Historical Events
- May 5 Anti-Jewish rioting in Kyiv, Ukraine
Stanley's 1st Congo Contract
May 8 Henry Morton Stanley signs the first of many contracts with the Congolian monarch
- May 10 Lighthouse on Ameland begins operation
Music History
May 11 Bedřich Smetana's opera "Libuše" premieres iat the Natonal Theater, in Prague
Recorder of Deeds Frederick Douglass
May 17 Frederick Douglass appointed recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia
- May 17 Revised version of New Testament
American Red Cross
May 21 American Red Cross founded by Clara Barton
Famous Birthdays
- May 1 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French philosopher and paleontologist (The Phenomenon of Man), born in Orcines, Auvergne, France (d. 1955)
- May 11 Al Cabrera, Spanish-born Cuban baseball player (d. 1964)
- May 11 Jan van Gilse, Dutch composer (Frau Helga von Staveren; Thijl), conductor, and anti-Nazi resistance fighter, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1944)
- May 11 Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-born American physicist and aeronautic engineer (co-founder NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (d. 1963) [1]
- May 13 Ilona Durigo, Hungarian contralto singer, born in Budapest, Hungary (d. 1943)
Ed Walsh (1881-1959)
May 14 American baseball HOF pitcher (World Series 1906; no-hitter 1911; MLB record 1.82 career ERA; Chicago White Sox) and manager (Chicago WS 1924), born in Plains Township, Pennsylvania
- May 14 G. Murray Hulbert, American politician (d. 1950)
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938)
May 19 1st President of Turkey (1923-38) and founder of the Republic of Turkey, born in Salonica, Ottoman Empire
- May 20 Władysław Sikorski, Polish World War II general and Prime Minister of Poland in exile (1939-43), born in Tuszów Narodowy, Austria-Hungary (d. 1943)
- May 23 Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral, Portuguese aviator (1st flight across the south Atlantic), born in Celorico da Beira, Portugal (d. 1924)
- May 24 Mikuláš Schneider-Trnavský, Slovak composer, born in Trnava, Slovakia (d. 1958)
- May 27 Rudolf Pannwitz, German writer and philosopher (Urblik), born in Crossen/Oder, Province of Brandenburg, Prussia (now in Poland) (d. 1969)
- May 29 Frederik Septimus Kelly, Australian-British composer and rower (Summer Olympic gold, 1908), born in Sydney, Australia (d. 1916)
- May 30 Georg von Küchler, German field marshal and WWII war criminal, born in Schloss Philippsruh, German Empire (d. 1968)
Famous Weddings
Ivan Pavlov
May 1 Physiologist Ivan Pavlov (32) weds Seraphima Karchevskaya
Famous Deaths
- May 1 John S. Preston, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 72
- May 3 Josip Jurčič, Slovene writer (Schone Vida), dies of tuberculosis at 37
- May 11 Henri-Frédéric Amiel, Swiss writer (Journal Intime), dies at 59
- May 14 Mary Seacole, Jamaican businesswoman, author and nurse to British soldiers during Crimean War, dies at 76 [1]
- May 24 Samuel Palmer, British landscape painter and etcher (Valley of Vision), dies at 76
- May 26 Jakob Bernays, German philologist (b. 1824)