- Jan 1 John Pieter Heije, Dutch physician, writer and poet (Silver Fleet) (d. 1876)
Louis Braille (1809-1852)
Jan 4 French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for the blind, born in Coupvray, France
- Jan 15 Cornelia Connelly, American foundress (Society of the Holy Child Jesus), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1879)
- Jan 15 Pierre Joseph Proudhon, French politician & philosopher ("father of anarchism"), born in Besançon, France (d. 1865)
- Jan 18 Richard C. Gatlin, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Kinston, North Carolina (d. 1896)
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Jan 19 American writer, poet and critic (The Pit and the Pendulum) considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre (Murders in the Rue Morgue), born in Boston, Massachusetts
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Feb 12 16th US President (Republican: 1861-65), born in Hardin County, Kentucky
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Feb 12 English naturalist (Origin of the Species) who conceived the theory of evolution by natural selection, born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire
- Feb 15 André Dumont, Belgian geologist, born in Liège, Belgium (d. 1857)
Cyrus McCormick (1809-1884)
Feb 15 American inventor and businessman (mechanical reaper), born in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
- Feb 20 Albertus Jacobus Duymaer van Twist, Dutch Governor-General of Dutch East Indies (1851-56), born in Deventer, Netherlands (d. 1887)
- Feb 20 Henry Walton Wessells, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Lietchfield, Connecticut (d. 1889)
- Feb 24 Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel, Prussian Generalfeldmarschall noted for his victories in the Franco-Prussian War, born in Dresden, Saxony (d. 1885)
- Feb 25 George Washington Cullom, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in NYC, New York (d. 1892)
- Mar 10 William David Porter, Commander (Union Navy), (d. 1864)
- Mar 15 Joseph Jenkins Roberts, American-born Liberian merchant and politician (1st President of Liberia 1848-56), born in Norfolk, Virginia (d. 1876)
- Mar 15 Karl Josef von Hefele, German theologian (d. 1893)
- Mar 24 Joseph Liouville, French mathematician (discover of transcendental numbers), born in Saint-Omer, France (d. 1882)
- Mar 27 Georges Eugene, Baron Haussmann, French administrator and architect, born in Paris (d. 1891)
- Mar 31 Edward FitzGerald, British poet, writer, and translator (Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam), born in Bredfield, Sussex, England (d. 1883)
- Apr 1 Willem Ruys J Dz, Dutch ship owner
- Apr 4 Benjamin Pierce, American mathematician and astronomer (Peirce's criterion for outliers), born in Salem, Massachusetts (d. 1880)
- Apr 14 George Willem Vreede, Dutch lawyer and politician, born in Tilburg, Netherlands (d. 1880)
- Apr 15 Hermann Grassmann, German linguist and mathematician, born in Stettin, Province of Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia (d. 1877)
- Apr 17 Philip St. George Cocke, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Bremo Bluff, Virginia (d. 1861)
- Apr 20 John S. Preston, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Abingdon, Virginia (d. 1881)
- Apr 21 Robert M. T. Hunter, American lawyer and politician (2nd Confederate States Secretary of State), born in Loretto, Virginia (d. 1887)
- Jun 13 George Philip St Cooke, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Leesburg, Virginia (d. 1895)
- Jun 15 François-Xavier Garneau, French Canadian poet and historian (d. 1866)
- Jun 18 Sylvanus William Godon, Commander (Union Navy), (d. 1879)
- Jun 27 François Certain Canrobert, French marshal and parliament member, born in Saint-Céré, France (d. 1895)
- Jul 8 Ljudwit Gaj, Croatian writer/poet (Pjesma iz Zagorja)
- Jul 10 Friedrich August Quenstedt, German geologist and paleontologist, born in Eisleben, Saxony (d. 1889)
- Jul 28 Ormsby McKnight Mitchel, American astronomer and Union Major General, born in Union County, Kentucky (d. 1862)
- Jul 30 Charles Chiniquy, Canadian Catholic priest who left the Roman Catholic Church and became a Presbyterian minister, born in Kamouraska, Quebec (d. 1899)
- Aug 1 William Barret Travis, American lawyer and soldier (commander at Battle of the Alamo), born in Saluda County, South Carolina (d. 1836)
Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
Aug 6 British Poet Laureate of Great Britain (The Charge of the Light Brigade), born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England
- Aug 27 Hannibal Hamlin, American attorney and 15th Vice President of U.S. (1861-65), born in Paris, Massachusetts (d. 1891)
- Aug 29 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American physician and author (Old Ironsides), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (d. 1894)
- Sep 4 Juliusz Slowacki, Polish poet (Trip to H Land), born in Kremenets, Russian Empire (d. 1849)
- Sep 5 Manuel Montt Torres, President of Chile (851-61), born in Petorca, Chile (d. 1880)
- Sep 9 William Radford, U.S. Navy rear admiral, born in Fincastle, Virginia (d. 1890)
- Sep 20 Sterling "Old Pap" Price, American lawyer, U.S. Army Brigadier General and politician (11th Governor of Missouri), born in Prince Edward County, Virginia (d. 1867)
- Sep 21 Sophia Hawthorne, American writer, painter and illustrator, born in Salem, Massachusetts (d. 1871)
- Sep 27 Raphael Semmes, American Rear Admiral (Confederate Navy), born in Charles County, Maryland (d. 1877)
- Oct 4 Prince Albert of Prussia, Prussian colonel general, born in Königsberg (d. 1872)
- Oct 4 Robert Cumming Schenck, American Major General (Union Army), born in Franklin, Ohio (d. 1890)
- Oct 11 Orson Squire Fowler, American phrenologist and lecturer, born in Cohocton, New York (d. 1887)
- Oct 22 Volney E. Howard, American politician, born in Oxford County, Maine (d. 1889)
- Oct 27 Peter Donders, Dutch Roman Catholic missionary to Suriname, born in Tilburg, Netherlands (d. 1887)
- Nov 4 Benjamin Robbins Curtis, American attorney and Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, born in Watertown, Massachusetts (d. 1874)
- Nov 9 Albert Taylor Bledsoe, American Episcopal priest and Confederate Army officer, born in Frankfurt, Kentucky (d. 1877)
- Nov 13 John A. Dahlgren, US Navy officer and inventor (Civil war Dahlgren-cannon), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1870)
- Nov 22 Benedict Augustin Morel, Austrian-French psychologist (dementia praecox), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1873)
- Nov 23 Horatio Phillips Van Cleve, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Princeton, New Jersey (d. 1891)
- Dec 3 Thomas Alfred Davies, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Black Lake, New York (d. 1899)
- Dec 6 Stephen Thomas, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Bethel, Vermont (d. 1903)
- Dec 16 Pieter van Bosse, Dutch politician, Liberal Minister of Finance, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1879)
- Dec 19 Pierre-Joseph van Beneden, Belgian paleontologist (life cycle of tapeworms), born in Mechelen, Belgium (d. 1894)
Kit Carson (1809-1868)
Dec 24 American frontiersman, Indian fighter and army officer, born in Madison County, Kentucky
William Gladstone (1809-1898)
Dec 29 British statesman and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Liberal: 1868-74, 1880-86, 1892-94), born in Liverpool, England
