1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1916th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 916th year of the 2nd millennium, the 16th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1910s decade. As of the start of 1916, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
Contents
Events
Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix.
January
January 1 – The British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored and cooled.
January 9 – WWI: Gallipoli Campaign – The last British troops are evacuated from Gallipoli, as the Ottoman Empire prevails over a joint British and French operation to capture Constantinople.
January 10 – WWI: Erzurum Offensive – Russia defeats the Ottoman Empire.
January 12 – The Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, part of the British Empire, is established in modern-day Tuvalu and Kiribati.
January 13 – WWI: Battle of Wadi – Ottoman Empire forces defeat the British, during the Mesopotamian campaign in modern-day Iraq.
January 29 – WWI: Paris is bombed by German zeppelins.
February
February 9 (6.00 p.m.) – Tristan Tzara "founds" the art movement Dadaism (according to Hans Arp).
February 11
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its first concert in the United States.
The Romanian Association football club Sportul Studențesc is founded in Bucharest.
February 12 – WWI: Battle of Salaita Hill (East African Campaign) – South African and other British Empire troops fail to take a German East African defensive position.
February 21 – WWI: The Battle of Verdun begins in France.
March
March 8–9 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads about 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 12 U.S. soldiers. A garrison of the U.S. 13th Cavalry Regiment fights back and drives them away.
March 10 – The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence concludes with an understanding that the United Kingdom would recognise Arab independence in return for Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, launching the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.
March 15 – United States President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.–Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa; the 13th Cavalry regiment enters Mexican territory.
March 16 – Mexican Revolution: The U.S. 7th and 10th Cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the border, to join the hunt for Villa.
March 22 – The temporary Emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicates the throne, and the Republic of China is restored once again.
March 24 – French ferry SS Sussex is torpedoed by SM UB-29 in the English Channel, with at least 50 killed (including the composer Enrique Granados), resulting on May 4 in the Sussex Pledge by Germany to the United States.
April
April
The toggle light switch is invented, by William J. Newton and Morris Goldberg.
Korea Tungsten is founded in Daegu, predecessor of leading steel producer in Asia, POSCO (Pohang Steel Company).
April 11 – WWI: The Egyptian Expeditionary Force begins the occupation of the Sinai Peninsula.
April 22 – The Chinese troop transport SS Hsin-Yu capsizes off the Chinese coast; at least 1,000 are killed.
April 24–30 – The Easter Rising occurs in Ireland. Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood proclaim an Irish Republic, and the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army occupy the General Post Office and other buildings in Dublin, before surrendering to the British Army. A total of 485 Irish Volunteers, British soldiers and Irish civilians were killed as well as 2,200 wounded and 16 rebel leaders would be executed.
April 24–May 10 – Voyage of the James Caird: An open boat journey from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean (800 nautical miles (1,500 km; 920 mi)) is undertaken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions, to obtain rescue for the main body of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, following the loss of its ship Endurance.
April 27 – WWI: Gas attack at Hulluch in France: The 47th Brigade, 16th (Irish) Division is decimated, in one of the most heavily concentrated German gas attacks of the war.
April 29 – WWI: Mesopotamian campaign – The Siege of Kut ends with the surrender of British Indian Army forces to the Ottoman Empire at Kut-al-Amara on the Tigris in Basra Vilayet.
May
May 3–12 - 15 Irish rebel leaders who took part in the Easter Rising in Dublin in April are executed. Among them were Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Thomas Clarke and William Pearse, brother of Patrick Pearse who had served as a captain rather than a leader.
May 16
United States Marines invade the Dominican Republic.
Britain and France conclude the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement, which is to divide Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire, following the conclusion of WWI and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, into French and British spheres of influence.
May 31–June 1 – WWI: Battle of Jutland, between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet in the North Sea, the war's only large-scale clash of battleships. The result is tactically inconclusive, but British dominance of the North Sea is maintained
June
June 4 – WWI: The Brusilov Offensive, the height of Russian operations in the war, begins with their breaking through Austro-Hungarian lines.
June 5 – WWI: HMS Hampshire sinks, having hit a mine off the Orkney Islands, Scotland, with Lord Kitchener aboard.
June 10 – The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, to create a single unified Arab state spanning from Aleppo to Aden, is formally declared by Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca.
July
July 1–November 18 – WWI: Battle of the Somme, opening with explosion of the British Y Sap and Lochnagar mines and the Battle of Albert: More than one million soldiers die, with 57,470 British Empire casualties on the first day, 19,240 of them killed, the British Army's bloodiest day. The immediate result is tactically inconclusive.
July 1–12 – Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916: At least one shark attacks 5 swimmers along 80 miles (130 km) of New Jersey coastline, resulting in 4 deaths and the survival of one youth, who requires limb amputation. This event is the inspiration for author Peter Benchley, over half a century later, to write Jaws.
July 2 – WWI: Battle of Erzincan – Russian forces defeat troops of the Ottoman Empire in Armenia.
July 6 – WWI: The Battle of Kostiuchnówka concludes in Galicia (modern-day Ukraine) with Russian Imperial troops breaking through the line, forcing the Polish Legions and supporting Hungarian troops to retreat, with the Poles enduring 2,000 casualties.
July 15 – In Seattle, William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
July 15–19 – WWI: Battle of Delville Wood – 766 men from the South African Brigade are killed, in South Africa's biggest loss during the First World War.
July 16 – Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem is first performed in a memorial concert for the composer, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.
July 19–20 – WWI: Battle of Fromelles – An attack by Australian and British troops is repulsed by the German army, with heavy casualties.
July 22 – Preparedness Day Bombing: In San Francisco, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade, killing 10 and injuring 40; Warren Billings and Tom Mooney are later wrongly convicted of it.
August
August – Robert Baden-Powell publishes The Wolf Cub's Handbook in the U.K., establishing the basis of the junior section of the Scouting movement, the Wolf Cubs (modern-day Cub Scouts).
August 3–5 – WWI: Sinai and Palestine Campaign – Battle of Romani: British Imperial troops secure victory over a joint Ottoman-German force.
August 3 - Roger Casement is executed by hanging in Pentonville Gaol, London for his role in the Easter Rising in Dublin.
August 4–16 – WWI: Italian forces launch a successful offensive against Austro-Hungarian forces in Gorizia and Sabotin.
August 7 – WWI:
Portugal joins the Allies.
French and British forces make an unopposed entry into German-controlled Togoland; on December 27 the country is partitioned between the two allies.
August 9 – Lassen Volcanic National Park is established in California.
August 15 – Club Atlas is founded as an association football club in Guadalajara, Mexico, by English-educated players.
August 16 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed.
August 17 (August 4 O.S.) – WWI: The Treaty of Bucharest is signed secretly between Romania and the Entente Powers, stipulating the conditions under which Romania agrees to join the war on their side, particularly territorial promises in Austria-Hungary.
August 21 – WWI: Peru declares neutrality.
August 25 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs legislation creating the National Park Service.
September
September 1 – Bulgaria declares war on Romania, going on to take Dobruja.
September 2 – WWI: British pilot Leefe Robinson becomes the first to shoot down a German airship over Britain.
September 4 – WWI: East African Campaign – Dar es Salaam surrenders to British Empire forces, securing them control of the Central Line of railway through German East Africa.
September 5 – D. W. Griffith's film Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages is released in the United States.
September 6 – The first true self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, is founded in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders, opening 5 days later.
September 11 – A mechanical failure causes the central span of the Quebec Bridge, a cantilever-type structure, to crash into the Saint Lawrence River for the second time, killing 13 workers.
September 13 – Mary, a circus elephant, is hanged in the town of Erwin, Tennessee for killing her handler, Walter "Red" Eldridge.
September 15–22 – WWI: Battle of Flers–Courcelette, France – The battle is significant for the first use of the tank in warfare; also for the debut of the Canadian and New Zealand Divisions in the Battle of the Somme.
September 19 – WWI: East African Campaign – Belgian troops occupy Tabora in German East Africa.
September 27 – Iyasu V of Ethiopia is deposed in a palace coup, in favour of his aunt Zewditu.
September 29 – John D. Rockefeller becomes the first person to reach a nominal personal fortune of US$1 billion
October
October 7 – The Georgia Tech vs. Cumberland College American football game ends in a score of 222–0.
October 12 – Hipólito Yrigoyen is elected President of Argentina.
October 14 – Perm State University is founded in Russia.
October 16 – Margaret Sanger opens the first U.S. birth control clinic, a forerunner of Planned Parenthood.
October 20 – Black Friday (1916): A violent and deadly storm hits Lake Erie in the United States.
October 21 – Friedrich Adler shoots Count Karl von Stürgkh, Minister-President of Austria.
October 27 – Battle of Segale: Negus Mikael of Wollo, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasu V, is defeated by Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zewditu.
October 28 – 1916 Pioneer Exhibition Game: game of Australian rules football contested at Queen's Club, West Kensington, London, by two teams of elite footballers selected from men serving in the First AIF at the time.
November
November 1
Pavel Milyukov delivers his "stupidity or treason" speech in the Russian State Duma, precipitating the downfall of the Boris Stürmer government.
The first 40-hour work week officially begins, in the Endicott-Johnson factories of Western New York.
November 5
The Kingdom of Poland (1916–18) is proclaimed by a joint act of the emperors of Germany and Austria.
Everett massacre: An armed confrontation in Everett, Washington, between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World results in seven deaths.
Honan Chapel, Cork, Ireland, a product of the Irish Arts and Crafts movement (1894–1925), is dedicated.
November 7
1916 United States presidential election: Democratic President Woodrow Wilson narrowly defeats Republican Charles Evans Hughes, when California is called a week after Election Day.
Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.
Radio station 2XG, located in the Highbridge section of New York City, makes the first audio broadcast of presidential election returns.
November 13 – Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription.
November 18 – WWI – Battle of the Somme: In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle, which started on July 1.
December
December 1 – An armed confrontation in Athens between the Kingdom of Greece and the Allied Powers, arising from a dispute over Greece's neutrality in World War I, followed by reprisals and riots against Greek supporters of the Allies marking the height of the National Schism.
December 12 – "White Friday": In the Dolomites, 100 avalanches bury at least 2,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers.
December 16 – Robert Baden-Powell gives the first public display of the new Wolf Cub section of Scouting at Caxton Hall, Westminster.
December 18 – WWI: The Battle of Verdun ends in France with German troops defeated.
December 21 – WWI: El Arish occupied by the British Empire Desert Column during advance across the Sinai Peninsula.
December 22 – The British Sopwith Camel aircraft makes its maiden flight. It is designed to counter the German Fokker aircraft.
December 23 – WWI: The Desert Column captures the Ottoman garrison during the Battle of Magdhaba.
December 30
Karl von Habsburg and his wife Zita of Bourbon-Parma are crowned emperor and empress of Austria-Hungary.
Humberto Gómez and his mercenaries seize Arauca in Colombia and declare the Republic of Arauca. He proceeds to pillage the region before fleeing to Venezuela.
(December 17 Old Style) – The mystic Grigori Rasputin is murdered in Saint Petersburg.
December 31 – The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the United States at the time, burns to the ground.
Date unknown
The 1916 Summer Olympics are cancelled in Berlin.
Ferdinand de Saussure's Cours de linguistique générale is collected posthumously and published.
Oxycodone, a narcotic painkiller closely related to codeine, is first synthesized in Germany.
Ernst Rüdin publishes his initial results on the genetics of schizophrenia.
Rodeo's first side-delivery bucking chute is designed and made by the Bascom brothers (Raymond, Mel, and Earl) and their father, John W. Bascom, at Welling, Alberta, Canada.
Gustav Holst composes The Planets, Opus 32.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is founded in the United States as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.
Ishikawajima Automobile Manufacturing, predecessor of Isuzu, a truck brand in Japan, is founded.
Sport
March 30 – National Hockey Association's Montreal Canadiens win their First Stanley Cup by defeating the Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Portland Rosebuds 3 games to 2. All Games were played at Montreal's Montreal Arena.
Due to the outbreak of World War I, the 1916 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, is cancelled.
In fiction
In the 1941 film Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane runs for New York governor and loses. Also in 1916, Emily Monroe Norton divorces him and, in either this year or in 1917, he marries Susan Alexander.
Births
January
January 3 – Maxene Andrews, American singer (The Andrews Sisters) (d. 1995)
January 4 – Nilufer Hanımsultan, Ottoman princess (d. 1989)
January 7
Elena Ceaușescu, Romanian politician, First Lady of Romania and Deputy Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1989)
Paul Keres, Estonian chess player (d. 1975)
January 9 – Peter Twinn, English mathematician and WWII code-breaker (d. 2004)
January 10 – Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
January 12
Ruth R. Benerito, American chemist (d. 2013)
P. W. Botha, 9th President of South Africa (d. 2006)
January 15 – Hugh Gibb, English drummer and bandleader (d. 1992)
January 18 – Silviu Brucan, Romanian author and politician (d. 2006)
January 22 – Henri Dutilleux, French composer (d. 2013)
January 24
Rafael Caldera, 39th President of Venezuela (d. 2009)
Arnoldo Foà, Italian actor (d. 2014)
Daphne Lorraine Gum, Australian educator (d. 2017)
February
February 13 – John Reed, British actor and opera singer (d. 2010)
February 14
Marcel Bigeard, French military officer (d. 2010)
Sally Gray, English actress (d. 2006)
Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese film director (d. 1996)
February 15 – D. B. Wijetunga, 4th President and 9th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (d. 2008)
February 16
Karel Dufek, Czechoslovak diplomat (d. 2009)
Dương Văn Minh, 4th President of South Vietnam and ARVN general (d. 2001)
February 18 – Maria Altmann, Austrian-born American Holocaust survivor and heiress (d. 2011)
February 20 – Jean Erdman, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2020)
February 26 – Jackie Gleason, American comedian, actor and musician (d. 1987)
February 28
Cesar Climaco, Filipino politician, Mayor of Zamboanga (d. 1984)
Frank Crean, Australian politician (d. 2008)
March
March 3 – Paul Halmos, Hungarian-born American mathematician (d. 2006)
March 4
Giorgio Bassani, Italian writer (d. 2000)
Hans Eysenck, German-born British psychologist (d. 1997)
March 11 – Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)
March 13
Lindy Boggs, American politician (d. 2013)
Jacque Fresco, American futurist and designer (d. 2017)
March 14 – Horton Foote, American writer (d. 2009)
March 15
Junior Coghlan, American actor (d. 2009)
Harry James, American musician and band leader (d. 1983)
March 16
Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings (d. 2010)
March 17
Lyle Smith, American football coach (d. 2017)
Volodia Teitelboim, Chilean author and politician (d. 2008)
March 19 – Irving Wallace, American novelist (d. 1990)
April
April 3 – Herb Caen, American journalist (d. 1997)
April 4 – Nikola Ljubičić, 10th President of Serbia (d. 2005)
April 5
Gregory Peck, American actor (d. 2003)
Jean Trescases, French soldier (d. 1951)
April 10
Wendy Barnes, British overseas radio broadcaster (d. 2006)
Lee Jung-seob, Korean oil painter (d. 1956)
April 11 – Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer (d. 1983)
April 12
Beverly Cleary, American children's book author (d. 2021)
Benjamin Libet, American neuroscientist (d. 2007)
April 16 – Hon Sui Sen, Singaporean politician (d. 1983)
April 17
Sirimavo Bandaranaike, prime minister of Sri Lanka (d. 2000)
Win Maung, 3rd President of Myanmar (d. 1989)
April 18 – José Joaquín Trejos Fernández, President of Costa Rica (d. 2010)
April 22 – Yehudi Menuhin, American-born British violinist (d. 1999)
April 24 – Lou Thesz, American professional wrestler (d. 2002)
May
May 1 – Glenn Ford, Canadian-born American actor (d. 2006)
May 4 – Jane Jacobs, American-born Canadian urban activist (d. 2006)
May 5 – Zail Singh, Indian politician and 7th President of India (d. 1994)
May 6
Adriana Caselotti, American actress (d. 1997)
Robert H. Dicke, American experimental physicist (d. 1997)
May 8
Chinmayananda Saraswati, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1993)
João Havelange, Brazilian industrialist and football league president (d. 2016)
May 10 – Milton Babbitt, American composer (d. 2011)
May 11 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
May 16 – Ephraim Katzir, 4th President of Israel (d. 2009)
May 17 – Jenő Fock, 49th Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 2001)
May 20
Owen Chadwick, British historian of Christianity (d. 2015)
Trebisonda Valla, Italian athlete (d. 2006)
May 21
Leonard Manasseh, British architect (d. 2017)
Lydia Mendoza, American musician (d. 2007)
June
June 4 – Robert F. Furchgott, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2009)
June 6 – Hamani Diori, 1st President of Niger (d. 1989)
June 8 – Francis Crick, English molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
June 9 – Robert McNamara, 8th United States Secretary of Defense (d. 2009)
June 11 – Bob Berry, New Zealand dendrologist (d. 2018)
June 12 – Raúl Héctor Castro, American politician and diplomat (d. 2015)
June 14 – Dorothy McGuire, American actress (d. 2001)
June 15 – Herbert A. Simon, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
June 17 – Einar Englund, Finnish composer (d. 1999)
June 18 – Julio César Turbay Ayala, 25th President of Colombia (d. 2005)
June 22
Anne Olivier Bell, English literary editor and art scholar (d. 2018)
Emil Fackenheim, German-born Israeli Jewish philosopher and Reform rabbi (d. 2003)
June 23
Len Hutton, English cricketer (d. 1990)
Irene Worth, American actress (d. 2002)
July
July 1
Olivia de Havilland, British-American film actress (d. 2020)
Lawrence Halprin, American architect (d. 2009)
Thomas Hamilton-Brown, South African boxer (d. 1981)
July 2
Reino Kangasmäki, Finnish wrestler (d. 2010)
Alec Hill, Australian military historian (d. 2008)
Zélia Gattai, Brazilian author and photographer (d. 2008)
Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German pilot (d. 1982)
Ken Curtis, American screen actor and singer (d. 1991)
July 3 – John Kundla, American basketball coach (d. 2017)
July 4
Iva Toguri D'Aquino ("Tokyo Rose"), American propaganda broadcaster (d. 2006)
Adam Curle, British academic and peace activist (d. 2006)
Naseem Banu, Indian actress (d. 2002)
Fernand Leduc, Canadian painter (d. 2014)
July 5
Lívia Rév, Hungarian classical pianist (d. 2018)
Ivor Powell, Welsh footballer (d. 2012)
July 6
August
August 1
Fiorenzo Angelini, Italian Cardinal (d. 2014)
Olimpio Bizzi, Italian racing cyclist (d. 1976)
Edna Hughes, English competition swimmer (d. 1990)
August 2 – Zein Al-Sharaf Talal, Queen of Jordan (d. 1994)
August 3 – Hertha Feiler, Austrian actress (d. 1970)
August 5 – Kermit Love, American puppeteer (d. 2008)
August 6 – Dom Mintoff, 8th Prime Minister of Malta (d. 2012)
August 7
Lawrence Picachy, Indian Jesuit priest (d. 1992)
Rose Wolfe, Canadian social worker and philanthropist (d. 2016)
August 8 – Shigeo Arai, Japanese freestyle swimmer (d. 1944)
August 9 – Manea Mănescu, 50th Prime Minister of Romania (d. 2009)
August 10 – Lorna McDonald, Australian historian and author (d. 2017)
August 11
Johnny Claes, English racing driver (d. 1956)
William Coors, American executive (d. 2018)
August 12 – Ralph Nelson, American film and television director, producer, writer, and actor (d. 1987)
September
September 1
Dorothy Cheney, American tennis player (d. 2014)
Joseph Minish, American politician (d. 2007)
September 3 – Tommy J. Smith, Australian trainer (d. 1998)
September 5
Allan Louisy, 2nd Prime Minister of Saint Lucia (d. 2011)
Frank Yerby, American writer (d. 1991)
September 7 – Shen Panwen, Chinese chemist (d. 2017)
September 12
Leoncio Afonso, Spanish scientist (d. 2017)
Edward Binns, American stage, film, and television actor (d. 1990)
September 13 – Roald Dahl, Welsh-born author (d. 1990)
September 14
Eric Bentley, English-born American critic and playwright (d. 2020)
John Heyer, Australian documentary filmmaker (d. 2001)
September 15
Margaret Lockwood, Indian-born English actress (d. 1990)
Frederick C. Weyand, U.S. Army General (d. 2010)
September 16 – Frank Leslie Walcott, Barbadian labour leader (d. 1999)
October
October 2 – Jim L. Gillis Jr., American politician (d. 2018)
October 3
Frank Pantridge, Irish physician and inventor (d. 2004)
James Herriot, English veterinarian and author (d. 1995)
Shelby Storck, American television producer (d. 1969)
October 4 – Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2009)
October 6 – Otto Djaya, Indonesian painter (d. 2002)
October 7 – Sir Hereward Wake, 14th Baronet, British army officer (d. 2017)
October 9 – Robert Brubaker, American actor (d. 2010)
October 10
Bernard Heuvelmans, Belgian-French cryptozoologist (d. 2001)
Sumiko Mizukubo, Japanese actress (d. 1994)
October 11 – Maurice Gaffney, Irish barrister (d. 2016)
October 12 – Alice Childress, American actress, playwright, and novelist (d. 1994)
October 14 – C. Everett Koop, United States Surgeon General (d. 2013)
October 15 – Hassan Gouled Aptidon, President of Djibouti (d. 2006)
October 19
Jean Dausset, French immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2009)
November
November 4 – Walter Cronkite, American television journalist (d. 2009)
November 5 – Jim Tabor, American baseball player (d. 1953)
November 6 – Harry Blamires, British Anglican theologian, literary critic and novelist (d. 2017)
