- Dec 4 Lillian Russell [Helen Leonard], American singer and actress (Great Mogul), born in Clinton, Iowa (d. 1922)
- Dec 5 Armando Diaz, Italian marshal and minister of War (1922-24), born in Naples, Kingdom of Italy (d. 1928)
- Dec 8 Aristide Maillol, French painter and sculptor (Seated Woman), born in Banyuls-sur-Mer, Roussillon, France (d. 1944)
- Dec 8 George Méliès, French early filmmaker (A trip to the Moon), born in Paris (d. 1938)
- Dec 8 William C. Durant, American industry pioneer, founded General Motors, Frigidaire, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1947)
- Dec 15 Charles Duryea, American inventor (Duryea Motor Wagon Company, first auto built in the US), born in Canton, Illinois (d. 1938)
- Dec 16 Antonio de La Gandara, French painter (d. 1917)
- Dec 17 Fritz Volbach, German conductor, musicologist and composer (Raffael), born in Wipperfürth, Germany (d. 1940)
- Dec 18 Lionel Monckton, British composer (Edwardian musical comedy), born in London, England (d. 1924)
- Dec 19 Constance Garnett, English translator of Russian (first to translate Chekhov and Dostoevsky into English), born in Brighton England (d. 1946)
- Dec 19 Italo Svevo, Italian writer (La Coscienza di Zeno), born in Trieste, Austrian Empire (d. 1928)
- Dec 20 Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter, born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (d. 1926)
- Dec 22 Erich Schaeder, German theologist (Theocentric Theology), born in Clausthal, Germany (d. 1936)
- Dec 25 Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Indian founder of Banaras Hindu University (d. 1946)
- Dec 26 Friedrich Engel, German mathematician (group theory), born in Lugau, Saxony, German Federation (d. 1941)
- Dec 27 William Chatterton, English cricket batsman (1 Test, HS 48; Derbyshire CCC) and soccer forward (Derby County FC), born in Thornsett, England (d. 1913)
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