Historical Events
- May 10 Hong Kong government declares port is infected with the plague. The outbreak will go on to kill 20,489 over 29 years.
- May 11 American RR Union strikes Pullman Sleeping Car Co
- May 12 Ludwig Englander's musical "Passing Show" premieres in NYC
- May 14 Fire in Boston bleachers spreads to 170 adjoining buildings
- May 15 20th Kentucky Derby: Frank Goodale aboard Chant wins in 2:41
- May 16 Fire in Boston destroys the South End Grounds baseball stadium and 200 other buildings
- May 17 19th Preakness: Fred Taral aboard Assignee wins in 1:49.25
- May 21 22-year-old French Anarchist Émile Henry is executed by guillotine. His last words were reputed to be "Courage, camarades! Vive l'anarchie!"
- May 22 American inventor Augustine Sackett is granted a patent for Sackett Board, the prototype for drywall (U.S. Patent No. 520,123)
- May 23 William Love hosts groundbreaking ceremonies for Love Canal
Lowell Observatory Views Mars
May 24 Lowell Observatory, Arizona, first begins observations of Mars with an eighteen-inch telescope, leads its builder Percival Lowell to conclude there are canals on Mars
- May 26 German Emanuel Lasker becomes undisputed World Chess Champion by beating Austrian-American defending titleholder Wilhelm Steinitz, 10-5 (4 draws) in Montreal, Canada
- May 30 Boston Beaneaters baseball second baseman Bobby Lowe first to hit 4 home runs in MLB game in 20-11 win against Cincinnati Reds
Famous Birthdays
- May 1 Florimond Cornellie, Belgian sailor (Olympic gold 6-metre class 1920), born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1978)
- May 2 Norma Talmadge, American silent screen actress (Sign on Door, Camille), born in Jersey City, New Jersey (d. 1957)
- May 5 Kit Guard, Danish actor (El Diablo Rides, Kid Courageous), born in Hals, Denmark (d. 1961)
- May 6 Filip Lazar, Romanian composer, born in Craiova (d. 1936)
- May 10 Dimitri Tiomkin, Russian-American film score composer(Academy Award, 1954 - High & Mighty; Wild Is The Wind), and conductor, born in Kremenchuk, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) (d. 1979)
- May 11 Anton Mussert, Dutch fascist (co-founded the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands), born in Werkendam, Netherlands (d. 1946)
- May 11 Martha Graham, American choreographer (Appalachian Spring), Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania (d. 1991)
- May 12 Cleo Ridgely, American silent screen actress (I Remember Mama), born in New York City (d. 1962)
- May 12 Donald Knight, English cricket batsman (2 Tests; Surrey CCC, Oxford University CC), born in Sutton, England (d. 1960)
- May 13 Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, 2nd President of Iceland (d. 1972)
- May 18 Lou Hooper, Canadian jazz pianist, and educator, born in North Buxton, Ontario (d. 1977)
- May 20 Adela Rogers St John "The World's Greatest Girl Reporter", American journalist, screenwriter and author (Foreign Correspondent), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 1988)
- May 20 Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Indian Hindu sage, Jivanmukta (d. 1994)
- May 25 Dirk Vansina, Flemish playwright (Verschaeve Gives Evidence), born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1967)
- May 27 Dashiell Hammett, American detective novelist (Sam Spade, Maltese Falcon), born in St. Mary's County, Maryland (d. 1961)
- May 27 Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (Die Nacht), born in Courbevoie, Seine, France (d. 1961)
- May 28 Sammy White, American comedian and actor (711 Ocean Drive, Sound Off), born in Providence, Rhode Island (d. 1960)
- May 29 Beatrice Lillie, Canadian comedian and actress (Around World in 80 Days), born in Toronto, Ontario (d. 1989)
- May 29 Josef von Sternberg, Austrian-American director (Der blaue Engel), born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (d. 1969)
- May 30 Hubertus van Mook, Dutch colonial administrator (Acting Governor General of the Dutch East Indies 1942-48), born in n Semarang in Central Java (d. 1965)
Fred Allen (1894-1956)
May 31 American comedian (Fred Allen Radio Show), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Famous Weddings
- May 28 Belgium Princess Josephine marries Prince Karl von Hohenzollern
Famous Deaths
- May 8 Clara Fey, German Roman Catholic Nun and the founder of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus, dies at 79
- May 21 August Kundt, German physicist, (sound vibration, test of Kundt), dies at 54
- May 21 Emile Henry, French anarchist (b. 1872)
- May 24 William Joseph Westbrook, British organist and sacred music composer, dies at 63
