- Aug 3 Per August Olander, composer, dies at 62
- Aug 6 Wilhelm Scherer, German literature historian, dies at 45
- Aug 9 Samuel Ferguson, Northern Irish poet and artist (b. 1810)
- Aug 10 Eduard Grell, German composer, dies at 85
- Aug 11 Lydia Koidula, Estonian poet (b. 1843)
- Aug 13 Adolf von Doss, German composer, dies at 62
- Aug 16 Ramakrishna, Indian mystic and yogi, dies at 50
- Aug 17 Arthur Middleton Manigault, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 61
- Aug 17 Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov, Russian chemist (discoverer of hexamine (1859)), dies at 57
- Aug 22 Jose da Silva Mendes Leal, Portuguese author (Indiana), dies at 67
- Aug 30 Ferris Jacobs, Jr., American politician (b. 1836)