1927

Events

January

• January 1
• * The Cristero War erupts in Mexico, when Catholic rebels attack the government, which had placed heavy restrictions on the Catholic Church.
• * The British Broadcasting Company becomes the British Broadcasting Corporation, when it is granted a Royal Charter of incorporation. John Reith becomes the first Director-General.
• January 7
• * The first transatlantic telephone call is made via radio from New York City to London.
• * The Harlem Globetrotters play their first ever road game in Hinckley, Illinois.
• January 9
• * A military rebellion is crushed in Lisbon, Portugal.
• * A fire at the Laurier Palace movie theatre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, kills 78 children.
• January 10 - Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.
• January 11 - Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at a banquet in Los Angeles, California.
• January 15 - Teddy Wakelam gives the first sports commentary on BBC Radio.
• January 19 - Great Britain sends troops to China, to protect foreign nationals from spreading anti-foreign riots in central China.
• January 24 - U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua by orders of President Calvin Coolidge, intervening in the Nicaraguan Civil War, and remaining in the country until 1933.
• January 30 - Right-wing veterans and the Republikanischer Schutzbund clash in Schattendorf, Austria, with two fatalities resulting.

  February

• February - Werner Heisenberg formulates his famous uncertainty principle, while employed as a lecturer at Niels Bohr's Institute for Theoretical Physics, at the University of Copenhagen.
• February 12 - The first British troops land in Shanghai.
• February 14 - A magnitude 6.1 earthquake, with a maximum MSK intensity of VII–VIII, kills 50 in Yugoslavia.
• February 19
• * A general strike takes place in Shanghai, in protest against the presence of British troops.
• * In the United States, the silent romantic comedy film It starring Clara Bow, is released, popularising the concept of the "It girl".
• February 23 - The U.S. Federal Radio Commission begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.

  March

• March 4 - A diamond rush in South Africa includes trained athletes, who have been hired by major companies to stake claims.
• March 6 - In Britain, 1,000 people a week die from an influenza epidemic.
• March 7 - 1927 Kita Tango earthquake: A 7.0 earthquake kills at least 2,925 in the Toyooka and Mineyama areas of western Honshu, in Japan.
• March 10 - Albania mobilizes in case of an attack by Yugoslavia.
• March 11
• * In New York City, the Roxy Theatre is opened by Samuel Roxy Rothafel.
• * The first armored car robbery is committed by the Flatheads Gang, near Pittsburgh.
• March 14 - Pan American World Airways is founded by Juan T. Trippe.
• March 24 - Nanking Incident: After six foreigners have been killed in Nanking, and it appears that Kuomintang and Communist Party of China forces will overrun the foreign consulates, warships of the U.S. Navy and the British Royal Navy fire shells and shot to disperse the crowds.
• March 29 - Henry Segrave breaks the land speed record, driving the Sunbeam 1000 hp at Daytona Beach, Florida.

  April

• April 1 - The U.S. Bureau of Prohibition is founded.
• April 5 - In Britain, the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 forbids strikes of support.
• April 7 - Bell Telephone Co. transmits an image of Herbert Hoover, which becomes the first successful long distance demonstration of television.
• April 12
• * The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 renames the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The change acknowledges that the Irish Free State is no longer part of the Kingdom.
• * April 12 Incident : Kuomintang troops kill a number of communist-supporting workers in Shanghai. The 1st United Front between the Nationalists and Communist ends, and the Civil War lasting until 1949 begins.
• April 14 - The first Volvo automobile rolls off the production line in Gothenburg, Sweden.
• April 18 - The Kuomintang set up a government in Nanking, China.
• April 21 - A banking crisis hits Japan.
• April 22-May 5 - The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 strikes 700,000 people, in the greatest natural disaster in American history through this time.
• April 23 - Cardiff City wins the FA Cup, beating Arsenal 1–0; as of 2019, this remains the only time a team from outside England has won the competition.
• April 27
• * The Carabineros de Chile are created.
• * João Ribeiro de Barros becomes the first non-European to make a transatlantic flight, flying from Genoa, Italy, to Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.

  May

• May - Philo Farnsworth of the United States transmits his first experimental electronic television motion pictures, as opposed to the electromechanical TV systems that others have used before.
• May 9 - The Australian Parliament convenes for the first time in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Previously, the Parliament had met in Melbourne, Victoria.
• May 11 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the "Academy" in "Academy Awards", is founded.
• May 12 - British police officers raid the office of the Soviet trade delegation in London.
• May 13 - King George V proclaims the change of his title, from King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• May 17 - U.S. Army aviation pioneer Major Harold Geiger dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 airplane, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania.
• May 18 - Bath School disaster: A series of violent attacks results in 45 deaths, mostly of school children, in Bath Township, Michigan.
• May 20 - By the Treaty of Jeddah, the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of Ibn Saud over the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd, the future Saudi Arabia.
• May 20-21- Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo, nonstop transatlantic airplane flight, from New York City to Paris, France, in his single-engined aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis.
• May 22 - The 7.6 Gulang earthquake affects Gansu in northwest China with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI, leaving over 40,000 dead.
• May 23 - Nearly 600 members of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers view a live demonstration of television at the Bell Telephone Building in New York City, just over a year after John Logie Baird of Scotland had first demonstrated an electromechanical television system to the members of the Royal Society in London.
• May 24 - The United Kingdom cuts its diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, due to revelations of espionage and underground agitation.

  June

• June - The volcanic island of Anak Krakatau begins to form in the Sunda Strait of Indonesia.
• June 4 - Yugoslavia severs diplomatic relations with Albania.
• June 4-6 - Clarence Chamberlin and Charles Albert Levine take off from Roosevelt Field, New York, and fly to Eisleben, Germany, in the Wright-Bellanca WB-2 Columbia aircraft Miss Columbia, two weeks after Charles Lindbergh's historic solo flight.
• June 7 - Pyotr Voykov, the Soviet ambassador to Poland, is murdered.
• June 9 - The Soviet Union executes 20 for alleged espionage.
• June 13
• * Léon Daudet, the leader of the French monarchists, is arrested in France.
• * A ticker tape parade is held for aviator Charles Lindbergh, down Fifth Avenue in New York City.
• June 18 - The Association football club Persebaya Surabaya is founded in the Dutch East Indies.
• June 28 - Spanish airline Iberia is established.
• June 29 - Solar eclipse of June 29, 1927: A total eclipse of the sun takes place over Wales, northern England, southern Scotland, Norway, northern Sweden, northmost Finland, and the northmost extremes of Russia.
• June 29-July 1 - Commander Richard E. Byrd, Bernt Balchen, George Noville, and Bert Acosta take off from Roosevelt Field, New York, in the Fokker Trimotor airplane America, and cross the Atlantic to the coast of France, having to ditch there because of bad weather; all four men survive the emergency landing.

  July

• July 1 - The Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration is established as a United States federal agency.
• July 10 - Kevin O'Higgins, Vice-President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State and Minister for Justice, is assassinated by the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army in Dublin.
• July 11 - The 1927 Jericho earthquake strikes Palestine, killing around 300 people. The effects are especially severe in Nablus, but damage and fatalities are also reported in many areas of Palestine and Transjordan, such as Amman, Salt, Jordan, and Lydda.
• July 13 : 12:30 - Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn is freed from the imprisonment which began on June 15 at 02:15 in exile, in the Russian town of Kostroma.
• July 15 - July Revolt of 1927: After police in Vienna fire on an angry crowd, 85 protesters and 5 policemen are left dead; more than 600 people are injured.
• July 24 - The Menin Gate is dedicated as a war memorial at Ypres, Belgium.

  August

• August 1 - The Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army is formed, during the Nanchang Uprising.
• August 2
• * U.S. President Calvin Coolidge announces, "I do not choose to run for president in 1928."
• * American electrical engineer Harold Stephen Black invents the negative-feedback amplifier.
• August 7 - The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.
• August 10 - The Mount Rushmore Park is rededicated in the United States. President Calvin Coolidge promises national funding for the proposed carving of the presidential figures.
• August 22 - 200 people demonstrate in Hyde Park, London, against the death sentences on Italian American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. Other protests are held across the world at this time.
• August 23 - Sacco and Vanzetti are executed in Charlestown State Prison in Boston, Massachusetts.
• August 24-25 - The 1927 Nova Scotia hurricane hits the Atlantic Provinces of Canada, causing massive damage and at least 56 deaths.
• August 26 - Paul R. Redfern leaves Brunswick, Georgia, flying his Stinson Detroiter "Port of Brunswick", to attempt a solo nonstop flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He later crashes in the Venezuelan jungle, but the crash site is never found.

  September

• September - The Autumn Harvest Uprising occurs in China.
• September 7
• * The University of Minas Gerais is founded in Brazil.
• * The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Farnsworth.
• September 18 - The Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System is formed, and goes on the air with 47 radio stations.
• September 25 - A treaty signed by the League of Nations Slavery Commission abolishes all types of slavery.
• September 27 - The East St. Louis Tornado kills 79 and injures 550, the 2nd costliest and at least 24th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.

  October

• October - The Fifth Solvay Conference, held in the latter half of the month, establishes the acceptance of the Copenhagen interpretation.
• October 4 - Carving of the sculptures at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota begins.
• October 6 - The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, premieres at the Warner Theater in New York City. Although not the first sound film, and containing very little recorded speech, it is the first to become a box-office hit, popularizing "talkies".
• October 8 - The "Murderers' Row" team of the New York Yankees complete a four-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series baseball championship in the United States.
• October 9 - The Mexican government crushes a rebellion in Veracruz.
• October 18 - The first flight of Pan American Airways takes off from Key West, Florida, bound for Havana, Cuba.
• October 25 - The Italian ocean liner Principessa Mafalda capsizes off Porto Seguro, Brazil; at least 314 people are killed.
• October 27
• * Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands opens the Meuse-Waal Canal in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
• * At 5:50 a.m. a ground fault gives way, causing the mine and part of the town of Worthington to collapse into a large chasm located in Ontario. Nobody is injured in the incident, as the area has been evacuated the night before after a mine foreman noticed abnormal rock shifts in the mine.

  November

• November 1 - İsmet İnönü forms a new government in Turkey.
• November 3-4 - Floods devastating Vermont cause the "worst natural disaster in the state's history".
• November 4 - Frank Heath and his horse Gypsy Queen return to Washington, D.C., having completed a two-year journey of 11,356 miles to all 48 of the states.
• November 12
• * Mahatma Gandhi makes his first and last visit to Ceylon.
• * Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
• * The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic, as the first vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River, linking New Jersey with New York City.
• November 14 - Pittsburgh gasometer explosion: Three Equitable Gas storage tanks in the North Side of Pittsburgh explode, killing 26 people and causing damage estimated between $4.0 million and $5.0 million.
• November 21 - The Colorado state police open fire on 500 rowdy but unarmed miners during a strike, killing 6.

