- May 3 Frank Hoyt Losey, American composer, arranger of band and orchestral music, and advisor to Edison Phonograph Company, dies at 59 [1]
- May 3 Otto Winter-Hjelm, Norwegian musician and composer, dies at 93
- May 5 Glen Kidston, British aviator and racing driver (b. 1899)
- May 9 Albert A. Michelson, American physicist (1907 Nobel Prize), dies at 78
- May 12 Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian violin virtuoso (Caesar Franck's sonata), composer (Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, op. 27), educator (Brussels Conservatoire, 1881-98), and conductor (Cincinnati Symphony, 1918-22), dies pf complications from diabetes at 72
- May 13 Josif Marinković, Serbian composer, dies at 79
- May 14 David Belasco, American theatrical producer (b. 1853)
- May 14 Denys Finch Hatton, English big-game hunter, dies at 44
- May 17 Johan [Eliza J] de Master, art critic/writer, dies
- May 17 Timothy Cole, American wood engraver, dies at about 71
- May 31 Felix-Raymond-Marie Rouleau, French Canadian cardinal, archbishop of Quebec (b. 1866)
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning