Year (''' MDCCCLXXXI ''') was a Common Year Starting On Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Year Starting On Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian Calendar ).
- January 1 - Vajiravudh , King Of Thailand (d. 1925 )
- January 9
- --- Lascelles Abercrombie , English poet and critic (d. 1938 )
- --- Giovanni Papini , Italian essayist, poet, and novelist (d. 1956 )
- January 17 - Antoni Lomnicki , Polish mathematician (d. 1941 )
- January 31 - Irving Langmuir , American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957 )
- February 12 - Anna Pavlova , Russian ballerina (d. 1931 )
- March 4
- --- Maude Fealy , American stage and film actor (d. 1971 )
- --- Thomas Sigismund Stribling , American writer (d. 1965 )
- --- Richard C. Tolman , American mathematical physicist (d. 1948 )
- March 9 - Ernest Bevin , British labour leader, politician, and statesman (d. 1951 )
- March 17 - Walter Rudolf Hess , Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973 )
- March 23
- --- Roger Martin Du Gard , French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958 )
- --- Hermann Staudinger , German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965 )
- March 25
- --- Béla Bartók , Hungarian composer (d. 1945 )
- --- Mary Webb , English writer (d. 1927 )
- May 14 - G. Murray Hulbert , American politician (d. 1950 )
- May 19 - Official birthday of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , founder and the first President Of Turkey (d. 1938 )
- May 20 - Władysław Sikorski , Polish general and politician (d. 1943 )
- June 17 - Tommy Burns , Canadian-born boxer (d. 1955 )
- July 2 - Royal H. Weller , American politician (d. 1929 )
- July 4 - Ulysses S. Grant III , American soldier and planner (d. 1968 )
- July 27 - Hans Fischer , German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1945 )
- July 30 - Smedley Butler , U.S. general (d. 1940 )
- August 6 - Sir Alexander Fleming , Scottish researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize In Physiology Or Medicine (d. 1955 )
- August 19 - Georges Enescu , Romanian composer (d. 1955 )
- August 20 - Edgar Guest , English poet (d. 1959 )
- September 5 - Otto Bauer , Austrian Social Democratic politician (d. 1938 )
- September 8 - Harry Hillman , American athlete (d. 1945 )
- September 16 - Clive Bell , English art critic (d. 1964 )
- September 17 - Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter , English soldier (d. 1955 )
- October 1 - William Boeing , American engineer and airplane manufacturer (d. 1956 )
- October 11 - Hans Kelsen , Austrian legal theorist (d. 1973 )
- October 15
- --- William Temple , Archbishop Of Canterbury (d. 1944 )
- --- P. G. Wodehouse , English-born writer (d. 1975 )
- October 22 - Clinton Davisson , American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958 )
- October 25 - Pablo Picasso , Spanish painter (d. 1973 )Begun to paint on 1900. All works before that year belongs to his father, José Ruiz Blasco. Case in Central Trial Court.
- November 14 - Nicholas Schenck , Russian-born film studio executive (d. 1969 )
- November 24 - Al Christie , Canadian-born director and producer (d. 1951 )
- November 25 - Pope John XXIII (d. 1963 )
- November 28 - Stefan Zweig , Austrian writer (d. 1942 )
- December 24 - Juan Ramón Jiménez , Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958 )
- ''date unknown'' - Hiram Wesley Evans , American leader of KKK and prohibitionist (d. 1966 )
: ''See also .''
- January 3 - Anna McNeill Whistler , Whistler's mother (b. 1804 )
- January 21 - Wilhelm Matthias Naeff , Member Of The Swiss Federal Council (b. 1802 )
- February 5 - Thomas Carlyle , Scottish writer and historian (b. 1795 )
- February 9 - Fyodor Dostoevsky , Russian novelist (b. 1821 )
- February 14 - Fernando Wood , New York City Mayor (b. 1812 )
- March 13 - Czar Alexander II Of Russia (b. 1818 )
- March 28 - Modest Mussorgsky , Russian composer (b. 1839 )
- April 19 - Benjamin Disraeli , Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom (b. 1804 )
- May 24 - Samuel Palmer , English artist (b. 1805 )
- May 25 - Giuseppe Maria Giulietti , Italian explorer (b. 1847 )
- June 6 - Henri Vieuxtemps , Belgian composer (b. 1820 )
: ''See also .''
|