John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865)
May 10 American stage actor and assassin of US President Abraham Lincoln, born in Bel Air, Maryland
- May 11 Walter Goodman, British painter, illustrator and author (d. 1912)
- May 20 Jules Méline, French statesman (d. 1925)
- May 24 Paul Laband, German lawyer, born in Wrocław, Poland (d. 1918)
- May 28 Basil W. Duke, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Georgetown, Kentucky (d. 1916)
- May 31 Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (Wife at University), born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England (d. 1900)