Skip to content
		
	
		
	
		
			
				
					- 
	
				
			
		
				
			
	
		
 May 3 in History
- 752 – Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV of Yaxchilan in modern-day Chiapas, Mexico assumes the throne.
- 1294 – John II becomes Duke of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg.
- 1481 – The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes and causes an estimated 30,000 casualties.
- 1491 – Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptized by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.
- 1616 – Treaty of Loudun ends French civil war.
- 1715 – A total solar eclipse was visible across northern Europe, and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within 4 minutes accuracy.
- 1791 – The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
- 1802 – Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes the Board of Commissioners, the District’s founding government. The “City of Washington” is given a mayor-council form of government.
- 1808 – Finnish War: Sweden loses the fortress of Sveaborg to Russia.
- 1808 – Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are executed near Príncipe Pío hill.
- 1815 – Neapolitan War: Joachim Murat, King of Naples is defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Tolentino, the decisive engagement of the war.
- 1830 – The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened; it is the first steam-hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel.
- 1837 – The University of Athens is founded in Athens, Greece.
- 1848 – The boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Benty Grange helmet is discovered in a barrow on the Benty Grange farm in Derbyshire.
- 1849 – The May Uprising in Dresden begins: The last of the German revolutions of 1848–49.
- 1855 – American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.
- 1860 – Charles XV of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
- 1867 – The Hudson’s Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.
- 1901 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.
- 1913 – Raja Harishchandra, the first full-length Indian feature film, is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.
- 1920 – A Bolshevik coup fails in the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
- 1921 – West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues.
- 1921 – The Government of Ireland Act 1920 is passed, dividing Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.
- 1928 – The Jinan incident begins with the deaths of twelve Japanese civilians by Chinese forces in Jinan, China, which leads to Japanese retaliation and the deaths of over 2,000 Chinese civilians in the following days.
- 1939 – The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
- 1942 – World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.
- 1945 – World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay.
- 1947 – New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
- 1948 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.
- 1951 – London’s Royal Festival Hall opens with the Festival of Britain.
- 1951 – The United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begin their closed door hearings into the relief of Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman.
- 1952 – Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole.
- 1952 – The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network.
- 1957 – Walter O’Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
- 1960 – The Off-Broadway musical comedy The Fantasticks opens in New York City’s Greenwich Village, eventually becoming the longest-running musical of all time.
- 1960 – The Anne Frank House museum opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- 1963 – The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the “Birmingham campaign” protesters. Images of the violent suppression are transmitted worldwide, bringing new-found attention to the civil rights movement.
- 1971 – Erich Honecker becomes First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, remaining in power until 1989
- 1973 – The 108-story Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1,451 feet as the world’s tallest building.
- 1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial email (which would later become known as “spam”) is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
- 1986 – Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes on Air Lanka Flight 512 at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.
- 1987 – A crash by Bobby Allison at the Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama fencing at the start-finish line would lead NASCAR to develop the restrictor plate for the following season both at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.
- 1999 – The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City is devastated by an F5 tornado, killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This tornado also produces the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 301 +/- 20 mph (484 +/- 32 km/h).
- 1999 – Infiltration of Pakistani soldiers on Indian side resulted into the kargil war.
- 2000 – The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
- 2001 – The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
- 2002 – An Indian Air Force MiG-21 crashes into a bank in Jalandhar, killing eight and injuring 17.
- 2007 – The 3-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappears in Praia da Luz, Portugal, starting “the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history”.
- 2015 – Two gunmen launch an attempted attack on an anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas, which was held in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
- 2016 – Eighty-eight thousand people were evacuated from their homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada as a wildfire ripped through the community, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings.
 Births on May 3
- 490 – K’an Joy Chitam I, ruler of Palenque (d. 565)
- 612 – Constantine III, Byzantine emperor (d. 641)
- 1238 – Emilia Bicchieri, Italian saint (d. 1314)
- 1276 – Louis, Count of Évreux, son of King Philip III of France (d. 1319)
- 1415 – Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (d. 1495)
- 1428 – Pedro González de Mendoza, Spanish cardinal (d. 1495)
- 1446 – Margaret of York (d. 1503)
- 1461 – Raffaele Riario, Italian cardinal (d. 1521)
- 1469 – Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and philosopher (d. 1527)
- 1479 – Henry V, Duke of Mecklenburg (d. 1552)
- 1481 – Juana de la Cruz Vázquez Gutiérrez, Spanish abbess of the Franciscan Third Order Regular (d. 1534)
- 1536 – Stephan Praetorius, German theologian (d. 1603)
- 1632 – Catherine of St. Augustine, French-Canadian nurse and saint, founded the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec (d. 1668)
- 1662 – Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, German architect, designed the Pillnitz Castle (d. 1736)
- 1678 – Amaro Pargo, Spanish corsair (d. 1747)
- 1695 – Henri Pitot, French physicist and engineer, invented the Pitot tube (d. 1771)
- 1729 – Florian Leopold Gassmann, Czech composer (d. 1774)
- 1761 – August von Kotzebue, German playwright and author (d. 1819)
- 1764 – Princess Élisabeth of France (d. 1794)
- 1768 – Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist and businessman (d. 1838)
- 1783 – José de la Riva Agüero, Peruvian soldier and politician, 1st President of Peru and 2nd President of North Peru (d. 1858)
- 1814 – Adams George Archibald, Canadian lawyer and politician, 4th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (d. 1892)
- 1826 – Charles XV of Sweden (d. 1872)
- 1844 – Richard D’Oyly Carte, English talent agent and composer (d. 1901)
- 1849 – Jacob Riis, Danish-American journalist and photographer (d. 1914)
- 1849 – Bernhard von Bülow, German soldier and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)
- 1854 – George Gore, American baseball player and manager (d. 1933)
- 1859 – August Herrmann, American executive in Major League Baseball (d.1931)
- 1860 – Vito Volterra, Italian mathematician and physicist (d. 1940)
- 1867 – Andy Bowen, American boxer (d. 1894)
- 1867 – J. T. Hearne, English cricketer (d. 1944)
- 1870 – Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1948)
- 1871 – Emmett Dalton, American criminal (d. 1937)
- 1873 – Pavlo Skoropadskyi, German-Ukrainian general and politician, Hetman of Ukraine (d. 1945)
- 1874 – François Coty, French businessman and publisher, founded Coty, Inc. (d. 1934)
- 1874 – Vagn Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer and academic (d. 1954)
- 1877 – Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst and author (d. 1925)
- 1879 – Fergus McMaster, Australian businessman and soldier, co-founded Qantas (d. 1950)
- 1886 – Marcel Dupré, French organist and composer (d. 1971)
- 1887 – Marika Kotopouli, Greek actress (d. 1954)
- 1889 – Beulah Bondi, American actress (d. 1981)
- 1889 – Gottfried Fuchs, German-Canadian Olympic soccer player (d. 1972)
- 1891 – Tadeusz Peiper, Polish poet and critic (d. 1969)
- 1891 – Eppa Rixey, American baseball pitcher (d. 1963)
- 1892 – George Paget Thomson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
- 1892 – Jacob Viner, Canadian-American economist and academic (d. 1970)
- 1893 – Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian author (d. 1975)
- 1895 – Cornelius Van Til, Dutch philosopher, theologian, and apologist (d. 1987)
- 1896 – Karl Allmenröder, German soldier and pilot (d. 1917)
- 1896 – V. K. Krishna Menon, Indian lawyer, jurist, and politician, Indian Minister of Defence (d. 1974)
- 1896 – Dodie Smith, English author and playwright (d. 1990)
- 1897 – William Joseph Browne, Canadian lawyer and politician, 20th Solicitor General of Canada (d. 1989)
- 1898 – Septima Poinsette Clark, American educator and activist (d. 1987)
- 1898 – Golda Meir, Ukrainian-Israeli educator and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978)
- 1902 – Alfred Kastler, German-French physicist and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
- 1903 – Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (d. 1977)
- 1905 – Edmund Black, American hammer thrower (d. 1996)
- 1905 – Werner Fenchel, German-Danish mathematician and academic (d. 1988)
- 1905 – Red Ruffing, American baseball pitcher and coach (d. 1986)
- 1906 – Mary Astor, American actress (d. 1987)
- 1906 – René Huyghe, French historian and author (d. 1997)
- 1906 – Anna Roosevelt Halsted, American journalist and author (d. 1975)
- 1906 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican journalist, author, and playwright (d. 2005)
- 1910 – Norman Corwin, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2011)
- 1912 – Virgil Fox, American organist and composer (d. 1980)
- 1912 – May Sarton, American poet, novelist and memoirist (d. 1995)
- 1913 – William Inge, American playwright and novelist (d. 1973)
- 1914 – Georges-Emmanuel Clancier, French journalist, author, and poet (d. 2018)
- 1915 – Stu Hart, Canadian wrestler and trainer, founded Stampede Wrestling (d. 2003)
- 1915 – Richard Lippold, American sculptor and academic (d. 2002)
- 1916 – Léopold Simoneau, Canadian tenor and actor (d. 2006)
- 1917 – Betty Comden, American screenwriter and librettist (d. 2006)
- 1917 – George Gaynes, Finnish-American actor (d. 2016)
- 1918 – Ted Bates, English footballer and manager (d. 2003)
- 1919 – John Cullen Murphy, American soldier and illustrator (d. 2004)
- 1919 – Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist (d. 2014)
- 1920 – John Lewis, American pianist and composer (d. 2001)
- 1921 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (d. 1989)
- 1922 – Len Shackleton, English footballer and journalist (d. 2000)
- 1923 – George Hadjinikos, Greek pianist, conductor, and educator (d. 2015)
- 1923 – Ralph Hall, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (d. 2019)
- 1924 – Yehuda Amichai, German-Israeli author and poet (d. 2000)
- 1924 – Ken Tyrrell, English race car driver, founded Tyrrell Racing (d. 2001)
- 1925 – Jean Séguy, French sociologist and author (d. 2007)
- 1926 – Matt Baldwin, Canadian curler and engineer
- 1928 – Dave Dudley, American singer-songwriter (d. 2003)
- 1928 – Jacques-Louis Lions, French mathematician (d. 2001)
- 1929 – Denise Lor, American singer and actress (d. 2015)
- 1930 – Juan Gelman, Argentinian poet and author (d. 2014)
- 1930 – David Harrison, English chemist and academic
- 1931 – Vasily Rudenkov, Belarusian hammer thrower (d. 1982)
- 1931 – Sait Maden, Turkish translator, poet, painter and graphic designer (d. 2013)
- 1932 – Robert Osborne, American actor and historian (d. 2017)
- 1933 – James Brown, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2006)
- 1933 – Steven Weinberg, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1934 – Henry Cooper, English boxer and sportscaster (d. 2011)
- 1934 – Georges Moustaki, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
- 1934 – Frankie Valli, American singer and actor
- 1935 – Ron Popeil, American businessman, founded the Ronco Company
- 1937 – Nélida Piñon, Brazilian author and academic
- 1938 – Omar Abdel-Rahman, Egyptian terrorist
- 1938 – Chris Cannizzaro, American baseball player
- 1938 – Napoleon XIV, American singer, songwriter and record producer
- 1939 – Jonathan Harvey, English composer and educator (d. 2012)
- 1940 – David Koch, American engineer, businessman, and philanthropist (d. 2019)
- 1940 – Clemens Westerhof, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1941 – Alexander Harley, English general
- 1941 – Edward Malloy, American priest and academic
- 1942 – Věra Čáslavská, Czech gymnast and coach (d. 2016)
- 1942 – Dave Marash, American journalist and sportscaster
- 1942 – Butch Otter, American soldier and politician, 32nd Governor of Idaho
- 1943 – Yukio Hashi, Japanese singer and actor
- 1943 – Jim Risch, American lawyer and politician, 31st Governor of Idaho
- 1943 – Vicente Saldivar, Mexican boxer (d. 1985)
- 1944 – Peter Doyle, English bishop
- 1944 – Pete Staples, English bass player
- 1945 – Jörg Drehmel, German triple jumper and coach
- 1945 – Davey Lopes, American baseball player, coach, and manager
- 1946 – Norm Chow, American football player and coach
- 1946 – Silvino Francisco, South African snooker player
- 1946 – Greg Gumbel, American sportscaster
- 1947 – Doug Henning, Canadian magician (d. 2000)
- 1948 – Denis Cosgrove, British-American academic and geographer (d. 2008)
- 1948 – Chris Mulkey, American actor
- 1949 – Liam Donaldson, English physician and academic
- 1949 – Ruth Lister, Baroness Lister of Burtersett, English academic and politician
- 1949 – Ron Wyden, American academic and politician
- 1950 – Mary Hopkin, Welsh singer-songwriter
- 1950 – Dag Arnesen, Norwegian pianist and composer
- 1951 – Alan Clayson, English singer-songwriter and journalist
- 1951 – Christopher Cross, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1951 – Ashok Gehlot, Indian politician, 21st Chief Minister of Rajasthan
- 1951 – Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian author and publicist
- 1952 – Chuck Baldwin, American pastor and politician
- 1952 – Caitlin Clarke, American actress (d. 2004)
- 1952 – Joseph W. Tobin, American cardinal
- 1953 – Bruce Hall, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
- 1953 – Jake Hooker, Israeli-American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2014)
- 1954 – Angela Bofill, American singer-songwriter
- 1954 – Jean-Marc Roberts, French author and screenwriter (d. 2013)
- 1955 – Stephen D. M. Brown, British geneticist
- 1955 – Colin Deans, Scottish rugby player
- 1955 – David Hookes, Australian cricketer, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2004)
- 1955 – Seishirō Nishida, Japanese actor
- 1956 – Marc Bellemare, Canadian lawyer and politician
- 1957 – Alain Côté, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1957 – Rod Langway, Taiwanese-American ice hockey player and coach
- 1958 – Bill Sienkiewicz, American author and illustrator
- 1958 – Sandi Toksvig, Danish-English comedian, writer, and broadcaster
- 1959 – David Ball, English keyboard player and producer
- 1959 – Uma Bharti, Indian activist and politician, 16th Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
- 1959 – Ben Elton, English actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1960 – Kathy Smallwood-Cook, English sprinter and educator
- 1961 – Steve McClaren, English footballer and manager
- 1961 – David Vitter, American lawyer and politician
- 1961 – Leyla Zana, Kurdish activist and politician
- 1962 – Anders Graneheim, Swedish bodybuilder
- 1963 – Jeff Hornacek, American basketball player and coach
- 1963 – Mona Siddiqui, Pakistani-Scottish journalist and academic
- 1964 – Sterling Campbell, American drummer and songwriter
- 1964 – Ron Hextall, Canadian-American ice hockey player and manager
- 1965 – Ignatius Aphrem II, Syrian patriarch
- 1965 – Mark Cousins, Northern Irish director, writer, cinematographer
- 1965 – John Jensen, Danish footballer and coach
- 1965 – Mikhail Prokhorov, Russian businessman
- 1966 – Giorgos Agorogiannis, Greek footballer
- 1966 – Frank Dietrich, German politician (d. 2011)
- 1967 – Daniel Anderson, Australian rugby league coach and manager
- 1967 – Kenneth Joel Hotz, Canadian producer, writer, director, actor, and comedian
- 1968 – Viliami Ofahengaue, Tongan-Australian rugby player
- 1971 – Douglas Carswell, British politician, the first elected MP for the UK Independence Party
- 1972 – Stephen Barclay, English lawyer and politician
- 1973 – Jamie Baulch, Welsh sprinter and television host
- 1975 – Willie Geist, American television journalist and host
- 1976 – Jeff Halpern, American ice hockey player
- 1976 – Brad Scott, Australian footballer and coach
- 1976 – Chris Scott, Australian footballer and coach
- 1977 – Eric Church, American country music singer-songwriter
- 1977 – Ryan Dempster, Canadian baseball player and sportscaster
- 1977 – Tyronn Lue, American basketball player and coach
- 1977 – Maryam Mirzakhani, Iranian mathematician (d. 2017)
- 1977 – Ben Olsen, American soccer player and coach
- 1978 – Christian Annan, Ghanaian-Hong Kong footballer
- 1978 – Paul Banks, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1978 – Dai Tamesue, Japanese hurdler
- 1978 – Lawrence Tynes, American football player
- 1979 – Steve Mack, American wrestler
- 1979 – Anastasiya Shvedova, Belarusian pole vaulter
- 1980 – Zuzana Ondrášková, Czech tennis player
- 1982 – Igor Olshansky, Ukrainian-American football player
- 1982 – Nick Stavinoha, American baseball player
- 1983 – Joseph Addai, American football player
- 1983 – Romeo Castelen, Dutch footballer
- 1983 – Jérôme Clavier, French pole vaulter
- 1983 – Márton Fülöp, Hungarian footballer (d. 2015)
- 1985 – Ezequiel Lavezzi, Argentinian footballer
- 1985 – Kadri Lehtla, Estonian biathlete
- 1985 – Miko Mälberg, Estonian swimmer
- 1986 – Moon Byung-woo, South Korean footballer
- 1987 – Lina Grinčikaitė, Lithuanian sprinter
- 1988 – Ben Revere, American baseball player
- 1988 – Paddy Holohan, Irish mixed martial artist
- 1989 – Jesse Bromwich, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1989 – Katinka Hosszú, Hungarian swimmer
- 1990 – Brooks Koepka, American golfer
- 1991 – Samuel Seo, South Korean musician
- 1992 – Aaron Whitchurch, Australian rugby league player
- 1995 – Ivan Bukavshin, Russian chess player (d. 2016)
- 1996 – Mary Cain, American runner
- 1996 – Alex Iwobi, Nigerian football player
- 1996 – Domantas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1997 – Desiigner, American rapper
- 1997 – Dwayne Haskins, American football player
- 1997 – Ivana Jorović, Serbian tennis player
 Deaths on May 3
- 678 – Tōchi, Japanese princess
- 738 – Uaxaclajuun Ub’aah K’awiil, Mayan ruler (ajaw)
- 1152 – Matilda of Boulogne (b. 1105)
- 1270 – Béla IV of Hungary (b. 1206)
- 1294 – John I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1252)
- 1330 – Alexios II Megas Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond (b. 1282)
- 1410 – Antipope Alexander V
- 1481 – Mehmed the Conqueror, Ottoman sultan (b. 1432)
- 1501 – John Devereux, 8th Baron Ferrers of Chartley, English Baron (b. 1463)
- 1524 – Richard Grey, 3rd Earl of Kent, English peer (b. 1481)
- 1534 – Juana de la Cruz Vazquez Gutierrez, Spanish Roman Catholic nun and venerable (b. 1481)
- 1589 – Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1528)
- 1606 – Henry Garnet, English priest and author (b. 1555)
- 1621 – Elizabeth Bacon, English Tudor gentlewoman (b. 1541)
- 1679 – James Sharp, Scottish archbishop (b. 1613)
- 1693 – Claude de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French courtier (b. 1607)
- 1704 – Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Czech-Austrian violinist and composer (b. 1644)
- 1724 – John Leverett the Younger, American lawyer, academic, and politician (b. 1662)
- 1750 – John Willison, Scottish minister and author (b. 1680)
- 1752 – Samuel Ogle, English-American captain and politician, 5th Governor of Restored Proprietary Government (b. 1692)
- 1758 – Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675)
- 1763 – George Psalmanazar, French-English author (b. 1679)
- 1764 – Francesco Algarotti, Italian philosopher, poet, and critic (b. 1712)
- 1779 – John Winthrop, American mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (b. 1714)
- 1793 – Martin Gerbert, German historian and theologian (b. 1720)
- 1839 – Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer (b. 1771)
- 1856 – Adolphe Adam, French composer and critic (b. 1803)
- 1856 – Louis-Étienne Saint-Denis, Arab-French servant to Napoleon I (b. 1788)
- 1882 – Leonidas Smolents, Austrian–Greek general and army minister (b. 1806)
- 1910 – Howard Taylor Ricketts, American pathologist (b. 1871)
- 1916 – Tom Clarke, Irish rebel (b. 1858)
- 1916 – Thomas MacDonagh, Irish poet and rebel (b. 1878)
- 1916 – Patrick Pearse, Irish teacher and rebel leader (b. 1879)
- 1918 – Charlie Soong, Chinese businessman and missionary (b. 1863)
- 1919 – Elizabeth Almira Allen, American educator (b. 1854)
- 1921 – Théodore Pilette, Belgian race car driver (b. 1883)
- 1925 – Clément Ader, French engineer, designed the Ader Avion III (b. 1841)
- 1932 – Charles Fort, American journalist and author (b. 1874)
- 1935 – Jessie Willcox Smith, American illustrator (b. 1863)
- 1939 – Madeleine Desroseaux, French author and poet (b. 1873)
- 1942 – Thorvald Stauning, Danish politician, 24th Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873)
- 1943 – Harry Miller, American engineer (b. 1875)
- 1948 – Ernst Tandefelt, Finnish assassin of Heikki Ritavuori (b. 1876)
- 1949 – Fanny Walden, English footballer and cricketer (b. 1888)
- 1958 – Frank Foster, English cricketer (b. 1889)
- 1969 – Zakir Husain, Indian academic and politician, 3rd President of India (b. 1897)
- 1970 – Cemil Gürgen Erlertürk, Turkish footballer, coach, and pilot (b. 1918)
- 1972 – Kenneth Bailey, Australian lawyer and diplomat, Australian High Commissioner to Canada (b. 1898)
- 1972 – Emil Breitkreutz, American runner and coach (b. 1883)
- 1972 – Bruce Cabot, American actor (b. 1904)
- 1978 – Bill Downs, American journalist (b. 1914)
- 1981 – Nargis, Indian actress (b. 1929)
- 1986 – Robert Alda, American actor (b. 1914)
- 1987 – Dalida, Italian singer, actress, dancer, and model (b. 1933)
- 1988 – Lev Pontryagin, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1908)
- 1989 – Christine Jorgensen, American trans woman (b. 1926)
- 1991 – Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-American novelist and screenwriter (b. 1933)
- 1992 – George Murphy, American actor, dancer, and politician (b. 1902)
- 1996 – Dimitri Fampas, Greek guitarist, composer, and educator (b. 1921)
- 1996 – Alex Kellner, American baseball player (b. 1924)
- 1996 – Jack Weston, American actor (b. 1924)
- 1997 – Sébastien Enjolras, French race car driver (b. 1976)
- 1997 – Narciso Yepes, Spanish guitarist and composer (b. 1927)
- 1998 – Gene Raymond, American actor (b. 1908)
- 1999 – Joe Adcock, American baseball player and manager (b. 1927)
- 1999 – Steve Chiasson, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1967)
- 1999 – Godfrey Evans, English cricketer (b. 1920)
- 2000 – Júlia Báthory, Hungarian glass designer (b. 1901)
- 2000 – John Joseph O’Connor, American cardinal (b. 1920)
- 2002 – Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, English politician, First Secretary of State (b. 1910)
- 2002 – Yevgeny Svetlanov, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1928)
- 2003 – Suzy Parker, American model and actress (b. 1932)
- 2004 – Ken Downing, English race car driver (b. 1917)
- 2004 – Darrell Johnson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1928)
- 2006 – Karel Appel, Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Pramod Mahajan, Indian politician (b. 1949)
- 2006 – Earl Woods, American colonel, baseball player, and author (b. 1932)
- 2007 – Warja Honegger-Lavater, Swiss illustrator (b. 1913)
- 2007 – Wally Schirra, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1923)
- 2007 – Knock Yokoyama, Japanese politician (b. 1932)
- 2008 – Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, Spanish engineer and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1926)
- 2009 – Renée Morisset, Canadian pianist (b. 1928)
- 2009 – Ram Balkrushna Shewalkar, Indian author and critic (b. 1931)
- 2010 – Roy Carrier, American accordion player (b. 1947)
- 2010 – Peter O’Donnell, English soldier and author (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Guenter Wendt, German-American engineer (b. 1923)
- 2011 – Jackie Cooper, American actor, television director, producer and executive (b. 1922)
- 2011 – Sergo Kotrikadze, Georgian footballer and manager (b. 1936)
- 2011 – Thanasis Veggos, Greek actor and director (b. 1927)
- 2012 – Jorge Illueca, Panamanian politician, 30th President of Panama (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Felix Werder, German-Australian composer, conductor, and critic (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Joe Astroth, American baseball player (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Herbert Blau, American engineer and academic (b. 1926)
- 2013 – Cedric Brooks, Jamaican-American saxophonist and flute player (b. 1943)
- 2013 – Keith Carter, American swimmer and soldier (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Brad Drewett, Australian tennis player and sportscaster (b. 1958)
- 2013 – David Morris Kern, American pharmacist, co-invented Orajel (b. 1909)
- 2013 – Curtis Rouse, American football player (b. 1960)
- 2013 – Branko Vukelić, Croatian politician, 11th Minister of Defence for Croatia (b. 1958)
- 2014 – Gary Becker, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Francisco Icaza, Mexican painter (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Jim Oberstar, American educator and politician (b. 1934)
- 2015 – Revaz Chkheidze, Georgian director and screenwriter (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Danny Jones, Welsh rugby player (b. 1986)
- 2015 – Warren Smith, American golfer and coach (b. 1915)
- 2016 – Ian Deans, Canadian politician (b. 1937)
- 2016 – Jadranka Stojaković, Yugoslav singer-songwriter (b. 1950)
- 2017 – Daliah Lavi, Israeli actress, singer and model (b. 1942)
 Holidays and observances on May 3
- Christian feast day:
- Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church)
- Antonia and Alexander
- Juvenal of Narni
- Moura (Coptic Church)
- Philip and James the Lesser
- Pope Alexander I
- Sarah the Martyr (Coptic Church)
- The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland
- Theodosius of Kiev (Eastern Orthodox Church)
- May 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Constitution Memorial Day (Japan)
- Constitution Day (Poland)
- Finding of the Holy Cross-related observances:
- Fiesta de las Cruces (Spain and Hispanic America)
- Roodmas, or Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross (Gallican Rite of the Catholic Church)
 
