1906

January–February

 * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: a nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah to grant a constitution and establish a national assembly, the Majlis.
 * January 16–April 7 – Algeciras Conference to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany.
 * January 22 – The SS Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.
 * January 31 – Ecuador–Colombia earthquake (8.8 on the Moment magnitude scale) and associated tsunami.
 * February 10 – HMS Dreadnought (1906) is launched and sparks the naval race between Britain and Germany.
 * February 11 – Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos denouncing the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State.
 * February 11 – Two British £1-per-head tax collectors are killed near Richmond, Natal, sparking the Bambatha Rebellion.

March–April

 * March 10 – Courrières mine disaster: an explosion in a coal mine in France kills 1,060.
 * March 18 – In France, Romanian inventor Traian Vuia becomes the first person to achieve an unassisted takeoff in a heavier-than-air powered monoplane, but it is incapable of sustained flight.
 * April 7 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
 * April 14 – The Azusa Street Revival, the primary catalyst for the revival of Pentecostalism this century, opens in Los Angeles.
 * April 18 – San Francisco earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, USA, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.
 * April 23 – In Tsarist Russia, the Fundamental Laws are announced at the first state Duma.



May–June

 * May – Jack London's novel White Fang begins serialization in the American magazine Outing.
 * May 29 – Karl Staaff steps down as Prime Minister of Sweden over the issue of expanded voting rights. He is replaced by the right-wing naval officer and public official, Arvid Lindman.
 * June 7 – Cunard liner RMS Lusitania is launched in Glasgow as the world's largest ship.

July–August

 * July 1 – Sporting Lisbon, as well known football club in Portugal, founded.
 * July 6 – The Second Geneva Convention meets.
 * July 12 – Alfred Dreyfus is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army on July 21, thus ending the Dreyfus affair.
 * August 4 – The first Imperial German Navy submarine, U-1, is launched.
 * August 16 – A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile leaves approximately 20,000 dead.
 * August 22 – The first Victor Victrola, a phonographic record player, is manufactured.
 * August 23 – Unable to control a rebellion Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma requests United States intervention. The subsequent provisional occupation administration lasts until 1909.

September–October

 * September 11 – Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha to characterize the Non-Violence movement in South Africa.
 * September 18 – A typhoon and tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.
 * September 30 – The first Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is held, starting in Paris. The winning team, piloting the balloon United States, lands in Fylingdales, Yorkshire, England.
 * October 1 – The Grand Duchy of Finland becomes the first nation to include the right of women to stand as candidates when it adopts universal suffrage.
 * October 6 – The Majlis of Iran convenes for the first time.
 * October 11 – A United States diplomatic crisis with Japan arises when the San Francisco public school board orders Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
 * October 16 – Imposter Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over the city hall in Köpenick for a short time.
 * October 23 – An aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off at Bagatelle in France and flies 60 meters (200 feet). This is the first officially recorded powered flight in Europe.
 * October 28 – The Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a Belgian mining trust, is created in the Congo.

November–December

 * November 3 – SOS becomes an international distress signal.
 * November 22 – Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin introduces agrarian reforms aimed at creating a large class of land-owning peasants.
 * December 4 – Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity forms at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. The first Black Greek-lettered collegiate order of its kind.
 * December 24 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
 * December 26 – The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is released.

Date unknown

 * The Bacillus Calmette–Guérin immunization for tuberculosis is first developed.
 * Richard Oldham argues that the Earth has a molten interior.
 * Construction begins on the current Great Mosque of Djenné.
 * The Simplo Filler Pen company is founded, later to become the Montblanc company.

January–February

 * January 6 – Walter Battiss, South African artist (d. 1982)
 * January 11 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist (d. 2008)
 * January 13 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist
 * January 14 – William Bendix, American film, radio, and television actor (d. 1964)
 * January 15 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate (d. 1975)
 * January 21 – Igor Moiseyev, Russian choreographer (d. 2007)
 * January 22 – Robert E. Howard, American author (d. 1936)
 * February 4
 * Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German religious leader and resistance leader (d. 1945)
 * Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)
 * February 5 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
 * February 7
 * Puyi, Last Emperor of China (d. 1967)
 * Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer (d. 1984)
 * February 8 – Chester Carlson, American physicist and inventor (d. 1968)
 * February 10
 * Lon Chaney, Jr., American actor (d. 1973)
 * Erik Rhodes, American actor and singer (d. 1990)
 * February 17 – Mary Brian, American actress (d. 2002)
 * February 18 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)
 * February 22 – Helge Kjærulff-Schmidt, Danish actor (d. 1982)
 * February 26 – Madeleine Carroll, British actress (d. 1987)
 * February 28 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)

March–April

 * March 1 – Phạm Văn Đồng, Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)
 * March 6 – Lou Costello, American actor (d. 1959)
 * March 7 – Elmar Lipping, Estonian statesman and soldier (d. 1994)
 * March 8 – Victor Hasselblad, Swedish inventor and photographer (d. 1978)
 * March 12 – Yin Shun, Chinese Buddhist master (d. 2005)
 * March 16 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish writer (d. 2009)
 * March 17 – Brigitte Helm, German film actress (d. 1996)
 * March 19
 * Adolf Eichmann, German war criminal (d. 1962)
 * Roy Roberts, American actor (d. 1975)
 * March 21 – Jim Thompson, American businessman (disappeared 1967)
 * March 25 – A. J. P. Taylor, English historian (d. 1990)
 * March 26
 * Rafael Méndez, Mexican trumpet player (d. 1981)
 * Ronald Urquhart, British general (d. 1968)
 * March 31 – Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1979)
 * April 1 – Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer and airplane designer (d. 1989)
 * April 4 – Bea Benaderet, American actress (d. 1968)
 * April 6 – Luis Alberti, Dominican Republic musician (d. 1976)
 * April 9 – Antal Doráti, Hungarian conductor (d. 1988)
 * April 13 – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1989)
 * April 22 – Eddie Albert, American actor (d. 2005)
 * April 24 – William Joyce, Irish-American World War II Nazi propaganda broadcaster ("Lord Haw-Haw") (d. 1946)
 * April 25
 * Joel Brand, Hungarian rescue worker (d. 1964)
 * William J. Brennan Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1997)
 * A. W. Haydon, American inventor (d. 1982)
 * April 28
 * Kurt Gödel, Austrian logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics (d. 1978)
 * Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (d. 1999)

May–June

 * May 2 – Philippe Halsman, Latvian-born American photographer (d. 1979)
 * May 3 – Mary Astor, American actress and writer (d. 1987)
 * May 6 – André Weil, French mathematician (d. 1998)
 * May 7 – Jon Lormer, American actor (d. 1986)
 * May 8 – Roberto Rossellini, Italian director (d. 1977)
 * May 11
 * Jacqueline Cochran, American aviator (d. 1980)
 * Richard Arvine Overton, oldest surviving American veteran (World War II)
 * Ethel Weed, American promoter of Japanese women's rights (d. 1975)
 * May 15 – Humberto Delgado, Portuguese general and politician (d. 1965)
 * May 16 – Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan writer (d. 2001)
 * May 19
 * Bruce Bennett, American athlete and actor (d. 2007)
 * Jimmy MacDonald, Scottish-American sound effects artist, voice actor (d. 1991)
 * May 20 – Giuseppe Siri, Italilan Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1989)
 * May 23 – Lucha Reyes, Mexican singer (d. 1944)
 * May 27 – Buddhadasa, Buddhist monk (d. 1993)
 * May 29 – T. H. White, British writer (d. 1964)
 * May 30 – Bruno Gröning, German faith healer (d. 1959)
 * June 3 – Josephine Baker, American-born French entertainer (d. 1975)
 * June 4 – Ivan Knunyants, Soviet chemist (d. 1990)
 * June 6 – Max August Zorn, German-born American mathematician (d. 1993)
 * June 12 – Sandro Penna, Italian poet (d. 1977)
 * June 15 – Léon Degrelle, Belgian fascist (d. 1994)
 * June 17 – James H. Flatley, American admiral and aviator (d. 1958)
 * June 19 – Ernst Boris Chain, German-born British biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1979)
 * June 22
 * Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and aviator (d. 2001)
 * Billy Wilder, Austrian-born American screenwriter, film director and producer (d. 2002)
 * June 24 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (d. 1986)
 * June 28 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)

July–August

 * July 2 – Hans Bethe, German-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
 * July 3 – George Sanders, British actor (d. 1972)
 * July 6 – Juan Salvador Rizzo, Argentinian football player
 * July 7
 * William Feller, Croatian-born mathematician (d. 1970)
 * Satchel Paige, American baseball player (d. 1982)
 * July 11 – Herbert Wehner, German politician (d. 1990)
 * July 12 – Pietro Tordi, Italian actor (d. 1990)
 * July 23 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)
 * August 5
 * Joan Hickson, British actress (d. 1998)
 * Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
 * August 14 – Horst P. Horst, German photographer (d. 1999)
 * August 17 – Marcelo Caetano, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1980)
 * August 19 – Philo Farnsworth, American inventor (d. 1971)
 * August 21 – Friz Freleng, American cartoon director (d. 1995)
 * August 26 – Albert Sabin, Polish-American medical researcher (d. 1993)
 * August 27 – Ed Gein, American serial killer (d. 1984)
 * August 28 – John Betjeman, English poet (d. 1984)
 * August 30 – Joan Blondell, American actress (d. 1979)

September

 * September 1
 * Joaquín Balaguer, Dominican politician and writer (d. 2002)
 * Franz Biebl, German composer (d. 2001)
 * Eleanor Burford, English writer (d. 1993)
 * September 2 – Barbara Jo Allen, American actress (d. 1974)
 * September 4 – Max Delbrück, German biologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1981)
 * September 6 – Luis Federico Leloir, French-born Argentine chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1987)
 * September 8 – Andrei Kirilenko, Soviet politician (d. 1990)
 * September 12 – Lee Erwin, television writer (d. 1972)
 * September 17 – Junius Richard Jayewardene, President of Sri Lanka (d. 1996)
 * September 25
 * José Figueres Ferrer, President of Costa Rica (d. 1990)
 * Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (d. 1975)
 * September 27 – William Empson, English poet and critic (d. 1984)

October

 * October 6 – Janet Gaynor, American Academy Award winning actress (d. 1984)
 * October 9 – Léopold Sédar Senghor, President of Senegal (d. 2001)
 * October 10 – Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan, Indian novelist (d. 2001)
 * October 14
 * Imam Hassan al-Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (d. 1949)
 * Hannah Arendt, German political theorist (d. 1975)
 * October 23 – Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer (d. 2003)
 * October 24 – Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Austrian painter (d. 1996)
 * October 26 – Primo Carnera, Italian boxer (d. 1967)
 * October 27 – Kazuo Ohno, Japanese dancer (d. 2010)
 * October 29 – Fredric Brown, American writer (d. 1972)

November–December

 * November 2 – Luchino Visconti, Italian theatre and cinema director and writer (d. 1976)
 * November 5
 * George Philip Bradley "Pip" Roberts, British general (d. 1997)
 * Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (d. 2004)
 * November 9 – Arthur Rudolph, German rocket engineer (d. 1996)
 * November 10 – Josef Kramer, German Nazi concentration camp commandant (d. 1945)
 * November 13 – Hermione Baddeley, English character actress (d. 1986)
 * November 14 – Louise Brooks, American actress (d. 1985)
 * November 15 – Curtis LeMay, United States Air Force general (d. 1990)
 * November 16 – Henri Charrière, French author (d. 1973)
 * November 17 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese industrialist (d. 1991)
 * November 18
 * Alec Issigonis, Greek-born British automobile designer (d. 1988)
 * Klaus Mann, German writer (d. 1949)
 * George Wald, American scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1997)
 * December 2 – Peter Carl Goldmark, Hungarian-born American engineer (d. 1977)
 * December 5 – Ahn Eak-tai, Korean composer (d. 1965)
 * December 9 – Grace Hopper, American computer scientist and naval officer (d. 1992)
 * December 13
 * Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (d. 1968)
 * Laurens van der Post, South African author and journalist (d. 1996)
 * December 19 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet leader (d. 1982)
 * December 24 – James Hadley Chase, English writer (d. 1985)
 * December 25 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1988)
 * December 26 – Imperio Argentina, Argentinian singer and actress (d. 2003)
 * December 27 – Oscar Levant, American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor (d. 1972)

