472 – After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in St. Peter’s Basilica and put to death.
813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abdicates in favor of his general Leo the Armenian, and becomes a monk (under the name Athanasius).
911 – Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy.
1174 – Baldwin IV, 13, becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III, Count of Tripoli as regent and William of Tyre as chancellor.
1302 – Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch): A coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France’s royal army.
1346 – Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, is elected King of the Romans.
1405 – Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time.
1476 – Giuliano della Rovere is appointed bishop of Coutances.
1576 – Martin Frobisher sights Greenland.
1616 – Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec.
1735 – Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979.
1789 – Jacques Necker is dismissed as France’s Finance Minister sparking the Storming of the Bastille.
1796 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.
1798 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.
1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.
1804 – A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
1833 – Noongar Australian aboriginal warrior Yagan, wanted for the murder of white colonists in Western Australia, is killed.
1848 – Waterloo railway station in London opens.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C.
1882 – The British Mediterranean Fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War.
1889 – Tijuana, Mexico, is founded.
1893 – The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto.
1893 – A revolution led by the liberal general and politician José Santos Zelaya takes over state power in Nicaragua.
1895 – Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière demonstrate movie film technology to scientists.
1897 – Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. He later crashes and dies.
1899 – Fiat founded by Giovanni Agnelli in Turin, Italy.
1906 – Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.
1914 – Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball.
1914 – USS Nevada(BB-36) is launched.
1919 – The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands.
1920 – In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany.
1921 – A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect.
1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People’s Republic.
1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices.
1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens.
1924 – Eric Liddell won the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on the Sunday.
1934 – Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off.
1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic.
1940 – World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State.
1941 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana.
1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.
1943 – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.
1947 – The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France.
1950 – Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank.
1957 – Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai’li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III.
1960 – France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina) and Niger.
1960 – Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States.
1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.
1971 – Copper mines in Chile are nationalized.
1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts.
1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris, France on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories.
1977 – Martin Luther King, Jr. is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
1978 – Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists.
1979 – America’s first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737-200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board.
1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec, Canada begins.
1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia killing all 261 passengers and crew on board.
618 – Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang dynasty rule over China.
656 – Ali becomes Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate.
860 – Byzantine–Rus’ War: A fleet of about 200 Rus’ vessels sails into the Bosphorus and starts pillaging the suburbs of the Byzantine capital Constantinople.
1053 – Battle of Civitate: Three thousand horsemen of Norman Count Humphrey rout the troops of Pope Leo IX.
1178 – Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon’s distance from the Earth (on the order of meters) are a result of this collision.
1264 – The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.
1265 – A draft Byzantine–Venetian treaty is concluded between Venetian envoys and Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, but is not ratified by Doge Reniero Zeno.
1429 – French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.
1633 – Charles I is crowned King of Scots at St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh.
1684 – The charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is revoked via a scire facias writ issued by an English court.
1757 – Battle of Kolín between Prussian forces under Frederick the Great and an Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven Years’ War.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia.
1799 – Action of 18 June 1799: A frigate squadron under Rear-admiral Perrée is captured by the British fleet under Lord Keith.
1812 – The United States declaration of war upon the United Kingdom is signed by President James Madison, beginning the War of 1812.
1815 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.
1822 – Constantine Kanaris blows up the Ottoman navy’s flagship at Chios, killing the Kapudan Pasha Nasuhzade Ali Pasha.
1858 – Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin’s own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.
1859 – First ascent of Aletschhorn, second summit of the Bernese Alps.
1873 – Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.
1887 – The Reinsurance Treaty between Germany and Russia is signed.
1900 – Empress Dowager Cixi of China orders all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families.
1908 – Japanese immigration to Brazil begins when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the ship Kasato-Maru.
1908 – The University of the Philippines is established.
1923 – Checker Taxi puts its first taxi on the streets.
1928 – Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she is a passenger; Wilmer Stultz is the pilot and Lou Gordon the mechanic).
1935 – Police in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, clash with striking longshoremen, resulting in a total of 60 injuries and 24 arrests.
1940 – Appeal of 18 June by Charles de Gaulle.
1940 – The “Finest Hour” speech is delivered by Winston Churchill.
1945 – William Joyce (“Lord Haw-Haw”) is charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II.
1946 – Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, a Socialist, calls for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa.
1948 – Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
1953 – The Egyptian revolution of 1952 ends with the overthrow of the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the declaration of the Republic of Egypt.
1953 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns near Tachikawa, Japan, killing 129.
1954 – Carlos Castillo Armas leads an invasion force across the Guatemalan border, setting in motion the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état.
1965 – Vietnam War: The United States uses B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam.
1972 – Staines air disaster: One hundred eighteen people are killed when a BEA H.S. Trident crashes two minutes after take off from London’s Heathrow Airport.
1979 – SALT II is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.
1981 – The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology, makes its first flight.
1982 – Italian banker Roberto Calvi’s body is discovered hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London, England.
1983 – Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
1983 – Mona Mahmudnizhad, together with nine other Bahá’í women, is sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran over her religious beliefs.
1984 – A major clash between about 5,000 police and a similar number of miners takes place at Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the 1984–85 UK miners’ strike.
1994 – The Troubles: Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) attack a crowded pub with assault rifles in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland. Six Catholic civilians are killed and five wounded. It was crowded with people watching the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
2006 – The first Kazakh space satellite, KazSat-1 is launched.
2007 – The Charleston Sofa Super Store fire happened in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine firefighters.
2009 – The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a NASA robotic spacecraft is launched.
2018 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 strikes northern Osaka.
Births on June 18
1269 – Eleanor of England, Countess of Bar (d. 1298)
1318 – Eleanor of Woodstock (d. 1355)
1332 – John V Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1391)
1466 – Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (d. 1539)
1511 – Bartolomeo Ammannati, Italian architect and sculptor, designed the Ponte Santa Trinita (d. 1592)
1517 – Emperor Ōgimachi of Japan (d. 1593)
1521 – Maria of Portugal, Duchess of Viseu (d. 1577)
1667 – Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (d. 1750)
1673 – Antonio de Literes, Spanish composer (d. 1747)
1677 – Antonio Maria Bononcini, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1726)
1716 – Joseph-Marie Vien, French painter and educator (d. 1809)
1717 – Johann Stamitz, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1757)
1757 – Ignaz Pleyel, Austrian-French pianist and composer (d. 1831)
1757 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentinian lawyer and politician 1st Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (d. 1833)
1769 – Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Irish-English politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 1822)
1799 – William Lassell, English astronomer and merchant (d. 1880)
1812 – Ivan Goncharov, Russian journalist and author (d. 1891)
1815 – Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, German general (d. 1881)
1816 – Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte, French daughter of Napoleon (d. 1907)
1816 – Jung Bahadur Rana, Nepali ruler (d. 1877)
1833 – Manuel González Flores, Mexican general and President (1880-1884) (d. 1893)
1834 – Auguste-Théodore-Paul de Broglie, French philosopher and academic (d. 1895)
1839 – William H. Seward Jr., American general and banker (d. 1920)
1845 – Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French physician and parasitologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1922)
1850 – Richard Heuberger, Austrian composer and critic (d. 1914)
1854 – E. W. Scripps, American publisher, founded the E. W. Scripps Company (d. 1926)
1857 – Henry Clay Folger, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Folger Shakespeare Library (d. 1930)
1858 – Andrew Forsyth, Scottish-English mathematician and academic (d. 1942)
1858 – Hector Rason, English-Australian politician, 7th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1927)
1862 – Carolyn Wells, American novelist and poet (d. 1942)
1863 – George Essex Evans, English-Australian poet and author (d. 1909)
1868 – Miklós Horthy, Hungarian admiral and politician, Regent of Hungary (d. 1957)
1870 – Édouard Le Roy, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1954)
1877 – James Montgomery Flagg, American painter and illustrator (d. 1960)
1881 – Zoltán Halmay, Hungarian swimmer (d. 1956)
1882 – Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian compositor and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Bulgaria (d. 1949)
1884 – Édouard Daladier, French captain and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1970)
1886 – George Mallory, English lieutenant and mountaineer (d. 1924)
1886 – Alexander Wetmore, American ornithologist and paleontologist (d. 1978)
1887 – Tancrède Labbé, Canadian businessman and politician (d. 1956)
1896 – Blanche Sweet, American actress (d. 1986)
1897 – Martti Marttelin, Finnish runner (d. 1940)
1900 – Vlasta Vraz, Czech-American relief worker, editor, and fundraiser (d. 1989)
1901 – Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
1901 – Llewellyn Rees, English actor (d. 1994)
1902 – Louis Alter, American musician (d. 1980)
1902 – Paavo Yrjölä, Finnish decathlete (d. 1980)
1903 – Jeanette MacDonald, American actress and singer (d. 1965)
1903 – Raymond Radiguet, French author and poet (d. 1923)
1904 – Keye Luke, Chinese-American actor (d. 1991)
1904 – Manuel Rosenthal, French conductor and composer (d. 2003)
1905 – Eduard Tubin, Estonian composer and conductor (d. 1982)
1907 – Frithjof Schuon, Swiss-American metaphysicist, philosopher, and author (d. 1998)
1908 – Bud Collyer, American actor and game show host (d. 1969)
1908 – Stanley Knowles, American-Canadian academic and politician (d. 1997)
1908 – Nedra Volz, American actress (d. 2003)
1910 – Dick Foran, American actor and singer (d. 1979)
1910 – Avon Long, American actor and singer (d. 1984)
1910 – Ray McKinley, American singer, drummer, and bandleader (d. 1995)
1912 – Glenn Morris, American decathlete (d. 1974)
1913 – Wilfred Gordon Bigelow, Canadian soldier and surgeon (d. 2005)
1913 – Sammy Cahn, American pianist and composer (d. 1993)
1913 – Sylvia Porter, American economist and journalist (d. 1991)
1913 – Françoise Loranger, Canadian playwright and producer (d. 1995)
1913 – Robert Mondavi, American winemaker and philanthropist (d. 2008)
1913 – Oswald Teichmüller, German mathematician (d. 1943)
1914 – E. G. Marshall, American actor (d. 1998)
1914 – Efraín Huerta, Mexican poet (d.1982)
1915 – Red Adair, American firefighter (d. 2004)
1915 – Robert Kanigher, American author (d. 2002)
1915 – Alice T. Schafer, American mathematician (d. 2009)
1916 – Julio César Turbay Ayala, Colombian lawyer and politician, 25th President of Colombia (d. 2005)
1917 – Richard Boone, American actor, singer, and director (d. 1981)
1917 – Jack Karnehm, English snooker player and sportscaster (d. 2002)
1917 – Erik Ortvad, Danish painter and illustrator (d. 2008)
1918 – Alf Francis, West Prussia-born, English motor racing mechanic and race car constructor (d. 1983)
1918 – Jerome Karle, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
1918 – Franco Modigliani, Italian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
1919 – Jüri Järvet, Estonian actor and screenwriter (d. 1995)
1920 – Ian Carmichael, English actor and singer (d. 2010)
1920 – Lode Van Den Bergh, Belgian author and academic
1922 – Claude Helffer, French pianist and educator (d. 2004)
1924 – George Mikan, American basketball player and coach (d. 2005)
1925 – Robert Beadell, American composer and educator (d. 1994)
1926 – Philip B. Crosby, American businessman and author (d. 2001)
1926 – Allan Sandage, American astronomer and cosmologist (d. 2010)
1926 – Tom Wicker, American journalist and author (d. 2011)
1927 – Eva Bartok, Hungarian-English actress (d. 1998)
1927 – Paul Eddington, English actor (d. 1995)
1928 – Michael Blakemore, Australian actor, director, and screenwriter
1928 – David T. Lykken, American geneticist and academic (d. 2006)
1929 – Jürgen Habermas, German sociologist and philosopher
1929 – Tibor Rubin, Hungarian-American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2015)
1931 – Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazilian sociologist, academic, and politician, 34th President of Brazil
1932 – Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1932 – Geoffrey Hill, English poet and academic (d. 2016)
1933 – Colin Brumby, Australian composer and conductor (d. 2018)
1933 – Tommy Hunt, American singer
1934 – Brian Kenny, English general (d. 2017)
1934 – Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Japanese author and illustrator (d. 2004)
1936 – Denny Hulme, New Zealand race car driver (d. 1992)
1936 – Barack Obama Sr., Kenyan economist (d. 1982)
1936 – Ronald Venetiaan, Surinamese politician, 6th President of Suriname
1937 – Del Harris, American basketball player and coach
1937 – Jay Rockefeller, American lawyer and politician, 29th Governor of West Virginia
1937 – Bruce Trigger, Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist and historian (d. 2006)
1937 – Vitaly Zholobov, Ukrainian colonel, engineer, and astronaut
1938 – Kevin Murray, Australian footballer and coach
1939 – Lou Brock, American baseball player and sportscaster
1939 – Jean-Claude Germain, Canadian historian, author, and journalist
1939 – Brooks Firestone, American businessman and politician
1941 – Roger Lemerre, French footballer and manager
1941 – Paul Mayersberg, English director and screenwriter
1941 – Delia Smith, English chef and author
1942 – John Bellany, Scottish painter and academic (d. 2013)
1942 – Roger Ebert, American journalist, critic, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1942 – Pat Hutchins, English author and illustrator
1942 – Thabo Mbeki, South African politician, 23rd President of South Africa
1942 – Paul McCartney, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1942 – Richard Perry, American record producer
1942 – Carl Radle, American bass player and producer (d. 1980)
1942 – Nick Tate, Australian actor and director
1942 – Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor (d. 2004)
1943 – Barry Evans, English actor (d. 1997)
1943 – Raffaella Carrà, Italian singer, dancer, and actress
1944 – Bruce DuMont, American broadcaster and political analyst
1944 – Sandy Posey, American pop/country singer
1946 – Russell Ash, English journalist and author (d. 2010)
1946 – Bruiser Brody, American wrestler (d. 1988)
1946 – Fabio Capello, Italian footballer and manager
1946 – Maria Bethânia, Brazilian singer
1947 – Ivonne Coll, Puerto Rican-American model and actress, Miss Puerto Rico 1967
1947 – Bernard Giraudeau, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
1947 – Linda Thorson, Canadian actress
1948 – Philip Jackson, English actor
1948 – Éva Marton, Hungarian soprano and actress
1948 – Sherry Turkle, American academic, psychologist, and sociologist
1949 – Chris Van Allsburg, American author and illustrator
1949 – Jarosław Kaczyński, Polish lawyer and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Poland
1949 – Lech Kaczyński, Polish lawyer and politician, 4th President of Poland (d. 2010)
1949 – Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican singer-songwriter (d. 1999)
1950 – Rod de’Ath, Welsh drummer and producer (d. 2014)
1950 – Annelie Ehrhardt, German hurdler
1950 – Mike Johanns, American lawyer and politician, 28th United States Secretary of Agriculture
1950 – Jackie Leven, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2011)
1951 – Mohammed Al-Sager, Kuwaiti journalist and politician
1951 – Miriam Flynn, American actress and comedian
1951 – Ian Hargreaves, English-Welsh journalist and academic
1951 – Stephen Hopper, Australian botanist and academic
1951 – Gyula Sax, Hungarian chess player (d. 2014)
1952 – Tiiu Aro, Estonian physician and politician, Estonian Minister of Social Affairs
1952 – Denis Herron, Canadian ice hockey player
1952 – Carol Kane, American actress
1952 – Isabella Rossellini, Italian actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
1952 – Lee Soo-man, South Korean singer and businessman, founded S.M. Entertainment
1953 – Peter Donohoe, English pianist and educator
1955 – Ed Fast, Canadian lawyer and politician
1956 – Brian Benben, American actor and producer
1956 – John Scott, English organist and conductor (d. 2015)
1957 – Miguel Ángel Lotina, Spanish footballer and manager
1957 – Richard Powers, American novelist
1958 – Peter Altmaier, German jurist and politician, Federal Minister for Special Affairs of Germany
1958 – Gary Martin, British voice actor and actor
1959 – Joe Ansolabehere, American animation screenwriter and producer
1960 – Barbara Broccoli, American director and producer
1960 – Steve Murphy, Canadian journalist
1961 – Oz Fox, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1961 – Andrés Galarraga, Venezuelan-American baseball player
1961 – Angela Johnson, American novelist and poet
1961 – Alison Moyet, English singer-songwriter
1962 – Lisa Randall, American physicist and academic
1963 – Dizzy Reed, American keyboard player and songwriter
1963 – Bruce Smith, American football player
1964 – Uday Hussein, Iraqi commander (d. 2003)
1964 – Patti Webster, American publicist and author (d. 2013)
1966 – Kurt Browning, Canadian figure skater, choreographer, and sportscaster
1966 – Troy Kemp, Bahamian high jumper
1968 – Frank Müller, German decathlete
1969 – Haki Doku, Albanian cyclist
1969 – Christopher Largen, American journalist and author (d. 2012)
1970 – Katie Derham, English journalist
1970 – Ivan Kozák, Slovak footballer
1970 – Greg Yaitanes, American director and producer
1971 – Kerry Butler, American actress and singer
1971 – Jason McAteer, English-Irish footballer and manager
1971 – Nathan Morris, American soul singer
1972 – Anu Tali, Estonian pianist and conductor
1972 – Wikus du Toit, South African actor, director, and composer
1973 – Julie Depardieu, French actress
1973 – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, American author and music critic
1973 – Ray LaMontagne, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1973 – Alexandra Meissnitzer, Austrian skier
1973 – Matt Parsons, Australian rugby league player
1973 – Gavin Wanganeen Australian footballer and coach
1974 – Vincenzo Montella, Italian footballer and manager
1974 – Sergey Sharikov, Russian fencer and coach (d. 2015)
1975 – Marie Gillain, Belgian actress
1975 – Aleksandrs Koļinko, Latvian footballer
1975 – Martin St. Louis, Canadian ice hockey player
1976 – Blake Shelton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1978 – Wang Liqin, Chinese table tennis player
1979 – Yumiko Kobayashi, Japanese voice actress and singer
1979 – Ivana Wong, Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actress
1980 – Antonio Gates, American football player
1980 – Sergey Kirdyapkin, Russian race walker
1980 – Craig Mottram, Australian runner
1980 – Antero Niittymäki, Finnish ice hockey player
1980 – Tara Platt, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
1981 – Clint Newton, American-Australian rugby league player
1981 – Marco Streller, Swiss footballer
1982 – Nadir Belhadj, French-Algerian footballer
1982 – Marco Borriello, Italian footballer
1982 – Nathan Cavaleri, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1983 – Billy Slater, Australian rugby league player
1983 – Cameron Smith, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Nanyak Dala, Canadian rugby player
1985 – Chris Coghlan, American baseball player
1985 – Alex Hirsch, American animator and television producer
1184 BC – Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes.
173 – Marcomannic Wars: The Roman army in Moravia is encircled by the Quadi, who have broken the peace treaty (171). In a violent thunderstorm emperor Marcus Aurelius defeats and subdues them in the so-called “miracle of the rain”.
631 – Emperor Taizong of Tang sends envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to seek the release of Chinese prisoners captured during the transition from Sui to Tang.
786 – A Hasanid Alid uprising in Mecca is crushed by the Abbasids at the Battle of Fakhkh.
980 – Vladimir the Great consolidates the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea. He is proclaimed ruler (knyaz) of all Kievan Rus’.
1011 – Lombard Revolt: Greek citizens of Bari rise up against the Lombard rebels led by Melus and deliver the city to Basil Mesardonites, Byzantine governor (catepan) of the Catepanate of Italy.
1118 – Roger of Salerno, Prince of Antioch, captures Azaz from the Seljuk Turks.
1157 – Albert I of Brandenburg, also called The Bear (Ger: Albrecht der Bär), becomes the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Germany and the first margrave.
1345 – The megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire, is lynched by political prisoners.
1429 – Hundred Years’ War: Start of the Battle of Jargeau.
1488 – Battle of Sauchieburn: Fought between rebel Lords and James III of Scotland, resulting in the death of the king.
1509 – Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon.
1594 – Philip II recognizes the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paved way to the stabilization of the rule of the Principalía (an elite ruling class of native nobility in Spanish Philippines).
1748 – Denmark adopts the characteristic Nordic Cross flag later taken up by all other Scandinavian countries.
1770 – British explorer Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef.
1775 – The American Revolutionary War’s first naval engagement, the Battle of Machias, results in the capture of a small British naval vessel.
1776 – The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
1788 – Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska.
1805 – A fire consumes large portions of Detroit in the Michigan Territory.
1825 – The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City.
1837 – The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, fueled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish.
1865 – The Naval Battle of the Riachuelo is fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War.
1892 – The Limelight Department, one of the world’s first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia.
1895 – Paris–Bordeaux–Paris, sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the “first motor race”, takes place.
1898 – The Hundred Days’ Reform, a planned movement to reform social, political, and educational institutions in China, is started by the Guangxu Emperor, but is suspended by Empress Dowager Cixi after 104 days. (The failed reform led to the abolition of the Imperial examination in 1905.)
1901 – The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand are extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands.
1903 – A group of Serbian officers stormed the royal palace and assassinated King Alexander Obrenović and his wife, Queen Draga.
1917 – King Alexander assumes the throne of Greece after his father, Constantine I, abdicates under pressure from allied armies occupying Athens.
1919 – Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown.
1920 – During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to coin the political phrase “smoke-filled room”.
1935 – Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey.
1936 – The London International Surrealist Exhibition opens.
1937 – Great Purge: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin executes eight army leaders.
1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Wuhan starts.
1940 – World War II: The Siege of Malta begins with a series of Italian air raids.
1942 – World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
1942 – Free French Forces retreat from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis advance.
1944 – USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned.
1955 – Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least 100 are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.
1956 – Start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150.
1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.
1963 – American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stands at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register.
1963 – Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam.
1963 – John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would revolutionize American society by guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, ending segregation in education, and guaranteeing federal protection for voting rights.
1964 – World War II veteran Walter Seifert attacks an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers and seriously injuring several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance.
1968 – Lloyd J. Old identified the first cell surface antigens that could differentiate among different cell types.
1970 – After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army Generals, becoming the first women to do so.
1971 – The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control.
1978 – Altaf Hussain founds the student political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University.
1981 – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, kills at least 2,000.
1987 – Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black MPs in Great Britain.
1998 – Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition.
2001 – Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
2002 – Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.
2004 – Cassini–Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe.
2007 – Mudslides in Chittagong, Bangladesh, kill 130 people.
2008 – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a historic official apology to Canada’s First Nations in regard to abuses at a Canadian Indian residential school.
2008 – The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched into orbit.
2010 – The first African FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa.
2012 – More than 80 people die in a landslide triggered by two earthquakes in Afghanistan; an entire village is buried.
2013 – Greece’s public broadcaster ERT is shut down by then-prime minister Antonis Samaras. It reopened exactly two years later by then-prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
2018 – 3 World Trade Center officially opens.
Births on June 11
1403 – John IV, Duke of Brabant (d. 1427)
1431 – Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (d. 1456)
1456 – Anne Neville, Princess of Wales and Queen of England (d. 1485)
1540 – Barnabe Googe, English poet and translator (d. 1594)
1555 – Lodovico Zacconi, Italian composer and theorist (d. 1627)
1572 – Ben Jonson, English poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1637)
1585 – Evert Horn, Swedish soldier (d. 1615)
1588 – George Wither, English poet (d. 1667)
1620 – John Moore, English businessman and politician, Lord Mayor of London (d. 1702)
1655 – Antonio Cifrondi, Italian painter (d. 1730)
1662 – Tokugawa Ienobu, Japanese shōgun (d. 1712)
1672 – Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (d. 1749)
1690 – Giovanni Antonio Giay, Italian composer (d. 1764)
1696 – James Francis Edward Keith, Scottish-Prussian field marshal (d. 1758)
1697 – Francesco Antonio Vallotti, Italian organist and composer (d. 1780)
1704 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese harpsichord player and composer (d. 1742)
1709 – Joachim Martin Falbe, German painter (d. 1782)
1712 – Benjamin Ingham, American missionary (d. 1772)
1723 – Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (d. 1788)
1726 – Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain (d. 1746)
1741 – Joseph Warren, American physician and general (d. 1775)
1776 – John Constable, English painter and academic (d. 1837)
1797 – José Trinidad Reyes, Honduran philosopher and theorist (d. 1855)
1807 – James F. Schenck, American admiral (d. 1882)
1815 – Julia Margaret Cameron, Indian-Sri Lankan photographer (d. 1879)
1818 – Alexander Bain, Scottish philosopher and academic (d. 1903)
1829 – Edward Braddon, English-Australian politician, 18th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1904)
1832 – Lucy Pickens, American wife of Francis Wilkinson Pickens (d. 1899)
1842 – Carl von Linde, German engineer and academic (d. 1934)
1846 – William Louis Marshall, American general and engineer (d. 1920)
1847 – Millicent Fawcett, English academic and activist (d. 1929)
1861 – Alexander Peacock, Australian politician, 20th Premier of Victoria (d. 1933)
1864 – Richard Strauss, German composer and conductor (d. 1949)
1867 – Charles Fabry, French physicist and academic (d. 1945)
1871 – Stjepan Radić, Croatian lawyer and politician (d. 1928)
1876 – Alfred L. Kroeber, American-French anthropologist and ethnologist (d. 1960)
1877 – Renée Vivien, English-French poet and author (d. 1909)
1879 – Roger Bresnahan, American baseball player and manager (d. 1944)
1880 – Jeannette Rankin, American social worker and politician (d. 1973)
1881 – Spiros Xenos, Greek-Swedish painter (d. 1963)
1881 – Mordecai Kaplan, Lithuanian rabbi, founded Reconstructionist Judaism (d. 1983)
1888 – Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian-American anarchist and convicted criminal (d. 1927)
1889 – Hugo Wieslander, Swedish decathlete (d. 1976)
1894 – Kiichiro Toyoda, Japanese businessman, founded Toyota (d. 1952)
1895 – Nikolai Bulganin, Soviet politician (d. 1975)
1897 – Ram Prasad Bismil, Indian activist, founded the Hindustan Republican Association (d. 1927)
1897 – Reg Latta, Australian rugby league player (d. 1970)
1899 – Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese novelist and short story writer Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
1901 – Cap Fear, Canadian football player and rower (d. 1978)
1901 – Benny Wearing, Australian rugby league player (d. 1968)
1902 – Eric Fraser, British illustrator and graphic designer (d. 1983)
1903 – Ernie Nevers, American football player and coach (d. 1976)
1908 – Karl Hein, German hammer thrower (d. 1982)
1908 – Francisco Marto, Portuguese saint (d. 1919)
1909 – Natascha Artin Brunswick, German-American mathematician and photographer (d. 2003)
1910 – Carmine Coppola, American flute player and composer (d. 1991)
1910 – Jacques Cousteau, French biologist, author, and inventor, co-developed the aqua-lung (d. 1997)
1912 – James Algar, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1998)
1912 – William Baziotes, American painter and academic (d. 1963)
1912 – Mohammad Hassan Ganji, Iranian meteorologist and academic (d. 2012)
1913 – Vince Lombardi, American football player, coach, and manager (d. 1970)
1913 – Risë Stevens, American soprano and actress (d. 2013)
1914 – Jan Hendrik van den Berg, Dutch psychiatrist and academic (d. 2012)
1915 – Magda Gabor, Hungarian-American actress (d. 1997)
1915 – Nicholas Metropolis, American mathematician and physicist (d. 1999)
1917 – Joseph B. Wirthlin, American businessman and religious leader (d. 2008)
1918 – Ruth Aarons, American table tennis player and manager (d. 1980)
1919 – Suleiman Mousa, Jordanian historian and author (d. 2008)
1919 – Richard Todd, Irish-English actor (d. 2009)
1920 – Shelly Manne, American drummer, composer, and bandleader (d. 1984)
1920 – Hazel Scott, Trinidadian-American singer, actress, and pianist (d. 1981)
1920 – Keith Seaman, Australian lawyer and politician, 29th Governor of South Australia (d. 2013)
1922 – Jean Sutherland Boggs, Peruvian-Canadian historian, academic, and civil servant (d. 2014)
1922 – Michael Cacoyannis, Greek Cypriot director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2011)
1925 – Johnny Esaw, Canadian sportscaster (d. 2013)
1925 – William Styron, American novelist and essayist (d. 2006)
1926 – Carlisle Floyd, American composer and educator
1927 – Beryl Grey, English ballerina
1927 – John W. O’Malley, American Catholic historian, academic and Jesuit priest
1927 – Kit Pedler, English parapsychologist and author (d. 1981)
1928 – Queen Fabiola of Belgium (d. 2014)
1929 – Ayhan Şahenk, Turkish businessman (d. 2001)
1930 – Charles Rangel, American soldier, lawyer, and politician
1932 – Athol Fugard, South African-American actor, director, and playwright
1932 – Tim Sainsbury, English businessman and politician, Minister of State for Trade
1933 – Gene Wilder, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
1937 – Chad Everett, American actor and director (d. 2012)
1937 – Robin Warren, Australian pathologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1939 – Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint, English cricketer and journalist (d. 2017)
1939 – Jackie Stewart, Scottish race car driver and sportscaster
1942 – Parris Glendening, American politician, 59th Governor of Maryland
1943 – Henry Hill, American mobster (d. 2012)
1945 – Adrienne Barbeau, American actress
1947 – Richard Palmer-James, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1948 – Dave Cash, American baseball player and coach
1948 – Lalu Prasad Yadav, Indian politician, 20th Chief Minister of Bihar
1949 – Frank Beard, American drummer and songwriter
1950 – Lynsey de Paul, English singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, cartoonist and actress (d. 2014)
1950 – Graham Russell, English-Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1951 – Matthew Engel, English journalist and author
1951 – Yasumasa Morimura, Japanese painter and photographer
1952 – Yekaterina Podkopayeva, Russian runner
1952 – Donnie Van Zant, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1953 – Steve Bassam, Baron Bassam of Brighton, English politician
1953 – José Bové, French farmer and politician
1953 – Barbara Minty, American model
1954 – John Dyson, Australian cricketer
1954 – Johnny Neel, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1955 – Yuriy Sedykh, Ukrainian hammer thrower
1955 – Duncan Steel, English-Australian astronomer and author
1956 – Joe Montana, American football player and sportscaster
1956 – Simon Plouffe, Canadian mathematician and academic
1956 – Arthur Porter, Canadian physician and academic (d. 2015)
1956 – Jamaaladeen Tacuma, American bass player and bandleader
1958 – Barry Adamson, English singer and bass player
1959 – Hugh Laurie, English actor and screenwriter
1960 – Mehmet Oz, American surgeon, author, and television host
1962 – Mano Menezes, Brazilian footballer and coach
1963 – Gioia Bruno, American singer-songwriter
1963 – Sandra Schmirler, Canadian curler and sportscaster (d. 2000)
1964 – Jean Alesi, French race car driver
1964 – Kim Gallagher, American runner (d. 2002)
1965 – Georgios Bartzokas, Greek former professional basketball player
1965 – Gavin Hill, New Zealand rugby player
1966 – Bruce Robison, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist
1967 – Graeme Bachop, New Zealand rugby player
1967 – João Garcia, Portuguese mountaineer
1968 – Alois, Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein
1968 – Manoa Thompson, Fijian rugby player
1969 – Peter Dinklage, American actor and producer
1969 – Bryan Fogarty, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2002)
1969 – Olaf Kapagiannidis, German footballer
1971 – Vladimir Gaidamașciuc, Moldovan footballer
1971 – Liz Kendall, British politician
1971 – Mark Richardson, New Zealand cricketer
1971 – Kenjiro Tsuda, Japanese voice actor
1972 – Stephen Kearney, New Zealand rugby league player and coach
1973 – José Manuel Abundis, Mexican footballer and coach
1974 – Fragiskos Alvertis, Greek basketball player, coach, and manager
1976 – Reiko Tosa, Japanese runner
1977 – Geoff Ogilvy, Australian golfer
1978 – Joshua Jackson, Canadian-American actor
1978 – Daryl Tuffey, New Zealand cricketer
1979 – Ali Boussaboun, Moroccan-Dutch footballer
1979 – Amy Duggan, Australian footballer and sportscaster
1980 – Yhency Brazoban, Dominican baseball player
1981 – Emiliano Moretti, Italian footballer
1981 – Kristo Tohver, Estonian footballer and referee
1982 – Vanessa Boslak, French pole vaulter
1982 – Jacques Freitag, South African high jumper
1982 – Joey Graham, American basketball player
1982 – Stephen Graham, American basketball player
1982 – Reni Maitua, Australian rugby league player
17 – Germanicus celebrates a triumph in Rome for his victories over the Cherusci, Chatti, and other German tribes west of the Elbe.
451 – Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sasanian Empire takes place. The Sasanids defeat the Armenians militarily but guarantee them freedom to openly practice Christianity.
946 – King Edmund I of England is murdered by a thief whom he personally attacks while celebrating St Augustine’s Mass Day.
961 – King Otto I elects his 6-year-old son Otto II as heir apparent and co-ruler of the East Frankish Kingdom. He is crowned at Aachen, and placed under the tutelage of his grandmother Matilda.
1135 – Alfonso VII of León and Castile is crowned in León Cathedral as Imperator totius Hispaniae (Emperor of all of Spain).
1293 – An earthquake strikes Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 23,000.
1328 – William of Ockham, the Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena, and two other Franciscan leaders secretly leave Avignon, fearing a death sentence from Pope John XXII.
1538 – Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lives in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years.
1573 – The Battle of Haarlemmermeer, a naval engagement in the Dutch War of Independence.
1637 – Pequot War: A combined English and Mohegan force under John Mason attacks a village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Pequots.
1644 – Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese and Spanish forces both claim victory in the Battle of Montijo.
1736 – The Battle of Ackia was fought near the present site of Tupelo, Mississippi. British and Chickasaw soldiers repelled a French and Choctaw attack on the then-Chickasaw village of Ackia.
1770 – The Orlov Revolt, an attempt to revolt against the Ottoman Empire before the Greek War of Independence, ends in disaster for the Greeks.
1783 – A Great Jubilee Day held at North Stratford, Connecticut, celebrated the end of fighting in the American Revolution.
1805 – Napoléon Bonaparte assumes the title of King of Italy and is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Milan Cathedral, the gothic cathedral in Milan.
1821 – Establishment of the Peloponnesian Senate by the Greek rebels.
1822 – One hundred sixteen people die in the Grue Church fire, the biggest fire disaster in Norway’s history.
1857 – Dred Scott is emancipated by the Blow family, his original owners.
1864 – Montana is organized as a United States territory.
1865 – American Civil War: The Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last full general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.
1868 – The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson ends with his acquittal by one vote.
1869 – Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
1879 – Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.
1896 – Nicholas II becomes the last Tsar of Imperial Russia.
1896 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
1897 – Dracula, a Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.
1897 – The original manuscript of William Bradford’s history, “Of Plymouth Plantation” is returned to the Governor of Massachusetts by the Bishop of London after being taken during the American Revolutionary War.
1900 – Thousand Days’ War: The Colombian Conservative Party turns the tide of war in their favor with victory against the Colombian Liberal Party in the Battle of Palonegro.
1908 – The first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made at Masjed Soleyman in southwest Persia. The rights to the resource were quickly acquired by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
1917 – Several powerful tornadoes rip through Illinois, including the city of Mattoon.
1918 – The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.
1923 – The first 24 Hours of Le Mans was held and has since been run annually in June.
1927 – The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.
1936 – In the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson begins speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sits down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for ten hours.
1937 – Walter Reuther and members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) clashed with Ford Motor Company security guards at the River Rouge Complex complex in Dearborn, Michigan, during the Battle of the Overpass.
1938 – In the United States, the House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session.
1940 – World War II: Operation Dynamo: In northern France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France.
1940 – World War II: The Siege of Calais ends with the surrender of the British and French garrison.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of Gazala takes place.
1948 – The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 80-557, which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force.
1966 – British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana.
1967 – The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is released.
1968 – H-dagurinn in Iceland: Traffic changes from driving on the left to driving on the right overnight
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
1970 – The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army slaughters at least 71 Hindus in Burunga, Sylhet, Bangladesh.
1972 – The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
1981 – Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resign following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due).
1981 – An EA-6B Prowler crashes on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, killing 14 crewmen and injuring 45 others.
1983 – The 7.8 Mw Sea of Japan earthquake shakes northern Honshu with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A destructive tsunami is generated that leaves about 100 people dead.
1986 – The European Community adopts the European flag.
1991 – Zviad Gamsakhurdia becomes the first elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era.
1991 – Lauda Air Flight 004 breaks apart in mid-air and crashes in the Phu Toei National Park in Thailand, killing all 223 people on board.
1998 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in New Jersey v. New York that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York.
1998 – The first “National Sorry Day” was held in Australia, and reconciliation events were held nationally, and attended by over a million people.
2002 – The tugboat Robert Y. Love collides with a support pier of Interstate 40 on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, resulting in 14 deaths and 11 others injured.
2004 – United States Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing.
2008 – Severe flooding begins in eastern and southern China that will ultimately cause 148 deaths and force the evacuation of 1.3 million.