- Sun Day (International)
- World Press Freedom Day
 
 
 
- 
	
				
			
		
				
			
	
		March 16 in History
- 934 – Meng Zhixiang declares himself emperor and establishes Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
- 1190 – Massacre of Jews at Clifford’s Tower, York.
- 1244 – Over 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burned to death after the Fall of Montségur.
- 1322 – The Battle of Boroughbridge takes place in the Despenser Wars.
- 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan reaches the island of Homonhon in the Philippines.
- 1621 – Samoset, a Mohegan, visited the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, “Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset.”
- 1660 – The Long Parliament of England is dissolved so as to prepare for the new Convention Parliament.
- 1689 – The 23rd Regiment of Foot, or Royal Welch Fusiliers, is founded.
- 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish troops capture the British-held island of Roatán.
- 1782 – Anglo-Spanish War (1779): Action of 16 March 1782.
- 1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: An Austrian column is defeated by the French in the Battle of Valvasone.
- 1802 – The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.
- 1812 – The Siege of Badajoz begins: British and Portuguese forces besiege and defeat the French garrison during the Peninsular War.
- 1815 – Prince Willem proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.
- 1818 – In the Second Battle of Cancha Rayada, Spanish forces defeated Chileans under José de San Martín.
- 1864 – American Civil War: During the Red River Campaign, Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
- 1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Averasborough began as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.
- 1870 – The first version of the overture fantasy Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky receives its première performance.
- 1872 – The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
- 1894 – Jules Massenet’s opera Thaïs is first performed.
- 1898 – In Melbourne the representatives of five colonies adopted a constitution, which would become the basis of the Commonwealth of Australia.
- 1900 – Sir Arthur Evans purchased the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
- 1916 – The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US–Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
- 1917 – World War I: A German auxiliary cruiser is sunk in the Action of 16 March 1917.
- 1918 – Finnish Civil War: Battle of Länkipohja is infamous for its bloody aftermath as the Whites executed 70–100 capitulated Reds.
- 1924 – In accordance with the Treaty of Rome, Fiume becomes annexed as part of Italy.
- 1925 – An earthquake occurs in Yunnan, China.
- 1926 – History of Rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
- 1935 – Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.
- 1936 – Warmer-than-normal temperatures rapidly melt snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, leading to a major flood in Pittsburgh.
- 1939 – From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
- 1940 – First person killed (James Isbister) in a German bombing raid on the UK in World War II during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.
- 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ended, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persisted.
- 1945 – Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers, resulting in around 5,000 deaths.
- 1958 – The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company’s founding.
- 1962 – A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with all 107 aboard missing and presumed dead.
- 1966 – Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with an Agena Target Vehicle.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre occurs; between 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.
- 1968 – General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
- 1969 – A Viasa McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashes in Maracaibo, Venezuela, killing 155.
- 1976 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns, citing personal reasons.
- 1977 – Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.
- 1978 – Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped. (He is later murdered by his captors.)
- 1978 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria, killing 73.
- 1978 – Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time.
- 1979 – Sino-Vietnamese War: The People’s Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ends the war.
- 1983 – Demolition of the Ismaning radio transmitter, the last wooden radio tower in Germany.
- 1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah. (He later dies in captivity.)
- 1985 – Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.
- 1988 – Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
- 1988 – Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people.
- 1988 – The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three persons, one of them a member of PIRA are killed, and more than 60 others are wounded.
- 1991 – The airplane carrying eight members of Reba McEntire’s touring band crashed on the side of Otay Mountain.
- 1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.
- 2001 – A series of bomb blasts that took place in the city of Shijiazhuang, China killed 108 people and injured 38 others, was the biggest mass murder in China in decades.
- 2003 – American activist Rachel Corrie is killed in Rafah trying to obstruct the demolition of a home by being run over by a bulldozer.
- 2005 – Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.
- 2014 – Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia.
- 2016 – A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 54.
- 2016 – Two suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 22 and injuring 18.
 Births on March 16
- 1399 – The Xuande Emperor, ruler of Ming China (d. 1435)
- 1445 – Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg, Swiss priest and theologian (d. 1510)
- 1465 – Kunigunde of Austria, Archduchess of Austria (d. 1520)
- 1473 – Henry IV, Duke of Saxony (d. 1541)
- 1559 – Amar Singh I, successor of Maharana Pratap of Mewar (d. 1620)
- 1581 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch historian and poet (d. 1647)
- 1585 – Gerbrand Bredero, Dutch poet and playwright (d. 1618)
- 1590 – Ii Naotaka, Japanese daimyō (d. 1659)
- 1596 – Ebba Brahe, Swedish countess (d. 1674)
- 1609 – Michael Franck, German baker, teacher, poet, and composer (d. 1667)
- 1609 – Agostino Mitelli, Italian painter (d. 1660)
- 1621 – Georg Neumark, German poet and composer (d. 1681)
- 1631 – René Le Bossu, French critic (d. 1680)
- 1638 – François Crépieul, Jesuit missionary (d. 1702)
- 1654 – Andreas Acoluthus, German scholar (d. 1704)
- 1670 – François de Franquetot de Coigny, French general (d. 1759)
- 1673 – Jean Bouhier, French jurist and scholar (d. 1746)
- 1687 – Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, queen consort of Frederick William I (d. 1757)
- 1693 – Malhar Rao Holkar, Indian nobleman (d. 1766)
- 1701 – Daniel Lorenz Salthenius, Swedish theologian (d. 1750)
- 1729 – Maria Louise Albertine (d. 1818)
- 1741 – Carlo Amoretti, Italian scientist (d. 1816)
- 1744 – Nicolas-Germain Léonard, French poet and novelist (d. 1793)
- 1750 – Caroline Herschel, German-English astronomer (d. 1848)
- 1751 – James Madison, American academic and politician, 4th President of the United States (d. 1836)
- 1753 – François Amédée Doppet, French general (d. 1799)
- 1760 – Johann Heinrich Meyer, Swiss painter and writer (d. 1832)
- 1766 – Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, French antiquarian, cartographer, artist and explorer (d. 1875)
- 1771 – Antoine-Jean Gros, French painter (d. 1835)
- 1773 – Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentinian general and politician, 6th Governor of Buenos Aires Province (d. 1836)
- 1774 – Matthew Flinders, English navigator and cartographer (d. 1814)
- 1789 – Francis Rawdon Chesney, English general and explorer (d. 1872)
- 1789 – Georg Ohm, German physicist and mathematician (d. 1854)
- 1794 – Ami Boué, Austrian geologist and ethnographer (d. 1881)
- 1797 – Alaric Alexander Watts, English poet and journalist (d. 1864)
- 1799 – Anna Atkins, English botanist and photographer (d. 1871)
- 1800 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (d. 1846)
- 1805 – Peter Ernst von Lasaulx, German philologist and politician (d. 1861)
- 1806 – Félix De Vigne, Belgian painter (d. 1862)
- 1808 – Hannah T. King, British-born American writer and pioneer (d. 1886)
- 1813 – Gaëtan de Rochebouët, French prime minister (d. 1899)
- 1819 – José Paranhos, Brazilian politician (d. 1880)
- 1820 – Enrico Tamberlik, Italian tenor (d. 1889)
- 1821 – Eduard Heine, German mathematician and academic (d. 1881)
- 1822 – Rosa Bonheur, French painter and sculptor (d. 1899)
- 1822 – John Pope, American general (d. 1892)
- 1823 – William Henry Monk, English organist and composer (d. 1889)
- 1825 – Camilo Castelo Branco, Portuguese writer (d. 1890)
- 1828 – Émile Deshayes de Marcère, French politician (d. 1918)
- 1834 – James Hector, Scottish geologist and surgeon (d. 1907)
- 1836 – Andrew Smith Hallidie, English-American engineer and businessman (d. 1900)
- 1839 – Sully Prudhomme, French poet and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
- 1839 – John Butler Yeats, Irish painter (d. 1922)
- 1840 – Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese businessman (d. 1931)
- 1840 – Georg von der Gabelentz, German linguist and sinologist (d. 1893)
- 1845 – Umegatani Tōtarō I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 15th Yokozuna (d. 1928)
- 1846 – Gösta Mittag-Leffler, Swedish mathematician and academic (d. 1927)
- 1846 – Rebecca Cole, American physician and social reformer (d. 1922)
- 1846 – Jurgis Bielinis, Lithuanian book smuggler (d. 1918)
- 1848 – Axel Heiberg, Norwegian financier and diplomat (d. 1932)
- 1851 – Otto Bardenhewer, German patrologist (d. 1935)
- 1851 – Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist and botanist (d. 1931)
- 1856 – Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France (d. 1879)
- 1857 – Charles Harding Firth, English historian and academic (d. 1936)
- 1859 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist and academic (d. 1906)
- 1865 – Patsy Donovan, Irish-American baseball player and manager (d. 1953)
- 1869 – Willy Burmester, German violinist (d. 1933)
- 1871 – Hans Merensky, South African geologist and philanthropist (d. 1951)
- 1871 – Frantz Reichel, French rugby player and hurdler (d. 1932)
- 1874 – Frédéric François-Marsal, French prime minister (d. 1958)
- 1877 – Léo-Ernest Ouimet, Canadian director and producer (d. 1972)
- 1878 – Clemens August Graf von Galen, German cardinal (d. 1946)
- 1878 – Paul Jouve, French painter (d. 1973)
- 1881 – Fannie Charles Dillon, American composer (d. 1947)
- 1882 – James Lightbody, American runner (d. 1953)
- 1883 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet, author, and painter (d. 1958)
- 1884 – Eric P. Kelly, American journalist and author (d. 1960)
- 1885 – Giacomo Benvenuti, Italian composer and musicologist (d. 1943)
- 1885 – Sydney Chaplin, English actor (d. 1965)
- 1886 – Herbert Lindström, Swedish tug of war player (d. 1951)
- 1887 – Emilio Lunghi, Italian runner (d. 1925)
- 1887 – S. Stillman Berry, American marine zoologist (1984)
- 1889 – Reggie Walker, South African athlete (d. 1951)
- 1892 – César Vallejo, Peruvian poet, playwright, and journalist (d. 1938)
- 1895 – Ernest Labrousse, French historian (d. 1988)
- 1897 – Antonio Donghi, Italian painter (d. 1963)
- 1897 – Conrad Nagel, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1900 – Cyril Hume, American novelist (d. 1966)
- 1900 – Mencha Karnicheva, Macedonian revolutionary and assassin (d. 1964)
- 1901 – Alexis Chantraine, Belgian footballer (d. 1987)
- 1903 – Mike Mansfield, American politician and diplomat, 22nd United States Ambassador to Japan (d. 2001)
- 1906 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish sociologist, author, and translator (d. 2009)
- 1906 – Maurice Turnbull, Welsh-English cricketer and rugby player (d. 1944)
- 1906 – Henny Youngman, English-American violinist and comedian (d. 1998)
- 1908 – René Daumal, French author and poet (d. 1944)
- 1908 – Ernest Rogez, French water polo player (d. 1986)
- 1908 – Robert Rossen, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1966)
- 1910 – Aladár Gerevich, Hungarian fencer (d. 1991)
- 1910 – Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, Indian-English cricketer and politician, 8th Nawab of Pataudi (d. 1952)
- 1911 – Pierre Harmel, Belgian lawyer and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2009)
- 1911 – Josef Mengele, German physician and captain (d. 1979)
- 1911 – Philip Pavia, American painter and sculptor (d.2005)
- 1912 – Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States (d. 1993)
- 1913 – Rémy Raffalli, French soldier (d. 1952)
- 1915 – Kunihiko Kodaira, Japanese mathematician and academic (d. 1997)
- 1916 – Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
- 1916 – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese engineer and businessman (d. 2010)
- 1917 – Louis C. Wyman, American lawyer and politician (d. 2002)
- 1917 – Laure Pillay, Mauritian lawyer and jurist (d. 2017)
- 1917 – Mehrdad Pahlbod, Iranian politician (d. 2018)
- 1918 – Aldo van Eyck, Dutch architect (d. 1999)
- 1918 – Frederick Reines, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- 1920 – John Addison, English-American soldier and composer (d. 1998)
- 1920 – Sid Fleischman, American author and screenwriter (d. 2010)
- 1920 – Traudl Junge, German secretary (d. 2002)
- 1920 – Leo McKern, Australian-English actor (d. 2002)
- 1922 – Harding Lemay, American screenwriter and playwright (d. 2018)
- 1923 – Heinz Wallberg, German conductor (d. 2004)
- 1925 – Cornell Borchers, Lithuanian-German actress and singer (d. 2014)
- 1925 – Mary Hinkson, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2014)
- 1925 – Ervin Kassai, Hungarian basketball player and referee (d. 2012)
- 1925 – Luis E. Miramontes, Mexican chemist and engineer (d. 2004)
- 1926 – Charles Goodell, American lawyer and politician (d. 1987)
- 1926 – Jerry Lewis, American actor and comedian (d. 2017)
- 1927 – Vladimir Komarov, Russian pilot, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1967)
- 1927 – Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American sociologist and politician, 12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2003)
- 1927 – Olga San Juan, American actress and dancer (d. 2009)
- 1928 – Wakanohana Kanji I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 45th Yokozuna (d. 2010)
- 1928 – Christa Ludwig, German soprano and actress
- 1929 – Betty Johnson, American singer
- 1929 – Tihomir Novakov, Serbian-American physicist and academic (d. 2015)
- 1929 – Nadja Tiller, Austrian actress
- 1930 – Tommy Flanagan, American pianist and composer (d. 2001)
- 1930 – Minoru Miki, Japanese composer (d. 2011)
- 1931 – Augusto Boal, Brazilian theatre director, writer and politician (d. 2009)
- 1931 – Alan Heyman, American-South Korean musicologist and composer (d. 2014)
- 1931 – Anthony Kenny, English philosopher and academic
- 1931 – John Munro, Canadian lawyer and politician, 22nd Canadian Minister of Labour (d. 2003)
- 1932 – Don Blasingame, American baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
- 1932 – Walter Cunningham, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
- 1932 – Kurt Diemberger, Austrian mountaineer and author
- 1932 – Herbert Marx, Canadian politician (d. 2020)
- 1933 – Keith Critchlow, English architect and academic, co-founded Temenos Academy
- 1933 – Sanford I. Weill, American banker, financier, and philanthropist
- 1934 – Jean Cournoyer, Canadian politician
- 1934 – Ray Hnatyshyn, Canadian lawyer and politician, 24th Governor General of Canada (d. 2002)
- 1934 – Roger Norrington, English violinist and conductor
- 1935 – Teresa Berganza, Spanish soprano and actress
- 1935 – Pepe Cáceres, Colombian bullfighter (d. 1987)
- 1936 – Raymond Vahan Damadian, Armenian-American inventor, invented the MRI
- 1936 – Fred Neil, American folk singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2001)
- 1937 – David Frith, English historian, journalist, and author
- 1937 – Attilio Nicora, Italian cardinal (d. 2017)
- 1937 – Amos Tversky, Israeli-American psychologist and academic (d. 1996)
- 1938 – Carlos Bilardo, Argentinian footballer and manager
- 1939 – Yvon Côté, Canadian teacher
- 1940 – Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2018)
- 1940 – Vagif Mustafazadeh, Azerbaijani pianist and composer (d. 1979)
- 1940 – Jan Pronk, Dutch academic and politician, Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment
- 1940 – Keith Rowe, English guitarist
- 1941 – Robert Guéï, Ivorian soldier and politician, 3rd President of Côte d’Ivoire (d. 2002)
- 1941 – Chuck Woolery, American game show host and television personality
- 1942 – Roger Crozier, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 1996)
- 1942 – Gijs van Lennep, Dutch race car driver
