1909

January–February

 * January 5 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
 * January 16 – Ernest Shackleton's expedition claims to have found the magnetic South Pole (but the location recorded may be incorrect).
 * January 24 – The White Star Liner RMS Republic sinks the day after a collision with SS Florida. In the first recorded use of the CQD emergency radio signal for a large passenger vessel, one person, a male passenger, is lost on the Republic.
 * January 28 – The last United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish–American War of 1898.
 * February 5 – Leo Baekeland announces the creation of bakelite hard thermosetting plastic.

March–April

 * March 4 – William Howard Taft is sworn in as President of the United States.
 * March 10 – The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 is signed in Bangkok.
 * March 18 – Einar Dessau uses a shortwave radio transmitter, becoming the first radio broadcaster.
 * March 21 – The remains of the Báb are placed in the Bahá'í Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa, at this time within the Ottoman Empire.
 * March 31 – Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 * April 4 – The association football team Sport Club Internacional is founded in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
 * April 6 – Robert Peary, Matthew Henson, and four Inuit explorers, Ootah, Ooqueah, Seegloo, and Egigingwah, come within a few miles of the North Pole.
 * April 11 – The city of Tel Aviv (known in its first year as Ahuzat Bayit) is founded by the Jewish community on the outskirts of Jaffa.
 * April 13 (March 31 by Eastern reckoning) – Ottoman countercoup begins in the Ottoman Empire.
 * April 14 – Adana massacre: Ottoman Turks kill 15,000–30,000 Armenian Christians in the Adana Vilayet.
 * April 18 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
 * April 19 – The Anglo-Persian Oil Company, modern-day BP, is incorporated.
 * April 27 – Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown and succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V. He is sent to the Ottoman port city of Thessaloniki (Selanik) the next day.

May–June

 * May 13–30 – First Giro d'Italia bicycle race, starting and finishing in Milan; Luigi Ganna is the winner.
 * May 19 – Russian ballet is brought to the Western world when the Ballets Russes opens a tour produced by Sergei Diaghilev at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris with 55 dancers, including Vaslav Nijinsky.
 * June 2 – French forces capture Abéché, capital of the Wadai Empire in central Africa.
 * June 15 – Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's Cricket Ground and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.

July–August

 * July 16 – A revolution forces Mohammad Ali Shah of the Qajar dynasty to abdicate in favor of his son Ahmad Shah Qajar. He proceeds to leave Persia for Imperial Russia, reportedly seeking the assistance of Nicholas II of Russia in regaining the throne.
 * July 25 – Louis Blériot is the first man to fly across the English Channel (thus a large open body of water) in a heavier-than-air craft.
 * July 25–August 2 – "Tragic Week": The city of Barcelona experiences a workers' uprising.
 * August 2 – The United States Army Signal Corp Division purchases the world's first military airplane, a Wright Military Flyer, from the Wright brothers.
 * August 8 – Max Heindel formally founds the Rosicrucian Fellowship in Seattle, United States.
 * August 12 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway opens in the United States.

September–October

 * September 4 – Japan and China sign the Jiandao/Gando Treaty, which gives Japan a way to receive railroad concessions in Manchuria.
 * October 8 – An earthquake in the Zagreb area leads Andrija Mohorovičić to identify the Mohorovičić discontinuity.
 * October 13 – An agreement by Germany, Italy and Switzerland gives the Germans and Italians access to the Gotthard Rail Tunnel.
 * October 26 – Itō Hirobumi, four time Prime Minister of Japan (the 1st, 5th, 7th and 10th) and Resident-General of Korea, is assassinated by An Jung-geun at the Harbin Railway Station in Manchuria.

November–December

 * November 18 – In Nicaragua 500 revolutionaries (including 2 Americans) are executed by order of dictator José Santos Zelaya. The United States responds by sending 2 warships.
 * December 4 – Montreal Canadiens, as known well for professional ice hockey club in Canada, founded.
 * December 19 – The association football team Borussia Dortmund is founded in Dortmund, Germany.
 * December 23 – King Albert I of Belgium succeeds his uncle, Leopold II (died December 17), on the throne.
 * December 28 – The first manned heavier-than-air powered flight in South Africa is made at East London by French aviator Albert Kimmerling in a Voisin 1907 biplane.

