- May 17 Michel-Jean Sedaine, French dramatist (Le Philosophe sans le savoir), dies at 77
- May 25 John Griffin Whitwell, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, British field marshal, dies at 78
- May 27 Gracchus Babeuf, French utopian socialist, dies at 36
- May 30 Carl Ludwig Junker, German composer, dies at 48