- 1942 – Jean-Pierre Schosteck, French politician
- 1942 – James Soong, Chinese-Taiwanese politician, Governor of Taiwan Province
- 1942 – Jerry Jeff Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1943 – Ursula Goodenough, American biologist, zoologist, and author
- 1943 – Hans Heyer, German racing driver
- 1943 – Álvaro de Soto, Peruvian diplomat
- 1944 – Andrew S. Tanenbaum, American computer scientist and academic
- 1946 – Sigmund Groven, Norwegian harmonica player and composer
- 1946 – Mary Kaldor, English economist and academic
- 1946 – J. Z. Knight, American New Age teacher and author
- 1946 – Guesch Patti, French singer
- 1948 – Michael Owen Bruce, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1948 – Richard Desjardins, Canadian singer-songwriter and director
- 1948 – Catherine Quéré, French politician
- 1949 – Erik Estrada, American actor
- 1949 – Victor Garber, Canadian actor and singer
- 1949 – Elliott Murphy, American-French singer-songwriter and journalist
- 1950 – Peter Forster, English bishop
- 1950 – Kate Nelligan, Canadian actress
- 1950 – Edhem Šljivo, Bosnian footballer
- 1951 – Ray Benson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1951 – Abdelmajid Bourebbou, Algerian footballer
- 1951 – Oddvar Brå, Norwegian skier
- 1951 – Joe DeLamielleure, American football player
- 1951 – Alexandre Gonzalez, French long-distance runner
- 1953 – Claus Peter Flor, German conductor
- 1953 – Isabelle Huppert, French actress
- 1953 – Rainer Knaak, German chess player
- 1953 – Richard Stallman, American computer scientist and programmer
- 1954 – David Heath, English politician
- 1954 – Jimmy Nail, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1954 – Tim O’Brien, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1954 – Dav Whatmore, Sri Lankan-Australian cricketer and coach
- 1954 – Nancy Wilson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actress
- 1955 – Svetlana Alexeeva, Russian ice dancer and coach
- 1955 – Rimantas Astrauskas, Lithuanian physicist
- 1955 – Bruno Barreto, Brazilian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1955 – Linda Lepomme, Belgian actress and singer
- 1955 – Bob Ley, American sports anchor and reporter
- 1955 – Andy Scott, Canadian politician (d. 2013)
- 1955 – Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxer
- 1956 – Ozzie Newsome, American football player and manager
- 1956 – Clifton Powell, American actor, director, and producer
- 1956 – Yoriko Shono, Japanese writer
- 1956 – Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Swiss lawyer and politician
- 1958 – Phillip Wilcher, Australian pianist and composer
- 1958 – Kate Worley, American author (d. 2004)
- 1958 – Jorge Ramos, Mexican-American journalist and author
- 1959 – Michael J. Bloomfield, American astronaut
- 1959 – Sebastian Currier, American composer and educator
- 1959 – Greg Dyer, Australian cricketer
- 1959 – Flavor Flav, American rapper and actor
- 1959 – Charles Hudson, American baseball player
- 1959 – Steve Marker, American musician
- 1959 – Jens Stoltenberg, Norwegian economist and politician, 27th Prime Minister of Norway, 13th Secretary General of NATO
- 1960 – John Hemming, English businessman and politician
- 1960 – Duane Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1960 – Jenny Eclair, English comedian, actress and screenwriter
- 1961 – Brett Kenny, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1961 – Todd McFarlane, Canadian author, illustrator, and businessman, founded McFarlane Toys
- 1962 – Franck Fréon, French race car driver
- 1962 – Liliane Gaschet, French athlete
- 1963 – Jerome Flynn, English actor and singer
- 1963 – Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor and singer (d. 2002)
- 1964 – Patty Griffin, American singer-songwriter
- 1964 – Jaclyn Jose, Filipino actress
- 1964 – Pascal Richard, Swiss racing cyclist
- 1964 – Gore Verbinski, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1965 – Steve Armstrong, American wrestler
- 1965 – Cindy Brown, American basketball player
- 1965 – Mark Carney, Canadian-English economist and banker
- 1965 – Cristiana Reali, Italian-Brazilian actress
- 1966 – Chrissy Redden, Canadian cross-country cyclist
- 1967 – Tracy Bonham, American singer and violinist
- 1967 – John Darnielle, American musician and novelist
- 1967 – Lauren Graham, American actress and producer
- 1967 – Ronnie McCoury, American bluegrass mandolin player, singer and songwriter
- 1967 – Heidi Zurbriggen, Swiss alpine skier
- 1968 – Trevor Wilson, American basketball player and police officer
- 1969 – Judah Friedlander, American comedian and actor
- 1969 – Ottis Gibson, Barbadian cricketer and coach
- 1969 – Alina Ivanova, Russian athlete
- 1969 – Evangelos Koronios, Greek basketball player and coach
- 1970 – Joakim Berg, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1971 – Franck Comba, French rugby player
- 1971 – Alan Tudyk, American actor
- 1972 – Ismaïl Sghyr, French-Moroccan long-distance runner
- 1973 – Andrey Mizurov, Kazakhstani road bicycle racer
- 1973 – Vonda Ward, American boxer
- 1974 – Georgios Anatolakis, Greek footballer and politician
- 1974 – Anne Charrier, French actress
- 1974 – Heath Streak, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1975 – Luciano Castro, Argentine actor
- 1975 – Sienna Guillory, English model and actress
- 1975 – Lionel Torres, French archer
- 1976 – Blu Cantrell, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1976 – Leila Lejeune, French handballer
- 1976 – Susanne Ljungskog, Swedish cyclist
- 1976 – Abraham Núñez, Dominican baseball player
- 1976 – Zhu Chen, Qatari chess Grandmaster
- 1977 – Mónica Cruz, Spanish actress and dancer
- 1977 – Thomas Rupprath, German swimmer
- 1978 – Brooke Burns, American fashion model and actress
- 1978 – Annett Renneberg, German actress and singer
- 1979 – Christina Liebherr, Swiss equestrian
- 1979 – Rashad Moore, American football player
- 1979 – Sébastien Ostertag, French handball player
- 1979 – Leena Peisa, Finnish keyboard player and songwriter
- 1979 – Andrei Stepanov, Estonian footballer
- 1980 – Todd Heap, American football player
- 1980 – Felipe Reyes, Spanish basketball player
- 1981 – Andrew Bree, Irish swimmer
- 1981 – Curtis Granderson, American baseball player
- 1981 – Julien Mazet, French road bicycle racer
- 1981 – Fabiana Murer, Brazilian pole vaulter
- 1982 – Miguel Comminges, Guadeloupean footballer
- 1982 – Riley Cote, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1982 – Tommy Hansen, Czech actor
- 1982 – Jesús Del Nero, Spanish road bicycle racer
- 1982 – Brian Wilson, American baseball player
- 1983 – Stephen Drew, American baseball player
- 1983 – Brandon League, American baseball player
- 1983 – Nicolas Rousseau, French road bicycle racer
- 1983 – Tramon Williams, American football player
- 1984 – Levi Brown, American football player
- 1984 – Aisling Bea, Irish comedienne and actress
- 1984 – Sharon Cherop, Kenyan long-distance runner
- 1984 – Michael Ennis, Australian rugby player
- 1984 – Hosea Gear, New Zealand rugby player
- 1984 – Brandon Prust, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1985 – Teddy Atine-Venel, French athlete
- 1985 – Eddy Lover, Panamanian singer-songwriter
- 1985 – Aleksei Sokirskiy, Russian hammer thrower
- 1986 – Alexandra Daddario, American actress
- 1986 – Toney Douglas, American basketball player
- 1986 – Kenny Dykstra, American wrestler
- 1986 – T. J. Jordan, American basketball player
- 1986 – Boaz Solossa, Indonesian footballer
- 1986 – Daisuke Takahashi, Japanese figure skater
- 1987 – Fabien Lemoine, French football player
- 1988 – Jessica Gregg, Canadian speed skater
- 1988 – Patrick Herrmann, German footballer
- 1989 – Blake Griffin, American basketball player
- 1989 – Jung So-min, South Korean actress
- 1989 – Magalie Pottier, French racing cyclist
- 1989 – Theo Walcott, English footballer
- 1990 – Andre Young, American basketball player
- 1991 – Reggie Bullock, American basketball player
- 1991 – Wolfgang Van Halen, American bassist
- 1993 – George Ford, English rugby union player
- 1993 – Marine Lorphelin, Miss France
- 1994 – Joel Embiid, Cameroonian basketball player
- 1995 – Inga Janulevičiūtė, Lithuanian figure skater
- 1997 – Florian Neuhaus, German football player
 Deaths on March 16
- AD 37 – Tiberius, Roman emperor (b. 42 BC)
- 455 – Valentinian III, Roman emperor (assassinated; b. 419)
- 455 – Heraclius, Roman courtier (primicerius sacri cubiculi )
- 842 – Xiao Mian, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
- 933 – Takin al-Khazari, Egyptian commander and politician, Abbasid Governor of Egypt
- 943 – Pi Guangye, Chinese official and chancellor (b. 877)
- 1021 – Heribert of Cologne, German archbishop and saint (b. 970)
- 1072 – Adalbert of Hamburg, German archbishop (b. 1000)
- 1181 – Henry I, Count of Champagne
- 1185 – Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (b. 1161)
- 1279 – Jeanne of Dammartin, Queen consort of Castile and León (b. 1216)
- 1322 – Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, English general and politician, Lord High Constable of England (b. 1276)
- 1405 – Margaret III, Countess of Flanders (b. 1350)
- 1410 – John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, French-English admiral and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1373)
- 1457 – Ladislaus Hunyadi, Hungarian politician (b. 1433)
- 1485 – Anne Neville, queen of Richard III of England (b. 1456)
- 1559 – Anthony St. Leger, English-Irish politician Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1496)
- 1649 – Jean de Brébeuf, French-Canadian missionary and saint (b. 1593)
- 1679 – John Leverett, English general and politician, 19th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1616)
- 1721 – James Craggs the Elder, English politician, Postmaster General of the United Kingdom (b. 1657)
- 1736 – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian organist and composer (b. 1710)
- 1737 – Benjamin Wadsworth, American minister and academic (b. 1670)
- 1738 – George Bähr, German architect, designed the Dresden Frauenkirche (b. 1666)
- 1747 – Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (b. 1690)
- 1838 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American captain and mathematician (b. 1773)
- 1841 – Félix Savart, French physicist and psychologist (d. 1791)
- 1868 – David Wilmot, American politician, sponsor of Wilmot Proviso (b. 1814)
- 1884 – Art Croft, American baseball player (b. 1855)
- 1888 – Hippolyte Carnot, French politician (b. 1801)
- 1892 – Samuel F. Miller, American lawyer and politician (b. 1827)
- 1898 – Aubrey Beardsley, English author and illustrator (b. 1872)
- 1899 – Joseph Medill, American journalist and politician, 26th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1823)
- 1903 – Roy Bean, American lawyer and judge (b. 1825)
- 1907 – John O’Leary, Irish politician (b. 1830)
- 1912 – Max Burckhard, Austrian theater director (b. 1854)
- 1914 – Gaston Calmette, French journalist (b. 1858)
- 1914 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss lawyer and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1843)
- 1914 – John Murray, Scottish oceanographer, biologist, and limnologist (b. 1841)
- 1925 – August von Wassermann, German bacteriologist and hygienist (b. 1866)
- 1930 – Miguel Primo de Rivera, Spanish general and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1870)
- 1935 – John James Rickard Macleod, Scottish physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876)
- 1935 – Aron Nimzowitsch, Latvian-Danish chess player (b. 1886)
- 1936 – Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and activist (b. 1864)
- 1937 – Alexander von Staël-Holstein, Estonian orientalist and sinologist (b. 1877)
- 1940 – Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
- 1945 – Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (b. 1874)
- 1955 – Nicolas de Staël, French-Russian painter and illustrator (b. 1914)
- 1957 – Constantin Brâncuși, Romanian-French sculptor, painter, and photographer (b. 1876)
- 1958 – Leon Cadore, American baseball player (b. 1891)
- 1961 – Chen Geng, Chinese general and politician (b. 1903)
- 1961 – Václav Talich, Czech violinist and conductor (b. 1883)
- 1963 – Laura Adams Armer, American author and photographer (b. 1874)
- 1965 – Alice Herz, German activist (b. 1882)
- 1967 – Thomas MacGreevy, Irish poet (b. 1893)
- 1968 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian-American pianist and composer (b. 1895)
- 1968 – Gunnar Ekelöf, Swedish poet and translator (b. 1907)
- 1970 – Tammi Terrell, American singer (b. 1945)
- 1971 – Bebe Daniels, American actress (b. 1901)
- 1971 – Thomas E. Dewey, American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of New York (b. 1902)
- 1972 – Pie Traynor, American baseball player (b. 1898)
- 1975 – T-Bone Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1910)
- 1977 – Kamal Jumblatt, Lebanese lawyer and politician (b. 1917)
- 1979 – Jean Monnet, French economist and politician (b. 1888)
- 1980 – Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-American painter (b. 1898)
- 1983 – Arthur Godfrey, American actor and television host (b. 1903)
- 1983 – Fred Rose, Polish-Canadian politician (b. 1907)
- 1985 – Roger Sessions, American composer, critic, and educator (b. 1896)
- 1985 – Eddie Shore, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1902)
- 1988 – Jigger Statz, American baseball player (b.1897)
- 1988 – Mickey Thompson, American race car driver (b. 1928)
- 1990 – Ernst Bacon, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1898)
- 1991 – Chris Austin, American country singer (b .1964)
- 1991 – Jean Bellette, Australian artist (b. 1908)
- 1992 – Yves Rocard, French physicist and engineer (b. 1903)
- 1994 – Eric Show, American baseball player (b. 1956)
- 1998 – Derek Barton, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
- 1998 – Esther Bubley, American photographer (b. 1921)
- 1999 – Gratien Gélinas, Canadian actor, director, and playwright (b. 1909)
- 2000 – Thomas Ferebee, American colonel and pilot (b. 1918)
- 2000 – Pavel Prudnikau, Belarusian poet and author (b. 1911)
- 2000 – Michael Starr, Canadian judge and politician, 16th Canadian Minister of Labour (b. 1910)
- 2000 – Carlos Velázquez, Puerto Rican pitcher (b. 1948)
- 2001 – Bob Wollek, French race car driver (b. 1943)
- 2003 – Rachel Corrie, American activist (b. 1979)
- 2003 – Ronald Ferguson, English captain, polo player, and manager (b. 1931)
- 2004 – Vilém Tauský, Czech conductor and composer (b. 1910)
- 2005 – Todd Bell, American football player (b. 1958)
- 2005 – Ralph Erskine, English architect, designed The London Ark (b. 1914)
- 2005 – Dick Radatz, American baseball player (b. 1937)
- 2007 – Manjural Islam Rana, Bangladeshi cricketer (b. 1984)
- 2008 – Bill Brown, Australian cricketer and soldier (b. 1912)
- 2008 – Ivan Dixon, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1931)
- 2008 – Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (b. 1942)
- 2010 – Ksenija Pajčin, Serbian singer, dancer and model (b. 1977)
- 2011 – Richard Wirthlin, American religious leader (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Donald E. Hillman, American colonel and pilot (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Takaaki Yoshimoto, Japanese poet, philosopher, and critic (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Jamal Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi physicist and cosmologist (b. 1939)
- 2013 – José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, Argentinian economist and politician, Minister of Economy of Argentina (b. 1925)
- 2013 – Yadier Pedroso, Cuban pitcher (b. 1986)
- 2013 – Ruchoma Shain, American-born teacher and author (b. 1914)
- 2013 – Marina Solodkin, Russian-Israeli academic and politician (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Frank Thornton, English actor (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Gary Bettenhausen, American race car driver (b. 1941)
- 2014 – Donald Crothers, American chemist and academic (b. 1937)
- 2014 – Yulisa Pat Amadu Maddy, Sierra Leonean author, poet, and playwright (b. 1936)
- 2014 – Steve Moore, English author and illustrator (b. 1949)
- 2014 – Alexander Pochinok, Russian economist and politician (b. 1958)
- 2015 – Jack Haley, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1964)
- 2015 – Don Robertson, American pianist and composer (b. 1922)
- 2016 – Alexander Esenin-Volpin, Russian-American mathematician and poet (b. 1924)
- 2016 – Frank Sinatra Jr., American singer and actor (b. 1944)
- 2017 – Lewis Rowland, American neurologist (b. 1925)
- 2018 – Louise Slaughter, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York (b. 1929)
- 2019 – Dick Dale, American surf-rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter (b. 1937)
 Holidays and observances on March 16
- Christian feast day:
- Abbán
- Finian Lobhar (Finian the Leper)
- Heribert of Cologne
- Hilarius of Aquileia
- Julian of Antioch
- March 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Day of the Book Smugglers (Lithuania)
- Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires (Latvia)
- Saint Urho’s Day (Finnish Americans and Finnish Canadians)
- Austin 3:16 Day (Not official, but leisure day)
 
