- Jan 1 Johan Hendrik Koelman, portrait painter, dies at 66
- Jan 14 Friedrich von Amerling, Austrian painter, dies at 83
- Jan 14 Peter Donders, Dutch Roman Catholic missionary to Suriname, dies at 77
- Jan 17 William Giblin, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1840)
- Feb 10 Ellen Wood, English author (Pomeroy Abbey), dies at 73
- Feb 10 Pieter JBCR van der Aa, Dutch geographer, dies at 54
- Feb 15 Alexander Borodin, composer, dies
- Feb 19 Multatuli [Eduard Douwes Dekker], Dutch writer (Max Havelaar), dies at 66
- Feb 27 Alexander Porfir'yevich Borodin, Russian composer, dies at 53
- Mar 2 August W Eichler, German botanist, dies at 47
- Mar 2 Wilhelm Troszel, composer, dies at 63
- Mar 8 Pavel Annenkov, Russian literature historian/critic, dies at 73 (b. 1813)
- Mar 8 Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman (b. 1813)
- Mar 8 James Buchanan Eads, American engineer (b. 1820)
- Mar 16 Emanuel Kania, Polish composer, dies at 59
- Mar 24 Ivan Kramskoi, Russian painter and art critic (b. 1837)
- Mar 28 Ditler G Monrad, Danish bishop/premier (1863-..), dies at 75
- Apr 11 Pyotr Petrovich Sokal'sky, composer, dies at 54
- Apr 20 Muhammad Sharif Pasha, Egyptian statesman (b. 1826)
- Apr 28 Carl Ferdinand Pohl, German-Austrian music historian and composer, dies at 67
- Apr 30 Friedrich Wilhelm Markull, composer, dies at 71
- May 7 C. F. W. Walther, American Lutheran theologian (b. 1811)
- May 8 Alexander Ulyanov, brother of Lenin/hanged for assassination of tsar
- May 11 Jean Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist (b. 1802)
- May 14 Lysander Spooner, American philosopher (b. 1808)
- May 23 Ludwig Mathias Lindeman, composer, dies at 74
- May 27 Coenraad J van Houten, Dutch cocoa manufacturer, dies at 86
- Jun 12 Gustav Weber, composer, dies at 41
- Jun 21 Adolf Schimon, composer, dies at 67
- Jul 5 August F Pott, German philological (That Personennamen), dies
- Jul 16 Nicaise de Keyser, Flemish painter (Battle at Woeringen), dies at 73
- Jul 17 Dorothea Dix, American social activist, dies at 85
- Jul 25 John Taylor, American religious leader (b. 1808)
- Jul 29 Agostino Depretis, Italian statesman (d. 1813)
- Aug 1 Joseph Rainey, American politician, 1st African American in US House of Representatives (1870-1879), dies at 55
- Aug 8 Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer and soldier (b. 1808)
- Aug 14 Richard Jefferies, English naturalist and essayist, dies of tuberculosis at 38
- Aug 17 Franz Commer, composer, dies at 74
- Aug 18 Orson Squire Fowler, American phrenologist and lecturer, dies at 77
- Aug 19 Alvan Clark, American astronomer and maker of the Dearborn Observatory telescope, the largest telescope in the world at the time, dies at 83
- Aug 20 Jules Laforgue, French poet (Les Complaintas), dies at 27
- Aug 27 Wilhelm Volkmar, composer, dies at 74
- Sep 14 Friedrich T Vischer, German philosopher/writer (Auch einer), dies
- Sep 21 William Preston, American lawyer, politician and Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 70
- Sep 29 Bernhard von Langenbeck, German surgeon and founder of Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery, dies at 76
- Oct 7 George James Webb, composer, dies at 84
- Oct 12 Dinah Craik, English writer (John Halifax, Gentleman), dies at 61
- Oct 17 Gustav Kirchhoff, German physicist (spectroscopy, coined "black body" radiation), dies at 63
- Oct 31 George Alexander Macfarren, British composer and musicologist, dies at 74
- Nov 2 Swedish Nightingale [Jenny Lind], Swedish soprano, dies at 67
Doc Holliday
Nov 8 Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter, dies at 36

Doc Holliday
Emma Lazarus
Nov 19 Emma Lazarus, US poet ("Give us your tired & poor"), dies in New York at 38

Emma Lazarus
- Nov 20 Louis Gallait, Belgian painter (Egmont & Receiver), dies at 77
- Nov 25 Johann J Bachofen, Swiss historic rights, dies at 71
- Dec 1 Albertus J Duymaer van Twist, gov-gen of Dutch-Indies, dies at 78
- Dec 5 Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (b. 1804)
- Dec 9 Mahmadu Lamine, Senegalese marabout and military leader
- Dec 26 Jules Francois Blasini, Curacaos pianist/composer, dies at 40