- Jan 2 Kanno Sugako, Japanese anarcho-feminist, hanged for her role in the plot to assassinate Emperor Meiji at 29
- Jan 3 Alexandros Papadiamantis, Greek author (b. 1851)
- Jan 9 Edwin Arthur Jones, American composer (Song of our Saviour), dies at 57
- Jan 9 Edvard Rusjan, Slovene flight pioneer (b. 1886)
- Jan 15 Wilhelm Berger, German composer, pianist and conductor, dies at 49
- Jan 17 Francis Galton, British anthropologist and geneticist (eugenics), dies at 88
- Jan 24 Carl Eilhardt, German composer and conductor, dies at 67
- Jan 24 David Graham Phillips, American journalist and novelist (b. 1867)
- Jan 26 Charles Dilke, British statesman and Radical politician, dies at 67
- Feb 4 Peter A "Piet" Cronje, South Africa Boer general, dies at about 75
- Feb 5 Petrus A Cronjé, Transvaal Boer general, dies
- Feb 7 Harry Graham, Australian cricketer (6 Test for Australia 1893-96, 301 runs), dies at 40
- Feb 11 Albert Salomon Anselm von Rothschild, Austrian banker and member of the Rothschild banking family of Austria, dies at 66
- Feb 15 Theodor Escherich, German pediatrician (b. 1859)
- Feb 18 Bill Murdoch, cricketer, dies while watching Aust v South Africa Test
- Feb 20 Alexander Alexandrovich Kopilov, composer, dies at 56
- Feb 20 Peter Nicolai von Wilm, composer, dies at 76
- Feb 22 Frances Harper, African-American abolinist, suffragist and writer (Iola Leroy), dies at 85
- Mar 1 Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Dutch chemist & physicist (Nobel 1901), dies at 58
- Mar 7 Antonio Fogazzarro, Italian writer and poet (Il Santo, Leila), dies at 68
- Mar 13 Jacob Maarten van Bemmelen, Dutch physicist and chemist, dies at 80
- Mar 13 John J. Toffey, American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient (b. 1844)
- Mar 20 Jean-Theodore Radoux, Belgian composer, dies at 75
- Mar 24 Matthew Stanley Robison, president (Cardinals), dies
- Mar 29 Felix Alexandre Guilmant, composer, dies at 74
- Mar 30 Ellen Henrietta Richards, American chemist (Amer Home Economics Association-1st Pres), dies at 68
- Apr 10 Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis, composer, dies at 35
- Apr 13 George Washington Glick, American politician, dies at 83
- Apr 13 John McLane, American politician, dies at 59
- Apr 14 Addie Joss, American baseball player (Cleveland Naps), dies of TB at 31
- Apr 14 Henri Elzéar Taschereau, French Canadian jurist and Chief Justice of Canada (b. 1836)
- Apr 15 Georg Knorr, German engineer (brake system trains), dies at 51
- Apr 25 Emilio Salgari, Italian novelist (b. 1862)
- May 18 Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer & conductor (Children's Death Songs), dies of heart disease at 50
- May 20 E. M. Grace, English cricketer (one Test v Australia 1880, 36 & 0), dies at 69
- May 21 Williamina Fleming, Scottish-born astronomer (b. 1857)
- May 28 Stephanus Jacobus du Toit, South African theologist and journalist (Afrikaner Bond), dies at 64
William Schwenck Gilbert
May 29 William Schwenck Gilbert, English dramatist (Gilbert & Sullivan), dies at 74
William Schwenck Gilbert
- May 30 Milton Bradley, American business magnate and game manufacturer, dies at 74
- Jun 7 Maurice Rouvier, French statesman and Prime Minister of France (1905-06), dies at 69
- Jun 9 Carrie Nation, American temperance advocate, dies at 64
- Jun 11 James Curtis Hepburn, American missionary and linguist, dies at 96
