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 June 26 in History
- 4 AD – Augustus adopts Tiberius.
- 221 – Roman emperor Elagabalus adopts his cousin Alexander Severus as his heir and receives the title of Caesar.
- 363 – Roman emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sasanian Empire.
- 684 – Pope Benedict II is chosen.
- 699 – En no Ozuno, a Japanese mystic and apothecary who will later be regarded as the founder of a folk religion Shugendō, is banished to Izu Ōshima.
- 1243 – Mongols defeat the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Köse Dağ.
- 1295 – Przemysł II crowned king of Poland, following Ducal period. The white eagle is added to the Polish coat of arms.
- 1407 – Ulrich von Jungingen becomes Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.
- 1409 – Western Schism: The Roman Catholic Church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.
- 1460 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and Edward, Earl of March, land in England with a rebel army and march on London.
- 1483 – Richard III becomes King of England.
- 1522 – Ottomans begin the second Siege of Rhodes.
- 1541 – Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later antagonist, Diego de Almagro the younger. Almagro is later caught and executed.
- 1579 – Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory begins.
- 1718 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, Peter the Great’s son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him.
- 1723 – After a siege and bombardment by cannon, Baku surrenders to the Russians.
- 1740 – A combined force of Spanish, free blacks and allied Indians defeat a British garrison at the Siege of Fort Mose near St. Augustine during the War of Jenkins’ Ear.
- 1794 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Fleurus marked the first successful military use of aircraft.
- 1830 – William IV becomes king of Britain and Hanover.
- 1843 – Treaty of Nanking comes into effect, Hong Kong Island is ceded to the British “in perpetuity”.
- 1848 – End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.
- 1857 – The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.
- 1870 – The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.
- 1886 – Henri Moissan isolated elemental Fluorine for the first time.
- 1889 – Bangui is founded by Albert Dolisie and Alfred Uzac in what was then the upper reaches of the French Congo.
- 1906 – The first Grand Prix motor race is held at Le Mans.
- 1909 – The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity.
- 1917 – World War I: The American Expeditionary Forces begin to arrive in France. They will first enter combat four months later.
- 1918 – World War I: Allied forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince in the Battle of Belleau Wood.
- 1924 – The American occupation of the Dominican Republic ends after eight years.
- 1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.
- 1934 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.
- 1936 – Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.
- 1940 – World War II: Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
- 1941 – World War II: Soviet planes bomb Kassa, Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia), giving Hungary the impetus to declare war the next day.
- 1942 – The first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat.
- 1944 – World War II: San Marino, a neutral state, is mistakenly bombed by the RAF based on faulty information, leading to 35 civilian deaths.
- 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Osuchy in Osuchy, Poland, one of the largest battles between Nazi Germany and Polish resistance forces, ends with the defeat of the latter.
- 1945 – The United Nations Charter is signed by 50 Allied nations in San Francisco, California.
- 1948 – Cold War: The first supply flights are made in response to the Berlin Blockade.
- 1948 – William Shockley files the original patent for the grown-junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
- 1948 – Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery is published in The New Yorker magazine.
- 1952 – The Pan-Malayan Labour Party is founded in Malaya, as a union of statewide labour parties.
- 1953 – Lavrentiy Beria, head of MVD, is arrested by Nikita Khrushchev and other members of the Politburo.
- 1955 – The South African Congress Alliance adopts the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.
- 1959 – Swedish boxer Ingemar Johansson becomes world champion of heavy weight boxing, by defeating American Floyd Patterson on technical knockout after two minutes and three seconds in the third round at Yankee Stadium.
- 1960 – The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland.
- 1960 – Madagascar gains its independence from France.
- 1963 – Cold War: U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall.
- 1967 – Karol Wojtyła (later John Paul II) made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.
- 1974 – The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
- 1975 – Two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian Movement are killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; Leonard Peltier is later convicted of the murders in a controversial trial.
- 1977 – Elvis Presley held his final concert in Indianapolis, Indiana at Market Square Arena.
- 1978 – Air Canada Flight 189, flying to Toronto, overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of the 107 passengers on board perish.
- 1991 – Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav People’s Army begins the Ten-Day War in Slovenia.
- 1995 – Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani deposes his father Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in a bloodless coup d’état.
- 1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- 2000 – The Human Genome Project announces the completion of a “rough draft” sequence.
- 2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.
- 2006 – Mari Alkatiri, the first Prime Minister of East Timor, resigns after weeks of political unrest.
- 2007 – Pope Benedict XVI reinstates the traditional laws of papal election in which a successful candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes.
- 2008 – A suicide bomber dressed as an Iraqi policeman detonates an explosive vest, killing 25 people.
- 2012 – The Waldo Canyon fire descends into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs burning 347 homes in a matter of hours and killing two people.
- 2013 – Riots in China’s Xinjiang region kill at least 36 people and injure 21 others.
- 2013 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- 2015 – Five different terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia, Somalia, Kuwait, and Syria occurred on what was dubbed Bloody Friday by international media. Upwards of 750 people were either killed or injured in these uncoordinated attacks.
- 2015 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
 Births on June 26
- 12 BC – Agrippa Postumus, Roman son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder (d. 14)
- 1399 – John, Count of Angoulême (d. 1467)
- 1575 – Anne Catherine of Brandenburg (d. 1612)
- 1581 – San Pedro Claver, Spanish Jesuit saint (d. 1654)
- 1600 – Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Spanish-born bishop and viceroy of New Spain (d. 1659)
- 1681 – Hedvig Sophia of Sweden (d. 1708)
- 1689 – Edward Holyoke, American pastor and academic (d. 1769)
- 1694 – Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (d. 1768)
- 1699 – Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin, French businesswoman (d. 1777)
- 1702 – Philip Doddridge, English hymn-writer and educator (d. 1751)
- 1703 – Thomas Clap, American minister and academic (d. 1767)
- 1726 – Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (d. 1796)
- 1730 – Charles Messier, French astronomer and academic (d. 1817)
- 1764 – Jan Paweł Łuszczewski, Polish politician (d. 1812)
- 1796 – Jan Paweł Lelewel, Polish painter and engineer (d. 1847)
- 1798 – Wolfgang Menzel, German poet and critic (d. 1873)
- 1817 – Branwell Brontë, English painter and poet (d. 1848)
- 1819 – Abner Doubleday, American general (d. 1893)
- 1821 – Bartolomé Mitre, Argentinian soldier, journalist, and politician, 6th President of Argentina (d. 1906)
- 1824 – William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-Scottish physicist and engineer (d. 1907)
- 1835 – Thomas W. Knox, American journalist and author (d. 1896)
- 1839 – Sam Watkins, American soldier and author (d. 1901)
- 1852 – Daoud Corm, Lebanese painter (d. 1930)
- 1854 – Robert Laird Borden, Canadian lawyer and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1937)
- 1865 – Bernard Berenson, Lithuanian-American historian and author (d. 1959)
- 1866 – George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English archaeologist and banker (d. 1923)
- 1869 – Martin Andersen Nexø, Danish journalist and author (d. 1954)
- 1878 – Leopold Löwenheim, German mathematician and logician (d. 1957)
- 1880 – Mitchell Lewis, American actor (d. 1956)
- 1881 – Ya’akov Cohen, Israeli linguist, poet, and playwright (d. 1960)
- 1892 – Pearl S. Buck, American novelist, essayist, short story writer Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
- 1893 – Dorothy Fuldheim, American journalist and news anchor(d. 1989)
- 1895 – George Hainsworth, Canadian ice hockey player and politician (d. 1950)
- 1898 – Willy Messerschmitt, German engineer and businessman (d. 1978)
- 1898 – Chesty Puller, US general (d. 1971)
- 1899 – Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
- 1901 – Stuart Symington, American lieutenant and politician, 1st United States Secretary of the Air Force (d. 1988)
- 1902 – Hugues Cuénod, Swiss tenor and educator (d. 2010)
- 1903 – Big Bill Broonzy, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1958)
- 1904 – Frank Scott Hogg, Canadian astronomer and academic (d. 1951)
- 1904 – Peter Lorre, Slovak-American actor and singer (d. 1964)
- 1905 – Lynd Ward, American author and illustrator (d. 1985)
- 1906 – Alberto Rabagliati, Italian singer (d. 1974)
- 1906 – Viktor Schreckengost, American sculptor and educator (d. 2008)
- 1907 – Debs Garms, American baseball player (d. 1984)
- 1908 – Salvador Allende, Chilean physician and politician, 29th President of Chile (d. 1973)
- 1909 – Colonel Tom Parker, Dutch-American talent manager (d. 1997)
- 1909 – Wolfgang Reitherman, German-American animator, director, and producer (d. 1985)
- 1911 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American golfer and basketball player (d. 1956)
- 1911 – Bronisław Żurakowski, Polish pilot and engineer (d. 2009)
- 1913 – Aimé Césaire, French poet, author, and politician (d. 2008)
- 1913 – Maurice Wilkes, English computer scientist and physicist (d. 2010)
- 1914 – Laurie Lee, English author and poet (d. 1997)
- 1914 – Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, European royalty (d. 2001)
- 1915 – Paul Castellano, American gangster (d. 1985)
- 1915 – George Haigh, English professional footballer (d. 2019)
- 1915 – Charlotte Zolotow, American author and poet (d. 2013)
- 1916 – Virginia Satir, American psychotherapist and author (d. 1988)
- 1916 – Giuseppe Taddei, Italian actor and singer (d. 2010)
- 1917 – Idriz Ajeti, Albanian albanologist (d. 2019)
- 1918 – Leo Rosner, Polish-born Austrian Jewish musician (d. 2008)
- 1918 – Raleigh Rhodes, American combat fighter pilot (d. 2007)
- 1918 – J. B. Fuqua, American entrepreneur and philanthropist (d. 2006)
- 1919 – Richard Neustadt, American political scientist and academic (d. 2003)
- 1919 – Jimmy Newberry, American pitcher (d. 1983)
- 1919 – George Athan Billias, American historian (d. 2018)
- 1919 – Donald M. Ashton, English art director (d. 2004)
- 1920 – Jean-Pierre Roy, Canadian-American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster (d. 2014)
- 1921 – Violette Szabo, French-British secret agent (d. 1945)
- 1921 – Robert Everett, American computer scientist (d. 2018)
- 1922 – Walter Farley, American author (d. 1989)
- 1922 – Eleanor Parker, American actress (d. 2013)
- 1922 – Enzo Apicella, English artist, cartoonist, designer, and restaurateur (d. 2018)
- 1923 – Franz-Paul Decker, German conductor (d. 2014)
- 1923 – Ed Bearss, American veteran of World War II
- 1924 – Kostas Axelos, Greek-French philosopher and author (d. 2010)
- 1924 – James W. McCord Jr., CIA officer (d. 2017)
- 1925 – Pavel Belyayev, Russian soldier, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1970)
- 1925 – Wolfgang Unzicker, German chess player (d. 2006)
- 1925 – Jean Frydman, French resistant and businessman
- 1926 – Kenny Baker, American fiddler (d.2011)
- 1926 – Mahendra Bhatnagar, Indian poet
- 1926 – Fernando Mönckeberg Barros, Chilean surgeon
- 1926 – Dinu Zamfirescu, Romanian politician
- 1927 – Robert Kroetsch, Canadian author and poet (d. 2011)
- 1928 – Jacob Druckman, American composer and academic (d. 1996)
- 1928 – Yoshiro Nakamatsu, Japanese inventor
- 1928 – Bill Sheffield, American politician; 5th Governor of Alaska
- 1928 – Samuel Belzberg, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (d. 2018)
- 1929 – June Bronhill, Australian soprano and actress (d. 2005)
- 1929 – Fred Bruemmer, Latvian-Canadian photographer and author (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Milton Glaser, American illustrator and graphic designer
- 1930 – Jackie Fargo, American wrestler and trainer (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Wolfgang Schwanitz, East German secret police
- 1931 – Colin Wilson, English philosopher and author (d. 2013)
- 1931 – Robert Colbert, American actor
- 1932 – Dame Marguerite Pindling, Bahamian politician; Governor-General of the Bahamas
- 1932 – Don Valentine, American venture capitalist (d. 2019)
- 1933 – Claudio Abbado, Italian conductor (d. 2014)
- 1933 – Gene Green, American baseball player (d. 1981)
- 1933 – David Winnick, English politician
- 1934 – Dave Grusin, American pianist and composer
- 1934 – Toru Goto, Japanese swimmer
- 1935 – Carlo Facetti, Italian race car driver
- 1935 – Sandro Riminucci, Italian basketball player
- 1935 – Dwight York, American singer
- 1936 – Benjamin Adekunle, Nigerian general (d. 2014)
- 1936 – Hal Greer, American basketball player (d. 2018)
- 1936 – Robert Maclennan, Baron Maclennan of Rogart, Scottish politician (d. 2020)
- 1936 – Edith Pearlman, American short story writer
- 1936 – Jean-Claude Turcotte, Canadian cardinal (d. 2015)
- 1936 – Nancy Willard, American author and poet (d. 2017)
- 1937 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
- 1937 – Reggie Workman, American bassist and composer
- 1938 – Neil Abercrombie, American sociologist and politician, 7th Governor of Hawaii
- 1938 – Billy Davis Jr., American pop-soul singer
- 1938 – Gerald North, American climatologist and academic
- 1939 – Chuck Robb, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 64th Governor of Virginia
- 1939 – Zainuddin Maidin, Malaysian politician (d. 2018)
- 1941 – Yves Beauchemin, Canadian author and academic
- 1942 – J.J. Dillon, American wrestler and manager
- 1942 – Gilberto Gil, Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and politician, Brazilian Minister of Culture
- 1943 – Georgie Fame, English singer, pianist, and keyboard player
- 1943 – Warren Farrell, American author and educator
- 1944 – Gennady Zyuganov, Russian colonel and politician
- 1946 – Candace Pert, American neuroscientist and pharmacologist (d. 2013)
- 1949 – Fredric Brandt, American dermatologist and author (d. 2015)
- 1949 – Adrian Gurvitz, English singer-songwriter and producer
- 1949 – Mary Styles Harris, American biologist and geneticist
- 1951 – Gary Gilmour, Australian cricketer and manager (d. 2014)
- 1952 – Gordon McQueen, Scottish footballer and manager
- 1952 – Olive Morris, Jamaican-English civil rights activist (d. 1979)
- 1954 – Luis Arconada, Spanish footballer
- 1955 – Mick Jones, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1955 – Gedde Watanabe, American actor
- 1956 – Chris Isaak, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1956 – Catherine Samba-Panza, interim president of the Central African Republic
- 1956 – Patrick Mercer, English colonel and politician
- 1957 – Al Hunter Ashton, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2007)
- 1957 – Philippe Couillard, Canadian surgeon and politician, 31st Premier of Quebec
- 1957 – Patty Smyth, American singer-songwriter and musician
- 1959 – Mark McKinney, Canadian actor and screenwriter
- 1960 – Mark Durkan, Irish politician
- 1961 – Greg LeMond, American cyclist
- 1961 – Terri Nunn, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1962 – Jerome Kersey, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1963 – Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian-Swiss businessman and philanthropist
- 1963 – Mark McClellan, American economist and politician
- 1963 – Harriet Wheeler, English singer-songwriter
- 1964 – Tommi Mäkinen, Finnish race car driver
- 1966 – Dany Boon, French actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1966 – Kirk McLean, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1966 – Jürgen Reil, American drummer
- 1967 – Inha Babakova, Ukrainian high jumper
- 1967 – Olivier Dahan, French director and screenwriter
- 1968 – Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, Icelandic lecturer and politician, 6th President of Iceland
- 1968 – Paolo Maldini, Italian footballer
- 1968 – Shannon Sharpe, American football player and sportscaster
- 1969 – Colin Greenwood, English bass player and songwriter
- 1969 – Ingrid Lempereur, Belgian swimmer
- 1969 – Geir Moen, Norwegian sprinter
- 1969 – Mike Myers, American baseball player
- 1970 – Paul Thomas Anderson, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1970 – Paul Bitok, Kenyan runner
- 1970 – Irv Gotti, American record producer, co-founded Murder Inc Records
- 1970 – Sean Hayes, American actor
- 1970 – Adam Ndlovu, Zimbabwean footballer
- 1970 – Chris O’Donnell, American actor
- 1970 – Nick Offerman, American actor
- 1971 – Max Biaggi, Italian motorcycle racer
- 1972 – Jai Taurima, Australian long jumper and police officer
- 1973 – Gretchen Wilson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1974 – Derek Jeter, American baseball player
- 1974 – Jason Kendall, American baseball player
- 1975 – Chris Armstrong, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1975 – Terry Skiverton, English footballer and manager
- 1976 – Ed Jovanovski, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1976 – Pommie Mbangwa, Zimbabwean cricketer and sportscaster
- 1976 – Chad Pennington, American football player and sportscaster
- 1976 – Dave Rubin, American political commentator
- 1977 – Quincy Lewis, American basketball player
- 1979 – Ryō Fukuda, Japanese race car driver
- 1979 – Walter Herrmann, Argentinian basketball player
- 1979 – Ryan Tedder, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
- 1980 – Hamílton Hênio Ferreira Calheiros, Togolese footballer
- 1980 – Michael Jackson, English footballer
- 1980 – Jason Schwartzman, American singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor
- 1980 – Chris Shelton, American baseball player
- 1980 – Michael Vick, American football player
- 1981 – Natalya Antyukh, Russian sprinter and hurdler
- 1981 – Paolo Cannavaro, Italian footballer
- 1981 – Kanako Kondō, Japanese voice actress and singer
- 1981 – Takashi Toritani, Japanese baseball player
- 1982 – Zuzana Kučová, Slovak tennis player
- 1983 – Vinícius Rodrigues Almeida, Brazilian footballer
- 1983 – Nick Compton, South African-English cricketer
- 1983 – Toyonoshima Daiki, Japanese sumo wrestler
- 1983 – Felipe Melo, Brazilian footballer
- 1983 – Antonio Rosati, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Indila, French singer
- 1984 – José Juan Barea, Puerto Rican-American basketball player
- 1984 – Yankuba Ceesay, Gambian footballer
- 1984 – Elijah Dukes, American baseball player
- 1984 – Raymond Felton, American basketball player
- 1984 – Priscah Jeptoo, Kenyan runner
- 1984 – Jūlija Tepliha, Latvian figure skater
- 1984 – Deron Williams, American basketball player
- 1984 – Preslava, Bulgarian singer
- 1985 – Ogyen Trinley Dorje, Tibetan spiritual leader, 17th Karmapa Lama
- 1986 – Duvier Riascos, Colombian footballer
- 1987 – Carlos Iaconelli, Brazilian race car driver
- 1987 – Samir Nasri, French footballer
- 1988 – Oliver Stang, German footballer
- 1990 – Belaynesh Oljira, Ethiopian runner
- 1990 – Igor Subbotin, Estonian footballer
- 1991 – Houssem Chemali, French footballer
- 1991 – Diego Falcinelli, Italian footballer
- 1991 – Dustin Martin, Australian rules footballer
- 1992 – Joel Campbell, Costa Rican footballer
- 1992 – Rudy Gobert, French basketball player
- 1992 – Jennette McCurdy, American actress and singer-songwriter
- 1993 – Ariana Grande, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
- 1994 – Hollie Arnold, English javelin thrower
- 1994 – Leonard Carow, German actor
- 1997 – Baek Ye-rin, South Korean singer
- 1997 – Callum Taylor, English cricketer
- 2002 – Chandler Smith, American racing driver
- 2009 – Yesha Camile, Filipino child actress
 Deaths on June 26
- 116 BC – Ptolemy VIII, king of Egypt
- 363 – Julian the Apostate, Roman emperor (b. 332)
- 405 – Vigilius, bishop of Trent (b. 353)
- 822 – Saichō, Japanese Buddhist monk (b. 767)
- 969 – George El Mozahem, Egyptian martyr (b. 940)
- 985 – Ramiro III, king of León
- 1090 – Jaromír, bishop of Prague
- 1095 – Robert, bishop of Hereford
- 1265 – Anne of Bohemia, duchess of Silesia (b. 1203 or 1204)
- 1274 – Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist and writer (b. 1201)
- 1487 – John Argyropoulos, Byzantine philosopher and scholar (b. 1415)
- 1541 – Francisco Pizarro, Spanish explorer and politician, Governor of New Castile (b. c. 1471)
- 1574 – Gabriel, comte de Montgomery, captain of the Scottish Guard of Henry II of France (b. 1530)
- 1688 – Ralph Cudworth, English philosopher and academic (b. 1617)
- 1752 – Giulio Alberoni, Spanish cardinal (b. 1664)
- 1757 – Maximilian Ulysses Browne, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
- 1784 – Caesar Rodney, American lawyer and politician, 4th Governor of Delaware (b. 1728)
- 1793 – James Dickey, Irish revolutionary (b. 1776)
- 1793 – Gilbert White, English ornithologist and ecologist (b. 1720)
- 1795 – Johannes Jährig, German linguist and translator (b. 1747)
- 1808 – Ludwik Tyszkiewicz, Polish poet and politician (b. 1748)
- 1810 – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French inventor, co-invented the hot air balloon (b. 1740)
- 1830 – George IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1762)
- 1836 – Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, French soldier and composer (b. 1760)
- 1856 – Max Stirner, German philosopher and author (b. 1806)
- 1870 – Armand Barbès, French lawyer and politician (b. 1809)
- 1878 – Mercedes of Orléans (b. 1860)
- 1879 – Richard H. Anderson, American general (b. 1821)
- 1883 – Edward Sabine, Irish-English astronomer, geophysicist, and ornithologist (b. 1788)
- 1918 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet and author (b. 1843)
- 1922 – Albert I, Prince of Monaco (b. 1848)
- 1927 – Armand Guillaumin, French painter (b. 1841)
- 1932 – Adelaide Ames, American astronomer and academic (b. 1900)
- 1932 – William Murray McPherson, Australian politician, 31st Premier of Victoria (b. 1865)
- 1938 – James Weldon Johnson, American poet, lawyer and politician (b. 1871)
- 1938 – Daria Pratt, American golfer (b. 1859)
- 1939 – Ford Madox Ford, English novelist, poet, and critic (b. 1873)
- 1943 – Karl Landsteiner, Austrian biologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
- 1945 – Emil Hácha, Czech lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1872)
- 1946 – Max Kögel, German SS officer (b. 1895)
- 1946 – Yōsuke Matsuoka, Japanese politician, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1880)
- 1947 – R. B. Bennett, Canadian lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1870)
- 1949 – Kim Koo, South Korean educator and politician, 13th President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (b. 1876)
- 1955 – Engelbert Zaschka, German engineer (b. 1895)
- 1956 – Clifford Brown, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1930)
- 1956 – Richie Powell, American pianist (b. 1931)
- 1957 – Alfred Döblin, Polish-German physician and author (b. 1878)
- 1957 – Malcolm Lowry, English novelist and poet (b. 1909)
- 1958 – George Orton, Canadian runner and hurdler (b. 1873)
- 1958 – Andrija Štampar, Croatian physician and scholar (b. 1888)
- 1964 – Léo Dandurand, American-Canadian businessman (b. 1889)
- 1967 – Françoise Dorléac, French actress and singer (b. 1942)
- 1975 – Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish priest and saint (b. 1902)
- 1979 – Akwasi Afrifa, Ghanaian soldier and politician, 3rd Head of State of Ghana (b. 1936)
- 1989 – Howard Charles Green, Canadian lawyer and politician, 27th Canadian Minister of Public Works (b. 1895)
- 1990 – Anni Blomqvist, Finnish author (b. 1909)
- 1992 – Buddy Rogers, American wrestler (b. 1921)
- 1993 – Roy Campanella, American baseball player and coach (b. 1921)
- 1993 – William H. Riker, American political scientist and academic (b. 1920)
- 1994 – Jahanara Imam, Bangladeshi author and activist (b. 1929)
- 1996 – Veronica Guerin, Irish journalist (b. 1958)
- 1996 – Necmettin Hacıeminoğlu, Turkish linguist and academic (b. 1932)
- 1997 – Don Hutson, American football player and coach (b. 1913)
- 1998 – Hacı Sabancı, Turkish businessman and philanthropist (b. 1935)
- 2002 – Jay Berwanger, American football player (b. 1914)
- 2002 – Arnold Brown, English-Canadian 11th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1913)
- 2003 – Marc-Vivien Foé, Cameroon footballer (b. 1975)
- 2003 – Denis Thatcher, English soldier and businessman (b. 1915)
- 2003 – Strom Thurmond, American general, lawyer, and politician, 103rd Governor of South Carolina (b. 1902)
- 2004 – Ott Arder, Estonian poet and translator (b. 1950)
- 2004 – Yash Johar, Indian film producer, founded Dharma Productions (b. 1929)
- 2004 – Naomi Shemer, Israeli singer-songwriter (b. 1930)
- 2005 – Tõnno Lepmets, Estonian basketball player (b. 1938)
- 2005 – Richard Whiteley, English journalist and game show host (b. 1943)
- 2006 – Tommy Wonder, Dutch magician (b. 1953)
- 2007 – Liz Claiborne, Belgian-American fashion designer, founded Liz Claiborne (b. 1929)
- 2007 – Joey Sadler, New Zealand rugby player (b. 1914)
- 2010 – Algirdas Brazauskas, Lithuanian engineer and politician, 2nd President of Lithuania (b. 1932)
- 2010 – Harald Keres, Estonian physicist and academic (b. 1912)
- 2011 – Edith Fellows, American actress (b. 1923)
- 2011 – Jan van Beveren, Dutch footballer and coach (b. 1948)
- 2012 – Sverker Åström, Swedish diplomat, Swedish Permanent Representative to the United Nations (b. 1915)
- 2012 – Pat Cummings, American basketball player (b. 1956)
- 2012 – Nora Ephron, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1941)
- 2012 – Mario O’Hara, Filipino director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1944)
- 2012 – Doris Singleton, American actress (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Risley C. Triche, American lawyer and politician (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Henrik Otto Donner, Finnish trumpet player and composer (b. 1939)
- 2013 – Edward Huggins Johnstone, Brazilian-American sergeant and judge (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Byron Looper, American politician (b. 1964)
- 2013 – Justin Miller, American baseball player (b. 1977)
- 2013 – Marc Rich, Belgian-American businessman (b. 1934)
- 2014 – Howard Baker, American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 12th White House Chief of Staff (b. 1925)
- 2014 – Bill Frank, American-Canadian football player (b. 1938)
- 2014 – Rollin King, American businessman, co-founded Southwest Airlines (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Bob Mischak, American football player and coach (b. 1932)
- 2014 – Julius Rudel, Austrian-American conductor (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Mary Rodgers, American composer and author (b. 1931)
- 2015 – Yevgeny Primakov, Ukrainian-Russian journalist and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1929)
- 2015 – Chris Thompson, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1952)
 Holidays and observances on June 26
- Day of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan
- Christian feast day:
- Anthelm of Belley
- David the Dendrite
- Hermogius
- Isabel Florence Hapgood (Episcopal Church)
- Jeremiah (Lutheran)
- John and Paul
- José María Robles Hurtado (one of Saints of the Cristero War)
- Josemaría Escrivá
- Mar Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church)
- Pelagius of Córdoba
- Vigilius of Trent
- June 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Flag Day (Romania)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Madagascar from France in 1960. (Madagascar)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of British Somaliland from the British in 1960. (Somalia)
- International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (International)
- International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (International)
- Ratcatcher’s Day (Hamelin, Germany)
- Sunthorn Phu Day (Thailand)
- World Refrigeration Day (International)
 
