Historical Events
Pottawatomie Massacre
May 24 Pottawatomie Massacre: John Brown and abolitionist settlers kill five pro-slavery settlers in Franklin County, Kansas
- May 27 Doctor William Palmer (the Rugeley Poisoner) found guilty of poisoning in Stafford, England
Famous Birthdays
Robert Peary (1856-1920)
May 6 American arctic explorer who claimed to have 1st reached geographic North Pole (Apr 6 1909), born in Cresson, Pennsylvania
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
May 6 Austrian neurologist and father of psychology, born in Freiberg, Austrian Empire
- May 13 Peter Henry Emerson, British writer and photographer (1st to promote photography as an independent art), born on La Palma Estate plantation, Cuba (d. 1936)
- May 13 Tom O'Rourke, American boxing manager (George Dixon, Barbados Joe Walcott, George Gardner, Tom Sharkey), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1938)
- May 15 (Lyman) L. Frank Baum, American children's book author (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), born in Chittenango, New York (d. 1919)
- May 20 Henri-Edmond Cross [Delacroix], French painter (Fauvism), born in Douai, France (d. 1910)
- May 25 Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, French general during WWI, born in Mostaganem, French Algeria (d. 1942)
- May 26 George Templeton Strong, American composer, born in New York City (d. 1948)
