What Happened in May 1868

Historical Events

May 4 World's largest book, the Kuthodaw Inscription Shrines recording whole of Buddhist scriptures on 729 marble tablets completed and opened to the public in Mandalay, Burma

May 9 Anton Bruckner's 1st Symphony in C, premieres, conducted by the composer

May 9 The city of Reno, Nevada, is founded
May 14 Japanese Boshin War: end of the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle, former Shogunate forces withdraw northward to Aizu by way of Nikkō
May 15 Dutch government of Zuylen van Nijevelt falls

May 16 Bedřich Smetana's opera "Dalibor" premieres at the New Town Theatre in Prague

May 16 US Senate fails to impeach President Andrew Johnson by one vote

May 20 Republican National Convention, meets in Chicago, nominates Grant
May 22 Train robbery at Marshfield, Indiana by the Reno Brothers Gang, who make off with $98,000
May 25 Australian Aboriginal Cricket tour of England begins v Surrey Gentlemen
May 26 US President Andrew Johnson is acquitted by the Senate by one vote during his impeachment trial
May 29 Michael Obrenovich III, Prince of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade
May 30 "Decoration Day", later called Memorial Day is first observed in Northern US states
May 31 1st Memorial Day parade held in Ironton, Ohio
May 31 Dr James Moore (UK) wins 1st recorded bicycle race, (2k) velocipede race at Parc fde St Cloud, Paris

May 6 Gaston Leroux, French writer (The Phantom of the Opera), born in Paris (d. 1927)
May 7 Władysław Reymont [Rejment], Polish novelist (Chłopi (The Peasants) - Nobel Prize for Literature, 1924), born in Kobiele Wielkie, Petrokov Governorate, Congress Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) (d. 1925) [1]
May 10 Ed Barrow, American Baseball HOF manager (World Series 1918 Boston Red Sox) and executive (10 x World Series NY Yankees), born in Springfield, Illinois (d. 1953)
May 12 Halsey William Wilson, American publisher of reference books (Readers' Guide, Cumulative Book Index, Book Review Digest), born in Wilmington, Vermont (d. 1954)
May 13 Paolo Gallico, Italian-American pianist and composer (The Apocalypse), born in Trieste, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Italy) (d. 1955)

May 14 German physician and gay rights advocate, born in Kolberg, Prussia

May 17 Horace Elgin Dodge, American automobile manufacturing pioneer (co-founder of Dodge Brothers Company), born in Niles, Michigan (d. 1920)

May 18 last Tsar of Russia (1894-1917), born in Saint Petersburg, Russia

May 19 John Fillmore Hayford, American Geodesist who established the theory of isostasy and founded the modern science of geodesy (precise measurements of the shape of the earth), born in Rouses Point, New York (d. 1925)
May 24 Charles E. Taylor, American first aircraft maintenance professional, born in Cerro Gordo, Illinois (d. 1956)
May 28 Claude Anet [Jean Schopfer], French writer (Fille Perdue), born in Morges, Switzerland (d. 1931)

May 3 Olof Wilhelm Uddén, Swedish composer, dies at 68
May 7 Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, English statesman (Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, 1830-34; Slavery Abolition Act 1833). and carriage designer, dies at 89
May 10 Henry Bennett, American politician (b. 1808)
May 14 John Newton Brown, American publisher and Baptist teacher, dies at 64
May 17 Isami Kondo, Shinsengumi Commander (b. 1834)
May 19 Benjamin Guinness, Irish brewer and philanthropist, dies at 69
May 22 Julius Plucker, German mathematician/physicist (formula of P), dies

May 23 American frontiersman, Indian fighter and army officer, dies of an aortic aneurysm at 58

May 26 Michael Barrett, Irish nationalist, last British public execution
May 29 Levi Lincoln, Jr., American lawyer and 13th Governor of Massachusetts (1825-34), dies at 85
May 29 Michael Obrenovich III, Prince of Serbia (b. 1823)