1904

Events

January

• January 7 - The distress signal CQD is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by SOS.
• January 8 - The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.
• January 12 - Henry Ford sets a new automobile land speed record of.
• January 16 - The first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
• January 18 - The Herero Rebellion in German South-West Africa begins.
• January 23 - The Ålesund Fire destroys most buildings in the town of Ålesund, Norway, leaving about 10,000 people without shelter.
• January 25 - Halford Mackinder presents a paper on "The Geographical Pivot of History" to the Royal Geographical Society of London in which he formulates the Heartland Theory, originating the study of geopolitics.

  February

• February 7 - The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland, destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
• February 8-9 - Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise Japanese naval attack on Port Arthur in Manchuria starts the Russo-Japanese War.
• February 10 - Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in the Congo.
• February 17 - Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, with a background theme of Japan–United States relations, debuts at La Scala in Milan, to no great acclaim. On May 28 a revised version opens in Brescia, to huge success.
• February 23 - For $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
• February 28 - Sport Lisboa e Benfica is founded in Portugal.

  March

• March 3 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
• March 4 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria, followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
• March 26 - 80,000 demonstrators gather in Hyde Park, London, to protest against the importation of Chinese labourers to South Africa by the British government.
• March 31 - British expedition to Tibet: The Battle of Guru - British troops under Colonel Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.

  April

• April 6 - Joseph F. Smith announces the Second Manifesto in General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ending in fact the practice of plural marriage, which had continued to be practiced by many of its leaders, in violation of the 1890 Manifesto officially banning the practice.
• April 8
• * The Entente Cordiale is signed between the UK and France.
• * Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square, after The New York Times.
• April 8-10 - Aleister Crowley writes Liber Al vel Legis, better known as The Book of the Law, a text central to Thelema.
• April 19 - The Great Toronto Fire destroys much of that city's downtown, but there are no fatalities.
• April 27 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
• April 30 - The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri.

  May

• May 4
• * United States Army engineers begin work on the Panama Canal.
• * German Association football club FC Schalke 04 is established.
• May 5
• * Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
• * British expedition to Tibet: Hundreds of Tibetans attack the British camp at Changlo, and hold the advantage for a while, before being defeated by superior weapons, and losing at least 200 men.
• May 9 - Great Western Railway of England 3700 Class 3440 City of Truro becomes the first railway locomotive to exceed 100 mph.
• May 15 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian minelayer Amur lays a minefield about off Port Arthur, and sinks Japan's battleships Hatsuse, 15,000 tons, with 496 crew and Yashima.
• May 21 - The International Federation of Association Football, FIFA, is established.
• May 30 - Alpha Gamma Delta, which becomes an international women's fraternity, is founded by 11 women at Syracuse University.

  June

• June 3 - The International Alliance of Women is founded.
• June 10 - Irish author James Joyce meets his future wife, Nora Barnacle, in Dublin.
• June 15 - A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1,021.
• June 16
• * Finnish nationalist Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolay Bobrikov, the Russian Governor-General of Finland, in Helsinki.
• * James Joyce walks to Ringsend with Nora Barnacle; he later uses this date as the setting for his novel Ulysses.
• June 28
• * Danish ocean liner runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, killing 635, including 225 Norwegian emigrants.
• * The original icon of Our Lady of Kazan is stolen and subsequently destroyed in Russia.
• * English Association football club Hull City A.F.C. is established.
• June 29 - The 1904 Moscow tornado occurs.

  July

• July - Pavlos Melas enters Macedonia with a small unit of men during the Macedonian Struggle.
• July 1 - The third Modern Olympic Games opens in St. Louis, Missouri, United States as part of the World's Fair.

  August

• August 3 - British expedition to Tibet: The British expedition under Colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa, Tibet.
• August 11 - Battle of Waterberg: Lothar von Trotha defeats the Herero people in German South-West Africa, and drives them into the Omaheke desert, starting the Herero and Namaqua Genocide.
• August 14 - Ismael Montes becomes President of Bolivia.
• August 17 - Russo-Japanese War: A Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.
• August 18 - Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia, and is succeeded by George Reid.
• August 24 - Faroese Association football club Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag is established.

  September

• September - Stuyvesant High School opens in New York City as Manhattan's first manual trade school for boys.
• September 1 - Griffin Park football stadium opens to the public in London.
• September 2 - John Voss sails the rigged dugout canoe Tilikum into the River Thames in England after a 3-year voyage from Victoria, British Columbia, westabout.
• September 7 - British expedition to Tibet: The Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with Colonel Francis Younghusband.
• September 17 - An early study on the relationship between alcohol and cardiovascular disease is published in the United States.
• September 25 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Joseph F. Smith issues a Second Manifesto against polygamy.
• September 26 - New Zealand dolphin Pelorus Jack is individually protected by Order in Council under the Sea Fisheries Act.

  October

• October - The Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, predecessor of Bethune–Cookman University, is opened in Florida by Mary McLeod Bethune.
• October 1 - Phi Delta Epsilon, the international medical fraternity, is founded by Aaron Brown and 8 of his friends, at Cornell University Medical College.
• October 4 - Swedish Association football club IFK Göteborg is founded, becoming the 39th IFK-association.
• October 5 - Alpha Kappa Psi, a co-ed professional business fraternity, is founded on the campus of New York University.
• October 9 - German journalist Anna Rüling, in a speech to the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in Berlin, makes the first known public statement of the socio-legal problems faced by lesbians.
• October 11 - Loftus Road football stadium opens in London.
• October 13 - Pavlos Melas is encircled at Statista and killed during the Macedonian Struggle.
• October 15 - Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity, is founded at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
• October 19 - Polytechnic University of the Philippines is founded as Manila Business School, through the superintendence of American C.A. O'Reilley.
• October 21 - Russo-Japanese War: Dogger Bank incident - The Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats, in the North Sea.
• October 27 - The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens.
• October 28 - Panama and Uruguay establish diplomatic links.

  November

• November 8 - U.S. presidential election, 1904: Republican incumbent Theodore Roosevelt defeats Democrat Alton B. Parker.
• November 16
• * The settlement at Grytviken, on the British South Atlantic island territory of South Georgia, is established by Norwegian sea captain Carl Anton Larsen, as a whaling station for his Compañía Argentina de Pesca.
• * English engineer John Ambrose Fleming receives a patent for the thermionic valve.
• November 24 - The first successful caterpillar track is made.

  December

• December 2 - The St. Petersburg Soviet urges a run on the banks; the attempt fails, and the executive committee is arrested.
• December 3 - Charles Dillon Perrine discovers Jupiter's largest irregular satellite, Himalia, at California's Lick Observatory.
• December 4 - The K.U. or Konservativ Ungdom is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen in Denmark.
• December 6 - Theodore Roosevelt announces his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States will intervene in the Western Hemisphere, should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.
• December 10 - The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity is founded at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.
• December 27 - The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premieres in London.
• December 30 - The East Boston Tunnel opens.
• December 31 - In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square.

  Date unknown

• St. Bernard's School is founded in New York City on Manhattan.
• Coty, as known well for cosmetics and skin care brand on worldwide, founded was Paris, France.

  Births

January

• January 1 - Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician
• January 5 - Jeane Dixon, American astrologer
• January 6 - Ramiro Prialé, Peruvian politician
• January 10 - Ray Bolger, American actor, singer and dancer, best known for his role in The Wizard of Oz
• January 13 - Richard Addinsell, British composer
• January 14
• *Hector Grey, Scottish street trader and company director
• *Cecil Beaton, English photographer
• *Ernst Wellmann, highly decorated German Army officer
• January 18 - Cary Grant, English actor
• January 19 - Leo Soileau, American Cajun musician
• January 21 - Edris Rice-Wray Carson, American medical researcher
• January 22
• * George Balanchine, Russian-born choreographer
• * Arkady Gaidar, Russian children's writer
• January 26
• * Ancel Keys, American scientist
• * Donald Macintyre, British naval officer and naval historian
• * Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• January 27 - J. J. Gibson, American psychologist
• January 28 - Canuplin, Filipino magician, bodabil entertainer
• January 29 - Arnold Gehlen, German philosopher

