Historical Events
- May 3 1st regular steam train passenger service starts
- May 13 Republic of Ecuador is founded, with Juan Jose Flores as president
- May 18 Edwin Budding of England signs an agreement for the manufacture of his invention, a lawn mower. Saturdays are destroyed forever
- May 20 1st railroad timetable published in newspaper (Baltimore American)
- May 20 D Hyde patents fountain pen
- May 24 "Mary Had A Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale is first published by Boston firm Marsh, Capen & Lyon
- May 24 1st regular passenger rail service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line, horse-drawn rail cars connect Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills
Trail of Tears
May 28 US President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, a key law leading to the forced removal of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes out of Georgia and surrounding states, setting the stage for the Cherokee Trail of Tears
Famous Birthdays
- May 1 Guido Gezelle, Flemish priest and poet, born in Brugge, Belgium (d. 1899)
- May 1 Mother [Mary Harris] Jones, American labor organizer (cofounded Industrial Workers of the World), born in Cork City, Ireland (d. 1930)
- May 5 John Batterson Stetson, American hat manufacturer, born in Orange, New Jersey (d. 1906)
- May 10 François-Marie Raoult, French physicist and chemist (law of Raoult), born in Fournes, France (d. 1901)
- May 11 John Converse Starkweather, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Cooperstown, New York (d. 1890)
- May 13 Zebulon Baird Vance, American politician (Senator and Governor of South Carolina 1862-65, 77-79, and Confederate officer, born in Reems Creek, North Carolina (d. 1894)
- May 14 George Pierce Doles, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1864)
- May 15 Laurence Simmons Baker, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1907)
- May 18 (Károly) "Karl" Goldmark, Hungarian-Viennese violinist and composer (Rustic Wedding Symphony; The Queen of Sheba; Sakuhtala), born in Keszthely, Kingdom of Hungary (d. 1915)
- May 20 Amalia of Saxen-Weimar-Eisenach, Dutch princess and wife of Prince Henry of the Netherlands, born in Walferdange, Luxembourg (d. 1872)
- May 20 Hector Malot, French writer (Without Family), born in La Bouille, France (d. 1907)
- May 24 Alexei Savrasov, Russian painter, born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1897)
- May 25 Jules de Geyter, Belgian poet (International), born in Lede, Belgium (d. 1905)
- May 28 Carl Filtsch, Transylvanian child piano prodigy, and composer, born in Mühlbach (Sebeș), Romania (d. 1845)
- May 28 George Lucas Hartsuff, American Major General (Union Army), born in Tyre, New York (d. 1874)
- May 30 Edward Winslow Hinks, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Bucksport, Maine (d. 1894)
Famous Deaths
- May 16 Joseph Fourier, French mathematician (mathematical theory of heat conduction) and Egyptologist, dies at 62
