On This Day

May 1854 in History

Events in History

  • May 1 Amsterdam begins transferring drinking water out of the dunes
  • May 5 British Commodore James Plumridge attacks Finnish settlements in Gulf of Bothnia, killing civilans and destroying British-owned goods.

Event of interestEvent of Interest

May 21 Frederic Mistral, Joseph Roumanille, and five other Provencal poets found Félibrige, a literary and cultural association

Provencal Poet Frederic Mistral
Provencal Poet
Frederic Mistral
  • May 24 Escaped slave Anthony Burns is arrested by US Deputy marshals in Boston under the Fugitive Slave Act
  • May 27 Marine Telegraph from Fort Point to San Francisco completed
  • May 30 Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals Missouri Compromise creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska

Birthdays in History

  • May 11 Ottmar Mergenthaler, Hachtel Germany, inventor (linotype)
  • May 24 Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, admiral (WWI), born in Graz, Austrian Empire (d. 1921)
  • May 24 John Riley Banister, American law officer and cowboy, born in Banister Hollow, Camden County, Missouri (d. 1918)
  • May 27 Georges Eekhoud, Belgian writer (Jeune Belgium), born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1927)