Events in History
- May 2 Goethe visits Ettersberg (Buchenwald)
- May 10 The National Gallery in London opens to the public in its temporary home in a townhouse on Pall Mall
Historic Event
May 17 The diaries of Lord Byron are burnt by six of the poet's friends at the office of John Murray in London, sometimes described as “the greatest crime in literary history”
Birthdays in History
- May 8 William Walker, American physician and president of Nicaragua (1856-57), born in Nashville, Tennessee (d. 1860)
- May 9 William Edmonson "Grumble" Jones, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Washington County, Virginia (d. 1864)
- May 10 Charles Henry Van Wyck, American politician and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Poughkeepsie, New York (d. 1895)
- May 11 Jean-Léon Gérôme, French painter and sculptor, born in Rome, Italy (d. 1904)
- May 16 Edmund Kirby Smith, American General (Confederate Army), born in St Augustine, Florida (d. 1893)
- May 16 Levi Parsons Morton, (R) 22nd US VP (1889-93)
Ambrose Burnside
May 23 Ambrose Burnside, American soldier, industrialist and politician (Governor of Rhode Island, 1866-69) who popularized sideburns, born in Liberty, Indiana (d. 1881)
- May 29 Cadmus M. Wilcox, American Major General (Confederate Army - American Civil War), born in Wayne County, North Carolina (d. 1890)
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists