- May 5 King Leopold I of Belgium opens Brussels-Mechelen railway
New York Herald
May 6 James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald (price 1 cent)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
May 8 First installment of Hans Christian Andersen "Fairy Tales" published by C. A. Reitzel in Copenhagen, Denmark
Darwin Visits Panuncillo Coal Mines
May 12 Charles Darwin visits Alexander Caldcleugh’s copper mines at Panuncillo in northern Chile and is impressed by the extraordinary feats of labor performed by the workers
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