- May 8 Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Spanish Catholic priest, and leader of Mexican independence, born in Pénjamo, Guanajuato, Viceroyalty of New Spain (d. 1811)
Phillis Wheatley
May 8 Phillis Wheatley, American poet who was both the second published African-American poet and first published African-American woman, born in West Africa (d. 1784)
Phillis Wheatley
- May 12 Giovanni Battista Viotti, Italian violonist and composer, born in Fontanetto Po, Savoia, Kingdom of Sardinia (d. 1824)
- May 13 Lazare Carnot, French politician, engineer and mathematician known as the Organizer of Victory in the French Revolutionary Wars, born in Nolay, Côte-d'Or (d. 1823)
- May 24 Oliver Cromwell, decorated African American soldier who served with Washington in US War of Independence, born in Burlington, New Jersey
- May 31 Pierre-Victurnien Vergniaud, French politician and police leader, born in Limoges, France (d. 1793)