Historical Events
- May 3 Pierre de Marivaux's play "La Double Inconstance" premieres in Paris
Famous Birthdays
- May 11 Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist and anthropologist who studied comparative anatomy, paleontology and the facial angle, born in Leiden, Netherlands (d. 1789)
- May 21 Wilhelm Gottfried Enderle, German composer and violinist, born in Bayreuth (d. 1790)
- May 22 Johannes Schmidlin, Swiss composer, born in Zürich, Switzerland (d. 1772)
- May 29 James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, Irish politician, born in Drogheda, Louth, Ireland (d. 1773)
Famous Deaths
- May 20 Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist, dies at 52
