Historical Events
- May 22 HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage to survey Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego
Famous Birthdays
- May 3 Charles XV, King of Sweden and Norway (1859-72), born in Stockholm, Sweden (d. 1872)
- May 4 Frederick Edwin Church, American romantic landscape painter (Hudson River Sch), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1900)
- May 5 Eugénie de Montijo, Empress of France (1853-71), born in Granada, Kingdom of Spain (d. 1920)
- May 7 Varina Howell Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States (1862-65), born in Natchez, Mississippi (d. 1906)
- May 21 Danillo II, ruler of Montenegro (1851-60), born in Njeguši, Montenegro (d. 1860)
- May 22 George Parr, English cricket batsman (captain first England touring team [North America 1859], second tour [Australia & NZ 1864]), born in Radcliffe on Trent, England (d. 1891)
- May 29 Ebenezer Butterick, American inventor (tissue paper dress pattern), born in Sterling, Massachusetts (d. 1903)
