The Lyon quintuplets, born on April 29, 1896, were the first set of five babies born alive in the United States.


 Sadly, none of them lived longer than a few weeks, and the last baby passed away in May 1896 after all five had died from starvation.


The babies were five boys born to Oscar and Elizabeth Lyon in their small white farmhouse on Olmstead Ferry Road, just outside of Mayfield, Kentucky. They were all born between 9 and 10 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29, 1896. By May 14, they had all passed away.


The parents named the babies Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. A wet nurse was brought in to help feed them, but even that wasn’t enough. At the time, using bottles to feed babies was strongly looked down upon, and Mrs. Lyon said she wasn’t allowed to bottle-feed, even though stores had sent milk and bottles to the house. She never said exactly who stopped her from doing it.

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