Major news events of the year

May 2006

A record 35,000 people participated in the May 6, OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon. Sam Riche / The Star

May 1 - A small crowd gathered outside St Mary Catholic Church in downtown Indianapolis to observe "A Day Without Immigrants". Nationally, more than one million immigrants and their supporters participated.

May 1 - Simon Property Group announced plans for the former L.S. Ayres store locations in the Greenwood Park and Castleton Square malls with new tenants to operate in an open-air environment.

May 2 - In primary voting, Indiana Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton lost the legislative seat he had held for 36 years.

May 3 - After seven days of deliberation, Zacharias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the SEPT 11 TERRORIST ATTACKS. The government had asked for the death penalty.

May 3 - The nation's largest beverage companies agreed to remove sugary soft drinks from school vending machines.

May 3 - Sgt. Joseph Proctor, Indianapolis, a husband and father of three, was the latest Indiana soldier KILLED IN IRAQ.

May 4 - FedEx announced a $214 million expansion at the Indianapolis International Airport that would create 800 new jobs.

May 4 - The INDIANA PACERS season ended with a 96-90 loss to New Jersey. The Nets took the first round playoff series four games to two.

May 4 - ELI LILLY AND CO., lost a patent infringement lawsuit involving Evista and Xigris and was told to hand over $65 million and a share of future sales to Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technolgy.

May 5 - CIA director Porter Goss resigned abruptly after just 19 months in the job.

May 6 - The OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon was won by Kenyan Ben Kimondiu and Lucie Mays-Sulewski of Westfield, Ind. Mays-Sulewski was the first American woman to win since 1993.

May 6 - Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby by 6 1/2 lengths - the largest winning margin since 1946.

May 8 - Jeff Smulyan, Chairman and CEO of Emmis Communications Corp., made a $567 million bid to take his company private after more than 10 years of being publicly traded.

May 9 - The Census Bureau reported that one in every three residents was a racial or ethnic minority. Hispanics, the largest minority at 42.7 million, accounted for more than half of the nation's population growth in 2005.

May 9 - A program to allow cameras in eight trial courts in Indiana was announced by Randall Shepard, Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. The 18-month pilot program was to evaluate whether or not cameras are disruptive.

May 11 - It was revealed that the National Security Agency had, since shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, been secretly collecting the phone records of millions of Americans.

May 11 - A report by the Indiana Department of Child Services found that fifty-seven children died from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005, as a result of abuse or neglect.

May 11 - Lance Cpl. David Grames Sanchez, 22, Fort Wayne, and three other soldiers, DIED IN IRAQ when their vehicle rolled into a canal.

May 12 - Heather Bolejack, director of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, and her deputy, Katalina Gullans, were fired in connection with an ethics investigation that cited improper spending and the altering of records.

May 14 - For the first time since 1983, the entire opening weekend of qualifications for the Indianapolis 500 was rained out.

May 15 - In a national address, President Bush announced that he was sending 6,000 National Guard troops to help secure the U.S. border with Mexico.

May 15 - U.S. officials announced that full diplomatic relations would be re-established with Libya and that it would be removed from the list of sponsors of terrorism.

The grand opening of the Conrad Hotel in Downtown Indianapolis featured the Vienna City Ballet. Frank Espich / The Star

May 16 - Honda Motor Co. executives announced that Indiana was one of several U.S. states in the running for a new plant that would make the Civic and Fit and employ 1,500 people.

May 16 - A grand opening celebration was held for the new Conrad Hotel in Downtown Indianapolis featuring the Lipizzaner Stallions and the Vienna City Ballet.

May 17 - Statistics released by the Indiana Department of Health showed that Indiana residents were backsliding when it came to smoking and obesity. In 2005, the number of obese Hoosiers rose to 27.2 percent and the percent who smoked rose to 27.3.

May 18 - Ron Zimmerman, 37, Glenwood, Ind., died in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. He worked for DynCorp International.

May 19 - About half of Indiana's schools failed to meet yearly progress requirements set by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. In Indianapolis, 43 of the districts' 79 public schools failed and were placed on a warning list.

May 20 - Qualifications for the Indianapolis 500 were held, one week late because of rain, and Sam Hornish Jr. won the pole position with a speed of 228.985.

May 20 - In a runoff election, Ray Nagin was narrowly re-elected mayor of New Orleans.

May 22 - John Travis Clark, 23, was arrested for trying to extort $9 million from Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds by threatening to expose him as his father - which Edmonds adamantly denied.

May 22 - Cedar Fair, which owns Cedar Point & Soak City as well as six other amusement parks, bought Paramount Parks - owner of Kings Island, for $1.24 billion.

May 23 - RATIO Architects was chosen to design the $275 million Indianapolis Convention Center expansion.

May 23 - In a major defeat for Fishers, the Noblesville City Council unanimously rejected a proposal that Metropolitan Airport be relocated to Noblesville to allow for new development.

May 23 - In an audiotape, Osama bin Laden said convicted terrorist Zacharias Moussaoui had no connection to the SEPT 11 TERRORIST ATTACKS.

May 25 - Former Enron Corp. officials Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted of multiple counts of conspiracy and fraud in connection with the collapse of the company.

May 25 - The NCAA announced sanctions against Indiana University basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, barring him from taking recruiting trips or calling recruits for a year for deliberate noncompliance with rules while coaching at the University of Oklahoma.

May 26 - Former Indiana truck driver, Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban was sentenced to 13 years in prison and the loss of his U.S. citizenship for conspiracy to sell information to Iraq.

Sam Hornish Jr. poses after winning the 2006 Indianapolis 500. Matt Detrich / The Star

May 27 - An earthquake measuring 6.3 killed more than 6,000 people in Indonesia.

May 28 - Sam Hornish Jr. won the second-closest INDIANAPOLIS 500 in history, finishing 0.0635 seconds ahead of rookie Marco Andretti.

May 30 - Less than a month after Marsh Supermarkets agreed to an $88 million acquisition bid by Sun Capital Partners, Drawbridge Special Opportunities Advisors and Cardinal Paragon Inc. made a joint offer nearly 23 percent higher than the earlier bid.

May 30 - Washington D.C. area sniper John Allen Muhammad was convicted on six additional counts of murder, this time in Maryland. He had previously been sentenced to death in Virginia.

May 30 - After following what they felt was a credible tip, the FBI admitted that an intensive two-week search in which they dug up a suburban Detroit horse farm, once again, turned up no trace of the remains of Jimmy Hoffa.

May 30 - Henry M. Paulson, CEO of Goldman Sachs, was chosen by President Bush to replace John Snow as Secretary of the Treasury.

May 31 - Nearly five weeks after an accident on I-69 near Marion, Ind. killed five people, it was discovered that the identities of two Taylor University students had been switched and it was Laura VanRyn who died in the accident, not Whitney Cerak.