1902

January

 * January
 * In France, Alfred Loisy writes L'évangile et l'Eglise, which inaugurates the Modernist Crisis.
 * International Bureau of the American Republics is established.
 * January 1
 * The first college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.
 * Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's first registered nurse.
 * January 8 – A train collision in the New York Central Railroad's Park Avenue Tunnel kills 17, injures 38, and leads to increased demand for electric trains and led to the banning of Steam locomotives in New York City.
 * January 12 – Uddevalla Suffrage Association is officially dissolved.
 * January 23 – A snowstorm at Mount Hakkoda, northern Honshu, Japan, kills 199 during a military training exercise.
 * January 28 – The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.

February

 * February 9 – Fire levels 26 city blocks of Jersey City, New Jersey.
 * February 11 – Police and universal suffrage demonstrators are involved in a physical altercation in Brussels.
 * February 15 – The Berlin U-Bahn underground is opened.
 * February 18 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt prosecutes the Northern Securities Company for violation of the Sherman Act.
 * February 27
 * American writer John Steinbeck is born.
 * Australian officers Breaker Morant and Peter Handcock are executed for the murder of Boer prisoners of war near Louis Trichardt.

March

 * March 6 – Real Madrid was founded.
 * March 7 – Second Boer War: South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
 * March 8 – Jean Sibelius's Second Symphony was premiered in Helsinki.
 * March 10 – A Circuit Court prevents Thomas Edison from having a monopoly on motion picture technology.

April

 * April 2 – Electric Theatre, the first movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.
 * April 13 – A new car speed record of 74 mph is set in Nice, France, by Léon Serpollet.
 * April 19 – The 7.5 Mw Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800–2,000.

May

 * May 5 – The Commonwealth Public Service Act creates Australia's Public Service.
 * May 7 – In Saint Vincent, La Soufrière erupts, devastating the northern portion of the island, killing 2,000 people
 * May 8 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000.
 * May 13 – Alfonso XIII of Spain begins his reign.
 * May 20 – Cuba gains independence from the United States.
 * May 29 – Lord Rosebery opens London School of Economics.
 * May 31 – The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the Second Boer War.

June

 * June 2 – The Anthracite Coal Strike begins in the United States.
 * June 15 – The New York Central Railroad inaugurates the 20th Century Limited passenger train between Chicago and New York City.
 * June 16 – Australia: Female British subjects (with the exception of Asians, Aborigines and Africans) win the vote with the Uniform Franchise Act.
 * June 17 – Norwich City Football Club is formed.
 * June 26 – Edward VII institutes the Order of Merit.

July

 * July 5 – Erik Gustaf Boström returns as Prime Minister of Sweden.
 * July 8 – Service of Reclamation within U.S. Geological Survey.
 * July 10 – The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania kills 112 miners.
 * July 11
 * Lord Salisbury retires as British prime minister.
 * The Order of the Garter is conferred on Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
 * July 14 – St Mark's Campanile in Venice collapses.
 * July 21 – Fluminense Football Club is founded in Rio de Janeiro.

August

 * August 1 – 100 miners die in a pit explosion in Wollongong, Australia.
 * August 9 – Edward VII is crowned King of the United Kingdom.
 * August 22 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile when he rides in a Columbia Electric Victoria through Hartford, Connecticut.
 * August 24 – A statue of Joan of Arc was unveiled in Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier.
 * August 30 – In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts again, destroying the town of Morne-Rouge causing 1000 deaths.

September

 * September 19 – Shiloh Baptist Church disaster, a stampede at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, after a talk by Booker T. Washington, kills 115

October

 * October 16 – The first Borstal (youth offenders' institution) opens in Borstal, Kent, U.K.
 * October 21 – In the United States, a five-month strike by the United Mine Workers ends.

November

 * c. November – The first teddy bear is produced by Morris Michtom in the United States.
 * King Leopold II survives an Attack in Brussels.
 * November 15 – Hanoi exhibition opens in Hanoi.
 * November 30 – American Old West: The second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, is sentenced to 20 years hard labor.

December

 * December–February 1903 – Venezuelan crisis, in which Britain, Germany and Italy sustain a naval blockade on Venezuela in order to enforce collection of outstanding financial claims. This prompts the development of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
 * December 10 – The first Aswan Dam on the Nile is completed.
 * December 30 – Discovery Expedition: Scott, Shackleton and Wilson reach the furthest southern point reached thus far by man, south of 82°S.

Date unknown

 * Nathan Stubblefield demonstrates his mobile phone device in Kentucky.
 * The insurrection ends in the Philippines.
 * Capital of French Indochina moved from Saigon (in Cochinchina) to Hanoi (Tonkin).
 * Completion of Paul Doumer Bridge linking both sections of Hanoi.
 * The Potawatomi Zoo (the oldest zoo in Indiana) opens in South Bend.
 * James Stevenson-Hamilton is appointed the first warden of the Sabie Game Reserve in South Africa.

January–February

 * January 1 – Buster Nupen, South African cricketer (d. 1977)
 * January 2 – Dan Keating, Irish republican (d. 2007)
 * January 9
 * Sir Rudolf Bing, Austrian-born British opera manager (d. 1997)
 * Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish priest (d. 1975)
 * Ann Nixon Cooper, African-American civil rights activist (d. 2009)
 * January 11 – Maurice Duruflé, French composer (d. 1986)
 * January 12 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia (d. 1969)
 * January 15 – Nâzım Hikmet, Turkish poet (d. 1963)
 * January 16 – Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (d. 1945)
 * January 17 – Martin Harlinghausen, German air force general (d. 1986)
 * January 20
 * Kevin Barry, Irish republican (d. 1920)
 * Leon Ames, American actor (d. 1993)
 * January 22 – Daniel Kinsey, American hurdler (d. 1970)
 * January 24 – E. A. Speiser, American biblical scholar (d. 1965)
 * January 25
 * André Beaufre, French general (d. 1975)
 * Pablo Antonio, Filipino modernist architect (d. 1975)
 * January 26 – Menno ter Braak, Dutch author and polemicist (d. 1940)
 * January 31
 * Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (d. 1968)
 * Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, diplomat, and writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1986)
 * February 1 – Langston Hughes, African American writer (d. 1967)
 * February 4
 * Charles Lindbergh, American aviator (d. 1974)
 * Hartley Shawcross, British barrister and politician (d. 2003)
 * February 5 – Iwamoto Kaoru, Japanese professional Go player (d. 1999)
 * February 6 – George Brunies, American jazz trombonist (d. 1974)
 * February 8 – Demchugdongrub, Mongolian politician (d. 1966)
 * February 10 – Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
 * February 11 – Arne Jacobsen, Danish architect and designer (d. 1971)
 * February 14 – Thelma Ritter, American actress (d. 1969)
 * February 19
 * Kay Boyle, American writer (d. 1992)
 * Eddie Peabody, American musician (d. 1970)
 * February 20 – Ansel Adams, American photographer (d. 1984)
 * February 21 – Arthur Nock, English classicist, theologian, and Harvard University professor (d. 1963)
 * February 22 – Herma Szabo, Austrian Figure skater (d.1986)
 * February 27
 * Gene Sarazen, American golfer (d. 1999)
 * John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
 * February 28 – Vi Robbins, Australian supercentenarian (d. 2014)

March–April

 * March 4 – Red Reeder, American soldier and author (d. 1998)
 * March 7
 * Heinz Rühmann, German actor (d. 1994)
 * Ernő Schwarz, Hungarian American soccer player (d. 1977)
 * March 8 – André Michel Lwoff, French microbiologist awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine (d. 1994)
 * March 9 – Will Geer, American actor (d. 1978)
 * March 13 – Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Egyptian singer (d. 1991)
 * March 15 – Carla Porta Musa, Italian essayist and poet (d. 2012)
 * March 16 – Leon Roppolo, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1943)
 * March 17 – Bobby Jones, American golfer (d. 1971)
 * March 18 – Siegfried Westphal, German general (d. 1982)
 * March 19 – Louisa Ghijs, Belgian stage actress and wife of Johannes Heesters (d. 1985)
 * March 21 – Son House, American musician (d. 1988)
 * March 24 – Thomas Dewey, American politician (d. 1971)
 * March 28 – Dame Flora Robson, English actress (d. 1984)
 * March 29
 * William Walton, English composer (d. 1983)
 * Marcel Aymé, French writer (d. 1967)
 * March 30 – Brooke Astor, American socialite and philanthropist (d. 2007)
 * April 2 – Jan Tschichold, German-born typographer (d. 1974)
 * April 4
 * Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin, French actress (d. 1969)
 * Stanley G. Weinbaum, American science-fiction author (d. 1935)
 * April 8 – Andrew Irvine, British mountaineer (d. 1924)
 * April 12 – Louis Beel, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1977)
 * April 14 – Olive Diefenbaker, second wife of John Diefenbaker (d. 1976)
 * April 23 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
 * April 25 – Werner Heyde, German psychiatrist (d. 1964)
 * April 27 – Harry Stockwell, American actor and singer (d. 1984)
 * April 28 – Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (d. 1979)
 * April 30 – Theodore Schultz, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)

May–June

 * May 2 – Arturo Licata, Italian supercentenarian, world's oldest living man in 2013, last surviving man born in 1902 (d. 2014)
 * May 3 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
 * May 6
 * Max Ophüls, German-born director (d. 1957)
 * Harry Golden, American journalist (d. 1981)
 * May 8 – André Michel Lwoff, French microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
 * May 10 – David O. Selznick, American film producer (d. 1965)
 * May 11 – Dick Curtis, American actor (d. 1952)
 * May 15 – Richard J. Daley, American politician, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1976)
 * May 18 – Meredith Willson, American composer (d. 1984)
 * May 21
 * Earl Averill, American baseball player (d. 1983)
 * Marcel Lajos Breuer, Hungarian-born architect (d. 1981)
 * Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-born film director (d. 1974)
 * May 22 – Al Simmons, American baseball player (d. 1956)
 * May 24 – Wilbur Hatch, American music composer, and musical director of Desilu Productions (d. 1969)
 * May 29 – Henri Guillaumet, French aviator (d. 1940)
 * May 31 – Billy Mayerl, English pianist and composer (d. 1959)
 * June 2
 * James T. Berryman, American political cartoonist, recipient of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning (d. 1971)
 * Rosa Rio, American organist and composer (d. 2010)
 * June 8 – James Stillman Rockefeller, American banker (d. 2004)
 * June 16 – Barbara McClintock, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1992)
 * June 22 – Henri Deglane, French wrestler (d. 1975)
 * June 24 – Juan Antonio Yanes, Venezuelan professional baseball pioneer (d. 1987)
 * June 26 – Hugues Cuénod, Swiss tenor (d. 2010)
 * June 28 – Richard Rodgers, American composer (d. 1979)

July–August

 * July 1 – William Wyler, American film director (d. 1981)
 * July 4
 * Vince Barnett, American actor (d. 1977)
 * Meyer Lansky, Russian-born American mobster (d. 1983)
 * George Murphy, American dancer, actor, and politician (d. 1992)
 * July 8
 * Richard Barrett Lowe, American governor of both Guam and American Samoa (d. 1972)
 * Gwendolyn Bennett, American writer (d. 1981)
 * July 10 – Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
 * July 16 – Alexander Luria, Russian neuropsychologist (d. 1977)
 * July 21 – Joseph Kesselring, American playwright (d. 1967)
 * July 28
 * Karl Raimund Popper, Austrian philosopher (d. 1994)
 * Albert Namatjira, Australian painter (d. 1959)
 * July 31 – Randolph E. Haugan, American author, editor and publisher (d. 1985)
 * August 2 – Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria, Coptic Orthodox Patriarch (d. 1971)
 * August 4 – Clara Peller, American actress (d. 1987)
 * August 8 – Paul Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
 * August 9 – Zino Francescatti, French violinist (d. 1991)
 * August 10
 * Norma Shearer, Canadian actress (d. 1983)
 * Arne Tiselius, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
 * August 11
 * Alfredo Binda, Italian cyclist (d. 1986)
 * Lloyd Nolan, American film and television actor (d. 1985)
 * August 13 – Felix Wankel, German mechanical engineer (d. 1988)
 * August 16 – Georgette Heyer, British writer (d. 1974)
 * August 18 – Adamson-Eric, Estonian artist (d. 1968)
 * August 19
 * Ogden Nash, American poet (d. 1971)
 * J. B. L. Reyes, Filipino jurist (d. 1994)
 * August 22 – Leni Riefenstahl, German film director (d. 2003)
 * August 24 – Carlo Gambino, American gangster (d. 1976)
 * August 25 – Stefan Wolpe, German-born composer (d. 1972)

September–October

 * September 7 – Roy Barcroft, American actor (d. 1969)
 * September 12 – Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, President of Brazil (d. 1976)
 * September 14 – Giorgos Papasideris, Greek singer, composer, and lyricist (d. 1977)
 * September 21 – Luis Cernuda, Spanish poet (d. 1963)
 * September 22
 * John Houseman, Romanian-born actor and producer (d. 1988)
 * Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian Shia cleric (d. 1989)
 * September 26 – Albert Anastasia, American gangster (d. 1957)
 * October 2 – Leopold Figl, former Chancellor of Austria (d. 1965)
 * October 3 – Waldo McBurney, America's oldest worker (d. 2009)
 * October 5
 * Larry Fine, American actor and comedian (The Three Stooges) (d. 1975)
 * Ray Kroc, American fast food entrepreneur (McDonald's) (d. 1984)
 * October 12 – Hiromichi Yahara, Imperial Japanese Army officer (d. 1981)
 * October 13 – Arna Wendell Bontemps, American writer (d. 1973)
 * October 18
 * Miriam Hopkins, American actress (d. 1972)
 * Pascual Jordan, German physicist (d. 1980)
 * October 25 – Eddie Lang, American jazz guitarist (d. 1933)
 * October 26 – Jack Sharkey, American heavyweight boxing champion (d. 1994)
 * October 31 – Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet (d. 1987)

November–December

 * November – Peter Pitseolak, Inuit photographer and author (d. 1973)
 * November 1 – Eugen Jochum, German conductor (d. 1987)
 * November 2 – Princess Mafalda of Savoy (d. 1944)
 * November 4 – Reg Dean, British supercentenarian at the time of his death (d. 2013)
 * November 9 – Anthony Asquith, British film director (d. 1968)
 * November 17 – Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
 * November 19 – Trevor Bardette, American actor (d. 1977)
 * November 21 – Mikhail Suslov, Soviet politician (d. 1982)
 * November 22 – Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, French general (d. 1947)
 * November 23
 * Aaron Bank, American colonel (d. 2004)
 * Victor Jory, Canadian actor (d. 1982)
 * December 2 – Wifredo Lam, Cuban artist (d. 1982)
 * December 3 – Mitsuo Fuchida, Japanese aviator, naval officer, and Christian evangelist (d. 1976)
 * December 5 – Strom Thurmond, American politician (d. 2003)
 * December 9 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress (d. 1985)
 * December 12 – Adele Dunlap, American educator
 * December 14 – Frances Bavier, American stage and television actress (d. 1989)
 * December 15 – Bernard L. Austin, American admiral (d. 1979)
 * December 20 – Prince George, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)
 * December 23 – Norman Maclean, American author (d. 1990)
 * December 25 – Barton MacLane, American actor (d. 1969)
 * December 27 – Francesco Agello, Italian aviator (d. 1942)
 * December 28
 * Mortimer Adler, American philosopher (d. 2001)
 * Shen Congwen, Chinese writer (d. 1988)

Date unknown

 * Alan Stuart Paterson, New Zealand cartoonist (d. 1968)
 * Remziye Hisar, Turkish chemist (d. 1992)

January–June

 * January 11 – Johnny Briggs, English cricketer (b. 1862)
 * February 1 – Salomon Jadassohn, German composer and pianist (b. 1831)
 * February 6 – Clémence Royer, French scholar (b. 1830)
 * February 15 – Viggo Hørup, Danish politician (b. 1841)
 * February 18 – Albert Bierstadt, German-born American painter (b. 1830)
 * February 27
 * Harry 'Breaker' Morant, Australian soldier (executed) (b. 1864)
 * Peter Handcock, Australian soldier (executed) (b. 1869)
 * March 7 – Pud Galvin, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1856)
 * March 11 – Friedrich Engelhorn, German industrialist and founder of BASF (b. 1821)
 * March 15 – Richard Temple, British colonial administrator of India (b. 1826)
 * March 23 – Kálmán Tisza, Hungarian politician, former Prime Minister (b. 1830)
 * March 26 – Cecil Rhodes, British imperialist (b. 1853)
 * April 3 – Esther Hobart Morris, American suffragist judge (b. 1814)
 * April 12 – Marie Alfred Cornu, French physicist (b. 1841)
 * April 15 – Jules Dalou, French sculptor (b. 1838)
 * April 17 – Francisco de Asís de Borbón, Duke of Cádiz, former King consort of Spain (b. 1822)
 * April 19 – Hans von Pechmann, German chemist (b. 1850)
 * April 21 – Ethna Carbery, Irish poet (b. 1866)
 * April 28 – Sol Smith Russell, American comedian (b. 1848)
 * May 5 – Bret Harte, American writer (b. 1836)
 * May 6 – William T. Sampson, American admiral (b. 1840)
 * May 7 – Agostino Roscelli, Italian priest and founder of the Institute of Sisters of the Immaculata (b. 1818)
 * May 26 – Almon Strowger, American inventor (b. 1839)
 * June 10
 * Jacint Verdaguer, Catalan poet (b. 1845)
 * Auguste Schmidt, German educator and activist (b. 1833)
 * June 18 – Samuel Butler, British author (b. 1835)
 * June 19 – Albert, King of Saxony and a member of the House of Wettin (b. 1828)

July–December

 * July 4 – Swami Vivekananda, Indian religious leader (b. 1863)
 * July 6 – Maria Goretti, Italian Catholic saint (b. 1890)
 * August 8 – James Tissot, French artist (b. 1836)
 * August 31 – Mathilde Wesendonck, German poet (b. 1828)
 * September 5 – Rudolf Virchow, German scientist and politician (b. 1821)
 * September 6
 * Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, British chemist (b. 1827)
 * Hammerton Killick Haitian Admiral (b. 1856)
 * September 19 – Masaoka Shiki, Japanese haiku poet (b. 1867)
 * September 26 – Levi Strauss, inventor of Jeans (b. 1829)
 * September 29
 * William Topaz McGonagall, doggerel poet (b. 1825/1830)
 * Émile Zola, French author (b. 1840)
 * September 30 – James Edward Jouett, American admiral (b. 1826)
 * October 6 – Liu Kunyi, Chinese general (b. 1830)
 * October 16 – Jeronimo Suñol, Spanish sculptor (b. 1839)
 * October 25 – Frank Norris, American novelist (b. 1870)
 * October 26 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American activist (b. 1815)
 * November 4 – Hale Johnson, American politician (b. 1847)
 * November 17 – Hugh Price Hughes, Welsh social reformer (b. 1847)
 * November 22
 * Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (b. 1854)
 * Walter Reed, American army physician (b. 1851)
 * December 2 – Richard Belcredi, former Prime minister of the Austrian Empire (b. 1823)
 * December 3
 * Robert Lawson, New Zealand architect (b. 1833)
 * Prudente de Morais, 3rd President of Brazil (b. 1841)
 * December 4 – Charles Dow, American journalist, co-founder of Dow Jones & Company (b. 1851)
 * December 7 – Thomas Nast, American caricaturist and cartoonist (b. 1840)
 * December 14 – Julia Grant, First Lady of the United States (b. 1826)
 * December 22 – Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German sexologist (b. 1840)
 * December 23 – Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1821)

Date unknown

 * Song Qing, Chinese general (b. 1820)

Nobel Prizes

 * Physics – Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman
 * Chemistry – Hermann Emil Fischer
 * Medicine – Ronald Ross
 * Literature – Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen
 * Peace – Élie Ducommun and Charles Albert Gobat