Historical Events
Liverpool Becomes a City
May 11 British Queen Victoria issues charter granting city status to the Borough of Liverpool
Famous Birthdays
- May 1 Conrad Weiss, German writer and poet (Tantum dic verbo) (d. 1940)
- May 6 Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside, British fieldmarshal, born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 1959)
- May 12 Lincoln Ellsworth, American polar explorer, led 1st transarctic, transantarctic flights, born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1951)
- May 14 Wilhelm List, German field marshal (d. 1971)
- May 15 Otto Dibelius, German theologist and bishop (Confessional Church), born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1967)
- May 16 Julius Tannen, American vaudeville comedian (Great Moment), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1965)
- May 17 Pascual de Rogatis, Argentine composer (Huemac; Estampas Argentinas), born in Teora, Italy (d. 1980)
- May 21 Pablo Luna, Spanish composer (De España vengo), born in Alhama de Aragón, Spain (d. 1942)
- May 21 Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967)
- May 25 Jean Alexandre Barré, French neurologist who helped identify the Guillain-Barré-Strohl syndrome, born in Nantes, France (d. 1967)
- May 29 Oswald Spengler, German historian and philosopher (Decline of West), born in Blankenburg, Duchy of Brunswick, German Empire (d. 1936)
Famous Weddings
George Eliot
May 6 British novelist Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) (60) weds Scottish banker John Cross (40) at George's, London
Robert Louis Stevenson
May 19 Novelist Robert Louis Stevenson (29) weds Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne (40) in San Francisco
Famous Deaths
- May 9 George Brown, Birtish-Canadian journalist, publisher (Toronto Globe), Premier of Canada West (Liberal: 1858) and one of the Fathers of Confederation, dies at 61 after being shot in the leg on March 25
- May 9 Johann Hermann Berens, German-born Swedish Romantic composer, dies at 54
- May 10 John Goss, British organist and composer (Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven), dies at 79
- May 16 Karl August Krebs, composer, dies at 76
- May 20 Eugene LFC prince the Ligne, Belgian prince of Ambise, dies at 76
- May 22 Heinrich von Gagern, German liberal politician, dies at 80
- May 26 John Curwen, English Congregationalist minister and founder of Tonic sol-fa music system, dies at 63
- May 31 Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés, French chemist and inventor of margarine, dies at 62
