- Jan 1 Louis Auguste Blanqui, French political activist (b. 1805)
- Jan 21 Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1802)
- Jan 25 Konstantin Thon, Russian architect (Grand Kremlin Palace), dies at 86
- Jan 30 Jaak Nikolaas Lemmens, Flemish composer, dies at 58
- Feb 2 Aleksej F Pisemski, Russian writer (Clodhopper), dies at 59
- Feb 3 John Gould, British ornithologist and bird artist, dies at 76
Thomas Carlyle
Feb 5 Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and essayist (The French Revolution), dies in London at 85
Thomas Carlyle
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
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Feb 14 Fernando Wood, New York City mayor (b. 1812)
- Feb 27 George Colley, British governor of Natal/general, dies in battle at 46
- Mar 6 Horatia Nelson, the illegitimate daughter of Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson (b. 1801)
- Mar 13 Alexander II, Tsar of Russia, assassinated 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 (b. 1800)
- 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 15 Sophia Perovskaya, Soviet icon, aristocrat, and socialist revolutionary (Narodnaya Volya), who helped orchestrate the successful assassination of Czar Alexander II of Russia, executed by hanging at 27
- Apr 16 George William Martin, 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
Benjamin Disraeli
- Apr 19 Michel Abeloos, Flemish sculptor, dies at 53
- Apr 26 Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, German general (b. 1815)
- Apr 27 Ludwig A Benedek, Austrian general, dies at 76
- Apr 28 Robert W Ollinger, American warden and the last victim of Billy the Kid, dies
- 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 Henry Vieuxtemps, Belgian composer, dies at 61
- Jun 13 Joseph Škoda, Bohemian physician, dies at 75
- Jun 16 Marie Laveau, American Voodoo practitioner (b. 1801)
- 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
Billy the Kid
- Jul 17 Jim Bridger, American mountain man, Indian fighter, and explorer (b. 1804)
- 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, composer, dies at 84
- Aug 2 Marcus Andrews Hislop Clarke, author (His Natural Life) 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 W Frederik K, prince of Netherlands/general/admiral, dies at 84
Ambrose Burnside
Sep 13 Ambrose Burnside, American soldier, politician and industrialist (Governor of Rhode Island, 1866-69), dies of a heart attack at 57
Ambrose Burnside
James Garfield
Sep 19 James A. Garfield, 20th US President (Republican: 1881), dies of a gunshot wound at 49
James Garfield
- Sep 22 Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman from Illinois (b. 1831)
- Sep 24 Luigi Ferdinando Casamorata, 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 Ike, dies
- Oct 31 George Washington De Long, American Arctic Explorer, dies during his disastrous expedition to the North Pole at 37
- Nov 1 Jacques F H Perk, Dutch poet (Iris), 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