- Jun 14 Johan Svendsen, Norwegian composer, dies at 70
- Jun 18 Franjo Ksaver Kuhač, Croatian composer who collected and published 1,600 folk songs, dies at 76
- Jul 2 Felix Mottl, Austrian conductor and composer (Agnes Bernauer), dies at 54
- Jul 5 George J Stoney, Irish physicist, dies at 85
- Jul 8 Ira Erastus Davenport, American magician, claimed to be a spirit medium, dies at 51
- Jul 25 Filippo Capocci, composer, dies at 71
- Jul 31 Jack Edwards, cricketer (1888 Ashes tourist), dies
- Aug 1 Konrad Duden, German linguist (Das, grosse Duden Lexicon), dies
- Aug 5 Bob Caruthers, American baseball player (b. 1864)
- Aug 8 William P. Frye, American politician (b. 1830)
- Aug 9 John Gates ("Bet-a-million" Gates), American inventor and industrialist who established the market for barbed wire fencing, dies following an unsuccessful operation to remove a throat tumor at 56
- Aug 10 Carl Lumbye, Danish composer, dies at 70
- Aug 12 Jozef Israels, painter, dies
- Aug 12 Petrus H Hugenholtz, Dutch reformist vicar (Levenslicht), dies at 79
- Aug 16 Karl Munzinger, composer, dies at 68
- Aug 21 W R Wister, cricketer (USA v Canada 1859), dies
- Sep 11 Louis Henri Boussenard, French novelist (b. 1847)
- Sep 11 William R Boggs, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army) and chief of engineers, dies at 82
- Sep 16 Edward Whymper, English mountaineer 1st to climb Matterhorn (1865), dies at 71
- Sep 18 Peter Stolypin, 3rd Prime Minister of Russia (1906-11), shot and murdered at the Kiev Opera House aged 49
- Sep 21 Arab Pasha, "al-Misri" [Pasha Ahmad Arab), Egyptian minister, dies
- Sep 27 Auguste Michel-Lévy, French geologist and petrologist, dies at 67
- Sep 28 Louis Pincoffs, Dutch businessman and politician (1st-Chamber), dies
- Oct 1 Wilhelm Dilthey, German philosopher (Das Leben Schleiermans), dies at 77
- Oct 5 Charles Malherbe, French violinist and composer, dies at 58
- Oct 7 John Hughlings Jackson, English neurologist (b. 1835)
- Oct 14 John Marshall Harlan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1833)
- Oct 18 Alfred Binet, French child psychologist who invented the first practical IQ test (Binet–Simon test), dies at 54
- Oct 29 Joseph Pulitzer, Hungarian publisher (St Louis Post-Dispatch, NY World), dies at 64
- Nov 3 Salvador Giner y Vidal, Spanish composer, dies at 79
- Nov 8 Samuel Wilks, British Physician and founding father of clinical science, dies at 87
- Nov 9 Edmund Schücker, Austrian composer, dies at 50
- Nov 9 Howard Pyle, American author (b. 1853)
- Nov 16 Albert Alonzo Ames, Mayor of Minneapolis (b. 1842)
- Nov 19 Ramon Caceres, President of the Dominican Republic (1906-11), murdered at 44
- Nov 23 Bernard Tancred, South African cricketer (87 runs in 1888-89 South Africa v England), dies at 46
- Dec 7 William Griggs, English inventor (photo chromo lithography), dies at 79
- Dec 10 Joseph Dalton Hooker, British botanist and director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, dies at 94
- Dec 11 Thomas Ball, American sculptor, painter and musician, dies at 92
- Dec 13 Reggie Duff, Australian cricket batsman (23 Tests; 104 on debut), dies of alcoholism at 33
- Dec 18 Alberto Randegger, Italian composer, dies at 79
- Dec 19 John Bigelow, American statesman and author, dies at 94
- Dec 23 Karl Hoschna, Bohemian born Tin Pan Alley-era composer (Every Little Movement), dies at 34