Jack Rabbit coaster at Luna Park, Cleveland, Ohio. |
| 5/1/1948 | The Comet Jr. roller coaster opens at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas. |
| 5/1/1988 | Standing rider thrown from SooperDooperLooper at Hersheypark. |
| 5/1/1989 | Disney-MGM Studios opens at Walt Disney World, Florida. |
| 5/1/2001 | A wooden roller coaster at Phantasialand Pleasure Park in Bruehl, Germany catches fire. 36 people are injured, none seriously. |
| 5/2/1930 | Bankrupt Luna Park, Cleveland, Ohio is sold at a Sheriff's auction to J. Harold Bramley, son of the park's president, for $72,534. Bramley expresses interest in reopening the park, but lacks the funds...and the 1929 season proves to be the last for Luna Park. |
| 5/2/1992 | Death of Nancy L. Loucks, founder, editor, and publisher of The Carousel News and Trader. |
| 5/2/1997 | 100 couples participated in a promotional stunt at Six Flags Great America. In a 7-minute ceremony, the couples, dressed in formal attire, repeated their marriage vows, then, 12 couples at a time, were hoisted 206 feet on the park's new Giant Drop ride to 'take the plunge' together at 62 mph. |
| 5/2/1998 | Roar, a wooden twister-style coaster from Great Coasters International (GCI) opens at Adventure World, Largo, MD. |
| 5/3/1975 | Kings Dominion opens, Doswell, Virginia. |
| 5/4/1969 | Thousands of rioters roam through Fontaine Ferry Park, Louisville, Kentucky, looting stands and injuring employees. |
| 5/4/2000 | Press day for The Legend, a wood coaster from Custom Coasters International located at Holiday World, Santa Claus, Indiana. |
| 5/5/1911 | Birth in Los Angeles, California of Dave Bradley, co-founder of amusement ride manufacturing company Bradley & Kaye. |
| 5/5/1990 | Avalanche Run, an Intamin bobsled coaster, re-opens as Disaster Transport at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio |
| 5/5/2000 | Holiday World, Santa Claus, Indiana, uses its annual Stark Raven Mad roller coaster riding event to give coaster enthusiasts a preview of their new wooden roller coaster, The Legend. |
| 5/6/1950 | High winds damage the roller coaster at Dandelion Park, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. |
| 5/6/1989 | The non-looping steel Magnum XL-200, designed by Arrow Dynamics, and the world's first traditional coaster to exceed 200 feet in height first opens at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio. |
| 5/6/1995 | The Raven, designed by Custom Coasters, Inc., opens at Holiday World. |
| 5/6/2000 | The Legend, designed by Custom Coasters, officially opens at Holiday World, Santa Claus, Indiana. |
| 5/6/2000 | Participants in a company buy-out outing at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio, are the first paying customers to ride Millennium Force, the Intamin-designed 310-foot-tall 'giga-coaster'. |
| 5/7/1950 | The Hershey Park Zoo reopened for the first time since its closure during World War II. |
| 5/7/1972 | Carrousel Circle at Hersheypark is dedicated, signalling a re-birth of the park. |
| 5/7/1994 | Raptor, designed by Bolliger & Mabillard, opens at Cedar Point. |
| 5/7/2001 | Cedar Fair, L. P. announces plans to purchase Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park, Muskegon, Michigan. |
| 5/7/2001 | William C. Deem, Chief Engineer for 51 years at the Eli Bridge Company, dies at the age of 76. Along with Lee Sullivan, he designed the Scrambler and trailer-mounted Big Eli Ferris wheels. |
| 5/8/1919 | Death of LaMarcus A. Thompson. |
| 5/8/1975 | The antique carousel from Natatorium Park reopened at Spokane, Washington's Riverfront Park. |
| 5/9/1992 | Batman: The Ride, designed by Bolliger & Mabillard, opens at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. |
| 5/10/1915 | Luna Park, Cleveland, Ohio, takes delivery of its PTC carousel. After Luna Park closed, the carousel moved to another park, then eventually ended up at Six Flags over Mid America (Six Flags St. Louis) where it still operates today. |
| 5/10/1968 | Riverview Park fails to open. |