 
 
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 June 18 in History
- 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
- 1986 – Edgars Eriņš, Latvian decathlete
- 1986 – Richard Gasquet, French tennis player
- 1987 – Omar Arellano, Mexican footballer
- 1987 – Moeen Ali, English cricketer
- 1988 – Elini Dimoutsos, Greek footballer
- 1988 – Josh Dun, American musician
- 1989 – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, French-born Gabonese footballer
- 1989 – Chris Harris Jr., American football player
- 1990 – Luke Adam, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 – Sandra Izbașa, Romanian gymnast
- 1990 – Derek Stepan, American ice hockey player
- 1990 – Christian Taylor, American triple jumper
- 1993 – Dennis Lloyd, Israeli musician, producer, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist
- 1994 – Sean McMahon, Australian rugby player
- 1994 – Takeoff, American rapper
- 1995 – Maxim Kovtun, Russian figure skater
- 1996 – Alen Halilović, Croatian footballer
- 1996 – Niki Wories, Dutch figure skater
- 1997 – Katharina Hobgarski, German tennis player
- 1997 – Latrell Mitchell, Australian rugby league player
- 1999 – Trippie Redd, American rapper
 Deaths on June 18
- 741 – Leo III the Isaurian, Byzantine emperor (b. 685)
- 908 – Zhang Hao, general of Yang Wu
- 1095 – Sophia of Hungary (b. c. 1050)
- 1164 – Elisabeth of Schönau, German Benedictine visionary (b. c. 1129)
- 1234 – Emperor Chūkyō of Japan (b. 1218)
- 1250 – Theresa of Portugal, Queen of León
- 1291 – Alfonso III of Aragon (b. 1265)
- 1333 – Henry XV, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1312)
- 1464 – Rogier van der Weyden, Flemish painter (b. 1400)
- 1588 – Robert Crowley, English minister and poet (b. 1517)
- 1629 – Piet Pieterszoon Hein, Dutch admiral (b. 1577)
- 1650 – Christoph Scheiner, German priest, physicist, and astronomer (b. 1575)
- 1673 – Jeanne Mance, French-Canadian nurse, founded the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal (b. 1606)
- 1704 – Tom Brown, English author and translator (b. 1662)
- 1726 – Michel Richard Delalande, French organist and composer (b. 1657)
- 1742 – John Aislabie, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1670)
- 1749 – Ambrose Philips, English poet and politician (b. 1674)
- 1772 – Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German jurist and scholar (b. 1706)
- 1772 – Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-Austrian physician and reformer (b. 1700)
- 1788 – Adam Gib, Scottish religious leader (b. 1714)
- 1794 – François Buzot, French lawyer and politician (b. 1760)
- 1794 – James Murray, Scottish-English general and politician, 20th Governor of the Province of Quebec (b. 1721)
- 1815 – Thomas Picton, Welsh-English general and politician (b. 1758)
- 1833 – Robert Hett Chapman, American minister, missionary, and academic (b. 1771)
- 1835 – William Cobbett, English farmer and journalist (b. 1763)
- 1860 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Bismarck, German army officer and writer (b. 1783)
- 1866 – Prince Sigismund of Prussia (b. 1864)
- 1902 – Samuel Butler, English novelist, satirist, and critic (b. 1835)
- 1905 – Carmine Crocco, Italian soldier (b. 1830)
- 1916 – Max Immelmann, German lieutenant and pilot (b. 1890)
- 1917 – Titu Maiorescu, Romanian critic and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1840)
- 1922 – Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer and academic (b. 1851)
- 1928 – Roald Amundsen, Norwegian pilot and explorer (b. 1872)
- 1936 – Maxim Gorky, Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright (b. 1868)
- 1937 – Gaston Doumergue, French politician, 13th President of France (b. 1863)
- 1942 – Arthur Pryor, American trombonist, bandleader, and politician (b. 1870)
- 1943 – Elias Degiannis, Greek commander (b. 1912)
- 1945 – Florence Bascom, American geologist and educator (b. 1862)[10]
- 1945 – Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., American general (b. 1886)
- 1947 – Shigematsu Sakaibara, Japanese admiral (b. 1898)
- 1948 – Edward Brooker, English-Australian politician, 31st Premier of Tasmania (b. 1891)
- 1959 – Ethel Barrymore, American actress (b. 1879)
- 1963 – Pedro Armendáriz, Mexican-American actor (b. 1912)
- 1964 – Giorgio Morandi, Italian painter (b. 1890)
- 1967 – Geki, Italian race car driver (b. 1937)
- 1967 – Beat Fehr, Swiss race car driver (b. 1942)
- 1971 – Thomas Gomez, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1971 – Paul Karrer, Russian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)
- 1974 – Júlio César de Mello e Souza, Brazilian mathematician and academic (b. 1896)
- 1974 – Georgy Zhukov, Russian marshal and politician, Minister of Defence for the Soviet Union (b. 1896)
- 1975 – Hugo Bergmann, German-Israeli philosopher and author (b. 1883)
- 1978 – Walter C. Alvarez, American physician and author (b. 1884)
- 1980 – Terence Fisher, English director and screenwriter (b. 1904)
- 1980 – André Leducq, French cyclist (b. 1904)
- 1982 – Djuna Barnes, American novelist, journalist, and playwright (b. 1892)
- 1982 – John Cheever, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1912)
- 1982 – Curd Jürgens, German-Austrian actor and director (b. 1915)
- 1984 – Alan Berg, American lawyer and radio host (b. 1934)
- 1985 – Paul Colin, French illustrator (b. 1892)
- 1986 – Frances Scott Fitzgerald, American journalist (b. 1921)
- 1989 – I. F. Stone, American journalist and author (b. 1907)
- 1992 – Kofoworola Abeni Pratt, the first black Chief Nursing Officer of Nigeria  (b. 1910)
- 1992 – Peter Allen, Australian singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1944)
- 1992 – Mordecai Ardon, Polish-Israeli painter and educator (b. 1896)
- 1993 – Craig Rodwell, American activist, founded the Oscar Wilde Bookshop (b. 1940)
- 1996 – Endel Puusepp, Estonian-Soviet military pilot and politician (b. 1909)
- 1997 – Lev Kopelev, Ukrainian-German author and academic (b. 1912)
- 1998 – Felix Knight, American actor and tenor (b. 1908)
- 2000 – Nancy Marchand, American actress (b. 1928)
- 2003 – Larry Doby, American baseball player and manager (b. 1923)
- 2005 – Mushtaq Ali, Indian cricketer (b. 1914)
- 2005 – Manuel Sadosky, Argentinian mathematician and academic (b. 1914)
- 2006 – Vincent Sherman, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1906)
- 2006 – Joseph Zobel, Martinique-French author (b. 1915)
- 2007 – Bernard Manning, English comedian and actor (b. 1930)
- 2007 – Hank Medress, American singer and producer (b. 1938)
- 2007 – Georges Thurston, Canadian singer-songwriter (b. 1951)
- 2008 – Jean Delannoy, French actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
- 2008 – Tasha Tudor, American author and illustrator (b. 1915)
- 2008 – Hans Steinbrenner, German sculptor (b. 1928)
- 2010 – Trent Acid, American wrestler (b. 1980)
- 2010 – José Saramago, Portuguese novelist Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
- 2010 – Okan Demiriş, Turkish composer (b. 1942)
- 2011 – Yelena Bonner, Russian activist (b. 1923)
- 2011 – Frederick Chiluba, Zambian politician, 2nd President of Zambia (b. 1943)
- 2011 – Clarence Clemons, American saxophonist (b. 1942)
- 2012 – Horacio Coppola, Argentinian photographer and director (b. 1906)
- 2012 – Lina Haag, German author and activist (b. 1907)
- 2012 – Tom Maynard, Welsh cricketer (b. 1989)
- 2012 – Luis Edgardo Mercado Jarrín, Peruvian general and politician, 109th Prime Minister of Peru (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Alketas Panagoulias, Greek footballer and manager (b. 1934)
- 2012 – William Van Regenmorter, American businessman and politician (b. 1939)
- 2013 – Brent F. Anderson, American engineer and politician (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Alastair Donaldson, Scottish bass player (b. 1955)
- 2013 – Garde Gardom, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Michael Hastings, American journalist and author (b. 1980)
- 2013 – David Wall, English ballet dancer (b. 1946)
- 2014 – Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist and engineer (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Johnny Mann, American singer-songwriter and conductor (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Claire Martin, Canadian author (b. 1914)
- 2014 – Vladimir Popovkin, Russian general (b. 1957)
- 2014 – Horace Silver, American pianist and composer (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Phil Austin, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1941)
- 2015 – Ralph J. Roberts, American businessman, co-founded Comcast (b. 1920)
- 2015 – Danny Villanueva, American football player and broadcaster, co-founded Univision (b. 1937)
- 2015 – Allen Weinstein, American historian and academic (b. 1937)
- 2016 – Jeppiaar, Indian educationist, founder and chancellor of Sathyabama University (b. 1931)
- 2018 – XXXTentacion, American rapper (b. 1998)
- 2018 – Big Van Vader (also known as Vader) American professional wrestler (b. 1955)
- 2018 – Jimmy Wopo, American rapper (b. 1997)
- 2020 – Vera Lynn, English singer who was the “Forces’ Sweetheart” in World War II (b. 1917)
 Holidays and observances on June 18
- Autistic Pride Day (International)
- Christian feast day:
- Bernard Mizeki (Anglican and Episcopal Church)
- Elisabeth of Schönau
- Gregorio Barbarigo
- Leontius, Hypatius and Theodulus
- Marina the Monk (Maronite Church, Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria)
- Mark and Marcellian
- June 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Foundation Day (Benguet)
- Human Rights Day (Azerbaijan)
- National Day (Seychelles)
- Queen Mother’s Birthday (Cambodia)
- Waterloo Day (United Kingdom)
 
 
 
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 May 16 in History
- 946 – Emperor Suzaku abdicates the throne in favor of his brother Murakami who becomes the 62nd emperor of Japan.
- 1204 – Having been elected on May 9, Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
- 1426 – Gov. Thado of Mohnyin becomes king of Ava.
- 1527 – The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes itself as a republic.
- 1532 – Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
- 1568 – Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England.
- 1584 – Santiago de Vera becomes sixth Governor-General of the Spanish colony of the Philippines.
- 1739 – The Battle of Vasai concludes as the Marathas defeat the Portuguese army.
- 1770 – The 14-year-old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste, who later becomes king of France.
- 1771 – The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called The “Regulators”, occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
- 1811 – Peninsular War: The allies Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom, defeat the French at the Battle of Albuera.
- 1812 – Imperial Russia signs the Treaty of Bucharest, ending the Russo-Turkish War. The Ottoman Empire cedes Bessarabia to Russia.
- 1822 – Greek War of Independence: The Turks capture the Greek town of Souli.
- 1832 – Juan Godoy discovers the rich silver outcrops of Chañarcillo sparking the Chilean silver rush.
- 1834 – The Battle of Asseiceira is fought, the last and decisive engagement of the Liberal Wars in Portugal.
- 1842 – The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri, with 100 pioneers.
- 1866 – The United States Congress establishes the nickel.
- 1868 – The United States Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson by one vote.
- 1874 – A flood on the Mill River in Massachusetts destroys much of four villages and kills 139 people.
- 1877 – The 16 May 1877 crisis occurs in France, ending with the dissolution of the National Assembly 22 June and affirming the interpretation of the Constitution of 1875 as a parliamentary rather than presidential system. The elections held in October 1877 led to the defeat of the royalists as a formal political movement in France.
- 1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.
- 1891 – The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, and will feature the world’s first long-distance transmission of high-power, three-phase electric current (the most common form today).
- 1916 – The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioning former Ottoman territories such as Iraq and Syria.
- 1918 – The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government during wartime an imprisonable offense. It will be repealed less than two years later.
- 1919 – A naval Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
- 1920 – In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc.
- 1929 – In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place.
- 1943 – The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
- 1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (now John F Kennedy International Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
- 1959 – The Triton Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time.
- 1960 – Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
- 1961 – Park Chung-hee leads a coup d’état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.
- 1966 – The Communist Party of China issues the “May 16 Notice”, marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
- 1969 – Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet space probe, lands on Venus.
- 1974 – Josip Broz Tito is elected president for life of Yugoslavia.
- 1988 – A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
- 1991 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
- 1997 – Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, flees the country.
- 2003 – In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
- 2005 – Kuwait permits women’s suffrage in a 35–23 National Assembly vote.
- 2011 – STS-134 (ISS assembly flight ULF6), launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the 25th and final flight for Space Shuttle Endeavour.
- 2014 – Twelve people are killed in two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi, Kenya.
 Births on May 16
- 1418 – John II of Cyprus, King of Cyprus and Armenia and also titular King of Jerusalem from 1432 to 1458 (probable; d. 1458)
- 1455 – Wolfgang I of Oettingen, German count (d. 1522)
- 1542 – Anna Sibylle of Hanau-Lichtenberg, German noblewoman (d. 1580)
- 1606 – John Bulwer, British doctor (d. 1656)
- 1611 – Pope Innocent XI (d. 1689)
- 1641 – Dudley North, English economist and politician (d. 1691)
- 1710 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician, Lord Steward of the Household (d. 1782)
- 1718 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1799)
- 1763 – Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French pharmacist and chemist (d. 1829)
- 1788 – Friedrich Rückert, German poet and translator (d. 1866)
- 1801 – William H. Seward, American lawyer and politician, 24th United States Secretary of State (d. 1872)
- 1804 – Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, American educator who founded the first U.S. kindergarten (d. 1894)
- 1819 – Johann Voldemar Jannsen, Estonian journalist and poet (d. 1890)
- 1821 – Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician and statistician (d. 1894)
- 1824 – Levi P. Morton, American banker and politician, 22nd United States Vice President (d. 1920)
- 1824 – Edmund Kirby Smith, American general (d. 1893)
- 1827 – Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect, designed the Amsterdam Centraal railway station and Rijksmuseum (d. 1921)
- 1831 – David Edward Hughes, Welsh-American physicist, co-invented the microphone (d. 1900)
- 1862 – Margaret Fountaine, English lepidopterist and diarist (d.1940)
- 1876 – Fred Conrad Koch, American biochemist and endocrinologist (d. 1948)
- 1879 – Pierre Gilliard, Swiss author and academic (d. 1962)
- 1882 – Simeon Price, American golfer (d. 1945)
- 1883 – Celâl Bayar, Turkish politician, 3rd President of Turkey (d. 1986)
- 1888 – Royal Rife, American microbiologist and instrument maker (d. 1971)
- 1890 – Edith Grace White, American ichthyologist (d. 1975)
- 1892 – Osgood Perkins, American actor (d. 1937)
- 1894 – Walter Yust, American journalist and writer (d. 1960)
- 1897 – Zvi Sliternik, Israeli entomologist and academic (d. 1994)
- 1898 – Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-American painter (d. 1980)
- 1898 – Desanka Maksimović, Serbian poet and academic (d. 1993)
- 1898 – Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese director and screenwriter (d. 1956)
- 1903 – Charles F. Brannock, American inventor and manufacturer (d. 1992)
- 1905 – Henry Fonda, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1906 – Ernie McCormick, Australian cricketer (d. 1991)
- 1906 – Alfred Pellan, Canadian painter and educator (d. 1988)
- 1906 – Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan lawyer, journalist, and author (d. 2001)
- 1906 – Margret Rey, German author and illustrator (d. 1996)
- 1907 – Bob Tisdall, Irish hurdler (d. 2004)
- 1909 – Margaret Sullavan, American actress and singer (d. 1960)
- 1909 – Luigi Villoresi, Italian race car driver (d. 1997)
- 1910 – Olga Bergholz, Russian poet and author (d. 1975)
- 1910 – Higashifushimi Kunihide, Japanese monk and educator (d. 2014)
- 1910 – Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov, Russian painter and educator (d. 1972)
- 1912 – Studs Terkel, American historian and author (d. 2008)
- 1913 – Gordon Chalk, Australian politician, 30th Premier of Queensland (d. 1991)
- 1913 – Woody Herman, American singer, saxophonist, and clarinet player (d. 1987)
- 1914 – Edward T. Hall, American anthropologist and author (d. 2009)
- 1915 – Mario Monicelli, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2010)
- 1916 – Ephraim Katzir, Israeli biophysicist and politician, 4th President of Israel (d. 2009)
- 1917 – Ben Kuroki, American sergeant and pilot (d. 2015)
- 1917 – James C. Murray, American lawyer and politician (d. 1999)
- 1917 – Juan Rulfo, Mexican author and photographer (d. 1986)
- 1918 – Wilf Mannion, English footballer and manager (d. 2000)
- 1919 – Liberace, American pianist and entertainer (d. 1987)
- 1919 – Ramon Margalef, Spanish ecologist and biologist (d. 2004)
- 1920 – Martine Carol, French actress (d. 1967)
- 1921 – Harry Carey, Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
- 1923 – Victoria Fromkin, American linguist and academic (d. 2000)
- 1923 – Merton Miller, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
- 1923 – Peter Underwood, English parapsychologist and author (d. 2014)
- 1924 – Dawda Jawara, 1st President of the Gambia (d. 2019)
- 1925 – Nancy Roman, American astronomer (d. 2018)
- 1925 – Ola Vincent, Nigerian banker and economist (d. 2012)
- 1925 – Nílton Santos, Brazilian footballer (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Billy Martin, American baseball player and coach (d. 1989)
- 1929 – Betty Carter, American singer-songwriter (d. 1998)
- 1929 – John Conyers, American lawyer and politician (d. 2019)
- 1929 – Claude Morin, Canadian academic and politician
- 1929 – Adrienne Rich, American poet, essayist, and feminist (d. 2012)
- 1930 – Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 2000)
- 1931 – Vujadin Boškov, Serbian footballer, coach, and manager (d. 2014)
- 1931 – Hana Brady, Jewish-Czech Holocaust victim (d.1944)
- 1931 – K. Natwar Singh, Indian scholar and politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs
- 1931 – Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., American soldier and politician, 85th Governor of Connecticut
- 1934 – Kenneth O. Morgan, Welsh historian and author
- 1934 – Antony Walker, English general
- 1935 – Floyd Smith, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1936 – Karl Lehmann, German cardinal (d. 2018)
- 1937 – Yvonne Craig, American ballet dancer and actress (d. 2015)
- 1938 – Stuart Bell, English lawyer and politician (d. 2012)
- 1938 – Ivan Sutherland, American computer scientist and academic
- 1938 – Marco Aurelio Denegri, Peruvian television host and sexologist (d. 2018)
- 1941 – Denis Hart, Australian archbishop
- 1942 – David Penry-Davey, English lawyer and judge (d. 2015)
- 1943 – Kay Andrews, Baroness Andrews, English politician
- 1943 – Dan Coats, American politician and diplomat, 29th United States Ambassador to Germany
- 1943 – Wieteke van Dort, Dutch actress, comedian, singer, writer and artist
- 1944 – Billy Cobham, Panamanian-American drummer, composer, and bandleader
- 1944 – Antal Nagy, Hungarian footballer
- 1944 – Danny Trejo, American actor
- 1946 – John Law, English sociologist and academic
- 1946 – Robert Fripp, English guitarist, songwriter and producer
- 1947 – Cheryl Clarke, American writer
- 1947 – Darrell Sweet, Scottish drummer (d. 1999)
- 1947 – Roch Thériault, Canadian religious leader (d. 2011)
- 1948 – Jesper Christensen, Danish actor, director, and producer
- 1948 – Judy Finnigan, English talk show host and author
- 1948 – Enrico Fumia, Italian automobile and product designer
- 1948 – Emma Georgina Rothschild, English historian and academic
- 1948 – Staf Van Roosbroeck, Belgian cyclist
- 1949 – Rick Reuschel, American baseball player
- 1950 – Georg Bednorz, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1950 – Ray Condo, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2004)
- 1950 – Bruce Coville, American author
- 1951 – Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer
- 1951 – Jonathan Richman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1951 – Janet Soskice, Canadian philosopher and theologian
- 1952 – James Herndon, American psychologist and academic
- 1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor and producer
- 1953 – Peter Onorati, American actor
- 1953 – Richard Page, American singer-songwriter and bass player
- 1953 – Kitanoumi Toshimitsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 55th Yokozuna (d. 2015)
- 1953 – David Maclean, Scottish politician
- 1953 – Stephen Woolman, Lord Woolman, Scottish judge and academic
- 1954 – Dafydd Williams, Canadian physician and astronaut
- 1955 – Olga Korbut, Soviet gymnast
- 1955 – Jack Morris, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1955 – Hazel O’Connor, English-born Irish singer-songwriter and actress
- 1955 – Páidí Ó Sé, Irish footballer and manager (d. 2012)
- 1955 – Debra Winger, American actress
- 1956 – Loretta Schrijver, Dutch television host, news anchor
- 1957 – Joan Benoit, American runner
- 1957 – Benjamin Mancroft, 3rd Baron Mancroft, English politician
- 1957 – Yuri Shevchuk, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1957 – Anthony St John, 22nd Baron St John of Bletso, English lawyer and businessman
- 1957 – Bob Suter, American ice hockey player and coach (d. 2014)
- 1959 – Mitch Webster, American baseball player
- 1959 – Mare Winningham, American actress and singer-songwriter
- 1960 – Landon Deireragea, Nauruan politician, Nauruan Speaker of Parliament
- 1960 – S. Shanmuganathan, Sri Lankan commander and politician (d. 1998)
- 1961 – Kevin McDonald, Canadian actor and screenwriter
- 1961 – Charles Wright, American wrestler
- 1962 – Jimmy Hood, Scottish engineer and politician (d. 2017)
- 1962 – Helga Radtke, German long jumper
- 1963 – Rachel Griffith, Anglo-American economist
- 1963 – David Wilkinson, English theologian and academic
- 1964 – John Salley, American basketball player and actor
- 1964 – Boyd Tinsley, American singer-songwriter and violinist
- 1964 – Milton Jones, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1965 – Krist Novoselic, American bass player, songwriter, author, and activist
- 1965 – Tanel Tammet, Estonian computer scientist, engineer, and academic
- 1966 – Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actress
- 1966 – Scott Reeves, American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1966 – Thurman Thomas, American football player
- 1967 – Doug Brocail, American baseball player and coach
- 1967 – Susan Williams, Baroness Williams of Trafford, British politician
- 1968 – Ralph Tresvant, American singer and producer
- 1969 – David Boreanaz, American actor
- 1969 – Tucker Carlson, American journalist, co-founded The Daily Caller
- 1969 – Steve Lewis, American sprinter
- 1970 – Gabriela Sabatini, Argentinian tennis player
- 1970 – Danielle Spencer, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
- 1971 – Phil Clarke, English rugby league player and sportscaster
- 1971 – Rachel Goswell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1972 – Christian Califano, French rugby player
- 1972 – Matthew Hart, New Zealand cricketer
- 1973 – Tori Spelling, American actress, reality television personality, and author
- 1974 – Laura Pausini, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
- 1974 – Sonny Sandoval, American singer-songwriter and rapper
- 1975 – Tony Kakko, Finnish musician, composer, and vocalist
- 1975 – Simon Whitfield, Canadian triathlete
- 1976 – Dirk Nannes, Australian-Dutch cricketer
- 1977 – Melanie Lynskey, New Zealand actress
- 1977 – Emilíana Torrini, Icelandic singer-songwriter
- 1978 – Scott Nicholls, English motorcycle racer
- 1978 – Lionel Scaloni, Argentinian footballer
- 1980 – Nuria Llagostera Vives, Spanish tennis player
- 1981 – Ricardo Costa, Portuguese footballer
- 1982 – Łukasz Kubot, Polish tennis player
- 1983 – Daniel Kerr, Australian footballer
- 1983 – Kyle Wellwood, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 – Darío Cvitanich, Argentinian footballer
- 1984 – Tomáš Fleischmann, Czech ice hockey player
- 1984 – Jensen Lewis, American baseball player
- 1984 – Rick Rypien, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2011)
- 1985 – Anja Mittag, German footballer
- 1985 – Rodrigo Peters Marques, Brazilian footballer
- 1985 – Corey Perry, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Megan Fox, American actress
- 1986 – Andy Keogh, Irish footballer
- 1986 – Shamcey Supsup, Filipino model and architect
- 1987 – Tom Onslow-Cole, English race car driver
- 1988 – Jesús Castillo, Mexican footballer
- 1988 – Martynas Gecevičius, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1988 – Jaak Põldma, Estonian tennis player
- 1989 – Behati Prinsloo, Namibian model
- 1990 – Amanda Carreras, Gibraltarian tennis player
- 1990 – Thomas Brodie-Sangster, English actor
- 1990 – Darko Šarović, Serbian sprinter
- 1990 – Omar Strong, American basketball player
- 1991 – Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgarian tennis player
- 1991 – Joey Graceffa, American internet celebrity
- 1991 – Ashley Wagner, American figure skater
- 1992 – Jeff Skinner, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1992 – Kirstin Maldonado, American singer and songwriter
- 1993 – Johannes Thingnes Bø, Norwegian biathlete
- 1993 – Karol Mets, Estonian footballer
- 1993 – IU, Korean singer-songwriter and actress
- 1995 – Elizabeth Ralston, Australian footballer
- 1996 – Louisa Chirico, an American tennis player
 Deaths on May 16
- 290 – Emperor Wu of Jin, Chinese emperor (b. 236)
- 895 – Qian Kuan, Chinese nobleman
- 934 – Meng Hanqiong, eunuch official of Later Tang
- 995 – Fujiwara no Michitaka, Japanese nobleman (b. 953)
- 1182 – John Komnenos Vatatzes, Byzantine general (b. 1132)
- 1265 – Simon Stock, English-French saint (b. 1165)
- 1375 – Liu Bowen, Chinese military strategist, officer, statesman and poet (b. 1311)
- 1412 – Gian Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan (b. 1388)
- 1561 – Jan Tarnowski, Polish noble and statesman (b. 1488)
- 1620 – William Adams, English sailor and navigator (b. 1564)
- 1657 – Andrew Bobola, Polish missionary and martyr (b. 1591)
- 1667 – Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1607)
- 1669 – Pietro da Cortona, Italian painter and architect, designed the Santi Luca e Martina (b. 1596)
- 1691 – Jacob Leisler, German-American politician, 8th Colonial Governor of New York (b. 1640)
- 1696 – Mariana of Austria, Queen consort of Spain (b. 1634)
- 1703 – Charles Perrault, French author and academic (b. 1628)
- 1778 – Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (b. 1718)
- 1790 – Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire (b. 1720)
- 1818 – Matthew Lewis, English author and playwright (b. 1775)
- 1823 – Grace Elliott, Scottish courtesan and spy (b. c.1754)
- 1830 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (b. 1768)
- 1862 – Edward Gibbon Wakefield, English politician (b. 1796)
- 1882 – Reuben Chapman, American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of Alabama (b. 1799)
- 1890 – Mihkel Veske, Estonian poet, linguist and theologist (b. 1843)
- 1891 – Ion C. Brătianu, Romanian politician, 14th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1821)
- 1910 – Henri-Edmond Cross, French Neo-Impressionist painter (b. 1856)
- 1913 – Louis Perrier, Swiss architect and politician (b. 1849)
- 1920 – Levi P. Morton, American politician, 22nd United States Vice President (b. 1824)
- 1926 – Mehmed VI, Ottoman sultan (b. 1861)
- 1936 – Leonidas Paraskevopoulos, Greek general and politician (b. 1860)
- 1938 – Joseph Strauss, American engineer, co designed The Golden Gate Bridge (b. 1870)
- 1943 – Alfred Hoche, German psychiatrist and academic (b. 1865)
- 1944 – George Ade, American journalist, author, and playwright (b. 1866)
- 1946 – Bruno Tesch, German chemist and businessman (b. 1890)
- 1947 – Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
- 1947 – Zhang Lingfu, Chinese general (b. 1903)
- 1953 – Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist and composer (b. 1910)
- 1954 – Clemens Krauss, Austrian conductor and manager (b. 1893)
- 1955 – James Agee, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic(b. 1909)
- 1955 – Manny Ayulo, American race car driver (b. 1921)
- 1956 – H. B. Reese, American candy-maker and businessman, created Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (b. 1876)
- 1957 – Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
- 1961 – George A. Malcolm, American lawyer and jurist (b. 1881)
- 1973 – Jacques Lipchitz, Lithuanian-American sculptor (b. 1891)
- 1977 – Modibo Keïta, Malian politician, 1st President of Mali (b. 1915)
- 1979 – A. Philip Randolph, American union leader and activist (b. 1889)
- 1981 – Ernie Freeman, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1922)
- 1981 – Willy Hartner, German physician and academic (b. 1905)
- 1984 – Andy Kaufman, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter (b. 1949)
- 1984 – Irwin Shaw, American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1913)
- 1985 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
- 1989 – Leila Kasra, Iranian poet and songwriter (b. 1939)
- 1990 – Sammy Davis Jr., American singer, dancer, and actor (b. 1925)
- 1990 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, producer, and screenwriter, created The Muppets (b. 1936)
- 1993 – Marv Johnson, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1938)
- 1994 – Alain Cuny, French actor (b. 1908)
- 1996 – Jeremy Michael Boorda, American admiral (b. 1939)
- 1997 – Elbridge Durbrow, American diplomat (b. 1903)
- 2002 – Alec Campbell, Australian soldier (b. 1899)
- 2003 – Mark McCormack, American lawyer and sports agent, founded IMG (b. 1930)
- 2005 – Andrew Goodpaster, American general (b. 1915)
- 2008 – Robert Mondavi, American winemaker, co-founded the Opus One Winery (b. 1913)
- 2010 – Ronnie James Dio, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1942)
- 2010 – Hank Jones, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1918)
- 2011 – Ralph Barker, English author (b. 1917)
- 2011 – Bob Davis, Australian footballer and coach (b. 1928)
- 2011 – Edward Hardwicke, English actor (b. 1932)
- 2011 – Kiyoshi Kodama, Japanese actor (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Patricia Aakhus, American author and academic (b. 1952)
- 2012 – James Abdnor, American soldier and politician, 30th Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Chuck Brown, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1936)
- 2012 – Ernie Chan, Filipino-American illustrator (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Kevin Hickey, American baseball player (b. 1956)
- 2013 – Angelo Errichetti, American politician (b. 1928)
- 2013 – Bryan Illerbrun, Canadian football player (b. 1957)
- 2013 – Frankie Librán, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (b. 1948)
- 2013 – Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1933)
- 2013 – Dick Trickle, American race car driver (b. 1941)
- 2013 – Bernard Waber, American author and illustrator (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Chris Duckworth, Zimbabwean-South African cricketer (b. 1933)
- 2014 – Vito Favero, Italian cyclist (b. 1932)
- 2014 – Bud Hollowell, American baseball player and manager (b. 1943)
- 2014 – Clyde Snow, American anthropologist and author (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Prashant Bhargava, American director and producer (b. 1973)
- 2015 – Moshe Levinger, Israeli rabbi and author (b. 1935)
- 2015 – Flora MacNeil, Scottish Gaelic singer (b. 1928)
- 2019 – Piet Blauw, Dutch politician (b. 1937)
- 2019 – Bob Hawke, Australian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1929)
- 2019 – I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect (b. 1917)
 Holidays and observances on May 16
- Christian feast day:
- Aaron (Coptic Church)
- Abda and Abdjesus, and companions:
- Andrew Bobola
- Brendan the Navigator (Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church)
- Caroline Chisholm (Church of England)
- Gemma Galgani (Passionists Calendar)
- Germerius
- Honoratus of Amiens
- John of Nepomuk
- Margaret of Cortona
- Peregrine of Auxerre
- Simon Stock
- Ubald (see Saint Ubaldo Day)
 
- Martyrs of Sudan (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Mass Graves Day (Iraq)
- National Day, declared by Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan)
- Teachers’ Day (Malaysia)
 
 
 
