Historical Events
- May 10 French government arrest 10 utopists
- May 10 Riot after disagreement of patriotic demand in Amsterdam
Jenner's Vaccine for Smallpox
May 14 English country doctor Edward Jenner administers his revolutionary cowpox-based vaccine for smallpox, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire
- May 15 First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan in triumph with French troops
- May 15 France & Sardinia sign Peace treaty of Paris
- May 16 Lombardian Republic forms
- May 19 Game protection law restricts encroachment on Indian hunting grounds
- May 26 French garrison of Fort Charlotte on island of St Lucia surrenders to British forces, 2780 mostly black prisoners of war board ships to England [1]
- May 27 James S. McLean granted a US patent for his improvements to the piano
Famous Birthdays
Horace Mann (1796-1859)
May 4 American educator, author, abolitionist and politician who pioneered public schools, born in Franklin, Massachusetts
- May 4 Joseph Pannell Taylor, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Louisville, Kentucky (d. 1864)
- May 4 William H. Prescott, American historian, born in Salem, Massachusetts (d. 1859)
- May 9 August Pauly, German writer (Real Encyclopedia), born in Benningen am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (d. 1845)
- May 17 Martinus Niewindt, Dutch Bishop of Curacao (advocate for fair treatment and abolition of slavery), born in Amsterdam (d. 1860)
- May 21 Reverdy Johnson, American politician and jurist (Dred Scott v. Sandford), born in Annapolis, Maryland (d. 1876)