January–June

 * January 6 – William Forbes Gatacre, British general (b. 1843)
 * January 19 – Bartolomé Mitre, Argentine statesman, military figure, and author, 6th President of Argentina (b. 1821)
 * January 25 – Joseph Wheeler, American general and politician (b. 1836)
 * January 29 – King Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1818)
 * February 13 – Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (b. 1866)
 * February 27 – Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer, physicist, and aeronautics pioneer (b. 1834)
 * March 1 – José María de Pereda, Spanish writer (b. 1833)
 * March 4 – John Schofield, American general (b. 1831)
 * March 8 – Henry Baker Tristram, English clergyman, and ornithologist (b. 1822)
 * March 12 – Manuel Quintana, 15th President of the Argentina (b. 1835)
 * March 13
 * Susan B. Anthony, American civil rights and women's suffrage activist (b. 1820)
 * Joseph Monier, French gardener and inventor (b. 1823)
 * March 19 – Victor Fatio, Swiss zoologist (b. 1838)
 * March 23 – Thomas Lake Harris, American poet (b. 1823)
 * March 29
 * Slava Raškaj, Croatian painter (b. 1877)
 * Albert Sorel, French historian (b. 1842)
 * April 6 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (b. 1849)
 * April 19
 * Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
 * Spencer Gore, British tennis player and cricketer (b. 1850)
 * April 25 – John Knowles Paine, American composer (b. 1839)
 * May 14 – Carl Schurz, German revolutionary and American statesman (b. 1829)
 * May 23 – Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright (b. 1828)
 * May ? – Hashim Jalilul Alam Aqamaddin, Sultan of Brunei (b. 1825)
 * June 5 – Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher (b. 1842)
 * June 17 – Harry Nelson Pillsbury, American chess champion (b. 1872)
 * June 25 – Stanford White, American architect (b. 1853)

July–December

 * July 1 – Manuel García, Spanish opera singer, music educator and vocal pedagogue (b. 1805)
 * July 17 – Carlos Pellegrini, 11th President of Argentina (b. 1846)
 * August 14 – Aniceto Arce, 27th President of Bolivia (b. 1824)
 * September 1 – Giuseppe Giacosa, Italian poet and librettist (b. 1847)
 * September 5 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (b. 1854)
 * September 23 – August Bondeson, Swedish author (b. 1844)
 * October 9 – Adelaide Ristori, Italian actress (b. 1822)
 * October 16 – Varina Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States of America (b. 1826)
 * October 22 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (b. 1839)
 * October 23 – Vladimir Stasov, Russian music critic (b. 1824)
 * November 1 – Archduke Otto Franz of Austria (b. 1865)
 * November 7 – Todor Burmov, 1st Prime Minister of Bulgaria (b. 1834)
 * November 12 – William R. Shafter, American general (b. 1835)
 * November 16 – Mother Veronica of the Passion, Ottoman-born religious leader (b. 1823)
 * November 28 – Jennie Yeamans, Australian born American actress (b. 1862)
 * November 30 – Edward James Reed, British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate (b. 1830)
 * December 7 – Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and activist, Nobel laureate (b. 1833)
 * December 8 – Sylvia Gerrish, American musical theatre star (b. 1860)
 * December 13 – Jan Gerard Palm, Dutch composer (b. 1831)
 * December 30 – Josephine Butler, British feminist and social reformer (b. 1828)

Nobel Prizes

 * Physics – J. J. Thomson
 * Chemistry – Henri Moissan
 * Medicine – Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal
 * Literature – Giosuè Carducci
 * Peace – Theodore Roosevelt