Famous Birthdays
John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865)
May 10 American stage actor and assassin of US President Abraham Lincoln, born in Bel Air, Maryland
- May 11 Walter Goodman, British painter, illustrator and author (d. 1912)
- May 20 Jules Méline, French statesman (d. 1925)
- May 24 Paul Laband, German lawyer, born in Wrocław, Poland (d. 1918)
- May 28 Basil W. Duke, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Georgetown, Kentucky (d. 1916)
- May 31 Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (Wife at University), born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England (d. 1900)
Famous Deaths
- May 12 Jędrzej Śniadecki, Polish writer, physician, chemist (creation of modern Polish terminology in the field of chemistry), dies at 69
Talleyrand (1754-1838)
May 17 French statesman, dies at 84
- May 17 René Caillié, French explorer and the first European to return alive from the town of Timbuktu, dies of tuberculosis at 38
- May 23 Jan Willem Janssens, Dutch nobleman, military officer, and Governor-General of Cape colony and Dutch-Indies, dies at 75
- May 28 Thomas Busby, English composer, dies at 82