Undated

 * Karl Landsteiner, Constantin Levaditi and Erwin Popper discover the polio virus.

January



 * January 1
 * Dana Andrews, American actor (d. 1992)
 * Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian nationalist leader (d. 1959)
 * January 2 – Barry Goldwater, American politician (d. 1998)
 * January 3 – Victor Borge, Danish entertainer (d. 2000)
 * January 4 – J. R. Simplot, American businessman (d. 2008)
 * January 5 – Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician (d. 1994)
 * January 8 – Willy Millowitsch, German actor (d. 1999)
 * January 9 – Anthony Mamo, Maltese President (d. 2008)
 * January 13 – Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist convicted of setting fire to the German Reichstag building in 1933 (d. 1934)
 * January 15
 * Jean Bugatti, German-born automobile designer (d. 1939)
 * Gene Krupa, American drummer (d. 1973)
 * January 16 – Clement Greenberg, American art critic (d. 1994)
 * January 19 – Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (d. 2003)
 * January 21 – Todor Skalovski, Macedonian composer (d. 2004)
 * January 22
 * Porfirio Rubirosa, Dominican diplomat, race-car driver, and polo player (d. 1956)
 * Ann Sothern, American actress (d. 2001)
 * U Thant, Burmese United Nations Secretary General (d. 1974)
 * January 24 – Martin Lings, British Islamic scholar (d. 2005)
 * January 28 – Colin Munro MacLeod, Canadian-American geneticist and medical researcher (d. 1972)
 * January 30 – Saul Alinsky, American community organizer (d. 1972)

February

 * February 1 – George Beverly Shea, American gospel singer and songwriter (d. 2013)
 * February 3 – Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)
 * February 7
 * Wilhelm Freddie, Danish painter (d. 1995)
 * Amedeo Guillet, Italian army officer (d. 2010)
 * Silvio Zavala, Mexican historian (d. 2014)
 * February 9
 * Harald Genzmer, German composer (d. 2007)
 * Giulio Racah, Israeli mathematician and physicist (d. 1965)
 * Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born Brazilian actress and singer (d. 1955)
 * Dean Rusk, American politician (d. 1994)
 * February 11
 * Max Baer, American boxer and actor (d. 1959)
 * Joseph Mankiewicz, American filmmaker (d. 1993)
 * February 12 – Zoran Mušič, Slovene painter (d. 2005)
 * February 15
 * Guillermo Gorostiza Paredes, Spanish footballer (d. 1966)
 * Miep Gies, Austrian-born Dutch humanitarian (d. 2010)
 * February 16 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor (d. 1982)
 * February 18 – Wallace Stegner, American writer (d. 1993)
 * February 19 – Enrico Donati, Italian-born American painter (d. 2008)
 * February 20 – Heinz Erhardt, German comedian, musician, entertainer, actor, and poet (d. 1979)
 * February 21 – Hans Erni, Swiss painter and sculptor (d. 2015)
 * February 22 – Edmund Berkeley, American scientist (d. 1988)
 * February 24 – August Derleth, American writer (d. 1971)
 * February 26 – King Talal of Jordan (d. 1972)
 * February 28 – Stephen Spender, English writer (d. 1995)

March

 * March 4 – Harry Helmsley, American real estate entrepreneur (d. 1997)
 * March 19
 * Jean Brachet, Belgian chemist (d. 1988)
 * Louis Hayward, South African-born actor (d. 1985)
 * March 22
 * Milt Kahl, American animator (d. 1987)
 * Gabrielle Roy, Canadian author (d. 1983)
 * March 24 – Clyde Barrow, American outlaw, member of Barrow Gang (d. 1934)
 * March 27 – Golo Mann, German historian (d. 1994)
 * March 28 – Nelson Algren, American author (d. 1981)
 * March 29 – Moon Mullican, American country music singer (d. 1967)

April

 * April 6 – William M. Branham, American Christian minister (d. 1965)
 * April 7 – Robert Charroux, French writer (d. 1978)
 * April 8 – John Fante, Italian-American writer (d. 1983)
 * April 13
 * Stanislaw Marcin Ulam, Polish-born mathematician (d. 1984)
 * Eudora Welty, American author (d. 2001)
 * April 22
 * Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italian neurologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
 * Indro Montanelli, Italian journalist (d. 2001)
 * April 24
 * Bernhard Grzimek, German zoo director and zoologist (d. 1987)
 * April 25 – William Pereira, American architect (d. 1985)
 * April 26
 * Marianne Hoppe, German actress (d. 2002)
 * Rodney Collin, British writer (d. 1956)
 * April 30
 * Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (d. 2004)
 * F. E. McWilliam, Northern Irish sculptor (d. 1992)

May

 * May 1 – Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet and activist (d. 1990)
 * May 4 – Howard Da Silva, American actor (d. 1986)
 * May 6 – Loyd Sigmon, American amateur radio broadcaster (d. 2004)
 * May 7 – Edwin H. Land, American camera inventor (d. 1991)
 * May 10 – Maybelle Carter, American musician (d. 1978)
 * May 15
 * James Mason, British actor (d. 1984)
 * Clara Solovera, Chilean folk musician (d. 1992)
 * May 17 – Karl Schäfer, Austrian figure skater (d. 1976)
 * May 18 – Fred Perry, English tennis player (d. 1995)
 * May 19 – Nicholas Winton, British humanitarian (d. 2015)
 * May 23 – Hugh E. Blair, American linguist (d. 1967)
 * May 24 – Victoria Hopper, Canadian stage and film actress and singer (d. 2007)
 * May 26 – Matt Busby, Scottish football manager (d. 1994)
 * May 27
 * Dolores Hope, American singer and philanthropist (d. 2011)
 * Guillermo León Valencia, President of Colombia (d. 1971)
 * Donald Trumbull, special effects artist (d. 2004)
 * May 30 – Benny Goodman, American musician (d. 1986)

June

 * June 1 – Yechezkel Kutscher, Slovakian-born Israeli philologist and Hebrew linguist (d. 1971)
 * June 3 – Ira D. Wallach, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2007)
 * June 6 – Isaiah Berlin, Russian historian of ideas (d. 1997)
 * June 7 – Jessica Tandy, English actress (d. 1994)
 * June 12
 * Archie Bleyer, American song arranger and band leader (d. 1989)
 * Tom Steele, Scottish-born actor and stuntman (d. 1990)
 * June 14 – Burl Ives, American singer (d. 1995)
 * June 19 – Osamu Dazai, Japanese novelist (d. 1948)
 * June 20 – Errol Flynn, Australian-born actor (d. 1959)
 * June 22 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer, choreographer, and songwriter (d. 2006)
 * June 23 – Li Xiannian, President of the People's Republic of China (d. 1992)
 * June 24 – William Penney, Baron Penney, English mathematician and physicist (d. 1991)
 * June 26
 * Colonel Tom Parker, Dutch-born celebrity manager (d. 1997)
 * Wolfgang Reitherman, German animator, director and producer (d. 1985)

July

 * July 7 – Gottfried von Cramm, German tennis player (d. 1976)
 * July 12 – Fritz Leonhardt, German structural engineer (d. 1999)
 * July 18
 * Mohammed Daoud Khan, President of Afghanistan (d. 1978)
 * Andrei Gromyko, Soviet Minister for Foreign Affairs (d. 1989)
 * July 23 – John William Finn, American WWII hero (d. 2010)
 * July 26 – Vivian Vance, American actress (d. 1979)
 * July 28 – Malcolm Lowry, British novelist (d. 1957)
 * July 30 – C. Northcote Parkinson, British historian and author (d. 1993)

August

 * August 8 – Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham, English cricketer and politician, 9th Governor-General of New Zealand (d. 1977)
 * August 9 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German lawyer and diplomat (d. 1944)
 * August 10
 * Leo Fender, American guitar inventor and manufacturer (d. 1991)
 * Richard J. Hughes, American politician, 45th Governor of New Jersey, and Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court (d. 1992)
 * August 25 – Michael Rennie, English actor (d. 1971)
 * August 26 – Jim Davis, American actor (d. 1981)
 * August 31 – Ferenc Fejtő, Hungarian-born French journalist and political scientist (d. 2008)

September

 * September 1 – E. Herbert Norman, Canadian diplomat (d. 1957)
 * September 7 – Elia Kazan, Turkish-born film director (d. 2003)
 * September 10 – Irakli Abashidze, Georgian poet, literary scholar, and politician (d. 1992)
 * September 14
 * Peter Scott, British ornithologist and painter (d. 1989)
 * Andreas Tzimas, Greek communist politician and Resistance leader (d. 1972)
 * September 15
 * Phil Arnold, American actor (d. 1968)
 * Jean Batten, New Zealand-born aviator (d. 1982)
 * Jan van Aartsen, Dutch politician (d. 1992)
 * September 19 – Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, Austrian auto designer and businessman (d. 1998)
 * September 21 – Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian politician (d. 1972)
 * September 24 – Carl Sigman, American songwriter (d. 2000)
 * September 26 – Bill France, Sr., American race car driver and businessman, co-founded NASCAR (d. 1992)
 * September 28 – Al Capp, American cartoonist (d. 1979)

October

 * October 1 – Everett Sloane, American actor (d. 1965)
 * October 4 – Murray Chotiner, American political consultant (d. 1974)
 * October 10
 * Robert F. Boyle, American production designer and art director (d. 2010)
 * Max Simon Ehrlich, American writer (d. 1983)
 * October 13 – Herblock, American editorial cartoonist (d. 2001)
 * October 14 – Bernd Rosemeyer, German race car driver (d. 1938)
 * October 17 – Cozy Cole, American jazz drummer (d. 1981)
 * October 18 – Norberto Bobbio, Italian philosopher of law and political sciences (d. 2004)
 * October 20 – Carla Laemmle, American actress (d. 2014)
 * October 24 – Bill Carr, American athlete (d. 1966)
 * October 25 – Whit Bissell, American actor (d. 1996)
 * October 27 – Henry Townsend, American musician (d. 2006)
 * October 28 – Francis Bacon, Irish-born British painter (d. 1992)

November

 * November 9 – Kay Thompson, American author and actress (d. 1998)
 * November 10 – Paweł Jasienica, Polish historian (d. 1970)
 * November 16 – Mirza Nasir Ahmad, Indian Islamic leader (d. 1982)
 * November 18 – Johnny Mercer, American songwriter (d. 1976)
 * November 22 – Mikhail Mil, Russian helicopter manufacturer (d. 1970)
 * November 23 – Nigel Tranter, Scottish historian and novelist (d. 2000)
 * November 24 – Gerhard Gentzen, German mathematician (d. 1945)
 * November 26 – Eugène Ionesco, Romanian-born playwright (d. 1994)
 * November 27 – James Agee, American writer (d. 1955)

December

 * December 2 – Marion Dönhoff,  German journalist (d. 2002)
 * December 4 –  Jimmy Jewel, English actor (d. 1995)
 * December 5 – Bobbie Heine Miller, South African tennis player (d. 2016)
 * December 7 – Arch Oboler, American actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, and director (d. 1987)
 * December 9 –  Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., American actor and Naval officer (d. 2000)
 * December 14 – Edward Lawrie Tatum, American geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
 * December 20
 * Vagn Holmboe, Danish composer (d. 1996)
 * Vakkom Majeed, Indian freedom fighter and politician (d. 2000)
 * December 21 – Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese writer and journalist (d. 1992)
 * December 22
 * Alan Carney, American actor (d. 1973)
 * Patricia Hayes, British character actress & comedian (d. 1998)
 * December 27 – Henryk Jabłoński, President of Poland (d. 2003)

January–June

 * January 8 – Harry Seeley, British palaeontologist (b. 1839)
 * January 10 – Charles Vernon Culver, American politician (b. 1830)
 * January 12 – Hermann Minkowski, German mathematician (b. 1864)
 * January 14
 * Arthur William à Beckett, British journalist (b. 1844)
 * Zinovy Rozhestvensky, Russian admiral (b. 1848)
 * January 15 – Saint Arnold Janssen, German Catholic priest (b. 1837)
 * January 27 – Benoît-Constant Coquelin, French theatrical actor (b. 1841)
 * February 5 – Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, French occultist (b. 1842)
 * February 8 – Catulle Mendès, French poet (b. 1841)
 * February 17 – Geronimo, Apache leader (b. 1829)
 * February 20 – Paul Ranson, French painter (b. 1864)
 * February 26 – Caran d'Ache, French political cartoonist (b. 1858)
 * March 6 – Gustaf af Geijerstam, Swedish novelist (b. 1858)
 * March 16 – Wilbraham Egerton, 1st Earl Egerton, chairman of the Manchester Ship Canal (b. 1832)
 * March 24 – John Millington Synge, Irish playwright (b. 1871)
 * March 25 – Ruperto Chapí, Spanish composer (b. 1854)
 * April 3 – Pascual Cervera y Topete, Spanish admiral (b. 1839)
 * April 8 – Helena Modjeska, Polish actress (b. 1840)
 * April 10 – Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (b. 1837)
 * April 13 – Sir Donald Currie GCMG, shipping magnate (b. 1825)
 * April 14 – Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman, 10th President of Argentina (b. 1844)
 * April 28 – Frederick Holbrook, Vermont governor (b. 1813)
 * May 10 – Futabatei Shimei, Japanese author and translator (b. 1864)
 * May 12 – Hugh Henry Gough, British general and Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1833)
 * May 17 – Helge Alexander Haugan, American banking executive (b. 1847)
 * May 18
 * Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer (b. 1860)
 * George Meredith, English novelist and poet (b. 1828)
 * June 14 – Afonso Pena, 6th President of Brazil (b. 1847)
 * June 24 – Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (b. 1849)

July–December

 * July 8 – Gaston Alexandre Auguste, Marquis de Galliffet, French general (b. 1830)
 * July 9 – Kasimir Felix Graf von Badeni, 13th Minister-President of Cisleithania (b. 1846)
 * July 11 – Simon Newcomb Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician (b. 1835)
 * July 18 – Carlos, Duke of Madrid (b. 1848)
 * July 19 – Arai Ikunosuke, Japanese samurai (b. 1836)
 * July 22 – Detlev von Liliencron, German poet (b. 1844)
 * August 5 – Miguel Antonio Caro, Colombian political leader (b. 1843)
 * August 8 – Mary MacKillop, Australian saint (b. 1842)
 * August 14 – William Stanley, inventor and engineer (b. 1829)
 * August 15 – Euclides da Cunha, Brazilian author (b. 1866)
 * August 27 – Emil Christian Hansen, Danish fermentation physiologist (b. 1842)
 * September 2 – Louis Delacenserie, Belgian architect (b. 1838)
 * September 4 – Clyde Fitch, American dramatist (b. 1865)
 * September 7 – Eugène Lefebvre, pioneer French aviator (b. 1878)
 * September 22 – Captain Ferdinand Ferber, French Army officer and pioneer aviator (b. 1862)
 * September 27 – Gyula Donáth, Hungarian sculptor (b. 1850)
 * September 29 – Vladimir Vidrić, Croatian poet (b. 1875)
 * October 13 – Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, Spanish anarchist (executed) (b. 1859)
 * October 19 – Cesare Lombroso, Italian criminologist and physician (b. 1835)
 * October 26 – Itō Hirobumi, 1st Prime Minister of Japan (assassinated) (b. 1841)
 * November 9 – William Powell Frith, English painter (b. 1819)
 * November 18 – Renée Vivien Scottish/American poet (b. 1877)
 * December 10 – Red Cloud, Sioux warrior (b. 1822)
 * December 14 – Agustí Querol Subirats, Spanish sculptor (b. 1860)
 * December 15 – Francisco Tárrega, Spanish guitarist and composer (b. 1852)
 * December 17 – King Leopold II of Belgium (b. 1835)
 * December 16 – Lina Morgenstern, German writer, educator, feminist and pacifist (b. 1830)
 * December 18 – Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich, Russian royal (b. 1832)
 * December 26 – Frederic Remington, American cowboy artist and sculptor (b. 1864)

Date unknown

 * Gideon T. Stewart, American educator and politician (b. 1824)

Nobel Prizes

 * Physics – Guglielmo Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun
 * Chemistry – Wilhelm Ostwald
 * Medicine – Emil Theodor Kocher
 * Literature – Selma Lagerlöf
 * Peace – Auguste Marie François Beernaert and Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant