1882

Events 
 May 20 – Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.
 March 29 – The Knights of Columbus are set up.
 Edison builds first power station in the United States.

 Births 
 January 6 – Fan S. Noli, Albanian poet and political figure (d. 1965)
 January 18 – A. A. Milne, British writer (d. 1956)
 January 25 – Virginia Woolf, writer (d. 1941)
 January 30 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, thirty-second President of the United States (b. 1945)
 February 1 – Louis Stephen St. Laurent, sixteenth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1973)
 February 2 – James Joyce, writer (d. 1941)
 February 11 – Gheorghe Cucu composer (d. 1932)
 February 15 – John Barrymore, actor (d. 1942)
 March 14 – Waclaw Sierpinski Polish mathematician (d. 1969)
 March 15 – Jim Lightbody, American middle-distance runner
 March 21 – Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, actor (d. 1971)
 March 23 – Emmy Noether, mathematician (d. 1935)
 April 17 – Artur Schnabel, pianist (d. 1951)
 April 18 – Isabel J. Cox, future spouse of Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1985)
 May 6 – Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, heir of Kaiser Wilhelm II (d. 1951)
 May 9 – Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist (d. 1967)
 May 9 – George Barker, United States painter (d. 1965)
 May 13 – Georges Braque, painter (d. 1963)
 May 16 – Anne McCormick, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner (d. 1954)
 May 19 – Mohammed Mossadegh, Iranian prime minister (d. 1967)
 May 20 – Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer (d. 1949)
 May 30 – Wyndham Halswelle, British runner
 June 9 – Bobby Kerr, Canadian sprinter
 June 17 – Igor Stravinsky, composer (d. 1971)
 August 14 – Gisela Richter, art historian (d. 1972)
 August 25 – Sean T. O'Kelly, second President of Ireland (d. 1966)
 October 5 – Robert Goddard, rocket scientist (d. 1945)
 October 6 – Karol Szymanowski, composer (d. 1937)
 October 14 – Éamon de Valera, Taoiseach and third President of Ireland (d. 1975)
 October 22 – N.C. Wyeth, artist
 December 9 – Joaquín Turina, composer (d. 1949)
 November 11 – King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (d. 1973)
 December 16 – Zoltán Kodály, composer (d. 1967)

 Deaths 
 February 11 – Gustav Schmidt, composer
 March 24 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, writer
 April 3 – Jesse James, outlaw
 April 10 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poet, painter
 April 19 – Charles Darwin, British naturalist
 July 16 – Mary Todd Lincoln, former First Lady of the United States
 December 27 – Giovanni Losi, Italian Combonian catholic missionary
 Charles A. Alexander, Victorian architect

 Heads of State 
 China – Guāngxù Emperor of China, Qing Dynasty (1875-1908)
 Denmark – Christian IX, King of Denmark (1863-1906)
 France – Jules Grévy, President of France (1879-1887)
 Germany – Wilhelm I, German Kaiser (1871-1888)
 Holy See – Pope Leo XIII, Bishop of Rome (1878-1903)
 Japan – Mutsuhito, Meiji emperor (1867-1912)
 Norway – Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway (1872-1905)
 Ottoman Empire – Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1876-1909)
 Russia – Alexander III, Tsar of Russia (1881-1894)
 Spain – Alfonso XII of Spain, King of Spain (1875-1885)
 United States – Chester A. Arthur, President of the United States (1881-1885)