- Jan 5 Henri Herz, Austrian composer, dies at a day before his 85th birthday
- Jan 14 Stephen Heller, Hungarian composer and pianist, dies at 74
- Jan 17 Mistahimaskwa [Big Bear], Plains Cree chief (refused to sign 1876 Treaty 6), dies [1]
- Jan 21 Stephan Hale Alonzo Marsh, British born composer who worked in Australia (Australia's 1st opera), dies at 83
- Jan 23 Eugène Marin Labiche, French playwright (The Italian Straw Hat), dies at 72
- Jan 29 Edward Lear, English poet and author (famous for his nonsense poems - The Owl and the Pussycat), dies at 75
- Jan 30 Asa Gray, American botanist (Flora of North America), dies at 77
- Jan 31 John Bosco, Italian priest, youth worker, educator, founder of the Salesian Society, dies at 72
- Feb 5 (Anthonij) "Anton" Mauve, Dutch realist painter, and cousin-in-law of Vincent Van Gogh, dies at 49
- Feb 8 Robert H. Anderson, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army, dies at 52
- Feb 11 William Kelly, American inventor (pneumatic process of steelmaking), dies at 76
- Feb 13 Jean Baptiste Lamy, 1st Archbishop of Santa Fe (1853-85), dies at 73
- Feb 22 Jean-Delphin Alard, French violinist and composer, dies at 72
- Mar 4 Amos Bronson Alcott, American reformer, philosopher and poet (Table Talk), dies at 88
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
Mar 6 American author (Little Women), dies of a stroke at 55
Wilhelm I (1797-1888)
Mar 9 King of Prussia (1861-88) and the 1st German Emperor (1871-88), dies at 90
- Mar 10 Ciro Pinsuti, Italian pianist and composer, dies at 57
- Mar 12 Henry Bergh, American social reformer who founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and co-founded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC), dies at 76
- Mar 15 Squire Whipple, American engineer who invented the iron truss bridge, dies at 83 [1]
- Mar 16 Hippolyte Carnot, French statesman, dies at 86
- Mar 24 Vsevolod Garshin, Russian author (b. 1855)
- Mar 25 Francesco Faà di Bruno, Italian mathematician, and later Catholic priest and advocate for the poor, dies at 62
- Mar 26 Barghash bin Said, second Sultan of Zanzibar (b. 1837)
- Mar 29 Charles-Valentin Alkan, French pianist and composer, dies at 74
- Apr 6 Thomas Green Clemson, American politician and founder of Clemson University, dies at 80
- Apr 14 William Fiske Sherwin, American composer, dies at 62
- Apr 16 Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski, Polish physicist and chemist, dies at 42
- Apr 18 Roscoe Conkling, American politician (U.S. Senator from New York 1867-81), dies at 58
- May 17 Giacomo Zanella, Italian poet (b. 1820)
- May 19 Hermann Hirschboch, German composer and music critic, dies at 76
- Jun 3 Cark Reidel, German composer, dies at 60
- Jun 12 Carel Vosmaer, Dutch poet and art critic (Netherlands Spectator), dies at 62
- Jun 15 Frederick III, German Emperor (1888), dies of cancer at 56
- Jun 20 Cesare Dominiceti, Italian composer, dies at 66
- Jun 20 Johannes Zukertort, German chess player, dies at 45
- Jun 23 Emil Naumann, German composer, dies at 60
- Jun 29 John Baillie McIntosh, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), dies at 59
- Jul 4 Theodor Storm, German judge and author (Immensee, Der Schimmelreiter), dies at 70
- Jul 10 Rafael Hernando, Spanish composer of zarzuelas, dies at 66
- Jul 19 Yamaoka Tesshū, Japanese swordsman and master of kendo, dies at 52
- Jul 20 Henri Braekeleer, Flemish painter, dies at 48
- Jul 21 Matthias Joseph Scheeben, German theologist (Natur und Gnade), dies at 53
- Jul 23 Williams Carter Wickham, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 67
- Aug 5 Anna Haining Swan, Canadian giantess at 7ft 11in (exhibited with P. T. Barnum's Museum), dies of consumption at 41 [1]
- Aug 5 Philip Sheridan, American general (fought Civil War for Union army, helped preserve Yellowstone Park), dies of heart failure at 57
- Aug 8 Friedrich Wilhelm Jahns, German composer, voice teacher and musicologist, dies at 79
- Aug 9 Charles Cros, French inventor and poet (Le Hareng Saur), dies at 45
- Aug 9 Isaac Strauss, French violinist, conductor and composer, dies at 82
Charles Crocker (1822-1888)
Aug 14 American business tycoon and railroad executive (Central Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Railroad), dies at 65
- Aug 15 Carter L. Stevenson, American Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 70
John Pemberton (1831-1888)
Aug 16 American pharmacist (inventor of Coca-Cola), dies of stomach cancer at 57
- Aug 17 James Jameson, Scottish heir to Jameson Whisky and explorer who paid for a 10 yr old girl to be eaten in the Congo, dies of a fever at 32
- Aug 19 Spencer Fullerton Baird, American naturalist and ornithologist (Wood's Hole Station), dies at 65
- Aug 21 Simon Vissering, Dutch economist (Minister of Finance 1879-81), dies at 70
- Aug 23 Philip Henry Gosse, English naturalist (created 1st public aquarium at London Zoo, coined term 'aquarium'), dies at 78
- Aug 24 Rudolf Clausius, German physicist (one of the founders of the study of thermodynamics), dies at 66
Mary Ann Nichols (1845-1888)
Aug 31 English prostitute and 1st victim of Jack the Ripper, found stabbed to death in London at 42
- Sep 8 Annie Chapman, English victim of the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper, murdered at about 48
- Sep 9 Jan van Swieten, Dutch governor of West-Sumatra, dies at 71
- Sep 11 Domingo F. Sarmiento, President of Argentina (1868-74), dies at 77
- Sep 30 Catherine Eddowes, English woman murdered by Jack the Ripper at 45
- Sep 30 Elizabeth Stride "Long Liz", English woman murdered by Jack the Ripper at 45
- Oct 4 Tom King, English boxer (English heavyweight champion 1862-63), rower and bookmaker, dies of bronchitus at 53
- Oct 8 Jules d'Anethan, Belgian politician, Prime Minister of Belgium (1870-71), dies at 85
- Oct 16 John Wentworth, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1815)
- Oct 19 Amaat Vyncke, Belgian missionary to the Upper Congo (Flemish Wind), dies of swamp fever and liver disease at 38
- Nov 1 Nikolay Przhevalsky, Russian naturalist and explorer (East and Central Asia), dies of typhus at 49
- Nov 10 George Bingham, British 3rd Lord Lucan (Charge of the Light Brigade), dies at 88
- Nov 20 Nathaniel Currier, American lithographer (Currier & Ives), dies at 75
- Dec 2 Franz Xaver Witt, German church musician, composer, and priest, dies at 54
- Dec 2 Namık Kemal, Turkish writer, journalist and political activist (Young Ottomans), dies at 47
- Dec 3 Carl Zeiss, German scientific instrument and lens maker (Carl Zeiss AG), dies at 72
- Dec 10 Marià Obiols, Catalan composer, dies at 79
- Dec 11 John Rylands, English cloth merchant and philanthropist (Rylands & Sons, Manchester's 1st multi-millionaire), dies at 87
- Dec 31 Samson Raphael Hirsch, German Orthodox rabbi and intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism, dies at 80
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide