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March 9 in History
- 141 BC – Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han dynasty of China.
- 1009 – First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.
- 1226 – Khwarazmian sultan Jalal ad-Din conquers the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
- 1230 – Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Asen II defeats Theodore of Epirus in the Battle of Klokotnitsa.
- 1500 – The fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral leaves Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet will discover Brazil which lies within boundaries granted to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas.
- 1701 – Safavid troops retreat from Basra, ending a three year occupation.
- 1765 – After a campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have actually committed suicide.
- 1776 – The Wealth of Nations by Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith is published.
- 1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.
- 1811 – Paraguayan forces defeat Manuel Belgrano at the Battle of Tacuarí.
- 1815 – Francis Ronalds describes the first battery-operated clock in the Philosophical Magazine
- 1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the United States v. The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
- 1842 – Giuseppe Verdi’s third opera, Nabucco, receives its première performance in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy’s foremost opera composers.
- 1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.
- 1847 – Mexican–American War: The first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history is launched in the Siege of Veracruz.
- 1862 – American Civil War: USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.
- 1908 – Inter Milan was founded on Football Club Internazionale, following a schism from A.C. Milan.
- 1916 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against the border town of Columbus, New Mexico.
- 1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies
- 1942 – World War II: Dutch East Indies unconditionally surrendered to the Japanese forces in Kalijati, Subang, West Java, and the Japanese completed their Dutch East Indies campaign
- 1944 – World War II: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia.
- 1945 – World War II: A coup d’état by Japanese forces in French Indochina removes the French from power.
- 1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, kills 33 and injures hundreds more.
- 1954 – McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy”, produced by Fred Friendly.
- 1956 – Soviet forces suppress mass demonstrations in the Georgian SSR, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization policy.
- 1957 – The 8.6 Mw Andreanof Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands, causing over $5 million in damage from ground movement and a destructive tsunami.
- 1959 – The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
- 1960 – Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implants for the first time a shunt he invented into a patient, which allows the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.
- 1961 – Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a dog and a human dummy, and demonstrating that the Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.
- 1967 – Trans World Airlines Flight 553 crashes in a field in Concord Township, Ohio following a mid-air collision with a Beechcraft Baron, killing 26 people.
- 1974 – The Mars 7 Flyby bus releases the descent module too early, missing Mars.
- 1976 – Forty-two people die in the Cavalese cable car disaster, the worst cable-car accident to date.
- 1977 – The Hanafi Siege: In a thirty-nine-hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, D.C., buildings.
- 1978 – President Soeharto inaugurated Jagorawi Toll Road, the first toll highway in Indonesia, connecting Jakarta, Bogor and Ciawi, West Java.
- 1997 – Comet Hale–Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day.2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.
Births on March 9
- 1454 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer (d. 1512)
- 1564 – David Fabricius, German theologian, cartographer and astronomer (d. 1617)
- 1568 – Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint (d. 1591)
- 1662 – Franz Anton von Sporck, German noble (d. 1738)
- 1697 – Friederike Caroline Neuber, German actress (d. 1760)
- 1737 – Josef Mysliveček, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1781)
- 1749 – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French journalist and politician (d. 1791)
- 1753 – Jean-Baptiste Kléber, French general (d. 1800)
- 1758 – Franz Joseph Gall, German neuroanatomist and physiologist (d. 1828)
- 1763 – William Cobbett, English journalist and author (d. 1835)
- 1806 – Edwin Forrest, American actor and philanthropist (d. 1872)
- 1814 – Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet and playwright (d. 1861)
- 1815 – David Davis, American jurist and politician (d. 1886)
- 1820 – Samuel Blatchford, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1893)
- 1824 – Amasa Leland Stanford, American businessman and politician, founded Stanford University (d. 1893)
- 1847 – Martin Pierre Marsick, Belgian violinist, composer, and educator (d. 1924)
- 1850 – Hamo Thornycroft, English sculptor and academic (d. 1925)
- 1856 – Eddie Foy, Sr., American actor and dancer (d. 1928)
- 1863 – Mary Harris Armor, American suffragist (d. 1950)
- 1887 – Fritz Lenz, German geneticist and physician (d. 1976)
- 1890 – Rupert Balfe, Australian footballer and lieutenant (d. 1915)
- 1890 – Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian politician and diplomat, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1986)
- 1891 – José P. Laurel, Filipino lawyer, politician and President of the Philippines (d. 1959)
- 1892 – Mátyás Rákosi, Hungarian politician (d. 1971)
- 1892 – Vita Sackville-West, English author, poet, and gardener (d. 1962)
- 1902 – Will Geer, American actor (d. 1978)
- 1904 – Paul Wilbur Klipsch, American soldier and engineer, founded Klipsch Audio Technologies (d. 2002)
- 1910 – Samuel Barber, American pianist and composer (d. 1981)
- 1911 – Clara Rockmore, American classical violin prodigy and theremin player, (d. 1998)
- 1915 – Johnnie Johnson, English air marshal and pilot (d. 2001)
- 1918 – George Lincoln Rockwell, American sailor and politician, founded the American Nazi Party (d. 1967)
- 1918 – Mickey Spillane, American crime novelist (d. 2006)
- 1920 – Franjo Mihalić, Croatian-Serbian runner and coach (d. 2015)
- 1921 – Carl Betz, American actor (d. 1978)
- 1922 – Ian Turbott, New Zealand-Australian former diplomat and university administrator (d. 2016)
- 1923 – James L. Buckley, American lawyer, judge, and politician
- 1923 – André Courrèges, French fashion designer (d. 2016)
- 1923 – Walter Kohn, Austrian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2016)
- 1926 – Joe Franklin, American radio and television host (d. 2015)
- 1928 – Gerald Bull, Canadian-American engineer and academic (d. 1990)
- 1928 – Keely Smith, American singer and actress (d. 2017)
- 1929 – Desmond Hoyte, Guyanese lawyer, politician and President of Guyana (d. 2002)
- 1929 – Zillur Rahman, Bangladeshi politician, 19th President of Bangladesh (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Ornette Coleman, American saxophonist, violinist, trumpet player, and composer (d. 2015)
- 1931 – Jackie Healy-Rae, Irish politician (d. 2014)
- 1932 – Qayyum Chowdhury, Bangladeshi painter and academic (d. 2014)
- 1932 – Walter Mercado, Puerto Rican-American astrologer and actor (d. 2019)
- 1933 – Lloyd Price, American R&B singer-songwriter
- 1933 – David Weatherall, English physician, geneticist, and academic (d. 2018)
- 1934 – Yuri Gagarin, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1968)
- 1934 – Joyce Van Patten, American actress
- 1935 – Andrew Viterbi, American engineer and businessman, co-founded Qualcomm Inc.
- 1936 – Mickey Gilley, American singer-songwriter and pianist[
- 1936 – Marty Ingels, American actor and comedian (d. 2015)
- 1937 – Bernard Landry, Canadian lawyer, politician and Premier of Quebec (d. 2018)
- 1937 – Harry Neale, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1937 – Brian Redman, English race car driver
- 1940 – Raul Julia, Puerto Rican-American actor (d. 1994)
- 1941 – Jim Colbert, American golfer
- 1941 – Ernesto Miranda, American criminal (d. 1976)
- 1942 – Ion Caramitru, Romanian actor and artistic director
- 1942 – Mark Lindsay, American singer-songwriter, saxophonist, and producer
- 1943 – Bobby Fischer, American chess player and author (d. 2008)
- 1944 – Lee Irvine, South African cricketer
- 1945 – Robert Calvert, English singer-songwriter and playwright (d. 1988)
- 1945 – Robin Trower, English rock guitarist and vocalist
- 1946 – Alexandra Bastedo, English actress (d. 2014)
- 1946 – Warren Skaaren, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1990)
- 1946 – Bernd Hölzenbein, German footballer and scout
- 1947 – Keri Hulme, New Zealand author and poet
- 1948 – Emma Bonino, Italian politician, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1948 – Eric Fischl, American painter and sculptor
- 1948 – Jeffrey Osborne, American singer and drummer
- 1949 – Neil Hamilton, Welsh lawyer and politician
- 1950 – Doug Ault, American baseball player and manager (d. 2004)
- 1950 – Andy North, American golfer
- 1950 – Howard Shelley, English pianist and conductor
- 1951 – Helen Zille, South African journalist, politician and Premier of the Western Cape1952 – Bill Beaumont, English rugby player and manager
- 1954 – Carlos Ghosn, Brazilian-Lebanese-French business executive
- 1954 – Bobby Sands, PIRA volunteer; Irish republican politician (d. 1981)
- 1954 – Jock Taylor, Scottish motorcycle racer (d. 1982)
- 1955 – Teo Fabi, Italian race car driver
- 1955 – Józef Pinior, Polish academic and politician
- 1956 – Mark Dantonio, American football player and coach
- 1956 – Shashi Tharoor, Indian politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs
- 1956 – David Willetts, English academic and politician
- 1958 – Paul MacLean, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1959 – Takaaki Kajita, Japanese physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1959 – Lonny Price, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1960 – Linda Fiorentino, American actress
- 1961 – Rick Steiner, American wrestler
- 1961 – Darrell Walker, American basketball player and coach
- 1963 – Terry Mulholland, American baseball player
- 1963 – Jean-Marc Vallée, Canadian director and screenwriter
- 1964 – Juliette Binoche, French actress
- 1964 – Phil Housley, American ice hockey player and coach
- 1965 – Brian Bosworth, American football player and actor
- 1965 – Benito Santiago, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
- 1966 – Brendan Canty, American drummer and songwriter
- 1966 – Tony Lockett, Australian footballer
- 1968 – Youri Djorkaeff, French footballer
- 1969 – Kimberly Guilfoyle, American lawyer and journalist
- 1970 – Naveen Jindal, Indian businessman and politician
- 1970 – Martin Johnson, English rugby player and coach
- 1971 – Emmanuel Lewis, American actor
- 1972 – Jodey Arrington, United States politician
- 1973 – Liam Griffin, English race car driver
- 1975 – Juan Sebastián Verón, Argentinian footballer
- 1977 – Radek Dvořák, Czech ice hockey player
- 1979 – Oscar Isaac, Guatemalan-American actor
- 1981 – Antonio Bryant, American football player
- 1981 – Clay Rapada, American baseball player
- 1982 – Ryan Bayley, Australian cyclist
- 1982 – Matt Bowen, Australian rugby league player
- 1982 – Mirjana Lučić-Baroni, Croatian tennis player
- 1983 – Wayne Simien, American basketball player[
- 1983 – Clint Dempsey, American international soccer player, forward
- 1984 – Abdoulay Konko, French footballer
- 1984 – Julia Mancuso, American skier
- 1985 – Brent Burns, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1985 – Jesse Litsch, American baseball player
- 1985 – Pastor Maldonado, Venezuelan race car driver
- 1985 – Parthiv Patel, Indian cricketer
- 1986 – Colin Greening, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Brittany Snow, American actress and producer
- 1989 – Taeyeon, South Korean artist, member of Girls’ Generation
- 1990 – Daley Blind, Dutch footballer
- 1990 – Matt Robinson, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1990 – YG (rapper), American rapper
- 1991 – Jooyoung, Korean singer-songwriter
- 1993 – Suga, South Korean artist (BTS)
- 1994 – Morgan Rielly, Canadian ice hockey player
Deaths on March 9
- 886 – Abu Ma’shar al-Balkhi, Muslim scholar and astrologer (b. 787)
- 1202 – Sverre of Norway
- 1440 – Frances of Rome, Italian nun and saint (b. 1384)
- 1444 – Leonardo Bruni, Italian humanist (b. c.1370)
- 1463 – Catherine of Bologna, Italian nun and saint (d. 1463)
- 1566 – David Rizzio, Italian-Scottish courtier and politician (b. 1533).
- 1649 – James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish soldier and politician, (b. 1606)
- 1649 – Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier and politician (b. 1590)
- 1661 – Cardinal Mazarin, Italian-French academic and politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1602)
- 1709 – Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, English courtier and politician (b. 1638)
- 1808 – Joseph Bonomi the Elder, Italian architect (b. 1739)
- 1810 – Ozias Humphry, English painter and academic (b. 1742)
- 1825 – Anna Laetitia Barbauld, English poet, author, and critic (b. 1743)
- 1847 – Mary Anning, English paleontologist (b. 1799)
- 1851 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist and chemist (b. 1777)1888 – William I, German Emperor (b. 1797)
- 1895 – Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian journalist and author (b. 1836)
- 1897 – Sondre Norheim, Norwegian-American skier (b. 1825)
- 1918 – Frank Wedekind, German author and playwright (b. 1864)
- 1925 – Willard Metcalf, American painter and academic (b. 1858)
- 1926 – Mikao Usui, Japanese spiritual leader, founded Reiki (b. 1865)
- 1937 – Paul Elmer More, American journalist and critic (b. 1864)
- 1943 – Otto Freundlich, German painter and sculptor (b. 1878)
- 1954 – Vagn Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer and academic (b. 1874)
- 1955 – Miroslava, Czech-Mexican actress (b. 1925)
- 1964 – Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (b. 1870)
- 1969 – Abdul Munim Riad, Egyptian general (b. 1919)
- 1971 – Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria (b. 1902)
- 1974 – Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr., American pharmacologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
- 1974 – Harry Womack, American singer (b. 1945)
- 1983 – Faye Emerson, American actress (b. 1917)
- 1983 – Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- 1988 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German lawyer, politician and Chancellor of Germany (b. 1904)
- 1989 – Robert Mapplethorpe, American photographer (b. 1946)
- 1991 – Jim Hardin, American baseball player (b. 1943)
- 1992 – Menachem Begin, Belarusian-Israeli soldier, politician and Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
- 1993 – C. Northcote Parkinson, English historian and author (b. 1909)
- 1994 – Charles Bukowski, American poet, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1920)
- 1994 – Eddie Creatchman, Canadian wrestler, referee, and manager (b. 1928)
- 1994 – Fernando Rey, Spanish actor (b. 1917)
- 1997 – Jean-Dominique Bauby, French journalist and author (b. 1952)
- 1997 – Terry Nation, Welsh author and screenwriter (b. 1930)
- 1997 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper, songwriter, and actor (b. 1972)
- 1999 – Harry Somers, Canadian pianist and composer (b. 1925)
- 2000 – Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer and educator (b. 1908)
- 2003 – Stan Brakhage, American director and cinematographer (b. 1933)
- 2003 – Bernard Dowiyogo, Nauruan politician, President of Nauru (b. 1946)
- 2006 – Tom Fox, American activist (b. 1951)
- 2006 – John Profumo, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for War (b. 1915)
- 2007 – Brad Delp, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1951)
- 2007 – Glen Harmon, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)
- 2010 – Willie Davis, American baseball player and manager (b. 1940)
- 2010 – Doris Haddock, American activist and politician (b. 1910)
- 2011 – David S. Broder, American journalist and academic (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Max Jakobson, Finnish journalist and diplomat
- 2013 – Merton Simpson, American painter and art collector (b. 1928)
- 2015 – James Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, Northern Irish soldier and politician (b. 1920)
- 2016 – Robert Horton, American actor (b. 1924)
- 2016 – Clyde Lovellette, American basketball player and coach (b. 1929)
- 2017 – Howard Hodgkin, British painter (b. 1932)
- 2018 – Jo Min-ki, Korean actor (b. 1965)
- 2020 – John Bathersby, Australian Catholic bishop (b. 1936)
Holidays and observances on March 9
- Christian feast day:
- Catherine of Bologna
- Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
- Frances of Rome
- Pacian
- Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria (Coptic Orthodox Church)
- Gregory of Nyssa (Episcopal Church (United States))
- March 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Teachers’ Day or Eid Al Moalim (Lebanon)
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March 6 in History
- 12 BCE – The Roman Emperor Augustus is named Pontifex Maximus, incorporating the position into that of the emperor.
- 632 – The Farewell Sermon (Khutbah, Khutbatul Wada’) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
- 845 – Execution of the 42 Martyrs of Amorium at Samarra.
- 961 – Byzantine conquest of Chandax by Nikephoros Phokas, end of the Emirate of Crete.
- 1204 – The Siege of Château Gaillard ends in a French victory over King John of England, who loses control of Normandy to King Philip II Augustus.
- 1323 – Treaty of Paris of 1323 is signed.
- 1454 – Thirteen Years’ War: Delegates of the Prussian Confederation pledge allegiance to King Casimir IV of Poland who agrees to commit his forces in aiding the Confederation’s struggle for independence from the Teutonic Knights.
- 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam.
- 1665 – The first joint Secretary of the Royal Society, Henry Oldenburg, publishes the first issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, the world’s longest-running scientific journal.
- 1788 – The First Fleet arrives at Norfolk Island in order to found a convict settlement.
- 1820 – The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brings Maine into the Union as a free state, and makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
- 1834 – York, Upper Canada, is incorporated as Toronto.
- 1836 – Texas Revolution: Battle of the Alamo: After a thirteen-day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 187 Texas volunteers, including frontiersman Davy Crockett and colonel Jim Bowie, defending the Alamo are killed and the fort is captured.
- 1857 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.
- 1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
- 1882 – The Serbian kingdom is re-founded.
- 1899 – Bayer registers “Aspirin” as a trademark.
- 1902 – Real Madrid CF is founded.
- 1912 – Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces become the first to use airships in war, as two dirigibles drop bombs on Turkish troops encamped at Janzur, from an altitude of 6,000 feet.
- 1921 – Portuguese Communist Party is founded as the Portuguese Section of the Communist International.
- 1930 – International Unemployment Day demonstrations globally initiated by the Comintern.
- 1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a “bank holiday”, closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions.
- 1943 – Norman Rockwell published Freedom from Want in The Saturday Evening Post with a matching essay by Carlos Bulosan as part of the Four Freedoms series.
- 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Fardykambos, one of the first major battles between the Greek Resistance and the occupying Royal Italian Army, ends with the surrender of an entire Italian battalion, the bulk of the garrison of the town of Grevena, leading to its liberation a fortnight later.
- 1944 – World War II: Soviet Air Forces bomb an evacuated town of Narva in German-occupied Estonia, destroying the entire historical Swedish-era town.
- 1945 – World War II: Cologne is captured by American troops. On the same day, Operation Spring Awakening, the last major German offensive of the war, begins.
- 1946 – Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
- 1951 – Cold War: The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
- 1953 – Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- 1957 – Ghana becomes the first Sub-Saharan country to gain independence from the British.
- 1964 – Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad officially gives boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali.
- 1964 – Constantine II becomes King of Greece.
- 1965 – Premier Tom Playford of South Australia loses power after 27 years in office.
- 1967 – Cold War: Joseph Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the United States.
- 1968 – Three rebels are executed by Rhodesia, the first executions since UDI, prompting international condemnation.
- 1970 – An explosion at the Weather Underground safe house in Greenwich Village kills three.
- 1975 – For the first time the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is shown in motion to a national TV audience by Robert J. Groden and Dick Gregory.
- 1975 – Algiers Accord: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement of their border dispute.
- 1983 – The first United States Football League games are played.
- 1984 – In the United Kingdom, a walkout at Cortonwood Colliery in Brampton Bierlow signals the start of a strike that lasted almost a year and involved the majority of the country’s miners.
- 1987 – The British ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes in about 90 seconds, killing 193.
- 1988 – Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers are shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in Operation Flavius.
- 1992 – The Michelangelo computer virus begins to affect computers.
- 2003 – Air Algérie Flight 6289 crashes at the Aguenar – Hadj Bey Akhamok Airport in Tamanrasset, Algeria, killing 102 out of the 103 people on board.
- 2008 – A suicide bomber kills 68 people (including first responders) in Baghdad on the same day that a gunman kills eight students in Jerusalem.
Births on March 6
- 1340 – John of Gaunt (d. 1399)
- 1405 – John II of Castile (d. 1454)
- 1459 – Jakob Fugger, German merchant and banker (d. 1525)
- 1475 – Michelangelo, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1564)
- 1483 – Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian and politician (d. 1540)
- 1493 – Juan Luis Vives, Spanish scholar and humanist (d. 1540)
- 1495 – Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet and diplomat (d. 1556)
- 1536 – Santi di Tito, Italian painter (d. 1603)
- 1619 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French author and playwright (d. 1655)
- 1663 – Francis Atterbury, English bishop and poet (d. 1732)
- 1706 – George Pocock, English admiral (d. 1792)
- 1716 – Pehr Kalm, Swedish-Finnish botanist and explorer (d. 1779)
- 1724 – Henry Laurens, English-American merchant and politician, 5th President of the Continental Congress (d. 1792)
- 1761 – Antoine-François Andréossy, French general and diplomat (d. 1828)
- 1779 – Antoine-Henri Jomini, Swiss-French general (d. 1869)
- 1780 – Lucy Barnes, American writer (d. 1809)
- 1785 – Karol Kurpiński, Polish composer and conductor (d. 1857)
- 1787 – Joseph von Fraunhofer, German physicist and astronomer (d. 1826)
- 1806 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English-Italian poet and translator (d. 1861)
- 1812 – Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American businessman, co-founded the Waltham Watch Company (d. 1895)
- 1817 – Princess Clémentine of Orléans (d. 1907)
- 1818 – William Claflin, American businessman and politician, 27th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1905)
- 1823 – Charles I of Württemberg (d. 1891)
- 1831 – Philip Sheridan, Irish-American general (d. 1888)
- 1834 – George du Maurier, French-English author and illustrator (d. 1896)
- 1841 – Viktor Burenin, Russian author, poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1926)
- 1849 – Georg Luger, Austrian gun designer, designed the Luger pistol (d. 1923)
- 1864 – Richard Rushall, British businessman (d. 1953)
- 1870 – Oscar Straus, Viennese composer and conductor (d. 1954)
- 1871 – Afonso Costa, Portuguese lawyer and politician, 59th Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1937)
- 1872 – Ben Harney, American pianist and composer (d. 1938)
- 1879 – Jimmy Hunter, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1962)
- 1882 – F. Burrall Hoffman, American architect, co-designed Villa Vizcaya (d. 1980)
- 1882 – Guy Kibbee, American actor and singer (d. 1956)
- 1884 – Molla Mallory, Norwegian-American tennis player (d. 1959)
- 1885 – Ring Lardner, American journalist and author (d. 1933)
- 1886 – Jam Handy, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1983)
- 1886 – Nella Walker, American actress and vaudevillian (d. 1971)
- 1892 – Bert Smith, English international footballer, right half (d. 1969)
- 1893 – Furry Lewis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1981)
- 1893 – Ella P. Stewart, pioneering Black American pharmacist (d. 1987)
- 1895 – Albert Tessier, Canadian priest and historian (d. 1976)
- 1898 – Gus Sonnenberg, American football player and wrestler (d. 1944)
- 1900 – Gina Cigna, French-Italian soprano and actress (d. 2001)
- 1900 – Lefty Grove, American baseball player (d. 1975)
- 1900 – Henri Jeanson, French journalist and author (d. 1970)
- 1903 – Empress Kōjun of Japan (d. 2000)
- 1904 – José Antonio Aguirre, Spanish lawyer and politician, 1st President of the Basque Country (d. 1960)
- 1905 – Bob Wills, American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader (d. 1975)
- 1906 – Lou Costello, American actor and comedian (d. 1959)
- 1909 – Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian lawyer and politician (d. 1987)
- 1909 – Stanisław Jerzy Lec, Polish poet and author (d. 1966)
- 1910 – Ella Logan, Scottish-American singer and actress (d. 1969)
- 1912 – Mohammed Burhanuddin, Indian spiritual leader, 52nd Da’i al-Mutlaq (d. 2014)
- 1917 – Donald Davidson, American philosopher and academic (d. 2003)
- 1917 – Will Eisner, American illustrator and publisher (d. 2005)
- 1917 – Frankie Howerd, English comedian (d. 1992)
- 1918 – Howard McGhee, American trumpeter (d. 1987)
- 1920 – Lewis Gilbert, English director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
- 1921 – Leo Bretholz, Austrian-American holocaust survivor and author (d. 2014)
- 1923 – Ed McMahon, American comedian, game show host, and announcer (d. 2009)
- 1923 – Wes Montgomery, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1968)
- 1924 – Ottmar Walter, German footballer (d. 2013)
- 1924 – William H. Webster, American lawyer and jurist, 14th Director of Central Intelligence
- 1926 – Ann Curtis, American swimmer (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Alan Greenspan, American economist and politician
- 1926 – Ray O’Connor, Australian politician, 22nd Premier of Western Australia (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Andrzej Wajda, Polish director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
- 1927 – William J. Bell, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2005)
- 1927 – Gordon Cooper, American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2004)
- 1927 – Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
- 1929 – Tom Foley, American lawyer and politician, 57th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 2013)
- 1929 – David Sheppard, English cricketer and bishop (d. 2005)
- 1930 – Lorin Maazel, French-American violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 2014)
- 1932 – Marc Bazin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 49th President of Haiti (d. 2010)
- 1932 – Bronisław Geremek, Polish historian and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2008)
- 1933 – Ted Abernathy, American baseball player (d. 2004)
- 1933 – William Davis, German-English journalist and economist (d. 2019)
- 1933 – Augusto Odone, Italian economist and inventor of Lorenzo’s oil (d. 2013)
- 1934 – Red Simpson, American singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
- 1935 – Ron Delany, Irish runner and coach
- 1935 – Derek Kevan, English footballer (d. 2013)
- 1936 – Bob Akin, American race car driver and journalist (d. 2002)
- 1936 – Marion Barry, American lawyer and politician, 2nd Mayor of the District of Columbia (d. 2014)
- 1936 – Choummaly Sayasone, Laotian politician, 5th President of Laos
- 1937 – Ivan Boesky, American businessman
- 1937 – Valentina Tereshkova, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut
- 1938 – Keishu Tanaka, Japanese politician, 17th Japanese Minister of Justice
- 1939 – Kit Bond, American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of Missouri
- 1939 – Adam Osborne, Thai-Indian engineer and businessman, founded the Osborne Computer Corporation (d. 2003)
- 1940 – Ken Danby, Canadian painter (d. 2007)
- 1940 – Joanna Miles, French-born American actress
- 1940 – R. H. Sikes, American golfer
- 1940 – Willie Stargell, American baseball player and coach (d. 2001)
- 1940 – Jeff Wooller, English accountant and banker
- 1941 – Peter Brötzmann, German saxophonist and clarinet player
- 1941 – Marilyn Strathern, Welsh anthropologist and academic
- 1942 – Ben Murphy, American actor
- 1944 – Richard Corliss, American journalist and critic (d. 2015)
- 1944 – Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand soprano and actress
- 1944 – Mary Wilson, American singer
- 1945 – Angelo Castro, Jr., Filipino actor and journalist (d. 2012)
- 1946 – David Gilmour, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1946 – Richard Noble, Scottish race car driver and businessman
- 1947 – Kiki Dee, English singer-songwriter
- 1947 – Dick Fosbury, American high jumper
- 1947 – Anna Maria Horsford, American actress
- 1947 – Rob Reiner, American actor, director, producer, and activist
- 1947 – Jean Seaton, English historian and academic
- 1947 – John Stossel, American journalist and author
- 1948 – Stephen Schwartz, American composer and producer
- 1949 – Shaukat Aziz, Pakistani economist and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Pakistan
- 1949 – Martin Buchan, Scottish footballer and manager
- 1950 – Arthur Roche, English archbishop
- 1951 – Gerrie Knetemann, Dutch cyclist (d. 2004)
- 1952 – Denis Napthine, Australian politician, 47th Premier of Victoria
- 1953 – Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali banker and politician, 34th Prime Minister of Nepal
- 1953 – Carolyn Porco, American astronomer and academic
- 1953 – Phil Alvin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1954 – Jeff Greenwald, American author, photographer, and monologist
- 1954 – Harald Schumacher, German footballer and manager
- 1955 – Cyprien Ntaryamira, Burundian politician, 5th President of Burundi (d. 1994)
- 1955 – Alberta Watson, Canadian actress (d. 2015)
- 1956 – Peter Roebuck, English cricketer, journalist, and sportcaster (d. 2011)
- 1956 – Steve Vizard, Australian television host, actor, and producer
- 1960 – Sleepy Floyd, American basketball player and coach
- 1962 – Alison Nicholas, British golfer
- 1963 – D. L. Hughley, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1964 – Linda Pearson, Scottish sport shooter
- 1965 – Allan Bateman, Welsh rugby player
- 1965 – Jim Knight, English politician
- 1966 – Alan Davies, English comedian, actor and screenwriter
- 1967 – Julio Bocca, Argentinian ballet dancer and director
- 1967 – Connie Britton, American actress
- 1967 – Glenn Greenwald, American journalist and author
- 1967 – Shuler Hensley, American actor and singer
- 1968 – Moira Kelly, American actress and director
- 1971 – Darrick Martin, American basketball player and coach
- 1972 – Shaquille O’Neal, American basketball player, actor, and rapper
- 1972 – Jaret Reddick, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1973 – Michael Finley, American basketball player
- 1973 – Peter Lindgren, Swedish guitarist and songwriter
- 1973 – Greg Ostertag, American basketball player
- 1973 – Trent Willmon, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1974 – Guy Garvey, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1974 – Matthew Guy, Australian politician
- 1974 – Brad Schumacher, American swimmer
- 1974 – Beanie Sigel, American rapper
- 1975 – Aracely Arámbula, Mexican actress and singer
- 1975 – Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Canadian pianist and conductor
- 1976 – Ken Anderson, American wrestler and actor
- 1977 – Nantie Hayward, South African cricketer
- 1977 – Giorgos Karagounis, Greek international footballer, midfielder
- 1977 – Shabani Nonda, DR Congolese footballer
- 1977 – Marcus Thames, American baseball player and coach
- 1978 – Sage Rosenfels, American football player
- 1978 – Chad Wicks, American wrestler
- 1979 – Clint Barmes, American baseball player
- 1979 – Érik Bédard, Canadian baseball player
- 1979 – David Flair, American wrestler
- 1979 – Tim Howard, American soccer player
- 1980 – Emílson Cribari, Brazilian footballer
- 1981 – Ellen Muth, American actress
- 1983 – Andranik Teymourian, Armenian-Iranian footballer
- 1984 – Daniël de Ridder, Dutch footballer
- 1984 – Eskil Pedersen, Norwegian politician
- 1984 – Chris Tomson, American drummer
- 1985 – Bakaye Traoré, French-Malian footballer
- 1986 – Jake Arrieta, American baseball player
- 1986 – Francisco Cervelli, Venezuelan-Italian baseball player
- 1986 – Ross Detwiler, American baseball player
- 1986 – Eli Marienthal, American actor
- 1986 – Charlie Mulgrew, Scottish footballer
- 1987 – Kevin-Prince Boateng, Ghanaian-German footballer
- 1987 – José Manuel Flores, Spanish footballer
- 1988 – Agnes Carlsson, Swedish singer
- 1988 – Marina Erakovic, New Zealand tennis player
- 1988 – Simon Mignolet, Belgian footballer
- 1989 – Agnieszka Radwańska, Polish tennis player
- 1990 – Derek Drouin, Canadian athlete
- 1991 – Lex Luger, American keyboard player and producer
- 1991 – Emma McDougall, English footballer (d. 2013)
- 1991 – Tyler Gregory Okonma, American rapper
- 1993 – Andrés Rentería, Colombian footballer
- 1994 – Nathan Redmond, English footballer
- 1994 – Marcus Smart, American basketball player
- 1994 – Wesley Hoedt, Dutch footballer
- 1995 – Georgi Kitanov, Bulgarian footballer
- 1996 – Christian Coleman, American sprinter
- 1996 – Tyrell Fuimaono, Australian rugby player
- 1996 – Timo Werner, German footballer
Deaths on March 6
- 190 – Liu Bian (poisoned by Dong Zhuo) (b. 176)
- 653 – Li Ke, prince of the Tang Dynasty (b. 619)
- 766 – Chrodegang, Frankish bishop and saint
- 903 – Lu Guangqi, Chinese official and chancellor
- 903 – Su Jian, Chinese official and chancellor
- 1070 – Ulric I, Margrave of Carniola
- 1251 – Rose of Viterbo, Italian saint (b. 1235)
- 1353 – Roger Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Ruthyn
- 1466 – Alvise Loredan, Venetian admiral and statesman (b. 1393)
- 1490 – Ivan the Young, Ruler of Tver (b. 1458)
- 1491 – Richard Woodville, 3rd Earl Rivers
- 1531 – Pedro Arias Dávila, Spanish explorer and diplomat (b. 1440)
- 1616 – Francis Beaumont, English playwright (b. 1584)
- 1754 – Henry Pelham, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1694)
- 1758 – Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Durham (b. 1705)
- 1764 – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (b. 1690)
- 1796 – Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French historian and author (b. 1713)
- 1836 – Deaths at the Battle of the Alamo:
- James Bonham, American lawyer and soldier (b. 1807)
- James Bowie, American colonel (b. 1796)
- Davy Crockett, American soldier and politician (b. 1786)
- William B. Travis, American lieutenant colonel and lawyer (b. 1809)
- 1854 – Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, Irish colonel and diplomat, Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies (b. 1778)
- 1866 – William Whewell, English priest, historian, and philosopher (b. 1794)
- 1867 – Charles Farrar Browne, American-English author and educator (b. 1834)
- 1888 – Louisa May Alcott, American novelist and poet (b. 1832)
- 1895 – Camilla Collett, Norwegian novelist and activist (b. 1813)
- 1899 – Kaʻiulani of Hawaii (b. 1875)
- 1900 – Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and businessman, co-founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (b. 1834)
- 1905 – John Henninger Reagan, American surveyor, judge, and politician, 3rd Confederate States of America Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1818)
- 1905 – Makar Yekmalyan, Armenian composer (b. 1856)
- 1919 – Oskars Kalpaks, Latvian colonel (b. 1882)
- 1920 – Ömer Seyfettin, Turkish author and educator (b. 1884)
- 1932 – John Philip Sousa, American conductor and composer (b. 1854)
- 1933 – Anton Cermak, Czech-American lawyer and politician, 44th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1873)
- 1935 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., American colonel, lawyer, and jurist (b. 1841)
- 1939 – Ferdinand von Lindemann, German mathematician and academic (b. 1852)
- 1941 – Francis Aveling, Canadian priest, psychologist, and author (b. 1875)
- 1941 – Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor and academic, designed Mount Rushmore (b. 1867)
- 1948 – Ross Lockridge, Jr., American author, poet, and academic (b. 1914)
- 1948 – Alice Woodby McKane, First Black woman doctor in Savannah, Georgia (b. 1865)
- 1950 – Albert François Lebrun, French engineer and politician, 15th President of France (b. 1871)
- 1951 – Ivor Novello, Welsh singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1893)
- 1951 – Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Ukrainian playwright and politician, Prime Minister of Ukraine (b. 1880)
- 1952 – Jürgen Stroop, German general (b. 1895)
- 1955 – Mammad Amin Rasulzade, Azerbaijani scholar and politician (b. 1884)
- 1961 – George Formby, English singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1904)
- 1964 – Paul of Greece (b. 1901)
- 1965 – Margaret Dumont, American actress (b. 1889)
- 1967 – John Haden Badley, English author and educator, founded the Bedales School (b. 1865)
- 1967 – Nelson Eddy, American actor and singer (b. 1901)
- 1967 – Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer, linguist, and philosopher (b. 1882)
- 1970 – William Hopper, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1973 – Pearl S. Buck, American novelist, essayist, short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
- 1974 – Ernest Becker, American anthropologist and author (b. 1924)
- 1976 – Maxie Rosenbloom, American boxer (b. 1903)
- 1977 – Alvin R. Dyer, American religious leader (b. 1903)
- 1978 – Dennis Viollet, English-American soccer player and manager (b. 1933)
- 1981 – George Geary, English cricketer and coach (b. 1893)
- 1981 – Rambhau Mhalgi, Indian politician and member of the Lok Sabha (b. 9 July 1921)
- 1982 – Ayn Rand, Russian-American philosopher, author, and playwright (b. 1905)
- 1984 – Billy Collins, Jr., American boxer (b. 1961)
- 1984 – Martin Niemöller, German pastor and theologian (b. 1892)
- 1984 – Homer N. Wallin, American admiral (b. 1893)
- 1984 – Henry Wilcoxon, Dominican-American actor and producer (b. 1905)
- 1986 – Georgia O’Keeffe, American painter (b. 1887)
- 1988 – Mairéad Farrell, Provisional IRA volunteer (b. 1957)
- 1988 – Daniel McCann, Provisional IRA volunteer (b. 1957)
- 1988 – Seán Savage, Provisional IRA volunteer (b. 1965)
- 1994 – Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and politician, 9th Greek Minister of Culture (b. 1920)
- 1997 – Cheddi Jagan, Guyanese politician, 4th President of Guyana (b. 1918)
- 1997 – Michael Manley, Jamaican soldier, pilot, and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Jamaica (b. 1924)
- 1997 – Ursula Torday, English author (b. 1912)
- 1999 – Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Bahrain king (b. 1933)
- 2000 – John Colicos, Canadian actor (b. 1928)
- 2002 – Bryan Fogarty, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1969)
- 2004 – Hercules, American wrestler (b. 1957)
- 2004 – Frances Dee, American actress (b. 1909)
- 2005 – Hans Bethe, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 2005 – Danny Gardella, American baseball player and trainer (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Tommy Vance, English radio host (b. 1943)
- 2005 – Teresa Wright, American actress (b. 1918)
- 2005 – Gladys Marín, Chilean activist and political figure. (b.1938)
- 2006 – Anne Braden, American journalist and activist (b. 1924)
- 2006 – Kirby Puckett, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1960)
- 2007 – Jean Baudrillard, French photographer and theorist (b. 1929)
- 2007 – Ernest Gallo, American businessman, co-founded E & J Gallo Winery (b. 1909)
- 2008 – Peter Poreku Dery, Ghanaian cardinal (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Francis Magalona, Filipino rapper, producer, and actor (b. 1964)
- 2010 – Endurance Idahor, Nigerian footballer (b. 1984)
- 2010 – Mark Linkous, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1962)
- 2010 – Betty Millard, American philanthropist and activist (b. 1911)
- 2012 – Francisco Xavier do Amaral, East Timorese politician, 1st President of East Timor (b. 1937)
- 2012 – Donald M. Payne, American businessman and politician (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Helen Walulik, American baseball player (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Chorão, Brazilian singer-songwriter (Charlie Brown Jr.) (b. 1970)
- 2013 – Stompin’ Tom Connors, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Alvin Lee, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1944)
- 2013 – W. Wallace Cleland, American biochemist and academic (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Alemayehu Atomsa, Ethiopian educator and politician (b. 1969)
- 2014 – Frank Jobe, American soldier and surgeon (b. 1925)
- 2014 – Sheila MacRae, English-American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Martin Nesbitt, American lawyer and politician (b. 1946)
- 2014 – Manlio Sgalambro, Italian philosopher, author, and poet (b. 1924)
- 2015 – Fred Craddock, American minister and academic (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Ram Sundar Das, Indian lawyer and politician, 18th Chief Minister of Bihar (b. 1921)
- 2015 – Enrique “Coco” Vicéns, Puerto Rican-American basketball player and politician (b. 1926)
- 2016 – Nancy Reagan, American actress, 42nd First Lady of the United States (b. 1921)
- 2016 – Sheila Varian, American horse trainer and breeder (b. 1937)
- 2017 – Robert Osborne, American actor and historian (b. 1932)
- 2018 – Peter Nicholls, Australian science fiction critic and encyclopedist (b. 1939)
Holidays and observances on March 6
- Christian feast day:
- Chrodegang
- Colette
- Fridolin
- Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba
- Marcian of Tortona
- William W. Mayo and Charles Frederick Menninger (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Olegarius
- March 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- European Day of the Righteous, commemorates those who have stood up against crimes against humanity and totalitarism with their own moral responsibility. (Europe)
- Foundation Day (Norfolk Island), the founding of Norfolk Island in 1788.
- Independence Day (Ghana), celebrates the independence of Ghana from the UK in 1957.
- The Day of the Dude, celebrated by the adherents of Dudeism
-
February 22 in History
- 705 – Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang dynasty.
- 1316 – The Battle of Picotin, between Ferdinand of Majorca and the forces of Matilda of Hainaut, ends in victory for Ferdinand.
- 1371 – Robert II becomes King of Scotland, beginning the Stuart dynasty.
- 1495 – King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city’s throne.
- 1632 – Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the dedicatee, receives the first printed copy of Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems .
- 1651 – St. Peter’s Flood: A storm surge floods the Frisian coast, drowning 15,000 people.
- 1744 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Battle of Toulon causes several Royal Navy captains to be court-martialed, and the Articles of War to be amended.
- 1797 – The last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales.
- 1819 – By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
- 1821 – Greek War of Independence: Alexander Ypsilantis crosses the Prut river at Sculeni into the Danubian Principalities.
- 1847 – Mexican–American War: The Battle of Buena Vista: Five thousand American troops defeat 15,000 Mexican troops.
- 1848 – The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins.
- 1853 – Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.
- 1855 – The Pennsylvania State University is founded in State College, Pennsylvania (as the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania).
- 1856 – The United States Republican Party opens its first national convention in Pittsburgh.
- 1862 – Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.
- 1872 – The Prohibition Party holds its first national convention in Columbus, Ohio, nominating James Black as its presidential nominee.
- 1878 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.
- 1889 – President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
- 1899 – Filipino forces led by General Antonio Luna launch counterattacks for the first time against the American forces during the Philippine–American War. The Filipinos fail to regain Manila from the Americans.
- 1904 – The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina; the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908.
- 1909 – The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world.
- 1915 – World War I: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
- 1921 – After Russian forces under Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg drive the Chinese out, the Bogd Khan is reinstalled as the emperor of Mongolia.
- 1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable.
- 1943 – World War II: Members of the White Rose resistance, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst are executed in Nazi Germany.
- 1944 – World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
- 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army recaptures Krivoi Rog.
- 1946 – The “Long Telegram”, proposing how the United States should deal with the Soviet Union, arrives from the US embassy in Moscow.
- 1957 – Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam survives a communist shooting assassination attempt in Buôn Ma Thuột.
- 1958 – Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
- 1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
- 1972 – The Official Irish Republican Army detonates a car bomb at Aldershot barracks, killing seven and injuring nineteen others.
- 1973 – Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon’s visit to the People’s Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.
- 1974 – The Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit begins in Lahore, Pakistan. Thirty-seven countries attend and twenty-two heads of state and government participate. It also recognizes Bangladesh.
- 1974 – Samuel Byck attempts to hijack an aircraft at Baltimore/Washington International Airport with the intention of crashing it into the White House to assassinate Richard Nixon, but is killed by police.
- 1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.
- 1983 – The notorious Broadway flop Moose Murders opens and closes on the same night at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.
- 1984 – President of Bangladesh, H M Ershad upgraded South Sylhet’s sub-division status to a district and renamed it back to Moulvibazar.
- 1986 – Start of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines.
- 1994 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.
- 1995 – The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.
- 1997 – In Roslin, Midlothian, British scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.
- 2002 – Angolan political and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in a military ambush.
- 2005 – The 6.4 Mw Zarand earthquake shakes the Kerman Province of Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 612 people dead and 1,411 injured.
- 2006 – At least six men stage Britain’s biggest robbery, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
- 2011 – New Zealand’s second deadliest earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing 185 people.
- 2011 – Bahraini uprising: Tens of thousands of people march in protest against the deaths of seven victims killed by police and army forces during previous protests.
- 2012 – A train crash in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 51 people and injures 700 others.
- 2014 – President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine is impeached by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by a vote of 328–0, fulfilling a major goal of the Euromaidan rebellion.
- 2015 – A ferry carrying 100 passengers capsizes in the Padma River, killing 70 people.
- 2018 – A man throws a grenade at the U.S embassy in Podgorica, Montenegro. He dies at the scene from a second explosion, with no one else hurt.
Births on February 22
- 1028 – Al-Juwayni, Persian jurist and theologian (died 1085)
- 1040 – Rashi, French rabbi and author (d. 1105)
- 1302 – Gegeen Khan, Emperor Yingzong of Yuan (d. 1323)
- 1403 – Charles VII of France (d. 1461)
- 1440 – Ladislaus the Posthumous, Hungarian king (d. 1457)
- 1500 – Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian cardinal (d. 1564)
- 1514 – Tahmasp I, Iranian shah (d. 1576)
- 1520 – Moses Isserles, Polish rabbi (d. 1572)
- 1550 – Charles de Ligne, 2nd Prince of Arenberg (d. 1616)
- 1592 – Nicholas Ferrar, English scholar (d. 1637)
- 1631 – Peder Syv, Danish historian (d. 1702)
- 1649 – Bon Boullogne, French painter (d. 1717)
- 1715 – Charles-Nicolas Cochin, French artist (d. 1790)
- 1732 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (d. 1799)
- 1749 – Johann Nikolaus Forkel, German musicologist and theorist (d. 1818)
- 1778 – Rembrandt Peale, American painter and curator (d. 1860)
- 1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher and author (d. 1860)
- 1796 – Alexis Bachelot, French priest and missionary (d. 1837)
- 1796 – Adolphe Quetelet, Belgian mathematician, astronomer, and sociologist (d. 1874)
- 1805 – Sarah Fuller Flower Adams, English poet and hymnwriter (d. 1848)
- 1806 – Józef Kremer, Polish historian and philosopher (d. 1875)
- 1817 – Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician and academic (d. 1880)
- 1819 – James Russell Lowell, American poet and critic (d. 1891)
- 1824 – Pierre Janssen, French astronomer and mathematician (d. 1907)
- 1825 – Jean-Baptiste Salpointe, French-American archbishop (d. 1898)
- 1836 – Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya, Indian scholar and academic (d. 1906)
- 1840 – August Bebel, German theorist and politician (d. 1913)
- 1849 – Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1915)
- 1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English general, co-founded The Scout Association (d. 1941)
- 1857 – Heinrich Hertz, German physicist, philosopher, and academic (d. 1894)
- 1860 – Mary W. Bacheler, American physician and Baptist medical missionary (d. 1939)
- 1863 – Charles McLean Andrews, American historian, author, and academic (d. 1943)
- 1864 – Jules Renard, French author and playwright (d. 1910)
- 1876 – Zitkala-Sa, American author and activist (d. 1938)
- 1874 – Bill Klem, American baseball player and umpire (d. 1951)
- 1879 – Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted, Danish chemist and academic (d. 1947)
- 1880 – Eric Lemming, Swedish athlete (d. 1930)
- 1881 – Joseph B. Ely, American lawyer and politician, 52nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1956)
- 1881 – Albin Prepeluh, Slovenian journalist and politician (d. 1937)
- 1882 – Eric Gill, English sculptor and illustrator (d. 1940)
- 1883 – Marguerite Clark, American actress (d. 1940)
- 1886 – Hugo Ball, German author and poet (d. 1927)
- 1887 – Savielly Tartakower, Polish journalist, author, and chess player (d. 1956)
- 1887 – Pat Sullivan, Australian-American animator and producer (d. 1933)
- 1888 – Owen Brewster, American captain and politician, 54th Governor of Maine (d. 1961)
- 1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, English scout leader, founded the Girl Guides (d. 1977)
- 1889 – R. G. Collingwood, English historian and philosopher (d. 1943)
- 1891 – Vlas Chubar, Russian economist and politician (d. 1939)
- 1892 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet and playwright (d. 1950)
- 1895 – Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Peruvian politician (d. 1979)
- 1897 – Karol Świerczewski, Polish general (d. 1947)
- 1899 – George O’Hara, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1966)
- 1900 – Luis Buñuel, Spanish-Mexican director and producer (d. 1983)
- 1903 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian author and playwright (d. 1990)
- 1903 – Frank P. Ramsey, English economist, mathematician, and philosopher (d. 1930)
- 1906 – Constance Stokes, Australian painter (d. 1991)
- 1907 – Sheldon Leonard, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1997)
- 1907 – Robert Young, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1908 – Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuelan politician, 56th President of Venezuela (d. 1981)
- 1908 – John Mills, English soldier and actor (d. 2005)
- 1910 – George Hunt, English international footballer, forward (d. 1996)
- 1914 – Renato Dulbecco, Italian-American virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
- 1915 – Gus Lesnevich, American boxer (d. 1964)
- 1917 – Reed Crandall, American illustrator (d. 1982)
- 1918 – Sid Abel, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (d. 2000)
- 1918 – Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer (d. 2014)
- 1918 – Robert Wadlow, American man, the tallest person in recorded history (d. 1940)
- 1921 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Central African general and politician, 2nd President of the Central African Republic (d. 1996)
- 1921 – Giulietta Masina, Italian actress (d. 1994)
- 1922 – Marshall Teague, American race car driver (d. 1959)
- 1922 – Joe Wilder, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (d. 2014)
- 1923 – Bleddyn Williams, Welsh rugby player and sportscaster (d. 2009)
- 1923 – François Cavanna, French author and editor (d. 2014)
- 1925 – Edward Gorey, American illustrator and poet (d. 2000)
- 1925 – Gerald Stern, American poet and academic
- 1926 – Kenneth Williams, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1988)
- 1927 – Florencio Campomanes, Filipino political scientist and chess player (d. 2010)
- 1927 – Guy Mitchell, American singer (d. 1999)
- 1928 – Clarence 13X, American religious leader, founded the Nation of Gods and Earths (d. 1969)
- 1928 – Texas Johnny Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Paul Dooley, American actor
- 1928 – Bruce Forsyth, English singer and television host (d. 2017)
- 1929 – James Hong, American actor and director
- 1929 – Rebecca Schull, American stage, film, and television actress
- 1930 – Marni Nixon, American soprano and actress (d. 2016)
- 1932 – Ted Kennedy, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2009)
- 1932 – Zenaida Manfugás, Cuban-born American-naturalized pianist (d. 2012)
- 1933 – Katharine, Duchess of Kent
- 1933 – Sheila Hancock, English actress and author
- 1933 – Ernie K-Doe, American R&B singer (d. 2001)
- 1933 – Bobby Smith, English international footballer, centre forward (d. 2010)
- 1934 – Sparky Anderson, American baseball player and manager (d. 2010)
- 1936 – J. Michael Bishop, American microbiologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1937 – Tommy Aaron, American golfer
- 1937 – Joanna Russ, American author and activist (d. 2011)
- 1938 – Steve Barber, American baseball player (d. 2007)
- 1938 – Tony Macedo, Gibraltarian born English footballer, goalkeeper
- 1938 – Ishmael Reed, American poet, novelist, essayist
- 1940 – Judy Cornwell, English actress
- 1940 – Chet Walker, American basketball player
- 1941 – Hipólito Mejía, Dominican politician, 52nd President of the Dominican Republic
- 1942 – Christine Keeler, English model and dancer (d. 2017)
- 1943 – Terry Eagleton, English philosopher and critic
- 1943 – Horst Köhler, Polish-German economist and politician, 9th President of Germany
- 1943 – Dick Van Arsdale, American basketball player
- 1943 – Tom Van Arsdale, American basketball player
- 1943 – Otoya Yamaguchi, Japanese assassin of Inejiro Asanuma (d. 1960)
- 1944 – Jonathan Demme, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2017)
- 1944 – Mick Green, English rock & roll guitarist (d. 2010)
- 1944 – Robert Kardashian, American lawyer and businessman (d. 2003)
- 1944 – Christopher Meyer, English diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States
- 1944 – Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player and painter
- 1945 – Oliver, American pop singer (d. 2000)
- 1946 – Kresten Bjerre, Danish footballer and manager (d. 2014)
- 1947 – Pirjo Honkasalo, Finnish director, cinematographer, and screenwriter
- 1947 – Harvey Mason, American drummer
- 1947 – John Radford, English footballer and manager
- 1947 – Frank Van Dun, Belgian philosopher and theorist
- 1949 – John Duncan, Scottish footballer, forward and manager
- 1949 – Niki Lauda, Austrian racing driver (d. 2019)
- 1949 – Olga Morozova, Russian tennis player and coach
- 1950 – Julius Erving, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1950 – Lenny Kuhr, Dutch singer-songwriter
- 1950 – Miou-Miou, French actress
- 1950 – Genesis P-Orridge, English singer-songwriter (d. 2020)
- 1950 – Julie Walters, English actress and author
- 1951 – Ellen Greene, American singer and actress
- 1952 – Bill Frist, American physician and politician
- 1952 – Joaquim Pina Moura, Portuguese Minister of Economy and Treasury and MP (d. 2020)
- 1953 – Nigel Planer, English actor and screenwriter
- 1955 – David Axelrod, American journalist and political adviser
- 1955 – Tim Young, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1957 – Willie Smits, Dutch microbiologist and engineer
- 1958 – Dave Spitz, American bass player and songwriter
- 1959 – Jiří Čunek, Czech politician
- 1959 – Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
- 1959 – Bronwyn Oliver, Australian sculptor (d. 2006)
- 1960 – Thomas Galbraith, 2nd Baron Strathclyde, Scottish politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
- 1961 – Akira Takasaki, Japanese guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1962 – Steve Irwin, Australian zoologist and television host (d. 2006)
- 1963 – Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Transport
- 1963 – Devon Malcolm, Jamaican-English cricketer
- 1963 – Vijay Singh, Fijian-American golfer
- 1964 – Ed Boon, American video game designer, co-created Mortal Kombat
- 1964 – Diane Charlemagne, English singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
- 1964 – Andy Gray, English footballer, midfielder and manager
- 1965 – Chris Dudley, American basketball player and politician
- 1965 – Kieren Fallon, Irish jockey
- 1965 – Pat LaFontaine, American ice hockey player
- 1966 – Rachel Dratch, American actress and comedian
- 1966 – Thorsten Kaye, German-English actor
- 1967 – Psicosis II, Mexican wrestler
- 1968 – Shawn Graham, Canadian politician, 31st Premier of New Brunswick
- 1968 – Bradley Nowell, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1996)
- 1968 – Jeri Ryan, American model and actress
- 1968 – Jayson Williams, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1969 – Thomas Jane, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1969 – Brian Laudrup, Danish footballer and sportscaster
- 1969 – Marc Wilmots, Belgian footballer and manager
- 1971 – Super Caló, Mexican wrestler
- 1971 – Lea Salonga, Filipino actress and singer
- 1972 – Michael Chang, American tennis player and coach
- 1972 – Claudia Pechstein, German speed skater
- 1973 – Philippe Gaumont, French cyclist (d. 2013)
- 1973 – Juninho Paulista, Brazilian footballer
- 1973 – Scott Phillips, American drummer and producer
- 1974 – James Blunt, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1974 – Chris Moyles, English radio and television host
- 1975 – Drew Barrymore, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1977 – Timo Rose, German actor, director, and producer
- 1977 – Hakan Yakin, Swiss footballer
- 1978 – Jenny Frost, English singer and dancer
- 1979 – Brett Emerton, Australian footballer
- 1979 – Lee Na-young, South Korean actress
- 1980 – Shamari Fears, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1980 – Kang Sung-hoon, South Korean singer
- 1980 – Jeanette Biedermann, German singer-songwriter and actress
- 1983 – Shaun Tait, Australian cricketer
- 1984 – Tommy Bowe, Irish rugby player
- 1984 – Branislav Ivanović, Serbian footballer
- 1985 – Hameur Bouazza, Algerian international footballer, winger
- 1985 – Georgios Printezis, Greek basketball player
- 1986 – Rajon Rondo, American basketball player
- 1987 – Han Hyo-joo, South Korean actress and model
- 1987 – Sergio Romero, Argentinian footballer
- 1988 – Jonathan Borlée, Belgian sprinter
- 1988 – Efraín Juárez, Mexican footballer
- 1988 – Sebastian Tyrała, Polish-German footballer
- 1989 – Franco Vázquez, Argentinian footballer
- 1990 – Luca Profeta, Italian footballer
- 1992 – Alexander Merkel, Kazakhstani-German footballer
- 1999 – Harry Brook, English cricketer
Deaths on February 22
- 556 – Maximianus, bishop of Ravenna (b. 499)
- 606 – Sabinian, pope of the Catholic Church
- 793 – Sicga, Anglo-Saxon nobleman and regicide
- 845 – Wang, Chinese empress dowager
- 954 – Guo Wei, Chinese emperor (b. 904)
- 965 – Otto, duke of Burgundy (b. 944)
- 970 – García I, king of Pamplona
- 978 – Lambert, count of Chalon (b. 930)
- 1071 – Arnulf III, count of Flanders
- 1072 – Peter Damian, Italian cardinal
- 1079 – John of Fécamp, Italian Benedictine abbot
- 1111 – Roger Borsa, king of Sicily (b. 1078)
- 1297 – Margaret of Cortona, Italian penitent (b. 1247)
- 1371 – David II, king of Scotland (b. 1324)
- 1452 – William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas (b. 1425)
- 1500 – Gerhard VI, German nobleman (b. 1430)
- 1511 – Henry, duke of Cornwall (b. 1511)
- 1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer (b. 1454)
- 1627 – Olivier van Noort, Dutch explorer (b. 1558)
- 1674 – Jean Chapelain, French poet and critic (b. 1595)
- 1680 – La Voisin, French occultist (b. 1640)
- 1690 – Charles Le Brun, French painter and theorist (b. 1619)
- 1731 – Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1638)
- 1732 – Francis Atterbury, English bishop (b. 1663)
- 1799 – Heshen, Chinese politician (b. 1750)
- 1816 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish historian and philosopher (b. 1723)
- 1875 – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French painter and illustrator (b. 1796)
- 1875 – Charles Lyell, Scottish-English geologist and lawyer (b. 1797)
- 1888 – Anna Kingsford, English physician and activist (b. 1846)
- 1890 – John Jacob Astor III, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1822)
- 1890 – Carl Bloch, Danish painter and academic (b. 1834)
- 1897 – Charles Blondin, French tightrope walker and acrobat (b. 1824)
- 1898 – Heungseon Daewongun, Korean king (b. 1820)
- 1903 – Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
- 1904 – Leslie Stephen, English historian, author, and critic (b. 1832)
- 1913 – Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist and author (b. 1857)
- 1913 – Francisco I. Madero, Mexican president and author (b. 1873)
- 1923 – Théophile Delcassé, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1852)
- 1939 – Antonio Machado, Spanish-French poet and author (b. 1875)
- 1942 – Stefan Zweig, Austrian journalist, author, and playwright (b. 1881)
- 1943 – Christoph Probst, German activist (b. 1919)
- 1943 – Hans Scholl, German activist (b. 1918)
- 1943 – Sophie Scholl, German activist (b. 1921)
- 1944 – Kasturba Gandhi, Indian activist (b. 1869)
- 1945 – Osip Brik, Russian avant garde writer and literary critic (b. 1888)
- 1958 – Abul Kalam Azad, Indian scholar and politician, Indian Minister of Education (b. 1888)
- 1960 – Paul-Émile Borduas, Canadian-French painter and critic (b. 1905)
- 1961 – Nick LaRocca, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1889)
- 1965 – Felix Frankfurter, Austrian-American lawyer and jurist (b. 1882)
- 1971 – Frédéric Mariotti, French actor (b. 1883)
- 1973 – Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Premier of Quebec (b. 1916)
- 1973 – Elizabeth Bowen, Anglo-Irish author (b. 1899)
- 1973 – Katina Paxinou, Greek actress (b. 1900)
- 1973 – Winthrop Rockefeller, American colonel and politician, 37th Governor of Arkansas (b. 1912)
- 1976 – Angela Baddeley, English actress (b. 1904)
- 1976 – Florence Ballard, American singer (b. 1943)
- 1980 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian painter, poet and playwright (b. 1886)
- 1982 – Josh Malihabadi, Indian-Pakistani poet and author (b. 1898)
- 1983 – Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889)
- 1983 – Romain Maes, Belgian cyclist (b. 1913)
- 1985 – Salvador Espriu, Spanish author, poet, and playwright (b. 1913)
- 1985 – Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist, composer, and conductor (b. 1889)
- 1986 – John Donnelly, Australian rugby league player (b. 1955)
- 1987 – David Susskind, American talk show host and producer (b. 1920)
- 1987 – Andy Warhol, American painter and photographer (b. 1928)
- 1992 – Markos Vafiadis, Greek general and politician (b. 1906)
- 1994 – Papa John Creach, American violinist (b. 1917)
- 1995 – Ed Flanders, American actor (b. 1934)
- 1997 – Joseph Aiuppa, American gangster (b. 1907)
- 1998 – Abraham A. Ribicoff, American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (b. 1910)
- 1999 – William Bronk, American poet and academic (b. 1918)
- 1999 – Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player (b. 1964)
- 2002 – Roden Cutler, Australian lieutenant and politician, 32nd Governor of New South Wales (b. 1916)
- 2002 – Chuck Jones, American animator, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1912)
- 2002 – Jonas Savimbi, Angolan general, founded UNITA (b. 1934)
- 2004 – Andy Seminick, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Lee Eun-ju, South Korean actress and singer (b. 1980)
- 2005 – Simone Simon, French actress (b. 1910)
- 2007 – George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, English politician, Leader of the House of Lords (b. 1918)
- 2007 – Dennis Johnson, American basketball player and coach (b. 1954)
- 2012 – Sukhbir, Indian author and poet (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Frank Carson, Irish-English comedian and actor (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Marie Colvin, American journalist (b. 1956)
- 2012 – Rémi Ochlik, French photographer and journalist (b. 1983)
- 2013 – Atje Keulen-Deelstra, Dutch speed skater (b. 1938)
- 2013 – Jean-Louis Michon, French-Swiss scholar and translator (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German pianist and conductor (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Charlotte Dawson, New Zealand–Australian television host (b. 1966)
- 2014 – Trebor Jay Tichenor, American pianist and composer (b. 1940)
- 2014 – Leo Vroman, Dutch-American hematologist, poet, and illustrator (b. 1915)
- 2015 – Chris Rainbow, Scottish singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1946)
- 2016 – Yolande Fox, American model and singer, Miss America 1951 (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Sonny James, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1928)
- 2018 – Forges, Spanish cartoonist (b. 1942)
- 2019 – Brody Stevens, American comedian and actor (b. 1970)
- 2019 – Morgan Woodward, American actor (b. 1925)
Holidays and observances on February 22
- Birthday of Scouting and Guiding founder Robert Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell, and its related observance:
- Founder’s Day or “B.-P. day” (World Organization of the Scout Movement)
- World Thinking Day (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts)
- Christian feast day:
- Baradates
- Eric Liddell (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter (Roman Catholic Church)
- Margaret of Cortona
- February 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Crime Victims Day (Europe)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom in 1979.
-
February 21 in History
- 1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.
- 1440 – The Prussian Confederation is formed.
- 1613 – Mikhail I is unanimously elected Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
- 1797 – A force of 1,400 French soldiers invaded Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists.
- 1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
- 1808 – Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning the Finnish War, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e. Finland) to Russia.
- 1828 – Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
- 1842 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
- 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.
- 1866 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor becomes the first American woman to graduate from dental school.
- 1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.
- 1878 – The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
- 1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
- 1896 – An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fought an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically took place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.
- 1913 – Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
- 1916 – World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
- 1918 – The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
- 1919 – German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.
- 1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country’s first constitution.
- 1921 – Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup.
- 1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
- 1929 – In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang was defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.1934 – Augusto Sandino is executed.
- 1937 – The League of Nations bans foreign national “volunteers” in the Spanish Civil War.
- 1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.
- 1945 – World War II: the Brazilian Expeditionary Force defeat the German forces in the Battle of Monte Castello on the Italian front.
- 1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first “instant camera”, the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
- 1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.
- 1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to “set the people free”.
- 1952 – The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
- 1958 – The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
- 1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated while giving a talk at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.
- 1971 – The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- 1972 – United States President Richard Nixon visits the People’s Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
- 1972 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
- 1973 – Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108 people.
- 1974 – The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.
- 1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
- 1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
- 2013 – At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.
Births on February 21
- 921 – Abe no Seimei, Japanese astrologer (d. 1005)
- 1397 – Isabella of Portugal (d. 1471)
- 1462 – Joanna la Beltraneja, princess of Castile (d. 1530)
- 1484 – Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1535)
- 1498 – Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland, English Earl (d. 1549)
- 1541 – Philipp V, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1599)
- 1556 – Sethus Calvisius, German astronomer, composer, and theorist (d. 1615)
- 1559 – Nurhaci, Manchu emperor (d. 1626)
- 1609 – Raimondo Montecuccoli, Italian military commander (d. 1680)
- 1621 – Rebecca Nurse, Massachusetts colonist, executed as a witch (d. 1692)
- 1705 – Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, English admiral and politician (d. 1781)
- 1728 – Peter III of Russia (d. 1762)
- 1783 – Catharina of Württemberg (d. 1835)
- 1788 – Francis Ronalds, British scientist, inventor and engineer who was knighted for developing the first working electric telegraph (d. 1873)
- 1791 – Carl Czerny, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1857)
- 1794 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican general and politician, 8th President of Mexico (d. 1876)
- 1801 – John Henry Newman, English cardinal (d. 1890)
- 1817 – José Zorrilla, Spanish poet and playwright (d. 1893)
- 1821 – Charles Scribner I, American publisher, founded Charles Scribner’s Sons (d. 1871)
- 1836 – Léo Delibes, French pianist and composer (d. 1891)
- 1844 – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (d. 1937)
- 1860 – Goscombe John, Welsh-English sculptor and academic (d. 1952)
- 1865 – John Haden Badley, English author and educator, founded the Bedales School (d. 1967)
- 1867 – Otto Hermann Kahn, German banker and philanthropist (d. 1934)
- 1875 – Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian, oldest verified person ever (d. 1997)
- 1878 – Mirra Alfassa, French-Indian spiritual leader (d. 1973)
- 1881 – Kenneth J. Alford, English soldier, bandmaster, and composer (d. 1945)
- 1885 – Sacha Guitry, Russian-French actor, director, and playwright (d. 1957)
- 1887 – Korechika Anami, Japanese general and politician, 54th Japanese Minister of War (d. 1945)
- 1888 – Clemence Dane, English author and playwright (d. 1965)
- 1892 – Harry Stack Sullivan, American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (d. 1949)
- 1893 – Celia Lovsky, Austrian-American actress (d. 1979)
- 1893 – Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
- 1894 – Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar, Indian chemist and academic (d. 1955)
- 1895 – Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
- 1896 – Nirala, Indian poet and author (d. 1961)
- 1900 – Jeanne Aubert, French singer and actress (d. 1988)
- 1902 – Arthur Nock, English theologian and academic (d. 1963)
- 1903 – Anaïs Nin, French-American essayist and memoirist (d. 1977)
- 1903 – Raymond Queneau, French poet and author (d. 1976)
- 1907 – W. H. Auden, English-American poet, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
- 1909 – Hans Erni, Swiss painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 2015)
- 1910 – Douglas Bader, English captain and pilot (d. 1982)
- 1912 – Arline Judge, American actress and singer (d. 1974)
- 1914 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish soldier and pilot (d. 1999)
- 1914 – Zachary Scott, American actor (d. 1965)
- 1914 – Jean Tatlock, American psychiatrist and physician (d. 1944)
- 1915 – Claudia Jones, Trinidad-British journalist and activist (d. 1964)
- 1915 – Ann Sheridan, American actress and singer (d. 1967)
- 1915 – Anton Vratuša, Prime Minister of Slovenia (1978–1980) (d. 2017)
- 1917 – Lucille Bremer, American actress and dancer (d. 1996)
- 1917 – Tadd Dameron, American pianist and composer (d. 1965)
- 1921 – John Rawls, American philosopher and academic (d. 2002)
- 1921 – Richard T. Whitcomb, American aeronautical engineer (d. 2009)
- 1924 – Thelma Estrin, American computer scientist and engineer (d. 2014)
- 1924 – Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean educator and politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe (d. 2019)
- 1924 – Dorothy Blum, American computer scientist and cryptanalyst (d. 1980)
- 1925 – Sam Peckinpah, American director and screenwriter (d. 1984)
- 1925 – Jack Ramsay, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2014)
- 1927 – Erma Bombeck, American journalist and author (d. 1996)
- 1929 – Chespirito, Mexican actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
- 1933 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2003)
- 1934 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1935 – Richard A. Lupoff, American author
- 1936 – Barbara Jordan, American lawyer and politician (d. 1996)
- 1937 – Ron Clarke, Australian runner and politician, Mayor of the Gold Coast (d. 2015)
- 1937 – Harald V of Norway
- 1938 – Bobby Charles, American singer-songwriter (d. 2010)
- 1938 – Kel Tremain, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1992)
- 1940 – Peter Gethin, English race car driver (d. 2011)
- 1940 – John Lewis, American activist and politician
- 1942 – Tony Martin, Trinidadian-American historian and academic (d. 2013)
- 1942 – Margarethe von Trotta, German actress, director, and screenwriter
- 1943 – David Geffen, American businessman, co-founded DreamWorks and Geffen Records
- 1945 – Maurice Bembridge, English golfer
- 1946 – Tyne Daly, American actress and singer
- 1946 – Anthony Daniels, English actor and producer
- 1946 – Alan Rickman, English actor and director (d. 2016)
- 1946 – Bob Ryan, American journalist and author
- 1947 – Johnny Echols, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1947 – Olympia Snowe, American politician
- 1948 – Bill Slayback, American baseball player and singer (d. 2015)
- 1949 – Frank Brunner, American illustrator
- 1949 – Jerry Harrison, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1949 – Ronnie Hellström, Swedish footballer
- 1950 – Larry Drake, American actor (d. 2016)
- 1951 – Vince Welnick, American keyboard player (d. 2006)
- 1952 – Jean-Jacques Burnel, English bass player, songwriter, and producer
- 1952 – Vitaly Churkin, Russian diplomat, former Ambassador of Russia to the United Nations (d. 2017)
- 1953 – Christine Ebersole, American actress and singer
- 1953 – William Petersen, American actor and producer
- 1954 – Christina Rees, British politician
- 1955 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor, singer, and producer
- 1958 – Jake Burns, Northern Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1958 – Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1958 – Kim Coates, Canadian actor
- 1958 – Alan Trammell, American baseball player, coach, and manager
- 1959 – José María Cano, Spanish singer-songwriter and painter
- 1960 – Plamen Oresharski, Bulgarian economist and politician, 52nd Prime Minister of Bulgaria
- 1960 – Steve Wynn, American singer-songwriter
- 1961 – Christopher Atkins, American actor and businessman
- 1962 – Chuck Palahniuk, American novelist and journalist
- 1962 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 2008)
- 1963 – William Baldwin, American actor
- 1963 – Ranking Roger, English singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2019)
- 1963 – Greg Turner, New Zealand golfer
- 1964 – Mark Kelly, American captain, pilot, and astronaut
- 1964 – Scott Kelly, American captain, pilot, and astronaut
- 1965 – Mark Ferguson, Australian journalist
- 1967 – Leroy Burrell, American runner and coach
- 1967 – Sari Essayah, Finnish athlete and politician
- 1969 – James Dean Bradfield, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (Manic Street Preachers)
- 1969 – Aunjanue Ellis, American actress and producer
- 1969 – Petra Kronberger, Austrian skier
- 1969 – Tony Meola, American soccer player and manager
- 1969 – Cathy Richardson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1970 – Michael Slater, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
- 1970 – Eric Wilson, American bass player and drummer
- 1971 – Pierre Fulke, Swedish golfer
- 1972 – Seo Taiji, South Korean singer-songwriter
- 1973 – Heri Joensen, Faroese singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1973 – Brian Rolston, American ice hockey player and coach
- 1974 – Iván Campo, Spanish footballer
- 1975 – Scott Miller, Australian swimmer
- 1976 – Ryan Smyth, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1976 – Michael McIntyre, English comedian, actor and television presenter
- 1977 – Jonathan Safran Foer, American novelist
- 1977 – Steve Francis, American basketball player
- 1977 – Owen King, American author
- 1977 – Kevin Rose, American businessman and television host, founded Digg
- 1978 – Kumail Nanjiani, Pakistani-American stand-up comedian, actor, writer and podcast host
- 1979 – Pascal Chimbonda, Guadeloupean-French footballer, defender
- 1979 – Shane Gibson, American guitarist (stOrk and Jonathan Davis and the SFA) (d. 2014)
- 1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and producer
- 1979 – Carly Colón, Puerto Rican professional wrestler
- 1979 – Jordan Peele, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1980 – Brad Fast, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Tiziano Ferro, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
- 1980 – Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 5th King of Bhutan
- 1980 – Justin Roiland, American animator, writer and voice actor
- 1981 – Floor Jansen, Dutch singer, songwriter, and vocal coach
- 1982 – Andre Barrett, American basketball player
- 1982 – Chantal Claret, American singer-songwriter
- 1982 – Tebogo Jacko Magubane, South African DJ and producer
- 1983 – Braylon Edwards, American football player
- 1983 – Franklin Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1983 – Mélanie Laurent, French actress
- 1984 – Andrew Ellis, New Zealand rugby player
- 1984 – David Odonkor, German footballer
- 1984 – Marco Paoloni, Italian footballer
- 1984 – James Wisniewski, American ice hockey player
- 1985 – Georgios Samaras, Greek footballer
- 1985 – Jamaal Westerman, American football player
- 1986 – Charlotte Church, Welsh singer-songwriter and actress
- 1987 – Ellen Page, Canadian actress
- 1989 – Corbin Bleu, American actor, model, dancer, film producer and singer-songwriter
- 1990 – Mattias Tedenby, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1991 – Joe Alwyn, English actor
- 1991 – Riyad Mahrez, Algerian footballer
- 1991 – Ji So-yun, South Korean footballer
- 1991 – Devon Travis, American baseball player
- 1991 – Suppasit Jongcheveevat, Thai actor
- 1993 – Steve Leo Beleck, Cameroonian footballer
- 1993 – Davy Klaassen, Dutch footballer
- 1993 – Masaki Suda, Japanese actor
- 1994 – Tang Haochen, Chinese tennis player
- 1994 – Charalampos Mavrias, Greek footballer
- 1996 – Sophie Turner, English actress
Deaths on February 21
- 4 AD – Gaius Caesar, Roman consul and grandson of Augustus (b. 20 BC)
- 675 – Randoald of Grandval, prior of the Benedictine monastery of Grandval
- 1184 – Minamoto no Yoshinaka, Japanese shōgun (b. 1154)
- 1267 – Baldwin of Ibelin, Seneschal of Cyprus
- 1437 – James I of Scotland (b. 1394; assassinated)
- 1471 – Jan Rokycana, Czech bishop and theologian (b. 1396)
- 1513 – Pope Julius II (b. 1443)
- 1543 – Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, Somalian general (b. 1507)
- 1554 – Hieronymus Bock, German botanist and physician (b. 1498)
- 1572 – Cho Shik, Korean poet and scholar (d. 1501)
- 1590 – Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, English nobleman and general (b. 1528)
- 1595 – Robert Southwell, English priest and poet (b. 1561)
- 1677 – Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher and scholar (b. 1632)
- 1715 – Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, English politician (b. 1637)
- 1730 – Pope Benedict XIII (b. 1649)
- 1821 – Georg Friedrich von Martens, German jurist and diplomat (b. 1756)
- 1824 – Eugène de Beauharnais, French general (b. 1781)
- 1829 – Kittur Chennamma, Indian queen and freedom fighter (b. 1778)
- 1846 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (b. 1800)
- 1862 – Justinus Kerner, German poet and physician (b. 1786)
- 1888 – William Weston, English-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of Tasmania (b. 1804)
- 1891 – James Timberlake, American lieutenant and police officer (b. 1846)
- 1919 – Kurt Eisner, German journalist and politician, Minister-President of Bavaria (b. 1867)
- 1926 – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- 1934 – Augusto César Sandino, Nicaraguan rebel leader (b. 1895)
- 1938 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer and academic (b. 1868)
- 1941 – Frederick Banting, Canadian physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
- 1944 – Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-French race car driver (b. 1873)
- 1945 – Eric Liddell, Scottish rugby player and runner (b. 1902)
- 1946 – José Streel, Belgian journalist (b. 1911)
- 1958 – Duncan Edwards, English footballer (b. 1936)
- 1965 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (b. 1925; assassinated)
- 1967 – Charles Beaumont, American author and screenwriter (b. 1929)
- 1968 – Howard Florey, Australian pathologist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
- 1972 – Zhang Guohua, Chinese general and politician (b. 1914)
- 1972 – Bronislava Nijinska, Russian-American dancer and choreographer (b. 1891)
- 1972 – Eugène Tisserant, French cardinal (b. 1884)
- 1974 – Tim Horton, Canadian ice hockey player and businessman, co-founded Tim Hortons (b. 1930)
- 1980 – Alfred Andersch, German-Swiss author (b. 1914)
- 1982 – Gershom Scholem, German-Israeli historian and philosopher (b. 1897)
- 1984 – Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- 1985 – Louis Hayward, South African-American actor (b. 1909)
- 1986 – Helen Hooven Santmyer, American novelist (b. 1895)
- 1991 – Dorothy Auchterlonie Green, Australian poet, critic, and academic (b. 1915)
- 1993 – Inge Lehmann, Danish seismologist and geophysicist (b. 1888)
- 1994 – Johannes Steinhoff, German general and pilot (b. 1913)
- 1996 – Morton Gould, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1913)
- 1999 – Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
- 1999 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish soldier and pilot (b. 1914)
- 1999 – Wilmer Mizell, American baseball player and politician (b. 1930)
- 2002 – John Thaw, English actor and producer (b. 1942)
- 2004 – John Charles, Welsh footballer and manager (b. 1931)
- 2005 – Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban author, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1929)
- 2005 – Zdzisław Beksiński, Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor (b. 1929)
- 2008 – Ben Chapman, American actor (b. 1928)
- 2011 – Dwayne McDuffie, American author and screenwriter, co-founded Milestone Media (b. 1962)
- 2011 – Bernard Nathanson, American physician and activist (b. 1926)
- 2012 – H. M. Darmstandler, American general (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Hasse Jeppson, Swedish footballer (b. 1925)
- 2014 – Héctor Maestri, Cuban-American baseball player (b. 1935)
- 2014 – Matthew Robinson, Australian snowboarder (b. 1985)
- 2014 – Cornelius Schnauber, German–American historian, playwright, and academic (b. 1939)
- 2015 – Aleksei Gubarev, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1931)
- 2015 – Sadeq Tabatabaei, Iranian journalist and politician (b. 1943)
- 2015 – Clark Terry, American trumpet player, composer, and educator (b. 1920)
- 2016 – Eric Brown, Scottish-English captain and pilot (b. 1919)
- 2017 – Jeanne Martin Cissé, Guinean teacher and politician (b. 1926)
- 2018 – Billy Graham, American evangelist (b. 1918)
- 2019 – Stanley Donen, American film director (b. 1924)
- 2019 – Peter Tork, American musician and actor (b. 1942)
Holidays and observances on February 21
- Armed Forces Day (South Africa)
- Birthday of King Harald V (Norway)
- Christian feast day:
- Felix of Hadrumetum
- Pepin of Landen
- Peter Damian
- Randoald of Grandval
- February 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Father Lini Day (Vanuatu)
- Language Movement Day (Bangladesh)
- International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)
- The first day of the Birth Anniversary of Fifth Druk Gyalpo, celebrated until February 23. (Bhutan)
- The first day of the Musikahan Festival, celebrated until February 27. (Tagum City, Philippines)
- Feralia (Ancient Rome)
-
February 14 in History
- 748 – Abbasid Revolution: The Hashimi rebels under Abu Muslim Khorasani take Merv, capital of the Umayyad province Khorasan, marking the consolidation of the Abbasid revolt.
