• Monarch – Christian IX^[1]
• Prime minister – C. E. Frijs

• 4 February – Kjøbenhavns Skøjteløberforening, Denmark's oldest ice skating club, is founded.^[2]
• 1 June – the telephone company Det Store Nordiske Telegrafselskab A/S, present-day GN Store Nord A/S, is founded as the result of merging three recently established telephone companies.^[3]
• 5 June – the equestrian statue of Frederick VII in the central square in Køge is inaugurated.
• 2 July – the first issue of Vestjylland eller Herning Folkeblad, present-day Herning Folkeblad, is published.^[4]
• 28 July – Crown Prince Frederick, the future King Frederick VIII, marries Princess Louise of Sweden at the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden.
• 18 September – the Randers–Aalborg railway line, a newly completed railroad stretch between Randers and Aalborg, is inaugurated.^[5]
• 22 September – the 1869 Folketing election is held;^[6] the Mellem Party becomes the biggest party by winning 27 seats.^[7] C. E. Frijs remains Prime Minister.

Date unknown edit

• Rud. Rasmussen, a wooden furniture manufacturing company, is founded.^[8]
• An international archeology congress visits the Sølager archeological site at Gundested.

January–March edit

• 2 January – Carl Moltke, Danish nobleman, minister to the United States in 1908, Minister of Foreign Affairs 1924–1926 (died 1935)
• 26 March – Hans Munch-Petersen, scholar (died 1934)

April–June edit

• 6 April – Thomas Bærentzen, sculptor (died 1936)
• 28 April – Christian Geisler, organist and composer (died 1951)
• 7 June – Ole Olsen, sport shooter, Olympic bronze medalist in team free rifle at the 1912 Summer Olympics (died 1944)
• 26 June
  • Martin Andersen Nexø, socialist, later communist, writer (died 1954)
  • Ingeborg Appel, educator (died 1948)

July–December edit

• 3 July – Svend Kornbeck, stage and film actor (died 1933)
• 13 July – Christian Schrøder, film actor (died 1940)
• 13 August – Carl Christensen, Denmark's last executioner (died 1936)
• 11 November – Jens Birkholm, genre and landscape painter associated with the Funen Painters (died 1915)
• 23 November – Valdemar Poulsen, engineer who developed a magnetic wire recorder (died 1942)
• 6 December – Elna Borch, naturalism and symbolism sculptor (died 1950)
• 7 December – Ole Bendixen, explorer, merchant and author (died 1958)
• 18 December – Peter Esben-Petersen, entomologist (died 1942)
• 21 December – Christian Klengenberg, whaler, trapper and trader (died 1931)
• 26 December – August Blom, film director, production leader and pioneer of silent films (died 1947)

January–March edit

• 11 March – Christian August, Duke of Augustenborg, claimant of the provinces of Slesvig and Holstein (born 1798)

April–June edit

• 2 April – Frederik Treschow, supreme court attorney, politician, landowner and philanthropist (born 1786)
• 8 April – Friedrich Gotschalk, businessman (born 1786)
• 22 May – Anton Eduard Kieldrup, landscape painter (born 1826)
• 13 June – Daniel Gottvald Reimer Bentley, civil servant and mayor of Copenhagen (born 1786)

October–December edit

• 5 October – Adolph Peter Adler, theologian (born 1812)
• 14 December – Fritz Melbye, marine painter (born 1826)