Historical Events
Music History
May 2 Gioachino Rossini's corpse transferred to Santa Croce, Florence
Celluloid Photographic Film
May 2 Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film (used in Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope)
- May 3 Nanaimo Mine Disaster: explosion in the mine kills 150 men - British Columbia's worst mine disaster [1]
- May 9 Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London
- May 11 13th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Lewis aboard Montrose wins in 2:39.25
- May 13 15th Preakness: William Donohue aboard Dunboyne wins in 2:39.25
- May 18 Emmanuel Chabrier's opera "Le roi malgré lui" (King, in spite of himself) premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris; after 3 performances the theatre burns down
- May 23 1st transcontinental train arrives in Vancouver, British Columbia
- May 24 Sultan Bargash of Zanzibar grants E African Association at East African harbors
- May 25 Gas lamp at Paris Opera catches fire; 200 die
- May 26 Racetrack betting becomes legal in NY state
Famous Birthdays
- May 1 Alan Cunningham, British general and last High Commissioner of Palestine (1945-48), born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 1983)
Eddie Collins (1887-1951)
May 2 American Baseball Hall of Fame infielder (World Series 1910, 11, 13, 17, 29, 30; AL MVP 1914; 4 x AL stolen base leader; Philadelphia A's, Chicago White Sox), born in Millerton, New York
- May 2 Vernon Castle, English-American dancer, born in Norwich, Norfolk, England (d. 1918)
- May 5 Estelle Hemsley, American actress (Take a Giant Step), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1968)
- May 5 Geoffrey Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, Archbishop of Canterbury (1945-61), born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England (d. 1972)
- May 5 Mervyn S. Bennion, United States Navy officer (Captain of USS West Virginia), WWI veteran, and Medal of Honor recipient, born in Vernon, Utah Territory (d. 1941)
- May 7 Henri Pourrat, French writer (Gaspard of the Montagnes), born in Ambert, France (d. 1959)
- May 9 Jules Van de Leene, Belgian painter, born in Ixelles, Belgium (d. 1962)
- May 10 (Jacobus) "J.C." Bloem, Dutch poet (Sintels - Embers), born in 1887, Oudshoorn, South Holland, Netherlands (d. 1966)
- May 11 Paul Wittgenstein, left handed pianist, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1961)
- May 12 Nandor Zsolt, Hungarian composer, born in Esztergom, Hungary (d. 1936)
- May 16 Bull Montana [Luigi Montagna], Italian actor (Brass Buttons, Victory, The Son of the Sheik), born in Voghera, Lombardy, Italy (d. 1950)
- May 16 Jakob van Hoddis [Hans Davidsohn], German Jewish poet (d. 1942?)
- May 18 Ernst Wiechert, German writer (The Simple Life), born in Kleinort, East Prussia (d. 1950)
- May 21 Mabel "Nell" Taliaferro, American actress (Sentimental Tommy, My Love Come Back), born in New York City (d. 1979)
- May 23 Thoralf Skolem, Norwegian mathematician (d. 1963)
- May 24 Edward "Mick" Mannock, British WWI flying ace (Victoria Cross), born in British Isles (d. 1918)
- May 25 Padre Pio, Roman Catholic saint, born in Pietrelcina, Benevento, Kingdom of Italy (d. 1968)
- May 27 Emiel van der Straeten, Flemish playwright (Sudanese legends) (d. 1918)
- May 27 Erich Kuttner, German journalist and historian (Vorwarts), born in Berlin (d. 1942)
- May 27 Frank Woolley, English cricket all-rounder (64 Tests, 5 x 100, 23 x 50, HS 154, 83 wickets, BB 7/76; Kent CCC), born in Tonbridge, England (d. 1978)
Kazimierz Fajans (1887-1975)
May 27 Polish-American physical chemist (Fajans' rules), born in Warsaw, Poland
- May 28 Hank Mann, American actor (City Lights, Smoky, Dawn Trail, Fugitive Road), born in New York City (d. 1971)
Jim Thorpe (1887-1953)
May 28 American all-round athlete (Olympic gold decathlon, pentathlon 1912; College & Pro Football Hall of Fame), born in Indian Territory, Oklahoma
- May 30 Alexander Archipenko, Ukrainian-American sculptor and lithographer, born in Kyiv, Russian Empire (d. 1964)
- May 30 Gino Tagliapietra, Italian pianist and composer (Antologia di musica antica e moderna per pianoforte), born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (d. 1954)
- May 31 Saint-John Perse [Alexis Leger], French diplomat and poet (Nobel Prize for Literature 1960), born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe (d. 1975)
Famous Deaths
- May 7 C. F. W. Walther, American Lutheran theologian (b. 1811)
- May 7 Samuel Cousins, English mezzotint engraver, dies at 85
- May 8 Alexander Ulyanov, Russian revolutionary and brother of Vladimir Lenin, hanged for the attempted assassination of tsar Alexander III at 21
- May 11 Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, French agricultural chemist (the nitrogen cycle), dies at 85
- May 14 Lysander Spooner, American philosopher (b. 1808)
- May 14 William Burnham Woods, American politician, judge, and Brevet Major General (Union Army), dies at 62
- May 23 Ludwig Mathias Lindeman, Norwegian organist, composer, musical folklorist, dies at 74
- May 27 Coenraad Johannes van Houten, Dutch chemist and cocoa manufacturer (Dutch process chocolate), dies at 86
