1907
Events
January
- January 14 - 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000.
February
- February 9 - The "Mud [March |Mud March]", the first large procession organised by The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, takes place in London.
- February 11 - The French warship Jean Bart sinks off the coast of Morocco.
- February 12 - The steamship Larchmont collides with the Harry Hamilton in Long Island Sound; 183 lives are lost.
- February 16 - SKF, a worldwide mechanical parts manufacturing brand is founded in Gothenburg, Sweden.
- February 21 - The English mail steamship Berlin is wrecked off the Hook of Holland; 142 lives are lost.
- February 24 - The Austrian Lloyd steamship Imperatrix, from Trieste to Bombay, is wrecked on Cape of Crete and sinks; 137 lives are lost.
March
- March
- * The steamship Congo collides at the mouth of the Ems River with the German steamship Nerissa; 7 lives are lost.
- * The 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt results in possibly as many as 11,000 deaths.
- * The Diamond Sūtra, a woodblock printed Buddhist scripture dated 868, is discovered by Aurel Stein in the Mogao Caves in China; it is "the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book".
- * Pablo Picasso completes his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
- March 11 - The Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Dimitar Petkov, is assassinated by an anarchist in Sofia.
- March 15-16 - Elections to the new Parliament of Finland are the first in the world for a national assembly with woman candidates, as well as the first elections in Europe where universal suffrage is applied; 19 women are elected.
- March 22 - The first taxicabs with taximeters begin operating in London.
- March 25 - The first university sports federation in Europe is established in Hungary, with the participation or support of the associations of ten universities and colleges.
- c. March 28 - The volcano Ksudach erupts, in the Kamchatka Peninsula.
April
- April 7 - Hershey Park opens in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
- April 17 - The first Minas Geraes-class battleship is laid down for Brazil, by Armstrong Whitworth on the River Tyne, in England, triggering the South American dreadnought race.
- April 24 - Al Ahly SC is founded in Cairo by Omar Lotfi, as a gathering place for Egyptian students' unions in the struggle against colonization; it is the first association football club officially founded in Egypt or Africa.
May
- May 13 - The 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party convenes in secret in London.
June
- June 5 - Shastri Yagnapurushdas consecrates the murtis of both Sahajanand Swami and Gunatitanand Swami in a single central shrine, thus establishing the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, later a United Nations affiliate organization.
- June 6 - Persil laundry detergent is first marketed by Henkel of Düsseldorf, Germany, the first to combine bleach with detergent commercially.
- June 10-August 10 - The Peking to Paris motor race is won by Prince Scipione Borghese, driving a 7-litre 35/45 hp Itala.
- June 15 - The Peace Conference">Nobel Peace Prize">Peace Conference opens at The Hague.
- June 22 - The London Underground's Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway opens.
- June 26 - Tiflis bank robbery|Tiflis bank robbery]: Bolsheviks attack a cash-filled bank coach in the centre of Tiflis, Georgia, killing 40 people.
July
- July 1 - The Orange River Colony gains autonomy, as the Orange Free State.
- July 6 - Guardians of the Irish Crown Jewels notice that they have been stolen.
- July 15 - The London Electrobus Company starts running the first ever service of battery-electric buses between London's Victoria Station and Liverpool Street.
- July 21 - The sinks after colliding with the lumber schooner San Pedro, off Shelter Cove, California, resulting in 88 deaths.
- July 24 - The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1907 brings the government and military of the protectorate of Korea more firmly under Japanese control.
- August 24-31 - The International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam meets in the Netherlands.
- August 28 - UPS is founded by James E. Casey in Seattle, Washington.
- August 29 - The partially completed superstructure of the Quebec Bridge collapses entirely, claiming the lives of 76 workers.
- August 31 - Count Alexander Izvolsky and Sir Arthur Nicolson sign the Anglo-Russian Entente in Saint Petersburg, bringing a pause in The Great Game in Central Asia, and establishing the Triple Entente.
September
- September 7 - British Cunard Line passenger liner sets out on her maiden voyage, from Liverpool to New York City.
- September 8 - Pope Pius X promulgates the encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis, opposing modernism in the Catholic Church.
- September 22 – Uruguay abolishes capital punishment.
- September 26 - New Zealand and Newfoundland become dominions of the British Empire.
- October - A committee of the Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language, made up of academics including Otto Jespersen, Wilhelm Ostwald and Roland Eötvös, meet in Paris to select a language for international use. The committee ultimately decides to reform Esperanto.
- October 6 - The Deutscher Werkbund is founded in Germany.
- October 17 - Guglielmo Marconi initiates commercial transatlantic radio communications between his high power longwave wireless telegraphy stations in Clifden, Ireland, and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.
- October 18 - The Hague Convention is revised by the Hague Peace Conference, focussing on naval warfare.
- October 24 - A major United States financial crisis is averted when J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, James Stillman, Henry Clay Frick and other Wall Street financiers create a $25,000,000 pool to invest in the shares on the plunging New York Stock Exchange, ending the bank panic of 1907.
- October 27 - Černová massacre: Fifteen people are shot during the consecration of a Catholic church in Hungary.
November
- November 16
- * British Cunard Line passenger liner RMS Mauretania, the world's largest and fastest at this date, sets out on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York.
- * President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims that Oklahoma has become the 46th U.S. state.
December
- December 6 - Monongah Mining disaster: A coal mine explosion kills 362 workers in Monongah, West Virginia.
- December 14 - The largest sailing ship ever built, the 7-masted U.S.-owned Thomas W. Lawson, is wrecked in the Isles of Scilly.
- December 16 - The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.
- December 17 - Ugyen Wangchuck becomes the first Druk Gyalpo.
- December 19 - An explosion in a coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania kills 239.
- December 21 - Santa María School massacre: In Chile, soldiers fire at striking mineworkers gathered in the Santa María School in Iquique; over 2,000 are killed.
Date unknown
- Indiana, in the United States, becomes the world's first legislature to place laws permitting compulsory sterilization for eugenic purposes on the statute book.
- The triode thermionic amplifier invented by Lee de Forest, starting the development of electronics as a practical technology.
- The Autochrome Lumière is the first commercial color photography process.
- James M. Spangler invents the first Hoover Company|Hoover] vacuum cleaner.
- The Moine Thrust Belt in Scotland is identified, one of the first to be discovered anywhere.
Births
January
- January 3 - Ray Milland, Welsh actor, film director
- January 5 - Volmari Iso-Hollo, Finnish athlete
- January 8 - Keizō Hayashi, Japanese civil servant, military official
- January 11 - Pierre Mendès France, French politician, 142nd Prime Minister of France
- January 12 - Sergei Korolev, Russian rocket scientist
- January 16 - Alexander Knox, Canadian actor, novelist
- January 20
- * Manfred von Ardenne, German research and applied physicist, inventor
- * Paula Wessely, Austrian actress
- January 22 - Dixie Dean, English football player
- January 23 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- January 24
- * Maurice Couve de Murville, Prime Minister of France
- * Ismail Nasiruddin of Terengganu, King of Malaysia
- January 27 - Joyce Compton, American actress
February
- February 5
- * Pierre Pflimlin, French politician
- * Sergio Méndez Arceo, Roman Catholic bishop of Cuernavaca, Mexico 1953–1983
- February 9 - Trường Chinh, President of Vietnam
- February 15
- * Jean Langlais, French composer, organist
- * Cesar Romero, American actor
- February 18 - Oscar Brodney, American screenwriter
- February 21 - W. H. Auden, English poet
- February 22
- * Sheldon Leonard, American actor, writer, director, and producer
- * Robert Young, American actor
- February 25 - Kathryn Wasserman Davis, American philanthropist
- February 26 - Dub Taylor, American actor
- February 27 - Mildred Bailey, American singer
- February 28 - Milton Caniff, American cartoonist
March
- March 4 - Maria Branyas, American-born Spanish supercentenarian
- March 8 - Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greek politician
- March 9 - Mircea Eliade, Romanian religious historian, writer
- March 15 - Zarah Leander, Swedish actress, singer
- March 17
- * Takeo Miki, 41st Prime Minister of Japan
- * Jean Van Houtte, 38th Prime Minister of Belgium
- March 18 - John Zachary Young, English biologist
- March 23 - Daniel Bovet, Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 26 - Mahadevi Varma, Indian Hindi-language poet, essayist
- March 28 - Sister Lúcia, Portuguese nun, visionary
- March 30 - Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, German Luftwaffe officer
April
- April 1 - Shivakumara Swami, Hindu religious figure and humanitarian
- April 5 - Sanya Dharmasakti, Thai politician, Prime Minister
- April 7 - Lê Duẩn, Vietnamese politician
- April 10 - Germán Suárez Flamerich, Venezuelan lawyer, politician and 50th President of Venezuela
- April 11 - Paul Douglas, American actor
- April 12 - Felix de Weldon, Austrian-born American sculptor
- April 13 - Harold Stassen, American politician
- April 14 - François Duvalier, 32nd President of Haiti
- April 15 - Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ornithologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 17 - Martii Miettunen, 2-time Prime Minister of Finland
- April 21 - Wade Mainer, American singer, banjoist
- April 24 - William Sargant, British psychiatrist
- April 26 - Ilias Tsirimokos, Prime Minister of Greece
- April 29 - Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-born American film director
May
- May 1 - Oliver Hill, American lawyer
- May 4 - Walter Walsh, American FBI agent and Olympic shooter
- May 9 - Baldur von Schirach, Nazi official
- May 12 - Katharine Hepburn, American actress
- May 13 - Dame Daphne du Maurier, English author
- May 14
- * Ayub Khan, President of Pakistan
- * Johnny Moss, American poker player
- * Bob Tisdall, Irish Olympic athlete
- May 22
- * Hergé, Belgian cartoonist
- * Laurence Olivier, English stage, screen actor and director
- May 25 - U Nu, Burmese politician
- May 26 - John Wayne, American actor, film director
- May 27
- * Rachel Carson, American environmental writer
- * Konstantin Anisimovich Pavlov, Latvian iconographer
- May 30
- * Elly Beinhorn, German pilot
- * Germaine Tillion, French anthropologist, member of French Resistance
June
- June 1 - Frank Whittle, British jet engine developer
- June 4 - Rosalind Russell, American actress
- June 5 - Rudolf Peierls, German-born British physicist
- June 14 - René Char, French poet
- June 16 - Jack Albertson, American actor, comedian
- June 19 - George de Mestral, Swiss inventor
- June 23 - James Meade, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 25 - J. Hans D. Jensen, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 27 - John McIntire, American actor
- June 28 - Franciszka Themerson, Polish-born British artist, filmmaker
July
- July 3 - Horia Sima, Romanian fascist politician
- July 4 - Henning Holck-Larsen, Danish engineer and businessman
- July 6
- * Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter
- * George Stanley, Canadian historian, author, soldier, teacher, public servant, and designer
- July 7
- * Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction author
- * Pavel Sudoplatov, Russian lieutenant general and spy
- * Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia
- July 13 - George Weller, American novelist, playwright, and journalist
- July 14 - Annabella, French actress
- July 16 - Barbara Stanwyck, American actress
- July 19
- * Isabel Jewell, American actress
- * Paul Magloire, President of Haiti
- July 21 - A. D. Hope, Australian poet and essayist
- July 22
- * Aldo Donelli, American football player and coach, soccer player, and college athletics administrator
- * Zubir Said, Singaporean composer of Singapore's national anthem
- July 25 - Johnny Hodges, American alto saxophonist
- July 27 - Richard Beesly, British Olympic gold medal rower
- July 29 - Melvin Belli, American lawyer
August
- August 3
- * Ernesto Geisel, 29th President of Brazil
- * Yang Shangkun, 4th President of the People's Republic of China
- * Irene Tedrow, American actress
- August 7 - Bernard Beryl Brodie, English-born American chemist and pharmacologist
- August 8 - Benny Carter, American musician
- August 12
- * Joe Besser, American comedian
- * Benjamin Sheares, 2nd President of Singapore
- August 15 - Bob Pearson, British variety performer with his brother Alf as half of Bob and Alf Pearson
- August 20 - Alan Reed, American actor and voice actor
- August 21 - John G. Trump, American electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist
- August 24 - Gil Perkins, Australian actor and stuntman
- August 28 - Rupert Hart-Davis, British publisher
- August 29 - Lurene Tuttle, American character actress
- August 30 - Leonor Fini, Argentine artist
- August 31
- * Augustus F. Hawkins, American politician and civil rights lawmaker
- * Ramon Magsaysay, 7th President of the Philippines
September
- September 1 - Walter Reuther, American labor union leader and president of the United Auto Workers
- September 2 - Evelyn Hooker, American psychologist
- September 3 - Loren Eiseley, American author
- September 12 - Louis MacNeice, Northern Irish poet
- September 15 - Fay Wray, Canadian-born American actress
- September 17 - Warren E. Burger, 15th Chief Justice of the United States
- September 18 - Edwin McMillan, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 19 - Lewis F. Powell Jr., Associate [Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]
- September 22 - Maurice Blanchot, French philosopher, writer
- September 23 - Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza, pretender to the throne of Portugal
- September 26
- * Anthony Blunt, British art historian, spy
- * Bep van Klaveren, Dutch boxer
- September 27 - Bhagat Singh, Indian revolutionary
- September 28 - Heikki Savolainen, Finnish artistic gymnast
- September 29 - Gene Autry, American actor, singer, and businessman
October
- October 2
- * Alec Todd, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- * Víctor Paz Estenssoro, 45th President of Bolivia
- October 9 - Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, British politician
- October 15 - Varian Fry, American journalist, rescuer
- October 17 - John Marley, American actor
- October 19 - Roger Wolfe Kahn, American bandleader
- October 28
- * John Hewitt, Irish poet
- * Sergio Méndez Arceo, 7th Mexican bishop of Cuernavaca 1953–1982, and advocate of Liberation theology.
November
- November 1 - Homero Manzi, Argentine tango lyricist, author
- November 9 - Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia
- November 10 - Salme Reek, Estonian actress
- November 14
- * Howard W. Hunter, 14th president of the [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]
- * Astrid Lindgren, Swedish children's writer
- * William Steig, American cartoonist
- November 15 - Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, German aristocrat, military officer
- November 16 - Burgess Meredith, American actor, director
- November 18 - Compay Segundo, Cuban musician
- November 19 - Luigi Beccali, Italian Olympic athlete
- November 23 - Run Run Shaw, Hong Kong media mogul
- November 26 - Ruth Patrick, American botanist
- November 27 - L. Sprague de Camp, American writer
- November 28 - Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist
- November 30 - Jacques Barzun, French-born American historian
December
- December 5 - Lin Biao, Chinese communist military leader
- December 12 - Roy Douglas, British composer
- December 15 - Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect
- December 16 - Barbara Kent, Canadian silent film actress
- December 19 - Jimmy McLarnin, Irish-born boxer
- December 22 - Peggy Ashcroft, British actress
- December 23 - James Roosevelt, American businessman, politician
- December 25 - Cab Calloway, American jazz singer and bandleader
- December 27 - Johann Trollmann, German boxer
Deaths
January
- January 3 - Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, Shah of Iran
- January 13 - Jakob Hurt, Estonian folklorist, theologian, and linguist
- January 14 - Hermann Iseke, German doctor
- January 19 - Giuseppe Saracco, 15th Prime Minister of Italy
- January 21 - Graziadio Isaia Ascoli, Italian linguist
- January 31 - Timothy Eaton, Canadian department store founder
February
- February 2 - Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist
- February 7 - Preston Leslie, 26th Governor of Kentucky and 9th territorial Governor of Montana
- February 12 - Muriel Robb, English tennis player
- February 13 - Marcel Alexandre Bertrand, French geologist
- February 16
- * Giosuè Carducci, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- * Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of King Louis-Philippe of France
- February 17 - Henry Steel Olcott, American officer, theosophist
- February 20 - Henri Moissan, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 21 - Erik Gustaf Boström, 7th Prime Minister of Sweden
- February 26 - C. W. Alcock, English footballer, journalist, and football promoter
March
- March 3 - Oronhyatekha, Canadian Mohawk physician, CEO of an international benefit society, native statesman, scholar, rights campaigner and international shooter
- March 7 - Charlotta Raa-Winterhjelm, Swedish actress
- March 9 - Frederic George Stephens, English art critic
- March 10 - George Douglas-Pennant, 2nd Baron Penrhyn, Welsh industrialist
- March 11
- * Jean Casimir-Perier, 6th President of France
- * Dimitar Petkov, 14th Prime Minister of Bulgaria
- March 18 - Marcellin Berthelot, French chemist
- March 19
- * Thomas Bailey Aldrich, American poet and novelist
- * Mariano Baptista, 23rd President of Bolivia
- March 23 - Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Russian statesman
- March 25 - Ernst von Bergmann, Baltic German surgeon
April
- April 6 - William Henry Drummond, Irish-Canadian poet
- April 14 - Frank Manly Thorn, American lawyer, politician, government official, essayist, journalist, humorist, inventor, and 6th Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
- April 23 - Alferd Packer, American cannibal
May
- May 1 - Melissa Elizabeth Riddle Banta, American poet
- May 4 - John Watts de Peyster, American author, philanthropist, and soldier
- May 6 - Emanuele Luigi Galizia, Maltese architect, civil engineer
- May 12 - Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author
- May 19 - Sir Benjamin Baker, English civil engineer
- May 26 - Ida Saxton McKinley, First Lady of the United States
- May 27 - Kevork Chavush, Armenian national hero
June
- June 4 - Agathe Backer-Grøndahl, Norwegian pianist and composer
- June 6 - J. A. Chatwin, English architect
- June 14
- * Bartolomé Masó, Cuban patriot
- * William Le Baron Jenney, American architect, engineer
- June 23 - Hod Stuart, Canadian professional ice hockey player, killed in diving accident
- June 25 - Sir John Hall, 12th Prime Minister of New Zealand
- June 29 - Maximilian Cercha, Polish painter and drawer
July
- July 13 - Heinrich Kreutz, German astronomer
- July 14 - Sir William Perkin, English chemist
- July 15 - Qiu Jin, Chinese revolutionary, feminist and poet, executed
- July 28 - Mildred Amanda Baker Bonham, American travel writer
August
- August - Dinqinesh Mercha, empress consort of Ethiopia
- August 1
- * Lucy Mabel Hall-Brown, American physician and writer
- * Ernesto Hintze Ribeiro, 3-time Prime Minister of Portugal
- August 3 - Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Irish-American Beaux-Arts sculptor
- August 4 - Richard Meade, Lord Gilford, British admiral
- August 13 - Hermann Carl Vogel, German astrophysicist
- August 15 - Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist
- August 25
- *Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, British poet, novelist
- * Alexandre Franquet, French admiral
- August 30 - Richard Mansfield, Anglo-American actor
September
- September 4 - Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer
- September 6 - Sully Prudhomme, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 9 - Ernest Roland Wilberforce, English bishop
- September 12 - Ilia Chavchavadze, Georgian writer, Orthodox priest and saint
- September 13 - John Mushmouth Johnson, American gambler
- September 15 - William Wales , English-American inventor
- September 19 - Jacob Morenga, Namibian rebel leader
- September 22 - Wilbur Olin Atwater, American chemist
- September 30 - Sir John Ardagh, British army general
October
- October 10 - Adolf Furtwängler, German archaeologist, historian
- October 30 - Caroline Dana Howe, American author
November
- November 1 - Alfred Jarry, French writer
- November 6 - Sir James Hector, Scottish geologist
- November 14 - Andrew Inglis Clark, Australian jurist and politician
- November 15 - Raphael Kalinowski, Polish Discalced Carmelite friar and saint
- November 16 - Robert I, Duke of Parma, last ruling Duke of Parma
- November 17 - Sir Francis McClintock, Irish explorer and admiral in British Royal Navy
- November 20 - Paula Modersohn-Becker, German painter
- November 22 - Asaph Hall, American astronomer
- November 23 - Naimuddin, Bengali writer and Islamic scholar
- November 25 - Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, Danish explorer
- November 28 - Stanisław Wyspiański, Polish writer, painter and architect
- November 30 - Ludwig Levy, German architect
December
- December 4 - Luis Sáenz Peña, 12th President of Argentina
- December 8 - King Oscar II of Sweden
- December 15 - Carola of Vasa, queen consort of Saxony
- December 17 - William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-born physicist and engineer
- December 20 - Helen Louisa Bostwick Bird, American author
- December 21 - Klara Hitler, Austrian mother of Adolf Hitler
- December 23 - Pierre Janssen, French astronomer
- December 28 - Kate Stone, American diarist
- December 31 - Jules de Trooz, 18th Prime Minister of Belgium
Date unknown
- Ellen Russell Emerson, American ethnologist
- Sarah Gibson Humphreys, American author and suffragist
- Joseph Stannah, Founder of Stannah Lifts
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Albert Abraham Michelson
- Chemistry - Eduard Buchner
- Medicine - Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran
- Literature - Rudyard Kipling
- Peace - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Louis Renault