- 842 – Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
- 1014 – Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1076 – Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1130 – Pope Innocent II is elected.
- 1349 – Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remaining Jews are forcibly removed from Strasbourg.
- 1400 – Richard II of England dies, most probably from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke.
- 1530 – Spanish conquistadores, led by Nuño de Guzmán, overthrow and execute Tangaxuan II, the last independent monarch of the Tarascan state in present-day central Mexico.
- 1556 – Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
- 1556 – Coronation of Akbar.
- 1655 – The Mapuches launch coordinated attacks against the Spanish in Chile beginning the Mapuche uprising of 1655.
- 1778 – The United States flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
- 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia.
- 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent: John Jervis, (later 1st Earl of St Vincent) and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar.
- 1804 – Karađorđe leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
- 1831 – Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
- 1835 – The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
- 1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
- 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London.
- 1855 – Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
- 1859 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
- 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
- 1879 – The War of the Pacific breaks out when the Chilean Army occupies the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
- 1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
- 1900 – British forces begin the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
- 1903 – The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor).
- 1912 – Arizona is admitted as the 48th and the last contiguous U.S. state.
- 1912 – The U.S. Navy commissions its first class of diesel-powered submarines.
- 1919 – The Polish–Soviet War begins.
- 1920 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.
- 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
- 1929 – Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s gang, are murdered in Chicago.
- 1942 – Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
- 1943 – World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
- 1943 – World War II: Tunisia Campaign: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim’s Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
- 1944 – World War II: In the Action of 14 February 1944, a Royal Navy submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian submarine in the Strait of Malacca.
- 1945 – World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden.
- 1945 – World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet’s Vistula–Oder Offensive.
- 1945 – World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans
- 1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
- 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalized.
- 1949 – The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time.
- 1949 – The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
- 1961 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
- 1966 – Australian currency is decimalized.
- 1979 – In Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
- 1983 – United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud.
- 1989 – Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
- 1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
- 1990 – Ninety-two people are killed when Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashes in Bangalore, India.
- 1990 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later become famous as Pale Blue Dot.
- 1998 – An oil tanker train collides with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which killed 120.
- 2000 – The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
- 2004 – In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
- 2005 – In Beirut, 23 people, including former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, are killed when the equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT is detonated while Hariri’s motorcade drives through the city.
- 2005 – Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit Makati, Davao City, and General Santos City, all in the Philippines.
- 2005 – YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.
- 2008 – Northern Illinois University shooting: A gunman opens fire in a lecture hall of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb County, Illinois, resulting in six fatalities (including the gunman) and 21 injuries.
- 2011 – As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising begins with a ‘Day of Rage’.
- 2018 – Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa.
- 2018 – A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 15 injuries.
- 2019 – Pulwama attack takes place in Lethpora in Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir, India in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and a suicide bomber were killed and 35 were injured.
Births on February 14
- 1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter, poet, and philosopher (d. 1472)
- 1408 – John FitzAlan, 14th Earl of Arundel (d. 1435)
- 1452 – Pandolfo Petrucci, tyrant of Siena (d. 1512)
- 1468 – Johannes Werner, German priest and mathematician (d. 1522)
- 1483 – Babur, Moghul emperor (d. 1530)
- 1490 – Valentin Friedland, German scholar and educationist of the Reformation (d. 1556)
- 1513 – Domenico Ferrabosco, Italian composer (d. 1573)
- 1545 – Lucrezia de’ Medici, Duchess of Ferrara (d. 1561)
- 1602 – Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer (d. 1676)
- 1614 – John Wilkins, English bishop, academic and natural philosopher (d. 1672)
- 1625 – Countess Palatine Maria Eufrosyne of Zweibrücken, Swedish princess (d. 1687)
- 1628 – Valentine Greatrakes, Irish faith healer (d. 1683)
- 1640 – Countess Palatine Anna Magdalena of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler (d. 1693)
- 1670 – Rajaram Raj Bhonsle, third Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire (d. 1700)
- 1679 – Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, German organist and composer (d. 1735)
- 1692 – Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French author and playwright (d. 1754)
- 1701 – Enrique Flórez, Spanish historian and author (d. 1773)
- 1763 – Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (d. 1813)
- 1782 – Eleanora Atherton, English philanthropist (d. 1870)
- 1784 – Heinrich Baermann, German clarinetist (d. 1847)
- 1799 – Walenty Wańkowicz, Polish painter and illustrator (d. 1842)
- 1800 – Emory Washburn, American historian, lawyer, and politician, 22nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1877)
- 1808 – Michael Costa, Italian-English conductor and composer (d. 1884)
- 1813 – Lydia Hamilton Smith, African-American businesswoman (d. 1884)
- 1819 – Christopher Latham Sholes, American journalist and politician, invented the typewriter (d. 1890)
- 1824 – Winfield Scott Hancock, American general and politician (d. 1886)
- 1828 – Edmond François Valentin About, French journalist and author (d. 1885)
- 1835 – Piet Paaltjens, Dutch minister and poet (d. 1894)
- 1838 – Margaret E. Knight, American inventor (d. 1914)
- 1846 – Julian Scott, American soldier and drummer, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1901)
- 1847 – Anna Howard Shaw, American physician, minister, and activist (d. 1919)
- 1848 – Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer and academic (d. 1934)
- 1855 – Frank Harris, Irish author and journalist (d. 1931)
- 1859 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., American engineer, inventor of the Ferris wheel (d. 1896)
- 1860 – Eugen Schiffer, German lawyer and politician, Vice-Chancellor of Germany (d. 1954)
- 1869 – Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist and meteorologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
- 1878 – Julius Nieuwland, Belgian priest, chemist and academic (d. 1936)
- 1882 – John Barrymore, American actor (d. 1942)
- 1884 – Nils Olaf Chrisander, Swedish actor and director (d. 1947)
- 1884 – Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet and playwright (d. 1974)
- 1890 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh-English painter and author (d. 1956)
- 1890 – Dick Richards Welsh international footballer, forward
- 1891 – Katherine Stinson, American aviator (d. 1977)
- 1892 – Radola Gajda, Czech commander and politician (d. 1948)
- 1894 – Jack Benny, American actor and producer (d. 1974)
- 1895 – Wilhelm Burgdorf, German general (d. 1945)
- 1895 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
- 1898 – Bill Tilman, English mountaineer and explorer (d. 1977)
- 1898 – Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-American physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)
- 1900 – Jessica Dragonette, American singer (d. 1980)
- 1903 – Stuart Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
- 1905 – Thelma Ritter, American actress and singer (d. 1969)
- 1907 – Johnny Longden, English-American jockey and trainer (d. 2003)
- 1911 – Willem Johan Kolff, Dutch physician and inventor (d. 2009)
- 1912 – Tibor Sekelj, Hungarian lawyer, explorer, and author (d. 1988)
- 1913 – Mel Allen, American sportscaster (d. 1996)
- 1913 – Woody Hayes, American football player and coach (d. 1987)
- 1913 – Jimmy Hoffa, American trade union leader (d. 1975)
- 1913 – James Pike, American bishop (d. 1969)
- 1916 – Marcel Bigeard, French general (d. 2010)
- 1916 – Sally Gray, English actress and singer (d. 2006)
- 1916 – Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese director and producer (d. 1996)
- 1916 – Edward Platt, American actor (d. 1974)
- 1917 – Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
- 1921 – Hugh Downs, American journalist, game show host, and producer
- 1921 – Hazel McCallion, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 3rd Mayor of Mississauga
- 1923 – Jay Hebert, American golfer (d. 1997)
- 1924 – Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma (d. 2017)
- 1927 – Lois Maxwell, Canadian-Australian model and actress (d. 2007)
- 1928 – William Allain, American soldier and politician, 58th Governor of Mississippi (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Vicente T. Blaz, American general and politician (d. 2014)
- 1929 – Vic Morrow, American actor and director (d. 1982)
- 1931 – Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 2006)
- 1931 – Brian Kelly, American actor and director (d. 2005)
- 1932 – Harriet Andersson, Swedish actress
- 1934 – Florence Henderson, American actress and singer (d. 2016)
- 1935 – David Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn, Scottish academic and diplomat, 27th Governor of Hong Kong
- 1936 – Anna German, Polish singer (d. 1982)
- 1937 – John MacGregor, Baron MacGregor of Pulham Market, English politician, Secretary of State for Transport
- 1937 – Magic Sam, American singer and guitarist (d. 1969)
- 1939 – Razzy Bailey, American country music singer-songwriter and musician
- 1939 – Blowfly, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2016)
- 1939 – Eugene Fama, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1940 – James Maynard, American businessman, co-founded Golden Corral
- 1941 – Donna Shalala, American academic and politician, 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
- 1941 – Paul Tsongas, American lawyer and politician (d. 1997)
- 1942 – Michael Bloomberg, American businessman and politician, 108th Mayor of New York City
- 1942 – Andrew Robinson, American actor and director
- 1942 – Ricardo Rodríguez, Mexican race car driver (d. 1962)
- 1943 – Eric Andersen, American singer-songwriter
- 1943 – Maceo Parker, American saxophonist
- 1943 – Aaron Russo, American director and producer (d. 2007)
- 1944 – Carl Bernstein, American journalist and author
- 1944 – Alan Parker, English director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1944 – Ronnie Peterson, Swedish race car driver (d. 1978)
- 1945 – Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein
- 1945 – Rod Masterson, American lieutenant and actor (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Bernard Dowiyogo, Nauru politician, President of Nauru (d. 2003)
- 1946 – Gregory Hines, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 2003)
- 1947 – Tim Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1975)
- 1947 – Judd Gregg, American lawyer and politician, 76th Governor of New Hampshire
- 1948 – Kitten Natividad, Mexican-American actress and dancer
- 1948 – Pat O’Brien, American journalist and author
- 1948 – Wally Tax, Dutch singer-songwriter (d. 2005)
- 1948 – Teller, American magician and actor
- 1950 – Roger Fisher, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1951 – Terry Gross, American radio host and producer
- 1951 – Kevin Keegan, English footballer and manager
- 1952 – Sushma Swaraj, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (d. 2019)
- 1954 – Jam Mohammad Yousaf, Pakistani politician, Chief Minister of Balochistan (d. 2013)
- 1955 – Carol Kalish, American publisher (d. 1991)
- 1956 – Howard Davis Jr., American boxer and trainer (d. 2015)
- 1956 – Dave Dravecky, American baseball player
- 1956 – Katharina Fritsch, German sculptor and academic
- 1957 – Alan Hunter, American television host and actor
- 1957 – Soile Isokoski, Finnish soprano and actress
- 1957 – Alan Smith, English bishop
- 1958 – Grant Thomas, Australian footballer and coach
- 1959 – Renée Fleming, American soprano and actress
- 1960 – Philip Jones, English admiral
- 1960 – Jim Kelly, American football player and businessman
- 1960 – Meg Tilly, American actress and author
- 1963 – Enrico Colantoni, Canadian actor, director, and producer
- 1963 – John Marzano, American baseball player (d. 2008)
- 1964 – Gianni Bugno, Italian cyclist and sportscaster
- 1966 – Petr Svoboda, Czech ice hockey player and agent
- 1967 – Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Greek-English businessman, founded easyJet
- 1967 – Manuela Maleeva, Bulgarian-Swiss tennis player
- 1967 – Mark Rutte, Dutch businessman and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- 1968 – Jules Asner, American model and television host
- 1968 – Chris Lewis, Guyanese-English cricketer
- 1968 – Scott McClellan, American civil servant and author, 25th White House Press Secretary
- 1969 – Meg Hillier, English journalist and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
- 1970 – Giuseppe Guerini, Italian cyclist
- 1970 – Sean Hill, American ice hockey player
- 1970 – Simon Pegg, English actor, director, and producer
- 1971 – Kris Aquino, Filipino talk show host, actress, and producer
- 1971 – Gheorghe Mureșan, Romanian basketball player
- 1972 – Drew Bledsoe, American football player and coach
- 1972 – Musōyama Masashi, Japanese sumo wrestler
- 1972 – Najwa Nimri, Spanish actress and singer
- 1972 – Jaan Tallinn, Estonian computer programmer, co-developed Skype
- 1972 – Rob Thomas, American singer-songwriter
- 1973 – H. D. Ackerman, South African cricketer
- 1973 – Tyus Edney, American basketball player and coach
- 1973 – Steve McNair, American football player (d. 2009)
- 1973 – Annalisa Buffa, Italian mathematician
- 1974 – Valentina Vezzali, Italian fencer and politician
- 1976 – Liv Kristine, Norwegian singer-songwriter
- 1976 – Rie Rasmussen, Danish model, film director, writer, photographer, and actress
- 1977 – Cadel Evans, Australian cyclist
- 1977 – Jim Jefferies, Australian comedian and actor
- 1977 – Darren Purse, English footballer
- 1977 – Elmer Symons, South African motorcycle racer (d. 2007)
- 1977 – Anna Erschler, Russian mathematician
- 1977 – Robert J. Jackson Jr., American law professor
- 1978 – Richard Hamilton, American basketball player
- 1978 – Darius Songaila, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
- 1980 – Josh Senter, American screenwriter and producer
- 1980 – Michelle Ye, Hong Kong actress and producer
- 1981 – Matteo Brighi, Italian footballer
- 1981 – Randy de Puniet, French motorcycle racer
- 1981 – Brad Halsey, American baseball player (d. 2014)
- 1982 – Marián Gáborík, Slovak ice hockey player
- 1982 – John Halls, English footballer and model
- 1982 – Lenka Tvarošková, Slovak tennis player
- 1983 – Callix Crabbe, Virgin Islander baseball player
- 1983 – Rocky Elsom, Australian rugby player
- 1983 – Bacary Sagna, French footballer
- 1985 – Karima Adebibe, English model and actress
- 1985 – Tyler Clippard, American baseball player
- 1985 – Heart Evangelista, Filipino singer and actress
- 1985 – Philippe Senderos, Swiss international footballer, centre back
- 1985 – Miki Yeung, Hong Kong singer and actress
- 1986 – Michael Ammermüller, German race car driver
- 1986 – Oliver Lee, English actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1986 – Gao Lin, Chinese footballer
- 1987 – Edinson Cavani, Uruguayan footballer
- 1987 – Tom Pyatt, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – David Wheater, English footballer
- 1988 – Katie Boland, Canadian actress, producer, and screenwriter
- 1988 – Ángel Di María, Argentinian footballer
- 1988 – Siim Liivik, Estonian ice hockey player
- 1988 – Asia Nitollano, American singer and dancer
- 1989 – Néstor Calderón, Mexican footballer
- 1989 – Adam Matuszczyk, Polish footballer
- 1989 – Emma Miskew, Canadian curler
- 1989 – Brandon Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1989 – Jurij Tepeš, Slovenian ski jumper
- 1989 – Kristian Thomas, English gymnast
- 1990 – Sefa Yılmaz, German-Turkish footballer
- 1991 – Daniela Mona Lambin, Estonian footballer
- 1991 – Chris Rowney, English footballer
- 1992 – Christian Eriksen, Danish footballer
- 1992 – Freddie Highmore, English actor
- 1996 – Lucas Hernandez, French footballer
Deaths on February 14
- 869 – Cyril, Greek missionary bishop (b. 827)
- 945 – Lian Chongyu, Chinese general
- 945 – Zhu Wenjin, Chinese emperor
- 1009 – Bruno of Querfurt, German missionary bishop
- 1010 – Fujiwara no Korechika, Japanese nobleman (b. 974)
- 1140 – Leo I, Armenian prince
- 1140 – Sobĕslav I, duke of Bohemia
- 1164 – Sviatoslav Olgovich, Kievan prince
- 1229 – Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson, king of the Isles
- 1317 – Margaret of France, queen of England
- 1400 – Richard II, king of England (b. 1367)
- 1440 – Dietrich of Oldenburg, German nobleman
- 1489 – Nicolaus von Tüngen, prince-bishop of Warmia
- 1528 – Edzard I, German nobleman (b. 1462)
- 1549 – Il Sodoma, Italian painter (b. 1477)
- 1571 – Odet de Coligny, French cardinal (b. 1517)
