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  • July 17 – History, Events, Births, Deaths Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 180 – Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
    • 1048 – Damasus II is elected pope.
    • 1203 – The Fourth Crusade captures Constantinople by assault. The Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos flees from his capital into exile.
    • 1402 – Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming dynasty of China.
    • 1429 – Hundred Years’ War: Charles VII of France is crowned the King of France in the Reims Cathedral after a successful campaign by Joan of Arc.
    • 1453 – Battle of Castillon: The last battle of Hundred Years’ War, the French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony.
    • 1717 – King George I of Great Britain sails down the River Thames with a barge of 50 musicians, where George Frideric Handel’s Water Music is premiered.
    • 1762 – Catherine II becomes tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.
    • 1771 – Bloody Falls massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
    • 1791 – Members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing scores of people.
    • 1794 – The 16 Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are executed ten days prior to the end of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror.
    • 1867 – Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the first dental school in the U.S. that is affiliated with a university.
    • 1821: The Kingdom of Spain cedes the territory of Florida to the United States.
    • 1899 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
    • 1902 – Willis Carrier creates the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York.
    • 1917 – King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname Windsor.
    • 1918 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are executed by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
    • 1918 – The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; five lives are lost.
    • 1932 – Altona Bloody Sunday: A riot between the Nazi Party paramilitary forces, the SS and SA, and the German Communist Party ensues.
    • 1936 – Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.
    • 1938 – Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the “wrong way” to Ireland and becomes known as “Wrong Way” Corrigan.
    • 1944 – Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.
    • 1944 – World War II: At Sainte-Foy-de-Montgommery. in Normandy Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was strafed by allied aircraft while returning to his headquarters.
    • 1945 – World War II: The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
    • 1953 – The largest number of United States midshipman casualties in a single event results from an aircraft crash in Florida, killing 44.
    • 1955 – Disneyland is dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California.
    • 1962 – Nuclear weapons testing: The “Small Boy” test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site.
    • 1968 – Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba’ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President.
    • 1973 – King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, while having surgery in Italy, is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan.
    • 1975 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
    • 1976 – East Timor is annexed, and becomes the 27th province of Indonesia.
    • 1976 – The opening of the Summer Olympics in Montreal is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the games because of New Zealand’s participation. Contrary to rulings by other international sports organizations, the IOC had declined to exclude New Zealand because of their participation in South African sporting events during apartheid.
    • 1979 – Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida, United States.
    • 1981 – A structural failure leads to the collapse of a walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200.
    • 1984 – The national drinking age in the United States was changed from 18 to 21.
    • 1985 – Founding of the EUREKA Network by former head of states François Mitterrand (France) and Helmut Kohl (Germany).
    • 1989 – First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
    • 1989 – Holy See–Poland relations are restored.
    • 1996 – TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board.
    • 1998 – The 7.0 Mw  Papua New Guinea earthquake triggers a tsunami that destroys ten villages in Papua New Guinea, killing up to 2,700 people, and leaving several thousand injured.
    • 1998 – A diplomatic conference adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing a permanent international court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
    • 2000 – During approach to Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Alliance Air Flight 7412 suddenly crashes into a residential neighborhood in Patna, killing 60 people.
    • 2001 – Concorde is brought back into service nearly a year after the July 2000 crash.
    • 2006 – The 7.7 Mw  Pangandaran tsunami earthquake severely affects the Indonesian island of Java, killing 668 people, and leaving more than 9,000 injured.
    • 2007 – TAM Airlines Flight 3054, an Airbus A320, crashes into a warehouse after landing too fast and missing the end of the São Paulo–Congonhas Airport runway, killing 199 people.
    • 2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashes near the border of Ukraine and Russia after being shot down. All 298 people on board are killed.
    • 2014 – A French regional train on the Pau-Bayonne line crashes into a high-speed train near the town of Denguin, resulting in at least 25 injuries.
    • 2015 – At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Governorate, Iraq.
    • 2018 – 12 new moons are discovered orbiting. Jupiter

    Births on July 17

    • 1487 – Ismail I of Iran (d. 1524)
    • 1499 – Maria Salviati, Italian noblewoman (d. 1543)
    • 1531 – Antoine de Créqui Canaples, Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1574)
    • 1674 – Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter and theologian (d. 1748)
    • 1695 – Christian Karl Reinhard of Leiningen-Dachsburg-Falkenburg-Heidesheim (d. 1766)
    • 1698 – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1759)
    • 1708 – Frederick Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (d. 1769)
    • 1714 – Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher and academic (d. 1762)
    • 1744 – Elbridge Gerry, American merchant and politician, 5th Vice President of the United States (d. 1814)
    • 1763 – John Jacob Astor, German-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1848)
    • 1774 – John Wilbur, American minister and theologian (d. 1856)
    • 1797 – Paul Delaroche, French painter and academic (d. 1856)
    • 1823 – Leander Clark, American businessman, judge, and politician (d. 1910)
    • 1831 – Xianfeng Emperor of China (d. 1861)
    • 1837 – Joseph-Alfred Mousseau, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician, 7th Secretary of State for Canada (d. 1886)
    • 1839 – Ephraim Shay, American engineer, invented the Shay locomotive (d. 1916)
    • 1853 – Alexius Meinong, Ukrainian-Austrian philosopher and academic (d. 1920)
    • 1868 – Henri Nathansen, Danish director and playwright (d. 1944)
    • 1870 – Charles Davidson Dunbar, Scottish soldier and bagpipe player (d. 1939)
    • 1871 – Lyonel Feininger, German-American painter and illustrator (d. 1956)
    • 1879 – Jack Laviolette, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (d. 1960)
    • 1882 – James Somerville, English admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset (d. 1949)
    • 1888 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-Israeli novelist, short story writer, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
    • 1889 – Erle Stanley Gardner, American lawyer and author (d. 1970)
    • 1894 – Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, astronomer, and cosmologist (d. 1966)
    • 1896 – Rupert Atkinson, English RAF officer (d. 1919)
    • 1898 – Berenice Abbott, American photographer (d. 1991)
    • 1898 – Osmond Borradaile, Canadian soldier and cinematographer (d. 1999)
    • 1899 – James Cagney, American actor and dancer (d. 1986)
    • 1900 – Marcel Dalio, French actor (d. 1983)
    • 1901 – Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American race car driver (d. 1994)
    • 1901 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet and author (d. 1938)
    • 1901 – Patrick Smith, Irish farmer and politician, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (d. 1982)
    • 1902 – Christina Stead, Australian author and academic (d. 1983)
    • 1905 – William Gargan, American actor (d. 1979)
    • 1910 – James Coyne, Canadian lawyer and banker, 2nd Governor of the Bank of Canada (d. 2012)
    • 1910 – Frank Olson, American chemist and microbiologist (d. 1953)
    • 1911 – Lionel Ferbos, American trumpet player (d. 2014)
    • 1911 – Heinz Lehmann, German-Canadian psychiatrist and academic (d. 1999)
    • 1912 – Erwin Bauer, German race car driver (d. 1958)
    • 1912 – Art Linkletter, Canadian-American radio and television host (d. 2010)
    • 1913 – Bertrand Goldberg, American architect, designed the Marina City Building (d. 1997)
    • 1914 – Eleanor Steber, American soprano and educator (d. 1990)
    • 1915 – Bijon Bhattacharya, Indian actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1978)
    • 1915 – Arthur Rothstein, American photographer and educator (d. 1985)
    • 1917 – Lou Boudreau, American baseball player and manager (d. 2001)
    • 1917 – Phyllis Diller, American actress, comedian, and voice artist (d. 2012)
    • 1917 – Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (d. 2015)
    • 1917 – Christiane Rochefort, French author (d. 1998)
    • 1918 – Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, Guatemalan soldier and politician, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
    • 1918 – Red Sovine, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1980)
    • 1920 – Gordon Gould, American physicist and academic, invented the laser (d. 2005)
    • 1920 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish businessman, 7th President of the International Olympic Committee (d. 2010)
    • 1921 – George Barnes, American guitarist, producer, and songwriter (d. 1977)
    • 1921 – Louis Lachenal, French mountaineer (d. 1955)
    • 1921 – Mary Osborne, American guitarist (d. 1992)
    • 1921 – Toni Stone, American baseball player (d. 1996)
    • 1921 – František Zvarík, Slovak actor (d. 2008)
    • 1923 – Jeanne Block, American psychologist (d. 1981)
    • 1923 – John Cooper, English car designer, co-founded the Cooper Car Company (d. 2000)
    • 1924 – Garde Gardom, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia (d. 2013)
    • 1925 – Jimmy Scott, American singer and actor (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Mohammad Hasan Sharq, Afghan politician
    • 1926 – Édouard Carpentier, French-Canadian wrestler (d. 2010)
    • 1926 – Willis Carto, American activist and theorist (d. 2015)
    • 1928 – Vince Guaraldi, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1976)
    • 1929 – Sergei K. Godunov, Russian mathematician and academic
    • 1932 – Niccolò Castiglioni, Italian composer (d. 1996)
    • 1932 – Red Kerr, American basketball player and coach (d. 2009)
    • 1932 – Wojciech Kilar, Polish pianist and composer (d. 2013)
    • 1932 – Karla Kuskin, American author and illustrator (d. 2009)
    • 1932 – Slick Leonard, American basketball player and coach
    • 1932 – Quino, Spanish-Argentinian cartoonist
    • 1932 – Hal Riney, American businessman, founded Publicis & Hal Riney (d. 2008)
    • 1933 – Keiko Awaji, Japanese actress (d. 2014)
    • 1933 – Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Maltese politician, 9th Prime Minister of Malta
    • 1933 – Tony Pithey, Zimbabwean-South African cricketer (d. 2006)
    • 1934 – Lucio Tan, Chinese-Filipino billionaire businessman and educator
    • 1935 – Diahann Carroll, American actress and singer (d. 2019)
    • 1935 – Peter Schickele, American composer and educator
    • 1935 – Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor and producer
    • 1938 – Hermann Huppen, Belgian author and illustrator
    • 1939 – Andrée Champagne, Canadian actress and politician
    • 1939 – Spencer Davis, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1939 – Ali Khamenei, Iranian cleric and politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of Iran
    • 1940 – Tim Brooke-Taylor, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2020)
    • 1941 – Daryle Lamonica, American football player
    • 1941 – Bob Taylor, English cricketer
    • 1941 – Achim Warmbold, German race car driver and manager
    • 1942 – Don Kessinger, American baseball player and manager
    • 1942 – Gale Garnett, New Zealand–born Canadian singer
    • 1942 – Connie Hawkins, American basketball player (d. 2017)
    • 1942 – Zoot Money, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player
    • 1943 – LaVyrle Spencer, American author and educator
    • 1944 – Mark Burgess, New Zealand cricketer and footballer
    • 1944 – Catherine Schell, Hungarian-English actress
    • 1944 – Carlos Alberto Torres, Brazilian footballer and manager (d. 2016)
    • 1945 – Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia
    • 1945 – John Patten, Baron Patten, English politician, Secretary of State for Education
    • 1946 – Chris Crutcher, American novelist and short story writer
    • 1946 – Ted Sampley, American POW/MIA activist (d. 2009)
    • 1947 – Joyce Anelay, Baroness Anelay of St John’s, English educator and politician
    • 1947 – Robert Begerau, German footballer and manager
    • 1947 – Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
    • 1947 – Wolfgang Flür, German musician (Kraftwerk)
    • 1947 – Mick Tucker, English rock drummer (Sweet) (d. 2002)
    • 1948 – Ron Asheton, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2009)
    • 1948 – Luc Bondy, Swiss director and producer (d. 2015)
    • 1949 – Geezer Butler, English bass player and songwriter
    • 1949 – Charley Steiner, American journalist and sportscaster
    • 1950 – Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2011)
    • 1950 – Tengku Sulaiman Shah, Malaysian corporate figure
    • 1950 – Sadhan Chandra Majumder, Bangladeshi politician
    • 1951 – Lucie Arnaz, American actress and singer
    • 1951 – Mark Bowden, American journalist and author
    • 1951 – Andrew Robathan, English soldier and politician, Minister of State for the Armed Forces
    • 1952 – David Hasselhoff, American actor, singer, and producer
    • 1952 – Nicolette Larson, American singer-songwriter (d. 1997)
    • 1952 – Thé Lau, Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2015)
    • 1952 – Robert R. McCammon, American author
    • 1954 – António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal
    • 1954 – Angela Merkel, German chemist and politician, 8th Chancellor of Germany
    • 1954 – Edward Natapei, Vanuatuan politician, 6th Prime Minister of Vanuatu (d. 2015)
    • 1954 – J. Michael Straczynski, American author, screenwriter, and producer
    • 1955 – Sylvie Léonard, Canadian actress and screenwriter
    • 1955 – Paul Stamets, American mycologist and author
    • 1956 – Julie Bishop, Australian lawyer and politician, 38th Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs
    • 1956 – Bryan Trottier, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach
    • 1957 – Bruce Crump, American drummer and songwriter (d. 2015)
    • 1957 – Wendy Freedman, Canadian-American cosmologist and astronomer
    • 1958 – Wong Kar-wai, Chinese director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1958 – Suzanne Moore, English journalist
    • 1958 – Susan Silver, American music manager
    • 1958 – Thérèse Rein, Australian businesswoman, founded Ingeus
    • 1959 – Pola Uddin, Baroness Uddin, Bangladeshi-English politician
    • 1960 – Kim Barnett, English cricketer and coach
    • 1960 – Mark Burnett, English-American screenwriter and producer
    • 1960 – Nancy Giles, American journalist and actress
    • 1960 – Robin Shou, Hong Kong martial artist and actor
    • 1960 – Dawn Upshaw, American soprano
    • 1960 – Jan Wouters, Dutch footballer and manager
    • 1961 – António Costa, Portuguese politician, 119th Prime Minister of Portugal
    • 1961 – Jeremy Hardy, English comedian and actor (d. 2019)
    • 1963 – Regina Belle, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
    • 1963 – Letsie III of Lesotho
    • 1963 – Matti Nykänen, Finnish ski jumper and singer (d. 2019)
    • 1965 – Craig Morgan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1965 – Alex Winter, English-American actor, film director and screenwriter
    • 1966 – Lou Barlow, American guitarist and songwriter
    • 1966 – Sten Tolgfors, Swedish lawyer and politician, 30th Swedish Minister of Defence
    • 1969 – Scott Johnson, American cartoonist
    • 1969 – Jaan Kirsipuu, Estonian cyclist
    • 1971 – Calbert Cheaney, American basketball player and coach
    • 1971 – Cory Doctorow, Canadian author and activist
    • 1971 – Nico Mattan, Belgian cyclist
    • 1972 – Elizabeth Cook, American singer and guitarist
    • 1972 – Donny Marshall, American basketball player and sportscaster
    • 1972 – Jason Rullo, American drummer
    • 1972 – Jaap Stam, Dutch footballer and manager
    • 1972 – Eric Williams, American basketball player
    • 1973 – Eric Moulds, American football player
    • 1974 – Claudio López, Argentine footballer
    • 1975 – Andre Adams, New Zealand cricketer
    • 1975 – Elena Anaya, Spanish actress
    • 1975 – Darude, Finnish DJ and producer
    • 1975 – Harlette, Australian-English fashion designer
    • 1975 – Loretta Harrop, Australian triathlete
    • 1976 – Luke Bryan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1976 – Gino D’Acampo, Italian chef and author
    • 1976 – Dagmara Domińczyk, Polish-American actress
    • 1976 – Marcos Senna, Brazilian-Spanish footballer
    • 1976 – Anders Svensson, Swedish footballer and sportscaster
    • 1977 – Andrew Downton, Australian cricketer
    • 1977 – Leif Hoste, Belgian cyclist
    • 1977 – Marc Savard, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1978 – Ricardo Arona, Brazilian mixed martial artist
    • 1978 – Panda Bear, American musician and songwriter
    • 1978 – Jason Jennings, American baseball player
    • 1979 – Mike Vogel, American actor
    • 1980 – Javier Camuñas, Spanish footballer
    • 1980 – Ryan Miller, American ice hockey player
    • 1981 – Hely Ollarves, Venezuelan runner
    • 1982 – Omari Banks, Anguillan cricketer
    • 1982 – Natasha Hamilton, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
    • 1983 – Ryan Guettler, Australian motocross racer
    • 1983 – Adam Lind, American baseball player
    • 1985 – Loui Eriksson, Swedish ice hockey player
    • 1985 – Tom Fletcher, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1985 – Neil McGregor, Scottish footballer
    • 1986 – DeAngelo Smith, American football player
    • 1986 – Lacey Von Erich, American wrestler
    • 1987 – Darius Boyd, Australian rugby league player
    • 1987 – Jan Charouz, Czech race car driver
    • 1987 – Jeremih, American singer, songwriter, and record producer
    • 1994 – Benjamin Mendy, French footballer
    • 1994 – Kali Uchis, American singer-songwriter
    • 1998 – Rosana Serrano, Cuban rower

