Clyde Fitch (1865-1909)
May 2 American playwright (Nathan Hale, The Girl with the Green Eyes), born in Elmira, New York [1]
- May 5 Felicjan Szopski, Polish composer, born in Krzeszowice, Poland (d. 1939)
Nellie Bly (1865-1922)
May 5 American journalist and writer (Ten Days in a Mad House), born in Cochran’s Mills, Pennsylvania
- May 9 August de Boeck, Flemish composer, born in Merchtem, Belgium (d. 1937)
- May 15 Albert Verwey, Dutch poet and literary historian (Motion), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1937)
- May 22 Enric Morera i Viura, Spanish musician and composer, born in Barcelona (d. 1942)
- May 23 Epitácio Pessoa, 11th President of Brazil (Minas Gerais Republican: 1919-22), born in Umbuzeiro, Paraíba, Empire of Brazil (d. 1942)
- May 25 Frederick Augustus III, King of Saxony (1904-18), born in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony (d. 1932)
- May 25 John Mott, American evangelist and organizer (YMCA, Nobel 1946), born in Livingston Manor, Sullivan County, New York (d. 1955)
- May 25 Pieter Zeeman, Dutch physicist (Zeeman effect, Nobel Prize 1902), born in Zonnemaire, Schouwen-Duiveland (d. 1943)
- May 26 Robert W. Chambers, American artist and fiction writer, born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1933)
- May 28 Gerrit Grijns, Dutch researcher and co-discoverer of vitamin B1 (thiamine), born in Leerdam, Netherlands (d. 1944)
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
80-89
Over 90