1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday in the Gregorian calendar, and starting on a Monday in the Julian calendar. It was also the first year of the 20th century.

Big Events of 1901 
 On January 1, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and Tasmania form the Commonwealth of Australia. John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow becomes the first Governor-General and Edmund Barton becomes the 1st Prime Minister of Australia. The first Australian parliament meets in Melbourne on May 9.
 In the United Kingdom, on January 22, Queen Victoria dies at the age of 81, having reigned for 63 years, 7 months and 2 days, longer than any British monarch before her. In the United Kingdom and the British Empire, her death marks the end of the Victorian era. Her 59-year-old son succeeds her as King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.
 In China, the Boxer Rebellion is crushed and China is forced to accept Peace terms decided by Western Powers, Japan and Russia.
 25th President of the United States, William McKinley, is shot by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American exposition in Buffalo, New York and dies 8 days later. Theodore Roosevelt succeeds him as president.
 The first Nobel Prizes are given in Stockholm on December 10, the 5th anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen wins the Prize in Physics for the discovery of X-rays, and the Nobel Peace Prize is shared between Frederic Passy and Jean-Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross.

Events

January - June 

 January 1  First day of the 20th century.
 January 1  Australia becomes a country, as New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania form the Commonwealth of Australia.
 January 1  Nigeria becomes a British Protectorate.
 January 5  A typhoid outbreak occurs in a Seattle jail.
 January 10  China accepts Peace terms by Western Powers, Japan and Russia, as the Boxer Rebellion is crushed.
 January 22  Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom dies on the Isle of Wight at the age of 81. Her son, Edward VII of the United Kingdom, succeeds her.
 January 28  Baseball's American League declares itself a Major League.
 February 2  The funeral of Queen Victoria takes place.
 February 6  The first public telephones are installed at railway stations in Paris.
 February 14  Edward VII of the United Kingdom opens his first parliament.
 February 22  A Pacific Mail Steamer sinks in the Golden Gate Harbor, killing 128 people.
 February 23  The United Kingdom and Germany agree on the border between German East Africa (present-day Tanzania) and the British colony of Nyasaland (present-day Malawi).
 March 4  William McKinley starts his second term as President of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt becomes Vice President of the United States.
 March 6  Wilhelm II of Germany survives an assassination attempt in Bremen.
 March 17  The showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris creates a sensation.
 March 31  The United Kingdom's 1901 census is held.
 April 25  The State of New York becomes the first to require automobile license plates.
 April 29  Hirohito is born. He later becomes the longest-reigning Japanese Emperor, dying in 1989.
 May 3  Jacksonville, Florida is destroyed by fire, as 10,000 people are made homeless.
 May 9  Australia opens its first Parliament in Melbourne.
 May 17  The US Stock Market crashes.
 May 24  78 miners die in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales.
 May 25  River Plate football club, in Buenos Aires, is founded.
 June 2  Katsura Taro becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
 June 12  Cuba becomes a US protectorate.

July - December 
 July 4  The Covered Bridge at Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada, is opened. At 390 metres long, it is the longest covered bridge in the world.
 July 4  William Taft becomes Governor-General of the Philippines.
 August 6  Robert Falcon Scott, on board the RRS Discovery, sets sail on his expedition to the Ross Sea in Antarctica.
 August 11  Under Erich von Drygalski, Germany's first Antarctic expedition begins.
 August 30  Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum cleaner.
 September 6  Assassination of William McKinley: US President William McKinley is shot by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.
 September 7  The Boxer Rebellion officially ends in China.
 September 14  William McKinley, 8 days after being shot, dies of his injuries. Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th President of the United States.
 October 2  The first Royal Navy submarine is launched.
 October 24  Michigan school teacher Annie Taylor goes down Niagara Falls in a barrel, and survives.
 October 29  Leon Czolgosz is executed at Auburn State Prison, New York, for the assassination of William McKinley.
 November 9  Future King George V of the United Kingdom is made Prince of Wales.
 November 25  Auguste Deter is first examined by Alois Alzheimer in Germany. She becomes the first-known sufferer of what is later called Alzheimer's disease.
 December 10  The first Nobel Prizes are given in Stockholm on the 5th anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.
 December 12  Guglielmo Marconi receives the first Trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent from Poldhu, England to Newfoundland, Canada.
 December 13  Modern 32-bit computers will incorrectly set their clocks to this time on January 19, 2038
 December 20  The final spike is driven into the Mombasa-Victoria-Uganda railway in what is now Kisumu, Kenya.

Other Events 
 Boer War (1899 - 1902)
 Norway allows women to vote in local elections.
 Pablo Picasso creates the first paintings of his Blue Period.
 Rudyard Kipling's ''Kim (book) published.

Births

January - June 

 January 3  Ngo Dinh Diem, 1st President of South Vietnam (d. 1963)
 January 9  Chic Young, American cartoonist (d. 1973)
 January 9  Ishman Bracey, American blues singer and guitarist (d. 1970)
 January 10  Toshio Irie, Japanese politician and bureaucrat (d. 1972)
 January 14  Bebe Daniels, American actress (d. 1971)
 January 14  Alfred Tarski, Polish logician and mathematician (d. 1983)
 January 16  Frank Zamboni, American inventor (d. 1988)
 January 16  Fulgencio Batista, Cuban leader (d. 1973)
 January 21  Ricardo Zamora, Spanish footballer (d. 1979)
 January 24  A. M. Cassandre, Ukrainian-born artist, designer and teacher (d. 1968)
 January 29  Arcady Aris, Russian Chuvash writer and literary critic (d. 1941)
 January 30  Rudolf Caracciola, German racing driver (d. 1959)
 February 1  Clark Gable, American actor (d. 1960)
 February 1  Frank Buckles, last-surviving American World War I veteran (d. 2011)
 February 10  Stella Adler, American actress (d. 1992)
 February 17  Philotheus Boehner, German monk and medieval scholar (d. 1955)
 February 19  Florence Green, British supercentenarian and last-surviving World War I service veteran (d. 2012)
 February 20  Muhammad Naguib, President of Egypt (d. 1984)
 February 22  Ken G. Hall, Australian movie director (d. 1994)
 February 25  Zeppo Marx, American comedian (d. 1979)
 February 28  Linus Pauling, American chemist (d. 1994)
 March 3  Claude Choules, British-Australian supercentenarian and last-surviving World War I combat veteran (d. 2011)
 March 3  Gino Cervi, Italian movie actor (d. 1974)
 March 7  Beatrice Roberts, American actress (d. 1970)
 March 18  Helmut Fink, German World War I veteran (d. 2009)
 March 18  Manly Hall, Canadian writer (d. 1990)
 March 21  Karl Arnold, German politician (d. 1958)
 March 24  Ub Iwerks, American cartoonist (d. 1971)
 March 25  Ed Begley, American actor (d. 1970)
 March 27  Carl Barks, American cartoonist (d. 2000)
 March 27  Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (d. 1963)
 March 27  Eisaku Sato, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1975)
 March 27  Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet (d. 1971)
 March 28  Martha of Sweden, mother of King Harald V of Norway (d. 1954)
 April 1  Francisco Ascaso, Spanish anarcho-syndicalist (d. 1936)
 April 13  Jacques Lacan, French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist (d. 1981)
 April 18  Elene Akhvlediani, Georgian painter (d. 1975)
 April 18  Al Lewis, American songwriter (d. 1967)
 April 23  E.B. Ford, British ecological geneticist (d. 1988)
 April 29  Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (d. 1989)
 April 30  Simon Kuznets, Ukrainian-born economist (d. 1985)
 May 5  Blind Willie McTell, American musician (d. 1959)
 May 7  Gary Cooper, American actor (d. 1961)
 May 9  Fuzzy Knight, American actor (d. 1976)
 May 17  Werner Egk, German composer (d. 1983)
 May 18  Vincent du Vigneaud, American chemist (d. 1978)
 May 20  Max Euwe, Dutch chess player (d. 1981)
 May 21  Manfred Aschner, German-born Israeli microbiologist and entomologist (d. 1989)
 May 21  Sam Jaffe, American movie producer (d. 2000)
 May 21  Suzanne Lilar, Belgian writer (d. 1992)
 May 24  Jose Nasazzi, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1968)
 June 6  Sukarno, 1st President of Indonesia (d. 1970)
 June 10  Frederick Loewe, German-born composer (d. 1988)
 June 13  Tage Erlander, Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1985)
 June 16  Henri Lefebvre, French sociologist and philosopher (d. 1991)
 June 18  Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
 June 19  Piero Gobetti, Italian publicist and political activist (d. 1926)
 June 24  Harry Partch, American composer (d. 1974)

July - December 
 July 9  Barbara Cartland, British novelist (d. 2000)
 July 28  Rudy Vallee, American singer, actor, bandleader and entertainer (d. 1986)
 August 4  Louis Armstrong, American jazz musician (d. 1971)
 August 5  Thomas Ryan, American naval officer (d. 1970)
 August 8  Ernest Lawrence, American physicist (d. 1958)
 August 10  Franco Dino Rasetti, Italian scientist (d. 2001)
 August 18  Jean Guitton, French writer and philosopher (d. 1999)
 August 20  Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer (d. 1968)
 August 26  Chen Yi, Chinese military commander and politician (d. 1972)
 September 2  Adolph Rupp, college basketball coach (d. 1977)
 September 9  Agostinho Fortes Filho, Brazilian footballer (d. 1966)
 September 9  Hendrik Verwoerd, South African politician (d. 1966)
 September 13  James McCoubrey, Canadian-American supercentenarian, oldest-living man
 September 17  Francis Chichester, British adventurer (d. 1979)
 September 22  Charles B. Huggins, Canadian cancer researcher and Nobel Prize winner (d. 1997)
 September 23  Jaroslav Seifert, Czech politician (d. 1986)
 September 28  Ed Sullivan, American television personality (d. 1974)
 September 28  William S. Paley, American businessman (d. 1990)
 September 29  Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist (d. 1954)
 October 1  Jose Leandro Andrade, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1957)
 October 6  Aslak Brekke, Norwegian singer (d. 1978)
 October 7  Souvanna Phouma, Laotian leader (d. 1984)
 October 7  Frank Boucher, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1977)
 October 10  Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (d. 1966)
 October 24  Gilda Gray, Polish-born dancer and actress (d. 1959)
 November 3  Leopold III of Belgium (d. 1983)
 November 4  Masako Nashimoto, Crown Princess of Korea (d. 1989)
 November 4  Max Wagner, Mexican-born American actor (d. 1975)
 November 9  Marvel Rea, American actress (d. 1937)
 November 11  Magda Goebbels, wife of Joseph Goebbels (d. 1945)
 November 15  Bunny Roser, American baseball player (d. 1979)
 November 16  Ernest Nagel, Czech-born philosopher (d. 1985)
 November 17  Lee Strasberg, Austrian-American actor (d. 1982)
 November 18  George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (d. 1984)
 November 22  Joaquin Rodrigo, Spanish composer (d. 1999)
 November 29  Mildred Harris, American actress (d. 1944)
 December 2  Raimundo Orsi, Argentine-Italian footballer (d. 1986)
 December 5  Walt Disney, American animator and movie producer (d. 1966)
 December 5  Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
 December 9  Odon von Horvath, Austro-Hungarian writer (d. 1938)
 December 14  King Paul of Greece (d. 1964)
 December 16  Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (d. 1978)
 December 19  Rudolf Hell, German inventor (d. 2002)
 December 25  Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, British royal (d. 2004)
 December 27  Marlene Dietrich, German actress (d. 1992)
 December 31  Karl-August Fagerholm, Prime Minister of Finland (d. 1984)

Deaths

January - June 

 January 11  Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian composer (b. 1866)
 January 14  Victor Balaguer, Spanish politician and writer (b. 1824)
 January 17  Frederic William Henry Myers, English scholar, poet, philosopher and psychologist (b. 1843)
 January 20  Zenobe Gramme, Belgian electrical engineer (b. 1826)
 January 21  Elisha Gray, American inventor (b. 1835)
 January 22  Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India (b. 1819)
 January 27  Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (b. 1813)
 February 11  Milan I of Serbia (b. 1854)
 February 17  Ethelbert Nevin, American pianist and composer (b. 1862)
 March 13  Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (b. 1833)
 April 3  Richard D'Oyly Carte, English impresario (b. 1844)
 April 4  George T. Anderson, American Confederate general (b. 1824)
 May 1  Lewis Waterman, American inventor and businessman (b. 1837)
 May 5  Mariano Ignacio Prado, former President of Peru (b. 1826)
 May 13  Leopoldo Alas, Spanish writer (b. 1851)
 May 22  Gaetano Bresci, Italian anarchist (b. 1869)
 May 24  Charlotte Mary Yonge, English novelist (b. 1823)
 June 15  Max Weber, German-American general (b. 1824)

July - December 
 July 6  Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfuerst, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1819)
 July 7  Johanna Spyri, Swiss writer (b. 1827)
 August 5  Victoria, Princess Royal (b. 1840)
 August 12  Francesco Crispi, former Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1819)
 August 12  Adolf Erik Nordenskiold, Swedish explorer (b. 1832)
 September 9  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (b. 1864)
 September 14  William McKinley, 25th President of the United States (assassinated) (b. 1843)
 October 1  Abdor Rahman Khan, Emir of Afghanistan (b. 1844)
 October 10  Lorenzo Snow, American Mormon leader (b. 1814)
 October 29  Leon Czolgosz, Polish-American assassin (b. 1873)
 November 6  Kate Greenaway, English writer (b. 1846)
 November 30  Edward John Eyre, English explorer of Australia and colonial Governor of Jamaica (b. 1815)
 December 12  Nawab Muhammad Hayat Khan, British Indian administrator (b. 1833)
 December 16  William Gregory, American politician (b. 1849)
 December 17  Josep Manyanet i Vives, Catalan Saint and priest (b. 1833)
 December 24  Lev Ivanov, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1834)

Nobel Prizes 

 Physics  Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen
 Chemistry  Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
 Physiology or Medicine  Emil Adolf von Behring
 Literature  Sully Prudhomme
 Peace  Jean-Henri Dunant and Frederic Passy