    Deaths on July 17

    • 521 – Magnus Felix Ennodius, Gallo-Roman bishop
    • 855 – Leo IV, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 790)
    • 924 – Edward the Elder, English king (b. 877)
    • 952 – Wu Hanyue, Chinese noblewoman (b. 913)
    • 961 – Du, empress dowager of the Song Dynasty
    • 1070 – Baldwin VI, count of Flanders (b. 1030)
    • 1085 – Robert Guiscard, Norman adventurer
    • 1119 – Baldwin VII, count of Flanders (b. 1093)
    • 1210 – Sverker II, king of Sweden (b. 1210)
    • 1304 – Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer (b. 1251)
    • 1399 – Jadwiga, queen of Poland (b. 1374)
    • 1453 – Dmitry Shemyaka, Grand Prince of Moscow
    • 1453 – John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English commander and politician (b. 1387)
    • 1531 – Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese commander (b. 1484)
    • 1571 – Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian (b. 1516)
    • 1588 – Mimar Sinan, Ottoman architect and engineer, designed the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque and Süleymaniye Mosque (b. 1489)
    • 1603 – Mózes Székely, Hungarian noble (b. 1553)
    • 1645 – Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, English-Scottish politician, Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom (b. 1587)
    • 1704 – Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, French fur trader and explorer (b. 1657)
    • 1709 – Robert Bolling, English planter and merchant (b. 1646)
    • 1725 – Thomas King, English and British soldier, MP for Queenborough, lieutenant-governor of Sheerness (b. before 1660?).
    • 1762 – Peter III of Russia (b. 1728)
    • 1790 – Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (b. 1723)
    • 1791 – Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian missionary and author (b. 1717)
    • 1793 – Charlotte Corday, French murderer (b. 1768)
    • 1794 – John Roebuck, English chemist and businessman (b. 1718)
    • 1845 – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1764)
    • 1871 – Karl Tausig, Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer (b. 1841)
    • 1878 – Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet and politician (b. 1812)
    • 1879 – Maurycy Gottlieb, Ukrainian-Polish painter (b. 1856)
    • 1881 – Jim Bridger, American scout and explorer (b. 1804)
    • 1883 – Tự Đức, Vietnamese emperor (b. 1829)
    • 1885 – Jean-Charles Chapais, Canadian farmer and politician, 1st Canadian Minister of Agriculture (b. 1811)
    • 1887 – Dorothea Dix, American nurse and activist (b. 1802)
    • 1893 – Frederick A. Johnson, American banker and politician (b. 1833)
    • 1894 – Leconte de Lisle, French poet and translator (b. 1818)
    • 1894 – Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist and biologist (b. 1810)
    • 1900 – Thomas McIlwraith, Scottish-Australian politician, 8th Premier of Queensland (b. 1835)
    • 1907 – Hector Malot, French author and critic (b. 1830)
    • 1912 – Henri Poincaré, French mathematician, physicist, and engineer (b. 1854)
    • 1918 – Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family
      • Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1901)
      • Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1899)
      • Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1895)
      • Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1897)
      • Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia (b. 1872)
      • Aleksei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia (b. 1904)
      • Nikolai II of Russia (b. 1868)
      • Anna Demidova (b. 1878)
      • Ivan Kharitonov (b. 1872)
      • Alexei Trupp (b. 1858)
      • Yevgeny Botkin (b. 1865)
    • 1925 – Lovis Corinth, German painter (b. 1858)
    • 1928 – Giovanni Giolitti, Italian politician, 13th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1842)
    • 1928 – Álvaro Obregón, Mexican general and politician, 39th President of Mexico (b. 1880)
    • 1932 – Rasmus Rasmussen, Norwegian actor, singer, and director (b. 1862)
    • 1935 – George William Russell, Irish poet and painter (b. 1867)
    • 1942 – Robina Nicol, New Zealand photographer and suffragist (b. 1861)
    • 1944 – William James Sidis, American mathematician and anthropologist (b. 1898)
    • 1945 – Ernst Busch, German field marshal (b. 1885)
    • 1946 – Florence Fuller, South African-born Australian artist (b. 1867)
    • 1946 – Draža Mihailović, Serbian general (b. 1893)
    • 1950 – Evangeline Booth, English 4th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1865)
    • 1950 – Antonie Nedošinská, Czech actress (b. 1885)
    • 1959 – Billie Holiday, American singer (b. 1915)
    • 1959 – Eugene Meyer, American businessman and publisher (b. 1875)
    • 1960 – Maud Menten, Canadian physician and biochemist (b. 1879)
    • 1961 – Ty Cobb, American baseball player and manager (b. 1886)
    • 1961 – Emin Halid Onat, Turkish architect and academic (b. 1908)
    • 1967 – John Coltrane, American saxophonist and composer (b. 1926)
    • 1974 – Dizzy Dean, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1910)
    • 1975 – Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian author (b. 1893)
    • 1980 – Don “Red” Barry, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1912)
    • 1980 – Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1890)
    • 1988 – Bruiser Brody, American football player and wrestler (b. 1946)
    • 1989 – Itubwa Amram, Nauruan pastor and politician (b. 1922)
    • 1991 – John Patrick Spiegel, American psychiatrist and academic (b. 1911)
    • 1994 – Jean Borotra, French tennis player (b. 1898)
    • 1995 – Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1911)
    • 1996 – Victims of TWA Flight 800
      • Michel Breistroff, French ice hockey player (b. 1971)
      • Marcel Dadi, Tunisian-French guitarist (b. 1951)
      • David Hogan, American composer (b. 1949)
      • Jed Johnson, American interior designer and director (b. 1948)
    • 1996 – Chas Chandler, American bass player and producer (b. 1938)
    • 1998 – Lillian Hoban, American author and illustrator (b. 1925)
    • 2001 – Katharine Graham, American publisher (b. 1917)
    • 2002 – Joseph Luns, Dutch politician and Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1911)
    • 2003 – David Kelly, Welsh weapons inspector (b. 1944)
    • 2003 – Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichord player (b. 1914)
    • 2003 – Walter Zapp, Latvian-Swiss inventor, invented the Minox (b. 1905)
    • 2005 – Geraldine Fitzgerald, Irish-American actress (b. 1913)
    • 2005 – Edward Heath, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)
    • 2005 – Joe Vialls, Australian journalist and theorist (b. 1944)
    • 2006 – Sam Myers, American singer-songwriter (b. 1936)
    • 2006 – Mickey Spillane, American crime novelist (b. 1918)
    • 2007 – Grant Forsberg, American actor and businessman (b. 1959)
    • 2007 – Júlio Redecker, Brazilian politician (b. 1956)
    • 2007 – Paulo Rogério Amoretty Souza, Brazilian lawyer and businessman (b. 1945)
    • 2009 – Walter Cronkite, American journalist and actor (b. 1916)
    • 2009 – Leszek Kołakowski, Polish historian and philosopher (b. 1927)
    • 2010 – Larry Keith, American actor (b. 1931)
    • 2011 – David Ngoombujarra, Australian actor (b. 1967)
    • 2012 – Richard Evatt, English boxer (b. 1973)
    • 2012 – Forrest S. McCartney, American general (b. 1931)
    • 2012 – İlhan Mimaroğlu, Turkish-American composer and producer (b. 1926)
    • 2012 – William Raspberry, American journalist and academic (b. 1935)
    • 2012 – Marsha Singh, Indian-English politician (b. 1954)
    • 2013 – Henri Alleg, English-French journalist and author (b. 1921)
    • 2013 – Peter Appleyard, English-Canadian vibraphone player and composer (b. 1928)
    • 2013 – Vincenzo Cerami, Italian screenwriter and producer (b. 1940)
    • 2013 – Don Flye, American tennis player (b. 1933)
    • 2013 – Ian Gourlay, English general (b. 1920)
    • 2013 – David White, Scottish footballer and manager (b. 1933)[18]
    • 2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:
      • Liam Davison, Australian author and critic (b. 1957)
      • Shuba Jay, Malaysian actress (b. 1976)
      • Joep Lange, Dutch physician and academic (b. 1954)
      • Willem Witteveen, Dutch scholar and politician (b. 1952)
    • 2014 – Henry Hartsfield, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1933)
    • 2014 – Otto Piene, German sculptor and academic (b. 1928)
    • 2014 – Elaine Stritch, American actress and singer (b. 1925)
    • 2015 – Bill Arnsparger, American football player and coach (b. 1926)
    • 2015 – Jules Bianchi, French race car driver (b. 1989)
    • 2015 – Owen Chadwick, English rugby player, historian, and academic (b. 1916)
    • 2015 – Van Miller, American sportscaster (b. 1927)
    • 2015 – John Taylor, English pianist and educator (b. 1942)

    Holidays and observances on July 17

    • Christian feast day:
      • Alexius of Rome (Western Church)
      • Andrew Zorard
      • Cynehelm
      • Cynllo
      • Inácio de Azevedo
      • Jadwiga of Poland
      • Magnus Felix Ennodius
      • Marcellina
      • Martyrs of Compiègne
      • Blessed Pavel Peter Gojdič (Greek Catholic Church)
      • Pope Leo IV
      • Romanov sainthood (Russian Orthodox Church)
      • Speratus and companions
      • William White (Episcopal Church))
      • July 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Constitution Day (South Korea)
    • Gion Matsuri (Yasaka Shrine, Kyoto)
    • Independence Day (Slovakia)
    • International Firgun Day (international)
    • King’s Birthday (Lesotho)
    • U Tirot Sing Day (Meghalaya, India)
    • World Day for International Justice (International)
    • World Emoji Day (International)

  • July 7 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    The terms 7th July, July 7th, and 7/7 (pronounced “Seven-seven“) have been widely used in the Western media as a shorthand for the 7 July 2005 bombings on London’s transport system. In the Chinese language, this term is used to denote the Battle of Lugou Bridge started on July 7, 1937, marking the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

    July 7 in History

    • 1124 – The city of Tyre falls to the Venetian Crusade after a siege of nineteen weeks.
    • 1456 – A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.
    • 1520 – Spanish conquistadores defeat a larger Aztec army at the Battle of Otumba.
    • 1534 – Jacques Cartier makes his first contact with aboriginal peoples in what is now Canada.
    • 1575 – The Raid of the Redeswire is the last major battle between England and Scotland.
    • 1585 – The Treaty of Nemours abolishes tolerance to Protestants in France.
    • 1770 – The Battle of Larga between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire takes place.
    • 1777 – American forces retreating from Fort Ticonderoga are defeated in the Battle of Hubbardton.
    • 1798 – As a result of the XYZ Affair, the US Congress rescinds the Treaty of Alliance with France sparking the “Quasi-War”.
    • 1807 – The Peace of Tilsit between France, Prussia and Russia ends the War of the Fourth Coalition.
    • 1834 – In New York City, four nights of rioting against abolitionists began.
    • 1846 – US troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the US conquest of California.
    • 1863 – The United States begins its first military draft; exemptions cost $300.
    • 1865 – Four conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln are hanged.
    • 1892 – The Katipunan is established, the discovery of which by Spanish authorities initiated the Philippine Revolution.
    • 1898 – US President William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
    • 1907 – Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. staged his first Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.
    • 1911 – The United States, UK, Japan, and Russia sign the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911 banning open-water seal hunting, the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues.
    • 1915 – The First Battle of the Isonzo comes to an end.
    • 1915 – Colombo Town Guard officer Henry Pedris is executed in British Ceylon for allegedly inciting persecution of Muslims.
    • 1916 – The New Zealand Labour Party was founded in Wellington.
    • 1928 – Sliced bread is sold for the first time (on the inventor’s 48th birthday) by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri.
    • 1930 – Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser begins construction of Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam).
    • 1937 – The Marco Polo Bridge Incident provides the Imperial Japanese Army with a pretext for starting the Second Sino-Japanese War.
    • 1937 – The Peel Commission Report recommends the partition of Palestine, which was the first formal recommendation for partition in the history of Palestine.
    • 1941 – The US occupation of Iceland replaces the UK’s occupation.
    • 1944 – World War II: Largest Banzai charge of the Pacific War at the Battle of Saipan.
    • 1946 – Mother Francesca S. Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized.
    • 1946 – Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.
    • 1952 – The ocean liner SS United States passes Bishop Rock on her maiden voyage, breaking the transatlantic speed record to become the fastest passenger ship in the world.
    • 1953 – Ernesto “Che” Guevara sets out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.
    • 1954 – Elvis Presley makes his radio debut when WHBQ Memphis played his first recording for Sun Records, “That’s All Right”.
    • 1958 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into law.
    • 1959 – Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere.
    • 1963 – Buddhist crisis: The police of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief political adviser of President Ngo Dinh Diem, attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest.
    • 1978 – The Solomon Islands becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
    • 1980 – Institution of sharia law in Iran.
    • 1980 – During the Lebanese Civil War, 83 Tiger militants are killed during what will be known as the Safra massacre.
    • 1981 – US President Ronald Reagan appoints Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States.
    • 1983 – Cold War: Samantha Smith, a US schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov.
    • 1985 – Boris Becker becomes the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17.
    • 1991 – Yugoslav Wars: The Brioni Agreement ends the ten-day independence war in Slovenia against the rest of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
    • 1992 – The New York Court of Appeals rules that women have the same right as men to go topless in public.
    • 1997 – The Turkish Armed Forces withdraw from northern Iraq after assisting the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War.
    • 2003 – NASA Opportunity rover, MER-B or Mars Exploration Rover–B, was launched into space aboard a Delta II rocket.
    • 2005 – A series of four explosions occurs on London’s transport system, killing 56 people, including four suicide bombers, and injuring over 700 others.
    • 2007 – The first Live Earth benefit concert was held in 11 locations around the world.
    • 2012 – At least 172 people are killed in a flash flood in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia.
    • 2013 – A De Havilland Otter air taxi crashes in Soldotna, Alaska, killing ten people.
    • 2016 – Ex-US Army soldier Micah Xavier Johnson shoots fourteen policemen during an anti-police protest in downtown Dallas, Texas, killing five of them. He is subsequently killed by a robot-delivered bomb.

    Births on July 7

    • 611 – Eudoxia Epiphania, daughter of Byzantine emperor Heraclius
    • 1053 – Emperor Shirakawa of Japan (d. 1129)
    • 1119 – Emperor Sutoku of Japan (d. 1164)
    • 1207 – Elizabeth of Hungary (d. 1231)
    • 1482 – Andrzej Krzycki, Polish archbishop (d. 1537)
    • 1528 – Archduchess Anna of Austria (d. 1590)
    • 1540 – John Sigismund Zápolya, King of Hungary (d. 1571)
    • 1586 – Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, English courtier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland (d. 1646)
    • 1616 – John Leverett, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (d. 1679)
    • 1752 – Joseph Marie Jacquard, French merchant, invented the Jacquard loom (d. 1834)
    • 1766 – Guillaume Philibert Duhesme, French general (d. 1815)
    • 1831 – Jane Elizabeth Conklin, American poet and religious writer (d. 1914)
    • 1833 – Félicien Rops, Belgian painter and illustrator (d. 1898)
    • 1843 – Camillo Golgi, Italian physician and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926)
    • 1846 – Heinrich Rosenthal, Estonian physician and author (d. 1916)
    • 1848 – Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, Brazilian politician, 5th President of Brazil (d. 1919)
    • 1851 – Charles Albert Tindley, American minister and composer (d. 1933)
    • 1855 – Ludwig Ganghofer, German author and playwright (d. 1920)
    • 1859 – Rettamalai Srinivasan, Indian politician (d. 1911)
    • 1860 – Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1911)
    • 1861 – Nettie Stevens, American geneticist (d. 1912)
    • 1869 – Rachel Caroline Eaton, American academic (d. 1938)
    • 1869 – Fernande Sadler (d.1949), French painter and mayor
    • 1874 – Erwin Bumke, German lawyer and jurist (d. 1945)
    • 1880 – Otto Frederick Rohwedder, American engineer, invented sliced bread (d. 1960)
    • 1882 – Yanka Kupala, Belarusian poet and writer (d. 1941)
    • 1884 – Toivo Kuula, Finnish conductor and composer (d. 1918)
    • 1884 – Lion Feuchtwanger, German author and playwright (d. 1958)
    • 1891 – Tadamichi Kuribayashi, Japanese general and poet (d. 1945)
    • 1891 – Virginia Rappe, American model and actress (d. 1921)
    • 1893 – Herbert Feis, American historian and author (d. 1972)
    • 1893 – Miroslav Krleža, Croatian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1981)
    • 1898 – Arnold Horween, American football player and coach (d. 1985)
    • 1899 – George Cukor, American director and producer (d. 1983)
    • 1900 – Maria Bard, German stage and silent film actress (d. 1944)
    • 1900 – Earle E. Partridge, American general (d. 1990)
    • 1901 – Vittorio De Sica, Italian actor and director (d. 1974)
    • 1901 – Sam Katzman, American director and producer (d. 1973)
    • 1901 – Eiji Tsuburaya, Japanese cinematographer and producer (d. 1970)
    • 1902 – Ted Radcliffe, American baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
    • 1904 – Simone Beck, French chef and author (d. 1991)
    • 1905 – Marie-Louise Dubreil-Jacotin, French mathematician (d. 1972)
    • 1906 – William Feller, Croatian-American mathematician and academic (d. 1970)
    • 1906 – Anton Karas, Austrian zither player and composer (d. 1985)
    • 1906 – Satchel Paige, American baseball player and coach (d. 1982)
    • 1907 – Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction writer and screenwriter (d. 1988)
    • 1908 – Revilo P. Oliver, American author and academic (d. 1994)
    • 1909 – Gottfried von Cramm, German tennis player (d. 1976)
    • 1910 – Doris McCarthy, Canadian painter and author (d. 2010)
    • 1911 – Gian Carlo Menotti, Italian-American composer (d. 2007)
    • 1913 – Pinetop Perkins, American singer and pianist (d. 2011)
    • 1915 – Margaret Walker, American novelist and poet (d. 1998)
    • 1917 – Fidel Sánchez Hernández, Salvadoran general and politician, President of El Salvador (d. 2003)
    • 1917 – Iva Withers, Canadian-American actress and singer (d. 2014)
    • 1918 – Bob Vanatta, American head basketball coach (d. 2016)
    • 1918 – Jing Shuping, Chinese businessman (d. 2009)
    • 1919 – Jon Pertwee, English actor (d. 1996)
    • 1921 – Ezzard Charles, American boxer (d. 1975)
    • 1921 – Adolf von Thadden, German lieutenant and politician (d. 1996)
    • 1922 – Alan Armer, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
    • 1922 – James D. Hughes, American Air Force lieutenant general
    • 1923 – Liviu Ciulei, Romanian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2011)
    • 1923 – Whitney North Seymour Jr., American politician (d. 2019)
    • 1923 – Eduardo Falú, Argentinian guitarist and composer (d. 2013)
    • 1924 – Natalia Bekhtereva, Russian neuroscientist and psychologist (d. 2008)
    • 1924 – Karim Olowu, Nigerian sprinter and long jumper (d. 2019)
    • 1924 – Mary Ford, American singer and guitarist (d. 1977)
    • 1924 – Eddie Romero, Filipino director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
    • 1925 – Wally Phillips, American radio host (d. 2008)
    • 1926 – Nuon Chea, Cambodian politician (d. 2019)
    • 1926 – Anand Mohan Zutshi Gulzar Dehlvi, Urdu poet (d. 2020)
    • 1927 – Alan J. Dixon, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 34th Illinois Secretary of State (d. 2014)
    • 1927 – Charlie Louvin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2011)
    • 1927 – Doc Severinsen, American trumpet player and conductor
    • 1928 – Patricia Hitchcock, English actress
    • 1928 – Kapelwa Sikota Zambian nurse and health official (d. 2006)
    • 1929 – Hasan Abidi, Pakistani journalist and poet (d. 2005)
    • 1929 – Sergio Romano, Italian writer, journalist, and historian
    • 1930 – Biljana Plavšić, 2nd President of Republika Srpska
    • 1930 – Hamish MacInnes, Scottish mountaineer and author
    • 1930 – Theodore Edgar McCarrick, American cardinal
    • 1930 – Hank Mobley, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1986)
    • 1931 – David Eddings, American author and academic (d. 2009)
    • 1932 – T. J. Bass, American physician and author (d. 2011)
    • 1932 – Joe Zawinul, Austrian jazz keyboardist and composer (d. 2007)
    • 1933 – David McCullough, American historian and author
    • 1934 – Robert McNeill Alexander, British zoologist (d. 2016)
    • 1935 – Gian Carlo Michelini, Italian-Taiwanese Roman Catholic priest
    • 1936 – Egbert Brieskorn, German mathematician and academic (d. 2013)
    • 1936 – Jo Siffert, Swiss race car driver (d. 1971)
    • 1936 – Nikos Xilouris, Greek singer-songwriter (d. 1980)
    • 1937 – Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong businessman and politician, 1st Chief Executive of Hong Kong
    • 1938 – James Montgomery Boice, American pastor and theologian (d. 2000)
    • 1939 – Elena Obraztsova, Russian soprano and actress (d. 2015)
    • 1940 – Ringo Starr, English singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor
    • 1941 – Marco Bollesan, Italian rugby player and coach
    • 1941 – John Fru Ndi, Cameroonian politician
    • 1941 – Michael Howard, Welsh lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for the Environment
    • 1941 – Bill Oddie, English comedian, actor, and singer
    • 1941 – Jim Rodford, English bass player (d. 2018)
    • 1942 – Carmen Duncan, Australian actress (d. 2019)
    • 1943 – Joel Siegel, American journalist and critic (d. 2007)
    • 1944 – Feleti Sevele, Tongan politician; Prime Minister of Tonga
    • 1944 – Tony Jacklin, English golfer and sportscaster
    • 1944 – Glenys Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, English educator and politician, Minister of State for Europe
    • 1944 – Emanuel Steward, American boxer and trainer (d. 2012)
    • 1944 – Ian Wilmut, English-Scottish embryologist and academic
    • 1945 – Michael Ancram, English lawyer and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
    • 1945 – Adele Goldberg, American computer scientist and academic
    • 1945 – Helô Pinheiro, inspiration for the song “The Girl from Ipanema”
    • 1947 – Gyanendra, King of Nepal
    • 1947 – Howard Rheingold, American author and critic
    • 1949 – Shelley Duvall, American actress, writer, and producer
    • 1954 – Simon Anderson, Australian surfer
    • 1955 – Len Barker, American baseball player and coach
    • 1957 – Jonathan Dayton, American director and producer
    • 1957 – Berry Sakharof, Turkish-Israeli singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1958 – Alexander Svinin, Russian figure skater and coach
    • 1959 – Billy Campbell, American actor
    • 1960 – Kevin A. Ford, American colonel and astronaut
    • 1960 – Ralph Sampson, American basketball player and coach
    • 1963 – Vonda Shepard, American singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1964 – Dominik Henzel, Czech-Swedish actor and comedian
    • 1965 – Mo Collins, American actress, comedian and screenwriter
    • 1965 – Jeremy Kyle, English talk show host
    • 1966 – Jim Gaffigan, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1967 – Tom Kristensen, Danish race car driver
    • 1968 – Jorja Fox, American actress
    • 1969 – Sylke Otto, German luger
    • 1969 – Joe Sakic, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1969 – Cree Summer, American-Canadian actress
    • 1970 – Wayne McCullough, Northern Irish boxer
    • 1970 – Min Patel, Indian-English cricketer
    • 1970 – Erik Zabel, German cyclist and coach
    • 1971 – Christian Camargo, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1972 – Lisa Leslie, American basketball player and actress
    • 1972 – Manfred Stohl, Austrian race car driver
    • 1972 – Kirsten Vangsness, American actress and writer
    • 1973 – José Jiménez, Dominican baseball player
    • 1973 – Kārlis Skrastiņš, Latvian ice hockey player (d. 2011)
    • 1974 – Patrick Lalime, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
    • 1975 – Tony Benshoof, American luger
    • 1975 – Louis Koen, South African rugby player
    • 1975 – Adam Nelson, American shot putter
    • 1976 – Bérénice Bejo, Argentinian-French actress
    • 1976 – Dominic Foley, Irish footballer
    • 1976 – Vasily Petrenko, Russian conductor
    • 1976 – Ercüment Olgundeniz, Turkish discus thrower and shot putter
    • 1978 – Chris Andersen, American basketball player
    • 1978 – Davor Kraljević, Croatian footballer
    • 1979 – Ibrahim Sulayman Muhammad Arbaysh, Saudi Arabian terrorist (d. 2015)
    • 1979 – Anastasios Gousis, Greek sprinter
    • 1979 – Douglas Hondo, Zimbabwean cricketer
    • 1980 – John Buck, American baseball player
    • 1980 – Serdar Kulbilge, Turkish footballer
    • 1980 – Michelle Kwan, American figure skater
    • 1981 – Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Indian cricketer
    • 1982 – Jan Laštůvka, Czech footballer
    • 1982 – George Owu, Ghanaian footballer
    • 1983 – Justin Davies, Australian footballer
    • 1984 – Minas Alozidis, Greek hurdler
    • 1984 – Alberto Aquilani, Italian footballer
    • 1984 – Mohammad Ashraful, Bangladeshi cricketer
    • 1985 – Marc Stein, German footballer
    • 1986 – Ana Kasparian, American journalist and producer
    • 1986 – Udo Schwarz, German rugby player
    • 1986 – Sevyn Streeter, American singer-songwriter
    • 1988 – Kaci Brown, American singer-songwriter
    • 1988 – Lukas Rosenthal, German rugby player
    • 1989 – Landon Cassill, American race car driver
    • 1989 – Miina Kallas, Estonian footballer
    • 1989 – Karl-August Tiirmaa, Estonian skier
    • 1990 – Lee Addy, Ghanaian footballer
    • 1990 – Pascal Stöger, Austrian footballer
    • 1991 – Alesso, Swedish DJ, record producer and musician
    • 1992 – Ellina Anissimova, Estonian hammer thrower
    • 1992 – Dominik Furman, Polish footballer
    • 1994 – Timothy Cathcart, Northern Irish race car driver (d. 2014)