| 5/10/1991 | Crossroads Village, Flint, Michigan, opens its restored C. W. Parker Superior Wheel ride. |
| 5/10/1998 | The Power Tower, a 300-foot-tall cluster of two Space Shot rides and two Turbo Drop rides from S&S Sports Power, officially opens at Cedar Point. |
| 5/11/1902 | S.S. Columbia (Boblo Island ferry) launched from the Wyandotte Yard of the Detroit Shipbuilding Company. |
| 5/11/1906 | George Ferris' Wheel dynamited in St. Louis, Missouri. |
| 5/11/1921 | The Pippin roller coaster at Riverview Park (Chicago, Illinois) carries its first passengers. |
| 5/11/1984 | Eight teenagers burned to death in the Haunted Castle attraction at Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, New Jersey. When he entered a room in which the light had burned out, a boy lit a cigarette lighter and accidentally ignited the highly-flammable structure, which burned quickly. |
| 5/11/1991 | Mean Streak, designed by Curtis Summers, opens at Cedar Point. |
| 5/11/1991 | The Sidewinder, a Vekoma "Boomerang" production steel coaster, opens at Hersheypark, Hershey, Pennsylvania. |
| 5/11/1992 | Death of coaster designer Curtis D. Summers. |
| 5/11/1996 | Mantis (The Coaster Formerly Known as Banshee) opens at Cedar Point as the World's Tallest, Steepest, and Fastest Stand-Up Roller Coaster. |
| 5/11/1996 | Wild Thing, the first steel coaster produced by Morgan Manufacturing, officially opens at Valleyfair!, Shakopee, Minnesota. |
| 5/11/1999 | The Silver Comet coaster is completed at Martin's Fantasy Island, Grand Island, New York. |
| 5/11/2000 | Press day for Millennium Force at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio. |
| 5/12/1967 | Opening day of the final season for Riverview |
| 5/12/1991 | The Dragon roller coaster opens at Adventureland, near Des Moines, Iowa. |
| 5/12/1994 | The Pepsi Max Big One opens to the press at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. |
| 5/12/2001 | Singer Perry Como dies at the age of 88 at his home in Jupiter Inlet Beach Colony, Florida. Como's career included a stint at Conneaut Lake. |
| 5/13/1997 | Plagued by technical problems, Test Track misses its scheduled opening date at Epcot, Walt Disney World. |
| 5/13/2000 | Millennium Force, the first steel coaster to feature a 300-foot first drop, officially opens to the public at Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio. Built by Intamin AG, the ride is 310 feet tall and reaches speeds of 92 MPH. |
| 5/14/1904 | Dreamland Park opens, Coney Island, Brooklyn, |
| 5/14/1999 | Press day for the new Intamin mega-coaster, Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags Darien Lake, Darien Center, New York. |
| 5/15/1932 | Fire destroys several attractions at Central Park near Allentown, Pennsylvania. |
| 5/15/1993 | Wild Mouse, designed by Vekoma, opens at Idlewild Park in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. |
| 5/15/1999 | Intamin's first Mega-Coaster, Superman: Ride of Steel opens to the public at Six Flags Darien Lake, Darien Center, New York. |
| 5/16/1903 | Thompson and Dundy's Luna Park opens on Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, to a crowd of 43,000 customers. |
| 5/16/1905 | Birth of actor Henry Fonda. Fonda appeared in more than 100 films, and appears here for playing Simon Davenport in the 1977 film Rollercoaster. |
| 5/16/1964 | Lake Contrary Park, St. Joseph, Missouri, is auctioned. |
| 5/16/1975 | Busch Gardens: The Old Country (now Busch Gardens Williamsburg) first opens, Williamsburg, Virginia. |
| 5/16/1996 | Montu, a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted coaster, officially opens at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. |
| 5/17/1903 | The Zoological Gardens opens at Olentangy Park, Columbus, Ohio. It's the first permanent zoo in Columbus. |
| 5/17/1940 | The Cyclone roller coaster opens at Lakeside Park (Denver, colorado). |
| 5/18/1905 | Luna Park opens, Cleveland, Ohio. |
| 5/18/1912 | Birth of singer Perry Como. Before his musical career, he was a barber at the Conneaut Lake Park hotel...which is why he is included here. |
| 5/18/1924 | The wooden roller coaster at Dorney Park (Allentown, Pennsylvania) opens. The coaster was nameless for decades, but is now known as the Thunderhawk. |
| 5/18/2001 | Phantom's Revenge opens at Kennywood. Using parts of the Steel Phantom roller coaster (1991-2000), the new ride carries on the tradition of reworking rides that Kennywood made famous with their Thunderbolt. |
| 5/18/2001 | Cornball Express, a steel-structured wood coaster from CCI, opens at Indiana Beach, Monticello, Indiana. |
| 5/19/1852 | Birth of Dudley Sherman Humphrey II (1852-1933), president, Euclid Beach Park. |
| 5/19/1906 | Wolff's Park opens, Detroit, Michigan. |
| 5/20/1907 | New Lakeside Park Casino opened, Akron, Ohio. |
| 5/20/1917 | A windstorm damages several buildings and the Dixie Flyer roller coaster, delaying the scheduled opening of Summit Beach Park, Akron, Ohio. |
| 5/20/1963 | Dutch Wonderland first opens. Lancaster, PA. |
| 5/20/1985 | Death of Carl E. Henninger, Kennywood Park's Chairman of the Board. |
| 5/20/1995 | The Mind Eraser (Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster) opens at Adventure World. |
| 5/21/1907 | Birth of John Allen (1907-1979), an influential coaster designer, especially for PTC. |
| 5/22/1948 | Crystal Beach Comet (now at Great Escape) first opens. |
| 5/22/1984 | A car on The Edge (Intamin Freefall) at Six Flags Great America broke loose from the lifting mechanism and dropped about 60 feet. The three passengers, eighth-grade boys from LaSalle, IL, were hospitalized for five days with relatively minor injuries. |
| 5/22/1992 | Fire destroys engineering section of Vekoma |
| 5/22/1997 | Low-speed launch tests begin on Mr. Freeze, a Premier Rides shuttle-loop magnetic-catapult coaster at Six Flags over Texas. |
| 5/23/1900 | William E. Sullivan opens his first ferris wheel, a 45-foot 12-seat model fabricated under contract by the Illinois Bridge and Machine Company, Jacksonville, Illinois. Operation license posted in the name of "The Eli Bridge Co." |
| 5/23/1906 | West View Park first opens in West View, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh). |
| 5/23/1964 | Blue Streak (Allen/Hoover/PTC) opens, Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio. |
| 5/23/1981 | American Eagle opens at Great America, Gurnee, Illinois. |
| 5/23/1981 | Canada's Wonderland opens in Vaughan, Ontario. |
| 5/23/1986 | Lakemont Park (Altoona, Pennsylvania) re-opens as Boyertown, USA. |
| 5/23/1987 | Six passengers were injured when they bailed out of their capsizing raft on Canyon River Rapids at Hersheypark. Two rafts had jammed together then a third ran into them. The ride was closed for nearly two weeks while that section of the trough was modified. |
| 5/23/1987 | Kentucky Kingdom opens in Louisville, Kentucky. |
| 5/23/1998 | Shivering Timbers, a huge out-and-back wood coaster from CCI, opens at Michigan's Adventure, Muskegon, Michigan. |
| 5/23/1998 | Great Bear, an inverted steel coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard, opens at Hersheypark, Hershey, Pennsylvania. |
| 5/23/1998 | Visionland amusement park opens in Birmingham, Alabama. |
| 5/23/1998 | Rampage, a CCI-built wooden roller coaster, opens at Visionland, Birmingham, Alabama. |
| 5/23/2000 | The Eli Bridge Company, builder of Ferris wheels and Scrambler rides, celebrates its 100th Anniversary with a day-long party in its hometown of Jacksonville, Illinois. In honor of the occasion, the company offered Ferris wheel rides for a nickel...the admission price for William Sullivan's first wheel. |
| 5/24/1911 | Dreamland Park destroyed by fire. |
| 5/24/1984 | Patrick Camp, age 5, falls from the Cedar Creek Mine Ride at Cedar Point, and fractures his skull in the resulting 30' fall to grass. |
| 5/24/2001 | After more than 40 years of designing theme parks, the Duell Corporation files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Its final project was Bonfante Gardens in Gilroy, California. |
| 5/25/1968 | Inaugural performance in Cedar Point's Golden Palace Theatre. |