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 April 2 in History
- 1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sights land in what is now the United States state of Florida.
- 1755 – Commodore William James captures the Maratha fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.
- 1792 – The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
- 1800 – Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna.
- 1800 – The Treaty of Constantinople establishes the Septinsular Republic, the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire.
- 1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: The British capture the Danish fleet.
- 1851 – Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.
- 1863 – American Civil War: The largest in a series of Southern bread riots occurs in Richmond, Virginia.
- 1865 – American Civil War: Defeat at the Third Battle of Petersburg forces the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate government to abandon Richmond, Virginia.
- 1885 – Canadian Cree warriors attack the village of Frog Lake, killing nine.
- 1900 – The United States Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.
- 1902 – Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated in the Marie Palace, Saint Petersburg.
- 1902 – “Electric Theatre”, the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.
- 1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country’s first national census.
- 1912 – The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.
- 1917 – World War I: United States President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
- 1921 – The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established.
- 1930 – After the mysterious death of Empress Zewditu, Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.
- 1956 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere on CBS. The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.
- 1964 – The Soviet Union launches Zond 1.
- 1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.
- 1973 – Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.
- 1975 – Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Quảng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
- 1976 – Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.
- 1979 – A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
- 1980 – United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act.
- 1982 – Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
- 1986 – Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist, best known for the “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”, announces that he will not seek a fifth four-year term and will retire from public life upon the end of his term in January 1987.
- 1989 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba, to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
- 1989 – ASUS corporation is founded.
- 1991 – Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
- 1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
- 1992 – Forty-two civilians are massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- 2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated.
- 2004 – Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid; the attack is thwarted.
- 2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; Tennessee is hardest hit with 29 people killed.
- 2012 – A mass shooting at Oikos University in California leaves seven people dead and three injured.
- 2014 – A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, with four dead, including the gunman, and 16 others injured.
- 2015 – Gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 148 people and wounding 79 others.
- 2015 – Four men steal items worth up to £200 million from an underground safe deposit facility in London’s Hatton Garden area in what has been called the “largest burglary in English legal history.”
 Births on April 2
- 742 – Charlemagne, Frankish king (d. 814)
- 1473 – John Corvinus, Hungarian noble (d. 1504)
- 1545 – Elisabeth of Valois (d. 1568)
- 1565 – Cornelis de Houtman, Dutch explorer (d. 1599)
- 1586 – Pietro Della Valle, Italian traveler (d. 1652)
- 1602 – Mary of Jesus of Ágreda, Franciscan abbess (d. 1665)
- 1618 – Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian mathematician and physicist (d. 1663)
- 1647 – Maria Sibylla Merian, German-Dutch botanist and illustrator (d. 1717)
- 1653 – Prince George of Denmark (d. 1708)
- 1696 – Francesca Cuzzoni, Italian operatic soprano (d. 1778)
- 1719 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (d. 1803)
- 1725 – Giacomo Casanova, Italian explorer and author (d. 1798)
- 1788 – Francisco Balagtas, Filipino poet and author (d. 1862)
- 1788 – Wilhelmine Reichard, German balloonist (d. 1848)
- 1789 – Lucio Norberto Mansilla, Argentinian general and politician (d. 1871)
- 1792 – Francisco de Paula Santander, Colombian general and politician, 4th President of the Republic of the New Granada (d. 1840)
- 1798 – August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet and academic (d. 1874)
- 1805 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (d. 1875)
- 1814 – Henry L. Benning, American general and judge (d. 1875)
- 1814 – Erastus Brigham Bigelow, American inventor (d. 1879)
- 1827 – William Holman Hunt, English soldier and painter (d. 1910)
- 1835 – Jacob Nash Victor, American engineer (d. 1907)
- 1838 – Léon Gambetta, French lawyer and politician, 45th Prime Minister of France (d. 1882)
- 1840 – Émile Zola, French novelist, playwright, journalist (d. 1902)
- 1841 – Clément Ader, French engineer, designed the Ader Avion III (d. 1926)
- 1842 – Dominic Savio, Italian Catholic saint, adolescent student of Saint John Bosco (d. 1857)
- 1861 – Iván Persa, Slovenian priest and author (d. 1935)
- 1862 – Nicholas Murray Butler, American philosopher and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
- 1869 – Hughie Jennings, American baseball player and manager (d. 1928)
- 1875 – Walter Chrysler, American businessman, founded Chrysler (d. 1940)
- 1875 – William Donne, English cricketer and captain (d. 1942)
- 1884 – J. C. Squire, English poet, author, and historian (d. 1958)
- 1891 – Jack Buchanan, Scottish entertainer (d. 1957)
- 1891 – Max Ernst, German painter, sculptor, and poet (d. 1976)
- 1891 – Tristão de Bragança Cunha, Indian nationalist and anti-colonial activist from Goa (d. 1958)
- 1896 – Johnny Golden, American golfer (d. 1936)
- 1898 – Harindranath Chattopadhyay, Indian poet, actor and politician (d. 1990)
- 1898 – Chiungtze C. Tsen, Chinese mathematician (d. 1940)
- 1900 – Roberto Arlt, Argentinian journalist, author, and playwright (d. 1942)
- 1900 – Anis Fuleihan, Cypriot-American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1970)
- 1900 – Alfred Strange, English footballer (d. 1978)
- 1902 – Jan Tschichold, German-Swiss graphic designer and typographer (d. 1974)
- 1903 – Lionel Chevrier, Canadian lawyer and politician, 27th Canadian Minister of Justice (d. 1987)
- 1906 – Alphonse-Marie Parent, Canadian priest and educator (d. 1970)
- 1907 – Harald Andersson, American-Swedish discus thrower (d. 1985)
- 1907 – Luke Appling, American baseball player and manager (d. 1991)
- 1908 – Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (d. 2003)
- 1910 – Paul Triquet, Canadian general, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1980)
- 1910 – Chico Xavier, Brazilian spiritual medium (d. 2002)
- 1914 – Alec Guinness, English actor (d. 2000)
- 1919 – Delfo Cabrera, Argentinian runner and soldier (d. 1981)
- 1920 – Gerald Bouey, Canadian lieutenant and civil servant (d. 2004)
- 1920 – Jack Stokes, English animator and director (d. 2013)
- 1920 – Jack Webb, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1982)
- 1922 – John C. Whitehead, American banker and politician, 9th United States Deputy Secretary of State (d. 2015)
- 1923 – Gloria Henry, American actress
- 1923 – Johnny Paton, Scottish footballer, coach, and manager (d. 2015)
- 1923 – G. Spencer-Brown, English mathematician, psychologist, and author (d. 2016)
- 1924 – Bobby Ávila, Mexican baseball player (d. 2004)
- 1925 – George MacDonald Fraser, Scottish author and screenwriter (d. 2008)
- 1925 – Hans Rosenthal, German radio and television host (d. 1987)
- 1926 – Jack Brabham, Australian race car driver (d. 2014)
- 1926 – Rudra Rajasingham, Sri Lankan police officer and diplomat (d. 2006)
- 1927 – Carmen Basilio, American boxer and soldier (d. 2012)
- 1927 – Howard Callaway, American soldier and politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Army (d. 2014)
- 1927 – Rita Gam, American actress (d. 2016)
- 1927 – Billy Pierce, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2015)
- 1927 – Kenneth Tynan, English author and critic (d. 1980)
- 1928 – Joseph Bernardin, American cardinal (d. 1996)
- 1928 – Serge Gainsbourg, French singer-songwriter, actor, and director (d. 1991)
- 1928 – Roy Masters, English-American radio host
- 1928 – David Robinson, Northern Irish horticulturist and academic (d. 2004)
- 1929 – Ed Dorn, American poet and educator (d. 1999)
- 1930 – Roddy Maude-Roxby, English actor
- 1931 – Vladimir Kuznetsov, Russian javelin thrower (d. 1986)
- 1932 – Edward Egan, American cardinal (d. 2015)
- 1933 – György Konrád, Hungarian sociologist and author
- 1934 – Paul Cohen, American mathematician and theorist (d. 2007)
- 1934 – Brian Glover, English wrestler and actor (d. 1997)
- 1934 – Carl Kasell, American journalist and game show host (d. 2018)
- 1934 – Richard Portman, American sound engineer (d. 2017)
- 1934 – Dovid Shmidel, Austrian-born Israeli rabbi
- 1936 – Shaul Ladany, Serbian-Israeli race walker and engineer
- 1937 – Dick Radatz, American baseball player (d. 2005)
- 1938 – John Larsson, Swedish 17th General of The Salvation Army
- 1938 – Booker Little, American trumpet player and composer (d. 1961)
- 1938 – Al Weis, American baseball player
- 1939 – Marvin Gaye, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984)
- 1939 – Anthony Lake, American academic and diplomat, 18th United States National Security Advisor
- 1939 – Lise Thibault, Canadian journalist and politician, 27th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
- 1940 – Donald Jackson, Canadian figure skater and coach
- 1940 – Mike Hailwood, English motorcycle racer (d. 1981)
- 1940 – Penelope Keith, English actress
- 1941 – Dr. Demento, American radio host
- 1941 – Sonny Throckmorton, American country singer-songwriter
- 1942 – Leon Russell, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2016)
- 1942 – Roshan Seth, Indian-English actor
- 1943 – Michael Boyce, Baron Boyce, South African-English admiral and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
- 1943 – Caterina Bueno, Italian singer (d. 2007)
- 1943 – Larry Coryell, American jazz guitarist (d. 2017)
- 1943 – Antonio Sabàto, Sr., Italian actor
- 1944 – Bill Malinchak, American football player
- 1945 – Jürgen Drews, German singer-songwriter
- 1945 – Guy Fréquelin, French race car driver
- 1945 – Linda Hunt, American actress
- 1945 – Reggie Smith, American baseball player and coach
- 1945 – Don Sutton, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1945 – Anne Waldman, American poet
- 1946 – Richard Collinge, New Zealand cricketer
- 1946 – David Heyes, English politician
- 1946 – Sue Townsend, English author and playwright (d. 2014)
- 1946 – Kurt Winter, Canadian guitarist and songwriter (d. 1997)
- 1947 – Paquita la del Barrio, Mexican singer-songwriter
- 1947 – Tua Forsström, Finnish writer
- 1947 – Emmylou Harris, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1947 – Camille Paglia, American author and critic
- 1948 – Roald Als, Danish author and illustrator
- 1948 – Dimitris Mitropanos, Greek singer (d. 2012)
- 1948 – Daniel Okrent, American journalist and author
- 1948 – Joan D. Vinge, American author
- 1949 – Paul Gambaccini, American-English radio and television host
- 1949 – Bernd Müller, German footballer
- 1949 – Pamela Reed, American actress
- 1949 – David Robinson, American drummer
- 1950 – Lynn Westmoreland, American politician
- 1951 – Ayako Okamoto, Japanese golfer
- 1952 – Lennart Fagerlund, Swedish cyclist
- 1952 – Will Hoy, English race car driver (d. 2002)
- 1952 – Leon Wilkeson, American bass player and songwriter (d. 2001)
- 1953 – Jim Allister, Northern Irish lawyer and politician
- 1953 – Rosemary Bryant Mariner, 20th and 21st-century U.S. Navy aviator
- 1953 – Malika Oufkir, Moroccan Berber writer
- 1953 – Debralee Scott, American actress (d. 2005)
- 1953 – James Vance, American author and playwright (d. 2017)
- 1954 – Gregory Abbott, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1954 – Donald Petrie, American actor and director
- 1955 – Michael Stone, Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary
- 1957 – Caroline Dean, English biologist and academic
- 1957 – Hank Steinbrenner, American businessman, co-owner of the New York Yankees
- 1958 – Stefano Bettarello, Italian rugby player
- 1958 – Larry Drew, American basketball player and coach
- 1959 – Gelindo Bordin, Italian runner
- 1959 – David Frankel, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1959 – Juha Kankkunen, Finnish race car driver
- 1959 – Yves Lavandier, French director and producer
- 1959 – Badou Ezzaki, Moroccan footballer and manager
- 1960 – Linford Christie, Jamaican-English sprinter
- 1960 – Brad Jones, Australian race car driver
- 1960 – Pascale Nadeau, Canadian journalist
- 1961 – Buddy Jewell, American singer-songwriter
- 1961 – Christopher Meloni, American actor
- 1961 – Keren Woodward, English singer-songwriter
- 1962 – Pierre Carles, French director and producer
- 1962 – Billy Dean, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1962 – Clark Gregg, American actor
- 1963 – Karl Beattie, English director and producer
- 1963 – Mike Gascoyne, English engineer
- 1964 – Pete Incaviglia, American baseball player and coach
- 1964 – Jonathon Sharkey, American wrestler
- 1965 – Rodney King, American victim of police brutality (d. 2012)
- 1966 – Bill Romanowski, American football player and actor
- 1966 – Teddy Sheringham, English international footballer, striker and coach
- 1967 – Greg Camp, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1967 – Phil Demmel, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1969 – Ajay Devgan, Indian actor, director, and producer
- 1971 – Edmundo Alves de Souza Neto, Brazilian footballer
- 1971 – Jason Lewry, English cricketer
- 1971 – Todd Woodbridge, Australian tennis player and sportscaster
- 1972 – Remo D’Souza, Indian choreographer and dancer
- 1972 – Calvin Davis, American sprinter and hurdler
- 1972 – Zane Lamprey, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1973 – Dmitry Lipartov, Russian footballer
- 1973 – Roselyn Sánchez, Puerto Rican-American actress
- 1973 – Aleksejs Semjonovs, Latvian footballer
- 1974 – Tayfun Korkut, Turkish football manager and former player
- 1975 – Randy Livingston, American basketball player
- 1975 – Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski, German rower
- 1976 – Andreas Anastasopoulos, Greek shot putter
- 1976 – Rory Sabbatini, South African golfer
- 1976 – Pattie Mallette, Canadian author and film producer
- 1977 – Per Elofsson, Swedish skier
- 1977 – Michael Fassbender, German-Irish actor and producer
- 1977 – Hanno Pevkur, Estonian lawyer and politician, Estonian Minister of Justice
- 1978 – Scott Lynch, American author
- 1978 – Ethan Smith, American actor, director, and producer
- 1979 – Jesse Carmichael, American keyboard player
- 1980 – Avi Benedi, Israeli singer and songwriter
- 1980 – Adam Fleming, Scottish journalist
- 1980 – Gavin Heffernan, Canadian director and screenwriter
- 1980 – Ricky Hendrick, American race car driver (d. 2004)
- 1980 – Wairangi Koopu, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1980 – Carlos Salcido, Mexican international footballer, defender
- 1981 – Michael Clarke, Australian cricketer
- 1981 – Kapil Sharma, Indian stand-up comedian, television presenter and actor
- 1982 – Marco Amelia, Italian footballer
- 1982 – Jeremy Bloom, American football player and skier
- 1982 – Jack Evans, American wrestler
- 1982 – David Ferrer, Spanish tennis player
- 1983 – Yung Joc, American rapper
- 1983 – Maksym Mazuryk, Ukrainian pole vaulter
- 1984 – Engin Atsür, Turkish basketball player
- 1984 – Nóra Barta, Hungarian diver
- 1984 – Jérémy Morel, French footballer
- 1985 – Thom Evans, Zimbabwean-Scottish rugby player
- 1985 – Stéphane Lambiel, Swiss figure skater
- 1986 – Ibrahim Afellay, Dutch footballer
- 1986 – Andris Biedriņš, Latvian basketball player
- 1986 – Lee DeWyze, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1987 – Pablo Aguilar, Paraguayan footballer
- 1987 – Marc Pugh, English footballer
- 1988 – Jesse Plemons, American actor
- 1990 – Yevgeniya Kanayeva, Russian gymnast
- 1990 – Miralem Pjanić, Bosnian footballer
- 1991 – Quavo, American rapper
- 1993 – Keshorn Walcott, Trinidadian javelin thrower
- 1997 – Dillon Bassett, American race car driver
- 1997 – Abdelhak Nouri, Dutch footballer
 Deaths on April 2
- 670 – Hasan ibn Ali the second Shia Imam (b. 624)
- 870 – Æbbe the Younger, Frankish abbess
- 872 – Muflih al-Turki, Turkish general
- 968 – Yuan Dezhao, Chinese chancellor (b. 891)
- 991 – Bardas Skleros, Byzantine general
- 1118 – Baldwin I, king of Jerusalem
- 1244 – Henrik Harpestræng, Danish botanical and medical author
- 1272 – Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, English husband of Sanchia of Provence (b. 1209)
- 1335 – Henry of Bohemia (b. 1265)
- 1412 – Ruy González de Clavijo, Spanish explorer and author
- 1416 – Ferdinand I, king of Aragon (b. 1379)
- 1502 – Arthur, prince of Wales (b. 1486)
- 1507 – Francis of Paola, Italian friar and saint, founded the Order of the Minims (b. 1416)
- 1511 – Bernard VII, Lord of Lippe, German nobleman (b. 1428)
- 1640 – Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, Polish author and poet (b. 1595)
- 1657 – Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1608)
- 1657 – Jean-Jacques Olier, French priest, founded the Society of Saint-Sulpice (b. 1608)
- 1672 – Pedro Calungsod, Filipino missionary and saint (b. 1654)
- 1672 – Diego Luis de San Vitores, Spanish Jesuit missionary (b. 1627)
- 1720 – Joseph Dudley, English politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1647)
- 1742 – James Douglas, Scottish physician and anatomist (b. 1675)
- 1747 – Johann Jacob Dillenius, German-English botanist and mycologist (b. 1684)
- 1754 – Thomas Carte, English historian and author (b. 1686)
- 1787 – Thomas Gage, English general and politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1719)
- 1791 – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French journalist and politician (b. 1749)
- 1801 – Thomas Dadford, Jr., English engineer (b. 1761)
- 1803 – Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet, Scottish judge and politician (b. 1721)
- 1817 – Johann Heinrich Jung, German author and academic (b. 1740)
- 1827 – Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus, German physician and educator (b. 1776)
- 1845 – Philip Charles Durham, Scottish admiral and politician (b. 1763)
- 1865 – A. P. Hill, American general (b. 1825)
- 1872 – Samuel Morse, American painter and academic, invented the Morse code (b. 1791)
- 1891 – Albert Pike, American lawyer and general (b. 1809)
- 1891 – Ahmed Vefik Pasha, Greek playwright and politician, 249th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1823)
- 1894 – Achille Vianelli, Italian painter and academic (b. 1803)
- 1896 – Theodore Robinson, American painter and academic (b. 1852)
- 1914 – Paul Heyse, German author, poet, and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1830)
- 1917 – Bryn Lewis, Welsh international rugby player (b.1891)
- 1923 – Topal Osman, Turkish colonel (b. 1883)
- 1928 – Theodore William Richards, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
- 1930 – Zewditu I of Ethiopia (b. 1876)
- 1933 – Ranjitsinhji, Indian cricketer (b. 1872)
- 1936 – Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, French general (b. 1860)
- 1942 – Édouard Estaunié, French novelist (b. 1862)
- 1948 – Sabahattin Ali, Turkish journalist, author, and poet (b. 1907)
- 1953 – Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (b. 1885)
- 1966 – C. S. Forester, English novelist (b. 1899)
- 1972 – Franz Halder, German general (b. 1884)
- 1972 – Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Japanese martial artist and educator (b. 1887)
- 1974 – Georges Pompidou, French banker and politician, 19th President of France (b. 1911)
- 1977 – Walter Wolf, German academic and politician (b. 1907)
- 1987 – Buddy Rich, American drummer, songwriter, and bandleader (b. 1917)
- 1989 – Manolis Angelopoulos, Greek singer (b. 1939)
- 1992 – Juanito, Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1954)
- 1992 – Jan van Aartsen, Dutch politician (b. 1909)
- 1994 – Betty Furness, American actress, consumer advocate, game show panelist, television journalist and television personality (b. 1916)
- 1994 – Marc Fitch, British historian and philanthropist (b. 1908)
- 1995 – Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
- 1997 – Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese director and producer (b. 1910)
- 1998 – Rob Pilatus, American-German singer-songwriter (b. 1965)
- 2001 – Charles Daudelin, Canadian sculptor and painter (b. 1920)
- 2002 – Levi Celerio, Filipino composer and songwriter (b. 1910)
- 2002 – John R. Pierce, American engineer and author (b. 1910)
- 2003 – Edwin Starr, American singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
- 2004 – John Argyris, Greek computer scientist, engineer, and academic (b. 1913)
- 2005 – Lillian O’Donnell, American crime novelist (b. 1926)
- 2005 – Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)
- 2006 – Lloyd Searwar, Guyanese anthologist and diplomat (b. 1925)
- 2007 – Henry L. Giclas, American astronomer and academic (b. 1910)
- 2008 – Yakup Satar, Turkish World War I veteran(b. 1898)
- 2009 – Albert Sanschagrin, Canadian bishop (b. 1911)
- 2009 – Bud Shank, American saxophonist and flute player (b. 1926)
- 2010 – Chris Kanyon, American wrestler (b. 1970)
- 2011 – John C. Haas, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Jesús Aguilarte, Venezuelan captain and politician (b. 1959)
- 2012 – Elizabeth Catlett, American-Mexican sculptor and illustrator (b. 1915)
- 2012 – Mauricio Lasansky, American graphic designer and academic (b. 1914)
- 2013 – Fred, French author and illustrator (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Jesús Franco, Spanish director, screenwriter, producer, and actor (b. 1930)
- 2013 – Milo O’Shea, Irish-American actor (b. 1926)
- 2014 – Glyn Jones, South African actor and screenwriter (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Urs Widmer, Swiss author and playwright (b. 1938)
- 2015 – Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
- 2015 – Robert H. Schuller, American pastor and author (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Steve Stevaert, Belgian businessman and politician, Governor of Limburg (b. 1954)
- 2016 – Gallieno Ferri, Italian comic book artist and illustrator (b. 1929)
- 2016 – Robert Abajyan, Armenian sergeant (b. 1996)
 Holidays and observances on April 2
- Christian feast day:
- Abundius of Como
- Amphianus of Lycia
- Æbbe the Younger
- Bronach of Glen-Seichis (Irish martyrology)
- Francis of Paola
- Francisco Coll Guitart
- Henry Budd (Anglican Church of Canada)
- Nicetius of Lyon
- Pedro Calungsod
- Theodosia of Tyre
- Urban of Langres
- April 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- International Children’s Book Day (International)
- Thai Heritage Conservation Day (Thailand)
- Unity of Peoples of Russia and Belarus Day (Belarus)
- World Autism Awareness Day (International)
 
