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February 19 in History
- 197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.
- 356 – Emperor Constantius II issues a decree closing all pagan temples in the Roman Empire.
- 1594 – Having already been elected to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1587, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, having succeeded his father John III of Sweden in 1592.
- 1600 – The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.
- 1649 – The Second Battle of Guararapes takes place, effectively ending Dutch colonization efforts in Brazil.
- 1674 – England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.
- 1726 – The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.
- 1807 – Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert.
- 1819 – British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands and claims them in the name of King George III.
- 1836 – King William IV signs Letters Patent establishing the Province of South Australia.
- 1846 – In Austin, Texas the newly formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following the annexation of Texas by the United States.
- 1847 – The first group of rescuers reaches the Donner Party.
- 1859 – Daniel E. Sickles, a New York Congressman, is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity.
- 1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
- 1884 – More than sixty tornadoes strike the Southern United States, one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.
- 1913 – Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country.
- 1915 – World War I: The first naval attack on the Dardanelles begins when a strong Anglo-French task force bombards Ottoman artillery along the coast of Gallipoli.
- 1937 – Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Ethiopian nationalists of Eritrean origin attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.
- 1942 – World War II: Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing 243 people.
- 1942 – World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps.
- 1943 – World War II: Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.
- 1945 – World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima: About 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.
- 1948 – The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.
- 1949 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
- 1953 – Book censorship in the United States: The Georgia Literature Commission is established.
- 1954 – Transfer of Crimea: The Soviet Politburo of the Soviet Union orders the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
- 1959 – The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which is formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.
- 1960 – China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.
- 1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique reawakens the feminist movement in the United States as women’s organizations and consciousness raising groups spread.
- 1965 – Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and a communist spy of the North Vietnamese Viet Minh, along with Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Trần Thiện Khiêm, all Catholics, attempt a coup against the military junta of the Buddhist Nguyễn Khánh.
- 1976 – Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald Ford’s Proclamation 4417.
- 1978 – Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.
- 1985 – William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave the hospital.
- 1985 – Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.
- 1986 – Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers in eastern Sri Lanka.
- 1989 – Flying Tiger Line flight 66 crashes into a hill near Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Malaysia, killing four.
- 2002 – NASA’s Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
- 2003 – An Ilyushin Il-76 military aircraft crashes near Kerman, Iran, killing 275.
- 2006 – A methane explosion in a coal mine near Nueva Rosita, Mexico, kills 65 miners.
- 2011 – The debut exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck, containing the largest collection of Tang dynasty artifacts found in one location, begins in Singapore.
- 2012 – Forty-four people are killed in a prison brawl in Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico.
Births on February 19
- 1461 – Domenico Grimani, Italian cardinal (d. 1523)
- 1473 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1543)
- 1497 – Matthäus Schwarz, German fashion writer (d. 1574)
- 1519 – Froben Christoph of Zimmern, German author of the Zimmern Chronicle (d. 1566)
- 1526 – Carolus Clusius, Flemish botanist and academic (d. 1609)
- 1532 – Jean-Antoine de Baïf, French poet (d. 1589)
- 1552 – Melchior Klesl, Austrian cardinal (d. 1630)
- 1594 – Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (d. 1612)
- 1611 – Andries de Graeff, Dutch politician (d. 1678)
- 1630 – Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Indian warrior king and the founder of Maratha Empire
- 1660 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (d. 1742)
- 1717 – David Garrick, English actor, playwright, and producer (d. 1779)
- 1743 – Luigi Boccherini, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1805)
- 1798 – Allan MacNab, Canadian soldier, lawyer, and politician, Premier of Canada West (d. 1862)
- 1800 – Émilie Gamelin, Canadian nun and social worker, founded the Sisters of Providence (d. 1851)
- 1804 – Carl von Rokitansky, German physician, pathologist, and philosopher (d. 1878)
- 1821 – August Schleicher, German linguist and academic (d. 1868)
- 1833 – Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1906)
- 1838 – Lydia Thompson, British burlesque performer (d. 1908)
- 1841 – Elfrida Andrée, Swedish organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1929)
- 1855 – Nishinoumi Kajirō I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 16th Yokozuna (d. 1908)
- 1859 – Svante Arrhenius, Swedish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)
- 1865 – Sven Hedin, Swedish geographer and explorer (d. 1952)
- 1869 – Hovhannes Tumanyan, Armenian-Russian poet and author (d. 1923)
- 1872 – Johan Pitka, Estonian admiral (d. 1944)
- 1876 – Constantin Brâncuși, Romanian-French sculptor, painter, and photographer (d. 1957)
- 1877 – Gabriele Münter, German painter (d. 1962)
- 1878 – Harriet Bosse, Swedish–Norwegian actress (d. 1961)
- 1880 – Álvaro Obregón, Mexican general and politician, 39th President of Mexico (d. 1928)
- 1886 – José Abad Santos, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 5th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines (d. 1942)
- 1888 – José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian lawyer and poet (d. 1928)
- 1893 – Cedric Hardwicke, English actor and director (d. 1964)
- 1895 – Louis Calhern, American actor (d. 1956)
- 1896 – André Breton, French poet and author (d. 1966)
- 1897 – Alma Rubens, American actress (d. 1931)
- 1899 – Lucio Fontana, Argentinian-Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1968)
- 1902 – Kay Boyle, American novelist, short story writer, and educator (d. 1992)
- 1904 – Havank, Dutch journalist and author (d. 1964)
- 1904 – Elisabeth Welch, American-English singer and actress (d. 2003)
- 1911 – Merle Oberon, Indian-American actress (d. 1979)
- 1912 – Dorothy Janis, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1912 – Saul Chaplin, American composer (d. 1997)
- 1913 – Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza (d. 2007)
- 1913 – Frank Tashlin, American animator and screenwriter (d. 1972)
- 1914 – Thelma Kench, New Zealand Olympic sprinter (d. 1985)
- 1915 – John Freeman, English lawyer, politician, and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States (d. 2014)
- 1916 – Eddie Arcaro, American jockey and sportscaster (d. 1997)
- 1917 – Carson McCullers, American novelist, short story writer, playwright, and essayist (d. 1967)
- 1918 – Fay McKenzie, American actress (d. 2019)
- 1920 – C. Z. Guest, American actress, fashion designer, and author (d. 2003)
- 1920 – Jaan Kross, Estonian author and poet (d. 2007)
- 1920 – George Rose, English actor and singer (d. 1988)
- 1922 – Władysław Bartoszewski, Polish journalist and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2015)
- 1924 – David Bronstein, Ukrainian chess player and theoretician (d. 2006)
- 1924 – Lee Marvin, American actor (d. 1987)
- 1926 – György Kurtág, Hungarian composer and academic
- 1927 – Philippe Boiry, French journalist (d. 2014)
- 1929 – Jacques Deray, French director and screenwriter (d. 2003)
- 1930 – John Frankenheimer, American director and producer (d. 2002)
- 1930 – Kasinathuni Viswanath, Indian actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1932 – Joseph P. Kerwin, American captain, physician, and astronaut
- 1935 – Dave Niehaus, American sportscaster (d. 2010)
- 1935 – Russ Nixon, American MLB catcher and coach (d. 2016)
- 1936 – Sam Myers, American singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
- 1936 – Frederick Seidel, American poet
- 1937 – Terry Carr, American author and educator (d. 1987)
- 1937 – Norm O’Neill, Australian cricketer and sportscaster (d. 2008)
- 1938 – Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama (d. 1989)
- 1939 – Erin Pizzey, English activist and author, founded Refuge
- 1940 – Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmen engineer and politician, 1st President of Turkmenistan (d. 2006)
- 1940 – Smokey Robinson, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1940 – Bobby Rogers, American singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
- 1941 – David Gross, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1941 – Jenny Tonge, Baroness Tonge, English politician
- 1942 – Cyrus Chothia, English biochemist and emeritus scientist at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (d. 2019)
- 1942 – Paul Krause, American football player and politician
- 1942 – Howard Stringer, Welsh businessman
- 1942 – Will Provine, American biologist, historian, and academic (d. 2015)
- 1943 – Lou Christie, American singer-songwriter
- 1943 – Homer Hickam, American author and engineer
- 1943 – Tim Hunt, English biochemist and academic, Nobel laureate
- 1944 – Les Hinton, English-American journalist and businessman
- 1945 – Yuri Antonov, Uzbek-Russian singer-songwriter
- 1946 – Paul Dean, Canadian guitarist
- 1946 – Peter Hudson, Australian footballer and coach
- 1946 – Karen Silkwood, American technician and activist (d. 1974)
- 1947 – Jackie Curtis, American actress and playwright (d. 1985)
- 1947 – Tim Shadbolt, New Zealand businessman and politician, 42nd Mayor of Invercargill
- 1948 – Mark Andes, American singer-songwriter and bass player
- 1948 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch sociologist, academic, and politician (d. 2002)
- 1948 – Tony Iommi, English guitarist and songwriter
- 1949 – Danielle Bunten Berry, American game designer and programmer (d. 1998)
- 1949 – Eddie Hardin, English singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2015)
- 1949 – Barry Lloyd, English footballer, midfielder and manager
- 1949 – William Messner-Loebs, American author and illustrator
- 1950 – Juice Leskinen, Finnish singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
- 1950 – Andy Powell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1951 – Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, Pakistani scholar and politician, founder of Minhaj-ul-Quran
- 1952 – Ryū Murakami, Japanese novelist and filmmaker
- 1952 – Rodolfo Neri Vela, Mexican engineer and astronaut
- 1952 – Gary Seear, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2018)
- 1952 – Dave Cheadle, American baseball player (d. 2012)
- 1952 – Amy Tan, American novelist, essayist, and short story writer
- 1952 – Danilo Türk, Slovene academic and politician, 3rd President of Slovenia
- 1953 – Corrado Barazzutti, Italian tennis player
- 1953 – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentine lawyer and politician, former President of Argentina and current Vice President of Argentina
- 1953 – Massimo Troisi, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1994)
- 1954 – Sócrates, Brazilian footballer and manager (d. 2011)
- 1954 – Francis Buchholz, German bass player
- 1954 – Michael Gira, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1955 – Jeff Daniels, American actor and playwright
- 1956 – Kathleen Beller, American actress
- 1956 – Peter Holsapple, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1956 – Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1956 – Dave Wakeling, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1957 – Falco, Austrian singer-songwriter, rapper, and musician (d. 1998)
- 1957 – Dave Stewart, American baseball player and coach
- 1957 – Ray Winstone, English actor
- 1958 – Tommy Cairo, American wrestler
- 1958 – Helen Fielding, English author and screenwriter
- 1958 – Steve Nieve, English keyboard player and composer
- 1959 – Roger Goodell, American businessman
- 1960 – Prince Andrew, Duke of York
- 1960 – John Paul Jr., American race car driver
- 1961 – Justin Fashanu, English footballer (d. 1998)
- 1961 – Ernie Gonzalez, American golfer
- 1962 – Hana Mandlíková, Czech-Australian tennis player and coach
- 1963 – Seal, English singer-songwriter
- 1963 – Jessica Tuck, American actress
- 1964 – Doug Aldrich, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1964 – Jonathan Lethem, American novelist, essayist, and short story writer
- 1965 – Jon Fishman, American drummer
- 1965 – Clark Hunt, American businessman
- 1965 – Leroy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1966 – Justine Bateman, American actress and producer
- 1966 – Paul Haarhuis, Dutch tennis player and coach
- 1966 – Eduardo Xol, American designer and author
- 1967 – Benicio del Toro, Puerto Rican-American actor, director, and producer
- 1968 – Frank Watkins, American bass player (d. 2015)
- 1968 – Prince Markie Dee, American rapper and actor
- 1969 – Burton C. Bell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1969 – Helena Guergis, Canadian businesswoman and politician
- 1970 – Joacim Cans, Swedish singer-songwriter
- 1971 – Miguel Batista, Dominican baseball player and poet
- 1971 – Richard Green, Australian golfer
- 1971 – Jeff Kinney, American author and illustrator
- 1972 – Francine Fournier, American wrestler and manager
- 1972 – Sunset Thomas, American pornographic actress
- 1975 – Daniel Adair, Canadian drummer and producer
- 1975 – Daewon Song, South Korean-American skateboarder, co-founded Almost Skateboards
- 1977 – Ola Salo, Swedish singer-songwriter and keyboard player
- 1977 – Andrew Ross Sorkin, American journalist and author
- 1977 – Gianluca Zambrotta, Italian footballer and manager
- 1978 – Ben Gummer, English scholar and politician
- 1978 – Immortal Technique, Peruvian-American rapper
- 1979 – Steve Cherundolo, American soccer player and manager
- 1980 – Dwight Freeney, American football player
- 1980 – Ma Lin, Chinese table tennis player
- 1980 – Mike Miller, American basketball player
- 1981 – Beth Ditto, American singer
- 1983 – Kotoōshū Katsunori, Bulgarian sumo wrestler
- 1983 – Mika Nakashima, Japanese singer and actress
- 1983 – Ryan Whitney, American ice hockey player
- 1984 – Chris Richardson, American singer-songwriter
- 1985 – Haylie Duff, American actress and singer
- 1986 – Kyle Chipchura, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Marta, Brazilian footballer
- 1986 – Maria Mena, Norwegian singer-songwriter
- 1986 – Michael Schwimer, American baseball player
- 1987 – Anna Cappellini, Italian ice dancer
- 1988 – Shawn Matthias, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1988 – Seth Morrison, American guitarist
- 1989 – Sone Aluko, Anglo-Nigerian international footballer, forward/winger
- 1991 – Christoph Kramer, German national footballer
- 1991 – Trevor Bayne, American race car driver
- 1992 – Camille Kostek, American model
- 1993 – Mauro Icardi, Argentinian footballer
- 1993 – Victoria Justice, American actress and singer
- 1994 – Sam Lisone, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player
- 1994 – Tiina Trutsi, Estonian footballer
- 1995 – Nikola Jokić, Serbian basketball player
- 1998 – Katharina Gerlach, German tennis player
- 2001 – David Mazouz, American actor
- 2004 – Millie Bobby Brown, English actress
Deaths on February 19
- 197 – Clodius Albinus, Roman usurper (b. 150)
- 446 – Leontius of Trier, Bishop of Trier
- 1133 – Irene Doukaina, Byzantine wife of Alexios I Komnenos (b. 1066)
- 1275 – Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Sufi philosopher and poet (b. 1177)
- 1300 – Munio of Zamora, General of the Dominican Order
- 1408 – Thomas Bardolf, 5th Baron Bardolf, English rebel
- 1414 – Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1353)
- 1445 – Leonor of Aragon, queen of Portugal (b. 1402)
- 1491 – Enno I, Count of East Frisia, German noble (b. 1460)
- 1553 – Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1511)
- 1602 – Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercœur (b. 1558)
- 1605 – Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer (b. 1550)
- 1622 – Henry Savile, English scholar and politician (b. 1549)
- 1672 – Charles Chauncy, English-American minister, theologian, and academic (b. 1592)
- 1709 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shōgun (b. 1646)
- 1716 – Dorothe Engelbretsdatter, Norwegian author and poet (b. 1634)
- 1785 – Mary, Countess of Harold, English aristocrat and philanthropist (b. 1701)
- 1789 – Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and politician, 7th Governor of Delaware (b. 1738)
- 1799 – Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, and sailor (b. 1733)
- 1806 – Elizabeth Carter, English poet and translator (b. 1717)
- 1837 – Georg Büchner, German-Swiss poet and playwright (b. 1813)
- 1837 – Thomas Burgess, English bishop and philosopher (b. 1756)
- 1887 – Multatuli, Dutch-German author and civil servant (b. 1820)
- 1897 – Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician and academic (b. 1815)
- 1915 – Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian philosopher and politician (b. 1866)
- 1916 – Ernst Mach, Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher (b. 1838)
- 1927 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer and educator (b. 1847)
- 1928 – George Howard Earle Jr., American lawyer and businessman (b. 1856)
- 1936 – Billy Mitchell, American general and pilot (b. 1879)
- 1945 – John Basilone, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1916)
- 1951 – André Gide, French novelist, essayist, and dramatist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
- 1952 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
- 1953 – Richard Rushall, British businessman (b. 1864)
- 1957 – Maurice Garin, Italian-French cyclist (b. 1871)
- 1959 – Willard Miller, American sailor, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1877)
- 1962 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek-American pathologist, invented the Pap smear (b. 1883)
- 1969 – Madge Blake, American actress (b. 1899)
- 1970 – Ralph Edward Flanders, (b. 1890) US Senator from Vermont.
- 1972 – John Grierson, Scottish director and producer (b. 1898)
- 1972 – Lee Morgan, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1938)
- 1973 – Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (b. 1892)
- 1977 – Anthony Crosland, English captain and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (b. 1918)
- 1977 – Mike González, Cuban baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1890)
- 1980 – Bon Scott, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
- 1983 – Alice White, American actress (b. 1904)
- 1988 – André Frédéric Cournand, French-American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
- 1992 – Tojo Yamamoto, American wrestler and manager (b. 1927)
- 1994 – Derek Jarman, English director and set designer (b. 1942)
- 1996 – Charlie Finley, American businessman (b. 1918)
- 1997 – Leo Rosten, Polish-American author and academic (b. 1908)
- 1997 – Deng Xiaoping, Chinese politician, 1st Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China (b. 1904)
- 1998 – Grandpa Jones, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (b. 1913)
- 1999 – Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, Iraqi cleric (b. 1943)
- 2000 – Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian-New Zealand painter and illustrator (b. 1928)
- 2001 – Stanley Kramer, American director and producer (b. 1913)
- 2001 – Charles Trenet, French singer-songwriter (b. 1913)
- 2002 – Sylvia Rivera, American transgender LGBT activist (b. 1951)
- 2003 – Johnny Paycheck, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1938)
- 2007 – Janet Blair, American actress and singer (b. 1921)
- 2007 – Celia Franca, English-Canadian dancer and director, founded the National Ballet of Canada (b. 1921)
- 2008 – Yegor Letov, Russian singer-songwriter (b. 1964)
- 2008 – Lydia Shum, Chinese-Hong Kong actress and singer (b. 1945)
- 2009 – Kelly Groucutt, English singer and bass player (b. 1945)
- 2011 – Ollie Matson, American sprinter and football player (b. 1930)
- 2012 – Ruth Barcan Marcus, American philosopher and logician (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Jaroslav Velinský, Czech author and songwriter (b. 1932)
- 2012 – Vitaly Vorotnikov, Russian politician, 27th Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1926)
- 2013 – Armen Alchian, American economist and academic (b. 1914)
- 2013 – Park Chul-soo, South Korean director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1948)
- 2013 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1937)
- 2013 – Donald Richie, American-Japanese author and critic (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Eugene Whelan, Canadian farmer and politician, 22nd Canadian Minister of Agriculture (b. 1924)
- 2014 – Kresten Bjerre, Danish footballer and manager (b. 1946)
- 2014 – Dale Gardner, American captain and astronaut (b. 1948)
- 2014 – Valeri Kubasov, Russian engineer and astronaut (b. 1935)
- 2015 – Harold Johnson, American boxer (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Nirad Mohapatra, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1947)
- 2015 – Harris Wittels, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1984)
- 2016 – Umberto Eco, Italian novelist, literary critic, and philosopher (b. 1932)
- 2016 – Harper Lee, American author (b. 1926)
- 2016 – Chiaki Morosawa, Japanese anime screenwriter (b. 1959)
- 2016 – Samuel Willenberg, Polish-Israeli sculptor and painter (b. 1923)
- 2017 – Larry Coryell, American jazz guitarist (b. 1943)
- 2019 – Clark Dimond, American musician and author (b. 1941)
- 2019 – Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer (b. 1933)
- 2020 – José Mojica Marins, Brazilian filmmaker, actor, composer, screenwriter, and television horror host Coffin Joe. (b. 1936)
- 2020 – Pop Smoke, American rapper (b. 1999)
Holidays and observances on February 19
- Armed Forces Day (Mexico)
- Brâncuși Day (Romania)
- Christian feast day:
- Barbatus of Benevento
- Boniface of Brussels
- Conrad of Piacenza
- Lucy Yi Zhenmei (one of Martyrs of Guizhou)
- February 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Commemoration of Vasil Levski (Bulgaria)
- Flag Day (Turkmenistan)
- Shivaji Jayanti (Maharashtra, India)9
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February 18 in History
- 1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
- 1268 – The Battle of Wesenberg is fought between the Livonian Order and Dovmont of Pskov.