Births on May 26
1264 – Koreyasu, Japanese prince and shōgun (d. 1326)
1478 – Clement VII, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1534)
1562 – James III, margrave of Baden-Hachberg (d. 1590)
1566 – Mehmed III, Ottoman sultan (d. 1603)
1602 – Philippe de Champaigne, Dutch-French painter (d. 1674)
1623 – William Petty, English economist and philosopher (d. 1687)
1650 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire (d. 1722)
1667 – Abraham de Moivre, French-English mathematician and theorist (d. 1754)
1669 – Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist and mycologist (d. 1722)
1700 – Nicolaus Zinzendorf, German bishop and saint (d. 1760)
1799 – August Kopisch, German poet and painter (d. 1853)
1822 – Edmond de Goncourt, French author and critic, founded the Académie Goncourt (d. 1896)
1863 – Bob Fitzsimmons, English-New Zealand boxer (d. 1917)
1865 – Robert W. Chambers, American author and illustrator (d. 1933)
1867 – Mary of Teck, English-born queen consort of the United Kingdom (d. 1953)
1873 – Olaf Gulbransson, Norwegian painter and illustrator (d. 1958)
1876 – Percy Perrin, English cricketer (d. 1945)
1880 – W. Otto Miessner, American composer and educator (d. 1967)
1881 – Adolfo de la Huerta, Mexican politician and provisional president, 1920 (d. 1955)
1883 – Mamie Smith, American singer, actress, dancer, and pianist (d. 1946)
1886 – Al Jolson, American singer and actor (d. 1950)
1887 – Ba U, 2nd President of Burma (d. 1963)
1893 – Eugene Aynsley Goossens, English conductor and composer (d. 1962)
1895 – Dorothea Lange, American photographer and journalist (d. 1965)
1895 – Paul Lukas, Hungarian-American actor and singer (d. 1971)
1898 – Ernst Bacon, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1990)
1898 – Christfried Burmeister, Estonian speed skater (d. 1965)
1899 – Antonio Barrette, Canadian lawyer and politician, 18th Premier of Quebec (d. 1968)
1899 – Muriel McQueen Fergusson, Canadian lawyer and politician, Canadian Speaker of the Senate (d. 1997)
1900 – Karin Juel, Swedish singer, actor, and writer (d. 1976)
1904 – George Formby, English singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1961)
1904 – Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, Turkish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1983)
1904 – Vlado Perlemuter, Lithuanian-French pianist and educator (d. 2002)
1907 – Jean Bernard, French physician and haematologist (d. 2006)
1907 – John Wayne, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1979)
1908 – Robert Morley, English actor (d. 1992)
1908 – Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ, Vietnamese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam (d. 1976)
1909 – Matt Busby, Scottish footballer and manager (d. 1994)
1909 – Adolfo López Mateos, Mexican politician, 48th President of Mexico (d. 1969)
1910 – Imi Lichtenfeld, Hungarian-Israeli martial artist, boxer, and gymnast (d. 1998)
1911 – Maurice Baquet, French actor and cellist (d. 2005)
1911 – Henry Ephron, American playwright, screenwriter, and producer (d. 1992)
1912 – János Kádár, Hungarian mechanic and politician, 46th Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 1989)
1912 – Jay Silverheels, Canadian-American actor (d. 1980)
1913 – Peter Cushing, English actor (d. 1994)
1913 – Pierre Daninos, French author (d. 2005)
1913 – Karin Ekelund, Swedish actress (d. 1976)
1913 – Josef Manger, German weightlifter (d. 1991)
1914 – Frankie Manning, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2009)
1915 – Vernon Alley, American bassist (d. 2004)
1915 – Antonia Forest, English author (d. 2003)
1916 – Henriette Roosenburg, Dutch journalist and author (d. 1972)
1919 – Rubén González, Cuban pianist (d. 2003)
1920 – Jack Cheetham, South African cricketer (d. 1980)
1920 – Peggy Lee, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2002)
1921 – Inge Borkh, German soprano (d. 2018)
1922 – Troy Smith, American businessman, founded Sonic Drive-In (d. 2009)
1923 – James Arness, American actor (d. 2011)
1923 – Roy Dotrice, English actor (d. 2017)
1925 – Carmen Montejo, Cuban-Mexican actress (d. 2013)
1925 – Alec McCowen, English actor (d. 2017)
1926 – Miles Davis, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (d. 1991)
1927 – Jacques Bergerac, French actor and businessman (d. 2014)
1928 – Jack Kevorkian, American pathologist, author, and assisted suicide activist (d. 2011)
1929 – J. F. Ade Ajayi, Nigerian historian and academic (d. 2014)
1929 – Ernie Carroll, Australian television personality and producer
1929 – Hans Freeman, Australian bioinorganic chemist and protein crystallographer (d. 2008)
1929 – John Jackson, English lawyer and businessman
1929 – Catherine Sauvage, French singer and actress (d. 1998)
1930 – Karim Emami, Indian-Iranian lexicographer and critic (d. 2005)
1933 – Edward Whittemore, American soldier and author (d. 1995)
1935 – Eero Loone, Estonian philosopher and academic
1936 – David Stevens, Baron Stevens of Ludgate, English politician
1937 – Manorama, Indian actress and singer (d. 2015)
1937 – Paul E. Patton, American politician, 59th Governor of Kentucky
1938 – William Bolcom, American pianist and composer
1938 – Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Russian author and playwright
1938 – K. Bikram Singh, Indian director and producer (d. 2013)
1938 – Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano and actress
1939 – Brent Musburger, American sportscaster
1939 – Herb Trimpe, American author and illustrator (d. 2015)
1940 – Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, Canadian academic and politician, Deputy Premier of Quebec
1940 – Levon Helm, American singer-songwriter, drummer, producer, and actor (d. 2012)
1941 – Aldrich Ames, American CIA officer and criminal
1941 – Jim Dobbin, Scottish microbiologist and politician (d. 2014)
1941 – Cliff Drysdale, South African tennis player and sportscaster
1941 – Imants Kalniņš, Latvian composer
1943 – Erica Terpstra, Dutch swimmer, journalist, and politician
1944 – Phil Edmonston, American-Canadian journalist and politician
1944 – Jan Kinder, Norwegian ice hockey player (d. 2013)
1944 – Sam Posey, American race car driver and journalist
1945 – Vilasrao Deshmukh, Indian lawyer and politician, 17th Chief Minister of Maharashtra (d. 2012)
1945 – Alistair MacDuff, English lawyer and judge
1945 – Garry Peterson, Canadian-American drummer
1946 – Neshka Robeva, Bulgarian gymnast and coach
1946 – Mick Ronson, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer (d. 1993)
1947 – Carol O’Connell, American author and painter
1947 – Glenn Turner, New Zealand cricketer
1948 – Stevie Nicks, American singer-songwriter
1949 – Jeremy Corbyn, British journalist and politician
1949 – Ward Cunningham, American computer programmer, developed the first wiki
1949 – Pam Grier, American actress
1949 – Anne McGuire, Scottish educator and politician
1949 – Philip Michael Thomas, American actor
1949 – Hank Williams Jr., American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1951 – Ramón Calderón, Spanish lawyer and businessman
1951 – Lou van den Dries, Dutch mathematician
1951 – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut, founded Sally Ride Science (d. 2012)
1951 – Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, Irish educator and politician
1952 – David Meece, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1953 – Kay Hagan, American lawyer and politician (d. 2019)
1953 – Don McAllister, English footballer and manager
1953 – Michael Portillo, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Defence
1953 – Dan Roundfield, American basketball player (d. 2012)
1954 – Alan Hollinghurst, English novelist, poet, short story writer, and translator
1954 – Denis Lebel, Canadian businessman and politician, 29th Canadian Minister of Transport
1955 – Masaharu Morimoto, Japanese-American chef
1955 – Paul Stoddart, Australian businessman
1955 – Wesley Walker, American football player and educator
1956 – Neil Parish, English politician
1956 – Fiona Shackleton, English lawyer
1957 – Diomedes Díaz, Colombian singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
1957 – François Legault, Canadian businessman and politician
1957 – Roberto Ravaglia, Italian race car driver
1958 – Ronnie Black, American golfer
1958 – Arto Bryggare, Finnish hurdler and politician
1958 – Margaret Colin, American actress
1959 – Ole Bornedal, Danish actor, director, and producer
1960 – Doug Hutchison, American actor
1960 – Dean Lukin, Australian weightlifter
1960 – Masahiro Matsunaga, Japanese race car driver
1960 – Rob Murphy, American baseball player
1960 – Romas Ubartas, Lithuanian discus thrower
1961 – Steve Pate, American golfer
1961 – Tarsem Singh, Indian-American director, producer, and screenwriter
1962 – Black, English singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
1962 – Genie Francis, Canadian-American actress
1962 – Bobcat Goldthwait, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1963 – Simon Armitage, English poet, playwright and novelist
1963 – Claude Legault, Canadian actor and screenwriter
1963 – Mary Nightingale, English journalist
1963 – Jamie Spence, English golfer
1964 – Caitlín R. Kiernan, Irish-American paleontologist and author
1964 – Lenny Kravitz, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor
1964 – Argiris Pedoulakis, Greek basketball player and coach
1965 – Hazel Irvine, Scottish sportscaster and journalist
1966 – Helena Bonham Carter, English actress
1966 – Zola Budd, South African runner
1967 – Philip Treacy, Irish milliner, hat designer
1967 – Mika Yamamoto, Japanese journalist (d. 2012)
1968 – Fernando León de Aranoa, Spanish director, producer, and screenwriter
1968 – Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark
1968 – Steve Sedgley, English footballer and manager
1969 – John Baird, Canadian politician, 10th Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1969 – Siri Lindley, American triathlete and coach
1969 – Dominic Mohan, English journalist
1970 – Nobuhiro Watsuki, Japanese illustrator
1971 – Zaher Andary, Lebanese footballer
1971 – Matt Stone, American actor, animator, screenwriter, producer, and composer
33 BC – Lucius Marcius Philippus, step-brother to the future emperor Augustus, celebrates a triumph for his victories while serving as governor in one of the provinces of Hispania.
395 – Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity.
629 – Shahrbaraz is crowned as king of the Sasanian Empire.
711 – Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).
1296 – First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol’s Scottish army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Dunbar.
1509 – Pope Julius II places the Italian state of Venice under interdict.
1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
1522 – Combined forces of Spain and the Papal States defeat a French and Venetian army at the Battle of Bicocca.
1539 – Re-founding of the city of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1565 – Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.
1578 – Duel of the Mignons claims the lives of two favourites of Henry III of France and two favorites of Henry I, Duke of Guise.
1595 – The relics of Saint Sava are incinerated in Belgrade on the Vračar plateau by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha; the site of the incineration is now the location of the Church of Saint Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world.
1650 – The Battle of Carbisdale: A Royalist army from Orkney invades mainland Scotland but is defeated by a Covenanter army.
1667 – Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers’ Register.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield: A British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut.
1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The “shores of Tripoli” part of the Marines’ Hymn).
1813 – War of 1812: American troops capture York, the capital of Upper Canada, in the Battle of York.
1861 – American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1865 – The New York State Senate creates Cornell University as the state’s land grant institution.
1906 – The State Duma of the Russian Empire meets for the first time.
1909 – Sultan of Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown, and is succeeded by his brother, Mehmed V.
1911 – Following the resignation and death of William P. Frye, a compromise is reached to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the United States Senate.
1927 – Carabineros de Chile (Chilean national police force and gendarmerie) are created.
1936 – The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor.
1941 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.
1941 – World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as “National Democrats”) and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation.
1945 – World War II: The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. The Lapland War and thus, World War II in Finland, comes to an end and the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken.
1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
1953 – Operation Moolah offers $50,000 to any pilot who defected with a fully mission-capable Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot was to receive $100,000.
1960 – Togo gains independence from French-administered UN trusteeship.
1961 – Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
1967 – Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world. It opens to the public the next day.
1974 – Ten thousand march in Washington, D.C., calling for the impeachment of U.S. President Richard Nixon.
1978 – Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
1978 – The Saur Revolution begins in Afghanistan, ending the following morning with the murder of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
1981 – Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.
1986 – The city of Pripyat and surrounding areas are evacuated due to Chernobyl disaster.
1987 – The U.S. Department of Justice bars Austrian President Kurt Waldheim (and his wife, Elisabeth, who had also been a Nazi) from entering the US, charging that he had aided in the deportations and executions of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1989 – The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
1992 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is proclaimed.
1992 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of the British House of Commons in its 700-year history.
1992 – The Russian Federation and 12 other former Soviet republics become members of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
1993 – Most of the Zambia national football team lose their lives in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal to play a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.
1994 – South African general election: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens could vote. The Interim Constitution comes into force.
2005 – Airbus A380 aircraft had its maiden test flight.
2006 – Construction begins on the Freedom Tower (later renamed One World Trade Center) in New York City.
2007 – Estonian authorities remove the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet Red Army war memorial in Tallinn, amid political controversy with Russia.
2007 – Israeli archaeologists discover the tomb of Herod the Great south of Jerusalem.
2011 – The 2011 Super Outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. 205 tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.
2012 – At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.
2018 – The Panmunjom Declaration is signed between North and South Korea, officially declaring their intentions to end the Korean conflict.
Births on April 27
85 BC – Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, Roman politician and general (d. 43 BC)
1468 – Frederick Jagiellon, Primate of Poland (d. 1503)
1564 – Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (d. 1632)
1556 – François Béroalde de Verville, French writer (d. 1626)
1593 – Mumtaz Mahal, Mughal empress buried at the Taj Mahal (d. 1631)
1650 – Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel, Queen Consort of Denmark (1670-1699) (d. 1714)
1654 – Charles Blount, English deist and philosopher (d. 1693)
1701 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1773)
1718 – Thomas Lewis, Irish-born American surveyor and lawyer (d. 1790)
1748 – Adamantios Korais, Greek-French philosopher and scholar (d. 1833)
1755 – Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician and theorist (d. 1836)
1759 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English philosopher, historian, and novelist (d. 1797)
1788 – Charles Robert Cockerell, English architect, archaeologist, and writer (d. 1863)
1791 – Samuel Morse, American painter and inventor, co-invented the Morse code (d. 1872)
1812 – William W. Snow, American lawyer and politician (d. 1886)
1812 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (d. 1883)
1820 – Herbert Spencer, English biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and philosopher (d. 1903)
1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)
1840 – Edward Whymper, English-French mountaineer, explorer, author, and illustrator (d. 1911)
1848 – Otto of Bavaria (d. 1916)
1850 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general and politician (d. 1921)
1853 – Jules Lemaître, French playwright and critic (d. 1914)
1857 – Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian painter and illustrator (d. 1914)
1861 – William Arms Fisher, American composer and music historian (d. 1948)
1866 – Maurice Raoul-Duval, French polo player (d. 1916)
1875 – Frederick Fane, Irish-born, English cricketer (d. 1960)
1880 – Mihkel Lüdig, Estonian organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1958)
1882 – Jessie Redmon Fauset, American author and poet (d. 1961)
1887 – Warren Wood, American golfer (d. 1926)
1888 – Florence La Badie, Canadian actress (d. 1917)
1891 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1953)
1893 – Draža Mihailović, Serbian general (d. 1946)
1893 – Allen Sothoron, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1939)
1894 – George Petty, American painter and illustrator (d. 1975)
1894 – Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1995)
1896 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1963)
1896 – William Hudson, New Zealand-Australian engineer (d. 1978)
1896 – Wallace Carothers, American chemist and inventor of nylon (d. 1937)
1898 – Ludwig Bemelmans, Italian-American author and illustrator (d. 1962)
1899 – Walter Lantz, American animator, producer, screenwriter, and actor (d. 1994)
1900 – August Koern, Estonian politician and diplomat, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs in exile (d. 1989)
1902 – Tiemoko Garan Kouyaté, Malian educator and activist (d. 1942)
1904 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet and author (d. 1972)
1904 – Nikos Zachariadis, Greek politician (d. 1973)
1905 – John Kuck, American javelin thrower and shot putter (d. 1986)
1906 – Yiorgos Theotokas, Greek author and playwright (d. 1966)
1910 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese politician, 3rd President of the Republic of China (d. 1988)
1911 – Bruno Beger, German anthropologist and ethnologist (d. 2009)
1911 – Chris Berger, Dutch sprinter and footballer (d. 1965)
1912 – Jacques de Bourbon-Busset, French author and politician (d. 2001)
1912 – Zohra Sehgal, Indian actress, dancer, and choreographer (d. 2014)
1913 – Philip Abelson, American physicist and author (d. 2004)
1913 – Irving Adler, American mathematician, author, and academic (d. 2012)
1913 – Luz Long, German long jumper and soldier (d. 1943)
1916 – Robert Hugh McWilliams, Jr., American sergeant, lawyer, and judge (d. 2013)
1916 – Enos Slaughter, American baseball player and manager (d. 2002)
1917 – Roman Matsov, Estonian violinist, pianist, and conductor (d. 2001)
1918 – Sten Rudholm, Swedish lawyer and jurist (d. 2008)
1920 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (d. 1956)
1920 – Mark Krasnosel’skii, Ukrainian mathematician and academic (d. 1997)
1920 – James Robert Mann, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (d. 2010)
1920 – Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet and translator (d. 2010)
1921 – Robert Dhéry, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
1922 – Jack Klugman, American actor (d. 2012)
1922 – Sheila Scott, English nurse and pilot (d. 1988)
1923 – Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, Seminole chief (d. 2011)
1924 – Vernon B. Romney, American lawyer and politician, 14th Attorney General of Utah (d. 2013)
1925 – Derek Chinnery, English broadcaster (d. 2015)
1926 – Tim LaHaye, American minister, activist, and author (d. 2016)
1926 – Basil A. Paterson, American lawyer and politician, 59th Secretary of State of New York (d. 2014)
1926 – Alan Reynolds, English painter and educator (d. 2014)
1927 – Coretta Scott King, African-American activist and author (d. 2006)
1927 – Joe Moakley, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2001)
1929 – Nina Ponomaryova, Russian discus thrower and coach (d. 2016)
1931 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist and educator
1932 – Anouk Aimée, French actress
1932 – Pik Botha, South African lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 8th South African Ambassador to the United States (d. 2018)
1932 – Casey Kasem, American disc jockey, music historian, radio celebrity, and voice actor; co-created American Top 40 (d. 2014)
1932 – Chuck Knox, American football coach (d. 2018)
1932 – Derek Minter, English motorcycle racer (d. 2015)
1932 – Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-American mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
1933 – Peter Imbert, Baron Imbert, English police officer and politician, Lord Lieutenant for Greater London (d. 2017)
1935 – Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
1935 – Ron Morris, American pole vaulter and coach
1936 – Geoffrey Shovelton, English singer and illustrator (d. 2016)
1937 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)
1937 – Robin Eames, Irish Anglican archbishop
1937 – Richard Perham, English biologist and academic (d. 2015)
1938 – Earl Anthony, American bowler and sportscaster (d. 2001)
1938 – Alain Caron, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
1939 – Judy Carne, English actress and comedian (d. 2015)
1939 – Stanisław Dziwisz, Polish cardinal
1941 – Fethullah Gülen, Turkish preacher and theologian
1941 – Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, Indian archaeologist
1941 – Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
1942 – Ruth Glick, American author
1942 – Jim Keltner, American drummer
1943 – Helmut Marko, Austrian race car driver and manager
1944 – Michael Fish, English meteorologist and journalist
1944 – Cuba Gooding Sr., American singer (d. 2017)
1944 – Herb Pedersen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1945 – Martin Chivers, English footballer and manager
1945 – Jack Deverell, English general
1945 – Helen Hodgman, Scottish-Australian author
1945 – Terry Willesee, Australian journalist and television host
1945 – August Wilson, American author and playwright (d. 2005)
1946 – Franz Roth, German footballer
1947 – G. K. Butterfield, African-American soldier, lawyer, and politician
1947 – Nick Greiner, Hungarian-Australian politician, 37th Premier of New South Wales
1947 – Pete Ham, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1975)
1947 – Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2003)
1947 – Ann Peebles, American soul singer-songwriter
1948 – Frank Abagnale Jr., American security consultant and criminal
1948 – Josef Hickersberger, Austrian footballer, coach, and manager
1948 – Kate Pierson, American singer-songwriter and bass player
1949 – Grant Chapman, Australian businessman and politician
1950 – Jaime Fresnedi, Filipino politician
1950 – Paul Lockyer, Australian journalist (d. 2011)
1951 – Ace Frehley, American guitarist and songwriter
1952 – Larry Elder, American lawyer and talk show host
1952 – George Gervin, American basketball player
1952 – Ari Vatanen, Finnish race car driver and politician
1953 – Arielle Dombasle, French-American actress and model
1954 – Frank Bainimarama, Fijian commander and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Fiji
1954 – Herman Edwards, American football player, coach, and sportscaster
1954 – Mark Holden, Australian singer, actor, and lawyer
1955 – Gudrun Berend, German hurdler (d. 2011)
1955 – Eric Schmidt, American engineer and businessman
1956 – Bryan Harvey, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006)
1956 – Jeff Probyn, English rugby player, coach, and manager
1957 – Willie Upshaw, American baseball player and manager
1959 – Sheena Easton, Scottish-American singer-songwriter, actress, and producer
1959 – Marco Pirroni, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1960 – Mike Krushelnyski, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 – Andrew Schlafly, American lawyer and activist, founded Conservapedia
1962 – Ángel Comizzo, Argentinian footballer and manager
1962 – Seppo Räty, Finnish javelin thrower and coach
1962 – Im Sang-soo, South Korean director and screenwriter
1962 – Andrew Selous, English soldier and politician
1963 – Russell T Davies, Welsh screenwriter and producer
1965 – Anna Chancellor, English actress
1966 – Peter McIntyre, Australian cricketer
1966 – Yoshihiro Togashi, Japanese illustrator
1967 – Willem-Alexander, King of the Netherlands
1967 – Tommy Smith, Scottish saxophonist, composer, and educator
1967 – Erik Thomson, Scottish-New Zealand actor
1967 – Jason Whitlock, American football player and journalist
1968 – Dana Milbank, American journalist and author
1969 – Cory Booker, African-American lawyer and politician
1969 – Darcey Bussell, English ballerina
1971 – Olari Elts, Estonian conductor
1972 – Nigel Barker, English photographer and author
1972 – Almedin Civa, Bosnian footballer and coach
1973 – Duško Adamović, Serbian footballer
1973 – Sharlee D’Angelo, Swedish bass player and songwriter
1973 – Sébastien Lareau, Canadian tennis player
1974 – Frank Catalanotto, American baseball player
1974 – Richard Johnson, Australian footballer
1975 – Rabih Abdullah, American football player
1975 – Chris Carpenter, American baseball player and manager
1975 – Pedro Feliz, Dominican baseball player
1975 – Kazuyoshi Funaki, Japanese ski jumper
1976 – Isobel Campbell, Scottish singer-songwriter and cellist
1976 – Sally Hawkins, English actress
1976 – Walter Pandiani, Uruguayan footballer
1976 – Faisal Saif, Indian director, screenwriter, and critic
1979 – Will Boyd, American bass player
1979 – Natasha Chokljat, Australian netball player
1979 – Vladimir Kozlov, Ukrainian wrestler
1980 – Sybille Bammer, Austrian tennis player
1980 – Talitha Cummins, Australian journalist
1980 – Christian Lara, Ecuadorian footballer
1981 – Joey Gathright, American baseball player
1981 – Patrik Gerrbrand, Swedish footballer
1982 – François Parisien, Canadian cyclist
1982 – Alexander Widiker, German rugby player
1983 – Ari Graynor, American actress and producer
1983 – Martin Viiask, Estonian basketball player
1984 – Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Daniel Holdsworth, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Patrick Stump, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1985 – José António de Miranda da Silva Júnior, Brazilian footballer
1985 – Meselech Melkamu, Ethiopian runner
1986 – Jenna Coleman, English actress
1986 – Hayley Mulheron, Scottish netball player
1986 – Dinara Safina, Russian tennis player
1987 – Taylor Chorney, American ice hockey player
1987 – Elliott Shriane, Australian speed skater
1987 – William Moseley, English actor
1987 – Wang Feifei, Chinese singer and actress
1988 – Joeri Dequevy, Belgian footballer
1988 – Kris Thackray, English footballer
1988 – Semyon Varlamov, Russian ice hockey player
1988 – Lizzo, American singer and rapper
1989 – Lars Bender, German footballer
1989 – Sven Bender, German footballer
1989 – Tim Glasby, Australian rugby league player
1989 – Dmytro Kozban, Ukrainian footballer
1990 – Trude Raad, Norwegian deaf track and field athlete
1991 – Isaac Cuenca, Spanish footballer
1991 – Eric Fukusaki, Peruvian singer
1991 – Lara Gut, Swiss skier
1992 – Keenan Allen, American football player
1994 – Corey Seager, American baseball player
1995 – Nick Kyrgios, Australian tennis player
1997 – Josh Onomah, English footballer
Deaths on April 27
630 – Ardashir III of Persia (b. 621)
1160 – Rudolf I, Count of Bregenz (b. 1081)
1272 – Zita, Italian saint (b. 1212)
1321 – Nicolò Albertini, Italian cardinal statesman (b. c. 1250)
1353 – Simeon of Moscow, Grand Prince of Moscow and Vladimir
1403 – Maria of Bosnia, Countess of Helfenstein (b. 1335)
1404 – Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1342)
1463 – Isidore of Kiev (b. 1385)
1521 – Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese sailor and explorer (b. 1480)
1599 – Maeda Toshiie, Japanese general (b. 1538)
1605 – Pope Leo XI (b. 1535)
1607 – Edward Cromwell, 3rd Baron Cromwell, Governor of Lecale (b. 1560)
1613 – Robert Abercromby, Scottish priest and missionary (b. 1532)
1656 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter and illustrator (b. 1596)
1694 – John George IV, Elector of Saxony (b. 1668)
1695 – John Trenchard, English politician, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (b. 1640)
1702 – Jean Bart, French admiral (b. 1651)
1782 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician, Lord Steward of the Household (b. 1710)
1813 – Zebulon Pike, American general and explorer (b. 1779)
1873 – William Macready, English actor and manager (b. 1793)
1882 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and philosopher (b. 1803)
1893 – John Ballance, Irish-born New Zealand journalist and politician, 14th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1839)
1896 – Henry Parkes, English-Australian businessman and politician, 7th Premier of New South Wales (b. 1815)
1915 – John Labatt, Canadian businessman (b. 1838)
1915 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1872)
1932 – Hart Crane, American poet (b. 1899)
1936 – Karl Pearson, English mathematician and academic (b. 1857)
1937 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian sociologist, linguist, and politician (b. 1891)
1938 – Edmund Husserl, Czech mathematician and philosopher (b. 1859)
1952 – Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician and statistician (b. 1865)
1961 – Roy Del Ruth, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1893)
1962 – A. K. Fazlul Huq, Bangladeshi-Pakistani lawyer and politician, Pakistani Minister of the Interior (b. 1873)
1965 – Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (b. 1908)
1967 – William Douglas Cook, New Zealand farmer, founded the Eastwoodhill Arboretum (b. 1884)
1969 – René Barrientos, Bolivian soldier, pilot, and politician, 55th President of Bolivia (b. 1919)
1970 – Arthur Shields, Irish rebel and actor (b. 1896)
1972 – Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian politician, 1st President of Ghana (b. 1909)
1973 – Carlos Menditeguy, Argentinian race car driver and polo player (b. 1914)
1977 – Stanley Adams, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1915)
1988 – Fred Bear, American hunter and author (b. 1902)
1989 – Konosuke Matsushita, Japanese businessman, founded Panasonic (b. 1894)
1992 – Olivier Messiaen, French organist and composer (b. 1908)
1992 – Gerard K. O’Neill, American physicist and astronomer (b. 1927)
