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 August 1 in History
- 30 BC – Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic.
- AD 69 – Batavian rebellion: The Batavians in Germania Inferior (Netherlands) revolt under the leadership of Gaius Julius Civilis.
- 527 – Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
- 607 – Ono no Imoko is dispatched as envoy to the Sui court in China (Traditional Japanese date: July 3, 607).
- 902 – Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold in Sicily, is captured by the Aghlabids army, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
- 1203 – Isaac II Angelos, restored Eastern Roman Emperor, declares his son Alexios IV Angelos co-emperor after pressure from the forces of the Fourth Crusade.
- 1291 – The Old Swiss Confederacy is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter.
- 1469 – Louis XI of France founds the chivalric order called the Order of Saint Michael in Amboise.
- 1498 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.
- 1571 – The Ottoman conquest of Cyprus is concluded, by the surrender of Famagusta.
- 1620 – Speedwell leaves Delfshaven to bring pilgrims to America by way of England.
- 1664 – Ottoman forces are defeated in the battle of Saint Gotthard by an Austrian army led by Raimondo Montecuccoli, resulting in the Peace of Vasvár.
- 1714 – George, Elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain, marking the beginning of the Georgian era of British history.
- 1759 – Seven Years’ War: The Battle of Minden, an allied Anglo-German army victory over the French. In Britain this was one of a number of events that constituted the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 and is celebrated as Minden Day by certain British Army regiments.
- 1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
- 1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay): Battle begins when a British fleet engages the French Revolutionary Navy fleet in an unusual night action.
- 1800 – The Acts of Union 1800 are passed which merge the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1801 – First Barbary War: The American schooner USS Enterprise captures the Tripolitan polacca Tripoli in a single-ship action off the coast of modern-day Libya.
- 1834 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force, although it remains legal in the possessions of the East India Company until the passage of the Indian Slavery Act, 1843.
- 1842 – The Lombard Street riot erupts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
- 1849 – Joven Daniel wrecks at the coast of Araucanía, Chile, leading to allegations that local Mapuche tribes murdered survivors and kidnapped Elisa Bravo.
- 1855 – The first ascent of Monte Rosa, the second highest summit in the Alps.
- 1876 – Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.
- 1893 – Henry Perky patents shredded wheat.
- 1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea.
- 1907 – The start of the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island, the origin of the worldwide Scouting movement.
- 1911 – Harriet Quimby takes her pilot’s test and becomes the first U.S. woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator’s certificate.
- 1914 – The German Empire declares war on the Russian Empire at the opening of World War I. The Swiss Army mobilizes because of World War I.
- 1927 – The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party. This day is commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.
- 1933 – Anti-Fascist activists Bruno Tesch, Walter Möller, Karl Wolff, and August Lütgens are executed by the Nazi regime in Altona.
- 1936 – The Olympics opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.
- 1937 – Josip Broz Tito reads the resolution “Manifesto of constitutional congress of KPH” to the constitutive congress of KPH (Croatian Communist Party) in woods near Samobor.
- 1943 – World War II: Operation Tidal Wave also known as “Black Sunday”, was a failed American attempt to destroy Romanian oil fields.
- 1944 – World War II: The Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi German occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.
- 1946 – Leaders of the Russian Liberation Army, a force of Russian prisoners of war that collaborated with Nazi Germany, are executed in Moscow, Soviet Union for treason.
- 1950 – Guam is organized as a United States commonwealth as President Harry S. Truman signs the Guam Organic Act.
- 1957 – The United States and Canada form the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
- 1960 – Dahomey (later renamed Benin) declares independence from France.
- 1960 – Islamabad is declared the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.
- 1961 – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara orders the creation of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the nation’s first centralized military espionage organization.
- 1964 – The former Belgian Congo is renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- 1965 – Frank Herbert’s novel, Dune was published for the first time. It was named as the world’s best-selling science fiction novel in 2003.
- 1966 – Charles Whitman kills 16 people at the University of Texas at Austin before being killed by the police.
- 1966 – Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
- 1968 – The coronation is held of Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei.
- 1971 – The Concert for Bangladesh, organized by former Beatle George Harrison, is held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
- 1974 – Cyprus dispute: The United Nations Security Council authorizes the UNFICYP to create the “Green Line”, dividing Cyprus into two zones.
- 1980 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is elected President of Iceland and becomes the world’s first democratically elected female head of state.
- 1980 – A train crash kills 18 people in County Cork, Ireland.
- 1981 – MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles.
- 1984 – Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England.
- 1988 – A British soldier was killed in the Inglis Barracks bombing in London, England.
- 1993 – The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 comes to a peak.
- 1998 – The establishment of Muslim Medics, one of the largest student-led societies in Imperial College London that provides both academic and wellbeing support to medical students of all backgrounds.
- 2004 – A supermarket fire kills 396 people and injures 500 others in Asunción, Paraguay.
- 2007 – The I-35W Mississippi River bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses during the evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145.
- 2008 – The Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway begins operation as the fastest commuter rail system in the world.
- 2008 – Eleven mountaineers from international expeditions died on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth in the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering.
- 2017 – A suicide attack on a mosque in Herat, Afghanistan kills 20 people.
 Births on August 1
- 10 BC – Claudius, Roman emperor (d. 54)
- 126 – Pertinax, Roman emperor (d. 193)
- 845 – Sugawara no Michizane, Japanese scholar and politician (d. 903)
- 992 – Hyeonjong, Korean king (d. 1031)
- 1068 – Taizu, Chinese emperor (d. 1123)
- 1313 – Kōgon, Japanese emperor (d. 1364)
- 1377 – Go-Komatsu, Japanese emperor (d. 1433)
- 1385 – John FitzAlan, 13th Earl of Arundel (d. 1421)
- 1410 – Jan IV, count of Nassau-Dillenburg (d. 1475)
- 1492 – Wolfgang, German prince (d. 1566)
- 1520 – Sigismund II, Polish king (d. 1572)
- 1545 – Andrew Melville, Scottish theologian and scholar (d. 1622)
- 1555 – Edward Kelley, English spirit medium (d. 1597)
- 1579 – Luis Vélez de Guevara, Spanish author and playwright (d. 1644)
- 1626 – Sabbatai Zevi, Montenegrin rabbi and theorist (d. 1676)
- 1630 – Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, English politician, Lord High Treasurer (d. 1673)
- 1659 – Sebastiano Ricci, Italian painter (d. 1734)
- 1713 – Charles I, German duke and prince (d. 1780)
- 1714 – Richard Wilson, Welsh painter and academic (d. 1782)
- 1738 – Jacques François Dugommier, French general (d. 1794)
- 1744 – Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French soldier, biologist, and academic (d. 1829)
- 1770 – William Clark, American soldier, explorer, and politician, 4th Governor of Missouri Territory (d. 1838)
- 1778 – Mary Jefferson Eppes, daughter of Thomas Jefferson who died in childbirth (d. 1804)
- 1779 – Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, author, and poet (d. 1843)
- 1779 – Lorenz Oken, German-Swiss botanist, biologist, and ornithologist (d. 1851)
- 1809 – William B. Travis, American colonel and lawyer (d. 1836)
- 1815 – Richard Henry Dana, Jr., American lawyer and politician (d. 1882)
- 1818 – Maria Mitchell, American astronomer and academic (d. 1889)
- 1819 – Herman Melville, American novelist, short story writer, and poet (d. 1891)
- 1831 – Antonio Cotogni, Italian opera singer and educator (d. 1918)
- 1843 – Robert Todd Lincoln, American lawyer and politician, 35th United States Secretary of War (d. 1926)
- 1856 – George Coulthard, Australian footballer and cricketer (d. 1883)
- 1858 – Gaston Doumergue, French lawyer and politician, 13th President of France (d. 1937)
- 1858 – Hans Rott, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1884)
- 1860 – Bazil Assan, Romanian engineer and explorer (d. 1918)
- 1861 – Sammy Jones, Australian cricketer (d. 1951)
- 1865 – Isobel Lilian Gloag, English painter (d. 1917)
- 1871 – John Lester, American cricketer and soccer player (d. 1969)
- 1877 – George Hackenschmidt, Estonian-English wrestler and strongman (d. 1968)
- 1878 – Konstantinos Logothetopoulos, Greek physician and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1961)
- 1881 – Otto Toeplitz, German mathematician and academic (d. 1940)
- 1885 – George de Hevesy, Hungarian-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)
- 1889 – Walter Gerlach, German physicist and academic (d. 1979)
- 1891 – Karl Kobelt, Swiss lawyer and politician, 52nd President of the Swiss Confederation (d. 1968)
- 1893 – Alexander of Greece (d. 1920)
- 1894 – Ottavio Bottecchia, Italian cyclist (d. 1927)
- 1898 – Morris Stoloff, American composer and musical director (d. 1980)
- 1899 – Raymond Mays, English race car driver and businessman (d. 1980)
- 1900 – Otto Nothling, Australian cricketer and rugby player (d. 1965)
- 1901 – Francisco Guilledo, Filipino boxer (d. 1925)
- 1903 – Paul Horgan, American historian, author, and academic (d. 1995)
- 1905 – Helen Sawyer Hogg, American-Canadian astronomer and academic (d. 1993)
- 1907 – Eric Shipton, Sri Lankan-English mountaineer and explorer (d. 1977)
- 1910 – James Henry Govier, English painter and illustrator (d. 1974)
- 1910 – Walter Scharf, American pianist and composer (d. 2003)
- 1910 – Gerda Taro, German war photographer (d. 1937)
- 1911 – Jackie Ormes, American journalist and cartoonist (d. 1985)
- 1912 – David Brand, Australian politician, 19th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1979)
- 1912 – Gego, German-Venezuelan sculptor and academic (d. 1994)
- 1912 – Henry Jones, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1914 – Jack Delano, American photographer and composer (d. 1997)
- 1914 – Alan Moore, Australian painter and educator (d. 2015)
- 1914 – J. Lee Thompson, English-Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2002)
- 1916 – Fiorenzo Angelini, Italian cardinal (d. 2014)
- 1916 – Anne Hébert, Canadian author and poet (d. 2000)
- 1918 – T. J. Jemison, American minister and activist (d. 2013)
- 1919 – Stanley Middleton, English author (d. 2009)
- 1920 – Raul Renter, Estonian economist and chess player (d. 1992)
- 1921 – Jack Kramer, American tennis player, sailor, and sportscaster (d. 2009)
- 1921 – Pat McDonald, Australian actress (d. 1990)
- 1922 – Arthur Hill, Canadian-American actor (d. 2006)
- 1923 – Val Bettin, American actor
- 1924 – Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (d. 2015)
- 1924 – Frank Havens, American canoeist (d. 2018)
- 1924 – Marcia Mae Jones, American actress and singer (d. 2007)
- 1924 – Frank Worrell, Barbadian cricketer (d. 1967)
- 1925 – Ernst Jandl, Austrian poet and author (d. 2000)
- 1926 – George Hauptfuhrer, American basketball player and lawyer (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Hannah Hauxwell, English TV personality (d. 2018)
- 1927 – María Teresa López Boegeholz, Chilean oceanographer (d. 2006)
- 1927 – Anthony G. Bosco, American bishop (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Jack Shea, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Hafizullah Amin, Afghan educator and politician, Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1979)
- 1929 – Ann Calvello, American roller derby racer (d. 2006)
- 1929 – Leila Abashidze, Georgian actress (d. 2018)
- 1930 – Lionel Bart, English composer (d. 1999)
- 1930 – Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher (d. 2002)
- 1930 – Julie Bovasso, American actress and writer (d. 1991)
- 1930 – Lawrence Eagleburger, American lieutenant and politician, 62nd United States Secretary of State (d. 2011)
- 1930 – Károly Grósz, Hungarian politician, 51st Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 1996)
- 1930 – Geoffrey Holder, Trinidadian-American actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer (d. 2014)
- 1931 – Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1931 – Trevor Goddard, South African cricketer (d. 2016)
- 1932 – Meir Kahane, American-Israeli rabbi and activist, founded the Jewish Defense League (d. 1990)
- 1932 – Meena Kumari, Indian actress (d. 1972)
- 1933 – Dom DeLuise, American actor, singer, director, and producer (d. 2009)
- 1933 – Masaichi Kaneda, Japanese baseball player and manager (d. 2019)
- 1933 – Teri Shields, American actress, producer, and agent (d. 2012)
- 1933 – Dušan Třeštík, Czech historian and author (d. 2007)
- 1934 – John Beck, New Zealand cricketer (d. 2000)
- 1934 – Derek Birdsall, English graphic designer
- 1935 – Geoff Pullar, English cricketer (d. 2014)
- 1936 – W. D. Hamilton, Egyptian born British biologist, psychologist, and academic (d. 2000)
- 1936 – Yves Saint Laurent, Algerian-French fashion designer, co-founded Yves Saint Laurent (d. 2008)
- 1936 – Laurie Taylor, English sociologist, radio host, and academic
- 1937 – Al D’Amato, American lawyer and politician
- 1939 – Bob Frankford, English-Canadian physician and politician (d. 2015)
- 1939 – Terry Kiser, American actor
- 1939 – Stephen Sykes, English bishop and theologian (d. 2014)
- 1939 – Robert James Waller, American author and photographer (d. 2017)
- 1940 – Mervyn Kitchen, English cricketer and umpire
- 1940 – Henry Silverman, American businessman, founded Cendant
- 1940 – Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Iranian writer and actor
- 1941 – Ron Brown, American captain and politician, 30th United States Secretary of Commerce (d. 1996)
- 1941 – Étienne Roda-Gil, French songwriter and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- 1942 – Jerry Garcia, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1995)
- 1942 – Giancarlo Giannini, Italian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1944 – Dmitry Nikolayevich Filippov, Russian banker and politician (d. 1998)
- 1945 – Douglas Osheroff, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1946 – Boz Burrell, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and guitarist (d. 2006)
- 1946 – Rick Coonce, American drummer (d. 2011)
- 1946 – Richard O. Covey, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
- 1946 – Fiona Stanley, Australian epidemiologist and academic
- 1947 – Lorna Goodison, Jamaican poet and author
- 1947 – Chantal Montellier, French comics creator and artist
- 1948 – Avi Arad, Israeli-American screenwriter and producer, founded Marvel Studios
- 1948 – Cliff Branch, American football player
- 1948 – David Gemmell, English journalist and author (d. 2006)
- 1949 – Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Kyrgyzstani politician, 2nd President of Kyrgyzstan
- 1949 – Jim Carroll, American poet, author, and musician (d. 2009)
- 1949 – Ray Nettles, American football player (d. 2009)
- 1950 – Roy Williams, American basketball player and coach
- 1951 – Tim Bachman, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1951 – Tommy Bolin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1976)
- 1951 – Pete Mackanin, American baseball player, coach, and manager
- 1952 – Zoran Đinđić, Serbian philosopher and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Serbia (d. 2003)
- 1953 – Robert Cray, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1953 – Howard Kurtz, American journalist and author
- 1954 – Trevor Berbick, Jamaican-Canadian boxer (d. 2006)
- 1954 – James Gleick, American journalist and author
- 1954 – Benno Möhlmann, German footballer and manager
- 1957 – Taylor Negron, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2015)
- 1958 – Rob Buck, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2000)
- 1958 – Michael Penn, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1958 – Kiki Vandeweghe, American basketball player and coach
- 1959 – Joe Elliott, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1960 – Chuck D, American rapper and songwriter
- 1960 – Suzi Gardner, American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1962 – Jacob Matlala, South African boxer (d. 2013)
- 1963 – Demián Bichir, Mexican-American actor and producer
- 1963 – Coolio, American rapper, producer, and actor
- 1963 – John Carroll Lynch, American actor
- 1963 – Koichi Wakata, Japanese astronaut and engineer
- 1963 – Dean Wareham, New Zealand singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1964 – Adam Duritz, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1964 – Fiona Hyslop, Scottish businesswoman and politician
- 1964 – Augusta Read Thomas, American composer, conductor and educator
- 1965 – Brandt Jobe, American golfer
- 1965 – Sam Mendes, English director and producer
- 1966 – James St. James, American club promoter and author
- 1967 – Gregg Jefferies, American baseball player and coach
- 1967 – José Padilha, Brazilian director, producer and screenwriter
- 1968 – Stacey Augmon, American basketball player and coach
- 1968 – Dan Donegan, American heavy metal guitarist and songwriter
- 1968 – Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Japanese baseball player and sportscaster
- 1969 – Andrei Borissov, Estonian footballer and manager
- 1969 – Kevin Jarvis, American baseball player and scout
- 1969 – Graham Thorpe, English cricketer and journalist
- 1970 – Quentin Coryatt, American football player
- 1970 – David James, English footballer and manager
- 1970 – Eugenie van Leeuwen, Dutch cricketer
- 1972 – Nicke Andersson, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1972 – Christer Basma, Norwegian footballer and coach
- 1972 – Todd Bouman, American football player and coach
- 1972 – Thomas Woods, American historian, economist, and academic
- 1973 – Gregg Berhalter, American soccer player and coach
- 1973 – Veerle Dejaeghere, Belgian runner
- 1973 – Edurne Pasaban, Spanish mountaineer
- 1974 – Cher Calvin, American journalist
- 1974 – Marek Galiński, Polish cyclist (d. 2014)
- 1974 – Tyron Henderson, South African cricketer
- 1974 – Dennis Lawrence, Trinidadian footballer and coach
- 1974 – Beckie Scott, Canadian skier
- 1975 – Vhrsti, Czech author and illustrator
- 1976 – Don Hertzfeldt, American animator, producer, screenwriter, and voice actor
- 1976 – Søren Jochumsen, Danish footballer
- 1976 – Nwankwo Kanu, Nigerian footballer
- 1976 – David Nemirovsky, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1976 – Hasan Şaş, Turkish footballer and manager
- 1976 – Cristian Stoica, Romanian-Italian rugby player
- 1977 – Marc Denis, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
- 1977 – Haspop, French-Moroccan dancer, choreographer, and actor
- 1977 – Darnerien McCants, American-Canadian football player
- 1977 – Damien Saez, French singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1977 – Yoshi Tatsu, Japanese wrestler and boxer
- 1978 – Andy Blignaut, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1978 – Björn Ferry, Swedish biathlete
- 1978 – Dhani Harrison, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1978 – Chris Iwelumo, Scottish footballer
- 1978 – Edgerrin James, American football player
- 1979 – Junior Agogo, Ghanaian footballer
- 1979 – Nathan Fien, Australian-New Zealand rugby league player
- 1979 – Jason Momoa, American actor, director, and producer
- 1980 – Mancini, Brazilian footballer
- 1980 – Romain Barras, French decathlete
- 1980 – Esteban Paredes, Chilean footballer
- 1981 – Dean Cox, Australian footballer
- 1981 – Pia Haraldsen, Norwegian journalist and author
- 1981 – Christofer Heimeroth, German footballer
- 1981 – Stephen Hunt, Irish footballer
- 1981 – Jamie Jones-Buchanan, English rugby player
- 1982 – Basem Fathi, Jordanian footballer
- 1982 – Montserrat Lombard, English actress, director, and screenwriter
- 1983 – Bobby Carpenter, American football player
- 1983 – Craig Clarke, New Zealand rugby player
- 1983 – Julien Faubert, French footballer
- 1983 – David Gervasi, Swiss decathlete
- 1984 – Steve Feak, American game designer
- 1984 – Francesco Gavazzi, Italian cyclist
- 1984 – Brandon Kintzler, American baseball player
- 1984 – Bastian Schweinsteiger, German footballer
- 1985 – Stuart Holden, Scottish-American soccer player
- 1985 – Adam Jones, American baseball player
- 1985 – Cole Kimball, American baseball player
- 1985 – Tendai Mtawarira, South African rugby player
- 1985 – Kris Stadsgaard, Danish footballer
- 1985 – Dušan Švento, Slovak footballer
- 1986 – Damien Allen, English footballer
- 1986 – Anton Strålman, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1986 – Andrew Taylor, English footballer
- 1986 – Elena Vesnina, Russian tennis player
- 1986 – Mike Wallace, American football player
- 1987 – Iago Aspas, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Karen Carney, English women’s football winger
- 1987 – Sébastien Pocognoli, Belgian footballer
- 1987 – Lee Wallace, Scottish footballer
- 1988 – Mustafa Abdellaoue, Norwegian footballer
- 1988 – Patryk Małecki, Polish footballer
- 1988 – Bodene Thompson, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1989 – Madison Bumgarner, American baseball player
- 1989 – Tiffany Hwang, Korean American singer, songwriter, and actress
- 1990 – Aledmys Díaz, Cuban baseball player
- 1990 – Jean Hugues Gregoire, Mauritian swimmer
- 1990 – Elton Jantjies, South African rugby player
- 1991 – Piotr Malarczyk, Polish footballer
- 1991 – Marco Puntoriere, Italian footballer
- 1992 – Austin Rivers, American basketball player
- 1992 – Mrunal Thakur, Indian actress
- 1993 – Álex Abrines, Spanish basketball player
- 1993 – Leon Thomas III, American actor and singer
- 1994 – Sergeal Petersen, South African rugby player
- 1994 – Ayaka Wada, Japanese singer
- 1996 – Katie Boulter, English tennis player
- 2001 – Park Si-eun, South Korean actress
 Deaths on August 1
- 30 BC – Mark Antony, Roman general and politician (b. 83 BC)
- 371 – Eusebius of Vercelli, Italian bishop and saint (b. 283)
- 527 – Justin I, Byzantine emperor (b. 450)
- 873 – Thachulf, duke of Thuringia
- 946 – Ali ibn Isa al-Jarrah, Abbasid vizier (b. 859)
- 946 – Lady Xu Xinyue, Chinese queen (b. 902)
- 953 – Yingtian, Chinese Khitan empress (b. 879)
- 984 – Æthelwold, bishop of Winchester
- 1098 – Adhemar of Le Puy, French papal legate
- 1137 – Louis VI, king of France (b. 1081)
- 1146 – Vsevolod II of Kiev, Russian prince
- 1227 – Shimazu Tadahisa, Japanese warlord (b. 1179)
- 1252 – Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, Italian archbishop and explorer (b. 1180)
- 1299 – Conrad de Lichtenberg, Bishop of Strasbourg (b. 1240)
- 1402 – Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, English politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1341)
- 1457 – Lorenzo Valla, Italian author and educator (b. 1406)
- 1464 – Cosimo de’ Medici, Italian ruler (b. 1386)
- 1494 – Giovanni Santi, artist and father of Raphael (b. c. 1435)
- 1541 – Simon Grynaeus, German theologian and scholar (b. 1493)
- 1543 – Magnus I, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (b. 1488)
- 1546 – Peter Faber, French Jesuit theologian (b. 1506)
- 1557 – Olaus Magnus, Swedish archbishop, historian, and cartographer (b. 1490)
- 1580 – Albrecht Giese, Polish-German politician and diplomat (b. 1524)
- 1589 – Jacques Clément, French assassin of Henry III of France (b. 1567)
- 1603 – Matthew Browne, English politician (b. 1563)
- 1714 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain (b. 1665)
- 1787 – Alphonsus Maria de’ Liguori, Italian bishop and saint (b. 1696)
- 1795 – Clas Bjerkander, Swedish meteorologist, botanist, and entomologist (b. 1735)
- 1796 – Sir Robert Pigot, 2nd Baronet, English colonel and politician (b. 1720)
- 1798 – François-Paul Brueys d’Aigalliers, French admiral (b. 1753)
- 1807 – John Boorman, English cricketer (b. c. 1754)
- 1807 – John Walker, English actor, philologist, and lexicographer (b. 1732)
- 1808 – Lady Diana Beauclerk, English painter and illustrator (b. 1734)
- 1812 – Yakov Kulnev, Russian general (b. 1763)
- 1851 – William Joseph Behr, German publicist and academic (b. 1775)
- 1863 – Jind Kaur Majarani (Regent) of the Sikh Empire (b. 1817)
- 1866 – John Ross, American tribal chief (b. 1790)
- 1869 – Peter Julian Eymard, French Priest and Founder Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (b. 1811)
- 1869 – Richard Dry, Australian politician, 7th Premier of Tasmania (b. 1815)
- 1903 – Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman and scout (b. 1853)
- 1911 – Edwin Austin Abbey, American painter and illustrator (b. 1852)
- 1911 – Samuel Arza Davenport, American lawyer and politician (b. 1843)
- 1918 – John Riley Banister, American cowboy and police officer (b. 1854)
- 1920 – Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian lawyer and journalist (b. 1856)
- 1921 – T.J. Ryan, Australian politician, 19th Premier of Queensland (b. 1876)
- 1922 – Donát Bánki, Hungarian engineer (b. 1856)
- 1929 – Syd Gregory, Australian cricketer (b. 1870)
- 1938 – Edmund C. Tarbell, American painter and academic (b. 1862)
- 1943 – Lydia Litvyak, Russian lieutenant and pilot (b. 1921)
- 1944 – Manuel L. Quezon, Filipino soldier, lawyer, and politician, 2nd President of the Philippines (b. 1878)
- 1959 – Jean Behra, French race car driver (b. 1921)
- 1963 – Theodore Roethke, American poet (b. 1908)
- 1966 – Charles Whitman, American murderer (b. 1941)
- 1967 – Richard Kuhn, Austrian-German biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1900)
- 1970 – Frances Farmer, American actress (b. 1913)
- 1970 – Doris Fleeson, American journalist (b. 1901)
- 1970 – Otto Heinrich Warburg, German physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
- 1973 – Gian Francesco Malipiero, Italian composer and educator (b. 1882)
- 1973 – Walter Ulbricht, German soldier and politician (b. 1893)
- 1974 – Ildebrando Antoniutti, Italian cardinal (b. 1898)
- 1977 – Francis Gary Powers, American captain and pilot (b. 1929)
- 1980 – Patrick Depailler, French race car driver (b. 1944)
- 1980 – Strother Martin, American actor (b. 1919)
- 1981 – Paddy Chayefsky, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (b. 1923)
- 1982 – T. Thirunavukarasu, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (b. 1933)
- 1989 – John Ogdon, English pianist and composer (b. 1937)
- 1990 – Norbert Elias, German-Dutch sociologist, author, and academic (b. 1897)
- 1996 – Tadeusz Reichstein, Polish-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
- 1996 – Lucille Teasdale-Corti, Canadian physician and surgeon (b. 1929)
- 1998 – Eva Bartok, Hungarian-British actress (b. 1927)
- 2001 – Korey Stringer, American football player (b. 1974)
- 2003 – Guy Thys, Belgian footballer, coach, and manager (b. 1922)
- 2003 – Marie Trintignant, French actress and screenwriter (b. 1962)
- 2004 – Philip Abelson, American physicist and author (b. 1913)
- 2005 – Al Aronowitz, American journalist (b. 1928)
- 2005 – Wim Boost, Dutch cartoonist and educator (b. 1918)
- 2005 – Constant Nieuwenhuys, Dutch painter and sculptor (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Fahd of Saudi Arabia (b. 1923)
- 2006 – Bob Thaves, American illustrator (b. 1924)
- 2006 – Iris Marion Young, American political scientist and activist (b. 1949)
- 2007 – Tommy Makem, Irish singer-songwriter and banjo player (b. 1932)
- 2008 – Gertan Klauber, Czech-English actor (b. 1932)
- 2008 – Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1916)
- 2009 – Corazon Aquino, Filipino politician, 11th President of the Philippines (b. 1933)
- 2010 – Lolita Lebrón, Puerto Rican-American activist (b. 1919)
- 2010 – Eric Tindill, New Zealand rugby player and cricketer (b. 1910)
- 2012 – Aldo Maldera, Italian footballer and agent (b. 1953)
- 2012 – Douglas Townsend, American composer and musicologist (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Barry Trapnell, English cricketer and academic (b. 1924)
- 2013 – John Amis, English journalist and critic (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Gail Kobe, American actress and producer (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Babe Martin, American baseball player (b. 1920)
- 2013 – Toby Saks, American cellist and educator (b. 1942)
- 2013 – Wilford White, American football player (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Valyantsin Byalkevich, Belarusian footballer and manager (b. 1973)
- 2014 – Jan Roar Leikvoll, Norwegian author (b. 1974)
- 2014 – Charles T. Payne, American soldier (b. 1925)
- 2014 – Mike Smith, English radio and television host (b. 1955)
- 2015 – Stephan Beckenbauer, German footballer and manager (b. 1968)
- 2015 – Cilla Black, English singer and actress (b. 1943)
- 2015 – Bernard d’Espagnat, French physicist, philosopher, and author (b. 1921)
- 2015 – Bob Frankford, English-Canadian physician and politician (b. 1939)
- 2015 – Hong Yuanshuo, Chinese footballer and manager (b. 1948)
- 2016 – Queen Anne of Romania (b. 1923)
 Holidays and observances on August 1
- Armed Forces Day (Lebanon)
- Armed Forces Day (China) or Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Liberation Army (People’s Republic of China)
- Azerbaijani Language and Alphabet Day (Azerbaijan)
- Celebration of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 which ended the slavery in the British Empire, generally celebrated as a part of Carnival, as the Caribbean Carnival takes place at this time (British West Indies):
- Earliest day on which Caribana celebration can fall, celebrated on the first Weekend of August. (Toronto)
- Earliest day on which Emancipation Day can fall, celebrated on the first Monday of August. (Anguilla, the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands)
- Emancipation Day (Barbados, Bermuda, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago)
 
- Christian feast day:
- Abgar V of Edessa (Syrian Church)
- Alphonsus Maria de’ Liguori
- Æthelwold of Winchester
- Bernard Võ Văn Duệ (one of Vietnamese Martyrs)
- Blessed Gerhard Hirschfelder
- Eusebius of Vercelli
- Exuperius of Bayeux
- Felix of Girona
- Peter Apostle in Chains
- Procession of the Cross and the beginning of Dormition Fast (Eastern Orthodoxy)
- The Holy Maccabees
- August 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Earliest day on which August Bank Holiday (Ireland) can fall, while August 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of August.
- Earliest day on which Civic Holiday can fall, while August 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of August. (Canada)
- Earliest day on which Commerce Day, or Frídagur verslunarmanna, can fall, while August 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of August. (Iceland)
- Earliest day on which Constitution Day (Cook Islands) can fall, while August 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of August.
- Earliest day on which Farmers’ Day can fall, while August 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of August. (Zambia)
- Earliest day on which International Beer Day can fall, while August 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Friday of August.
- Earliest day on which Friendship Day can fall, while August 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday of August. (United States)
- Earliest day on which Kadooment Day can fall, while August 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of August (Barbados)
- Earliest day on which Labor Day (Samoa) can fall, while August 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of August (Samoa)
- Minden Day (United Kingdom)
- National Day, celebrates the independence of Benin from France in 1960.
- National Day, commemorates Switzerland becoming a single unit in 1291.
- Official Birthday and Coronation Day of the King of Tonga (Tonga)
- Parents’ Day (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Statehood Day (Colorado)
- Swiss National Day (Switzerland)
- The beginning of autumn observances in the Northern hemisphere and spring observances in the Southern hemisphere (Neopagan Wheel of the Year):
- Lughnasadh in the Northern hemisphere, Imbolc in the Southern hemisphere; traditionally begins on the eve of August 1. (Gaels, Ireland, Scotland, Neopagans)
- Lammas (England, Scotland, Neopagans)
- Pachamama Raymi (Quechuan in Ecuador and Peru)
 
- The first day of Carnaval del Pueblo (Burgess Park, London, England)
- Victory Day (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam)
- World Scout Scarf Day
- Yorkshire Day (Yorkshire, England)
 
 
 