- 1332 – Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
- 1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.
- 1637 – Eighty Years’ War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
- 1781 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).
- 1791 – Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.
- 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.
- 1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
- 1861 – With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
- 1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
- 1878 – John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
- 1885 – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.
- 1906 – Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
- 1911 – The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) away.
- 1930 – While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
- 1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
- 1932 – The Empire of Japan creates the independent state of Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) free from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.
- 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed “Nanking International Rescue Committee”, and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.
- 1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.
- 1943 – World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
- 1943 – World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.
- 1946 – Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors
- 1947 – First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to mountains.
- 1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.
- 1955 – Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot “Wasp” is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.
- 1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
- 1957 – Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.
- 1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
- 1970 – The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
- 1972 – The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state’s death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.
- 1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden “flight” on top of a Boeing 747.
- 1979 – Richard Petty wins a then-record sixth Daytona 500 after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash on the final lap of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.
- 1983 – Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
- 1991 – The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
- 2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
- 2001 – Sampit conflict: Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, ultimately resulting in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.
- 2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
- 2004 – Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.
- 2007 – Samjhauta Express bombings occurred around midnight in Diwana near the Indian city of Panipat, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of New Delhi, India.
- 2010 – WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.
- 2013 – Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.
- 2014 – At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kiev, Ukraine.
Births on February 18
- 1201 – Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist and writer (d. 1274)
- 1372 – Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar (d. 1448)
- 1486 – Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Indian monk and saint (d. 1534)
- 1516 – Mary I of England (d. 1558)
- 1530 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese daimyō (d. 1578)
- 1543 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1608)
- 1547 – Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī, founder of Isfahan School of Islamic Philosophy (d. 1621)
- 1559 – Isaac Casaubon, Swiss philologist and scholar (d. 1614)
- 1589 – Henry Vane the Elder, English politician (d. 1655)
- 1589 – Maarten Gerritsz Vries, Dutch explorer (d. 1646)
- 1602 – Per Brahe the Younger, Swedish soldier and politician, Governor-General of Finland (d. 1680)
- 1609 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1674)
- 1626 – Francesco Redi, Italian physician (d. 1697)
- 1632 – Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1692)
- 1642 – Marie Champmeslé, French actress (d. 1698)
- 1658 – Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French philosopher and author (d. 1743)
- 1732 – Johann Christian Kittel, German organist and composer (d. 1809)
- 1745 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, invented the battery (d. 1827)
- 1814 – Samuel Fenton Cary, American lawyer and politician (d. 1900)
- 1817 – Lewis Armistead, American general (d. 1863)
- 1836 – Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Indian mystic and yogi (d. 1886)
- 1838 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1916)
- 1846 – Wilson Barrett, English actor, playwright, and manager (d. 1904)
- 1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American stained glass artist (d. 1933)
- 1849 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author, playwright, and politician (d. 1906)
- 1850 – George Henschel, German-English singer-songwriter, pianist, and conductor (d. 1934)
- 1855 – Jean Jules Jusserand, French historian, author, and diplomat, French Ambassador to the United States (d. 1932)
- 1860 – Anders Zorn, Swedish artist (d. 1920)
- 1862 – Charles M. Schwab, American businessman, co-founded Bethlehem Steel (d. 1939)
- 1867 – Hedwig Courths-Mahler, German writer (d. 1950)
- 1870 – William Laurel Harris, American painter and author (d. 1924)
- 1871 – Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)
- 1883 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek philosopher, author, and playwright (d. 1957)
- 1885 – Henri Laurens, French sculptor and illustrator (d. 1954)
- 1893 – Maksim Haretski, Belarusian prose writer, journalist and activist (d. 1938)
- 1890 – Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
- 1890 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
- 1892 – Wendell Willkie, American captain, lawyer, and politician (d. 1944)
- 1896 – Li Linsi, Chinese educator and diplomat (d. 1970)
- 1898 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and businessman, founded Ferrari (d. 1988)
- 1898 – Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet and politician, 1st Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (d. 1980)
- 1899 – Arthur Bryant, English historian and journalist (d. 1985)
- 1903 – Nikolai Podgorny, Ukrainian engineer and politician (d. 1983)
- 1905 – Queenie Leonard, English actress (d. 2002)
- 1906 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician and academic (d. 1980)
- 1909 – Wallace Stegner, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 1993)
- 1914 – Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter and fiddler (d. 2000)
- 1915 – Phyllis Calvert, English actress (d. 2002)
- 1916 – Jean Drapeau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 37th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1999)
- 1919 – Jack Palance, American boxer and actor (d. 2006)
- 1920 – Bill Cullen, American game show panelist and host (d. 1990)
- 1920 – Rolande Falcinelli, French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue (d. 2006)
- 1921 – Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher (d. 1998)
- 1921 – Oscar Feltsman, Ukrainian-Russian pianist and composer (d. 2013)
- 1922 – Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada (d. 1997)
- 1922 – Helen Gurley Brown, American journalist and author (d. 2012)
- 1922 – Allan Melvin, American actor (d. 2008)
- 1925 – George Kennedy, American actor (d. 2016)
- 1925 – Halit Kıvanç, Turkish journalist and sportscaster
- 1925 – Ghafar Baba, Malaysian politician (d. 2006)
- 1926 – Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator (d. 1976)
- 1927 – Luis Arroyo, Puerto Rican-American baseball player, manager, and scout (d. 2016)
- 1927 – Fazal Mahmood, Pakistani cricketer (d. 2005)
- 1927 – John Warner, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 61st United States Secretary of the Navy
- 1928 – Rex Mossop, Australian rugby player and sportscaster (d. 2011)
- 1929 – Len Deighton, English historian and author
- 1929 – André Mathieu, Canadian pianist and composer (d. 1968)
- 1931 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist, co-created The Wizard of Id (d. 2007)
- 1931 – Toni Morrison, American novelist and editor, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2019).
- 1931 – Swraj Paul, Baron Paul, Indian-English businessman and philanthropist
- 1931 – John Ryden, Scottish footballer, centre half (d. 2013)
- 1931 – Bob St. Clair, American football player (d. 2015)
- 1932 – Miloš Forman, Czech-American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
- 1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese-American multimedia artist and musician
- 1933 – Bobby Robson, English international footballer, inside forward and international manager (d. 2009)
- 1933 – Mary Ure, Scottish-English actress (d. 1975)
- 1934 – Skip Battin, American singer-songwriter and bass player (d. 2003)
- 1934 – Dave Dunmore, English footballer, centre forward
- 1934 – Audre Lorde, American poet, essayist, memoirist, and activist (d. 1992)
- 1934 – Paco Rabanne, Spanish-French fashion designer
- 1936 – Jean M. Auel, American author
- 1938 – Manny Mota, Dominican baseball player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1938 – Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 50th Yokozuna (d. 2017)
- 1938 – István Szabó, Hungarian director and screenwriter
- 1939 – Claude Ake, Nigerian political scientist and academic (d. 1996)
- 1939 – Bobby Hart, American singer-songwriter
- 1939 – Marlos Nobre, Brazilian composer
- 1940 – Fabrizio De André, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1999)
- 1940 – Prue Leith, English restaurateur and journalist
- 1941 – Herman Santiago, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter
- 1941 – Irma Thomas, American singer
- 1943 – Graeme Garden, Scottish comedian, actor, and author
- 1944 – Pat Bowlen, American businessman (d. 2019)
- 1945 – Judy Rankin, American golfer and sportscaster
- 1946 – Michael Buerk, English journalist
- 1947 – Dennis DeYoung, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
- 1947 – Eliot Engel, American educator and politician
- 1948 – Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress
- 1948 – Bruce Francis, Australian cricketer
- 1948 – Keith Knudsen, American singer-songwriter and drummer (d. 2005)
- 1949 – Gary Ridgway, American criminal, Green River Killer
- 1950 – Nana Amba Eyiaba I, Ghanaian queen mother and advocate
- 1950 – Cristina Ferrare, American model, actress, author, and television host
- 1950 – John Hughes, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2009)
- 1950 – Cybill Shepherd, American actress and singer
- 1951 – Queen Komal of Nepal
- 1951 – Isabel Preysler, Filipino-Spanish journalist
- 1952 – Randy Crawford, American jazz and R&B singer
- 1952 – Maurice Lucas, American basketball player and coach (d. 2010)
- 1952 – Juice Newton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1952 – Bernard Valcourt, Canadian lawyer and politician
- 1953 – Robbie Bachman, Canadian rock drummer
- 1953 – Derek Pellicci, English-Australian drummer
- 1954 – Charlie Fowler, American mountaineer, author, and photographer (d. 2006)
- 1954 – Paul Rendall, English rugby player
- 1954 – John Travolta, American actor and producer
- 1955 – Cheetah Chrome, American musician
- 1955 – Miles Tredinnick, English singer-songwriter and playwright
- 1955 – Lisa See, American writer and novelist
- 1956 – Ted Gärdestad, Swedish singer-songwriter (d. 1997)
- 1956 – Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian businessman and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Georgia
- 1957 – Marita Koch, German sprinter
- 1957 – Vanna White, American model and game show host
- 1959 – Jayne Atkinson, English-American actress
- 1959 – James Metzger, American businessman and philanthropist
- 1960 – Andy Moog, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1960 – Greta Scacchi, Italian-Australian actress
- 1963 – Rob Andrew, English rugby player and cricketer
- 1964 – Matt Dillon, American actor and director
- 1964 – Paul Hanley, English drummer and songwriter
- 1965 – Dr. Dre, American rapper, producer, and actor
- 1966 – Phillip DeFreitas, Dominican-English cricketer
- 1967 – Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
- 1967 – Colin Jackson, Welsh sprinter and hurdler
- 1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress
- 1969 – Tomaž Humar, Slovenian mountaineer (d. 2009)
- 1969 – Alexander Mogilny, Russian-American ice hockey player
- 1970 – Susan Egan, American actress and singer
- 1970 – James H. Fowler, American political scientist and author
- 1970 – Raine Maida, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1970 – Massimo Taibi, Italian footballer
- 1971 – Thomas Bjorn, Danish golfer
- 1971 – Merritt Gant, American guitarist
- 1972 – Fabian Picardo, Gibraltarian lawyer and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Gibraltar
- 1973 – Shawn Estes, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1973 – Claude Makélélé, French footballer and manager
- 1974 – Carrie Ann Baade, American painter and academic
- 1974 – Jamey Carroll, American baseball player
- 1974 – Radek Černý, Czech international footballer, goalkeeper
- 1974 – Ruby Dhalla, Canadian chiropractor and politician
- 1974 – Julia Butterfly Hill, American environmentalist and author
- 1974 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russian tennis player
- 1974 – Jillian Michaels, American fitness trainer and author
- 1975 – Gary Neville, English footballer and coach
- 1976 – Leilani Munter, American race car driver and environmentalist
- 1976 – Chanda Rubin, American tennis player
- 1976 – Bernadette Sembrano, Filipino journalist
- 1978 – Josip Šimunić, Croatian footballer
- 1979 – Tinu Yohannan, Indian cricketer
- 1980 – Aivar Anniste, Estonian footballer
- 1980 – Nik Antropov, Kazakhstani-Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Regina Spektor, Russian-American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
- 1981 – Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
- 1981 – Alex Ríos, American baseball player
- 1981 – Ivan Sproule, Northern Irish footballer
- 1981 – Larry Sweeney, American wrestler and manager (d. 2011)
- 1982 – Juelz Santana, American rapper and actor
- 1982 – Christian Tiffert, German footballer
- 1983 – Jermaine Jenas, English international footballer, midfielder, pundit
- 1984 – Carlos Kameni, Cameroonian footballer
- 1985 – Anton Ferdinand, English footballer
- 1985 – Lee Boyd Malvo, Jamaican-American murderer
- 1985 – Jos van Emden, Dutch cyclist
- 1986 – Robert DeLong, American singer-songwriter
- 1986 – Marc Torrejón, Spanish footballer
- 1987 – Cristian Tănase, Romanian footballer
- 1988 – Changmin, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
- 1990 – Didi Gregorius, Dutch baseball player
- 1990 – Cody Hodgson, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1991 – Sebastian Neumann, German footballer
- 1991 – Henry Surtees, English race car driver (d. 2009)
- 1994 – Jake Trbojevic, Australian rugby league player
- 1994 – J-Hope, South Korean rapper, dancer, singer-songwriter
Deaths on February 18
- 675 – Colmán, bishop of Lindisfarne
- 814 – Angilbert, Frankish monk and diplomat (b. 760)
- 901 – Thābit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and physician (b. 826)
- 999 – Gregory V, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 972)
- 1139 – Yaropolk II, Grand Prince of Kiev (b. 1082)
- 1218 – Berthold V, duke of Zähringen (b. 1160)
- 1225 – Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk, Norman nobleman
- 1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor (b. 1215)
- 1379 – Albert II, duke of Mecklenburg (b. 1318)
- 1397 – Enguerrand VII, French nobleman (b. 1340)
- 1405 – Timur, Turco-Mongol ruler (b. 1336)
- 1455 – Fra Angelico, Italian priest and painter (b. 1395)
- 1478 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, English nobleman (b. 1449)
- 1502 – Hedwig Jagiellon, duchess of Bavaria (b. 1457)
- 1535 – Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer, and theologian (b. 1486)
- 1546 – Martin Luther, German priest and theologian, leader of the Protestant Reformation (b. 1483)
- 1564 – Michelangelo, Italian sculptor and painter (b. 1475)
- 1654 – Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French author (b. 1594)
- 1658 – John Villiers, 1st Viscount Purbeck, English courtier (b. c. 1591)
- 1683 – Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)
- 1695 – William Phips, governor of Massachusetts (b. 1650)
- 1712 – Louis, Dauphin of France, (b. 1682)
- 1743 – Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, Italian noble (b. 1667)
- 1748 – Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)
- 1772 – Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, Danish politician (b. 1712)
- 1778 – Joseph Marie Terray, French economist and politician, Controller-General of Finances (b. 1715)
- 1780 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian pastor and poet (b. 1714)
- 1788 – John Whitehurst, English geologist and clockmaker (b. 1713)
- 1803 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet and educator (b. 1719)
- 1851 – Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician and academic (b. 1804)
- 1873 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian activist, founded the Internal Revolutionary Organization (b. 1837)
- 1880 – Nikolay Zinin, Russian organic chemist (b. 1812)
- 1893 – Serranus Clinton Hastings, American lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Justice of California (b. 1814)
- 1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (b. 1812)
- 1906 – John Batterson Stetson, American businessman, founded the John B. Stetson Company (b. 1830)
- 1910 – Lucy Stanton, American activist (b. 1831)
- 1911 – Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (b. 1854)
- 1915 – Frank James, American soldier and criminal (b. 1843)
- 1923 – Alois Rašín, Czech economist and politician (b. 1867)
- 1931 – Milan Šufflay, Croatian historian, author, and politician (b. 1879)
- 1931 – Louis Wolheim, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1880)
- 1933 – James J. Corbett, American boxer and actor (b. 1866)
- 1938 – David King Udall, American missionary and politician (b. 1851)
- 1942 – Albert Payson Terhune, American journalist and author (b. 1872)
- 1945 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906)
- 1956 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)
- 1957 – Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan rebel leader (b. 1920)
- 1957 – Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and academic (b. 1877)
- 1960 – Gertrude Vanderbilt, American stage actress (b. c. 1885)
- 1964 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Canadian inventor and businessman, founded Bombardier Inc. (b. 1907)
- 1966 – Robert Rossen, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
- 1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic (b. 1904)
- 1969 – Dragiša Cvetković, Serbian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1893)
- 1973 – Frank Costello, Italian-American gangster (b. 1891)
- 1976 – Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator (b. 1926)
- 1977 – Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1978 – Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)
- 1981 – Jack Northrop, American engineer and businessman, founded the Northrop Corporation (b. 1895)
- 1982 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (b. 1895)
- 1989 – Mildred Burke, American wrestler and trainer (b. 1915)
- 1990 – Richard de Zoysa, Sri Lankan journalist (b. 1958)
- 1993 – Jacqueline Hill, English actress (b. 1929)
- 1995 – Eddie Gilbert, American wrestler (b. 1961)
- 1995 – Bob Stinson, American guitarist (b. 1959)
- 1997 – Emily Hahn, American journalist and author (b. 1905)
- 1998 – Harry Caray, American sportscaster (b. 1914)
- 2001 – Balthus, Polish-Swiss painter and illustrator (b. 1908)
- 2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American stock car racer and team owner (b. 1951)
- 2001 – Eddie Mathews, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1931)
- 2003 – Isser Harel, Belarusian-Israeli intelligence officer (b. 1912)
- 2006 – Bill Cowsill, American singer and guitarist (b. 1948)
- 2008 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French director, screenwriter, and novelist (b. 1922)
- 2009 – Tayeb Salih, Sudanese journalist and author (b. 1929)
- 2009 – Miika Tenkula, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1974)
- 2010 – John Babcock, Canadian soldier (b. 1900)
- 2012 – George Brizan, Grenadian politician, 9th Prime Minister of Grenada (b. 1942)
- 2012 – Elizabeth Connell, South African-English soprano (b. 1946)
- 2013 – Kevin Ayers, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1944)
- 2013 – Jerry Buss, American chemist and businessman (b. 1933)
- 2014 – Mavis Gallant, Canadian-French author and playwright (b. 1922)
- 2014 – Kristof Goddaert, Belgian cyclist (b. 1986)
- 2014 – Nikhil Baran Sengupta, Indian art director and production designer (b. 1943)
- 2014 – Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-American singer (b. 1914)
- 2015 – Cass Ballenger, American lawyer and politician (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Jerome Kersey, American basketball player and coach (b. 1962)
- 2016 – Abdul Rashid Khan, Indian singer-songwriter (b. 1908)
- 2016 – Pantelis Pantelidis, Greek singer (b. 1983)
- 2017 – Ivan Koloff, Canadian wrestler (b. 1942)
- 2017 – Norma McCorvey, American abortion rights activist; Plaintiff, Roe v. Wade (b. 1947)
- 2017 – Clyde Stubblefield, American drummer (b. 1943)
- 2019 – Alessandro Mendini, Italian designer and architect (b.1931)
Holidays and observances on February 18
- Christian feast day:
- Bernadette Soubirous (France)
- Colmán of Lindisfarne
- Flavian of Constantinople
- Geltrude Comensoli
- Simeon of Jerusalem (Western Christianity)
- February 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Dialect Day (Amami Islands, Japan)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965.
- Kurdish Students Union Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)
- National Democracy Day, celebrates the 1951 overthrow of the Rana dynasty (Nepal)
- Wife’s Day (Konudagur) (Iceland)
-
February 14 in History
- 748 – Abbasid Revolution: The Hashimi rebels under Abu Muslim Khorasani take Merv, capital of the Umayyad province Khorasan, marking the consolidation of the Abbasid revolt.
- 842 – Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
- 1014 – Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1076 – Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1130 – Pope Innocent II is elected.
- 1349 – Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remaining Jews are forcibly removed from Strasbourg.
- 1400 – Richard II of England dies, most probably from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke.
- 1530 – Spanish conquistadores, led by Nuño de Guzmán, overthrow and execute Tangaxuan II, the last independent monarch of the Tarascan state in present-day central Mexico.
- 1556 – Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
- 1556 – Coronation of Akbar.
- 1655 – The Mapuches launch coordinated attacks against the Spanish in Chile beginning the Mapuche uprising of 1655.
- 1778 – The United States flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
- 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia.
- 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent: John Jervis, (later 1st Earl of St Vincent) and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar.
- 1804 – Karađorđe leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
- 1831 – Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
- 1835 – The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
- 1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
- 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London.
- 1855 – Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
- 1859 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
- 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
- 1879 – The War of the Pacific breaks out when the Chilean Army occupies the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
- 1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
- 1900 – British forces begin the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
- 1903 – The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor).
- 1912 – Arizona is admitted as the 48th and the last contiguous U.S. state.
- 1912 – The U.S. Navy commissions its first class of diesel-powered submarines.
- 1919 – The Polish–Soviet War begins.
- 1920 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.
- 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
- 1929 – Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s gang, are murdered in Chicago.
- 1942 – Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
- 1943 – World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
- 1943 – World War II: Tunisia Campaign: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim’s Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
- 1944 – World War II: In the Action of 14 February 1944, a Royal Navy submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian submarine in the Strait of Malacca.
- 1945 – World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden.
- 1945 – World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet’s Vistula–Oder Offensive.
- 1945 – World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans
- 1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
- 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalized.
- 1949 – The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time.
- 1949 – The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
- 1961 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
- 1966 – Australian currency is decimalized.
- 1979 – In Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
- 1983 – United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud.
- 1989 – Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
- 1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
- 1990 – Ninety-two people are killed when Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashes in Bangalore, India.
- 1990 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later become famous as Pale Blue Dot.
- 1998 – An oil tanker train collides with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which killed 120.
- 2000 – The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
- 2004 – In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
- 2005 – In Beirut, 23 people, including former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, are killed when the equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT is detonated while Hariri’s motorcade drives through the city.
- 2005 – Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit Makati, Davao City, and General Santos City, all in the Philippines.
- 2005 – YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.
- 2008 – Northern Illinois University shooting: A gunman opens fire in a lecture hall of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb County, Illinois, resulting in six fatalities (including the gunman) and 21 injuries.
- 2011 – As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising begins with a ‘Day of Rage’.
- 2018 – Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa.
- 2018 – A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 15 injuries.
- 2019 – Pulwama attack takes place in Lethpora in Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir, India in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and a suicide bomber were killed and 35 were injured.
Births on February 14
- 1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter, poet, and philosopher (d. 1472)
- 1408 – John FitzAlan, 14th Earl of Arundel (d. 1435)
- 1452 – Pandolfo Petrucci, tyrant of Siena (d. 1512)
- 1468 – Johannes Werner, German priest and mathematician (d. 1522)
- 1483 – Babur, Moghul emperor (d. 1530)
- 1490 – Valentin Friedland, German scholar and educationist of the Reformation (d. 1556)
- 1513 – Domenico Ferrabosco, Italian composer (d. 1573)
- 1545 – Lucrezia de’ Medici, Duchess of Ferrara (d. 1561)
- 1602 – Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer (d. 1676)
- 1614 – John Wilkins, English bishop, academic and natural philosopher (d. 1672)
- 1625 – Countess Palatine Maria Eufrosyne of Zweibrücken, Swedish princess (d. 1687)
- 1628 – Valentine Greatrakes, Irish faith healer (d. 1683)
- 1640 – Countess Palatine Anna Magdalena of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler (d. 1693)
- 1670 – Rajaram Raj Bhonsle, third Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire (d. 1700)
- 1679 – Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, German organist and composer (d. 1735)
- 1692 – Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French author and playwright (d. 1754)
- 1701 – Enrique Flórez, Spanish historian and author (d. 1773)
- 1763 – Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (d. 1813)
- 1782 – Eleanora Atherton, English philanthropist (d. 1870)
- 1784 – Heinrich Baermann, German clarinetist (d. 1847)
- 1799 – Walenty Wańkowicz, Polish painter and illustrator (d. 1842)
- 1800 – Emory Washburn, American historian, lawyer, and politician, 22nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1877)
- 1808 – Michael Costa, Italian-English conductor and composer (d. 1884)
- 1813 – Lydia Hamilton Smith, African-American businesswoman (d. 1884)
- 1819 – Christopher Latham Sholes, American journalist and politician, invented the typewriter (d. 1890)
- 1824 – Winfield Scott Hancock, American general and politician (d. 1886)
- 1828 – Edmond François Valentin About, French journalist and author (d. 1885)
- 1835 – Piet Paaltjens, Dutch minister and poet (d. 1894)
- 1838 – Margaret E. Knight, American inventor (d. 1914)
- 1846 – Julian Scott, American soldier and drummer, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1901)
- 1847 – Anna Howard Shaw, American physician, minister, and activist (d. 1919)
- 1848 – Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer and academic (d. 1934)
- 1855 – Frank Harris, Irish author and journalist (d. 1931)
- 1859 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., American engineer, inventor of the Ferris wheel (d. 1896)
- 1860 – Eugen Schiffer, German lawyer and politician, Vice-Chancellor of Germany (d. 1954)
- 1869 – Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist and meteorologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
- 1878 – Julius Nieuwland, Belgian priest, chemist and academic (d. 1936)
- 1882 – John Barrymore, American actor (d. 1942)
- 1884 – Nils Olaf Chrisander, Swedish actor and director (d. 1947)
- 1884 – Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet and playwright (d. 1974)
- 1890 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh-English painter and author (d. 1956)
- 1890 – Dick Richards Welsh international footballer, forward
- 1891 – Katherine Stinson, American aviator (d. 1977)
- 1892 – Radola Gajda, Czech commander and politician (d. 1948)
- 1894 – Jack Benny, American actor and producer (d. 1974)
- 1895 – Wilhelm Burgdorf, German general (d. 1945)
- 1895 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
- 1898 – Bill Tilman, English mountaineer and explorer (d. 1977)
- 1898 – Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-American physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)
- 1900 – Jessica Dragonette, American singer (d. 1980)
- 1903 – Stuart Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
- 1905 – Thelma Ritter, American actress and singer (d. 1969)
- 1907 – Johnny Longden, English-American jockey and trainer (d. 2003)
- 1911 – Willem Johan Kolff, Dutch physician and inventor (d. 2009)
- 1912 – Tibor Sekelj, Hungarian lawyer, explorer, and author (d. 1988)
- 1913 – Mel Allen, American sportscaster (d. 1996)
- 1913 – Woody Hayes, American football player and coach (d. 1987)
- 1913 – Jimmy Hoffa, American trade union leader (d. 1975)
- 1913 – James Pike, American bishop (d. 1969)
- 1916 – Marcel Bigeard, French general (d. 2010)
- 1916 – Sally Gray, English actress and singer (d. 2006)
