1928
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| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
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| Centuries: | 19th century – 20th century – 21st century |
| Decades: | 1890s 1900s 1910s – 1920s – 1930s 1940s 1950s |
| Years: | 1925 1926 1927 – 1928 – 1929 1930 1931 |
| 1928 by topic: |
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| Gregorian calendar | 1928 MCMXXVIII |
| Ab urbe condita | 2681 |
| Armenian calendar | 1377 ԹՎ ՌՅՀԷ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6678 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 84–85 |
| Bengali calendar | 1335 |
| Berber calendar | 2878 |
| British Regnal year | 17 Geo. 5 – 18 Geo. 5 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2472 |
| Burmese calendar | 1290 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7436–7437 |
| Chinese calendar | 丁卯年十二月初九日 (4564/4624-12-9) — to — 戊辰年十一月二十日(4565/4625-11-20) |
| Coptic calendar | 1644–1645 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1920–1921 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5688–5689 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 1984–1985 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1850–1851 |
| - Kali Yuga | 5029–5030 |
| Holocene calendar | 11928 |
| Igbo calendar | |
| - Ǹrí Ìgbò | 928–929 |
| Iranian calendar | 1306–1307 |
| Islamic calendar | 1346–1347 |
| Japanese calendar | Shōwa 3 (昭和3年) |
| Juche calendar | 17 |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4261 |
| Minguo calendar | ROC 17 民國17年 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2471 |
Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. This was the last year that the Julian calendar was used and by 1 January 1929, every world nation had adopted the Gregorian calendar.
Events
January
- January – English bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA.
- January 1 – Estonia changes its currency from the mark to the kroon.
- January 6– 7 – The River Thames floods in London; 14 drown. On January 7 the moat at the Tower of London (drained in 1843 and planted with grass) is completely refilled by a tidal wave.
- January 12 – Convicted American murderer Ruth Snyder is executed at Sing Sing.
- January 17 – The OGPU arrests Lev Trotsky in Moscow; he assumes a status of passive resistance.
- January 26 – The volcanic island Anak Krakatau appears.
- January 31 – Trotsky is exiled to Alma Ata.
February
- February 11– 19 – The 1928 Winter Olympics are held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, the first as a separate event. Sonja Henie of Norway wins her first gold medal in women's figure skating.
- February 12 – Heavy hail kills 11 in England.
- February 20 – The Japanese general election produces a hung parliament.
- February 25 – Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C., becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.
March
- March 12
- Malta becomes a British dominion.
- In California, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles fails, killing 600.
- March 15 – March 15 incident: Japanese government crackdown on socialists and communists.
- March 21 – Charles Lindbergh is presented the Medal of Honour for his first Transatlantic flight.
- March 26 – The China Academy of Art is founded in Hangzhou (originally named the National Academy of Art).
April
- April – The last section ("wise – wyze") of the original Oxford English Dictionary is completed and ready for publication.
- April 10 – " Pineapple Primary": The United States Republican Party primary elections in Chicago are preceded by assassinations and bombings.
- April 12 – A bomb attack against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini in Milan kills 17 bystanders.
- April 12– 14 – The first ever east–west transatlantic flight by aeroplane takes place from Dublin, Ireland, to Greenly Island, Canada, using German Junkers W33 Bremen.
- April 14 – Two earthquakes in Chirpan and Plovdiv in Bulgaria destroy more than 21,000 buildings and kill almost 130 people.
- April 22 – An earthquake destroys 200,000 buildings in Corinth.
- April 28 – 28 inches of snow fall in southern-central Pennsylvania.
May
- May 3 – Jinan Incident, an armed conflict between the Japanese Imperial Army allied with Northern Chinese warlords against the Kuomintang's southern army, occurs in Jinan, China.
- May 7 – Passage of the Representation of the People Act in the United Kingdom lowers the voting age for women from 30 to 21 giving them equal suffrage with men from July 2.
- May 10 – The first regular schedule of television programming begins in Schenectady, New York by the General Electric's television station W2XB (the station is popularly known as WGY Television, after its sister radio station WGY).
- May 15
- The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia commences operations.
- The animated short Plane Crazy is released by Disney Studios in Los Angeles, featuring the first appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
- May 23 – A bomb attack against the Italian consulate in Buenos Aires kills 22 and injures 43.
- May 24 – The airship Italia crashes at the North Pole; one of the occupants is Italian general Umberto Nobile. A rescue expedition leaves for the Pole on May 30.
June
- June 3 – American serial killer Albert Fish kidnaps and kills 10-year-old Grace Budd.
- June 4 – Huanggutun Incident: Zhang Zuolin, a warlord, is killed by Japanese agents.
- June 8 – By seizing Beijing and renaming it Běipíng, the National Revolutionary Army puts an end to the Fengtian warlords' Běiyáng government there.
- June 11 – A medical doctors' strike begins in Vienna.
- June 14 – Students take over the medical wing of Rosario University in Argentina.
- June 17– 18 – Aviatrix Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to make a successful Transatlantic flight, as a passenger in a Fokker F.VIIb/3m piloted by Wilmer Stultz from Newfoundland to Wales.
- June 20 – Puniša Račić shoots 3 opposition representatives in the Yugoslavian Parliament, and injures 3 others.
- June 24 – A Swedish aeroplane rescues part of the Italian North Pole expedition, including Umberto Nobile. The Soviet icebreaker Krasin saves the rest July 12.
- June 28 – The International Railway (New York – Ontario) switches to one-man crews for its trolleys in Canada.
- June 29 – At the 1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston, Governor of New York Al Smith becomes the first Catholic nominated by a major political party for President of the United States.
July
- July 2 – Jenkins Laboratories' W3XK station begins broadcasting on 6.42 MHz using 48 lines.
- July 3 – British inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates the world's first colour television transmission.
- July 7 – The first machine-sliced and machine-wrapped loaf of bread is sold in Chillicothe, Missouri, using Otto Frederick Rohwedder's technology.
- July 12 – Mexican aviator Emilio Carranza dies in a solo plane crash in the New Jersey Pine Barrens while returning from a goodwill flight to New York City.
- July 17 – José de León Toral assassinates Álvaro Obregón, president of Mexico.
- July 25 – The United States recalls its troops from China.
- July 27
- Tich Freeman becomes the only bowler ever to take 200 first-class wickets before the end of July.
- Radclyffe Hall's novel The Well of Loneliness is published in London.
- July 28– August 12 – The 1928 Summer Olympics are held in Amsterdam, opening with the lighting of the Olympic flame. Women's athletics and gymnastics debut at these games and discus thrower Halina Konopacka of Poland became the first female Olympic gold medal winner for a track or field event. Coca Cola enters Europe as sponsor of the games.
August
- August 2 – Italy and Ethiopia sign the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty.
- August 22 – Al Smith accepts the Democratic presidential nomination, with WGY/W2XB simulcasting the event on radio and television.
- August 25 – Ahmet Zogu proclaims himself King Zog of Albania; he is crowned September 1.
- August 26 – In Scotland, May Donoghue finds the remains of a snail in her ginger beer, leading to the landmark negligence case Donoghue v. Stevenson.
- August 27 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact is signed in Paris, the first treaty to outlaw aggressive war.
- August 29 – C.D. Motagua is founded as an Association football club in Honduras.
- August 31 – The Threepenny Opera (German: Die Dreigroschenoper) by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill opens at the Theatre am Schiffbauerdamm, Berlin.
September
- September 1 – Richard E. Byrd leaves New York for the Arctic.
- September 3
- Philo Farnsworth demonstrates to the Press in San Francisco the world's first working all-electronic television system, employing electronic scanning in both the pickup and display devices.
- Alexander Fleming, at St Mary's Hospital, London, accidentally rediscovers the antibiotic Penicillin.
- September 11 – The Queen's Messenger is the first melodrama broadcast by Ernst F. W. Alexanderson at W2XAD ( Schenectady, New York); WMAK ( Kenmore) begins broadcasting in Buffalo, New York.
- September 15 – Tich Freeman sets an all-time record for the number of wickets taken in an English cricket season.
- September 16 – The Okeechobee Hurricane kills at least 2,500 people in Florida.
- September 25 – Paul and Joseph Galvin incorporate the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation (now known as Motorola and Freescale).
October
- October 2 – Josemaria Escriva founds Opus Dei.
- October 7 – Haile Selassie is crowned king (not yet emperor) of Abyssinia.
- October 8 – Chiang Kai-shek is named as Generalissimo (Chairman of the National Military Council) of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China.
- October 12 – An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston.
- October 19 – William Edward Hickman is executed at San Quentin prison for the 1927 murder of 12-year-old Marion Parker.
- October 22 – The Phi Sigma Alpha Fraternity is founded at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.
- October 26 – International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRM) formally established with the adoption of “Statutes of the International Red Cross”
November
- November 4 – Arnold Rothstein, New York City's most notorious gambler, is shot to death over a poker game in a Manhattan hotel.
- November 6
- United States presidential election, 1928: Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over Democrat Al Smith.
- Swedes start a tradition of eating Gustavus Adolphus pastries to commemorate the 17th-century king on the anniversary of his death in battle.
- November 10 – Enthronement ceremony of Emperor of Japan Hirohito, held two years after he actually took the imperial throne on December 26, 1926, following the death of Emperor Taishō.
- November 12 – The SS Vestris develops a severe starboard list, is abandoned and sinks approximately 200 miles off Hampton Roads, Virginia. Estimates of the dead range from 110 to 127.
- November 17 – Boston Garden opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
- November 18 – Mickey Mouse appears in Steamboat Willie, the third Mickey Mouse cartoon released, but the first sound film and the first such film to be generally distributed.
- November 22 – The one-movement ballet Boléro with music by Maurice Ravel and choreography by Bronislava Nijinska premières at the Paris Opéra to a commission by Ida Rubinstein.
December
- December 3 – In Rio de Janeiro, a seaplane sent to greet Alberto Santos-Dumont crashes near Cap Arcona, killing all on board.
- December 21 – The United States Congress approves the construction of Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam.
Date unknown
- Eliot Ness begins to lead the prohibition unit in Chicago.
- The old Canaanite city of Ugarit is rediscovered.
- Turkey switches from the Arabic to the Latin-based modern Turkish alphabet.
- Margaret Mead's influential cultural anthropology text Coming of Age in Samoa is published in the U.S.
- The Episcopal Church in the United States of America ratifies a new revision of the Book of Common Prayer.
- W2XBS, RCA's first television station, is established in New York City.
- Joseph Stalin launches the First Five-Year Plan (1928–1932 – The average nonfarm wage falls by 50% in the Soviet Union).
Births
January
- January 2
- January 5
- Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, President of Pakistan and Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1979)
- Walter Mondale, U.S. Senator, Vice President and Presidential candidate
- January 6 – George H. Ross, American businessman
- January 7 – William Peter Blatty, American writer
- January 9 – Domenico Modugno, Italian singer, songwriter, actor and politician (d. 1994)
- January 10 – Philip Levine, American poet
- January 11 – David L. Wolper, American television producer (d. 2010)
- January 15 – Joanne Linville, American actress
- January 16 – William Kennedy, American author
- January 17
- January 21 – Gene Sharp, Political theorist of nonviolent action
- January 22 – Yoshihiko Amino, Japanese historians (d. 2004)
- January 23
- Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
- Jeanne Moreau, French actress
- January 24
- Desmond Morris, English anthropologist and writer
- Michel Serrault, French actor (d. 2007)
- January 25
- Cor van der Hart, Dutch footballer (d. 2006)
- Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgian politician, former president
- January 26 – Roger Vadim, French film director (d. 2000)
- January 27 – Hans Modrow, East German Premier
- January 30
- Mitch Leigh, American musical theatre composer and theatrical producer
- Hal Prince, American stage producer and director
February
- February 1
- Tom Lantos, American Congressman (d. 2008)
- Stuart Whitman, American film & television actor
- February 3 – Frankie Vaughan, British singer (d. 1999)
- February 4 – Kim Yong-nam, North Korean politician
- February 5 – Andrew Greeley, American Roman Catholic priest and fiction novelist
- February 8 – Gene Lees, Canadian biographer and lyricist (d. 2010)
- February 9
- February 16 – Porfi Jiménez, Dominican-Venezuelan musician (d. 2010)
- February 22 – Bruce Forsyth, English entertainer
- February 23
- February 26
- Fats Domino, American musician
- Anatoly Filipchenko, Russian cosmonaut
- Arial Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel
March
- March 3 – Gudrun Pausewang, German writer
- March 4
- Samuel Adler, American composer
- Alan Sillitoe, English writer (d. 2010)
- March 8 – Gerald Bull, Canadian engineer (d. 1990)
- March 10
- March 12
- Edward Albee, American dramatist
- Aldemaro Romero, Venezuelan musician (d. 2007)
- March 16
- Wakanohana Kanji I, Japanese sumo wrestler
- Christa Ludwig, German mezzo-soprano
- Victor Maddern, English actor (d. 1993)
- March 18 – Fidel Valdez Ramos, President of the Philippines
- March 19
- Hans Küng, Swiss Roman Catholic theologian
- Patrick McGoohan, American-born British-based actor of Irish descent (d. 2009)
- March 20 – Fred Rogers, American children's television host (d. 2003)
- March 24 – Byron Janis, American pianist
- March 25 – Jim Lovell, American astronaut
- March 28
- Zbigniew Brzezinski, Polish-born U.S. National Security Advisor
- Alexander Grothendieck, German-born mathematician.
- March 29 – Vincent Gigante, Italian-American mobster (d. 2005)
- March 31
- Lefty Frizzell, American country music performer (d. 1975)
- Gordie Howe, Canadian hockey player
April
- April 1 – George Grizzard, American actor (d. 2007)
- April 2
- April 4
- Maya Angelou, African-American poet and novelist
- Estelle Harris, American actress
- April 6 – James D. Watson, American geneticist; recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- April 7
- April 8 – Eric Porter, English actor (d. 1995)
- April 11 – Ethel Kennedy,Robert Kennedy a Politician wife (d. 1995)
- April 9 – Tom Lehrer, American songwriter
- April 12 – Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
- April 14 – Ezra Fleischer, Romanian dissident, later Israeli writer (d. 2006)
- April 17 – Cynthia Ozick, American writer
- April 19
- Alexis Korner, British musician (d. 1984)
- Sultan Azlan Shah of Perak, King of Malaysia
- April 20 – Robert Byrne, American chess player
- April 23 – Shirley Temple, American actress and politician
- April 25 – Cy Twombly, American artist
- April 28 – Yves Klein, French artist (d. 1962)
May
- May 1 – Desmond Titterington, British race car driver (d. 2002)
- May 3 – Dave Dudley, American singer (d. 2003)
- May 4
- Maynard Ferguson, Canadian jazz trumpeter (d. 2006)
- Hosni Mubarak, former President of Egypt
- Joseph Tydings, former Democratic member of the United States Senate
- May 8
- May 9
- May 10
- Mel Lewis, American jazz drummer and band leader (d. 1990)
- Lothar Schmid, German chess player
- May 12 – Burt Bacharach, American composer
- May 13 – Jim Shoulders, American rodeo cowboy (d. 2007)
- May 16 – Billy Martin, American baseball player and manager (d. 1989)
- May 18 – Pernell Roberts, American actor (d. 2010)
- May 19 – Colin Chapman, Founder of Lotus Cars (d. 1982)
- May 21 – Alice Drummond, American actress
- May 23
- Jeannie Carson, English actress and comedienne
- Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (d. 2002)
- May 24 – Adrian Frutiger, Swiss typeface designer and cutter
- May 26 – Jack Kevorkian, American right-to-die advocate (d. 2011)
June
- June 1
- June 3 – Donald Judd, American artist (d. 1994)
- June 10 – Maurice Bernard Sendak, American children's author/illustrator (d. 2012)
- June 11 – Queen Fabiola of Belgium, Spanish Queen Consort of King Baudouin of Belgium
- June 12 – Richard M. Sherman, American songwriter
- June 13 – John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics
- June 14 – Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna aka Che Guevara, Argentine-born revolutionary (d. 1967)
- June 19 – Nancy Marchand, American actress (d. 2000)
- June 20 – Eric Dolphy, American jazz musician (d. 1964)
- June 25 – Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 26
- Jacob Druckman, American composer (d. 1996)
- Yoshiro Nakamatsu, Japanese inventor
- June 28
- Hans Blix, Swedish diplomat and politician
- Harold Evans, British newspaper editor
- June 29 – Jean-Louis Pesch, French writer
July
- July 2 – Iven Carl Kincheloe, Jr., American Korean War fighter ace and test pilot (d. 1958)
- July 4 – Teofisto Guingona, Jr., 13th Vice President of the Philippines
- July 5
- July 6 – Nestor de Villa, Filipino actor (d. 2004)
- July 9 – Federico Bahamontes, Spanish road bicycle racer
- July 10 – Moshe Greenberg, American Bible scholar (d. 2010)
- July 11 – Bobo Olson, American boxer (d. 2002)
- July 12 – Elias James Corey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 13
- July 16 – Robert Sheckley, American writer (d. 2005)
- July 17
- July 18 – Simon Vinkenoog, Dutch poet and writer (d. 2009)
- July 25
- July 26
- Francesco Cossiga, Italian politician; 8th President of the Republic of Italy (d. 2010)
- Stanley Kubrick, American film director (d. 1999)
- Bernice Rubens, British novelist (d. 2004)
- July 29 – Philippe Bär, Dutch Roman Catholic bishop
- July 30 – Joe Nuxhall, American baseball player (d. 2007)
- July 31 – Gilles Carle, Canadian film director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
August
- August 3 – Henning Moritzen, Danish actor
- August 5 – Bogdan Maglich, American physicist
- August 6 – Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
- August 7 – James Randi, Canadian-American magician
- August 8
- Simón Díaz, Venezuelan folk composer and singer
- Jane Stoll, American professional baseball player (d. 2000)
- August 9 – Bob Cousy, American basketball player
- August 10
- August 12 – Bob Buhl, American baseball player (d. 2001)
- August 15 – Nicolas Roeg, English film director
- August 17 – Willem Duys, Dutch radio and television presenter, tennis player and music producer (d. 2011)
- August 19 – Queen Ratna of Nepal
- August 18 – Marge Schott, American baseball team owner (d. 2004)
- August 22 – Karlheinz Stockhausen, German composer (d. 2007)
- August 25 – Herbert Kroemer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 26 – Zdeněk Veselovský, Czech zoologist (d. 2006)
- August 31
September
- September 3 – Gaston Thorn, Luxembourg Prime Minister (d. 2007)
- September 4 – Dick York, American actor (d. 1992)
- September 5
- September 6
- September 9 – Sol LeWitt, American artist (d. 2007)
- September 11 – William X. Kienzle, American author (d. 2001)
- September 12 – M. V. Rajasekharan, Indian member of Rajya Sabha
- September 13 – Robert Indiana, American contemporary artist
- September 15 – Julian Cannonball Adderley, American saxophonist (d. 1975)
- September 19 – Adam West, American actor
- September 20
- Donald Hall, American poet and U.S. Poet Laureate
- Ruth Richard, American female professional baseball player
- September 22 – James Lawson, African-American civil rights activist and minister
- September 28 – Koko Taylor, American singer (d. 2009)
- September 30 – Elie Wiesel, Rumanian-born Holocaust survivor, writer, and lecturer; recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
October
- October 1 – George Peppard, American film and television actor (d. 1994)
- October 7
- October 8 – Bill Maynard, British actor
- October 9 – Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer
- October 10 – Sheila F. Walsh, English novelist (d. 2009)
- October 15 – Paul Giambarba, American graphic designer
- October 20 – Li Peng, former Premier of the People's Republic of China
- October 21
- Whitey Ford, American baseball player
- Zhu Rongji, former Premier of the People's Republic of China
- October 23 – Johnny Kitagawa, American-born Japanese businessman in the entertainment industry
- October 24 – Mohammad Beheshti, Chief Justice of Iran (d. 1981)
- October 30 – Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1999)
November
- November 3
- November 9 – Anne Sexton, American poet (d. 1974)
- November 10 – Ennio Morricone, Italian composer
- November 11 – Carlos Fuentes, Mexican writer
- November 15 – Normie Roy, American baseball player (d. 2011)
- November 17
- Arman, French artist (d. 2005)
- Rance Howard, American actor
- Anna Meyer, American female professional baseball player
- November 18
- Inge Bandekow, wife of German industrialist Harald Quandt (d. 1978)
- Otar Gordeli, Georgian composer
- November 19 – Ina van Faassen, Dutch actress and comedian (d. 2011)
- November 22
- November 28 – Piet Steenbergen, Dutch footballer (d. 2010)
- November 29 – Paul Simon, U.S. Senator from Illinois (d. 2003)
- November 30
- Takako Doi, Japanese politician
- Joe B. Hall, American basketball coach
- Peter Hans Kolvenbach, Dutch Superior General of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order)
December
- December 1 – Emily McLaughlin, American actress (d. 1992)
- December 7 – Noam Chomsky, American linguist
- December 9 – Dick Van Patten, American actor
- December 15 – Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (d. 2000)
- December 16 – Philip K. Dick, American author (d. 1982)
- December 25
- Irish McCalla, American actress and model (d. 2002)
- Dick Miller, American actor
- December 30 – Bo Diddley, African-American musician (d. 2008)
- December 31 – Siné, French cartoonist
Date unknown
- Norman Carlberg, American sculptor
- George Parrish, retired American NASCAR Cup Series driver
Deaths
January–June
- January 1 – Loie Fuller, American dancer (b. 1862)
- January 3
- January 6 – Alvin Kraenzlein, American athlete (b. 1876)
- January 11 – Thomas Hardy, English writer (b. 1840)
- January 12 – Ruth Snyder, American murderer (executed) (b. 1895)
- January 21 – Nikolai Astrup, Norwegian painter (b.1880)
- January 28 – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Spanish novelist and screenwriter(b. 1867)
- January 29 – Douglas Haig, British soldier (b. 1861)
- January 30 – Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, Danish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1867)
- February 1 – Hughie Jennings, American baseball player (b. 1869)
- February 4 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- February 15 – Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1852)
- February 16 – Eddie Foy, American vaudevillian (b. 1856)
- March 7 – Robert Abbe, American surgeon (b. 1851)
- April 2 – Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
- April 5 – Roy Kilner, English cricketer (b. 1890)
- April 19 – Dorus Rijkers, famous Dutch sailor and savior of over 500 men, women and children (b. 1847)
- April 22
- April 25 – Floyd Bennett, American aviator (b. 1890)
- April 27 – Alessandro Guidoni, Italian air force general (b. 1880)
- May 8 – Clara Williams, American actress (b. 1888)
- May 18 – Big Bill Haywood, American labor leader (b. 1869)
- May 19 – Max Scheler, German philosopher (b. 1874)
- May 22 – Francisco López Merino, Argentine poet (b. 1904)
- June 4
- Emmeline Pankhurst, British women's suffrage campaigner (b. 1858)
- Chang Tso-lin, Chinese warlord (b. 1873)
- June 16 – Mark Keppel, Superintendent of Los Angeles County Schools (b. 1867)
- June 18 – Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer (b. 1872)
- June 19 – Nora Bayes, American singer and actress (b. 1880)
- June 22
- June 24 – Holbrook Blinn, American actor (b. 1872)
- June 28 – Leo Ditrichstein, Austrian born actor and playwright (b. 1865)
July–December
- July 17 – Álvaro Obregón, President of Mexico (assassinated) (b. 1880)
- July 21 – Dame Ellen Terry, British stage actress (b. 1847)
- July 22 – William M. Folger, American admiral (b. 1844)
- August 8 – Stjepan Radić, Croatian politician (b. 1871)
- August 12 – Leoš Janáček, Czech composer (b. 1854)
- August 30 – Wilhelm Wien, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
- October 8 – Larry Semon, American film actor (b. 1889)
- October 13 – Dagmar of Denmark, later Maria Fyodorovna, wife of Tsar Alexander III and Empress Consort of Russia (b. 1847)
- October 22 – Andrew Fisher, fifth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1862)
- October 24 – Arthur Bowen Davies, American artist (b. 1863)
- October 30 – Robert Lansing, U.S. Secretary of State (b. 1864)
- October 31 – John William Wood Sr., North Carolinian politician, founder of Benson, North Carolina (b. 1855)
- November 4 – Arnold Rothstein, Jewish/American business man and gangster (b. 1882)
- November 13 – Enrico Cecchetti, Italian ballet dancer (b. 1850)
- November 18 – Mauritz Stiller, Finnish screenwriter and director (b. 1883)
- November 26 – Reinhard Scheer, German admiral (b. 1863)
- December 1
- December 10 – Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish architect (b. 1868)
- December 11 – Lewis Latimer, American inventor (b. 1848)
- December 14 – Theodore Roberts, American actor (b. 1861)
- December 16 – Elinor Wylie, American poet and novelist (b. 1885)
- December 17 – Eglantyne Jebb, English co-founder of Save the Children, and champion of children's human rights (b. 1876)
- December 25 – Fred Thomson, American silent film actor (b. 1890)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics – Owen Willans Richardson
- Chemistry – Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus
- Physiology or Medicine – Charles Jules Henri Nicolle
- Literature – Sigrid Undset
- Peace – not awarded
In fiction
- This year is the setting of the video game Blood ( 1997) retroactively dated in the game's sequel Blood II: The Chosen ( 1998)
