1904

Events

January

• January 7 – The distress signal CQD is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by SOS.
• January 12 – The Herero Wars in German South West Africa begin.
• January 17 – Anton Chekhov's last play, The Cherry Orchard, opens at the Moscow Art Theatre directed by Constantin Stanislavski.
• 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 31 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 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 – S.L. Benfica, one of the biggest Association Football clubs in Portugal, is founded as Sport Lisboa.

March

• March 3 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
• March 6 – Antarctic Expedition">Antarctica">Antarctic Expedition: Led by William Speirs Bruce, the Antarctic region of Coats Land is discovered from the Scotia.
• March 31 – British expedition to Tibet: The Battle of Guru – British troops under Colonel Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.

April

• April 4 – 1904 Kresna earthquakes: two earthquakes strike near Kresna, Bulgaria, killing at least 200 people.
• April 6 – Joseph F. Smith announces the Second Manifesto in General Conference of the [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] in Utah Territory, prohibiting the practice of polygamy, which has continued to be sanctioned by some 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 New York Times">New York (state)">New York Times.
• April 8–10 – Aleister Crowley writes The Book of the Law, a text central to Thelema, in Cairo.
• April 19 – The Great Fire of Toronto destroys much of the 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.
• * Charles Rolls and Henry Royce meet for the first time, in Manchester England to agree production of Rolls-Royce motor cars; the first produced under their joint names are launched in December.
• * German Association football club FC Schalke 04 is established.
• May 5
• * 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.
• * Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
• May 9 – Great Western Railway of England 3700 Class 3440 City of Truro possibly becomes the first railway locomotive to exceed.
• 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. On the same day, the Japanese protected cruiser Yoshino sinks after being accidentally rammed by the armored cruiser Kasuga, killing over 270 crew, including Captain Sayegi and his second-in-command, Commander Hirowateri. Japan will keep the loss of Yashima secret for over a year.
• May 21 – The International Federation of Association Football, FIFA, is established.
• May 30 – Alpha Gamma Delta, which becomes an international sorority, is founded by 11 women at Syracuse University.

June

• June 3 – The International Alliance of Women is founded.
• 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.
• * The original "Bloomsday", the day James Joyce first walks out with his future wife Nora Barnacle, to the Dublin suburb of Ringsend. He sets the action of his novel Ulysses on this date.
• June 28
• * Danish ocean liner runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, killing approximately 627 people, many of whom are Russian-Polish and Scandinavian 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 open in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, as part of the World's Fair.
• July 22 – The first 2,000 of 62,000 contracted Chinese coolies arrive at Durban in South Africa from Qinhuangdao to relieve the shortage of unskilled labourers in the Transvaal Colony gold mines, recruited and shipped by the Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation, of which Herbert Hoover is a director.
• July 23 – A continuous track tractor is patented by David Roberts of Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham in England.

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 24 – Faroese Association football club Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag is established.
• Summer – Henri Matisse paints Luxe, Calme et Volupté at Saint-Tropez; it will be considered the starting point of Fauvism.

September

• September – Stuyvesant High School opens in New York City as Manhattan's first manual trade school for boys.
• September 1 – Griffin Park football ground, home of Brentford F.C., opens 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 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 List of [lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender firsts by year|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 18 – In Germany:
• * The Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum opens in Berlin for the display of fine art.
• * Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 is premiered by the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne.
• 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 relations.
• Late October – The first members of what will become the Bloomsbury Group move to the Bloomsbury district of London; they will be joined about November 8 by the future novelist Virginia Woolf.

November

• November 8 – 1904 United States presidential election: 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 patents the first thermionic vacuum tube, the two-electrode diode.
• November 24 – A continuous track tractor is successfully demonstrated by the Holt Manufacturing Company in the United States. The "caterpillar track" will come to revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare.

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, later called Himalia, at California's Lick Observatory.
• 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.
• * The Abbey Theatre in Dublin opens.
• December 31 – In New York City, the first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square.

Date unknown

• Global cosmetics companies are founded in Paris : Coty, by François Coty, and Garnier, by Alfred Amour Garnier.

Births

January

• January 1 – Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician, 5th president of Pakistan
• January 5 – Jeane Dixon, American astrologer
• January 10 – Ray Bolger, American actor, singer and dancer
• January 14 – Cecil Beaton, English photographer
• January 18 – Cary Grant, English actor
• January 21 – Edris Rice-Wray Carson, American medical researcher
• January 22
• * George Balanchine, Russian-born American 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 Peace Prize">Nobel Peace Prize">Peace Prize
• January 27 – James J. Gibson, American psychologist
• 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
• * Sir Keith Holyoake, 26th Prime Minister of New Zealand
• * Lucile Randon, French supercentenarian, last surviving person born in 1904
• February 16 – George F. Kennan, American diplomat
• February 21 – Alexei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union
• 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
• March 2 – Dr. Seuss, American children's author
• March 4
• * Luis Carrero Blanco, 69th prime minister of Spain
• * George Gamow, Ukrainian-born American physicist
• * Joseph Schmidt, Austrian-Hungarian tenor, actor
• March 5 – Mao Bangchu, Republic of China air force general
• March 7 – Reinhard Heydrich, German Nazi official
• March 14 – Doris Eaton Travis, American actress
• March 15 – J. Pat O'Malley, English actor
• March 20 – B. F. Skinner, American behavioral psychologist
• March 22 – Itche Goldberg, Yiddish author
• March 26
• * Gustave Biéler, Swiss-born hero of World War II
• * Joseph Campbell, American author on mythology
• * Emilio Fernández, Mexican film director, actor and screenwriter
• March 30 – Alexandrina of Balazar, Portuguese Roman Catholic mystic, victim soul and blessed

April

• April 1 – Nikolai Berzarin, Soviet general
• April 3 – Sally Rand, American dancer, actress
• April 4 – Soeman Hs, Indonesian author, educator
• April 6 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Chancellor of West Germany
• April 8 – John Hicks, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 13 – Elwood Richard Quesada, American air force general
• April 14 – John Gielgud, English actor
• April 15 – Arshile Gorky, Armenian-born American painter
• 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
• 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 11 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist
• May 17 – Jean Gabin, French actor
• May 20 – Margery Allingham, British detective fiction writer
• May 21
• * Robert Montgomery, American actor, director
• * Fats Waller, American pianist, comedian
• May 24 – Chūhei Nambu, Japanese athlete
• May 25 – Charles L. Melson, United States Navy admiral
• May 26 – George Formby, English singer, comedian

June

• June 2 – Johnny Weissmuller, Hungarian-born American swimmer, actor
• June 3 – Jan Peerce, American tenor
• 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 20 – Heinrich von Brentano, German politician
• June 24 – Phil Harris, American actor
• June 26 – Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born American film actor

July

• July 1 – Mary Calderone, American physician, public health advocate
• July 2
• * René Lacoste, French tennis player, businessman
• * František Plánička, Czech footballer
• July 5
• * Harold Acton, British writer, scholar, and aesthete
• * Ernst Mayr, German-born American biologist, author
• July 8 – Henri Cartan, French mathematician
• July 10 – Lili Damita, French-American actress, singer
• July 12 – Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 14 – Zita Johann, Austrian-American actress
• July 15
• * Rudolf Arnheim, German-born American author
• * Dorothy Fields, American librettist
• July 19 – Mark Koenig, American baseball shortstop
• July 20 – René Couzinet, French aeronautics engineer, aircraft manufacturer
• July 21
• * Wilhelm Harster, German police officer and war criminal
• * Louis Meyer, American Hall of Fame race car driver
• July 24 – Nikolai Kuznetsov, Soviet admiral
• July 26 – Edwin Albert Link, American inventor
• 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 5 – Hugh Greer, American basketball coach
• August 6 – Ballard Berkeley, British actor
• August 7 – Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• August 12 – Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia
• August 13 – Jonathan Hole, American actor
• August 16
• * Minoru Genda, Japanese aviator, naval officer and politician
• * Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 21 – Count Basie, African-American musician, bandleader
• August 22 - Deng Xiaoping, Chinese communist leader
• August 23
• * Thelma Furness, Viscountess Furness, American socialite twin
• * Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, American socialite twin
• * William Primrose, Scottish violist
• August 24
• * Mary Burchell, English romantic novelist and campaigner for Jewish refugees, as Ida Cook
• * Aparicio Méndez, 50th President of Uruguay
• August 26 - Christopher Isherwood, English writer
• August 29 – Werner Forssmann, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

September

• September 7 – Daniel Prenn, Russian-born German, Polish, and British tennis player
• September 9 – Feroze Khan, Pakistani field hockey player
• September 13 – Gladys George, American actress
• September 14 – Frank Amyot, Canadian sprint canoeist
• September 15 – Umberto II of Italy, 4th and last King of Italy
• September 29 – Greer Garson, English actress

October

• 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 11 – Tita Merello, Argentine actress, singer, and tango dancer

November

• November 1 – Laura La Plante, American silent film actress
• November 4 – Horace Mann Bond, American historian and college administrator
• 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, 1st President of Nigeria
• November 22 – Louis Néel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• November 25 – Lillian Copeland, American Olympic athlete
• 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 17 – Paul Cadmus, American artist
• December 18 – George Stevens, American film director
• December 20 – Rambai Barni, 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 Canadian 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

Deaths

January

• January 1 – Frederick Pabst, German-American brewer
• January 2
• * Mathilde Bonaparte, French princess
• * James Longstreet, American Confederate Civil War general
• January 7
• * Parke Godwin, American journalist
• * Friedrich von Hefner-Alteneck, German engineer
• * 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 13 – Samuel G. Havermale, American Methodist minister
• 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
• * Phoebe Jane Babcock Wait, American physician

February

• February 3 – John James McDannold, U.S. Representative from Illinois
• February 8
• * Alfred Ainger, British biographer
• * Malvina Garrigues, Portuguese soprano
• February 10 – Nikolay Mikhaylovsky, Russian writer
• February 11 – Vladimir Markovnikov, Russian chemist
• February 12 – Rudolf Maison, German sculptor
• 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 26 – Prince Henry of Prussia
• February 27 – Richard Hawksworth Barnes, English coffee grower, naturalist and meteorologist
• February 28 – Anthony Durier, American Roman Catholic bishop
• February 29 – Antonio De Martino, Italian physician

March

• March 2 – Mary C. Billings, American evangelist and missionary
• March 5
• * John Lowther du Plat Taylor, British founder of the Army Post Office Corps
• * Alfred von Waldersee, Imperial German Army marshal
• March 7 – Ferdinand André Fouqué, French geologist
• March 12 – Oliver Harriman, American businessman
• March 14 – Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander von Mechow, Prussian explorer
• March 17
• * George, Duke of Cambridge">George, King of Saxony">George, Duke of Cambridge, grandson of King George III
• * William Elbridge Sewell, American naval officer, Governor of Guam
• March 21 – Aurélie Ghika, French writer
• March 24 – Emma Herwegh, German writer
• March 31
• * Mifflin E. Bell, American architect
• * Valentine Blake Dillon, Irish politician

April

• April 1 – Abby Morton Diaz, American teacher
• April 3
• * Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar
• * Théophile Pépin, French mathematician
• * Princess Piyamavadi Sri Bajarindra Mata
• 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 15 – Maximilian Kronberger, German poet
• April 17 – Joe Cain, American Mardi Gras parade organizer
• 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 painter
• * 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 friar and Roman Catholic bishop
• May 10
• * Émile Sarrau, French chemist
• * Sir Henry Morton Stanley, British explorer
• May 11
• * Hans Grisebach, German architect
• May 12 – Isabella Eugénie Boyer, French model
• May 13
• * Walter Carpenter, British admiral
• * Eugen Kumičić, Croatian writer
• * 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
• * 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
• * François Coillard, French missionary
• 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
• * Laura Joyce Bell, English-American actress

June

• June 1 – Ivan Kondratyev, Russian writer
• June 4
• * Princess Marie of Hanover
• * Muhammad bin Yahya Hamid ad-Din, Imam of Yemen
• * George Frederick Phillips, Canadian-born American military hero
• June 9 – Kwasi Boachi, Dutch engineer
• June 12 – Camille of Renesse-Breidbach, Belgian count
• June 16
• * Nikolay Bobrikov, Russian soldier, politician and Governor-General of Finland
• * Eugen Schauman, Finnish nationalist, assassin of Nikolay Bobrikov
• * Manuel Uribe Ángel, Colombian physician
• June 18
• * Sami Frashëri, Albanian writer
• * Celia Logan, American actress
• June 22 – Karl Ritter von Stremayr, former Minister-President of Austria
• June 24 – Richard Knill Freeman, British architect
• June 27 – Anatole Jean-Baptiste Antoine de Barthélemy, French archaeologist
• June 28 – Princess and Countess Aurora Pavlovna Demidova
• June 29
• * Pablo de Anda Padilla, Mexican Roman Catholic priest and venerable
• * Tom Emmett, English cricketer

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 Evans, British-born Australian politician
• * Matsudaira Yasuhide, Japanese daimyō
• July 6 – Abai Qunanbaiuly, Kazakh poet
• July 7 – Adolph Friedländer, German lithographer
• July 8 – Joseph Blanc, French painter
• 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 21 – Gaudensi Allar, French architect
• August 22 – 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, British Army 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 – 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, Greek-Irish 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
• * Violet Nicolson, 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 revolutionary and army officer
• 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

• Charles D. F. Phillips, British medical doctor

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

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