Events in History
- May 6 Chinese Exclusion Act: US Congress ceases Chinese immigration
Historic Event
May 6 Epping Forest, England, dedicated by Queen Victoria
- May 6 Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed and killed during the Phoenix Park Murders in Dublin
- May 8 David Belasco's "La Belle Russe" premieres in NYC
- May 9 Telegraph Hill RR Co (Cable Cars) in San Francisco organized
- May 13 Toba indians kill 20 members of French expedition in Argentina, including explorer Jules Nicolas Crevaux
Historic Event
May 15 May Laws-Tsar Alexander III bans Jews from living in rural Romania
- May 20 Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy sign the Triple Alliance
Theater Premiere
May 20 Henrik Ibsen's play "Ghosts" (Gengangere) premieres in Chicago
Birthdays in History
- May 4 Wilhelm Lehmann, German writer, born in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela (d. 1968)
- May 5 Sylvia Pankhurst, English feminist and suffragette, born in Old Trafford, Manchester, England (d. 1960)
- May 6 Wilhelm, the last Crown Prince of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia, born in Marmorpalais, Potsdam, German Empire (d. 1951)
- May 7 Willem Elsschot [Alfons Josephus de Ridder], Flemish writer (Mend), born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1960)
- May 8 Philips C. Visser, Dutch explorer and diplomat
Henry J. Kaiser
May 9 Henry J. Kaiser, American ship builder and industrialist (Liberty Ships, Jeeps, Boulder Dam), born in Sprout Brook, New York (d. 1967)
- May 9 George Barker, American portrait and landscape painter, born in Omaha, Nebraska (d. 1965)
- May 13 Georges Braque, French cubist painter and sculptor (My bicycle) who helped develop Cubism with Pablo Picasso, born in Argenteuil, Val-d'Oise (d. 1963)
- May 19 Mohammed Mosaddeq, Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1967)
- May 20 Sigrid Undset, Norwegian novelist (Kristin Lavransdatter, Nobel 1928)
- May 29 Doris Ulmann, American photographer best known for her portraits of the people of Appalachia, born in NYC, New York (d. 1934)
- May 31 Sándor Graf Festetics, Hungarian nobleman and politician, born in Dég, Fejér county, Hungary (d. 1956)
Deaths in History
- May 6 Lord Frederick Cavendish, English politician who was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland in May 1882 and murdered only hours after his arrival in Dublin, dies at 45
- May 6 Thomas Henry Burke, assassinated by Fenian Invincibles, in Dublin
- May 13 Jules Nicolas Crevaux, French naval doctor and explorer (French Guiana and the Amazon), murdered at 35
- May 29 Vasily Perov, Russian painter (b. 1833)