- Dec 1 Archibald Gracie III, American army officer, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in New York City (d. 1864)
- Dec 8 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author "Pa Guds Veje" and Nobel laureate 1903, born in Kvikne, Norway (d. 1910)
- Dec 12 Abraham Carel Wertheim, Dutch banker and philanthropist, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1897)
- Dec 14 Daniel H. Reynolds, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Centerburg, Ohio (d. 1902)
Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923)
Dec 15 French engineer and architect who designed and built the Eiffel tower, born in Dijon, France
- Dec 19 John Kirk Barry, British physician, explorer and administrator in Zanzibar (companion to explorer David Livingstone), born in Barry, Scotland (d. 1922)
- Dec 21 John Henry Ketcham, American politician and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Dover Plains, New York (d. 1906)
- Dec 22 Edward Hatch, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Bangor, Maine (d. 1889)
- Dec 25 Thomas Alfred Smyth, Irish-American Major General (Union Army), born in County Cork, Republic of Ireland (d. 1865)
- Dec 27 Pavel Tretyakov, Russian businessman and patron of art, born in Moscow (d. 1897)
Greatest Generation
Silent Generation
Baby Boomer
Generation X
Millennial
Generation Z