46 BC – Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) at the Battle of Thapsus.
402 – Stilicho defeats the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia.
1250 – Seventh Crusade: Ayyubids of Egypt capture King Louis IX of France in the Battle of Fariskur.
1320 – The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.
1327 – The poet Petrarch first sees his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon.
1385 – John, Master of the Order of Aviz, an illegitimate son of Peter I of Portugal, is made king John I of Portugal.
1453 – Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (Istanbul), which falls on May 29.
1580 – One of the largest earthquakes recorded in the history of England, Flanders, or Northern France, takes place.
1652 – At the Cape of Good Hope, Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp that eventually becomes Cape Town.
1712 – The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 begins near Broadway.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Ships of the Continental Navy fail in their attempt to capture a Royal Navy dispatch boat.
1782 – King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (Rama I) of Siam (modern day Thailand) establishes the Chakri dynasty.
1793 – During the French Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety becomes the executive organ of the republic.
1808 – John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, that would eventually make him America’s first millionaire.
1812 – British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington assault the fortress of Badajoz. This would be the turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon-led France.
1814 – Nominal beginning of the Bourbon Restoration; anniversary date that Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.
1830 – Church of Christ, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement, is organized by Joseph Smith and others at either Fayette or Manchester, New York.
1841 – U.S. President John Tyler is sworn in, two days after having become President upon William Henry Harrison’s death.
1860 – The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, later renamed Community of Christ, is organized by Joseph Smith III and others at Amboy, Illinois.
1861 – First performance of Arthur Sullivan’s debut success, his suite of incidental music for The Tempest, leading to a career that included the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh begins: In Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston.
1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Sailor’s Creek: Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia fights and loses its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia during the Appomattox Campaign.
1866 – The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of Union veterans of the American Civil War, is founded. It lasts until 1956.
1869 – Celluloid is patented.
1888 – Thomas Green Clemson dies, bequeathing his estate to the State of South Carolina to establish Clemson Agricultural College.
1893 – Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dedicated by Wilford Woodruff.
1895 – Oscar Wilde is arrested in the Cadogan Hotel, London, after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I.
1909 – Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole; Peary’s claim has been disputed because of failings in his navigational ability.
1911 – During the Battle of Deçiq, Dedë Gjon Luli Dedvukaj, leader of the Malësori Albanians, raises the Albanian flag in the town of Tuzi, Montenegro, for the first time after George Kastrioti (Skanderbeg).
1917 – World War I: The United States declares war on Germany (see President Woodrow Wilson’s address to Congress).
1926 – Varney Airlines makes its first commercial flight (Varney is the root company of United Airlines).
1929 – Huey P. Long, Governor of Louisiana, is impeached by the Louisiana House of Representatives.
1930 – At the end of the Salt March, Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.”
1936 – Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak: Another tornado from the same storm system as the Tupelo tornado hits Gainesville, Georgia, killing 203.
1941 – World War II: Nazi Germany launches Operation 25 (the invasion of Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and Operation Marita (the invasion of Greece).
1945 – World War II: Sarajevo is liberated from German and Croatian forces by the Yugoslav Partisans.
1945 – World War II: The Battle of Slater’s Knoll on Bougainville comes to an end.
1947 – The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievement.
1957 – Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis buys the Hellenic National Airlines (TAE) and founds Olympic Airlines.
1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.
1968 – In Richmond, Indiana’s downtown district, a double explosion kills 41 and injures 150.
1968 – Pierre Elliott Trudeau wins the Liberal Leadership Election, and becomes Prime Minister of Canada soon after.
1970 – Newhall massacre: Four California Highway Patrol officers are killed in a shootout.
1972 – Vietnam War: Easter Offensive: American forces begin sustained air strikes and naval bombardments.
1973 – Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.
1973 – The American League of Major League Baseball begins using the designated hitter.
1974 – The Swedish pop band ABBA wins the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Waterloo”, launching their international career.
1979 – Student protests break out in Nepal.
1984 – Members of Cameroon’s Republican Guard unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the government headed by Paul Biya.
1992 – The Bosnian War begins.
1994 – The Rwandan genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down.
1997 – In Greene County, Tennessee, the Lillelid murders occurs when a group of young people abduct and kidnap a religious family before shooting them dead on a rural suburban road.
1998 – Nuclear weapons testing: Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of reaching India.
1998 – Travelers Group announces an agreement to undertake the $76 billion merger between Travelers and Citicorp, and the merger is completed on October 8, of that year, forming Citibank.
2004 – Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from office by impeachment.
2005 – Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani becomes Iraqi president; Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari is named premier the next day.
2008 – The 2008 Egyptian general strike starts led by Egyptian workers later to be adopted by April 6 Youth Movement and Egyptian activists.
2009 – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L’Aquila, Italy, killing 307.
2010 – Maoist rebels kill 76 CRPF officers in Dantewada district, India.
2011 – In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, over 193 victims of Los Zetas were exhumed from several mass graves.
2012 – Azawad declares itself independent from the Republic of Mali.
2017 – U.S. military launches 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at an airbase in Syria. Russia describes the strikes as an “aggression”, adding they significantly damage US-Russia ties.
2018 – A bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior ice hockey team collides with a semi-truck in Saskatchewan, Canada, killing 16 people and injuring 13 others.
Births on April 6
1135 – Maimonides, Jewish philosopher, Torah scholar, physician and astronomer (March 30 also proposed, d. 1204)
1342 – Infanta Maria, Marchioness of Tortosa
1483 – Raphael, Italian painter and architect (d. 1520)
1573 – Margaret of Brunswick-Lüneburg, German noble (d. 1643)
1632 – Maria Leopoldine of Austria (d. 1649)
1651 – André Dacier, French scholar and academic (d. 1722)
1660 – Johann Kuhnau, German organist and composer (d. 1722)
1664 – Arvid Horn, Swedish general and politician, Governor of Västerbotten County (d. 1742)
1671 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French poet and playwright (d. 1741)
1672 – André Cardinal Destouches, French composer (d. 1749)
1706 – Louis de Cahusac, French playwright and composer (d. 1759)
1708 – Johann Georg Reutter, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1772)
1725 – Pasquale Paoli, French soldier and politician (d. 1807)
1726 – Gerard Majella, Italian saint (d. 1755)
1741 – Nicolas Chamfort, French author and playwright (d. 1794)
1766 – Wilhelm von Kobell, German painter and educator (d. 1853)
1773 – James Mill, Scottish historian, economist, and philosopher (d. 1836)
1787 – Celestina Cordero, Puerto Rican educator (d. 1862)
1810 – Philip Henry Gosse, English biologist and academic (d. 1888)
1812 – Alexander Herzen, Russian philosopher and author (d. 1870)
1815 – Robert Volkmann, German organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1883)
1818 – Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Norwegian journalist and poet (d. 1870)
1820 – Nadar, French photographer, journalist, and author (d. 1910)
1823 – Joseph Medill, Canadian-American publisher and politician, 26th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1899)
1824 – George Waterhouse, English-New Zealand politician, 7th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1906)
1826 – Gustave Moreau, French painter and academic (d. 1898)
1844 – William Lyne, Australian politician, 13th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1913)
1851 – Guillaume Bigourdan, French astronomer and academic (d. 1932)
1852 – Will Crooks, English trade unionist and politician (d. 1921)
1855 – Charles Huot, Canadian painter and illustrator (d. 1930)
1857 – Arthur Wesley Dow, American painter and photographer (d. 1922)
1860 – René Lalique, French sculptor and jewellery designer (d. 1945)
1861 – Stanislas de Guaita, French poet and author (d. 1897)
1864 – William Bate Hardy, English biologist and academic (d. 1934)
1866 – Felix-Raymond-Marie Rouleau, Canadian cardinal (d. 1931)
1869 – Levon Shant, Armenian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1951)
1878 – Erich Mühsam, German author, poet, and playwright (d. 1934)
1881 – Karl Staaf, Swedish pole vaulter and hammer thrower (d. 1953)
1884 – J. G. Parry-Thomas, Welsh race car driver and engineer (d. 1927)
1886 – Athenagoras I of Constantinople (d. 1972)
1886 – Walter Dandy, American physician and neurosurgeon (d. 1946)
1886 – Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, Indian ruler (d. 1967)
1888 – Hans Richter, Swiss painter, illustrator, and director (d. 1976)
1888 – Gerhard Ritter, German historian and academic (d. 1967)
1890 – Anthony Fokker, Dutch engineer and businessman, founded Fokker Aircraft Manufacturer (d. 1939)
1892 – Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American businessman, founded the Douglas Aircraft Company (d. 1981)
1892 – Lowell Thomas, American journalist and author (d. 1981)
1895 – Dudley Nichols, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1960)
1898 – Jeanne Hébuterne, French painter and author (d. 1920)
1900 – Leo Robin, American composer and songwriter (d. 1984)
1901 – Pier Giorgio Frassati, Italian activist (d. 1925)
1902 – Julien Torma, French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1933)
1903 – Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player and manager (d. 1962)
1903 – Harold Eugene Edgerton, American engineer and academic (d. 1990)
1904 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German lawyer, politician and Chancellor of Germany (d. 1988)
1904 – Erwin Komenda, Austrian car designer and engineer (d. 1966)
1908 – Marcel-Marie Desmarais, Canadian preacher, missionary, and author (d. 1994)
1909 – William M. Branham, American minister and theologian (d. 1965)
1909 – Hermann Lang, German race car driver (d. 1987)
1910 – Barys Kit, Belarusian-American rocket scientist (d. 2018)
1911 – Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
1913 – Shannon Boyd-Bailey McCune, American geographer and academic (d. 1993)
1915 – Tadeusz Kantor, Polish director, painter, and set designer (d. 1990)
1916 – Phil Leeds, American actor (d. 1998)
1916 – Vincent Ellis McKelvey, American geologist and author (d. 1987)
1917 – Leonora Carrington, English-Mexican painter and author (d. 2011)
1918 – Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian general and politician, 56th President of Bolivia (d. 1982)
1919 – Georgios Mylonas, Greek politician, 11th Greek Minister of Culture (d. 1998)
1920 – Jack Cover, American pilot and physicist, invented the Taser gun (d. 2009)
1920 – Edmond H. Fischer, Swiss-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1921 – Wilbur Thompson, American shot putter (d. 2013)
1922 – Gordon Chater, English-Australian comedian and actor (d. 1999)
1923 – Herb Thomas, American race car driver (d. 2000)
1926 – Sergio Franchi, Italian-American singer and actor (d. 1990)
1926 – Gil Kane, Latvian-American author and illustrator (d. 2000)
1926 – Ian Paisley, Northern Irish evangelical minister and politician, 2nd First Minister of Northern Ireland (d. 2014)
1926 – Randy Weston, American jazz pianist and composer (d. 2018)
1927 – Gerry Mulligan, American saxophonist, clarinet player, and composer (d. 1996)
1928 – James Watson, American biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1929 – Willis Hall, English playwright and author (d. 2005)
1929 – Joi Lansing, American model, actress and nightclub singer (d. 1972)
1929 – André Previn, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2019)
1931 – Ram Dass, American author and educator (d. 2019)
1931 – Ivan Dixon, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2008)
1932 – Connie Broden, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2013)
1932 – Helmut Griem, German actor and director (d. 2004)
1933 – Roy Goode, English lawyer and academic
1933 – Tom C. Korologos, American journalist and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Belgium
1933 – Eduardo Malapit, American lawyer and politician, Mayor of Kauai (d. 2007)
1934 – Enrique Álvarez Félix, Mexican actor (d. 1996)
1934 – Anton Geesink, Dutch martial artist and wrestler (d. 2010)
1934 – Guy Peellaert, Belgian painter, illustrator, and photographer (d. 2008)
1935 – Douglas Hill, Canadian author and critic (d. 2007)
1936 – Helen Berman, Dutch-Israeli painter and illustrator
1936 – Jean-Pierre Changeux, French neuroscientist, biologist, and academic
1937 – Merle Haggard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016)
1937 – Tom Veivers, Australian cricketer and politician
1937 – Billy Dee Williams, American actor, singer, and writer
1938 – Paul Daniels, English magician and television host (d. 2016)
1938 – Roy Thinnes, American television and film actor
1939 – André Ouellet, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1939 – John Sculley, American businessman, co-founded Zeta Interactive
1940 – Homero Aridjis, Mexican journalist, author, and poet
1940 – Pedro Armendáriz, Jr., Mexican-American actor and producer (d. 2011)
1941 – Christopher Allsopp, English economist and academic
1941 – Phil Austin, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1941 – Hans W. Geißendörfer, German director and producer
1941 – Don Prudhomme, American race car driver and manager
1941 – Gheorghe Zamfir, Romanian flute player and composer
1942 – Barry Levinson, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1942 – Anita Pallenberg, Italian-English model, actress, and fashion designer (d. 2017)
1943 – Max Clifford, English journalist and publicist (d. 2017)
1943 – Roger Cook, New Zealand-English journalist and academic
1943 – Ian MacRae, New Zealand rugby player
1943 – Mitchell Melton, American lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
1944 – Felicity Palmer, English operatic soprano
1945 – Rodney Bickerstaffe, English trade union leader (d. 2017)
1945 – Peter Hill, English journalist
1946 – Paul Beresford, New Zealand-English dentist and politician
1947 – John Ratzenberger, American actor and director
1947 – André Weinfeld, French-American director, producer, and screenwriter
1947 – Mike Worboys, English mathematician and computer scientist
1949 – Alyson Bailes, English academic and diplomat (d. 2016)
1949 – Patrick Hernandez, French singer-songwriter
1949 – Ng Ser Miang, Singaporean athlete, entrepreneur and diplomat
1949 – Horst Ludwig Störmer, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1950 – Claire Morissette, Canadian cycling activist (d. 2007)
1950 – Cleo Odzer, American anthropologist and author (d. 2001)
1951 – Bert Blyleven, Dutch-American baseball player and sportscaster
1951 – Jean-Marc Boivin, French skier, mountaineer, and pilot (d. 1990)
1951 – Pascal Rogé, French pianist
1951 – Phil Schaap, American jazz disc jockey and historian
1952 – Udo Dirkschneider, German singer-songwriter
1952 – Marilu Henner, Greek-Polish American actress and author
1952 – Michel Larocque, Canadian ice hockey player and manager (d. 1992)
1953 – Patrick Doyle, Scottish actor and composer
1953 – Christopher Franke, German-American drummer and songwriter
1955 – Rob Epstein, American director and producer
1955 – Michael Rooker, American actor, director, and producer
1955 – Cathy Jones, Canadian actress, comedian, and writer
1956 – Michele Bachmann, American lawyer and politician
1956 – Normand Corbeil, Canadian composer (d. 2013)
1956 – Mudassar Nazar, Pakistani cricketer
1956 – Lee Scott, English politician
1956 – Sebastian Spreng, Argentinian-American painter and journalist
1956 – Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricketer and coach
1957 – Giorgio Damilano, Italian race walker and coach
1957 – Maurizio Damilano, Italian race walker and coach
1957 – Jaroslava Maxová, Czech soprano and educator
1957 – Paolo Nespoli, Italian soldier, engineer, and astronaut
1958 – Graeme Base, Australian author and illustrator
1959 – Gail Shea, Canadian politician
1960 – Warren Haynes, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1960 – Richard Loe, New Zealand rugby player
1960 – John Pizzarelli, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1961 – Rory Bremner, Scottish actor and screenwriter
1961 – Peter Jackson, English footballer and manager
1962 – Iris Häussler, German sculptor and academic
1962 – Marco Schällibaum, Swiss footballer, coach, and manager
1963 – Rafael Correa, Ecuadorian economist and politician, 54th President of Ecuador
1965 – Black Francis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1965 – Sterling Sharpe, American football player and sportscaster
1966 – Vince Flynn, American author (d. 2013)
1966 – Young Man Kang, South Korean-American director and producer
1967 – Julian Anderson, English composer and educator
1967 – Kathleen Barr, Canadian voice actress and singer
1967 – Tanya Byron, English psychologist and academic
1967 – Jonathan Firth, English actor
1968 – Archon Fung, American political scientist, author, and academic
1968 – Affonso Giaffone, Brazilian race car driver
1969 – Bret Boone, American baseball player and manager
1969 – Bison Dele, American basketball player (d. 2002)
1969 – Philipp Peter, Austrian race car driver
1969 – Paul Rudd, American actor
1969 – Spencer Wells, American geneticist and anthropologist
1970 – Olaf Kölzig, South African-German ice hockey player and coach
1970 – Roy Mayorga, American drummer, songwriter, and producer
1970 – Huang Xiaomin, Chinese swimmer
1972 – Anders Thomas Jensen, Danish director and screenwriter
1972 – Dickey Simpkins, American basketball player and sportscaster
1973 – Donnie Edwards, American football player
1973 – Randall Godfrey, American football player
1973 – Rie Miyazawa, Japanese model and actress
1973 – Sun Wen, Chinese footballer
1975 – Zach Braff, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1975 – Hal Gill, American ice hockey player
1976 – Candace Cameron Bure, American actress and talk show panelist
1976 – James Fox, Welsh singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1976 – Chris Hoke, American football player
1976 – Georg Hólm, Icelandic bass player
1976 – Hirotada Ototake, Japanese author and educator
1977 – Ville Nieminen, Finnish ice hockey player
1977 – Andy Phillips, American baseball player and coach
1978 – Imani Coppola, American singer-songwriter and violinist
1978 – Robert Glasper, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
1978 – Tim Hasselbeck, American football player and sportscaster
1978 – Myleene Klass, Austrian/Filipino-English singer, pianist, and model
1978 – Martín Méndez, Uruguayan bass player and songwriter
1978 – Blaine Neal, American baseball player
1978 – Igor Semshov, Russian footballer
1979 – Lord Frederick Windsor, English journalist and financier
1979 – Clay Travis, American sports journalist, blogger, and broadcaster
1980 – Tommi Evilä, Finnish long jumper
1980 – Tanja Poutiainen, Finnish skier
1980 – Antonio Thomas, American wrestler
1981 – Robert Earnshaw, Welsh footballer
1981 – Jeff Faine, American football player
1981 – Alex Suarez, American bass player
1982 – Travis Moen, Canadian ice hockey player
1982 – Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Spanish actor
1983 – Mehdi Ballouchy, Moroccan footballer
1983 – Jerome Kaino, New Zealand rugby player
1983 – Mitsuru Nagata, Japanese footballer
1983 – Remi Nicole, English singer-songwriter and actress
1983 – James Wade, English darts player
1983 – Katie Weatherston, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Max Bemis, American singer-songwriter
1984 – Michaël Ciani, French footballer
1984 – Siboniso Gaxa, South African footballer
1984 – Diana Matheson, Canadian soccer player
1985 – Clarke MacArthur, Canadian ice hockey player
1985 – Frank Ongfiang, Cameroonian footballer
1985 – Sinqua Walls, American basketball player and actor
1927 – Florence Earle Coates, American poet (b. 1850)
1935 – Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet and playwright (b. 1869)
1944 – Rose O’Neill, American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer (b. 1874)
1947 – Herbert Backe, German agronomist and politician (b. 1896)
1950 – Louis Wilkins, American pole vaulter (b. 1882)
1953 – Idris Davies, Welsh poet and author (b. 1905)
1959 – Leo Aryeh Mayer, Polish-Israeli scholar and academic (b. 1895)
1961 – Jules Bordet, Belgian microbiologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)
1963 – Otto Struve, Ukrainian-American astronomer and academic (b. 1897)
1970 – Maurice Stokes, American basketball player (b. 1933)
1971 – Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1882)
1974 – Willem Marinus Dudok, Dutch architect (b. 1884)
1974 – Hudson Fysh, Australian pilot and businessman, co-founded Qantas Airways Limited (b. 1895)
1977 – Kōichi Kido, Japanese politician, 13th Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan (b. 1889)
1979 – Ivan Vasilyov, Bulgarian architect, designed the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library (b. 1893)
1983 – Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri, Indian General who served as the Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1962 to 1966 and the Military Governor of Hyderabad State from 1948 to 1949. (b. 1908)
1992 – Isaac Asimov, American science fiction writer (b. 1920)
1994 – Juvénal Habyarimana, Rwandan banker and politician, 3rd President of Rwanda (b. 1937)
1994 – Cyprien Ntaryamira, Burundian politician, 5th President of Burundi (b. 1955)
1995 – Ioannis Alevras, Greek banker and politician, President of Greece (b. 1912)
421 – Constantius III becomes co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
1238 – The Mongols burn the Russian city of Vladimir.
1250 – Seventh Crusade: Crusaders engage Ayyubid forces in the Battle of Al Mansurah.
1347 – The Byzantine civil war of 1341–47 ends with a power-sharing agreement between John VI Kantakouzenos and John V Palaiologos.
1575 – Leiden University is founded, and given the motto Praesidium Libertatis.
1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
1590 – Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva is tortured by the Inquisition in Mexico, charged with concealing the practice Judaism of his sister and her children.
1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebels against Queen Elizabeth I and the revolt is quickly crushed.
1693 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.
1807 – After two days of bitter fighting, the Russians under Bennigsen and the Prussians under L’Estocq concede the Battle of Eylau to Napoleon.
1817 – Las Heras crosses the Andes with an army to join San Martín and liberate Chile from Spain.
1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.
1865 – Delaware refuses to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Slavery was outlawed in the United States, including Delaware, when the Amendment was ratified by the requisite number of states on December 6, 1865. Delaware ratified the Thirteenth Amendment on February 12, 1901, which was the ninety-second anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
1879 – Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
1879 – The England cricket team led by Lord Harris is attacked in a riot during a match in Sydney.
1885 – The first government-approved Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii.
1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.
1904 – Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China starts the Russo-Japanese War.
1904 – Aceh War: Dutch Colonial Army’s Marechaussee regiment led by General G.C.E. van Daalen launch military campaign to capture Gayo Highland, Alas Highland, and Batak Highland in Dutch East Indies’ Northern Sumatra region, which ends with genocide to Acehnese and Bataks people.
1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.
1915 – D. W. Griffith’s controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles.
1922 – United States President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio set in the White House.
1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.
1942 – World War II: Japan invades Singapore.
1942 – World War II: Dutch Colonial Army General Destruction Unit (AVC, Algemene Vernielings Corps) burns Banjarmasin, South Borneo to avoid Japanese capture.
1945 – World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada commence Operation Veritable to occupy the west bank of the Rhine.
1945 – World War II: Mikhail Devyataev escapes with nine other Soviet inmates from a Nazi concentration camp in Peenemünde on the island of Usedom by hijacking the camp commandant’s Heinkel He 111.
1946 – The first portion of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first serious challenge to the popularity of the Authorized King James Version, is published.
1946 – The People’s Republic of Korea is dissolved in the North, establishing the communist-controlled Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea.
1950 – Cold War: The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, is established.
1955 – The Government of Sindh, Pakistan, abolishes the Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km2) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
1960 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name Mountbatten-Windsor.
1962 – Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.
1963 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.
1963 – The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq, Brigadier General Abd al-Karim Qasim is overthrown by the Ba’ath Party.
1965 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean and explodes, killing everyone aboard.
1968 – American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre: An attack on black students from South Carolina State University who are protesting racial segregation at the town’s only bowling alley, leaves three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.
1971 – South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration.
1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.
1978 – Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.
1981 – Twenty-one association football spectators are trampled to death at Karaiskakis Stadium in Neo Faliro, Greece, after a football match between Olympiacos F.C. and AEK Athens F.C.
1983 – The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia’s second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.
1986 – Hinton train collision: Twenty-three people are killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a 118-car Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, west of Edmonton. It is the worst rail accident in Canada until the Lac-Mégantic, Quebec derailment in 2013 which killed forty-seven people.
1989 – Independent Air Flight 1851 strikes Pico Alto mountain while on approach to Santa Maria Airport (Azores) killing all 144 passengers on board.
1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.
1993 – An Iran Air Tours Tupolev Tu-154 and an Iranian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 collide in mid-air near Qods, Iran, killing all 133 people on board both aircraft.
1996 – The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.
2005 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP A. Chandranehru dies of injuries sustained in an ambush the previous day.
2010 – A freak storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of at least 36 avalanches, burying over two miles of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 travelers.
2013 – A blizzard disrupts transportation and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada.
2014 – A hotel fire in Medina, Saudi Arabia kills 15 Egyptian pilgrims with 130 others injured.
Births on February 8
120 – Vettius Valens, Greek astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer (probable; d. 175)
412 – Proclus, Greek mathematician and philosopher (probable; d. 485)
882 – Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid, Egyptian commander and politician, Abbasid Governor of Egypt (d. 946)
1191 – Yaroslav II of Vladimir (d. 1246)
1291 – Afonso IV of Portugal (d. 1357)
1405 – Constantine XI Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (d. 1453)
1487 – Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1550)
1514 – Daniele Barbaro, Venetian churchman, diplomat and scholar (d. 1570)
1552 – Agrippa d’Aubigné, French poet and soldier (d. 1630)
1577 – Robert Burton, English priest, physician, and scholar (d. 1640)
1591 – Guercino, Italian painter (d. 1666)
1685 – Charles-Jean-François Hénault, French historian and author (d. 1770)
1700 – Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-Swiss mathematician and physicist (d. 1782)
1720 – Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan (d. 1750)
1741 – André Grétry, Belgian-French organist and composer (d. 1813)
1762 – Gia Long, Vietnamese emperor (d. 1820)
1764 – Joseph Leopold Eybler, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1846)
1792 – Caroline Augusta of Bavaria (d. 1873)
1798 – Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia (d. 1849)
1807 – Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, English sculptor and zoologist (d. 1889)
1817 – Richard S. Ewell, American general (d. 1872)
1819 – John Ruskin, English author, critic, and academic (d. 1900)
1820 – William Tecumseh Sherman, American general (d. 1891)
1822 – Maxime Du Camp, French photographer and journalist (d. 1894)
1825 – Henry Walter Bates, English geographer, biologist, and explorer (d. 1892)
1828 – Jules Verne, French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1905)
1829 – Vital-Justin Grandin, French-Canadian bishop and missionary (d. 1902)
1830 – Abdülaziz of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1876)
1834 – Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist and academic (d. 1907)
1850 – Kate Chopin, American author (d. 1904)
1860 – Adella Brown Bailey, American politician and suffragist (d. 1937)
1866 – Moses Gomberg, Ukrainian-American chemist and academic (d. 1947)
1876 – Paula Modersohn-Becker, German painter (d. 1907)
1878 – Martin Buber, Austrian-Israeli philosopher and academic (d. 1965)
1880 – Franz Marc, German soldier and painter (d. 1916)
1880 – Viktor Schwanneke, German actor and director (d. 1931)
1882 – Thomas Selfridge, American lieutenant and pilot (d. 1908)
1883 – Joseph Schumpeter, Czech-American economist and political scientist (d. 1950)
1884 – Snowy Baker, Australian boxer, rugby player, and actor (d. 1953)
1886 – Charlie Ruggles, American actor (d. 1970)
1888 – Edith Evans, English actress (d. 1976)
1888 – Giuseppe Ungaretti, Egyptian-Italian soldier, journalist, and poet (d. 1970)
1890 – Claro M. Recto, Filipino lawyer, jurist, and politician (d. 1960)
1893 – Ba Maw, Burmese lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Burma (d. 1977)
1894 – King Vidor, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1982)
1897 – Zakir Hussain, Indian academic and politician, 3rd president of India (d. 1969)
1899 – Lonnie Johnson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1970)
1903 – Greta Keller, Austrian-American singer and actress (d. 1977)
1903 – Tunku Abdul Rahman, 1st Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)
1906 – Chester Carlson, American physicist and lawyer, invented Xerography (d. 1968)
1909 – Elisabeth Murdoch, Australian philanthropist (d. 2012)
1911 – Elizabeth Bishop, American poet and author (d. 1979)
1913 – Betty Field, American actress (d. 1973)
1913 – Danai Stratigopoulou, Greek singer-songwriter (d. 2009)
1914 – Bill Finger, American author and screenwriter, co-created Batman (d. 1974)
1915 – Georges Guétary, Egyptian-French singer, dancer, and actor (d. 1997)
1918 – Freddie Blassie, American wrestler and manager (d. 2003)
1921 – Barney Danson, Canadian colonel and politician, 21st Canadian Minister of National Defence (d. 2011)
1921 – Nexhmije Hoxha, Albanian politician (d. 2020)
1921 – Lana Turner, American actress (d. 1995)
1922 – Audrey Meadows, American actress and banker (d. 1996)
1925 – Jack Lemmon, American actor (d. 2001)
1926 – Neal Cassady, American author and poet (d. 1968)
1926 – Birgitte Reimer, Danish film actress
1930 – Alejandro Rey, Argentinian-American actor and director (d. 1987)
1931 – James Dean, American actor (d. 1955)
1932 – Cliff Allison, English racing driver and businessman (d. 2005)
1932 – John Williams, American pianist, composer, and conductor
1933 – Elly Ameling, Dutch soprano
1937 – Joe Raposo, American pianist and composer (d. 1989)
1937 – Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist (d. 2016)
1939 – Jose Maria Sison, Filipino activist and theorist
1940 – Sophie Lihau-Kanza, Congolese politician (d. 1999)
1940 – Ted Koppel, English-American journalist
1941 – Nick Nolte, American actor and producer
1941 – Tom Rush, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1941 – Jagjit Singh, Indian singer-songwriter (d. 2011)
1942 – Robert Klein, American comedian, actor, and singer
1942 – Terry Melcher, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2004)
1944 – Roger Lloyd-Pack, English actor (d. 2014)
1944 – Sebastião Salgado, Brazilian photographer and journalist
1947 – J. Richard Gott, American astronomer and academic
1948 – Dan Seals, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2009)
1949 – Brooke Adams, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
1949 – Niels Arestrup, French actor, director, and screenwriter
1952 – Marinho Chagas, Brazilian footballer and coach (d. 2014)
1953 – Mary Steenburgen, American actress
1954 – Joe Maddon, American baseball coach and manager
1955 – John Grisham, American lawyer and author
1955 – Jim Neidhart, American wrestler (d. 2018)
1956 – Marques Johnson, American basketball player and sportscaster
1957 – Karine Chemla, French historian of mathematics and sinologist
1958 – Sherri Martel, American wrestler and manager (d. 2007)
1958 – Marina Silva, Brazilian environmentalist and politician
1959 – Heinz Gunthardt, Swiss tennis player
1959 – Andrew Hoy, Australian equestrian rider
1959 – Mauricio Macri, Argentinian businessman and politician, President of Argentina
1960 – Benigno Aquino III, Filipino politician, 15th President of the Philippines
1960 – Dino Ciccarelli, Canadian ice hockey player
1961 – Vince Neil, American singer-songwriter and actor
1963 – Mohammad Azharuddin, Indian cricketer and politician
1964 – Arlie Petters, Belizean-American mathematical physicist and academic
1964 – Santosh Sivan, Indian director, cinematographer, producer, and actor
1964 – Trinny Woodall, English fashion designer and author
1966 – Kirk Muller, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1966 – Hristo Stoichkov, Bulgarian footballer and manager
1968 – Gary Coleman, American actor (d. 2010)
1969 – Pauly Fuemana, New Zealand-Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2010)
1969 – Mary Robinette Kowal, American puppeteer and author
1969 – Mary McCormack, American actress and producer
1970 – Stephanie Courtney, American actress and comedian
1970 – John Filan, Australian footballer and coach
1970 – Alonzo Mourning, American basketball player and executive
1971 – Aidy Boothroyd, English footballer and manager
1971 – Mika Karppinen, Swedish-Finnish drummer and songwriter
1972 – Big Show, American wrestler and actor
1974 – Seth Green, American actor, voice artist, comedian, producer, writer, and director
1976 – Khaled Mashud, Bangladeshi cricketer
1976 – Nicolas Vouilloz, French rally driver and mountain biker
1977 – Roman Kostomarov, Russian ice dancer
1978 – Mick de Brenni, Australian politician
1979 – Aaron Cook, American baseball player
1980 – William Jackson Harper, American actor
1981 – Steve Gohouri, Ivorian footballer (d. 2015)
1981 – Myriam Montemayor Cruz, Mexican singer
1983 – Jermaine Anderson, Canadian basketball player
1983 – Cory Jane, New Zealand rugby player
1983 – Jim Verraros, American singer and actor
1984 – Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Canadian skier
1984 – Cecily Strong, American actress
1984 – Panagiotis Vasilopoulos, Greek basketball player
1985 – Petra Cetkovská, Czech tennis player
1985 – Jeremy Davis, American bass player and songwriter
1987 – Javi García, Spanish footballer
1987 – Carolina Kostner, Italian figure skater
1988 – Keegan Meth, Zimbabwean cricketer
1989 – Zac Guildford, New Zealand rugby player
1989 – Julio Jones, American football player
1989 – Courtney Vandersloot, American basketball player
1990 – Emily Scarratt, English rugby union player
1990 – Klay Thompson, American professional basketball player
1991 – Aristidis Soiledis, Greek footballer
1991 – Roberto Soriano, Italian footballer
1991 – Nam Woo-hyun, South Korean singer and actor with the boy band Infinite.
1992 – Bruno Martins Indi, Portuguese-Dutch footballer
1992 – Carl Jenkinson, English-Finnish footballer
1994 – Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Turkish footballer
1994 – Nikki Yanofsky, Canadian singer-songwriter
1995 – Joshua Kimmich, German footballer
1996 – Kenedy, Brazilian footballer
Deaths on February 8
538 – Severus of Antioch, patriarch of Antioch
1135 – Elvira of Castile, Queen of Sicily (b.c. 1100)
1204 – Alexios IV Angelos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1182)
1229 – Ali ibn Hanzala, sixth Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq of Tayyibi Isma’ilism
1250 – Robert I, Count of Artois (b. 1216)
1250 – William II Longespée, English martyr (b. 1212)
1265 – Hulagu Khan, Mongol ruler (b. 1217)
1285 – Theodoric of Landsberg (b. 1242)
1296 – Przemysł II of Poland (b. 1257)
1314 – Helen of Anjou, queen of Serbia (b. 1236)
1382 – Blanche of France, Duchess of Orléans (b. 1328)
1537 – Saint Gerolamo Emiliani, Italian humanitarian (b. 1481)
1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots (b. 1542)
1599 – Robert Rollock, Scottish theologian and academic (b. 1555)
1623 – Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire (b. 1546)
1676 – Alexis of Russia (b. 1629)
1696 – Ivan V of Russia (b. 1666)
1709 – Giuseppe Torelli, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1658)
1725 – Peter the Great, Russian emperor (b. 1672)
1749 – Jan van Huysum, Dutch painter (b. 1682)
1750 – Aaron Hill, English playwright and poet (b. 1685)
1768 – George Dance the Elder, English architect, designed St Leonard’s and St Botolph’s Aldgate (b. 1695)
1772 – Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (b. 1719)
1849 – François Habeneck, French violinist and conductor (b. 1781)
1849 – France Prešeren, Slovenian poet and lawyer (b. 1800)
1856 – Agostino Bassi, Italian entomologist and academic (b. 1773)
1907 – Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom, Dutch chemist and academic (b. 1854)
1910 – Hans Jæger, Norwegian philosopher and activist (b. 1854)
457 – Leo I the Thracian becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
987 – Bardas Phokas the Younger and Bardas Skleros, Byzantine generals of the military elite, begin a wide-scale rebellion against Emperor Basil II.
1301 – Edward of Caernarvon (later king Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.
1313 – King Thihathu founds the Pinya Kingdom as the de jure successor state of the Pagan Kingdom
1497 – In Florence, Italy, supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn cosmetics, art, and books, in a “Bonfire of the vanities”.
1783 – American Revolutionary War: French and Spanish forces lift the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
1795 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
1807 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon finds Bennigsen’s Russian forces taking a stand at Eylau. After bitter fighting, the French take the town, but the Russians resume the battle the next day.
1812 – The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.
1813 – In the action of 7 February 1813 near the Îles de Los, the frigates Aréthuse and Amelia batter each other, but neither can gain the upper hand.
1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore after just taking it over, leaving it in the hands of William Farquhar.
1842 – Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
1854 – A law is approved to found the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Lectures started October 16, 1855.
1863 – HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189.
1894 – The Cripple Creek miner’s strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States.
1898 – Dreyfus affair: Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J’Accuse…!.
1900 – Second Boer War: British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
1900 – A Chinese immigrant in San Francisco falls ill to bubonic plague in the first plague epidemic in the continental United States.
1904 – A fire begins in Baltimore, Maryland; it destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.
1943 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
1944 – World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.
1951 – Korean War: More than 700 suspected communist sympathizers are massacred by South Korean forces.
1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
1974 – Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1979 – Pluto moves inside Neptune’s orbit for the first time since either was discovered.
1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
1986 – Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
1991 – Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
1991 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the British government.
1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.
1995 – Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
1997 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
1999 – Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.
2009 – Bushfires in Victoria leave 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia’s history.
2012 – President Mohamed Nasheed of the Republic of Maldives resigns, after 23 days of anti-governmental protests calling for the release of Chief Judge unlawfully arrested by the military.
2013 – The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.
2014 – Scientists announce that the Happisburgh footprints in Norfolk, England, date back to more than 800,000 years ago, making them the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa.
2016 – North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world.
Births on February 7
574 – Prince Shōtoku of Japan (d. 622)
1102 – Empress Matilda, Holy Roman Empress, and claimant to the English throne (probable; d. 1167)
1478 – Thomas More, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1535)
1487 – Queen Dangyeong, Korean royal consort (d. 1557)
1500 – João de Castro, viceroy of Portuguese India (d. 1548)
1612 – Thomas Killigrew, English playwright and manager (d. 1683)
1622 – Vittoria della Rovere, Italian noble (d. 1694)
1693 – Empress Anna of Russia (d. 1740)
1722 – Azar Bigdeli, Iranian anthologist and poet (d. 1781)
1726 – Margaret Fownes-Luttrell, English painter (d. 1766)
1741 – Henry Fuseli, Swiss-English painter and academic (d. 1825)
1758 – Benedikt Schack, Czech tenor and composer (d. 1826)
1796 – Thomas Gregson, English-Australian lawyer and politician, 2nd Premier of Tasmania (baptism date; d. 1874)
1802 – Louisa Jane Hall, American poet, essayist, and literary critic (d. 1892)
1804 – John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded Deere & Company (d. 1886)
1812 – Charles Dickens, English novelist and critic (d. 1870)
1825 – Karl Möbius, German zoologist and ecologist (d. 1908)
1834 – Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe, French architect (d. 1895)
1837 – James Murray, Scottish lexicographer and philologist (d. 1915)
1864 – Arthur Collins, American baritone singer (d. 1933)
1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (d. 1957)
1870 – Alfred Adler, Austrian-Scottish psychologist and therapist (d. 1937)
1871 – Wilhelm Stenhammar, Swedish pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1927)
1873 – Thomas Andrews, Irish shipbuilder and businessman, designed the RMS Titanic (d. 1912)
1877 – G. H. Hardy, English mathematician and geneticist (d. 1947)
1878 – Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Russian-American pianist and conductor (d. 1936)
1885 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)
1885 – Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (d. 1953)
1887 – Eubie Blake, American pianist and composer (d. 1983)
1889 – Harry Nyquist, Swedish-American engineer and theorist (d. 1976)
1893 – Joseph Algernon Pearce, Canadian astrophysicist and astronomer (d. 1988)
1893 – Nicanor Abelardo, Filipino pianist, composer and teacher (d. 1934)
1895 – Anita Stewart, American actress (d. 1961)
1901 – Arnold Nordmeyer, New Zealand minister and politician, 30th New Zealand Minister of Finance (d. 1989)
1904 – Ernest E. Debs, American politician, California State Assembly member, Los Angeles city councilman, and a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (d. 2002)
1905 – Paul Nizan, French philosopher and author (d. 1940)
1905 – Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)
1906 – Puyi, Chinese emperor (d. 1967)
1906 – Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, Russian engineer, founded the Antonov Aircraft Company (d. 1984)
1908 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (d. 1983)
1908 – Manmath Nath Gupta, Indian journalist and author (d. 2000)
1909 – Hélder Câmara, Brazilian archbishop (d. 1999)
1909 – Amedeo Guillet, Italian soldier (d. 2010)
1912 – Russell Drysdale, English-Australian painter (d. 1981)
1915 – Teoctist Arăpașu, Romanian patriarch (d. 2007)
1915 – Eddie Bracken, American actor and singer (d. 2002)
1916 – Frank Hyde, Australian rugby player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2007)
1919 – Jock Mahoney, American actor and stuntman (d. 1989)
1919 – Desmond Doss, American army corporal and combat medic, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2006)
1920 – Oscar Brand, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and author (d. 2016)
1920 – An Wang, Chinese-American engineer and businessman, founded Wang Laboratories (d. 1990)
1921 – Athol Rowan, South African cricketer (d. 1998)
1922 – Hattie Jacques, English actress (d. 1980)
1923 – Dora Bryan, English actress and restaurateur (d. 2014)
1925 – Hans Schmidt, Canadian wrestler (d. 2012)
1926 – Konstantin Feoktistov, Russian engineer and astronaut (d. 2009)
1926 – Bill Hoest, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
1927 – Juliette Gréco, French singer and actress
1927 – Vladimir Kuts, Ukrainian-Russian runner and coach (d. 1975)
1927 – Lalo Ríos, Mexican actor (d. 1973)
1928 – Lincoln D. Faurer, American general (d. 2014)
1929 – Jim Langley, English international footballer, full back and manager (d. 2007)
1932 – Gay Talese, American journalist and memoirist
1932 – Alfred Worden, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2020)
1933 – K. N. Choksy, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, Sri Lankan Minister of Finance (d. 2015)
1934 – Eddie Fenech Adami, Maltese lawyer and politician, 7th President of Malta
1934 – King Curtis, American saxophonist and producer (d. 1971)
1934 – Earl King, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2003)
1935 – Cliff Jones, Welsh international footballer, winger
1935 – Herb Kohl, American businessman and politician
1935 – Jörg Schneider, Swiss actor and author (d. 2015)
1936 – Jas Gawronski, Italian journalist and politician
1937 – Peter Jay, English economist, journalist, and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States
1937 – Juan Pizarro, Puerto Rican baseball player
1940 – Tony Tan, Singaporean academic and politician, 7th President of Singapore
1941 – Kevin Crossley-Holland, English author and poet
1943 – Eric Foner, American historian, author, and academic
1943 – Gareth Hunt, English actor (d. 2007)
1945 – Gerald Davies, Welsh rugby player and journalist
1946 – Héctor Babenco, Argentinian-Brazilian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
1946 – Sammy Johns, American country music singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
1946 – Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (d. 2011)
1946 – Gérard Jean-Juste, Haitian priest and activist (d. 2009)
1949 – Jacques Duchesneau, Canadian police officer and politician
1949 – Joe English, American drummer and songwriter
1950 – Karen Joy Fowler, American author
1953 – Dan Quisenberry, American baseball player and poet (d. 1998)
1954 – Dieter Bohlen, German singer-songwriter and producer
1955 – Rolf Benirschke, American football player and game show host
1955 – Miguel Ferrer, American actor and director (d. 2017)
1956 – John Nielsen, Danish racing driver
1956 – Mark St. John, American guitarist (d. 2007)
1957 – Carney Lansford, American baseball player and coach
1958 – Giuseppe Baresi, Italian footballer and manager
1958 – Terry Marsh, English boxer and politician
1958 – Matt Ridley, English journalist, author, and politician
1959 – Mick McCarthy, English footballer, manager, and sportscaster
1960 – Robert Smigel, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1960 – James Spader, American actor and producer
1962 – Garth Brooks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1962 – David Bryan, American keyboard player and songwriter
1962 – Eddie Izzard, English comedian, actor, and producer
1963 – Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, American Naval officer and astronaut
1964 – Ashok Banker, Indian journalist, author, and screenwriter
1965 – Chris Rock, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1966 – Kristin Otto, German swimmer
1968 – Peter Bondra, Ukrainian-Slovak ice hockey player and manager
1968 – Sully Erna, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1968 – Mark Tewksbury, Canadian swimmer and sportscaster
1969 – Andrew Micallef, Maltese painter and musician
1971 – Anita Tsoy, Russian singer-songwriter
1972 – Robyn Lively, American actress
1973 – Juwan Howard, American basketball player and coach
1974 – J Dilla, American rapper and producer (d. 2006)
1974 – Nujabes, Japanese record producer, DJ, composer and arranger (d. 2010)
1974 – Steve Nash, South African-Canadian basketball player
1975 – Wes Borland, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1975 – Alexandre Daigle, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Rémi Gaillard, French comedian and actor
1976 – Chito Miranda, Filipino singer-songwriter
1977 – Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Japanese footballer
1978 – David Aebischer, Swiss ice hockey player
1978 – Endy Chávez, Venezuelan baseball player
1978 – Ashton Kutcher, American model, actor, producer, and entrepreneur
1978 – Daniel Van Buyten, Belgian football player
1979 – Daniel Bierofka, German footballer and coach
1979 – Tawakkol Karman, Yemeni journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate
1979 – Sam J. Miller, American author
1981 – Darcy Dolce Neto, Brazilian footballer
1981 – Lee Ok-sung, South Korean boxer
1982 – Osamu Mukai, Japanese actor
1982 – Mickaël Piétrus, French basketball player
1983 – Sho Kamogawa, Japanese footballer
1983 – Christian Klien, Austrian race car driver
1983 – Federico Marchetti, Italian footballer
1984 – Trey Hardee, American decathlete
1985 – Tina Majorino, American actress
1988 – Ai Kago, Japanese singer and actress
1989 – Nick Calathes, Greek basketball player
1989 – Elia Viviani, Italian cyclist
1989 – Isaiah Thomas, American basketball player
1990 – Gianluca Lapadula, Italian footballer
1990 – Dalilah Muhammad, American hurdler
1990 – Steven Stamkos, Canadian ice hockey player
1991 – Ryan O’Reilly, Canadian ice hockey player
1992 – Sergi Roberto, Spanish footballer
1992 – Ksenia Stolbova, Russian figure skater
1992 – Maimi Yajima, Japanese singer and actress
1993 – Chris Mears, English diver
1994 – Riley Barber, American ice hockey player
1995 – Roberto Osuna, Mexican baseball player
1996 – Pierre Gasly, French racing driver
1997 – Nicolò Barella, Italian footballer
Deaths on February 7
199 – Lü Bu, Chinese warlord
318 – Jin Mindi, emperor of the Jin Dynasty (b. 300)
999 – Boleslaus II the Pious, Duke of Bohemia (b. 932)
1045 – Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (b. 1009)
1065 – Siegfried I, Count of Sponheim (b. c. 1010)
1127 – Ava, German poet (b. 1060)
1165 – Marshal Stephen of Armenia
1259 – Thomas, Count of Flanders
1317 – Robert, Count of Clermont (b. 1256)
1320 – Jan Muskata, Bishop of Kraków (b. 1250)
1333 – Nikko, Japanese priest, founder of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism (b. 1246)
1520 – Alfonsina de’ Medici, Regent of Florence (b. 1472)
506 – Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths promulgates the Breviary of Alaric (Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum), a collection of “Roman law”.
880 – Battle of Lüneburg Heath: King Louis III is defeated by the Norse Great Heathen Army at Lüneburg Heath in Saxony.
962 – Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor in nearly 40 years.
1032 – Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor becomes king of Burgundy.
1141 – The Battle of Lincoln, at which Stephen, King of England is defeated and captured by the allies of Empress Matilda.
1207 – Terra Mariana, eventually comprising present-day Latvia and Estonia, is established.
1438 – Nine leaders of the Transylvanian peasant revolt are executed at Torda.
1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer’s Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England.
1536 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1645 – Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Inverlochy.
1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.
1709 – Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring Daniel Defoe’s adventure book Robinson Crusoe.
1848 – Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.
1850 – Brigham Young declares war on Timpanogos in the Battle at Fort Utah.
1868 – Pro-Imperial forces captured Osaka Castle from the Tokugawa shogunate and burned it to the ground.
1876 – The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.
1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.
1899 – The Australian Premiers’ Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia’s capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.
1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria.
1909 – The Paris Film Congress opens. An attempt by European producers to form an equivalent to the MPCC cartel in the United States.
1913 – Grand Central Terminal is opened in New York City.
1920 – The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed between Estonia and Russia.
1922 – Ulysses by James Joyce is published.
1925 – Serum run to Nome: Dog sleds reach Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiring the Iditarod race.
1934 – The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated.
1935 – Leonarde Keeler administers polygraph tests to two murder suspects, the first time polygraph evidence was admitted in U.S. courts.
1942 – The Osvald Group is responsible for the first, active event of anti-Nazi resistance in Norway, to protest the inauguration of Vidkun Quisling.
1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end when Soviet troops accept the surrender of the last organized German troops in the city.
1959 – Nine experienced ski hikers in the northern Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union die under mysterious circumstances.
1966 – Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.
1971 – The international Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands is signed in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran.
1980 – Reports surface that the FBI is targeting allegedly corrupt Congressmen in the Abscam operation.
1982 – Hama massacre: The government of Syria attacks the town of Hama.
1987 – After the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines enacts a new constitution.
1989 – Soviet–Afghan War: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.
1990 – Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress and promises to release Nelson Mandela.
2000 – First digital cinema projection in Europe (Paris) realized by Philippe Binant with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments.
2002 – Wedding of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, and Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti
2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer becomes the No. 1 ranked men’s singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks.
2005 – The Government of Canada introduces the Civil Marriage Act. This legislation would become law on July 20, 2005, legalizing same-sex marriage.
2007 – Police officer Filippo Raciti is killed when a clash breaks out in the Sicily derby between Catania and Palermo, in the Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. This event led to major changes in stadium regulations in Italy.
2012 – The ferry MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the coast of Papua New Guinea near the Finschhafen District, with an estimated 146-165 dead.
Births on February 2
1208 – James I of Aragon (d. 1276)
1282 – Maud Chaworth, Countess of Leicester (d. 1322).
1425 (or 1426) – Eleanor of Navarre, Queen regnant of Navarre (d. 1479)
1443 – Elisabeth of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony (d. 1486)
1455 – John, King of Denmark (d. 1513)
1457 – Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, Italian-Spanish historian and author (d. 1526)
1467 – Columba of Rieti, Italian Dominican sister (d. 1501)
1494 – Bona Sforza, queen of Sigismund I of Poland (d. 1557)
1502 – Damião de Góis, Portuguese philosopher and historian (d. 1574)
1506 – René de Birague, Italian-French cardinal and politician (d. 1583)
1509 – John of Leiden, Dutch Anabaptist leader (d. 1536)
1522 – Lodovico Ferrari, Italian mathematician and academic (d. 1565)
1536 – Piotr Skarga, Polish writer (d. 1612)
1551 – Nicolaus Reimers, German astronomer (d. 1600)
1576 – Alix Le Clerc, French Canoness Regular and foundress (d. 1622)
1585 – Judith Quiney, William Shakespeare’s youngest daughter (d. 1662)
1585 – Hamnet Shakespeare, William Shakespeare’s only son (baptised; d. 1596)
1588 – Georg II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl, German nobleman (d. 1644)
1600 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (d. 1653)
1611 – Ulrik of Denmark, Danish prince-bishop (d. 1633)
1613 – Noël Chabanel, French missionary and saint (d. 1649)
1621 – Johannes Schefferus, Swedish author and hymn-writer (d. 1679)
1650 – Pope Benedict XIII (d. 1730)
1650 – Nell Gwyn, English actress, mistress of King Charles II of England (d. 1687)
1651 – William Phips, Royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (d. 1695)
1669 – Louis Marchand, French organist and composer (d. 1732)
1677 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French composer (d. 1745)
1695 – William Borlase, English geologist and archaeologist (d. 1772)
1695 – François de Chevert, French general (d. 1769)
1700 – Johann Christoph Gottsched, German author and critic (d. 1766)
1711 – Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (d. 1794)
1714 – Gottfried August Homilius, German organist and composer (d. 1785)
1717 – Ernst Gideon von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (d. 1790)
1754 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French general and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1838)
1782 – Henri de Rigny, French admiral and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1835)
1786 – Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, French mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (d. 1856)
1802 – Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist and academic (d. 1887)
1803 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American general (d. 1862)
1829 – Alfred Brehm, German zoologist and illustrator (d. 1884)
1829 – William Stanley, English engineer and philanthropist (d. 1909)
1841 – François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss limnologist and hydrologist (d. 1912)
1842 – Julian Sochocki, Polish-Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1927)
1849 – Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Slovak poet and playwright (d. 1921)
1851 – José Guadalupe Posada, Mexican illustrator and engraver (d. 1913)
1856 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (d. 1938)
1856 – Makar Yekmalyan, Armenian composer (d. 1905)
1857 – Jan Drozdowski, Polish pianist and music teacher (d. 1918)
1860 – Curtis Guild, Jr., American journalist and politician, 43rd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1915)
1861 – Solomon R. Guggenheim, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (d. 1949)
1862 – Émile Coste, French fencer (d. 1927)
1862 – Cornelius McKane, American physician, educator, and hospital founder (d. 1912)
1866 – Enrique Simonet, Spanish painter and academic (d. 1927)
1873 – Leo Fall, Austrian composer (d. 1925)
1873 – Konstantin von Neurath, German politician and diplomat, 13th German Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1956)
1875 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian-American violinist and composer (d. 1962)
1877 – Frank L. Packard, Canadian author (d. 1942)
1878 – Joe Lydon, American boxer (d. 1937)
1880 – Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (d. 1969)
1881 – Orval Overall, American baseball player and manager (d. 1947)
1882 – Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (d. 1944)
1882 – James Joyce, Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet (d. 1941)
1883 – Johnston McCulley, American author and screenwriter, created Zorro (d. 1958)
1883 – Julia Nava de Ruisánchez, Mexican activist and writer (d. 1964)
1886 – William Rose Benét, American poet and author (d. 1950)
1887 – Ernst Hanfstaengl, German businessman (d. 1975)
1889 – Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French general (d. 1952)
1890 – Charles Correll, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1972)
1892 – Tochigiyama Moriya, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 27th Yokozuna (d. 1959)
1893 – Cornelius Lanczos, Hungarian mathematician and physicist (d. 1974)
1893 – Raoul Riganti, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1970)
1893 – Damdin Sükhbaatar, Mongolian soldier and politician (d. 1924)
1895 – George Halas, American football player and coach (d. 1983)
1895 – Robert Philipp, American painter (d. 1981)
1895 – George Sutcliffe, Australian public servant (d. 1964)
1896 – Kazimierz Kuratowski, Polish mathematician and logician (d. 1980)
1897 – Howard Deering Johnson, American businessman, founded Howard Johnson’s (d. 1972)
1897 – Gertrude Blanch, Russian-American mathematician (d. 1996)
1900 – Anni Frind, German lyric soprano (d. 1987)
1900 – Willie Kamm, American baseball player and manager (d. 1988)
1901 – Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian-born American violinist and educator (d. 1987)
1902 – Newbold Morris, American lawyer and politician (d. 1966)
1902 – John Tonkin, Australian politician, 20th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1995)
1904 – Bozorg Alavi, Iranian author and activist (d. 1997)
1905 – Ayn Rand, Russian-born American novelist and philosopher (d. 1982)
1908 – Wes Ferrell, American baseball player and manager (d. 1976)
1909 – Frank Albertson, American actor (d. 1964)
1911 – Jack Pizzey, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Queensland (d. 1968)
1912 – Millvina Dean, English civil servant and cartographer (d. 2009)
1912 – Burton Lane, American songwriter and composer (d. 1997)
1913 – Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor and singer (d. 1985)
1914 – Eric Kierans, Canadian economist and politician, 1st Canadian Minister of Communications (d. 2004)
1915 – Abba Eban, South African-Israeli politician and diplomat, 1st Israel Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2002)
1915 – Stan Leonard, Canadian golfer (d. 2005)
1915 – Khushwant Singh, Indian journalist and author (d. 2014)
1916 – Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet and author (d. 1985)
1917 – Mary Ellis, British World War II ferry pilot (d. 2018)
1917 – Đỗ Mười, Vietnamese politician, 5th Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2018)
1918 – Hella Haasse, Indonesian-Dutch author (d. 2011)
1919 – Lisa Della Casa, Swiss soprano and actress (d. 2012)
1919 – Georg Gawliczek, German footballer and manager (d. 1999)
1920 – George Hardwick, English footballer and coach (d. 2004)
1920 – John Russell, American Olympic equestrian
1920 – Arthur Willis, English footballer, full-back, player-manager (d. 1987)
1922 – Kunwar Digvijay Singh, Indian field hockey player (d. 1978)
1922 – Robert Chef d’Hôtel, French athlete (d. 2019)
1922 – James L. Usry, American politician, first African-American mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey (d. 2002)
1922 – Stoyanka Mutafova, Bulgarian actress (d. 2019)
1923 – Jean Babilée, French dancer and choreographer (d. 2014)
1923 – James Dickey, American poet and novelist (d. 1997)
1923 – Svetozar Gligorić, Serbian and Yugoslav chess grandmaster (d.2012)
1923 – Bonita Granville, American actress and producer (d. 1988)
1923 – Red Schoendienst, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2018)
1923 – Liz Smith, American journalist and author (d. 2017)
1923 – Clem Windsor, Australian rugby player and surgeon (d. 2007)
1924 – Elfi von Dassanowsky, Austrian-American singer, pianist, producer (d. 2007)
1924 – Sonny Stitt, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1982)
1925 – Elaine Stritch, American actress and singer (d. 2014)
1926 – Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, French academic and politician, 20th President of France
1927 – Stan Getz, American saxophonist (d. 1991)
1927 – Doris Sams, American baseball player (d. 2012)
1928 – Ciriaco De Mita, 47th Prime minister of Italy
1928 – Jay Handlan, American basketball player and engineer (d. 2013)
1928 – Tommy Harmer, English footballer, inside forward, youth team coach (d. 2007)
1929 – Sheila Matthews Allen, American actress and producer (d. 2013)
1929 – George Band, English engineer and mountaineer (d. 2011)
1929 – Věra Chytilová, Czech actress, director, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1929 – John Henry Holland, American computer scientist and academic (d. 2015)
1929 – Waldemar Kmentt, Austrian operatic tenor (d. 2015)
1931 – Dries van Agt, Dutch politician, diplomat and jurist, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
1931 – Les Dawson, English comedian and author (d. 1993)
1931 – Glynn Edwards, Malaysian-English actor (d. 2018)
1931 – John Paul Harney, Canadian educator and politician
1931 – Judith Viorst, American journalist and author
1932 – Arthur Lyman, American jazz vibraphone and marimba player (d. 2002)
1932 – Robert Mandan, American actor (d. 2018)
1933 – M’el Dowd, American actress and singer (d. 2012)
1933 – Tony Jay, English-American actor (d. 2006)
1933 – Orlando “Cachaíto” López, Cuban bassist and composer (d. 2009)
1933 – Than Shwe, Burmese general and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Burma
1935 – Pete Brown, American golfer (d. 2015)
1935 – Evgeny Velikhov, Russian physicist and academic
1936 – Duane Jones, American actor (d. 1988)
1936 – Metin Oktay, Turkish footballer and manager (d. 1991)
1937 – Don Buford, American baseball player and coach
1937 – Eric Arturo Delvalle, Panamanian lawyer and politician, President of Panama (d. 2015)
1937 – Anthony Haden-Guest, British journalist, poet, and critic
1937 – Remak Ramsay, American actor
1937 – Tom Smothers, American comedian, actor, and activist
1937 – Alexandra Strelchenko, Russian Singer (d. 2019)
1938 – Norman Fowler, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Transport
1938 – Gene MacLellan, Canadian singer-songwriter (d. 1995)
1939 – Jackie Burroughs, English-born Canadian actress (d. 2010)
1939 – Mary-Dell Chilton, American chemist and inventor and one of the founders of modern plant biotechnology
1939 – Dale T. Mortensen, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
1940 – Alan Caddy, English guitarist and producer (d. 2000)
1940 – Thomas M. Disch, American author and poet (d. 2008)
1940 – Wayne Fontes, American football player and coach
1940 – David Jason, English actor, director, and producer
1941 – Terry Biddlecombe, English jockey (d. 2014)
1942 – Bo Hopkins, American actor
1942 – Graham Nash, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1944 – Andrew Davis, English organist and conductor
1944 – Geoffrey Hughes, English actor (d. 2012)
1944 – Ursula Oppens, American pianist and educator
1945 – John Eatwell, Baron Eatwell, English economist and academic
1946 – John Armitt, English engineer and businessman
1946 – Alpha Oumar Konaré, Malian academic and politician, 3rd President of Mali
1946 – Constantine Papadakis, Greek-American businessman and academic (d. 2009)
1947 – Greg Antonacci, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2017)
1947 – Farrah Fawcett, American actress and producer (d. 2009)
1948 – Ina Garten, American chef and author
1948 – Al McKay, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1948 – Roger Williamson, English race car driver (d. 1973)
1949 – Duncan Bannatyne, Scottish businessman and philanthropist
1949 – Yasuko Namba, Japanese mountaineer (d. 1996)
1949 – Brent Spiner, American actor and singer
1949 – Ross Valory, American rock bass player and songwriter
1950 – Osamu Kido, Japanese wrestler
1950 – Libby Purves, British journalist and author
1950 – Barbara Sukowa, German actress
1950 – Genichiro Tenryu, Japanese wrestler
1951 – Vangelis Alexandris, Greek basketball player and coach
1951 – Ken Bruce, Scottish radio host
1952 – John Cornyn, American lawyer and politician, 49th Attorney General of Texas
1952 – Rick Dufay, French-American guitarist and songwriter
1952 – Park Geun-hye, South Korean politician, 11th President of South Korea
1952 – Ralph Merkle, American computer scientist and academic
1952 – Carol Ann Susi, American actress (d. 2014)
1953 – Duane Chapman, American bounty hunter
1953 – Jerry Sisk, Jr., American gemologist, co-founded Jewelry Television (d. 2013)
1954 – Christie Brinkley, American actress, model, and businesswoman
1954 – Hansi Hinterseer, Austrian skier and actor
1954 – Nelson Ne’e, Solomon Islander politician (d. 2013)
1954 – John Tudor, American baseball player
1955 – Leszek Engelking, Polish poet and author
1955 – Bob Schreck, American author
1955 – Michael Talbott, American actor
1955 – Kim Zimmer, American actress
1956 – Adnan Oktar, Turkish theorist and author
1957 – Phil Barney, Algerian-French singer-songwriter
1958 – Michel Marc Bouchard, Canadian playwright
1961 – Abraham Iyambo, Namibian politician (d. 2013)
1961 – Lauren Lane, American actress and academic
1962 – Philippe Claudel, French author, director, and screenwriter
1962 – Andy Fordham, English darts player
1962 – Paul Kilgus, American baseball player
1962 – Kate Raison, Australian actress
1962 – Michael T. Weiss, American actor
1963 – Eva Cassidy, American singer and guitarist (d. 1996)
1963 – Kjell Dahlin, Swedish ice hockey player
1963 – Andrej Kiska, Slovak entrepreneur and philanthropist, President of Slovakia
1963 – Philip Laats, Belgian martial artist
1963 – Vigleik Storaas, Norwegian pianist
1965 – Carl Airey, English footballer
1965 – Naoki Sano, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist
1966 – Andrei Chesnokov, Russian tennis player and coach
1966 – Robert DeLeo, American bass player, songwriter, and producer
1966 – Adam Ferrara, American actor and comedian
1966 – Michael Misick, Caicos Islander politician, Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands
1967 – Artūrs Irbe, Latvian ice hockey player and coach
1967 – Laurent Nkunda, Congolese general
1968 – Sean Elliott, American basketball player and sportscaster
1968 – Scott Erickson, American baseball player and coach
1969 – Dana International, Israeli singer-songwriter
1969 – Valeri Karpin, Estonian-Russian footballer and manager
1970 – Roar Strand, Norwegian footballer
1970 – Jennifer Westfeldt, American actress and singer
1971 – Michelle Gayle, English singer-songwriter and actress
1971 – Arly Jover, Spanish actress
1971 – Isaac Kungwane, South African footballer and sportscaster (d. 2014)
1971 – Jason Taylor, Australian rugby league player and coach
1971 – Hwang Seok-jeong, South Korean actress
1972 – Melvin Mora, Venezuelan baseball player
1972 – Aleksey Naumov, Russian footballer
1973 – Andrei Luzgin, Estonian tennis player and coach
1973 – Aleksander Tammert, Estonian discus thrower
1973 – Marissa Jaret Winokur, American actress and singer
1975 – Todd Bertuzzi, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Donald Driver, American football player
1975 – Ieroklis Stoltidis, Greek footballer
1976 – Ryan Farquhar, Northern Irish motorcycle racer
1976 – James Hickman, English swimmer
1976 – Ana Roces, Filipino actress
1977 – Shakira, Colombian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1977 – Libor Sionko, Czech footballer
1978 – Adam Christopher, New Zealand writer
1978 – Eden Espinosa, American actress and singer
1978 – Annabel Ellwood, Australian tennis player
1978 – Barry Ferguson, Scottish footballer and manager
1978 – Rich Sommer, American actor
1978 – Faye White, English footballer
1979 – Urmo Aava, Estonian race car driver
1979 – Fani Chalkia, Greek hurdler and sprinter
1979 – Christine Lampard, Irish television host
1979 – Klaus Mainzer, German rugby player
1979 – Shamita Shetty, Indian actress
1979 – Irini Terzoglou, Greek shot putter
1980 – Angela Finger-Erben, German journalist
1980 – Teddy Hart, Canadian wrestler
1980 – Oleguer Presas, Spanish footballer
1981 – Emre Aydın, Turkish singer-songwriter
1981 – Michelle Bass, English model and singer
1981 – Salem al-Hazmi, Saudi Arabian terrorist, hijacker of American Airlines Flight 77 (d. 2001)
1982 – Sergio Castaño Ortega, Spanish footballer
1982 – Kelly Mazzante, American basketball player
1982 – Kan Mi-youn, South Korean singer, model, and host
1983 – Ronny Cedeño, Venezuelan baseball player
1983 – Carolina Klüft, Swedish heptathlete and jumper
1983 – Jordin Tootoo, Canadian ice hockey player
1983 – Vladimir Voskoboinikov, Estonian footballer
1983 – Alex Westaway, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1984 – Brian Cage, American wrestler
1984 – Mao Miyaji, Japanese actress
1984 – Rudi Wulf, New Zealand rugby player
1985 – Masoud Azizi, Afghan sprinter
1985 – Renn Kiriyama, Japanese actor
1985 – Kristo Saage, Estonian basketball player
1985 – Silvestre Varela, Portuguese footballer
1986 – Gemma Arterton, English actress and singer
1986 – Miwa Asao, Japanese volleyball player
1987 – Anthony Fainga’a, Australian rugby player
1987 – Saia Fainga’a, Australian rugby player
1987 – Faydee, Australian singer
1987 – Athena Imperial, Filipino journalist, Miss Earth-Water 2011
1987 – Mimi Page, American singer-songwriter and composer
1987 – Gerard Piqué, Spanish footballer
1987 – Javon Ringer, American football player
1987 – Jill Scott, English footballer
1987 – Victoria Song, Chinese singer and actress
1987 – Martin Spanjers, American actor and producer
1988 – Zosia Mamet, American actress
1989 – Harrison Smith, American football player
1989 – Southside, American record producer
1991 – Nathan Delfouneso, English footballer
1991 – Gregory Mertens, Belgian footballer (d. 2015)
1991 – Shohei Nanba, Japanese actor
1992 – Lammtarra, American race horse (d. 2014)
1992 – Joonas Tamm, Estonian footballer
1993 – Ravel Morrison, English footballer
1993 – Bobby Decordova-Reid, English born Jamaican international footballer, forward
1995 – Paul Digby, English footballer
1995 – Aleksander Jagiełło, Polish footballer
1995 – Arfa Karim, Pakstani student and computer prodigy (d. 2012)
1996 – Harry Winks, English international footballer, midfielder
Deaths on February 2
619 – Laurence of Canterbury, English archbishop and saint
880 – Bruno, duke of Saxony
1124 – Bořivoj II, Duke of Bohemia (b. 1064)
1218 – Konstantin of Rostov (b. 1186)
1237 – Joan, Lady of Wales
1250 – Eric XI of Sweden (b. 1216)
1294 – Louis II, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1229)
1347 – Thomas Bek, Bishop of Lincoln, was the bishop of Lincoln (b. 1282)
1348 – Narymunt, Prince of Pinsk
1435 – Joan II of Naples, Queen of Naples (b. 1371)
1446 – Vittorino da Feltre, Italian humanist (b. 1378)
1448 – Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar (b. 1372)
1461 – Owen Tudor, Welsh founder of the Tudor dynasty (b. c. 1400)
1512 – Hatuey, Caribbean tribal chief
1529 – Baldassare Castiglione, Italian soldier and diplomat (b. 1478)
1580 – Bessho Nagaharu, Japanese daimyō (b. 1558)
1594 – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer and educator (b. 1525)
1648 – George Abbot, English author and politician (b. 1603)
1660 – Gaston, Duke of Orléans (b. 1608)
1660 – Govert Flinck, Dutch painter (b. 1615)
1661 – Lucas Holstenius, German geographer and historian (b. 1596)
1675 – Ivan Belostenec, Croatian linguist and lexicographer (b. 1594)
1688 – Abraham Duquesne, French admiral (b. 1610)
1704 – Guillaume de l’Hôpital, French mathematician and academic (b. 1661)
1712 – Martin Lister, English physician and geologist (b. 1639)
1714 – John Sharp, English archbishop (b. 1643)
1723 – Antonio Maria Valsalva, Italian anatomist and physician (b. 1666)
1768 – Robert Smith, English mathematician and theorist (b. 1689)
1769 – Pope Clement XIII (b. 1693)
1802 – Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, English politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (b. 1713)
1804 – George Walton, American lawyer and politician, Governor of Georgia (b. 1749)
2014 – Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1967)
2014 – Luis Raúl, Puerto Rican comedian and actor (b. 1962)
2014 – Bunny Rugs, Jamaican singer (b. 1948)
2014 – Nigel Walker, English footballer (b. 1959)
2015 – Joseph Alfidi, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1949)
2015 – Dave Bergman, American baseball player (b. 1953)
2015 – Andriy Kuzmenko, Ukrainian singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1968)
2015 – Molade Okoya-Thomas, Nigerian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1935)
2015 – Stewart Stern, American screenwriter (b. 1922)
2015 – The Jacka, American rapper and producer (b. 1977)
2016 – Bob Elliott, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1923)
Holidays and observances on February 2
Anniversary of Treaty of Tartu (Estonia)
Christian Feast Day:
Adalbard
Cornelius the Centurion
Martyrs of Ebsdorf
February 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constitution Day (Philippines)
Day of Youth (Azerbaijan)
Earliest day on which Shrove Monday can fall, while March 8 is the latest; celebrated on Monday before Ash Wednesday (Christianity), and its related observances:
Bun Day (Iceland)
Fastelavn (Denmark/Norway)
Nickanan Night (Cornwall)
Rosenmontag (Germany)
Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple or Candlemas (Western Christianity), and its related observances:
A quarter day in the Christian calendar (due to Candlemas). (Scotland)
Celebration of Yemanja or Our Lady of Navigators (Candomblé)
Le Jour des Crêpes (France)
Our Lady of the Candles (Filipino Catholics)
Virgin of Candelaria (Tenerife, Spain)
Groundhog Day (United States and Canada), and its related observances:
27 BCE – Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire.
378 – General Siyaj K’ak’ conquers Tikal, enlarging the domain of King Spearthrower Owl of Teotihuacán.
550 – Gothic War: The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.
929 – Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III established the Caliphate of Córdoba.
1120 – The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1362 – Saint Marcellus’s flood kills at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea.
1412 – The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.
1492 – The first grammar of the Spanish language (Gramática de la lengua castellana) is presented to Queen Isabella I.
1547 – Grand Duke Ivan IV of Muscovy becomes the first Tsar of Russia, replacing the 264-year-old Grand Duchy of Moscow with the Tsardom of Russia.
1556 – Philip II becomes King of Spain.
1572 – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
1605 – The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, Spain.
1707 – The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.
1757 – Forces of the Maratha Empire defeat a 5,000-strong army of the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
1786 – Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.
1809 – Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.
1847 – John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
1862 – Hartley Colliery disaster: Two hundred and four men and boys killed in a mining disaster, prompting a change in UK law which henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.
1878 – Russo-Turkish War (1877–78): Battle of Philippopolis: Captain Aleksandr Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.
1883 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is enacted by Congress.
1900 – The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
1909 – Ernest Shackleton’s expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
1919 – Nebraska becomes the 36th state to approve the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. With the necessary three-quarters of the states approving the amendment, Prohibition is constitutionally mandated in the United States one year later.
1920 – Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University.
1920 – The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France.
1921 – The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in Ľubochňa.
1942 – Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard.
1945 – Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
1964 – Hello, Dolly! opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.
1969 – Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets’ crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
1969 – Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.
1979 – The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.
1991 – Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.
1992 – El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives.
2001 – Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
2001 – US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War.
2002 – The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
2006 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia’s new president. She becomes Africa’s first female elected head of state.
2016 – Thirty-three out of 126 freed hostages are injured and 23 killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a hotel and a nearby restaurant.
2018 – Myanmar police open fire on a group of ethnic Rakhine protesters, killing seven and wounding twelve.
2020 – The impeachment of Donald John Trump formally moves into its trial phase in the United States Senate.
Births on January 16
972 – Sheng Zong, emperor of the Liao Dynasty (d. 1031)
1093 – Isaac Komnenos, son of Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos (d. 1152)
1245 – Edmund Crouchback, English politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (d. 1296)
1362 – Robert de Vere, duke of Ireland (d. 1392)
1409 – René of Anjou, king of Naples (d. 1480)
1477 – Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (d. 1547)
1501 – Anthony Denny, confidant of Henry VIII of England (d. 1559)
1516 – Bayinnaung, king of Burma (d. 1581)
1558 – Jakobea of Baden, Margravine of Baden by birth, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg by marriage (d. 1597)
1616 – François de Vendôme, duke of Beaufort (d. 1669)
1626 – Lucas Achtschellinck, Belgian painter and educator (d. 1699)
1630 – Guru Har Rai, Sikh Guru (d. 1661)
1634 – Dorothe Engelbretsdatter, Norwegian author and poet (d. 1716)
1675 – Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French soldier and diplomat (d. 1755)
1691 – Peter Scheemakers, Belgian sculptor and educator (d. 1781)
1728 – Niccolò Piccinni, Italian composer and educator (d. 1800)
1749 – Vittorio Alfieri, Italian poet and playwright (d. 1803)
1757 – Richard Goodwin Keats, English admiral and politician, 3rd Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland (d. 1834)
1807 – Charles Henry Davis, American admiral (d. 1877)
1815 – Henry Halleck, American lawyer, general, and scholar (d. 1872)
1821 – John C. Breckinridge, American general and politician, 14th Vice President of the United States (d. 1875)
1834 – Robert R. Hitt, American lawyer and politician, 13th United States Assistant Secretary of State (d. 1906)
1836 – Francis II of the Two Sicilies (d. 1894)
1838 – Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (d. 1917)
1851 – William Hall-Jones, English-New Zealand politician, 16th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1936)
1853 – Johnston Forbes-Robertson, English actor and manager (d. 1937)
1853 – Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton, Greek-English general (d. 1947)
1853 – André Michelin, French businessman, co-founded the Michelin Tyre Company (d. 1931)
1870 – Jüri Jaakson, Estonian businessman and politician, State Elder of Estonia (d. 1942)
1872 – Henri Büsser, French organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1973)
1874 – Robert W. Service, English-Canadian poet and author (d. 1958)
1875 – Leonor Michaelis, German biochemist and physician (d. 1949)
1876 – Claude Buckenham, English cricketer and footballer (d. 1937)
1878 – Harry Carey, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1947)
1880 – Samuel Jones, American high jumper (d. 1954)
1882 – Margaret Wilson, American author (d. 1973)
1885 – Zhou Zuoren, Chinese author and translator (d. 1967)
1888 – Osip Brik, Russian avant garde writer and literary critic (d. 1945)
1892 – Homer Burton Adkins, American chemist (d. 1949)
1893 – Daisy Kennedy, Australian-English violinist (d. 1981)
1894 – Irving Mills, American publisher (d. 1985)
1895 – Evripidis Bakirtzis, Greek soldier and politician (d. 1947)
1895 – T. M. Sabaratnam, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (d. 1966)
1895 – Nat Schachner, American lawyer, chemist, and author (d. 1955)
1897 – Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet and academic (d. 1977)
1898 – Margaret Booth, American producer and editor (d. 2002)
1898 – Irving Rapper, American film director and producer (d. 1999)
1900 – Kiku Amino, Japanese author and translator (d. 1978)
1900 – Edith Frank, German-Dutch mother of Anne Frank (d. 1945)
1901 – Fulgencio Batista, Cuban colonel and politician, 9th President of Cuba (d. 1973)
1902 – Eric Liddell, Scottish runner, rugby player, and missionary (d. 1945)
1903 – William Grover-Williams, English-French race car driver (d. 1945)
1905 – Ernesto Halffter, Spanish composer and conductor (d. 1989)
1906 – Johannes Brenner, Estonian footballer and pilot (d. 1975)
1906 – Diana Wynyard, English actress (d. 1964)
1907 – Alexander Knox, Canadian-English actor and screenwriter (d. 1995)
1907 – Paul Nitze, American banker and politician, 10th United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 2004)
1908 – Sammy Crooks, English footballer (d. 1981)
1908 – Ethel Merman, American actress and singer (d. 1984)
1908 – Günther Prien, German captain (d. 1941)
1909 – Clement Greenberg, American art critic (d. 1994)
1910 – Dizzy Dean, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1974)
1911 – Ivan Barrow, Jamaican cricketer (d. 1979)
1911 – Eduardo Frei Montalva, Chilean lawyer and politician, 28th President of Chile (d. 1982)
1911 – Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (d. 1996)
1914 – Roger Wagner, French-American conductor and educator (d. 1992)
1915 – Leslie H. Martinson, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
1916 – Eddie Burns, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 2004)
1916 – Philip Lucock, English-Australian minister and politician (d. 1996)
1917 – Carl Karcher, American businessman, founded Carl’s Jr. (d. 2008)
1918 – Nel Benschop, Dutch poet and educator (d. 2005)
1918 – Allan Ekelund, Swedish director, producer, and production manager (d. 2009)
1918 – Clem Jones, Australian surveyor and politician, 8th Lord Mayor of Brisbane (d. 2007)
1918 – Stirling Silliphant, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1996)
1919 – Jerome Horwitz, American chemist and academic (d. 2012)
1920 – Alberto Crespo, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1991)
1920 – Elliott Reid, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1921 – Francesco Scavullo, American photographer (d. 2004)
1923 – Gene Feist, American director and playwright, co-founded the Roundabout Theatre Company (d. 2014)
1923 – Anthony Hecht, American poet (d. 2004)
1924 – Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
1925 – Peter Hirsch, German-English metallurgist and academic
1925 – James Robinson Risner, American general and pilot (d. 2013)
1928 – William Kennedy, American novelist and journalist
1928 – Pilar Lorengar, Spanish soprano and actress (d. 1996)
1929 – Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, Sri Lankan anthropologist and academic (d. 2014)
1930 – Mary Ann McMorrow, American lawyer and judge (d. 2013)
1930 – Norman Podhoretz, American journalist and author
1931 – John Enderby, English physicist and academic
1931 – Robert L. Park, American physicist and academic
1931 – Johannes Rau, German journalist and politician, 8th Federal President of Germany (d. 2006)
1932 – Victor Ciocâltea, Romanian chess player (d. 1983)
1932 – Dian Fossey, American zoologist and anthropologist (d. 1985)
1933 – Susan Sontag, American novelist, essayist, and critic (d. 2004)
1934 – Bob Bogle, American rock guitarist and bass player (d. 2009)
1934 – Marilyn Horne, American soprano and actress
1935 – A. J. Foyt, American race car driver
1935 – Udo Lattek, German footballer, manager, and sportscaster (d. 2015)
1936 – Michael White, Scottish actor and producer (d. 2016)
1937 – Luiz Bueno, Brazilian race car driver (d. 2011)
1937 – Francis George, American cardinal (d. 2015)
1938 – Marina Vaizey, American journalist and critic
1939 – Ralph Gibson, American photographer
1941 – Christine Truman, English tennis player and sportscaster
1942 – René Angélil, Canadian singer and manager (d. 2016)
1942 – Barbara Lynn, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1943 – Gavin Bryars, English bassist and composer
1943 – Ronnie Milsap, American singer and pianist
1944 – Dieter Moebius, Swiss-German keyboard player and producer (d. 2015)
1944 – Jim Stafford, American singer-songwriter and actor
1944 – Jill Tarter, American astronomer and biologist
1944 – Judy Baar Topinka, American journalist and politician (d. 2014)
1945 – Wim Suurbier, Dutch footballer and manager
1946 – Kabir Bedi, Indian actor
1946 – Katia Ricciarelli, Italian soprano and actress
1947 – Elaine Murphy, Baroness Murphy, English academic and politician
1947 – Harvey Proctor, English politician
1947 – Laura Schlessinger, American physiologist, talk show host, and author
1948 – John Carpenter, American director, producer, screenwriter, and composer
1948 – Ants Laaneots, Estonian general
1948 – Cliff Thorburn, Canadian snooker player
1948 – Ruth Reichl, American journalist and critic
1949 – Anne F. Beiler, American businesswoman, founded Auntie Anne’s
1949 – R. F. Foster, Irish historian and academic
1949 – Andrew Refshauge, Australian physician and politician, 13th Deputy Premier of New South Wales
1950 – Debbie Allen, American actress, dancer, and choreographer
1950 – Robert Schimmel, American comedian, actor, and producer (d. 2010)
1952 – Fuad II, King of Egypt
1952 – Piercarlo Ghinzani, Italian race car driver and manager
1952 – L. Blaine Hammond, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
1952 – Julie Anne Peters, American engineer and author
1953 – Robert Jay Mathews, American militant, founded The Order (d. 1984)
1954 – Wolfgang Schmidt, German discus thrower
1954 – Vasili Zhupikov, Russian footballer and coach (d. 2015)
1955 – Jerry M. Linenger, American captain, physician, and astronaut
1956 – Wayne Daniel, Barbadian cricketer
1956 – Martin Jol, Dutch footballer and manager
1956 – Greedy Smith, Australian singer-songwriter and keyboardist (d. 2019)
1957 – Jurijs Andrejevs, Latvian footballer and manager
1957 – Ricardo Darín, Argentinian actor, director, and screenwriter
1957 – Mark Pawsey, English businessman and politician
1958 – Anatoli Boukreev, Russian mountaineer and explorer (d. 1997)
1958 – Lena Ek, Swedish lawyer and politician, 9th Swedish Minister for the Environment
1958 – Andris Šķēle, Latvian businessman and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Latvia
1959 – Lisa Milroy, Canadian painter and educator
1959 – Sade, Nigerian-English singer-songwriter and producer
1961 – Kenneth Sivertsen, Norwegian guitarist and composer (d. 2006)
1962 – Joel Fitzgibbon, Australian electrician and politician, 51st Australian Minister of Defence
1962 – Maxine Jones, American R&B singer–songwriter and actress
1963 – James May, British journalist/co-host of Top Gear
1964 – Gail Graham, Canadian golfer
1966 – Jack McDowell, American baseball player
1968 – Rebecca Stead, American author
1969 – Neil Back, English rugby player and coach
1969 – Marinus Bester, German footballer
1969 – Stevie Jackson, Scottish guitarist and songwriter
1969 – Roy Jones Jr., American boxer
1970 – Ron Villone, American baseball player and coach
1971 – Sergi Bruguera, Spanish tennis player and coach
1971 – Josh Evans, American film producer, screenwriter and actor
1971 – Jonathan Mangum, American actor
1972 – Ruben Bagger, Danish footballer
1972 – Ang Christou, Australian footballer
1972 – Yuri Alekseevich Drozdov, Russian footballer and manager
1972 – Ezra Hendrickson, Vincentian footballer and manager
1972 – Joe Horn, American football player and coach
1974 – Marlon Anderson, American baseball player and sportscaster
1974 – John Hopoate, Tongan-Australian rugby league player and boxer
1974 – Kate Moss, English model and fashion designer
1976 – Viktor Maslov, Russian race car driver
1976 – Martina Moravcová, Slovak swimmer
1977 – Jeff Foster, American basketball player
1978 – Alfredo Amézaga, Mexican baseball player
1979 – Aaliyah, American singer and actress (d. 2001)
1979 – Brenden Morrow, Canadian ice hockey player
1979 – Jason Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 – Lin-Manuel Miranda, American actor, playwright, and composer
1980 – Albert Pujols, Dominican-American baseball player
1981 – Jamie Lundmark, Canadian ice hockey player
1981 – Paul Rofe, Australian cricketer
1981 – Bobby Zamora, English footballer, striker
1982 – Preston, English singer-songwriter
1982 – Tuncay, Turkish footballer
1983 – Emanuel Pogatetz, Austrian footballer
1983 – Andriy Rusol, Ukrainian footballer
1984 – Stephan Lichtsteiner, Swiss footballer
1984 – Miroslav Radović, Serbian footballer
1985 – Joe Flacco, American football player
1985 – Jayde Herrick, Australian cricketer
1985 – Gintaras Januševičius, Russian-Lithuanian pianist
1985 – Twins Jonathan and Simon Richter, Danish-Gambian footballers
1985 – Sidharth Malhotra, Indian actor
1986 – Johannes Rahn, German footballer
1986 – Mark Trumbo, American baseball player
1986 – Reto Ziegler, Swiss footballer, left back
1987 – Jake Epstein, Canadian actor
1987 – Charlotte Henshaw, English swimmer
1988 – Nicklas Bendtner, Danish footballer
1988 – Jorge Torres Nilo, Mexican footballer
1991 – Matt Duchene, Canadian ice hockey player
1993 – Hannes Anier, Estonian footballer
1993 – Amandine Hesse, French tennis player
1994 – Chris Smith, Australian rugby league player
1354 – Joanna of Châtillon, duchess of Athens (b. c.1285)
1373 – Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (b. 1342)
1391 – Muhammed V of Granada, Nasrid emir (b. 1338)
1400 – John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, English politician, Lord Great Chamberlain (b. 1352)
1443 – Erasmo of Narni, Italian mercenary (b. 1370)
1545 – George Spalatin, German priest and reformer (b. 1484)
1547 – Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (b. 1477)
1554 – Christiern Pedersen, Danish publisher and scholar (b. 1480)
1585 – Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, English admiral and politician (b. 1512)
1595 – Murad III, Ottoman sultan (b. 1546)
1659 – Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (b. 1580)
1710 – Higashiyama, Japanese emperor (b. 1675)
1711 – Joseph Vaz, Indian-Sri Lankan priest and saint (b. 1651)
1747 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet and playwright (b. 1680)
1748 – Arnold Drakenborch, Dutch lawyer and scholar (b. 1684)
1750 – Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal and politician (b. 1667)
1752 – Francis Blomefield, English historian and author (b. 1705)
1794 – Edward Gibbon, English historian and politician (b. 1737)
1809 – John Moore, Scottish general and politician (b. 1761)
1817 – Alexander J. Dallas, Jamaican-American lawyer and politician, 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1759)
1834 – Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician and academic (b. 1769)
1856 – Thaddeus William Harris, American entomologist and botanist (b. 1795)
1864 – Anton Schindler, Austrian secretary and author (b. 1795)
1865 – Edmond François Valentin About, French journalist and author (b. 1828)
1879 – Octave Crémazie, Canadian-French poet and bookseller (b. 1827)
1886 – Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer and academic (b. 1834)
1891 – Léo Delibes, French pianist and composer (b. 1836)
1898 – Charles Pelham Villiers, English lawyer and politician (b. 1802)
1901 – Jules Barbier, French poet and playwright (b. 1825)
1901 – Arnold Böcklin, Swiss painter and academic (b. 1827)
1901 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, American soldier, minister, and politician (b. 1822)
1906 – Marshall Field, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Marshall Field’s (b. 1834)
1917 – George Dewey, American admiral (b. 1837)
1919 – Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 5th President of Brazil (b. 1848)
1933 – Bekir Sami Kunduh, Turkish politician (b. 1867)
1936 – Albert Fish, American serial killer, rapist and cannibal (b. 1870)
1938 – Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Indian author and playwright (b. 1876)
1942 – Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (b. 1850)
1942 – Villem Grünthal-Ridala, Estonian poet and linguist (b. 1885)
1942 – Carole Lombard, American actress and comedian (b. 1908)
1942 – Ernst Scheller, German lawyer and politician, Mayor of Marburg (b. 1899)
1957 – Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, English general and politician, 16th Governor General of Canada (b. 1874)
1957 – Arturo Toscanini, Italian cellist and conductor (b. 1867)
1959 – Phan Khôi, Vietnamese journalist and author (b. 1887)
1960 – Arthur Darby, English rugby player (b. 1876)
1961 – Max Schöne, German swimmer (b. 1880)
1962 – Frank Hurley, Australian photographer, director, producer, and cinematographer (b. 1885)
1962 – Ivan Meštrović, Croatian sculptor and architect, designed the Monument to the Unknown Hero (b. 1883)
1967 – Robert J. Van de Graaff, American physicist and academic (b. 1901)
1968 – Bob Jones Sr., American evangelist, founded Bob Jones University (b. 1883)
1968 – Panagiotis Poulitsas, Greek archaeologist and judge (b. 1881)
1969 – Vernon Duke, Russian-American composer and songwriter (b. 1903)
1971 – Philippe Thys, Belgian cyclist (b. 1890)
1972 – Teller Ammons, American soldier and politician, 28th Governor of Colorado (b. 1895)
1972 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor, created Alvin and the Chipmunks (b. 1919)
1973 – Edgar Sampson, American musician and composer (b. 1907)
1975 – Israel Abramofsky, Russian-American painter (b. 1888)
1978 – A. V. Kulasingham, Sri Lankan journalist, lawyer, and politician (b. 1890)
1981 – Bernard Lee, English actor (b. 1908)
1983 – Virginia Mauret, American musician and dancer
1986 – Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist, author, and publisher (b. 1892)
1987 – Bertram Wainer, Australian physician and activist (b. 1928)
1988 – Andrija Artuković, Croatian politician, war criminal, and Porajmos perpetrator, 1st Minister of Interior of the Independent State of Croatia (b. 1899)
1995 – Eric Mottram, English poet and critic (b. 1924)
1996 – Marcia Davenport, American author and critic (b. 1903)
1996 – Kaye Webb, English journalist and publisher (b. 1914)
1999 – Jim McClelland, Australian lawyer, jurist, and politician, 12th Minister for Industry and Science (b. 1915)
2000 – Robert R. Wilson, American physicist and academic (b. 1914)
2001 – Auberon Waugh, English author and journalist (b. 1939)
2002 – Robert Hanbury Brown, English astronomer and physicist (b. 1916)
2003 – Richard Wainwright, English politician (b. 1918)
2004 – Kalevi Sorsa, Finnish politician 34th Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1930)
2005 – Marjorie Williams, American journalist and author (b. 1958)
2006 – Stanley Biber, American soldier and physician (b. 1923)
2007 – Benny Parsons, American race car driver and sportscaster (b. 1941)
2009 – Joe Erskine, American boxer and runner (b. 1930)
2009 – John Mortimer, English lawyer and author (b. 1923)
2009 – Andrew Wyeth, American painter (b. 1917)
2010 – Glen Bell, American businessman, founded Taco Bell (b. 1923)
2010 – Jyoti Basu, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Chief Minister of West Bengal (b. 1914)
2010 – Takumi Shibano, Japanese author and translator (b. 1926)
2012 – Joe Bygraves, Jamaican-English boxer (b. 1931)
2012 – Jimmy Castor, American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (b. 1940)
2012 – Sigursteinn Gíslason, Icelandic footballer and manager (b. 1968)
2012 – Lorna Kesterson, American journalist and politician (b. 1925)
2012 – Gustav Leonhardt, Dutch pianist, conductor, and musicologist (b. 1928)
2013 – Wayne D. Anderson, American baseball player and coach (b. 1930)
2013 – André Cassagnes, French technician and toy maker, created the Etch A Sketch (b. 1926)
2013 – Gussie Moran, American tennis player and sportscaster (b. 1923)
2013 – Pauline Phillips, American journalist and radio host, created Dear Abby (b. 1918)
2013 – Glen P. Robinson, American businessman, founded Scientific Atlanta (b. 1923)
2014 – Gary Arlington, American author and illustrator (b. 1938)
2014 – Ruth Duccini, American actress (b. 1918)
2014 – Dave Madden, Canadian-American actor (b. 1931)
2014 – Hiroo Onoda, Japanese lieutenant (b. 1922)
2015 – Miriam Akavia, Polish-Israeli author and translator (b. 1927)
