| 51961 | May.05 | Death | 1995 – Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player and coach (b. 1911) |
| 51962 | May.05 | Death | 1997 – Walter Gotell, German-English actor (b. 1924) |
| 51963 | May.05 | Death | 1999 – Vasilis Diamantopoulos, Greek actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1920) |
| 51964 | May.05 | Death | 2000 – Gino Bartali, Italian cyclist (b. 1914) |
| 51965 | May.05 | Death | 2000 – Bill Musselman, American basketball player and coach (b. 1940) |
| 51966 | May.05 | Death | 2001 – Morris Graves, American painter and educator (b. 1910) |
| 51967 | May.05 | Death | 2001 – Clifton Hillegass, American publisher, created CliffsNotes (b. 1918) |
| 51968 | May.05 | Death | 2002 – Hugo Banzer, Bolivian general and politician, 62nd President of Bolivia (b. 1926) |
| 51969 | May.05 | Death | 2002 – Paul Wilbur Klipsch, American engineer, founded Klipsch Audio Technologies (b. 1904) |
| 51970 | May.05 | Death | 2002 – George Sidney, American director and producer (b. 1916) |
| 51971 | May.05 | Death | 2003 – Sam Bockarie, Sierra Leonean commander (b. 1964) |
| 51972 | May.05 | Death | 2003 – Walter Sisulu, South African activist and politician (b. 1912) |
| 51973 | May.05 | Death | 2004 – Ritsuko Okazaki, Japanese singer-songwriter (Melocure) (b. 1959) |
| 51974 | May.05 | Death | 2005 – Elisabeth Fraser, American actress (b. 1920) |
| 51975 | May.05 | Death | 2005 – Édgar Ponce, Mexican actor and dancer (b. 1974) |
| 51976 | May.05 | Death | 2006 – Naushad Ali, Indian composer and producer (b. 1919) |
| 51977 | May.05 | Death | 2006 – Atıf Yılmaz, Turkish director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1925) |
| 51978 | May.05 | Death | 2007 – Theodore Harold Maiman, American-Canadian physicist and engineer, created the laser (b. 1927) |
| 51979 | May.05 | Death | 2008 – Irv Robbins, Canadian-American businessman, co-founded Baskin-Robbins (b. 1917) |
| 51980 | May.05 | Death | 2008 – Jerry Wallace, American singer and guitarist (b. 1928) |
| 51981 | May.05 | Death | 2010 – Giulietta Simionato, Italian soprano (b. 1910) |
| 51982 | May.05 | Death | 2010 – Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Nigerian academic and politician, 12th president of Nigeria (b. 1951) |
| 51983 | May.05 | Death | 2011 – Claude Choules, English-Australian soldier (b. 1901) |
| 51984 | May.05 | Death | 2011 – Yosef Merimovich, Israeli footballer and manager (b. 1924) |
| 51985 | May.05 | Death | 2011 – Dana Wynter, German-English actress (b. 1931) |
| 51986 | May.05 | Death | 2012 – Surendranath, Indian cricketer (b. 1937) |
| 51987 | May.05 | Death | 2012 – Count Carl Johan Bernadotte of Wisborg (b. 1916) |
| 51988 | May.05 | Death | 2012 – Aatos Erkko, Finnish journalist and publisher (b. 1932) |
| 51989 | May.05 | Death | 2012 – George Knobel, Dutch footballer, coach, and manager (b. 1922) |
| 51990 | May.05 | Death | 2012 – Roy Padayachie, South African lawyer and politician, South African Minister of Communications (b. 1950) |