- Jan 20 Edward Francis Fitzwilliam, English composer, dies at 32
- Jan 27 Dorothea Lieven, Russian-born correspondent of Czars and Empresses (held influential salons in London and Paris), dies at 72
- Feb 7 Félix de Merode, Earl of Merode, Belgian minister of War and Finance, dies at 65
- Feb 9 Dionysios Solomos, Greek poet of the Greek national anthem, dies at 58
David Thompson (1770-1857)
Feb 10 English-Canadian explorer (Columbia River, mapped more Canadian territory than anyone else), dies at 86
- Feb 14 Johannes Bernardus van Bree, Dutch violinist, composer and conductor, dies at 56
- Feb 15 Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (Kamarinskaya; Ruslan and Ludmilla), dies at 53
- Feb 16 Auguste-Gaspard-Louis Desnoyers, French engraver, dies at 77
- Feb 16 Elisha Kent Kane, American naval surgeon and Arctic explorer (led expedition to Greenland discover fate of John Franklin), dies at 37
- Feb 26 Ole Andreas Lindeman, Norwegian organist (Trondheim Vor Frelsers Kirke, 1799-57), composer, and educator, dies at 88
- Feb 28 André Dumont, Belgian geologist, dies at 48
- Mar 11 Manuel Jose Quintana, Spanish author and poet (A la paz), dies at 84
- Mar 17 Adolph Trube, German composer and organist, dies at 42
- Mar 21 Abraham Jacob van der Aa, Dutch lexicographer (Biographic dictionary), dies at 64
- Mar 26 Wei Yuan, Chinese scholar and geographer of Qing Dynasty, dies at 62
- Apr 8 Mangal Pandey, Indian Sepoy (soldier) in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (B.N.I.) regiment of the British East India Company, hanged at 29
- Apr 30 Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh, dies at 81
- May 2 Alfred de Musset, French poet (Lesson caprices Marianne), dies at 46
- May 11 Eugène François Vidocq, French criminal & police detective, dies at 81
- May 23 Augustin Louis Cauchy, French mathematician and physicist, dies at 67
- Jun 8 Douglas William Jerrold, English playwright and satirist, dies at 54
- Jun 19 Alexander Twilight, American politician and minister, first African American to graduate and hold political office, dies at 61
- Jun 28 Joseph Fischhof, Czech-Austrian pianist and composer, dies at 53
- Jun 30 Alcide d'Orbigny, French naturalist, dies at 54
- Jul 2 Carlo Pisacane, Italian patriot and revolutionary, killed leading an uprising (b. 1818)
- Jul 4 William L. Marcy, American statesman, dies at 70
- Jul 15 Carl Czerny, Czech-Austrian pianist, composer (Schule der Virtuosen), student of Ludwig van Beethoven, and teacher of Franz Liszt, dies at 66
- Jul 16 Pierre-Jean de Baranger, poet, dies
- Jul 19 Stefano Franscini, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1796)
- Jul 25 Joseph Napoleon Ney, French politician, dies at 54
- Jul 29 Charles Lucien Bonaparte, French politician and Prince of Canino and Musignano, dies at 54
- Jul 29 Thomas Dick, Scottish scientific teacher and writer (b. 1774)
- Aug 1 Charles Turner, engraver, dies
- Aug 3 Eugène Sue, French novelist (b. 1804)
- Aug 10 John Wilson Croker, politician
- Aug 11 Marshall Hall, English physician, physiologist and early neurologist (physiology of reflex function), dies of a throat infection at 67
- Aug 12 William Conybeare, English geologist (fossils of plesiosaur dinosaur), dies at 70
- Aug 26 Adolf Schlagintweit, German botanist and explorer (Tarimbekken, executed in Kashgar after being mistaken for a spy at 28
- Aug 27 Rufus Wilmot Griswold, American poet, literary critic and editor, dies of tuberculosis at 42
- Sep 3 Heinrich Lichtenstein, German zoologist, botanist and explorer who collected plants in Southern Africa, dies at 77
- Sep 3 John McLoughlin, Canadian Hudson's Bay Co pioneer and fur trader in Oregon Country, dies at 72
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Sep 5 French philosopher and father of sociology (A General View of Positivism), dies of stomach cancer at 59
- Sep 18 Karol Kurpiński, Polish composer (Pygmalion; Kalmora, or The Paternal Right of the Americans), conductor (Warsaw Opera, 1810-40), and pedagogue, dies at 72
- Oct 10 Thomas Crawford, American sculptor (Statue of Freedom on dome of US Capitol), dies of cancer at 43
- Oct 14 Ignacy Marceli Komorowski, Polish composer, dies of tuberculosis at 33
- Oct 28 Louis Eugène Cavaignac, French soldier and politician (b. 1802)
- Nov 7 Charles Zeuner, German-American composer and organist, dies at 62
- Nov 12 Manuel Oribe, Uruguayan politician and nationalist, 2nd President of Uruguay (1835-38), dies at 65
- Nov 24 Henry Havelock, British soldier (War in Afghanistan 1838-39), dies at 62
- Nov 26 Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, German Romantic poet (That Freier), dies at 69
- Dec 3 Christian Daniel Rauch, German sculptor (Frederick II of Prussia equestrian statue), dies at 80
- Dec 11 Castil-Blaze [Francois Henri Joseph Blaze], French composer and music critic, dies at 73
- Dec 17 Francis Beaufort, Irish admiral and hydrographer (Beaufort wind force scale), dies at 83
Assassination
Car Crash
Hanging
Killed in Action
Plane Crash
Poisoning