- Feb 1 Victor Herbert, American cellist, composer, and conductor (Babes in Toyland; Eileen), born in Guernsey, Bailiwick of Guernsey (d. 1924) [he believed he was born in Dublin, Ireland] [1]
- Feb 2 Havelock Ellis, English physician and social reformer who studied sexual behaviour (Psychology of Sex), born in Croydon, England (d. 1939)
- Feb 3 Hugo Junkers, German aircraft designer (d. 1935)
- Feb 4 Timofei Mikhailov, Russian revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya (d. 1881)
- Feb 10 Alexandre Millerand, French President (d. 1943)
- Feb 13 Frank van de Goes, Dutch writer and Marxist theorist, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1939)
- Feb 13 William Strang, Scottish painter and engraver (illustrated Bunyan, Coleridge and Kipling), born in Dumbarton, Scotland (d. 1921)
- Feb 14 George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., American engineer and inventor (Ferris Wheel), born in Galesburg, Illinois (d. 1896)
- Feb 19 Svante Arrhenius, Swedish physicist and chemist (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1903), born in Wik Castle, Sweden (d. 1927)
- Feb 22 Joey Palmer, Australian cricket medium pace/spin bowler (17 Tests, 78 wickets, BB 7/65; Victoria CA), born in Corowa, Australia (d. 1910)