| 5/26/1928 | Fred Church's Aero-Plane Coaster opens at Playland, Rye, New York. |
| 5/26/1939 | Baron Stamp, Chairman of the L.M.S. Railway, officially opens the new Casino (now known as The Wonderful World) at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Designed by Joe Emberton, the new Casino replaces the original, which was constructed in 1913. |
| 5/26/1973 | Worlds of Fun opens in Kansas City, Missouri. |
| 5/26/1985 | In an accident at Astroland Amusement Park on Coney Island, New York, a twenty-nine year old man was killed when he stood up and struck his head on a crossbeam while riding the Cyclone. |
| 5/26/2001 | X-Flight, a Vekoma "Flying Dutchman" roller coaster that carries riders in a nearly-prone position, opens to the public at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, the amusement park at Geauga Lake, Aurora, Ohio. |
| 5/27/1905 | White City, Chicago, Illinois opens. |
| 5/27/1911 | Coney Island's Dreamland Park burns to the ground. |
| 5/27/1933 | The Century of Progress exposition opens in Chicago, Illinois. The amusement rides included a Cyclone roller coaster designed by Harry Traver. |
| 5/27/1973 | The Sky Streak roller coaster opens at Boblo Island as the Thunder Bolt. |
| 5/27/1977 | Space Mountain opens at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. |
| 5/27/1993 | Pleasure Island Theme Park opens in Cleethorpes, England. |
| 5/27/1994 | Hoosier Hurricane, a steel-structured wood coaster built by Custom Coasters, Inc. (CCI) opens at Indiana Beach, Monticello, Indiana. |
| 5/28/1899 | Akron, Ohio police raid the Casino at Lakeside Park after a Sunday vaudeville performance. |
| 5/28/1906 | Electric Park, Detroit, Michigan, opens, two days later than planned. |
| 5/28/1906 | Luna Park opens in Scranton, Pennsylvania. |
| 5/28/1982 | Kings Island begins running one side of the Racer (1972: John Allen/PTC) backwards. |
| 5/28/1988 | The carousel and bumper cars at Americana Amusement Park (Middletown, Ohio) are destroyed by fire. |
| 5/28/1994 | The 235-foot-high Pepsi Max Big One opens to the public. 1,000 members of the 235 Club each paid 18 pounds for a guaranteed first-day ride. |
| 5/29/1909 | Trout Park opens in Elgin, Illinois. |
| 5/29/1926 | The Amusement Department Store opens at Coney Island, New York. |
| 5/29/1976 | Great America opens in Gurnee Illinois. |
| 5/29/1976 | Great America(PGA) opens, Santa Clara, California. |
| 5/29/1993 | Blue Streak, designed by Ed Vettel, Sr., rededicated at Conneaut Lake. |
| 5/30/1906 | Wonderland Park opens, Revere Beach, Massachusets. |
| 5/30/1908 | Lakeside Park (Denver, Colorado) opens. At the time, it was known as "White City." |
| 5/30/1921 | Weona Park opens in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania. |
| 5/30/1924 | The Pippin roller coaster opens at Wildwood Amusement Park, Mahtomedi, Minnesota. |
| 5/30/1927 | Will Rogers performs at Hershey Park. |
| 5/30/1929 | Two people sustained minor injuries when two trains on the Hershey Park Wild Cat collided. A loose rail had stalled one train at the top of a hill. |
| 5/30/1930 | Cyclone Racer (Church/Traver) opens at The Pike in Long Beach, CA. |
| 5/30/1938 | Amos Wiedrich is killed on the Crystal Beach Cyclone, that legendary coaster's only fatality. |
| 5/30/1972 | An accident occurs on the Big Dipper at Battersea in London, England. A train broke loose and rolled backwards down the lift, colliding with a train in the station. Five children were killed, numerous other riders were injured. |
| 5/30/1992 | Arkansas Twister opens at Magic Springs. |
| 5/30/1998 | The Island Kingdom waterpark opens at Riverside Park, Agawam, Massachusetts. |
| 5/31/1930 | Birth of Ron Toomer, who will be a noted roller coaster designer and eventually president of Arrow Dynamics until his retirement in 1998. |
| 5/31/1983 | The Extremeroller (also known as E.X.T.) opens at Worlds of Fun as North America's first stand-up roller coaster. |
The Roller Coaster Rollback is maintained by Dave Althoff, Jr. (a.k.a.,
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