 
 
- 
	
				
			
		
				
			
	
		
 March 5 in History
- 363 – Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the Sasanian Empire, in a campaign which would bring about his own death.
- 1046 – Nasir Khusraw begins the seven-year Middle Eastern journey which he will later describe in his book Safarnama.
- 1279 – The Livonian Order is defeated in the Battle of Aizkraukle by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
- 1496 – King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.
- 1616 – Nicolaus Copernicus’s book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is added to the Index of Forbidden Books 73 years after it was first published.
- 1766 – Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.
- 1770 – Boston Massacre: Five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence) five years later.
- 1811 – Peninsular War: A French force under the command of Marshal Victor is routed while trying to prevent an Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese army from lifting the Siege of Cádiz in the Battle of Barrosa.
- 1824 – First Anglo-Burmese War: The British officially declare war on Burma.
- 1836 – Samuel Colt patents the first production-model revolver, the .34-caliber.
- 1850 – The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales is opened.
- 1860 – Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna vote in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia.
- 1868 – Mefistofele, an opera by Arrigo Boito, receives its premiere performance at La Scala.
- 1872 – George Westinghouse patents the air brake.
- 1906 – Moro Rebellion: United States Army troops bring overwhelming force against the native Moros in the First Battle of Bud Dajo, leaving only six survivors.
- 1912 – Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.
- 1931 – The British Raj: Gandhi–Irwin Pact is signed.
- 1933 – Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party receives 43.9% at the Reichstag elections, which allows the Nazis to later pass the Enabling Act and establish a dictatorship.
- 1936 – First flight of K5054, the first prototype Supermarine Spitfire advanced monoplane fighter aircraft in the United Kingdom.
- 1940 – Six high-ranking members of Soviet politburo, including Joseph Stalin, sign an order for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs, in what will become known as the Katyn massacre.
- 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces capture Batavia, capital of Dutch East Indies, which is left undefended after the withdrawal of the KNIL garrison and Australian Blackforce battalion to Buitenzorg and Bandung.
- 1943 – First Flight of the Gloster Meteor, Britain’s first combat jet aircraft.
- 1944 – World War II: The Red Army begins the Uman–Botoșani Offensive in the western Ukrainian SSR.
- 1946 – Cold War: Winston Churchill coins the phrase “Iron Curtain” in his speech at Westminster College, Missouri.
- 1953 – Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier.
- 1960 – Indonesian President Sukarno dismissed the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR), 1955 democratically elected parliament, and replaced with DPR-GR, the parliament of his own selected members.
- 1963 – American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.
- 1965 – March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain against British colonial presence.
- 1966 – BOAC Flight 911, a Boeing 707 aircraft, breaks apart in mid-air due to clear-air turbulence and crashes into Mount Fuji, Japan, killing all 124 people on board.
- 1970 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.
- 1974 – Yom Kippur War: Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal.
- 1978 – The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
- 1979 – Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by “off the scale” gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.
- 1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 11⁄2 million units around the world.
- 1982 – Soviet probe Venera 14 lands on Venus.
- 2003 – In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed in the Haifa bus 37 suicide bombing.
- 2012 – Tropical Storm Irina kills over 75 as it passes through Madagascar.
 Births on March 5
- 1133 – Henry II of England (d. 1189)
- 1224 – Saint Kinga of Poland (d. 1292)
- 1324 – David II of Scotland (d. 1371)
- 1326 – Louis I of Hungary (d. 1382)
- 1340 – Cansignorio della Scala, Lord of Verona (d. 1375)
- 1451 – William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, English Earl (d. 1491)
- 1512 – Gerardus Mercator, Flemish mathematician, cartographer, and philosopher (d. 1594)
- 1523 – Rodrigo de Castro Osorio, Spanish cardinal (d. 1600)
- 1527 – Ulrich, Duke of Mecklenburg (d. 1603)
- 1539 – Christoph Pezel, German theologian (d. 1604)
- 1563 – John Coke, English civil servant and politician (d. 1644)
- 1575 – William Oughtred, English minister and mathematician (d. 1660)
- 1585 – John George I, Elector of Saxony (d. 1656)
- 1585 – Frederick I, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg (d. 1638)
- 1637 – Jan van der Heyden, Dutch painter and engineer (d. 1712)
- 1658 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French explorer and politician, 3rd Colonial Governor of Louisiana (d. 1730)
- 1693 – Johann Jakob Wettstein, Swiss theologian and scholar (d. 1754)
- 1696 – Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter (d. 1770)
- 1703 – Vasily Trediakovsky, Russian poet and playwright (d. 1768)
- 1713 – Edward Cornwallis, English general and politician, Governor of Gibraltar (d. 1776)
- 1713 – Frederick Cornwallis, English archbishop (d. 1783)
- 1723 – Princess Mary of Great Britain (d. 1773)
- 1733 – Vincenzo Galeotti, Italian-Danish dancer and choreographer (d. 1816)
- 1739 – Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge, American colonel and physician (d. 1819)
- 1748 – Jonas Carlsson Dryander, Swedish botanist and biologist (d. 1810)
- 1748 – William Shield, English violinist and composer (d. 1829)
- 1750 – Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard d’Ansse de Villoison, French scholar and academic (d. 1805)
- 1751 – Jan Křtitel Kuchař, Czech organist, composer, and educator (d. 1829)
- 1774 – Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse, Danish organist and composer (d. 1842)
- 1779 – Benjamin Gompertz, English mathematician and statistician (d. 1865)
- 1785 – Carlo Odescalchi, Italian cardinal (d. 1841)
- 1794 – Jacques Babinet, French physicist, mathematician, and astronomer (d. 1872)
- 1794 – Robert Cooper Grier, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1870)
- 1814 – Wilhelm von Giesebrecht, German historian and academic (d. 1889)
- 1800 – Georg Friedrich Daumer, German poet and philosopher (d. 1875)
- 1815 – John Wentworth, American journalist and politician, 19th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1888)
- 1817 – Austen Henry Layard, English archaeologist, academic, and politician, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (d. 1894)
- 1830 – Étienne-Jules Marey, French physiologist and chronophotographer (d. 1904)
- 1830 – Charles Wyville Thomson, Scottish historian and zoologist (d. 1882)
- 1834 – Félix de Blochausen, Luxembourgian politician, 6th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1915)
- 1834 – Marietta Piccolomini, Italian soprano (d. 1899)
- 1853 – Howard Pyle, American author and illustrator (d. 1911)
- 1862 – Siegbert Tarrasch, German chess player and theoretician (d. 1934)
- 1867 – Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 14th Premier of Quebec (d. 1952)
- 1869 – Michael von Faulhaber, German cardinal (d. 1952)
- 1870 – Frank Norris, American journalist and author (d. 1902)
- 1870 – Evgeny Paton, French-Ukrainian engineer (d. 1953)
- 1871 – Rosa Luxemburg, Polish-Russian economist and philosopher (d. 1919)
- 1871 – Konstantinos Pallis, Greek general and politician, Minister Governor-General of Macedonia (d. 1941)
- 1873 – Olav Bjaaland, Norwegian skier and explorer (d. 1961)
- 1874 – Henry Travers, English-American actor (d. 1965)
- 1875 – Harry Lawson, Australian politician, 27th Premier of Victoria (d. 1952)
- 1876 – Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote, English lawyer and politician, 8th Lord Chief Justice of England (d. 1947)
- 1876 – Elisabeth Moore, American tennis player (d. 1959)
- 1879 – William Beveridge, Bangladeshi-English economist and academic (d. 1963)
- 1879 – Andres Larka, Estonian general and politician, 1st Estonian Minister of War (d. 1943)
- 1880 – Sergei Natanovich Bernstein, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1968)
- 1882 – Dora Marsden, English author and activist (d. 1960)
- 1883 – Pauline Sperry, American mathematician (d. 1967)
- 1885 – Marius Barbeau, Canadian ethnographer and academic (d. 1969)
- 1886 – Dong Biwu, Chinese judge and politician, Chairman of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1975)
- 1886 – Freddie Welsh, Welsh boxer (d. 1927)
- 1887 – Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian guitarist and composer (d. 1959)
- 1894 – Henry Daniell, English-American actor (d. 1963)
- 1898 – Zhou Enlai, Chinese politician, 1st Premier of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1976)
- 1898 – Misao Okawa, Japanese super-centenarian (d. 2015)
- 1900 – Lilli Jahn, Jewish German doctor (d. 1944)
- 1900 – Johanna Langefeld, German guard and supervisor of three Nazi concentration camps (d. 1974)
- 1901 – Friedrich Günther, Prince of Schwarzburg (d. 1971)
- 1901 – Julian Przyboś, Polish poet, essayist and translator (d. 1970)
- 1904 – Karl Rahner, German priest and theologian (d. 1984)
- 1905 – László Benedek, Hungarian-American director and cinematographer (d. 1992)
- 1908 – Fritz Fischer, German historian and author (d. 1999)
- 1908 – Irving Fiske, American author and playwright (d. 1990)
- 1908 – Rex Harrison, English actor (d. 1990)
- 1910 – Momofuku Ando, Taiwanese-Japanese businessman, founded Nissin Foods (d. 2007)
- 1910 – Ennio Flaiano, Italian author, screenwriter, and critic (d. 1972)
- 1912 – Jack Marshall, New Zealand colonel, lawyer, and politician, 28th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1988)
- 1915 – Henry Hicks, Canadian academic and politician, 16th Premier of Nova Scotia (d. 1990)
- 1915 – Laurent Schwartz, French mathematician and academic (d. 2002)
- 1918 – Milt Schmidt, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (d. 2017)
- 1918 – Red Storey, Canadian football player, referee, and sportscaster (d. 2006)
- 1918 – James Tobin, American economist and academic (d. 2002)
- 1920 – José Aboulker, Algerian surgeon and activist (d. 2009)
- 1920 – Virginia Christine, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1920 – Rachel Gurney, English actress (d. 2001)
- 1920 – Wang Zengqi, Chinese writer (d. 1997)
- 1921 – Elmer Valo, American baseball player and coach (d. 1998)
- 1922 – James Noble, American actor (d. 2016)
- 1922 – Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1975)
- 1923 – Juan A. Rivero, Puerto Rican biologist and academic (d. 2014)
- 1923 – Laurence Tisch, American businessman, co-founded the Loews Corporation (d. 2003)
- 1924 – Roger Marche, French footballer (d. 1997)
- 1927 – Jack Cassidy, American actor and singer (d. 1976)
- 1927 – Robert Lindsay, 29th Earl of Crawford, Scottish businessman and politician
- 1928 – J. Hillis Miller, American academic and critic
- 1929 – Erik Carlsson, Swedish race car driver (d. 2015)
- 1929 – J. B. Lenoir, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1967)
- 1930 – John Ashley, Canadian ice hockey player and referee (d. 2008)
- 1930 – Del Crandall, American baseball player and manager
- 1931 – Fred, French author and illustrator (d. 2013)
- 1931 – Barry Tuckwell, Australian horn player and educator (d. 2020)
- 1932 – Paul Sand, American actor
- 1933 – Walter Kasper, German cardinal and theologian
- 1934 – Daniel Kahneman, Israeli-American economist and psychologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1935 – Letizia Battaglia, Italian photographer and journalist
- 1935 – Philip K. Chapman, Australian-American astronaut and engineer
- 1936 – Canaan Banana, Zimbabwean minister and politician, 1st President of Zimbabwe (d. 2003)
- 1936 – Dale Douglass, American golfer
- 1936 – Dean Stockwell, American actor
- 1937 – Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerian general and politician, 5th President of Nigeria
- 1938 – Paul Evans, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1938 – Lynn Margulis, American biologist and academic (d. 2011)
- 1938 – Fred Williamson, American football player, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1939 – Samantha Eggar, English actress
- 1939 – Tony Rundle, Australian politician, 40th Premier of Tasmania
- 1939 – Benyamin Sueb, Indonesian actor and comedian (d. 1995)
- 1939 – Peter Woodcock, Canadian serial killer (d. 2010)
- 1939 – Pierre Wynants, Belgian chef
- 1940 – Tom Butler, English bishop
- 1940 – Ken Irvine, Australian rugby league player (d. 1990)
- 1940 – Graham McRae, New Zealand race car driver
- 1940 – Sepp Piontek, German footballer and manager
- 1941 – Des Wilson, New Zealand-English businessman and activist
- 1942 – Felipe González, Spanish lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Spain
- 1942 – Mike Resnick, American author and editor (d. 2020)
- 1942 – David Watkins, Welsh rugby player
- 1943 – Lucio Battisti, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1998)
- 1944 – Peter Brandes, Danish painter and sculptor
- 1944 – Roy Gutman, American journalist and author
- 1945 – Wilf Tranter, English footballer
- 1946 – Richard Bell, Canadian pianist (d. 2007)
- 1946 – Guerrino Boatto, Italian illustrator and painter (d. 2018)
- 1946 – Graham Hawkins, English footballer and manager (d. 2016)
- 1946 – Murray Head, English actor and singer
- 1947 – Clodagh Rodgers, Northern Irish singer and actress
- 1947 – Kent Tekulve, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1948 – Paquirri, Spanish bullfighter (d. 1984)
- 1948 – Eddy Grant, Guyanese-British singer-songwriter and musician
- 1948 – Richard Hickox, English conductor and scholar (d. 2008)
- 1948 – Elaine Paige, English singer and actress
- 1948 – Jan van Beveren, Dutch footballer and coach (d. 2011)
- 1949 – Bernard Arnault, French businessman, philanthropist, and art collector
- 1949 – Franz Josef Jung, German lawyer and politician, German Federal Minister of Defence
- 1949 – Tom Russell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1951 – Rodney Hogg, Australian cricketer and coach
- 1952 – Petar Borota, Serbian footballer and coach (d. 2010)
- 1952 – Mike Squires, American baseball player and scout
- 1953 – Katarina Frostenson, Swedish poet and author
- 1953 – Michael J. Sandel, American philosopher and academic
- 1953 – Tokyo Sexwale, South African businessman and politician, 1st Premier of Gauteng
- 1954 – Marsha Warfield, American actress
- 1954 – João Lourenço, Angolan president
- 1955 – Penn Jillette, American magician, actor, and author
- 1956 – Teena Marie, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2010)
- 1956 – Christopher Snowden, English engineer and academic
- 1957 – Mark E. Smith, English singer, songwriter and musician (d. 2018)
- 1957 – Ray Suarez, American journalist and author
- 1958 – Volodymyr Bezsonov, Ukrainian footballer and manager
- 1958 – Bob Forward, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1958 – Andy Gibb, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1988)
- 1959 – Vazgen Sargsyan, Armenian colonel and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Armenia (d. 1999)
- 1960 – Paul Drayson, Baron Drayson, English businessman and politician, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology
- 1963 – Joel Osteen, American pastor, author, and television host
- 1964 – Bertrand Cantat, French singer-songwriter
- 1964 – Gerald Vanenburg, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1965 – José Semedo, Portuguese footballer and coach
- 1966 – Oh Eun-sun, South Korean mountaineer
- 1966 – Bob Halkidis, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1966 – Michael Irvin, American football player, sportscaster, and actor
- 1966 – Aasif Mandvi, Indian-American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1966 – Zachery Stevens, American singer-songwriter
- 1968 – Gordon Bajnai, Hungarian businessman and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Hungary
- 1968 – Theresa Villiers, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
- 1969 – Paul Blackthorne, English actor and producer
- 1969 – Danny King, English author and playwright
- 1969 – Moussa Saïb, Algerian footballer and manager
- 1969 – M.C. Solaar, Afro-French rapper
- 1970 – Mike Brown, American basketball player and coach
- 1970 – John Frusciante, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1970 – Yuu Watase, Japanese illustrator
- 1971 – Greg Berry, English footballer and coach
- 1971 – Jeffrey Hammonds, American baseball player and scout
- 1971 – Yuri Lowenthal, American voice actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1971 – Filip Meirhaeghe, Belgian cyclist
- 1971 – Mark Protheroe, Australian rugby league player
- 1973 – Yannis Anastasiou, Greek footballer and manager
- 1973 – Nelly Arcan, Canadian author (d. 2009)
- 1973 – Juan Esnáider, Argentinian footballer and manager
- 1973 – Ryan Franklin, American baseball player
- 1973 – Nicole Pratt, Australian tennis player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1973 – Špela Pretnar, Slovenian skier
- 1974 – Kevin Connolly, American actor and director
- 1974 – Jens Jeremies, German footballer
- 1974 – Eva Mendes, American model and actress
- 1975 – Luciano Burti, Brazilian race car driver and sportscaster
- 1975 – Sasho Petrovski, Australian footballer
- 1975 – Chris Silverwood, English cricketer and coach
- 1976 – Neil Jackson, English actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1976 – Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
- 1976 – Paul Konerko, American baseball player
- 1976 – Norm Maxwell, New Zealand rugby player
- 1977 – Taismary Agüero, Cuban-Italian volleyball player
- 1978 – Jared Crouch, Australian footballer
- 1978 – Mike Hessman, American baseball player and coach
- 1978 – Kimberly McCullough, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1978 – Carlos Ochoa, Mexican footballer
- 1979 – Martin Axenrot, Swedish drummer
- 1979 – Lee Mears, English rugby player
- 1980 – Shay Carl, American businessman, co-founded Maker Studios
- 1981 – Barret Jackman, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1981 – Paul Martin, American ice hockey player
- 1982 – Dan Carter, New Zealand rugby player
- 1982 – Philipp Haastrup, German footballer
- 1983 – Édgar Dueñas, Mexican footballer
- 1984 – Branko Cvetković, Serbian basketball player
- 1984 – Guillaume Hoarau, French footballer
- 1985 – David Marshall, Scottish footballer
- 1985 – Brad Mills, American baseball player
- 1985 – Kenichi Matsuyama, Japanese actor
- 1986 – Alexandre Barthe, French footballer
- 1986 – Matty Fryatt, English footballer
- 1987 – Anna Chakvetadze, Russian tennis player
- 1987 – Chris Cohen, English footballer
- 1988 – Liassine Cadamuro-Bentaïba, Algerian footballer
- 1990 – Danny Drinkwater, English footballer
- 1990  – Mason Plumlee, American basketball player
- 1990 – Alex Smithies, English footballer
- 1991 – Ramiro Funes Mori, Argentinian footballer
- 1991 – Daniil Trifonov, Russian pianist and composer
- 1993 – El Hadji Ba, French footballer
- 1993 – Joshua Coyne, American violinist and composer
- 1993 – Harry Maguire, English footballer
- 1994 – Daria Gavrilova, Russian-Australian tennis player
- 1994 – Kyle Schwarber, American baseball player
- 1996 – Taylor Hill, American model
- 1996 – Emmanuel Mudiay, Congolese basketball player
- 1997 – Milena Venega, Cuban rower
- 1998 – Bo Bichette, American baseball player
- 1999 – Madison Beer, American singer, songwriter and producer.
- 2007 – Roman Griffin Davis, British actor, second youngest Golden Globe recipient.
 Deaths on March 5
- 254 – Pope Lucius I (b. 200)
- 824 – Suppo I, Frankish nobleman
- 1239 – Hermann Balk, German knight
- 1410 – Matthew of Kraków, Polish reformer (b. 1335)
- 1417 – Manuel III Megas Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond (b. 1364)
- 1534 – Antonio da Correggio, Italian painter and educator (b. 1489)
- 1539 – Nuno da Cunha, Portuguese admiral and politician, Governor of Portuguese India (b. 1487)
- 1599 – Guido Panciroli, Italian historian and jurist (b. 1523)
- 1611 – Shimazu Yoshihisa, Japanese daimyō (b. 1533)
- 1622 – Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma (b. 1569)
- 1695 – Henry Wharton, English writer and librarian (b. 1664)
- 1726 – Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, English politician, Lord President of the Council (b. 1655)
- 1770 – Crispus Attucks, American slave (b. 1723)
- 1778 – Thomas Arne, English composer and educator (b. 1710)
- 1815 – Franz Mesmer, German physician and astrologist (b. 1734)
- 1827 – Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician and astronomer (b. 1749)
- 1827 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and academic (b. 1745)
- 1829 – John Adams, English sailor and mutineer (b. 1766)
- 1849 – David Scott, Scottish historical painter (b. 1806)
- 1876 – Marie d’Agoult, German-French historian and author (b. 1805)
- 1893 – Hippolyte Taine, French historian and critic (b. 1828)
- 1895 – Nikolai Leskov, Russian author, playwright, and journalist (b. 1831)
- 1895 – Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, English general and scholar (b. 1810)
- 1907 – Friedrich Blass, German philologist, scholar, and academic (b. 1843)
- 1925 – Johan Jensen, Danish mathematician and engineer (b. 1859)
- 1927 – Franz Mertens, Polish-Austrian mathematician and academic (b. 1840)
- 1929 – David Dunbar Buick, Scottish-American businessman, founded Buick (b. 1854)
- 1934 – Reşit Galip, Turkish academic and politician, 6th Turkish Minister of National Education (b. 1893)
- 1935 – Roque Ruaño, Spanish priest and engineer (b. 1877)
- 1940 – Cai Yuanpei, Chinese philosopher and academic (b. 1868)
- 1944 – Max Jacob, French poet and author (b. 1876)
- 1945 – Lena Baker, African American maid and murderer (b. 1900)
- 1947 – Alfredo Casella, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1883)
- 1950 – Edgar Lee Masters, American poet, author, and playwright (b. 1868)
- 1950 – Roman Shukhevych, Ukrainian general and politician (b. 1907)
- 1953 – Herman J. Mankiewicz, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1897)
- 1953 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1891)
- 1953 – Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator and politician of Georgian descent, 2nd leader of the Soviet Union (b. 1878)
- 1955 – Antanas Merkys, Lithuanian lawyer and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Lithuania (b. 1888)
- 1963 – Patsy Cline, American singer-songwriter (b. 1932)
- 1963 – Cowboy Copas, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1913)
- 1963 – Hawkshaw Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1921)
- 1965 – Chen Cheng, Chinese general and politician, 27th Premier of the Republic of China (b. 1897)
- 1965 – Pepper Martin, American baseball player and manager (b. 1904)
- 1966 – Anna Akhmatova, Ukrainian-Russian poet, author, and translator (b. 1889)
- 1967 – Mischa Auer, Russian-American actor (b. 1905)
- 1967 – Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iranian political scientist and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Iran (b. 1882)
- 1967 – Georges Vanier, Canadian general and politician, 19th Governor General of Canada (b. 1888)
- 1971 – Allan Nevins, American journalist and author (b. 1890)
- 1973 – Robert C. O’Brien, American journalist and author (b. 1918)
- 1974 – John Samuel Bourque, Canadian colonel and politician (b. 1894)
- 1974 – Billy De Wolfe, American actor (b. 1907)
- 1974 – Sol Hurok, Ukrainian-American businessman (b. 1888)
- 1976 – Otto Tief, Estonian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Estonia (b. 1889)
- 1977 – Tom Pryce, Welsh race car driver (b. 1949)
- 1980 – Jay Silverheels, Canadian-American actor (b. 1912)
- 1981 – Yip Harburg, American songwriter and composer (b. 1896)
- 1982 – John Belushi, American actor (b. 1949)
- 1984 – Pierre Cochereau, French organist and composer (b. 1924)
- 1984 – Tito Gobbi, Italian operatic baritone (b. 1913)
- 1984 – William Powell, American actor (b. 1892)
- 1988 – Alberto Olmedo, Argentine comedian and actor (b. 1933)
- 1990 – Gary Merrill, American actor and director (b. 1915)
- 1995 – Vivian Stanshall, English singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1943)
- 1996 – Whit Bissell, American character actor (b. 1909)
- 1997 – Samm Sinclair Baker, American writer (b. 1909)
- 1997 – Jean Dréville, French director and screenwriter (b. 1906)
- 1999 – Richard Kiley, American actor and singer (b. 1922)
- 2000 – Lolo Ferrari, French dancer, actress and singer (b. 1963)
- 2005 – David Sheppard, English cricketer and bishop (b. 1929)
- 2008 – Joseph Weizenbaum, German computer scientist and author (b. 1923)
- 2010 – Charles B. Pierce, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1938)
- 2010 – Richard Stapley, British actor and writer (b. 1923)
- 2011 – Manolis Rasoulis, Greek singer-songwriter (b. 1945)
- 2012 – Paul Haines, New Zealand-Australian author (b. 1970)
- 2012 – Philip Madoc, Welsh-English actor (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter and screenwriter (b. 1925)
- 2012 – William O. Wooldridge, American sergeant (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Paul Bearer, American wrestler and manager (b. 1954)
- 2013 – Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan colonel and politician, President of Venezuela (b. 1954)
- 2013 – Duane Gish, American biochemist and academic (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Geoff Edwards, American actor and game show host (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Ailsa McKay, Scottish economist and academic (b. 1963)
- 2014 – Leopoldo María Panero, Spanish poet and translator (b. 1948)
- 2014 – Ola L. Mize, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1931)
- 2015 – Vlada Divljan, Serbian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1958)
- 2015 – Edward Egan, American cardinal (b. 1932)
- 2016 – Hassan Al-Turabi, Sudanese activist and politician (b. 1932)
- 2016 – Ray Tomlinson, American computer programmer and engineer (b. 1941)
- 2016 – Al Wistert, American football player and coach (b. 1920)
- 2017 – Kurt Moll, German opera singer (b. 1938)
 Holidays and observances on March 5
- Christian feast day:
- Ciarán of Saigir
- John Joseph of the Cross
- Piran
- Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea
- Thietmar of Minden
- March 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Custom Chief’s Day (Vanuatu)
- Day of Physical Culture and Sport (Azerbaijan)
- Learn from Lei Feng Day (China)
- St Piran’s Day (Cornwall)
 
 
 
- 
	
				
			
		
				
			
	
		
 February 23 in History
- 303 – Roman emperor Diocletian orders the destruction of the Christian church in Nicomedia, beginning eight years of Diocletianic Persecution.
- 532 – Byzantine emperor Justinian I orders the building of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia.
- 1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.
- 1554 – Mapuche forces, under the leadership of Lautaro, score a victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Marihueñu in Chile.
- 1653 – The Ballet Royal de la Nuit is first performed at the Salle du Petit-Bourbon in Paris
- 1739 – At York Castle, the outlaw Dick Turpin is identified by his former schoolteacher. Turpin had been using the name Richard Palmer.
- 1778 – American Revolutionary War: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
- 1820 – Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
- 1836 – Texas Revolution: The Siege of the Alamo (prelude to the Battle of the Alamo) begins in San Antonio, Texas.
- 1847 – Mexican–American War: Battle of Buena Vista: In Mexico, American troops under future president General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
- 1854 – The official independence of the Orange Free State is declared.
- 1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland.
- 1870 – Reconstruction Era: Post-U.S. Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
- 1883 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an anti-trust law.
- 1885 – Sino-French War: French Army gains an important victory in the Battle of Đồng Đăng in the Tonkin region of Vietnam.
- 1886 – Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of aluminium from the electrolysis of aluminium oxide, after several years of intensive work. He was assisted in this project by his older sister, Julia Brainerd Hall.
- 1887 – The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
- 1898 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing J’Accuse…!, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: During the Battle of the Tugela Heights, the first British attempt to take Hart’s Hill fails.
- 1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States “in perpetuity”.
- 1905 – Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world’s first service club.
- 1909 – The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
- 1917 – First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution (March 8 in the Gregorian calendar).
- 1927 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill by Congress establishing the Federal Radio Commission (later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission) which was to regulate the use of radio frequencies in the United States.
- 1927 – German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.
- 1934 – Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.
- 1941 – Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
- 1942 – World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the coastline near Santa Barbara, California.
- 1943 – A fire breaks out at Saint Joseph’s Orphanage, County Cavan, Ireland, killing 35 children and one adult.
- 1943 – Greek Resistance: The United Panhellenic Organization of Youth is founded in Greece.
- 1944 – The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
- 1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.
- 1945 – World War II: The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free all 2,147 captives of the Los Baños internment camp, in what General Colin Powell later would refer to as “the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies.”
- 1945 – World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined Filipino and American forces.
- 1945 – World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
- 1945 – World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is annihilated in a raid by 379 British bombers.
- 1947 – International Organization for Standardization is founded.
- 1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
- 1966 – In Syria, Ba’ath Party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin al-Hafiz, also a Baathist.
- 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
- 1980 – Iran hostage crisis: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran’s parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
- 1981 – In Spain, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d’état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
- 1983 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
- 1987 – Supernova 1987a is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
- 1991 – In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d’état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
- 1998 – In the United States, tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42 people.
- 1999 – Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
- 2007 – A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 88. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.
- 2008 – A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber crashes on Guam, marking the first operational loss of a B-2.
- 2010 – Unknown criminals pour more than 21⁄2 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in northern Italy, sparking an environmental disaster.
- 2012 – A series of attacks across Iraq leave at least 83 killed and more than 250 injured.
- 2017 – The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from ISIL.
- 2019 – Atlas Air Flight 3591, a Boeing 767 freighter, crashes into Trinity Bay near Anahuac, Texas, killing all three people on board.
 Births on February 23
- 1417 – Pope Paul II (d. 1471)
- 1417 – Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1479)
- 1443 – Matthias Corvinus, Hungarian king (d. 1490)
- 1529 – Onofrio Panvinio, Italian historian (d. 1568)
- 1539 – Henry XI of Legnica, thrice Duke of Legnica (d. 1588)
- 1539 – Salima Sultan Begum, Empress of the Mughal Empire (d. 1612)
- 1583 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer (d. 1656)
- 1592 – Balthazar Gerbier, Dutch painter (d. 1663)
- 1633 – Samuel Pepys, English diarist and politician (d. 1703)
- 1646 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shōgun (d. 1709)
- 1680 – Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, Canadian politician, 2nd Colonial Governor of Louisiana (d. 1767)
- 1685 – George Frideric Handel, German-English organist and composer (d. 1759)
- 1723 – Richard Price, Welsh-English minister and philosopher (d. 1791)
- 1744 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German banker and businessman (d. 1812)
- 1792 – José Joaquín de Herrera, Mexican politician and general. President three times (1844–1854) (d. 1854)
- 1831 – Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Dutch painter (d. 1915)
- 1840 – Carl Menger, Austrian economist and educator (d. 1921)
- 1842 – Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher and author (d. 1906)
- 1850 – César Ritz, Swiss businessman, founded The Ritz Hotel, London and Hôtel Ritz Paris (d. 1918)
- 1868 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian, and activist (d. 1963)
- 1868 – Anna Hofman-Uddgren, Swedish actress, singer, and director (d. 1947)
- 1873 – Liang Qichao, Chinese journalist, philosopher, and scholar (d. 1929)
- 1874 – Konstantin Päts, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st President of Estonia (d. 1956)
- 1878 – Kazimir Malevich, Ukrainian painter and theorist (d. 1935)
- 1883 – Karl Jaspers, German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher (d. 1969)
- 1883 – Guy C. Wiggins, American painter (d. 1962)
- 1889 – Musidora, French actress and director (d. 1957)
- 1889 – Cyril Delevanti, English-American actor (d. 1975)
- 1889 – Victor Fleming, American director, cinematographer, and producer (d. 1949)
- 1889 – John Gilbert Winant, American captain, pilot, and politician, 60th Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1947)
- 1892 – Kathleen Harrison, English actress (d. 1995)
- 1892 – Agnes Smedley, American journalist and writer (d. 1950)
- 1894 – Harold Horder, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 1978)
- 1899 – Erich Kästner, German author and poet (d. 1974)
- 1899 – Norman Taurog, American director and screenwriter (d. 1981)
- 1904 – Terence Fisher, English director and screenwriter (d. 1980)
- 1904 – William L. Shirer, American journalist and historian (d. 1993)
- 1908 – William McMahon, Australian lawyer and politician, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
- 1915 – Jon Hall, American actor and director (d. 1979)
- 1915 – Paul Tibbets, American general and pilot (d. 2007)
- 1919 – Johnny Carey, Irish footballer and manager (d. 1995)
- 1920 – Paul Gérin-Lajoie, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2018)
- 1923 – Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan jurist and politician, President of Uruguay (d. 2014)
- 1923 – Harry Clarke, English international footballer, defender (d. 2000)
- 1923 – Ioannis Grivas, Greek judge and politician, 176th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2016)
- 1923 – Dante Lavelli, American football player (d. 2009)
- 1923 – Clarence D. Lester, African-American fighter pilot (d.1986)
- 1923 – Mary Francis Shura, American author (d. 1991)
- 1924 – Allan McLeod Cormack, South-African-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- 1925 – Louis Stokes, American lawyer and politician (d. 2015)
- 1927 – Régine Crespin, French soprano and actress (d. 2007)
- 1928 – Hans Herrmann, German race car driver
- 1928 – Vasily Lazarev, Russian colonel, physician, and astronaut (d. 1990)
- 1929 – Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow (d. 2008)
- 1929 – Elston Howard, American baseball player and coach (d. 1980)
- 1930 – Paul West, English-American author, poet, and academic (d. 2015)
- 1931 – Tom Wesselmann, American painter and sculptor (d. 2004)
- 1932 – Majel Barrett, American actress and producer (d. 2008)
- 1937 – Tom Osborne, American football player, coach, and politician
- 1938 – Sylvia Chase, American broadcast journalist (d. 2019)
- 1938 – Paul Morrissey, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1938 – Diane Varsi, American actress (d. 1992)
- 1940 – Peter Fonda, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2019)
- 1940 – Jackie Smith, American football player
- 1941 – Ron Hunt, American baseball player
- 1943 – Fred Biletnikoff, American football player and coach
- 1943 – Bobby Mitchell, American golfer (d. 2018)
- 1944 – Bernard Cornwell, English author and educator
- 1944 – Florian Fricke, German keyboard player and composer (d. 2001)
- 1944 – Johnny Winter, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2014)
- 1945 – Allan Boesak, South African cleric and politician
- 1946 – Rusty Young, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1947 – Pia Kjærsgaard, Danish politician, Speaker of the Danish Parliament
- 1947 – Anton Mosimann, Swiss chef and author
- 1948 – Bill Alexander, English director and producer
- 1948 – Trevor Cherry, English footballer (d. 2020)
- 1948 – Steve Priest, English singer-songwriter and bass player
- 1949 – César Aira, Argentinian author and translator
- 1949 – Marc Garneau, Canadian engineer, astronaut, and politician
- 1950 – Rebecca Goldstein, American philosopher and author
- 1951 – Eddie Dibbs, American tennis player
- 1951 – Debbie Friedman, American singer-songwriter of Jewish melodies (d. 2011)
- 1951 – Ed “Too Tall” Jones, American football player and boxer
- 1951 – Patricia Richardson, American actress
- 1952 – Brad Whitford, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1953 – Kenny Bee, Hong Kong singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1953 – Satoru Nakajima, Japanese race car driver
- 1954 – Rajini Thiranagama, Sri Lankan physician and academic (d. 1989)
- 1954 – Viktor Yushchenko, Ukrainian captain and politician, 3rd President of Ukraine
- 1955 – Howard Jones, English singer-songwriter
- 1955 – Flip Saunders, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1956 – Sandra Osborne, Scottish politician
- 1958 – David Sylvian, English singer-songwriter
- 1959 – Clayton Anderson, American engineer and astronaut
- 1959 – Nick de Bois, English politician
- 1959 – Ian Liddell-Grainger, Scottish soldier and politician
- 1959 – Linda Nolan, Irish singer and actress
- 1960 – Naruhito, Emperor of Japan
- 1962 – Michael Wilton, American guitarist
- 1963 – Bobby Bonilla, American baseball player
- 1963 – Radosław Sikorski, Polish journalist and politician, 11th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland
- 1964 – John Norum, Norwegian guitarist and songwriter
- 1965 – Michael Dell, American businessman
- 1965 – Helena Suková, Czech-Monacan tennis player
- 1967 – Steve Stricker, American golfer
- 1967 – Chris Vrenna, American drummer, songwriter, and producer
- 1969 – Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer
- 1969 – Martine Croxall, English journalist and television news presenter
- 1969 – Daymond John, American fashion designer and businessman, founded FUBU
- 1970 – Niecy Nash, American actress and producer
- 1971 – Carin Koch, Swedish golfer
- 1971 – Melinda Messenger, English model and television host
- 1971 – Joe-Max Moore, American soccer player
- 1972 – Alessandro Sturba, Italian footballer
- 1972 – Rondell White, American baseball player
- 1973 – Jeff Nordgaard, American-Polish basketball player
- 1974 – Herschelle Gibbs, South African cricketer
- 1974 – Robbi Kempson, South African rugby player
- 1975 – Michael Cornacchia, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1975 – Ryan McCourt, Canadian artist
- 1976 – Scott Elarton, American baseball player and coach
- 1976 – Kelly Macdonald, Scottish actress
- 1976 – Jeff O’Neill, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
- 1977 – Kristina Šmigun-Vähi, Estonian skier
- 1978 – Residente, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter
- 1978 – Dan Snyder, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
- 1979 – S. E. Cupp, American journalist and author
- 1981 – Gareth Barry, English footballer
- 1981 – Josh Gad, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1981 – Charles Tillman, American football player
- 1982 – Adam Hann-Byrd, American actor and screenwriter
- 1983 – Mido, Egyptian footballer, striker, manager and sportscaster
- 1983 – Aziz Ansari, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1983 – Emily Blunt, English actress
- 1986 – Emerson Conceição, Brazilian footballer
- 1986 – Skylar Grey, American singer-songwriter
- 1986 – Kazuya Kamenashi, Japanese singer-songwriter and actor
- 1986 – Jerod Mayo, American football player
- 1986 – Ola Svensson, Swedish singer-songwriter
- 1987 – Ab-Soul, American rapper
- 1987 – Theophilus London, Trinidadian-American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1987 – Zak Kirkup, Member of the Parliament of Western Australia
- 1988 – Nicolás Gaitán, Argentinian footballer
- 1989 – Evan Bates, American ice dancer
- 1989 – Jérémy Pied, French footballer
- 1990 – Kevin Connauton, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 – Terry Hawkridge, English footballer
- 1990 – Marco Scandella, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1992 – Casemiro, Brazilian footballer
- 1992 – Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Greek footballer
- 1993 – Chris Grevsmuhl, Australian rugby league player
- 1994 – Dakota Fanning, American actress
- 1995 – Andrew Wiggins, Canadian basketball player
- 1996 – D’Angelo Russell, American basketball player
- 1997 – Jamal Murray, Canadian basketball player
 Deaths on February 23
- 715 – Al-Walid I, Umayyad caliph (b. 668)
- 908 – Li Keyong, Shatuo military governor during the Tang Dynasty in China (b. 856)
- 943 – Herbert II, Count of Vermandois, (b. 884)
- 943 – David I, prince of Tao-Klarjeti (Georgia)
- 1011 – Willigis, German archbishop (b. 940)
- 1100 – Emperor Zhezong of Song (b. 1076)
- 1270 – Isabel of France (b. 1225)
- 1447 – Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (b. 1390)
- 1447 – Pope Eugene IV (b. 1383)
- 1464 – Emperor Yingzong of Ming (b. 1427)
- 1473 – Arnold, Duke of Gelderland (b. 1410)
- 1526 – Diego Colón, Spanish Viceroy of the Indies (b. c. 1479)
- 1554 – Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire (b. 1515)
- 1603 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (b. 1519)
- 1603 – Franciscus Vieta, French mathematician (b. 1540)
- 1620 – Nicholas Fuller, English politician (b. 1543)
- 1704 – Georg Muffat, French organist and composer (b. 1653)
- 1766 – Stanisław Leszczyński, Polish king (b. 1677)
- 1781 – George Taylor, Irish-American blacksmith and politician (b. 1716)
- 1792 – Joshua Reynolds, English painter and academic (b. 1723)
- 1821 – John Keats, English poet (b. 1795)
- 1848 – John Quincy Adams, American politician, 6th President of the United States (b. 1767)
- 1855 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)
- 1859 – Zygmunt Krasiński, Polish poet and playwright (b. 1812)
- 1879 – Albrecht von Roon, Prussian soldier and politician, 10th Minister President of Prussia (b. 1803)
- 1897 – Woldemar Bargiel, German composer and educator (b. 1828)
- 1900 – Ernest Dowson, English poet, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1867)
- 1908 – Friedrich von Esmarch, German surgeon and academic (b. 1823)
- 1918 – Adolphus Frederick VI, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1882)
- 1930 – Horst Wessel, German SA officer (b. 1907)
- 1931 – Nellie Melba, Australian soprano and actress (b. 1861)
- 1934 – Edward Elgar, English composer and academic (b. 1857)
- 1944 – Leo Baekeland, Belgian-American chemist and engineer (b. 1863)
- 1946 – Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (b. 1885)
- 1948 – John Robert Gregg, Irish-American publisher and educator (b. 1866)
- 1955 – Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (b. 1868)
- 1965 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (b. 1890)
- 1969 – Madhubala, Indian actress and producer (b. 1933)
- 1969 – Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 2nd King of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
- 1973 – Dickinson W. Richards, American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
- 1974 – Harry Ruby, American composer and screenwriter (b. 1895)
- 1976 – L. S. Lowry, English painter (b. 1887)
- 1979 – W. A. C. Bennett, Canadian businessman and politician, 25th Premier of British Columbia (b. 1900)
- 1983 – Herbert Howells, English organist and composer (b. 1892)
- 1990 – José Napoleón Duarte, Salvadoran engineer and politician, President of El Salvador (b. 1925)
- 1995 – James Herriot, English veterinarian and author (b. 1916)
- 1997 – Tony Williams, American drummer, composer, and producer (b. 1945)
- 1998 – Philip Abbott, American actor and director (b. 1924)
- 1999 – The Renegade, American wrestler (b. 1965)
- 2000 – Ofra Haza, Israeli singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1957)
- 2000 – Stanley Matthews, English footballer and manager (b. 1915)
- 2003 – Howie Epstein, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (b. 1955)
- 2003 – Robert K. Merton, American sociologist and academic (b. 1910)
- 2004 – Vijay Anand, Indian director, producer, screenwriter, and actor (b. 1934)
- 2004 – Sikander Bakht, Indian politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (b. 1918)
- 2006 – Telmo Zarra, Spanish footballer (b. 1921)
- 2007 – John Ritchie, English footballer (b. 1941)
- 2008 – Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian economist and politician, 2nd President of Slovenia (b. 1950)
- 2008 – Paul Frère, Belgian race car driver and journalist (b. 1917)
- 2010 – Orlando Zapata, Cuban plumber and activist (b. 1967)
- 2011 – Nirmala Srivastava, Indian religious leader, founded Sahaja Yoga (b. 1923)
- 2012 – William Raggio, American lawyer and politician (b. 1926)
- 2012 – David Sayre, American physicist and mathematician (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Kazimierz Żygulski, Polish sociologist and activist (b. 1919)
- 2013 – Eugene Bookhammer, American soldier and politician, 18th Lieutenant Governor of Delaware (b. 1918)
- 2013 – Joseph Friedenson, Holocaust survivor, Holocaust historian, Yiddish writer, lecturer and editor (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Julien Ries, Belgian cardinal (b. 1920)
- 2013 – Lotika Sarkar, Indian lawyer and academic (b. 1945)
- 2014 – Alice Herz-Sommer, Czech-English Holocaust survivor, pianist and educator (b. 1903)
- 2014 – Roger Hilsman, American soldier, academic, and politician (b. 1919)
- 2015 – James Aldridge, Australian-English journalist and author (b. 1918)
- 2015 – Rana Bhagwandas, Pakistani lawyer and judge, Chief Justice of Pakistan (b. 1942)
- 2015 – W. E. “Bill” Dykes, American soldier and politician (b. 1925)
- 2016 – Peter Lustig, German television host and author (b. 1937)
- 2016 – Jacqueline Mattson, American baseball player (b. 1928)
- 2019 – Katherine Helmond, American actress (b. 1929)
 Holidays and observances on February 23
- Christian feast day:
- Polycarp of Smyrna
- Serenus the Gardener
- February 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- The Emperor’s Birthday, birthday of Naruhito, the current Emperor of Japan (Japan)
- Mashramani-Republic Day (Guyana)
- Meteņi (Latvia)
- National Day (Brunei)
- Red Army Day or Day of Soviet Army and Navy in the former Soviet Union, also held in various former Soviet republics:
- Defender of the Fatherland Day (Russia)
- Defender of the Fatherland and Armed Forces day (Belarus)
- Armed Forces Day (Tajikistan) (Tajikistan)
 
 
 
 
- 
	
				
			
		
				
			
	
		February 6 in History
- AD 60 – The earliest date for which the day of the week is known. A graffito in Pompeii identifies this day as a dies Solis (Sunday). In modern reckoning, this date would have been a Wednesday.
- 1579 – The Archdiocese of Manila is made a diocese by a papal bull with Domingo de Salazar being its first bishop.
- 1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland is proclaimed King upon the death of his brother Charles II.
- 1694 – The warrior queen Dandara, leader of the runaway slaves in Quilombo dos Palmares, Brazil, is captured and commits suicide rather than be returned to a life of slavery.
- 1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
- 1778 –New York became the third state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
- 1788 – Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1806 – Battle of San Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.
- 1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.
- 1820 – The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.
- 1833 – Otto becomes the first modern King of Greece.
- 1840 – Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.
- 1843 – The first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels, opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City).
- 1851 – The largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history take place in the state of Victoria.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.
- 1899 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.
- 1900 – The Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international arbitration court at The Hague, is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
- 1918 – British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament.
- 1919 – The American Legion is founded.
- 1919 – The five-day Seattle General Strike begins, as more than 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle, Washington, walk off the job.
- 1922 – The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
- 1934 – Far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France.
- 1951 – The Canadian Army enters combat in the Korean War.
- 1951 – The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
- 1952 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
- 1958 – Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.
- 1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
- 1959 – At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
- 1976 – In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
- 1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor’easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.
- 1981 – The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War.
- 1987 – Justice Mary Gaudron becomes the first woman to be appointed to the High Court of Australia.
- 1988 – Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.
- 1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.
- 1996 – Willamette Valley Flood: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.
- 1996 – Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 people on board. This is the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 757.
- 1998 – Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.
- 2000 – Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny, Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile.
- 2006 – Stephen Harper becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
- 2016 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes southern Taiwan, killing 117 people.
- 2018 – SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, makes its maiden flight.
 Births on February 6
- 885 – Emperor Daigo of Japan (d. 930)
- 1402 – Louis I, Landgrave of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse (d. 1458)
- 1452 – Joanna, Princess of Portugal (d. 1490)
- 1453 – Girolamo Benivieni, Florentine poet (d. 1542)
- 1465 – Scipione del Ferro, Italian mathematician and theorist (d. 1526)
- 1536 – Sassa Narimasa, Japanese samurai (d. 1588)
- 1577 – Beatrice Cenci, Italian murderer (d. 1599)
- 1582 – Mario Bettinus, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (d. 1657)
- 1608 – António Vieira, Portuguese priest and philosopher (d. 1697)
- 1611 – Chongzhen Emperor of China (d. 1644)
- 1612 – Antoine Arnauld, French mathematician, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1694)
- 1643 – Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg, Prussian politician, 1st Minister President of Prussia (d. 1712)
- 1649 – Augusta Marie of Holstein-Gottorp, German noblewoman (d. 1728)
- 1664 – Mustafa II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1703)
- 1665 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (d. 1714)
- 1665 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain (d. 1714)
- 1695 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss-Russian mathematician and theorist (d. 1726)
- 1719 – Alberto Pullicino, Maltese painter (d. 1759)
- 1726 – Patrick Russell, Scottish surgeon and zoologist (d. 1805)
- 1732 – Charles Lee, English-American general (d. 1782)
- 1736 – Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, German-Austrian sculptor (d. 1783)
- 1744 – Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (d. 1795)
- 1748 – Adam Weishaupt, German philosopher and academic, founded the Illuminati (d. 1830)
- 1753 – Évariste de Parny, French poet and author (d. 1814)
- 1756 – Aaron Burr, American colonel and politician, 3rd Vice President of the United States (d. 1836)
- 1758 – Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Belarusian-Polish poet, playwright, and politician (d. 1841)
- 1769 – Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn, Austrian general (d. 1862)
- 1772 – George Murray, Scottish general and politician, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies (d. 1830)
- 1778 – Ugo Foscolo, Italian author and poet (d. 1827)
- 1781 – John Keane, 1st Baron Keane, Irish general and politician, Governor of Saint Lucia (d. 1844)
- 1796 – John Stevens Henslow, English botanist and geologist (d. 1861)
- 1797 – Joseph von Radowitz, Prussian general and politician, Foreign Minister of Prussia (d. 1853)
- 1799 – Imre Frivaldszky, Hungarian botanist and entomologist (d. 1870)
- 1800 – Achille Devéria, French painter and lithographer (d. 1857)
- 1802 – Charles Wheatstone, English-French physicist and cryptographer (d. 1875)
- 1811 – Henry Liddell, English priest, author, and academic (d. 1898)
- 1814 – Auguste Chapdelaine, French missionary and saint (d. 1856)
- 1818 – William M. Evarts, American lawyer and politician, 27th United States Secretary of State (d. 1901)
- 1820 – Thomas C. Durant, American railroad tycoon (d. 1885)
- 1829 – Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer, French architect, designed the La Santé Prison and Saint-Pierre-de-Montrouge (d. 1914)
- 1832 – John Brown Gordon, American general and politician, 53rd Governor of Georgia (d. 1904)
- 1833 – José María de Pereda, Spanish author and academic (d. 1906)
- 1833 – J. E. B. Stuart, American general (d. 1864)
- 1834 – Edwin Klebs, German-Swiss pathologist and academic (d. 1913)
- 1834 – Ema Pukšec, Croatian-German soprano (d. 1889)
- 1834 – Wilhelm von Scherff, German general and author (d. 1911)
- 1838 – Henry Irving, English actor and manager (d. 1905)
- 1838 – Israel Meir Kagan, Lithuanian-Polish rabbi and author (d. 1933)
- 1839 – Eduard Hitzig, German neurologist and psychiatrist (d. 1907)
- 1842 – Alexandre Ribot, French academic and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1923)
- 1843 – Inoue Kowashi, Japanese scholar and politician (d. 1895)
- 1843 – Frederic William Henry Myers, English poet and philologist, co-founded the Society for Psychical Research (d. 1901)
- 1845 – Isidor Straus, German-American businessman and politician (d. 1912)
- 1847 – Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, American architect, designed the Plaza Hotel (d. 1918)
- 1852 – C. Lloyd Morgan, English zoologist and psychologist (d. 1936)
- 1852 – Vasily Safonov, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1918)
- 1861 – Nikolay Zelinsky, Russian chemist and academic (d. 1953)
- 1864 – John Henry Mackay, Scottish-German philosopher and author (d. 1933)
- 1866 – Karl Sapper, German linguist and explorer (d. 1945)
- 1872 – Robert Maillart, Swiss engineer, designed the Salginatobel Bridge and Schwandbach Bridge (d. 1940)
- 1874 – Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Indian religious leader, founded the Gaudiya Math (d. 1937)
- 1875 – Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (d. 1915)
- 1876 – Henry Blogg, English fisherman and sailor (d. 1954)
- 1879 – Othon Friesz, French painter (d. 1949)
- 1879 – Magnús Guðmundsson, Icelandic lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1937)
- 1879 – Edwin Samuel Montagu, English politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (d. 1924)
- 1879 – Carl Ramsauer, German physicist and author (d. 1955)
- 1880 – Nishinoumi Kajirō II, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 25th Yokozuna (d. 1931)
- 1884 – Marcel Cohen, French linguist and scholar (d. 1974)
- 1887 – Josef Frings, German cardinal (d. 1978)
- 1890 – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pakistani activist and politician (d. 1988)
- 1890 – James McGirr, Australian politician, 28th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1957)
- 1892 – Maximilian Fretter-Pico, German general (d. 1984)
- 1892 – William P. Murphy, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
- 1893 – Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, Pakistani politician and diplomat, 1st Minister of Foreign Affairs for Pakistan (d. 1985)
- 1894 – Eric Partridge, New Zealand-English lexicographer and academic (d. 1979)
- 1894 – Kirpal Singh, Indian spiritual master (d. 1974)
- 1895 – Robert La Follette Jr., American politician (d. 1953)
- 1895 – María Teresa Vera, Cuban singer, guitarist and composer (d. 1965)
- 1895 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player and coach (d. 1948)
- 1898 – Harry Haywood, American soldier and politician (d. 1985)
- 1899 – Ramon Novarro, Mexican-American actor, singer, and director (d. 1968)
- 1901 – Ben Lyon, American actor (d. 1979)
- 1902 – George Brunies, American trombonist (d. 1974)
- 1903 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean pianist and composer (d. 1991)
- 1905 – Władysław Gomułka, Polish politician (d. 1982)
- 1905 – Jan Werich, Czech actor and playwright (d. 1980)
- 1906 – Joseph Schull, Canadian playwright and historian (d. 1980)
- 1908 – Amintore Fanfani, Italian journalist and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1999)
- 1908 – Edward Lansdale, American general and CIA agent (d. 1987)
- 1908 – Geo Bogza, Romanian poet and journalist (d. 1993)
- 1908 – Michael Maltese, American actor, screenwriter, and composer (d. 1981)
- 1910 – Roman Czerniawski, Polish air force officer and spy (d. 1985)
- 1910 – Irmgard Keun, German author (d. 1982)
- 1910 – Carlos Marcello, Tunisian-American gangster (d. 1993)
- 1911 – Ronald Reagan, American actor and politician, 40th President of the United States (d. 2004)
- 1912 – Eva Braun, German wife of Adolf Hitler (d. 1945)
- 1912 – Christopher Hill, English historian and author (d. 2003)
- 1913 – Mary Leakey, English-Kenyan archaeologist and anthropologist (d. 1996)
- 1914 – Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor and singer (d. 2005)
- 1915 – Kavi Pradeep, Indian poet and songwriter (d. 1998)
- 1916 – John Crank, English mathematician and physicist (d. 2006)
- 1917 – Louis-Philippe de Grandpré, Canadian lawyer and jurist (d. 2008)
- 1917 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and socialite (d. 2016)
- 1918 – Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author and painter (d. 2007)
- 1919 – Takashi Yanase, Japanese poet and illustrator, created Anpanman (d. 2013)
- 1921 – Carl Neumann Degler, American historian and author (d. 2014)
- 1921 – Bob Scott, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2012)
- 1922 – Patrick Macnee, English-American actor and costume designer (d. 2015)
- 1922 – Denis Norden, English actor, screenwriter, and television host (d. 2018)
- 1922 – Haskell Wexler, American director, producer, and cinematographer (d. 2015)
- 1923 – Gyula Lóránt, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 1981)
- 1924 – Billy Wright, English footballer and manager (d. 1994)
- 1924 – Jin Yong, Hong Kong author and publisher, founded Ming Pao (d. 2018)
- 1925 – Walker Edmiston, American actor and puppeteer (d. 2007)
- 1927 – Gerard K. O’Neill, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1992)
- 1928 – Allan H. Meltzer, American economist and academic (d. 2017)
- 1929 – Colin Murdoch, New Zealand pharmacist and veterinarian, invented the tranquilliser gun (d. 2008)
- 1929 – Oscar Sambrano Urdaneta, Venezuelan author and critic (d. 2011)
- 1929 – Valentin Yanin, Russian historian and author (d. 2020)
- 1930 – Jun Kondo, Japanese physicist and academic
- 1931 – Rip Torn, American actor (d. 2019)
- 1931 – Fred Trueman, English cricketer (d. 2006)
- 1931 – Mamie Van Doren, American actress and model
- 1931 – Ricardo Vidal, Filipino cardinal (d. 2017)
- 1932 – Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban soldier and anarchist (d. 1959)
- 1932 – François Truffaut, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1984)
- 1933 – Leslie Crowther, English comedian, actor, and game show host (d. 1996)
- 1936 – Kent Douglas, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2009)
- 1938 – Fred Mifflin, Canadian admiral and politician, 19th Minister of Veterans Affairs (d. 2013)
- 1939 – Jean Beaudin, Canadian director and screenwriter (d. 2019)
- 1939 – Mike Farrell, American actor, director, producer, activist and public speaker
- 1939 – Jair Rodrigues, Brazilian singer (d. 2014)
- 1940 – Tom Brokaw, American journalist and author
- 1940 – Petr Hájek, Czech mathematician and academic (d. 2016)
- 1940 – Jimmy Tarbuck, English comedian and actor
- 1941 – Stephen Albert, American pianist and composer (d. 1992)
- 1941 – Dave Berry, English pop singer
- 1941 – Gigi Perreau, American actress and director
- 1942 – Sarah Brady, American activist and author (d. 2015)
- 1942 – Charlie Coles, American basketball player and coach (d. 2013)
- 1942 – Ahmad-Jabir Ahmadov Ismail oghlu, Azerbaijani philosopher and academic
- 1942 – James Loewen, American sociologist and historian
- 1942 – Tommy Roberts, English fashion designer (d. 2012)
- 1943 – Fabian Forte, American pop singer and actor
- 1943 – Gayle Hunnicutt, American actress
- 1944 – Christine Boutin, French politician, French Minister of Housing and Urban Development
- 1944 – Willie Tee, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 2007)
- 1944 – Michael Tucker, American actor and producer
- 1945 – Bob Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1981)
- 1946 – Richie Hayward, American drummer and songwriter (d. 2010)
- 1946 – Kate McGarrigle, Canadian musician and singer-songwriter (d. 2010)
- 1946 – Jim Turner, American captain and politician
- 1947 – Bill Staines, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1947 – Charlie Hickcox, American swimmer (d .2010)
- 1949 – Mike Batt, English singer-songwriter and producer
- 1949 – Manuel Orantes, Spanish tennis player
- 1949 – Jim Sheridan, Irish director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1950 – Natalie Cole, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2015)
- 1950 – Timothy M. Dolan, American cardinal
- 1950 – Punky Meadows, American rock guitarist and songwriter
- 1952 – Ric Charlesworth, Australian cricketer, coach, and politician
- 1952 – Viktor Giacobbo, Swiss actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1952 – Ricardo La Volpe, Argentinian footballer, manager, and coach
- 1955 – Avram Grant, Israeli football manager
- 1955 – Michael Pollan, American journalist, author, and academic
- 1955 – Bruno Stolorz, French rugby player and coach
- 1956 – Jerry Marotta, American drummer
- 1957 – Andres Lipstok, Estonian economist and politician, Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs
- 1957 – Kathy Najimy, American actress and comedian
- 1957 – Simon Phillips, English drummer and producer
- 1957 – Robert Townsend, American actor and director
- 1958 – Cecily Adams, American actress and casting director (d. 2004)
- 1960 – Jeremy Bowen, Welsh journalist
- 1960 – Megan Gallagher, American actress
- 1961 – Michael Bolt, Australian rugby league player
- 1961 – Cam Cameron, American football player and coach
- 1961 – Bill Lester, American race car driver
- 1961 – Yury Onufriyenko, Ukrainian-Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut
- 1962 – Stavros Lambrinidis, Greek lawyer and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Greece
- 1962 – Axl Rose, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1963 – David Capel, English cricketer
- 1963 – Scott Gordon, American ice hockey player and coach
- 1963 – Quentin Letts, English journalist and critic
- 1964 – Laurent Cabannes, French rugby player
- 1964 – Gordon Downie, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2017)
- 1964 – Colin Miller, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
- 1964 – Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russian actor and director
- 1965 – Jan Svěrák, Czech actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1966 – Rick Astley, English singer-songwriter
- 1967 – Anita Cochran, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1967 – Izumi Sakai, Japanese singer-songwriter (d. 2007)
- 1968 – Adolfo Valencia, Colombian footballer
- 1968 – Akira Yamaoka, Japanese composer and producer
- 1969 – David Hayter, American actor and screenwriter
- 1969 – Masaharu Fukuyama, Japanese singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1969 – Tim Sherwood, English international footballer midfielder and manager
- 1969 – Bob Wickman, American baseball player
- 1970 – Per Frandsen, Danish footballer and manager
- 1970 – Tim Herron, American golfer
- 1971 – Brad Hogg, Australian cricketer
- 1971 – Carlos Rogers, American basketball player
- 1972 – Stefano Bettarini, Italian footballer
- 1972 – David Binn, American football player
- 1974 – Aljo Bendijo, Filipino journalist
- 1975 – Chad Allen, American baseball player and coach
- 1975 – Orkut Büyükkökten, Turkish computer scientist and engineer, created Orkut
- 1975 – Tomoko Kawase, Japanese singer-songwriter and producer
- 1976 – Tanja Frieden, Swiss snowboarder and educator
- 1976 – Kim Zmeskal, American gymnast and coach
- 1977 – Josh Stewart, American actor
- 1978 – Yael Naim, French-Israeli singer-songwriter
- 1979 – Dan Bălan, Moldovan singer-songwriter and producer
- 1980 – Kerry Jeremy, Antiguan cricketer
- 1980 – Kim Poirier, Canadian actress, singer, and producer
- 1980 – Luke Ravenstahl, American politician, 58th Mayor of Pittsburgh
- 1981 – Ricky Barnes, American golfer
- 1981 – Calum Best, American-English model and actor
- 1981 – Shim Eun-jin, South Korean singer and actress
- 1981 – Alison Haislip, American actress and producer
- 1981 – Jens Lekman, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1981 – Ty Warren, American football player
- 1982 – Tank, Taiwanese singer-songwriter
- 1982 – Alice Eve, English actress
- 1982 – Elise Ray, American gymnast
- 1983 – Melrose Bickerstaff, American model and fashion designer
- 1983 – Brodie Croyle, American football player
- 1983 – Dimas Delgado, Spanish footballer
- 1983 – S. Sreesanth, Indian cricketer
- 1983 – Jamie Whincup, Australian race car driver
- 1984 – Darren Bent, English international footballer, forward
- 1984 – Piret Järvis, Estonian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1984 – Antoine Wright, American basketball player
- 1985 – Ben Creagh, Australian rugby league player
- 1985 – Kris Humphries, American basketball player
- 1986 – Dane DeHaan, American actor
- 1986 – Yunho, South Korean singer and actor
- 1988 – Bailey Hanks, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1989 – Craig Cathcart, Northern Irish footballer
- 1989 – Jonny Flynn, American basketball player
- 1990 – Adam Henrique, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 – Jermaine Kearse, American football player
- 1990 – Aida Rybalko, Lithuanian figure skater
- 1991 – Tobias Eisenbauer, Austrian ice dancer
- 1991 – Ida Njåtun, Norwegian speed skater
- 1991 – Eva Wacanno, Dutch tennis player
- 1991 – Fei Yu, Chinese footballer
- 1992 – Víctor Mañón, Mexican footballer
- 1993 – Teresa Scanlan, Miss America 2011
- 1993 – Tinashe, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
- 1994 – Charlie Heaton, British actor and musician
- 1995 – Leon Goretzka, German footballer
- 1995 – Sam McQueen, English footballer
 Deaths on February 6
- 743 – Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, Umayyad caliph (b. 691)
- 797 – Donnchad Midi, Irish king (b. 733)
- 891 – Photios I of Constantinople (b. 810)
- 1140 – Thurstan, Archbishop of York
- 1155 – King Sigurd II of Norway (b. 1133)
- 1215 – Hōjō Tokimasa, Japanese shikken of the Kamakura bakufu (b. 1138)
- 1378 – Joanna of Bourbon (b. 1338)
- 1411 – Esau de’ Buondelmonti, ruler of Epirus
- 1497 – Johannes Ockeghem, Flemish composer and educator (b. 1410)
- 1515 – Aldus Manutius, Italian publisher, founded the Aldine Press (b. 1449)
- 1519 – Lorenz von Bibra, Prince-Bishop of the Bishopric of Würzburg (b. 1459)
- 1539 – John III, Duke of Cleves (b. 1491)
- 1585 – Edmund Plowden, English lawyer and scholar (b. 1518)
- 1593 – Jacques Amyot, French author and translator (b. 1513)
- 1593 – Emperor Ōgimachi of Japan (b. 1517)
- 1597 – Franciscus Patricius, Italian philosopher and scientist (b. 1529)
- 1612 – Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1538)
- 1617 – Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist (b. 1553)
- 1625 – Philipp Julius, Duke of Pomerania (b. 1584)
- 1685 – Charles II of England (b. 1630)
- 1695 – Ahmed II, Ottoman sultan (b. 1643)
- 1740 – Pope Clement XII (b. 1652)
- 1775 – William Dowdeswell, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1721)
- 1783 – Capability Brown, English gardener and architect (b. 1716)
- 1793 – Carlo Goldoni, Italian-French playwright (b. 1707)
- 1804 – Joseph Priestley, English chemist and theologian (b. 1733)
- 1807 – John Reid, Scottish general (b. 1721)
- 1833 – Pierre André Latreille, French zoologist and entomologist (b. 1762)
- 1834 – Richard Lemon Lander, English explorer (b. 1804)
- 1865 – Isabella Beeton, English author of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (b. 1836)
- 1899 – Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1874)
- 1899 – Leo von Caprivi, German general and politician, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1831)
- 1902 – John Colton, English-Australian politician, 13th Premier of South Australia (b. 1823)
- 1916 – Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan poet, journalist, and diplomat (b. 1867)
- 1918 – Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter and illustrator (b. 1862)
- 1929 – Maria Christina of Austria (b. 1858)
- 1931 – Motilal Nehru, Indian lawyer and politician, President of the Indian National Congress (b. 1861)
- 1932 – John Earle, Australian politician, 22nd Premier of Tasmania (b. 1865)
- 1938 – Marianne von Werefkin, Russian-Swiss painter (b. 1860)
- 1942 – Jaan Soots, Estonian general and politician, 7th Estonian Minister of War (b. 1880)
- 1951 – Gabby Street, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1882)
- 1952 – George VI of the United Kingdom (b. 1895)
- 1958 – victims of the Munich air disaster
- – Geoff Bent, English footballer (b. 1932)
- – Roger Byrne, English footballer (b. 1929)
- – Eddie Colman, English footballer (b. 1936)
- – Walter Crickmer, English footballer and manager (b. 1900)
- – Mark Jones, English footballer (b. 1933)
- – David Pegg, English footballer (b. 1935)
- – Frank Swift, English footballer and journalist (b. 1913)
- – Tommy Taylor, English footballer (b. 1932)
 
- 1963 – Piero Manzoni, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1933)
- 1964 – Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino general and politician, 1st President of the Philippines (b. 1869)
- 1967 – Martine Carol, French actress (b. 1920)
- 1972 – Julian Steward, American anthropologist (b. 1902)
- 1976 – Ritwik Ghatak, Bangladeshi-Indian director and screenwriter (b. 1925)
- 1976 – Vince Guaraldi, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1928)
- 1981 – Hugo Montenegro, American composer and conductor (b. 1925)
- 1982 – Ben Nicholson, British painter (b. 1894)
- 1985 – James Hadley Chase, English-Swiss soldier and author (b. 1906)
- 1986 – Frederick Coutts, Scottish 8th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1899)
- 1986 – Dandy Nichols, English actress (b. 1907)
- 1986 – Minoru Yamasaki, American architect, designed the World Trade Center (b. 1912)
- 1987 – Julien Chouinard, Canadian lawyer and jurist (b. 1929)
- 1989 – Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian and author (b. 1912)
- 1990 – Jimmy Van Heusen, American pianist and composer (b. 1913)
- 1991 – Salvador Luria, Italian biologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
- 1991 – Danny Thomas, American actor, producer, and humanitarian (b. 1914)
- 1993 – Arthur Ashe, American tennis player and sportscaster (b. 1943)
- 1994 – Joseph Cotten, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1994 – Jack Kirby, American author and illustrator (b. 1917)
- 1995 – James Merrill, American poet and playwright (b. 1926)
- 1998 – Falco, Austrian pop-rock musician (b. 1957)
- 1999 – Don Dunstan, Australian lawyer and politician, 35th Premier of South Australia (b. 1926)
- 1999 – Jimmy Roberts, American tenor (b. 1924)
- 2000 – Phil Walters, American race car driver (b. 1916)
- 2001 – Filemon Lagman, Filipino theoretician and activist (b. 1953)
- 2002 – Max Perutz, Austrian-English biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)
- 2004 – Gerald Bouey, Canadian lieutenant and economist (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Karl Haas, German-American pianist, conductor, and radio host (b. 1913)
- 2007 – Lew Burdette, American baseball player and coach (b. 1926)
- 2007 – Frankie Laine, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1913)
- 2007 – Willye White, American runner and long jumper (b. 1939)
- 2008 – Tony Rolt, English race car driver and engineer (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Philip Carey, American actor (b. 1925)
- 2009 – James Whitmore, American actor (b. 1921)
- 2011 – Gary Moore, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1952)
- 2012 – David Rosenhan, American psychologist and academic (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Antoni Tàpies, Spanish painter and sculptor (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Janice E. Voss, American engineer and astronaut (b. 1956)
- 2013 – Chokri Belaid, Tunisian lawyer and politician (b. 1964)
- 2013 – Menachem Elon, German-Israeli academic and jurist (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Vasiľ Biľak, Slovak politician (b. 1917)
- 2014 – Ralph Kiner, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1922)
- 2014 – Maxine Kumin, American author and poet (b. 1925)
- 2014 – Vaçe Zela, Albanian-Swiss singer and guitarist (b. 1939)
- 2015 – André Brink, South African author and playwright (b. 1935)
- 2015 – Alan Nunnelee, American lawyer and politician (b. 1958)
- 2015 – Pedro León Zapata, Venezuelan cartoonist (b. 1929)
- 2016 – Dan Gerson, American screenwriter (b. 1966)
- 2016 – Dan Hicks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1941)
- 2017 – Irwin Corey, American comedian and actor (b. 1914)
- 2017 – Inge Keller, German actress (b. 1923)
- 2017 – Alec McCowen, English actor (b. 1925)
- 2017 – Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby union footballer (b. 1971)
 Holidays and observances on February 6
- Christian feast day:
- Amand
- Dorothea of Caesarea
- Hildegund, O.Praem.
- Jacut
- Mateo Correa Magallanes (one of Saints of the Cristero War)
- Mél of Ardagh
- Paul Miki and Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan
- Relindis (Renule) of Maaseik
- Vedastus
- February 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (United Nations)
- Ronald Reagan Day (California, United States)
- Sami National Day (Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden)
- Waitangi Day, celebrates the founding of New Zealand in 1840.
 
 
 
- 
	
				
			
		
				
			
	
		
 January 30 in History
- 1018 – Poland and the Holy Roman Empire conclude the Peace of Bautzen.
- 1287 – King Wareru founds the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, and proclaims independence from the Pagan Kingdom.
- 1607 – An estimated 200 square miles (51,800 ha) along the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary in England are destroyed by massive flooding, resulting in an estimated 2,000 deaths.
- 1648 – Eighty Years’ War: The Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück is signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain.
- 1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than two years after his death, on the 12th anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed.
- 1703 – The Forty-seven rōnin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master, by killing Kira Yoshinaka.
- 1789 – Tây Sơn forces emerge victorious against Qing armies and liberate the capital Thăng Long.
- 1806 – The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.
- 1820 – Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.
- 1826 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world’s first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales, is opened.
- 1835 – In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen as well as Jackson himself.
- 1847 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco, California.
- 1858 – The first Hallé concert is given in Manchester, England, marking the official founding of The Hallé orchestra as a full-time, professional orchestra.
- 1862 – The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.
- 1889 – Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in the Mayerling.
- 1902 – The first Anglo-Japanese Alliance is signed in London.
- 1908 – Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is released from prison by Jan C. Smuts after being tried and sentenced to two months in jail earlier in the month.
- 1911 – The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of Douglas McCurdy ten miles from Havana, Cuba.
- 1925 – The Government of Turkey expels Patriarch Constantine VI from Istanbul.
- 1930 – The Politburo of the Soviet Union orders the extermination of the Kulaks.
- 1933 – Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
- 1942 – World War II: Battle of Ambon. Japanese forces invade the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies. Some 300 captured Allied troops are massacred at Laha airfield. Three-fourths of remaining POWs will not have survived by the end of the war, including 250 men who will be shipped to Hainan Island in South China Sea and never returned.
- 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Cisterna, part of Operation Shingle, begins in central Italy.
- 1945 – World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 9,500 people.
- 1945 – World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: One hundred twenty-six American Rangers and Filipino resistance fighters liberate over 500 Allied prisoners from the Japanese-controlled Cabanatuan POW camp.
- 1948 – British South American Airways’ Tudor IV Star Tiger disappears over the Bermuda Triangle.
- 1956 – African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.’s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
- 1959 – The forces of the Sultanate of Muscat occupy the last strongholds of the Imamate of Oman, Saiq and Shuraijah, marking the end of Jebel Akhdar War in Oman.
- 1959 – MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and “unsinkable” like the RMS Titanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.
- 1960 – The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties.
- 1964 – In a bloodless coup, General Nguyễn Khánh overthrows General Dương Văn Minh’s military junta in South Vietnam.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies.
- 1969 – The Beatles’ last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
- 1972 – The Troubles: Bloody Sunday: British paratroopers open fire on anti-internment marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing 13 people; another person later dies of injuries sustained.
- 1972 – Pakistan leaves the Commonwealth of Nations in protest of its recognition of breakaway Bangladesh.
- 1975 – The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary.
- 1979 – A Varig Boeing 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo.
- 1982 – Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called “Elk Cloner”.
- 1989 – The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan is closed.
- 1995 – Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.
- 2000 – Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ivory Coast, killing 169.
- 2013 – Naro-1 becomes the first carrier rocket launched by South Korea.
 Births on January 30
- 58 BC – Livia, Roman wife of Augustus (d. 29)
- 133 – Didius Julianus, Roman emperor (probable; d. 193)
- 1410 – William Calthorpe, English knight (d. 1494)
- 1520  – William More, English courtier (d. 1600)
- 1563 – Franciscus Gomarus, Dutch theologian and academic (d. 1641)
- 1573 – Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (d. 1638)
- 1580 – Gundakar, Prince of Liechtenstein, court official in Vienna (d. 1658)
- 1590 – Lady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford (d. 1676)
- 1628 – George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (d. 1687)
- 1661 – Charles Rollin, French historian and educator (d. 1741)
- 1697 – Johann Joachim Quantz, German flute player and composer (d. 1773)
- 1703 – François Bigot, French politician (d. 1778)
- 1720 – Charles De Geer, Swedish entomologist and archaeologist (d. 1778)
- 1754 – John Lansing, Jr., American lawyer and politician (d. 1829)
- 1775 – Walter Savage Landor, English poet and author (d. 1864)
- 1781 – Adelbert von Chamisso, German botanist and poet (d. 1838)
- 1816 – Nathaniel P. Banks, American general and politician, 24th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1894)
- 1822 – Franz Ritter von Hauer, Austrian geologist and curator (d. 1899)
- 1841 – Félix Faure, French politician, 7th President of France (d. 1899)
- 1844 – Richard Theodore Greener, American lawyer, academic, and diplomat (d. 1922)
- 1846 – Angela of the Cross, Spanish nun and saint (d. 1932)
- 1859 – Tony Mullane, Irish-American baseball player and manager (d. 1944)
- 1861 – Charles Martin Loeffler, German-American violinist and composer (d. 1935)
- 1862 – Walter Damrosch, German-American conductor and composer (d. 1950)
- 1866 – Gelett Burgess, American author, poet, and critic (d. 1951)
- 1878 – Anton Hansen Tammsaare, Estonian author (d. 1940)
- 1882 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, American lawyer and politician, 32nd President of the United States (d. 1945)
- 1889 – Jaishankar Prasad, Indian poet and playwright (d. 1937)
- 1899 – Max Theiler, South African-American virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
- 1900 – Martita Hunt, Argentine-born British actress (d. 1969)
- 1901 – Rudolf Caracciola, German race car driver (d. 1959)
- 1902 – Nikolaus Pevsner, German-English historian and scholar (d. 1983)
- 1910 – Chidambaram Subramaniam, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Defence (d. 2000)
- 1911 – Roy Eldridge, American jazz trumpet player (d. 1989)
- 1912 – Werner Hartmann, German physicist and academic (d. 1988)
- 1912 – Francis Schaeffer, American pastor and theologian (d. 1984)
- 1912 – Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian and author (d. 1989)
- 1914 – Luc-Marie Bayle, French commander and painter (d. 2000)
- 1914 – John Ireland, Canadian-American actor and director (d. 1992)
- 1914 – David Wayne, American actor (d. 1995)
- 1915 – Joachim Peiper, German SS officer (d. 1976)
- 1915 – John Profumo, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for War (d. 2006)
- 1917 – Paul Frère, Belgian race car driver and journalist (d. 2008)
- 1918 – David Opatoshu, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1996)
- 1919 – Fred Korematsu, American activist (d. 2005)
- 1920 – Michael Anderson, English director and producer (d. 2018)
- 1920 – Patrick Heron, British painter (d. 1999)
- 1920 – Delbert Mann, American director and producer (d. 2007)
- 1922 – Dick Martin, American comedian, actor, and director (d. 2008)
- 1923 – Marianne Ferber, Czech-American economist and author (d. 2013)
- 1924 – S. N. Goenka, Burmese-Indian author and educator (d. 2013)
- 1924 – Lloyd Alexander, American soldier and author (d. 2007)
- 1925 – Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist, invented the computer mouse (d. 2013)
- 1927 – Olof Palme, Swedish statesman, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1986)
- 1928 – Harold Prince, American director and producer (d. 2019)
- 1929 – Lois Hole, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 15th Lieutenant Governor of Alberta (d. 2005)
- 1929 – Hugh Tayfield, South African cricketer (d. 1994)
- 1929 – Lucille Teasdale-Corti, Canadian-Italian physician and humanitarian (d. 1996)
- 1930 – Gene Hackman, American actor and author
- 1930 – Magnus Malan, South African general and politician, South African Minister of Defence (d. 2011)
- 1931 – John Crosbie, Canadian lawyer and politician, 34th Canadian Minister of Justice (d. 2020)
- 1931 – Shirley Hazzard, Australian-American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 2016)
- 1932 – Knock Yokoyama, Japanese comedian and politician (d. 2007)
- 1934 – Tammy Grimes, American actress and singer (d. 2016)
- 1935 – Richard Brautigan, American novelist, poet, and short story writer (d. 1984)
- 1935 – Tubby Hayes, English saxophonist and composer (d. 1973)
- 1936 – Horst Jankowski, German pianist and composer (d. 1998)
- 1937 – Vanessa Redgrave, English actress
- 1937 – Boris Spassky, Russian chess player and theoretician
- 1938 – Islam Karimov, Uzbek politician, 1st President of Uzbekistan (d. 2016)
- 1941 – Gregory Benford, American astrophysicist and author
- 1941 – Dick Cheney, American businessman and politician, 46th Vice President of the United States, 17th US Secretary of Defense
- 1941 – Tineke Lagerberg, Dutch swimmer
- 1942 – Marty Balin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2018)
- 1943 – Davey Johnson, American baseball player and manager
- 1944 – Lynn Harrell, American cellist and academic
- 1944 – Colin Rimer, English lawyer and judge
- 1945 – Meir Dagan, Israeli military officer and intelligence official, Director of Mossad (2002–11) (d. 2016)
- 1945 – Michael Dorris, American author and scholar (d. 1997)
- 1946 – John Bird, Baron Bird, English publisher, founded The Big Issue
- 1947 – Les Barker, English poet and author
- 1947 – Steve Marriott, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1991)
- 1948 – Nick Broomfield, English director and producer
- 1948 – Miles Reid, English mathematician and academic
- 1949 – Peter Agre, American physician and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1950 – Jack Newton, Australian golfer
- 1951 – Phil Collins, English drummer, singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1951 – Charles S. Dutton, American actor and director
- 1951 – Bobby Stokes, English footballer (d. 1995)
- 1952 – Doug Falconer, Canadian football player and producer
- 1953 – Fred Hembeck, American author and illustrator
- 1955 – John Baldacci, American politician, 73rd Governor of Maine
- 1955 – Tom Izzo, American basketball player and coach
- 1955 – Curtis Strange, American golfer and sportscaster
- 1957 – Payne Stewart, American golfer (d. 1999)
- 1958 – Derek White, Scottish rugby player
- 1959 – Cynthia Carter, Welsh journalist, author, and academic
- 1959 – Steve Folkes, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 2018)
- 1959 – Jody Watley, American entertainer
- 1962 – Abdullah II of Jordan
- 1964 – Otis Smith, American basketball player, coach, and manager
- 1965 – Kevin Moore, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1966 – Danielle Goyette, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1968 – Felipe VI of Spain
- 1969 – Justin Skinner, English footballer, midfielder and manager
- 1971 – Kimo von Oelhoffen, American football player
- 1972 – Jill McGill, American golfer
- 1972 – Chris Simon, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1973 – Jalen Rose, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1974 – Christian Bale, Welsh actor
- 1974 – Olivia Colman, English actress
- 1975 – Juninho Pernambucano, Brazilian footballer
- 1975 – Yumi Yoshimura, Japanese musician and singer
- 1976 – Andy Milonakis, American entertainer
- 1977 – Dan Hinote, American ice hockey player and coach
- 1978 – Carmen Küng, Swiss curler
- 1978 – John Patterson, American baseball player
- 1979 – Trevor Gillies, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – João Soares de Almeida Neto, Brazilian footballer
- 1980 – Georgios Vakouftsis, Greek footballer
- 1980 – Wilmer Valderrama, American actor and producer
- 1981 – Jonathan Bender, American basketball player
- 1981 – Dimitar Berbatov, Bulgarian footballer
- 1981 – Afonso Alves, Brazilian footballer
- 1981 – Peter Crouch, English footballer
- 1981 – Mathias Lauda, Austrian race car driver
- 1982 – Jorge Cantú, Mexican baseball player
- 1984 – Kotoshōgiku Kazuhiro, Japanese sumo wrestler
- 1984 – Arthur Chu, Asian-American columnist and former Jeopardy! contestant
- 1984 – Kid Cudi, American entertainer
- 1985 – Gisela Dulko, Argentinian tennis player
- 1985 – Torrey Mitchell, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1985 – Trae Williams, American football player
- 1986 – Nick Evans, American baseball player
- 1987 – Ben Cutting, Australian cricketer
- 1987 – Lance Franklin, Australian footballer
- 1987 – Phil Lester, English Internet celebrity
- 1987 – Becky Lynch, Irish wrestler
- 1987 – Renato Santos, Brazilian footballer
- 1987 – Arda Turan, Turkish footballer
- 1988 – Rob Pinkston, American actor and director
- 1989 – Tomás Mejías, Spanish footballer
- 1989 – Girish Kumar, Indian film actor
- 1990 – Yoon Bo-ra, South Korean singer
- 1990 – Joe Colborne, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 – Andrew McCullough, Australian rugby league player
- 1990 – Nils Miatke, German footballer
- 1990 – Luca Sbisa, Swiss ice hockey player
- 1990 – Mitchell Starc, Australian cricketer
- 1990 – Phillip Supernaw, American football player
- 1991 – Stefan Elliott, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1993 – Katy Marchant, English track cyclist
- 1995 – Jack Laugher, English diver
- 1995 – Víctor Sánchez, Venezuelan baseball player (d. 2015)
 Deaths on January 30
- 680 – Balthild, Frankish queen (b. 626)
- 970 – Peter I of Bulgaria
- 1030 – William V, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 969)
- 1181 – Emperor Takakura of Japan (b. 1161)
- 1240 – Pelagio Galvani, Leonese lawyer and cardinal (b. 1165)
- 1314 – Nicholas III of Saint Omer
- 1344 – William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury (b. 1301)
- 1384 – Louis II, Count of Flanders (b. 1330)
- 1497 – Lê Thánh Tông, King of Vietnam (b. 1442)
- 1574 – Damião de Góis, Portuguese historian and philosopher (b. 1502)
- 1606 – Everard Digby, English criminal (b. 1578)
- 1606 – John Grant, English conspirator (b. 1570)
- 1606 – Robert Wintour, English conspirator (b. 1565)
- 1649 – Charles I of England (b. 1600)
- 1664 – Cornelis de Graeff, Dutch mayor (b. 1599)
- 1730 – Peter II of Russia (b. 1715)
- 1770 – Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, Maltese linguist, historian and cleric (b. 1712)
- 1836 – Betsy Ross, American seamstress, said to have designed the American Flag (b. 1752)
- 1838 – Osceola, American tribal leader (b. 1804)
- 1858 – Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Dutch zoologist and ornithologist (b. 1778)
- 1867 – Emperor Kōmei of Japan (b. 1831)
- 1869 – William Carleton, Irish author (b. 1794)
- 1881 – Arthur O’Shaughnessy, English poet and herpetologist (b. 1844)
- 1889 – Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, heir apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary (b. 1858)
- 1926 – Barbara La Marr, American actress (b. 1896)
- 1928 – Johannes Fibiger, Danish physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)
- 1929 – La Goulue, French model and dancer (b. 1866)
- 1934 – Frank Nelson Doubleday, American publisher, founded the Doubleday Publishing Company (b. 1862)
- 1947 – Frederick Blackman, English botanist and physiologist (b. 1866)
- 1948 – Arthur Coningham, Australian air marshal (b. 1895)
- 1948 – Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule (b. 1869)
- 1948 – Orville Wright, American pilot and engineer, co-founded the Wright Company (b. 1871)
- 1951 – Ferdinand Porsche, Austrian-German engineer and businessman, founded Porsche (b. 1875)
- 1958 – Jean Crotti, Swiss painter (b. 1878)
- 1958 – Ernst Heinkel, German engineer and businessman; founded the Heinkel Aircraft Company (b. 1888)
- 1962 – Manuel de Abreu, Brazilian physician and engineer (b. 1894)
- 1963 – Francis Poulenc, French pianist and composer (b. 1899)
- 1966 – Jaan Hargel, Estonian flute player, conductor, and educator (b. 1912)
- 1968 – Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Indian poet, playwright, and journalist (b. 1889)
- 1969 – Dominique Pire, Belgian friar, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- 1973 – Elizabeth Baker, American economist and academic (b. 1885)
- 1974 – Olav Roots, Estonian pianist and composer (b. 1910)
- 1977 – Paul Marais de Beauchamp, French zoologist (b. 1883)
- 1980 – Professor Longhair, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1918)
- 1982 – Lightnin’ Hopkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1912)
- 1991 – John Bardeen, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
- 1991 – Clifton C. Edom, American photographer and educator (b. 1907)
- 1994 – Pierre Boulle, French soldier and author (b. 1912)
- 1999 – Huntz Hall, American actor (b. 1919)
- 1999 – Ed Herlihy, American journalist (b. 1909)
- 2001 – Jean-Pierre Aumont, French soldier and actor (b. 1911)
- 2001 – Johnnie Johnson, English air marshal and pilot (b. 1915)
- 2001 – Joseph Ransohoff, American surgeon and educator (b. 1915)
- 2005 – Martyn Bennett, Canadian-Scottish violinist (b. 1971)
- 2006 – Coretta Scott King, American author and activist (b. 1927)
- 2006 – Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright and academic (b. 1950)
- 2007 – Sidney Sheldon, American author and screenwriter (b. 1917)
- 2008 – Marcial Maciel, Mexican-American priest, founded the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi (b. 1920)
- 2009 – H. Guy Hunt, American soldier, pastor, and politician, 49th Governor of Alabama (b. 1933)
- 2010 – Fadil Ferati, Kosovar accountant and politician (b. 1960)
- 2011 – John Barry, English composer and conductor (b. 1933)
- 2012 – Frank Aschenbrenner, American football player and soldier (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Doeschka Meijsing, Dutch author (b. 1947)
- 2013 – Gamal al-Banna, Egyptian author and scholar (b. 1920)
- 2013 – Patty Andrews, American singer (b. 1918)
- 2013 – George Witt, American baseball player and coach (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Stefan Bałuk, Polish general and photographer (b. 1914)
- 2014 – The Mighty Hannibal, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1939)
- 2014 – William Motzing, American composer and conductor (b. 1937)
- 2014 – Arthur Rankin, Jr., American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1924)
- 2015 – Carl Djerassi, Austrian-American chemist, author, and playwright (b. 1923)
- 2015 – Ülo Kaevats, Estonian academic, philosopher, and politician (b. 1947)
- 2015 – Geraldine McEwan, English actress (b. 1932)
- 2015 – Gerrit Voorting, Dutch cyclist (b. 1923)
- 2015 – Zhelyu Zhelev, Bulgarian philosopher and politician, 2nd President of Bulgaria (b. 1935)
- 2016 – Frank Finlay, English actor (b. 1926)
- 2016 – Francisco Flores Pérez, Salvadorian politician, President of El Salvador (b. 1959)
- 2016 – Georgia Davis Powers, American activist and politician (b. 1923)
- 2018 – Mark Salling, American actor and musician (b. 1982)
- 2019 – Dick Miller, American actor (b. 1928)
 Holidays and observances on January 30
- Christian Feast Day:
- Adelelmus of Burgos
- Aldegonde
- Anthony the Great (Coptic Church)
- Armentarius of Pavia
- Balthild
- Charles, King and Martyr (various provinces of the Anglican Communion)
- Hippolytus of Rome
- Hyacintha Mariscotti
- Martina
- Matthias of Jerusalem
- Mutien-Marie Wiaux
- Savina
- Three Holy Hierarchs (Eastern Orthodox), and its related observances:
- January 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Day of Azerbaijani customs (Azerbaijan)
- Day of Saudade (Brazil)
- Fred Korematsu Day (California, Florida, Hawaii, Virginia)
- Martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi, and its related observances:
- Martyrs’ Day (India)
- School Day of Non-violence and Peace (Spain)
- Start of the Season for Nonviolence January 30 – April 4
 
 
 
 
- 
	
				
			
		
				
			
	
		
 January 24 in History
- AD 41 – Claudius is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the Praetorian Guard after they assassinate the previous emperor, his nephew Caligula.
- 914 – Start of the First Fatimid invasion of Egypt.
- 1438 – The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV.
- 1458 – Matthias Corvinus is elected King of Hungary.
- 1536 – King Henry VIII of England suffers an accident while jousting, leading to a brain injury that historians say may have influenced his later erratic behaviour and possible impotence.
- 1679 – King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.
- 1742 – Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1758 – During the Seven Years’ War the leading burghers of Königsberg submit to Elizabeth of Russia, thus forming Russian Prussia (until 1763).
- 1817 – Crossing of the Andes: Many soldiers of Juan Gregorio de las Heras are captured during the Action of Picheuta.
- 1835 – Slaves in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, stage a revolt, which is instrumental in ending slavery there 50 years later.
- 1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento.
- 1857 – The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first fully fledged university in South Asia.
- 1859 – The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (later named Romania) is formed as a personal union under the rule of Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: Boers stop a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.
- 1908 – The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.
- 1915 – World War I: British Grand Fleet battle cruisers under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty engage Rear-Admiral Franz von Hipper’s battle cruisers in the Battle of Dogger Bank.
- 1916 – In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
- 1918 – The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People’s Commissars effective February 14 (New Style).
- 1933 – The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing the beginning and end of terms for all elected federal offices.
- 1939 – The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán, killing approximately 28,000 people.
- 1942 – World War II: The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand, then under Japanese control, to declare war against the United States and United Kingdom.
- 1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
- 1946 – The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.
- 1960 – Algerian War: Some units of European volunteers in Algiers stage an insurrection known as the “barricades week”, during which they seize government buildings and clash with local police.
- 1961 – Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launches Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong during wider fighting around Long Bình and Biên Hòa.
- 1972 – Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
- 1977 – The Atocha massacre occurs in Madrid during the Spanish transition to democracy.
- 1978 – Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth’s atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada’s Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
- 1984 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.
- 1989 – Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, with over 30 known victims, is executed by the electric chair at the Florida State Prison.
- 1990 – Japan launches Hiten, the country’s first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.
- 2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
- 2009 – Cyclone Klaus makes landfall near Bordeaux, France, causing 26 deaths as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies.
- 2011 – At least 35 are killed and 180 injured in a bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport.
 Births on January 24
- AD 76 – Hadrian, Roman emperor (d. 138)
- 1287 – Richard de Bury, English bishop and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (d. 1345)
- 1444 – Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1476)
- 1540 – Edmund Campion, English priest and martyr (d. 1581)
- 1547 – Joanna of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Austrian Archduchess (d. 1578)
- 1602 – Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland, English politician (d. 1666)
- 1619 – Yamazaki Ansai, Japanese philosopher (d. 1682)
- 1643 – Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English poet and politician, Lord Chamberlain of Great Britain (d. 1706)
- 1664 – John Vanbrugh, English architect and dramatist (d. 1726)
- 1670 – William Congreve, English playwright and poet (d. 1729)
- 1672 – Margrave Albert Frederick of Brandenburg-Schwedt, German Lieutenant General (d. 1731)
- 1674 – Thomas Tanner, English bishop (d. 1735)
- 1679 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher and academic (d. 1754)
- 1684 – Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg, German noble (d. 1737)
- 1705 – Farinelli, Italian castrato singer (d. 1782)
- 1709 – Dom Bédos de Celles, French monk and organist (d. 1779)
- 1712 – Frederick the Great, Prussian king (d. 1786)
- 1732 – Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright and financier (d. 1799)
- 1739 – Jean Nicolas Houchard, French General of the French Revolution (d. 1793)
- 1746 – Gustav III of Sweden (d. 1792)
- 1749 – Charles James Fox, English businessman and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 1806)
- 1754 – Andrew Ellicott, American soldier and surveyor (d. 1820)
- 1761 – Louis Klein, French general (d. 1845)
- 1763 – Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, French-Ukrainian general and politician (d. 1831)
- 1776 – E. T. A. Hoffmann, German jurist, author, and composer (d. 1822)
- 1787 – Christian Ludwig Brehm, German pastor and ornithologist (d. 1864)
- 1804 – Delphine de Girardin, French author (d. 1855)
- 1814 – Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, French Crown Princess (d. 1858)
- 1814 – John Colenso, British mathematician (d. 1883)
- 1816 – Wilhelm Henzen, German philologist and epigraphist (d. 1887)
- 1828 – Ferdinand Cohn, German biologist (d. 1898)
- 1829 – Yechiel Michel Epstein, Rabbi and posek (d. 1908)
- 1836 – Signe Rink, Greenland-born Danish writer and ethnologist (d. 1909)
- 1843 – Josip Stadler, Croatian archbishop (d. 1918)
- 1848 – Vasily Surikov, Russian painter (d. 1916)
- 1850 – Hermann Ebbinghaus, German psychologist (d. 1909)
- 1853 – Sigbert Josef Maria Ganser, German psychiatrist (d. 1931)
- 1856 – Friedrich Grünanger, Transylvanian Hungarian-German architect (d. 1929)
- 1858 – Constance Naden, English poet and philosopher (d. 1889)
- 1862 – Edith Wharton, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1937)
- 1863 – August Adler, Czech and Austrian mathematician (d. 1923)
- 1864 – Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and activist (d. 1936)
- 1864 – Gaetano Giardino, Italian soldier and Marshal of Italy (d. 1935)
- 1866 – Jaan Poska, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1920)
- 1870 – Herbert Kilpin, English footballer (d. 1916)
- 1871 – Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, Czech poet, writer and literary critic (d. 1951)
- 1871 – Thomas Jaggar, American volcanologist (d. 1953)
- 1872 – Yuly Aykhenvald, Russian literary critic (d. 1928)
- 1872 – Konstantin Bogaevsky, Russian painter (d. 1943)
- 1872 – Morris Travers, English chemist and academic (d. 1961)
- 1873 – Dmitry Ushakov, Russian philologist and lexicographer (d. 1942)
- 1882 – Harold D. Babcock, American astronomer (d. 1968)
- 1882 – Ödön Bodor, Hungarian athlete (d. 1927)
- 1886 – Henry King, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1982)
- 1887 – Jean-Henri Humbert, French botanist (d. 1967)
- 1888 – Vicki Baum, Austrian author and screenwriter (d. 1960)
- 1888 – Ernst Heinkel, German engineer and businessman, founded the Heinkel Aircraft Manufacturing Company (d. 1958)
- 1889 – Victor Eftimiu, Romanian poet and playwright (d. 1972)
- 1889 – Charles Hawes, American historian and author (d. 1923)
- 1889 – Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke, German general of paratroop forces during World War II (d. 1968)
- 1891 – Walter Model, German field marshal (d. 1945)
- 1892 – Franz Aigner, Austrian weightlifter (d. 1970)
- 1895 – Eugen Roth, German poet and songwriter (d. 1976)
- 1897 – Paul Fejos, Hungarian-born American director (d. 1963)
- 1899 – Hoyt Vandenberg, U.S. Air Force general (d. 1954)
- 1900 – René Guillot, French writer (d. 1969)
- 1901 – Harry Calder, South African cricketer (d. 1995)
- 1901 – Cassandre, French painter (d. 1968)
- 1901 – Edward Turner, English engineer (d. 1973)
- 1905 – J. Howard Marshall, American lawyer and businessman (d. 1995)
- 1906 – Wilfred Jackson, American animator and composer (d. 1988)
- 1907 – Ismail Nasiruddin of Terengganu, fourth Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia (d. 1979)
- 1907 – Maurice Couve de Murville, French soldier and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1999)
- 1907 – Jean Daetwyler, Swiss composer and musician (d. 1994)
- 1909 – Martin Lings, English author and scholar (d. 2005)
- 1910 – Doris Haddock, American political activist (d. 2010)
- 1912 – Frederick Ashworth, American admiral (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Norman Dello Joio, American organist and composer (d. 2008)
- 1913 – Ray Stehr, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 1983)
- 1915 – Vítězslava Kaprálová, Czech composer and conductor (d. 1940)
- 1915 – Robert Motherwell, American painter and academic (d. 1991)
- 1916 – Rafael Caldera, Venezuelan lawyer and politician, 65th President of Venezuela (d. 2009)
- 1916 – Gene Mako, Hungarian-American tennis player and actor (d. 2013)
- 1917 – Ernest Borgnine, American actor (d. 2012)
- 1917 – Wilhelmus Demarteau, Dutch prelate of the Roman Catholic Church (d. 2012)
- 1918 – Gottfried von Einem, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1996)
- 1918 – Oral Roberts, American evangelist, founded Oral Roberts University and Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (d. 2009)
- 1919 – Coleman Francis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1973)
- 1919 – Leon Kirchner, American composer and educator (d. 2009)
- 1920 – Jimmy Forrest, American saxophonist (d. 1980)
- 1920 – Jerry Maren, American actor (d. 2018)
- 1922 – Daniel Boulanger, French actor and screenwriter (d. 2014)
- 1922 – Neil Franklin, English footballer (d. 1996)
- 1923 – Geneviève Asse, French painter
- 1925 – Gus Mortson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1925 – Maria Tallchief, American ballerina and actress (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Ruth Asawa, American sculptor (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Georges Lautner, French director and screenwriter (d. 2013)
- 1927 – Sir Patrick Macnaghten, 11th Baronet, Scottish lieutenant (d. 2007)
- 1927 – Paula Hawkins, American politician (d. 2009)
- 1928 – Desmond Morris, English zoologist, ethologist, and painter
- 1928 – Michel Serrault, French actor (d. 2007)
- 1930 – Terence Bayler, New Zealand actor (d. 2016)
- 1930 – Mahmoud Farshchian, Iranian-Persian painter and academic
- 1930 – John Romita Sr., American comic book artist
- 1931 – Lars Hörmander, Swedish mathematician and academic (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Ib Nørholm, Danish composer and organist
- 1932 – Éliane Radigue, French electronic music composer
- 1933 – Kamran Baghirov, the 12th First Secretary of Azerbaijan Communist Party (d. 2000)
- 1933 – Asim Ferhatović, Bosnian footballer (d. 1987)
- 1934 – Leonard Goldberg, American producer (d. 2019)
- 1934 – Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet and dramatist (d. 1976)
- 1935 – Eric Ashton, English rugby player and coach (d. 2008)
- 1935 – Shivabalayogi, Indian religious leader (d. 1994)
- 1936 – Doug Kershaw, American fiddle player and singer
- 1937 – Trevor Edwards, Welsh footballer
- 1938 – Julius Hemphill, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1995)
- 1939 – Renate Garisch-Culmberger, German shot putter
- 1939 – Ray Stevens, American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1940 – Vito Acconci, American designer (d. 2017)
- 1940 – Joachim Gauck, German pastor and politician, 11th President of Germany
- 1941 – Neil Diamond, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1941 – Aaron Neville, American singer
- 1941 – Dan Shechtman, Israeli chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1942 – Ingo Friedrich, German Member of the European Parliament
- 1942 – Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (d. 2008)
- 1943 – Peter Struck, German lawyer and politician, 13th German Federal Minister of Defence (d. 2012)
- 1943 – Barry Mealand, English footballer, right back (d. 2013)
- 1943 – Sharon Tate, American model and actress (d. 1969)
- 1943 – Tony Trimmer, English race car driver
- 1943 – Manuel Velázquez, Spanish footballer (d. 2016)
- 1944 – David Gerrold, American science fiction screenwriter and author
- 1944 – Gian-Franco Kasper, Swiss ski official
- 1945 – John Garamendi, American football player and politician, 1st United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior
- 1945 – Subhash Ghai, Indian director, producer and screenwriter
- 1945 – Eva Janko, Austrian javelin thrower
- 1946 – Michael Ontkean, Canadian actor
- 1947 – Giorgio Chinaglia, Italian footballer (d. 2012)
- 1947 – Michio Kaku, American physicist and academic
- 1947 – Masashi Ozaki, Japanese baseball player and golfer
- 1947 – Warren Zevon, American singer-songwriter (d. 2003)
- 1948 – Elliott Abrams, American diplomat, lawyer and political scientist
- 1948 – Michael Des Barres, English singer-songwriter and actor
- 1949 – John Belushi, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1982)
- 1949 – Bart Gordon, American lawyer
- 1949 – Nadezhda Ilyina, Russian athlete and mother of Russian tennis player Nadia Petrova (d. 2013)
- 1949 – Rihoko Yoshida, Japanese voice actress
- 1950 – Daniel Auteuil, French actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1951 – Yakov Smirnoff, Ukrainian-American comedian and actor
- 1953 – Yuri Bashmet, Russian violinist, viola player, and conductor
- 1953 – Moon Jae-in, 19th President of South Korea
- 1954 – Jo Gartner, Austrian race car driver (d. 1986)
- 1955 – Jim Montgomery, American swimmer
- 1955 – Alan Sokal, American physicist and author
- 1955 – Lynda Weinman, American businesswoman and author
- 1956 – Agus Martowardojo, governor of Bank Indonesia
- 1957 – Mark Eaton, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1957 – Ade Edmondson, English comedian and musician
- 1958 – Kim Eui-kon, Korean wrestler
- 1958 – Jools Holland, English singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1958 – Frank Ullrich, German biathlete
- 1959 – Akira Maeda, Japanese wrestler, mixed martial artist, and actor
- 1959 – Michel Preud’homme, Belgian footballer and manager
- 1961 – Jorge Barrios, Uruguayan footballer
- 1961 – Guido Buchwald, German footballer and manager
- 1961 – Christa Kinshofer, German ski racer
- 1961 – Nastassja Kinski, German-American actress and producer
- 1961 – William Van Dijck, Belgian runner
- 1963 – Arnold Vanderlyde, Dutch boxer
- 1964 – Annika Dahlman, Swedish cross country skier
- 1965 – Robin Dutt, German footballer
- 1965 – Carlos Saldanha, Brazilian-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1965 – Margaret Urlich, New Zealand singer-songwriter
- 1965 – Pagonis Vakalopoulos, Greek footballer and manager
- 1965 – Kim Sung-moon, South Korean wrestler
- 1966 – Julie Dreyfus, French actress
- 1966 – Karin Viard, French actress
- 1967 – Michael Kiske, German singer
- 1967 – Mark Kozelek, American singer and musician
- 1967 – Phil LaMarr, American actor, singer, and screenwriter
- 1967 – John Myung, American bass player and songwriter
- 1968 – Fernando Escartín, Spanish cyclist
- 1968 – Antony Garrett Lisi, American theoretical physicist
- 1968 – Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
- 1968 – Tymerlan Huseynov, Ukrainian footballer
- 1969 – Yoo Ho-jeong, South Korean actress
- 1969 – Carlos Rômulo Gonçalves e Silva, bishop of Montenegro
- 1970 – Roberto Bonano, Argentine footballer
- 1970 – Neil Johnson, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1970 – Matthew Lillard, American actor
- 1971 – José Carlos Fernandez, Bolivian footballer
- 1972 – Beth Hart, American blues-rock singer and piano player
- 1974 – Cyril Despres, French rally racer
- 1974 – Ed Helms, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1974 – Melissa Tkautz, Australian actress and singer
- 1974 – Rokia Traoré, Malian singer
- 1975 – Gianluca Basile, Italian former professional basketball player
- 1975 – Rónald Gómez, Costa Rican footballer and manager
- 1975 – Reto Hug, Swiss triathlonist
- 1975 – Henna Raita, Finnish alpine skier
- 1976 – Shae-Lynn Bourne, Canadian ice dancer, coach, and choreographer
- 1976 – Cindy Pieters, Belgian cyclist
- 1977 – Andrija Gerić, Serbian volleyball player
- 1977 – Michelle Hunziker, Swiss-Dutch actress, model and singer
- 1978 – Veerle Baetens, Belgian actress and singer
- 1978 – Mark Hildreth, Canadian actor and musician
- 1978 – Kristen Schaal, American actress, voice artist, comedian and writer
- 1979 – Tatyana Ali, American actress and singer
- 1979 – Leandro Desábato, Argentinian footballer
- 1979 – Busy Signal, Jamaican dancehall reggae artist
- 1979 – Nik Wallenda, American acrobat
- 1980 – Jofre Mateu, Spanish footballer
- 1980 – Suzy, Portuguese singer
- 1981 – Mario Eggimann, Swiss footballer
- 1981 – Zaur Hashimov, Azerbaijani footballer and manager
- 1981 – Elena Kolomina, Kazakhstani cross country skier
- 1982 – Céline Deville, French footballer
- 1982 – Daveed Diggs, American actor, rapper and singer
- 1982 – Claudia Heill, Austrian judoka
- 1982 – Aitor Hernández, Spanish racing cyclist
- 1983 – Davide Biondini, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Wyatt Crockett, New Zealand rugby player
- 1983 – Evgeny Drattsev, Russian swimmer
- 1983 – Craig Horner, Australian actor and musician
- 1983 – Shaun Maloney, Scottish footballer
- 1983 – Scott Speed, American race car driver
- 1984 – Emerse Faé, French-born Ivorian footballer
- 1984 – Yotam Halperin, Israeli basketball player
- 1984 – Jung Jin-sun, South Korean fencer
- 1984 – Scott Kazmir, American baseball player
- 1984 – Paulo Sérgio Moreira Gonçalves, Portuguese footballer
- 1985 – Fabiana Claudino, Brazilian volleyball player
- 1985 – Trey Gilder, American basketball player
- 1986 – Cristiano Araújo, Brazilian singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
- 1986 – Mohammad Bagheri Motamed, Iranian taekwondo practitioner
- 1986 – Mischa Barton, English-American actress
- 1986 – Vladislav Ivanov, Russian footballer
- 1986 – Michael Kightly, English footballer
- 1986 – Ricky Ullman, Israeli-American actor
- 1987 – Wayne Hennessey, Welsh footballer
- 1987 – Luis Suárez, Uruguayan footballer
- 1987 – Davide Valsecchi, Italian racing driver
- 1987 – Kia Vaughn, American born Czech basketball player
- 1987 – Guan Xin, Chinese basketball player
- 1988 – Selina Jörg, German snowboarder
- 1989 – Serdar Kesimal, Turkish footballer
- 1989 – Gong Lijiao, Chinese shot putter
- 1989 – Ki Sung-yueng, South Korean footballer
- 1990 – Mao Abe, Japanese singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1991 – Zhan Beleniuk, Ukrainian Greco-Roman wrestler
- 1991 – Tatiana Kashirina, Russian weightlifter
- 1991 – Zé Luís, Cape Verdean footballer
- 1991 – Li Xuerui, Chinese badminton player
- 1992 – Becky Downie, English gymnast
- 1992 – Phiwa Nkambule, South African entrepreneur
- 1992 – Felitciano Zschusschen, Curaçao footballer
- 1994 – Tommie Hoban, English footballer
- 1995 – Dylan Everett, Canadian actor
- 1997 – Nirei Fukuzumi, Japanese racer
- 1999 – Vitalie Damașcan, Moldovan footballer
- 2012 – Princess Athena of Denmark, younger child of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie of Denmark
 Deaths onJanuary 24
- AD 41 – Caligula, Roman emperor (b. 12)
- 817 – Pope Stephen IV (b. 770)
- 901 – Liu Jishu, general of the Tang Dynasty
- 1046 – Eckard II, Margrave of Meissen (b. c. 985)
- 1125 – David IV of Georgia (b. 1073)
- 1336 – Alfonso IV of Aragon (b. 1299)
- 1376 – Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, English commander (b. 1306)
- 1473 – Conrad Paumann, German organist and composer (b. 1410)
- 1525 – Franciabigio, Florentine painter (b. 1482)
- 1595 – Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (b. 1529)
- 1626 – Samuel Argall, English captain and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1572)
- 1639 – Jörg Jenatsch, Swiss pastor and politician (b. 1596)
- 1666 – Johann Andreas Herbst, German composer and theorist (b. 1588)
- 1709 – George Rooke, English admiral and politician (b. 1650)
- 1877 – Johann Christian Poggendorff, German physicist and journalist (b. 1796)
- 1881 – James Collinson, English painter (b. 1825)
- 1883 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (b. 1812)
- 1895 – Lord Randolph Churchill, English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1849)
- 1920 – Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1884)
- 1939 – Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician, created Muesli (b. 1867)
- 1943 – John Burns, English trade union leader and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (b. 1858)
- 1960 – Edwin Fischer, Swiss pianist and conductor (b. 1886)
- 1961 – Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (b. 1884)
- 1962 – André Lhote, French sculptor and painter (b. 1885)
- 1962 – Stanley Lord, English naval captain (b. 1877)
- 1962 – Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Turkish author, poet, and scholar (b. 1901)
- 1965 – Winston Churchill, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
- 1966 – Homi J. Bhabha, Indian physicist and academic (b. 1909)
- 1970 – Caresse Crosby, American fashion designer and publisher, co-founded the Black Sun Press (b. 1891)
- 1971 – Bill W., American activist, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (b. 1895)
- 1973 – J. Carrol Naish, American actor (b. 1896)
- 1975 – Larry Fine, American comedian (b. 1902)
- 1982 – Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian general and politician, 56th President of Bolivia (b. 1918)
- 1983 – George Cukor, American director and producer (b. 1899)
- 1986 – L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (b. 1911)
- 1986 – Gordon MacRae, American actor and singer (b. 1921)
- 1988 – Werner Fenchel, German-Danish mathematician and academic (b. 1905)
- 1989 – Ted Bundy, American serial killer (b. 1946)
- 1990 – Madge Bellamy, American actress (b. 1899)
- 1991 – Jack Schaefer, American journalist and author (b. 1907)
- 1992 – Ken Darby, American composer and conductor (b. 1909)
- 1993 – Gustav Ernesaks, Estonian composer and conductor (b. 1908)
- 1993 – Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and jurist, 32nd United States Solicitor General (b. 1908)
- 2002 – Elie Hobeika, Lebanese commander and politician (b. 1956)
- 2003 – Gianni Agnelli, Italian businessman (b. 1921)
- 2004 – Leônidas, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1913)
- 2006 – Schafik Handal, Salvadoran politician (b. 1930)
- 2007 – Krystyna Feldman, Polish actress (b. 1916)
- 2007 – İsmail Cem İpekçi, Turkish journalist and politician, 45th Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1940)
- 2007 – Guadalupe Larriva, Ecuadorian academic and politician (b. 1956)
- 2007 – Emiliano Mercado del Toro, Puerto Rican-American soldier (b. 1891)
- 2010 – Pernell Roberts, American actor (b. 1928)
- 2011 – Bernd Eichinger, German director and producer (b. 1949)
- 2014 – Shulamit Aloni, Israeli lawyer and politician, 11th Israeli Minister of Education (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Rafael Pineda Ponce, Honduran academic and politician (b. 1930)
- 2015 – Otto Carius, German lieutenant and pharmacist (b. 1922)
- 2016 – Fredrik Barth, German-Norwegian anthropologist and academic (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Marvin Minsky, American computer scientist and academic (b. 1927)
- 2016 – Henry Worsley, English colonel and explorer (b. 1960)
- 2017 – Butch Trucks, American drummer (b. 1947)
- 2018 – Mark E. Smith, British singer-songwriter (b. 1957)
- 2019 – Rosemary Bryant Mariner, American United States Naval Aviator (b. 1953)
 Holidays and observances on January 24
- Christian feast day:
- Babylas of Antioch
- Cadoc (Wales)
- Exuperantius of Cingoli
- Felician of Foligno
- Francis de Sales
- Pratulin Martyrs (Greek Catholic Church)
- January 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Earliest day on which Saturday of Souls can fall, while February 27 (or 28 during Leap Year) is the latest; observed 57 days before Easter. (Eastern Orthodox)
- Feast of Our Lady of Peace (Roman Catholic Church), and its related observances:
- Feria de Alasitas (La Paz)
 
- Unification Day (Romania)
- Uttar Pradesh Day (Uttar Pradesh, India)