Historical Events
- May 4 Henry C Overing buys 80 acres of Throggs Neck in the Bronx
Rocky Mountains Sighted
May 26 Lewis and Clark first sight the Rocky Mountains
Famous Birthdays
- May 14 Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann, Danish Romantic composer, born in Copenhagen, Denmark (d. 1900)
Famous Deaths
William Petty (1737-1805)
May 7 2nd Earl of Shelburne, Prime Minister of Great Britain (1782-83), dies at 68
- May 9 Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, German poet and playwright, dies at 45
- May 16 Christiaan Brunings, Dutch hydraulic engineer, dies at 68
- May 25 William Paley, English philosopher and theologian (Natural Theology), dies at 61
- May 28 Luigi Boccherini, Italian cellist and composer (Minuet), dies at 62
