May 6 First international boxing match: Local fighter Bob Whittaker beats “The Venetian Gondolier”, Tito di Carni at James Figg's academy amphitheatre in Marylebone, London
May 12 Maria Theresa crowned Queen of Bohemia in Prague
May 17 Great Britain passes Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions
May 29 The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld in Quebec City
Famous Birthdays
May 4 Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor, born in Dax, France (d. 1799)
May 11 Victoire of France, daughter of king Louis XV (d. 1799)
Famous Deaths
May 10 Barton Booth, British actor (Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre), dies at approximately 52
May 18 Georg Böhm, German organist & composer, dies at 71
Abolitionists
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies