- Jan 6 Anselme Payen, French chemist (d. 1871)
- Jan 15 Willem de Clerq, Dutch merchant/man of letters
- Jan 15 Alexandr Griboyedov, Russian playwright (d. 1829)
- Jan 18 Anna Paulowna Romanova, monarch of Russia/daughter of Tsar Paul I
- Feb 3 Antonio José de Sucre, South American independence leader (d. 1830)
- Feb 5 Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist (d. 1871)
- Feb 8 Friedlieb F Runge, German chemist (Chinoline)
- Feb 8 Moritz G [Moses] Saphir, Hungarian journalist/serial writer
- Feb 10 Ary Scheffer, Dutch painter/etcher/sculptor
- Feb 15 Charles Niellon, Belgian brigade general (10 day campaign)
- Feb 18 George Peabody, South Danvers Mass, merchant/philanthropist
- Feb 21 Francisco Manuel da Silva, composer
- Mar 14 Robert Lucas Pearsall, English composer, born in Bristol, England (d. 1856)
- Mar 23 Leopold Jansa, composer
- Mar 28 Georg Heinrich Pertz, German historian, born in Hanover, Germany (d. 1876)
- Apr 5 Henry Havelock, British soldier (War in Afghanistan 1838-39), born in Bishopwearmouth, County Durham (d. 1857)
- Apr 19 Christian Gottfried Ehrenburg, German zoologist
- Apr 21 Vincenzo Pallotti, Italian saint
- Apr 28 Charles Sturt, England, explorer (Australia)
- May 7 Gerhard M Roentgen, industrialist (founder dockyard Fijenoord)
- May 10 Jacques-Nicolas-Augustin Thierry, historian
- May 13 Joshua Ratoon Sands, American Rear Admiral (Union Navy), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1883)
- May 13 Gérard Paul Deshayes, French geologist (d. 1875)
- May 15 Adolf B Marx, German music theorist
- May 19 Johns Hopkins, philanthropist, founded Johns Hopkins University
- May 23 Charles Barry, architect
- Jun 12 John Marston Jr, Comm (Union Navy), (d. 1885)
- Jun 13 Thomas Arnold, English educator/historian (History of Rome)
- Jun 24 Ernst Heinrich Weber, German anatomist and physiologist (d. 1878)
- Jul 25 James Barry [Margaret Ann Bulkley], female disguised as a man, surgeon general (British army), born in County Cork, Ireland (d. 1865)
- Aug 16 Heinrich August Marschner, composer
- Aug 22 Abraham Capadose, Dutch physician and missionary, born in Amsterdam (d. 1874)
- Aug 28 Joannes Paredis, Belgian Bishop of Roermond, born in Bree, Belgium (d. 1886)
James Gordon Bennett
Sep 1 James Gordon Bennett, Sr., American newspaper publisher (New York Herald), born in Keith, Scotland (d. 1872)
James Gordon Bennett
- Sep 4 Friedrich [August] von Alberti, German geologist (Triasic Age)
- Sep 6 Frances Wright, Scottish writer and lecturer, born in Dundee, Scotland (d. 1852)
- Sep 17 Giuseppi Saverio Rafaele Mercadante, composer
- Sep 20 Charles Heinrich Christoph Zeuner, composer
- Sep 20 Peter of Limburg Brouwer, physician/classical/author
- Sep 23 Alexander Twilight, minister and politician, first African American to graduate and to hold public office, born in Corinth Vermont (d. 1857)
- Oct 5 Alexander Keith, Scottish-born Canadian brewer (d. 1873)
- Oct 15 Frederick William IV, King of Prussia (1840-61) and Germany (1849-61), born in Berlin (d. 1861)
- Oct 16 William Buell Sprague, American clergyman and author (d. 1876)
- Oct 26 Nikolaos Mantzaros, Italian-Greek composer, born in Corfu Island, Greece (d. 1972)
- Oct 28 Leonardus A Lightenvelt, minister of RC Worship (1848 . .53)
John Keats
Oct 31 John Keats, English Romantic poet (Ode to a Grecian Urn), born in London (d. 1821)
John Keats
James Knox Polk
Nov 2 James Knox Polk, 11th US President (Democrat: 1845-49), born in Pineville, North Carolina (d. 1849)
James Knox Polk
- Nov 9 Walter Geikie, Scottish painter, born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 1837)
- Nov 24 Josif Josifovich Genishta, composer
- Nov 26 Carl P Fohr, German painter
- Nov 26 Cornelis P J Elout, Dutch military/resident of West Sumatra
- Nov 28 Adolf Bernhard Marx, composer
- Dec 3 Rowland Hill, introduced 1st adhesive postage stamp (1840)
Thomas Carlyle
Dec 4 Thomas Carlyle, Scottish essayist and historian (The French Revolution), born in Ecclefechan, Scotland (d. 1881)
Thomas Carlyle
Leopold von Ranke
Dec 21 Leopold von Ranke, German historian who founded the modern concept of source-based history, born in Wiehe, Saxony, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1886)
Leopold von Ranke