* 1901 – Pier Giorgio Frassati, Italian Catholic activist ( d. 1925 )

* 1901 – Lowell Stockman, American politician ( d. 1962 )

* 1901 – Simon Kuznets, Ukrainian economist, Nobel laureate ( d. 1985 )

* 1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.

* 1901 – Charles Farrell, American actor ( d. 1990 )

His successor Joe Darling won the next three series in 1899, 1901 – 02 and the classic 1902 series, which became one of the most famous in the history of Test cricket.

* 1835 – Elisha Gray, American inventor and businessman, co-founded Western Electric ( d. 1901 )

* 1999 – Jesse Stone, American musician and songwriter ( b. 1901 )

* 1901 – Francisco Guilledo, Filipino boxer ( d. 1925 )

* 1901 – John C. Stennis, American politician ( d. 1995 )

* 1901 – Stefan Wyszyński, Polish cardinal ( d. 1981 )

* 1975 – Andreas Embirikos, Greek poet and photographer ( b. 1901 )

* 1901 – Ann Harding, American actress ( d. 1981 )

* 1901 – The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.

* 1901 – Alice Rivaz, Swiss writer ( d. 1998 )

* 1901 – Pyotr Novikov, Russian mathematician ( d. 1975 )

* 1831 – John Jones Ross, Canadian politician, 7th Premier of Quebec ( d. 1901 )

* 1901 – Guy Bush, American baseball player ( d. 1985 )

* 1901 – John Sherman Cooper, American politician ( d. 1991 )

* María de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias, ( 11 September 1880 – 17 October 1904 ), married on 14 February 1901 to Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and titular heiress from the death of her father until the posthumous birth of her brother

* 1901 – Silliman University is founded in the Philippines.

* 1901 – Aurèle Joliat, Canadian ice hockey player ( d. 1986 )

* 1901 – John Gunther, American journalist and author ( d. 1970 )

* 1901 – Roy Wilkins, American activist ( d. 1981 )

Major success came in 1901 with the invention of the spiral hairpin by New Zealand inventor Ernest Godward.

* RRS Discovery, a Royal Geographical Society research vessel which, under the command of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, was the main ship of the 1901 – 1904 " Discovery Expedition " to Antarctica which is still preserved as a museum in Dundee, Scotland.

Pyotr Lebedev was first to successfully demonstrate light pressure, which he did in 1899 with a torsional balance ; Ernest Nichols and Gordon Hull conducted a similar independent experiment in 1901 using a Nichols radiometer.

Ernest Orlando Lawrence ( August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958 ) was an American physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his invention, utilization, and improvement of the cyclotron atom-smasher beginning in 1929, based on his studies of the works of Rolf Widerøe, and his later work in uranium-isotope separation for the Manhattan Project.

The fact that electromagnetic radiation exerts a pressure upon any surface exposed to it was deduced theoretically by James Clerk Maxwell in 1871 and Adolfo Bartoli in 1876, and proven experimentally by Russian physicist Peter Lebedev in 1900 and by Ernest Fox Nichols and Gordon Ferrie Hull in 1901.

A Nichols radiometer was the apparatus used by Ernest Fox Nichols and Gordon Ferrie Hull in 1901 for the measurement of radiation pressure.

* Ernest Daudet, La Conjuration de Pichegru et les complots royalistes du midi et de l ' est, 1795-1797, Paris, 1901.

The British scholar Ernest William Gurney Masterman visited Qumran on several occasions between 1900 and 1901.

* Ernest Lundeen, class of 1901, U. S. Representative from 1917 to 1919 and from 1933 to 1937.

In 1901, Frederick Soddy and Ernest Rutherford discovered that radioactivity was part of the process by which atoms changed from one kind to another, involving the release of energy.

* Ernest Martyn Critchley Instone ( 1872 – 1932 ) 1901 – 1932 manager of Daimler, from 1920 sales Stratton-Instone Stratstone

Ernest Proctor, who was employed at the Westcroft Works, was given the job of assembling this hybrid car, which comprised a very early two-cylinder engine-number 30-of 1901 or 1902 vintage, a 1904 chassis-number 126, and a body destined for four-cylinder car number 156.

Bancroft Hall was designed by Beaux-Arts architect Ernest Flagg and its central rotunda and first two wings were built in 1901 – 06.

* Ernest Orlando Lawrence ( 1901 – 1958 )

Alfred Ernest Tysoe ( 21 March 1874 – 26 October 1901 ) was a British athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1900 Olympic Games.

* Jenks, Albert Ernest ( 1901 ).

This crater was named after Ernest Henry Shackleton, an Anglo-Irish explorer of Antarctica from 1901 until his death in 1922.

Edward Ernest Bowen ( 30 March 1836 – 8 April 1901 ) was an influential schoolmaster at Harrow School from 1859 until his death, and the author of the Harrow school song, Forty Years On.

A Dartmouth graduate himself ( class of 1901 ), Ernest Martin Hopkins did not fit the typical mold of a college president when he was selected by the Trustees in 1916.

Ernest Nagel ( November 16, 1901 – September 20, 1985 ) was an American philosopher of science.

* Ernest O. Lawrence ( 1901 – 1958 ), American physicist

Ashley had been married in 1901 to " Maudie " Cassel, only daughter of the Edwardian financier Sir Ernest Cassel, and their elder daughter the Honourable Edwina Ashley, a considerable heiress, was married in 1922 to Lord Louis Mountbatten, later the last Viceroy of India.

* Belfort Bax, Ernest ( 1901 ).

Alfred Ernest " Ernie " Shepherd ( 1901 – 58 ) succeeded Cain as ALP leader, only to die himself little more than a year afterwards.