  December

• December - The Communist Party Congress condemns all deviation from the general party line in the USSR.
• December 1 - Chiang Kai-shek marries Soong Mei-ling in Shanghai.
• December 2 - Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile in the United States.
• December 3 - Putting Pants on Philip, the first Laurel and Hardy film, is released.
• December 11 Gamma Sigma Fraternity becomes the first high school fraternity to become international with Alpha Zeta Chapter in Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada
• December 14 - Iraq gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• December 15 - Marion Parker, 12, is kidnapped in Los Angeles. Her dismembered body is found on December 19, prompting the largest manhunt to date on the West Coast for her killer, William Edward Hickman, who is arrested on December 22 in Oregon.
• December 17
• * United States Navy submarine is accidentally rammed and sunk by United States Coast Guard cutter John Paulding off Provincetown, Massachusetts, killing everyone aboard despite several unsuccessful attempts to raise the submarine.
• * Australian cricketer Bill Ponsford makes 437 runs to break his own world record for the highest first-class cricket score at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
• December 19 - Three members of the revolutionary movement for Indian independence - Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, Thakur Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan - are executed by the British Raj. Rajendra Nath Lahiri has been executed two days before.
• December 20 - Letalski center Maribor is established in Maribor; it will be the oldest surviving operating major flying club in the Balkans.
• December 27 - Kern and Hammerstein's musical play, Show Boat, based on Edna Ferber's novel, opens on Broadway and then goes on to become the first great classic of the American musical theater.
• December 29 - Eruption of the Perboewatan and Danan undersea volcanoes near Krakatoa, create the foundation for the Anak Krakatau Island.
• December 30 - The first Asian commuter metro line, the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, opens in Japan.

  Date unknown

• The Voluntary Committee of Lawyers is founded, to bring about the Repeal of Prohibition in the United States.
• World population reaches 2,000,000,000.

  Births

January–February

• January 1
• * Maurice Béjart, French-Swiss dancer, choreographer and director
• * Vernon L. Smith, American economist, Nobel laureate
• January 2 - Robert Alt, Swiss bobsledder
• January 4 - Barbara Rush, American actress
• January 10
• *Johnnie Ray, American singer
• * Otto Stich, member of the Swiss Federal Council
• January 13 - Sydney Brenner, South African biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
• January 15 - Kirti Nidhi Bista, Nepali politician, three times prime minister
• January 17 - Eartha Kitt, African-American singer, actress, activist and author
• January 20 - Qurratulain Hyder, Indian journalist and academic
• January 23 - Fred Williams, Australian painter and printmaker
• January 25 - Antônio Carlos Jobim, Brazilian composer
• January 26 - José Azcona del Hoyo, 26th President of Honduras
• January 28
• * Per Oscarsson, Swedish actor
• * Ronnie Scott, English jazz saxophonist
• * Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director
• January 29
• * Edward Abbey, American environmentalist
• * Lewis Urry, Canadian inventor
• January 30 - Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden
• February 1 - Galway Kinnell, American poet
• February 2 - Stan Getz, American musician
• February 3
• * Kenneth Anger, American actor, director and screenwriter
• * Blas Ople, Filipino politician
• February 7 - Juliette Gréco, French singer, actress
• February 8 - George Taliaferro, American football player
• February 10 - Leontyne Price, African-American soprano
• February 15 - Harvey Korman, American actor, comedian
• February 17 - John Selfridge, American mathematician
• February 18 - John Warner, American politician
• February 20
• * Roy Cohn, American lawyer, anti-Communist
• * Sidney Poitier, Bahamian-American actor, film director
• February 21 - Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer
• February 22
• * Emil Bobu, Romanian Communist activist, politician
• * Guy Mitchell, American singer and actor
• February 23
• * Silvia Legrand, Argentine actress
• * Mirtha Legrand, Argentine actress and television presenter
• February 24 - Emmanuelle Riva, French actress
• February 25
• * Dick Jones, American actor, singer
• * Ralph Stanley, American bluegrass banjo player, vocalist
• February 27 - Peter Whittle, New Zealand mathematician

  March–April

• March 1
• * George O. Abell, American astronomer, professor at UCLA, science popularizer, and skeptic
• * Harry Belafonte, Jamaican-American musician, actor, and civil rights activist
• March 2 - Roger Walkowiak, French road bicycle racer
• March 3 - Pierre Aubert, member of the Swiss Federal Council
• March 4 - Dick Savitt, American tennis player
• March 5 - Jack Cassidy, American stage, screen and television actor
• March 6
• * Gordon Cooper, American astronaut
• * Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian author, Nobel Prize laureate
• March 8 - Stanisław Kania, Polish communist politician
• March 10 - Jupp Derwall, German football player and manager
• March 12
• * Raúl Alfonsín, former President of Argentina
• * Sudharmono, 5th Vice President of Indonesia
• March 15 - Carl Smith, American country music singer
• March 16
• * Vladimir Komarov, Russian cosmonaut
• * Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American author, politician, and statesman
• March 17 - Roberto Suazo Córdova, President of Honduras
• March 18 - John Kander, American composer
• March 21 - Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German politician
• March 24 - Martin Walser, German author
• March 25 - Tina Anselmi, Italian politician
• March 27
• * Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor
• * Karl Stotz, Austrian football player
• March 29 - John Vane, British pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate
• March 31
• * César Chávez, American labor activist, United Farm Workers founder
• * William Daniels, American actor
• * Eduardo Martínez Somalo, Spanish cardinal
• April 2 - Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer
• April 3 - Éva Székely, Hungarian swimmer
• April 5 - Thanin Kraivichien, Thai lawyer and politician, Prime Minister 1976-77
• April 6
• * Gerry Mulligan, American musician
• * Fethia Mzali, Tunisian teacher, politician
• April 9 - Tiny Hill, New Zealand rugby union player and selector
• April 10 - Marshall Warren Nirenberg, American scientist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 11 - Abd al-Majid al-Rafei, Lebanese politician
• April 12 - Alvin Sargent, American screenwriter
• April 14 - Alan MacDiarmid, New Zealand chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 15 - Robert Mills, American physicist
• April 16 - Pope Benedict XVI
• April 17 - Margot Honecker, East German politician
• April 18
• * Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist
• * Tadeusz Mazowiecki, 1st Prime Minister of Poland
• * Charles Pasqua, French businessman, politician
• April 20
• * Phil Hill, American race car driver
• * Karl Alexander Müller, Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 24 - Josy Barthel, Luxembourgish athlete
• April 25 - Albert Uderzo, French author, illustrator
• April 27
• * Coretta Scott King, African-American civil rights leader, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• * Yao Xian, Chinese general
• April 29 - Dorothy Manley, English athlete