    Deaths on July 7

    • 984 – Crescentius the Elder, Italian politician and aristocrat
    • 1021 – Fujiwara no Akimitsu, Japanese bureaucrat (b. 944)
    • 1162 – Haakon II Sigurdsson, king of Norway (b. 1147)
    • 1285 – Tile Kolup, German impostor claiming to be Frederick II
    • 1304 – Benedict XI, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1240)
    • 1307 – Edward I, king of England (b. 1239)
    • 1345 – Momchil, Bulgarian brigand and ruler
    • 1531 – Tilman Riemenschneider, German sculptor (b. 1460)
    • 1568 – William Turner, British ornithologist and botanist (b. 1508)
    • 1572 – Sigismund II Augustus, Polish king (b. 1520)
    • 1573 – Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Italian architect, designed the Church of the Gesù and Villa Farnese (b. 1507)
    • 1593 – Mohammed Bagayogo, Malian scholar and academic (b. 1523)
    • 1600 – Thomas Lucy, English politician (b. 1532)
    • 1607 – Penelope Blount, Countess of Devonshire, English noblewoman (b. 1563)
    • 1647 – Thomas Hooker, English minister, founded the Colony of Connecticut (b. 1586)
    • 1701 – William Stoughton, American judge and politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1631)
    • 1713 – Henry Compton, English bishop (b. 1632)
    • 1718 – Alexei Petrovich, Russian tsar (b. 1690)
    • 1730 – Olivier Levasseur, French pirate (b. 1690)
    • 1758 – Marthanda Varma, Rani of Attingal (b. 1706)
    • 1764 – William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, English politician, Secretary at War (b. 1683)
    • 1776 – Jeremiah Markland, English scholar and academic (b. 1693)
    • 1790 – François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher and author (b. 1721)
    • 1816 – Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish playwright and poet (b. 1751)
    • 1863 – William Mulready, Irish genre painter (b. 1786)
    • 1865 – George Atzerodt (b. 1833)
    • 1865 – David Herold (b. 1842)
    • 1865 – Lewis Payne (b. 1844)
    • 1865 – Mary Surratt (b. 1823)
    • 1890 – Henri Nestlé, German businessman, founded Nestlé (b. 1814)
    • 1901 – Johanna Spyri, Swiss author (b. 1827)
    • 1913 – Edward Burd Grubb Jr., American general and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Spain (b. 1841)
    • 1922 – Cathal Brugha, Irish revolutionary and politician, active in the Easter Rising, Irish War of Independence; first Ceann Comhairle and first President of Dáil Éireann (b. 1874)
    • 1925 – Clarence Hudson White, American photographer and educator (b. 1871)
    • 1927 – Gösta Mittag-Leffler, Swedish mathematician and academic (b. 1846)
    • 1930 – Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer (b. 1859)
    • 1932 – Alexander Grin, Russian author (b. 1880)
    • 1932 – Henry Eyster Jacobs, American theologian and educator (b. 1844)
    • 1939 – Deacon White, American baseball player and manager (b. 1847)
    • 1950 – Fats Navarro, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1923)
    • 1955 – Ali Naci Karacan, Turkish journalist and publisher (b. 1896)
    • 1956 – Gottfried Benn, German author and poet (b. 1886)
    • 1960 – Francis Browne, Irish priest and photographer (b. 1880)
    • 1964 – Lillian Copeland, American discus thrower and shot putter (b. 1904)
    • 1965 – Moshe Sharett, Ukrainian-Israeli lieutenant and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1894)
    • 1968 – Jo Schlesser, French race car driver (b. 1928)
    • 1971 – Claude Gauvreau, Canadian poet and playwright (b. 1925)
    • 1972 – Athenagoras I of Constantinople (b. 1886)
    • 1973 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (b. 1895)
    • 1973 – Veronica Lake, American actress (b. 1922)
    • 1976 – Walter Giesler, American soccer player and referee (b. 1910)
    • 1978 – Francisco Mendes, Guinea-Bissau lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau (b. 1933)
    • 1980 – Dore Schary, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1905)
    • 1982 – Bon Maharaja, Indian guru and religious writer (b. 1901)
    • 1984 – George Oppen, American poet and author (b. 1908)
    • 1987 – Germaine Thyssens-Valentin, Dutch-French pianist (b. 1902)
    • 1990 – Bill Cullen, American television panelist and game show host (b. 1920)
    • 1990 – Cazuza, Brazilian singer and songwriter (b. 1958)
    • 1993 – Rıfat Ilgaz, Turkish author, poet, and educator (b. 1911)
    • 1994 – Carlo Chiti, Italian engineer (b. 1924)
    • 1994 – Cameron Mitchell, American actor (b. 1918)
    • 1994 – Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, German general (b. 1907)
    • 1998 – Moshood Abiola, Nigerian businessman and politician (b. 1937)
    • 1999 – Julie Campbell Tatham, American author (b. 1908)
    • 1999 – Vikram Batra, Param Vir Chakra, Indian Army personnel (b. 1974)
    • 2000 – Kenny Irwin Jr., American race car driver (b. 1969)
    • 2001 – Fred Neil, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936)
    • 2003 – Izhak Graziani, Bulgarian trumpet player and conductor (b. 1924)
    • 2006 – Syd Barrett, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1946)
    • 2006 – Juan de Ávalos, Spanish sculptor (b. 1911)
    • 2006 – John Money, New Zealand-American psychologist and author (b. 1921)
    • 2008 – Bruce Conner, American sculptor, painter, and photographer (b. 1933)
    • 2008 – Dorian Leigh, American model (b. 1917)
    • 2011 – Allan W. Eckert, American historian and author (b. 1931)
    • 2011 – Dick Williams, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1929)
    • 2012 – Ronaldo Cunha Lima, Brazilian poet and politician (b. 1936)
    • 2012 – Dennis Flemion, American drummer (b. 1955)
    • 2012 – Doris Neal, American baseball player (b. 1928)
    • 2012 – Jerry Norman, American sinologist and linguist (b. 1936)
    • 2012 – Leon Schlumpf, Swiss politician (b. 1927)
    • 2013 – Artur Hajzer, Polish mountaineer (b. 1962)
    • 2013 – Robert Hamerton-Kelly, South African-American pastor, theologian, and author (b. 1938)
    • 2013 – Donald J. Irwin, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut (b. 1926)
    • 2013 – Ben Pucci, American football player and sportscaster (b. 1925)
    • 2014 – Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentinian-Spanish footballer and coach (b. 1926)
    • 2014 – Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgian general and politician, 2nd President of Georgia (b. 1928)
    • 2014 – Peter Underwood, Australian lawyer and politician, 27th Governor of Tasmania (b. 1937)
    • 2015 – Maria Barroso, Portuguese actress and politician (b. 1925)
    • 2015 – Bob MacKinnon, American basketball player and coach (b. 1927)

    Holidays and observances on July 7

    • Christian feast day:
      • Æthelburh of Faremoutiers
      • Felix of Nantes
      • Illidius
      • The job of Manyava (Ukrainian Orthodox Church)
      • Willibald (Catholic Church)
      • July 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Solomon Islands from the United Kingdom in 1978.
    • Ivan Kupala Day (Belarus, Poland, Russia, Ukraine)
    • Saba Saba Day (Tanzania)
    • Tanabata (Japan)
    • World Chocolate Day

  • May 13 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 1373 – Julian of Norwich has visions of Jesus while suffering from a life-threatening illness, visions which are later described and interpreted in her book Revelations of Divine Love.
    • 1515 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, are officially married at Greenwich.
    • 1568 – Battle of Langside: The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
    • 1619 – Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after being convicted of treason.
    • 1779 – War of the Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from it (the Innviertel).
    • 1780 – The Cumberland Compact is signed by leaders of the settlers in the Cumberland River area of what would become the U.S. state of Tennessee, providing for democratic government and a formal system of justice.
    • 1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the “First Fleet”) to establish a penal colony in Australia.
    • 1804 – Forces sent by Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli to retake Derna from the Americans attack the city.
    • 1830 – Ecuador gains its independence from Gran Colombia.
    • 1846 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on the Federal Republic of Mexico following a dispute over the American annexation of the Republic of Texas and a Mexican military incursion.
    • 1861 – American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a “proclamation of neutrality” which recognizes the Confederacy as having belligerent rights.
    • 1861 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
    • 1861 – Pakistan’s (then a part of British India) first railway line opens, from Karachi to Kotri.
    • 1862 – The USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union, by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship.
    • 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Resaca: The battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta.
    • 1865 – American Civil War: Battle of Palmito Ranch: In far south Texas, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory.
    • 1880 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
    • 1888 – With the passage of the Lei Áurea (“Golden Law”), Empire of Brazil abolishes slavery.
    • 1909 – The first Giro d’Italia starts from Milan. Italian cyclist Luigi Ganna will be the winner.
    • 1912 – The Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.
    • 1917 – Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.
    • 1940 – World War II: Germany’s conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” speech to the House of Commons.
    • 1940 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees her country to Great Britain after the German invasion. Princess Juliana takes her children to Canada for their safety.
    • 1941 – World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting against German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.
    • 1943 – World War II: Operations Vulcan and Strike force the surrender of the last Axis troops in Tunisia.
    • 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.
    • 1950 – The first round of the Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone.
    • 1951 – The 400th anniversary of the founding of the National University of San Marcos is commemorated by the opening of the first large-capacity stadium in Peru.
    • 1952 – The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, holds its first sitting.
    • 1954 – The anti-National Service Riots, by Chinese middle school students in Singapore, take place.
    • 1954 – The original Broadway production of The Pajama Game opens and runs for another 1,063 performances. Later received three Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, and Best Choreography.
    • 1958 – During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard Nixon’s car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
    • 1958 – May 1958 crisis: A group of French military officers lead a coup in Algiers demanding that a government of national unity be formed with Charles de Gaulle at its head in order to defend French control of Algeria.
    • 1958 – Ben Carlin becomes the first (and only) person to circumnavigate the world by amphibious vehicle, having travelled over 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) by sea and 62,000 kilometres (39,000 mi) by land during a ten-year journey.
    • 1960 – Hundreds of University of California, Berkeley students congregate for the first day of protest against a visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
    • 1967 – Dr. Zakir Husain becomes the third President of India. He is the first Muslim President of the Indian Union. He holds this position until August 24, 1969.
    • 1969 – May 13 Incident involving sectarian violence in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    • 1971 – Over 900 unarmed Bengali Hindus are murdered in the Demra massacre.
    • 1972 – Faulty electrical wiring ignites a fire underneath the Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan. Blocked exits and non-functional elevators lead to 118 fatalities, with many victims leaping to their deaths.
    • 1972 – The Troubles: A car bombing outside a crowded pub in Belfast sparks a two-day gun battle involving the Provisional IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force and British Army. Seven people are killed and over 66 injured.
    • 1980 – An F3 tornado hits Kalamazoo County, Michigan. President Jimmy Carter declares it a federal disaster area.
    • 1981 – Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. The Pope is rushed to the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic to undergo emergency surgery and survives.
    • 1985 – Police bombed MOVE headquarters in Philadelphia to end a stand-off, killing six adults and five children, and destroying the homes of 250 city residents.
    • 1989 – Large groups of students occupy Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike.
    • 1990 – The Dinamo–Red Star riot took place at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb, Croatia between the Bad Blue Boys (fans of Dinamo Zagreb) and the Delije (fans of Red Star Belgrade).
    • 1992 – Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People’s Republic of China.
    • 1995 – Alison Hargreaves, a 33-year-old British mother, becomes the first woman to conquer Everest without oxygen or the help of sherpas.
    • 1996 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
    • 1998 – Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.
    • 1998 – India carries out two nuclear weapon tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
    • 2005 – Andijan uprising, Uzbekistan; Troops open fire on crowds of protestors after a prison break; at least 187 people were killed according to official estimates.
    • 2006 – São Paulo violence: Rebellions occur in several prisons in Brazil.
    • 2011 – Two bombs explode in the Charsadda District of Pakistan killing 98 people and wounding 140 others.
    • 2012 – Forty-nine dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40.
    • 2013 – American physician Kermit Gosnell is found guilty in Pennsylvania of murdering three infants born alive during attempted abortions, involuntary manslaughter of a woman during an abortion procedure, and other charges.
    • 2014 – An explosion at an underground coal mine in southwest Turkey kills 301 miners.

    Births on  May 13

    • 1024 – Hugh of Cluny, French abbot and saint (d. 1109)
    • 1179 – Theobald III, Count of Champagne (d. 1201)
    • 1221 – Alexander Nevsky, Russian prince and saint (d. 1263)
    • 1254 – Marie of Brabant, Queen of France (d. 1321)
    • 1453 – Mary Stewart, Countess of Arran, Scottish princess (d. 1488)
    • 1588 – Ole Worm, Danish physician and historian (d. 1654)
    • 1597 – Cornelis Schut, Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver (d. 1655)
    • 1638 – Richard Simon, French priest and scholar (d. 1712)
    • 1699 – Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal, Portuguese politician, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1782)
    • 1712 – Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, Danish politician and diplomat (d. 1772)
    • 1713 – Alexis Clairaut, French mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist (d. 1765)
    • 1717 – Maria Theresa, Archduchess, Queen, and Empress; Austrian wife of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1780)
    • 1730 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1782)
    • 1735 – Horace Coignet, French violinist and composer (d. 1821)
    • 1742 – Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen (d. 1798)
    • 1753 – Lazare Carnot, French general, mathematician, and politician, French Minister of the Interior (d. 1823)
    • 1792 – Pope Pius IX (d. 1878)
    • 1794 – Louis Léopold Robert, French painter (d. 1835)
    • 1795 – Gérard Paul Deshayes, French geologist and chronologist (d. 1875)
    • 1811 – Juan Bautista Ceballos, President of Mexico (1853) (b. 1859)
    • 1822 – Francis, Duke of Cádiz (d. 1902)
    • 1830 – Zebulon Baird Vance, American colonel, lawyer, and politician, 37th Governor of North Carolina (d. 1894)
    • 1832 – Juris Alunāns, Latvian philologist and author (d. 1864)
    • 1840 – Alphonse Daudet, French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1897)
    • 1842 – Arthur Sullivan, English composer (d. 1900)
    • 1853 – Vaiben Louis Solomon, Australian politician, 21st Premier of South Australia (d. 1908)
    • 1856 – Tom O’Rourke, American boxer and manager (d. 1938)
    • 1857 – Ronald Ross, Indian-English physician and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
    • 1868 – Sumner Paine, American target shooter (d. 1904)
    • 1869 – Mehmet Emin Yurdakul, Turkish writer (d. 1944)
    • 1877 – Robert Hamilton, Scottish international footballer (d. 1948)
    • 1881 – Lima Barreto, Brazilian journalist and author (d. 1922)
    • 1881 – Joe Forshaw, American runner (d. 1964)
    • 1882 – Georges Braque, French painter and sculptor (d. 1963)
    • 1883 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek-American pathologist, invented the pap smear (d. 1962)
    • 1884 – Oskar Rosenfeld, Jewish-Austrian writer and Holocaust victim (d.1944)
    • 1885 – Mikiel Gonzi, Maltese archbishop (d. 1984)
    • 1887 – Lorna Hodgkinson, Australian educator and educational psychologist (d. 1951)
    • 1888 – Inge Lehmann, Danish seismologist and geophysicist (d. 1993)
    • 1894 – Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, Icelandic politician, 2nd President of Iceland (d. 1972)
    • 1895 – Nandor Fodor, Hungarian-American psychologist, parapsychologist, and author (d. 1964)
    • 1901 – Murilo Mendes, Brazilian poet and telegrapher (d. 1975)
    • 1904 – Louis Duffus, Australian-South African cricketer and journalist (d. 1984)
    • 1905 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Indian lawyer and politician, 5th President of India (d. 1977)
    • 1907 – Daphne du Maurier, English novelist and playwright (d. 1989)
    • 1908 – Eugen Kapp, Estonian composer and educator (d. 1996)
    • 1909 – Ken Darby, American composer and conductor (d. 1992)
    • 1911 – Robert Middleton, American actor (d. 1977)
    • 1911 – Maxine Sullivan, American singer and actress (d. 1987)
    • 1912 – Gil Evans, Canadian-American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1988)
    • 1912 – Judah Nadich, American colonel and rabbi (d. 2007)
    • 1913 – Robert Dorning, English actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1989)
    • 1913 – Theo Helfrich, German racing driver (d. 1978)
    • 1913 – William R. Tolbert, Jr., Liberian politician, 20th President of Liberia (d. 1980)
    • 1914 – Joe Louis, American boxer (d. 1981)
    • 1914 – Johnnie Wright, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2011)
    • 1914 – Antonia Ferrín Moreiras, Spanish mathematician, academic, and astronomer (d. 2009)
    • 1916 – Sachidananda Routray, Indian Oriya-language poet (d. 2004)
    • 1918 – Balasaraswati, Indian dancer and instructor (d. 1984)
    • 1918 – Gwyn Howells, Australian public servant (d. 1997)
    • 1920 – Gareth Morris, English flute player (d. 2007)
    • 1922 – Michael Ainsworth, English cricketer (d. 1978)
    • 1922 – Otl Aicher, German graphic designer and typographer (d. 1991)
    • 1922 – Bea Arthur, American actress and singer (d. 2009)
    • 1923 – Ruth Adler Schnee, German-American textile designer and interior designer
    • 1924 – Theodore Mann, American director and producer (d. 2012)
    • 1924 – Harry Schwarz, South African anti-apartheid leader, lawyer, and Ambassador (d. 2010)
    • 1927 – Archie Scott Brown, Scottish race car driver (d. 1958)
    • 1927 – Fred Hellerman, American folk singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2016)
    • 1927 – Herbert Ross, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2001)
    • 1928 – Enrique Bolaños, Nicaraguan politician, President of Nicaragua
    • 1928 – Édouard Molinaro, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
    • 1929 – John Galvin, American general (d. 2015)
    • 1930 – Mike Gravel, American lieutenant and politician
    • 1930 – José Jiménez Lozano, Spanish journalist and author
    • 1930 – Vernon Shaw, Dominican politician, 5th President of Dominica (d. 2013)
    • 1931 – Jim Jones, American cult leader, founder of the Peoples Temple (d. 1978)
    • 1931 – Sydney Lipworth, South African-English lawyer, businessman, and philanthropist
    • 1933 – John Roseboro, American baseball player and coach (d. 2002)
    • 1934 – Ehud Netzer, Israeli archaeologist, architect, and academic (d. 2010)
    • 1934 – Leon Wagner, American baseball player and actor (d. 2004)
    • 1935 – Dominic Cossa, American opera singer
    • 1935 – Jan Saudek, Czech photographer and painter
    • 1935 – Kája Saudek, Czech author and illustrator (d. 2015)
    • 1936 – Bill Rompkey, Canadian educator and politician (d. 2017)
    • 1937 – Trevor Baylis, English inventor, invented the wind-up radio (d. 2018)
    • 1937 – Roch Carrier, Canadian librarian and author
    • 1937 – Zohra Lampert, American actress
    • 1937 – Beverley Owen, American actress (d. 2019)
    • 1937 – Roger Zelazny, American author and poet (d. 1995)
    • 1938 – Giuliano Amato, Italian academic and politician, 48th Prime Minister of Italy
    • 1938 – Laurent Beaudoin, Canadian businessman
    • 1938 – Anna Cropper, British actress (d. 2007)
    • 1938 – Francine Pascal, American author and playwright
    • 1938 – Buck Taylor, American actor
    • 1939 – Hildrun Claus, German long jumper
    • 1939 – Peter Frenkel, German race walker and coach
    • 1939 – Harvey Keitel, American actor
    • 1940 – Bruce Chatwin, English author (d. 1989)
    • 1940 – Kōkichi Tsuburaya, Japanese runner (d. 1968)
    • 1941 – Senta Berger, Austrian actress
    • 1941 – Joe Brown, English singer and musician
    • 1941 – Jody Conradt, American basketball player and coach
    • 1941 – Ritchie Valens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1959)
    • 1942 – Leighton Gage, American author (d. 2013)
    • 1942 – Roger Young, American director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1943 – Anthony Clarke, Baron Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, English lawyer and judge
    • 1943 – Kurt Trampedach, Danish painter and sculptor (d. 2013)
    • 1943 – Mary Wells, American singer-songwriter (d. 1992)
    • 1944 – Sir Crispin Agnew, 11th Baronet, Scottish explorer, lawyer, and judge
    • 1944 – Robert L. Crawford Jr., American actor
    • 1944 – Carolyn Franklin, American R&B singer-songwriter (d. 1988)
    • 1944 – Armistead Maupin, American author, screenwriter, and actor
    • 1945 – Lasse Berghagen, Swedish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
    • 1945 – Magic Dick, American blues-rock harmonica, trumpet, and saxophone player
    • 1945 – Lou Marini, American saxophonist and composer
    • 1946 – Tim Pigott-Smith, English actor and author (d. 2017)
    • 1946 – Jean Rondeau, French race car driver and constructor (d. 1985)
    • 1946 – Marv Wolfman, American author
    • 1947 – Charles Baxter, American novelist, essayist, and poet
    • 1947 – Edgar Burcksen, Dutch-American film editor
    • 1948 – Sheila Jeffreys, English-Australian political scientist, author, and academic
    • 1948 – Dean Meminger, American basketball player and coach (d. 2013)
    • 1949 – Jane Glover, English conductor and scholar
    • 1949 – Zoë Wanamaker, American-British actress
    • 1949 – Philip Kruse, Norwegian trumpeter and orchestra leader
    • 1950 – Andy Cunningham, English actor (d. 2011)
    • 1950 – Danny Kirwan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2018)
    • 1950 – Joe Johnston, American film director and effects artist
    • 1950 – Manning Marable, American author and academic (d. 2011)
    • 1950 – Bobby Valentine, American baseball player and manager
    • 1950 – Stevie Wonder, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
    • 1951 – Rosie Boycott, English journalist and author
    • 1951 – Sharon Sayles Belton, American politician, 45th Mayor of Minneapolis
    • 1951 – Anand Modak, Indian composer and director (d. 2014)
    • 1951 – Herman Philipse, Dutch philosopher and academic
    • 1951 – Selina Scott, English journalist, producer, and author
    • 1951 – Paul Thompson, English drummer
    • 1952 – John Kasich, American politician, 69th Governor of Ohio
    • 1952 – Mary Walsh, Canadian actress, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1952 – Londa Schiebinger, American academic and author
    • 1953 – Zlatko Burić, Croat-Danish actor
    • 1953 – Gerry Sutcliffe, English politician, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
    • 1953 – David Voelker, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
    • 1953 – Harm Wiersma, Dutch draughts player and politician
    • 1953 – Ruth A. David, American electrical engineer
    • 1954 – Johnny Logan, Australian-Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1956 – Richard Madeley, English journalist and author
    • 1956 – Fred Melamed, American actor
    • 1956 – Kailash Vijayvargiya, National General Secretary of Bhartiya Janta Party
    • 1957 – Alan Ball, American director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1957 – Frances Barber, English actress
    • 1957 – Mark Heap, English actor
    • 1957 – David Hill, English organist and conductor
    • 1957 – Mar Roxas, Filipino economist and politician, 24th Filipino Secretary of the Interior
    • 1957 – Koji Suzuki, Japanese author and screenwriter
    • 1958 – Anthony Ray Parker, American actor
    • 1961 – Siobhan Fallon Hogan, American actress
    • 1961 – Dennis Rodman, American basketball player, wrestler, and actor
    • 1962 – Paul Burstow, English politician
    • 1962 – Nick Hurd, English businessman and politician, Minister for Civil Society
    • 1963 – Andrea Leadsom, English politician
    • 1963 – Wally Masur, Australian tennis player, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1964 – Stephen Colbert, American comedian and talk show host
    • 1964 – Chris Maitland, English drummer
    • 1964 – Tom Verica, American actor, television director, and producer
    • 1965 – José Antonio Delgado, Venezuelan mountaineer (d. 2006)
    • 1965 – Tasmin Little, English violinist and educator
    • 1965 – János Marozsán, Hungarian footballer
    • 1965 – Hikari Ōta, Japanese comedian and actor
    • 1965 – José Rijo, Dominican baseball player
    • 1965 – Lari White, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (d. 2018)
    • 1966 – Alison Goldfrapp, English singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1966 – Darius Rucker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1967 – Tish Cyrus, American actress and film producer
    • 1967 – Shon Greenblatt, American actor
    • 1967 – Tommy Gunn, pornographic actor
    • 1967 – Chuck Schuldiner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2001)
    • 1967 – Melanie Thornton, American-German singer (d. 2001)
    • 1968 – Miguel Ángel Blanco, Spanish politician (d. 1997)
    • 1968 – Susan Floyd, American actress
    • 1968 – Scott Morrison, Australian politician, 30th Prime Minister of Australia
    • 1968 – PMD, American rapper
    • 1968 – Dmitriy Shevchenko, Russian discus thrower and coach
    • 1969 – Buckethead, American guitarist and songwriter
    • 1969 – Nikos Aliagas, French-Greek journalist and television host
    • 1970 – Doug Evans, American football player
    • 1970 – Robert Maćkowiak, Polish sprinter
    • 1971 – Imogen Boorman, English actress and martial artist
    • 1971 – Rob Fredrickson, American football player
    • 1971 – Espen Lind, Norwegian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1971 – Tom Nalen, American football player and sportscaster
    • 1972 – Stefaan Maene, Belgian swimmer
    • 1972 – Darryl Sydor, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1972 – Pieta van Dishoeck, Dutch rower
    • 1973 – Eric Lewis, American pianist
    • 1973 – Bridgett Riley, American boxer and stuntwoman
    • 1975 – Jamie Allison, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1975 – Cristian Bezzi, Italian rugby player and coach
    • 1975 – Brian Geraghty, American actor
    • 1976 – Mark Delaney, Welsh footballer and manager
    • 1976 – Trajan Langdon, American basketball player and scout
    • 1976 – Ana Popović, Serbian-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1976 – Magdalena Walach, Polish actress
    • 1977 – Ilse DeLange, Dutch singer-songwriter
    • 1977 – Anthony Q. Farrell, Canadian-American actor and screenwriter
    • 1977 – Robby Hammock, American baseball player and coach
    • 1977 – Neil Hopkins, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1977 – James Middlebrook, English cricketer
    • 1977 – Samantha Morton, English actress and director
    • 1977 – Brian Thomas Smith, American actor and producer
    • 1977 – Pusha T, American rapper
    • 1978 – Brooke Anderson, American journalist
    • 1978 – Mike Bibby, American basketball player and coach
    • 1978 – Ryan Bukvich, American baseball player
    • 1978 – Germán Magariños, Argentinian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1978 – Dilshan Vitharana, Sri Lankan cricketer
    • 1978 – Barry Zito, American baseball player
    • 1978 – Nuwan Zoysa, Sri Lankan cricketer
    • 1979 – Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland
    • 1979 – Steve Mildenhall, English footballer
    • 1979 – Vyacheslav Shevchuk, Ukrainian footballer
    • 1980 – L. J. Smith, American football player
    • 1981 – Luciana Berger, English politician
    • 1981 – Nicolas Jeanjean, French rugby player
    • 1981 – Sunny Leone, Canadian American actress, model, and pornstar
    • 1981 – Michael Mantenuto, American actor (d. 2017)
    • 1981 – Shaun Phillips, American football player
    • 1981 – Ryan Piers Williams, American actor and film director
    • 1982 – Albert Crusat, Spanish footballer
    • 1982 – Larry Fonacier, Filipino basketball player
    • 1982 – Oguchi Onyewu, American soccer player
    • 1983 – Natalie Cassidy, English actress and singer
    • 1983 – Anita Görbicz, Hungarian handball player
    • 1983 – Johnny Hoogerland, Dutch cyclist
    • 1983 – Grégory Lemarchal, French singer (d. 2007)
    • 1983 – Jacob Reynolds, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1983 – Yaya Touré, Ivorian footballer
    • 1984 – J. B. Cox, American baseball player
    • 1984 – Benny Dayal, Indian singer
    • 1984 – Dawn Harper, American hurdler
    • 1984 – Caroline Rotich, Kenyan runner
    • 1985 – Javier Balboa, Spanish-Equatoguinean footballer
    • 1985 – Jaroslav Halák, Slovak ice hockey player
    • 1985 – David Hernandez, American baseball player
    • 1985 – Carolina Luján, Argentine chess player
    • 1985 – Iwan Rheon, Welsh actor and singer
    • 1985 – Travis Zajac, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1986 – Lena Dunham, American actress, director, and screenwriter
    • 1986 – Eun-Hee Ji, South Korean golfer
    • 1986 – Robert Pattinson, English actor
    • 1986 – Alexander Rybak, Belarusian-Norwegian singer-songwriter, violinist, and actor
    • 1986 – Scott Sutter, English footballer
    • 1986 – Nino Schurter, Swiss cyclist
    • 1986 – Kris Versteeg, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1987 – Antonio Adán, Spanish footballer
    • 1987 – Hugo Becker, French actor
    • 1987 – Matt Doyle, American actor and singer
    • 1987 – Laura Izibor, Irish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
    • 1987 – Candice King, American singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1987 – Sandro Mareco, Argentine chess player
    • 1987 – Hunter Parrish, American actor and singer
    • 1987 – Marianne Vos, Dutch cyclist
    • 1987 – Charlotte Wessels, Dutch singer-songwriter
    • 1987 – Bobby Shuttleworth, American soccer player
    • 1988 – Paulo Avelino, Filipino actor and singer
    • 1988 – Didier Cohen, Australian DJ, producer and media personality
    • 1988 – Casey Donovan, Australian singer-songwriter
    • 1989 – P. K. Subban, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1990 – Mychal Givens, American baseball player
    • 1991 – Jennifer Beattie, Scottish footballer
    • 1991 – Anders Fannemel, Norwegian ski jumper
    • 1992 – Bill Arnold, American ice hockey player
    • 1992 – Willson Contreras, Venezuelan baseball player
    • 1992 – Josh Papalii, New Zealand-Australian rugby league player
    • 1992 – Georgina García Pérez, Spanish tennis player
    • 1993 – Stefan Kraft, Austrian ski jumper
    • 1993 – Debby Ryan, American actress and singer
    • 1993 – Romelu Lukaku, Belgian footballer
    • 1993 – Siim-Tanel Sammelselg, Estonian ski jumper
    • 1993 – Tones and I, Australian singer-songwriter
    • 1994 – Łukasz Moneta, Polish footballer
    • 1997 – Reimis Smith, Australian rugby league player

    Deaths on May 13

    • 189 – Emperor Ling of Han, Chinese emperor (b. 156)
    • 1112 – Ulric II, Margrave of Carniola
    • 1176 – Matthias I, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1119)
    • 1285 – Robert de Ros, 1st Baron de Ros
    • 1312 – Theobald II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1263)
    • 1573 – Takeda Shingen, Japanese daimyō (b. 1521)
    • 1619 – Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Dutch politician (b. 1547)
    • 1704 – Louis Bourdaloue, French preacher and author (b. 1632)
    • 1726 – Francesco Antonio Pistocchi, Italian singer (b. 1659)
    • 1782 – Daniel Solander, Swedish-English botanist and phycologist (b. 1736)
    • 1807 – Eliphalet Dyer, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (b. 1721)
    • 1809 – Beilby Porteus, English bishop (b. 1731)
    • 1832 – Georges Cuvier, French zoologist and academic (b. 1769)
    • 1835 – John Nash, English architect, designed the Royal Pavilion (b. 1752)
    • 1866 – Nikolai Brashman, Czech-Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1796)
    • 1878 – Joseph Henry, American physicist and academic (b. 1797)
    • 1884 – Cyrus McCormick, American businessman, co-founded the International Harvester Company (b. 1809)
    • 1885 – Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, German physician, pathologist, and anatomist (b. 1809)
    • 1903 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Philippines (b. 1864)
    • 1916 – Sholem Aleichem, Ukrainian-American author and playwright (b. 1859)
    • 1921 – Jean Aicard, French author, poet, and playwright (b. 1848)
    • 1926 – Libert H. Boeynaems, Belgian-American bishop (b. 1857)
    • 1929 – Arthur Scherbius, German electrical engineer, invented the Enigma machine (b. 1878)
    • 1930 – Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian scientist, explorer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
    • 1938 – Charles Édouard Guillaume, Swiss-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
    • 1941 – Frederick Christian, English cricketer (b. 1877)
    • 1941 – Ōnishiki Uichirō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 26th Yokozuna (b. 1891)
    • 1945 – Tubby Hall, American drummer (b. 1895)
    • 1946 – Zara DuPont, American suffragist (b. 1869)
    • 1947 – Sukanta Bhattacharya, Indian poet and playwright (b. 1926)
    • 1948 – Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington (b. 1920)
    • 1957 – Michael Fekete, Hungarian-Israeli mathematician and academic (b. 1886)
    • 1961 – Gary Cooper, American actor (b. 1901)
    • 1962 – Henry Trendley Dean, American dentist (b. 1893)
    • 1962 – Franz Kline, American painter and academic (b. 1910)
    • 1963 – Alois Hudal, Austrian-Italian bishop (b. 1885)
    • 1972 – Dan Blocker, American actor (b. 1928)
    • 1974 – Jaime Torres Bodet, Mexican poet and diplomat (b. 1902)
    • 1974 – Arthur J. Burks, American colonel and author (b. 1898)
    • 1975 – Bob Wills, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1905)
    • 1977 – Mickey Spillane, American mobster (b. 1934)
    • 1985 – Leatrice Joy, American actress (b. 1893)
    • 1985 – Richard Ellmann, American literary critic and biographer (b. 1918)
    • 1988 – Chet Baker, American singer and trumpet player (b. 1929)
    • 1992 – F. E. McWilliam, Irish sculptor (b. 1909)
    • 1994 – Duncan Hamilton, Irish-English race car driver (b. 1920)
    • 1994 – John Swainson, Canadian-American jurist and politician, 42nd Governor of Michigan (b. 1925)
    • 1995 – Hao Wang, Chinese-American logician, philosopher, and mathematician (b. 1921)
    • 1999 – Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, Saudi Arabian scholar and academic (b. 1910)
    • 1999 – Gene Sarazen, American golfer and journalist (b. 1902)
    • 2000 – Paul Bartel, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1938)
    • 2000 – Jumbo Tsuruta, Japanese wrestler (b. 1951)
    • 2001 – Jason Miller, American actor and playwright (b. 1939)
    • 2002 – Ruth Cracknell, Australian actress and author (b. 1925)
    • 2002 – Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Ukrainian footballer and manager (b. 1939)
    • 2005 – Eddie Barclay, French record producer, founded Barclay Records (b. 1921)
    • 2005 – George Dantzig, American mathematician and academic (b. 1914)
    • 2006 – Jaroslav Pelikan, American historian and scholar (b. 1923)
    • 2006 – Johnnie Wilder, Jr., American singer (b. 1949)
    • 2008 – Saad Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1930)
    • 2008 – Ron Stone, American journalist and author (b. 1936)
    • 2009 – Frank Aletter, American actor (b. 1926)
    • 2009 – Meir Brandsdorfer, Belgian rabbi (b. 1934)
    • 2009 – Achille Compagnoni, Italian skier and mountaineer (b. 1914)
    • 2011 – Derek Boogaard, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1982)
    • 2011 – Stephen De Staebler, American sculptor and educator (b. 1933)
    • 2011 – Wallace McCain, Canadian businessman, co-founded McCain Foods (b. 1930)
    • 2011 – Bruce Ricker, American director and producer (b. 1942)
    • 2012 – Arsala Rahmani Daulat, Afghan politician (b. 1937)
    • 2012 – Donald “Duck” Dunn, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (b. 1941)
    • 2012 – Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Cuban-American theologian, author, and academic (b. 1943)
    • 2012 – Lee Richardson, English speedway rider (b. 1979)
    • 2012 – Don Ritchie, Australian humanitarian (b. 1925)
    • 2012 – Nguyễn Văn Thiện, Vietnamese bishop (b. 1906)
    • 2013 – Joyce Brothers, American psychologist, author, and actress (b. 1927)
    • 2013 – Otto Herrigel, Namibian lawyer and politician (b. 1937)
    • 2013 – Jagdish Mali, Indian photographer (b. 1954)
    • 2013 – Chuck Muncie, American football player (b. 1953)
    • 2013 – Fyodor Tuvin, Russian footballer (b. 1973)
    • 2013 – Lynne Woolstencroft, Canadian politician (b. 1943)
    • 2014 – David Malet Armstrong, Australian philosopher and author (b. 1926)
    • 2014 – Malik Bendjelloul, Swedish director and producer (b. 1977)
    • 2014 – J. F. Coleman, American soldier and pilot (b. 1918)
    • 2014 – Ron Stevens, Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1949)
    • 2014 – Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart, American occultist and author (b. 1948)
    • 2015 – Earl Averill, Jr., American baseball player (b. 1931)
    • 2015 – Robert Drasnin, American clarinet player and composer (b. 1927)
    • 2015 – Nina Otkalenko, Russian runner (b. 1928)
    • 2015 – David Sackett, American-Canadian physician and academic (b. 1934)
    • 2015 – Gainan Saidkhuzhin, Russian cyclist (b. 1937)
    • 2018 – Margot Kidder, Canadian-American actress (b. 1948)
    • 2019 – Doris Day, American singer and actress (b. 1922)
    • 2019 – Unita Blackwell, American civil rights activist, and politician (b. 1933)

    Holidays and observances on May 13

    • Abbotsbury Garland Day (Dorset, England)
    • Christian feast day:
      • Our Lady of Fátima
      • Gerard of Villamagna
      • Glyceria
      • John the Silent (Roman Catholic)
      • Julian of Norwich (Roman Catholic)
      • Frances Perkins (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • Servatius
      • May 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Rotuma Day (Rotuma)

  • February 28 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 202 BC – Liu Bang is enthroned as the Emperor of China, beginning four centuries of rule by the Han dynasty.
    • 870 – The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.
    • 1246 – The siege of Jaén ends in the context of the Spanish Reconquista resulting in the Castilian takeover of the city from the Taifa of Jaen.
    • 1525 – Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés.
    • 1638 – The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh.
    • 1700 – Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
    • 1710 – Battle of Helsingborg: 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock. This is the last time Swedish and Danish troops meet on Swedish soil.
    • 1728 – Peshwa Bajirao I of the Maratha Empire defeats Asaf Jah I in the Battle of Palkhed.
    • 1827 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
    • 1838 – Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Quebec).
    • 1844 – A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing six people, including two United States Cabinet members.
    • 1847 – The Battle of the Sacramento River during the Mexican–American War is a decisive victory for the United States leading to the capture of Chihuahua.
    • 1849 – Regular steamship service from the east to the west coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, four months 22 days after leaving New York Harbor.
    • 1867 – Seventy years of Holy See–United States relations are ended by a Congressional ban on federal funding of diplomatic envoys to the Vatican and are not restored until January 10, 1984.
    • 1870 – The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abdülaziz of the Ottoman Empire.
    • 1874 – One of the longest cases ever heard in an English court ends when the defendant is convicted of perjury for attempting to assume the identity of the heir to the Tichborne baronetcy.
    • 1893 – The USS Indiana, the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time, is launched.
    • 1897 – Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
    • 1900 – The Second Boer War: The 118-day “Siege of Ladysmith” is lifted.
    • 1904 – S.L. Benfica is founded in Portugal.
    • 1922 – The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
    • 1925 – The Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake strikes northeastern North America.
    • 1933 – Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.
    • 1935 – DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.
    • 1939 – The erroneous word “dord” is discovered in the Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.
    • 1940 – Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).
    • 1942 – The heavy cruiser USS Houston is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed, along with HMAS Perth which lost 375 men.
    • 1947 – February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of an estimated 30,000 civilians.
    • 1948 – Christiansborg Cross-Roads shooting in the Gold Coast, when a British police officer opens fire on a march of ex-servicemen, killing three of them and sparking major riots and looting in Accra.
    • 1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April’s Nature (pub. April 2).
    • 1954 – The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public.
    • 1958 – A school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hits a wrecker truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa Fork river. The driver and 26 children die in what remains one of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history.
    • 1959 – Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite that is the first object intended to achieve a polar orbit, is launched but fails to achieve orbit.
    • 1966 – A NASA T-38 Talon crashes into the McDonnell Aircraft factory while attempting a poor-visibility landing at Lambert Field, St. Louis, killing astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett.
    • 1972 – China–United States relations: The United States and China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.
    • 1975 – In London, an underground train fails to stop at Moorgate terminus station and crashes into the end of the tunnel, killing 43 people.
    • 1980 – Andalusia approves its statute of autonomy through a referendum.
    • 1983 – The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, with almost 106 million viewers. It still holds the record for the highest viewership of a season finale.
    • 1985 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.
    • 1986 – Olof Palme, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
    • 1991 – The first Gulf War ends.
    • 1993 – The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group’s leader David Koresh. Four ATF agents and six Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
    • 1995 – Former Australian Liberal party leader John Hewson resigns from the Australian parliament almost two years after losing the 1993 Australian federal election.
    • 1997 – An earthquake in northern Iran is responsible for about 3,000 deaths.
    • 1997 – GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way.
    • 1998 – First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.
    • 1998 – Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army in Kosovo.
    • 2002 – During the religious violence in Gujarat, the 97 people killed in the Naroda Patiya massacre and 69 in Gulbarg Society massacre.
    • 2004 – Over one million Taiwanese participate in the 228 Hand-in-Hand rally form a 500-kilometre (310 mi) long human chain to commemorate the February 28 Incident in 1947.
    • 2005 – A suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.
    • 2013 – Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since Pope Gregory XII, in 1415.

    Births on February 28

    • 1119 – Emperor Xizong of Jin (d. 1150)
    • 1155 – Henry the Young King, son and heir of Henry II of England (d. 1183)
    • 1261 – Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Norway (d. 1283)
    • 1518 – Francis III, Duke of Brittany, Duke of Brittany (d. 1536)
    • 1533 – Michel de Montaigne, French philosopher and author (d. 1592)
    • 1535 – Cornelius Gemma, Dutch astronomer and astrologer (d. 1578)
    • 1552 – Jost Bürgi, Swiss mathematician and clockmaker (d. 1632)
    • 1612 – John Pearson, English bishop, theologian, and scholar (d. 1686)
    • 1627 – Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Essex (d. 1703)
    • 1675 – Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (d. 1726)
    • 1683 – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French entomologist and academic (d. 1757)
    • 1704 – Louis Godin, French astronomer and academic (d. 1760)
    • 1712 – Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French general (d. 1759)
    • 1724 – George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, English field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1807)
    • 1792 – Karl Ernst von Baer, German biologist, meteorologist, and geographer (d. 1876)
    • 1812 – Berthold Auerbach, German poet and author (d. 1882)
    • 1820 – John Tenniel, English illustrator (d. 1914)
    • 1833 – Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (d. 1913)
    • 1840 – Henri Duveyrier, French explorer (d. 1892)
    • 1848 – Arthur Giry, French historian and academic (d. 1899)
    • 1851 – Samuel W. McCall, American journalist and politician, 47th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1923)
    • 1858 – Tore Svennberg, Swedish actor and director (d. 1941)
    • 1865 – Wilfred Grenfell, English physician and missionary (d. 1940)
    • 1866 – Vyacheslav Ivanov, Russian poet and playwright (d. 1949)
    • 1873 – William McMaster Murdoch, Scottish sailor (d. 1912)
    • 1878 – Pierre Fatou, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1929)
    • 1882 – Geraldine Farrar, American soprano and actress (d. 1967)
    • 1882 – José Vasconcelos, Mexican philosopher, lawyer, and politician, Mexican Secretary of Public Education (d. 1959)
    • 1883 – Seán Mac Diarmada, Irish rebel leader (d. 1916)
    • 1884 – Ants Piip, Estonian lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Estonia (d. 1942)
    • 1887 – William Zorach, Lithuanian-American sculptor and painter (d. 1966)
    • 1894 – Ben Hecht, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1964)
    • 1895 – Marcel Pagnol, French author, playwright and director (d. 1974)
    • 1896 – Philip Showalter Hench, American physician and endocrinologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
    • 1898 – Zeki Rıza Sporel, Turkish footballer (d. 1969)
    • 1900 – Wolf Hirth, German pilot and engineer, co-founded Schempp-Hirth (d. 1959)
    • 1901 – Linus Pauling, American chemist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
    • 1903 – Vincente Minnelli, American director and screenwriter (d. 1986)
    • 1906 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)
    • 1907 – Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
    • 1908 – Billie Bird, American actress (d. 2002)
    • 1909 – Stephen Spender, English author and poet (d. 1995)
    • 1911 – Otakar Vávra, Czech director and screenwriter (d. 2011)
    • 1915 – Ketti Frings, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1981)
    • 1915 – Peter Medawar, Brazilian-English biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
    • 1915 – Zero Mostel, American actor and comedian (d. 1977)
    • 1916 – Cesar Climaco, Filipino lawyer and politician, 10th Mayor of Zamboanga City (d. 1984)
    • 1917 – Ernesto Alonso, Mexican actor, director, and producer (d. 2007)
    • 1919 – Alfred Marshall, American businessman, founded Marshalls (d. 2013)
    • 1919 – Brian Urquhart, English soldier and diplomat, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
    • 1920 – Jadwiga Piłsudska, Polish soldier, pilot, and architect (d. 2014)
    • 1921 – Pierre Clostermann, French pilot, engineer, and author (d. 2006)
    • 1922 – Yuri Lotman, Russian-Estonian historian and scholar (d. 1993)
    • 1923 – Charles Durning, American soldier and actor (d. 2012)
    • 1924 – Uno Prii, Estonian-Canadian architect (d. 2000)
    • 1924 – Robert A. Roe, American soldier and politician (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Harry H. Corbett, Burmese-English actor (d. 1982)
    • 1926 – Svetlana Alliluyeva, Russian-American author and educator (d. 2011)
    • 1928 – Stanley Baker, Welsh actor and producer (d. 1976)
    • 1928 – Tom Aldredge, American actor (d. 2011)
    • 1928 – Sylvia del Villard, actress, dancer, choreographer and Afro-Puerto Rican activist (d. 1990)
    • 1929 – Hayden Fry, American football player and coach (d. 2019)
    • 1929 – Frank Gehry, Canadian-American architect, designed 8 Spruce Street and Walt Disney Concert Hall
    • 1929 – John Montague, American-Irish poet and academic (d. 2016)
    • 1929 – Rangaswamy Srinivasan, Indian-American physical chemist and inventor
    • 1930 – Leon Cooper, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1931 – Iajuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi academic and politician, 14th President of Bangladesh (d. 2012)
    • 1931 – Peter Alliss, English golfer and sportscaster
    • 1931 – Gavin MacLeod, American actor
    • 1931 – Len Newcombe, Welsh footballer, outside forward and scout (d. 1996)
    • 1931 – Dean Smith, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
    • 1932 – Don Francks, Canadian actor, singer, and jazz musician (d. 2016)
    • 1933 – Rein Taagepera, Estonian political scientist and politician
    • 1934 – Willie Bobo, American Latin Jazz/Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist (d. 1983)
    • 1937 – Jeff Farrell, American swimmer
    • 1938 – Foge Fazio, American football player and coach (d. 2009)
    • 1939 – John Fahey, American guitarist (d. 2001)
    • 1939 – Chögyam Trungpa, Tibetan philosopher and scholar (d. 1987)
    • 1939 – Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1939 – Tommy Tune, American actor, singer, dancer, and director
    • 1940 – Aldo Andretti, Italian-American race car driver
    • 1940 – Mario Andretti, Italian-American race car driver
    • 1940 – Joe South, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer (d. 2012)
    • 1942 – Brian Jones, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer (d. 1969)
    • 1942 – Dino Zoff, Italian footballer and manager
    • 1943 – Barbara Acklin, American singer-songwriter (d. 1998)
    • 1943 – Hans Dijkstal, Egyptian-Dutch educator and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 2010)
    • 1943 – Donnie Iris, American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1944 – Kelly Bishop, American actress and dancer
    • 1944 – Edward Greenspan, Canadian lawyer and author (d. 2014)
    • 1944 – Sepp Maier, German footballer and manager
    • 1944 – Storm Thorgerson, English graphic designer (d. 2013)
    • 1945 – Mimsy Farmer, American-French actress and sculptor
    • 1945 – Bubba Smith, American football player and actor (d. 2011)
    • 1945 – Linda Preiss Rothschild, American mathematician and academic
    • 1946 – Philip Bailhache, English lawyer and politician
    • 1946 – Robin Cook, Scottish educator and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 2005)
    • 1946 – Syreeta Wright, African-American singer songwriter (d. 2004)
    • 1947 – Stephanie Beacham, English actress
    • 1948 – Steven Chu, American physicist and politician, 12th United States Secretary of Energy, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1948 – Mike Figgis, English director, screenwriter, and composer
    • 1948 – Bernadette Peters, American actress, singer, and author
    • 1948 – Mercedes Ruehl, American actress
    • 1948 – Alfred Sant, Maltese politician, 11th Prime Minister of Malta
    • 1951 – Bill Cratty, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1998)
    • 1951 – Debora Green, American physician convicted of murder
    • 1953 – Ingo Hoffmann, Brazilian race car driver
    • 1953 – Paul Krugman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1953 – Ricky Steamboat, American wrestler, referee, and trainer
    • 1954 – Brian Billick, American football player, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1955 – Adrian Dantley, American basketball player and coach
    • 1955 – Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian, actor, and singer
    • 1956 – Terry Leahy, English businessman
    • 1956 – Guy Maddin, Canadian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
    • 1957 – Paul Delph, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 1996)
    • 1957 – Ainsley Harriott, English chef and author
    • 1957 – Ian Smith, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster
    • 1957 – John Turturro, American actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1957 – Cindy Wilson, American singer-songwriter
    • 1958 – Manuel Torres Félix, Mexican criminal and narcotics trafficker (d. 2012)
    • 1958 – Natalya Estemirova, Russian journalist and activist (d. 2009)
    • 1958 – Jeanne Mas, Spanish-French singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1958 – David R. Ross, Scottish historian and author (d. 2010)
    • 1959 – Jack Abramoff, American businessman and lobbyist
    • 1959 – Megan McDonald, American librarian and author
    • 1961 – Rae Dawn Chong, Canadian-American actress
    • 1961 – Mark Latham, Australian politician
    • 1961 – Barry McGuigan, Irish-British boxer
    • 1962 – Gary Belcher, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
    • 1963 – Claudio Chiappucci, Italian cyclist
    • 1964 – Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Uzbekistan sprinter and cyclist
    • 1965 – Colum McCann, Irish-American author and academic
    • 1965 – Norman Smiley, English-American wrestler and trainer
    • 1966 – Vincent Askew, American basketball player and coach
    • 1966 – Paulo Futre, Portuguese footballer
    • 1966 – Archbishop Jovan VI of Ohrid
    • 1967 – Colin Cooper, English footballer and manager
    • 1967 – Martin Tielli, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1969 – Sean Farrel, English footballer, forward
    • 1969 – Butch Leitzinger, American race car driver
    • 1969 – Robert Sean Leonard, American actor
    • 1969 – Patrick Monahan, American singer-songwriter and actor
    • 1970 – Daniel Handler, American journalist, author, and accordion player
    • 1970 – Noureddine Morceli, Algerian runner
    • 1971 – Junya Nakano, Japanese pianist and composer
    • 1971 – Peter Stebbings, Canadian actor and director
    • 1972 – Rory Cochrane, American actor
    • 1972 – Ville Haapasalo, Finnish actor and screenwriter
    • 1973 – Eric Lindros, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1973 – Scott McLeod, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1973 – Nicolas Minassian, French race car driver
    • 1973 – Masato Tanaka, Japanese wrestler
    • 1974 – Lee Carsley, English-Irish footballer and manager
    • 1974 – Alexander Zickler, German footballer and manager
    • 1975 – Mike Rucker, American football player
    • 1976 – Ali Larter, American actress
    • 1977 – Jason Aldean, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1977 – Lance Hoyt, American football player and wrestler
    • 1978 – Jeanne Cherhal, French singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1978 – Benjamin Raich, Austrian skier
    • 1978 – Jamaal Tinsley, American basketball player
    • 1978 – Mariano Zabaleta, Argentinian tennis player
    • 1979 – Sébastien Bourdais, French race car driver
    • 1979 – Ivo Karlović, Croatian tennis player
    • 1979 – Primož Peterka, Slovenian ski jumper
    • 1980 – Pascal Bosschaart, Dutch footballer
    • 1980 – Lucian Bute, Romanian-Canadian boxer
    • 1980 – Christian Poulsen, Danish footballer
    • 1980 – Tayshaun Prince, American basketball player
    • 1981 – Brian Bannister, American baseball player and scout
    • 1982 – Natalia Vodianova, Russian-French model and actress
    • 1984 – Noureen DeWulf, American actress
    • 1984 – Karolína Kurková, Czech model and actress
    • 1985 – Tim Bresnan, English cricketer
    • 1985 – Jelena Janković, Serbian tennis player
    • 1985 – Diego Ribas da Cunha, Brazilian footballer
    • 1986 – Travis Stevens, American judoka
    • 1987 – Antonio Candreva, Italian footballer
    • 1988 – Aroldis Chapman, Cuban baseball player
    • 1988 – Markéta Irglová, Czech singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
    • 1989 – Carlos Dunlap, American football player
    • 1989 – Charles Jenkins, American basketball player
    • 1989 – Kevin Proctor, New Zealand rugby league player
    • 1989 – Angelababy, Chinese actress
    • 1990 – Takayasu Akira, Japanese sumo wrestler
    • 1994 – Jake Bugg, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1994 – Arkadiusz Milik, Polish footballer
    • 1999 – Luka Dončić, Slovenian basketball player

