Historical Events
Deutsches Wörterbuch
May 1 Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm publish the first part of their German Dictionary "Deutsches Wörterbuch" (fully completed 1961)
Famous Birthdays
Calamity Jane (1852-1903)
May 1 American frontierswoman, born in Princeton, Missouri
- May 1 Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish histologist (central nervous system) and neuroscientist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1906), born in Petilla de Aragón, Navarre, Spain (d. 1934)
- May 4 Alice Liddell, English schoolgirl model for Alice in Wonderland, born in London (d. 1934)
- May 11 Charles W. Fairbanks, 26th Vice President of the United States (Republican: 1905-09) and Senator, born in Unionville Center, Ohio (d. 1918)
- May 18 Gertrude Käsebier, American pioneering photographer, born in Des Moines, Iowa (d. 1934)
- May 22 Émile Sauret, French violinist and composer, born in Dun-le-Roi, France (d. 1920)
- May 24 Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, Scottish politician, born in London (d. 1936)
- May 25 William Muldoon, American wrestler and owner of NY health institute "The Olympia", born in Caneadea, Allegany County, New York (d. 1933)
- May 27 Billy Barnes, English cricket all-rounder (21 Tests, 1 x 100, HS 134, 51 wickets, BB 6/28; Nottinghamshire CCC), born in Sutton-in-Ashfield, England (d. 1899)
- May 29 Heinrich Kàan-Albest, Bohemian pianist and composer, born in Ternopil, Austrian Empire (d. 1926)
- May 31 Francisco Moreno, Argentine explorer, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (d. 1919)
- May 31 Julius Richard Petri, German microbiologist generally credited with inventing the device known as the Petri dish, born in Barmen, Kingdom of Prussia (now part of Wuppertal, Germany) (d. 1921)
Authors
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies