The database currently contains 7082 historical events.
- Composer Hernando de Cabezon was born.
- Heinrich Schütz, the German composer, was born.
- The prominent Baroque composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber was born.
- Spanish composer Juan Bautista Jose Cabanilles was born.
- Composer Johann Pachelbel was born.
- Composer George Bohm was born.
- Baroque composer Nicola Antonio Porpora was born.
- Composer Pietro-Antonio Locatelli was born.
- English composer Maurice Greene was born.
- Composer Johann Ludwig Krebs was probably born between October 10 and 12.
- German composer Johann Christian Bach was born.
- Composer Antonio Salieri was born.
- French composer Francois de Paule Jacques Raymond de Fossa was born.
- Austrian composer Anton Diabelli was born.
- German opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, born Jacob Liebmann Beer, was born near Berlin. He later became a major figure in European opera.
- German composer Heinrich August Marschner was born.
- Composer Wilhelm Bernard Molique was born.
- On August 14, 1810, Samuel Sebastian Wesley was born in London, England. He became a distinguished English organist and composer, best known for his contributions to Anglican church music. He served as an organist at several English cathedrals, including Hereford, Exeter, Winchester and Gloucester.
- Composer Giuseppe Verdi was born. He composed 26 operas.
- Hungarian composer Mihaly Mosonyi was born.
- Austrian composer Anton Joseph Bruckner was born.
- Composer Josef Strauss was born.
- Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli was born.
- Composer Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was born.
- 138 singing teachers traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, to attend the first music convention.
- Composer Benjamin Louis Paul Godard was born.
- Composer Engelbert Humperdinck was born.
- Composer and pianist Cécile Chaminade was born in Paris, France.
- Composer Achille-Claude Debussy was born.
- Composer Alphons Diepenbrock was born.
- French composer Henri-Constant-Gabriel Pierné was born.
- Composer Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was born.
- Composer Paul Dukas was born.
- The Reno Brothers Gang carried out the first train robbery in U.S. history near Seymour, Indiana. They obtained approximately $16,000.
- American composer Amy Marcy Cheney Beach was born.
- Louis Vierne, the French composer, was born.
- Composer Reynaldo Hahn was born.
- English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born.
- Richard Wagner's complete Ring Cycle was performed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
- Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording.
- Composer John Ireland was born.
- Lyricist and labor activist Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, was born in Gävle, Sweden. He later worked in the United States as a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and became famous for his labor songs, including “The Preacher and the Slave.”
- Composer and violinist Clarence Cameron White was born in Clarksville, Tennessee.
- John Philip Sousa was appointed leader of the United States Marine Corps Band. He also composed the march “Semper Fidelis”.
- Composer Georges Enesco was born.