  February

• February 1
• * Ángel Borlenghi, Argentine labor leader, politician
• * S. J. Perelman, American humorist, author
• February 2 - Valery Chkalov, Soviet test pilot
• February 3
• * Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer
• * Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster
• February 4 - MacKinlay Kantor, American writer, historian
• February 10
• *Emil Bodnăraș, Romanian communist politician and army officer and Soviet agent
• *John Farrow, Australian film director
• February 11
• * José do Patrocínio Oliveira, Brazilian musician and voice actor
• * Sir Keith Holyoake, 26th Prime Minister of New Zealand
• * Roy MacNairy, English cricketer
• * Lucile Randon, French supercentenarian
• February 13 - Erwin Canham, journalist
• February 16
• * James Baskett, African-American actor
• * George F. Kennan, American diplomat
• * Philip Rabinowitz, South African record-breaking sprinter
• February 21 - Alexei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union
• February 22 - Ernst Jakob Henne, German motorcycle racer, racecar driver
• February 23
• * Gaston Marie Jacquier, French Roman Catholic bishop in Algeria
• * William L. Shirer, American journalist, author
• February 29 - Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader

  March

• March 1
• * Glenn Miller, American bandleader
• * Paul Hartman, American actor, dancer
• March 2 - Dr. Seuss, American children's author
• March 4
• * Luis Carrero Blanco, Prime Minister of Spain
• * George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist
• * Joseph Schmidt, Austrian-Hungarian tenor, actor
• * Chief Tahachee, American-born stage, film actor
• March 5 - Mow Pang Tzu, Republic of China air force general
• March 6 - Hugh Williams, English actor, dramatist
• March 7 - Reinhard Heydrich, German Nazi official
• March 14 - Doris Eaton Travis, American actress
• March 15 - J. Pat O'Malley, English actor
• March 20
• * Frank Mills, American politician in Ohio legislature
• * B. F. Skinner, American behavioral psychologist
• March 22 - Itche Goldberg, Yiddish author
• March 23 - Joan Crawford, American actress
• March 26
• * Emilio Fernández, Mexican film director, actor and screenwriter
• * Gustave Biéler, Swiss-born hero of World War II
• * Joseph Campbell, American author on mythology
• March 30
• * Alexandrina Maria da Costa, Portuguese Roman Catholic mystic, victim soul and blessed
• * Shin Matsushita, Japanese supercentenarian

  April

• April 1 - Nikolai Berzarin, Soviet general
• April 3 - Sally Rand, American dancer, actress
• April 4 - Soeman Hs, Indonesian author, educator
• April 6
• * William Challee, American actor
• * Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Chancellor of West Germany
• April 8 - John Hicks, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 9 - Sharkey Bonano, American jazz musician
• April 10 - Nino Pavese, Italian actor and voice actor
• April 13 - Elwood Richard Quesada, American air force general
• April 14 - John Gielgud, English actor
• April 15 - Arshile Gorky, Armenian-born painter
• April 16 - Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian actress
• April 22 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist
• April 24 - Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist
• April 26
• * Jimmy McGrory, Scottish footballer
• * Xenophon Zolotas, Prime Minister of Greece
• April 27
• * Cecil Day-Lewis, English poet
• * Syd Nathan, American record producer, music industry executive and founder of King Records
• April 29 - Pedro Vargas, Mexican singer, actor

  May

• May 4
• * Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer and actress
• * Joaquín García Morato, Spanish fighter ace
• May 6
• * Raymond Bailey, American actor
• * Moshé Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-born engineer
• * Harry Martinson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• May 8 - John Snagge, British radio personality
• May 10 - James Roy Andersen, American general
• May 11 - Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist
• May 17
• *Marie-Anne Desmarest, French novelist
• * Jean Gabin, French actor
• *Mrs. Nafisa is the first runner-up of the Queen nazli
• May 20 - Margery Allingham, British detective fiction writer
• May 21
• * Robert Montgomery, American actor, director
• * Fats Waller, American pianist, comedian
• May 22 - Anne de Vries, Dutch writer
• May 25 - Charles L. Melson, United States Navy admiral
• May 26 - George Formby, English singer, comedian
• May 27 - Chūhei Nambu, Japanese athlete
• May 28 - George Beck, British Roman Catholic prelate and reverend
• May 29 - Abu Bakar of Pahang, sultan of Pagang
• May 30 - Doris Packer, American actress

  June

• June 2
• * František Plánička, Czech footballer
• * Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer, actor
• June 3 - Jan Peerce, American tenor
• June 6 - Heinrich von Brentano, German politician
• June 7
• * Werner Gruner, German weapons designer
• * Francisco López Merino, Argentine poet
• June 8 - Angus McBean, Welsh photographer
• June 15 - Edith Clark, French aviator, parachutist
• June 17
• * Ralph Bellamy, American actor
• * J. Vernon McGee, American theologian, pastor, author, and Bible teacher
• June 18 - Keye Luke, Chinese-born American actor
• June 21 - Orian Landreth, American football coach
• June 22 - William O. Gallery, American admiral
• June 24
• * Phil Harris, American actor
• * Francis Leslie Ashton, British writer
• June 26
• * Virginia Brown Faire, American actress
• * Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born film actor

  July

• July 1
• * Mary Calderone, American physician, public health advocate
• * Gordon Gunson, English football player
• July 2 - René Lacoste, French tennis player, businessman
• July 5
• * Harold Acton, British writer, scholar, and aesthete
• * Eugenia Clinchard, American child actress
• * Ernst Mayr, German-born biologist, author
• July 6
• * Erik Wickberg, General of The Salvation Army
• * Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari, Pakistani broadcaster
• July 7
• * Josephine Wilson, British stage, film actress
• * Nick Connor, American politician
• July 8 - Henri Cartan, French mathematician
• July 9 - Hideo Oguni, Japanese writer
• July 10
• * Lili Damita, French-American actress, singer
• * Tom Tippett, English footballer
• * Haim Ben-Asher, Israeli politician
• July 12
• * William Cox, American athlete
• * Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 13 - James Thomas Burrows, New Zealand teacher, sportsman, administrator, and military leader
• July 14
• * Zita Johann, Austrian-American actress
• * Richard Clarkson, British aeronautical engineer
• July 15 - Rudolf Arnheim, German-born author
• July 16 - Geraldine Knight Scott, pioneering American woman landscape architect
• July 18 - Stella Skopal, Croatian Jewish sculptor
• July 19 - Mark Koenig, American baseball shortstop
• July 20 - René Couzinet, French aeronautics engineer, aircraft manufacturer
• July 21
• * Louis Meyer, American Hall of Fame race car driver
• * Wilhelm Harster, German officer
• July 24 - Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, Soviet admiral
• July 26 - Edwin Albert Link, American pioneer in aviation, underwater archaeology, and submersibles, inventor of aeronautical, navigation, and oceanographic equipment
• July 28 - Pavel Cherenkov, Soviet physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 29 - J. R. D. Tata, Indian businessman

  August

• August 3 - Dolores del Río, Mexican actress
• August 4
• * Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist, dramatist
• * Helen Kane, American singer, dancer, comedian and actress
• August 6 - Ballard Berkeley, British actor
• August 7 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• August 11 - Bernard Castro, Italian inventor
• August 12 - Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia
• August 13
• * Jonathan Hole, American actor
• * Charles "Buddy" Rogers, American actor, jazz musician
• August 16
• * Minoru Genda, Japanese aviator, naval officer and politician
• * Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 17
• * Mary Cain, American newspaper editor and politician
• * Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist
• August 19 - George de la Warr, British alternative physician
• August 21 - Count Basie, African-American musician, bandleader
• August 22
• * Jay Novello, American actor
• * Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader
• August 23
• * Viscountess Furness, American socialite twin
• * Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, American socialite twin
• * William Primrose, Scottish violist
• August 24
• * Ida Cook, English campaigner for Jewish refugees, and romantic novelist as Mary Burchell
• * Aparicio Méndez, 50th President of Uruguay
• August 26
• *Christopher Isherwood, English writer
• *Georgia Schmidt, American actress
• August 28 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer
• August 29 - Werner Forssmann, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

  September

• September 9 - Feroze Khan, Pakistani field hockey player
• September 12 - Lou Moore, American race car driver, team owner
• September 13
• * Gladys George, American actress
• * Alberta Williams King, American civil rights champion, wife of Martin Luther King, Sr., and mother of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• September 14
• * Frank Amyot, Canadian sprint canoeist
• * Richard Mohaupt, German composer, Kapellmeister
• September 19 - Elvia Allman, American actress
• September 22 - Lessie Brown, oldest living American
• September 26 - Constantin Doncea, Romanian communist activist and politician
• September 29 - Greer Garson, English actress

  October

• October 1
• * Irene Craigmile Bolam, American Amelia Earhart look-alike/believed alias
• * A. K. Gopalan, Indian communist leader
• October 2
• * Graham Greene, English author
• * Lal Bahadur Shastri, 2nd Prime Minister of India
• October 3 - Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• October 7 - Cyril Horn, English speed skater
• October 9 - Wally Brown, American actor, comedian
• October 11 - Tita Merello, Argentine actress, singer, and tango dancer
• October 18 - Haim Shirman, Russian-born Israeli professor of medieval Spanish Jewish poetry
• October 20 - Tommy Douglas, Canadian politician
• October 23 - Harvey Penick, American golfer
• October 25 - Vladimir Peter Tytla, American animator
• October 29 - Casimiro Montenegro Filho, Brazilian army and air force officer

  November

• November 1 - Laura La Plante, American silent film actress
• November 2 - Hugh Lygon, English aristocrat
• November 4 - Tadeusz Żyliński, Polish technician, textilist
• November 11
• * J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician
• * Alger Hiss, American lawyer, government official, author and lecturer
• November 12 - Jacques Tourneur, French director
• November 14
• * Dick Powell, American actor, singer
• * Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury
• November 16 - Nnamdi Azikiwe, President of Nigeria
• November 18 - Masao Koga, Japanese composer
• November 22 - Louis Néel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• November 25
• * Lillian Copeland, American Olympic athlete
• * Toni Ortelli, Italian composer, alpinist
• November 30 - Clyfford Still, American painter

  December

• December 3 - Roberto Marinho, Brazilian publisher, businessman and media mogul
• December 4 - Albert Norden, German politician
• December 6 - Ève Curie, French author
• December 7 - Clarence Nash, American voice actor
• December 10 - Antonín Novotný, 7th President of Czechoslovakia
• December 12 - Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, French-born magazine editor, socialite
• December 18 - George Stevens, American film director
• December 20 - Rambai Barni Svastivatana, queen consort of King Prajadhipok of Siam,
• December 21 - Jean René Bazaine, French painter
• December 24
• *Joseph M. Juran, American engineer, philanthropist
• *Herbert D. Riley, United States Navy admiral
• December 25
• *Gerhard Herzberg, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• *Flemmie Pansy Kittrell, American nutritionist
• December 26 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer
• December 27 - Linwood G. Dunn, American special effects artist
• December 30
• *Dmitri Kabalevsky, Russian composer
• *David M. Shoup, American general

  Date unknown

• Tevfik Esenç, Turkish-born last speaker of the Ubykh language

  Deaths

January

• January 1 - Frederick Pabst, German-American brewer
• January 2
• * Mathilde Bonaparte, French princess
• * James Longstreet, American Confederate Civil War general
• January 6 - Friedrich von Hefner-Alteneck, German engineer
• January 7
• * Parke Godwin, American journalist
• * Emmanuel Rhoides, Greek writer
• January 9
• * John Brown Gordon, American general and politician, 53rd Governor of Georgia
• * Hannah Lynch, Irish translator
• January 10 - Jean-Léon Gérôme, French painter
• January 17
• * Sir Henry Keppel, British admiral
• * Joseph Nirschl, German Roman Catholic theologian
• January 22 - Laura Vicuña, Chilean Roman Catholic holy figure and blessed
• January 23 - Gédéon Bordiau, Belgian architect
• January 24 - Frederick I, Duke of Anhalt
• January 28
• * Karl Emil Franzos, Austrian novelist
• * Elphège Gravel, Canadian Roman Catholic priest and bishop
• January 30 - Józef Gosławski, Polish architect
• January 31 - Samuel G. Havermale, American Methodist minister

  February

• February 3 - John James McDannold, U.S. Representative from Illinois
• February 4 - Rudolf Maison, German sculptor
• February 8
• * Alfred Ainger, British biographer
• * Malvina Garrigues, Portuguese soprano
• February 10 - Nikolay Mikhaylovsky, Russian writer
• February 11 - Vladimir Markovnikov, Russian chemist
• February 13
• * John Ellison-Macartney, Irish politician
• * Émile Metz, Luxembourgish politician, industrialist and engineer
• February 14 - Alvinza Hayward, American financier and businessman
• February 15 - Mark Hanna, United States Senator from Ohio
• February 17 - Hermann Emminghaus, German psychiatrist
• February 19 - Alice Sudduth Byerly, American temperance activist
• February 22 - Sir Leslie Stephen, British writer and critic
• February 24 - Prince Henry of Prussia
• February 28 - Anthony Durier, American Roman Catholic bishop
• February 29 - Antonio De Martino, Italian physician

  March

• March 5
• * Alfred von Waldersee, German Army marshal
• * John Lowther du Plat Taylor, British founder of the Army Post Office Corpps
• March 7 - Ferdinand André Fouqué, French geologist
• March 12 - Oliver Harriman, American businessman
• March 14 - Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander von Mechow, Prussian explorer
• March 17 - Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, grandson of King George III
• March 18 - William Elbridge Sewell, American naval officer, Governor of Guam
• March 21
• * Mary Charlotte Ward Granniss Webster Billings, American evangelist and missionary
• * Aurélie Ghika, French writer
• March 24 - Emma Herwegh, German writer
• March 31
• *Mifflin E. Bell, American architect
• * Valentine Blake Dillon, Irish politician
• *Stepan Makarov, Imperial Russian Navy admiral

  April

• April 1 - Abby Morton Diaz, American teacher
• April 3
• * Théophile Pépin, French mathematician
• * Princess Piyamavadi Sri Bajarindra Mata
• * Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar
• April 5 - Tom Allen, British boxing champion
• April 6
• * Émile de Kératry, French author
• * Princess Sophie of Baden
• April 9 - Queen Isabella II of Spain
• April 12 - Elizaveta Akhmatova, Russian translator
• April 13 - Stepan Makarov, Russian admiral
• April 16 - Maximilian Kronberger, German poet
• April 17 - Joe Cain, American Mardi Gras parade organiser
• April 20 - Sara Jane Lippincott, American journalist
• April 21 - Piatus of Mons, Belgian Roman Catholic theologian
• April 24 - Norodom of Cambodia, King of Cambodia
• April 27 - Mykhailo Starytsky, Ukrainian poet and writer

  May

• May - Henry F. Frizzell, American soldier
• May 1
• * Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer
• * Wilhelm His Sr., Swiss anatomist
• May 2
• * Émile Duclaux, French microbiologist
• * Mathilde Esch, Austrian genre painter
• * Edgar Fawcett, American poet and novelist
• May 3 - Tycho Kielland, Norwegian jurist and journalist
• May 6
• * Franz von Lenbach, German pahinter
• * Alexander William Williamson, English chemist
• May 7
• * Manuel Candamo, Peruvian politician, 23rd President of Peru
• * Émile-Jules Dubois, French doctor
• May 8
• * Richard Xavier Baxter, Canadian Roman Catholic priest and venerable
• * Eadweard Muybridge, British photographer and motion picture pioneer
• May 9
• * George Johnston Allman, Irish mathematician, scholar and historian
• * Aleksandar Bresztyenszky, Croatian writer
• * Bonaventura Gargiulo, Italian Capuchin monk and Roman Catholic bishop
• May 10
• * Émile Sarrau, French chemist
• * Sir Henry Morton Stanley, British explorer
• May 11
• * Hans Grisebach, German architect
• * Eugen Kumičić, Croatian writer
• May 12 - Isabella Eugénie Boyer, French model
• May 13
• * Walter Carpenter, British admiral
• * Ottokar Lorenz, German genealogist
• May 14
• * Rita Barcelo y Pages, Spanish Augustinian religious sister and servant of God
• * Fyodor Bredikhin, Russian astronomer
• May 15 - Étienne-Jules Marey, French inventor
• May 16 - Harold Finch-Hatton, British politician
• May 17
• * Tomás Cámara y Castro, Spanish Roman Catholic bishop
• * François Coillard, French missionary
• * Princess Pauline of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
• May 19 -
• * Auguste Molinier, French historian
• * Jamsetji Tata, Indian industrialist
• May 21 - Duke Paul Frederick of Mecklenburg
• May 22 - Charles Elwood Brown, U.S. Representative from Ohio
• May 24 - Duchess Maria Isabella of Württemberg
• May 26 - Mary Ellen Bagnall-Oakeley, English antiquarian, author, and painter
• May 27 - Anđelko Aleksić, Serbian general
• May 29 - Manuel María de Zamacona y Murphy, Mexican politician
• May 30
• * Frederick William, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
• * Marta Anna Wiecka, Polish Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed

  June

• June 1 - Ivan Kondratyev, Russian writer
• June 3 - Vincent Tancred, South African cricketer
• June 4
• * Muhammad bin Yahya Hamid ad-Din, Imam of Yemen
• * George Frederick Phillips, Canadian-born military hero
• * Princess Marie of Hanover
• June 9 - Kwasi Boakye, Dutch engineer
• June 12 - Camille of Renesse-Breidbach, Belgian Count
• June 14 - Richard Knill Freeman, British architect
• June 16
• * Nikolay Bobrikov, Russian soldier, politician and Governor-General of Finland
• * Manuel Uribe Ángel, Colombian physician
• June 18
• * Sami Frashëri, Albanian writer
• * Celia Logan, American actress
• June 22 - Karl Ritter von Stremayr, former Prime Minister of Austria
• June 27 - Anatole Jean-Baptiste Antoine de Barthélemy, French archaeologist
• June 28 - Princess and Countess Aurora Pavlovna Demidova
• June 29 - Tom Emmett, English cricketer
• June 30 - Pablo de Anda Padilla, Mexican Roman Catholic priest and venerable

  July

• July 1 - George Frederic Watts, British symbolist painter and sculptor
• July 2 - Eugénie Joubert, French Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed
• July 3
• * John Bell Hatcher, American paleontologist
• * Theodor Herzl, Austrian founder of Zionism
• July 4 - Bódog Czorda, Hungarian politician
• July 5
• * Joseph Blanc, French painter
• * Joseph Evans, British-born Australian politician
• * Matsudaira Yasuhide, Japanese daimyō
• July 6 - Abai Qunanbaiuly, Kazakh poet
• July 7 - Adolph Friedländer, German lithographer
• July 9 - Édouard Thilges, Luxembourgish politician, 7th Prime Minister of Luxembourg
• July 14 - Paul Kruger, South African military and political figure, 3rd President of South Africa
• July 15 - Anton Chekhov, Russian writer
• July 17 - Isaac Roberts, Welsh astronomer
• July 19 - Herbert Campbell, English actor
• July 22 - Wilson Barrett, English actor and playwright
• July 23
• * Isaías Gamboa, Colombian poet
• * Rodolfo Amando Philippi, German–born Chilean paleontologist and zoologist
• July 26 - Henry Clay Taylor, American admiral
• July 30 - Richard A. Harrison, U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio

  August

• August 3 - Ernst Jedliczka, Russian-born German pianist
• August 6 - Eduard Hanslick, Austrian music critic
• August 8 - John Innes, British philanthropist
• August 9
• * Joseph David Everett, English physicist
• * Friedrich Ratzel, German geographer and ethnographer
• August 10
• * Wilgelm Vitgeft, Russian admiral
• * Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, French politician, 29th Prime Minister of France
• August 12
• * Kawamura Sumiyoshi, Japanese admiral
• * William Renshaw, British tennis player
• August 13 - Elizabeth Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington
• August 14 - Eduard von Martens, German zoologist
• August 15 - John Henry Kinkead, American businessman and politician, 1st Governor of Alaska and 3rd Governor of Nevada
• August 16
• * Joachim Grassi, Italian architect
• * Prentiss Ingraham, American author of dime fiction
• August 22
• * Gaudensi Allar, French architect
• * Kate Chopin, American author
• August 25 - Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter
• August 29 - Ottoman Sultan Murad V

  September

• September 2
• * James Brady, American criminal
• * Elizabeth Fairburn Colenso, New Zealander Protestant missionary
• September 3
• * James Archer, Scottish artist
• * Heinrich Koebner, German-born Israeli dermatologist
• September 4 - William McCallin, 34th Mayor of Pittsburgh
• September 5 - Herbert von Bismarck, German politician
• September 13 - James Jameson, American surgeon
• September 17 - Kartini, Indonesian national heroine, women's rights activist
• September 20
• * R. W. H. T. Hudson, British mathematician
• * José Maria de Yermo y Parres, Mexican Roman Catholic priest and saint
• September 22
• * Wilson Barrett, British actor
• * Louis Massebieau, French historian and Protestant theologian
• September 23
• * George Adams, Australian businessman
• * Émile Gallé, French artist
• September 24
• * Niels Ryberg Finsen, Icelandic/Faroese/Danish physician and scientist
• * Gustav Frank, German-born Austrian Protestant theologian
• * Caleb C. Harris, American farmer and physician
• September 26
• * Ernest, Count of Lippe-Biesterfeld
• * Lafcadio Hearn, American-born Japanese author
• September 27 - David Grant Colson, American politician, U.S. Representative from Kentucky

  October

• October 4
• * Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor
• * Carl Josef Bayer, Austrian chemist
• * Edmund Francis Dunne, American politician, jurist and Catholic orator
• * Laurence Hope, British poet
• * Pierre Sainsevain, French settler
• October 8 - Gustav Ratzenhofer, Austrian philosopher
• October 11
• * Mary Tenney Gray, American club-woman
• * Archie Hooper, Canadian ice hockey player
• October 13 - Pavlos Melas, Greek Captain
• October 15 - George, King of Saxony
• October 17
• * Mercedes, Princess of Asturias
• * Ștefan Petică, Romanian poet and writer
• October 19 - Maurice Baldwin, Canadian Anglican bishop
• October 21
• * Euphemia Vale Blake, British-born American critic
• * Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer
• * Braulio Orue-Vivanco, Cuban Roman Catholic bishop
• October 23 - Emilia Dilke, English author
• October 26 - Princess Srivilailaksana of Suphanburi, daughter of King Rama V and Pae Bunnag

  November

• November 2 - Henry Austin, American baseball player
• November 3 - Carl Daniel Ekman, Swedish engineer
• November 7 - Guillermo Blest Gana, Chilean writer
• November 9 - Joseph C. Hendrix, U.S. Representative from New York
• November 10
• * Augustus Brandegee, American lawyer and politician, U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut
• * Oreste Recchione, Italian painter
• November 12
• * Daniel Read Anthony, American publisher and abolitionist
• * Eliza Ann Otis, American poet, newspaper publisher, philanthropist
• * Georges Rohault de Fleury, French archaeologist
• November 14
• * John Murray Mitchell, British missionary
• * Mario Mocenni, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal
• * Isadore Rush, American actress
• November 15 - Mary of the Passion, French Roman Catholic religious sister, missionary and blessed
• November 16 - Clara Conway, American teacher
• November 18 - Justus van Maurik, Dutch author
• November 19 - Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney, American writer, reformer, philanthropist
• November 27
• * Annie Chambers Ketchum, American school founder
• * Paul Tannery, French mathematician
• November 28 - Fanny Janauschek, Czech actress
• November 29 - Helen Abbott Michael, American scientist

  December

• December 1
• * Johanna Anderson, Swedish Baptist missionary
• * Hector Giacomelli, French artist
• December 2
• * Enrico Carfagnini, Italian Roman Catholic friar and bishop
• * Prince Frederick of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
• December 4 - Cristiano Banti, Italian painter
• December 8 - John Kirkpatrick, British-born Australian politician
• December 11
• * Spencer Charrington, English brewer and politician
• * Mahmoud Samy El Baroudy, Egyptian political figure, 5th Prime Minister of Egypt
• December 13
• * Bob Murphy, American baseball player
• * Nikolay Sklifosovsky, Russian surgeon
• * Henry Freeman, English fisherman and lifeboatmen
• December 14 - Mélanie Calvat, French Roman Catholic nun, Marian visionary and saint
• December 15 - Roman Kondratenko, Russian general
• December 16 - Daniel W. Mills, U.S. Representative from Illinois
• December 19 - Lewis Tappan Barney, American army officer
• December 20 - Princess Alexandrine of Baden
• December 21 - Edward H. Dewey, American physician
• December 22 - Horace Sumner Lyman, American journalist
• December 24 - Gustav Bauernfeind, German painter
• December 25 - Guido Bodländer, German chemist
• December 27 - William F. Mahoney, U.S. Representative from Illinois
• December 29 - Friedrich Moritz Brauer, German entomologist
• December 30 - Frederick Clifford, English journalist

  Date Unknown

• Phoebe Jane Babcock Wait, American physician

  Nobel Prizes

• Physics - The Lord Rayleigh
• Chemistry - Sir William Ramsay
• Physiology or Medicine - Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
• Literature - Frédéric Mistral and José Echegaray
• Peace - Institut de Droit International