 
 
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 February 10 in History
- 1258 – Mongol invasions: Baghdad falls to the Mongols, bringing the Islamic Golden Age to an end.
- 1306 – In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn sparking the revolution in the Wars of Scottish Independence.
- 1355 – The St Scholastica Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.
- 1502 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India.
- 1567 – Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is found strangled following an explosion at the Kirk o’ Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland, a suspected assassination.
- 1712 – Huilliches in Chiloé rebel against Spanish encomenderos.
- 1763 – French and Indian War: The Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain.
- 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Champaubert ends in French victory over the Russians and the Prussians.
- 1840 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
- 1846 – First Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Sobraon: British defeat Sikhs in the final battle of the war.
- 1861 – Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
- 1862 – American Civil War: A Union naval flotilla destroys the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River in North Carolina.
- 1906 – HMS Dreadnought, the first of a revolutionary new breed of battleships is christened and launched by King Edward VII.
- 1920 – Józef Haller de Hallenburg performs symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.
- 1920 – About 75 % of the population in Zone I votes to join Denmark in the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites.
- 1923 – Texas Tech University is founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas
- 1930 – The Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng launches the failed Yên Bái mutiny in hope to overthrow French protectorate over Vietnam.
- 1933 – In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf. Schaaf dies four days later.
- 1936 – Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops launched the Battle of Amba Aradam against Ethiopian defenders.
- 1939 – Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists conclude their conquest of Catalonia and seal the border with France.
- 1940 – The Soviet Union begins mass deportations of Polish citizens from occupied eastern Poland to Siberia.
- 1940 – Cartoon characters Tom and Jerry make their debut with Puss Gets the Boot.
- 1942 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Army capture Banjarmasin, capital of Borneo in Dutch East Indies.
- 1943 – World War II: Attempting to completely lift the Siege of Leningrad, the Soviet Red Army engages German troops and Spanish volunteers in the Battle of Krasny Bor.
- 1947 – The Paris Peace Treaties are signed by Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland and the Allies of World War II.
- 1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
- 1962 – Cold War: Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
- 1962 – Roy Lichtenstein’s first solo exhibition opened, and it included Look Mickey, which featured his first employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery sourcing, all of which he is now known for.
- 1964 – Melbourne–Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with and sinks the destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, killing 82.
- 1967 – The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
- 1972 – Ras Al Khaimah joins the United Arab Emirates, now making up seven emirates.
- 1984 – Kenyan soldiers kill an estimated 5000 ethnic Somali Kenyans in the Wagalla massacre.
- 1989 – Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.
- 1996 – IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time.
- 2003 – France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.
- 2007 – Then Illinois senator Barack Obama announces his candidacy for president in the 2008 elections, which he later goes on to win.
- 2009 – The communications satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 collide in orbit, destroying both.
- 2013 – Thirty-six people are killed and 39 others are injured in a stampede in Allahabad, India, during the Kumbh Mela festival.
- 2016 – South Korea decides to stop the operation of the Kaesong joint industrial complex with North Korea in response to the launch of Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4.
- 2018 – 19 people are killed and 66 injured when a Kowloon Motor Bus double-decker on route 872 in Hong Kong overturns.
 Births on February 10
- 1486 – George of the Palatinate, German bishop (d. 1529)
- 1499 – Thomas Platter, Swiss author and scholar (d. 1582)
- 1514 – Domenico Bollani, Bishop of Milan (d. 1579)
- 1606 – Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy (d. 1663)
- 1609 – John Suckling, English poet and playwright (d. 1642)
- 1627 – Cornelis de Bie, Flemish poet and jurist (d. 1715)
- 1685 – Aaron Hill, English poet and playwright (d. 1750)
- 1696 – Johann Melchior Molter, German violinist and composer (d. 1765)
- 1744 – William Cornwallis, English admiral and politician (d. 1819)
- 1766 – Benjamin Smith Barton, American botanist and physician (d. 1815)
- 1775 – Charles Lamb, English poet and essayist (d. 1834)
- 1785 – Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist and engineer (d. 1836)
- 1795 – Ary Scheffer, Dutch-French painter and academic (d. 1858)
- 1797 – George Chichester, 3rd Marquess of Donegall (d. 1883)
- 1821 – Roberto Bompiani, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1908)
- 1824 – Samuel Plimsoll, English merchant and politician (d. 1898)
- 1842 – Agnes Mary Clerke, Irish astronomer and author (d. 1907)
- 1843 – Adelina Patti, Italian-French opera singer (d. 1919)
- 1846 – Lord Charles Beresford, Irish admiral and politician (d. 1919)
- 1846 – Ira Remsen, American chemist and academic (d. 1927)
- 1847 – Nabinchandra Sen, Bangladeshi poet and author (d. 1909)
- 1859 – Alexandre Millerand, French lawyer and politician, 12th President of France (d. 1943)
- 1867 – Robert Garran, Australian lawyer and public servant (d. 1957)
- 1868 – Prince Waldemar of Prussia (d. 1879)
- 1868 – William Allen White, American journalist and author (d. 1944)
- 1869 – Royal Cortissoz, American art critic (d. 1948)
- 1879 – Ernst Põdder, Estonian general (d. 1932)
- 1881 – Pauline Brunius, Swedish actress and director (d. 1954)
- 1883 – Edith Clarke, American electrical engineer (d. 1959)
- 1883 – H.V. Hordern, Australian cricketer (d. 1938)
- 1889 – Cevdet Sunay, Turkish general and politician, 5th President of Turkey (d. 1982)
- 1890 – Fanny Kaplan, Ukrainian-Russian activist (d. 1918)
- 1890 – Boris Pasternak, Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)
- 1892 – Alan Hale Sr., American actor and director (d. 1950)
- 1893 – Jimmy Durante, American actor, singer, and pianist (d. 1980)
- 1893 – Bill Tilden, American tennis player and coach (d. 1953)
- 1894 – Harold Macmillan, English captain and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1986)
- 1897 – Judith Anderson, Australian actress (d. 1992)
- 1897 – John Franklin Enders, American virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)
- 1898 – Bertolt Brecht, German director, playwright, and poet (d. 1956)
- 1898 – Joseph Kessel, French journalist and author (d. 1979)
- 1901 – Stella Adler, American actress and educator (d. 1992)
- 1902 – Walter Houser Brattain, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
- 1903 – Waldemar Hoven, German physician (d. 1948)
- 1903 – Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer and manager (d. 1939)
- 1904 – John Farrow, Australian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1963)
- 1905 – Walter A. Brown, American businessman, founded the Boston Celtics (d. 1964)
- 1905 – Chick Webb, American drummer and bandleader (d. 1939)
- 1906 – Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d. 1973)
- 1907 – Anthony Cottrell, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1988)
- 1908 – Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer and educator (d. 2000)
- 1909 – Min Thu Wun, Burmese poet, scholar, and politician (d. 2004)
- 1910 – Dominique Pire, Belgian friar, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)
- 1914 – Larry Adler, American harmonica player, composer, and actor (d. 2001)
- 1915 – Vladimir Zeldin, Russian actor (d. 2016)
- 1919 – Ioannis Charalambopoulos, Greek colonel and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2014)
- 1920 – Alex Comfort, English physician and author (d. 2000)
- 1920 – Neva Patterson, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1920 – José Manuel Castañón, Spanish lawyer and author (d. 2001)
- 1922 – Árpád Göncz, Hungarian author, playwright, and politician, 1st President of Hungary (d. 2015)
- 1922 – José Gabriel da Costa later known as Mestre Gabriel, Brazilian spiritual leader, founder of the União do Vegetal (d. 1971)
- 1923 – Allie Sherman, American football player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1924 – Max Ferguson, Canadian radio host and actor (d. 2013)
- 1924 – Bud Poile, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2005)
- 1925 – Pierre Mondy, French actor and director (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Sidney Bryan Berry, American general (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish soldier, footballer and manager (d. 1993)
- 1927 – Leontyne Price, American operatic soprano
- 1929 – Jerry Goldsmith, American composer and conductor (d. 2004)
- 1929 – Jim Whittaker, American mountaineer
- 1929 – Lou Whittaker, American mountaineer
- 1930 – E. L. Konigsburg, American author and illustrator (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Robert Wagner, American actor and producer
- 1931 – James Edward Maceo West, American inventor and acoustician
- 1932 – Barrie Ingham, English-American actor (d. 2015)
- 1933 – Richard Schickel, American journalist, author, and critic (d. 2017)
- 1933 – Faramarz Payvar, Iranian santur player and composer (d. 2009)
- 1935 – Theodore Antoniou, Greek composer and conductor (d. 2018)
- 1937 – Anne Anderson, Scottish physiologist and academic (d. 1983)
- 1937 – Roberta Flack, American singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1939 – Adrienne Clarkson, Hong Kong-Canadian journalist and politician, 26th Governor General of Canada
- 1939 – Deolinda Rodríguez de Almeida, Angolan nationalist (d. 1967)
- 1940 – Mary Rand, English sprinter and long jumper
- 1940 – Kenny Rankin, American singer-songwriter (d. 2009)
- 1941 – Michael Apted, English director and producer
- 1944 – Peter Allen, Australian singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (d. 1992)
- 1944 – Frank Keating, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of Oklahoma
- 1944 – Frances Moore Lappé, American author and activist
- 1944 – Rufus Reid, American bassist and composer
- 1945 – Delma S. Arrigoitia, Puerto Rican historian, author, educator and lawyer
- 1947 – Louise Arbour, Canadian lawyer and jurist
- 1947 – Butch Morris, American cornet player, composer, and conductor (d. 2013)
- 1947 – Nicholas Owen, English journalist
- 1949 – Nigel Olsson, English rock drummer and singer-songwriter
- 1950 – Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican economist and politician (d. 1994)
- 1950 – Mark Spitz, American swimmer
- 1951 – Bob Iger, American media executive
- 1952 – Lee Hsien Loong, Singaporean general and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Singapore
- 1955 – Jim Cramer, American television personality, pundit, and author
- 1955 – Greg Norman, Australian golfer and sportscaster
- 1956 – Enele Sopoaga, Tuvaluan politician, 12th Prime Minister of Tuvalu
- 1957 – Katherine Freese, American astrophysicist and academic
- 1959 – John Calipari, American basketball player and coach
- 1960 – Jim Kent, American biologist, computer programmer, academic
- 1961 – Alexander Payne, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1961 – George Stephanopoulos, American television journalist
- 1962 – Randy Velischek, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1962 – Cliff Burton, American heavy metal bassist (d. 1986)
- 1963 – Lenny Dykstra, American baseball player
- 1964 – Glenn Beck, American journalist, producer, and author
- 1966 – Natalie Bennett, Australian-English journalist and politician
- 1966 – Daryl Johnston, American football player and sportscaster
- 1967 – Laura Dern, American actress, director, and producer
- 1967 – Jacky Durand, French cyclist and sportscaster
- 1967 – Vince Gilligan, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1968 – Peter Popovic, Swedish ice hockey player and coach
- 1968 – Garrett Reisman, American engineer and astronaut
- 1969 – Joe Mangrum, American painter and sculptor
- 1969 – James Small, South African rugby player (d. 2019)
- 1970 – Melissa Doyle, Australian journalist and author
- 1970 – Noureddine Naybet, Moroccan international footballer, central defender and manager
- 1970 – Åsne Seierstad, Norwegian journalist and author
- 1971 – Lorena Rojas, Mexican actress and singer (d. 2015)
- 1972 – Michael Kasprowicz, Australian cricketer
- 1973 – Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, English businesswoman and politician
- 1974 – Elizabeth Banks, American actress
- 1974 – Ty Law, American football player
- 1974 – Ivri Lider, Israeli singer
- 1974 – Henry Paul, New Zealand rugby player and coach
- 1976 – Lance Berkman, American baseball player and coach
- 1976 – Keeley Hawes, English actress
- 1977 – Salif Diao, Senegalese footballer
- 1979 – Joey Hand, American race car driver
- 1980 – César Izturis, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1980 – Enzo Maresca, Italian footballer
- 1980 – Mike Ribeiro, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1981 – Uzo Aduba, American actress
- 1981 – Stephanie Beatriz, American actress
- 1981 – Andrew Johnson, English international footballer, forward and club ambassador
- 1981 – Holly Willoughby, English model and television host
- 1982 – Justin Gatlin, American sprinter
- 1982 – Tarmo Neemelo, Estonian footballer
- 1982 – Hamad Al-Tayyar, Kuwaiti footballer
- 1982 – Iafeta Paleaaesina, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1983 – Vic Fuentes, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1984 – Greg Bird, Australian rugby league player
- 1984 – Alex Gordon, American baseball player
- 1984 – Kim Hyo-jin, South Korean actress
- 1985 – Selçuk İnan, Turkish footballer
- 1985 – Paul Millsap, American basketball player
- 1986 – Jeff Adrien, American basketball player
- 1986 – Josh Akognon, American basketball player
- 1986 – Radamel Falcao, Colombian footballer
- 1986 – Roberto Jiménez Gago, Spanish footballer
- 1986 – Viktor Troicki, Serbian tennis player
- 1987 – Jakub Kindl, Czech ice hockey player
- 1987 – Facundo Roncaglia, Argentinian footballer
- 1988 – Francesco Acerbi, Italian footballer
- 1989 – Liam Hendriks, Australian baseball player
- 1990 – Barbara Guarischi, Italian cyclist
- 1990 – Choi Soo-young, South Korean singer-songwriter, actress, and dancer
- 1991 – Rebecca Dempster, Scottish footballer
- 1991 – Emma Roberts, American actress
- 1992 – Haruka Nakagawa, Japanese singer and actress
- 1992 – Reinhold Yabo, German footballer
- 1993 – Max Kepler, German baseball player
- 1993 – Filip Twardzik, Czech footballer
- 1993 – Luis Madrigal, Mexican footballer
- 1994 – Kang Seul-gi, South Korean singer and member of Red Velvet
- 1995 – Carolane Soucisse, Canadian ice dancer
- 1996 – Emanuel Mammana, Argentinian footballer
- 1997 – Lilly King, American swimmer
- 1997 – Chloë Grace Moretz, American actress
- 1997 – Nadia Podoroska, Argentinian tennis player
- 2000 – Yara Shahidi, American actress and model
 Deaths on February 10
- 547 – Scholastica, Christian nun
- 1127 – William IX, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1071)
- 1163 – Baldwin III of Jerusalem (b. 1130)
- 1242 – Emperor Shijō of Japan (b. 1231)
- 1242 – Saint Verdiana, Italian recluse (b. 1182)
- 1280 – Margaret II, Countess of Flanders (b. 1202)
- 1306 – John “the Red” Comyn, Scottish nobleman
- 1307 – Temür Khan, Emperor Chengzong of Yuan (b. 1265)
- 1346 – Blessed Clare of Rimini (b. 1282)
- 1471 – Frederick II, Margrave of Brandenburg (b. 1413)
- 1524 – Catherine of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria (b. 1468)
- 1526 – John V, Count of Oldenburg, German noble (b. 1460)
- 1567 – Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, consort of Mary, Queen of Scots (b. 1545)
- 1576 – Wilhelm Xylander, German scholar, translator, and academic (b. 1532)
- 1686 – William Dugdale, English genealogist and historian (b. 1605)
- 1755 – Montesquieu, French lawyer and philosopher (b. 1689)
- 1782 – Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian and author (b. 1702)
- 1829 – Pope Leo XII (b. 1760)
- 1837 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet and author (b. 1799)
- 1854 – José Joaquín de Herrera, Mexican politician and general. President three times (1844–1854) (b. 1792)
- 1857 – David Thompson, English-Canadian surveyor and explorer (b. 1770)
- 1865 – Heinrich Lenz, Estonian-Italian physicist and academic (b. 1804)
- 1879 – Honoré Daumier, French illustrator and painter (b. 1808)
- 1887 – Ellen Wood, English author (b. 1814)
- 1891 – Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian-Swedish mathematician and physicist (b. 1850)
- 1904 – John A. Roche, American lawyer and politician, 30th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1844)
- 1906 – Ezra Butler Eddy, American-Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1827)
- 1912 – Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, English surgeon and academic (b. 1827)
- 1913 – Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, Greek long jumper (b. 1888)
- 1917 – John William Waterhouse, English soldier and painter (b. 1849)
- 1918 – Abdul Hamid II, Ottoman sultan (b. 1842)
- 1918 – Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian soldier and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1833)
- 1920 – Henry Strangways, English-Australian politician, 12th Premier of South Australia (b. 1832)
- 1923 – Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1845)
- 1928 – José Sánchez del Río, Mexican martyr and saint (b. 1913)
- 1932 – Edgar Wallace, English author and screenwriter (b. 1875)
- 1939 – Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)
- 1944 – E. M. Antoniadi, Greek-French astronomer and chess player (b. 1870)
- 1945 – Anacleto Díaz, Filipino lawyer and jurist (b. 1878)
- 1950 – Marcel Mauss, French sociologist and anthropologist (b. 1872)
- 1956 – Leonora Speyer, American poet and violinist (b. 1872)
- 1956 – Emmanouil Tsouderos, Greek banker and politician, 132nd Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1882)
- 1957 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (b. 1867)
- 1960 – Aloysius Stepinac, Croatian cardinal (b. 1898)
- 1966 – Billy Rose, American composer and songwriter (b. 1899)
- 1967 – Dionysios Kokkinos, Greek historian and author (b. 1884)
- 1975 – Nikos Kavvadias, Greek sailor and poet (b. 1910)
- 1979 – Edvard Kardelj, Slovene general and politician, 2nd Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1910)
- 1992 – Alex Haley, American soldier, journalist, and author (b. 1921)
- 1993 – Fred Hollows, New Zealand-Australian ophthalmologist and academic (b. 1929)
- 1995 – Paul Monette, American author, poet, and activist (b. 1945)
- 1997 – Brian Connolly, Scottish musician, lead singer The Sweet (b. 1945)
- 2000 – Jim Varney, American actor, comedian and writer (b. 1949)
- 2001 – Abraham Beame, American academic and politician, 104th Mayor of New York City (b. 1906)
- 2001 – Buddy Tate, American saxophonist and clarinet player (b. 1913)
- 2002 – Dave Van Ronk, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936)
- 2003 – Edgar de Evia, Mexican-American photographer (b. 1910)
- 2003 – Albert J. Ruffo, American lawyer and politician, Mayor of San Jose (b. 1908)
- 2003 – Ron Ziegler, American politician, 14th White House Press Secretary (b. 1939)
- 2005 – Arthur Miller, American actor, playwright, and author (b. 1915)
- 2006 – James Yancey, American record producer and rapper (b. 1974)
- 2008 – Roy Scheider, American actor and boxer (b. 1932)
- 2010 – Fred Schaus, American basketball player and coach (b. 1925)
- 2010 – Charles Wilson, American lieutenant and politician (b. 1933)
- 2011 – Trevor Bailey, English cricketer and journalist (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Lloyd Morrison, New Zealand banker and businessman, founded H. R. L. Morrison & Co (b. 1957)
- 2012 – Jeffrey Zaslow, American journalist and author (b. 1958)
- 2013 – W. Watts Biggers, American author, screenwriter, and animator (b. 1927)
- 2013 – David Hartman, American-Israeli rabbi and philosopher, founded the Shalom Hartman Institute (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Stuart Hall, Jamaican-English sociologist and theorist (b. 1932)
- 2014 – Shirley Temple, American actress and diplomat (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Naseer Aruri, Palestinian scholar and activist (b. 1934)
- 2015 – Karl Josef Becker, German cardinal and theologian (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Deng Liqun, Chinese theorist and politician (b. 1915)
- 2016 – Fatima Surayya Bajia, Indian-Pakistani author and playwright (b. 1930)
- 2017 – Mike Ilitch, American businessman (b. 1929)
- 2019 – Carmen Argenziano, American actor (b. 1943)
- 2019 – Jan-Michael Vincent, American actor (b. 1944)
 Holidays and observances on February 10
- Christian feast day:
- Austrebertha
- Charalambos
- José Sánchez del Río
- Scholastica
- February 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Feast of St. Paul’s Shipwreck (Malta)
- Fenkil Day (Eritrea)
- Kurdish Authors Union Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)
- National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe (Italy)
 
