The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy radio series written by Douglas Adams and first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. The serial follows the adventures of Englishman Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien who writes for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an intergalactic encyclopedia and travelogue. After Earth is destroyed in the first episode, Dent and Ford find themselves aboard a stolen spaceship piloted by a motley crew including Zaphod Beeblebrox (Ford's semi-cousin and Galactic President), a depressed robot called Marvin and an Earth woman calling herself Trillian, who is the only other surviving human being. A second series was transmitted in 1980 and the first series was adapted for television. This in turn was followed by five novels, a computer game and several other adaptations. Before his death in May 2001, Adams considered writing a third radio series based on his novel Life, the Universe and Everything. Dirk Maggs eventually directed and co-produced radio series adaptations of that novel, as well as So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless in 2004–05. (more...)

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• Iceland's Grímsvötn volcano erupts, causing flight cancellations in northern Europe.
• The Democratic Rally, led by Nicos Anastasiades (pictured), win a plurality after an election in Cyprus.
• PNS Mehran, a Pakistani naval base in Karachi, is attacked by militants.
• At least 117 people are killed by a tornado, the United States' deadliest since 1936, in Joplin, Missouri.
• Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life wins the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
• Protests against the government continue in cities across Spain, despite a ban before elections.
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May 25: National Day in Argentina (1810); Independence Day in Jordan (1946); Liberation Day in Lebanon (2000) and in various African countries (1963)

• 1810 – The Primera Junta, the first independent government in Argentina, was established in an open cabildo in Buenos Aires (pictured), marking the end of the May Revolution.
• 1895 – The Republic of Formosa was inaugurated in Taiwan, proclaiming independence from Qing China.
• 1977 – Star Wars, a science fantasy film written and directed by George Lucas, was released, becoming one of the most successful films of all time.
• 2000 – Israel withdrew its army from most of Lebanese territory, 22 years after its first invasion in 1978.
• 2002 – China Airlines Flight 611 crashed in the Taiwan Strait after breaking up in mid-air, killing all 225 people on board.

More anniversaries: May 24 – May 25 – May 26