- Jan 1 Carry van Bruggen [de Haan], Dutch author (Heleen, Eva), born in Smilde, Netherlands (d. 1932)
- Jan 1 Vajiravudh, King of Thailand (d. 1925)
- Jan 4 Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German painter, poet and sculptor (Seated Youth), born in Meiderich, Germany (d. 1919)
- Jan 5 Nikolay Andreyevich Roslavets, Russian composer, born in Surazh, Russia (d. 1944)
- Jan 8 Henrik Shipstead, American politician (d. 1960)
- Jan 9 Edouard Beaupré, horse lifter (d. 1904)
- Jan 9 Giovanni Papini, Italian avant-garde writer (Il Diavolo), born in Florence, Italy (d. 1956)
- Jan 9 Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (Revaluations), born in Ashton upon Mersey, England (d. 1938)
- Jan 13 Essington Lewis, Australian industrialist (d. 1961)
- Jan 17 Alfred Radcliffe-Browne, British anthropologist (Andaman Islanders), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1955)
- Jan 17 Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician (d. 1941)
- Jan 18 Gaston Gallimard, French publisher (Librairie Gallimard), born in Paris, France (d. 1975)
- Jan 25 Emil Ludwig, German biographer (Diana, Son of Man), born in Wrocław, Poland (d. 1948)
- Jan 31 Irving Langmuir, American chemist and engineer (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1932, invented gas-filled incandescent lamp), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1957)
- Jan 31 Joseph Augustine Cushman, American palaentologist, born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts (d. 1949)