  May–June

• May 1
• * Greta Andersen, Danish Olympic swimmer
• * Tamar Bornstein-Lazar, Israeli children's writer
• * Rusli Noor, 8th Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
• * Albert Zafy, 3rd President of Madagascar
• May 4 - Marella Agnelli, Italian art collector and socialite
• May 5 - Pat Carroll, American actress
• May 9
• * Manfred Eigen, German biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• * Juan José Pizzuti, Argentine footballer and manager
• May 10 - Nayantara Sahgal, Indian author
• May 11
• * Mort Sahl, Canadian-born comedian, political commentator
• * Gene Savoy, American author, explorer, scholar and cleric
• May 13 - Herbert Ross, American film director
• May 14
• * Herbert W. Franke, Austrian scientist, author
• * Frank Miller, Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario 1985
• May 20 - David Hedison, American actor
• May 22 - George Andrew Olah, Hungarian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• May 23 - Dieter Hildebrandt, German comedian
• May 25 - Robert Ludlum, American author
• May 26
• * Jacques Bergerac, French actor
• * Endel Tulving, Estonian-Canadian psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist
• May 28 - Ralph Carmichael, American composer and arranger
• May 30 - Clint Walker, American actor
• June 3
• * Boots Randolph, American saxophone player
• * Eliseo Mouriño, Argentine footballer
• June 6 - Elijah Mudenda, Zambian politician
• June 8
• * Pavel Kharin, Soviet Olympic canoeist
• * Jerry Stiller, American comedian, actor
• June 9 - George Nigh, American politician
• June 10
• * László Kubala, Hungarian football player, manager
• * Eugene Parker, American astrophysicist
• June 13
• * Slim Dusty, Australian country singer
• * Yoshiro Hayashi, Japanese politician
• * Franco Maria Malfatti, Italian politician
• June 16 - Ariano Suassuna, Brazilian playwright, author
• June 17
• * Martin Böttcher, German composer, conductor
• * Wally Wood, American cartoonist
• June 19 - Luciano Benjamín Menéndez, Argentine general
• June 20 - Bernard Cahier, French photojournalist
• June 23 - Bob Fosse, American choreographer, director
• June 24 - Martin Lewis Perl, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• June 26 - Ben Turok, South African anti-apartheid activist, professor and politician
• June 27
• * Gracia Barrios, Chilean painter
• * Cino Tortorella, Italian television presenter
• June 28
• * Frank Sherwood Rowland, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * Boris Shilkov, Soviet speed skater
• June 29 - Kenneth Snelson, American contemporary sculptor, photographer
• June 30 - Shirley Fry Irvin, American tennis player

  July–August

• July 1
• * Chandra Shekhar, 8th Prime Minister of India
• * Mirghani Alnasri, Sudanese politician
• * Leo Klejn, Russian archaeologist, anthropologist and philologist
• July 3 - Salome Þorkelsdóttir, Icelandic politician
• July 4
• * Gina Lollobrigida, Italian actress
• * Neil Simon, American playwright, screenwriter and author
• July 6
• * Alan Freeman, Australian-born broadcaster, disc jockey
• * Janet Leigh, American actress
• July 7 - Henri Dirickx, Belgian international footballer played
• July 8
• * Lisa Lu, Chinese-born American actress, singer
• * Khensur Lungri Namgyel, Tibetan religious leader
• July 9 - Red Kelly, Canadian ice hockey player
• July 10
• * Grigory Barenblatt, Russian mathematician
• * David Dinkins, African-American Mayor of New York City
• July 11
• * Theodore H. Maiman, American inventor, physicist who developed the laser
• * Gregorio Salvador Caja, Spanish linguist
• July 12 - Abune Antonios, 3rd Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
• July 13 - Simone Veil, French lawyer and politician
• July 15
• * Håkon Brusveen, Norwegian cross-country skier
• * Nan Martin, American actress
• * Carmen Zapata, American actress
• July 18
• * Antonio García-Trevijano, Spanish republican, political activist, and author
• * Kurt Masur, German conductor
• July 20
• * Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Russian historian and human rights activist
• * Michael Gielen, Austrian conductor and composer
• July 22
• * Dagoberto Moll, Uruguayan footballer and manager
• * Hsing Yun, Chinese Buddhist monk
• July 24 - Robert Boutigny, French Olympic canoeist
• July 28
• * John Ashbery, American poet
• * Pasquale Festa Campanile, Italian screenwriter, film director and novelist
• August 2
• * Fredrik Bull-Hansen, Norwegian military officer
• * Andreas Dückstein, Austrian chess player
• August 5 - Rolf Wütherich, German automotive engineer, racer
• August 6
• * Arturo Armando Molina, President of El Salvador
• * Theodor Wagner, Austrian footballer and manager
• August 7
• * Rocky Bridges, American middle infielder, third baseman
• * Dušan Čkrebić, Serbian politician
• * Edwin Edwards, American politician
• August 8
• * Giuseppe Moioli, Italian rower
• * Johnny Temple, American baseball player
• August 9
• * Marvin Minsky, American computer scientist, Turing Award winner
• * Robert Shaw, British actor
• August 10 - Eivind Eckbo, Norwegian politician, lawyer and farmer
• August 11
• * Giancarlo Astrua, Italian road bicycle racer
• * Raymond Leppard, English conductor
• * Stuart Rosenberg, American director
• August 12 - Elgen Long, American aviator, world record holder and researcher
• August 13 - David Padilla, 64th President of Bolivia
• August 15 - Carmela Marie Cristiano, American Roman Catholic nun
• August 18 - Rosalynn Carter, First Lady of the United States
• August 21 - Thomas S. Monson, 16th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• August 23
• * Dick Bruna, Dutch artist, graphic designer
• * Philippe Mestre, French high-ranking civil servant, media executive and politician
• August 24
• * David Ireland, Australian novelist
• * Harry Markowitz, American economist
• August 25 - Althea Gibson, African-American tennis player
• August 26
• * Jill Amos, New Zealand politician and community leader
• * Ma Jir Bo, Chinese Realism oil painter
• * B. V. Doshi, Indian architect

  September–October

• September 2 - Trude Beiser, Austrian alpine skier
• September 4 - Antônio Carlos Magalhães, Brazilian politician
• September 5 - Paul Volcker, American economist, academic
• September 7 - Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, Canadian lawyer, jurist
• September 8 - Marguerite Frank, American-French mathematician
• September 10 - Sachiko, Princess Hisa, Japanese princess
• September 12
• * Mathé Altéry, French soprano and actress
• * Freddie Jones, English actor
• * Franco Latini, Italian actor and voice actor
• September 13 - Laura Cardoso, Brazilian actress
• September 16
• * Peter Falk, American actor
• * Sadako Ogata, Japanese diplomat, former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
• * Bhichai Rattakul, Thai politician
• September 19
• *Harold Brown, American nuclear physicist, 14th United States Secretary of Defense
• * Rosemary Harris, English actress
• * William Hickey, American actor
• *Nick Massi, American bass singer and bass guitarist for The Four Seasons
• September 23 - Abdel Khaliq Mahjub, Sudanese politician
• September 25
• * Carl Braun, American basketball player and coach
• * Sir Colin Davis, English conductor
• * Val Jellay, Australian actress
• September 29
• * Josefina Echánove, Mexican actress, model and journalist
• * Adhemar Ferreira da Silva, Brazilian athlete
• September 30 - W. S. Merwin, American poet
• October 1
• * Tom Bosley, American actor
• * Andrzej Krzesiński, Polish pole vaulter
• * Márta Kurtág, Hungarian classical pianist
• * Ya'akov Ben-Yezri, Moroccan-Israeli politician
• October 4
• * Wolf Kahn, German-American painter
• * Margaret Varner Bloss, American athlete
• October 6 - Paul Badura-Skoda, Austrian pianist
• October 7 - Al Martino, American singer, actor
• October 8 - César Milstein, Argentine scientist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recipient
• October 9 - John Margetson, English scholar and diplomat
• October 10 - Dana Elcar, American actor, director
• October 11
• * Princess Joséphine Charlotte of Belgium, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
• * William Perry, American mathematician, engineer and businessman
• October 13
• * Lee Konitz, American jazz composer, alto saxophonist
• * Turgut Özal, 8th President, 26th Prime Minister of Turkey
• October 14
• * Juan Hidalgo Codorniu, Spanish composer, poet, action and visual artist
• * Roger Moore, English actor
• October 15 - Peter Pollen, Canadian politician
• October 16 - Günter Grass, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• October 18 - George C. Scott, American actor
• October 19
• * Pierre Alechinsky, Belgian painter
• * Red McCombs, American billionaire
• October 22 - Oscar Furlong, Argentine basketball player, and tennis player and coach
• October 23 - Leszek Kołakowski, Polish philosopher
• October 25
• * Jorge Batlle, President of Uruguay
• * Barbara Cook, American singer and actress
• October 27
• * Dominick Argento, American composer and educator
• * Silvia Laidla, Estonian actress
• October 28
• * Cleo Laine, English singer and actress
• * Roza Makagonova, Russian actress
• October 29 - Frank Sedgman, Australian tennis player

  November–December

• November 1
• * Marcel Ophüls, German documentary filmmaker
• * Herbert Wiedermann, Austrian Olympic canoeist
• November 2 - Steve Ditko, American comic-book writer, artist
• November 3
• * Marius Barnard, South African cardiac surgeon
• * Odvar Nordli, Norwegian politician and 10th Prime Minister of Norway
• * Jan Stoeckart, Dutch composer, conductor, trombonist and former radio producer
• November 5 - Ellie Mannette, Trinidadian steel pan musician
• November 7 - Hiroshi Yamauchi, Japanese businessman, president of Nintendo
• November 8
• * L. K. Advani, Indian lawyer and politician
• * Ken Dodd, English comedian
• * Patti Page, American pop singer
• November 10
• * Richard Connolly, Australian hymnodist
• * Sabah, Lebanese singer and actress
• November 13 - Charles G. Cleveland, American general and flying ace
• November 15 - Bill Rowling, 30th Prime Minister of New Zealand
• November 17
• * Fenella Fielding, English actress
• * Nicholas Taylor, Canadian geologist, businessman, politician and Senator
• November 18 - Hank Ballard, American musician
• November 20 - Estelle Parsons, American actress
• November 21
• * Georgia Frontiere, American co-owner of the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams
• * Gordon Christian, American ice hockey player
• November 23
• *Guy Davenport, American author, artist, and scholar
• *Angelo Sodano, Italian Catholic cardinal, Dean of the College of Cardinals
• November 24
• * Ahmadou Kourouma, Ivorian writer
• * Alfredo Kraus, Spanish tenor
• November 27 - José de Jesús Madera Uribe, American Roman Catholic bishop
• November 28 - Abdul Halim of Kedah, Malaysian sultan, 5th & 14th Yang di-Pertuan Agong
• November 29 - Vin Scully, American baseball broadcaster
• November 30
• * Michael Fitchett, Australian cricketer
• * Tod Sloan, Canadian professional ice hockey player
• * Robert Guillaume, African-American actor and singer
• December 1 - Micheline Bernardini, French dancer and model
• December 2 - Prabhakar Thokal, Indian cartoonist
• December 3 - Andy Williams, American singer
• December 4 - Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, Spanish writer
• December 5
• * Bhumibol Adulyadej, King Rama IX of Thailand
• * Joseph Keke, Beninese politician
• * Óscar Míguez, Uruguayan football player
• * Erich Probst, Austrian football player
• December 6 - Marcel Pelletier, Canadian ice hockey player
• December 7
• * Shintaro Tsuji, Japanese businessman
• * Helen Watts, Welsh contralto
• December 8 - Vladimir Shatalov, Russian cosmonaut
• December 9 - Pierre Henry, French composer
• December 11
• * Javier Alva Orlandini, Peruvian politician amd lawyer
• * Stein Eriksen, Norwegian Olympic skier
• December 12 - Robert Noyce, American co-founder of Intel
• December 18
• * Ramsey Clark, American politician and lawyer
• * Roméo LeBlanc, 25th Governor General of Canada
• * Jesus Varela, Filipino Roman Catholic prelate
• December 20
• * Charlie Callas, American comedian and actor
• * Kim Young-sam, South Korean politician, 7th President of the Republic of Korea
• December 23 - Alexander Vedernikov, Russian singer, teacher
• December 24
• * Mary Higgins Clark, American novelist
• * Diane de Margerie, French translator
• December 25
• * Nellie Fox, American baseball player
• * Ram Narayan, Indian sarangi player
• December 26
• * Akihiko Hirata, Japanese actor
• * Alan King, American actor and comedian
• * Lin Hu, Chinese general
• December 27 - Luciano Frosini, Italian racing cyclist
• December 28 - Edward Babiuch, Polish Communist politician
• December 29
• * Amelita Ramos, former First Lady of the Philippines
• * Andy Stanfield, American athlete
• * Bùi Tín, Vietnamese military officer, dissident
• December 30
• * Hamed Karoui, 16th Prime Minister of Tunisia
• * Jan Kubíček, Czech constructivist painter, sculptor

  Deaths

January–February

• January 4 - Süleyman Nazif, Turkish poet
• January 9 - Houston Stewart Chamberlain, English-born German author
• January 14 - Niels Thorkild Rovsing, Danish surgeon
• January 15 - Harald Giersing, Danish painter
• January 16 - Jovan Cvijić, Serbian geographer
• January 18 - Sir Gilbert Thomas Carter, British colonial administrator
• January 19
• * Empress Carlota of Mexico
• * Carl Gräbe, German chemist
• January 24 - Agnes Maule Machar, Canadian poet and author
• January 26 - Lyman J. Gage, American financier and politician
• January 27 - Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius, Lithuanian Roman Catholic bishop and blessed
• January 30
• * Constantin Cantacuzino-Pașcanu, Romanian politician
• * Friedrich Koch, German composer
• * Ferdinando Russo, Italian journalist
• February 4 - Janko Vukotić, Montenegrin general
• February 5 - Osório Duque-Estrada, Brazilian poet
• February 6 - Mateo Correa Magallanes, Mexican Roman Catholic priest, martyr and saint
• February 10 - Laura Netzel, Swedish composer and conductor
• February 11 - Émile Albrecht, Swiss Olympic rower
• February 13
• * Brooks Adams, American historian
• * Vive Lindaman, American professional baseball player
• February 16
• * Jonas Basanavičius, Soviet activist
• * Carl Theodore Vogelgesang, American admiral
• * Friedrich Reinitzer, Austrian botanist
• February 18
• *Turhan Përmeti, Albanian politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Albania, leader of the World War I
• *Abd-al Karim, Afghan emir
• February 19
• * Georg Brandes, Danish critic and scholar
• * Fernand de Langle de Cary, French general
• * Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer
• February 20 - George McClellan, U.S. House of Representatives from New York
• February 23 - Noda Utarō, Japanese entrepreneur and politician
• February 25 - Kōgyo Tsukioka, Japanese artist
• February 26
• * Austin M. Knight, American admiral
• * Hermann Obrist, German sculptor

  March–April

• March 1 - Nakamura Yoshikoto, Japanese politician, Mayor of Tokyo
• March 3 - Mikhail Artsybashev, Russian writer
• March 4
• * Ira Remsen, American chemist, discoverer of saccharin
• * Max Théon, Polish Jewish occultist
• March 6 - Marie Spartali Stillman, British painter
• March 8
• * José María Arroyo, Filipino politician
• * Manuel Gondra, Paraguayan author and journalist, 21st President of Paraguay
• March 9 - Lucrecia Arana, Spanish opera singer
• March 10 - George W. Forbes, American journalist
• March 11 - Xenophon Stratigos, Greek general
• March 14 - Jānis Čakste, Latvian politician, 1st President of Latvia
• March 16 - Marie Magdeleine Real del Sarte, French painter
• March 17 - Charles Emmett Mack, American actor
• March 22 - Templin Potts, American naval officer; 11th Naval Governor of Guam
• March 23
• * Dietrich Barfurth, German anatomist and embryologist
• * Paul César Helleu, French artist
• March 24 - Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg
• March 25 - Marie-Alphonsine Danil Ghattas, Palestinian Roman Catholic nun and saint
• March 27
• * Alexandru Bădărău, Romanian journalist
• * William Healey Dall, American malacologist and explorer
• * Joe Start, American baseball player
• March 28 - Joseph-Médard Émard, Canadian Roman Catholic priest and bishop
• March 29
• * Patriarch Ambrosius of Georgia
• * Luigi Luzzatti, Italian economist, financier, jurist and philosopher, 20th Prime Minister of Italy
• March 30 - Ladislas Lazaro, U.S. Representatives from Louisiana
• April 1 - Anacleto González Flores, Mexican Roman Catholic layman and blessed
• April 2 - Ottokár Prohászka, Hungarian Roman Catholic theologian and archbishop
• April 3 - Marco Fidel Suárez, Colombian political figure, 9th President of Colombia
• April 4
• * Vincent Drucci, Italian-born American mobster
• * Albert Van Coile, Belgian footballer
• April 7 - Domingo Iturrate Zubero, Spanish Roman Catholic priest and blessed
• April 10 - Arthur Reid Lempriere, British army officer
• April 12 - Giuseppe Moscati, Italian doctor, researcher, professor and Roman Catholic saint
• April 15 - Gaston Leroux, French journalist and author
• April 17 - Florence Carpenter Dieudonné, American writer
• April 20 - Enrique Simonet, Spanish painter
• April 25
• * Étienne Moreau-Nélaton, French painter
• * Earle Williams, American actor
• April 28
• * M. P. Bajana, Indian cricketer
• * Li Dazhao, Chinese intellectual, co-founder of the Communist Party of China
• April 29 - Juan Ángel Arias Boquín, 16th President of Honduras
• April 30 - Friedrich von Scholtz, German general

  May–June

• May 2
• * Fukuda Hideko, Japanese author
• * Ernest Starling, English physiologist
• May 5
• * Ana Echazarreta, First Lady of Chile
• * Franziska Tiburtius, German doctor
• May 6 - Henry Lowry-Corry, British army officer and politician
• May 8
• * Charles Nungesser, French aviator, World War I fighter ace
• * Francois Coli, French aerial navigator, WW1 veteran
• * Teresa Demjanovich, American Catholic religious sister and blessed
• May 11 - Juan Gris, Spanish sculptor, painter
• May 12 - Giuseppe Bagnera, Italian mathematician
• May 13 - Heinrich Peer, Austrian film actor
• May 17 - Harold Geiger, American aviator
• May 18 - Nikifor Begichev, Soviet seaman and explorer
• May 20
• * John J. O'Connor, American Roman Catholic bishop and reverend
• * N. Samuel of Tranquebar, Ceylonese poet and author
• May 23 - Henry E. Huntington, American railroad magnate
• May 25
• * Agustín Caloca Cortés, Mexican Roman Catholic layman and martyr
• * Henri Hubert, French archaeologist, sociologist
• * Cristóbal Magallanes Jara, Mexican Roman Catholic priest, martyr and saint
• May 28 - Boris Kustodiev, Soviet painter and designer
• June 1
• * Lizzie Borden, American serial killer
• * J. B. Bury, Irish historian
• * Hannibal di Francia, Italian Roman Catholic priest and saint
• June 3 - Princess Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
• June 4
• * Julia Hurley, American actress
• * Robert McKim, American actor
• June 7
• * František Dvořák, Czechoslovak painter
• * José Pedro Montero, 27th President of Paraguay
• June 9
• * Adolfo León Gómez, Colombian politician
• * Victoria Woodhull, American feminist, spiritualist and first woman to ever run for U.S. President
• June 13
• * Abd Al-Rahman Al-Gillani, Iraqi politician, 1st Prime Minister of Iraq
• * Giuseppe Primoli, Italian collector and photographer
• June 14 - Jerome K. Jerome, English writer
• June 15 - Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, Chinese Buddhist leader
• June 17 - Arvid Gerhard Damm, Swedish engineer and inventor
• June 20 - Clara Louise Burnham, American novelist
• June 26
• * Armand Guillaumin, French painter and lithographer
• * José María Robles Hurtado, Mexican Roman Catholic priest, martyr and saint
• June 27 - Sir James Macdonald, Scottish engineer and explorer
• June 28 - Rafaél Manuel Almansa Riaño, Colombian Roman Catholic priest and venerable
• June 29 - Ida Gerhardi, German painter

  July–August

• July 1 - Pedro Nel Ospina Vázquez, Colombian general and political figure, 11th President of Colombia
• July 2 - Joseph Gaudentius Anderson, American Roman Catholic bishop
• July 5
• * Marcelino Crisologo, Filipino politician, playwright, writer and poet
• * Albrecht Kossel, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• * Elisabeth Meyer, Danish composer
• July 6
• * Prince Friedrich Sigismund of Prussia
• * Frederick Van Voorhies Holman, American lawyer
• July 7 - Sergei Dabic, Soviet Eastern Catholic priest and venerable
• July 8 - Max Hoffmann, German general
• July 9 - John Drew, Jr., American stage actor
• July 11 - Ottavio Cagiano de Azevedo, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal
• July 12
• * José Augusto do Amaral, Brazilian serial killer
• * Thomas F. Porter, American politician, 32nd Mayor of Lynn, Massachusetts
• July 13 - Otto Blehr, Norwegian editor and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Norway
• July 17
• *Harriet Earhart Monroe, American lecturer, educator, writer, producer
• *Florence Roberts, American actress
• July 20 - King Ferdinand of Romania
• July 23 - Reginald Dyer, British army officer, perpetrator of Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
• July 24 - Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japanese poet and writer
• July 25 - Joseph Adélard Descarries, French-born Canadian lawyer
• July 26
• * Kazimir Barantsevich, Russian writer
• * Federico de Roberto, Italian writer
• * June Mathis, American screenwriter
• July 27 - Charles Fuller Baker, American botanist
• July 31 - Sir Harry Johnston, British explorer and colonial administrator
• August 3 - Edward B. Titchener, English psychologist
• August 4 - Ġużè Muscat Azzopardi, Maltese lawyer, poet and novelist
• August 7
• * Pope Cyril V of Alexandria
• * Leonard Wood, American general
• August 9 - King Sisowath of Cambodia
• August 17
• * Johannes Theodor Baargeld, German painter and poet
• * Ernest Hatch, British politician
• August 22 - Louis Agassiz Fuertes, American ornithologist
• August 23
• * Nicola Sacco, Italian anarchist
• * Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian anarchist
• August 24 - Manuel Díaz Rodríguez, Venezuelan writer
• August 25 - Elizabeth Maria Molteno, South African activist
• August 28 - Émile Haug, French geologist and paleontologist

  September–October

• September 1
• * Amelia Bingham, American stage actress
• * Emil Müller, Austrian mathematician
• September 2 - Aleksei Aleksandrovich Bobrinsky, Soviet historian and politician
• September 3 - Khatanbaatar Magsarjav, Mongolian general
• September 5
• * Marcus Loew, American theatre chain founder
• * Wayne Wheeler, American temperance movement leader
• September 6 - Lloyd W. Bertaud, American aviator
• September 10 - Winfield Scott Edgerly, American army officer
• September 11 - Paola Renata Carboni, Italian Roman Catholic nun and venerable
• September 14
• * Hugo Ball, German poet, founder of Dadaism
• * Isadora Duncan, British-born American dancer
• * Countess Sophie of Merenberg
• September 17 - Eugene Lamb Richards, American football player
• September 19 - Michael Ancher, Danish painter
• September 22 - Édouard Kirmisson, French surgeon
• September 23 - Iustin Frățiman, Romanian historian and activist
• September 27
• * Mary Canfield Ballard, American poet
• * Leopold Wharton, American film director
• September 29
• * Willem Einthoven, Dutch inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• * August von Heeringen, Prussian admiral
• September 30 - Samuel Garman, American naturalist and zoologist
• October 2
• * Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * John Dalzell, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania
• * Foqion Postoli, Albanian novelist and playwright
• October 5 - Sam Warner, American Hollywood studio executive
• October 7 - Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, Irish businessman and philanthropist
• October 8
• * Ricardo Güiraldes, Argentine novelist and poet
• * Johann Sahulka, Austrian scientist
• * Mary Webb, English novelist
• October 10 - Gustave Whitehead, German-born aviation pioneer
• October 11 - Miguel R. Dávila, Honduranian general, 18th President of Honduras
• October 13
• * Caroline Brown Buell, activist
• * Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz
• October 15 - Lucrécia de Arriaga, First Lady of Portugal
• October 16
• * David Macpherson, Canadian-born American civil engineer
• October 17
• * Harry Jonathan Park, American politician
• * Thomas Hyland Smeaton, Australian politician and trade unionist
• October 18 - Ludwig Darmstaedter, German chemist
• October 22
• * Borisav "Bora" Stanković, Serbian writer
• * Ross Youngs, American baseball player
• October 29 - Hermann Muthesius, German author
• October 30
• * Maximilian Harden, German editor and journalist
• * Arthur Nash, American businessman

  November–December

• November 1 - Florence Mills, American cabaret singer
• November 4
• *Hawthorne C. Gray, record-setting American balloonist
• *Valli Valli, German-born British actress
• November 5
• * Jérémie-Louis Décarie, Canadian judge and lawyer
• * Augusta Déjerine-Klumpke, American-born French doctor
• * Marceline Orbes, Spanish clown
• November 6 - Édouard Laguesse, French pathologist and histologist
• November 7 - Augusto Novelli, Italian journalist and writer
• November 11
• *Albèrt Arnavièlha, French journalist and poet
• * Wilhelm Johannsen, Danish botanist, physiologist and geneticist
• November 12 - Feliciano Viera, 22nd President of Uruguay
• November 13 - Friedrich Oskar Giesel, German chemist
• November 15 - Murakami Kakuichi, Japanese admiral
• November 18 - Emma Carus, American opera contralto
• November 20 - Agnelo de Souza, Portuguese Roman Catholic priest, missionary and venerable
• November 23
• * Alfred III, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, former Prime Minister of Austria
• * Miguel Pro, Mexican Jesuit and Roman Catholic priest, martyr and blessed
• * Stanisław Przybyszewski, Polish poet and novelist
• November 24 - Ion I. C. Brătianu, Romanian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Romania
• November 29 - Enrique Gómez Carrillo, Guatemalan journalist and writer
• December 1 - P. Rajagopalachari, Indian administrator
• December 4 - Joseph Amasa Munk, American physician
• December 5 - Fyodor Sologub, Soviet poet and novelist
• December 7
• * Louis Cheikho, Lebanese Jesuit priest and venerable
• * Gustave Fougères, French archaeologist
• * Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño, Ecuadoran poet
• December 9 - Franz Rohr von Denta, Austro-Hungarian field marshal
• December 14 or 15 - Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, German artist and poet
• December 17
• * Hubert Harrison, American writer, critic, and activist
• * Rajendra Nath Lahiri, Indian revolutionary, Hindustan Republican Association
• December 18 - Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, Indian revolutionary, Hindustan Republican Association
• December 19
• *Ashfaqulla Khan, Indian revolutionary, Hindustan Republican Association
• * Thakur Roshan Singh, Indian revolutionary, Hindustan Republican Association
• December 23 - Nathan Barnert, American businessman and politician, Mayor of Paterson, New Jersey
• December 25 - Teodora Fracasso, Italian Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed
• December 29 - Hakim Ajmal Khan, Indian physician
• December 30 - Gian Maria Rastellini, Italian painter

  Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Arthur Holly Compton, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson
• Chemistry - Heinrich Otto Wieland
• Physiology or Medicine - Julius Wagner-Jauregg
• Literature - Henri Bergson
• Peace - Ferdinand Buisson, Ludwig Quidde