Historical Events
Hires Root Beer
May 16 Pharmacist Charles E. Hires presents "Hires Root Beer" at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [1] [2]
Custer Leaves Fort Lincoln
May 17 7th US Cavalry under General George Armstrong Custer leaves Fort Lincoln
Famous Birthdays
- May 3 Bert Hopkins, Australian cricket fast bowler (20 Tests, 26 wickets), born in Young, Australia (d. 1931)
- May 3 E. B. Dwyer, Australian-born cricketer (Sussex), born in Redfern, Australia (d. 1912)
- May 10 Ivan Cankar, Slovene author, poet, novelist and playwright (Erotika, The Bailiff Yerney and His Rights), born in Vrhnika, Carniola, Austrian Empire (d. 1918)
- May 12 Harold of Schleswig-Holstein, grandson of English queen Victoria (d. 1876 dies 8 days later)
- May 13 Raoul Laparra, French composer (Alyssa), born in Bordeaux, France (d. 1943)
- May 17 Alban Collignon, Belgian sport journalist, born in Mechelen, Belgium (d. 1955)
- May 19 William King Gregory, American zoologist and paleontologist (mammalian teeth, evolutionary theory), born in Greenwich Village New York (d. 1970)
- May 20 John Owen Jones, Welsh organist, violist, and composer, born at Bryncoed, Caernarfonshire, Wales (d. 1962)
- May 26 Jack Root, Czech-American boxer (First world light heavyweight champion 1903), born in Frahelž, Bohemia, Czech Republic (d. 1963)
- May 27 Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish writer (Lenin: God of the Godless), born in Ludza, Russian Empire (d. 1945)
- May 29 Jan Ingenhoven, Dutch composer and conductor, born in Breda (d. 1951)
Famous Deaths
- May 7 Franz Graf von Pocci, German founding director of the Munich Marionette Theatre (Punch and Judy), poet, and illustrator of children's literature (Viola Tricolor: In Picture and Rhyme), dies at 69
- May 7 William Buell Sprague, American clergyman and author (b. 1795)
- May 8 Truganini, last originating Tasmanian, dies
- May 12 Georgi Benkovski, Bulgarian revolutionary, brutally killed by the Turks (b. 1843)
- May 12 Henri-François-Alphonse Esquiros, French poet and writer (Evangile du peuple), dies at 63
- May 19 Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, Dutch statesman and historian, dies at 74
- May 20 Harold of Schleswig-Holstein, grandson of English queen Victoria, dies at 8 days old
- May 20 Khristo Botev, Bulgarian poet, dies
- May 24 Henry Kingsley, English/Australian writer, dies at 46
- May 26 František Palacký, "Father of the Nation", Czech historian and politician (led Czech National Revival), dies at 77
- May 27 Joseph Bosworth, lexicographer/scholar, dies