    Deaths on February 28

    • 628 – Khosrow II, Shah of Iran – Sasanian Empire (b. c. 570)
    • 911 – Abu Abdallah al-Shi’i, Muslim Shia imam
    • 1105 – Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse (b. c. 1042)
    • 1261 – Henry III, Duke of Brabant (b. 1230)
    • 1326 – Leopold I, Duke of Austria (b. 1290)
    • 1453 – Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine (b. 1400)
    • 1510 – Juan de la Cosa, Spanish cartographer and explorer (b. 1450)
    • 1551 – Martin Bucer, German Protestant reformer (b. 1491)
    • 1572 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian and author (b. 1505)
    • 1621 – Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1590)
    • 1648 – Christian IV of Denmark (b. 1577)
    • 1786 – John Gwynn, English architect and engineer (b. 1713)
    • 1788 – Thomas Cushing, American lawyer and politician, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1725)
    • 1857 – André Dumont, Belgian geologist and academic (b. 1809)
    • 1869 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French author and poet (b. 1790)
    • 1879 – Hortense Allart, Italian-French author (b. 1801)
    • 1891 – George Hearst, American businessman and politician (b. 1820)
    • 1916 – Henry James, American novelist, short writer, and critic (b. 1843)
    • 1925 – Friedrich Ebert, German politician, 1st President of Germany (b. 1871)
    • 1929 – Clemens von Pirquet, Austrian physician and immunologist (b. 1874)
    • 1932 – Guillaume Bigourdan, French astronomer and academic (b. 1851)
    • 1935 – Chiquinha Gonzaga, Brazilian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1847)
    • 1936 – Charles Nicolle, French biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)
    • 1941 – Alfonso XIII of Spain (b. 1886)
    • 1942 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (b. 1889)
    • 1959 – Maxwell Anderson, American journalist, author, and playwright (b. 1888)
    • 1963 – Rajendra Prasad, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st President of India (b. 1884)
    • 1966 – Charles Bassett, American captain, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1931)
    • 1966 – Elliot See, American commander, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1927)
    • 1967 – Henry Luce, American publisher, co-founded Time Magazine (b. 1898)
    • 1977 – Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, American actor and comedian (b. 1905)
    • 1978 – Zara Cully, American actress (b. 1892)
    • 1978 – Eric Frank Russell, English author (b. 1905)
    • 1983 – Winifred Atwell, Trinidadian pianist (b. 1910 or 1914)
    • 1987 – Stephen Tennant, English author (b. 1906)
    • 1991 – Wassily Hoeffding, Finnish-American statistician and theorist (b. 1914)
    • 1993 – Ishirō Honda, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
    • 1993 – Ruby Keeler, Canadian-American actress and dancer (b. 1909)
    • 1998 – Dermot Morgan, Irish comedian and actor (b. 1952)
    • 1998 – Arkady Shevchenko, Ukrainian diplomat (b. 1930)
    • 2002 – Mary Stuart, American actress and singer (b. 1926)
    • 2002 – Helmut Zacharias, German violinist and composer (b. 1920)
    • 2003 – Chris Brasher, Guyanese-English runner and journalist, co-founded the London Marathon (b. 1928)
    • 2003 – Fidel Sánchez Hernández, Salvadorian general and politician, President of El Salvador (b. 1917)
    • 2004 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian and librarian (b. 1914)
    • 2004 – Carmen Laforet, Spanish author (b. 1921)
    • 2004 – Andres Nuiamäe, Estonian sergeant (b. 1982)
    • 2005 – Chris Curtis, English singer and drummer (b. 1941)
    • 2006 – Owen Chamberlain, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
    • 2007 – Charles Forte, Baron Forte, Italian-English businessman, founded the Forte Group (b. 1908)
    • 2007 – Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. American historian and critic (b. 1917)
    • 2007 – Billy Thorpe, English-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1946)
    • 2008 – Joseph M. Juran, Romanian-American engineer and businessman (b. 1904)
    • 2009 – Paul Harvey, American radio host (b. 1918)
    • 2011 – Annie Girardot, French actress (b. 1931)
    • 2011 – Jane Russell, American actress and singer (b. 1921)
    • 2012 – Frisner Augustin, Haitian drummer and composer (b. 1948)
    • 2012 – Jim Green, American-Canadian educator and politician (b. 1943)
    • 2012 – Hal Roach, Irish comedian and author (b. 1927)
    • 2013 – Donald A. Glaser, American physicist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
    • 2013 – Neil McCorkell, English cricketer and coach (b. 1912)
    • 2014 – Hugo Brandt Corstius, Dutch linguist and author (b. 1935)
    • 2014 – Lee Lorch, American mathematician and activist (b. 1915)
    • 2015 – Alex Johnson, American baseball player (b. 1942)
    • 2015 – Yaşar Kemal, Turkish journalist and author (b. 1923)
    • 2016 – George Kennedy, American actor (b. 1925)
    • 2017 – Pierre Pascau, Mauritian-Canadian journalist (b. 1938)
    • 2019 – André Previn, German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. (b. 1929)
    • 2020 – Joe Coulombe, founder of Trader Joe’s (b. 1930)
    • 2020 – Freeman Dyson, British-born American physicist and mathematician (b. 1923)
    • 2020 – Sir Lenox Hewitt, Australian public servant (b. 1917)

    Holidays and observances on February 28

    • Christian feast day:
      • Abercius (martyr)
      • Anna Julia Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • Hilarius
      • Mar Abba
      • Oswald of Worcester
      • Romanus of Condat
      • Rufinus
      • February 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Earliest day on which Rare Disease Day can fall, while February 29 is the latest; observed on the last day of February (international)
    • The third day of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’í Faith) (Please note that this observance is only locked into this date the Gregorian calendar on this date if Bahá’í Naw-Rúz takes place on March 21, which it doesn’t in all years)
    • Día de Andalucía (Andalusia, Spain)
    • Kalevala Day, the day of Finnish culture. (Finland)
    • National Science Day (India)
    • Peace Memorial Day (Taiwan)
    • Teachers’ Day (Arab states)

  • January 29 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 904 – Sergius III is consecrated pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.
    • 946 – Caliph Al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Emir Mu’izz al-Dawla, ruler of the Buyid Empire. He is succeeded by Al-Muti as caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate.
    • 1258 – First Mongol invasion of Đại Việt: Đại Việt defeats the Mongols at the battle of Đông Bộ Đầu, forcing the Mongols to withdraw from the country.
    • 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.
    • 1819 – Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.
    • 1845 – “The Raven” is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.
    • 1850 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.
    • 1856 – Queen Victoria issues a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognise acts of valour by British military personnel during the Crimean War.
    • 1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.
    • 1863 – The Bear River Massacre: A detachment of California Volunteers led by Colonel Patrick Edward Connor engage the Shoshone at Bear River, Washington Territory, killing hundreds of men, women and children.
    • 1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
    • 1891 – Liliuokalani is proclaimed the last monarch and only queen regnant of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
    • 1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.
    • 1911 – Mexican Revolution: Mexicali is captured by the Mexican Liberal Party, igniting the Magonista rebellion of 1911.
    • 1916 – World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.
    • 1918 – Ukrainian–Soviet War: The Bolshevik Red Army, on its way to besiege Kiev, is met by a small group of military students at the Battle of Kruty.
    • 1918 – Ukrainian–Soviet War: An armed uprising organized by the Bolsheviks in anticipation of the encroaching Red Army begins at the Kiev Arsenal, which will be put down six days later.
    • 1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.
    • 1940 – Three trains on the Nishinari Line; present Sakurajima Line, in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station. One hundred and eighty-one people are killed.
    • 1941 – Alexandros Koryzis becomes Prime Minister of Greece upon the sudden death of his predecessor, dictator Ioannis Metaxas.
    • 1943 – World War II: The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, USS Chicago (CA-29) is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers.
    • 1944 – World War II: Approximately 38 people are killed and about a dozen injured when the Polish village of Koniuchy (present-day Kaniūkai, Lithuania) is attacked by Soviet partisan units.
    • 1944 – In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio is completely destroyed in an air-raid, during the Second World War.
    • 1948 – The Pakistan Socialist Party is founded in Karachi.
    • 1959 – The first Melodifestivalen is held in Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden.
    • 1963 – The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.
    • 1967 – The “ultimate high” of the hippie era, the Mantra-Rock Dance, takes place in San Francisco and features Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.
    • 1980 – The Rubik’s Cube makes its international debut at the Ideal Toy Corp. in Earl’s Court, London.
    • 1989 – Cold War: Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so.
    • 1991 – Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins.
    • 1996 – President Jacques Chirac announces a “definitive end” to French nuclear weapons testing.
    • 2001 – Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
    • 2002 – In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes “regimes that sponsor terror” as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
    • 2005 – The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.
    • 2009 – The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt rules that people who do not adhere to one of the three government-recognised religions, while not allowed to list any belief outside of those three, are still eligible to receive government identity documents.
    • 2009 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.
    • 2013 – SCAT Airlines Flight 760 crashes near the Kazakh city of Almaty, killing 21 people.
    • 2013 – Alabama bunker hostage crisis: After shooting and killing of school bus driver, 66 years old Charles Albert Poland, Jr, by 65 year old Vietnam War era veteran, Jimmy Lee Dykes.
    • 2017 – Quebec City mosque shooting: Alexandre Bissonnette opens fire at mosque in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, killing six and wounding 19 others in a spree shooting.

    Births on January 29

    • 919 – Shi Zong, emperor of the Liao Dynasty (d. 951)
    • 1455 – Johann Reuchlin, German-born humanist and scholar (d. 1522)
    • 1475 – Giuliano Bugiardini, Italian painter (d. 1555)
    • 1499 – Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther; formerly a Roman Catholic nun (d. 1552)
    • 1525 – Lelio Sozzini, Italian humanist and reformer (d. 1562)
    • 1584 – Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (d. 1647)
    • 1591 – Franciscus Junius, pioneer of Germanic philology (d. 1677)
    • 1602 – Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg (d. 1651)
    • 1632 – Johann Georg Graevius, German scholar and critic (d. 1703)
    • 1650 – Juan de Galavís, Spanish Roman Catholic archbishop of Santo Domingo and Bogotá (d. 1739)
    • 1688 – Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish astronomer, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1772)
    • 1711 – Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (d. 1788)
    • 1715 – Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1777)
    • 1717 – Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, English field marshal and politician, 19th Governor General of Canada (d. 1797)
    • 1718 – Paul Rabaut, French pastor (d. 1794)
    • 1737 – Thomas Paine, prominent for publishing Common Sense (1776), which established him as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States (d. 1809)
    • 1749 – Christian VII of Denmark (d. 1808)
    • 1754 – Moses Cleaveland, American general, lawyer, and politician, founded Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1806)
    • 1756 – Henry Lee III, American general and politician, 9th Governor of Virginia (d. 1818)
    • 1761 – Albert Gallatin, Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, and politician, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1849)
    • 1782 – Daniel Auber, French composer (d. 1871)
    • 1801 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, Dutch violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1857)
    • 1810 – Ernst Kummer, Polish-German mathematician and academic (d. 1893)
    • 1810 – Mary Whitwell Hale, American teacher, school founder, and hymnwriter (d. 1862)
    • 1843 – William McKinley, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 25th President of the United States (d. 1901)
    • 1846 – Karol Olszewski, Polish chemist, mathematician, and physicist (d. 1915)
    • 1852 – Frederic Hymen Cowen, Jamaican-English pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1935)
    • 1858 – Henry Ward Ranger, American painter and academic (d. 1916)
    • 1860 – Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short story writer (d. 1904)
    • 1861 – Florida Ruffin Ridley, African-American civil rights activist, teacher, editor, and writer (d. 1943)
    • 1862 – Frederick Delius, English composer (d. 1934)
    • 1866 – Julio Peris Brell, Spanish painter (d. 1944)
    • 1866 – Romain Rolland, French historian, author, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1944)
    • 1867 – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Spanish journalist and author (d. 1928)
    • 1870 – Süleyman Nazif, Turkish poet and civil servant (d. 1927)
    • 1874 – John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1960)
    • 1876 – Havergal Brian, English composer (d. 1972)
    • 1877 – Georges Catroux, French general and diplomat (d. 1969)
    • 1880 – W. C. Fields, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter (d. 1946)
    • 1881 – Alice Catherine Evans, American microbiologist (d. 1975)
    • 1884 – Juhan Aavik, Estonian-Swedish composer and conductor (d. 1982)
    • 1888 – Sydney Chapman, English mathematician and geophysicist (d. 1970)
    • 1888 – Wellington Koo, Chinese statesman (d. 1985)
    • 1891 – Elizaveta Gerdt, Russian ballerina and educator (d. 1975)
    • 1891 – R. Norris Williams, Swiss-American tennis player and banker (d. 1968)
    • 1892 – Ernst Lubitsch, German American film director, producer, writer, and actor (d. 1947)
    • 1895 – Muna Lee, American poet and author (d. 1965)
    • 1901 – Allen B. DuMont, American engineer and broadcaster, founded the DuMont Television Network (d. 1965)
    • 1901 – E. P. Taylor, Canadian businessman and horse breeder (d. 1989)
    • 1903 – Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Russian-Israeli biochemist and philosopher (d. 1994)
    • 1905 – Barnett Newman, American painter and etcher (d. 1970)
    • 1906 – Joe Primeau, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1989)
    • 1913 – Victor Mature, American actor (d. 1999)
    • 1915 – Bill Peet, American author and illustrator (d. 2002)
    • 1915 – John Serry Sr., Italian-American concert accordionist and composer (d.2003)
    • 1917 – John Raitt, American actor and singer (d. 2005)
    • 1918 – John Forsythe, American actor (d. 2010)
    • 1921 – Geraldine Pittman Woods, American science administrator and embryologist (d. 1999)
    • 1923 – Jack Burke Jr., American golfer
    • 1923 – Paddy Chayefsky, American author and screenwriter (d. 1981)
    • 1926 – Abdus Salam, Pakistani-British physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
    • 1926 – Amelita Ramos, 11th First Lady of the Philippines
    • 1927 – Edward Abbey, American environmentalist and author (d. 1989)
    • 1929 – Elio Petri, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1982)
    • 1929 – Joseph Kruskal, American mathematician and computer scientist (d. 2010)
    • 1931 – Leslie Bricusse, English playwright and composer
    • 1931 – Ferenc Mádl, Hungarian academic and politician, 2nd President of Hungary (d. 2011)
    • 1932 – Raman Subba Row, English cricketer and referee
    • 1932 – Tommy Taylor, English footballer (d. 1958)
    • 1933 – Sacha Distel, French singer and guitarist (d. 2004)
    • 1934 – Branko Miljković, Serbian poet and academic (d. 1961)
    • 1936 – Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Indian poet and songwriter (d. 2010)
    • 1937 – Hassan Habibi, Iranian lawyer and politician, 1st Vice President of Iran (d. 2013)
    • 1937 – Bobby Scott, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 1990)
    • 1939 – Germaine Greer, Australian journalist and author
    • 1940 – Katharine Ross, American actress and author
    • 1940 – Kunimitsu Takahashi, Japanese motorcycle racer and race car driver
    • 1941 – Robin Morgan, American actress, journalist, and author
    • 1943 – Tony Blackburn, English radio and television host
    • 1943 – Pat Quinn, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2014)
    • 1944 – Andrew Loog Oldham, English record producer and manager
    • 1944 – Patrick Lipton Robinson, Jamaican lawyer and judge
    • 1944 – Pauline van der Wildt, Dutch swimmer
    • 1945 – Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Malian academic and politician, Prime Minister of Mali
    • 1945 – Jim Nicholson, Northern Irish politician
    • 1945 – Tom Selleck, American actor and businessman
    • 1946 – Bettye LaVette, American singer-songwriter
    • 1947 – Linda B. Buck, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1947 – David Byron, English singer-songwriter (d. 1985)
    • 1947 – Marián Varga, Slovak organist and composer
    • 1948 – Raymond Keene, English chess player and author
    • 1949 – doris davenport, American poet and teacher
    • 1949 – Evgeny Lovchev, Russian footballer and manager
    • 1949 – Tommy Ramone, Hungarian-American drummer and producer (d. 2014)
    • 1950 – Ann Jillian, American actress and singer
    • 1950 – Jody Scheckter, South African race car driver and sportscaster
    • 1951 – Fereydoon Forooghi, Iranian singer-songwriter (d. 2001)
    • 1951 – Andy Roberts, Caribbean cricketer
    • 1953 – Peter Baumann, German keyboard player and songwriter
    • 1953 – Charlie Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1953 – Teresa Teng, Taiwanese singer (d. 1995)
    • 1954 – Christian Bjelland IV, Norwegian businessman and art collector
    • 1954 – Terry Kinney, American actor and director
    • 1954 – Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host, actress, and producer, founded Harpo Productions
    • 1956 – Jan Jakub Kolski, Polish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
    • 1957 – Philippe Dintrans, French rugby player
    • 1957 – Ron Franscell, American author and journalist
    • 1957 – Grażyna Miller, Italian journalist and poet
    • 1959 – Mike Foligno, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1960 – Gia Carangi, American supermodel (d. 1986)
    • 1960 – Greg Louganis, American diver and author
    • 1961 – Petra Thümer, German swimmer and photographer
    • 1962 – Nicholas Turturro, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1964 – John Anthony Gallagher, English-New Zealand rugby player
    • 1965 – Dominik Hašek, Czech ice hockey player
    • 1965 – Peter Lundgren, Swedish tennis player and coach
    • 1966 – Romário, Brazilian footballer, manager, and politician
    • 1967 – Stacey King, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1968 – Edward Burns, American actor, director, and producer
    • 1968 – Susi Erdmann, German luger and bobsledder
    • 1970 – Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Indian colonel and politician
    • 1970 – Heather Graham, American actress
    • 1970 – Jörg Hoffmann, German swimmer
    • 1970 – Paul Ryan, American economist and politician, 62nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
    • 1970 – Mohammed Yusuf, Nigerian Islamist leader, founded Boko Haram (d. 2009)
    • 1975 – Sara Gilbert, American actress, producer, and talk show host
    • 1980 – Ivan Klasnic, German-Croatian footballer
    • 1982 – Adam Lambert, American singer, songwriter and actor
    • 1984 – Natalie du Toit, South African swimmer
    • 1984 – Nuno Morais, Portuguese footballer
    • 1985 – Marc Gasol, Spanish basketball player
    • 1987 – José Abreu, Cuban baseball player
    • 1988 – Tatyana Chernova, Russian heptathlete
    • 1988 – Shay Logan, English footballer
    • 1988 – Aydın Yılmaz, Turkish footballer
    • 1989 – Kevin Shattenkirk, American ice hockey player
    • 1993 – Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Japanese singer

    Deaths on January 29

    • 661 – Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad (b. 601)
    • 702 – Princess Ōku of Japan (b. 661)
    • 757 – An Lushan, Chinese general (b. 703)
    • 870 – Salih ibn Wasif, Muslim general
    • 1119 – Pope Gelasius II (b. 1060)
    • 1327 – Adolf, Count Palatine of the Rhine (b. 1300)
    • 1465 – Louis, Duke of Savoy (b. 1413)
    • 1597 – Elias Ammerbach, German organist and composer (b. 1530)
    • 1608 – Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1557)
    • 1647 – Francis Meres, English priest and author (b. 1565)
    • 1678 – Jerónimo Lobo, Portuguese missionary and author (b. 1593)
    • 1706 – Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English poet and courtier (b. 1638)
    • 1737 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, Scottish-English field marshal and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1666)
    • 1743 – André-Hercule de Fleury, French cardinal (b. 1653)
    • 1763 – Louis Racine, French poet (b. 1692)
    • 1820 – George III of the United Kingdom (b. 1738)
    • 1829 – Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras, French captain and politician (b. 1755)
    • 1829 – István Pauli, Hungarian-Slovenian priest and poet (b. 1760)
    • 1870 – Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1797)
    • 1871 – Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, Canadian author (b. 1786)
    • 1888 – Edward Lear, English poet and illustrator (b. 1812)
    • 1899 – Alfred Sisley, French-English painter (b. 1839)
    • 1906 – Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1818)
    • 1928 – Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, Scottish field marshal (b. 1861)
    • 1931 – Henri Mathias Berthelot, French general during World War I (b. 1861)
    • 1933 – Sara Teasdale, American poet (b. 1884)
    • 1934 – Fritz Haber, Polish-German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
    • 1941 – Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and politician, 130th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1871)
    • 1944 – William Allen White, American journalist and author (b. 1868)
    • 1946 – Harry Hopkins, American businessman and politician, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce (b. 1890)
    • 1948 – Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta (b. 1900)
    • 1950 – Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler (b. 1885)
    • 1951 – Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer and umpire (b. 1880)
    • 1956 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist and critic (b. 1880)
    • 1959 – Winifred Brunton, South African painter and illustrator (b. 1880)
    • 1962 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian-American violinist and composer (b. 1875)
    • 1963 – Robert Frost, American poet and playwright (b. 1874)
    • 1964 – Alan Ladd, American actor (b. 1913)
    • 1969 – Allen Welsh Dulles, American banker, lawyer, and diplomat, 5th Director of Central Intelligence (b. 1893)
    • 1970 – B. H. Liddell Hart, French-English soldier, historian, and journalist (b. 1895)
    • 1977 – Freddie Prinze, American comedian and actor (b. 1954)
    • 1978 – Frank Nicklin, Australian politician, 28th Premier of Queensland (b. 1895)
    • 1980 – Jimmy Durante, American entertainer (b. 1893)
    • 1991 – Yasushi Inoue, Japanese author and poet (b. 1907)
    • 1992 – Willie Dixon, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1915)
    • 1993 – Adetokunbo Ademola, Nigerian lawyer and jurist, 2nd Chief Justice of Nigeria (b. 1906)
    • 1994 – Ulrike Maier, Austrian skier (b. 1967)
    • 1999 – Lili St. Cyr, American model and dancer (b. 1918)
    • 2002 – Harold Russell, Canadian-American soldier and actor (b. 1914)
    • 2003 – Frank Moss, American lawyer and politician (b. 1911)
    • 2004 – Janet Frame, New Zealand author and poet (b. 1924)
    • 2005 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli author, screenwriter, and director (b. 1924)
    • 2006 – Nam June Paik, South Korean-American artist, (b. 1932)
    • 2008 – Bengt Lindström, Swedish painter and sculptor (b. 1925)
    • 2008 – Margaret Truman, American singer and author (b. 1924)
    • 2009 – Hélio Gracie, Brazilian martial artist (b. 1913)
    • 2011 – Milton Babbitt, American composer, educator, and theorist (b. 1916)
    • 2012 – Ranjit Singh Dyal, Indian general and politician, 10th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry (b. 1928)
    • 2012 – Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Italian lawyer and politician, 9th President of Italy (b. 1918)
    • 2012 – Camilla Williams, American soprano and educator (b. 1919)
    • 2014 – François Cavanna, French journalist and author (b. 1923)
    • 2015 – Colleen McCullough, Australian neuroscientist, author, and academic (b. 1937)
    • 2015 – Rod McKuen, American singer-songwriter and poet (b. 1933)
    • 2015 – Alexander Vraciu, American commander and pilot (b. 1918)
    • 2016 – Jean-Marie Doré, Guinean lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Guinea (b. 1938)
    • 2016 – Jacques Rivette, French director, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1928)
    • 2019 – George Fernandes, Indian politician (b. 1930)
    • 2019 – James Ingram, American musician (b. 1952)

    Holidays and observances on January 29

    • Christian feast day:
      • Andrei Rublev (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • Aquilinus of Milan
      • Constantius of Perugia
      • Dallán Forgaill
      • Gildas
      • Juniper
      • Sabinian of Troyes
      • Sulpitius I of Bourges
      • Valerius of Trèves
      • January 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Earliest day on which Fat Thursday can fall, while March 4 is the latest; celebrated on Thursday before Ash Wednesday. (Christianity)
    • Kansas Day (Kansas, United States)

  • January 9 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    January 9 in History

    • 475 – Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople, and his general, Basiliscus gains control of the empire.
    • 681 – Twelfth Council of Toledo: King Erwig of the Visigoths initiates a council in which he implements diverse measures against the Jews in Spain.
    • 1127 – Jin–Song Wars: Invading Jurchen soldiers from the Jin dynasty besiege and sack Bianjing (Kaifeng), the capital of the Song dynasty of China, and abduct Emperor Qinzong of Song and others, ending the Northern Song dynasty.
    • 1349 – The Jewish population of Basel, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, is rounded up and incinerated.
    • 1431 – The trial of Joan of Arc begins in Rouen.
    • 1760 – Ahmad Shah Durrani defeats the Marathas in the Battle of Barari Ghat.<refFrançois Xavier Wendel (1991). Wendel’s memoirs on the origin, growth and present state of Jat power in Hindustan (1768). Institut français de Pondichéry. p. 61.</ref>
    • 1788 – Connecticut becomes the fifth state to ratify the Constitution.
    • 1792 – Treaty of Jassy between Russian and Ottoman Empire is signed.
    • 1793 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States.
    • 1799 – British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces an income tax of two shillings to the pound to raise funds for Great Britain’s war effort in the Napoleonic Wars.
    • 1806 – Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul’s Cathedral.
    • 1816 – Humphry Davy tests his safety lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery.
    • 1822 – The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese King João VI, beginning the Brazilian independence process.
    • 1839 – The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.
    • 1857 – The 7.9 Mw  Fort Tejon earthquake shakes Central and Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent).
    • 1858 – Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide.
    • 1861 – American Civil War: “Star of the West” incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina.
    • 1861 – Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War.
    • 1878 – Umberto I becomes King of Italy.
    • 1894 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.
    • 1903 – Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia.
    • 1909 – Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, plants the British flag 97 nautical miles (180 km; 112 mi) from the South Pole, the farthest anyone had ever reached at that time.
    • 1914 – The Phi Beta Sigma fraternity is founded by African-American students at Howard University in Washington D.C., United States.
    • 1916 – World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces are evacuated from the peninsula.
    • 1917 – World War I: The Battle of Rafa is fought near the Egyptian border with Palestine.
    • 1918 – Battle of Bear Valley: The last battle of the American Indian Wars.
    • 1921 – Greco-Turkish War: The First Battle of İnönü, the first battle of the war, begins near Eskişehir in Anatolia.
    • 1923 – Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro flight.
    • 1923 – Lithuanian residents of the Memel Territory rebel against the League of Nations’ decision to leave the area as a mandated region under French control.
    • 1927 – A fire at the Laurier Palace movie theatre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, kills 78 children.
    • 1941 – World War II: First flight of the Avro Lancaster.
    • 1945 – World War II: The Sixth United States Army begins the invasion of Lingayen Gulf.
    • 1957 – British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden resigns from office following his failure to retake the Suez Canal from Egyptian sovereignty.
    • 1960 – President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser opens construction on the Aswan Dam by detonating ten tons of dynamite to demolish twenty tons of granite on the east bank of the Nile.
    • 1961 – British authorities announce they have uncovered the Soviet Portland Spy Ring in London.
    • 1964 – Martyrs’ Day: Several Panamanian youths try to raise the Panamanian flag in the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone, leading to fighting between U.S. military and Panamanian civilians.
    • 1965 – The Mirzapur Cadet College formally opens for academic activities in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
    • 1991 – Representatives from the United States and Iraq meet at the Geneva Peace Conference to try to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
    • 1992 – The Assembly of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaims the creation of Republika Srpska, a new state within Yugoslavia.
    • 1992 – The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. They discovered two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12.
    • 1996 – First Chechen War: Chechen separatists launch a raid against the helicopter airfield and later a civilian hospital in the city of Kizlyar in the neighboring Dagestan, which turns into a massive hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians.
    • 2004 – An inflatable boat carrying illegal Albanian emigrants stalls near the Karaburun Peninsula en route to Brindisi, Italy; exposure to the elements kills 28. This is the second deadliest marine disaster in Albanian history.
    • 2005 – Mahmoud Abbas wins the election to succeed Yasser Arafat as President of the Palestinian National Authority, replacing interim president Rawhi Fattouh.
    • 2005 – The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and the Government of Sudan sign the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the Second Sudanese Civil War.
    • 2007 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the original iPhone at a Macworld keynote in San Francisco.
    • 2011 – Iran Air Flight 277 crashes near Urmia in the northwest of the country, killing 77 people.
    • 2014 – An explosion at a Mitsubishi Materials chemical plant in Yokkaichi, Japan, kills at least five people and injures 17 others.
    • 2015 – The perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris two days earlier are both killed after a hostage situation; a second hostage situation, related to the Charlie Hebdo shooting, occurs at a Jewish market in Vincennes.
    • 2015 – A mass poisoning at a funeral in Mozambique involving beer that was contaminated with Burkholderia gladioli leaves 75 dead and over 230 people ill.

    Births on January 9

    • 727 – Emperor Daizong of Tang (d. 779)
    • 1418 – Juan Ramón Folch III de Cardona, Aragonese admiral (d. 1485)
    • 1475 – Crinitus, Italian scholar and author (d. 1507)
    • 1554 – Pope Gregory XV (d. 1623)
    • 1571 – Charles Bonaventure de Longueval, Count of Bucquoy, French commander (d. 1621)
    • 1590 – Simon Vouet, French painter (d. 1649)
    • 1606 – William Dugard, English printer (d. 1662)
    • 1624 – Empress Meishō of Japan (d. 1696)
    • 1645 – Sir William Villiers, 3rd Baronet, English noble and politician (d. 1712)
    • 1674 – Reinhard Keiser, German composer (d. 1739)
    • 1685 – Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Dutch philologist and critic (d. 1766)
    • 1728 – Thomas Warton, English poet, historian, and critic (d. 1790)
    • 1735 – John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, English admiral and politician (d. 1823)
    • 1745 – Caleb Strong, American lawyer and politician, 6th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1819)
    • 1753 – Luísa Todi, Portuguese soprano and actress (d. 1833)
    • 1773 – Cassandra Austen, English painter and illustrator (d. 1845)
    • 1778 – Hammamizade İsmail Dede Efendi, Turkish Ney player and composer (d. 1846)
    • 1811 – Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English journalist and author (d. 1856)
    • 1818 – Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon, French sculptor and photographer (d. 1881)
    • 1819 – James Francis, English-Australian businessman and politician, 9th Premier of Victoria (d. 1884)
    • 1822 – Carol Benesch, Czech-Romanian architect, designed the Peleș Castle (d. 1896)
    • 1823 – Friedrich von Esmarch, German surgeon and academic (d. 1908)
    • 1829 – Thomas William Robertson, English director and playwright (d. 1871)
    • 1829 – Adolf Schlagintweit, German botanist and explorer (d. 1857)
    • 1832 – Félix-Gabriel Marchand, Canadian journalist and politician, 11th Premier of Quebec (d. 1900)
    • 1839 – John Knowles Paine, American composer and academic (d. 1906)
    • 1848 – Princess Frederica of Hanover (d. 1926)
    • 1849 – John Hartley, English tennis player (d. 1935)
    • 1854 – Lady Randolph Churchill, American-born wife of Lord Randolph Churchill, mother of Sir Winston Churchill (d. 1921)
    • 1856 – Anton Aškerc, Slovenian priest and poet (d. 1912)
    • 1859 – Carrie Chapman Catt, American activist, founded the League of Women Voters and International Alliance of Women (d. 1947)
    • 1864 – Vladimir Steklov, Russian mathematician and physicist (d. 1926)
    • 1868 – S. P. L. Sørensen, Danish chemist and academic (d. 1939)
    • 1870 – Joseph Strauss, American engineer, co-designed the Golden Gate Bridge (d. 1938)
    • 1873 – Hayim Nahman Bialik, Ukrainian-Austrian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1934)
    • 1873 – Thomas Curtis, American sprinter and hurdler (d. 1944)
    • 1873 – John Flanagan, Irish-American hammer thrower (d. 1938)
    • 1875 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American sculptor and art collector, founded the Whitney Museum of American Art (d. 1942)
    • 1879 – John B. Watson, American psychologist and academic (d. 1958)
    • 1881 – Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (d. 1938)
    • 1881 – Giovanni Papini, Italian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1956)
    • 1885 – Charles Bacon, American runner and hurdler (d. 1968)
    • 1886 – Lloyd Loar, American sound engineer and instrument designer (d. 1943)
    • 1889 – Vrindavan Lal Verma, Indian author and playwright (d. 1969)
    • 1890 – Karel Čapek, Czech author and playwright (d. 1938)
    • 1890 – Kurt Tucholsky, German-Swedish journalist and author (d. 1935)
    • 1891 – August Gailit, Estonian journalist and author (d. 1960)
    • 1892 – Eva Bowring, American lawyer and politician (d. 1985)
    • 1893 – Edwin Baker, Canadian soldier and educator, co-founded the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (d. 1968)
    • 1896 – Warwick Braithwaite, New Zealand-English conductor and director (d. 1971)
    • 1897 – Karl Löwith, German philosopher, author, and academic (d. 1973)
    • 1898 – Gracie Fields, English actress and singer (d. 1979)
    • 1899 – Harald Tammer, Estonian journalist and weightlifter (d. 1942)
    • 1900 – Richard Halliburton, American journalist and author (d. 1939)
    • 1901 – Vilma Bánky, Hungarian-American actress (d. 1991)
    • 1901 – Chic Young, American cartoonist (d. 1973)
    • 1902 – Rudolf Bing, American impresario and businessman (d. 1997)
    • 1902 – Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish priest and saint, founded Opus Dei (d. 1975)
    • 1907 – Eldred G. Smith, American patriarch (d. 2013)
    • 1907 – Earl W. Renfroe, African American orthodontist, educator, and activist (d. 2000)
    • 1908 – Simone de Beauvoir, French philosopher and author (d. 1986)
    • 1909 – Anthony Mamo, Maltese lawyer and politician, 1st President of Malta (d. 2008)
    • 1909 – Patrick Peyton, Irish-American priest, television personality, and activist (d. 1992)
    • 1910 – Tom Evenson, English runner (d. 1997)
    • 1912 – Ralph Tubbs, English architect, designed the Dome of Discovery (d. 1996)
    • 1913 – Richard Nixon, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 37th President of the United States (d. 1994)
    • 1914 – Kenny Clarke, American jazz drummer and bandleader (d. 1985)
    • 1915 – Anita Louise, American actress (d. 1970)
    • 1916 – Fernando Lamas, Argentinian-American actor, singer, and director (d. 1982)
    • 1916 – Vic Mizzy, American soldier, pianist, and composer (d. 2009)
    • 1918 – Alma Ziegler, American baseball player and golfer (d. 2005)
    • 1919 – William Morris Meredith, Jr., American poet and academic (d. 2007)
    • 1920 – Clive Dunn, English actor (d. 2012)
    • 1920 – Hakim Said, Pakistani scholar and politician, 20th Governor of Sindh (d. 1998)
    • 1921 – Ágnes Keleti, Hungarian Olympic gymnast
    • 1921 – Lister Sinclair, Indian-Canadian broadcaster and playwright (d. 2006)
    • 1922 – Har Gobind Khorana, Indian-American biochemist and academic, Nobel laureate (d. 2011)
    • 1922 – Ahmed Sékou Touré, Guinean politician, 1st President of Guinea (d. 1984)
    • 1924 – Sergei Parajanov, Georgian-Armenian director and screenwriter (d. 1990)
    • 1925 – Len Quested, English footballer defender and manager (d. 2012)
    • 1925 – Lee Van Cleef, American actor (d. 1989)
    • 1926 – Jean-Pierre Côté, Canadian lawyer and politician, 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (d. 2002)
    • 1928 – Judith Krantz, American novelist (d. 2019)
    • 1928 – Domenico Modugno, Italian singer-songwriter, actor, and politician (d. 1994)
    • 1929 – Brian Friel, Irish author, playwright, and director (d. 2015)
    • 1929 – Heiner Müller, German poet, playwright, and director (d. 1995)
    • 1931 – Algis Budrys, Lithuanian-American author and critic (d. 2008)
    • 1933 – Robert García, American soldier and politician (d. 2017)
    • 1933 – Roy Dwight, English footballer, outside forward
    • 1933 – Wilbur Smith, Zambian-English journalist and author
    • 1934 – Bart Starr, American football player and coach (d. 2019)
    • 1935 – Bob Denver, American actor (d. 2005)
    • 1935 – Dick Enberg, American sportscaster (d. 2017)
    • 1935 – John Graham, New Zealand rugby player and educator (d. 2017)
    • 1935 – Brian Harradine, Australian politician (d. 2014)
    • 1936 – Anne Rivers Siddons, American author
    • 1936 – Marko Veselica, Croatian academic and politician (d. 2017)
    • 1938 – Claudette Boyer, Canadian educator and politician (d. 2013)
    • 1939 – Susannah York, English actress and activist (d. 2011)
    • 1940 – Barbara Buczek, Polish composer (d. 1993)
    • 1940 – Ruth Dreifuss, Swiss journalist and politician, 86th President of the Swiss Confederation
    • 1941 – Joan Baez, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and activist
    • 1941 – Gilles Vaillancourt, Canadian politician
    • 1942 – John Dunning, American author
    • 1942 – Judy Malloy, American poet and author
    • 1943 – Robert Drewe, Australian author and playwright
    • 1943 – Elmer MacFadyen, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2007)
    • 1943 – Scott Walker, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (d. 2019)
    • 1944 – Harun Farocki, German filmmaker (d. 2014)
    • 1944 – Jimmy Page, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer
    • 1944 – Mihalis Violaris, Cypriot singer-songwriter and actor
    • 1945 – Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Syrian-Armenian scholar and politician, 1st President of Armenia
    • 1946 – Mohammad Ishaq Khan, Indian historian and academic (d. 2013)
    • 1946 – Mogens Lykketoft, Danish politician, 45th Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs
    • 1947 – Ronnie Landfield, American painter and educator
    • 1948 – Bill Cowsill, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006)
    • 1948 – Jan Tomaszewski, Polish footballer, manager, and politician
    • 1950 – Alec Jeffreys, English geneticist and academic
    • 1950 – David Johansen, American musician and actor
    • 1950 – Sandy Martin, American actress
    • 1951 – Crystal Gayle, American singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1952 – Kaushik Basu, Indian economist and academic
    • 1952 – Hugh Bayley, English politician
    • 1952 – Mike Capuano, American lawyer and politician
    • 1953 – Javad Alizadeh, Iranian cartoonist and painter
    • 1954 – Philippa Gregory, Kenyan-English author and academic
    • 1955 – Michiko Kakutani, American journalist and critic
    • 1955 – J.K. Simmons, American actor
    • 1956 – Waltraud Meier, German soprano and actress
    • 1956 – Imelda Staunton, English actress and singer
    • 1958 – Stephen Neale, English philosopher and academic
    • 1959 – Mark Martin, American race car driver and coach
    • 1959 – Rigoberta Menchú, Guatemalan activist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1959 – Otis Nixon, American baseball player
    • 1960 – Lisa Walters, Canadian golfer
    • 1961 – Didier Camberabero, French rugby player
    • 1961 – Oliver Goldstick, American screenwriter and producer
    • 1961 – Henry Omaga-Diaz, Filipino journalist
    • 1962 – Ray Houghton, Scottish-born footballer
    • 1963 – Irwin McLean, Northern Irish biologist and academic
    • 1964 – Stan Javier, Dominican baseball player and manager
    • 1965 – Iain Dowie, English-Northern Irish footballer and coach
    • 1965 – Eric Erlandson, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
    • 1965 – Haddaway, Trinidadian-German singer and musician
    • 1965 – Andrei Nazarov, Estonian decathlete and coach
    • 1965 – Joely Richardson, English actress
    • 1966 – Stephen Metcalfe, English politician
    • 1967 – Matt Bevin, American politician, 62nd governor of Kentucky
    • 1967 – Claudio Caniggia, Argentinian footballer
    • 1967 – Dave Matthews, South African-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
    • 1967 – Gary Teichmann, South African rugby player
    • 1968 – Jimmy Adams, Jamaican cricketer and coach
    • 1968 – Joey Lauren Adams, American actress
    • 1968 – Mardi Lunn, Australian golfer
    • 1968 – Giorgos Theofanous, Greek-Cypriot composer and producer
    • 1970 – Lara Fabian, Belgian-Italian singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1971 – Angie Martinez, American rapper, actress, and radio host
    • 1971 – Hal Niedzviecki, Canadian author and critic
    • 1971 – Scott Thornton, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1972 – Jay Powell, American baseball player
    • 1972 – Rawson Stovall, American video game producer and author
    • 1973 – Sean Paul, Jamaican rapper, singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and actor
    • 1975 – James Beckford, Jamaican long jumper
    • 1976 – Radek Bonk, Czech ice hockey player
    • 1978 – Mathieu Garon, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1978 – Gennaro Gattuso, Italian footballer and manager
    • 1978 – Chad Johnson, American football player and actor
    • 1978 – AJ McLean, American singer
    • 1980 – Édgar Álvarez, Honduran footballer
    • 1980 – Sergio García, Spanish golfer
    • 1980 – Luke Patten, Australian rugby league player and referee
    • 1980 – Francisco Pavón, Spanish footballer
    • 1980 – Wang Zulan, Hong Kong singer
    • 1981 – Euzebiusz Smolarek, Polish footballer and manager
    • 1982 – Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
    • 1984 – Drew Brown, American musician and songwriter
    • 1984 – Benjamin Danso, German rugby player
    • 1985 – Juan Francisco Torres, Spanish footballer
    • 1986 – Jéferson Gomes, Brazilian footballer
    • 1986 – Uwe Hünemeier, German footballer
    • 1986 – Amanda Mynhardt, South African netball player
    • 1987 – Sam Bird, English race car driver
    • 1987 – Lucas Leiva, Brazilian footballer
    • 1987 – Paolo Nutini, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1987 – Jami Puustinen, Finnish footballer
    • 1988 – Katherine Copely, American ice dancer
    • 1988 – Marc Crosas, Spanish footballer
    • 1988 – Lee Yeon-hee, South Korean actress
    • 1989 – Michael Beasley, American basketball player
    • 1989 – Nina Dobrev, Bulgarian-Canadian actress
    • 1989 – Michaëlla Krajicek, Dutch tennis player
    • 1989 – Yana Maksimava, Belarusian heptathlete
    • 1989 – Chris Sandow, Australian rugby league player
    • 1989 – Jordan Turner, English rugby league player
    • 1990 – Justin Blackmon, American football player
    • 1991 – Edon Hasani, Albanian football player
    • 1991 – Alvaro Soler, Spanish singer-songwriter
    • 1993 – Katarina Johnson-Thompson, English long jumper and heptathlete
    • 1993 – Marcus Peters, American football player
    • 1993 – Kevin Korjus, Estonian race car driver
    • 1995 – Braden Uele, New Zealand rugby league player
    • 1999 – Shannon Tavarez, American actress (d. 2010)

    Deaths on January 9

    • 710 – Adrian of Canterbury, abbot and scholar
    • 1150 – Emperor Xizong of Jin (b. 1119)
    • 1202 – Birger Brosa, Jarl of Sweden
    • 1282 – Abû ‘Uthmân Sa’îd ibn Hakam al Qurashi, Minorcan ruler (b. 1204)
    • 1283 – Wen Tianxiang, Chinese general and scholar (b. 1236)
    • 1367 – Giulia della Rena, Italian saint (b. 1319)
    • 1450 – Adam Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester
    • 1463 – William Neville, 1st Earl of Kent, English soldier (b. 1405)
    • 1499 – John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1455)
    • 1511 – Demetrios Chalkokondyles, Greek scholar and academic (b. 1423)
    • 1514 – Anne of Brittany, queen of Charles VIII of France and Louis XII of France (b. 1477)
    • 1529 – Wang Yangming, Chinese Neo-Confucian scholar (b. 1472)
    • 1534 – Johannes Aventinus, Bavarian historian and philologist (b. 1477)
    • 1543 – Guillaume du Bellay, French general and diplomat (b. 1491)
    • 1561 – Amago Haruhisa, Japanese warlord (b. 1514)
    • 1571 – Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, French admiral (b. 1510)
    • 1598 – Jasper Heywood, English poet and scholar (b. 1553)
    • 1612 – Leonard Holliday, Lord Mayor of London (b. 1550)
    • 1622 – Alix Le Clerc, French Canoness Regular and foundress (b. 1576)
    • 1757 – Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, French author, poet, and playwright (b. 1657)
    • 1762 – Antonio de Benavides, colonial governor of Florida (b. 1678)
    • 1766 – Thomas Birch, English historian and author (b. 1705)
    • 1799 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician and philosopher (b. 1718)
    • 1800 – Jean Étienne Championnet, French general (b. 1762)
    • 1805 – Noble Wimberly Jones, American physician and politician (b. 1723)
    • 1843 – William Hedley, English engineer (b. 1773)
    • 1848 – Caroline Herschel, German-English astronomer (b. 1750)
    • 1856 – Neophytos Vamvas, Greek cleric and educator (b. 1770)
    • 1858 – Anson Jones, American physician and politician; 4th President of the Republic of Texas (b. 1798)
    • 1873 – Napoleon III, French politician, 1st President of France (b. 1808)
    • 1876 – Samuel Gridley Howe, American physician and activist (b. 1801)
    • 1878 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (b. 1820)
    • 1895 – Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American-English businessman (b. 1812)
    • 1901 – Richard Copley Christie, English lawyer and academic (b. 1830)
    • 1908 – Wilhelm Busch, German poet, illustrator, and painter (b. 1832)
    • 1908 – Abraham Goldfaden, Russian actor, playwright, and author (b. 1840)
    • 1911 – Edwin Arthur Jones, American violinist and composer (b. 1853)
    • 1911 – Edvard Rusjan, Italian-Slovene pilot and engineer (b. 1886)
    • 1917 – Luther D. Bradley, American cartoonist (b. 1853)
    • 1918 – Charles-Émile Reynaud, French scientist and educator, invented the Praxinoscope (b. 1844)
    • 1923 – Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand novelist, short story writer, and essayist (b. 1888)
    • 1924 – Ponnambalam Arunachalam, Sri Lankan civil servant and politician (b. 1853)
    • 1927 – Houston Stewart Chamberlain, English-German philosopher and author (b. 1855)
    • 1930 – Edward Bok, Dutch-American journalist and author (b. 1863)
    • 1931 – Wayne Munn, American football player and wrestler (b. 1896)
    • 1936 – John Gilbert, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1899)
    • 1939 – Johann Strauss III, Austrian violinist, composer, and conductor (b. 1866)
    • 1941 – Dimitrios Golemis, Greek runner (b. 1874)
    • 1945 – Shigekazu Shimazaki, Japanese admiral and pilot (b. 1908)
    • 1945 – Jüri Uluots, Estonian journalist and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Estonia (b. 1890)
    • 1945 – Osman Cemal Kaygılı, Turkish journalist, author, and playwright (b. 1890)
    • 1946 – Countee Cullen, American poet and playwright (b. 1903)
    • 1947 – Karl Mannheim, Hungarian-English sociologist and academic (b. 1893)
    • 1960 – Elsie J. Oxenham, English author and educator (b. 1880)
    • 1961 – Emily Greene Balch, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)
    • 1964 – Halide Edib Adıvar, Turkish author and academic (b. 1884)
    • 1971 – Elmer Flick, American baseball player and scout (b. 1876)
    • 1972 – Ted Shawn, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1891)
    • 1975 – Pierre Fresnay, French actor and screenwriter (b. 1897)
    • 1975 – Pyotr Novikov, Russian mathematician and theorist (b. 1901)
    • 1979 – Pier Luigi Nervi, Italian engineer and architect, designed the Tour de la Bourse and Pirelli Tower (b. 1891)
    • 1981 – Kazimierz Serocki, Polish pianist and composer (b. 1922)
    • 1984 – Bob Dyer, American-Australian radio and television host (b. 1909)
    • 1985 – Robert Mayer, German-English businessman and philanthropist (b. 1879)
    • 1987 – Arthur Lake, American actor (b. 1905)
    • 1988 – Peter L. Rypdal, Norwegian fiddler and composer (b. 1909)
    • 1989 – Bill Terry, American baseball player and manager (b. 1898)
    • 1990 – Spud Chandler, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1907)
    • 1990 – Cemal Süreya, Turkish poet and journalist (b. 1931)
    • 1992 – Steve Brodie, American actor (b. 1919)
    • 1992 – Bill Naughton, English playwright and screenwriter (b. 1910)
    • 1993 – Paul Hasluck, Australian historian and politician, 17th Governor-General of Australia (b. 1905)
    • 1994 – Johnny Temple, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1927)
    • 1995 – Souphanouvong, Laotian politician, 1st President of Laos (b. 1909)
    • 1995 – Peter Cook, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1937)
    • 1996 – Walter M. Miller, Jr., American soldier and author (b. 1923)
    • 1996 – Abdullah al-Qasemi, Saudi atheist, writer, and intellectual (b. 1907)
    • 1997 – Edward Osóbka-Morawski, Polish politician, Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1909)
    • 1997 – Jesse White, American actor (b. 1917)
    • 1998 – Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
    • 1998 – Imi Lichtenfeld, Slovakian-Israeli martial artist, founded Krav Maga (b. 1910)
    • 2000 – Arnold Alexander Hall, English engineer and academic (b. 1915)
    • 2000 – Nigel Tranter, Scottish historian and author (b. 1909)
    • 2001 – Maurice Prather, American photographer and director (b. 1926)
    • 2003 – Will McDonough, American journalist (b. 1935)
    • 2004 – Norberto Bobbio, Italian philosopher and academic (b. 1909)
    • 2006 – Andy Caldecott, Australian motorcycle racer (b. 1964)
    • 2006 – W. Cleon Skousen, American author and academic (b. 1913)
    • 2007 – Elmer Symons, South African motorcycle racer (b. 1977)
    • 2007 – Jean-Pierre Vernant, French anthropologist and historian (b. 1914)
    • 2008 – Johnny Grant, American radio host and producer (b. 1923)
    • 2008 – John Harvey-Jones, English businessman and television host (b. 1924)
    • 2009 – Rob Gauntlett, English mountaineer and explorer (b. 1987)
    • 2009 – T. Llew Jones, Welsh author and poet (b. 1914)
    • 2011 – Makinti Napanangka, Australian painter (b. 1930)
    • 2012 – Brian Curvis, Welsh boxer (b. 1937)
    • 2012 – Augusto Gansser-Biaggi, Swiss geologist and academic (b. 1910)
    • 2012 – William G. Roll, German-American psychologist and parapsychologist (b. 1926)
    • 2012 – Malam Bacai Sanhá, Guinea-Bissau politician, President of Guinea-Bissau (b. 1947)
    • 2012 – László Szekeres, Hungarian physician and academic (b. 1921)
    • 2013 – Brigitte Askonas, Austrian-English immunologist and academic (b. 1923)
    • 2013 – James M. Buchanan, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1919)
    • 2013 – Robert L. Rock, American businessman and politician, 42nd Lieutenant Governor of Indiana (b. 1927)
    • 2013 – John Wise, Canadian farmer and politician, 23rd Canadian Minister of Agriculture (b. 1935)
    • 2014 – Amiri Baraka, American poet, playwright, and academic (b. 1934)
    • 2014 – Josep Maria Castellet, Spanish poet and critic (b. 1926)
    • 2014 – Paul du Toit, South African painter and sculptor (b. 1965)
    • 2014 – Dale T. Mortensen, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1939)
    • 2015 – Michel Jeury, French author (b. 1934)
    • 2015 – Robert V. Keeley, Lebanese-American soldier and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Greece (b. 1929)
    • 2015 – Józef Oleksy, Polish economist and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1946)
    • 2015 – Bud Paxson, American broadcaster and businessman, founded the Home Shopping Network and Pax TV (b. 1935)
    • 2015 – Abdul Rahman Ya’kub, Malaysian politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Sarawak (b. 1928)
    • 2015 – Roy Tarpley, American basketball player (b. 1964)
    • 2016 – John Harvard, Canadian journalist and politician, 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba (b. 1938)
    • 2016 – Angus Scrimm, American actor and author (b. 1926)
    • 2017 – Zygmunt Bauman, Polish sociologist (b. 1925)
    • 2018 – Kato Ottio, Papua New Guinean rugby league player (b. 1994)
    • 2019 – Verna Bloom, American actress (b. 1938)
    • 2019 – Paul Koslo, German-Canadian actor (b. 1944)

    Holidays and observances on January 9

    • Christian feast day:
      • Adrian of Canterbury
      • Berhtwald
      • Translation of the Black Nazarene (Manila, Philippines)
      • Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow
      • Julia Chester Emery (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • Stephen (old calendar Eastern Orthodox)
      • January 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Start of Hōonkō (Nishi Honganji) January 9–16 (Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism)
    • Martyrs’ Day (Panama)
    • Non-Resident Indian Day (India)
  • | |

    Major Airlines of the World – Top 100 Airlines with Numbers of Flights Per DAy

    • Lufthansa German Airlines Germany
    • Aero-flot Airline – Russia
    • Pan American World Airways System – S.A.
    • Trans-world Airways – S.A.
    • Delta Airlines – S.A.
    • Thai Airways International – Thailand
    • Swissair – Switzerland
    • Emirates – A.E
    • Air-Ceylon – Sri Lanka
    • Iberia – Spain
    • Pakistan International Airlines – Pakistan
    • Braathens – Norway
    • Scandinavian Airlines System – Norway
    • KLM Royal Dutch – Netherlands
    • Royal Nepal Airlines – Nepal
    • Japan Airlines – Japan
    • All Nippon Airways – Japan
    • Alitalia – Italy
    • Ryanair – Ireland
    • Garuda Airways – Indonesia
    • Air-India – India
    • Cathay Pacific – Hong Kong
    • Air France – France
    • Finnair – Finland
    • Easy Jet – England
    • O.A.C. – England
    • Sabena – Belgium Qantas
    • Empire Airways – Australia
    • Araina Afghan Airlines – Afghanistan

     

    Here is a list (as on 2020-04-03) of the 100 biggest airlines based on the number of departures (and not the number of passengers). The number of flights is the daily average for one week.

    1 – American Airlines – 5961 flights every day
    2 – Delta Air Lines – 4290 flights every day
    3 – United Airlines – 4048 flights every day
    4 – Southwest Airlines – 3795 flights every day
    5 – Ryanair – 2151 flights every day
    6 – easyJet – 1785 flights every day
    7 – China Southern Airlines – 1781 flights every day
    8 – China Eastern Airlines – 1716 flights every day
    9 – IndiGo – 1665 flights every day
    10 – Turkish Airlines – 1379 flights every day
    11 – Air Canada – 1325 flights every day
    12 – Air China – 1244 flights every day
    13 – ANA – 1224 flights every day
    14 – Alaska Airlines – 1119 flights every day
    15 – LATAM Airlines – 1111 flights every day
    16 – Air France – 1010 flights every day
    17 – Aeroflot – 938 flights every day
    18 – JetBlue Airways – 921 flights every day
    19 – JAL – 825 flights every day
    20 – British Airways – 782 flights every day
    21 – Lufthansa – 720 flights every day
    22 – KLM – 675 flights every day
    23 – Qantas – 668 flights every day
    24 – Shenzhen Airlines – 664 flights every day
    25 – Gol – 660 flights every day
    26 – Spirit Airlines – 646 flights every day
    27 – Lion Air – 639 flights every day
    28 – Wizz Air – 636 flights every day
    29 – Vueling – 627 flights every day
    30 – Azul – 620 flights every day
    31 – Xiamen Airlines – 589 flights every day
    32 – SpiceJet – 583 flights every day
    33 – AirAsia – 583 flights every day
    34 – WestJet – 575 flights every day
    35 – AVIANCA – 575 flights every day
    36 – Hainan Airlines – 568 flights every day
    37 – Sichuan Airlines – 523 flights every day
    38 – Shandong Airlines – 485 flights every day
    39 – Saudia – 478 flights every day
    40 – Emirates – 463 flights every day
    41 – Air India – 457 flights every day
    42 – Pegasus – 446 flights every day
    43 – Garuda Indonesia – 439 flights every day
    44 – Qatar Airways – 429 flights every day
    45 – Wings Air – 426 flights every day
    46 – Volaris – 398 flights every day
    47 – Alitalia – 393 flights every day
    48 – Aeromexico – 390 flights every day
    49 – S7 Airlines – 389 flights every day
    50 – Air New Zealand – 383 flights every day
    51 – Thai AirAsia – 370 flights every day
    52 – Frontier Airlines – 362 flights every day
    53 – Malaysia Airlines – 361 flights every day
    54 – Iberia – 356 flights every day
    55 – Virgin Australia – 355 flights every day
    56 – Vietnam Airlines – 353 flights every day
    57 – Batik Air – 352 flights every day
    58 – Ethiopian Airlines – 350 flights every day
    59 – Jetstar – 350 flights every day
    60 – Spring Airlines – 348 flights every day
    61 – VietJet Air – 347 flights every day
    62 – Philippine Airlines – 343 flights every day
    63 – SAS – 335 flights every day
    64 – Ravn Alaska – 334 flights every day
    65 – Juneyao Airlines – 323 flights every day
    66 – TAP Portugal – 313 flights every day
    67 – Cebu Pacific Air – 310 flights every day
    68 – Gestair – 307 flights every day
    69 – Eurowings – 305 flights every day
    70 – Shanghai Airlines – 302 flights every day
    71 – Aer Lingus – 299 flights every day
    72 – GoAir – 295 flights every day
    73 – Citilink – 293 flights every day
    74 – LOT – Polish Airlines – 281 flights every day
    75 – Beijing Capital Airlines – 276 flights every day
    76 – Interjet – 274 flights every day
    77 – Aerolineas Argentinas – 273 flights every day
    78 – Cape Air – 259 flights every day
    79 – South African Airways – 255 flights every day
    80 – Lucky Air – 253 flights every day
    81 – Sriwijaya Air – 252 flights every day
    82 – Copa Airlines – 251 flights every day
    83 – Tianjin Airlines – 251 flights every day
    84 – Norwegian Air Shuttle – 243 flights every day
    85 – Hawaiian Airlines – 241 flights every day
    86 – SWISS – 240 flights every day
    87 – Allegiant Air – 236 flights every day
    88 – Etihad Airways – 232 flights every day
    89 – Austrian – 229 flights every day
    90 – Tropic Air – 226 flights every day
    91 – Air Europa – 224 flights every day
    92 – Finnair – 220 flights every day
    93 – AirAsia India – 220 flights every day
    94 – Cathay Pacific – 218 flights every day
    95 – Jet2 – 216 flights every day
    96 -Singapore Airlines – 211 flights every day
    97 – Maya Island Air – 209 flights every day
    98 -Vistara – 204 flights every day
    99 -Jeju Air – 203 flights every day
    100 – EgyptAir – 199 flights every day

    Click HERE to see the Largest airlines in the world page on Wikipedia