November 8 – Lady Ursula d'Abo, English socialite (d. 2017)
November 10 – Louis le Brocquy, Irish painter (d. 2012)
November 11 – Robert Carr, English politician (d. 2012)
November 12 – Rogelio de la Rosa, Filipino actor and politician (d. 1986)
November 14 – Sherwood Schwartz, American television writer and producer (d. 2011)
November 15 – Bill Melendez, American animator (d. 2008)
November 16
Daws Butler, American voice actor (d. 1988)
Hélène Guisan-Démétriadès, Swiss Vaud writer, poet and teacher
November 17 – Shelby Foote, American historian and novelist, author of The Civil War: A Narrative (d. 2005)
November 20
Hamida Habibullah, Indian politician (d. 2018)
Evelyn Keyes, American actress (d. 2008)
November 23
December
December 1 – Wan Li, Chinese government official (d. 2015)
December 2 – Nancye Wynne Bolton, Australian tennis player (d. 2001)
December 5 – Hilary Koprowski, Polish virologist and immunologist (d. 2013)
December 6
Kristján Eldjárn, 3rd President of Iceland (d. 1982)
Pratap Chandra Lal, Indian military advisor (d. 1982)
Hugo Peretti, American songwriter and record producer (d. 1986)
Trisno Sumardjo, Indonesian writer, translator, and painter (d. 1969)
December 7
George Russell Weller, American salesman known for the Santa Monica Farmer's Market incident (d. 2010)
John G. Morris, American picture editor (d. 2017)
December 8
Richard Fleischer, American film director (d. 2006)
T. K. Whitaker, Irish economist and public servant (d. 2017)
December 9
Jerome Beatty, Jr., American author of children's literature (d. 2002)
Kirk Douglas, American film actor (Spartacus) (d. 2020)
Esther Wilkins, American dentist (d. 2016)
Date unknown
Saad Jumaa, 17th Prime Minister of Jordan (d. 1979)
Deaths
January
January 1
Max Bastelberger, German doctor and entomologist (b. 1851)
Adán Cárdenas, Nicaraguan doctor and politician, 16th President of Nicaragua (b. 1836)
January 2
Joseph Rucker Lamar, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (b. 1857)
Félix Sardà y Salvany, Spanish Roman Catholic priest and writer (b. 1844)
January 5 – Ulpiano Checa, Spanish painter, sculptor and illustrator (b. 1860)
January 7 – Andrés Baquero, Spanish teacher and writer (b. 1853)
January 8
Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (b. 1884)
Eugene W. Hilgard, German-born American soil scientist (b. 1833)
January 9 – Ada Rehan, Irish-born American Shakespearean actress (b. 1859)
January 10 – Guido Baccelli, Italian physician (b. 1830)
January 11
Cyril VIII Geha, Greek Catholic patriarch (b. 1840)
Takashima Tomonosuke, Japanese general (b. 1844)
January 12
Léon Autonne, French engineer and mathematician (b. 1859)
February
February 3 – Metropolitan Ioan Mețianu, Romanian cleric (b. 1828)
February 6
Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan writer (b. 1867)
Isala Van Diest, Belgian physician (b. 1842)
February 7
Franklin E. Brooks, U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado (b. 1860)
Ludwika Szczęsna, Polish Roman Catholic nun and blessed (b. 1863)
February 9 – Anton Yegorovich von Saltza, Russian general (b. 1843)
February 12 – Richard Dedekind, German mathematician (b. 1831)
February 13
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Danish painter (b. 1864)
Carlos Antonio Mendoza, Panamanian politician, acting President of Panama (b. 1856)
February 18 – Hans Schmidt, German Roman Catholic priest (executed) (b. 1881)
February 19 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (b. 1838)
February 20 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1844)
February 21 – Karl Begas, German sculptor (b. 1845)
February 23
Jabez Balfour, English businessman (b. 1843)
March
March 2 – Elisabeth of Wied, Queen consort of Romania (b. 1843)
March 4
Franz Marc, German Expressionist painter (killed in action) (b. 1880)
William Sooy Smith, American Union general and engineer (b. 1830)
March 7 – Fred Donovan, American baseball player (b. 1844)
March 9 – Arnold Spencer-Smith, British explorer, clergyman, and amateur photographer (b. 1883)
March 11
Florence Baker, Hungarian-born British explorer (b. 1841)
Henry G. Davis, American politician (b. 1823)
March 12 – William M. O. Dawson, 12th Governor of West Virginia (b. 1853)
March 15 – John Beveridge, Australian businessman, Mayor of Redfern (b. 1848)
March 16 – Thomas King, New Zealand astronomer (b. 1858)
March 19
John J. Davis, American politician, U.S. Representatives from West Virginia (b. 1835)
Girolamo Maria Gotti, Italian Discalced Carmelite friar and Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1834)
Vasily Surikov, Russian painter (b. 1848)
March 20 – Ota Benga, Congolese pygmy brought to America as part of an exhibition at the Bronx zoo (b. 1883)
April
April 4
Alfred Cogniaux, Belgian botanist (b. 1841)
Max Lewandowsky, German neurologist (b. 1876)
April 7 – Shigeyoshi Matsuo, Japanese businessman (b. 1843)
April 11 – Richard Harding Davis, American journalist and author (b. 1864)
April 14 – Gina Krog, Norwegian suffragist, activist and editor (b. 1847)
April 16 – Alexander Meyrick Broadley, British barrister (b. 1846)
April 19
Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, Prussian-born German field marshal and military writer (b. 1843)
Ephraim Shay, American inventor (b. 1839)
April 21
Ubaldo Pacchierotti, Italian composer (b. 1876)
John Surratt, suspected of involvement in the Abraham Lincoln assassination, son of Mary Surratt (b. 1844)
April 27 – Prince Leopold Clement of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1878)
April 28 – Edward Felix Baxter, English recipient of the Victorian Cross (b. 1885)
May
May 2 – Jules Blanchard, French sculptor (b. 1832)
May 3
Patrick Pearse, Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, political activist, and nationalist (executed) (b. 1879)
Thomas MacDonagh, Irish poet, playwright, educationalist and revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1878)
Tom Clarke, Irish republican, leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (executed) (b. 1858)
May 4
Lord John Hay, British admiral and politician (b. 1827)
Joseph Plunkett, Irish nationalist, republican, poet, journalist, revolutionary (executed) (b. 1887)
Hector Sévin, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1852)
May 6 – Hans Chiari, Austrian pathologist (b. 1851)
May 8
Mabel Beardsley, English actress (b. 1871)
William Burnyeat, British politician (b. 1837)
Éamonn Ceannt, Irish republican (executed) (b. 1881)
Seán Heuston, Irish republican (executed) (b. 1891)
Aeneas Mackintosh, British Merchant Navy officer and Antarctic explorer (b. 1879)
Victor Hayward, British explorer (b. 1887)
June
June 2 – Paul von Bruns, German surgeon (b. 1846)
June 5 – Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British field marshal and statesman (drowned) (b. 1850)
June 6 – Yuan Shikai, Chinese military official and politician, Emperor of China and 1st President of the Republic of China (b. 1859)
June 7
Alberto Elmore Fernández de Córdoba, Peruvian diplomat and politician, 52nd Prime Minister of Peru (b. 1844)
Émile Faguet, French writer and critic (b. 1847)
June 12 – Silvanus P. Thompson, English professor of physics, electrical engineer, member of the Royal Society and author (b. 1851)
June 17 – Edwin Munroe Bacon, English writer (b. 1844)
June 18
Max Immelmann, German fighter ace (killed in action) (b. 1890)
Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, German general (b. 1848)
June 22 – Tanaka Yoshio, Japanese naturalist (b. 1838)
June 24 – Victor Chapman, French-born American fighter pilot (killed in action) (b. 1890)
June 25 – Thomas Eakins, American realist painter (b. 1844)
June 30
Russell Barton, British-born Australian politician (b. 1830)
July
July 1 – First Day on the Somme (killed in action)
Eugene Bourdon, French architect (b. 1870)
Gilbert Waterhouse, English architect and war poet (b. 1883)
July 2 – Mikhail Pomortsev, Russian meteorologist (b. 1851)
July 3
Hetty Green, American businesswoman (b. 1834)
Alfred Kleiner, Swiss physicist (b. 1849)
Jeremiah Lomnytskyj, Ukrainian Basilian priest, missionary and servant of God (b. 1860)
July 6 – Odilon Redon, French painter (b. 1840)
July 7 – Margarethe Hormuth-Kallmorgen, German painter (b. 1835)
July 12 – Cesare Battisti, Italian patriot, geographer and politician (b. 1875)
July 15 – Élie Metchnikoff, Russian microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1845)
July 16
Regino Garcia, Filipino artist (b. 1840)
Sir Victor Horsley, English physician and surgeon (b. 1857)
July 20 – Reinhard Sorge, German dramatist and poet (killed in action) (b. 1892)
July 22 – James Whitcomb Riley, American poet (b. 1849)
August
August 3 – Roger Casement, Irish nationalist (executed) (b. 1864)
August 5 – George Butterworth, English composer (b. 1885)
August 7 – Kittredge Haskins, American lawyer and politician, U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont (b. 1836)
August 8
Lily Braun, German writer (b. 1865)
Kamimura Hikonojō, Japanese admiral (b. 1849)
Oscar Linkson, English football player (b. 1888)
August 9 – Guido Gozzano, Italian poet and writer (b. 1883)
August 10 – S. Isadore Miner, American columnist writing as "Pauline Periwinkle" (b. 1863)
August 13 – Pierre de Ségur, French historian (b. 1853)
August 17 – Umberto Boccioni, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1882)
August 18 – Marcel Brindejonc des Moulinais, French aviator (b. 1892)
August 30 – Alexander Boarman, American judge, U.S. House of Representatives of Louisiana (b. 1839)
August 31
Martha McClellan Brown, American activist (b. 1838)
John St. John, American temperance leader and Governor of Kansas (b. 1833)
September
September 2
Gennady Ladyzhensky, Russian painter (b. 1852)
Felipe Trigo, Spanish writer (b. 1864)
September 7 – Annie Le Porte Diggs, Canadian-born American activist and librarian (b. 1853)
September 8
Friedrich Baumfelder, German composer, conductor, and pianist (b. 1836)
James Gray, American journalist, 19th Mayor of Minneapolis (b. 1862)
September 12 – Zygmunt Balicki, Polish sociologist (b. 1858)
September 14
Pierre Duhem, French physicist (b. 1861)
José Echegaray, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1832)
September 15
Raymond Asquith, English barrister (b. 1878)
Josiah Royce, American philosopher (b. 1855)
September 17 – Seth Low, American politician and educator, Mayor of New York City (b. 1850)
September 25
Gerald Arbuthnot, British soldier and politician (b. 1872)
Arthur Herbert Thompson, English soldier and football player (b. 1890)
Kurt Wintgens, German fighter pilot, air ace in World War I (b. 1894)
October
October 3
James Burgess, British archaeologist (b. 1832)
Dmytro Yaremko, Ukrainian Eastern Catholic hierarch and bishop (b. 1879)
October 6 – Isidore De Loor, Belgian Roman Catholic religious professed and blessed (b. 1881)
October 10 – Antonio Sant'Elia, Italian architect (killed in action) (b. 1888)
October 11 – King Otto of Bavaria (b. 1848)
October 12 – Tony Jannus, American aviator and aircraft designer (b. 1889)
October 18 – Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench, Spanish painter (b. 1849)
October 21
Olindo Guerrini, Italian poet (b. 1845)
Karl von Stürgkh, Prime Minister of Austria (b. 1859)
October 25 – Gérard Encausse, Papus, French occultist (b. 1865)
October 28
Oswald Boelcke, German World War I fighter ace, (b. 1891)
Cleveland Abbe, American meteorologist (b. 1838)
October 29 – John Sebastian Little, American politician and congressman (b. 1851)
October 31
Tina Blau, Austrian painter (b. 1845)
November
November 1 – Franz, Prince of Thun and Hohenstein, Austrian noble and statesman, Prime Minister (b. 1847)
November 2 – Prince Mircea of Romania (b. 1913)
November 3 – August Lindberg, Swedish actor, director and manager (b. 1846)
November 4
John Bingham, 5th Baron Clanmorris, Irish peer (b. 1838)
Ella Loraine Dorsey, American author, journalist, and translator (b. 1853)
November 5 – Francesco Salesio Della Volpe, Italian Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1844)
November 6 – Sultan Ali Dinar (b. 1856)
November 8 – Prince Heinrich of Bavaria (b. 1884)
November 9
Ludwig Bruns, German neurologist (b. 1856)
Ion Dragalina, Romanian general (died of wounds) (b. 1860)
November 10 – Walter Sutton, American geneticist and physician (b. 1877)
November 11
Frank Chesterton, British architect (b. 1877)
Francisco da Veiga Beirão, Portuguese politician, 53rd Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1841)
November 12 – Percival Lowell, American astronomer (b. 1855)
December
December 1 – Charles de Foucauld, French Roman Catholic religious professed, priest and blessed (b. 1858)
December 2
William Brownell, Australian politician (b. 1862)
Hughie Hughes, British racecar driver (b. 1885)
José Veríssimo, Brazilian writer (b. 1857)
December 4 – Paul Allard, French archaeologist and historian (b. 1841)
December 5
Princess Augusta of Cambridge (b. 1822)
Hans Richter, Austrian–Hungarian conductor (b. 1843)
December 6 – Signe Hornborg, Finnish architect (b. 1856)
December 8 – John Porter Merrell, American admiral (b. 1846)
December 9
Pierre Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, French economist (b. 1843)
Natsume Sōseki, Japanese writer (b. 1867)
Clara Ward, Princesse de Caraman-Chimay (b. 1873)
December 10 – Ōyama Iwao, Japanese field marshal and a founder of the Imperial Japanese Army (b. 1842)
December 11
Valentín Díaz, Filipino patriot, during the Philippine Revolution (b. 1845)
Nobel Prizes
Physics – not awarded
Chemistry – not awarded
Medicine – not awarded
Literature – Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam
Peace – not awarded