Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc during the night of 22 May 1885.

Karl Bernhardovic Radek () ( 31 October 1885 – 19 May 1939 ) was a socialist active in the Polish and German movements before World War I and an international Communist leader after the Russian Revolution.

In the charter granted to this company by the German Imperial Government in May 1885, it was given the power to exercise sovereign rights over the territory and other " unoccupied " lands in the name of the government, and the ability to " negotiate " directly with the native inhabitants.

* May 19 – Raoul Lufbery, Franco-American fighter pilot ( b. 1885 )

* May 12 – Erich von Stroheim, Austrian actor and director ( b. 1885 )

* May 21 – Jacques Feyder, French filmmaker ( b. 1885 )

* May 21 – Lamar Johnstone, American silent film actor & director ( b. 1885 )

* May 6 – Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer ( b. 1885 )

* May 29 – Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Austrian film director ( b. 1885 )

* May 8 – Duncan Grant, Scottish painter ( b. 1885 )

* May 26 – Tamara Karsavina, Russian ballerina ( b. 1885 )

* May 31 – John Palm, Curaçao born composer ( b. 1885 )

* May 8 – William Henry Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur ( d. 1885 )

Joe " King " Oliver ( May 11, 1885 – April 10, 1938 ) was a jazz cornet player and bandleader.

In Australia, it was first seen on 9 May 1885 at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, produced by J. C. Williamson.

* GC of the Order of Vasa of Sweden ( 25 May 1885 )

* Kee-too-way-how (‘ Sounding With Flying Wings ’, better known as Alexander Cayen dit Boudreau, Chief of the Parklands or Willow Cree at Muskeg Lake, born 1834 St. Boniface, Manitoba, son of Pierre Narcisse Cayen dit Boudreau and Adelaide Catherine Arcand (‘ Kaseweetin ’), though he was of Métis descent he became chief of the Willow Cree and the Métis, who were living with the Cree, brother of Petequakey (‘ Isidore Cayen dit Boudreau ’), lived along Duck Lake, signed 1876 Treaty 6 and settled in a reserve at Muskeg Lake-that was later named after his brother Petequakey-but left the reserve in 1880 and lived again in the following years close to St. Laurent de Grandin mission, played a prominent role during the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 in which he participated in every battle, served also as an emissary of the Métis leader Gabriel Dumont to ask the Assiniboine for support, on 23 May 1885 he also submitted the declaration of surrender of Pitikwahanapiwiyin (' Poundmaker ') to General Middleton, was captured on the 1st June 1885, in the subsequent trial of Kee-too-way-how at Regina, Louis Cochin testified that he and the carters in the camp of Pitikwahanapiwiyin survived only thanks to the intercession by Kee-way-too-how and its people, despite the positive testimony, he was on 14 August 1885 sentenced to imprisonment for seven years for his involvement in the Métis rebellion, died 1886 ).

On May 2, 1885, the Cree war chief Fine-Day defeated Lieutenant Colonel William Otter at the Battle of Cut Knife near Battleford.

On May 9, 1885, Middleton attacked Batoche itself.

On May 28, 1885, Major General Thomas Bland Strange brought an NWMP detachment from Calgary, Alberta, but they were unable to defeat a Cree force under Big Bear who carried the day at Frenchman's Butte at the end of May.

Following the May trial, Louis Riel was hung November 16, 1885.

* May 25 – Chester Bowles, American politician ( b. 1901 )

Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, 1st Earl of Chester ( 23 May 1208?

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, following revisions made in 1880 to the Burlingame Treaty of 1868.

In May 1988, a US mediation team – headed by Chester A. Crocker, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs – brought negotiators from Angola, Cuba, and South Africa, and observers from the Soviet Union together in London.

He was created Earl of Chester on 18 May 1333, Duke of Cornwall on 17 March 1337 ( the first creation of an English duke ) and finally invested as Prince of Wales on 12 May 1343 when he was almost thirteen years old.

Chester Gould ( November 20, 1900 – May 11, 1985 ) was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the Dick Tracy comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977, incorporating numerous colorful and monstrous villains.

The strip began on May 26 and chronicled the domestic adventures of nebbishy Chester Tibbet as narrator, his wife Betsy, and their 5-year-old genius son, Farley.

Lancaster County was part of Chester County, Pennsylvania until May 10, 1729, when it became the fourth county in the state.

The fourth county in the state, Lancaster County, was formed from Chester County on May 10, 1729.

King, a native of Willistown Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, acquired some of land from Thomas Kell ( a county judge ) in and about the site of Kingsville from parts of the original grants of Leaf's Chance, William the Conqueror, Selby's Hope, John's Delight and Onion's Prospect Hill, according to a deed executed May 13, 1816.

The Western Railroad ( later Boston & Albany Railroad ) opened to Chester on May 24, 1841.

* 1729 May 10-Lancaster County created out of part of Chester County

The May meeting includes several nationally significant races such as the Chester Vase, which is recognised as a trial for the Epsom Derby.

The village also hosts the annual Chester Folk Festival every May.

Chester W. Nimitz pins the Navy Cross on Dorie, at ceremony on board warship in Maui, May 27, 1942.

On May 27, 1942 Miller was personally recognized by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, aboard the aircraft carrier.

Chester Bliss Bowles ( April 5, 1901 – May 25, 1986 ) was a liberal Democratic American diplomat and politician from Connecticut.

Anna Marie Jarvis ( May 1, 1864, Webster, West Virginia – November 24, 1948, West Chester, Pennsylvania ) is the founder of the Mother's Day holiday in the United States.

Carlton Chester " Cookie " Gilchrist ( May 25, 1935 – January 10, 2011 ) was a gridiron football player in the American Football League and Canadian Football League.

She lent modeling tools to the young Daniel Chester French and encouraged him in his work ; French credits May as one of his first art teachers.

The son and heir of John Fitzalan, Lord of Oswestry and Clun, in Shropshire, and Isabel, daughter of William d ' Aubigny, 3rd Earl of Arundel by his wife, Mabel of Chester, he obtained possession of his paternal estates on 26 May 1244, aged 21 years.

* May 24-The Dee bridge disaster: a cast iron girder bridge across the river Dee at Chester, England, designed by Robert Stephenson for the Chester and Holyhead Railway, collapses under a Shrewsbury and Chester Railway train with five fatalities.