1905
As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia and the start of Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland. Canada and the U.S. expand west, with the Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces and the founding of Las Vegas. 1905 is also the year in which Albert Einstein, at this time resident in Bern, publishes his four Annus Mirabilis papers in Annalen der Physik , laying the foundations for more than a century's study of theoretical physics.
Events
January
- January 1 - The Trans-Siberian Railway officially opens, after its completion on July 21, 1904.
- January 2 - Russo-Japanese War: The Russian Army surrenders at Port Arthur, in Qing Dynasty China.
- January 5 - Baroness Emma Orczy's play The Scarlet Pimpernel opens at the New Theatre in London, beginning a run of 122 performances and numerous revivals.
- January 22 - The Bloody Sunday massacre of peaceful Russian demonstrators, led by Russian Orthodox priest Father Gapon, at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, helps trigger the abortive Revolution of 1905.
- January 26
- * Russian Revolution of 1905: The Imperial Russian Army opens fire on demonstrators in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, killing 73 and injuring 200 people.
- * The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa, at the Premier Mine.
February
- February 12 - In Christchurch, New Zealand, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament is opened.
- February 16 - At Haulbowline Base in Ireland, two explosions on board HM Submarine A5, due to gasoline fumes after refueling, kill six of eleven crew members.
- February 17 - At Fremantle, Australia, the RMS Orizaba is wrecked, but all 160 passengers and the mail are saved.
- February 20 - Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Mukden begins in Manchuria.
- February 23 - Rotary International is founded, in Chicago, Illinois.
March
- March 1 - Australian Conservative leader Richard Butler takes office, as Premier of South Australia.
- March 3 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to create an elected assembly.
- March 4 - Second inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in for a full term as 26th President of the United States.
- March 5 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops begin to retreat from Mukden, after losing 100,000 troops in 3 days.
- March 10
- * Russo-Japanese War: The Japanese capture of Mukden completes the rout of Russian armies in Manchuria.
- * Cassie Chadwick is sentenced for 14 years in Cleveland, Ohio, for fraud.
- * Chelsea F.C. is founded in London.
- March 13 - Mata Hari introduces her exotic dance act in Paris.
- March 18 - Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "On a heuristic viewpoint concerning the production and transformation of light", in which he explains the photoelectric effect using the notion of light quanta.
- March 20 - Grover Shoe Factory disaster: A boiler explosion, building collapse and fire in Brockton, Massachusetts, kills 58.
- March 23 - Theriso revolt: About 1,500 men, led by Eleftherios Venizelos, meet at the village of Theriso in Crete to challenge the island's authoritarian government and press for its unification with Greece.
- March 31 - Wilhelm II, German Emperor asserts German equality with France in Morocco, triggering the Tangier or First Moroccan Crisis.
April
- April 1 - The Imperial Penny Post is extended to include Australia.
- April 2 - The Simplon Tunnel is officially opened, through the Alps.
- April 3 - Boca Juniors, a well-known football club of Argentina, is founded in Buenos Aires.
- April 4 - In India, the 1905 Kangra earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, kills 20,000 and destroys most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala.
- April 6 - Lochner v. New York: The Supreme Court of the United States invalidates New York's 8-hour-day law.
- April 14 - Erik Gustaf Boström resigns as Prime Minister of Sweden over the issue of the Swedish-Norwegian Union; his Minister without Portfolio, Johan Ramstedt, becomes the new Prime Minister of Sweden.
- April 30 - Albert Einstein completes his doctoral dissertation, A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions.
May
- May 11 - Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen", based on his doctoral research, delineating a stochastic model of Brownian motion.
- May 15 - Las Vegas is founded when, in what later becomes downtown, are auctioned off.
- May 17 - Kappa Delta Rho is founded in Room 14 of Old Painter Hall, at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont.
- May 27–28 - Russo-Japanese War - Battle of Tsushima: The Japanese fleet under Admiral Heihachiro Togo destroys the Russian fleet under Admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhdestvenski, in a 2-day battle.
