Historical Events
- May 5 American Bible Society organized in New York
Glenarvon
May 9 Lady Caroline Lamb publishes the Gothic novel "Glenarvon", a thinly disguised account of her affair with Lord Byron which also depicts her husband William Lamb
Beau Brummell Flees
May 18 Famous dandy Beau Brummell flees to France to escape a gambling debt. He never returns, dying in France in 1840.
Kubla Khan and Christabel
May 25 Collection of poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge published by John Murray in London, including "Kubla Khan" and "Christabel"
Famous Birthdays
- May 3 Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Washington, D.C. (d. 1892)
- May 14 Gualtiero Sanelli, Italian composer, born in Parma, Duchy of Parma and Piacenza (now Italy) (d. 1861)
- May 16 Henry Hopkins Sibley, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1886)
- May 24 Emanuel Leutze, American painter (Washington Crossing the Delaware), born in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Württemberg, German Confederation (d. 1868)
- May 24 Robert Seaman Granger, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Zanesville, Ohio (d. 1894)
Famous Weddings
- May 2 Léopold (Léopold I)of Saxe-Coburg, 1st King of Belgium following independence from the Netherlands marries British Princess Charlotte Augusta
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies