Events 
 Last year of Tsar Nicolas II of Russia's reign.
 Russian Revolutions (Russia goes communist)
 The United States declares war on Germany (for World War I)
 Influenza pandemic

Births 
 January 5 - Jane Wyman, American actress (d. 2007)
 January 12 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian spiritual leader (d. 2008)
 January 24 - Ernest Borgnine, American actor (d. 2012)
 January 25 - Ilya Prigogine, Belgian chemist (d. 2003)
 February 4 – Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, Last President of United Pakistan (d. 1980)
 February 6 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian American actress
 February 14 - Herbert Hauptman, American mathematician and Nobel laureate in Chemistry (d. 2011)
 March 20 - Vera Lynn, British singer
 March 27 - Cyrus Vance, United States Secretary of State (d. 2002)
 April 6 - Leonora Carrington, British-Mexican painter (d. 2011)
 April 17 - Bill Clements, Governor of Texas (d. 2011)
 April 22 - Sidney Nolan, Australian painter (d. 1992)
 April 25 - Ella Fitzgerald, American singer (d. 1996)
 April 26 - I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect
 April 26 - Virgil Trucks, American baseball player
 April 29 - Celeste Holm, American actress (d. 2012)
 May 29 – John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (d. 1963)
 June 3 – Leo Gorcey, American actor (d. 1969)
 June 6 - Kirk Kerkorian, American businessman
 June 9 - Eric Hobsbawm, British historian (d. 2012)
 June 30 - Lena Horne, American singer (d. 2010)
 July 14 - Arthur Laurents, American playwright (d. 2011)
 July 17 - Phyllis Diller, American actress and comedienne (d. 2012)
 August 6 - Robert Mitchum, American actor (d. 1997)
 August 30 - Denis Healey, British politician
 September 11 - Herbert Lom, Czech-born British actor (d. 2012)
 September 11 - Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines (d. 1989)
 September 14 - Ettore Sottsass, Italian architect and designer (d. 2007)
 October 2 - Christian de Duve, biochemist
 October 20 - Stephane Hessel, French politician (d. 2013)
 October 21 - Dizzy Gillespie, American musician (d. 1993)
 October 22 - Joan Fontaine, American actress
 November 2 - Ann Rutherford, American actress (d. 2012)
 November 7 - Helen Suzman, South African political activist (d. 2009)
 November 19 - Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (d. 1984)
 November 20 - Robert Byrd, American politician (d. 2010)
 November 22 - Andrew Huxley, British scientist (d. 2012)
 December 16 - Arthur C. Clarke, British writer (d. 2008)
 December 28 - Ellis Clarke, 1st President of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2010)

Deaths 
 January 2 – Edward Burnett Tylor, English anthropologist (b. 1832)
 January 10 – William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), American frontiersman (b. 1846)
 January 16 – George Dewey, U.S. admiral (b. 1837)
 February 5 – Jaber II Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1860)
 February 10 – John William Waterhouse, Italian-born artist (b. 1849)
 March 8 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German inventor (b. 1838)
 March 17 – Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (b. 1838)
 March 31 – Emil von Behring, German winner of the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)
 April 1 – Scott Joplin, American musician and composer (b. 1868)
 April 14 – L. L. Zamenhof, Polish creator of Esperanto (b. 1859)
 May 17 – Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke, ruler of Sarawak (b. 1829)
 May 20 – Philipp von Ferrary, Italian stamp collector (b. 1850)
 June 30 – Antonio de La Gandara, French painter (b. 1861)
 July 27 – Emil Kocher, Swiss medical researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1841)
 August 13 – Eduard Buchner, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1860)
 August 20 – Adolf von Baeyer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)
 August 30 – Alan Leo, British astrologer (b. 1860)
 September 27 – Edgar Degas, French painter (b. 1834)
 October 13 – Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (b. 1888)
 October 15 – Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (executed) (b. 1876)
 October 23 – Eugène Grasset, Swiss artist (b. 1845)
 October 28 – Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (b. 1831)
 November 8 – Colin Blythe, English cricketer (b. 1879)
 November 11 – Queen Liliuokalani of Hawai'i (b. 1838)
 November 17 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (b. 1840)
 December 8 – Mendele Moykher Sforim, Russian Yiddish and Hebrew writer (b. 1836)
 December 10 – Mackenzie Bowell, Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1824)