- Jan 2 Frederick Burr Opper, American pioneering cartoonist (Happy Hooligan, Alphonse & Gaston), born in Madison, Ohio (d. 1937)
- Jan 2 Martha Carey Thomas, American educator, suffragist, linguist and second President of Bryn Mawr College, born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 1935)
- Jan 6 Hugh Mahon, Irish-born Australian politician, born in Killurin, Republic of Ireland (d. 1931)
- Jan 6 William E. Russell, 37th Governor of Massachusetts, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (d. 1896)
- Jan 9 Henry Blake Fuller, American writer and dramatist (The Cliff-Dwellers, Under the Skylights), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1929)
- Jan 14 Alice Pike Barney, American painter, born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1931)
- Jan 17 Eugene Augustin Lauste, French inventor (1st sound-on-film recording), born in Montmartre, France (d. 1935)
- Jan 18 Otto von Below, German commandant (WWI - Battle of Caporetto), born in Danzig, Prussia (d. 1944)
- Jan 23 Andrija Mohorovicic, Croatian meteorologist & seismologist (Moho discontinuity), born in Opatija, Croatia (d. 1936)
- Jan 26 Trinley Gyatso, 12th Dalai Lama, born in Tibet (d. 1875)
- Jan 31 George Jackson Churchward, British mechanical engineer (Chief of Great Western Railway Chief, 1902-22), born Stoke Gabriel, Devon, England (d. 1933)
- Feb 2 Jan Six, Dutch art historian and art collector (Six Collection), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1926)
- Feb 3 Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen, Danish Botanist and Geneticist (provided evidence for Hugo de Vries' mutation theory), born in Copenhagen, Denmark (d. 1927)
- Feb 17 Samuel Sidney McClure, Irish-American newspaper editor, publisher and muckracker (McClure's Magazine), born in County Antrim, Ireland (d. 1949)
- Feb 18 Max Klinger, German graphic artist, painter and sculptor (Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove), born in Leipzig, Germany (d. 1920)
- Feb 21 Jules de Trooz, Belgium politician and Prime Minister of Belgium (1907), born in Leuven, Belgium (d. 1907)
- Feb 22 Heinrich Hertz, German physicist, 1st to broadcast & receive radio waves, born in Hamburg, German Confederation (d. 1894)
Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941)
Feb 22 British officer and founder of the modern scouting movement, born in Paddington, London
George Dayton (1857-1938)
Mar 6 American businessman (founder of Target Corporation), born in Clifton Springs, New York
- Mar 7 Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian psychiatrist (1st psychiatrist to win Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 1927 for malaria inoculation for dementia paralytica), born in Wels, Austria (d. 1940)
- Mar 16 Charles Harding Firth, British historian, born in Ecclesall, Sheffield, England (d. 1936)
- Mar 22 Arnold Sauwen, Belgium poet (Along the Meuse), born in Stokkem, Belgium (d. 1938)
- Mar 22 Paul Doumer, French politician (Governor-General of French Indochina 1897-1902, 13th President of France 1931-32), born in Aurillac, France (d. 1932)
- Mar 23 Fannie Farmer, American culinary pioneer who revolutionised modern cooking through the introduction of precise measurements (Boston Cooking-School Cook Book), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1915)
- Mar 27 Karl Pearson, British statistician (leading founder of the modern field of statistics), born in London (d. 1936)
- Mar 30 Leon Charles Thevenin, French telegraph engineer (d. 1926)
- Apr 5 Alexander-Jozef von Battenberg, Prince of Bulgaria (1879-86), born in Verona, Lombardy–Venetia (d. 1893)
- Apr 10 Henry Ernest Dudeney, English mathematician and puzzle maker, born in Mayfield, East Sussex, England (d. 1930)
- Apr 14 Victor Horsley, English physician and neuroscientist, born in London (d. 1916)
- Apr 18 Clarence Darrow, American defense attorney at Scopes Monkey Trial, born in Kinsman, Ohio (d. 1938)
- Apr 19 Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, French scholar and philosopher, born in Paris (d. 1939)
- Apr 20 Charles Louis Philippe Zilcken, Dutch painter and author (HW Knife Day), born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1930)
- Apr 20 Hermann Bang, Danish writer, born in Asserballe, Denmark (d. 1912)
- Apr 29 Édouard Rod, France-Swiss writer (Mishel' Tes'e), born in Nyon, Switzerland (d. 1910)
- Apr 30 Eugen Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist (introduced the term schizophrenia to describe the disorder previously known as dementia praecox), born in Zollikon, Switzerland (d. 1940)
- May 7 William A. MacCorkle, American politician, 90th Governor of West Virginia, born in Lexington, Virginia (d. 1930)
- May 10 Hendrik Zwaardemaker, Dutch physiologist (invented the olfactometer), born in Haarlem, Netherlands (d. 1930)
- May 13 Ronald Ross, British pathologist (Nobel Prize 1902), born in Almora, North-Western Provinces, British India (d. 1932)
- May 15 Williamina Fleming, Scottish-born astronomer (d. 1911)
- May 19 John Jacob Abel, American pharmacologist (endocrine glands), born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1938)
Pius XI (1857-1939)
May 31 Italian 259th Pope (1922-39), born in Desio, Lombardy-Venetia, Austrian Empire
- Jun 2 Karl Adolph Gjellerup, poet (Poutnici Svetem, Nobel 1917), born in Roholte, Denmark (d. 1919)
- Jun 6 Aleksandr Lyapunov, Russian mathematician (Lyapunov exponent), born in Yaroslavl, Russian Empire (d. 1918)
- Jun 18 Henry Clay Folger, American CEO of Standard Oil and founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library, born in NYC, New York (d. 1930)
- Jul 5 Clara Zetkin, German feminist, Socialist, and Communist leader, born in Wiederau, Saxony (d. 1933)
- Jul 8 Alfred Binet, French child psychologist who invented the first practical IQ test (Binet–Simon test), born in Nice, France (d. 1911)
- Jul 9 Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden (1907-18), born in Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden (d. 1928)
- Jul 14 Frederick Louis Maytag, American businessman, head of Maytag, born in Elgin, Illinois (d. 1937)
- Jul 21 ASC Wallis [Adele SC Opzoomer], Dutch writer and poet, born in Utrecht, Netherlands (d. 1925)
- Jul 24 Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer (Promised Country, Nobel 1917), born in Fredericia, Denmark (d. 1943)
- Jul 25 Frank Sprague, American inventor who installed the first U.S. electric trolley system in Richmond, Virgina, born in Milford, Connecticut (d. 1934)
- Jul 27 E. A. Wallis Budge, English orientalist and museum curator (British Museum), born in Bodmin, Cornwall, England (d. 1934)
- Jul 27 José Celso Barbosa, Puerto Rican physician, sociologist and political leader, born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico (d. 1921)
- Jul 28 Ballington Booth, British-born American officer in The Salvation Army and co-founder of Volunteers of America, born in Brighouse, England (d. 1940)
- Jul 30 Thorstein Veblen, American economist (Theory of the Leisure Class-1899), born in Cato, Wisconsin (d. 1929)
- Aug 8 Henry Fairfield Osborn, American paleontologist, geologist (founded US Eugenics Society) born in Fairfield, Connecticut (d. 1935)
- Aug 15 Albert Ballin, German inventor and shipping tycoon, born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1918)
- Aug 18 Libert H. Boeynaems, Belgian Catholic prelate and the fourth vicar apostolic of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Hawaiian Islands, born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1926)
- Sep 6 Zelia Nuttall, American archeologist and historian, born in San Francisco, California (d. 1933)
- Sep 8 Georg Michaelis, Chancellor of German Empire, born in Haynau, Germany (d. 1936)
- Sep 8 Ida Henrietta Hyde, American physiologist who invented the micro-electrode and the first woman allowed to do research at Harvard Medical School and to be elected to the American Physiology Society, born in Davenport, Iowa (d. 1945)
- Sep 10 James Edward Keeler, American astronomer (rings of Saturn), born in La Salle, Illinois (d. 1900)
- Sep 12 George H. Breitner, Dutch impressionist painter, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1923)
- Sep 13 Michał Drzymała, Polish peasant rebel (Drzymała's wagon), born in Province of Posen, Poland (d. 1937)
Milton S. Hershey (1857-1945)
Sep 13 American chocolate tycoon (The Hershey Chocolate Company) and philanthropist, born in Derry Township, Pennsylvania
William Howard Taft (1857-1930)
Sep 15 27th US President (Republican: 1909-13) and Chief Justice, born in Cincinnati, Ohio
- Sep 17 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian pioneer in rocket and space research, born in Izhevskoye, Ryazan Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1935)
- Sep 29 Conrad Theodor van Deventer, Dutch author, lawyer and politician (Ethical Policy Movement), born in Dordrecht, Netherlands (d. 1915)
- Sep 30 Hermann Sudermann, German writer (Honor, That Ehre, Frau Sorge), born in Matziken, East Prussia (d. 1928)
- Oct 2 Marthinus Theunis Steyn, South African politician and President of Orange-Free state (1896-1902), born in Winburg, Orange Free State (d. 1916)
- Oct 14 Elwood Haynes, American automotive pioneer (built one of 1st US autos), born in Portland, Indiana (d. 1925)
- Oct 29 Konrad Haebler, German historian (Early printers of Spain/Portugal), born in Dresden, Germany (d. 1946)
- Oct 30 Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French neurologist, hysteria specialist, and namesake of Tourette's syndrome, born in Saint-Gervais-les-Trois-Clochers, France (d. 1904)
- Nov 2 Joseph Babinski, Polish-French neurologist (Babinski reflex), born in Paris (d. 1932)
- Nov 3 Mikhail Vasilyevich Alekseyev, Imperial Russian general and WW I Chief of Staff, born in Vyazma, Smolensk Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1918) [OS]
- Nov 5 Ida Tarbell, American muckraker (The History of the Standard Oil Company), born in Erie County, Pennsylvania (d. 1944)
- Nov 21 Manuel Estrada Cabrera, 13th President of Guatemala (1898-1920), born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (d. 1924)
- Nov 22 George Gissing, British novelist (New Grub Street, Charles Dickens: A Critical Study), born in Wakefield, England (d. 1903)
- Nov 26 Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist (Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes), born in Geneva, Switzerland (d. 1913)
- Nov 27 Charles Scott Sherrington, British physiologist (Nobel 1932-functions of neurons), born in London (d. 1952)
- Nov 28 Alfonso XII, King of Spain (1874-85), born in Royal Palace of Madrid, Madrid (d. 1885)
- Nov 29 Theodor Escherich, German pediatrician (d. 1911)
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
Dec 3 Polish-English novelist (Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness), born in Berdychiv, Poland
- Dec 16 E. E. [Edward Emerson] Barnard, American astronomer (Jupiter's 5th satellite), born in Nashville, Tennessee (d. 1923)