Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show opened in London on May 9, 1887
giving Queen Victoria and her subjects their first look at a
romanticized version of the American West.

A well-known scout for the army and a buffalo hunter for the
railroads (which earned him his nickname), Cody had gained
national prominence 15 years earlier thanks to a fanciful novel
written by Edward Zane Carroll Judson. Writing under the pen
name Ned Buntline, Judson made Cody the hero of his highly sensationalized dime novel The Scouts of the Plains; or, Red
Deviltry As It Is. In 1872, Judson also convinced Cody to travel
to Chicago to star in a stage version of the book. Cody broke
with Judson after a year, but he enjoyed the life of a performer
and stayed on the stage for 11 seasons.

William Frederick Cody “Buffalo Bill” 
(February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917)

Edward Zane Carroll Judson Sr.
(March 20, 1821 – July 16, 1886)

On May 8, 1963, with the release of Dr. No, North American
moviegoers get their first look–down the barrel of a gun–
at the super-spy James Bond (codename: 007), the immortal
character created by Ian Fleming in his now-famous series
of novels and portrayed onscreen by the relatively unknown
Scottish actor Sean Connery.

Sir Sean (Thomas) Connery
(25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020)

On May 5, 1961, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. 
was launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space
capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel
into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes
and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere,
was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA).

The modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a
sighting makes local news on May 2, 1933. The newspaper
Inverness Courier relates an account of a local couple who
claim to have seen “an enormous animal rolling and plunging
on the surface.” The story of the “monster” (a moniker chosen
by the Courier editor) becomes a media phenomenon, with
London newspapers sending correspondents to Scotland and
a circus offering a 20,000 pound sterling reward for capture of
the beast.

On April 30, 1939, the New York World’s Fair opened in New
York City. The opening ceremony, which featured speeches
by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (below) and New York
Governor Herbert Lehman, ushered in the first day of
television broadcasting by RCA in New York.

 A TV camera (right) at the New York World’s Fair.