Music History
May 2 Gioachino Rossini's corpse transferred to Santa Croce, Florence
Celluloid Photographic Film
May 2 Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film (used in Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope)
- May 3 Nanaimo Mine Disaster: explosion in the mine kills 150 men - British Columbia's worst mine disaster [1]
- May 9 Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London
- May 11 13th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Lewis aboard Montrose wins in 2:39.25
- May 13 15th Preakness: William Donohue aboard Dunboyne wins in 2:39.25
- May 18 Emmanuel Chabrier's opera "Le roi malgré lui" (King, in spite of himself) premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris; after 3 performances the theatre burns down
- May 23 1st transcontinental train arrives in Vancouver, British Columbia
- May 24 Sultan Bargash of Zanzibar grants E African Association at East African harbors
- May 25 Gas lamp at Paris Opera catches fire; 200 die
- May 26 Racetrack betting becomes legal in NY state
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