1897

• March 4 – William McKinley becomes the 25th President of the United States, a title which he held from the retirement of Grover Cleveland until his assassination on September 14, 1901.
• March 13 – San Diego State University is founded.
• June 22 – The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria is celebrated in the United Kingdom, marking her 60th year as the Queen of the United Kingdom. She was the only British monarch to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee until Queen Elizabeth II celebrated hers on June 2, 2012.
• July 17 – The Klondike Gold Rush begins.
• January 28 – The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 was amended by the British Raj within British India in 1897.
• August 21 – The Oldsmobile is founded in Lansing, Michigan by Ransom E. Olds.
• September 1 – The Boston subway opens as the first rapid transit in North America.
• November 1 – The Juventus F.C. football club is founded.

January

February

• February 4 – Ludwig Erhard, German politician (d. 1977)

March

• March 1 – Shoghi Effendi, Persian man (d. 1957)
• March 24 – Wilhelm Reich, Austrian-American psychiatrist & psychoanalyst (d. 1957)
• March 28 – Sepp Herberger, German football player (d. 1977)

April

• April 4 – Dina Manfredini, Italian-American supercentenarian (d. 2012)
• April 19 – Jiroemon Kimura, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 2013)
• April 23 – Lester B. Pearson Prime Minister (d. 1972)
• April 26 – Douglas Sirk, German movie director (d. 1987)
• April 30 – Walt Walsh, American baseball player (d. 1966)

May

• May 30 – Frank Wise, 16th Premier of Western Australia (1945-1947) (d. 1986)

June

• June 7 – George Szell, Hungarian-born conductor (d. 1970)
• June 10 – Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
• June 12 – Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of United Kingdom (1955-1957) (d. 1977)
• June 19 – Moe Howard, American actor & comedian (d. 1975)

July

• July 4 – Jake Forbes, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1985)
• July 9 – Albert Coady Wedemeyer, American army officer (d. 1989)
• July 14 – Plaek Phibunsongkhram, Prime Minister of Thailand (d. 1964)
• July 20 – Tadeus Reichstein, Polish-Swiss chemist (d. 1996)
• July 24 – Amelia Earhart, American aviator (d. 1937)

August

• August 2 – Max Weber Swiss politician (d. 1974)
• August 11 – Enid Blyton, children's writer (d. 1968)
• August 12 – Otto Struve, Russian astronomer (d. 1963)
• August 16 – Hersch Lauterpacht, Polish politician & judge (d. 1960)
• August 19 – Roman Vishniac, Russian-American photographer (d. 1990)
• August 26 – Yun Poson, President of South Korea (1960-1962) (d. 1990)
• August 31 – Fredric March, American actor (d. 1975)

September

• September 12 – Irène Joliot-Curie, French scientist (d. 1956)
• September 23 – Paul Delvaux, Belgian painter (d. 1994)
• September 23 – Walter Pidgeon, Canadian actor (d. 1984)
• September 25 – William Faulkner, American writer (d. 1962)
• September 26 – Pope Paul VI, (d. 1978)

October

• October 8 – Rouben Mamoulian, Armenian-American movie director (d. 1987)
• October 22 – Ettore Boiardi, Italian-American chef (d. 1985)
• October 29 – Joseph Goebbels, German politician (d. 1945)

November

• November 16 – Chaudhry Rahmat Ali, known for coining the name "Pakistan" (d. 1951)
• November 22 – Paul Oswald Ahnert, German astronomer (d. 1989)
• November 24 – Lucky Luciano, Sicilian mobster (d. 1962)

December

• December 7 – Lazare Ponticelli, French World War I veteran (d. 2008)
• December 14 – Kurt Schuschnigg, 15th Chancellor of Austria (d. 1977)
• December 24 – Koto Okubo, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 2013)

• February 19 – Karl Weierstraß, German mathematician (b. 1815)