June
- June 7 - The Norwegian Parliament declares dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden, giving Norway full independence.
- June 9 - Charlton Athletic F.C. is founded in London, England.
- June 15 - Princess Margaret of Connaught marries Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, Duke of Skåne.
- June 27 - : Mutiny breaks out on the Russian ironclad Potemkin.
- June 29 - The Automobile Association is founded in the United Kingdom.
- June 30 - Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", establishing his theory of special relativity.
July
- July 8 - President Theodore Roosevelt sends his 21-year-old daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, and her party on a diplomatic journey to Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China and Korea.
- July 22 - Taft–Katsura Secret Agreement: The United States and Japan meet to discuss their respective positions regarding Korea and the Philippines.
- July 22 - Florence Kelly delivers speech about child labor before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia.
- July 23 - Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the second time.
August
- August - Mexican-American prospector Pablo Valencia gets lost in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona with no water.
- August 2
- * Businessman and right-wing politician Christian Lundeberg becomes Prime Minister of Sweden.
- * The Ancient Order of Druids initiate neo-Druidic rituals at Stonehenge in England.
- August 12
- * Leopold II of Belgium opens the Antwerpen-Central railway station.
- * The first running takes place of the Shelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb in England, the world's oldest motorsport event to be staged continuously on its original course.
- Aug 20 - Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary, forms the first chapter of T'ung Meng Hui, a union of all secret societies determined to bringing down the Manchu dynasty.
September
- September 1 - The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are established, from the southwestern part of the Northwest Territories.
- September 5 - Russo-Japanese War: Treaty of Portsmouth - In New Hampshire, a treaty mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is signed by Japan and Russia. Russia cedes the island of Sakhalin together with port and rail rights in Manchuria to Japan.
- September 8 - The 7.2 Calabria earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI, killing between 557 and 2,500 people.
- September 10 - Crystal Palace F.C. is founded in London.
- September 27 - Albert Einstein submits for publication his paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", in which he puts forward the idea of mass–energy equivalence by publishing the famous equation E = mc2.
October
- October - Fauvist artists, led by Henri Matisse and André Derain, first exhibit their works, at the Salon d'Automne in Paris.
- October 1 - A Czech worker, František Pavlík, is bayoneted to death during a demonstration for a Czech university in Brno. This event is the motivation for a piano sonata, 1. X. 1905, by composer Leoš Janáček, which premières on 27 January 1906.
- October 2 - is laid down in the United Kingdom, revolutionizing battleship design and triggering a naval arms race.
- October 5 - The Wright brothers' third aeroplane stays in the air for 39 minutes with Wilbur piloting, the first aeroplane flight lasting over half an hour.
- October 11 - The Institute of Musical Art, predecessor of the Juilliard School, opens in New York City.
- October 16 - The Partition of Bengal is made by Lord Curzon to separate the region of Bengal into Muslim and Hindu territories until its reunification in 1911.
- October 26 - Sweden agrees to the repeal of the union with Norway.
- October 29 - In the Russian Empire:
- * Russian Revolution of 1905: The Imperial Russian Army opens fire on a meeting at a street market in Tallinn, Governorate of Estonia, killing 94 and injuring over 200 people.
- * The Circum-Baikal Railway is brought into permanent operation, completing through rail communication on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
- October 30
- * – October Manifesto: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia is forced to announce the granting of his country's first constitution, conceding a national assembly with limited powers.
- * Probable date – Galatasaray S.K. sports and Association football club is founded in Istanbul.
November
- November 4 - The application of the infamous February Manifesto, removing the veto of the Diet of the autonomous Grand Principality of Finland over matters considered by the Emperor to concern Russian imperial interests, is interrupted by the new November Manifesto. The Senate of Finland is ordered to put forward a proposal for parliamentary reform, based on unicameralism and universal and equal suffrage.
- November 7 - Lawyer and liberal politician Karl Staaff becomes Prime Minister of Sweden, after a Riksdag election based mainly on voting rights reform.
- November 9 - The Province of Alberta, Canada, holds its first general election.
- November 12 - Norway holds a referendum, resulting in popular approval of the Storting's decision to authorise the government to make the offer of the throne of the newly independent country.
- November 17 - The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 effectively makes Korea a protectorate of Japan.
- November 18 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.
- November 28 - Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin in Dublin, as a political party whose goal is independence for all of Ireland.
- November-December - Russian Revolution of 1905: In the Baltic governorates, workers and peasants burn and loot hundreds of Baltic German manors. The Imperial Russian Army thereafter executes and deports thousands of looters.
December
- December 2 - Norsk Hydro, as predecessor of Equinor, a state-run energy product and grid brand in Scandinavia, founded in Norway.
- December 7-18 - Moscow Uprising: A Bolshevik-led revolt is suppressed by the army.
- December 9 - The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State is passed, enacting laïcité.
- December 11 - In support of the Moscow Uprising, the Council of Workers' Deputies of Kiev stages a mass uprising, establishing the Shuliavka Republic in the city, December 12-16.
- December 15 - The Pushkin House is established in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin.
- December 30
- * A bomb kills Frank Steunenberg, ex-governor of Idaho; the case leads to a trial against leaders of the Western Federation of Miners.
- * Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow is first performed, at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna.
Date unknown
- Germany insists on an international conference on the Moroccan question.
- Non-aboriginal women are given the vote and admitted to the practice of law in Queensland.
- Workers' compensation is introduced in Queensland.
- The title Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is officially recognized by Edward VII.
- Pathé Frères colors black and white films by machine.
- Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are banned from the Brooklyn Public Library, for setting a "bad example."
- Alfred Einhorn introduces novocaine.
- Wolves become extinct in Japan.
- Civil service examinations are abolished in Qing dynasty China.
- Max Weber publishes The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism .
- Ta-Ching Government Bank, as predecessor of Bank of China was founded in Beijing.
Births
January
- January 1 - Malek Bennabi, Algerian philosopher
- January 2
- * Nobuhito, Prince Takamatsu, younger brother of Japanese Emperor Hirohito
- * Michael Tippett, English composer
- * Anna May Wong, American actress
- January 4 - Sterling Holloway, American actor
- January 8 - Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer
- January 12
- * Tex Ritter, American actor, singer
- * James Bennett Griffin, American archaeologist
- January 13 - Kay Francis, American actress
- January 14
- * Mildred Albert, American fashion commentator, broadcast personality and fashion show producer
- * Takeo Fukuda, 67th Prime Minister of Japan
- January 15 - Torin Thatcher, English actor, Lieutenant colonel of the Royal Artillery
- January 17
- * Saeb Salam, 4-Time Prime Minister of Lebanon
- * Guillermo Stábile, Argentine football player, manager
- January 18 - Joseph Bonanno, American gangster
- January 19 - Stanley Hawes, British-born Australian film producer, director and administrator
- January 21 - Christian Dior, French couturier
- January 24 - J. Howard Marshall, American billionaire
- January 26
- * Charles Lane, American actor
- * Maria von Trapp, Austrian singer
- January 27 - Howard McNear, American actor
- January 28 - Ellen Fairclough, first woman to serve in the Canadian Cabinet
- January 29 - Barnett Newman, American painter
- January 31
- *Angelina Acuña, Guatemalan poet and author
- *John O'Hara, American writer
February
- February 1 - Emilio Segrè, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 2 - Ayn Rand, American author, philosopher
- February 4
- * Hylda Baker, English actress
- * Archduke Franz Josef of Austria, Prince of Tuscany
- February 7
- * Paul Nizan, French author
- * Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist, academic and Nobel Prize laureate
- February 10
- * Walter A. Brown, American basketball, ice hockey pioneer
- * Rachel Thomas, Welsh actress
- * Chick Webb, American drummer, bandleader
- February 13 - Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistani stateswoman, First Lady of Pakistan
- February 15 - Harold Arlen, American popular music composer
- February 16 – Henrietta Barnett, British Women's Royal Air Force officer
- February 17
- *Ruth Baldwin, British socialite
- *Frans Piët, Dutch comics artist
- February 18 - Queenie Leonard, British character actress, singer
- February 23 - Derrick Henry Lehmer, American mathematician
- February 26
- * Robert Byron, English travel writer
- * Arthur Brough, English actor
- February 27 - Franchot Tone, American actor
March
- March 1 - Doris Hare, English actress
- March 2 - Geoffrey Grigson, British poet, writer and critic
- March 3 - Marie Glory, French silent-screen actress
- March 6 - Bob Wills, American singer
- March 9 - Gerard Helders, Dutch politician
- March 10 - Richard Haydn, English comic actor
- March 12 - Takashi Shimura, Japanese actor
- March 15
- * Bertha Hill, American blues, vaudeville singer and dancer
- * Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, German lawyer, Nazi opponent
- March 16 - Elisabeth Flickenschildt, German actress
- March 18
- * Thomas Townsend Brown, American inventor
- * Robert Donat, English actor
- * Benny Friedman, American football player
- March 19
- * Joe Rollino, American strongman, weightlifter and boxer
- * Albert Speer, German Nazi official, architect
- March 20
- * Jean Galia, French rugby footballer
- * Vera Panova, Soviet-Russian writer
- March 23
- * Lale Andersen, German singer
- * John Randall, English physicist, biophysicist
- March 24 - Pura Santillan-Castrence, Filipino writer, diplomat
- March 25 - Pote Sarasin, Thai diplomat and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Thailand
- March 26 - William Cagney, American film producer and actor
- March 27 - Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer
- March 28 - Marlin Perkins, American zoologist, television host
- March 30
- * Mikio Oda, Japanese athlete
- * Albert Pierrepoint, British executioner
April
- April 1
- * Gaston Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium
- * Paul Hasluck, Australian statesman, 17th Governor-General of Australia
- April 15 - Serge Lifar, Soviet dancer and choreographer
- April 18 - George H. Hitchings, American physician, pharmacologist and Nobel Prize laureate
- April 19 - John Thach, American naval aviator, admiral
- April 20 - Inés Rodena, Cuban radio, television writer
- April 21 - Pat Brown, American lawyer, politician and 32nd Governor of California
- April 25 - George Nepia, New Zealand Maori rugby player
- April 26 - Raúl Leoni, President of Venezuela
- April 29 - George Beamish, British Royal Air Force air marshal, Irish rugby player
- April 30 - Sergey Nikolsky, Russian mathematician
May
- May 3 - Werner Fenchel, German mathematician
- May 5 - Floyd Gottfredson, American cartoonist, primarily known for the Mickey Mouse comic strip
- May 7 - Bumble Bee Slim, American Piedmont blues singer, guitarist
- May 8 - Red Nichols, American jazz musician
- May 9 – Lilí Álvarez, Spanish tennis player, author and feminist
- May 11
- *Lise de Baissac, Mauritian-born SOE agent, war hero
- *Catherine Bauer Wurster, American architect and public housing advocate
- *Kansas Joe McCoy, American Delta blues musician, songwriter
- May 13 - Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Indian lawyer, politician and 5th President of India
- May 14
- * Herb Morrison, American radio reporter, best known for covering the 1937 Hindenburg dirigible crash
- * Fred Sherman, American actor
- May 15 - Joseph Cotten, American actor
- May 16 - Henry Fonda, American actor
- May 17 - Roy Nelson, American cartoonist
- May 18 – Ruth Alexander, pioneering American pilot
- May 20 - Gerrit Achterberg, Dutch poet
- May 24 - Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian novelist, short story writer and Nobel Prize laureate
- May 27
- * Signe Johansson-Engdahl, Swedish Olympic diver
- * Lilo Milchsack, German promoter of Anglo-German relations
- May 28 - Sada Abe, Japanese actress
- May 29 - Sebastian Shaw, English actor
June
- June 1 - Robert Newton, English stage, film actor
- June 3
- * Tupua Tamasese Meaʻole, Samoan politician
- * Martin Gottfried Weiss, Nazi commandant
- June 5 - John Abbott, English actor
- June 7 - James J. Braddock, Irish-American wrestler
- June 11 - Paul Wormser, French fencer
- June 12 - Ray Barbuti, American athlete
- June 13 - Franco Riccardi, Italian fencer
- June 14
- *Liesel Bach, German aerobatic pilot
- *Arthur Davis, American animator
- June 19 - Mildred Natwick, American stage, film actress
- June 21
- * Tino Bianchi, Italian actor
- * Jacques Goddet, French sports journalist
- * Jean-Paul Sartre, French existentialist
- * Zeng Xueming, Chinese midwife who marries Hồ Chí Minh
- June 23
- * Jack Pickersgill, Canadian civil servant and politician
- * Isaac Schapera, English anthropologist
- * Jesús Bal y Gay, Spanish composer, music critic and musicologist
- * Mary Livingstone, American radio comedian
- June 24 - Fred Alderman, American sprint runner
- June 25
- * Leon deValinger, Jr., American archivist, historian
- * Arthur Maria Rabenalt, Austrian film director
- * Jun'ichi Yoda, Japanese poet
- June 26 - Jack Longland, British educator, mountain climber and broadcaster
- June 27
- * Lady Rachel Pepys, Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent
- * Kwan Tak-hing, Hong Kong actor
- * Tarzan Woltzen, American professional basketball player
- June 28 - Ashley Montagu, British-American anthropologist
- June 29 - Oswald Denison, New Zealand rower
- June 30
- * John Harmon, American actor
- * Nestor Paiva, American actor
- * John Van Ryn, American tennis champion
July
- July 3
- * Johnny Gibson, American runner, Olympic athlete
- * :es:Clorinda Málaga de Prado|Clorinda Málaga de Prado, First Lady of Peru
- July 4
- * Robert Hankey, 2nd Baron Hankey, British diplomat, public servant
- * Irving Johnson, American sail training pioneer
- * Marie-Thérèse Paquin, Canadian pianist
- * Lionel Trilling, American literary critic, short story writer, essayist and teacher
- July 5 - Jock Cameron, South African cricketer
- July 6 - Leonid Pavlovich Potapov, Russian ethnographer
- July 7
- * :es:Charlo|Charlo, Argentine singer, musician, pianist, actor and composer
- * Max Rostal, Austrian-British violinist
- July 8
- * Kathleen Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn
- * Leonid Amalrik, Russian animator
- July 10 - Thomas Gomez, American actor
- July 11
- *Betty Allan, Australian statistician and biometrician
- *Kikutaro Baba, Japanese malacologist
- *David Louis Lidman, American actor
- July 12
- * Edward Bernds, American director
- * Prince John of the United Kingdom
- July 13
- * Magda Foy, American child actress
- * Eugenio Pagnini, Italian modern pentathlete
- * Edvin Laine, Finnish film director
- * Alfredo M. Santos, Filipino general
- July 14 - Laurence Chisholm Young, American mathematician
- July 15
- * Anita Farra, Italian actress
- * Dorothy Fields, American songwriter
- * Addie McPhail, American actress
- * Shirley Povich, American sports columnist
- July 16 - Lou Garland, American baseball player
- July 17
- * William Gargan, American actor
- * Guillermo Hyslop, American businessman
- * Araken Patusca, Brazilian footballer
- * Marjorie Reeves, British historian, educationalist
- July 19
- * Geertje Kuijntjes, Dutch supercentenarian
- * Giuseppe Girotti, Italian Roman Catholic priest and blessed
- July 20 - Joseph Levis, American fencer
- July 21
- * David M. Kennedy, American politician, businessman
- * Diana Trilling, American literary critic, author
- July 22 - Doc Cramer, American baseball player
- July 23 - Leopold Engleitner, Austrian Holocaust survivor
- July 25
- * Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born British writer
- * Masazō Nonaka, Japanese supercentenarian
- * Denys Watkins-Pitchford, British writer of children's books
- July 26 - Alex Radcliffe, American baseball player
- July 29
- * Clara Bow, American FILM actress
- * Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish diplomat, 2nd Secretary-General of the United Nations
- July 30 - Pedro Quartucci, Argentine boxer, actor
- July 31 - Robert A. Grant, American judge
August
- August 2
- * Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer
- * Ernst Kals, German submarine commander
- * Franz König, Austrian Roman Catholic archbishop
- * Myrna Loy, American actress
- August 4 - Abeid Karume, 1st President of Zanzibar
- August 8 - André Jolivet, French composer
- August 9 - Leo Genn, English actor
- August 11 - Erwin Chargaff, Austrian biochemist
- August 16 - Marian Rejewski, Polish mathematician, cryptologist
- August 20
- * Jean Gebser, German-born author, linguist and poet
- * Mikio Naruse, Japanese filmmaker
- August 22 - John Lyng, Norwegian politician, prime minister
- August 23 - Constant Lambert, British composer
- August 24 - Siaka Stevens, President of Sierra Leone
- August 25 - Faustina Kowalska, Polish "Secretary of Divine Mercy", saint
- August 28 - Sam Levene, American actor
- August 29
- * Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player
- * Al Taliaferro, Disney comics artist
- August 31 - Dore Schary, American film writer, director and producer
September
- September 1
- * Chau Sen Cocsal Chhum, Cambodian politician
- * Elvera Sanchez, Puerto Rican dancer
- September 3 - Carl David Anderson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 5
- * Justiniano Montano, Filipino politician
- * Walther Müller, German physicist
- September 10 - Ibrahim Biçakçiu, Albanian politician, 2-time Prime Minister of Albania
- September 12
- *Linda Agostini, English-Australian murder victim
- *Ali Amini, Iranian politician, 67th Prime Minister of Iran
- September 18
- * Eddie Anderson, African-American actor
- * Agnes de Mille, American choreographer
- * Greta Garbo, Swedish actress
- September 19 – Judith Auer, German World War II resistance fighter
- September 20 - Reinhold O. Carlson, American politician
- September 22
- * Haakon Lie, Norwegian politician
- * Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer
- September 24 - Severo Ochoa, Spanish–American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 26
- * Juliana Koo, Chinese-American diplomat and supercentenarian
- * Emilio Navarro, Puerto Rican baseball player
- September 28 - Max Schmeling, German boxer
- September 30
- * Savitri Devi, Greek writer, National Socialist philosopher
- * Nevill Francis Mott, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- * Michael Powell, English film director
October
- October 5 - John Hoyt, American actor, editorial board member of The Yale Record
- October 6 - Helen Wills, American tennis player
- October 7 - Andy Devine, American character actor
- October 11 - Fred Trump, American real estate developer, father of Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States
- October 15 - Gustav Gerneth, German supercentenarian
- October 18 - Félix Houphouët-Boigny, President of Ivory Coast
- October 23
- * Aidan Roark, Irish 10-goal polo player
- * Felix Bloch, Swiss-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- * Claude de Cambronne, French aircraft manufacturer
- * Yen Chia-kan, 2nd President of the Republic of China
- October 24 - Elizabeth Poston, English composer, pianist and writer
- October 29
- * Giuseppe Alessi, Italian politician
- * Reg Bunn, English comic book artist
- * Berthold Wolpe, German-born British calligrapher, typographer and illustrator
- October 31 - Harry Frederick Harlow, American psychologist
November
- November 1 - Eric Siday, American bandleader, electronic composer
- November 2
- * Isabella Smith Andrews, New Zealand writer
- * Georges Schehadé, Lebanese poet, playwright
- November 3 - Lois Mailou Jones, African-American artist
- November 4 - Dragutin Tadijanović, Croatian poet
- November 5 - Sajjad Zaheer, Indian-born Urdu writer, revolutionary
- November 7 - William Alwyn, English composer
- November 9 - Erika Mann, German author, war correspondent
- November 13 - Frank Levingston, American supercentenarian
- November 15 - Mantovani, Italian-born conductor, arranger
- November 17
- * Queen Astrid of Belgium
- * Mischa Auer, Russian-American actor
- November 19
- * Eleanor Audley, American actress
- * Tommy Dorsey, American bandleader
- November 21 – Georgina Battiscombe, British biographer
- November 25 – Samiha Ayverdi, Turkish author and Sufi mystic
- November 26 - Bob Johnson, American baseball player
- November 27 – Astrid Allwyn, American actress
December
- December 5
- * Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, British peer, politician and reformer
- * Otto Preminger, Austrian-born American film director
- December 7
- * Leonard Goldenson, American television executive
- * Gerard Kuiper, Dutch astronomer
- * Edelgard Huber von Gersdorff, German supercentenarian
- December 8 - Frank Faylen, American movie, television actor
- December 11 - Gilbert Roland, Mexican-born American actor
- December 13 – Ann Barzel, American writer and dance critic
- December 17 - Simo Häyhä, Finnish sniper
- December 19 - Irving Kahn, American financial analyst, investor
- December 21 - Anthony Powell, British author
- December 22 - Kenneth Rexroth, American poet
- December 23 - Paul Caraway, American general, High Commissioner, United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands
- December 24 - Howard Hughes, American millionaire, aviation pioneer and film mogul
- December 27 - Cliff Arquette, American comic
- December 31 - Jule Styne, English-born composer
Date unknown
- Gershon Liebman, French rabbi
Deaths
January
- January 1
- * Johannes Ludovicus Paquay, Belgian Roman Catholic priest and blessed
- * Mabel Cahill, Irish tennis champion
- January 2 - Clara Augusta Jones Trask, American dime novelist
- January 6
- * José María Gabriel y Galán, Spanish poet
- * Ann Eliza Smith, American patriot
- January 9 - Louise Michel, French anarchist
- January 11 - Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, Polish Hasidic rabbi
- January 14 - Ernst Abbe, German physicist
- January 19 - Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher
- January 20 - Gyula Szapáry, 10th Prime Minister of Hungary
- January 22
- * Ștefan Fălcoianu, Romanian general and politician
- * Clara Harrison Stranahan, American college co-founder and trustee
- January 27 - Watson Heston, American cartoonist
- January 31 - Konstantin Savitsky, Russian painter
February
- February 2 - Adolf Bastian, German anthropologist
- February 4 - Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor
- February 5 - Andrijica Šimić, Croatian hajduk
- February 6 - Maria Theresia Bonzel, German nun, founder of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration
- February 9 - Adolph von Menzel, German painter
- February 12 - Marcel Schwob, French writer
- February 15 - Lew Wallace, American writer
- February 16 - Jay Cooke, American financier
- February 17 - Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia
- February 19 - Benjamin Harris Babbidge, Australian politician, 19th Mayor of Brisbane
- February 20 - Jeremiah W. Farnham, American merchant captain
- February 24 - Fanny Cochrane Smith, Aboriginal Tasmanian
- February 25 - Edward Cooper, 83rd Mayor of New York City
March
- March 1 - Jean-Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume, French sculptor
- March 3 - Antonio Annetto Caruana, Maltese archaeologist, author
- March 6
- * Pierre Théoma Boisrond-Canal, 12th President of Haiti
- * John Henninger Reagan, American Confederate politician
- * Makar Yekmalyan, Armenian composer
- March 13 - Nil Izvorov, Bulgarian Orthodox priest and venerable
- March 15
- * Meyer Guggenheim, Swiss-born patriarch of the Guggenheim Family
- * Amalie Skram, Norwegian author, feminist
- March 17 - Juan Nepomuceno Zegrí Moreno, Spanish Roman Catholic priest and blessed
- March 23 - Martha E. Cram Bates, American journalist
- March 24 - Jules Verne, French science fiction author
- March 25 - Maurice Barrymore, British actor
- March 28 - Huang Zunxian, Chinese poet, writer
April
- April 4 - Constantin Meunier, Belgian painter, sculptor
- April 9 - Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford, British general
- April 18 - Juan Valera, Spanish writer
- April 23 - Joseph Jefferson, American actor
May
- May 11 -; Andrzej Jerzy Mniszech, Polish painter
- May 13 - Sam S. Shubert, American theater owner
- May 14 - Jessie Bartlett Davis, American actress and singer
- May 23 - Mary Livermore, American American advocate of women's rights
- May 26 - Alphonse James de Rothschild, French banker, philanthropist
- May 29 - Francisco Silvela, Spanish politician, Prime Minister
June
- June 1
- * Émile Delahaye, French automotive pioneer
- * Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, Italian Roman Catholic prelate and blessed
- June 3 - James Hudson Taylor, British missionary
- June 4 - Jan Mikulicz-Radecki, Polish-Austrian surgeon
- June 5 - Małgorzata Szewczyk, Polish Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed
- June 7 - Carl Kellner, German mystic
- June 13 - Theodoros Diligiannis, 5-time Prime Minister of Greece
- June 17 - Máximo Gómez, Cuban general
- June 18
- * Carmine Crocco, Italian brigand
- * Per Teodor Cleve, Swedish chemist and geologist
- June 22 - Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas
- June 27 - Grigory Vakulinchuk, Russian mutineer
July
- July 1 - John Hay, American diplomat, private secretary to Abraham Lincoln
- July 4 - Élisée Reclus, French geographer and anarchist
- July 8 - Walter Kittredge, American musician, composer
- July 11 - Muhammad Abduh, Egyptian philosopher, jurist
- July 15 - Raimundo Fernández-Villaverde, 28th Prime Minister of Spain
- July 30 - Gioacchino La Lomia, Italian Roman Catholic priest and venerable
August
- August 1 - John Brown, Canadian politician
- *Andrew Wylie, American judge
- August 4
- * Walther Flemming, German biologist
- * Kinjikitile Ngwale, Tanzanian rebel leader
- August 14 - Simeon Solomon, British artist
- August 21 - Mary Mapes Dodge, American author of children's literature
- August 31 - Francesco Tamagno, Italian opera singer
September
- September 5 - Touch the Clouds, Minneconjou chief
- September 13 - René Goblet, French politician, 52nd Prime Minister of France
- September 14 - Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, Franco-Italian explorer
- September 18 - George MacDonald, Scottish author, poet and Christian minister
- September 19 - Thomas John Barnardo, Irish philanthropist
October
- October 3 - José-Maria de Heredia, French poet
- October 6 - Ferdinand von Richthofen, German explorer, geographer
- October 11 - Isabelle Gatti de Gamond, Belgian educationalist and feminist
- October 13 - Sir Henry Irving, English actor
- October 15 - Mikhail Dragomirov, Russian general
- October 29 - Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian athlete
November
- November 2 - Albert von Kölliker, Swiss anatomist
- November 14 - Robert Whitehead, British engineer and inventor
- November 17 - Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
- November 22 - Viktor Sakharov, Russian general
December
- December 5 - Henry Eckford, British horticulturist
- December 9
- * Henry Holmes, British composer, violinist
- * Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, British scholar, politician
- December 12 - Reimond Stijns, Belgian writer
Date unknown
- Mary Thomas, West Indian labor leader
Nobel Prizes
- Physics – Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard
- Chemistry – Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer
- Medicine – Robert Koch
- Literature – Henryk Sienkiewicz
- Peace – Bertha von Suttner