1894

January–March

 * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire.
 * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.
 * January 9 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.
 * February – In Korea, peasant unrest erupts in the Donghak Peasant Revolution, a massive revolt of followers of the Donghak movement. Both China and Japan send military forces, claiming to come to the ruling Joseon dynasty government's aid.
 * February 12
 * French anarchist Émile Henry sets off a bomb in a Paris café, killing one person and wounding twenty.
 * The barque Elisabeth Rickmers of Bremerhaven is wrecked at Haurvig, Denmark, but all crew and passengers are saved.
 * February 15 – At 04:51 GMT, French anarchist Martial Bourdin attempts to destroy the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London, England, with a bomb, killing himself instead.
 * February 17 – American outlaw John Wesley Hardin is released from prison.
 * March 1 – The Local Government Act (coming into effect December 1894–January 1895) reforms local government in Britain, creating a system of urban and rural districts with elected councils, with elected parish councils in rural areas, and gives women, irrespective of marital status, the right to vote and stand in local (but not national) elections.
 * March 12 – For the first time, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles.
 * March 21 – A syzygy of planets occurs as Mercury transits the Sun as seen from Venus, and Mercury and Venus both transit the Sun as seen from Saturn, but no two of the transits are simultaneous.
 * March 25 – Coxey's Army (of the unemployed), the first significant protest march in the United States, departs from Massillon, Ohio, for Washington, D.C.

April–June

 * April 11 – Britain establishes a Protectorate over Uganda.
 * April 16 – Manchester City Football Club is formed in England.
 * April 21 A bituminous coal miners' strike closes mines across the central United States.
 * April 23 – St. George's Day – Howard Ruff founded the Royal Society of St George to foster the love of England and to strengthen England and the Commonwealth by spreading the knowledge of English History, Traditions and Ideals.
 * April 27 – Canada's largest known landslide occurred in Saint-Alban, Quebec. Displeasing 185 e6m3 of rock and dirt, leaving a 40 m scar, that covered covered 4.6 e6m2.
 * May – Bubonic plague breaks out in the Tai Ping Shan area of Hong Kong (by the end of the year, the death toll is 2,552 people).
 * May 1
 * Coxey's Army arrives in Washington; Coxey is arrested.
 * The May Day Riots (against unemployment) break out in Cleveland, Ohio.
 * May 11 – Pullman Strike: Three thousand Pullman Palace Car Company factory workers go on a "wildcat" (without union approval) strike in Illinois.
 * May 14
 * A meteor shower is seen in southern France.
 * Blackpool Tower is opened in Blackpool, England.
 * May 21 – The Manchester Ship Canal and Docks are opened by Queen Victoria, linking the previously landlocked English industrial city of Manchester to the Irish Sea.
 * June 22 – Dahomey becomes a French colony.
 * June 23 – The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne, Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
 * June 24 – Sadi Carnot, president of France, is assassinated.
 * June 30 – The Tower Bridge in London opens for traffic.

July–September

 * July – A fire at the site of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago destroys most of the remaining buildings.
 * July 4
 * The Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
 * The football club FC La Chaux-de-Fonds is founded in Switzerland.
 * July 22 – Paris–Rouen Competition for Horseless Carriages, the first automobile competition.
 * August 1 – War is declared between the Qing Empire of China and the Empire of Japan, over their rival claims of influence on their common ally, the Joseon dynasty of Korea. The event marks the start of the First Sino-Japanese War.
 * August 15 – Sante Geronimo Caserio is executed for the assassination of Marie François Sadi Carnot.
 * September 1 – Great Hinckley Fire: A forest fire in Hinckley, Minnesota, kills more than 450 people.
 * September 4 – In New York City, 12,000 tailors strike against sweatshop working conditions.

October–December

 * October 1 – The Owl Club of Cape Town, South Africa, a dining club, has its first formal meeting.
 * October 15 – Dreyfus affair: French Army officer Alfred Dreyfus is arrested for spying.
 * October 30 – Domenico Menegatti obtains a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially.
 * November 1 – Russian emperor Alexander III is succeeded by his son Nicholas II.
 * November 6 – Major Republican landslide in the United States House of Representatives elections, which sets the stage for the decisive presidential election of 1896.
 * November 7 – The Masonic Grand Lodge de France is founded, splitting from the larger and older Grand Orient de France.
 * November 21 – Battle of Lushunkou (First Sino-Japanese War) – Japanese troops secure a decisive victory over the Chinese, capture the port city of Lüshunkou and begin the "Port Arthur massacre" in which more than 1,000 Chinese servicemen and civilians.
 * December 18 – Women in South Australia are legislated to become the first in Australia to gain the right to vote and to be elected to Parliament, taking effect from 1895.
 * December 21 – Mackenzie Bowell becomes Canada's fifth prime minister.
 * December 22 – Dreyfus affair: French Army officer Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason.

Date unknown

 * Petrópolis becomes the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro until 1902.
 * Western countries give up their extraterritorial rights in Japan.
 * New Zealand enacts the world's first minimum wage law.
 * Grace Kimmins founds the Guild of the Poor Brave Things in England for the education of crippled boys.
 * The National College of Music, London, is founded by the Moss family.
 * In the U.S., the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects is founded.
 * Chatham Episcopal Institute (now known as Chatham Hall ) is founded in Chatham, Virginia, U.S.
 * Sir William Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh discover the first noble gas, argon.
 * Oil is discovered on the Osage Indian reservation, making the Osage the "richest group of people in the world".
 * Kate Chopin writes The Story of An Hour (fiction).
 * Pomfret School is founded.
 * Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern publish The Little Lost Child, promoting its release with the earliest version of music video known as the illustrated song.
 * Frederick W. Tamblyn founded the Tamblyn School of Penmanship which later became Ziller of Kansas City, the oldest Calligraphy studio still operating in United States.

January–February

 * January 1 – Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist (d. 1974)
 * January 3 – Benito Canónico, Venezuelan composer (d. 1971)
 * January 8 – Vilmos Tkálecz, Hungarian politician (d. 1950)
 * January 20 – Walter Piston, American composer (d. 1976)
 * January 21 – Geoffrey Street, Australian politician (d. 1940)
 * January 30
 * King Boris III of Bulgaria (d. 1943)
 * René Dorme, French World War I fighter ace (d. 1917)
 * January 31
 * Isham Jones, American bandleader (d. 1956)
 * Percy Helton, American film and television actor (d. 1971)
 * February 1
 * John Ford, American film director (d. 1973)
 * Dick Merrill, American aviation pioneer (d. 1982)
 * February 3 – Norman Rockwell, American artist and illustrator (d. 1978)
 * February 8
 * Billy Bishop, Canadian World War I fighter ace (d. 1956)
 * Ludwig Marcuse, German philosopher (d. 1971)
 * February 10 – Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister (d. 1986)
 * February 11 – Alfonso Leng, Chilean composer (d. 1974)
 * February 14 – Jack Benny, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)
 * February 22 – Enid Markey, American actress (d. 1981)
 * February 25 – Meher Baba, Indian Avatar of the Age (d. 1969)
 * February 26
 * Wilhelm Bittrich, German Waffen SS general (d. 1979)
 * Ernest N. Harmon, American general (d. 1979)
 * February 28 – Ben Hecht, American playwright, film writer (d. 1964)

March–April

 * March 14 – Osa Johnson, American adventurer and documentary filmmaker (d. 1953)
 * March 16 – Stuart Buchanan, American actor (d. 1974)
 * March 17 – Paul Green, novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (d. 1981)
 * March 19 – Moms Mabley, African American comedian (d. 1975)
 * March 20 – Hans Langsdorff, German naval officer (d. 1939)
 * March 27 – René Fonck, French World War I flying ace (d. 1953)
 * March 30 – Nikolai P. Barabashov, Russian astronomer (d. 1971)
 * April 5 – Chesney Allen, British entertainer and comedian (d. 1982)
 * April 6 – Gertrude Baines, American supercentenarian, (d. 2009)
 * April 9 – Keiji Shibazaki, Japanese admiral (d. 1943)
 * April 10
 * Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist, Gandhian and educationalist (d. 1983)
 * Ben Nicholson English abstract artist (d. 1982)
 * April 13 – Arthur Fadden, Australian Prime Minister (d. 1973)
 * April 15 – Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937)
 * April 17 – Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet politician (d. 1971)
 * April 26 – Rudolf Hess, German Nazi official (d. 1987)
 * April 27 – Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian/American musicologist (d. 1995)

May–June

 * May 2 – Joseph Henry Woodger, British theoretical biologist (d. 1981)
 * May 11 – Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1991)
 * May 15 – Eddie Stumpf, American baseball player, manager and executive (d. 1978)
 * May 16 – Walter Yust, American encyclopædia editor (d. 1960)
 * May 19 – Heinz Ziegler, German general (d. 1972)
 * May 20 – Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, Indian religious scholar and saint (d. 1994)
 * May 27
 * Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (d. 1961)
 * Dashiell Hammett, American detective fiction writer (d. 1961)
 * May 29 – Josef von Sternberg, Austrian-American film director (d. 1969)
 * May 30 – Hubertus van Mook, Acting Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1942 to 1948 (d. 1965)
 * May 31 – Fred Allen, American comedian (d. 1956)
 * June 4 – Gabriel Pascal, Hungarian film producer (d. 1954)
 * June 7 – Roy Thomson, Canadian publisher (d. 1976)
 * June 9 – Nedo Nadi, Italian fencer (d. 1940)
 * June 14 – Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1924)
 * June 23
 * King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, afterwards The Duke of Windsor (d. 1972)
 * Harold Barrowclough, New Zealand general, lawyer and chief justice (d. 1972)
 * Alfred Kinsey, American sexologist (d. 1956)
 * June 28 – Arthur D. Struble, American admiral (d. 1983)

July–August

 * July 8 – Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Italian film director (d. 1998)
 * July 9 – Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
 * July 18 – Isaac Babel, Ukrainian writer (d. 1940)
 * July 19 – Khawaja Nazimuddin, Pakistani Prime Minister (d. 1965)
 * July 20 – Wiley Blount Rutledge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1949)
 * July 26 – Aldous Huxley, English novelist (d. 1963)
 * August 1 – Kurt Wintgens, German fighter pilot and air ace in World War I (d. 1916)
 * August 3 – Harry Heilmann, American baseball player (d. 1951)
 * August 10 – V. V. Giri, Indian politician and 4th President of India (d. 1980)
 * August 16 – George Meany, American labor leader (d. 1980)
 * August 26 – Maksim Purkayev, Soviet general (d. 1953)
 * August 28
 * Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (d. 1981)
 * Elisha Scott, Irish footballer (d. 1959)

September–October

 * September 2 – Joseph Roth, Austrian writer (d. 1939)
 * September 6 – Howard Pease, American adventure novelist (d. 1974)
 * September 7 – George Waggner, American film director, producer and actor (d. 1984)
 * September 12 – Billy Gilbert, American comedian and actor (d. 1971)
 * September 13
 * J. B. Priestley, English novelist and playwright (d. 1984)
 * Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (d. 1953)
 * September 15 – Jean Renoir, French film director (d. 1979)
 * September 21 – Anton Piëch, Austrian lawyer, son-in-law of Ferdinand Porsche (d. 1952)
 * September 24
 * Tommy Armour, Scottish golfer (d. 1968)
 * Harry B. Liversedge, American general (d. 1951)
 * September 27 – Lothar von Richthofen, German World War I fighter ace (d. 1922)
 * October 2 – Thomas L. Sprague, American admiral (d. 1972)
 * October 5 – Bevil Rudd, South African athlete (d. 1948)
 * October 7 – Del Lord, American film director (d. 1970)
 * October 14 – E. E. Cummings, American poet (d. 1962)
 * October 14 – Heinrich Lübke, German president (d. 1972)
 * October 15 – Moshe Sharett, Israeli Prime Minister (d. 1965)
 * October 18 – H. L. Davis, American fiction writer (d. 1960)
 * October 25
 * Claude Cahun, French photographer and writer (d. 1954)
 * Âşık Veysel Şatıroğlu, Turkish poet, songwriter and saz player (d. 1973)
 * October 27 – Fritz Sauckel, German Nazi politician and war criminal (d. 1946)

November–December

 * November 2 – Alexander Lippisch, German aerodynamics engineer (d. 1976)
 * November 4 – Chafik Charobim, Egyptian impressionist painter (d. 1975)
 * November 5
 * Jan Garber, American jazz bandleader (d. 1977)
 * Harold Innis, Canadian communications scholar (d. 1952)
 * Beardsley Ruml, American economist and tax plan author (d. 1960)
 * November 8 – Claude Beck, American cardiac surgeon (1971)
 * November 9 – Mae Marsh, American film actress (d. 1968)
 * November 13 – Nita Naldi, American film actress (d. 1961)
 * November 14 – Rino Corso Fougier, Italian air force general (d. 1963)
 * November 19 – Américo Tomás, 13th President of Portugal (d. 1987)
 * November 21 – Cecil M. Harden, American politician (d. 1984)
 * November 24 – Herbert Sutcliffe, English cricketer (d. 1978)
 * November 26 – Norbert Wiener, American mathematician (d. 1964)
 * November 27 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese industrialist (d. 1989)
 * November 29 – Lucille Hegamin, American singer and entertainer (d. 1970)
 * December 3 – Deiva Zivarattinam, Indian politician (d. 1975)
 * December 5 – Philip K. Wrigley, American business and sports executive (d. 1977)
 * December 7 – Freddie Adkins, British cartoonist (d. circa 1986)
 * December 8
 * E. C. Segar, American cartoonist, creator of Popeye (d. 1938)
 * James Thurber, American cartoonist and writer (d. 1961)
 * December 10
 * William Sydney Marchant, British colonial official (d. 1953)
 * Edward Milford, Australian general (d. 1972)
 * December 15 – Felix Stump, American admiral (d. 1972)
 * December 17 – Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (d. 1979)
 * December 20 – Robert Menzies, Australian Prime Minister (d. 1978)
 * December 22 – Edwin Linkomies, Finnish Prime Minister (d. 1963)
 * December 23 – Arthur Gilligan, English cricket captain (d. 1976)
 * December 24 – Georges Guynemer, French World War I fighter ace (d. 1917)
 * December 26 – Jean Toomer, American poet (d. 1967)
 * December 31 – Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)

Undated

 * K. M. Panikkar, Indian scholar, diplomat and journalist (d. 1963)

January–June

 * January 1 – Heinrich Hertz, German physicist (b. 1857)
 * January 13 – Nadezhda von Meck, patron of Tchaikovsky (b. 1831)
 * February 3 – Auguste Vaillant, French anarchist (b. 1861) (executed)
 * February 4 – Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone (b. 1814)
 * February 8 – Robert Michael Ballantyne, Scottish novelist (b. 1825)
 * February 11 – Margaret Henley, inspiration for the name "Wendy" in Peter Pan (b. 1888)
 * February 15 – May Brookyn, American actress (b. ?1854)
 * February 21 – Gustave Caillebotte, French painter (b. 1848)
 * February 27
 * Hilarión Daza, President of Bolivia (assassinated) (b. 1840)
 * Carl Schmidt, Baltic German chemist (b. 1822)
 * March 2
 * Jubal Early, Confederate general (b. 1816)
 * William H. Osborn, American railroad executive (b. 1820)
 * March 3 – Ned Williamson, American baseball player (b. 1857)
 * March 20 – Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian politician (b. 1802)
 * April 8 – Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bengali poet (b. 1838)
 * June 3 – Karl Eduard Zachariae von Lingenthal, German jurist and expert on Byzantine law (b. 1812)
 * June 7 – King Hassan I of Morocco (b. 1836)
 * June 23
 * Marietta Alboni, Italian opera singer (b. 1826)
 * Władysław Czartoryski, Polish political activist and art collector (b. 1828)
 * July 24 – George Peter Alexander Healy, American portrait painter (d. 1813)
 * June 25
 * Marie François Sadi Carnot, French statesman (assassinated) (b. 1837)
 * Charles Romley Alder Wright, British chemist synthesized Heroin (b. 1844)

July–December

 * July 30 – Walter Pater, English essayist and critic (b. 1839)
 * September 1 – Nathaniel P. Banks, American politician and general (b. 1816)
 * September 8 – Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician and physicist (b. 1821)
 * September 13 – Emmanuel Chabrier, French composer (b. 1841)
 * October 7 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American author (b. 1809)
 * October 20 – James Anthony Froude, English historian (b. 1818)
 * October 30 – Juan Cortina, Mexican folk hero (b. 1824)
 * November 1 – Emperor Alexander III of Russia (b. 1845)
 * November 20 – Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1829)
 * November 25 – Solomon Caesar Malan, Swiss-born orientalist (b. 1812)
 * December 3 – Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author (b. 1850)
 * December 8 – Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (b. 1821)
 * December 12 – John Sparrow David Thompson, 4th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1845)
 * December 28 – Chamarajendra Wadiyar X, Maharajah of Mysore (b. 1863)

Date unknown

 * Paul Lecreux, French sculptor (b. ca. 1826)