Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
Feb 5 Scottish historian and essayist (The French Revolution), dies in London at 85
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)
Feb 9 Russian novelist (Crime and Punishment, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man) who helped shape literary modernism and existentialism, dies from a pulmonary haemorrhage at 59
Alexander II (1818-1881)
Mar 13 Tsar of Russia (1855-81), assassinated by members of far-left terror group 'People's Will' at 62
- Mar 15 Emory Upton, Bvt Major General (Union Army), commits suicide at 41
- Mar 21 Samuel Courtauld, American-born textile magnate (b. 1793)
- Mar 23 Nikolay Rubinstein, Russian pianist, conductor, and composer, dies at 45
- Mar 24 Friedrich Hecker, German revolutionary republican politician, dies at 69
- Mar 24 Joseph Delesse, French geologist (b. 1817)
- Mar 26 Roman Sanguszko, Polish aristocrat and general, dies at 80
Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
Mar 28 Russian composer (Boris Godunov; Night on Bald Mountain; Pictures at an Exhibition), dies from complications of alcoholism at 42
- Mar 31 Gaetano Gaspari, composer, dies at 73
- Apr 7 Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, Corsican representative of the people, dies at 65
- Apr 11 Kristian Elster, Norwegian author (Torn Trondal), dies of pneumonia at 40
- Apr 12 James L. Lardner, American naval officer (American Civil War), dies at 78
- Apr 15 Sophia Perovskaya, Soviet icon, aristocrat, and socialist revolutionary (Narodnaya Volya), who helped orchestrate the successful assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, executed by hanging at 27
- Apr 16 George William Martin, English chorister, organist, composer, educator, and founder of the National Choral Society, dies at 53
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
Apr 19 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, British Prime Minister (Tory: 1868, 1874-80) and writer, dies of bronchitis at 76
- Apr 19 Michel Abeloos, Flemish sculptor, dies at 53
- Apr 26 Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, Bavarian general, dies at 65
- Apr 27 Ludwig von Benedek, Austrian general, dies at 76
- Apr 28 Robert Olinger, American warden & the last victim of Billy the Kid, dies at 31
- May 1 John S. Preston, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 72
- May 3 Josip Jurčič, Slovene writer (Schone Vida), dies of tuberculosis at 37
- May 11 Henri-Frédéric Amiel, Swiss writer (Journal Intime), dies at 59
- May 14 Mary Seacole, Jamaican businesswoman, author and nurse to British soldiers during Crimean War, dies at 76 [1]
- May 24 Samuel Palmer, British landscape painter and etcher (Valley of Vision), dies at 76
- May 26 Jakob Bernays, German philologist (b. 1824)
- Jun 2 Émile Littré, French lexicographer (b. 1801)
- Jun 3 Japanese giant salamander, dies in Dutch zoo at 55; oldest amphibian
- Jun 6 Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian violin prodigy, composer, and teacher (Brussels Conservatory), dies at 61
- Jun 13 Joseph Škoda, Bohemian physician, dies at 75
- Jun 16 Marie Laveau, American Voodoo practitioner, dies at 79
- Jun 16 Sir Josiah Mason, English manufacturer (b. 1795)
- Jun 28 Jules Armand Dufaure, French statesman (Prime Minister of France 1871-73), dies at 82
- Jul 4 Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Finnish statesman (b. 1806)
- Jul 10 Georg Hermann Nicolai, German architect (b. 1812)
Billy the Kid (1859-1881)
Jul 14 American frontier outlaw and gunfighter of the Wild West, shot by sheriff Pat Garrett and dies of gunshot wounds at 21
- Jul 17 James Bridger, American scout, fur trader and mountain man par excellence, dies at 77
- Jul 19 Isaac Baumann, Jewish pioneer and trader in Bloemfontein, South Africa, dies at 67
- Jul 26 George Borrow, English writer (The Romany Rye), dies at 78
- Jul 27 Johann Christian Lobe, German composer, dies at 84
- Aug 2 Marcus Clarke, English born Australian author (For the Term of His Natural Life), dies at 35
- Aug 3 William Fargo, American expressman (founder of Wells Fargo and American Express Co), dies at 63
- Aug 6 James Springer White, American theologian (co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church), dies at 60
- Aug 19 Joseph Labitzky, Bohemian composer, dies at 79
- Sep 7 Sidney Lanier, American poet and composer, dies of tuberculosis at 39
- Sep 8 Frederick, Prince of the Netherlands and general and large landowner (created Muskau Park), dies at 84
Ambrose Burnside (1824-1881)
Sep 13 American soldier, industrialist and politician (Governor of Rhode Island, 1866-69) who popularized sideburns, dies of a heart attack at 57
James Garfield (1831-1881)
Sep 19 20th US President (Republican: 1881), dies of a gunshot wound at 49
- Sep 22 Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman from Illinois (b. 1831)
- Sep 24 Luigi Ferdinando Casamorata, Italian composer, music critic, attorney, and educator (Conservatory of Florence, 1862-81), dies at 74
- Oct 3 Orson Pratt, American mathematician and religious leader, dies at 70
- Oct 22 Janis Cimze, Latvian composer, Father of Latvian choir music, dies at 67
- Oct 26 Billy Clanton, brother of outlaw Ike Clanton, dies in the gunfight at the OK Corral at 19
- Oct 31 George Washington De Long, American Arctic Explorer whose disastrous expedition provided evidence to support the theory of trans-Arctic oceanic drift, dies during his disastrous expedition to the North Pole at 37
- Nov 1 Jacques Perk, Dutch poet (Iris, Wood Song), dies at 22
- Nov 7 John MacHale, Irish Archbishop (Tuam) and writer (b. 1791)
- Nov 9 Edwin Drake, American businessman who drilled 1st productive US oil well, dies at 61
- Nov 21 Ami Boué, Austrian geologist (b. 1794)
- Nov 25 Theobald Boehm, German inventor of the modern flute, dies at 87
- Dec 7 Julius Bahnsen, German philosopher (Tragic as Weltgesetz), dies at 51
- Dec 13 August Senoa, Croatian writer (Kletva [The Curse]), dies at 43
- Dec 17 Lewis H Morgan, US ethnologist (Iroquois-indians), dies at 62
- Dec 18 George Edmund Street, English architect, dies at 57
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning