Art, music, theatre, literature 
 Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush is released.

Events 
January 21 – Albania becomes a republic.
July 18 – Adolf Hitler publishes his book Mein Kampf.
October 30 – The Scottish engineer John Logie Baird creates the first television transmitter in London.
November 9 – The NSDAP builts the SS (Schutzstaffel).

Births 
 January 7 - Gerald Durrell, British naturalist (d. 1995)
 January 15 - Ernst Benda, German politician (d. 2009)
 January 17 - Robert Cormier, American writer (d. 2000)
 January 26 – Paul Newman, American actor (d. 2008)
 February 8 – Sir Anthony Berry, British politician
 February 8 - Jack Lemmon, American actor (d. 2001)
 February 17 - Hal Holbrook, American actor (d. 2021)
 February 20 – Robert Altman, American director and movie maker (d. 2006)
 February 20 - Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepalese politician (d. 2010)
 February 21 - Tom Gehrels, Dutch-born American astronomer (d. 2011)
 February 21 - Sam Peckinpah, American movie director (d. 1984)
 March 20 - David Warren, Australian inventor (d. 2010)
 March 25 – Flannery O'Connor, Irish writer
 April 10 - Marshall Warren Nirenberg, American scientist (d. 2010)
 April 14 - Rod Steiger, American actor (d. 2002)
 April 14 - Abel Muzorewa, Zimbabwean politician (d. 2010)
 April 29 - Iwao Takamoto, Japanese-American animator (d. 2007)
 May 1 - Scott Carpenter, American astronaut (d. 2013)
 May 11 - Max Morlock, German footballer (d. 1994)
 May 16 - Robert Pierpoint, American journalist (d. 2011)
 May 19 - Malcolm X, American Civil rights leader (d. 1965)
 May 23 - Joshua Lederberg, American biologist (d. 2008)
 May 27 - Tony Hillerman, American writer (d. 2008)
 May 28 - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German operatic baritone (d. 2012)
 June 3 – Tony Curtis, American actor (d. 2010)
 June 8 - Barbara Bush, former First Lady of the United States (d. 2018)
 June 21 - Maureen Stapleton, American actress (d. 2006)
 June 29 - Giorgio Napolitano, President of Italy
 July 1 - Farley Granger, American actor (d. 2011)
 July 2 - Patrice Lumumba, Congolese politician (d. 1961)
 July 23 - Tajuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi politician (d. 1975)
 July 23 - Quett Masire, former President of Botswana
 July 29 - Mikis Theodorakis, Greek singer and politician
 August 1 - Ernst Jandl, Austrian writer (d. 2000)
 August 2 - Alan Whicker, British journalist and writer (d. 2013)
 August 2 - Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentine military leader (d. 2013)
 August 12 - Thor Vilhjalmsson, Icelandic writer (d. 2011)
 August 15 - Oscar Peterson, Canadian musician (d. 2007)
 August 27 - Nat Lofthouse, English footballer (d. 2011)
 September 1 - Roy J. Glauber, American scientist
 September 12 - Syed Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi politician (d. 1975)
 September 15 - Carlo Rambaldi, Italian special effects artist (d. 2012)
 September 16 - B. B. King, American musician
 September 27 - Robert Edwards, British Nobel Prize-winning physiologist (d. 2013)
 September 29 - Steve Forrest, American actor (d. 2013)
 October 3 – Gore Vidal, American writer (d. 2012)
 October 11 - Elmore Leonard, American novelist (d. 2013)
 October 12 - Essie Mae Washington-Williams, American educator (d. 2013)
 October 13 – Lenny Bruce, American comedian (d. 1967)
 October 13 - Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2013)
 October 16 - Angela Lansbury, British-born actress
 October 17 - Harry Carpenter, German sports commentator (d. 2010)
 October 18 - Ramiz Alia, last Communist leader of Albania (d. 2011)
 October 21 - Celia Cruz, Cuban salsa singer (d. 2003)
 October 29 - Robert Hardy, English actor
 November 1 - Fritz Laband, German footballer (d. 1982)
 November 10 - Richard Burton, Welsh actor (d. 1984)
 November 11 - Jonathan Winters, American actor and comedian (d. 2013)
 November 20 - Robert F. Kennedy, American politician (d. 1968)
 November 24 - Simon van der Meer, Dutch scientist (d. 2011)
 November 29 - Ernst Happel, Austrian footballer and coach (d. 1992)
 December 2 - Julie Harris, American actress (d. 2013)
 December 13 - Dick Van Dyke, American actor
 December 23 - Mohammed Mzali, former Prime Minister of Tunisia (d. 2010)
 December 28 – Hildegard Knef, German actress, singer and writer (d. 2002)

Deaths 
February 28 - Friedrich Ebert, President of Germany
March 12 – Sun Yat Sen, Chinese revolutionary
March 20 – George Nathaniel Curzon, British statesman
November 20 – Queen Alexandra of Denmark
December 28 - Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet

Nobel Prize 
Nobel Prize in Physics – James Franck, Gustav Ludwig Hertz
Chemistry – Richard Adolf Zsigmondy
Literature – George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright
Peace – Austin Chamberlain and Charles Gate Dawes