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 July 23 in History
- 811 – Byzantine emperor Nikephoros I plunders the Bulgarian capital of Pliska and captures Khan Krum’s treasury.
- 1319 – A Knights Hospitaller fleet scores a crushing victory over an Aydinid fleet off Chios.
- 1632 – Three hundred colonists bound for New France depart from Dieppe, France.
- 1677 – Scanian War: Denmark–Norway captures the harbor town of Marstrand from Sweden.
- 1793 – Kingdom of Prussia re-conquers Mainz from France.
- 1813 – Sir Thomas Maitland is appointed as the first Governor of Malta, transforming the island from a British protectorate to a de facto colony.
- 1821 – While the Mora Rebellion continues, Greeks capture Monemvasia Castle. Turkish troops and citizens are transferred to Asia Minor’s coasts.
- 1829 – In the United States, William Austin Burt patents the typographer, a precursor to the typewriter.
- 1840 – The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Henry Halleck takes command of the Union Army.
- 1874 – Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos is appointed the Archbishop of the Portuguese colonial enclave of Goa, India.
- 1881 – The Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina is signed in Buenos Aires.
- 1885 – President Ulysses S. Grant dies of throat cancer.
- 1903 – The Ford Motor Company sells its first car.
- 1908 – The Second Constitution accepted by the Ottomans.
- 1914 – Austria-Hungary issues a series of demands in an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia accepts all but one of those demands and Austria declares war on July 28.
- 1919 – Prince Regent Aleksander Karađorđević signs the decree establishing the University of Ljubljana
- 1921 – The Communist Party of China (CPC) is established at the founding National Congress.
- 1926 – Fox Film buys the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.
- 1927 – The first station of the Indian Broadcasting Company goes on the air in Bombay.
- 1936 – In Catalonia, Spain, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of Socialist and Communist parties.
- 1940 – The United States’ Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration on the U.S. non-recognition policy of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
- 1942 – World War II: The German offensives Operation Edelweiss and Operation Braunschweig begin.
- 1942 – Bulgarian poet and Communist leader Nikola Vaptsarov is executed by firing squad.
- 1943 – The Rayleigh bath chair murder occurred in Rayleigh, Essex, England.
- 1943 – World War II: The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
- 1945 – The post-war legal processes against Philippe Pétain begin.
- 1952 – General Muhammad Naguib leads the Free Officers Movement (formed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the real power behind the coup) in overthrowing King Farouk of Egypt.
- 1961 – The Sandinista National Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua.
- 1962 – Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.
- 1962 – The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos is signed.
- 1962 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
- 1967 – Detroit Riots: In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city. It ultimately kills 43 people, injures 342 and burns about 1,400 buildings.
- 1968 – Glenville shootout: In Cleveland, Ohio, a violent shootout between a Black Militant organization and the Cleveland Police Department occurs. During the shootout, a riot begins and lasts for five days.
- 1968 – The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying ten crew and 38 passengers is taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft was en route from Rome, to Lod, Israel.
- 1970 – Qaboos bin Said al Said becomes Sultan of Oman after overthrowing his father, Said bin Taimur initiating massive reforms, modernization programs and end to a decade long civil war.
- 1972 – The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite.
- 1974 – The Greek military junta collapses, and former Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis is invited to lead the new government, beginning Greece’s metapolitefsi era.
- 1980 – Phạm Tuân becomes the first Vietnamese citizen and the first Asian in space when he flies aboard the Soyuz 37 mission as an Intercosmos Research Cosmonaut.
- 1982 – Outside Santa Clarita, California, actor Vic Morrow and two children are killed when a helicopter crashes onto them while shooting a scene from Twilight Zone: The Movie.
- 1983 – Thirteen Sri Lanka Army soldiers are killed after a deadly ambush by the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
- 1983 – Gimli Glider: Air Canada Flight 143 runs out of fuel and makes a deadstick landing at Gimli, Manitoba.
- 1988 – General Ne Win, effective ruler of Burma since 1962, resigns after pro-democracy protests.
- 1992 – A Vatican commission, led by Joseph Ratzinger, establishes that limiting certain rights of homosexual people and non-married couples is not equivalent to discrimination on grounds of race or gender.
- 1992 – Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia.
- 1995 – Comet Hale–Bopp is discovered; it becomes visible to the naked eye on Earth nearly a year later.
- 1997 – Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel.
- 1999 – ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo, Japan by Yuji Nishizawa.
- 1999 – Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-93, with Eileen Collins becoming the first female space shuttle commander. The shuttle also carried and deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
- 2005 – Three bombs explode in the Naama Bay area of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, killing 88 people.
- 2014 – TransAsia Airways Flight 222 crashes in Xixi village near Huxi, Penghu, during approach to Phengu Airport. 48 of the 58 people on board are killed and five more people on the ground are injured.
- 2015 – NASA announces discovery of Kepler-452b by Kepler.
- 2016 – Kabul twin bombing occurred in the vicinity of Deh Mazang when protesters, mostly from the Shiite Hazara minority, were marching against route changing of the TUTAP power project. At least 80 people were killed and 260 were injured.
- 2018 – A wildfire in East Attica, Greece caused the death of 102 people. It was the deadliest wildfire in history of Greece and the second-deadliest in the world, in the 21st century, after the 2009 bushfires in Australia that killed 180.
 Births on July 23
- 1301 – Otto, Duke of Austria (d. 1339)
- 1339 – Louis I, Duke of Anjou (d. 1384)
- 1370 – Pier Paolo Vergerio the Elder, humanist (d. 1444 or 1445)
- 1401 – Francesco I Sforza, Italian husband of Bianca Maria Visconti (d. 1466)
- 1441 – Danjong of Joseon, King of Joseon (d. 1457)
- 1503 – Anne of Bohemia and Hungary (d. 1547)
- 1614 – Bonaventura Peeters the Elder, Flemish painter (d. 1652)
- 1635 – Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, New France garrison commander (d. 1660)
- 1649 – Pope Clement XI (d. 1721)
- 1705 – Francis Blomefield, English historian and author (d. 1752)
- 1713 – Luís António Verney, Portuguese philosopher and pedagogue (d. 1792)
- 1773 – Thomas Brisbane, Scottish general and politician, 6th Governor of New South Wales (d. 1860)
- 1775 – Étienne-Louis Malus, French physicist and mathematician (d. 1812)
- 1777 – Philipp Otto Runge, German painter and illustrator (d. 1810)
- 1796 – Franz Berwald, Swedish surgeon and composer (d. 1868)
- 1802 – Manuel María Lombardini, Mexican general and president (1853) (d. 1853)
- 1823 – Alexandre-Antonin Taché, Canadian archbishop and missionary (d. 1894)
- 1838 – Édouard Colonne, French violinist and conductor (d. 1910)
- 1851 – Peder Severin Krøyer, Norwegian-Danish painter (d. 1909)
- 1856 – Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian lawyer and journalist (d. 1920)
- 1864 – Apolinario Mabini, Filipino lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Philippines (d. 1903)
- 1865 – Henry Norris, English businessman and politician (d. 1934)
- 1866 – Francesco Cilea, Italian composer and academic (d. 1950)
- 1878 – James Thomas Milton Anderson, Canadian lawyer and politician, 5th Premier of Saskatchewan (d. 1946)
- 1882 – Kâzım Karabekir, Turkish general and politician, 5th Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (b. 1948)
- 1883 – Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, French-English field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of the County of London (d. 1963)
- 1884 – Emil Jannings, Swiss-German actor (d. 1950)
- 1885 – Izaak Killam, Canadian financier and philanthropist (d. 1955)
- 1885 – Georges V. Matchabelli, Georgian-American businessman, created Prince Matchabelli perfume (d. 1935)
- 1886 – Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish historian and diplomat (d. 1978)
- 1886 – Walter H. Schottky, Swiss-German physicist and engineer (d. 1976)
- 1888 – Raymond Chandler, American crime novelist and screenwriter (d. 1959)
- 1891 – Louis T. Wright, American surgeon and civil rights activist (d. 1952)
- 1892 – Haile Selassie, Ethiopian emperor (d. 1975)
- 1894 – Arthur Treacher, English-American actor and television personality (d. 1975)
- 1895 – Aileen Pringle, American actress (d. 1989)
- 1898 – Daniel Cosío Villegas, Mexican historian, economist (d. 1976)
- 1898 – Bengt Djurberg, Swedish actor and singer (d. 1941)
- 1898 – Red Dutton, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1987)
- 1898 – Herman Kruusenberg, Estonian wrestler (d. 1970)
- 1898 – Jacob Marschak, Ukrainian-American economist, journalist, and author (d. 1977)
- 1899 – Gustav Heinemann, German lawyer and politician, 3rd President of West Germany (d. 1976)
- 1900 – Julia Davis Adams, American author and journalist (d. 1993)
- 1900 – John Babcock, Canadian-American sergeant (d. 2010)
- 1900 – Inger Margrethe Boberg, Danish folklore researcher and writer (d. 1957)
- 1901 – Hank Worden, American actor and singer (d. 1992)
- 1901 – Isabel Luberza Oppenheimer, Puerto Rican brothel owner and madam in barrio Maragüez, Ponce, Puerto Rico (d. 1974)
- 1905 – Leopold Engleitner, Austrian author and educator (d. 2013)
- 1906 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- 1906 – Chandra Shekhar Azad, Indian activist (d. 1931)
- 1912 – M. H. Abrams, American author, critic, and academic (d. 2015)
- 1912 – Michael Wilding, English actor (d. 1979)
- 1913 – Michael Foot, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Employment (d. 2010)
- 1914 – Nassos Daphnis, Greek-American painter (d.2010)
- 1914 – Virgil Finlay, American illustrator (d. 1971)
- 1914 – Elly Annie Schneider, German-American actress (d. 2004)
- 1916 – Laurel Martyn, Australian ballerina and choreographer (d. 2013)
- 1918 – Abraham Bueno de Mesquita, Dutch comedian and actor (d. 2005)
- 1918 – Ruth Duccini, American actress (d. 2014)
- 1918 – Pee Wee Reese, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1999)
- 1921 – Calvert DeForest, American actor (d. 2007)
- 1922 – Damiano Damiani, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2013)
- 1922 – Jenny Pike, Canadian WWII servicewoman and photographer (d. 2004)
- 1923 – Luis Aloma, Cuban-American baseball player (d. 1997)
- 1923 – Morris Halle, Latvian-American linguist and academic (d. 2018)
- 1923 – Amalia Mendoza, Mexican singer and actress (d. 2001)
- 1924 – Gavin Lambert, English-American screenwriter and author (d. 2005)
- 1924 – Gazanfer Bilge, Turkish wrestler (d. 2008)
- 1925 – Tajuddin Ahmad, Bangladeshi politician, 1st Prime Minister of Bangladesh (d. 1975)
- 1925 – Quett Masire, Botswana politician, the former Vice-President of Botswana (d. 2017)
- 1925 – Alain Decaux, French historian and author (d. 2016)
- 1925 – Gloria DeHaven, American actress and singer (d. 2016)
- 1926 – Ludvík Vaculík, Czech journalist and author (d. 2015)
- 1927 – Gérard Brach, French director and screenwriter (d. 2006)
- 1928 – Leon Fleisher, American pianist and conductor
- 1928 – Vera Rubin, American astronomer and academic (d. 2016)
- 1928 – Hubert Selby, Jr., American author and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- 1929 – Danny Barcelona, American drummer (d. 2007)
- 1929 – Lateef Jakande, Nigerian journalist and politician, 5th Governor of Lagos State
- 1931 – Te Atairangikaahu, Māori queen (d. 2006)
- 1931 – Claude Fournier, Canadian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
- 1931 – Guy Fournier, Canadian author and screenwriter
- 1933 – Raimund Abraham, Austrian architect, designed the Austrian Cultural Forum (d. 2010)
- 1933 – Bert Convy, American actor, singer, and game show host (d. 1991)
- 1933 – Benedict Groeschel, American priest, psychologist, and talk show host (d. 2014)
- 1933 – Richard Rogers, Italian-English architect, designed the Millennium Dome and Lloyd’s building
- 1935 – Jim Hall, American race car driver
- 1936 – Don Drysdale, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1993)
- 1936 – Anthony Kennedy, American lawyer and jurist
- 1937 – Dave Webster, American football player and engineer
- 1938 – Juliet Anderson, American porn actress and producer (d. 2010)
- 1938 – Ronny Cox, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1938 – Charles Harrelson, American murderer (d. 2007)
- 1938 – Bert Newton, Australian actor and television host
- 1940 – Danielle Collobert, French author, poet, and journalist (d. 1978)
- 1940 – Don Imus, American radio host (d. 2019)
- 1940 – Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Italian economist and politician, Italian Minister of Finance (d. 2010)
- 1941 – Christopher Andrew, English historian and academic
- 1941 – Richie Evans, American race car driver (d. 1985)
- 1941 – Sergio Mattarella, Italian lawyer, judge, and politician, 12th President of Italy
- 1942 – Sallyanne Atkinson, Australian journalist and politician, Lord Mayor of Brisbane
- 1942 – Madeline Bell, American singer-songwriter
- 1942 – Richard E. Dauch, American businessman, co-founded American Axle (d. 2013)
- 1942 – Dimitris Liantinis, Greek philosopher and author (d. 1998)
- 1943 – Randall Forsberg, American scientist (d. 2007)
- 1943 – Tony Joe White, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2018)
- 1944 – Dino Danelli, American drummer
- 1944 – Maria João Pires, Portuguese pianist
- 1945 – Edward Gregson, English composer and educator
- 1945 – Jon Sammels, English footballer
- 1946 – Andy Mackay, English oboe player and composer
- 1946 – René Ricard, American poet, painter, and critic (d. 2014)
- 1947 – Gardner Dozois, American journalist and author (d. 2018)
- 1947 – David Essex, English singer-songwriter, and actor
- 1947 – Torsten Palm, Swedish race car driver
- 1947 – Robin Simon, English historian, critic, and academic
- 1948 – Ross Cranston, Australian-English lawyer, judge, and politician, Solicitor General for England and Wales
- 1948 – John Cushnahan, Northern Irish educator and politician
- 1948 – John Hall, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and politician
- 1948 – Stanisław Targosz, Polish general (d. 2013)
- 1949 – Clive Rice, South African cricketer and coach (d. 2015)
- 1950 – Alex Kozinski, Romanian-born American lawyer and judge
- 1950 – Ian Thomas, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1950 – Blair Thornton, Canadian guitarist and songwriter
- 1950 – Alan Turner, Australian cricketer
- 1952 – Paul Hibbert, Australian cricketer and coach (d. 2008)
- 1952 – Bill Nyrop, American ice hockey player and coach (d. 1995)
- 1952 – John Rutsey, Canadian drummer (d. 2008)
- 1952 – Janis Siegel, American jazz singer (The Manhattan Transfer)
- 1953 – Graham Gooch, English cricketer and coach
- 1953 – Najib Razak, Malaysian politician, 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia
- 1957 – Jo Brand, English comedian, actress, and screenwriter
- 1957 – Nikos Galis, American basketball player
- 1957 – Theo van Gogh, Dutch actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- 1957 – Quentin Willson, English TV presenter, Top Gear.
- 1958 – Ken Green, American golfer
- 1958 – Tomy Winata, Indonesian businessman and philanthropist, founded the Artha Graha Peduli Foundation
- 1959 – Nancy Savoca, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1960 – Gary Ella, Australian rugby player
- 1960 – Susan Graham, American soprano and educator
- 1960 – Al Perez, American wrestler
- 1961 – André Ducharme, Canadian comedian and author
- 1961 – Michael Durant, American pilot and author
- 1961 – Martin Gore, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1961 – Woody Harrelson, American actor and activist
- 1961 – Milind Gunaji, Indian actor, model, television show host, and author
- 1962 – Eriq La Salle, American actor, director, and producer
- 1962 – Mark Laurie, Australian rugby league player
- 1962 – Alain Lefèvre, Canadian pianist and composer
- 1963 – Slobodan Zivojinovic, Serbian tennis player
- 1964 – Uwe Barth, German politician
- 1964 – Nick Menza, German drummer and songwriter (d. 2016)
- 1965 – Rob Dickinson, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1965 – Slash, English-American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1967 – Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2014)
- 1968 – Elden Campbell, American basketball player
- 1968 – Gary Payton, American basketball player and actor
- 1968 – Stephanie Seymour, American model and actress
- 1969 – Andrew Cassels, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1970 – Charisma Carpenter, American actress
- 1970 – Thea Dorn, German author and playwright
- 1970 – Sam Watters, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1971 – Dalvin DeGrate, American rapper and producer
- 1971 – Alison Krauss, American singer-songwriter and fiddler
- 1971 – Joel Stein, American journalist
- 1972 – Suat Kılıç, Turkish journalist, lawyer, and politician, Turkish Minister of Youth and Sports
- 1972 – Floyd Reifer, Barbadian cricketer and coach
- 1972 – Marlon Wayans, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1973 – Nomar Garciaparra, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1973 – Fran Healy, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1973 – Himesh Reshammiya, Indian singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and director
- 1973 – Andrea Scanavacca, Italian rugby player and manager
- 1974 – Terry Glenn, American football player and coach (d. 2017)
- 1974 – Maurice Greene, American sprinter
- 1974 – Rik Verbrugghe, Belgian cyclist
- 1975 – Dan Rogerson, English politician
- 1976 – Judit Polgár, Hungarian chess player
- 1977 – Scott Clemmensen, American ice hockey player and coach
- 1977 – Gail Emms, English badminton player
- 1977 – Néicer Reasco, Ecuadorian footballer
- 1977 – Shawn Thornton, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978 – Stuart Elliott, Northern Irish footballer
- 1978 – Stefanie Sun, Singaporean singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1978 – Lauren Groff, American novelist and short story writer
- 1979 – Perro Aguayo Jr., Mexican wrestler and promoter (d. 2015)
- 1979 – Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Greek footballer
- 1979 – Richard Sims, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1979 – Ricardo Sperafico, Brazilian race car driver
- 1979 – Cathleen Tschirch, German sprinter
- 1980 – Sandeep Parikh, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1980 – Michelle Williams, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
- 1981 – Steve Jocz, Canadian singer-songwriter, drummer, and director
- 1981 – Dmitriy Karpov, Kazakhstani decathlete
- 1981 – Aleksandr Kulik, Estonian footballer
- 1981 – Jarkko Nieminen, Finnish tennis player
- 1982 – Ömer Aysan Barış, Turkish footballer
- 1982 – Joe Mather, American baseball player
- 1982 – Gökhan Ünal, Turkish footballer
- 1982 – Gerald Wallace, American basketball player
- 1982 – Paul Wesley, American actor, director, and producer
- 1983 – Bec Hewitt, Australian actress
- 1983 – Aaron Peirsol, American swimmer
- 1983 – David Strettle, English rugby player
- 1984 – Walter Gargano, Uruguayan footballer
- 1984 – Matthew Murphy, English singer and guitarist
- 1984 – Brandon Roy, American basketball player
- 1984 – Celeste Thorson, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
- 1985 – Luis Ángel Landín, Mexican footballer
- 1986 – Aya Uchida, Japanese voice actress and singer
- 1986 – Nelson Philippe, French race car driver
- 1986 – Yelena Sokolova, Russian long jumper
- 1987 – Alessio Cerci, Italian footballer
- 1987 – Felipe Dylon, Brazilian singer
- 1987 – Serdar Kurtuluş, Turkish footballer
- 1989 – Daniel Radcliffe, English actor
- 1989 – Donald Young, American tennis player
- 1990 – Kevin Reynolds, Canadian figure skater
- 1991 – Lauren Mitchell, Australian gymnast
- 1991 – Jarrod Wallace, Australian rugby league footballer
- 1992 – Danny Ings, English footballer
- 1996 – Alexandra Andresen, Norwegian heiress and equestrian
 Deaths on July 23
- 955 – He Ning, Chinese chancellor (b. 898)
- 997 – Nuh II, Samanid emir (b. 963)
- 1100 – Warner of Grez, French nobleman, relative of Godfrey of Bouillon
- 1227 – Qiu Chuji, Chinese religious leader, founded the Dragon Gate Taoism (b. 1148)
- 1298 – Thoros III, Armenian king (b. c. 1271)
- 1373 – Bridget of Sweden, Swedish mystic and saint, founded the Bridgettine Order (b. 1303)
- 1403 – Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester, English rebel (b. 1343)
- 1531 – Louis de Brézé, French husband of Diane de Poitiers
- 1536 – Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1519)
- 1562 – Götz von Berlichingen, German knight and poet (b. 1480)
- 1584 – John Day, English printer (b. 1522)
- 1596 – Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (b. 1526)
- 1645 – Michael I, Russian tsar (b. 1596)
- 1692 – Gilles Ménage, French lawyer, philologist, and scholar (b. 1613)
- 1727 – Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt, English politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1661)
- 1757 – Domenico Scarlatti, Italian harpsichord player and composer (b. 1685)
- 1773 – George Edwards, English biologist and ornithologist (b. 1693)
- 1781 – John Joachim Zubly, Swiss-American pastor and politician (b. 1724)
- 1793 – Roger Sherman, American lawyer and politician (b. 1721)
- 1833 – Anselmo de la Cruz, Chilean politician, Chilean Minister of Finance (b. 1777)
- 1853 – Andries Pretorius, South African general (b. 1798)
- 1875 – Isaac Singer, American businessman, founded the Singer Corporation (b. 1811)
- 1878 – Carl von Rokitansky, Bohemian physician, pathologist, and politician (b. 1804)
- 1885 – Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (b. 1822)
- 1904 – John Douglas, English-Australian politician, 7th Premier of Queensland (b. 1828)
- 1909 – Frederick Holder, Australian politician, 19th Premier of South Australia (b. 1850)
- 1916 – William Ramsay, Scottish-English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- 1919 – Spyridon Lambros, Greek historian and politician, 100th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1851)
- 1920 – Conrad Kohrs, German-American rancher and politician (b. 1835)
- 1924 – Frank Frost Abbott, American author and scholar (b. 1850)
- 1926 – Viktor Vasnetsov, Russian painter (b. 1848)
- 1927 – Reginald Dyer, British brigadier general (b. 1864)
- 1930 – Glenn Curtiss, American pilot and engineer (b. 1878)
- 1932 – Tenby Davies, Welsh runner (b. 1884)
- 1936 – Anna Abrikosova, Russian linguist (b. 1882)
- 1941 – George Lyman Kittredge, American scholar and educator (b. 1860)
- 1941 – José Quiñones Gonzales, Peruvian soldier and pilot (b. 1914)
- 1942 – Adam Czerniaków, Polish engineer and politician (b. 1880)
- 1942 – Andy Ducat, English cricketer and footballer (b. 1886)
- 1948 – D. W. Griffith, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1875)
- 1950 – Shigenori Tōgō, Japanese politician and diplomat, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1882)
- 1951 – Robert J. Flaherty, American director and producer (b. 1884)
- 1951 – Philippe Pétain, French general and politician, 119th Prime Minister of France (b. 1856)
- 1954 – Herman Groman, American runner (b. 1882)
- 1955 – Cordell Hull, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 47th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1871)
- 1957 – Bob Shiring, American football player and coach (b. 1870)
- 1966 – Montgomery Clift, American actor (b. 1920)
- 1968 – Henry Hallett Dale, English pharmacologist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)
- 1971 – Van Heflin, American actor (b. 1910)
- 1972 – Esther Applin, American geologist and paleontologist (b. 1895)
- 1973 – Eddie Rickenbacker, American pilot and race car driver, founded Rickenbacker Motors (b. 1890)
- 1979 – Joseph Kessel, French journalist and author (b. 1898)
- 1980 – Sarto Fournier, Canadian lawyer and politician, 38th Mayor of Montreal (b. 1908)
- 1980 – Keith Godchaux, American keyboard player and songwriter (b. 1948)
- 1980 – Mollie Steimer, Russian activist (b. 1897)
- 1982 – Vic Morrow, American actor (b. 1929)
- 1983 – Georges Auric, French composer (b. 1899)
- 1985 – Johnny Wardle, English cricketer and manager (b. 1923)
- 1989 – Donald Barthelme, American short story writer and novelist (b. 1931)
- 1990 – Kenjiro Takayanagi, Japanese engineer (b. 1899)
- 1996 – Jean Muir, American actress (b. 1911)
- 1997 – Chūhei Nambu, Japanese jumper and journalist (b. 1904)
- 1999 – Hassan II of Morocco (b. 1929)
- 2001 – Eudora Welty, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1909)
- 2002 – Leo McKern, Australian-English actor (b. 1920)
- 2002 – William Luther Pierce, American activist and author (b. 1933)
- 2002 – Chaim Potok, American novelist and rabbi (b. 1929)
- 2002 – Clark Gesner, American author and composer (b. 1938)
- 2003 – James E. Davis, American police officer and politician (b. 1962)
- 2004 – Mehmood Ali, Indian actor, director, and producer (b. 1932)
- 2004 – Carlos Paredes, Portuguese guitarist and composer (b. 1925)
- 2004 – Piero Piccioni, Italian pianist, conductor, and composer (b. 1921)
- 2005 – Ted Greene, American guitarist and journalist (b. 1946)
- 2006 – Jean-Paul Desbiens, Canadian journalist and academic (b. 1927)
- 2007 – Ron Miller, American songwriter and producer (b. 1933)
- 2007 – Mohammed Zahir Shah, Afghan king (b. 1914)
- 2008 – Kurt Furgler, Swiss lawyer and politician, 70th President of the Swiss Confederation (b. 1924)
- 2009 – E. Lynn Harris, American author and screenwriter (b. 1955)
- 2010 – Daniel Schorr, American journalist and author (b. 1916)
- 2011 – Amy Winehouse, English singer-songwriter (b. 1983)
- 2012 – Margaret Mahy, New Zealand author (b. 1936)
- 2012 – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut (b. 1951)
- 2012 – Lakshmi Sahgal, Indian soldier and politician (b. 1914)
- 2012 – Esther Tusquets, Spanish publisher and author (b. 1936)
- 2012 – José Luis Uribarri, Spanish television host and director (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Dominguinhos, Brazilian singer-songwriter and accordion player (b. 1941)
- 2013 – Pauline Clarke, English author (b. 1921)
- 2013 – Arthur J. Collingsworth, American diplomat (b. 1944)
- 2013 – Emile Griffith, American boxer and trainer (b. 1938)
- 2013 – Kim Jong-hak, South Korean director and producer (b. 1951)
- 2013 – Djalma Santos, Brazilian footballer (b. 1929)
- 2014 – Dora Bryan, English actress and restaurateur (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Norman Leyden, American composer and conductor (b. 1917)
- 2014 – Ariano Suassuna, Brazilian author and playwright (b. 1927)
- 2014 – Jordan Tabor, English footballer (b. 1990)
- 2015 – Shigeko Kubota, Japanese-American sculptor and director (b. 1937)
- 2015 – Don Oberdorfer, American journalist, author, and academic (b. 1931)
- 2015 – William Wakefield Baum, American cardinal (b. 1926)
- 2017 – John Kundla, American basketball coach (b. 1916)
 Holidays and observances on July 23
- Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafari)
- Children’s Day (Indonesia)
- Christian feast day:
- Bridget of Sweden
- Heiromartyr Phocas (Eastern Orthodox)
- John Cassian (Western Christianity)
- Liborius of Le Mans
- Margarita María
- Mercè Prat i Prat
- Rasyphus and Ravennus
- July 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- National Remembrance Day (Papua New Guinea)
- Renaissance Day (Oman)
- Revolution Day (Egypt)
 
 
 
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 May 22 in History
- 192 – Dong Zhuo is assassinated by his adopted son Lü Bu.
- 760 – Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet.
- 853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt.
- 1176 – The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to assassinate Saladin near Aleppo.
- 1200 – King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet.
- 1246 – Henry Raspe is elected anti-king of the Kingdom of Germany in opposition to Conrad IV.
- 1254 – Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty.
- 1370 – Brussels massacre: Hundreds of Jews are murdered and the rest of the Jewish community is banished from Brussels, Belgium, for allegedly desecrating consecrated Host.
- 1377 – Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.
- 1455 – Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
- 1520 – The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl takes place during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish.
- 1629 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck ending Danish intervention in the Thirty Years’ War.
- 1762 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg.
- 1762 – Trevi Fountain is officially completed and inaugurated in Rome.
- 1766 – A large earthquake causes heavy damage and loss of life in Istanbul and the Marmara region.
- 1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.
- 1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.
- 1809 – On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna, Austria), Napoleon I is repelled by an enemy army for the first time.
- 1816 – A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots over high unemployment and rising grain costs, and the riots spread to Ely the next day.
- 1819 – SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
- 1840 – The penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
- 1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
- 1849 – Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, making him the only U.S. president to ever hold a patent.
- 1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made regarding Southerners and slavery.
- 1863 – American Civil War: Union forces begin the Siege of Port Hudson which lasts 48 days, the longest siege in U.S. military history.
- 1864 – American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army’s Red River Campaign ends in failure.
- 1872 – Reconstruction Era: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law, restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
- 1900 – The Associated Press is formed in New York City as a non-profit news cooperative.
- 1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine”.
- 1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, the only volcano besides Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous U.S. during the 20th century.
- 1915 – Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246.
- 1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces the communists in Kuomintang China.
- 1927 – Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world’s most destructive earthquakes.
- 1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
- 1941 – During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops take Fallujah.
- 1942 – Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies.
- 1943 – Joseph Stalin disbands the Comintern.
- 1947 – Cold War: The Truman Doctrine goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece.
- 1957 – South Africa’s government approves of racial separation in universities.
- 1958 – The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a watershed in the race relations of various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total deaths is estimated at 300, mostly Tamils.
- 1960 – The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
- 1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode on board.
- 1963 – Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis is shot in an assassination attempt, and dies five days later.
- 1964 – Lyndon B. Johnson launches the Great Society.
- 1967 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping.
- 1967 – L’Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burns down, resulting in 323 dead or missing and 150 injured, the most devastating fire in Belgian history.
- 1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
- 1969 – Apollo 10’s lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon’s surface.
- 1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
- 1972 – Over 400 women in Derry, Northern Ireland attack the offices of Sinn Féin following the shooting by the Irish Republican Army of a young British soldier on leave.
- 1987 – Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India.
- 1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.
- 1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.
- 1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.
- 1994 – A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti goes into effect to punish its military rulers for not reinstating the country’s ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
- 1996 – The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting.
- 1998 – A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton.
- 2000 – In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna.
- 2002 – Civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murder of four girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
- 2010 – Air India Express Boeing 737 crashes over a cliff upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of 166 people on board, becoming the deadliest crash involving a Boeing 737.
- 2010 – Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2–0 in the Uefa Champions League final in Madrid, Spain to become the first, and so far only, Italian team to win the historic treble (Serie A, Coppa Italia, Champions League).
- 2011 – An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and wreaking $2.8 billion in damages, the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.
- 2012 – Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m).
- 2014 – General Prayut Chan-o-cha becomes interim leader of Thailand in a military coup d’état, following six months of political turmoil.
- 2014 – An explosion occurs in Ürümqi, capital of China’s far-western Xinjiang region, resulting in at least 43 deaths and 91 injuries.
- 2015 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum.
- 2017 – Twenty-two people are killed at an Ariana Grande concert in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.
- 2017 – United States President Donald Trump visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall.
 Births on May 22
- 626 – Itzam K’an Ahk I, Mayan king (d. 686)
- 1009 – Su Xun, Chinese writer (d. 1066)
- 1408 – Annamacharya, Hindu saint (d. 1503)
- 1539 – Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (d. 1621)
- 1622 – Louis de Buade de Frontenac, French soldier and governor (d. 1698)
- 1644 – Gabriël Grupello, Flemish Baroque sculptor (d. 1730)
- 1650 – Richard Brakenburgh, Dutch Golden Age painter (d. 1702)
- 1694 – Daniel Gran, Austrian painter (d. 1757)
- 1715 – François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, French cardinal and diplomat (d. 1794)
- 1733 – Hubert Robert, French painter (d. 1808)
- 1752 – Louis Legendre, French butcher and politician (d. 1797)
- 1762 – Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, English politician (d. 1834)
- 1770 – Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom (d. 1840)
- 1772 – Ram Mohan Roy, Indian philosopher and reformer (d. 1833)
- 1782 – Hirose Tansō, Japanese neo-Confucian scholar, teacher, writer (d. 1856)
- 1783 – William Sturgeon, English physicist and inventor, invented the electromagnet and electric motor (d. 1850)
- 1808 – Gérard de Nerval, French poet and translator (d. 1855)
- 1811 – Giulia Grisi, Italian soprano (d. 1869)
- 1811 – Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle, English politician (d. 1864)
- 1813 – Richard Wagner, German composer (d. 1883)
- 1814 – Amalia Lindegren, Swedish painter (d. 1891)
- 1820 – Worthington Whittredge, American painter (d. 1910)
- 1828 – Albrecht von Graefe, German ophthalmologist and academic (d. 1870)
- 1831 – Henry Vandyke Carter, English anatomist and surgeon (d. 1897)
- 1833 – Félix Bracquemond, French painter and etcher (d. 1914)
- 1833 – Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, Spanish politician, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1895)
- 1841 – Catulle Mendès, French poet, author, and playwright (d. 1909)
- 1844 – Mary Cassatt, American painter and educator (d. 1926)
- 1846 – Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, Mexican poet, educator, and activist (d. 1908)
- 1848 – Fritz von Uhde, German painter and educator (d. 1911)
- 1849 – Aston Webb, English architect and academic (d. 1930)
- 1858 – Belmiro de Almeida, Brazilian painter, illustrator, sculptor (d. 1935)
- 1859 – Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer (d. 1930)
- 1859 – Tsubouchi Shōyō, Japanese author, playwright, and educator (d. 1935)
- 1864 – Willy Stöwer, German author and illustrator (d. 1931)
- 1868 – Augusto Pestana, Brazilian engineer and politician (d. 1934)
- 1874 – Daniel François Malan, South African clergyman and politician, 5th Prime Minister of South Africa (d. 1959)
- 1876 – Julius Klinger, Austrian painter and illustrator (d. 1942)
- 1879 – Warwick Armstrong, Australian cricketer and journalist (d. 1947)
- 1879 – Jean Cras, French admiral and composer (d. 1932)
- 1879 – Symon Petliura, Ukrainian statesman and independence leader (d. 1926)
- 1880 – Francis de Miomandre, French author and translator (d. 1959)
- 1885 – Giacomo Matteotti, Italian lawyer and politician (d. 1924)
- 1885 – Soemu Toyoda, Japanese admiral (d. 1957)
- 1887 – A. W. Sandberg, Danish film director and screenwriter (d. 1938)
- 1891 – Johannes R. Becher, German politician, novelist, and poet (d. 1958)
- 1894 – Friedrich Pollock, German sociologist and philosopher (d. 1970)
- 1897 – Robert Neumann, German and English-speaking author (d. 1975)
- 1900 – Juan Arvizu, Mexican lyric opera tenor and bolero vocalist (d.1985)
- 1901 – Maurice J. Tobin, American politician, 6th United States Secretary of Labor (d. 1953)
- 1902 – Jack Lambert, English footballer and manager (d. 1940)
- 1902 – Al Simmons, American baseball player and coach (d. 1956)
- 1904 – Uno Lamm, Swedish electrical engineer and inventor (d. 1989)
- 1905 – Bodo von Borries, German physicist and academic, co-invented the electron microscope (d. 1956)
- 1905 – Tom Driberg, British politician (d. 1976)
- 1907 – Hergé, Belgian author and illustrator (d. 1983)
- 1907 – Laurence Olivier, English actor, director, and producer (d. 1989)
- 1908 – Horton Smith, American golfer and captain (d. 1963)
- 1909 – Margaret Mee, English illustrator and educator (d. 1988)
- 1912 – Herbert C. Brown, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- 1913 – Rafael Gil, Spanish director and screenwriter (d. 1986)
- 1913 – Dominique Rolin, Belgian author (d. 2012)
- 1914 – Max Kohnstamm, Dutch historian and diplomat (d. 2010)
- 1914 – Sun Ra, American pianist, composer, bandleader, poet (d. 1993)
- 1917 – George Aratani, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
- 1917 – Jean-Louis Curtis, French author (d. 1995)
- 1919 – Paul Vanden Boeynants, Belgian businessman and politician, 55th Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2001)
- 1920 – Thomas Gold, Austrian-American astrophysicist and academic (d. 2004)
- 1921 – George S. Hammond, American scientist (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Quinn Martin, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1987)
- 1924 – Charles Aznavour, French-Armenian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2018)
- 1925 – Jean Tinguely, Swiss painter and sculptor (d. 1991)
- 1927 – Michael Constantine, American actor
- 1927 – Peter Matthiessen, American novelist, short story writer, editor, co-founded The Paris Review (d. 2014)
- 1927 – George Andrew Olah, Hungarian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2017)
- 1928 – Serge Doubrovsky, French theorist and author (d. 2017)
- 1928 – John Mackenzie, Scottish director and producer (d. 2011)
- 1928 – T. Boone Pickens, American businessman (d. 2019)
- 1928 – Hiroshi Sano, Japanese novelist (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Ahmed Fouad Negm, Egyptian poet (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Kenny Ball, English jazz trumpet player, vocalist, and bandleader (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Marisol Escobar, French-American sculptor (d. 2016)
- 1930 – Harvey Milk, American lieutenant and politician (d. 1978)
- 1932 – Robert Spitzer, American psychiatrist and academic (d. 2015)
- 1933 – Chen Jingrun, Chinese mathematician and academic (d. 1996)
- 1934 – Peter Nero, American pianist and conductor
- 1936 – George H. Heilmeier, American engineer (d. 2014)
- 1937 – Facundo Cabral, Argentinian singer-songwriter (d. 2011)
- 1938 – Richard Benjamin, American actor and director
- 1938 – Susan Strasberg, American actress (d. 1999)
- 1939 – Paul Winfield, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1940 – Kieth Merrill, American filmmaker
- 1940 – Michael Sarrazin, Canadian actor (d. 2011)
- 1940 – Bernard Shaw, American journalist
- 1940 – Mick Tingelhoff, American Pro Football Hall of Famer
- 1941 – Menzies Campbell, Scottish sprinter and politician
- 1942 – Roger Brown, American basketball player (d. 1997)
- 1942 – Ted Kaczynski, American academic and mathematician turned anarchist and serial murderer (Unabomber)
- 1942 – Barbara Parkins, Canadian actress
- 1942 – Richard Oakes, Native American civil rights activist (d. 1972)
- 1943 – Betty Williams, Northern Irish peace activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2020)
- 1943 – Tommy John, American baseball player
- 1944 – John Flanagan, Australian fantasy author
- 1945 – Bob Katter, Australian politician
- 1946 – George Best, Northern Irish footballer and manager (d. 2005)
- 1946 – Michael Green, English physicist and academic
- 1946 – Howard Kendall, English footballer and manager (d. 2015)
- 1946 – Andrei Marga, Romanian philosopher, political scientist, politician
- 1946 – Lyudmila Zhuravleva, Russian-Ukrainian astronomer
- 1948 – Tomás Sánchez, Cuban painter and engraver
- 1948 – Nedumudi Venu, Indian actor and screenwriter
- 1949 – Cheryl Campbell, English actress
- 1949 – Valentin Inzko, Austrian diplomat
- 1950 – Bernie Taupin, English singer-songwriter and poet
- 1953 – François Bon, French writer
- 1953 – Cha Bum-kun, South Korean footballer and manager
- 1953 – Paul Mariner, English footballer, coach, and manager
- 1954 – Barbara May Cameron, Native American human rights activist (d. 2002)
- 1954 – Shuji Nakamura, Japanese-American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1956 – Lucie Brock-Broido, American poet (d. 2018)
- 1957 – Lisa Murkowski, American lawyer and politician
- 1959 – David Blatt, Israeli-American basketball player and coach
- 1959 – Morrissey, English singer-songwriter and performer
- 1959 – Kwak Jae-yong, South Korean director and screenwriter
- 1959 – Mehbooba Mufti, Indian politician
- 1960 – Hideaki Anno, Japanese animator, director, and screenwriter
- 1962 – Brian Pillman, American football player and wrestler (d. 1997)
- 1963 – Claude Closky, French contemporary artist
- 1965 – Jay Carney, American journalist, 29th White House Press Secretary
- 1966 – Johnny Gill, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1966 – Wang Xiaoshuai, Chinese director and screenwriter
- 1968 – Graham Linehan, Irish comedian, actor, and author
- 1969 – Cathy McMorris Rodgers, American lawyer and politician
- 1970 – Naomi Campbell, English model
- 1970 – Brody Stevens, American comedian and actor (d. 2019)
- 1972 – Max Brooks, American author and screenwriter
- 1973 – Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Danish actor
- 1974 – Garba Lawal, Nigerian footballer
- 1974 – Henrietta Ónodi, Hungarian Olympic gymnast
- 1974 – Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukrainian politician
- 1975 – Salva Ballesta, Spanish footballer and manager
- 1976 – Christian Vande Velde, American cyclist
- 1978 – Ginnifer Goodwin, American actress
- 1978 – Katie Price, English television personality and glamour model
- 1979 – Maggie Q, American actress
- 1979 – Nazanin Boniadi, Iranian-American actress
- 1980 – Sharice Davids, American politician
- 1980 – Lucy Gordon, British actress and model (d. 2009)
- 1981 – Daniel Bryan, American wrestler
- 1981 – Bassel Khartabil, Syrian computer programmer and engineer (d. 2015)
- 1981 – Jürgen Melzer, Austrian tennis player
- 1982 – Erin McNaught, Australian model and actress
- 1982 – Apolo Ohno, American speed skater
- 1982 – Hong Yong-jo, North Korean footballer
- 1983 – Natasha Kai, American soccer player and Olympic medalist
- 1984 – Karoline Herfurth, German actress
- 1984 – Didier Ya Konan, Ivorian footballer
- 1984 – Dustin Moskovitz, American entrepreneur, co-founder of Facebook
- 1985 – Tranquillo Barnetta, Swiss footballer
- 1985 – Tao Okamoto, Japanese model and actress
- 1986 – Julian Edelman, American football player
- 1986 – Matt Jarvis, English footballer
- 1986 – Tatiana Volosozhar, Russian figure skater
- 1987 – Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis player
- 1987 – Arturo Vidal, Chilean footballer
- 1988 – Heida Reed, Icelandic-British actress
- 1989 – Corey Dickerson, American baseball player
- 1990 – Wyatt Roy, Australian politician
- 1991 – Joel Obi, Nigerian footballer
- 1991 – Suho, South Korean singer and actor
- 1992 – Anna Baryshnikov, American actress
- 1994 – Florian Luger, Austrian male model
- 1998 – Samile Bermannelli, Brazilian fashion model
- 1999 – Camren Bicondova, American actress
- 1999 – Femke Huijzer, Dutch model
 Deaths on May 22
- 192 – Dong Zhuo, Chinese warlord and politician (b. 138)
- 337 – Constantine the Great, Roman emperor (b. 272)
- 748 – Empress Genshō of Japan (b. 683)
- 1067 – Constantine X, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1006)
- 1068 – Emperor Go-Reizei of Japan (b. 1025)
- 1310 – Saint Humility, founder of the Vallumbrosan religious order of nuns (b. c.1226)
- 1409 – Blanche of England, sister of King Henry V (b. 1392)
- 1455 – Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, English commander (b. 1406)
- 1455 – Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford, Lancastrian commander (b. 1414)
- 1455 – Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, English commander (b. 1393)
- 1457 – Rita of Cascia, Italian nun and saint (b. 1381)
- 1490 – Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent, English administrator, nobleman and magnate (b. 1416)
- 1538 – John Forest, English friar and martyr (b. 1471)
- 1540 – Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian and politician (b. 1483)
- 1545 – Sher Shah Suri, Indian ruler (b. 1486)
- 1553 – Giovanni Bernardi, Italian sculptor and engraver (b. 1495)
- 1602 – Renata of Lorraine (b. 1544)
- 1609 – Pieter Willemsz. Verhoeff, Dutch captain (b. 1573)
- 1666 – Gaspar Schott, German physicist and mathematician (b. 1608)
- 1667 – Pope Alexander VII (b. 1599)
- 1745 – François-Marie, 1st duc de Broglie, French general (b. 1671)
- 1760 – Baal Shem Tov, Polish rabbi and author (b. 1700)
- 1772 – Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian and academic (b. 1687)
- 1795 – Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg, Prussian politician, Foreign Minister of Prussia (b. 1725)
- 1802 – Martha Washington, First, First Lady of the United States (b. 1731)
- 1851 – Mordecai Manuel Noah, American journalist and diplomat (b. 1755)
- 1859 – Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies (b. 1810)
- 1861 – Thornsbury Bailey Brown, American soldier (b. 1829)
- 1868 – Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist (b. 1801)
- 1885 – Victor Hugo, French novelist, poet, and playwright (b. 1802)
- 1901 – Gaetano Bresci, Italian-American anarchist, assassin of Umberto I of Italy (b. 1869)
- 1910 – Jules Renard, French author and playwright (b. 1864)
- 1932 – Augusta, Lady Gregory, Anglo-Irish activist, landlord, and playwright, co-founded the Abbey Theatre (b. 1852)
- 1933 – Tsengeltiin Jigjidjav, Mongolian politician, 10th Prime Minister of Mongolia (b. 1894)
- 1938 – William Glackens, American painter and illustrator (b. 1870)
- 1939 – Ernst Toller, German playwright and author (b. 1893)
- 1939 – Jiří Mahen, Czech author and playwright (b. 1882)
- 1954 – Chief Bender, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1884)
- 1965 – Christopher Stone, English radio host (b. 1882)
- 1966 – Tom Goddard, English cricketer (b. 1900)
- 1967 – Langston Hughes, American poet, social activist, novelist, and playwright (b. 1902)
- 1967 – Charlotte Serber, American Librarian of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos site (b. 1911)
- 1972 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet and author (b. 1904)
- 1972 – Margaret Rutherford, English actress (b. 1892)
- 1974 – Irmgard Flügge-Lotz, German-American mathematician and aerospace engineer (b. 1903)
- 1975 – Lefty Grove, American baseball player (b. 1900)
- 1982 – Cevdet Sunay, Turkish general and politician, 5th President of Turkey (b. 1899)
- 1983 – Albert Claude, Belgian biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
- 1985 – Wolfgang Reitherman, German-American animator, director, and producer (b. 1909)
- 1988 – Giorgio Almirante, Italian journalist and politician (b. 1914)
- 1989 – Steven De Groote, South African pianist and educator (b. 1953)
- 1990 – Rocky Graziano, American boxer (b. 1922)
- 1991 – Shripad Amrit Dange, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1899)
- 1991 – Stan Mortensen, English footballer and manager (b. 1921)
- 1992 – Zellig Harris, American linguist and academic (b. 1909)
- 1993 – Mieczysław Horszowski, Polish-American pianist and composer (b. 1892)
- 1997 – Alziro Bergonzo, Italian architect and painter (b. 1906)
- 1997 – Alfred Hershey, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
- 1998 – John Derek, American actor, director, and photographer (b. 1926)
- 1998 – José Enrique Moyal, Israeli physicist and engineer (b. 1910)
- 2000 – Davie Fulton, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Richard Biggs, American actor (b. 1960)
- 2004 – Mikhail Voronin, Russian gymnast (b. 1945)
- 2005 – Charilaos Florakis, Greek politician (b. 1914)
- 2005 – Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor and singer (b. 1914)
- 2006 – Lee Jong-wook, South Korean physician and diplomat (b. 1945)
- 2007 – Pemba Doma Sherpa, Nepalese mountaineer (b. 1970)
- 2008 – Robert Asprin, American soldier and author (b. 1946)
- 2010 – Martin Gardner, American mathematician, cryptographer, and author (b. 1914)
- 2011 – Joseph Brooks, American director, producer, screenwriter, and composer (b. 1938)
- 2012 – Muzafar Bhutto, Pakistani politician (b. 1970)
- 2012 – Wesley A. Brown, American lieutenant and engineer (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Sigurd Ottovich Schmidt, Russian historian and ethnographer (b. 1922)
- 2015 – Marques Haynes, American basketball player and coach (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Vladimir Katriuk, Ukrainian-Canadian SS officer (b. 1921)
- 2016 – Velimir “Bata” Živojinović, Serbian actor and politician (b. 1933)
- 2017 – Nicky Hayden, American motorcycle racer (b. 1981)
- 2019 – Judith Kerr, German-born British writer and illustrator (b. 1923)
- 2020 – Denise Cronenberg, Canadian costume designer (b. 1938)
 Holidays and observances on May 22
- Abolition Day (Martinique)
- Christian feast day:
- Castus and Emilius
- Fulk
- Humilita
- Michael Hồ Đình Hy (one of Vietnamese Martyrs)
- Quiteria
- Rita of Cascia
- Romanus of Subiaco
- May 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Harvey Milk Day (California)
- International Day for Biological Diversity (International)
- United States National Maritime Day
- National Sovereignty Day (Haiti)
- Republic Day (Sri Lanka)
- Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Bari (Ukraine)
- Unity Day (Yemen), celebrates the unification of North and South Yemen into the Republic of Yemen in 1990.
- World Goth Day
 
 
 
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 May 10 in History
- 28 BC – A sunspot is observed by Han dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, one of the earliest dated sunspot observations in China.
- 1291 – Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England pending the selection of a king.
- 1497 – Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.
- 1503 – Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.
- 1534 – Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland.
- 1688 – King Narai nominates Phetracha as regent, leading to the revolution of 1688 in which Phetracha becomes king of the Ayutthaya Kingdom.
- 1768 – Rioting occurs in London after John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton severely criticizing King George III.
- 1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by reducing taxes on its tea and granting it the right to sell tea directly to North America. The legislation leads to the Boston Tea Party.
- 1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.
- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: A small Colonial militia led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold captures Fort Ticonderoga.
- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Second Continental Congress takes place in Philadelphia.
- 1796 – War of the First Coalition: Napoleon wins a victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the Adda River in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.
- 1801 – First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.
- 1824 – The National Gallery in London opens to the public.
- 1837 – Panic of 1837: New York City banks suspend the payment of specie, triggering a national banking crisis and an economic depression whose severity was not surpassed until the Great Depression.
- 1849 – Astor Place Riot: A riot breaks out at the Astor Opera House in Manhattan, New York City over a dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, killing at least 22 and injuring over 120.
- 1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys mutiny against their commanding officers at Meerut.
- 1865 – American Civil War: In Kentucky, Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill, who lingers until his death on June 6.
- 1869 – The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah with the golden spike.
- 1872 – Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
- 1876 – The Centennial Exposition is opened in Philadelphia.
- 1881 – Carol I is crowned the King of the Romanian Kingdom.
- 1904 – The Horch & Cir. Motorwagenwerke AG is founded. It would eventually become the Audi company.
- 1908 – Mother’s Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.
- 1916 – Sailing in the lifeboat James Caird, Ernest Shackleton arrives at South Georgia after a journey of 800 nautical miles from Elephant Island.
- 1922 – The United States annexes the Kingman Reef.
- 1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed first Director of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and remains so until his death in 1972.
- 1933 – Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
- 1940 – World War II: German fighters accidentally bomb the German city of Freiburg.
- 1940 – World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. On the same day, Germany invades France, Belgium and Luxembourg.Meanwhile, the United Kingdom occupies Iceland.
- 1941 – World War II: The House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
- 1941 – World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try to negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.hai Phayap Army invades the Shan States during the Burma Campaign.
- 1946 – First successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.
- 1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.
- 1967 – The Northrop M2-F2 crashes on landing, becoming the inspiration for the novel Cyborg and TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.
- 1969 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
- 1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder.
- 1993 – In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills over 200 workers.
- 1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president.
- 1996 – A blizzard strikes Mount Everest, killing eight climbers by the next day.
- 1997 – The 7.3 Mw Qayen earthquake strikes Iran’s Khorasan Province killing 1,567 people.
- 2002 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Russia for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
- 2005 – A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutyunian lands about 60 feet from U.S. President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.
- 2012 – The Damascus bombings are carried out using a pair of car bombs detonated by suicide bombers outside of a military intelligence complex in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people.
- 2013 – One World Trade Center becomes the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
 Births on May 10
- 874 – Meng Zhixiang, Chinese general and emperor (d. 934)
- 955 – Al-Aziz Billah, Fatimid caliph (d. 996)
- 1491 – Suzanne, Duchess of Bourbon (d. 1521)
- 1604 – Jean Mairet, French author and playwright (d. 1686)
- 1697 – Jean-Marie Leclair, French violinist and composer (d. 1764)
- 1727 – Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, French economist and politician (d. 1781)
- 1755 – Robert Gray, American captain and explorer (d. 1806)
- 1760 – Johann Peter Hebel, German author and poet (d. 1826)
- 1760 – Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, French captain, engineer, and composer (d. 1836)
- 1770 – Louis-Nicolas Davout, French general and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1823)
- 1788 – Augustin-Jean Fresnel, French physicist and engineer (d. 1827)
- 1812 – William Henry Barlow, English engineer (d. 1902)
- 1813 – Montgomery Blair, American lieutenant and politician, 20th United States Postmaster General (d. 1883)
- 1838 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1865)
- 1841 – James Gordon Bennett, Jr., American publisher and broadcaster (d. 1918)
- 1843 – Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish author and playwright (d. 1920)
- 1847 – Wilhelm Killing, German mathematician and academic (d. 1923)
- 1855 – Yukteswar Giri, Indian guru and educator (d. 1936)
- 1872 – Marcel Mauss, French sociologist and anthropologist (d. 1950)
- 1876 – Ivan Cankar, Slovenian poet and playwright (d. 1918)
- 1878 – Konstantinos Parthenis, Greek painter (d. 1967)
- 1878 – Gustav Stresemann, German journalist and politician, Chancellor of Germany, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1929)
- 1879 – Symon Petliura, Ukrainian journalist and politician (d. 1926)
- 1886 – Karl Barth, Swiss theologian and author (d. 1968)
- 1888 – Max Steiner, Austrian-American composer and conductor (d. 1971)
- 1890 – Alfred Jodl, German general (d. 1946)
- 1891 – Mahmoud Mokhtar, Egyptian sculptor and academic (d. 1934)
- 1893 – Tonita Peña, San Ildefonso Pueblo (Native American) artist (d. 1949)
- 1894 – Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-American composer and conductor (d. 1979)
- 1897 – Einar Gerhardsen, Norwegian politician, Prime Minister of Norway (d. 1987)
- 1898 – Ariel Durant, American historian and author (d. 1981)
- 1899 – Fred Astaire, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1987)
- 1900 – Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, English-American astronomer and astrophysicist (d. 1979)
- 1901 – John Desmond Bernal, Irish-English crystallographer and physicist (d. 1971)
- 1901 – Hildrus Poindexter, American bacteriologist (d. 1987)
- 1902 – David O. Selznick, American director and producer (d. 1965)
- 1903 – Otto Bradfisch, German economist, jurist, and SS officer (d. 1994)
- 1905 – Markos Vamvakaris, Greek singer-songwriter and bouzouki player (d. 1972)
- 1908 – Carl Albert, American lawyer and politician, 54th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 2000)
- 1909 – Maybelle Carter, American autoharp player (d. 1978)
- 1911 – Bel Kaufman, American author and educator (d. 2014)
- 1915 – Denis Thatcher, English soldier and businessman, Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2003)
- 1916 – Milton Babbitt, American composer and educator (d. 2011)
- 1918 – T. Berry Brazelton, American pediatrician and author (d. 2018)
- 1918 – Desmond MacNamara, Irish painter, sculptor, and author (d. 2008)
- 1919 – Ella T. Grasso, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1981)
- 1920 – Basil Kelly, Northern Irish barrister, judge and politician (d. 2008)
- 1920 – Bert Weedon, English guitarist (d. 2012)
- 1922 – David Azrieli, Polish-Canadian businessman and philanthropist (d. 2014)
- 1922 – Nancy Walker, American actress, singer, and director (d. 1992)
- 1923 – Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan general and politician, President of Azerbaijan (d. 2003)
- 1923 – Otar Korkia, Georgian basketball player and coach (d. 2005)
- 1926 – Hugo Banzer, Bolivian general and politician, President of Bolivia (d. 2002)
- 1927 – Nayantara Sahgal, Indian author
- 1928 – Arnold Rüütel, Estonian agronomist and politician, President of Estonia
- 1928 – Lothar Schmid, German chess player (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Audun Boysen, Norwegian runner (d. 2000)
- 1929 – George Coe, American actor and producer (d. 2015)
- 1929 – Antonine Maillet, Canadian author and playwright
- 1930 – George E. Smith, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1931 – Ettore Scola, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2016)
- 1933 – Jean Becker, French actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1935 – Larry Williams, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 1980)
- 1937 – Tamara Press, Ukrainian shot putter and discus thrower
- 1938 – Manuel Santana, Spanish tennis player
- 1940 – Arthur Alexander, American country-soul singer-songwriter (d. 1993)
- 1940 – Wayne Dyer, American author and educator (d. 2015)
- 1942 – Jim Calhoun, American basketball player and coach
- 1944 – Jim Abrahams, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1944 – Marie-France Pisier, French actress, director, and screenwriter (d. 2011)
- 1946 – Donovan, Scottish singer-songwriter
- 1946 – Graham Gouldman, English guitarist and songwriter
- 1946 – Dave Mason, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1947 – Caroline B. Cooney, American author
- 1949 – Miuccia Prada, Italian fashion designer
- 1952 – Sly Dunbar, Jamaican drummer
- 1955 – Mark David Chapman, American murderer
- 1956 – Vladislav Listyev, Russian journalist (d. 1995)
- 1957 – Sid Vicious, English singer and bass player (d. 1979)
- 1958 – Gaétan Boucher, Canadian speed skater
- 1958 – Rick Santorum, American lawyer and politician, United States Senator from Pennsylvania
- 1959 – Victoria Rowell, American actress
- 1959 – Danny Schayes, American basketball player
- 1959 – Cindy Hyde-Smith, American politician, United States Senator from Mississippi, Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce
- 1960 – Bono, Irish singer-songwriter, musician and activist
- 1960 – Dean Heller, American lawyer and politician, United States Senator from Nevada, Secretary of State of Nevada
- 1960 – Merlene Ottey, Jamaican-Slovenian runner
- 1963 – Lisa Nowak, American commander and astronaut
- 1963 – Debbie Wiseman, English composer and conductor
- 1965 – Linda Evangelista, Canadian model
- 1966 – Jonathan Edwards, English triple jumper
- 1967 – Eion Crossan, New Zealand rugby player
- 1968 – Al Murray, English comedian and television host
- 1968 – Tatyana Shikolenko, Russian javelin thrower
- 1969 – Dennis Bergkamp, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1969 – John Scalzi, American author and blogger
- 1970 – Gabriela Montero, Venezuelan-American pianist
- 1970 – David Weir, Scottish footballer
- 1971 – Ådne Søndrål, Norwegian speed skater
- 1972 – Christian Wörns, German footballer
- 1973 – Joshua Eagle, Australian tennis player
- 1973 – Ollie le Roux, South African rugby player
- 1974 – Sylvain Wiltord, French footballer
- 1975 – Hélio Castroneves, Brazilian race car driver
- 1975 – Adam Deadmarsh, Canadian-American ice hockey player
- 1978 – Bruno Cheyrou, French footballer
- 1981 – Samuel Dalembert, Haitian-Canadian basketball player
- 1981 – Humberto Suazo, Chilean footballer
- 1983 – Gustav Fridolin, Swedish journalist and politician, Swedish Minister of Education
- 1984 – Edward Mujica, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1985 – Ryan Getzlaf, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1985 – Jon Schofield, English canoe racer
- 1987 – Wilson Chandler, American basketball player
- 1990 – Salvador Pérez, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1990 – Ivana Španović, Serbian long jumper
- 1995 – Missy Franklin, American swimmer1995 – Gabriella Papadakis, French ice dancer
- 1996 – Tyus Jones, American basketball player
- 1996 – Kateřina Siniaková, Czech tennis player
 Deaths on May 10
- 1299 – Theingapati, heir to the Pagan Kingdom
- 1403 – Katherine Swynford, widow of John of Gaunt
- 1482 – Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, Italian mathematician and astronomer (b. 1397)
- 1493 – Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll, Scottish politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (b. 1433)
- 1521 – Sebastian Brant, German author (b. 1457)
- 1566 – Leonhart Fuchs, German physician and botanist (b. 1501)
- 1569 – John of Ávila, Spanish mystic and saint (b. 1500)
- 1641 – Johan Banér, Swedish field marshal (b. 1596)
- 1717 – John Hathorne, American merchant and politician (b. 1641)
- 1726 – Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire (b. 1670)
- 1774 – Louis XV of France (b. 1710)
- 1787 – William Watson, English physician, physicist, and botanist (b. 1715)
- 1794 – Élisabeth of France, French princess and youngest sibling of Louis XVI (b.1764)
- 1798 – George Vancouver, English navigator and explorer (b. 1757)
- 1807 – Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French general (b. 1725)
- 1818 – Paul Revere, American engraver and soldier (b. 1735)
- 1829 – Thomas Young, English physician and linguist (b. 1773)
- 1849 – Hokusai, Japanese painter and illustrator (b. 1760)
- 1863 – Stonewall Jackson, American general (b. 1824)
- 1868 – Henry Bennett, American lawyer and politician (b. 1808)
- 1889 – Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russian journalist, author, and playwright (b. 1826)
- 1891 – Carl Nägeli, Swiss botanist and mycologist (b. 1817)
- 1897 – Andrés Bonifacio, Filipino soldier and politician, President of the Philippines (b. 1863)
- 1910 – Stanislao Cannizzaro, Italian chemist and academic (b. 1826)
- 1945 – Richard Glücks, German SS officer (b. 1889)
- 1945 – Konrad Henlein, Czech soldier and politician (b. 1898)
- 1960 – Yury Olesha, Russian author, poet, and playwright (b. 1899)
- 1964 – Mikhail Larionov, Russian painter, illustrator, and set designer (b. 1881)
- 1965 – Hubertus van Mook, Dutch politician, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1894)
- 1968 – Scotty Beckett, American actor and singer (b. 1929)
- 1974 – Hal Mohr, American director and cinematographer (b. 1894)
- 1977 – Joan Crawford, American actress (year of birth disputed)
- 1982 – Peter Weiss, German playwright and painter (b. 1916)
- 1988 – Shen Congwen, Chinese author and academic (b. 1902)
- 1990 – Walker Percy, American novelist and essayist (b. 1916)
- 1994 – John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (b. 1942)
- 1999 – Shel Silverstein, American poet, author, and illustrator
- 2000 – Jules Deschênes, Canadian lawyer and judge (b. 1923)
- 2000 – Dick Sprang, American illustrator (b. 1915)
- 2001 – Sudhakarrao Naik, Indian politician, Governor of Himachal Pradesh (b. 1934)
- 2002 – Kaifi Azmi, Indian poet and songwriter (b. 1919)
- 2002 – Yves Robert, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1920)
- 2003 – Milan Vukcevich, Serbian-American chemist and chess player (b. 1937)
- 2006 – Soraya, Colombian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1969)
- 2008 – Leyla Gencer, Turkish soprano (b. 1928)
- 2010 – Frank Frazetta, American illustrator and painter (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Horst Faas, German photographer and journalist (b. 1933)
- 2012 – Carroll Shelby, American race car driver and designer (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Gunnar Sønsteby, Norwegian captain and author (b. 1918)
- 2015 – Chris Burden, American sculptor, illustrator, and academic (b. 1946)
- 2018 – David Goodall, Australian botanist and ecologist (b. 1914)
- 2019 – Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, Spanish politician and chemist (b. 1951)
 Holidays and observances on May 10
- Children’s Day (Maldives)
- Christian feast day:
- Alphius, Philadelphus and Cyrinus
- Calepodius
- Catald
- Comgall
- Damien of Molokai
- Gordianus and Epimachus
- Job (Roman Catholic Church, pre-1969 calendar)
- John of Ávila
- May 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Confederate Memorial Day (North Carolina and South Carolina)
- Constitution Day (Micronesia)
- Earliest possible day on which Pentecost can fall, while June 13 is the latest; celebrated 50 days after Easter Day.(Christianity)
- Golden Spike Day (Promontory, Utah)
- Mother’s Day (Guatemala, and Mexico)
 
 
 
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 May 4 in History
- 1256 – The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae.
- 1415 – Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance.
- 1436 – Assassination of the Swedish rebel (later national hero) Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson
- 1471 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Tewkesbury: Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales.
- 1493 – Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.
- 1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.
- 1686 – The Municipality of Ilagan is founded in the Philippines.
- 1776 – Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
- 1799 – Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam: The siege of Seringapatam ends when the city is invaded and Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris.
- 1814 – Emperor Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.
- 1814 – King Ferdinand VII abolishes the Spanish Constitution of 1812, returning Spain to absolutism.
- 1836 – Formation of Ancient Order of Hibernians
- 1859 – The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking Devon and Cornwall in England.
- 1869 – The Naval Battle of Hakodate is fought in Japan.
- 1871 – The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
- 1886 – Haymarket affair: A bomb is thrown at policemen trying to break up a labor rally in Chicago, United States, killing eight and wounding 60. The police fire into the crowd.
- 1904 – The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.
- 1910 – The Royal Canadian Navy is created.
- 1912 – Italy occupies the Greek island of Rhodes.
- 1919 – May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.
- 1926 – The United Kingdom general strike begins.
- 1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated.
- 1932 – In Atlanta, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
- 1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.
- 1945 – World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army.
- 1945 – World War II: The German surrender at Lüneburg Heath is signed, coming into effect the following day. It encompasses all Wehrmacht units in the Netherlands, Denmark and northwest Germany.
- 1946 – In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Five people are killed in the riot.
- 1949 – The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash.
- 1953 – Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.
- 1959 – The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held.
- 1961 – American civil rights movement: The “Freedom Riders” begin a bus trip through the South.
- 1961 – Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attain a new altitude record for manned balloon flight ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet (34.67 km).
- 1970 – Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam.
- 1972 – The Don’t Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to “Greenpeace Foundation”.
- 1978 – The South African Defence Force attacks a SWAPO base at Cassinga in southern Angola, killing about 600 people.
- 1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- 1982 – Twenty sailors are killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield is hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War.
- 1988 – The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire.
- 1989 – Iran–Contra affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges; the convictions are later overturned on appeal.
- 1990 – Latvia proclaims the renewal of its independence after the Soviet occupation.
- 1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
- 1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
- 2000 – Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London (an office separate from that of the Lord Mayor of London).
- 2007 – Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7-mile wide EF5 tornado. It was the first-ever tornado to be rated as such with the new Enhanced Fujita scale.
- 2014 – Three people are killed and 62 injured in a pair of bombings on buses in Nairobi, Kenya.
 Births on May 4
- 1006 – Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, Persian mystic and poet (d. 1088)
- 1008 – Henry I, king of France (d. 1060)
- 1559 – Alice Spencer, English noblewoman (d. 1637)
- 1634 – Katherine Ferrers, English aristocrat and heiress (d. 1660)
- 1649 – Chhatrasal, Indian ruler (d. 1731)
- 1654 – Kangxi Emperor, Emperor of the Qing Dynasty
- 1655 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian instrument maker, invented the piano (d. 1731)
- 1677 – Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, French noblewoman (d.1749)
- 1715 – Richard Graves, English minister and author (d. 1804)
- 1733 – Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, and sailor (d. 1799)
- 1752 – John Brooks, American soldier and politician, 11th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1825)
- 1757 – Manuel Tolsá, Spanish sculptor and first director of the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City (d. 1816)
- 1767 – Tyagaraja, Indian composer (d. 1847)
- 1770 – François Gérard, French painter (d. 1837)
- 1772 – Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, German publisher (d. 1823)
- 1796 – Horace Mann, American educator and politician (d. 1859)
- 1796 – William Pennington, American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of New Jersey, 23rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1862)
- 1796 – William H. Prescott, American historian and scholar (d. 1859)
- 1820 – Julia Gardiner Tyler, American wife of John Tyler, 11th First Lady of the United States (d. 1889)
- 1820 – John Whiteaker, American soldier, judge, and politician, 1st Governor of Oregon (d. 1902)
- 1822 – Charles Boucher de Boucherville, Canadian physician and politician, 3rd Premier of Quebec (d. 1915)
- 1825 – Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist, anatomist, and academic (d. 1895)
- 1825 – Augustus Le Plongeon, English-American historian, photographer, and academic (d. 1908)
- 1826 – Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (d. 1900)
- 1827 – John Hanning Speke, English soldier and explorer (d. 1864)
- 1851 – Thomas Dewing, American painter (d. 1938)
- 1852 – Alice Liddell, English model (d. 1934)
- 1855 – Greyfriars Bobby, faithful dog (d. 1872)
- 1883 – Wang Jingwei, Chinese politician (d. 1944)
- 1884 – Richard Baggallay, English army officer and cricketer (d. 1975)
- 1887 – Andrew Dasburg, French-American painter (d. 1979)
- 1889 – Francis Spellman, American cardinal (d. 1967)
- 1890 – Franklin Carmichael, Canadian painter (d. 1945)
- 1902 – Ronnie Aird, English cricketer and administrator (d. 1986)
- 1902 – Cola Debrot, Dutch physician, lawyer, and politician (d. 1981)
- 1903 – Luther Adler, American actor (d. 1984)
- 1903 – Paul Demel, Czech actor (d. 1951)
- 1905 – Al Dexter, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1984)
- 1906 – Gustav Bergmann, Austrian-American philosopher from the Vienna Circle (d. 1987)
- 1907 – Lincoln Kirstein, American soldier and playwright, co-founded the New York City Ballet (d. 1996)
- 1907 – Walter Walsh, American target shooter and FBI agent (d. 2014)
- 1908 – Wolrad Eberle, German decathlete (d. 1949)
- 1911 – Evald Seepere, Estonian boxer (d. 1990)
- 1913 – John Broome, American author (d. 1999)
- 1913 – Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark (d. 2007)
- 1914 – Maedayama Eigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 39th Yokozuna (d. 1971)
- 1916 – Jane Jacobs, American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist (d. 2006)
- 1916 – Richard Proenneke, American soldier, carpenter, and meteorologist (d. 2003)
- 1917 – Edward T. Cone, American pianist and composer (d. 2004)
- 1917 – Nick Joaquin, Filipino writer, journalist and historian (d. 2004)
- 1918 – Tom Mead, Australian journalist and politician (d. 2004)
- 1918 – Kakuei Tanaka, Japanese soldier and politician, 64th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1993)
- 1919 – Dory Funk, American wrestler and trainer (d. 1973)
- 1919 – Basil Yamey, South African-English economist and academic
- 1921 – Patsy Garrett, American actress and singer (d. 2015)
- 1921 – John van Kesteren, Dutch-American tenor and actor (d. 2008)
- 1921 – Edo Murtić, Croatian painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Paul-Émile Charbonneau, Canadian archbishop (d. 2014)
- 1922 – Eugenie Clark, American biologist and academic (d. 2015)
- 1923 – Stanley Biber, American soldier and physician (d. 2006)
- 1923 – Ed Cassidy, American jazz and rock drummer (d. 2012)
- 1923 – Assi Rahbani, Lebanese composer and producer (d. 1986)
- 1923 – Eric Sykes, British actor and comedian (d. 2012)
- 1923 – John Toner, American football player and coach (d. 2014)
- 1925 – Jenő Buzánszky, Hungarian footballer and coach (d. 2015)
- 1925 – Maurice R. Greenberg, American businessman and philanthropist
- 1926 – David Stoddart, Baron Stoddart of Swindon, English politician
- 1928 – Maynard Ferguson, Canadian trumpet player and bandleader (d. 2006)
- 1928 – Thomas Kinsella, Irish poet, translator, and publisher
- 1928 – Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian air marshal and politician, 4th President of Egypt (d. 2020)
- 1928 – Betsy Rawls, American golfer
- 1928 – Wolfgang von Trips, German race car driver (d. 1961)
- 1929 – Manuel Contreras, Chilean general (d. 2015)
- 1929 – Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-British actress and humanitarian (d. 1993)
- 1930 – Katherine Jackson, matriarch of the Jackson family
- 1930 – Roberta Peters, American soprano (d. 2017)
- 1931 – Jan Pesman, Dutch speed skater (d. 2014)
- 1931 – Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Russian conductor and educator (d. 2018)
- 1931 – Thomas Stuttaford, English physician, journalist, and politician (d. 2018)
- 1932 – Harlon Hill, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
- 1932 – Alexander MacAra, Scottish epidemiologist and academic (d. 2012)
- 1933 – J. Fred Duckett, American journalist and educator (d. 2007)
- 1936 – El Cordobés, Spanish bullfighter
- 1936 – Med Hondo, Mauritanian filmmaker and actor (d. 2019)
- 1937 – Ron Carter, American bassist and educator
- 1937 – Dick Dale, American surf-rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter (d. 2019)
- 1937 – Wim Verstappen, Dutch director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- 1938 – Tyrone Davis, American blues and soul singer (d. 2005)
- 1938 – Carlos Monsiváis, Mexican journalist, author, and critic (d. 2010)
- 1938 – Gillian Tindall, English historian and author
- 1939 – Neil Fox, English rugby league player and coach
- 1939 – Amos Oz, Israeli journalist and author (d. 2018)
- 1939 – Leon Rochefort, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1940 – Robin Cook, American physician and author
- 1940 – Peter Gregg, American race car driver and businessman (d. 1980)
- 1941 – George Will, American journalist and author
- 1942 – Nickolas Ashford, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 2011)
- 1943 – Georgi Asparuhov, Bulgarian footballer (d. 1971)
- 1943 – Mihail Chemiakin, Russian painter and sculptor
- 1943 – Prasanta Pattanaik, Indian economist and academic
- 1944 – Steve Liebmann, Australian radio and television host
- 1944 – Russi Taylor, American voice actress (d. 2019)
- 1945 – Jan Mulder, Dutch footballer and journalist
- 1946 – John Barnard, English car designer
- 1946 – Gary Bauer, American political activist
- 1946 – John Watson, British race car driver
- 1947 – John Bosley, Canadian businessman and politician, 31st Canadian Speaker of the House of Commons
- 1947 – Ronald Sørensen, Dutch historian and politician
- 1947 – Trivimi Velliste, Estonian politician, 17th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1948 – Alison Britton, English sculptor and educator
- 1948 – Hurley Haywood, American race car driver
- 1948 – King George Tupou V of Tonga, (d. 2012)
- 1949 – Graham Swift, English novelist and short story writer
- 1950 – Darryl Hunt, English bass player
- 1951 – Colin Bass, English bass player, songwriter, and producer
- 1951 – Colleen Hanabusa, American lawyer and politician
- 1951 – Jackie Jackson, American singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1952 – Belinda Green, Australian beauty queen and 1972 Miss World
- 1953 – Pia Zadora, American actress and singer
- 1954 – Ryan Cayabyab, Filipino pianist, composer, and conductor
- 1956 – Michael L. Gernhardt, American astronaut and engineer
- 1956 – David Guterson, American novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist
- 1956 – Ken Oberkfell, American baseball player and coach
- 1957 – Jaak Huimerind, Estonian architect
- 1957 – Kathy Kreiner, Canadian skier
- 1957 – Peter Sleep, Australian cricketer
- 1957 – Marijke Vos, Dutch educator and politician
- 1958 – Delbert Fowler, American football player
- 1958 – Keith Haring, American painter (d. 1990)
- 1958 – Jane Kennedy, English politician
- 1958 – Caroline Spelman, English politician, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- 1959 – Valdemaras Chomičius, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
- 1959 – Randy Travis, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1959 – Bob Tway, American golfer
- 1960 – Werner Faymann, Austrian politician, 28th Chancellor of Austria
- 1961 – Jay Aston, English singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1964 – Silvia Costa, Cuban high jumper
- 1966 – Gary Elkins, English footballer and manager
- 1966 – Jane McGrath, English-Australian activist, co-founded the McGrath Foundation (d. 2008)
- 1967 – Kate Garraway, English journalist
- 1967 – Ana Gasteyer, American actress and singer
- 1969 – Micah Aivazoff, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1969 – Franz Resch, Austrian footballer and manager
- 1970 – Gregg Alexander, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1970 – Will Arnett, Canadian actor and producer
- 1970 – Giovanni Mirabassi, Italian jazz musician
- 1970 – Dawn Staley, American basketball player
- 1970 – Paul Wiseman, New Zealand cricketer and coach
- 1971 – Joe Borowski, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1971 – Miles Stewart, Australian triathlete
- 1972 – Manny Aybar, Dominican baseball player
- 1972 – Mike Dirnt, American bass player and songwriter
- 1973 – Matthew Barnaby, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
- 1973 – Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Argentinian footballer and coach
- 1973 – John Madden, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1974 – Miguel Cairo, Venezuelan baseball player and coach
- 1974 – Tony McCoy, Northern Irish jockey and sportscaster
- 1976 – Ben Grieve, American baseball player
- 1976 – Rory Hamill, Northern Irish international footballer
- 1976 – Jason Michaels, American baseball player
- 1976 – Indrek Visnapuu, Estonian basketball player and coach
- 1977 – John Tripp, Canadian-German ice hockey player
- 1978 – Erin Andrews, American sportscaster and journalist
- 1978 – Igor Biscan, Croatian footballer
- 1978 – Brett Burton, Australian footballer
- 1978 – Vladimíra Uhlířová, Czech tennis player
- 1979 – Lance Bass, American singer, dancer, and producer
- 1979 – Kristin Harmel, American journalist and author
- 1979 – Marie Poissonnier, French pole vaulter
- 1979 – Lesley Vainikolo, Tongan rugby player
- 1980 – Andrew Raycroft, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1981 – Eric Djemba-Djemba, Cameroon footballer
- 1981 – Dallon Weekes, American singer-songwriter and musician
- 1982 – Kleopas Giannou, Greek footballer
- 1982 – Markus Rogan, Austrian swimmer
- 1982 – Giorgos Tsiaras, Greek basketball player
- 1983 – Dan Christian, Australian cricketer
- 1983 – Derek Roy, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1983 – Robert Zwinkels, Dutch footballer
- 1984 – Manjural Islam Rana, Bangladeshi cricketer (d. 2007)
- 1984 – Brad Maddox, American wrestler and referee
- 1984 – Sarah Meier, Swiss figure skater
- 1984 – Montell Owens, American football player
- 1984 – Kevin Slowey, American baseball player
- 1985 – Ravi Bopara, English cricketer
- 1985 – Anthony Fedorov, Ukrainian-born American singer and actor
- 1985 – Fernandinho, Brazilian footballer
- 1985 – Lester “Bo” McCalebb, American-Macedonian professional basketball player
- 1985 – Jamie Adenuga, English MC and rapper
- 1986 – Devan Dubnyk, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – George Hill, American basketball player
- 1987 – Cesc Fàbregas, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Jorge Lorenzo, Spanish motorcycle racer
- 1988 – Radja Nainggolan, Belgian footballer
- 1989 – Dániel Gyurta, Hungarian swimmer
- 1989 – Henna Lindholm, Finnish figure skater
- 1989 – Rory McIlroy, Northern Irish golfer
- 1989 – Aris Tatarounis, Greek basketball player
- 1989 – James van Riemsdyk, American ice hockey player
- 1990 – Irina Falconi, American tennis player
- 1990 – Ryan Morgan, Australian rugby league player
- 1990 – Duvashen Padayachee, Australian race car driver
- 1990 – Andrea Torres, Filipino actress and model
- 1991 – Brianne Jenner, Canadian women’s ice hockey player
- 1992 – Victor Oladipo, American basketball player
- 1993 – Jānis Bērziņš, Latvian basketball player
- 1994 – Abi Masatora, Japanese sumo wrestler
- 1994 – Joseph Tapine, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1996 – Pelayo Roza, Spanish sprint canoeist
 Deaths on May 4
- 408 – Venerius, archbishop of Milan
- 784 – Arbeo, bishop of Freising
- 1003 – Herman II, duke of Swabia
- 1038 – Gotthard of Hildesheim, German bishop (b. 960)
- 1406 – Coluccio Salutati, chancellor of Florence (b. 1331)
- 1436 – Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, Swedish rebel leader
- 1471 – Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, son and heir of Henry VI of England (b. 1453)
- 1471 – Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset (b. 1438)
- 1483 – George Neville, Duke of Bedford (b. 1457)
- 1506 – Husayn Mirza Bayqara, Timurid ruler of Herat (b. 1438)
- 1519 – Lorenzo de’ Medici, duke of Urbino (b. 1492)
- 1535 – John Houghton, Carthusian monk and saint
- 1562 – Lelio Sozzini, Italian Protestant theologian (b. 1525)
- 1566 – Luca Ghini, Italian physician and botanist (b. 1490)
- 1571 – Pierre Viret, Swiss theologian and reformer (b. 1511)
- 1604 – Claudio Merulo, Italian organist and composer (b. 1533)
- 1605 – Ulisse Aldrovandi, Italian naturalist (b. 1522)
- 1615 – Adriaan van Roomen, Flemish priest and mathematician (b. 1561)
- 1626 – Arthur Lake, English bishop and scholar (b. 1569)
- 1677 – Isaac Barrow, English mathematician and theologian (b. 1630)
- 1684 – John Nevison, English criminal (b. 1639)
- 1729 – Louis Antoine de Noailles, French cardinal (b. 1651)
- 1734 – James Thornhill, English painter and politician (b. 1675)
- 1737 – Eustace Budgell, English journalist and politician (b. 1686)
- 1774 – Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick, Prussian nobleman (b. 1714)
- 1776 – Jacques Saly, French painter and sculptor (b. 1717)
- 1790 – Matthew Tilghman, American politician (b. 1718)
- 1799 – Tipu, ruler of Mysore (b. 1750)
- 1811 – Nikolay Kamensky, Russian general (b. 1776)
- 1816 – Samuel Dexter, American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of War, 3rd United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1761)
- 1824 – Joseph Joubert, French author (b. 1754)
- 1826 – Sebastián Kindelán y O’Regan, colonial governor of East Florida, Santo Domingo and Cuba (b. 1757)
- 1839 – Denis Davydov, Russian general and poet (b. 1784)
- 1858 – Aimé Bonpland, French botanist and explorer (b. 1773)
- 1859 – Joseph Diaz Gergonne, French mathematician and philosopher (b. 1771)
- 1880 – Edward Clark, American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Texas (b. 1815)
- 1901 – John Jones Ross, Canadian lawyer and politician, 7th Premier of Quebec (b. 1831)
- 1903 – Gotse Delchev, Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary IMRO (b. 1872)
- 1912 – Nettie Stevens, American geneticist credited with discovering sex chromosomes (b. 1861)
- 1916 – Ned Daly, Irish rebel commander (Easter Rising) (b. 1891)
- 1916 – John Murray, Australian politician, 23rd Premier of Victoria (b. 1851)
- 1916 – Joseph Plunkett, Irish rebel and writer (b. 1887)
- 1916 – Willie Pearse, Irish rebel (b. 1891)
- 1919 – Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Slovak general and politician (b. 1880)
- 1922 – Viktor Kingissepp, Estonian politician (b. 1888)
- 1923 – Ralph McKittrick, American golfer and tennis player (b. 1877)
- 1924 – E. Nesbit, English author and poet (b. 1858)
- 1938 – Kanō Jigorō, Japanese founder of judo (b. 1860)
- 1938 – Carl von Ossietzky, German journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)
- 1941 – Chris McKivat, Australian rugby player and coach (b. 1880)
- 1945 – Fedor von Bock, German field marshal (b. 1880)
- 1953 – Alexandre Pharamond, French rugby player (b. 1876)
- 1955 – George Enescu, Romanian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1881)
- 1964 – Karl Robert Pusta, Estonian politician, 4th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1883)
- 1969 – Osbert Sitwell, English-Italian author and poet (b. 1892)
- 1972 – Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1886)
- 1973 – Jane Bowles, American author and playwright (b. 1917)
- 1975 – Moe Howard, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (b. 1897)
- 1976 – Frank Strahan, Australian public servant (b. 1886)
- 1980 – Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav field marshal and politician, 1st President of Yugoslavia (b. 1892)
- 1981 – C. Loganathan, Sri Lankan banker (b. 1913)
- 1983 – Nino Sanzogno, Italian conductor and composer (b. 1911)
- 1984 – Diana Dors, English actress (b. 1931)
- 1985 – Fikri Sönmez, Turkish tailor and politician (b. 1938)
- 1985 – Clarence Wiseman, English-Canadian 10th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1907)
- 1987 – Paul Butterfield, American singer and harmonica player (b. 1942)
- 1987 – Cathryn Damon, American actress (b. 1930)
- 1988 – Lillian Estelle Fisher, American historian of Spanish America (b. 1891)
- 1990 – Emily Remler, American guitarist (b. 1957)
- 1991 – Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Egyptian singer-songwriter and mandolin player (b. 1902)
- 1992 – Gregor Mackenzie, Scottish politician (b. 1927)
- 1993 – France Štiglic, Slovenian film director and screenwriter (b. 1919)
- 1995 – Connie Wisniewski, American baseball player (b. 1922)
- 2000 – Hendrik Casimir, Dutch physicist and academic (b. 1909)
- 2001 – Bonnie Lee Bakley, American model, wife of Robert Blake (b. 1956)
- 2004 – David Reimer, Canadian victim of a botched circumcision and transgender reassignment surgery (b. 1965)
- 2005 – David Hackworth, American colonel and journalist (b. 1930)
- 2008 – Fred Baur, American chemist and founder of Pringles (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Dom DeLuise, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1933)
- 2011 – Sammy McCrory, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Mort Lindsey, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Bob Stewart, American television producer, founded Stewart Tele Enterprises (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Adam Yauch, American rapper and director (b. 1964)
- 2012 – Rashidi Yekini, Nigerian footballer (b. 1963)
- 2013 – Otis R. Bowen, American physician and politician, 44th Governor of Indiana (b. 1918)
- 2013 – Christian de Duve, English-Belgian cytologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
- 2013 – Javier Diez Canseco, Peruvian sociologist and politician (b. 1948)
- 2013 – Mario Machado, Chinese-American journalist and actor (b. 1935)
- 2013 – Morgan Morgan-Giles, English admiral and politician (b. 1914)
- 2013 – César Portillo de la Luz, Cuban guitarist and composer (b. 1922)
- 2014 – Dick Ayers, American author and illustrator (b. 1924)
- 2014 – Elena Baltacha, Ukrainian-Scottish tennis player (b. 1983)
- 2014 – Edgar Cortright, American scientist and engineer (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Helga Königsdorf, German physicist and author (b. 1938)
- 2014 – Ross Lonsberry, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1947)
- 2014 – Jean-Paul Ngoupandé, Central African politician, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (b. 1948)
- 2015 – William Bast, American screenwriter and author (b. 1931)
- 2015 – Ellen Albertini Dow, American actress (b. 1913)
- 2015 – Marv Hubbard, American football player (b. 1946)
- 2016 – Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, Burundian politician (b. 1946)
- 2020 – Don Shula, American football player and coach (b. 1930)
- 2020 – Greg Zanis, American carpenter and activist (b. 1950)
 Holidays and observances on May 4
- Anti-Bullying Day (United Nations)
- Bird Day (United States)
- Cassinga Day (Namibia)
- Christian feast day:
- Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla
- Blessed Michal Giedroyc
- English Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation Era (Church of England)
- F. C. D. Wyneken (Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod)
- Florian
- Gotthard of Hildesheim
- José María Rubio
- Judas Cyriacus
- Monica of Hippo (1960 Roman Catholic Calendar)
- Sacerdos of Limoges
- Venerius of Milan
- May 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Dave Brubeck Day
- Death of Milan Rastislav Štefánik Day (Slovakia)
- Greenery Day (Japan)
- International Firefighters’ Day
- May Fourth Movement commemorations:
- Literary Day (Republic of China)
- Youth Day (China)
 
- Remembrance Day for Martyrs and Disabled (Afghanistan)
- Remembrance of the Dead (Netherlands)
- Restoration of Independence day (Latvia)
- Star Wars Day (International observance)
- World Give Day
- World Naked Gardening Day
- Youth Day (Fiji)
 
 
 
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 April 21 in History
- 753 BC – Romulus founds Rome (traditional date).
- 43 BC – Battle of Mutina: Mark Antony is again defeated in battle by Aulus Hirtius, who is killed. Antony fails to capture Mutina and Decimus Brutus is murdered shortly after.
- 900 – The Laguna Copperplate Inscription (the earliest known written document found in what is now the Philippines): the Commander-in-Chief of the Kingdom of Tondo, as represented by the Honourable Jayadewa, Lord Minister of Pailah, pardons from all debt the Honourable Namwaran and his relations.
- 1092 – The Diocese of Pisa is elevated to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Urban II
- 1506 – The three-day Lisbon Massacre comes to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics.
- 1509 – Henry VIII ascends the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.
- 1526 – The last ruler of the Lodi dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi is defeated and killed by Babur in the First Battle of Panipat.
- 1615 – The Wignacourt Aqueduct is inaugurated in Malta.
- 1782 – The city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, is founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.
- 1789 – George Washington’s reception at Trenton is hosted by the Ladies of Trenton as he journeys to New York City for his first inauguration.
- 1792 – Tiradentes, a revolutionary leading a movement for Brazil’s independence, is hanged, drawn and quartered.
- 1802 – Twelve thousand Wahhabis under Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, invaded city of Karbala, killed over three thousand inhabitants, and sacked the city.
- 1806 – Action of 21 April 1806: A French frigate escapes British forces off the coast of South Africa.
- 1809 – Two Austrian army corps are driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon as two French corps to the north hold off the main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmühl.
- 1821 – Benderli Ali Pasha arrives in Constantinople as the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire; he remains in power for only nine days before being sent into exile.
- 1836 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
- 1856 – Australian labour movement: Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne march from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight-hour day.
- 1894 – Norway formally adopts the Krag–Jørgensen bolt-action rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years.
- 1898 – Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.
- 1914 – Ypiranga incident: A German arms shipment to Mexico is intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz.
- 1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as “The Red Baron”, is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.
- 1926 – Al-Baqi cemetery, former site of the mausoleum of four Shi’a Imams, is leveled to the ground by Wahhabis.
- 1934 – The “Surgeon’s Photograph”, the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it is revealed to be a hoax).
- 1945 – World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
- 1948 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 relating to Kashmir conflict is adopted.
- 1952 – Secretary’s Day (now Administrative Professionals’ Day) is first celebrated.
- 1958 – United Airlines Flight 736 collides into a United States Air Force fighter jet near Arden, Nevada in what is now Enterprise, Nevada.
- 1960 – Brasília, Brazil’s capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.
- 1962 – The Seattle World’s Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World’s Fair in the United States since World War II.
- 1963 – The first election of the Universal House of Justice is held, marking its establishment as the supreme governing institution of the Bahá’í Faith.
- 1964 – A Transit-5bn satellite fails to reach orbit after launch; as it re-enters the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTG power source is widely dispersed.
- 1965 – The 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair opens for its second and final season.
- 1966 – Rastafari movement: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event now celebrated as Grounation Day.
- 1967 – A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d’état, establishing a military regime that lasts for seven years.
- 1975 – Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyễn Văn Thiệu flees Saigon, as Xuân Lộc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.
- 1977 – Annie opens on Broadway.
- 1982 – Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.
- 1985 – The compound of the militant group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord surrenders to federal authorities in Arkansas after a two-day government siege.
- 1987 – The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that detonates in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, killing 106 people.
- 1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.
- 1993 – The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentences former dictator Luis García Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution.
- 2004 – Five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160.
- 2010 – The controversial Kharkiv Pact (Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas Treaty) is signed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; it was unilaterally terminated by Russia on March 31, 2014.
- 2012 – Two trains are involved in a head-on collision near Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, injuring 116 people.
- 2014 – The American city of Flint, Michigan switches its water source to the Flint River, beginning the ongoing Flint water crisis which has caused lead poisoning in up to 12,000 people, and 15 deaths from Legionnaires disease, ultimately leading to criminal indictments against 15 people, five of whom have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
- 2019 – Eight bombs explode at churches, hotels, and other locations in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday; more than 200 people are killed.
 Births on April 21
- 1132 – Sancho VI, king of Navarre (d. 1194)
- 1488 – Ulrich von Hutten, German religious reformer (d. 1523)
- 1523 – Marco Antonio Bragadin, Venetian lawyer and military officer (d. 1571)
- 1555 – Ludovico Carracci, Italian painter and etcher (d. 1619)
- 1619 – Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch founder of Cape Town (d. 1677)
- 1630 – Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten, Dutch-English painter (d. 1700)
- 1631 – Francesco Maidalchini, Catholic cardinal (d. 1700)
- 1642 – Simon de la Loubère, French mathematician, poet, and diplomat (d. 1729)
- 1651 – Joseph Vaz, Sri Lankan priest, missionary, and saint (d. 1711)
- 1652 – Michel Rolle, French mathematician and academic (d. 1719)
- 1671 – John Law, Scottish economist (d. 1729)
- 1673 – Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1742)
- 1713 – Louis de Noailles, French general (d. 1793)
- 1730 – Antonín Kammel, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1788)
- 1752 – Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, French engineer, hydrographer, and politician, French Minister of Marine and the Colonies (d. 1807)
- 1752 – Humphry Repton, English gardener and author (d. 1818)
- 1774 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (d. 1862)
- 1775 – Alexander Anderson, Scottish-American illustrator and engraver (d. 1870)
- 1790 – Manuel Blanco Encalada, Spanish-Chilean admiral and politician, 1st President of Chile (d. 1876)
- 1810 – John Putnam Chapin, American politician, 10th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1864)
- 1811 – Alson Sherman, American merchant and politician, 8th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1903)
- 1814 – Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, English art collector and philanthropist (d. 1906)
- 1816 – Charlotte Brontë, Cornish-English novelist and poet (d. 1855)
- 1837 – Fredrik Bajer, Danish lieutenant and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1922)
- 1838 – John Muir, Scottish-American environmentalist and author (d. 1914)
- 1851 – Charles Barrois, French geologist and palaeontologist (d. 1939)
- 1854 – William Stang, German-American bishop (d. 1907)
- 1864 – Max Weber, German economist and sociologist (d. 1920)
- 1868 – Alfred Henry Maurer, American painter (d. 1932)
- 1870 – Edwin Stanton Porter, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1941)
- 1874 – Vincent Scotto, French actor and composer (d. 1952)
- 1882 – Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1885 – Tatu Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (d. 1967)
- 1887 – Joe McCarthy, American baseball manager (d. 1978)
- 1889 – Marcel Boussac, French businessman (d. 1980)
- 1889 – Paul Karrer, Russian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
- 1889 – Efrem Zimbalist, Sr., Russian-American violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1985)
- 1892 – Freddie Dixon, English motorcycle racer and racing driver (d. 1956)
- 1893 – Romeo Bertini, Italian runner (d. 1973)
- 1898 – Maurice Wilson, English soldier, pilot, and mountaineer (d. 1934)
- 1899 – Randall Thompson, American composer and academic (d. 1984)
- 1903 – Luis Saslavsky, Argentinian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1995)
- 1904 – Jean Hélion, French painter (d. 1987)
- 1904 – Odilo Globocnik, Italian-Austrian SS officer (d. 1945)
- 1905 – Pat Brown, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Governor of California (d. 1996)
- 1911 – Ivan Combe, American businessman, developed Clearasil (d. 2000)
- 1911 – Kemal Satır, Turkish physician and politician (d. 1991)
- 1912 – Eve Arnold, Russian-American photojournalist (d. 2012)
- 1912 – Marcel Camus, French director and screenwriter (d. 1982)
- 1913 – Norman Parkinson, English photographer (d. 1990)
- 1914 – Angelo Savoldi, Italian-American wrestler and promoter, co-founded International World Class Championship Wrestling (d. 2013)
- 1915 – Garrett Hardin, American ecologist, author, and academic (d. 2003)
- 1915 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor (d. 2001)
- 1916 – Estella B. Diggs, American businesswoman and politician (d. 2013)
- 1918 – Eddy Christiani, Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016)
- 1919 – Don Cornell, American singer (d. 2004)
- 1919 – Roger Doucet, Canadian tenor (d. 1981)
- 1919 – Licio Gelli, Italian financer (d. 2015)
- 1920 – Edmund Adamkiewicz, German footballer (d. 1991)
- 1922 – Alistair MacLean, Scottish novelist and screenwriter (d. 1987)
- 1922 – Allan Watkins, Welsh-English cricketer (d. 2011)
- 1923 – John Mortimer, English lawyer and author (d. 2009)
- 1924 – Ira Louvin, American singer-songwriter and mandolin player (d. 1965)
- 1925 – Anthony Mason, Australian soldier and judge, 9th Chief Justice of Australia
- 1925 – John Swinton of Kimmerghame, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire (d. 2018)
- 1926 – Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and her other realms
- 1926 – Arthur Rowley, English footballer, manager and cricketer (d. 2002)
- 1927 – Ahmed Arif, Turkish poet and author (d. 1991)
- 1928 – Jack Evans, Welsh-Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1996)
- 1930 – Hilda Hilst, Brazilian author, poet, and playwright (d. 2004)
- 1930 – Silvana Mangano, Italian actress (d. 1989)
- 1930 – Dieter Roth, German-Swiss illustrator and sculptor (d. 1998)
- 1930 – Jack Taylor, English footballer and referee (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Morgan Wootten, American high school basketball coach (d. 2020)
- 1932 – Slide Hampton, African-American trombonist and composer
- 1932 – Elaine May, American actress, comedian, director, and screenwriter
- 1932 – Angela Mortimer, English tennis player
- 1933 – Edelmiro Amante, Filipino lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
- 1933 – Easley Blackwood, Jr., American pianist, composer, and educator
- 1933 – Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Iraqi patriarch (d. 2014)
- 1935 – Charles Grodin, American actor and talk show host
- 1935 – Thomas Kean, American academic and politician, 48th Governor of New Jersey
- 1936 – James Dobson, American evangelist, psychologist, and author, founded Focus on the Family
- 1936 – Reg Fleming, Canadian-American ice hockey player (d. 2009)
- 1937 – Gary Peters, American baseball player
- 1937 – Ben Zinn, Israeli-born American academic and former international soccer player
- 1939 – John McCabe, English pianist and composer (d. 2015)
- 1939 – Sister Helen Prejean, American nun, activist, and author
- 1939 – Reni Santoni, American actor
- 1940 – Jacques Caron, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1940 – Souleymane Cissé, Malian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1941 – David L. Boren, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Oklahoma
- 1942 – Geoffrey Palmer, New Zealand politician, 33rd Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1945 – Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, Indian cricketer and umpire
- 1945 – Mark Wainberg, Canadian researcher and HIV/AIDS activist (d. 2017)
- 1945 – Diana Darvey, English actress, singer and dancer (d. 2000)
- 1947 – Al Bumbry, American baseball player
- 1947 – Iggy Pop, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1947 – John Weider, English bass player
- 1948 – Gary Condit, American businessman and politician
- 1948 – Paul Davis, American singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2008)
- 1948 – Josef Flammer, Swiss ophthalmologist
- 1948 – Dieter Fromm, German runner
- 1949 – Patti LuPone, American actress and singer
- 1950 – Shivaji Satam, Indian actor
- 1951 – Tony Danza, American actor and producer
- 1951 – Michael Freedman, American mathematician and academic
- 1951 – Bob Varsha, American sportscaster
- 1951 – Steve Vickers, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1952 – Gerald Early, American author and academic
- 1952 – Cheryl Gillan, British businesswoman and politician, Secretary of State for Wales
- 1953 – John Brumby, Australian politician, 45th Premier of Victoria
- 1954 – Ebiet G. Ade, Indonesian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1954 – James Morrison, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1955 – Murathan Mungan, Turkish author, poet, and playwright
- 1955 – Doug Soetaert, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1956 – Peter Kosminsky, English director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1956 – Phillip Longman, German-American demographer and journalist
- 1957 – Hervé Le Tellier, French linguist and author
- 1957 – Jesse Orosco, American baseball player
- 1957 – Herbert Wetterauer, German painter, sculptor, and author
- 1958 – Andie MacDowell, American model, actress, and producer
- 1958 – Yoshito Usui, Japanese illustrator (d. 2009)
- 1958 – Michael Zarnock, American author
- 1959 – Tim Jacobus, American illustrator and painter
- 1959 – Olga Kuragina, Russian pentathlete
- 1959 – Arno Pijpers, Dutch footballer and coach
- 1959 – Robert Smith, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1960 – Michel Goulet, Canadian ice hockey player and scout
- 1960 – Julius Korir, Kenyan runner
- 1961 – Cathy Cavadini, American voice actress
- 1961 – Carey Hayes, American screenwriter and producer
- 1961 – Chad Hayes, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1961 – Neale Marmon, English-German footballer, coach, and manager
- 1961 – David Servan-Schreiber, French physician, neuroscientist, and author (d. 2011)
- 1962 – Les Lancaster, American baseball player and coach
- 1962 – Craig Robinson, American basketball player and coach
- 1962 – Aavo Sarap, Estonian footballer and coach
- 1963 – Ken Caminiti, American baseball player (d. 2004)
- 1963 – Roy Dupuis, Canadian actor
- 1963 – John Cameron Mitchell, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1964 – Alex Baumann, Czech-Canadian swimmer
- 1964 – Ludmila Engquist, Russian-Swedish hurdler
- 1965 – Ed Belfour, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1965 – Karen Foster, American model and actress
- 1965 – Gary Grant, American basketball player
- 1965 – Thomas Helmer, German footballer
- 1965 – Fiona Kelleghan, American academic, critic and librarian
- 1967 – Emilio Valle, Cuban hurdler
- 1968 – Peter van Vossen, Dutch footballer and coach
- 1969 – John Kibowen, Kenyan runner
- 1969 – Toby Stephens, English actor
- 1970 – Jeff Anderson, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1970 – Glen Hansard, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1970 – Rob Riggle, American actor and comedian
- 1970 – Nicole Sullivan, American actress, comedian, and screenwriter
- 1971 – Axl Rotten, American wrestler (d. 2016)
- 1971 – Michael Turner, American author and illustrator (d. 2008)
- 1972 – Richard Chelimo, Kenyan runner (d. 2001)
- 1972 – Gwendal Peizerat, French ice dancer
- 1973 – Steve Backshall, English naturalist, writer, and television presenter
- 1973 – Jonathan Nsenga, Belgian hurdler and coach
- 1974 – Maksim Gruznov, Estonian footballer
- 1974 – Orlando Jordan, American wrestler
- 1974 – David Peachey, Australian rugby league player
- 1975 – Danyon Loader, New Zealand swimmer
- 1976 – Rommel Adducul, Filipino basketball player
- 1976 – Petero Civoniceva, Fijian-Australian rugby league player
- 1977 – Gyula Koi, Hungarian scholar and educator
- 1977 – Jamie Salé, Canadian figure skater
- 1978 – Jacob Burns, Australian footballer
- 1978 – Jukka Nevalainen, Finnish drummer
- 1978 – Yuliya Pechonkina, Russian hurdler
- 1979 – Virginie Basselot, French chef
- 1979 – Tobias Linderoth, French-Swedish footballer and coach
- 1979 – James McAvoy, Scottish actor
- 1980 – Jeff Keppinger, American baseball player
- 1980 – Vincent Lecavalier, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Tony Romo, American football player
- 1981 – Mads Junker, Danish footballer
- 1982 – Khalif Barnes, American football player
- 1982 – Micheal Luck, Australian rugby league player
- 1982 – Carnell Williams, American football player
- 1983 – Paweł Brożek, Polish footballer
- 1983 – Marco Donadel, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Tarvaris Jackson, American football player (d. 2020)
- 1984 – Shayna Fox, American voice actress
- 1986 – Audra Cohen, American tennis player
- 1986 – Alexander Edler, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1986 – Rodney Stuckey, American basketball player
- 1986 – Mirko Valdifiori, Italian footballer
- 1987 – Nadif Chowdhury, Bangladeshi cricketer
- 1987 – Eric Devendorf, American basketball player
- 1987 – Leroy George, Dutch footballer
- 1987 – Anastasia Prikhodko, Ukrainian singer
- 1988 – Ricky Berens, American swimmer
- 1988 – Jencarlos Canela, American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1988 – Pedro Mosquera, Spanish footballer
- 1988 – Adam Rooney, Irish footballer
- 1989 – Tatyana McFadden, Russian-American sprinter and skier
- 1989 – Carlos Muñoz, Chilean footballer
- 1990 – Aleksandar Prijović, Swiss-born Serbian footballer
- 1992 – Isco, Spanish footballer
- 1992 – Rene Santos, Brazilian footballer
- 1992 – Joc Pederson, American baseball player
- 1994 – Mitchell Weiser, German footballer
 Deaths on April 21
- 234 – Emperor Xian of Han, Chinese emperor (b. 181)
- 586 – Liuvigild, king of the Visigoths
- 847 – Odgar, Frankish archbishop of Mainz
- 866 – Bardas, de facto regent of the Byzantine Empire
- 941 – Bajkam, de facto regent of the Abbasid Caliphate
- 1073 – Pope Alexander II
- 1109 – Anselm of Canterbury, Italian-English archbishop and saint (b. 1033)
- 1136 – Stephen, Count of Tréguier Breton noblemen (b. c. 1058/62)
- 1142 – Peter Abelard, French philosopher and theologian (b. 1079)
- 1213 – Maria of Montpellier, Lady of Montpellier, Queen of Aragon (b. 1182)
- 1329 – Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1282)
- 1400 – John Wittlebury, English politician (b. 1333)
- 1509 – Henry VII of England (b. 1457)
- 1557 – Petrus Apianus, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1495)
- 1574 – Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1519)
- 1591 – Sen no Rikyū, Japanese exponent of the tea ceremony (b. 1522)
- 1650 – Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, Japanese samurai (b. 1607)
- 1668 – Jan Boeckhorst, Flemish painter (b. c. 1604)
- 1699 – Jean Racine, French playwright and poet (b. 1639)
- 1719 – Philippe de La Hire, French mathematician and astronomer (b. 1640)
- 1720 – Antoine Hamilton, Irish-French soldier and author (b. 1646)
- 1722 – Robert Beverley, Jr., English historian and author (b. 1673)
- 1736 – Prince Eugene of Savoy (b. 1663)
- 1740 – Thomas Tickell, English poet and author (b. 1685)
- 1758 – Francesco Zerafa, Maltese architect (b. 1679)
- 1815 – Joseph Winston, American soldier and politician (b. 1746)
- 1825 – Johann Friedrich Pfaff, German mathematician and academic (b. 1765)
- 1852 – Ivan Nabokov, Russian general (b. 1787)
- 1863 – Sir Robert Bateson, 1st Baronet, Irish politician (b. 1782)
- 1900 – Vikramatji Khimojiraj, Indian ruler (b. 1819)
- 1910 – Mark Twain, American novelist, humorist, and critic (b. 1835)
- 1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, German captain and pilot (b. 1892)
- 1924 – Eleonora Duse, Italian actress (b. 1858)
- 1930 – Robert Bridges, English poet and author (b. 1844)
- 1932 – Friedrich Gustav Piffl, Bohemian cardinal (b. 1864)
- 1938 – Muhammad Iqbal, Indian-Pakistani philosopher and poet (b. 1877)
- 1941 – Fritz Manteuffel, German gymnast (b. 1875)
- 1945 – Walter Model, German field marshal (b. 1891)
- 1946 – John Maynard Keynes, English economist and philosopher (b. 1883)
- 1948 – Aldo Leopold, American ecologist and author (b. 1887)
- 1952 – Leslie Banks, American actor, director and producer (b. 1890)
- 1954 – Emil Leon Post, Polish-American mathematician and logician (b. 1897)
- 1956 – Charles MacArthur, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1895)
- 1965 – Edward Victor Appleton, English-Scottish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
- 1971 – François Duvalier, Haitian physician and politician, 40th President of Haiti (b. 1907)
- 1973 – Arthur Fadden, Australian accountant and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1894)
- 1973 – Kemal Tahir, Turkish journalist and author (b. 1910)
- 1974 – Chic Harley, American football player (b. 1894)
- 1977 – Gummo Marx, American vaudevillian and talent agent (b. 1893)
- 1978 – Sandy Denny, English singer-songwriter (b.1947)
- 1978 – Thomas Wyatt Turner, American biologist and academic (b. 1877)
- 1980 – Alexander Oparin, Russian biochemist and academic (b. 1894)
- 1980 – Sohrab Sepehri, Iranian poet and painter (b. 1928)
- 1983 – Walter Slezak, Austrian-American actor and singer (b. 1902)
- 1984 – Marcel Janco, Romanian-Israeli artist (b. 1895)
- 1984 – Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian engineer and mountaineer (b. 1943)
- 1985 – Rudi Gernreich, Austrian-American fashion designer, created the monokini (b. 1922)
- 1985 – Tancredo Neves, Brazilian banker and politician, Prime Minister of Brazil (b. 1910)
- 1986 – Marjorie Eaton, American painter and actress (b. 1901)
- 1986 – Salah Jahin, Egyptian poet, playwright, and composer (b. 1930)
- 1987 – Gustav Bergmann, Austrian-American philosopher from the Vienna Circle (b. 1906)
- 1989 – James Kirkwood, Jr., American actor, playwright, and author (b. 1924)
- 1990 – Erté, Russian-French illustrator (b. 1892)
- 1991 – Willi Boskovsky, Austrian violinist and conductor (b. 1909)
- 1996 – Zora Arkus-Duntov, Belgian-born American engineer and race car driver (b. 1909)
- 1996 – Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechen general and politician, 1st President of Ichkeria (b. 1944)
- 1996 – Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Pakistani cricketer (b. 1925)
- 1996 – Jimmy Snyder, American sportscaster (b. 1919)
- 1998 – Jean-François Lyotard, French sociologist and philosopher (b. 1924)
- 1999 – Buddy Rogers, American actor (b. 1904)
- 2003 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and activist (b. 1933)
- 2004 – Mary McGrory, American journalist (b. 1918)
- 2005 – Gerry Marshall, English race car driver and journalist (b. 1941)
- 2006 – Johnny Checketts, New Zealand commander and pilot (b. 1912)
- 2006 – T. K. Ramakrishnan, Indian politician (b. 1922)
- 2006 – Telê Santana, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1931)
- 2007 – Lobby Loyde, Australian guitarist, songwriter, and producer (b. 1941)
- 2009 – Vivian Maier, American photographer (b. 1926)
- 2010 – Gustav Lorentzen, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1947)
- 2010 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish businessman, seventh President of the International Olympic Committee (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Kanagaratnam Sriskandan, Sri Lankan-English engineer and civil servant (b. 1930)
- 2011 – Catharina Halkes, Dutch theologian and academic (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Doris Betts, American author and academic (b. 1932)
- 2012 – Charles Colson, American lawyer and activist, founded Prison Fellowship (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Albert Falco, French captain and diver (b. 1927)
- 2012 – Charles Higham, English-American author and poet (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Jerry Toppazzini, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Chrissy Amphlett, Australian singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1959)
- 2013 – Shakuntala Devi, Indian mathematician and astrologer (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Leopold Engleitner, Austrian Holocaust survivor, author, and educator (b. 1905)
- 2013 – Gordon D. Gayle, American general and historian (b. 1917)
- 2014 – Herb Gray, Canadian lawyer and politician, 7th Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Janet Gray Hayes, American politician, 60th Mayor of San Jose (b. 1926)
- 2014 – George H. Heilmeier, American engineer (b. 1936)
- 2014 – Win Tin, Burmese journalist and politician, co-founded the National League for Democracy (b. 1930)
- 2015 – M. H. Abrams, American author, critic, and academic (b. 1912)
- 2015 – Steve Byrnes, American sportscaster and producer (b. 1959)
- 2015 – John Moshoeu, South African footballer and manager (b. 1965)
- 2015 – Janaki Ballabh Patnaik, Indian politician, Governor of Assam (b. 1927)
- 2015 – Sydney Valpy Radley-Walters, Canadian general (b. 1920)
- 2015 – Betsy von Furstenberg, German-American actress (b. 1931)
- 2016 – Prince, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (b. 1958)
- 2017 – Ugo Ehiogu, English footballer (b. 1972)
- 2018 – Verne Troyer, American actor (b. 1969)
- 2018 – Nabi Tajima, Japanese supercentenarian, oldest Japanese and Asian person ever, last verified person born in the 19th century (b. 1900)
- 2019 – Polly Higgins, Scottish barrister, author and environmental lobbyist, (b. 1968)
 Holidays and observances April 21
- Christian feast day:
- Abdecalas
- Anastasius Sinaita
- Anselm of Canterbury
- Beuno
- Conrad of Parzham
- Holy Infant of Good Health
- Shemon Bar Sabbae
- Wolbodo
- April 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Civil Service Day (India)
- Grounation Day (Rastafari movement)
- Heroic Defense of Veracruz (Mexico)
- Kang Pan-sok’s Birthday (North Korea)
- Kartini Day (Indonesia)
- Local Self Government Day (Russia)
- National Tea Day (United Kingdom)
- National Tree Planting Day (Kenya)
- San Jacinto Day (Texas)
- Queen’s Official Birthday (Falkland Islands)
- Tiradentes’ Day (Brazil)
- Vietnam Book Day (Vietnam)
 
 
 
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 March 27 in History
- 1309 – Pope Clement V imposes excommunication and interdiction on Venice, and a general prohibition of all commercial intercourse with Venice, which had seized on Ferrara, a papal fiefdom.
- 1329 – Pope John XXII issues his In Agro Dominico condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical.
- 1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León reaches the northern end of The Bahamas on his first voyage to Florida.
- 1625 – Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France.
- 1782 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- 1794 – The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
- 1809 – Peninsular War: A combined Franco-Polish force defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Ciudad Real.
- 1814 – War of 1812: In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
- 1836 – Texas Revolution: On the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexican army massacres 342 Texas POWs at Goliad, Texas.
- 1866 – President of the United States of America Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866. His veto is overridden by Congress and the bill passes into law on April 9.
- 1871 – The first international rugby football match, when Scotland defeats England in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.
- 1884 – A mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, attacks members of a jury which had returned a verdict of manslaughter in what was seen as a clear case of murder; over the next few days the mob would riot and eventually destroy the courthouse.
- 1886 – Geronimo, Apache warrior, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.
- 1899 – Emilio Aguinaldo leads Filipino forces for the only time during the Philippine–American War at the Battle of Marilao River.
- 1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States is put in quarantine for the second time, where she would remain for the rest of her life.
- 1918 – The National Council of Bessarabia proclaims union with the Kingdom of Romania.
- 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Taierzhuang begins, resulting several weeks later in the war’s first major Chinese victory over Japan.
- 1941 – World War II: Yugoslav Air Force officers topple the pro-Axis government in a bloodless coup.
- 1943 – World War II: Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
- 1945 – World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan’s ports and waterways begins. Argentina declares war on the Axis Powers.
- 1958 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union.
- 1964 – The Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes Southcentral Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.
- 1975 – Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.
- 1977 – Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the deadliest aviation accident in history.
- 1980 – The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212.
- 1980 – Silver Thursday: A steep fall in silver prices, resulting from the Hunt Brothers attempting to corner the market in silver, leads to panic on commodity and futures exchanges.
- 1981 – The Solidarity movement in Poland stages a warning strike, in which at least 12 million Poles walk off their jobs for four hours.
- 1986 – A car bomb explodes outside Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, Australia, killing one police officer and injuring 21 people.
- 1990 – The United States begins broadcasting anti-Castro propaganda to Cuba on TV Martí.
- 1993 – Jiang Zemin is appointed President of the People’s Republic of China.
- 1993 – Italian former minister and Christian Democracy leader Giulio Andreotti is accused of mafia allegiance by the tribunal of Palermo.
- 1998 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
- 1999 – Kosovo War: An American Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk is shot down by a Yugoslav SAM, the first and only Nighthawk to be lost in combat.
- 2000 – A Phillips Petroleum plant explosion in Pasadena, Texas kills one person and injures 71 others.
- 2002 – Passover massacre: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people at a Passover seder in Netanya, Israel.
- 2002 – Nanterre massacre: In Nanterre, France, a gunman opens fire at the end of a town council meeting, resulting in the deaths of eight councilors; 19 other people are injured.
- 2004 – HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander-class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.
- 2009 – The dam forming Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Indonesia, fails, killing at least 99 people.
- 2014 – Philippines signs a peace accord with the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ending decades of conflict.
- 2015 – Al-Shabab militants attack and temporarily occupy a Mogadishu hotel leaving at least 20 people dead.
- 2016 – A suicide blast in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore claims over 70 lives and leaves almost 300 others injured. The target of the bombing are Christians celebrating Easter.
- 2020 – North Macedonia becomes the 30th member of NATO.
 Births on March 27
- 972 – Robert II, king of France (d. 1031)
- 1401 – Albert III, duke of Bavaria (d. 1460)
- 1416 – Francis of Paola, Italian friar and saint, founded Order of the Minims (d. 1507)
- 1546 – Johannes Piscator, German theologian (d. 1625)
- 1627 – Stephen Fox, English politician (d. 1716)
- 1676 – Francis II Rákóczi, Hungarian prince (b. 1676)
- 1679 – Domenico Lalli, Italian poet and librettist (d. 1741)
- 1681 – Joaquín Fernández de Portocarrero, Spanish-Italian cardinal (d. 1760)
- 1702 – Johann Ernst Eberlin, German organist and composer (d. 1762)
- 1710 – Joseph Abaco, Belgian cellist and composer (d. 1805)
- 1712 – Claude Bourgelat, French surgeon and author (d. 1779)
- 1714 – Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, Italian historian and theologian (d. 1795)
- 1724 – Jane Colden, American botanist and author (d. 1766)
- 1745 – Lindley Murray, American-English Quaker and grammarian (d. 1826)
- 1746 – Michael Bruce, Scottish poet and composer (d. 1767)
- 1746 – Carlo Buonaparte, Corsican-French lawyer and politician (d. 1785)
- 1765 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologian (d. 1841)
- 1781 – Alexander Vostokov, Estonian-Russian philologist and academic (d. 1864)
- 1784 – Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, Hungarian philologist, orientalist, and author (d. 1842)
- 1785 – Louis XVII of France (d. 1795)
- 1797 – Alfred de Vigny, French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1863)
- 1801 – Alexander Barrow, American lawyer and politician (d. 1846)
- 1802 – Charles-Mathias Simons, German-Luxembourger jurist and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1874)
- 1809 – Georges-Eugène Haussmann, French engineer, urban planner, and politician (d. 1891)
- 1811 – Edward William Cooke, English painter and illustrator (d. 1880)
- 1814 – Charles Mackay, Scottish journalist, anthologist, and author (d. 1889)
- 1820 – Edward Augustus Inglefield, English admiral and explorer (d. 1894)
- 1822 – Henri Murger, French novelist and poet (d. 1861)
- 1824 – Virginia Minor, American women’s suffrage activist (d. 1894)
- 1839 – John Ballance, Irish-New Zealand journalist and politician, 14th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1893)
- 1843 – George Frederick Leycester Marshall, English colonel and entomologist (d. 1934)
- 1844 – Adolphus Greely, American general and explorer, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1935)
- 1845 – Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1923)
- 1845 – Jakob Sverdrup, Norwegian bishop and politician, Norwegian Minister of Education and Church Affairs (d. 1899)
- 1847 – Otto Wallach, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)
- 1851 – Ruperto Chapí, Spanish composer, co-founded Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (d. 1909)
- 1851 – Vincent d’Indy, French composer and educator (d. 1931)
- 1852 – Jan van Beers, Belgian painter and illustrator (d. 1927)
- 1854 – Giovanni Battista Grassi, Italian physician, zoologist, and entomologist (d. 1925)
- 1855 – William Libbey, American target shooter, colonel, mountaineer, geographer, geologist, and archaeologist (d. 1927)
- 1857 – Karl Pearson, English mathematician, eugenicist, and academic (d. 1936)
- 1859 – George Giffen, Australian cricketer and footballer (d. 1927)
- 1860 – Frank Frost Abbott, American-Swiss scholar and academic (d. 1924)
- 1862 – Jelena Dimitrijević, Serbian short story writer, novelist, poet, traveller, social worker, feminist and polyglot (d. 1945)
- 1862 – Arturo Berutti, Argentinian composer (d. 1938)
- 1863 – Henry Royce, English engineer and businessman, founded Rolls-Royce Limited (d. 1933)
- 1866 – John Allan, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Victoria (d. 1936)
- 1868 – Patty Hill, American songwriter and educator (d. 1946)
- 1869 – James McNeill, Irish politician, 2nd Governor-General of the Irish Free State (d. 1938)
- 1869 – J. R. Clynes, English trade unionist and politician, Home Secretary (d. 1949)
- 1871 – Heinrich Mann, German author and poet (d. 1950)
- 1871 – Joseph G. Morrison, American captain and Nazarene minister (d. 1939)
- 1871 – Piet Aalberse, Dutch politician, Minister of Labour (d. 1948)
- 1875 – Albert Marquet, French painter (d. 1947)
- 1877 – Oscar Grégoire, Belgian water polo player and swimmer (d. 1947)
- 1878 – Kathleen Scott, British sculptor (d. 1947)
- 1879 – Sándor Garbai, Hungarian politician, 19th Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 1947)
- 1879 – Miller Huggins, American baseball player and manager (d. 1929)
- 1879 – Edward Steichen, Luxembourger-American painter and photographer (d. 1973)
- 1881 – Arkady Averchenko, Russian playwright and satirist (d. 1925)
- 1882 – Thomas Graham Brown, Scottish mountaineer and physiologist (d. 1965)
- 1883 – Marie Under, Estonian author and poet (d. 1980)
- 1884 – Gordon Thomson, English rower and lieutenant (d. 1953)
- 1885 – Julio Lozano Díaz, Honduran accountant and politician, 40th President of Honduras (d. 1957)
- 1885 – Reginald Fletcher, 1st Baron Winster, English navy officer and politician, Secretary of State for Transport (d. 1961)
- 1886 – Sergey Kirov, Russian politician (d. 1934)
- 1886 – Wladimir Burliuk, Ukrainian painter and illustrator (d. 1917)
- 1886 – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German-American architect, designed IBM Plaza and Seagram Building (d. 1969)
- 1887 – Väinö Siikaniemi, Finnish javelin thrower, poet, and translator (d. 1932)
- 1888 – George Alfred Lawrence Hearne, English-South African cricketer (d. 1978)
- 1889 – Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Egyptian-Turkish journalist, author, and politician (d. 1974)
- 1889 – Leonard Mociulschi, Romanian general (d. 1979)
- 1890 – Harald Julin, Swedish swimmer and water polo player (d. 1967)
- 1890 – Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton, Scottish admiral (d. 1974)
- 1891 – Lajos Zilahy, Hungarian novelist and playwright (d. 1974)
- 1891 – Klawdziy Duzh-Dushewski, Belarusian-Lithuanian architect, journalist, and diplomat, created the Flag of Belarus (d. 1959)
- 1892 – Ferde Grofé, American pianist and composer (d. 1972)
- 1892 – Thorne Smith, American author (d. 1934)
- 1893 – Karl Mannheim, Hungarian-English sociologist and academic (d. 1947)
- 1893 – G. Lloyd Spencer, American lieutenant and politician (d. 1981)
- 1893 – George Beranger, Australian-American actor and director (d. 1973)
- 1894 – René Fonck, French colonel and pilot (d. 1953)
- 1895 – Roland Leighton, English soldier and poet (d. 1915)
- 1897 – Douglas Hartree, English mathematician and physicist (d. 1958)
- 1897 – Fred Keating, American magician, stage and film actor (d. 1961)
- 1899 – Francis Ponge, French poet and author (d. 1988)
- 1899 – Herbert Arthur Stuart, German-Swiss physicist and academic (d. 1974)
- 1899 – Gloria Swanson, American actress and producer (d. 1983)
- 1901 – Carl Barks, American illustrator and screenwriter (d. 2000)
- 1901 – Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (d. 1963)
- 1901 – Eisaku Satō, Japanese politician, 61st Prime Minister of Japan, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
- 1901 – Kenneth Slessor, Australian journalist and poet (d. 1971)
- 1902 – Sidney Buchman, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1975)
- 1902 – Charles Lang, American cinematographer (d. 1998)
- 1903 – Xavier Villaurrutia, Mexican poet and playwright (d. 1950)
- 1905 – Leroy Carr, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1935)
- 1905 – Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, German general (d. 1980)
- 1905 – Elsie MacGill, Canadian-American author and engineer (d. 1980)
- 1906 – Pee Wee Russell, American clarinet player, saxophonist, and composer (d. 1969)
- 1909 – Golo Mann, German historian and author (d. 1994)
- 1909 – Ben Webster, American saxophonist (d. 1973)
- 1909 – Valery Marakou, Belarusian poet and translator (d. 1937)
- 1910 – Ai Qing, Chinese poet and author (d. 1996)
- 1911 – Veronika Tushnova, Russian poet and physician (d. 1965)
- 1912 – James Callaghan, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Theodor Dannecker, German SS officer (d. 1945)
- 1914 – Richard Denning, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1914 – Budd Schulberg, American author, screenwriter, and producer (d. 2009)
- 1915 – Robert Lockwood, Jr., American guitarist (d. 2006)
- 1917 – Cyrus Vance, American lawyer and politician, 57th United States Secretary of State (d. 2002)
- 1920 – Colin Rowe, English-American architect, theorist and academic (d. 1999)
- 1921 – Phil Chess, Czech-American record producer, co-founded Chess Records (d. 2016)
- 1921 – Moacir Barbosa Nascimento, Brazilian footballer and coach (d. 2000)
- 1921 – Harold Nicholas, American actor and dancer (d. 2000)
- 1922 – Dick King-Smith, English author (d. 2011)
- 1922 – Stefan Wul, French author and surgeon (d. 2003)
- 1922 – Jules Olitski, Ukrainian-American painter, printmaker, and sculptor (d. 2007)
- 1923 – Shūsaku Endō, Japanese author (d. 1996)
- 1923 – Louis Simpson, Jamaican-American poet, translator, and academic (d. 2012)
- 1924 – Sarah Vaughan, American singer (d. 1990)
- 1924 – Ian Black, Scottish international footballer, goalkeeper and lawn bowls player (d. 2012)
- 1924 – Margaret K. Butler, American mathematician and computer programmer (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Frank O’Hara, American writer (d. 1966)
- 1927 – Sylvia Anderson, English voice actress, screenwriter, and producer (d. 2016)
- 1927 – Anthony Lewis, American journalist and academic (d. 2013)
- 1927 – Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (d. 2007)
- 1928 – Jean Dotto, French cyclist (d. 2000)
- 1929 – Anne Ramsey, American actress (d. 1988)
- 1929 – Reg Evans, Australian actor (d. 2009)
- 1930 – Daniel Spoerri, Romanian-Swiss photographer, writer and artist
- 1931 – David Janssen, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1980)
- 1932 – Junior Parker, American singer and harmonica player (d. 1971)
- 1932 – Bailey Olter, Micronesian politician, 3rd President of the Federated States of Micronesia (d. 1999)
- 1933 – Lê Văn Hưng, South Vietnamese Brigadier general (d. 1975)
- 1934 – István Csurka, Hungarian journalist, author, and politician (d. 2012)
- 1935 – Stanley Rother, American Roman Catholic priest and missionary (d. 1981)
- 1935 – Julian Glover, English actor
- 1936 – Malcolm Goldstein, American violinist and composer
- 1937 – Alan Hawkshaw, English keyboard player and songwriter
- 1939 – Jay Kim, South Korean-American engineer and politician
- 1939 – Cale Yarborough, American race car driver and businessman
- 1940 – Sandro Munari, Italian race car driver
- 1940 – Austin Pendleton, American actor, director, and playwright
- 1941 – Ivan Gašparovič, Slovak lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Slovakia
- 1941 – Liese Prokop, Austrian pentathlete and politician, Austrian Minister of the Interior (d. 2006)
- 1942 – Michael Jackson, English journalist and author (d. 2007)
- 1942 – John Sulston, English biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
- 1942 – Michael York, English actor
- 1943 – Mike Curtis, American football player and coach (d. 2020)
- 1944 – Jesse Brown, American marine and politician, 2nd United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (d. 2002)
- 1944 – Bryan Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1946 – Michael Aris, Cuban-English author and academic (d. 1999)
- 1947 – Oliver Friggieri, Maltese author, critic, poet and philosopher
- 1947 – Brian Jones, English balloonist and pilot
- 1947 – Walt Mossberg, American journalist
- 1948 – Jens-Peter Bonde, Danish lawyer and politician
- 1950 – Tony Banks, English keyboardist and songwriter
- 1950 – Petros Efthymiou, Greek academic and politician, Greek Minister of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs
- 1950 – Maria Ewing, African-American soprano
- 1950 – Chris Stewart, English musician and author
- 1950 – Terry Yorath, Welsh international footballer, Midfielder and international manager
- 1951 – Andrei Kozyrev, Belgian-Russian politician and diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Russia
- 1952 – Annemarie Moser-Pröll, Austrian skier
- 1952 – Maria Schneider, French actress (d. 2011)
- 1953 – Herman Ponsteen, Dutch cyclist
- 1954 – Gerard Batten, English lawyer and politician
- 1955 – Patrick McCabe, Irish writer
- 1955 – Mariano Rajoy, Spanish lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Spain
- 1955 – Susan Neiman, Jewish American-German philosopher and author
- 1956 – Leung Kwok-hung, Hong Kong activist and politician
- 1956 – Thomas Wassberg, Swedish cross country skier
- 1957 – Kostas Vasilakakis, Greek footballer and manager
- 1957 – Stephen Dillane, English actor
- 1958 – Didier de Radiguès, Belgian race car driver and motorcycle racer
- 1959 – Andrew Farriss, Australian rock musician and multi-instrumentalist
- 1960 – Hans Pflügler, German footballer
- 1960 – Renato Russo, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1996)
- 1961 – Ellery Hanley, English rugby league player and coach
- 1961 – Tony Rominger, Swiss professional cyclist
- 1962 – Jann Arden, Canadian singer-songwriter
- 1962 – Brett French, Australian rugby league player
- 1962 – Rob Hollink, Dutch poker player
- 1962 – John O’Farrell, English journalist and author
- 1962 – Brad Wright, American-Spanish basketball player
- 1962 – Kevin J. Anderson, American science fiction writer
- 1963 – Cory Blackwell, American basketball player
- 1963 – Randall Cunningham, American football player, coach, and pastor
- 1963 – Filippos Sachinidis, Greek-Canadian economist and politician
- 1963 – Gary Stevens, English-Australian footballer and physiotherapist
- 1963 – Quentin Tarantino, American director, producer, screenwriter and actor
- 1963 – Xuxa, Brazilian actress, singer, businesswoman and television presenter
- 1965 – Gregor Foitek, Swiss race car driver
- 1966 – Žarko Paspalj, Serbian basketball player
- 1967 – Talisa Soto, American actress
- 1968 – Irina Belova, Russian heptathlete
- 1969 – Gianluigi Lentini, Italian footballer and manager
- 1969 – Pauley Perrette, American actress
- 1970 – Leila Pahlavi, Princess of Iran (d. 2001)
- 1970 – Derek Aucoin, Canadian baseball player
- 1970 – Mariah Carey, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
- 1970 – Brent Fitz, Canadian-American multi-instrumentalist and recording artist
- 1970 – Jarrod McCracken, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1970 – Elizabeth Mitchell, American actress
- 1970 – Uwe Rosenberg, German game designer, created Bohnanza
- 1971 – David Coulthard, Scottish race car driver and sportscaster
- 1971 – Nathan Fillion, Canadian actor
- 1972 – Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Surinamese-Dutch footballer, coach, and manager
- 1972 – Charlie Haas, American professional wrestler
- 1973 – Roger Telemachus, South African cricketer
- 1974 – Marek Citko, Polish footballer and manager
- 1974 – George Koumantarakis, Greek-South African footballer
- 1974 – Gaizka Mendieta, Spanish footballer
- 1975 – Andrew Blowers, New Zealand rugby player
- 1975 – Kim Felton, Australian golfer
- 1975 – Jeff Palmer, American gay porn actor and singer-songwriter
- 1975 – Fergie, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
- 1975 – Christian Fiedler, German footballer and manager
- 1976 – Roberta Anastase, Romanian politician, 57th President of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania
- 1976 – Danny Fortson, American basketball player
- 1976 – Adrian Anca, Romanian footballer
- 1977 – Vítor Meira, Brazilian race car driver
- 1978 – Gabriel Paraschiv, Romanian footballer
- 1978 – Marius Bakken, Norwegian runner
- 1978 – Amélie Cocheteux, French tennis player
- 1979 – Tom Palmer, English rugby union player
- 1979 – Mohsen Moeini, Iranian author and director
- 1979 – Imran Tahir, Pakistani-South African cricketer
- 1979 – Jennifer Wilson, Zimbabwean-South African field hockey player
- 1980 – Sean Ryan, American football player
- 1980 – Michaela Paštiková, Czech tennis player
- 1980 – Maksim Shevchenko, Kazakhstani footballer
- 1981 – Terry McFlynn, Irish footballer
- 1981 – Akhil Kumar, Indian boxer
- 1981 – Jukka Keskisalo, Finnish runner
- 1981 – Hilda Kibet, Kenyan runner
- 1982 – Shawn Beveney, Guyanese footballer
- 1983 – Yuliya Golubchikova, Russian pole vaulter
- 1983 – Vasily Koshechkin, Russian ice hockey player
- 1983 – Román Martínez, Argentinian footballer
- 1984 – Adam Ashley-Cooper, Australian rugby player
- 1984 – Ben Franks, Australian-born New Zealand rugby player
- 1984 – Brett Holman, Australian footballer
- 1985 – Dustin Byfuglien, American ice hockey player
- 1985 – Danny Vukovic, Australian footballer
- 1986 – Manuel Neuer, German footballer
- 1987 – Jefferson Bernárdez, Honduran footballer
- 1987 – Samuel Francis, Nigerian-Qatari sprinter
- 1987 – Polina Gagarina, Russian singer-songwriter
- 1987 – Buster Posey, American baseball player
- 1988 – Jessie J, English singer-songwriter
- 1988 – Atsuto Uchida, Japanese footballer
- 1988 – Brenda Song, American actress
- 1988 – Mauro Goicoechea, Uruguayan footballer
- 1988 – Holliday Grainger, English actress
- 1989 – Matt Harvey, American baseball player
- 1989 – Camilla Lees, New Zealand netball player
- 1990 – Erdin Demir, Swedish-Turkish footballer
- 1990 – Ben Hunt, Australian rugby league player
- 1990 – Nicolas Nkoulou, Cameroonian footballer
- 1990 – Luca Zuffi, Swiss footballer
- 1990 – Kimbra, New Zealand musician
- 1990 – Brodha V, Indian Rapper and Music Producer
- 1992 – Marc Muniesa, Spanish footballer
- 1995 – Bill Tuiloma, New Zealand footballer
 Deaths on March 27
- 710 – Rupert of Salzburg, Austrian bishop and saint (b. 660)
- 853 – Haymo of Halberstadt, German bishop and author (b. 778)
- 913 – Du Xiao, chancellor of Later Liang
- 913 – Zhang empress of Later Liang
- 916 – Alduin I, Frankish nobleman
- 965 – Arnulf I, Count of Flanders (born c. 890)
- 973 – Hermann Billung, Frankish lieutenant (b. 900)
- 1045 – Ali ibn Ahmad al-Jarjara’i, Fatimid vizier
- 1184 – Giorgi III, King of Georgia
- 1248 – Maud Marshal, English countess (b. 1192)
- 1350 – Alfonso XI of Castile (b. 1312)
- 1378 – Pope Gregory XI (b. 1336)
- 1462 – Vasily II of Moscow (b. 1415)
- 1472 – Janus Pannonius, Hungarian bishop and poet (b. 1434)
- 1482 – Mary of Burgundy, Sovereign Duchess regnant of Burgundy, married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1457)
- 1564 – Lütfi Pasha, Turkish historian and politician, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1488)
- 1572 – Girolamo Maggi, Italian polymath (b. c. 1523)
- 1598 – Theodor de Bry, Belgian-German engraver, goldsmith, and publisher (b. 1528)
- 1613 – Sigismund Báthory (b. 1573)
- 1615 – Margaret of Valois (b. 1553)
- 1621 – Benedetto Giustiniani, Italian cardinal (b. 1554)
- 1624 – Ulrik of Denmark, Danish prince-bishop (b. 1578)
- 1625 – James VI and I of the United Kingdom (b. 1566)
- 1635 – Robert Naunton, English politician (b. 1563)
- 1676 – Bernardino de Rebolledo, Spanish poet, soldier, and diplomat (b. 1597)
- 1679 – Abraham Mignon, Dutch painter (b. 1640)
- 1697 – Simon Bradstreet, English businessman and politician, 20th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1603)
- 1729 – Leopold, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1679)
- 1757 – Johann Stamitz, Czech violinist and composer (b. 1717)
- 1770 – Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter (b. 1696)
- 1848 – Gabriel Bibron, French zoologist and herpetologist (b. 1805)
- 1849 – Archibald Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford, Irish-Canadian politician, 35th Governor General of Canada (b. 1776)
- 1850 – Wilhelm Beer, Prussian astronomer and banker (b. 1797)
- 1864 – Jean-Jacques Ampère, French philologist and academic (b. 1800)
- 1869 – James Harper, American publisher and politician, 65th Mayor of New York City (b. 1795)
- 1875 – Juan Crisóstomo Torrico, Peruvian soldier and politician, President of Peru (b. 1808)
- 1875 – Edgar Quinet, French historian and academic (b. 1803)
- 1878 – George Gilbert Scott, English architect, designed the Albert Memorial and St Mary’s Cathedral (b. 1811)
- 1886 – Henry Taylor, English poet and playwright (b. 1800)
- 1889 – John Bright, English politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (b. 1811)
- 1890 – Carl Jacob Löwig, German chemist and academic (b. 1803)
- 1898 – Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian philosopher and activist (b. 1817)
- 1900 – Joseph A. Campbell, American businessman, founded the Campbell Soup Company (b. 1817)
- 1910 – Alexander Emanuel Agassiz, Swiss-American ichthyologist, zoologist, and engineer (b. 1835)
- 1913 – Richard Montgomery Gano, American minister, physician, and general (b. 1830)
- 1918 – Henry Adams, American journalist, historian, and author (b. 1838)
- 1918 – Martin Sheridan, Irish-American discus thrower and jumper (b. 1881)
- 1921 – Harry Barron, English general and politician, 16th Governor of Western Australia (b. 1847)
- 1922 – Nikolay Sokolov, Russian composer and educator (b. 1859)
- 1923 – James Dewar, Scottish chemist and physicist (b. 1842)
- 1925 – Carl Neumann, German mathematician and academic (b. 1832)
- 1926 – Kick Kelly, American baseball player, manager, and umpire (b. 1856)
- 1926 – Georges Vézina, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1887)
- 1927 – Joe Start, American baseball player and manager (b. 1842)
- 1927 – Klaus Berntsen, Danish politician, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1844)
- 1928 – Leslie Stuart, English organist and composer (b. 1863)
- 1931 – Arnold Bennett, English author and playwright (b. 1867)
- 1934 – Francis William Reitz, South African lawyer and politician, 5th State President of the Orange Free State (b. 1844)
- 1938 – William Stern, German-American psychologist and philosopher (b. 1871)
- 1940 – Michael Joseph Savage, Australian-New Zealand politician, 23rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1872)
- 1942 – Julio González, Catalan sculptor and painter (b. 1876)
- 1943 – George Monckton-Arundell, 8th Viscount Galway, English politician, 5th Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1882)
- 1945 – Vincent Hugo Bendix, American engineer and businessman, founded Bendix Corporation (b. 1881)
- 1945 – Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil, Turkish author, poet, and playwright (b. 1866)
- 1946 – Karl Groos, German psychologist and philosopher (b. 1861)
- 1949 – Elisheva Bikhovski, Israeli-Russian poet (b. 1888)
- 1952 – Kiichiro Toyoda, Japanese businessman, founded Toyota (b. 1894)
- 1956 – Évariste Lévi-Provençal, French orientalist and historian (b. 1894)
- 1958 – Leon C. Phillips, American lawyer and politician, 11th Governor of Oklahoma (b. 1890)
- 1960 – Gregorio Marañón, Spanish physician, philosopher, and author (b. 1887)
- 1967 – Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
- 1968 – Yuri Gagarin, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1934)
- 1968 – Vladimir Seryogin, Russian soldier and pilot (b. 1922)
- 1973 – Mikhail Kalatozov, Georgian-Russian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer (b. 1903)
- 1974 – Eduardo Santos, Colombian journalist, lawyer, and politician, 15th President of Colombia (b. 1888)
- 1975 – Arthur Bliss, English conductor and composer (b. 1891)
- 1976 – Georg August Zinn, German lawyer and politician, Minister President of Hesse (b. 1901)
- 1977 – Shirley Graham Du Bois, American author, playwright, and composer (b. 1896)
- 1977 – Diana Hyland, American actress (b. 1936)
- 1977 – Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten, Dutch airline pilot (b. 1927)
- 1978 – Nat Bailey, Canadian businessman, founded the White Spot (b. 1902)
- 1978 – Kunwar Digvijay Singh, Indian field hockey (b. 1922)
- 1978 – Sverre Farstad, Norwegian speed skater (b. 1920)
- 1980 – Steve Fisher, American author and screenwriter (b. 1912)
- 1981 – Jakob Ackeret, Swiss engineer and academic (b. 1898)
- 1982 – Fazlur Khan, Bangladeshi-American engineer and architect, designed the John Hancock Center and Willis Tower (b. 1929)
- 1987 – William Bowers, American journalist and screenwriter (b. 1916)
- 1988 – Charles Willeford, American author, poet, and critic (b. 1919)
- 1989 – May Allison, American actress (b. 1890)
- 1989 – Malcolm Cowley, American novelist, poet, and literary critic (b. 1898)
- 1990 – Percy Beard, American hurdler and coach (b. 1908)
- 1991 – Aldo Ray, American actor (b. 1926)
- 1992 – Colin Gibson, English footballer (b. 1923)
- 1992 – Lang Hancock, Australian businessman (b. 1909)
- 1992 – James E. Webb, American colonel and politician, 16th Under Secretary of State (b. 1906)
- 1993 – Kamal Hassan Ali, Egyptian general and politician, Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1921)
- 1993 – Paul László, Hungarian-American architect and interior designer (b. 1900)
- 1994 – Elisabeth Schmid, German archaeologist and osteologist (b. 1912)
- 1994 – Lawrence Wetherby, American lawyer and politician, 48th Governor of Kentucky (b. 1908)
- 1995 – René Allio, French director and screenwriter (b. 1924)
- 1997 – Lane Dwinell, American businessman and politician, 69th Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1906)
- 1997 – Ella Maillart, Swiss skier, sailor, field hockey player, and photographer (b. 1903)
- 1998 – David McClelland, American psychologist and academic (b. 1917)
- 1999 – Michael Aris, Cuban-English author and academic (b. 1946)
- 2000 – George Allen, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1914)
- 2000 – Ian Dury, English singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1942)
- 2002 – Milton Berle, American comedian and actor (b. 1908)
- 2002 – Dudley Moore, English actor (b. 1935)
- 2002 – Billy Wilder, Austrian-born American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1906)
- 2003 – Edwin Carr, New Zealand composer and educator (b. 1926)
- 2004 – Robert Merle, French author (b. 1909)
- 2005 – Wilfred Gordon Bigelow, Canadian soldier and surgeon (b. 1913)
- 2006 – Dan Curtis, American director and producer (b. 1928)
- 2006 – Stanisław Lem, Ukrainian-Polish author (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Rudolf Vrba, Czech Holocaust survivor and educator (b. 1924)
- 2006 – Neil Williams, English cricketer (b. 1962)
- 2007 – Nancy Adams, New Zealand botanist and illustrator (b. 1926)
- 2007 – Paul Lauterbur, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1929)
- 2008 – Jean-Marie Balestre, French businessman (b. 1921)
- 2009 – Irving R. Levine, American journalist and author (b. 1922)
- 2010 – Dick Giordano, American illustrator (b. 1932)
- 2011 – Clement Arrindell, Nevisian judge and politician, 1st Governor-General of Saint Kitts and Nevis (b. 1931)
- 2011 – Farley Granger, American actor (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Adrienne Rich, American poet, essayist and feminist (b. 1929)
- 2013 – Hjalmar Andersen, Norwegian speed skater (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Yvonne Brill, Canadian-American scientist and engineer (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Fay Kanin, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1917)
- 2014 – Richard N. Frye, American scholar and academic (b. 1920)
- 2014 – James R. Schlesinger, American economist and politician, 12th United States Secretary of Defense and first United States Secretary of Energy (b. 1929)
- 2015 – Johnny Helms, American trumpet player, bandleader, and educator (b. 1935)
- 2015 – T. Sailo, Indian soldier and politician, 2nd Chief Minister of Mizoram (b. 1922)
- 2016 – Mother Angelica, American Roman Catholic religious leader and media personality (b. 1923)
 Holidays and observances on March 27
- Christian feast day:
- Alexander, a Pannonian soldier, martyred in 3rd century.
- Amador of Portugal
- Augusta of Treviso
- Charles Henry Brent (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Gelasius, Archbishop of Armagh
- John of Egypt
- Philetus
- Romulus of Nîmes, a Benedictine abbot, martyred c. 730.
- Rupert of Salzburg
- Zanitas and Lazarus of Persia
- March 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Armed Forces Day (Myanmar)
- International whisk(e)y day
- World Theatre Day (International)
 
 
 
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		March 16 in History
- 934 – Meng Zhixiang declares himself emperor and establishes Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
- 1190 – Massacre of Jews at Clifford’s Tower, York.
- 1244 – Over 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burned to death after the Fall of Montségur.
- 1322 – The Battle of Boroughbridge takes place in the Despenser Wars.
- 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan reaches the island of Homonhon in the Philippines.
- 1621 – Samoset, a Mohegan, visited the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, “Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset.”
- 1660 – The Long Parliament of England is dissolved so as to prepare for the new Convention Parliament.
- 1689 – The 23rd Regiment of Foot, or Royal Welch Fusiliers, is founded.
- 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish troops capture the British-held island of Roatán.
- 1782 – Anglo-Spanish War (1779): Action of 16 March 1782.
- 1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: An Austrian column is defeated by the French in the Battle of Valvasone.
- 1802 – The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.
- 1812 – The Siege of Badajoz begins: British and Portuguese forces besiege and defeat the French garrison during the Peninsular War.
- 1815 – Prince Willem proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.
- 1818 – In the Second Battle of Cancha Rayada, Spanish forces defeated Chileans under José de San Martín.
- 1864 – American Civil War: During the Red River Campaign, Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
- 1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Averasborough began as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.
- 1870 – The first version of the overture fantasy Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky receives its première performance.
- 1872 – The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
- 1894 – Jules Massenet’s opera Thaïs is first performed.
- 1898 – In Melbourne the representatives of five colonies adopted a constitution, which would become the basis of the Commonwealth of Australia.
- 1900 – Sir Arthur Evans purchased the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
- 1916 – The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US–Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
- 1917 – World War I: A German auxiliary cruiser is sunk in the Action of 16 March 1917.
- 1918 – Finnish Civil War: Battle of Länkipohja is infamous for its bloody aftermath as the Whites executed 70–100 capitulated Reds.
- 1924 – In accordance with the Treaty of Rome, Fiume becomes annexed as part of Italy.
- 1925 – An earthquake occurs in Yunnan, China.
- 1926 – History of Rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
- 1935 – Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.
- 1936 – Warmer-than-normal temperatures rapidly melt snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, leading to a major flood in Pittsburgh.
- 1939 – From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
- 1940 – First person killed (James Isbister) in a German bombing raid on the UK in World War II during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.
- 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ended, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persisted.
- 1945 – Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers, resulting in around 5,000 deaths.
- 1958 – The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company’s founding.
- 1962 – A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with all 107 aboard missing and presumed dead.
- 1966 – Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with an Agena Target Vehicle.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre occurs; between 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.
- 1968 – General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
- 1969 – A Viasa McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashes in Maracaibo, Venezuela, killing 155.
- 1976 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns, citing personal reasons.
- 1977 – Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.
- 1978 – Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped. (He is later murdered by his captors.)
- 1978 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria, killing 73.
- 1978 – Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time.
- 1979 – Sino-Vietnamese War: The People’s Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ends the war.
- 1983 – Demolition of the Ismaning radio transmitter, the last wooden radio tower in Germany.
- 1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah. (He later dies in captivity.)
- 1985 – Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.
- 1988 – Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
- 1988 – Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people.
- 1988 – The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three persons, one of them a member of PIRA are killed, and more than 60 others are wounded.
- 1991 – The airplane carrying eight members of Reba McEntire’s touring band crashed on the side of Otay Mountain.
- 1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.
- 2001 – A series of bomb blasts that took place in the city of Shijiazhuang, China killed 108 people and injured 38 others, was the biggest mass murder in China in decades.
- 2003 – American activist Rachel Corrie is killed in Rafah trying to obstruct the demolition of a home by being run over by a bulldozer.
- 2005 – Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.
- 2014 – Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia.
- 2016 – A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 54.
- 2016 – Two suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 22 and injuring 18.
 Births on March 16
- 1399 – The Xuande Emperor, ruler of Ming China (d. 1435)
- 1445 – Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg, Swiss priest and theologian (d. 1510)
- 1465 – Kunigunde of Austria, Archduchess of Austria (d. 1520)
- 1473 – Henry IV, Duke of Saxony (d. 1541)
- 1559 – Amar Singh I, successor of Maharana Pratap of Mewar (d. 1620)
- 1581 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch historian and poet (d. 1647)
- 1585 – Gerbrand Bredero, Dutch poet and playwright (d. 1618)
- 1590 – Ii Naotaka, Japanese daimyō (d. 1659)
- 1596 – Ebba Brahe, Swedish countess (d. 1674)
- 1609 – Michael Franck, German baker, teacher, poet, and composer (d. 1667)
- 1609 – Agostino Mitelli, Italian painter (d. 1660)
- 1621 – Georg Neumark, German poet and composer (d. 1681)
- 1631 – René Le Bossu, French critic (d. 1680)
- 1638 – François Crépieul, Jesuit missionary (d. 1702)
- 1654 – Andreas Acoluthus, German scholar (d. 1704)
- 1670 – François de Franquetot de Coigny, French general (d. 1759)
- 1673 – Jean Bouhier, French jurist and scholar (d. 1746)
- 1687 – Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, queen consort of Frederick William I (d. 1757)
- 1693 – Malhar Rao Holkar, Indian nobleman (d. 1766)
- 1701 – Daniel Lorenz Salthenius, Swedish theologian (d. 1750)
- 1729 – Maria Louise Albertine (d. 1818)
- 1741 – Carlo Amoretti, Italian scientist (d. 1816)
- 1744 – Nicolas-Germain Léonard, French poet and novelist (d. 1793)
- 1750 – Caroline Herschel, German-English astronomer (d. 1848)
- 1751 – James Madison, American academic and politician, 4th President of the United States (d. 1836)
- 1753 – François Amédée Doppet, French general (d. 1799)
- 1760 – Johann Heinrich Meyer, Swiss painter and writer (d. 1832)
- 1766 – Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, French antiquarian, cartographer, artist and explorer (d. 1875)
- 1771 – Antoine-Jean Gros, French painter (d. 1835)
- 1773 – Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentinian general and politician, 6th Governor of Buenos Aires Province (d. 1836)
- 1774 – Matthew Flinders, English navigator and cartographer (d. 1814)
- 1789 – Francis Rawdon Chesney, English general and explorer (d. 1872)
- 1789 – Georg Ohm, German physicist and mathematician (d. 1854)
- 1794 – Ami Boué, Austrian geologist and ethnographer (d. 1881)
- 1797 – Alaric Alexander Watts, English poet and journalist (d. 1864)
- 1799 – Anna Atkins, English botanist and photographer (d. 1871)
- 1800 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (d. 1846)
- 1805 – Peter Ernst von Lasaulx, German philologist and politician (d. 1861)
- 1806 – Félix De Vigne, Belgian painter (d. 1862)
- 1808 – Hannah T. King, British-born American writer and pioneer (d. 1886)
- 1813 – Gaëtan de Rochebouët, French prime minister (d. 1899)
- 1819 – José Paranhos, Brazilian politician (d. 1880)
- 1820 – Enrico Tamberlik, Italian tenor (d. 1889)
- 1821 – Eduard Heine, German mathematician and academic (d. 1881)
- 1822 – Rosa Bonheur, French painter and sculptor (d. 1899)
- 1822 – John Pope, American general (d. 1892)
- 1823 – William Henry Monk, English organist and composer (d. 1889)
- 1825 – Camilo Castelo Branco, Portuguese writer (d. 1890)
- 1828 – Émile Deshayes de Marcère, French politician (d. 1918)
- 1834 – James Hector, Scottish geologist and surgeon (d. 1907)
- 1836 – Andrew Smith Hallidie, English-American engineer and businessman (d. 1900)
- 1839 – Sully Prudhomme, French poet and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
- 1839 – John Butler Yeats, Irish painter (d. 1922)
- 1840 – Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese businessman (d. 1931)
- 1840 – Georg von der Gabelentz, German linguist and sinologist (d. 1893)
- 1845 – Umegatani Tōtarō I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 15th Yokozuna (d. 1928)
- 1846 – Gösta Mittag-Leffler, Swedish mathematician and academic (d. 1927)
- 1846 – Rebecca Cole, American physician and social reformer (d. 1922)
- 1846 – Jurgis Bielinis, Lithuanian book smuggler (d. 1918)
- 1848 – Axel Heiberg, Norwegian financier and diplomat (d. 1932)
- 1851 – Otto Bardenhewer, German patrologist (d. 1935)
- 1851 – Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist and botanist (d. 1931)
- 1856 – Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France (d. 1879)
- 1857 – Charles Harding Firth, English historian and academic (d. 1936)
- 1859 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist and academic (d. 1906)
- 1865 – Patsy Donovan, Irish-American baseball player and manager (d. 1953)
- 1869 – Willy Burmester, German violinist (d. 1933)
- 1871 – Hans Merensky, South African geologist and philanthropist (d. 1951)
- 1871 – Frantz Reichel, French rugby player and hurdler (d. 1932)
- 1874 – Frédéric François-Marsal, French prime minister (d. 1958)
- 1877 – Léo-Ernest Ouimet, Canadian director and producer (d. 1972)
- 1878 – Clemens August Graf von Galen, German cardinal (d. 1946)
- 1878 – Paul Jouve, French painter (d. 1973)
- 1881 – Fannie Charles Dillon, American composer (d. 1947)
- 1882 – James Lightbody, American runner (d. 1953)
- 1883 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet, author, and painter (d. 1958)
- 1884 – Eric P. Kelly, American journalist and author (d. 1960)
- 1885 – Giacomo Benvenuti, Italian composer and musicologist (d. 1943)
- 1885 – Sydney Chaplin, English actor (d. 1965)
- 1886 – Herbert Lindström, Swedish tug of war player (d. 1951)
- 1887 – Emilio Lunghi, Italian runner (d. 1925)
- 1887 – S. Stillman Berry, American marine zoologist (1984)
- 1889 – Reggie Walker, South African athlete (d. 1951)
- 1892 – César Vallejo, Peruvian poet, playwright, and journalist (d. 1938)
- 1895 – Ernest Labrousse, French historian (d. 1988)
- 1897 – Antonio Donghi, Italian painter (d. 1963)
- 1897 – Conrad Nagel, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1900 – Cyril Hume, American novelist (d. 1966)
- 1900 – Mencha Karnicheva, Macedonian revolutionary and assassin (d. 1964)
- 1901 – Alexis Chantraine, Belgian footballer (d. 1987)
- 1903 – Mike Mansfield, American politician and diplomat, 22nd United States Ambassador to Japan (d. 2001)
- 1906 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish sociologist, author, and translator (d. 2009)
- 1906 – Maurice Turnbull, Welsh-English cricketer and rugby player (d. 1944)
- 1906 – Henny Youngman, English-American violinist and comedian (d. 1998)
- 1908 – René Daumal, French author and poet (d. 1944)
- 1908 – Ernest Rogez, French water polo player (d. 1986)
- 1908 – Robert Rossen, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1966)
- 1910 – Aladár Gerevich, Hungarian fencer (d. 1991)
- 1910 – Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, Indian-English cricketer and politician, 8th Nawab of Pataudi (d. 1952)
- 1911 – Pierre Harmel, Belgian lawyer and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2009)
- 1911 – Josef Mengele, German physician and captain (d. 1979)
- 1911 – Philip Pavia, American painter and sculptor (d.2005)
- 1912 – Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States (d. 1993)
- 1913 – Rémy Raffalli, French soldier (d. 1952)
- 1915 – Kunihiko Kodaira, Japanese mathematician and academic (d. 1997)
- 1916 – Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
- 1916 – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese engineer and businessman (d. 2010)
- 1917 – Louis C. Wyman, American lawyer and politician (d. 2002)
- 1917 – Laure Pillay, Mauritian lawyer and jurist (d. 2017)
- 1917 – Mehrdad Pahlbod, Iranian politician (d. 2018)
- 1918 – Aldo van Eyck, Dutch architect (d. 1999)
- 1918 – Frederick Reines, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- 1920 – John Addison, English-American soldier and composer (d. 1998)
- 1920 – Sid Fleischman, American author and screenwriter (d. 2010)
- 1920 – Traudl Junge, German secretary (d. 2002)
- 1920 – Leo McKern, Australian-English actor (d. 2002)
- 1922 – Harding Lemay, American screenwriter and playwright (d. 2018)
- 1923 – Heinz Wallberg, German conductor (d. 2004)
- 1925 – Cornell Borchers, Lithuanian-German actress and singer (d. 2014)
- 1925 – Mary Hinkson, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2014)
- 1925 – Ervin Kassai, Hungarian basketball player and referee (d. 2012)
- 1925 – Luis E. Miramontes, Mexican chemist and engineer (d. 2004)
- 1926 – Charles Goodell, American lawyer and politician (d. 1987)
- 1926 – Jerry Lewis, American actor and comedian (d. 2017)
- 1927 – Vladimir Komarov, Russian pilot, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1967)
- 1927 – Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American sociologist and politician, 12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2003)
- 1927 – Olga San Juan, American actress and dancer (d. 2009)
- 1928 – Wakanohana Kanji I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 45th Yokozuna (d. 2010)
- 1928 – Christa Ludwig, German soprano and actress
- 1929 – Betty Johnson, American singer
- 1929 – Tihomir Novakov, Serbian-American physicist and academic (d. 2015)
- 1929 – Nadja Tiller, Austrian actress
- 1930 – Tommy Flanagan, American pianist and composer (d. 2001)
- 1930 – Minoru Miki, Japanese composer (d. 2011)
- 1931 – Augusto Boal, Brazilian theatre director, writer and politician (d. 2009)
- 1931 – Alan Heyman, American-South Korean musicologist and composer (d. 2014)
- 1931 – Anthony Kenny, English philosopher and academic
- 1931 – John Munro, Canadian lawyer and politician, 22nd Canadian Minister of Labour (d. 2003)
- 1932 – Don Blasingame, American baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
- 1932 – Walter Cunningham, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
- 1932 – Kurt Diemberger, Austrian mountaineer and author
- 1932 – Herbert Marx, Canadian politician (d. 2020)
- 1933 – Keith Critchlow, English architect and academic, co-founded Temenos Academy
- 1933 – Sanford I. Weill, American banker, financier, and philanthropist
- 1934 – Jean Cournoyer, Canadian politician
- 1934 – Ray Hnatyshyn, Canadian lawyer and politician, 24th Governor General of Canada (d. 2002)
- 1934 – Roger Norrington, English violinist and conductor
- 1935 – Teresa Berganza, Spanish soprano and actress
- 1935 – Pepe Cáceres, Colombian bullfighter (d. 1987)
- 1936 – Raymond Vahan Damadian, Armenian-American inventor, invented the MRI
- 1936 – Fred Neil, American folk singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2001)
- 1937 – David Frith, English historian, journalist, and author
- 1937 – Attilio Nicora, Italian cardinal (d. 2017)
- 1937 – Amos Tversky, Israeli-American psychologist and academic (d. 1996)
- 1938 – Carlos Bilardo, Argentinian footballer and manager
- 1939 – Yvon Côté, Canadian teacher
- 1940 – Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2018)
- 1940 – Vagif Mustafazadeh, Azerbaijani pianist and composer (d. 1979)
- 1940 – Jan Pronk, Dutch academic and politician, Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment
- 1940 – Keith Rowe, English guitarist
- 1941 – Robert Guéï, Ivorian soldier and politician, 3rd President of Côte d’Ivoire (d. 2002)
- 1941 – Chuck Woolery, American game show host and television personality
- 1942 – Roger Crozier, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 1996)
- 1942 – Gijs van Lennep, Dutch race car driver
- 1942 – Jean-Pierre Schosteck, French politician
- 1942 – James Soong, Chinese-Taiwanese politician, Governor of Taiwan Province
- 1942 – Jerry Jeff Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1943 – Ursula Goodenough, American biologist, zoologist, and author
- 1943 – Hans Heyer, German racing driver
- 1943 – Álvaro de Soto, Peruvian diplomat
- 1944 – Andrew S. Tanenbaum, American computer scientist and academic
- 1946 – Sigmund Groven, Norwegian harmonica player and composer
- 1946 – Mary Kaldor, English economist and academic
- 1946 – J. Z. Knight, American New Age teacher and author
- 1946 – Guesch Patti, French singer
- 1948 – Michael Owen Bruce, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1948 – Richard Desjardins, Canadian singer-songwriter and director
- 1948 – Catherine Quéré, French politician
- 1949 – Erik Estrada, American actor
- 1949 – Victor Garber, Canadian actor and singer
- 1949 – Elliott Murphy, American-French singer-songwriter and journalist
- 1950 – Peter Forster, English bishop
- 1950 – Kate Nelligan, Canadian actress
- 1950 – Edhem Šljivo, Bosnian footballer
- 1951 – Ray Benson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1951 – Abdelmajid Bourebbou, Algerian footballer
- 1951 – Oddvar Brå, Norwegian skier
- 1951 – Joe DeLamielleure, American football player
- 1951 – Alexandre Gonzalez, French long-distance runner
- 1953 – Claus Peter Flor, German conductor
- 1953 – Isabelle Huppert, French actress
- 1953 – Rainer Knaak, German chess player
- 1953 – Richard Stallman, American computer scientist and programmer
- 1954 – David Heath, English politician
- 1954 – Jimmy Nail, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1954 – Tim O’Brien, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1954 – Dav Whatmore, Sri Lankan-Australian cricketer and coach
- 1954 – Nancy Wilson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actress
- 1955 – Svetlana Alexeeva, Russian ice dancer and coach
- 1955 – Rimantas Astrauskas, Lithuanian physicist
- 1955 – Bruno Barreto, Brazilian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1955 – Linda Lepomme, Belgian actress and singer
- 1955 – Bob Ley, American sports anchor and reporter
- 1955 – Andy Scott, Canadian politician (d. 2013)
- 1955 – Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxer
- 1956 – Ozzie Newsome, American football player and manager
- 1956 – Clifton Powell, American actor, director, and producer
- 1956 – Yoriko Shono, Japanese writer
- 1956 – Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Swiss lawyer and politician
- 1958 – Phillip Wilcher, Australian pianist and composer
- 1958 – Kate Worley, American author (d. 2004)
- 1958 – Jorge Ramos, Mexican-American journalist and author
- 1959 – Michael J. Bloomfield, American astronaut
- 1959 – Sebastian Currier, American composer and educator
- 1959 – Greg Dyer, Australian cricketer
- 1959 – Flavor Flav, American rapper and actor
- 1959 – Charles Hudson, American baseball player
- 1959 – Steve Marker, American musician
- 1959 – Jens Stoltenberg, Norwegian economist and politician, 27th Prime Minister of Norway, 13th Secretary General of NATO
- 1960 – John Hemming, English businessman and politician
- 1960 – Duane Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1960 – Jenny Eclair, English comedian, actress and screenwriter
- 1961 – Brett Kenny, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1961 – Todd McFarlane, Canadian author, illustrator, and businessman, founded McFarlane Toys
- 1962 – Franck Fréon, French race car driver
- 1962 – Liliane Gaschet, French athlete
- 1963 – Jerome Flynn, English actor and singer
- 1963 – Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor and singer (d. 2002)
- 1964 – Patty Griffin, American singer-songwriter
- 1964 – Jaclyn Jose, Filipino actress
- 1964 – Pascal Richard, Swiss racing cyclist
- 1964 – Gore Verbinski, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1965 – Steve Armstrong, American wrestler
- 1965 – Cindy Brown, American basketball player
- 1965 – Mark Carney, Canadian-English economist and banker
- 1965 – Cristiana Reali, Italian-Brazilian actress
- 1966 – Chrissy Redden, Canadian cross-country cyclist
- 1967 – Tracy Bonham, American singer and violinist
- 1967 – John Darnielle, American musician and novelist
- 1967 – Lauren Graham, American actress and producer
- 1967 – Ronnie McCoury, American bluegrass mandolin player, singer and songwriter
- 1967 – Heidi Zurbriggen, Swiss alpine skier
- 1968 – Trevor Wilson, American basketball player and police officer
- 1969 – Judah Friedlander, American comedian and actor
- 1969 – Ottis Gibson, Barbadian cricketer and coach
- 1969 – Alina Ivanova, Russian athlete
- 1969 – Evangelos Koronios, Greek basketball player and coach
- 1970 – Joakim Berg, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1971 – Franck Comba, French rugby player
- 1971 – Alan Tudyk, American actor
- 1972 – Ismaïl Sghyr, French-Moroccan long-distance runner
- 1973 – Andrey Mizurov, Kazakhstani road bicycle racer
- 1973 – Vonda Ward, American boxer
- 1974 – Georgios Anatolakis, Greek footballer and politician
- 1974 – Anne Charrier, French actress
- 1974 – Heath Streak, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1975 – Luciano Castro, Argentine actor
- 1975 – Sienna Guillory, English model and actress
- 1975 – Lionel Torres, French archer
- 1976 – Blu Cantrell, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1976 – Leila Lejeune, French handballer
- 1976 – Susanne Ljungskog, Swedish cyclist
- 1976 – Abraham Núñez, Dominican baseball player
- 1976 – Zhu Chen, Qatari chess Grandmaster
- 1977 – Mónica Cruz, Spanish actress and dancer
- 1977 – Thomas Rupprath, German swimmer
- 1978 – Brooke Burns, American fashion model and actress
- 1978 – Annett Renneberg, German actress and singer
- 1979 – Christina Liebherr, Swiss equestrian
- 1979 – Rashad Moore, American football player
- 1979 – Sébastien Ostertag, French handball player
- 1979 – Leena Peisa, Finnish keyboard player and songwriter
- 1979 – Andrei Stepanov, Estonian footballer
- 1980 – Todd Heap, American football player
- 1980 – Felipe Reyes, Spanish basketball player
- 1981 – Andrew Bree, Irish swimmer
- 1981 – Curtis Granderson, American baseball player
- 1981 – Julien Mazet, French road bicycle racer
- 1981 – Fabiana Murer, Brazilian pole vaulter
- 1982 – Miguel Comminges, Guadeloupean footballer
- 1982 – Riley Cote, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1982 – Tommy Hansen, Czech actor
- 1982 – Jesús Del Nero, Spanish road bicycle racer
- 1982 – Brian Wilson, American baseball player
- 1983 – Stephen Drew, American baseball player
- 1983 – Brandon League, American baseball player
- 1983 – Nicolas Rousseau, French road bicycle racer
- 1983 – Tramon Williams, American football player
- 1984 – Levi Brown, American football player
- 1984 – Aisling Bea, Irish comedienne and actress
- 1984 – Sharon Cherop, Kenyan long-distance runner
- 1984 – Michael Ennis, Australian rugby player
- 1984 – Hosea Gear, New Zealand rugby player
- 1984 – Brandon Prust, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1985 – Teddy Atine-Venel, French athlete
- 1985 – Eddy Lover, Panamanian singer-songwriter
- 1985 – Aleksei Sokirskiy, Russian hammer thrower
- 1986 – Alexandra Daddario, American actress
- 1986 – Toney Douglas, American basketball player
- 1986 – Kenny Dykstra, American wrestler
- 1986 – T. J. Jordan, American basketball player
- 1986 – Boaz Solossa, Indonesian footballer
- 1986 – Daisuke Takahashi, Japanese figure skater
- 1987 – Fabien Lemoine, French football player
- 1988 – Jessica Gregg, Canadian speed skater
- 1988 – Patrick Herrmann, German footballer
- 1989 – Blake Griffin, American basketball player
- 1989 – Jung So-min, South Korean actress
- 1989 – Magalie Pottier, French racing cyclist
- 1989 – Theo Walcott, English footballer
- 1990 – Andre Young, American basketball player
- 1991 – Reggie Bullock, American basketball player
- 1991 – Wolfgang Van Halen, American bassist
- 1993 – George Ford, English rugby union player
- 1993 – Marine Lorphelin, Miss France
- 1994 – Joel Embiid, Cameroonian basketball player
- 1995 – Inga Janulevičiūtė, Lithuanian figure skater
- 1997 – Florian Neuhaus, German football player
 Deaths on March 16
- AD 37 – Tiberius, Roman emperor (b. 42 BC)
- 455 – Valentinian III, Roman emperor (assassinated; b. 419)
- 455 – Heraclius, Roman courtier (primicerius sacri cubiculi )
- 842 – Xiao Mian, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
- 933 – Takin al-Khazari, Egyptian commander and politician, Abbasid Governor of Egypt
- 943 – Pi Guangye, Chinese official and chancellor (b. 877)
- 1021 – Heribert of Cologne, German archbishop and saint (b. 970)
- 1072 – Adalbert of Hamburg, German archbishop (b. 1000)
- 1181 – Henry I, Count of Champagne
- 1185 – Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (b. 1161)
- 1279 – Jeanne of Dammartin, Queen consort of Castile and León (b. 1216)
- 1322 – Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, English general and politician, Lord High Constable of England (b. 1276)
- 1405 – Margaret III, Countess of Flanders (b. 1350)
- 1410 – John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, French-English admiral and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1373)
- 1457 – Ladislaus Hunyadi, Hungarian politician (b. 1433)
- 1485 – Anne Neville, queen of Richard III of England (b. 1456)
- 1559 – Anthony St. Leger, English-Irish politician Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1496)
- 1649 – Jean de Brébeuf, French-Canadian missionary and saint (b. 1593)
- 1679 – John Leverett, English general and politician, 19th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1616)
- 1721 – James Craggs the Elder, English politician, Postmaster General of the United Kingdom (b. 1657)
- 1736 – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian organist and composer (b. 1710)
- 1737 – Benjamin Wadsworth, American minister and academic (b. 1670)
- 1738 – George Bähr, German architect, designed the Dresden Frauenkirche (b. 1666)
- 1747 – Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (b. 1690)
- 1838 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American captain and mathematician (b. 1773)
- 1841 – Félix Savart, French physicist and psychologist (d. 1791)
- 1868 – David Wilmot, American politician, sponsor of Wilmot Proviso (b. 1814)
- 1884 – Art Croft, American baseball player (b. 1855)
- 1888 – Hippolyte Carnot, French politician (b. 1801)
- 1892 – Samuel F. Miller, American lawyer and politician (b. 1827)
- 1898 – Aubrey Beardsley, English author and illustrator (b. 1872)
- 1899 – Joseph Medill, American journalist and politician, 26th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1823)
- 1903 – Roy Bean, American lawyer and judge (b. 1825)
- 1907 – John O’Leary, Irish politician (b. 1830)
- 1912 – Max Burckhard, Austrian theater director (b. 1854)
- 1914 – Gaston Calmette, French journalist (b. 1858)
- 1914 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss lawyer and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1843)
- 1914 – John Murray, Scottish oceanographer, biologist, and limnologist (b. 1841)
- 1925 – August von Wassermann, German bacteriologist and hygienist (b. 1866)
- 1930 – Miguel Primo de Rivera, Spanish general and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1870)
- 1935 – John James Rickard Macleod, Scottish physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876)
- 1935 – Aron Nimzowitsch, Latvian-Danish chess player (b. 1886)
- 1936 – Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and activist (b. 1864)
- 1937 – Alexander von Staël-Holstein, Estonian orientalist and sinologist (b. 1877)
- 1940 – Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
- 1945 – Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (b. 1874)
- 1955 – Nicolas de Staël, French-Russian painter and illustrator (b. 1914)
- 1957 – Constantin Brâncuși, Romanian-French sculptor, painter, and photographer (b. 1876)
- 1958 – Leon Cadore, American baseball player (b. 1891)
- 1961 – Chen Geng, Chinese general and politician (b. 1903)
- 1961 – Václav Talich, Czech violinist and conductor (b. 1883)
- 1963 – Laura Adams Armer, American author and photographer (b. 1874)
- 1965 – Alice Herz, German activist (b. 1882)
- 1967 – Thomas MacGreevy, Irish poet (b. 1893)
- 1968 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian-American pianist and composer (b. 1895)
- 1968 – Gunnar Ekelöf, Swedish poet and translator (b. 1907)
- 1970 – Tammi Terrell, American singer (b. 1945)
- 1971 – Bebe Daniels, American actress (b. 1901)
- 1971 – Thomas E. Dewey, American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of New York (b. 1902)
- 1972 – Pie Traynor, American baseball player (b. 1898)
- 1975 – T-Bone Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1910)
- 1977 – Kamal Jumblatt, Lebanese lawyer and politician (b. 1917)
- 1979 – Jean Monnet, French economist and politician (b. 1888)
- 1980 – Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-American painter (b. 1898)
- 1983 – Arthur Godfrey, American actor and television host (b. 1903)
- 1983 – Fred Rose, Polish-Canadian politician (b. 1907)
- 1985 – Roger Sessions, American composer, critic, and educator (b. 1896)
- 1985 – Eddie Shore, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1902)
- 1988 – Jigger Statz, American baseball player (b.1897)
- 1988 – Mickey Thompson, American race car driver (b. 1928)
- 1990 – Ernst Bacon, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1898)
- 1991 – Chris Austin, American country singer (b .1964)
- 1991 – Jean Bellette, Australian artist (b. 1908)
- 1992 – Yves Rocard, French physicist and engineer (b. 1903)
- 1994 – Eric Show, American baseball player (b. 1956)
- 1998 – Derek Barton, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
- 1998 – Esther Bubley, American photographer (b. 1921)
- 1999 – Gratien Gélinas, Canadian actor, director, and playwright (b. 1909)
- 2000 – Thomas Ferebee, American colonel and pilot (b. 1918)
- 2000 – Pavel Prudnikau, Belarusian poet and author (b. 1911)
- 2000 – Michael Starr, Canadian judge and politician, 16th Canadian Minister of Labour (b. 1910)
- 2000 – Carlos Velázquez, Puerto Rican pitcher (b. 1948)
- 2001 – Bob Wollek, French race car driver (b. 1943)
- 2003 – Rachel Corrie, American activist (b. 1979)
- 2003 – Ronald Ferguson, English captain, polo player, and manager (b. 1931)
- 2004 – Vilém Tauský, Czech conductor and composer (b. 1910)
- 2005 – Todd Bell, American football player (b. 1958)
- 2005 – Ralph Erskine, English architect, designed The London Ark (b. 1914)
- 2005 – Dick Radatz, American baseball player (b. 1937)
- 2007 – Manjural Islam Rana, Bangladeshi cricketer (b. 1984)
- 2008 – Bill Brown, Australian cricketer and soldier (b. 1912)
- 2008 – Ivan Dixon, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1931)
- 2008 – Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (b. 1942)
- 2010 – Ksenija Pajčin, Serbian singer, dancer and model (b. 1977)
- 2011 – Richard Wirthlin, American religious leader (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Donald E. Hillman, American colonel and pilot (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Takaaki Yoshimoto, Japanese poet, philosopher, and critic (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Jamal Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi physicist and cosmologist (b. 1939)
- 2013 – José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, Argentinian economist and politician, Minister of Economy of Argentina (b. 1925)
- 2013 – Yadier Pedroso, Cuban pitcher (b. 1986)
- 2013 – Ruchoma Shain, American-born teacher and author (b. 1914)
- 2013 – Marina Solodkin, Russian-Israeli academic and politician (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Frank Thornton, English actor (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Gary Bettenhausen, American race car driver (b. 1941)
- 2014 – Donald Crothers, American chemist and academic (b. 1937)
- 2014 – Yulisa Pat Amadu Maddy, Sierra Leonean author, poet, and playwright (b. 1936)
- 2014 – Steve Moore, English author and illustrator (b. 1949)
- 2014 – Alexander Pochinok, Russian economist and politician (b. 1958)
- 2015 – Jack Haley, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1964)
- 2015 – Don Robertson, American pianist and composer (b. 1922)
- 2016 – Alexander Esenin-Volpin, Russian-American mathematician and poet (b. 1924)
- 2016 – Frank Sinatra Jr., American singer and actor (b. 1944)
- 2017 – Lewis Rowland, American neurologist (b. 1925)
- 2018 – Louise Slaughter, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York (b. 1929)
- 2019 – Dick Dale, American surf-rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter (b. 1937)
 Holidays and observances on March 16
- Christian feast day:
- Abbán
- Finian Lobhar (Finian the Leper)
- Heribert of Cologne
- Hilarius of Aquileia
- Julian of Antioch
- March 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Day of the Book Smugglers (Lithuania)
- Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires (Latvia)
- Saint Urho’s Day (Finnish Americans and Finnish Canadians)
- Austin 3:16 Day (Not official, but leisure day)
 
 
 
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 March 2 in History
- 537 – Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoth army under king Vitiges begins the siege of the capital. Belisarius conducts a delaying action outside the Flaminian Gate; he and a detachment of his bucellarii are almost cut off.
- 986 – Louis V becomes King of the Franks.
- 1444 – Skanderbeg organizes a group of Albanian nobles to form the League of Lezhë.
- 1458 – George of Poděbrady is chosen as the king of Bohemia.
- 1476 – Burgundian Wars: The Old Swiss Confederacy hands Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a major defeat in the Battle of Grandson in Canton of Neuchâtel.
- 1484 – The College of Arms is formally incorporated by Royal Charter signed by King Richard III of England.
- 1498 – Vasco da Gama’s fleet visits the Island of Mozambique.
- 1561 – Mendoza, Argentina, is founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro del Castillo.
- 1657 – Great Fire of Meireki: A fire in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, caused more than 100,000 deaths; it lasted three days
- 1717 – The Loves of Mars and Venus is the first ballet performed in England.
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Patriot militia units arrest the Royal Governor of Georgia James Wright and attempt to prevent capture of supply ships in the Battle of the Rice Boats.
- 1791 – Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris.
- 1797 – The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes.
- 1807 – The U.S. Congress passes the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country.
- 1808 – The inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh.
- 1811 – Argentine War of Independence: A royalist fleet defeats a small flotilla of revolutionary ships in the Battle of San Nicolás on the River Plate.
- 1815 – Signing of the Kandyan Convention treaty by British invaders and the leaders of the Kingdom of Kandy.
- 1825 – Roberto Cofresí, one of the last successful Caribbean pirates, is defeated in combat and captured by authorities.
- 1836 – Texas Revolution: The Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico is adopted.
- 1855 – Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia.
- 1859 – The two-day Great Slave Auction, the largest such auction in United States history, begins.
- 1865 – East Cape War: The Völkner Incident in New Zealand.
- 1867 – The U.S. Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act.
- 1877 – Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the 1876 U.S. presidential election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote.
- 1882 – Queen Victoria narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Roderick McLean in Windsor.
- 1896 – The Battle of Adwa: The Italian Army defeated by the Ethiopian Army in Adwa, Tigray, Ethiopia.
- 1901 – United States Steel Corporation is founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company which became the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion.
- 1901 – The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment limiting the autonomy of Cuba, as a condition of the withdrawal of American troops.
- 1903 – In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.
- 1917 – The enactment of the Jones–Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.
- 1919 – The first Communist International meets in Moscow.
- 1933 – The film King Kong opens at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
- 1937 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signs a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry.
- 1939 – Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII.
- 1941 – World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joins the Axis Pact.
- 1943 – World War II: Allied aircraft defeat a Japanese attempt to ship troops to New Guinea.
- 1946 – Ho Chi Minh is elected the President of North Vietnam.
- 1949 – Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.
- 1955 – Norodom Sihanouk, king of Cambodia, abdicates the throne in favor of his father, Norodom Suramarit.
- 1961 – John F. Kennedy announces the creation of the Peace Corps in a nationally televised broadcast.
- 1962 – In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d’état.
- 1962 – Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.
- 1965 – The US and Republic of Vietnam Air Force begin Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam.
- 1968 – Baggeridge Colliery closes marking the end of over 300 years of coal mining in the Black Country.
- 1969 – In Toulouse, France, the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.
- 1970 – Rhodesia declares itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown.
- 1972 – The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.
- 1977 – Libya becomes the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya as the General People’s Congress adopted the “Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People”.
- 1978 – Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Russian or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28.
- 1983 – Compact discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had previously been available only in Japan.
- 1989 – Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
- 1990 – Nelson Mandela is elected deputy President of the African National Congress.
- 1991 – Battle at Rumaila oil field brings an end to the 1991 Gulf War.
- 1992 – Start of the war in Transnistria.
- 1992 – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan join the United Nations.
- 1995 – Researchers at Fermilab announce the discovery of the top quark.
- 1995 – Yahoo! is incorporated.
- 1998 – Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter’s moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
- 2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, with 11 Western troop fatalities).
- 2004 – War in Iraq: Al-Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.
- 2012 – A tornado outbreak occurred over a large section of the Southern United States and into the Ohio Valley region, resulting in 40 tornado-related fatalities.
- 2017 – The elements Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson were officially added to the periodic table at a conference in Moscow, Russia.
 Births on March 2
- 480 – Benedict of Nursia, Italian Christian saint (d. 543 or 547)
- 1316 – Robert II of Scotland (d. 1390)
- 1409 – Jean II, Duke of Alençon (d. 1476)
- 1432 – Countess Palatine Margaret of Mosbach, countess consort of Hanau (d. 1457)
- 1453 – Johannes Engel, German doctor, astronomer and astrologer (d. 1512)
- 1459 – Pope Adrian VI (d. 1523)
- 1481 – Franz von Sickingen, German knight (d. 1523)
- 1545 – Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and scholar, founded the Bodleian Library (d. 1613)
- 1577 – George Sandys, English traveller, colonist and poet (d. 1644)
- 1628 – Cornelis Speelman, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1684)
- 1651 – Carlo Gimach, Maltese architect, engineer and poet (d. 1730)
- 1705 – William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1793)
- 1740 – Nicholas Pocock, English naval painter (d.1821)
- 1760 – Camille Desmoulins, French journalist and politician (d. 1794)
- 1769 – DeWitt Clinton, American lawyer and politician, 6th Governor of New York (d. 1828)
- 1770 – Louis-Gabriel Suchet, French general (d. 1826)
- 1779 – Joel Roberts Poinsett, American physician and politician, 15th United States Secretary of War (d. 1851)
- 1793 – Sam Houston, American soldier and politician, 1st President of the Republic of Texas (d. 1863)
- 1800 – Yevgeny Baratynsky, Russian-Italian poet and philosopher (d. 1844)
- 1810 – Pope Leo XIII (d. 1903)
- 1816 – Alexander Bullock, American lawyer and politician, 26th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1882)
- 1817 – János Arany, Hungarian journalist and poet (d. 1882)
- 1820 – Multatuli, Dutch writer (d. 1887)
- 1824 – Bedřich Smetana, Czech pianist and composer (d. 1884)
- 1829 – Carl Schurz, German-American general, lawyer, and politician, 13th United States Secretary of the Interior (d. 1906)
- 1836 – Henry Billings Brown, American lawyer and judge (d. 1913)
- 1842 – Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer, art collector, and philanthropist (d. 1914)
- 1846 – Marie Roze, French soprano (d. 1926)
- 1849 – Robert Means Thompson, American commander, lawyer, and businessman (d. 1930)
- 1859 – Sholem Aleichem, Ukrainian-American author and playwright (d. 1916)
- 1860 – Susanna M. Salter, American activist and politician (d. 1961)
- 1862 – John Jay Chapman, American lawyer, author, and poet (d. 1933)
- 1876 – Pope Pius XII (d. 1958)
- 1878 – William Kissam Vanderbilt II, American sailor and race car driver (d. 1944)
- 1886 – Willis H. O’Brien, American animator and director (d. 1962)
- 1886 – Kurt Grelling, German logician and philosopher (d. 1942)
- 1900 – Kurt Weill, German-American pianist and composer (d. 1950)
- 1901 – Grete Hermann, German mathematician and philosopher (d. 1984)
- 1902 – Moe Berg, American baseball player and spy (d. 1972)
- 1902 – Edward Condon, American physicist and academic (d. 1974)
- 1904 – Dr. Seuss, American children’s book writer, poet, and illustrator (d. 1991)
- 1905 – Marc Blitzstein, American composer and songwriter (d. 1964)
- 1905 – Geoffrey Grigson, English poet and critic (d. 1985)
- 1908 – Walter Bruch, German engineer (d. 1990)
- 1909 – Mel Ott, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster (d. 1958)
- 1912 – Henry Katzman, American pianist, composer, and painter (d. 2001)
- 1913 – Godfried Bomans, Dutch television host and author (d. 1971)
- 1913 – Mort Cooper, American baseball player (d. 1958)
- 1914 – Martin Ritt, American actor and film director (d. 1990)
- 1915 – John Burton, Australian public servant and diplomat, Australian High Commissioner to Ceylon (d. 2010)
- 1917 – Desi Arnaz, Cuban-American actor, singer, and producer (d. 1986)
- 1917 – David Goodis, American author and screenwriter (d. 1967)
- 1917 – Jim Konstanty, American baseball player and coach (d. 1976)
- 1919 – Jennifer Jones, American actress (d. 2009)
- 1919 – Eddie Lawrence, American actor, singer, and playwright (d. 2014)
- 1919 – Tamara Toumanova, Russian-American ballerina and actress (d. 1996)
- 1921 – Kazimierz Górski, Polish footballer and coach (d. 2006)
- 1921 – Ernst Haas, Austrian-American photographer and journalist (d. 1986)
- 1922 – Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, American saxophonist (d. 1986)
- 1922 – Bill Quackenbush, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 1999)
- 1922 – Frances Spence, American computer programmer (d. 2012)
- 1923 – Basil Hume, English cardinal (d. 1999)
- 1923 – Robert H. Michel, American soldier and politician (d. 2017)
- 1923 – Dave Strack, American basketball player and coach (d. 2014)
- 1924 – Cal Abrams, American baseball player (d. 1997)
- 1924 – Renos Apostolidis, Greek philologist, author, and critic (d. 2004)
- 1926 – Bernard Agré, Ivorian cardinal (d. 2014)
- 1926 – Murray Rothbard, American economist and historian (d. 1995)
- 1927 – Roger Walkowiak, French cyclist and economist (d. 2017)
- 1930 – John Cullum, American actor and singer
- 1930 – Emma Penella, Spanish actress (d. 2007)
- 1930 – Tom Wolfe, American journalist and author (d. 2018)
- 1931 – Mikhail Gorbachev, Russian lawyer and politician, President of the Soviet Union, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1932 – Gun Hägglund, Swedish journalist and translator (d. 2011)
- 1934 – Dottie Rambo, American singer-songwriter (d. 2008)
- 1935 – Gene Stallings, American football player and coach
- 1936 – Haroon Ahmed, Pakistani-English engineer and academic
- 1936 – John Tusa, Czech-English journalist and academic
- 1937 – Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algerian soldier and politician, 5th President of Algeria
- 1938 – Ricardo Lagos, Chilean economist, lawyer, and politician, 33rd President of Chile
- 1938 – Lawrence Payton, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1997)
- 1938 – Clark Gesner, American author and composer (d. 2002)
- 1939 – Jan Howard Finder, American author and academic (d. 2013)
- 1940 – Billy McNeill, Scottish footballer (d. 2019)
- 1941 – John Cornell, Australian actor, director, and producer
- 1941 – David Satcher, American admiral and physician, 16th Surgeon General of the United States
- 1942 – John Irving, American novelist and screenwriter
- 1942 – Claude Larose, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1942 – Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Iranian architect and politician, 79th Prime Minister of Iran
- 1942 – Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (d. 2013)
- 1942 – Derek Woodley, English footballer (d. 2002)
- 1943 – George Layton, English actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1943 – Peter Straub, American author and poet
- 1943 – Robert Williams, American painter and cartoonist
- 1945 – Derek Watkins, English trumpet player and composer (d. 2013)
- 1947 – Nelson Ned, Brazilian singer-songwriter (d. 2014)
- 1947 – Harry Redknapp, English footballer and manager
- 1948 – Larry Carlton, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1948 – Rory Gallagher, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1995)
- 1948 – Jeff Kennett, Australian journalist and politician, 43rd Premier of Victoria
- 1948 – Carmen Lawrence, Australian politician, 25th Premier of Western Australia
- 1950 – Karen Carpenter, American singer (d. 1983)
- 1952 – Mark Evanier, American author and screenwriter
- 1952 – Laraine Newman, American actress and comedian
- 1953 – Russ Feingold, American lawyer and politician
- 1954 – Ed Johnstone, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1955 – Dale Bozzio, American pop-rock singer-songwriter
- 1955 – Jay Osmond, American singer, drummer, actor, and TV/film producer
- 1955 – Ken Salazar, American lawyer and politician, 50th United States Secretary of the Interior
- 1955 – Steve Small, Australian cricketer
- 1956 – John Cowsill, American musician, songwriter, and producer
- 1956 – Mark Evans, Australian rock bass player
- 1957 – Hossein Dehghan, Iranian general and politician, Iranian Minister of Defense
- 1957 – Dito Tsintsadze, Georgian film director and screenwriter
- 1957 – Mark Dean, American inventor and computer engineer
- 1958 – Kevin Curren, South African-American tennis player
- 1958 – Ian Woosnam, English-Welsh golfer
- 1959 – Larry Stewart, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1961 – Simone Young, Australian conductor, director, and composer
- 1962 – Jon Bon Jovi, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor
- 1962 – Paul Farrelly, English journalist and politician
- 1962 – Tom Nordlie, Norwegian footballer and coach
- 1962 – Brendan O’Connor, Australian politician, Australian Minister for Employment
- 1962 – Raimo Summanen, Finnish ice hockey player and coach
- 1962 – Gabriele Tarquini, Italian race car driver
- 1963 – Alvin Youngblood Hart, American singer and guitarist
- 1963 – Anthony Albanese, Australian politician, 15th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
- 1963 – Vidyasagar (composer), Indian composer, musician and singer
- 1964 – Laird Hamilton, American surfer and actor
- 1964 – Mike Von Erich, American wrestler (d. 1987)
- 1965 – Ron Gant, American baseball player and journalist
- 1965 – Lembit Öpik, Northern Irish politician
- 1966 – Ann Leckie, American author
- 1966 – Simon Reevell, English lawyer and politician
- 1968 – Daniel Craig, English actor and producer
- 1970 – James Purnell, English politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
- 1970 – Ciriaco Sforza, Swiss footballer and manager
- 1970 – Wibi Soerjadi, Dutch pianist and composer
- 1971 – Dave Gorman, English comedian, author and television presenter
- 1971 – Method Man, American rapper, record producer and actor
- 1972 – Mauricio Pochettino, Argentinian footballer and manager
- 1973 – Dejan Bodiroga, Serbian basketball player
- 1973 – Trevor Sinclair, English footballer and manager
- 1974 – Hayley Lewis, Australian swimmer and television host
- 1975 – Daryl Gibson, New Zealand rugby player
- 1977 – Dominique Canty, American basketball player and coach
- 1977 – Chris Martin, English singer-songwriter and producer
- 1977 – Stephen Parry, English swimmer and sportscaster
- 1977 – Andrew Strauss, South African-English cricketer
- 1978 – Gabby Eigenmann, Filipino actor and singer
- 1978 – Lee Hodges, English footballer and manager
- 1978 – Tomáš Kaberle, Czech ice hockey player
- 1979 – Damien Duff, Irish international footballer, winger
- 1979 – Gayatri Asokan, Indian playback singer
- 1979 – Jim Troughton, English cricketer
- 1979 – Nicky Weaver, English footballer
- 1980 – Chris Barker, English footballer and manager (d. 2020)
- 1980 – Rebel Wilson, Australian actress and screenwriter
- 1981 – Lance Cade, American wrestler (d. 2010)
- 1981 – Bryce Dallas Howard, American actress
- 1982 – Kevin Kurányi, German footballer
- 1982 – Henrik Lundqvist, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1982 – Ben Roethlisberger, American football player
- 1982 – Corey Webster, American football player
- 1983 – Deuce, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1983 – Lisandro López, Argentinian footballer
- 1983 – Jay McClement, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1983 – Glen Perkins, American baseball player
- 1983 – Ryan Shannon, American ice hockey player
- 1985 – Reggie Bush, American football player
- 1985 – Suso Santana, Spanish footballer
- 1986 – Jonathan D’Aversa, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – Jonas Jerebko, Swedish basketball player
- 1988 – Édgar Andrade, Mexican footballer
- 1988 – James Arthur, English singer-songwriter
- 1988 – Laura Kaeppeler, Miss America 2012
- 1988 – Matthew Mitcham, Australian diver
- 1988 – Chris Rainey, American football player
- 1988 – Geert Arend Roorda, Dutch footballer
- 1989 – Alemão, Brazilian footballer
- 1989 – Toby Alderweireld, Belgian international footballer, defender
- 1989 – André Bernardes Santos, Portuguese footballer
- 1989 – Marcel Hirscher, Austrian skier
- 1989 – Shane Vereen, American football player
- 1989 – Chris Woakes, English cricketer
- 1990 – Rauno Alliku, Estonian footballer
- 1990 – Malcolm Butler, American football player
- 1990 – Josh McGuire, Australian rugby league player
- 1990 – Tiger Shroff, Indian actor
- 1991 – Nick Franklin, American baseball player
- 1992 – Jack Stockwell, Australian rugby league player
- 1995 – Ange-Freddy Plumain, French footballer
- 1997 – Becky G, American singer and actress
- 2010 – Hailey Dawson, American with a 3D-printed robotic hand
- 2016 – Prince Oscar, duke of Skåne and prince of Sweden
 Deaths on March 2
- 274 – Mani, Persian prophet and founder of Manichaeism (b. 216)
- 672 – Chad of Mercia, English bishop and saint (b. 634)
- 986 – Lothair, king of West Francia (b.941)
- 968 – William, archbishop of Mainz (b. 929)
- 1009 – Mokjong, king of Goryeo (b. 980)
- 1127 – Charles the Good, Count of Flanders (b. 1084)
- 1316 – Marjorie Bruce, Scottish daughter of Robert the Bruce (b. 1296)
- 1333 – Wladyslaw I, king of Poland (b. 1261)
- 1589 – Alessandro Farnese, Italian cardinal and diplomat (b. 1520)
- 1619 – Anne of Denmark, queen of Scotland (b. 1574)
- 1729 – Francesco Bianchini, Italian astronomer and philosopher (b. 1662)
- 1755 – Louis de Rouvroy, French duke and diplomat (b. 1675)
- 1791 – John Wesley, English cleric and theologian (b. 1703)
- 1793 – Carl Gustaf Pilo, Swedish-Danish painter and academic (b. 1711)
- 1797 – Horace Walpole, English historian and politician (b. 1717)
- 1829 – Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, Mexican revolutionary (b. ca. 1773)
- 1830 – Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring, German physician, anatomist, and anthropologist (b. 1755)
- 1835 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1768)
- 1840 – Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, German physician and astronomer (b. 1758)
- 1855 – Nicholas I, Russian emperor (b. 1796)
- 1864 – Ulric Dahlgren, American colonel (b. 1842)
- 1865 – Carl Sylvius Völkner, German-New Zealand priest and missionary (b. 1819)
- 1880 – John Benjamin Macneill, Irish engineer (b. 1790)
- 1895 – Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)
- 1895 – Isma’il Pasha, Egyptian politician (b. 1830)
- 1896 – Jubal Early, American general (b. 1816)
- 1921 – Champ Clark, American lawyer and politician, 41st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1850)
- 1930 – D. H. Lawrence, English novelist, poet, playwright, and critic (b. 1885)
- 1938 – Ben Harney, American pianist and composer (b. 1871)
- 1939 – Howard Carter, English archaeologist and historian (b. 1874)
- 1943 – Gisela Januszewska, Jewish-Austrian physician (b.1867)
- 1944 – Ida Maclean, British biochemist, the first woman admitted to the London Chemical Society (b. 1877)
- 1945 – Emily Carr, Canadian painter and author (b. 1871)
- 1946 – Fidél Pálffy, Hungarian politician, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture (b. 1895)
- 1946 – George E. Stewart, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1872)
- 1947 – Frans Johan Louwrens Ghijsels, Dutch architect and urban planner (b. 1882)
- 1949 – Sarojini Naidu, Indian poet and activist (b. 1879)
- 1953 – James Lightbody, American runner (b. 1882)
- 1957 – Selim Sırrı Tarcan, Turkish educator and politician (b. 1874)
- 1958 – Fred Merkle, American baseball player and manager (b. 1888)
- 1962 – Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, Belgian mathematician and academic (b. 1866)
- 1967 – José Martínez Ruiz, Spanish author and critic (b. 1873)
- 1972 – Léo-Ernest Ouimet, Canadian director and producer (b. 1877)
- 1979 – Christy Ring, Irish hurler (b. 1920)
- 1982 – Philip K. Dick, American philosopher and author (b. 1928)
- 1987 – Randolph Scott, American actor and director (b. 1898)
- 1987 – Lolo Soetoro, Indonesian geographer and academic (b. 1935)
- 1991 – Serge Gainsbourg, French singer-songwriter, actor, and director (b. 1928)
- 1992 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (b. 1937)
- 1994 – Anita Morris, American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1943)
- 1999 – Dusty Springfield, English singer (b. 1939)
- 2000 – Sandra Schmirler, Canadian curler (b. 1963)
- 2003 – Hank Ballard, American singer-songwriter (b. 1927)
- 2003 – Malcolm Williamson, Australian pianist and composer (b. 1931)
- 2004 – Cormac McAnallen, Irish footballer (b. 1980)
- 2004 – Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Marge Schott, American businesswoman (b. 1928)
- 2005 – Martin Denny, American pianist and composer (b. 1911)
- 2007 – Thomas S. Kleppe, American soldier and politician, 41st United States Secretary of the Interior (b. 1919)
- 2007 – Clem Labine, American baseball player (b. 1926)
- 2007 – Ivan Safronov, Russian colonel and journalist (b. 1956)
- 2007 – Henri Troyat, Russian-French historian and author (b. 1911)
- 2008 – Jeff Healey, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1966)
- 2009 – João Bernardo Vieira, Bissau-Guinean politician, President of Guinea-Bissau (b. 1939)
- 2010 – Winston Churchill, English journalist and politician (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Lawrence Anthony, South African environmentalist, explorer, and author (b. 1950)
- 2012 – Van T. Barfoot, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Norman St John-Stevas, English academic and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (b. 1929)
- 2012 – James Q. Wilson, American political scientist and academic (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Peter Harvey, Australian journalist (b. 1944)
- 2013 – Giorgos Kolokithas, Greek basketball player (b. 1945)
- 2013 – Shabnam Shakeel, Pakistani poet and author (b. 1942)
- 2014 – Ryhor Baradulin, Belarusian poet and translator (b. 1935)
- 2015 – Dean Hess, American minister and colonel (b. 1917)
- 2015 – Dave Mackay, Scottish-English footballer and manager (b. 1934)
- 2015 – Mal Peet, English author and illustrator (b. 1947)
- 2016 – Benoît Lacroix, Canadian priest, historian, and philosopher (b. 1915)
- 2016 – Aubrey McClendon, American businessman (b. 1959)
- 2018 – Billy Herrington, American actor (b. 1969)
- 2018 – Lin Hu, Chinese lieutenant general (b. 1927)
- 2019 – Mike Oliver, British sociologist, disability rights activist (b. 1945)
 Holidays and observances on March 2
- Air Force Day (Sri Lanka)
- Baloch Culture Day (Balochistan)
- Christian feast day:
- Agnes of Bohemia
- Angela of the Cross
- Blessed Charles the Good, Count of Flanders
- Chad of Mercia (Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church)
- John Maron
- March 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Feast of ‘Alá (Loftiness), First day of the 19th month of the Bahá’í calendar (Bahá’í Faith) and first day of the Baha’i Nineteen Day Fast
- Jamahiriya Day (Libya)
- Peasants’ Day (Myanmar)
- Texas Independence Day
- Victory at Adwa Day (Ethiopia)
 
 
 
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March 1 in History
- 509 BC – Publius Valerius Publicola celebrates the first triumph of the Roman Republic after his victory over the deposed king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus at the Battle of Silva Arsia.
- 86 BC – Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters Athens, removing the tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus ending the Siege of Athens and Piraeus.
- 293 – Emperor Diocletian and Maximian appoint Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as Caesars. This is considered the beginning of the Tetrarchy, known as the Quattuor Principes Mundi (“Four Rulers of the World”).
- 317 – Crispus and Constantine II, sons of Roman Emperor Constantine I, and Licinius Iunior, son of Emperor Licinius, are made Caesares.
- 350 – Vetranio is asked by Constantina, sister of Constantius II, to proclaim himself Caesar.
- 834 – Emperor Louis the Pious is restored as sole ruler of the Frankish Empire. After his re-accession to the throne, his eldest son Lothair I flees to Burgundy.
- 1457 – The Unitas Fratrum is established in the village of Kunvald, on the Bohemian-Moravian borderland. It is to date the second oldest Protestant denomination.
- 1476 – Forces of the Catholic Monarchs engage the combined Portuguese-Castilian armies of Afonso V and Prince John at the Battle of Toro.
- 1562 – Sixty-three Huguenots are massacred in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion.
- 1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.
- 1628 – Writs issued in February by Charles I of England mandate that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date.
- 1633 – Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu.
- 1642 – Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine), becomes the first incorporated city in the United States.
- 1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.
- 1700 – Sweden introduces its own Swedish calendar, in an attempt to gradually merge into the Gregorian calendar, reverts to the Julian calendar on this date in 1712, and introduces the Gregorian calendar on this date in 1753.
- 1713 – The siege and destruction of Fort Neoheroka begins during the Tuscarora War in North Carolina, effectively opening up the colony’s interior to European colonization.
- 1781 – The Articles of Confederation goes into effect in the United States.
- 1790 – The first United States census is authorized.
- 1793 – French Revolutionary War: Battle of Aldenhoven during the Flanders Campaign.
- 1796 – The Dutch East India Company is nationalized by the Batavian Republic.
- 1803 – Ohio becomes the 17th state of The United States.
- 1805 – Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.
- 1811 – Leaders of the Mamluk dynasty are killed by Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali.
- 1815 – Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba.
- 1815 – Georgetown University’s congressional charter is signed into law by President James Madison.
- 1836 – A convention of delegates from 57 Texas communities convenes in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico.
- 1845 – United States President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
- 1852 – Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
- 1854 – German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; two years later his remains are found in a canal near Charlottenburg.
- 1867 – Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital.
- 1868 – The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia.
- 1870 – Marshal F. S. López dies during the Battle of Cerro Corá thus marking the end of the Paraguayan War.
- 1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established as the world’s first national park.
- 1873 – E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
- 1881 – The first Minnesota State Capitol burns down.
- 1886 – The Anglo-Chinese School, Singapore is founded by Bishop William Oldham.
- 1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
- 1896 – Battle of Adwa: An Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian War.
- 1896 – Henri Becquerel discovers radioactive decay.
- 1901 – The Australian Army is formed.
- 1910 – The deadliest avalanche in United States history buries a Great Northern Railway train in northeastern King County, Washington, killing 96 people.
- 1914 – The Republic of China joins the Universal Postal Union.
- 1917 – The Zimmermann Telegram is reprinted in newspapers across the United States after the U.S. government releases its unencrypted text.
- 1919 – March 1st Movement begins in Korea under Japanese rule.
- 1921 – The Australian cricket team captained by Warwick Armstrong becomes the first team to complete a whitewash of The Ashes, something that would not be repeated for 86 years.
- 1921 – Following mass protests in Petrograd demanding greater freedom in the RSFSR, the Kronstadt rebellion began, with sailors and citizens taking up arms against the Bolsheviks.
- 1932 – Charles Lindbergh’s son is kidnapped.
- 1936 – The Hoover Dam is completed.
- 1939 – An Imperial Japanese Army ammunition dump explodes at Hirakata, Osaka, Japan, killing 94.
- 1941 – World War II: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, allying itself with the Axis powers.
- 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces land on Java, the main island of the Dutch East Indies, at Merak and Banten Bay (Banten), Eretan Wetan (Indramayu) and Kragan (Rembang).
- 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalised.
- 1947 – The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations.
- 1949 – Indonesian Army recaptures and occupies for six hours its capital city Yogyakarta from the Dutch.
- 1950 – Cold War: Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.
- 1953 – Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later.
- 1954 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.
- 1954 – Armed Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives.
- 1956 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.
- 1956 – Formation of the East German Nationale Volksarmee.
- 1958 – Samuel Alphonsus Stritch is appointed Pro-Prefect of the Propagation of Faith and thus becomes the first U.S. member of the Roman Curia.
- 1961 – United States President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
- 1961 – Uganda becomes self-governing and holds its first elections.
- 1964 – Villarrica Volcano begins a strombolian eruption causing lahars that destroy half of the town of Coñaripe.
- 1966 – Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface.
- 1966 – The Ba’ath Party takes power in Syria.
- 1971 – President of Pakistan Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.
- 1972 – The Thai province of Yasothon is created after being split off from the Ubon Ratchathani Province.
- 1973 – Black September storms the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, resulting in the assassination of three Western hostages.
- 1974 – Watergate scandal: Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
- 1981 – Provisional Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands begins his hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.
- 1983 – First collection of twelve Swatch models was introduced in Zürich, Switzerland.
- 1990 – Steve Jackson Games is raided by the United States Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- 1991 – Uprisings against Saddam Hussein begin in Iraq, leading to the death of more than 25,000 people mostly civilian.
- 1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
- 1998 – Titanic became the first film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.
- 2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan.
- 2002 – The Envisat environmental satellite successfully launches aboard an Ariane 5 rocket to reach an orbit of 800 km (500 mi) above the Earth, which was the then-largest payload at 10.5 m long and with a diameter of 4.57 m.
- 2003 – Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service move to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
- 2003 – The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague.
- 2005 – In Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the execution of juveniles found guilty of murder is unconstitutional.
- 2006 – English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station.
- 2007 – Tornadoes break out across the southern United States, killing at least 20 people, including eight at Enterprise High School.
- 2008 – The Armenian police clash with peaceful opposition rally protesting against allegedly fraudulent presidential elections, as a result ten people are killed.
- 2014 – Thirty-five people are killed and 143 injured in a mass stabbing at Kunming Railway Station in China.
 Births on March 1
- 1105 – Alfonso VII, king of León and Castile (d. 1157)
- 1261 – Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester (d. 1326)
- 1389 – Antoninus of Florence, Italian archbishop and saint (d. 1459)
- 1432 – Isabella of Coimbra (d. 1455)
- 1456 – Vladislaus II of Hungary (d. 1516)
- 1547 – Rudolph Goclenius, German philosopher and lexicographer (d. 1628)
- 1554 – William Stafford, English courtier and conspirator (d. 1612)
- 1577 – Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland (d. 1635)
- 1597 – Jean-Charles della Faille, Flemish priest and mathematician (d. 1652)
- 1611 – John Pell, English mathematician and linguist (d. 1685)
- 1629 – Abraham Teniers, Flemish painter (d. 1670)
- 1647 – John de Brito, Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr (d. 1693)
- 1657 – Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian and author (d. 1740)
- 1683 – Tsangyang Gyatso, sixth Dalai Lama (d. 1706)
- 1683 – Caroline of Ansbach, British queen and regent (d. 1737)
- 1732 – William Cushing, American lawyer and judge (d. 1810)
- 1760 – François Buzot, French lawyer and politician (d. 1794)
- 1769 – François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French general (d. 1796)
- 1807 – Wilford Woodruff, American religious leader, 4th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1898)
- 1810 – Frédéric Chopin, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1849)
- 1812 – Augustus Pugin, English architect, co-designed the Palace of Westminster (d. 1852)
- 1817 – Giovanni Duprè, Italian sculptor and educator (d. 1882)
- 1821 – Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German bishop and academic (d. 1896)
- 1835 – Philip Fysh, English-Australian politician, 12th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1919)
- 1837 – William Dean Howells, American novelist, playwright, and critic (d. 1920)
- 1842 – Nikolaos Gyzis, Greek painter and academic (d. 1901)
- 1848 – Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Irish-American sculptor and academic (d. 1907)
- 1852 – Théophile Delcassé, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1923)
- 1863 – Alexander Golovin, Russian painter and set designer (d. 1930)
- 1870 – E. M. Antoniadi, Greek-French astronomer and academic (d. 1944)
- 1876 – Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian businessman (d. 1942)
- 1880 – Lytton Strachey, British writer and critic (d. 1932)
- 1886 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian-Swiss painter, poet, and playwright (d. 1980)
- 1888 – Ewart Astill, English cricketer and billiards player (d. 1948)
- 1888 – Fanny Walden, English cricketer and umpire, international footballer, outside right (d. 1949)
- 1889 – Tetsuro Watsuji, Japanese historian and philosopher (d. 1960)
- 1890 – Theresa Bernstein, Polish-American painter and author (d. 2002)
- 1891 – Ralph Hitz, Austrian-American hotelier (d. 1940)
- 1892 – Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japanese author and educator (d. 1927)
- 1893 – Mercedes de Acosta, American author, poet, and playwright (d. 1968)
- 1896 – Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1960)
- 1896 – Moriz Seeler, German playwright and producer (d. 1942)
- 1899 – Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, German SS officer (d. 1972)
- 1904 – Paul Hartman, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1973)
- 1904 – Glenn Miller, American trombonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1944)
- 1905 – Doris Hare, Welsh-English actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2000)
- 1906 – Phạm Văn Đồng, Vietnamese lieutenant and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)
- 1909 – Eugene Esmonde, English lieutenant and pilot (d. 1942)
- 1909 – Winston Sharples, American pianist and composer (d. 1978)
- 1910 – Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
- 1910 – David Niven, English soldier and actor (d. 1983)
- 1912 – Gerald Emmett Carter, Canadian cardinal (d. 2003)
- 1912 – Boris Chertok, Polish-Russian engineer and academic (d. 2011)
- 1914 – Harry Caray, American sportscaster (d. 1998)
- 1914 – Ralph Ellison, American novelist and literary critic (d. 1994)
- 1917 – Robert Lowell, American poet (d. 1977)
- 1918 – João Goulart, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 24th President of Brazil (d. 1976)
- 1918 – Gladys Spellman, American educator and politician (d. 1988)
- 1920 – Max Bentley, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1984)
- 1921 – Cameron Argetsinger, American race car driver and lawyer (d. 2008)
- 1921 – Terence Cooke, American cardinal (d. 1983)
- 1921 – Richard Wilbur, American poet, translator, and essayist (d. 2017)
- 1922 – William Gaines, American publisher (d. 1992)
- 1922 – Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli general and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
- 1924 – Arnold Drake, American author and screenwriter (d. 2007)
- 1924 – Deke Slayton, American soldier, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1993)
- 1926 – Robert Clary, French-American actor and author
- 1926 – Cesare Danova, Italian-American actor (d. 1992)
- 1926 – Pete Rozelle, American businessman and commissioner of the National Football League (d. 1996)
- 1926 – Allan Stanley, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2013)
- 1927 – George O. Abell, American astronomer, professor at UCLA, science popularizer, and skeptic (d. 1983)
- 1927 – Harry Belafonte, American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1927 – Robert Bork, American lawyer and scholar, United States Attorney General (d. 2012)
- 1928 – Jacques Rivette, French director, screenwriter, and critic (d. 2016)
- 1929 – Georgi Markov, Bulgarian journalist and author (d. 1978)
- 1930 – Gastone Nencini, Italian cyclist (d. 1980)
- 1934 – Jean-Michel Folon, Belgian painter and sculptor (d. 2005)
- 1934 – Joan Hackett, American actress (d. 1983)
- 1935 – Robert Conrad, American actor, radio host and stuntman (d. 2020)
- 1936 – Jean-Edern Hallier, French author (d. 1997)
- 1939 – Leo Brouwer, Cuban guitarist, composer, and conductor
- 1939 – Mustansar Hussain Tarar, Pakistani author
- 1940 – Robin Gray, Australian politician, 37th Premier of Tasmania
- 1940 – Robert Grossman, American painter, sculptor, and author (d. 2018)
- 1941 – Robert Hass, American poet
- 1942 – Richard Myers, American general
- 1943 – Gil Amelio, American businessman
- 1943 – José Ángel Iribar, Spanish footballer and manager
- 1943 – Rashid Sunyaev, Russian-German astronomer and physicist
- 1944 – Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Indian politician, 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal
- 1944 – John Breaux, American lawyer and politician
- 1944 – Roger Daltrey, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1944 – Mike d’Abo, English singer
- 1945 – Dirk Benedict, American actor and director
- 1946 – Gerry Boulet, Canadian singer-songwriter (d. 1990)
- 1946 – Jim Crace, English author and academic
- 1947 – Alan Thicke, Canadian-American actor and composer (d. 2016)
- 1951 – Sergei Kourdakov, Russian-American KGB agent (d. 1973)
- 1952 – Dave Barr, Canadian golfer
- 1952 – Nevada Barr, American actress and author
- 1952 – Leigh Matthews, Australian footballer, coach, and sportscaster
- 1952 – Jerri Nielsen, American physician and explorer (d. 2009)
- 1952 – Martin O’Neill, Northern Irish footballer and manager
- 1953 – Sinan Çetin, Turkish actor, director, and producer
- 1953 – Carlos Queiroz, Portuguese footballer and manager
- 1954 – Catherine Bach, American actress
- 1954 – Ron Howard, American actor, director, and producer
- 1954 – Rod Reddy, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1956 – Tim Daly, American actor, director, and producer
- 1956 – Dalia Grybauskaitė, Lithuanian politician, 6th President of Lithuania
- 1958 – Nik Kershaw, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1958 – Wayne B. Phillips, Australian cricketer and coach
- 1959 – Nick Griffin, English politician
- 1961 – Mike Rozier, American football player
- 1962 – Russell Coutts, New Zealand sailor
- 1962 – Mark Gardner, American baseball player
- 1962 – Bill Leen, American bass player and producer
- 1963 – Bryan Batt, American actor and singer
- 1963 – Maurice Benard, American actor
- 1963 – Ron Francis, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
- 1964 – Clinton Gregory, American singer-songwriter and fiddler
- 1964 – Paul Le Guen, French footballer and manager
- 1965 – Booker T, American wrestler and sportscaster
- 1965 – Stewart Elliott, Canadian jockey
- 1966 – Paul Hollywood, English chef
- 1966 – Zack Snyder, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1967 – George Eads, American actor
- 1967 – Aron Winter, Suriname-Dutch footballer and manager
- 1969 – Javier Bardem, Spanish actor and producer
- 1970 – Jason V Brock, American author, filmmaker, artist, scholar and musician
- 1971 – Thomas Adès, English pianist, composer, and conductor
- 1971 – Ivan Cleary, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1973 – Jack Davenport, English actor
- 1973 – Anton Gunn, American academic and politician
- 1973 – Chris Webber, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1974 – Mark-Paul Gosselaar, American actor
- 1976 – Travis Kvapil, American race car driver
- 1977 – Rens Blom, Dutch pole vaulter
- 1977 – Esther Cañadas, Spanish actress and model
- 1978 – Jensen Ackles, American actor and director
- 1979 – Mikkel Kessler, Danish boxer
- 1979 – Bruno Langlois, Canadian cyclist
- 1980 – Shahid Afridi, Pakistani cricketer
- 1980 – Abhay K, Indian poet and diplomat
- 1980 – Sercan Güvenışık, German-Turkish footballer
- 1980 – Djimi Traoré, Malian footballer
- 1981 – Will Power, Australian race car driver
- 1982 – Juan Manuel Ortiz, Spanish footballer
- 1983 – Daniel Carvalho, Brazilian footballer
- 1983 – Lupita Nyong’o, Mexican-Kenyan actress
- 1983 – Davey Richards, American wrestler
- 1983 – Anthony Tupou, Australian rugby league player
- 1984 – Naima Mora, American model and actress
- 1984 – Alexander Steen, Canadian-Swedish ice hockey player
- 1985 – Andreas Ottl, German footballer
- 1986 – Big E, American wrestler
- 1987 – Kesha, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1988 – Yang Hyeon-jong, South Korean baseball player
- 1989 – Tenille Tayla, Australian professional wrestler
- 1989 – Carlos Vela, Mexican footballer
- 1992 – Tom Walsh, New Zealand athlete
- 1993 – Nathan Brown, Australian rugby league player
- 1993 – Michael Conforto, American baseball player
- 1993 – Kurt Mann, Australian rugby league player
- 1993 – Josh McEachran, English footballer
- 1994 – Justin Bieber, Canadian singer-songwriter
- 1994 – Tyreek Hill, American football player
- 1996 – Lizzie Arnot, Scottish footballer
- 1999 – Brogan Hay, Scottish footballer
 Deaths on March 1
- 492 – Felix III, pope of the Catholic Church
- 589 – David, Welsh bishop and saint
- 965 – Leo VIII, pope of the Catholic Church
- 977 – Rudesind, Galician bishop (b. 907)
- 991 – En’yū, Japanese emperor (b. 959)
- 1058 – Ermesinde of Carcassonne, countess and regent of Barcelona (b. 972)
- 1131 – Stephen II, king of Hungary and Croatia (b. 1101)
- 1233 – Thomas, count of Savoy (b. 1178)
- 1244 – Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr, Welsh noble, son of Llywelyn the Great (b. 1200)
- 1320 – Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan, Chinese emperor (b. 1286)
- 1383 – Amadeus VI, count of Savoy (b. 1334)
- 1510 – Francisco de Almeida, Portuguese soldier and explorer (b. 1450)
- 1546 – George Wishart, Scottish minister and martyr (b. 1513)
- 1620 – Thomas Campion, English poet and composer (b. 1567)
- 1633 – George Herbert, English poet and orator (b. 1593)
- 1643 – Girolamo Frescobaldi, Italian pianist and composer (b. 1583)
- 1661 – Richard Zouch, English judge and politician (b. 1590)
- 1666 – Ecaterina Cercheza, princess consort of Moldavia (b. 1620)
- 1697 – Francesco Redi, Italian physician and poet (b. 1626)
- 1734 – Roger North, English lawyer and author (b. 1653)
- 1768 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and author (b. 1694)
- 1773 – Luigi Vanvitelli, Italian architect, designed the Palace of Caserta (b. 1700)
- 1792 – Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1747)
- 1792 – Angelo Emo, Venetian admiral and statesman (b. 1731)1841 – Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (b. 1764)
- 1862 – Peter Barlow, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1776)
- 1875 – Tristan Corbière, French poet and educator (b. 1845)
- 1882 – Theodor Kullak, German pianist, composer, and educator (b. 1818)
- 1884 – Isaac Todhunter, English mathematician and academic (b. 1820)
- 1906 – José María de Pereda, Spanish author (b. 1833)
- 1911 – Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff, Dutch-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- 1914 – Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, English soldier and politician, 8th Governor General of Canada (b. 1845)
- 1920 – John H. Bankhead, American lawyer and politician (b. 1842)
- 1922 – Pichichi, Spanish footballer (b. 1892)
- 1932 – Frank Teschemacher, American Jazz musician (b. 1906)
- 1936 – Mikhail Kuzmin, Russian author and poet (b. 1871)
- 1938 – Gabriele D’Annunzio, Italian journalist and politician (b. 1863)
- 1940 – Anton Hansen Tammsaare, Estonian author (b. 1878)
- 1942 – George S. Rentz, American commander (b. 1882)
- 1943 – Alexandre Yersin, Swiss-French physician and bacteriologist (b. 1863)
- 1952 – Mariano Azuela, Mexican physician and author (b. 1873)
- 1966 – Fritz Houtermans, Polish-German physicist and academic (b. 1903)
- 1974 – Bobby Timmons, American pianist and composer (b. 1935)
- 1976 – Jean Martinon, French conductor and composer (b. 1910)
- 1978 – Paul Scott, English author, poet, and playwright (b. 1920)
- 1979 – Mustafa Barzani, Iraqi-Kurdistan politician (b. 1903)
- 1980 – Wilhelmina Cooper, Dutch-American model and businesswoman, founded Wilhelmina Models (b. 1940)
- 1980 – Dixie Dean, English footballer (b. 1907)
- 1983 – Arthur Koestler, Hungarian-English journalist and author (b. 1905)
- 1984 – Jackie Coogan, American actor (b. 1914)
- 1988 – Joe Besser, American comedian and actor (b. 1907)
- 1989 – Vasantdada Patil, Indian politician, 5th Chief Minister of Maharashtra (b. 1917)
- 1991 – Edwin H. Land, American scientist and businessman, co-founded the Polaroid Corporation (b. 1909)
- 1995 – César Rodríguez Álvarez, Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1920)
- 1995 – Georges J. F. Köhler, German biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1946)
- 1998 – Archie Goodwin, American author and illustrator (b. 1937)
- 2004 – Mian Ghulam Jilani, Pakistani general (b. 1914)
- 2006 – Peter Osgood, English footballer (b. 1947)
- 2006 – Jack Wild, English actor (b.1952)
- 2010 – Kristian Digby, English television host and director (b. 1977)
- 2012 – Andrew Breitbart, American journalist and publisher (b. 1969)
- 2012 – Germano Mosconi, Italian journalist (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Bonnie Franklin, American actress, dancer, and singer (b. 1944)
- 2014 – Alain Resnais, French director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (b. 1922)
- 2015 – Minnie Miñoso, Cuban-American baseball player and coach (b. 1922)
- 2018 – María Rubio, Mexican television, film and stage actress (b. 1934)
- 2019 – Mike Willesee, Australian journalist and producer (b. 1942)
 Holidays and observances on March 1
- Beer Day, marked the end of beer prohibition in 1989 (Iceland)
- Christian feast day:
- Agnes Tsao Kou Ying (one of the Martyr Saints of China)
- Albin
- David
- Eudokia of Heliopolis
- Pope Felix III
- Leoluca
- Luperculus
- Monan
- Rudesind
- Suitbert
- March 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 
- Commemoration of Mustafa Barzani’s Death (Iraqi Kurdistan)
- Earliest day on which Casimir Pulaski Day can fall, while March 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in March. (Illinois)
- Earliest day on which Children’s Day can fall, while March 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in March. (New Zealand)
- Earliest day on which Grandmother’s Day can fall, while March 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in March. (France)
- Earliest day on which Laetare Sunday can fall, while April 4 is the latest; celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. (Western Christianity), and its related observances:
- Carnaval de la Laetare (Stavelot)
- Mothering Sunday (United Kingdom)
 
- Heroes’ Day (Paraguay)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992.
- National “Cursed Soldiers” Remembrance Day (Poland)
- National Pig Day (United States)
- Remembrance Day (Marshall Islands)
- Saint David’s Day or Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant (Wales and Welsh communities)
- Samiljeol (South Korea)
- Self-injury Awareness Day
- Southeastern Europe celebration of the beginning of spring:
- Baba Marta Day (Bulgaria)
- Mărțișor (Romania and Moldova)
 
- The final day (fourth or fifth) of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’í Faith)
- World Civil Defence Day
- Yap Day (Yap State)
- Zero Discrimination Day