 
 
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		February 8 in History
- 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)
- 1914 – Dayrolles Eveleigh-de-Moleyns, 4th Baron Ventry, Irish hereditary peer (b. 1828)
- 1915 – François Langelier, Canadian journalist, lawyer, and politician, 10th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (b. 1838)
- 1921 – George Formby Sr, English actor and singer (b. 1876)
- 1921 – Peter Kropotkin, Russian zoologist, geographer, and philologist (b. 1842)
- 1928 – Theodor Curtius, German chemist (b. 1857)
- 1932 – Yordan Milanov, Bulgarian architect, designed the Sveti Sedmochislenitsi Church (b. 1867)
- 1935 – Eemil Nestor Setälä, Finnish linguist and politician, Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs (b. 1864)
- 1936 – Charles Curtis, American lawyer and politician, 31st Vice President of the United States (b. 1860)
- 1945 – Italo Santelli, Italian fencer and coach (b. 1866)
- 1956 – Connie Mack, American baseball player and manager (b. 1862)
- 1957 – Walther Bothe, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
- 1957 – John von Neumann, Hungarian-American mathematician and physicist (b. 1903)
- 1959 – William J. Donovan, American head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (b. 1883)
- 1960 – J. L. Austin, English philosopher and academic (b. 1911)
- 1960 – Giles Gilbert Scott, English architect and engineer, designed the Red telephone box and Liverpool Cathedral (b. 1880)
- 1963 – George Dolenz, Italian-American actor (b. 1908)
- 1964 – Ernst Kretschmer, German psychiatrist and author (b. 1888)
- 1968 – Maurice Maillot, French actor (b. 1906)
- 1972 – Markos Vamvakaris, Greek singer-songwriter and bouzouki player (b. 1905)
- 1975 – Robert Robinson, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1886)
- 1977 – Eivind Groven, Norwegian composer and theorist (b. 1901)
- 1979 – Dennis Gabor, Hungarian-English physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
- 1980 – Nikos Xilouris, Greek singer-songwriter (b. 1936)
- 1982 – John Hay Whitney, American financier and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (b. 1904)
- 1985 – William Lyons, English businessman, co-founded Swallow Sidecar Company (b. 1901)
- 1987 – Harriet E. MacGibbon, American actress (b. 1905)
- 1990 – Del Shannon, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1934)
- 1992 – Stanley Armour Dunham, American sergeant (b. 1918)
- 1992 – Denny Wright, British guitarist (b. 1924)
- 1994 – Raymond Scott, American pianist and composer (b. 1908)
- 1996 – Del Ennis, American baseball player (b. 1925)
- 1997 – Corey Scott, American motorcycle stunt rider (b. 1968)
- 1998 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- 1998 – Enoch Powell, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Health (b. 1912)
- 1998 – Julian Simon, American economist and author (b. 1932)
- 1999 – Iris Murdoch, Irish-born British novelist and philosopher (b. 1919)
- 2000 – Sid Abel, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1918)
- 2000 – Derrick Thomas, American football player (b. 1967)
- 2001 – Ivo Caprino, Norwegian director and screenwriter (b. 1920)
- 2002 – Ong Teng Cheong, Singaporean architect and politician, 5th President of Singapore (b. 1936)
- 2004 – Julius Schwartz, American journalist and author (b. 1915)
- 2005 – A. Chandranehru, Sri Lankan sailor and politician (b. 1944)
- 2006 – Elton Dean, English saxophonist, songwriter, and producer (b. 1945)
- 2006 – Thierry Fortineau, French actor (b. 1953)
- 2006 – Akira Ifukube, Japanese composer (b. 1914)
- 2007 – Anna Nicole Smith, American model and actress (b. 1967)
- 2007 – Ian Stevenson, Canadian-American psychiatrist and academic (b. 1918)
- 2008 – Ruby Garrard Woodson, American educator and cultural historian (b. 1931)
- 2010 – John Murtha, American colonel and politician (b. 1932)
- 2011 – Tony Malinosky, American baseball player and soldier (b. 1909)
- 2012 – Wando, Brazilian singer-songwriter (b. 1945)
- 2012 – Gunther Plaut, German-Canadian rabbi and author (b. 1912)
- 2012 – Luis Alberto Spinetta, Argentinian singer-songwriter (b. 1950)
- 2013 – Giovanni Cheli, Italian cardinal (b. 1918)
- 2013 – James DePreist, American conductor and educator (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Maureen Dragone, American journalist and author (b. 1920)
- 2013 – Nevin Scrimshaw, American scientist (b. 1918)
- 2014 – Els Borst, Dutch physician and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1932)
- 2014 – Maicon Pereira de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer (b. 1988)
- 2014 – Nancy Holt, American sculptor and painter (b. 1938)
- 2015 – Rauni-Leena Luukanen-Kilde, Finnish physician and parapsychologist (b. 1939)
- 2016 – Amelia Bence, Argentine actress (b. 1914)
- 2016 – Nida Fazli, Indian poet and songwriter (b. 1938)
- 2016 – Margaret Forster, English historian, author, and critic (b. 1938)
- 2016 – Violette Verdy, French ballerina (b. 1933)
- 2017 – Peter Mansfield, English physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1933)
- 2017 – Rina Matsuno, Japanese idol singer (Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku) (b. 1998)
- 2017 – Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, English socialite, television presenter, model, and charity patron (b. 1971)
- 2017 – Alan Simpson, English scriptwriter (b. 1929)
 Holidays and observances on February 8
- Christian feast day:
- Cuthmann of Steyning
- Elffled of Whitby
- Gerolamo Emiliani
- Josephine Bakhita
- Juventius of Pavia
- Meingold of Huy
- Stephen of Muret
- February 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Earliest day on which Feast of Orthodoxy can fall, while March 14 is the latest; celebrated 42 days before Easter. (Orthodoxy)
- Parinirvana Day (some Mahayana Buddhism traditions, most celebrate on February 15)
- Prešeren Day (Slovenia)
- Propose Day
 
 
 
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 January 20 in History
- 250 – Pope Fabian is martyred during the Decian persecution.
- 649 – King Chindasuinth, at the urging of bishop Braulio of Zaragoza, crowns his son Recceswinth as co-ruler of the Visigothic Kingdom.
- 1265 – The first English parliament to include not only Lords but also representatives of the major towns holds its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now commonly known as the “Houses of Parliament”.
- 1320 – Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.
- 1356 – Edward Balliol surrenders his claim to the Scottish throne to Edward III in exchange for an English pension.
- 1523 – Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.
- 1567 – Battle of Rio de Janeiro: Portuguese forces under the command of Estácio de Sá definitively drive the French out of Rio de Janeiro.
- 1576 – The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almanza.
- 1649 – The High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I begins its proceedings.
- 1783 – The Kingdom of Great Britain signed preliminary articles of peace with France, setting the stage to the official end of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War later that year.
- 1785 – Invading Siamese forces attempt to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, but are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong river by the Tây Sơn in the Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút.
- 1788 – The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides that Port Jackson is a more suitable location for a colony.
- 1839 – In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats an alliance between Peru and Bolivia.
- 1841 – Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British.
- 1877 – The last day of the Constantinople Conference results in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.
- 1887 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
- 1921 – The British K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel; all 56 on board die.
- 1921 – The first Constitution of Turkey is adopted, making fundamental changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty.
- 1929 – The first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors, In Old Arizona, is released.
- 1936 – King George V of the United Kingdom dies. His eldest son succeeds to the throne, becoming Edward VIII. The title Prince of Wales is not used for another 22 years.
- 1937 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Nance Garner are sworn in for their second terms as U.S. President and U.S. Vice President; it is the first time a Presidential Inauguration takes place on January 20 since the 20th Amendment changed the dates of presidential terms.
- 1941 – A German officer is killed in Bucharest, Romania, sparking a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard, killing 125 Jews and 30 soldiers.
- 1942 – World War II: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials discuss the implementation of the “Final Solution to the Jewish question”.
- 1945 – World War II: The provisional government of Béla Miklós in Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.
- 1945 – World War II: Germany begins the evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia, a task which will take nearly two months.
- 1949 – Point Four Program a program for economic aid to poor countries announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address for a full term as President.
- 1953 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States of America.
- 1954 – In the United States, the National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
- 1961 – John F. Kennedy is inaugurated the 35th President of the United States of America, becoming the second youngest man to take the office, and the first Catholic.
- 1969 – Richard Nixon is inaugurated the 37th President of the United States of America.
- 1972 – Pakistan launched its nuclear weapons program, a few weeks after its defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War, as well as the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
- 1977 – Jimmy Carter is inaugurated the 39th President of the United States of America.
- 1981 – Ronald Reagan is inaugurated the 40th President of the United States of America. Twenty minutes later, Iran releases 52 American hostages.
- 1986 – In the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
- 1989 – George H. W. Bush is inaugurated the 41st President of the United States of America.
- 1990 – Protests in Azerbaijan, part of the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.
- 1991 – Sudan’s government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country’s Muslim north and Christian south.
- 1992 – Air Inter Flight 148, an Airbus A320-111, crashes into a mountain near Strasbourg, France killing 87 of the 96 people on board.
- 1993 – Bill Clinton is inaugurated the 42nd President of the United States of America.
- 2001 – George W. Bush is inaugurated the 43rd President of the United States of America.
- 2001 – President of the Philippines Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent 4-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
- 2009 – Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becoming the first African-American President of the United States.
- 2009 – A protest movement in Iceland culminates as the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests start.
- 2017 – Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America, becoming the oldest person to assume the office.
- 2018 – A group of four or five gunmen attack The Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, sparking a 12-hour battle. The attack kills 40 people and injures many others.
 Births on January 20
- 225 – Gordian III, Roman emperor (d. 244)
- 1029 – Alp Arslan, Seljuk sultan (probable; d. 1072)
- 1292 – Elizabeth of Bohemia, queen consort of Bohemia (d. 1330)
- 1436 – Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Japanese shōgun (d. 1490)
- 1488 – John George, Marquess of Montferrat, Italian noble (d. 1533)
- 1488 – Sebastian Münster, German scholar, cartographer, and cosmographer (d. 1552)
- 1499 – Sebastian Franck, German humanist (probable; d. 1543)
- 1502 – Sebastian de Aparicio, Spanish-Mexican rancher and missionary (d. 1600)
- 1526 – Rafael Bombelli, Italian mathematician (d. 1572)
- 1554 – Sebastian of Portugal (d. 1578)
- 1569 – Heribert Rosweyde, Jesuit hagiographer (d. 1629)
- 1573 – Simon Marius, German astronomer and academic (d. 1624)
- 1586 – Johann Hermann Schein, German composer (d. 1630)
- 1664 – Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian lawyer and jurist (d. 1718)
- 1703 – Joseph-Hector Fiocco, Flemish violinist and composer (d. 1741)
- 1716 – Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, French archaeologist and numismatist (d. 1795)
- 1716 – Charles III of Spain (d. 1788)
- 1732 – Richard Henry Lee, American lawyer and politician, President of the Continental Congress (d. 1794)
- 1741 – Carl Linnaeus the Younger, Swedish botanist and author (d. 1783)
- 1755 – Sir Albemarle Bertie, 1st Baronet, English admiral (d. 1824)
- 1762 – Jérôme-Joseph de Momigny, Belgian-French composer and theorist (d. 1842)
- 1775 – André-Marie Ampère, French physicist and mathematician (d. 1836)
- 1781 – Joseph Hormayr, Baron zu Hortenburg, Austrian-German historian and politician (d. 1848)
- 1783 – Friedrich Dotzauer, German cellist and composer (d. 1860)
- 1799 – Anson Jones, American physician and politician, 5th President of the Republic of Texas (d. 1858)
- 1804 – Eugène Sue, French author and politician (d. 1857)
- 1812 – Thomas Meik, Scottish engineer (d. 1896)
- 1814 – David Wilmot, American politician, sponsor of Wilmot Proviso (d. 1868)
- 1834 – George D. Robinson, American lawyer and politician, 34th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896)
- 1855 – Ernest Chausson, French composer (d. 1899)
- 1856 – Harriot Stanton Blatch, U.S. suffragist and organizer (d. 1940)
- 1865 – Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (d. 1944)
- 1870 – Guillaume Lekeu, Belgian pianist and composer (d. 1894)
- 1873 – Johannes V. Jensen, Danish author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
- 1874 – Steve Bloomer, English footballer and coach (d. 1938)
- 1876 – Josef Hofmann, Polish-American pianist and composer (d. 1957)
- 1878 – Finlay Currie, Scottish-English actor (d. 1968)
- 1879 – Ruth St. Denis, American dancer and educator (d. 1968)
- 1880 – Walter W. Bacon, American accountant and politician, 60th Governor of Delaware (d. 1962)
- 1882 – Johnny Torrio, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1957)
- 1883 – Enoch L. Johnson, American mob boss (d. 1968)
- 1883 – Forrest Wilson, American journalist and author (d. 1942)
- 1888 – Lead Belly, American folk/blues musician and songwriter (d. 1949)
- 1889 – Allan Haines Loughead, American engineer and businessman, founded the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company (d. 1969)
- 1891 – Mischa Elman, Ukrainian-American violinist (d. 1967)
- 1893 – Georg Åberg, Swedish triple jumper (d. 1946)
- 1894 – Harold Gray, American cartoonist, created Little Orphan Annie (d. 1968)
- 1894 – Walter Piston, American composer, theorist, and academic (d. 1976)
- 1895 – Gábor Szegő, Hungarian mathematician and academic (d. 1985)
- 1896 – George Burns, American actor, comedian, and producer (d. 1996)
- 1898 – U Razak, Burmese educator and politician (d. 1947)
- 1899 – Clarice Cliff, English potter (d. 1972)
- 1899 – Kenjiro Takayanagi, Japanese engineer (d. 1990)
- 1900 – Dorothy Annan, English painter, potter, and muralist (d. 1983)
- 1900 – Colin Clive, English actor (d. 1937)
- 1902 – Leon Ames, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1902 – Kevin Barry, Irish Republican Army volunteer (d. 1920)
- 1906 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate (d. 1975)
- 1907 – Paula Wessely, Austrian actress and producer (d. 2000)
- 1908 – Fleur Cowles, American author and illustrator (d. 2009)
- 1909 – Gōgen Yamaguchi, Japanese martial artist (d. 1989)
- 1910 – Joy Adamson, Austria-born Kenyan painter and author (d. 1980)
- 1913 – W. Cleon Skousen, American author and academic (d. 2006)
- 1915 – Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Pakistani businessman and politician, 7th President of Pakistan (d. 2006)
- 1918 – Juan García Esquivel, Mexican pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2002)
- 1918 – Nevin Scrimshaw, American scientist (d. 2013)
- 1920 – Federico Fellini, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1993)
- 1920 – DeForest Kelley, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1920 – Thorleif Schjelderup, Norwegian ski jumper and author (d. 2006)
- 1921 – Telmo Zarra, Spanish footballer (d. 2006)
- 1922 – Ray Anthony, American trumpet player, composer, bandleader, and actor
- 1922 – Don Mankiewicz, American author and screenwriter (d. 2015)
- 1923 – Slim Whitman, American country and western singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2013)
- 1924 – Yvonne Loriod, French pianist and composer (d. 2010)
- 1925 – Jamiluddin Aali, Pakistani poet, playwright, and critic (d. 2015)
- 1925 – Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan priest, poet, and politician (d. 2020)
- 1926 – Patricia Neal, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1926 – David Tudor, American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
- 1927 – Qurratulain Hyder, Indian-Pakistani journalist and academic (d. 2007)
- 1928 – Antonio de Almeida, French conductor and musicologist (d. 1997)
- 1929 – Arte Johnson, American actor and comedian (d. 2019)
- 1929 – Masaharu Kawakatsu, Japanese biologist
- 1929 – Fireball Roberts, American race car driver (d. 1964)
- 1930 – Buzz Aldrin, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
- 1931 – David Lee, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1931 – Hachidai Nakamura, Japanese pianist and composer (d. 1992)
- 1932 – Lou Fontinato, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2016)
- 1934 – Hennie Aucamp, South African poet, author, and academic (d. 2014)
- 1934 – Tom Baker, English actor
- 1935 – Dorothy Provine, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2010)
- 1937 – Bailey Howell, American basketball player
- 1938 – Derek Dougan, Irish-English footballer and journalist (d. 2007)
- 1939 – Paul Coverdell, American captain and politician (d. 2000)
- 1939 – Chandra Wickramasinghe, Sri Lankan-English mathematician, astronomer, and biologist
- 1940 – Carol Heiss, American figure skater and actress
- 1940 – Krishnam Raju, Indian actor and politician
- 1940 – Mandé Sidibé, Malian economist and politician, Prime Minister of Mali (d. 2009)
- 1942 – Linda Moulton Howe, American journalist and producer
- 1944 – José Luis Garci, Spanish director and producer
- 1944 – Farhad Mehrad, Iranian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2002)
- 1944 – Pat Parker, African American poet
- 1945 – Christopher Martin-Jenkins, English journalist and sportscaster (d. 2013)
- 1945 – Eric Stewart, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1946 – David Lynch, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1946 – Vladimír Merta, Czech singer-songwriter, guitarist, and journalist
- 1947 – Cyrille Guimard, French cyclist and sportscaster
- 1948 – Nancy Kress, American author and academic
- 1948 – Natan Sharansky, Ukrainian-Israeli physicist and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Israel
- 1949 – Göran Persson, Swedish lawyer and politician, 31st Prime Minister of Sweden
- 1950 – Daniel Benzali, Brazilian-American actor
- 1950 – William Mgimwa, Tanzanian banker and politician, 13th Tanzanian Minister of Finance (d. 2014)
- 1950 – Mahamane Ousmane, Nigerien politician, President of Niger
- 1951 – Iván Fischer, Hungarian conductor and composer
- 1952 – Nikos Sideris, Greek psychiatrist and poet
- 1952 – Paul Stanley, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1952 – John Witherow, South African-English journalist and author
- 1953 – Jeffrey Epstein, American financier and convicted sex offender (d. 2019)
- 1954 – Alison Seabeck, English lawyer and politician
- 1955 – McKeeva Bush, Caymanian politician, Premier of the Cayman Islands
- 1956 – Maria Larsson, Swedish educator and politician, Swedish Minister of Health and Social Affairs
- 1956 – Bill Maher, American comedian, political commentator, media critic, television host, and producer
- 1956 – John Naber, American swimmer
- 1957 – Andy Sheppard, English saxophonist and composer
- 1958 – Lorenzo Lamas, American actor, director, and producer
- 1959 – Tami Hoag, American author
- 1959 – R. A. Salvatore, American author
- 1960 – Apa Sherpa, Nepalese-American mountaineer
- 1960 – Scott Thunes, American bass player
- 1960 – Will Wright, American video game designer, co-founded Maxis
- 1963 – James Denton, American actor
- 1963 – Mark Ryden, American painter and illustrator
- 1964 – Ozzie Guillén, Venezuelan-American baseball player and manager
- 1964 – Ron Harper, American basketball player and coach
- 1964 – Jack Lewis, American soldier and author
- 1964 – Kazushige Nojima, Japanese screenwriter and songwriter
- 1964 – Aquilino Pimentel III, Filipino lawyer and politician
- 1964 – Fareed Zakaria, Indian-American journalist and author
- 1965 – Colin Calderwood, Scottish footballer defender and manager
- 1965 – Sophie, Countess of Wessex
- 1965 – Warren Joyce, English footballer and manager
- 1965 – John Michael Montgomery, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1965 – Anton Weissenbacher, Romanian footballer
- 1966 – Rainn Wilson, American actor
- 1967 – Stacey Dash, American actress and television journalist
- 1967 – Kellyanne Conway, American political strategist and pundit
- 1968 – Nick Anderson, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1968 – Junior Murray, Grenadian cricketer
- 1969 – Patrick K. Kroupa, American computer hacker and activist, co-founded MindVox
- 1969 – Nicky Wire, Welsh singer-songwriter and bass player
- 1970 – Edwin McCain, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1970 – Skeet Ulrich, American actor
- 1971 – Derrick Green, American singer
- 1971 – Gary Barlow, English singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
- 1971 – Ger McDonnell, Irish mountaineer and engineer (d. 2008)
- 1971 – Jung Woong-in, South Korean actor
- 1971 – Questlove, American drummer, DJ, and producer
- 1971 – Wakanohana Masaru, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 66th Yokozuna
- 1972 – Nikki Haley, American accountant and politician, 116th Governor of South Carolina
- 1973 – Stephen Crabb, Scottish-Welsh politician, Secretary of State for Wales
- 1973 – Queen Mathilde of Belgium
- 1974 – David Dei, Italian footballer and coach
- 1975 – Norberto Fontana, Argentinian racing driver
- 1975 – Zac Goldsmith, English journalist and politician
- 1976 – Kirsty Gallacher, Scottish journalist and sportscaster
- 1976 – Michael Myers, American football player
- 1976 – Gretha Smit, Dutch speed skater
- 1977 – Paul Adams, South African cricketer and coach
- 1978 – Salvatore Aronica, Italian footballer
- 1978 – Sonja Kesselschläger, German heptathlete
- 1978 – Allan Søgaard, Danish footballer
- 1979 – Choo Ja-hyun, South Korean actress
- 1979 – Will Young, English singer-songwriter and actor
- 1980 – Karl Anderson, American wrestler
- 1980 – Philippe Cousteau, Jr., American-French oceanographer and journalist
- 1980 – Philippe Gagnon, Canadian swimmer
- 1980 – Kim Jeong-hoon, South Korean singer and actor
- 1980 – Petra Rampre, Slovenian tennis player
- 1980 – Matthew Tuck, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1981 – Freddy Guzmán, Dominican baseball player
- 1981 – Owen Hargreaves, English footballer
- 1981 – Jason Richardson, American basketball player
- 1982 – Ruchi Sanghvi, Indian computer engineer
- 1982 – Fredrik Strømstad, Norwegian footballer
- 1983 – Geovany Soto, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
- 1983 – Mari Yaguchi, Japanese singer and actress
- 1984 – Malek Jaziri, Tunisian tennis player
- 1985 – Marina Inoue, Japanese voice actress and singer
- 1985 – Tanel Sokk, Estonian basketball player
- 1987 – Janin Lindenberg, German sprinter
- 1987 – Marco Simoncelli, Italian motorcycle racer (d. 2011)
- 1988 – Uwa Elderson Echiéjilé, Nigerian footballer
- 1988 – Jeffrén Suárez, Spanish footballer
- 1989 – Nick Foles, American football player
- 1989 – Washington Santana da Silva, Brazilian footballer
- 1989 – Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1990 – Ray Thompson, Australian rugby league player
- 1991 – Ciara Hanna, American actress and model
- 1991 – Tom Cairney, Scottish footballer, midfielder
- 1991 – Polona Hercog, Slovenian tennis player
- 1991 – Jolyon Palmer, English racing driver
- 1992 – Jorge Zárate, Mexican footballer
- 1993 – Lorenzo Crisetig, Italian footballer
- 1994 – Seán Kavanagh, Irish footballer, defender
- 1994 – Lucas Piazon, Brazilian footballer
- 1995 – Joey Badass, American rapper and actor
- 1995 – Calum Chambers, English footballer, defender
 Deaths on January 20
- 820 – Al-Shafi‘i, Arab scholar and jurist (b. 767)
- 842 – Theophilos, Byzantine emperor (b. 813)
- 882 – Louis the Younger, king of the East Frankish Kingdom
- 924 – Li Jitao, Chinese general of Later Tang
- 928 – Zhao Guangfeng, Chinese official and chancellor
- 1029 – Heonae, Korean queen and regent (b. 964)
- 1095 – Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester
- 1156 – Henry, English bishop and saint
- 1189 – Shi Zong, Chinese emperor of Jin (b. 1123)
- 1191 – Frederick VI, duke of Swabia (b. 1167)
- 1191 – Theobald V, count of Blois (b. 1130)
- 1265 – John Maunsell, English Lord Chancellor
- 1336 – John de Bohun, 5th Earl of Hereford (b. 1306)
- 1343 – Robert, king of Naples (b. 1275)
- 1479 – John II, king of Sicily (b. 1398)
- 1568 – Myles Coverdale, English bishop and translator (b. 1488)
- 1612 – Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1552)
- 1663 – Isaac Ambrose, English minister and author (b. 1604)
- 1666 – Anne of Austria, Queen and regent of France (b. 1601)
- 1707 – Humphrey Hody, English scholar and theologian (b. 1659)
- 1709 – François de la Chaise, French priest (b. 1624)
- 1751 – John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, English politician (b. 1665)
- 1770 – Charles Yorke, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1722)
- 1779 – David Garrick, English actor, producer, playwright, and manager (b. 1717)
- 1810 – Benjamin Chew, American lawyer and judge (b. 1721)
- 1819 – Charles IV, Spanish king (b. 1748)
- 1837 – John Soane, English architect, designed the Bank of England (b. 1753)
- 1841 – Jørgen Jørgensen, Danish explorer (b. 1780)
- 1841 – Minh Mạng, Vietnamese emperor (b. 1791)
- 1848 – Christian VIII, Danish king (b. 1786)
- 1850 – Adam Oehlenschläger, Danish poet and playwright (b. 1779)
- 1852 – Ōnomatsu Midorinosuke, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 6th Yokozuna (b. 1794)
- 1873 – Basil Moreau, French priest, founded the Congregation of Holy Cross (b. 1799)
- 1875 – Jean-François Millet, French painter and educator (b. 1814)
- 1891 – Kalākaua, king of Hawaii (b. 1836)
- 1900 – John Ruskin, English painter and critic (b. 1819)
- 1901 – Zénobe Gramme, Belgian engineer, invented the Gramme machine (b. 1826)
- 1907 – Agnes Mary Clerke, Irish astronomer and author (b. 1842)
- 1908 – John Ordronaux, American surgeon and academic (b. 1830)
- 1913 – José Guadalupe Posada, Mexican engraver and illustrator (b. 1852)
- 1915 – Arthur Guinness, 1st Baron Ardilaun, Irish businessman, philanthropist, and politician (b. 1840)
- 1920 – Georg Lurich, Estonian-Russian wrestler and strongman (b. 1876)
- 1921 – Mary Watson Whitney, American astronomer and academic (b. 1847)
- 1924 – Henry “Ivo” Crapp, Australian footballer and umpire (b. 1872)
- 1936 – George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1865)
- 1940 – Omar Bundy, American general (b. 1861)
- 1944 – James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist and academic (b. 1860)
- 1947 – Josh Gibson, American baseball player (b. 1911)
- 1947 – Andrew Volstead, American member of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1860)
- 1954 – Warren Bardsley, Australian cricketer (b. 1882)
- 1954 – Fred Root, English cricketer and umpire (b. 1890)
- 1955 – Robert P. T. Coffin, American author and poet (b. 1892)
- 1962 – Robinson Jeffers, American poet and philosopher (b. 1887)
- 1965 – Alan Freed, American radio host (b. 1922)
- 1971 – Broncho Billy Anderson, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1880)
- 1971 – Minanogawa Tōzō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 34th Yokozuna (b. 1903)
- 1973 – Lorenz Böhler, Austrian physician and surgeon (b. 1885)
- 1973 – Amílcar Cabral, Guinea Bissauan-Cape Verdian engineer and politician (b. 1924)
- 1977 – Dimitrios Kiousopoulos, Greek jurist and politician, 151st Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1892)
- 1980 – William Roberts, English soldier and painter (b. 1895)
- 1983 – Garrincha, Brazilian footballer (b. 1933)
- 1984 – Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (b. 1904)
- 1988 – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pakistani activist and politician (b. 1890)
- 1988 – Dora Stratou, Greek dancer and choreographer (b. 1903)
- 1989 – Alamgir Kabir, Bangladeshi director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1938)
- 1990 – Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (b. 1907)
- 1993 – Audrey Hepburn, British actress and humanitarian activist (b. 1929)
- 1994 – Matt Busby, Scottish footballer and coach (b. 1909)
- 1994 – Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, first Kenyan Vice-President (b. 1911)
- 1996 – Gerry Mulligan, American saxophonist and composer (b. 1927)
- 2002 – Carrie Hamilton, American actress and singer (b. 1963)
- 2003 – Al Hirschfeld, American painter and illustrator (b. 1903)
- 2003 – Nedra Volz, American actress (b. 1908)
- 2004 – Alan Brown, English racing driver (b. 1919)
- 2004 – T. Nadaraja, Sri Lankan lawyer and academic (b. 1917)
- 2005 – Per Borten, Norwegian lawyer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1913)
- 2005 – Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, Polish journalist and politician (b. 1913)
- 2005 – Miriam Rothschild, English zoologist, entomologist, and author (b. 1908)
- 2009 – Stéphanos II Ghattas, Egyptian patriarch (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Etta James, American singer-songwriter (b. 1938)
- 2012 – John Levy, American bassist and manager (b. 1912)
- 2012 – Ioannis Kefalogiannis, Greek politician, Greek Minister of the Interior (b. 1933)
- 2012 – Alejandro Rodriguez, Venezuelan-American pediatrician and psychiatrist (b. 1918)
- 2013 – Pavlos Matesis, Greek author and playwright (b. 1933)
- 2013 – Toyo Shibata, Japanese poet and author (b. 1911)
- 2014 – Claudio Abbado, Italian conductor (b. 1933)
- 2014 – Otis G. Pike, American judge and politician (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Jonas Trinkūnas, Lithuanian ethnologist and academic (b. 1939)
- 2015 – Edgar Froese, Russian-German keyboard player and songwriter (b. 1944)
- 2016 – Mykolas Burokevičius, Lithuanian carpenter and politician (b. 1927)
- 2016 – Edmonde Charles-Roux, French journalist and author (b. 1920)
- 2018 – Paul Bocuse, French chef (b. 1926)
- 2018 – Naomi Parker Fraley, American naval machiner (b. 1921)
- 2020 – Jaroslav Kubera, Czech politician (b. 1947)
- 2020 – Tom Fisher Railsback, American politician, member of the Illinois and U.S. House of Representatives
 Holidays and observances on January 20
- Armed Forces Day (Mali)
- Army Day (Laos)
- Christian feast day:
- Abadios
- Blessed Basil Moreau
- Eustochia Smeralda Calafato
- Euthymius the Great
- Fabian
- Manchán of Lemanaghan
- Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception Brando
- Richard Rolle (Church of England)
- Sebastian
- Stephen Min Kuk-ka (one of The Korean Martyrs)
- January 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Heroes’ Day (Cape Verde)
- Inauguration Day, held every four years in odd-numbered years immediately following years divisible by 4, except for the public ceremony when January 20 falls on Sunday (the public ceremony is held the following day; however, the terms of offices still begin on the 20th) (United States of America, not a federal holiday for all government employees but only for those working in the Capital region)
- Martyrs’ Day (Azerbaijan)
 
 
 
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 January 14 in History
- 1236 – King Henry III of England marries Eleanor of Provence.
- 1301 – Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Árpád dynasty in Hungary.
- 1343 – Arnošt of Pardubice becomes the last bishop of Prague and, subsequently, the first Archbishop of Prague.
- 1539 – Spain annexes Cuba.
- 1639 – The “Fundamental Orders”, the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut.
- 1761 – The Third Battle of Panipat is fought in India between the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Marathas.
- 1784 – American Revolutionary War: Ratification Day, United States – Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.
- 1814 – Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes the Kingdom of Norway to Charles XIII of Sweden in return for Pomerania.
- 1822 – Greek War of Independence: Acrocorinth is captured by Theodoros Kolokotronis and Demetrios Ypsilantis.
- 1858 – Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt made by Felice Orsini and his accomplices in Paris.
- 1907 – An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000 people.
- 1911 – Roald Amundsen’s South Pole expedition makes landfall on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.
- 1939 – Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
- 1943 – World War II: Japan begins Operation Ke, the successful operation to evacuate its forces from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
- 1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.
- 1950 – The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.
- 1952 – NBC’s long-running morning news program Today debuts, with host Dave Garroway.
- 1953 – Josip Broz Tito is inaugurated as the first President of Yugoslavia.
- 1954 – The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.
- 1957 – Kripalu Maharaj was named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher) after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars.
- 1960 – The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country’s central bank and banknote issuing authority, is established.
- 1967 – Counterculture of the 1960s: The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco, California’s Golden Gate Park, launching the Summer of Love.
- 1967 – The New York Times reports that the U.S. Army is conducting secret germ warfare experiments.
- 1969 – USS Enterprise fire: An accidental explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 28 people.
- 1972 – Queen Margrethe II of Denmark ascends the throne, the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513.
- 1973 – Elvis Presley’s concert Aloha from Hawaii is broadcast live via satellite, and sets the record as the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history.
- 1993 – In Poland’s worst peacetime maritime disaster, ferry MS Jan Heweliusz sinks off the coast of Rügen, drowning 55 passengers and crew; nine crew-members are saved.
- 2000 – A United Nations tribunal sentences five Roman Catholic Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years in prison for the 1993 killing of more than 100 Bosnian Muslims.
- 2004 – The national flag of the Republic of Georgia, the so-called “five cross flag”, is restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.
- 2010 – Yemen declares an open war against the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
- 2011 – Former president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees his country to Saudi Arabia after a series of street demonstrations against his regime and corrupt policies, asking for freedom, rights and democracy, considered as the anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution and the birth of the Arab Spring.
 Births onJanuary 14
- 83 BC – Mark Antony, Roman general and politician (d. 30 BCE)
- 1131 – Valdemar I of Denmark (d. 1182)
- 1273 – Joan I of Navarre, queen regnant of Navarre, queen consort of France (d. 1305)
- 1451 – Franchinus Gaffurius, Italian composer and theorist (d. 1522)
- 1477 – Hermann of Wied, German archbishop (d. 1552)
- 1476 – Anne St Leger, Baroness de Ros, English baroness (d. 1526)
- 1507 – Catherine of Austria, Queen of Portugal (d. 1578)
- 1507 – Luca Longhi, Italian painter (d. 1580)
- 1551 – Abu’l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, Grand vizier of emperor Akbar (d. 1602)
- 1552 – Alberico Gentili, Italian-English academic and jurist (d. 1608)
- 1615 – John Biddle, English minister and theologian (d. 1662)
- 1683 – Gottfried Silbermann, German instrument maker (d. 1753)
- 1684 – Johann Matthias Hase, German mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer (d. 1742)
- 1684 – Jean-Baptiste van Loo, French painter (d. 1745)
- 1699 – Jakob Adlung, German organist, historian, and theorist (d. 1762)
- 1700 – Picander, German poet and playwright (d. 1764)
- 1702 – Emperor Nakamikado of Japan (d. 1737)
- 1705 – Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier, French sailor, explorer, and politician (d. 1786)
- 1741 – Benedict Arnold, American-British general (d. 1801)
- 1767 – Maria Theresa of Austria (d. 1827)
- 1780 – Henry Baldwin, American judge and politician (d. 1844)
- 1792 – Christian de Meza, Danish general (d. 1865)
- 1793 – John C. Clark, American lawyer and politician (d. 1852)
- 1798 – Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, Dutch historian, jurist, and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1872)
- 1800 – Ludwig Ritter von Köchel, Austrian composer, botanist, and publisher (d. 1877)
- 1806 – Charles Hotham, English-Australian soldier and politician, 1st Governor of Victoria (d. 1855)
- 1806 – Matthew Fontaine Maury, American astronomer, oceanographer, and historian (d. 1873)
- 1818 – Zachris Topelius, Finnish author and journalist (d. 1898)
- 1819 – Dimitrie Bolintineanu, Romanian poet and politician (d. 1872)
- 1824 – Vladimir Stasov, Russian critic (d. 1906)
- 1834 – Duncan Gillies, Scottish-Australian politician, 14th Premier of Victoria (d. 1903)
- 1836 – Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter and lithographer (d. 1904)
- 1841 – Berthe Morisot, French painter (d. 1895)
- 1845 – Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, English politician, 34th Governor-General of India (d. 1927)
- 1850 – Pierre Loti, French captain and author (d. 1923)
- 1856 – J. F. Archibald, Australian journalist and publisher, co-founded The Bulletin (d. 1919)
- 1861 – Mehmed VI, Ottoman sultan (d. 1926)
- 1862 – Carrie Derick, Canadian botanist and geneticist (d. 1941)
- 1863 – Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa, Portuguese general and politician, 10th President of Portugal (d. 1929)
- 1863 – Richard F. Outcault, American author and illustrator (d. 1928)
- 1869 – Robert Fournier-Sarlovèze, French polo player and politician (d. 1937)
- 1870 – George Pearce, Australian carpenter and politician (d. 1952)
- 1875 – Albert Schweitzer, French-Gabonese physician and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
- 1882 – Hendrik Willem van Loon, Dutch-American historian and journalist (d. 1944)
- 1883 – Nina Ricci, Italian-French fashion designer (d. 1970)
- 1886 – Hugh Lofting, English author and poet, created Doctor Dolittle (d. 1947)
- 1887 – Hugo Steinhaus, Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1972)
- 1892 – Martin Niemöller, German pastor and theologian (d. 1984)
- 1892 – Hal Roach, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1992)
- 1892 – George Wilson, English footballer (d. 1961)
- 1894 – Ecaterina Teodoroiu, Romanian soldier and nurse (d. 1917)
- 1896 – John Dos Passos, American novelist, poet, and playwright (d. 1970)
- 1897 – Hasso von Manteuffel, German general and politician (d. 1978)
- 1899 – Carlos P. Romulo, Filipino soldier and politician, President of the United Nations General Assembly (d. 1985)
- 1901 – Bebe Daniels, American actress (d. 1971)
- 1901 – Alfred Tarski, Polish-American mathematician and philosopher (d. 1983)
- 1904 – Cecil Beaton, English photographer, painter, and costume designer (d. 1980)
- 1904 – Emily Hahn, American journalist and author (d. 1997)
- 1904 – Babe Siebert, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1939)
- 1905 – Mildred Albert, American fashion commentator, TV and radio personality, and fashion show producer (d. 1991)
- 1905 – Takeo Fukuda, Japanese politician, 67th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1995)
- 1906 – William Bendix, American actor (d. 1964)
- 1907 – Georges-Émile Lapalme, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1985)
- 1908 – Russ Columbo, American singer, violinist, and actor (d. 1934)
- 1909 – Brenda Forbes, English-American actress (d. 1996)
- 1909 – Joseph Losey, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1984)
- 1911 – Anatoly Rybakov, Russian-American author (d. 1998)
- 1912 – Tillie Olsen, American short story writer (d. 2007)
- 1914 – Harold Russell, Canadian-American soldier and actor (d. 2002)
- 1914 – Selahattin Ülkümen, Turkish diplomat (d. 2003)
- 1915 – Mark Goodson, American game show producer, created Family Feud and The Price Is Right (d. 1992)
- 1919 – Giulio Andreotti, Italian journalist and politician, 41st Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2013)
- 1919 – Andy Rooney, American soldier, journalist, critic, and television personality (d. 2011)
- 1920 – Bertus de Harder, Dutch footballer and manager (d. 1982)
- 1921 – Murray Bookchin, American author and philosopher (d. 2006)
- 1921 – Kenneth Bulmer, American author (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Diana Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington (d. 2010)
- 1923 – Gerald Arpino, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2008)
- 1923 – Fred Beckey, American mountaineer and author (d. 2017)
- 1924 – Carole Cook, American actress and singer
- 1925 – Jean-Claude Beton, Algerian-French engineer and businessman, founded Orangina (d. 2013)
- 1925 – Moscelyne Larkin, American ballerina (d. 2012)
- 1925 – Yukio Mishima, Japanese author, poet, and playwright (d. 1970)
- 1926 – Frank Aletter, American actor (d. 2009)
- 1926 – Warren Mitchell, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2015)
- 1926 – Tom Tryon, American actor and author (d. 1991)
- 1927 – Zuzana Růžičková, Czech harpsichord player (d. 2017)
- 1928 – Lars Forssell, Swedish author, poet, and songwriter (d. 2007)
- 1928 – Hans Kornberg, German-English biologist and academic (d. 2019)
- 1928 – Garry Winogrand, American photographer and author (d. 1984)
- 1930 – Johnny Grande, American pianist and accordion player (d. 2006)
- 1930 – Kenny Wheeler, Canadian-English trumpet player and composer (d. 2014)
- 1931 – Frank Costigan, Australian lawyer and politician (d. 2009)
- 1931 – Martin Holdgate, English biologist and academic
- 1932 – Don Garlits, American race car driver and engineer
- 1933 – Stan Brakhage, American director and producer (d. 2003)
- 1934 – Richard Briers, English actor (d. 2013)
- 1934 – Alberto Rodriguez Larreta, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1977)
- 1936 – Clarence Carter, American blues and soul singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer
- 1937 – J. Bernlef, Dutch author and poet (d. 2012)
- 1937 – Ken Higgs, English cricketer and coach (d. 2016)
- 1937 – Leo Kadanoff, American physicist and academic (d. 2015)
- 1937 – Rao Gopal Rao, Indian actor, producer, and politician (d. 1994)
- 1937 – Sonny Siebert, American baseball player
- 1937 – Billie Jo Spears, American country singer (d. 2011)
- 1938 – Morihiro Hosokawa, Japanese journalist and politician, 79th Prime Minister of Japan
- 1938 – Jack Jones, American singer and actor
- 1938 – Allen Toussaint, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 2015)
- 1939 – Kurt Moylan, Guamanian businessman and politician, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Guam
- 1940 – Julian Bond, American academic and politician (d. 2015)
- 1940 – Ron Kostelnik, American football player (d. 1993)
- 1940 – Siegmund Nimsgern, German opera singer
- 1940 – Trevor Nunn, English director and composer
- 1940 – Vasilka Stoeva, Bulgarian discus thrower
- 1941 – Nicholas Brooks, English historian (d. 2014)
- 1941 – Faye Dunaway, American actress and producer
- 1941 – Gibby Gilbert, American golfer
- 1941 – Milan Kučan, Slovenian politician, 1st President of Slovenia
- 1942 – Dave Campbell, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1942 – Gerben Karstens, Dutch cyclist
- 1943 – Angelo Bagnasco, Italian cardinal
- 1943 – Mariss Jansons, Latvian conductor (d. 2019)
- 1943 – Shannon Lucid, American biochemist and astronaut
- 1943 – Holland Taylor, American actress and playwright
- 1944 – Marjoe Gortner, American actor and evangelist
- 1944 – Graham Marsh, Australian golfer and architect
- 1944 – Nina Totenberg, American journalist
- 1945 – Kathleen Chalfant, American actress
- 1945 – Maina Gielgud, English ballerina and director
- 1947 – Taylor Branch, American historian and author
- 1947 – Bev Perdue, American educator and politician, 73rd Governor of North Carolina
- 1947 – Bill Werbeniuk, Canadian snooker player (d. 2003)
- 1948 – T Bone Burnett, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1948 – Muhriz of Negeri Sembilan, Yamtuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan
- 1948 – Carl Weathers, American football player and actor
- 1949 – Lawrence Kasdan, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1949 – Mary Robison, American short story writer and novelist
- 1949 – İlyas Salman, Turkish actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1949 – Lamar Williams, American bass player (d. 1983)
- 1950 – Rambhadracharya, Indian religious leader, scholar, and author
- 1950 – Arthur Byron Cover, American author and screenwriter
- 1951 – O. Panneerselvam, Indian politician, 7th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
- 1952 – Sydney Biddle Barrows, American businesswoman and author
- 1952 – Maureen Dowd, American journalist and author
- 1952 – Konstantinos Iosifidis, Greek footballer and manager
- 1952 – Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, Romanian engineer and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Romania
- 1953 – David Clary, English chemist and academic
- 1953 – Denzil Douglas, Caribbean educator and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis
- 1953 – Hans Westerhoff, Dutch biologist and academic
- 1956 – Étienne Daho, Algerian-French singer-songwriter and producer
- 1957 – Anchee Min, Chinese-American painter, photographer, and author
- 1959 – Geoff Tate, German-American singer-songwriter and musician
- 1961 – Rob Hall, New Zealand mountaineer (d. 1996)
- 1963 – Steven Soderbergh, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1964 – Beverly Kinch, English long jumper and sprinter
- 1964 – Shepard Smith, American television journalist
- 1965 – Marc Delissen, Dutch field hockey player, coach, and lawyer
- 1965 – Bob Essensa, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1965 – Slick Rick, English-American rapper and producer
- 1966 – Rob Flello, English lawyer and politician
- 1966 – Terry Angus, English footballer, central defender
- 1966 – Marco Hietala, Finnish singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
- 1966 – Rene Simpson, Canadian-American tennis player (d. 2013)
- 1966 – Dan Schneider, American TV-producer
- 1967 – Leonardo Ortolani, Italian author and illustrator, created Rat-Man
- 1967 – Emily Watson, English actress
- 1968 – LL Cool J, American rapper and actor
- 1968 – Ruel Fox, English-Montserratian footballer, Midfielder, Manager and Chairman
- 1969 – Jason Bateman, American actor, director, and producer
- 1969 – Martin Bicknell, English cricketer
- 1969 – Dave Grohl, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and drummer
- 1971 – Lasse Kjus, Norwegian skier
- 1971 – Bert Konterman, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1971 – Antonios Nikopolidis, Greek footballer and manager
- 1972 – Kyle Brady, American football player and sportscaster
- 1972 – Dion Forster, South African minister, theologian, and author
- 1972 – James Key, English engineer
- 1973 – Giancarlo Fisichella, Italian race car driver
- 1973 – Paul Tisdale, English footballer and manager
- 1974 – David Flitcroft, English footballer and manager
- 1975 – Georgina Cates, English actress
- 1976 – Vincenzo Chianese, Italian footballer
- 1977 – Narain Karthikeyan, Indian race car driver
- 1977 – Terry Ryan, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978 – Shawn Crawford, American sprinter
- 1979 – Karen Elson, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and model
- 1979 – Evans Soligo, Italian footballer
- 1980 – Clive Clarke, Irish footballer
- 1980 – Cory Gibbs, American soccer player
- 1981 – Abdelmalek Cherrad, Algerian footballer
- 1981 – Hyleas Fountain, American heptathlete
- 1981 – Concepción Montaner, Spanish long jumper
- 1981 – Chiharu Niiyama, Japanese actress and model
- 1981 – Jadranka Đokić, Croatian actress
- 1982 – Braith Anasta, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
- 1982 – Marc Broussard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1982 – Chris Heighington, Australian-English rugby league player
- 1982 – Léo Lima, Brazilian footballer
- 1982 – Thomas Longosiwa, Kenyan runner
- 1982 – Víctor Valdés, Spanish footballer
- 1983 – Cesare Bovo, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Jason Krejza, Australian cricketer
- 1984 – Erick Aybar, American baseball player
- 1984 – Erika Matsuo, Japanese violinist
- 1984 – Mike Pelfrey, American baseball player
- 1985 – Joel Rosario, Dominican-American jockey
- 1985 – Shawn Sawyer, Canadian figure skater
- 1986 – Yohan Cabaye, French footballer
- 1986 – Alessio Cossu, Italian footballer
- 1987 – Atsushi Hashimoto, Japanese actor
- 1987 – Jess Fishlock, Welsh footballer
- 1988 – Kacey Barnfield, English actress
- 1988 – Jack P. Shepherd, English actor
- 1989 – Frankie Bridge, English singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1989 – Adam Clayton, English footballer
- 1989 – Mattia Marchi, Italian footballer
- 1989 – Liu Xiaodong, Chinese footballer
- 1990 – Lelisa Desisa, Ethiopian runner
- 1990 – Grant Gustin, American actor and singer
- 1990 – Áron Szilágyi, Hungarian fencer
- 1992 – Robbie Brady, Irish footballer
- 1992 – Chieh-Yu Hsu, American tennis player
- 1993 – Daniel Bessa, Brazilian footballer
- 1994 – Kane Elgey, Australian rugby league player
- 1994 – Abi Phillips, English singer-songwriter and actress
- 1994 – Kai, South Korean singer, model, actor and dancer
- 1995 – Georgios Diamantakos, Greek basketball player
- 1995 – Alex Johnston, Australian rugby league player
 Deaths on January 14
- 769 – Cui Huan, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
- 927 – Wang Yanhan, king of Min (Ten Kingdoms)
- 937 – Zhang Yanlang, Chinese official
- 973 – Ekkehard I, Frankish monk and poet
- 1092 – Vratislaus II of Bohemia
- 1163 – Ladislaus II of Hungary (b. 1131)
- 1236 – Saint Sava, Serbian archbishop and saint (b. 1175)
- 1301 – Andrew III of Hungary (b. 1265)
- 1331 – Odoric of Pordenone, Italian priest and explorer (b. 1286)
- 1465 – Thomas Beckington, English statesman and prelate
- 1476 – John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk (b. 1444)
- 1555 – Jacques Dubois, French anatomist (b. 1478)
- 1640 – Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, English lawyer, judge, and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (b. 1578)
- 1648 – Caspar Barlaeus, Dutch historian, poet, and theologian (b. 1584)
- 1676 – Francesco Cavalli, Italian organist and composer (b. 1602)
- 1679 – Jacques de Billy, French mathematician and academic (b. 1602)
- 1701 – Tokugawa Mitsukuni, Japanese daimyō (b. 1628)
- 1742 – Edmond Halley, English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist (b. 1656)
- 1753 – George Berkeley, Anglo-Irish philosopher and author (b. 1685)
- 1766 – Frederick V of Denmark (b. 1723)
- 1776 – Edward Cornwallis, English general and politician, Governor of Gibraltar (b. 1713)
- 1786 – Michael Arne, English organist and composer (b. 1741)
- 1786 – Meshech Weare, American lawyer and politician, 1st Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1713)
- 1823 – Athanasios Kanakaris, Greek politician (b. 1760)
- 1825 – George Dance the Younger, English architect and surveyor (b. 1741)
- 1833 – Seraphim of Sarov, Russian monk and saint (b. 1759)
- 1867 – Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French painter and illustrator (b. 1780)
- 1874 – Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist and academic, invented the Reis telephone (b. 1834)
- 1883 – Napoléon Coste, French guitarist and composer (b. 1806)
- 1888 – Stephen Heller, Hungarian pianist and composer (b. 1813)
- 1889 – Ema Pukšec, Croatian soprano (b. 1834)
- 1892 – Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (b. 1864)
- 1892 – Alexander J. Davis, American architect (b. 1803)
- 1898 – Lewis Carroll, English novelist, poet, and mathematician (b. 1832)
- 1901 – Mandell Creighton, English bishop and historian (b. 1843)
- 1901 – Charles Hermite, French mathematician and theorist (b. 1822)
- 1905 – Ernst Abbe, German physicist and engineer (b. 1840)
- 1907 – Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet, Scottish soldier and politician, 6th Governor of New Zealand (b. 1832)
- 1908 – Holger Drachmann, Danish poet and playwright (b. 1846)
- 1915 – Richard Meux Benson, English priest and saint, founded the Society of St. John the Evangelist (b. 1824)
- 1919 – Platon, Estonian bishop and saint (b. 1869)
- 1920 – John Francis Dodge, American businessman, co-founded the Dodge Automobile Company (b. 1864)
- 1926 – August Sedláček, Czech historian and author (b. 1843)
- 1934 – Ioan Cantacuzino, Romanian physician and bacteriologist (b. 1863)
- 1937 – Jaishankar Prasad, Indian poet, author, and playwright (b. 1889)
- 1942 – Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and author (b. 1883)
- 1943 – Laura E. Richards, American author and poet (b. 1850)
- 1944 – Mehmet Emin Yurdakul, Turkish author and politician (b. 1869)
- 1949 – Harry Stack Sullivan, American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (b. 1892)
- 1951 – Gregorios Xenopoulos, Greek author, journalist, and playwright (b. 1867)
- 1952 – Artur Kapp, Estonian composer and conductor (b. 1878)
- 1957 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (b. 1899)
- 1959 – Eivind Berggrav, Norwegian bishop and translator (b. 1884)
- 1961 – Barry Fitzgerald, Irish actor (b. 1888)
- 1962 – M. Visvesvaraya, Indian engineer, scholar, and politician (b. 1860)
- 1965 – Jeanette MacDonald, American actress and singer (b. 1903)
- 1966 – Sergei Korolev, Ukrainian-Russian engineer and academic (b. 1906)
- 1968 – Dorothea Mackellar, Australian poet and author (b. 1885)
- 1970 – William Feller, Croatian-American mathematician and academic (b. 1906)
- 1970 – Asım Gündüz, Turkish general (b. 1880)
- 1972 – Horst Assmy, German footballer (b. 1933)
- 1972 – Frederick IX of Denmark (b. 1899)
- 1976 – Abdul Razak Hussein, Malaysian lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Malaysia (b. 1922)
- 1977 – Anthony Eden, English soldier and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1897)
- 1977 – Peter Finch, English-Australian actor (b. 1916)
- 1977 – Anaïs Nin, French-American essayist and memoirist (b. 1903)
- 1978 – Harold Abrahams, English sprinter, lawyer, and journalist (b. 1899)
- 1978 – Kurt Gödel, Austrian-American mathematician and philosopher (b. 1906)
- 1978 – Robert Heger, German conductor and composer (b. 1886)
- 1978 – Blossom Rock, American actress (b. 1895)
- 1980 – Robert Ardrey, American-South African author, playwright, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
- 1981 – John O’Grady, Australian author and poet (b. 1907)
- 1981 – G. Lloyd Spencer, American lieutenant and politician (b. 1893)
- 1984 – Ray Kroc, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1902)
- 1986 – Donna Reed, American actress (b. 1921)
- 1987 – Turgut Demirağ, Turkish director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1921)
- 1987 – Douglas Sirk, German-Swiss director and screenwriter (b. 1900)
- 1988 – Georgy Malenkov, Russian engineer and politician, 5th Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1902)
- 1991 – Gordon Bryant, Australian educator and politician (b. 1914)
- 1995 – Alexander Gibson, Scottish conductor (b. 1926)
- 1996 – Onno Tunç, Armenian-Turkish composer (b. 1948)
- 1997 – Dollard Ménard, Canadian general (b. 1913)
- 2000 – Leonard Weisgard, American author and illustrator (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Uta Hagen, German-American actress (b. 1919)
- 2004 – Ron O’Neal, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1937)
- 2005 – Charlotte MacLeod, Canadian-American author (b. 1922)
- 2005 – Conroy Maddox, English painter and educator (b. 1912)
- 2005 – Rudolph Moshammer, German fashion designer (b. 1940)
- 2005 – Jesús Rafael Soto, Venezuelan sculptor and painter (b. 1923)
- 2006 – Henri Colpi, French director and screenwriter (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Jim Gary, American sculptor (b. 1939)
- 2006 – Shelley Winters, American actress (b. 1920)
- 2007 – Vassilis Photopoulos, Greek painter, director, and set designer (b. 1934)
- 2008 – Judah Folkman, American physician, biologist, and academic (b. 1933)
- 2009 – Jan Kaplický, Czech architect, designed the Selfridges Building (b. 1937)
- 2009 – Ricardo Montalbán, Mexican actor (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Antonio Fontán, Spanish journalist and academic (b. 1923)
- 2011 – Georgia Carroll, American singer, model and actress (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Txillardegi, Spanish linguist and politician (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Dan Evins, American businessman, founded Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (b. 1935)
- 2012 – Arfa Karim, Pakistani student and computer prodigy, youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in 2004 (b. 1995)
- 2012 – Giampiero Moretti, Italian entrepreneur and race car driver (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Rosy Varte, Armenian-French actress (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Jon Bing, Norwegian author, scholar, and academic (b. 1944)
- 2014 – Juan Gelman, Argentinian poet and author (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Flavio Testi, Italian composer and musicologist (b. 1923)
- 2015 – Bob Boyd, American basketball player and coach (b. 1930)
- 2015 – Zhang Wannian, Chinese general (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Alan Rickman, English actor (b. 1946)
- 2017 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese sociologist, (b. 1906)
- 2018 – Spanky Manikan, Filipino veteran actor (b. 1942)
- 2018 – Cyrille Regis, French Guianan-English footballer (b. 1958)
 Holidays and observances on January 14
- Christian feast day:
- Barba’shmin
- Blessed Devasahayam Pillai (Latin Church)
- Divina Pastora (Barquisimeto)
- Eivind Berggrav (Lutheran)
- Felix of Nola
- Macrina the Elder
- Odoric of Pordenone
- January 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Defender of the Motherland Day (Uzbekistan)
- Feast of the Ass (Medieval Christianity)
- Flag Day (Georgia)
- National Forest Conservation Day (Thailand)
- Old New Year, and its related observance:
- Azhyrnykhua (Abkhazia)
- Yennayer (Berbers)
 
- Ratification Day (United States)
- Revolution and Youth Day (Tunisia)
- Sidereal winter solstice celebrations in South and Southeast Asian cultures; marking the transition of the Sun to Capricorn, and the first day of the six months Uttarayana period. (see April 14):
- Magh Bihu (Assam)
- Maghe Sankranti (Nepal)
- Maghi (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh)
- Makar Sankranti (India)
- The first day of Pongal,
- Uttarayan (Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Rajasthan)