- Dec 2 Francis Jammes, French poet and writer (Jammisme), born in Tournay, Hautes-Pyrénées, France (d. 1938)
- Dec 4 Jesse Burkett, American Baseball HOF left fielder (NL batting champion 1895-96, 1901; 240 hits in 1896 MLB record for 15 years; Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Perfectos/Cardinals), born in Wheeling, West Virginia (d. 1953)
- Dec 4 Richard Nicolaas Roland Holst, Dutch artist and painter, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1938)
- Dec 5 Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist, born in Königsberg, Prussia (d. 1951)
- Dec 9 Fritz Haber, German physicist and chemist (Nobel 1918 for process to synthesize ammonia), born in Breslau, Prussia (d. 1934)
- Dec 10 Louis Victor Saar, Dutch-American composer, born in Rotterdam (d. 1937)
- Dec 11 Ernst Henrik Ellberg, Swedish composer, born in Söderhamn, Sweden (d. 1948)
- Dec 14 Richard Batka, Austrian music critic and composer, born in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia (now Czech Republic) (d. 1922)
Harvey S. Firestone (1868-1938)
Dec 20 American industrialist and founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company ("where the rubber meets the road"), born in Columbiana, Ohio
- Dec 24 Emanuel Lasker, German World Chess Champion (1894-21), born in Barlinek, Poland (d. 1941)
- Dec 25 Eugenie Besserer, American actress (Jazz Singer), born in Watertown, New York (d. 1934)
- Dec 28 Marie van Regteren Altena, Dutch painter (Amsterdam's Joffers), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1958)
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