- 1676 – Abraham Bosse, French engraver and illustrator (b. 1602)
- 1714 – Maria Luisa of Savoy, queen of Spain (b. 1688)
- 1737 – Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot, English lawyer and politician Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)
- 1744 – John Hadley, English mathematician, invented the octant (b. 1682)
- 1779 – James Cook, English captain, cartographer, and explorer (b. 1728)
- 1780 – William Blackstone, English jurist and politician (b. 1723)
- 1782 – Singu Min, Burmese king (b. 1756)
- 1808 – John Dickinson, American lawyer and politician 5th Governor of Delaware (b. 1732)
- 1831 – Vicente Guerrero, Mexican general and politician, 2nd President of Mexico (b. 1782)
- 1831 – Henry Maudslay, English engineer (b. 1771)
- 1870 – St. John Richardson Liddell, American general (b. 1815)
- 1881 – Fernando Wood, American merchant and politician, 73rd Mayor of New York City (b. 1812)
- 1884 – Lydia Hamilton Smith, African-American businesswoman (b. 1813)
- 1885 – Jules Vallès, French journalist and author (b. 1832)
- 1891 – William Tecumseh Sherman, American general (b. 1820)
- 1894 – Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian-French mathematician and academic (b. 1814)
- 1901 – Edward Stafford, Scottish-New Zealand educator and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1819)
- 1910 – Giovanni Passannante, Italian anarchist (b. 1849)
- 1922 – Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish lawyer and politician (b. 1880)
- 1929 – Thomas Burke, American sprinter, coach, and lawyer (b. 1875)
- 1930 – Thomas Mackenzie, Scottish-New Zealand cartographer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1853)
- 1933 – Carl Correns, German botanist and geneticist (b. 1864)
- 1942 – Adnan Saidi, Malayan lieutenant (b. 1915)
- 1943 – Dora Gerson, German actress and singer (b. 1899)
- 1943 – David Hilbert, Russian-German mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (b. 1862)
- 1948 – Mordecai Brown, American baseball player and manager (b. 1876)
- 1949 – Yusuf Salman Yusuf, Iraqi politician (b. 1901)
- 1950 – Karl Guthe Jansky, American physicist and engineer (b. 1905)
- 1952 – Maurice De Waele, Belgian cyclist (b. 1896)
- 1958 – Abdur Rab Nishtar, Pakistani politician, 2nd Governor of Punjab (b. 1899)
- 1959 – Baby Dodds, American drummer (b. 1898)
- 1967 – Sig Ruman, German-American actor (b. 1884)
- 1969 – Vito Genovese, Italian-American mob boss (b. 1897)
- 1970 – Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer and coach (b. 1880)
- 1974 – Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer and coach (b. 1903)
- 1975 – Julian Huxley, English biologist and eugenicist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (b. 1887)
- 1975 – P. G. Wodehouse, English novelist and playwright (b. 1881)
- 1979 – Adolph Dubs, American lieutenant and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Afghanistan (b. 1920)
- 1983 – Lina Radke, German runner and coach (b. 1903)
- 1986 – Edmund Rubbra, English composer and conductor (b. 1901)
- 1987 – Dmitry Kabalevsky, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1904)
- 1988 – Frederick Loewe, German-American composer (b. 1901)
- 1989 – James Bond, American ornithologist and zoologist (b. 1900)
- 1989 – Vincent Crane, English pianist (b. 1943)
- 1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, Soviet serial killer (b. 1936)
- 1994 – Christopher Lasch, American historian and critic (b. 1932)
- 1995 – Michael V. Gazzo, American actor and playwright (b. 1923)
- 1995 – U Nu, Burmese politician, 1st Prime Minister of Burma (b. 1907)
- 1996 – Bob Paisley, English footballer and manager (b. 1919)
- 1999 – John Ehrlichman, American lawyer and politician, 12th White House Counsel (b. 1925)
- 1999 – Buddy Knox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1933)
- 2002 – Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer and manager (b. 1922)
- 2002 – Mick Tucker, English drummer (b. 1947)
- 2003 – Johnny Longden, English jockey and trainer (b. 1907)
- 2004 – Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
- 2005 – Rafic Hariri, Lebanese businessman and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1944; assassinated)
- 2006 – Lynden David Hall, English singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1974)
- 2007 – Ryan Larkin, Canadian animator and director (b. 1943)
- 2007 – Gareth Morris, English flute player and educator (b. 1920)
- 2009 – Bernard Ashley, English engineer and businessman, co-founded Laura Ashley plc (b. 1926)
- 2009 – Louie Bellson, American drummer and composer (b. 1924)
- 2010 – Doug Fieger, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1952)
- 2010 – Dick Francis, Welsh jockey and author (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Linnart Mäll, Estonian historian, orientalist, and translator (b. 1938)
- 2011 – George Shearing, English-American pianist and composer (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Mike Bernardo, South African boxer and martial artist (b. 1969)
- 2012 – Tonmi Lillman, Finnish drummer and producer (b. 1973)
- 2012 – Dory Previn, American singer-songwriter (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Péter Rusorán, Hungarian swimmer, water polo player, and coach (b. 1940)
- 2013 – Glenn Boyer, American historian and author (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Ronald Dworkin, American philosopher and scholar (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Tom Finney, English footballer (b. 1922)
- 2014 – Chris Pearson, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Premier of Yukon (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Mike Stepovich, American lawyer and politician, Governor of Alaska Territory (b. 1919)
- 2015 – Louis Jourdan, French-American actor and singer (b. 1921)
- 2015 – Philip Levine, American poet and academic (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Franjo Mihalić, Croatian-Serbian runner and coach (b. 1920)
- 2016 – Eric Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury, English lieutenant, engineer, and politician (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Steven Stucky, American composer and academic (b. 1949)
- 2018 – Ruud Lubbers, Dutch politician and diplomat, Prime Minister and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (b. 1939)
- 2018 – Morgan Tsvangirai, 2nd Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (b. 1952).
Holidays and observances on February 14
- Christian feast day:
- Cyril and Methodius, patron saints of Europe (Roman Catholic Church)
- Manchan
- Valentine (Valentine’s Day)
- February 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Statehood Day (Arizona, United States)
- Statehood Day (Oregon, United States)
- Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Armenian Apostolic Church)
- Parents’ Worship Day (parts of India)
-
February 13 in History
- 951 – Guo Wei, a court official, leads a military coup and declares himself emperor of the new Later Zhou.
- 962 – Emperor Otto I and Pope John XII co-sign the Diploma Ottonianum, recognizing John as ruler of Rome.
- 1322 – The central tower of Ely Cathedral falls on the night of 12th–13th.
- 1462 – The Treaty of Westminster is finalised between Edward IV of England and the Scottish Lord of the Isles.
- 1503 – Challenge of Barletta: Tournament between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta.
- 1542 – Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
- 1633 – Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
- 1660 – With the accession of young Charles XI of Sweden, his regents begin negotiations to end the Second Northern War.
- 1689 – William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England.
- 1692 – Massacre of Glencoe: Almost 80 Macdonalds at Glen Coe, Scotland are killed early in the morning for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange.
- 1726 – Parliament of Negrete between Mapuche and Spanish authorities in Chile bring an end to the Mapuche uprising of 1723–26.
- 1755 – Treaty of Giyanti signed by VOC, Pakubuwono III and Prince Mangkubumi. The treaty divides the Javanese kingdom of Mataram into 2: Sunanate of Surakarta and Sultanate of Yogyakarta.
- 1849 – The delegation headed by Metropolitan bishop Andrei Șaguna hands out to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria the General Petition of Romanian leaders in Transylvania, Banat and Bukovina, which demands that the Romanian nation be recognized.
- 1861 – Italian unification: The Siege of Gaeta ends with the capitulation of the defending fortress, effectively bringing an end of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
- 1867 – Work begins on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels’s primary river and creating the modern central boulevards.
- 1880 – Thomas Edison observes Thermionic emission.
- 1913 – The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence following a period of domination by Manchu Qing dynasty and initiated a period of almost four decades of independence.
- 1914 – Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
- 1920 – The Negro National League is formed.
- 1931 – The British Raj completes its transfer from Calcutta to New Delhi.
- 1935 – A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.
- 1945 – World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army.
- 1945 – World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment.
- 1951 – Korean War: Battle of Chipyong-ni, which represented the “high-water mark” of the Chinese incursion into South Korea, commences.
- 1954 – Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game.
- 1955 – Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
- 1960 – With the success of a nuclear test codenamed “Gerboise Bleue”, France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.
- 1960 – Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.
- 1961 – An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.
- 1967 – American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.
- 1975 – Fire at One World Trade Center (North Tower) of the World Trade Center in New York.
- 1978 – Hilton bombing: a bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman.
- 1979 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1⁄2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
- 1981 – A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
- 1983 – A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people.
- 1984 – Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- 1990 – German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
- 1991 – Gulf War: Two laser-guided “smart bombs” destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed.
- 1996 – The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre).
- 1999 – The last hockey game is played in Maple Leaf Gardens: the Toronto Maple Leafs lose 6–2 to the Chicago Blackhawks.
- 2001 – An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter magnitude scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 944.
- 2004 – The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe’s largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star “Lucy” after The Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.
- 2007 – Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election.
- 2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.
- 2010 – A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more.
- 2011 – For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855.
- 2012 – The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
- 2017 – Kim Jong-nam, brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Births on February 13
- 1440 – Hartmann Schedel, German physician (d. 1514)
- 1457 – Mary of Burgundy, Sovereign Duchess regnant of Burgundy, married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1482)
- 1469 – Elia Levita, Renaissance Hebrew grammarian (d. 1549)
- 1480 – Girolamo Aleandro, Italian cardinal (d. 1542)
- 1523 – Valentin Naboth, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1593)
- 1539 – Elisabeth of Hesse, Electress Palatine (d. 1582)
- 1569 – Johann Reinhard I, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1625)
- 1599 – Pope Alexander VII (d. 1667)
- 1602 – William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1637)
- 1672 – Étienne François Geoffroy, French physician and chemist (d. 1731)
- 1683 – Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Italian painter (d. 1754)
- 1719 – George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, English admiral and politician (d. 1792)
- 1721 – John Reid, Scottish general (d. 1807)
- 1728 – John Hunter, Scottish surgeon and anatomist (d. 1793)
- 1766 – Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist and scholar (d. 1834)
- 1768 – Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, French general and politician, 15th Prime Minister of France (d. 1835)
- 1769 – Ivan Krylov, Russian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1844)
- 1805 – Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician and academic (d. 1859)
- 1811 – François Achille Bazaine, French general (d. 1888)
- 1815 – Rufus Wilmot Griswold, American anthologist, editor, poet and critic (d. 1857)
- 1831 – John Aaron Rawlins, American general and politician, 29th United States Secretary of War (d. 1869)
- 1834 – Heinrich Caro, Sephardic Jewish Polish-German chemist and academic (d. 1910)
- 1835 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Indian religious leader (d. 1908)
- 1849 – Lord Randolph Churchill, English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1895)
- 1855 – Paul Deschanel, Belgian-French politician, 11th President of France (d. 1922)
- 1863 – Hugo Becker, German cellist and composer (d. 1941)
- 1867 – Harold Mahony, Scottish-Irish tennis player (d. 1905)
- 1870 – Leopold Godowsky, Polish-American pianist and composer (d. 1938)
- 1873 – Feodor Chaliapin, Russian opera singer (d. 1938)
- 1876 – Fritz Buelow, German-American baseball player and umpire (d. 1933)
- 1879 – Sarojini Naidu, Indian poet and activist (d. 1949)
- 1880 – Dimitrie Gusti, Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and philosopher (d. 1955)
- 1881 – Eleanor Farjeon, Jewish-English author, poet, and playwright (d. 1965)
- 1883 – Hal Chase, American baseball player and manager (d. 1947)
- 1883 – Yevgeny Vakhtangov, Russian-Armenian actor and director (d. 1922)
- 1884 – Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (d. 1961)
- 1885 – Bess Truman, American wife of Harry S. Truman, 35th First Lady of the United States (d. 1982)
- 1887 – Géza Csáth, Hungarian playwright and critic (d. 1919)
- 1888 – Georgios Papandreou, Greek lawyer, economist, and politician, 162nd Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1968)
- 1889 – Leontine Sagan, Austrian actress and director (d. 1974)
- 1891 – Kate Roberts, Welsh author and activist (d. 1985)
- 1891 – Grant Wood, American painter and academic (d. 1942)
- 1892 – Robert H. Jackson, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 57th United States Attorney General (d. 1954)
- 1898 – Hubert Ashton, English cricketer and politician (d. 1979)
- 1900 – Barbara von Annenkoff, Russian-born German film and stage actress (d. 1979)
- 1901 – Paul Lazarsfeld, Austrian-American sociologist and academic (d. 1976)
- 1902 – Harold Lasswell, American political scientist and theorist (d. 1978)
- 1903 – Georgy Beriev, Georgian-Russian engineer, founded the Beriev Aircraft Company (d. 1979)
- 1903 – Georges Simenon, Belgian-Swiss author (d. 1989)
- 1906 – Agostinho da Silva, Portuguese philosopher and author (d. 1994)
- 1907 – Katy de la Cruz, Filipino-American singer and actress (d. 2004)
- 1910 – William Shockley, English-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
- 1911 – Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Indian-Pakistani poet and journalist (d. 1984)
- 1911 – Jean Muir, American actress and educator (d. 1996)
- 1912 – Harald Riipalu, Russian-Estonian commander (d. 1961)
- 1912 – Margaretta Scott, English actress (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Khalid of Saudi Arabia (d. 1982)
- 1915 – Lyle Bettger, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1915 – Aung San, Burmese general and politician, 5th Premier of British Crown Colony of Burma (d. 1947)
- 1916 – Dorothy Bliss, American invertebrate zoologist (d. 1987)
- 1919 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and actor (d. 1991)
- 1919 – Eddie Robinson, American football player and coach (d. 2007)
- 1920 – Boudleaux Bryant, American songwriter (d. 1987)
- 1920 – Eileen Farrell, American soprano and educator (d. 2002)
- 1921 – Jeanne Demessieux, French pianist and composer (d. 1968)
- 1921 – Aung Khin, Burmese painter (d. 1996)
- 1922 – Francis Pym, Baron Pym, Welsh soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 2008)
- 1922 – Gordon Tullock, American economist and academic (d. 2014)
- 1923 – Michael Anthony Bilandic, American soldier, judge, and politician, 49th Mayor of Chicago (d. 2002)
- 1923 – Chuck Yeager, American general and pilot; first test pilot to break the sound barrier
- 1924 – Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, French journalist and politician (d. 2006)
- 1926 – Fay Ajzenberg-Selove, American nuclear physicist (d. 2012)
- 1928 – Gerald Regan, Canadian lawyer and politician, 19th Premier of Nova Scotia (d. 2019)
- 1929 – Omar Torrijos, Panamanian commander and politician, Military Leader of Panama (d. 1981)
- 1930 – Ernst Fuchs, Austrian painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 2015)
- 1930 – Israel Kirzner, English-American economist, author, and academic
- 1932 – Susan Oliver, American actress (d. 1990)
- 1933 – Paul Biya, Cameroon politician, 2nd President of Cameroon
- 1933 – Kim Novak, American actress
- 1933 – Emanuel Ungaro, French fashion designer (d. 2019)
- 1934 – George Segal, American actor
- 1937 – Ali El-Maak, Sudanese author and academic (d. 1992)
- 1937 – Angelo Mosca, American-Canadian football player and wrestler
- 1938 – Oliver Reed, English actor (d. 1999)
- 1940 – Bram Peper, Dutch sociologist and politician, Mayor of Rotterdam
- 1941 – Sigmar Polke, German painter and photographer (d. 2010)
- 1941 – Bo Svenson, Swedish-American actor, director, and producer
- 1942 – Carol Lynley, American model and actress (d. 2019)
- 1942 – Peter Tork, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and actor (d. 2019)
- 1942 – Donald E. Williams, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2016)
- 1943 – Elaine Pagels, American theologian and academic
- 1944 – Stockard Channing, American actress
- 1944 – Jerry Springer, English-American television host, actor, and politician, 56th Mayor of Cincinnati
- 1945 – Marian Dawkins, English biologist and academic
- 1945 – King Floyd, American singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
- 1945 – Simon Schama, English historian and author
- 1945 – William Sleator, American author and composer (d. 2011)
- 1946 – Richard Blumenthal, American sergeant and politician, 23rd Attorney General of Connecticut
- 1946 – Janet Finch, English sociologist and academic
- 1946 – Colin Matthews, English composer and educator
- 1947 – Stephen Hadley, American soldier and diplomat, 21st United States National Security Advisor
- 1947 – Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball player and coach
- 1947 – Bogdan Tanjević, Montenegrin-Bosnian professional basketball coach
- 1947 – Kevin Bloody Wilson, Australian comedian, singer-songwriter, and guitarist
- 1949 – Peter Kern, Austrian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
- 1950 – Vera Baird, English lawyer and politician
- 1950 – Peter Gabriel, English singer-songwriter and musician
- 1952 – Ed Gagliardi, American bass player (d. 2014)
- 1953 – Akio Sato, Japanese wrestler and manager
- 1954 – Donnie Moore, American baseball player (d. 1989)
- 1955 – Joe Birkett, American lawyer, judge, and politician
- 1956 – Peter Hook, English singer, songwriter, bass player, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer
- 1957 – Denise Austin, American fitness trainer and author
- 1958 – Pernilla August, Swedish actress
- 1958 – Marc Emery, Canadian publisher and activist
- 1958 – Jean-François Lisée, Canadian journalist and politician
- 1958 – Derek Riggs, English painter and illustrator
- 1958 – Øivind Elgenes, Norwegian vocalist, guitarist and composer
- 1959 – Gaston Gingras, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1960 – Pierluigi Collina, Italian footballer and referee
- 1960 – John Healey, English journalist and politician
- 1960 – Gary Patterson, American football player and coach
- 1960 – Artur Yusupov, Russian-German chess player and author
- 1961 – Marc Crawford, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1961 – cEvin Key, Canadian singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboard player, and producer
- 1961 – Henry Rollins, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1962 – Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, Puerto Rican lawyer and politician
- 1962 – Baby Doll, American wrestler and manager
- 1962 – Michele Greene, American actress
- 1964 – Stephen Bowen, American engineer, captain, and astronaut
- 1964 – Ylva Johansson, Swedish educator and politician, Swedish Minister of Employment
- 1965 – Peter O’Neill, Papua New Guinean accountant and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
- 1966 – Neal McDonough, American actor and producer
- 1966 – Jeff Waters, Canadian guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1966 – Freedom Williams, American rapper and singer
- 1967 – Stanimir Stoilov, Bulgarian footballer and coach
- 1968 – Kelly Hu, American actress
- 1969 – Joyce DiDonato, American soprano and actress
- 1970 – Karoline Krüger, Norwegian singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1971 – Sonia Evans, English singer-songwriter
- 1971 – Mats Sundin, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1971 – Todd Williams, American baseball player
- 1972 – Virgilijus Alekna, Lithuanian discus thrower
- 1972 – Charlie Garner, American football player
- 1974 – Fonzworth Bentley, American rapper and actor
- 1974 – Robbie Williams, English singer-songwriter
- 1975 – Ben Collins, English race car driver
- 1975 – Katie Hopkins, English media personality and columnist
- 1976 – Jörg Bergmeister, German race car driver
- 1976 – Shannon Nevin, Australian rugby league player
- 1977 – Randy Moss, American football player and coach
- 1978 – Niklas Bäckström, Finnish ice hockey player
- 1978 – Philippe Jaroussky, French countertenor
- 1979 – Anders Behring Breivik, Norwegian murderer
- 1979 – Rafael Márquez, Mexican footballer
- 1979 – Rachel Reeves, English economist and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
- 1979 – Mena Suvari, American actress and fashion designer
- 1980 – Carlos Cotto, Puerto Rican-American wrestler and boxer
- 1981 – Luisão, Brazilian footballer
- 1982 – Even Helte Hermansen, Norwegian guitarist and composer
- 1982 – Michael Turner, American football player
- 1983 – Mike Nickeas, Canadian baseball player
- 1983 – Anna Watkins, English rower
- 1984 – Hinkelien Schreuder, Dutch swimmer
- 1985 – Kwak Ji-min, South Korean actress
- 1986 – Luke Moore, English footballer
- 1986 – Aqib Talib, American football player
- 1987 – Eljero Elia, Dutch footballer
- 1988 – Ryan Goins, American baseball player
- 1988 – Eddy Pettybourne, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player
- 1989 – Rodrigo Possebon, Brazilian footballer
- 1991 – Eliaquim Mangala, French footballer
- 1991 – Junior Roqica, Australian-Fijian rugby league player
- 1991 – Vianney, French singer
- 1994 – Memphis Depay, Dutch footballer
Deaths on February 13
- 106 – Emperor He of Han (Han Hedi) of the Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty (b. AD 79)
- 721 – Chilperic II, Frankish king (b. 672)
- 858 – Kenneth MacAlpin, Scottish king (probable; b. 810)
- 921 – Vratislaus I, duke of Bohemia
- 936 – Xiao Wen, empress of the Liao Dynasty
- 942 – Muhammad ibn Ra’iq, Abbasid emir and regent
- 988 – Adalbert Atto, Lombard nobleman
- 1021 – Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Fatimid caliph (b. 985)
- 1130 – Honorius II, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1060
- 1141 – Béla II, king of Hungary and Croatia (b. 1110)
- 1199 – Stefan Nemanja, Serbian grand prince (b. 1113)
- 1219 – Minamoto no Sanetomo, Japanese shōgun (b. 1192)
- 1332 – Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1259)
- 1351 – Kō no Morofuyu, Japanese general
- 1539 – Isabella d’Este, Italian noblewoman (b. 1474)
- 1542 – Catherine Howard, English wife of Henry VIII of England (executed;b. 1521)
- 1571 – Benvenuto Cellini, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1500)
- 1585 – Alfonso Salmeron, Spanish priest and scholar (b. 1515)
- 1602 – Alexander Nowell, English clergyman and theologian (b. 1507)
- 1660 – Charles X Gustav, king of Sweden (b. 1622)
- 1662 – Elizabeth Stuart, queen of Bohemia (b. 1596)
- 1693 – Johann Caspar Kerll, German organist and composer (b. 1627)
- 1727 – William Wotton, English linguist and scholar (b. 1666)
- 1728 – Cotton Mather, American minister and author (b. 1663)
- 1732 – Charles-René d’Hozier, French historian and author (b. 1640)
- 1741 – Johann Joseph Fux, Austrian composer and theorist (b. 1660)
- 1787 – Roger Joseph Boscovich, Croatian physicist, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher (b. 1711)
- 1787 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French lawyer and politician, Foreign Minister of France (b. 1717)
- 1813 – Samuel Ashe, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of North Carolina (b. 1725)
- 1818 – George Rogers Clark, American general (b. 1752)
- 1826 – Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen, Russian general and politician, Governor-General of Baltic provinces (b. 1745)
- 1831 – Edward Berry, English admiral (b. 1768)
- 1837 – Mariano José de Larra, Spanish journalist and author (b. 1809)
- 1845 – Henrik Steffens, Norwegian-German philosopher and poet (b. 1773)
- 1877 – Costache Caragiale, Romanian actor and manager (b. 1815)
- 1883 – Richard Wagner, German composer (b. 1813)
- 1888 – Jean-Baptiste Lamy, French-American archbishop (b. 1814)
- 1892 – Provo Wallis, Canadian-English admiral (b. 1791)
- 1893 – Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, Mexican intellectual and journalist (b. 1834)
- 1905 – Konstantin Savitsky, Russian painter (b. 1844)
- 1906 – Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (b. 1866)
- 1934 – József Pusztai, Slovene-Hungarian poet and journalist (b. 1864)
- 1942 – Otakar Batlička, Czech journalist (b. 1895)
- 1942 – Epitácio Pessoa, Brazilian lawyer, judge, and politician, 11th President of Brazil (b. 1865)
- 1950 – Rafael Sabatini, Italian-English novelist and short story writer (b. 1875)
- 1951 – Lloyd C. Douglas, American minister and author (b. 1877)
- 1952 – Josephine Tey, Scottish author and playwright (b. 1896)
- 1954 – Agnes Macphail, Canadian educator and politician (b. 1890)
- 1956 – Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish mathematician and philosopher (b. 1878)
- 1958 – Christabel Pankhurst, English activist, co-founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (b. 1880)
- 1958 – Georges Rouault, French painter and illustrator (b. 1871)
- 1964 – Paulino Alcántara, Filipino-Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1896)
- 1964 – Werner Heyde, German psychiatrist and academic (b. 1902)
- 1967 – Yoshisuke Aikawa, entrepreneur, businessman, and politician, founded Nissan Motor Company (b. 1880)
- 1967 – Abelardo L. Rodríguez, substitute president of Mexico (1932-1934) (b. 1889)
- 1968 – Mae Marsh, American actress (b. 1895)
- 1968 – Portia White, Canadian opera singer (b. 1911)
- 1973 – Marinus Jan Granpré Molière, Dutch architect and educator (b. 1883)
- 1975 – André Beaufre, French general (b. 1902)
- 1976 – Murtala Mohammed, Nigerian general and politician, 4th President of Nigeria (b. 1938)
- 1976 – Lily Pons, French-American soprano and actress (b. 1904)
- 1980 – David Janssen, American actor (b. 1931)
- 1984 – Cheong Eak Chong, Singaporean entrepreneur (b. 1888)
- 1986 – Yuri Ivask, Russian-American poet and critic (b. 1907)
- 1989 – Wayne Hays, American lieutenant and politician (b. 1911)
- 1991 – Arno Breker, German sculptor and illustrator (b. 1900)
- 1992 – Nikolay Bogolyubov, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician and physicist (b. 1909)
- 1996 – Martin Balsam, American actor (b. 1919)
- 1997 – Robert Klark Graham, American eugenicist and businessman (b. 1906)
- 1997 – Mark Krasnosel’skii, Russian-Ukrainian mathematician and academic (b. 1920)
- 2000 – Anders Aalborg, Canadian educator and politician (b. 1914)
- 2000 – James Cooke Brown, American sociologist and author (b. 1921)
- 2000 – John Leake, English soldier (b. 1949)
- 2002 – Waylon Jennings, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1937)
- 2003 – Kid Gavilán, Cuban-American boxer (b. 1926)
- 2003 – Walt Whitman Rostow, American economist; 7th United States National Security Advisor (b. 1916)
- 2004 – François Tavenas, Canadian engineer and academic (b. 1942)
- 2004 – Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Chechen politician, 2nd President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (b. 1952)
- 2005 – Nelson Briles, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1943)
- 2005 – Lúcia Santos, Portuguese nun (b. 1907)
- 2006 – P. F. Strawson, English philosopher and author (b. 1919)
- 2007 – Elizabeth Jolley, English-Australian author and academic (b. 1923)
- 2007 – Charlie Norwood, American captain and politician (b. 1941)
- 2007 – Richard Gordon Wakeford, English air marshal (b. 1922)
- 2008 – Kon Ichikawa, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1915)
- 2009 – Edward Upward, English author and educator (b. 1903)
- 2010 – Lucille Clifton, American poet and academic (b. 1936)
- 2010 – Dale Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936)
- 2012 – Russell Arms, American actor and singer (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Louise Cochrane, American-English screenwriter and producer (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Daniel C. Gerould, American playwright and academic (b. 1928)
- 2013 – Gerry Day, American journalist and screenwriter (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Miles J. Jones, American pathologist and physician (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Pieter Kooijmans, Dutch judge and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for The Netherlands (b. 1933)
- 2013 – Andrée Malebranche, Haitian artist (b. 1916)
- 2013 – Yuko Tojo, Japanese activist and politician (b. 1939)
- 2014 – Balu Mahendra, Sri Lankan-Indian director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (b. 1939)
- 2014 – Richard Møller Nielsen, Danish footballer and manager (b. 1937)
- 2014 – Ralph Waite, American actor and activist (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Faith Bandler, Australian activist and author (b. 1918)
- 2015 – Stan Chambers, American journalist and actor (b. 1923)
- 2016 – O. N. V. Kurup, Indian poet and academic (b. 1931)
- 2016 – Antonin Scalia, American lawyer and judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (b. 1936)
- 2017 – Ricardo Arias Calderón, Panamanian politician, Vice President (1990–1992) (b. 1933)
- 2017 – Aileen Hernandez, American union organizer and activist (b. 1926)
- 2017 – Seijun Suzuki, Japanese filmmaker (b. 1923)
- 2017 – Kim Jong-nam, North Korean politician (b. 1971)
- 2017 – E-Dubble, American rapper (b. 1982)
- 2018 – Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark, French-born Danish royal (b. 1934)
Holidays and observances on February 13
- Children’s Day (Myanmar)
- Christian feast day:
- Absalom Jones (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Beatrice of Ornacieux
- Castor of Karden
- Catherine of Ricci
- Ermenilda of Ely
- Fulcran
- Jordan of Saxony
- Polyeuctus (Roman Catholic Church)
- February 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- World Radio Day
-
January 22 in History
- 613 – Eight-month-old Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius at Constantinople.
- 871 – Battle of Basing: The West Saxons led by King Æthelred I are defeated by the Danelaw Vikings at Basing.
- 1506 – The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.
- 1517 – The Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeats the Mamluk Sultanate and captures present-day Egypt at the Battle of Ridaniya.
- 1555 – The Ava Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in what is now Myanmar.
- 1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes to determine whether James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones of England and Ireland when he fled to France in 1688.
- 1808 – The Portuguese royal family arrives in Brazil after fleeing the French army’s invasion of Portugal two months earlier.
- 1824 – The Ashantis defeat British forces in the Gold Coast.
- 1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: The Siege of Multan ends after nine months when the last Sikh defenders of Multan, Punjab, surrender.
- 1863 – The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to regain Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Russia.
- 1879 – The Battle of Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War results in a British defeat.
- 1879 – The Battle of Rorke’s Drift, also during the Anglo-Zulu War and just some 15 km away from Isandlwana, results in a British victory.
- 1889 – Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C.
- 1890 – The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, Ohio.
- 1901 – Edward VII is proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
- 1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.
- 1906 – SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130.
- 1915 – Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.
- 1917 – World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for “peace without victory” in Europe.
- 1919 – Act Zluky is signed, unifying the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the West Ukrainian National Republic.
- 1924 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- 1927 – Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.
- 1941 – World War II: British and Commonwealth troops capture Tobruk from Italian forces during Operation Compass.
- 1943 – World War II: Australian and American forces defeat Japanese army and navy units in the bitterly fought Battle of Buna–Gona.
- 1944 – World War II: The Allies commence Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio and Nettuno, Italy.
- 1946 – In Iran, Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people’s Republic of Mahabad at Chahar Cheragh Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad; he becomes the new president and Haji Baba Sheikh becomes the prime minister.
- 1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.
- 1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood.
- 1957 – Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.
- 1957 – The New York City “Mad Bomber”, George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
- 1963 – The Élysée Treaty of cooperation between France and Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.
- 1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.
- 1968 – Operation Igloo White, a US electronic surveillance system to stop communist infiltration into South Vietnam begins installation.
- 1970 – The Boeing 747, the world’s first “jumbo jet”, enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport.
- 1971 – The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, is issued.
- 1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.
- 1973 – The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo moon landing mission.
- 1973 – A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria, killing 176.
- 1973 – In a bout for the world heavyweight boxing championship in Kingston, Jamaica, challenger George Foreman knocks down champion Joe Frazier six times in the first two rounds before the fight is stopped by referee Arthur Mercante.
- 1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII television commercial.
- 1987 – Philippine security forces open fire on a crowd of 10,000–15,000 demonstrators at Malacañang Palace, Manila, killing 13.
- 1992 – Rebel forces occupy Zaire’s national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government’s resignation.
- 1992 – Space Shuttle program: the space shuttle Discovery launches on STS-42 carrying Dr. Roberta Bondar, who becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space.
- 1995 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Beit Lid massacre: In central Israel, near Netanya, two Gazans blow themselves up at a military transit point, killing 19 Israelis.
- 1998 – Space Shuttle program: space shuttle Endeavor launches on STS-89 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
- 1999 – Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.
- 2002 – Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
- 2006 – Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country’s first indigenous president.
- 2007 – At least 88 people are killed when two car bombs explode in the Bab Al-Sharqi market in central Baghdad, Iraq.
- 2015 – An explosion near a civilian trolley-bus in Donetsk kills at least thirteen people.
Births on January 22
- 826 – Emperor Montoku of Japan (d. 858)
- 1263 – Ibn Taymiyyah, Syrian scholar and theologian (d. 1328)
- 1440 – Ivan III of Russia (d. 1505)
- 1522 – Charles II de Valois, Duke of Orléans, (d. 1545)
- 1552 – Walter Raleigh, English poet, soldier, courtier, and explorer (d. 1618)
- 1561 – Francis Bacon, English philosopher and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (d. 1626)
- 1570 – Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington, English historian and politician, founded the Cotton library (d. 1631)
- 1573 – John Donne, English poet and cleric in the Church of England, wrote the Holy Sonnets (d. 1631)
- 1592 – Pierre Gassendi, French mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (d. 1655)
- 1645 – William Kidd, Scottish sailor and pirate hunter (probable; d. 1701)
- 1654 – Richard Blackmore, English physician and poet (d. 1729)
- 1690 – Nicolas Lancret, French painter (d. 1743)
- 1729 – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German philosopher and author (d. 1781)
- 1733 – Philip Carteret, English admiral and explorer (d. 1796)
- 1740 – Noah Phelps, American soldier, lawyer, and judge (d. 1809)
- 1781 – François Habeneck, French violinist and conductor (d. 1849)
- 1788 – Lord Byron, English poet and playwright (d. 1824)
- 1792 – Lady Lucy Whitmore, English noblewoman, hymn writer (d. 1840)
- 1796 – Karl Ernst Claus, Estonian-Russian chemist, botanist, and academic (d. 1864)
- 1797 – Maria Leopoldina of Austria (d. 1826)
- 1799 – Ludger Duvernay, Canadian journalist, publisher, and politician (d. 1852)
- 1802 – Richard Upjohn, English-American architect (d. 1878)
- 1828 – Dayrolles Eveleigh-de-Moleyns, 4th Baron Ventry, Irish hereditary peer (d. 1914)
- 1831 – Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1917)
- 1840 – Ernest Wilberforce, English bishop (d. 1907)
- 1849 – August Strindberg, Swedish novelist, poet, and playwright (d. 1912)
- 1858 – Beatrice Webb, English sociologist and economist (d. 1943)
- 1861 – George Fuller, Australian politician, 22nd Premier of New South Wales (d. 1940)
- 1865 – Wilbur Scoville, American chemist and pharmacist (d. 1942)
- 1867 – Gisela Januszewska, Jewish-Austrian physician (d. 1943)
- 1869 – José Vicente de Freitas, Portuguese colonel and politician, 97th Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1952)
- 1874 – Edward Harkness, American philanthropist (d. 1940)
- 1874 – Jay Hughes, American baseball player and coach (d. 1924)
- 1875 – D. W. Griffith, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1948)
- 1877 – Tom Jones, American baseball player and manager (d. 1923)
- 1879 – Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (d. 1953)
- 1880 – Bill O’Neill, Canadian-American baseball player (d. 1920)
- 1880 – Frigyes Riesz, Hungarian mathematician and academic (d. 1956)
- 1881 – Ira Thomas, American baseball player and manager (d. 1958)
- 1886 – John J. Becker, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1961)
- 1887 – Helen Hoyt, American poet and author (d. 1972)
- 1889 – Henri Pélissier, French cyclist (d. 1935)
- 1889 – Amos Strunk, American baseball player and manager (d. 1979)
- 1890 – Fred M. Vinson, American judge and politician, 13th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1953)
- 1891 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian philosopher and politician (d. 1937)
- 1892 – Marcel Dassault, French businessman, founded Dassault Aviation (d. 1986)
- 1893 – Conrad Veidt, German-American actor, director, and producer (d. 1943)
- 1897 – Rosa Ponselle, American operatic soprano (d. 1981)
- 1897 – Dilipkumar Roy, a Bengali Indian musician, musicologist, novelist, poet and essayist. (d. 1980)
- 1898 – Ross Barnett, American lawyer and politician, 52nd Governor of Mississippi (d. 1987)
- 1898 – Sergei Eisenstein, Russian director and screenwriter (d. 1948)
- 1898 – Denise Legeay, French actress (d. 1968)
- 1899 – Martti Haavio, Finnish poet and mythologist (d. 1973)
- 1900 – Ernst Busch, German actor and singer (d. 1980)
- 1902 – Daniel Kinsey, American hurdler, coach, and academic (d. 1970)
- 1903 – Fritz Houtermans, Polish-German physicist and academic (d. 1966)
- 1904 – George Balanchine, Georgian-American dancer, choreographer, and director, co-founded the New York City Ballet (d. 1983)
- 1904 – Arkady Gaidar, Russian journalist and author (d. 1941)
- 1905 – Willy Hartner, German physicist, historian, and academic (d. 1981)
- 1906 – Robert E. Howard, American author and poet (d. 1936)
- 1907 – Douglas Corrigan, American pilot and engineer (d. 1995)
- 1907 – Dixie Dean, English footballer (d. 1980)
- 1908 – Lev Landau, Azerbaijani-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
- 1908 – Prince Oana, American baseball player and manager (d. 1976)
- 1909 – Martha Norelius, Swedish-born American swimmer (d. 1955)
- 1909 – Porfirio Rubirosa, Dominican racing driver, polo player, and diplomat (d. 1965)
- 1909 – Ann Sothern, American actress and singer (d. 2001)
- 1909 – U Thant, Burmese educator and diplomat, 3rd United Nations Secretary-General (d. 1974)
- 1911 – Bruno Kreisky, Austrian lawyer and politician, 22nd Chancellor of Austria (d. 1990)
- 1913 – Henry Bauchau, Belgian psychoanalyst and author (d. 2012)
- 1913 – William Conway, Irish cardinal (d. 1977)
- 1913 – Carl F. H. Henry, American theologian and publisher (d. 2003)
- 1914 – Dimitris Dragatakis, Greek violinist and composer (d. 2001)
- 1915 – Heinrich Albertz, German theologian and politician, Mayor of Berlin (d. 1993)
- 1916 – Bill Durnan, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1972)
- 1916 – Henri Dutilleux, French pianist, composer, and educator (d. 2013)
- 1916 – Harilal Upadhyay, Indian author, poet, and astrologist (d. 1994)
- 1918 – Elmer Lach, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1919 – Diomedes Olivo, Dominican baseball player and scout (d. 1977)
- 1920 – Irving Kristol, American journalist, author, and academic, founded The National Interest (d. 2009)
- 1920 – Alf Ramsey, English footballer and coach (d. 1999)
- 1922 – Howard Moss, American poet, playwright and critic (d. 1987)
- 1923 – Diana Douglas, British-American actress (d. 2015)
- 1924 – J. J. Johnson, American trombonist and composer (d. 2001)
- 1924 – Ján Chryzostom Korec, Slovak cardinal (d. 2015)
- 1924 – Charles Lisanby, American production designer and art director (d. 2013)
- 1925 – Johnny Bucha, American baseball player (d. 1996)
- 1925 – Bobby Young, American baseball player (d. 1985)
- 1927 – Lou Creekmur, American football player and sportscaster (d. 2009)
- 1927 – Joe Perry, American footballer (d. 2011)
- 1928 – Yoshihiko Amino, Japanese historian, author, and academic (d. 2004)
- 1929 – Petr Eben, Czech composer, organist and choirmaster (d. 2007)
- 1930 – Mariví Bilbao, Spanish actress (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Éamon de Buitléar, Irish accordion player and director (d. 2013)
- 1931 – Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter (d. 1964)
- 1931 – Galina Zybina, Russian shot putter and javelin thrower
- 1932 – Berthold Grünfeld, Norwegian psychiatrist and academic (d. 2007)
- 1932 – Piper Laurie, American actress
- 1932 – Tom Fisher Railsback, American politician, member of the Illinois and U.S. House of Representatives
- 1933 – Yuri Chesnokov, Russian volleyball player and coach (d. 2010)
- 1934 – Vijay Anand, Indian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- 1934 – Bill Bixby, American actor and director (d. 1993)
- 1934 – Graham Kerr, English chef and author
- 1935 – Alexander Men, Russian priest and scholar (d. 1990)
- 1936 – Ong Teng Cheong, Singaporean architect and politician, 5th President of Singapore (d. 2002)
- 1936 – Alan J. Heeger, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1937 – Edén Pastora, Nicaraguan politician
- 1937 – Joseph Wambaugh, American police officer and author
- 1938 – Peter Beard, Australian photographer and author (d. 2020)
- 1938 – Joe Esposito, American author (d. 2016)
- 1938 – Altair Gomes de Figueiredo, Brazilian footballer
- 1939 – Jørgen Garde, Danish admiral (d. 1996)
- 1939 – Alfredo Palacio, Ecuadoran physician and politician, President of Ecuador
- 1939 – Luigi Simoni, Italian footballer and manager
- 1939 – J. C. Tremblay, Canadian ice hockey player and scout (d. 1994)
- 1940 – John Hurt, English actor (d. 2017)
- 1940 – George Seifert, American football player and coach
- 1940 – Gillian Shephard, English educator and politician, Secretary of State for Education
- 1941 – Jaan Kaplinski, Estonian poet, philosopher, and critic
- 1942 – Mimis Domazos, Greek footballer
- 1943 – Michael Spicer, English journalist and politician (d. 2019)
- 1944 – Khosrow Golsorkhi, Iranian journalist, poet, and activist (d. 1974)
- 1944 – Uto Ughi, Italian violinist and conductor
- 1945 – Jophery Brown, American baseball player, actor, and stuntman (d. 2014)
- 1945 – Jean-Pierre Nicolas, French racing driver and manager
- 1945 – Christoph Schönborn, Austrian cardinal
- 1945 – Alojz Uran, Slovenian archbishop
- 1946 – Malcolm McLaren, English singer-songwriter and manager (d. 2010)
- 1946 – Serge Savard, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
- 1947 – Vladimir Oravsky, Czech-Swedish author and director
- 1948 – Gilbert Levine, American conductor and academic
- 1949 – Mike Caldwell, American baseball player and coach
- 1949 – J.P. Pennington, American country-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1949 – Steve Perry, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1950 – Paul Bew, Northern Irish historian and academic
- 1950 – Frank Schade, American basketball player and coach
- 1951 – Ondrej Nepela, Slovak figure skater and coach (d. 1989)
- 1951 – Leon Roberts, American baseball player and manager
- 1952 – Ramón Avilés, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
- 1953 – Winfried Berkemeier, German footballer and manager
- 1953 – Myung-whun Chung, South Korean pianist and conductor
- 1953 – Jim Jarmusch, American director and screenwriter
- 1955 – Thomas David Jones, American captain, pilot, and astronaut
- 1955 – Timothy R. Ferguson, American politician
- 1956 – Steve Riley, American drummer
- 1957 – Mike Bossy, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
- 1957 – Brian Dayett, American baseball player and manager
- 1957 – Godfrey Thoma, Nauruan politician
- 1957 – Francis Wheen, English journalist and author
- 1958 – Nikos Anastopoulos, Greek footballer and manager
- 1958 – Filiz Koçali, Turkish journalist and politician
- 1959 – Linda Blair, American actress
- 1960 – Michael Hutchence, Australian singer-songwriter (d. 1997)
- 1961 – Quintin Dailey, American basketball player (d. 2010)
- 1961 – Daniel Johnston, American musician
- 1962 – Jimmy Herring, American guitarist
- 1962 – Huw Irranca-Davies, Welsh lawyer and politician
- 1962 – Mizan Zainal Abidin of Terengganu, Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
- 1964 – Nigel Benn, English-Australian boxer
- 1964 – Stojko Vranković, Croatian basketball player
- 1965 – Steven Adler, American rock drummer
- 1965 – DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ and producer
- 1965 – Diane Lane, American actress
- 1965 – Andrew Roachford, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player
- 1966 – Craig Salvatori, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1967 – Nick Gillingham, English swimmer
- 1968 – Guy Fieri, American chef, author, and television host
- 1968 – Heath, Japanese singer-songwriter and bass player
- 1968 – Frank Leboeuf, French footballer, sportscaster, and actor
- 1968 – Mauricio Serna, Colombian footballer
- 1969 – Olivia d’Abo, English-American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1969 – Keith Gordon, American baseball player and coach
- 1970 – Jason Lowrie, New Zealand rugby league player and coach
- 1970 – Abraham Olano, Spanish cyclist
- 1971 – Stan Collymore, English footballer and sportscaster
- 1972 – Terry Hill, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1973 – Rogério Ceni, Brazilian footballer
- 1974 – Cameron McConville, Australian racing driver and sportscaster
- 1974 – Joseph Muscat, Maltese journalist and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Malta
- 1976 – Jimmy Anderson, American baseball player and coach
- 1976 – James Dearth, American football player
- 1977 – Mario Domm, Mexican singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
- 1977 – Anna Linkova, Russian tennis player
- 1977 – Hidetoshi Nakata, Japanese footballer
- 1977 – Luciano Andrade Rissutt, Brazilian footballer
- 1978 – Chone Figgins, American baseball player
- 1979 – Aidan Burley, New Zealand-English politician
- 1979 – Carlos Ruiz, Panamanian baseball player
- 1979 – Chor Boogie, American artist
- 1980 – Jonathan Woodgate, English footballer
- 1981 – Willa Ford, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
- 1981 – Beverley Mitchell, American actress
- 1981 – Ben Moody, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor
- 1981 – Ibrahima Sonko, French footballer
- 1981 – Guy Wilks, English racing driver
- 1982 – Fabricio Coloccini, Argentinian footballer
- 1983 – Shaun Cody, American football player
- 1984 – Ben Eager, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 – Ubaldo Jiménez, Dominican baseball player
- 1984 – Leon Powe, American basketball player
- 1984 – Maceo Rigters, Dutch footballer
- 1985 – Fotios Papoulis, Greek footballer
- 1985 – Yan Xu, Singaporean table tennis player
- 1986 – Maher Magri, Tunisian footballer
- 1986 – Matt Simon, Australian footballer
- 1987 – Astrid Jacobsen, Norwegian skier
- 1987 – Shane Long, Irish footballer
- 1988 – Asher Allen, American football player
- 1988 – Greg Oden, American basketball player
- 1988 – Marcel Schmelzer, German footballer
- 1989 – Theo Robinson, English-Jamaican footballer
- 1990 – Alizé Cornet, French tennis player
- 1990 – Dean Whare, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1990 – Logic, American rapper
- 1990 – Phil Wang, British-Malaysian comedian
- 1991 – Stefan Kolb, German footballer
- 1996 – Joshua Ho-Sang, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1998 – Silento, American rapper, singer and songwriter
Deaths on January 22
- 239 – Cao Rui, Chinese emperor (b. 205)
- 628 – Anastasius of Persia, monk
- 906 – He, empress of the Tang Dynasty
- 935 – Ma, empress of Southern Han
- 1051 – Ælfric Puttoc, archbishop of York
- 1170 – Wang Chongyang, Chinese Daoist and co-founder of the Quanzhen School (b. 1113)
- 1188 – Ferdinand II of León (b. 1137)
- 1341 – Louis I, Duke of Bourbon (b. 1279)
- 1517 – Hadım Sinan Pasha, Ottoman politician, 32nd Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. ?)
- 1536 – Bernhard Knipperdolling, German religious leader (b. 1495)
- 1536 – John of Leiden, Anabaptist leader from the Dutch city of Leiden (b. 1509)
- 1552 – Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, English general and politician, Lord High Treasurer of England (b. 1500)
- 1560 – Wang Zhi, Chinese pirate
- 1575 – James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault (b. 1516)
- 1599 – Cristofano Malvezzi, Italian organist and composer (b. 1547)
- 1666 – Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor (b. 1592)
- 1750 – Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (b. 1675)
- 1763 – John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1690)
- 1767 – Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German meteorologist and geologist (b. 1719)
- 1779 – Jeremiah Dixon, English surveyor and astronomer (b. 1733)
- 1779 – Claudius Smith, American guerrilla leader (b. 1736)
- 1798 – Lewis Morris, American judge and politician (b. 1726)
- 1840 – Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German physician, physiologist, and anthropologist (b. 1752)
- 1850 – Vincent Pallotti, Italian missionary and saint (b. 1795)
- 1879 – Anthony Durnford, Irish colonel (b. 1830)
- 1879 – Henry Pulleine, English colonel (b. 1838)
- 1892 – Joseph P. Bradley, American lawyer and jurist (b. 1813)
- 1900 – David Edward Hughes, Welsh-American physicist, co-invented the microphone (b. 1831)
- 1901 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (b. 1819)
- 1901 – Emil Erlenmeyer, German chemist and academic (b. 1825)
- 1921 – George Streeter, American captain and businessman (b. 1837)
- 1922 – Fredrik Bajer, Danish educator and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1837)
- 1922 – Pope Benedict XV (b. 1854)
- 1922 – Camille Jordan, French mathematician and academic (b. 1838)
- 1925 – Fanny Bullock Workman, American geographer and mountain climber (b. 1859)
- 1927 – James Ford Rhodes, American historian and author (b. 1848)
- 1929 – R. C. Lehmann, English journalist, author, and politician (b. 1856)
- 1930 – Stephen Mather, American businessman and conservationist, co-founded the Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company (b. 1867)
- 1931 – László Batthyány-Strattmann, Hungarian physician and ophthalmologist (b. 1870)
- 1945 – Else Lasker-Schüler, German poet and playwright (b. 1869)
- 1949 – William Thomas Walsh, American author, poet, and playwright (b. 1891)
- 1950 – Alan Hale, Sr., American actor and director (b. 1892)
- 1951 – Lawson Robertson, Scottish-American sprinter and high jumper (b. 1883)
- 1955 – Jonni Myyrä, Finnish-American athlete (b. 1892)
- 1957 – Ralph Barton Perry, American philosopher and academic (b. 1876)
- 1959 – Mike Hawthorn, English race car driver (b. 1929)
- 1964 – Marc Blitzstein, American pianist and composer (b. 1905)
- 1966 – Herbert Marshall, English actor (b. 1890)
- 1968 – Duke Kahanamoku, American swimmer and water polo player (b. 1890)
- 1971 – Harry Frank Guggenheim, American businessman and publisher, co-founded Newsday (b. 1890)
- 1973 – Lyndon B. Johnson, American lieutenant and politician, 36th President of the United States (b. 1908)
- 1975 – Andrew George Burry, Swiss-American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1873)
- 1977 – Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al Suwaiyel, Saudi Arabian diplomat (b. 1916)
- 1978 – Oliver Leese, English general (b. 1894)
- 1978 – Herbert Sutcliffe, English cricketer and soldier (b. 1894)
- 1979 – Ali Hassan Salameh, Palestinian rebel leader (b. 1940)
- 1980 – Yitzhak Baer, German-Israeli historian and academic (b. 1888)
- 1981 – Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi, Pakistani historian and academic (b. 1903)
- 1982 – Eduardo Frei Montalva, Chilean lawyer and politician, 28th President of Chile (b. 1911)
- 1985 – Arthur Bryant, English historian and journalist (b. 1899)
- 1987 – R. Budd Dwyer, American educator and politician, 30th Treasurer of Pennsylvania (b. 1939)
- 1989 – S. Vithiananthan, Sri Lankan author and academic (b. 1924)
- 1991 – Robert Choquette, Canadian author, poet and diplomat (b. 1905)
- 1993 – Kōbō Abe, Japanese playwright and photographer (b. 1924)
- 1994 – Jean-Louis Barrault, French actor and director (b. 1910)
- 1994 – Telly Savalas, American actor (b. 1924)
- 1996 – Israel Eldad, Polish-Israeli philosopher and author (b. 1910)
- 1997 – Billy Mackenzie, Scottish singer-songwriter (b. 1957)
- 1999 – Graham Staines, Australian-Indian missionary and translator (b. 1941)
- 2000 – Craig Claiborne, American journalist, author, and critic (b. 1920)
- 2000 – Anne Hébert, Canadian author and poet (b. 1916)
- 2001 – Tommie Agee, American baseball player (b. 1942)
- 2001 – Roy Brown, American clown and puppeteer (b. 1932)
- 2003 – Bill Mauldin, American soldier and cartoonist (b. 1921)
- 2004 – Billy May, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Tom Mead, Australian journalist and politician (b. 1918)
- 2004 – Ann Miller, American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1923)
- 2005 – César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1943)
- 2005 – Carlo Orelli, Italian soldier (b. 1894)
- 2005 – Consuelo Velázquez, Mexican pianist and songwriter (b. 1924)
- 2006 – Aydın Güven Gürkan, Turkish academic and politician, Turkish Minister of Labor and Social Security (b. 1941)
- 2007 – Ngô Quang Trưởng, Vietnamese general (b. 1929)
- 2007 – Abbé Pierre, French priest and activist (b. 1912)
- 2007 – Liz Renay, American actress, author and performer (b. 1926)
- 2008 – Heath Ledger, Australian actor and director (b. 1979)
- 2008 – Miles Lerman, Polish Holocaust survivor and activist (b. 1920)
- 2009 – Billy Werber, American baseball player (b. 1908)
- 2010 – Louis R. Harlan, American historian and author (b. 1922)
- 2010 – Jean Simmons, English-American actress (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Simon Marsden, English photographer and author (b. 1948)
- 2012 – Joe Paterno, American football player and coach (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Clarence Tillenius, Canadian painter and environmentalist (b. 1913)
- 2012 – Dick Tufeld, American actor, announcer, narrator and voice actor (b. 1926)
- 2013 – Robert Bonnaud, French historian and academic (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Hinton Mitchem, American businessman and politician (b. 1938)
- 2014 – Maziar Partow, Iranian cinematographer (b. 1933)
- 2015 – Fabrizio de Miranda, Italian engineer and academic, co-designed the Rande Bridge (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Wendell H. Ford, American lieutenant and politician, 53rd Governor of Kentucky (b. 1924)
- 2015 – Margaret Bloy Graham, Canadian author and illustrator (b. 1920)
- 2016 – Homayoun Behzadi, Iranian footballer and coach (b. 1942)
- 2016 – Cecil Parkinson, English politician (b. 1931)
- 2016 – Lois Ramsey, Australian actress (b. 1922)
- 2016 – Kamer Genç, Turkish politician (b. 1940)
- 2017 – Masaya Nakamura, Japanese businessman (b. 1925)
- 2017 – Yordano Ventura, Dominican baseball player (b. 1991)
- 2018 – Ursula K. Le Guin, American sci-fi and fantasy novelist (b. 1929)
Holidays and observances on January 22
- Christian feast day:
- Anastasius of Persia
- Gaudentius of Novara
- László Batthyány-Strattmann
- Laura Vicuna
- Vincent Pallotti
- Vincent of Saragossa
- Vincent, Orontius, and Victor
- Blessed William Joseph Chaminade
- January 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Day of Unity of Ukraine (Ukraine)
- Grandfather’s Day (Poland)