Thomas Carlyle
Feb 5 Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and essayist (The French Revolution), dies in London at 85
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Feb 9 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 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
Mar 13 Alexander II, 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, 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
- Mar 28 Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Russian composer (Boris Godunov), dies at 42 [OS=Mar 16]
- Mar 31 Gaetano Gaspari, composer, dies at 73
- Apr 7 Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, Corsican representative of the people, dies at 65
- Apr 11 Kristian Mandrup Elster, Norwegian author (Torn Trondal), dies 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 composer, dies at 56
Benjamin Disraeli
Apr 19 Benjamin Disraeli, 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 Jurcic, Slovic writer (Schone Vida), dies
- May 11 Henri-Frédéric Amiel, Swiss writer (Journal Intime), dies at 59
- May 24 Samuel Palmer, British landscape painter, 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
Jul 14 Billy the Kid [William H Bonney], American frontier outlaw, 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 20 Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, English 1st baron of Hesketh, dies
- Jul 26 George Borrow, writer, dies
- 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 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 Clopton Lanier, composer, dies at 39
- Sep 8 Frederick, Prince of the Netherlands and general and large landowner (created Muskau Park), dies at 84
Ambrose Burnside
Sep 13 Ambrose Burnside, American soldier, industrialist and politician (Governor of Rhode Island, 1866-69) who popularized sideburns, dies of a heart attack at 57
James Garfield
Sep 19 James A. Garfield, 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, 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, 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 FA 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