* 1890 – Anthony Fokker, Dutch aviation engineer ( d. 1939 )

* 1890 – Man Ray, American photographer and artist ( d. 1976 )

* 1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.

* 1890 – Ellen Osiier, Danish fencer ( d. 1962 )

* 1890 – Marin Sais, American actress ( d. 1971 )

* 1890 – David Wilber, American politician ( b. 1820 )

* 1890 – Alexander F. Mozhayskiy, Russian aviation pioneer ( b. 1825 )

* 1947 – King George II of Greece ( b. 1890 )

After 1890 came philosopher Josiah Royce ( 1855 – 1916 ), botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey ( 1858 – 1954 ), the Southern Agrarians of the 1920s and 1930s, novelist John Steinbeck ( 1902 – 1968 ), historian A. Whitney Griswold ( 1906 – 1963 ), environmentalist Aldo Leopold ( 1887 – 1948 ), Ralph Borsodi ( 1886 – 1977 ), and present-day authors Wendell Berry ( b. 1934 ), Gene Logsdon ( b. 1932 ), Paul Thompson, and Allan C. Carlson ( b. 1949 ).

* 1890 – Anna Månsdotter becomes the last woman in Sweden to be executed, for the 1889 Yngsjö murder.

* 1890 – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, American activist ( d. 1964 )

* 1890 – Michalis Dorizas, Greek javelin thrower ( d. 1957 )

* 1890 – Elizabeth Bolden, American super-centenarian ( d. 2006 )

* 1890 – Jacques Ibert, French composer ( d. 1962 )

* 1890 – Harry Frank Guggenheim, American businessman and publisher, co-founded Newsday ( d. 1971 )

* 1890 – Samuel Frederick Henry Thompson, English pilot ( d. 1918 )

* 1890 – The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International Conference of American States in Washington, D. C.

* 1890 – Art Acord, American actor and rodeo rider ( d. 1931 )

Historians identify several waves of migration to the United States: one from 1815 – 1860, in which some five million English, Irish, Germanic, Scandinavian, and others from northwestern Europe came to the United States ; one from 1865 – 1890, in which some 10 million immigrants, also mainly from northwestern Europe, settled, and a third from 1890 – 1914, in which 15 million immigrants, mainly from central, eastern, and southern Europe ( many Austrian, Hungarian, Turkish, Lithuanian, Russian, Jewish, Greek, Italian, and Romanian ) settled in the United States.

Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon ( 1817 – 1890 ), eldest son of the second marriage of the fourth Earl, was a General in the Army and sat as Member of Parliament for Aberdeenshire East.

Sir John Forrest, the first Premier of Western Australia, who served from 1890 to 1901.

Brigadier Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH, CIE, MC, FBA, FSA ( 10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976 ), was one of the best-known British archaeologists of the twentieth century.

In 1890, a five-member International Niagara Commission headed by Sir William Thomson among other distinguished scientists deliberated on the expansion of Niagara hydroelectric capacity based on seventeen proposals, but could not select any as the best combined project for hydraulic development and distribution.

* Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, 1st Baronet, of Petit Hall, on the Island of Bombay ( 1890 ), extant

* Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, 1st Baronet, of Kensington Gore ( 1890 ), extinct 1939

His fourth son Sir Cyril, Baron Asquith of Bishopstone ( 1890 – 1954 ) became a Law Lord.

The Golden Bough ( 1922, but begun in 1890 ), an early anthropological study by Sir James George Frazer, is the starting point for much of Graves's argument, and Graves thought in part that his book made explicit what Frazer only hinted at.

The Livesey Children's Museum was a free children's museum housed in the former Camberwell Public Library No. 1, which was given to the people of Southwark by the great industrialist Sir George Livesey of the Metropolitan Gas Works in 1890.

His son, Sir Edward Baines ( 1800 – 1890 ), of St Ann's Hill, Leeds, was editor and afterwards proprietor of the Leeds Mercury, M. P.

Jonas Brook and Brothers became United Threads in 1890 and Sir Hildred Carlile of Ponsonby Hall, Hertfordshire was a Director of the business.

The Forth Bridge ( railway ) | Forth Bridge, designed by Sir Benjamin Baker and John Fowler ( engineer ) | Sir John Fowler, opened in 1890, and now owned by Network Rail, is designated as a Category A listed building by Historic Scotland.

* General Sir Thomas Montagu Steele, 1884 – 1890

* General Sir Arthur Edward Hardinge, 1890 – 1892

In 1890 Sir Gordon Sprigg, the premier of the colony, resigned, and a government under Rhodes was formed.

Sir Francis Richard Grey ( 31 March 1813 – 22 March 1890 ) married Lady Elizabeth Howard ( 1816 – 1891 ), daughter of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle and Georgiana Cavendish ( daughter of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire ).

In 1890 he became joint editor, and on the retirement of Sir Leslie Stephen in 1891 succeeded him as editor.

* Sir Arthur Blyth ( 1823 – 1890 ), thrice Premier of South Australia

Sir William Withey Gull, 1st Baronet of Brook Street ( 31 December 1816 – 29 January 1890 ) was a prominent 19th century English physician.

Sir William Gull was buried on Monday 3 February 1890 next to the grave of his father and mother in the churchyard of his childhood home at Thorpe-le-Soken, near Colchester, Essex.

Major General Sir Stewart Graham Menzies, KCB, KCMG, DSO, MC (; 30 January 1890 – 29 May 1968 ) was Chief of MI6 ( SIS ), British Secret Intelligence Service, during and after World War II.

Study of the concept was introduced by Sir James George Frazer in his influential book The Golden Bough ( 1890 – 1915 ); sacral kingship plays a role in Romanticism and Esotericism ( e. g. Julius Evola ) and some currents of Neopaganism ( Theodism ).

A wood engraving of Sir Henry Parkes moving the first resolution at the federation conference in Melbourne, 1 March 1890