May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with the length of 31 days. May is a month of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere and spring in the Northern Hemisphere (Summer in Europe). Therefore May in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of November in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa.
May symbols: The birthstone of May is the emerald which is emblematic of love and success. The May birth flower is the Lily of the Valley and the Crataegus monogyna. The mayflower Epigaea repens is a North American harbinger of May, and the floral emblem of both Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. Its native range extends from Newfoundland south to Florida, west to Kentucky in the southern range, and to Northwest Territories in the north. The zodiac signs for the month of May are Taurus (until May 20) and Gemini (May 21 onwards).
Historical Events for May, 1863
Day of Week 1st » American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville begins.
Day of Week 2nd » American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia eight days later.
Day of Week 6th » American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by Confederate troops.
Day of Week 10th » American Civil War: Confederate States of America Confederate General Stonewall Jackson Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson dies eight days after he is accidentally Friendly fire shot by his own troops.
Day of Week 14th » American Civil War: The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi e.g Battle of Jackson takes place.
Day of Week 17th » Rosalía de Castro publishes 'Cantares Gallegos', the first book in the Galician language.
Day of Week 18th » American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins.
Day of Week 21st » American Civil War: The Union Army Battle of Plains Store known as succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming Siege of Port Hudson called siege.
21st » Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Day of Week 22nd » American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson Union (American Civil War) known as Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate States of America named Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
Day of Week 27th » American Civil War: First Assault on the Confederate States of America called Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson.
Famous Birthdays on May in 1863
10th » Kaarle Krohn, Finnish historian and academic (d. 1933)
15th » Frank Hornby, English businessman and politician, invented Meccano (d. 1936)
17th » Léon Gérin, Canadian lawyer, sociologist, and civil servant (d. 1951)