- 1916 – Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese director and producer (d. 1996)
- 1916 – Edward Platt, American actor (d. 1974)
- 1917 – Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
- 1921 – Hugh Downs, American journalist, game show host, and producer
- 1921 – Hazel McCallion, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 3rd Mayor of Mississauga
- 1923 – Jay Hebert, American golfer (d. 1997)
- 1924 – Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma (d. 2017)
- 1927 – Lois Maxwell, Canadian-Australian model and actress (d. 2007)
- 1928 – William Allain, American soldier and politician, 58th Governor of Mississippi (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Vicente T. Blaz, American general and politician (d. 2014)
- 1929 – Vic Morrow, American actor and director (d. 1982)
- 1931 – Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 2006)
- 1931 – Brian Kelly, American actor and director (d. 2005)
- 1932 – Harriet Andersson, Swedish actress
- 1934 – Florence Henderson, American actress and singer (d. 2016)
- 1935 – David Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn, Scottish academic and diplomat, 27th Governor of Hong Kong
- 1936 – Anna German, Polish singer (d. 1982)
- 1937 – John MacGregor, Baron MacGregor of Pulham Market, English politician, Secretary of State for Transport
- 1937 – Magic Sam, American singer and guitarist (d. 1969)
- 1939 – Razzy Bailey, American country music singer-songwriter and musician
- 1939 – Blowfly, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2016)
- 1939 – Eugene Fama, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1940 – James Maynard, American businessman, co-founded Golden Corral
- 1941 – Donna Shalala, American academic and politician, 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
- 1941 – Paul Tsongas, American lawyer and politician (d. 1997)
- 1942 – Michael Bloomberg, American businessman and politician, 108th Mayor of New York City
- 1942 – Andrew Robinson, American actor and director
- 1942 – Ricardo Rodríguez, Mexican race car driver (d. 1962)
- 1943 – Eric Andersen, American singer-songwriter
- 1943 – Maceo Parker, American saxophonist
- 1943 – Aaron Russo, American director and producer (d. 2007)
- 1944 – Carl Bernstein, American journalist and author
- 1944 – Alan Parker, English director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1944 – Ronnie Peterson, Swedish race car driver (d. 1978)
- 1945 – Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein
- 1945 – Rod Masterson, American lieutenant and actor (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Bernard Dowiyogo, Nauru politician, President of Nauru (d. 2003)
- 1946 – Gregory Hines, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 2003)
- 1947 – Tim Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1975)
- 1947 – Judd Gregg, American lawyer and politician, 76th Governor of New Hampshire
- 1948 – Kitten Natividad, Mexican-American actress and dancer
- 1948 – Pat O’Brien, American journalist and author
- 1948 – Wally Tax, Dutch singer-songwriter (d. 2005)
- 1948 – Teller, American magician and actor
- 1950 – Roger Fisher, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1951 – Terry Gross, American radio host and producer
- 1951 – Kevin Keegan, English footballer and manager
- 1952 – Sushma Swaraj, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (d. 2019)
- 1954 – Jam Mohammad Yousaf, Pakistani politician, Chief Minister of Balochistan (d. 2013)
- 1955 – Carol Kalish, American publisher (d. 1991)
- 1956 – Howard Davis Jr., American boxer and trainer (d. 2015)
- 1956 – Dave Dravecky, American baseball player
- 1956 – Katharina Fritsch, German sculptor and academic
- 1957 – Alan Hunter, American television host and actor
- 1957 – Soile Isokoski, Finnish soprano and actress
- 1957 – Alan Smith, English bishop
- 1958 – Grant Thomas, Australian footballer and coach
- 1959 – Renée Fleming, American soprano and actress
- 1960 – Philip Jones, English admiral
- 1960 – Jim Kelly, American football player and businessman
- 1960 – Meg Tilly, American actress and author
- 1963 – Enrico Colantoni, Canadian actor, director, and producer
- 1963 – John Marzano, American baseball player (d. 2008)
- 1964 – Gianni Bugno, Italian cyclist and sportscaster
- 1966 – Petr Svoboda, Czech ice hockey player and agent
- 1967 – Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Greek-English businessman, founded easyJet
- 1967 – Manuela Maleeva, Bulgarian-Swiss tennis player
- 1967 – Mark Rutte, Dutch businessman and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- 1968 – Jules Asner, American model and television host
- 1968 – Chris Lewis, Guyanese-English cricketer
- 1968 – Scott McClellan, American civil servant and author, 25th White House Press Secretary
- 1969 – Meg Hillier, English journalist and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
- 1970 – Giuseppe Guerini, Italian cyclist
- 1970 – Sean Hill, American ice hockey player
- 1970 – Simon Pegg, English actor, director, and producer
- 1971 – Kris Aquino, Filipino talk show host, actress, and producer
- 1971 – Gheorghe Mureșan, Romanian basketball player
- 1972 – Drew Bledsoe, American football player and coach
- 1972 – Musōyama Masashi, Japanese sumo wrestler
- 1972 – Najwa Nimri, Spanish actress and singer
- 1972 – Jaan Tallinn, Estonian computer programmer, co-developed Skype
- 1972 – Rob Thomas, American singer-songwriter
- 1973 – H. D. Ackerman, South African cricketer
- 1973 – Tyus Edney, American basketball player and coach
- 1973 – Steve McNair, American football player (d. 2009)
- 1973 – Annalisa Buffa, Italian mathematician
- 1974 – Valentina Vezzali, Italian fencer and politician
- 1976 – Liv Kristine, Norwegian singer-songwriter
- 1976 – Rie Rasmussen, Danish model, film director, writer, photographer, and actress
- 1977 – Cadel Evans, Australian cyclist
- 1977 – Jim Jefferies, Australian comedian and actor
- 1977 – Darren Purse, English footballer
- 1977 – Elmer Symons, South African motorcycle racer (d. 2007)
- 1977 – Anna Erschler, Russian mathematician
- 1977 – Robert J. Jackson Jr., American law professor
- 1978 – Richard Hamilton, American basketball player
- 1978 – Darius Songaila, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
- 1980 – Josh Senter, American screenwriter and producer
- 1980 – Michelle Ye, Hong Kong actress and producer
- 1981 – Matteo Brighi, Italian footballer
- 1981 – Randy de Puniet, French motorcycle racer
- 1981 – Brad Halsey, American baseball player (d. 2014)
- 1982 – Marián Gáborík, Slovak ice hockey player
- 1982 – John Halls, English footballer and model
- 1982 – Lenka Tvarošková, Slovak tennis player
- 1983 – Callix Crabbe, Virgin Islander baseball player
- 1983 – Rocky Elsom, Australian rugby player
- 1983 – Bacary Sagna, French footballer
- 1985 – Karima Adebibe, English model and actress
- 1985 – Tyler Clippard, American baseball player
- 1985 – Heart Evangelista, Filipino singer and actress
- 1985 – Philippe Senderos, Swiss international footballer, centre back
- 1985 – Miki Yeung, Hong Kong singer and actress
- 1986 – Michael Ammermüller, German race car driver
- 1986 – Oliver Lee, English actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1986 – Gao Lin, Chinese footballer
- 1987 – Edinson Cavani, Uruguayan footballer
- 1987 – Tom Pyatt, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – David Wheater, English footballer
- 1988 – Katie Boland, Canadian actress, producer, and screenwriter
- 1988 – Ángel Di María, Argentinian footballer
- 1988 – Siim Liivik, Estonian ice hockey player
- 1988 – Asia Nitollano, American singer and dancer
- 1989 – Néstor Calderón, Mexican footballer
- 1989 – Adam Matuszczyk, Polish footballer
- 1989 – Emma Miskew, Canadian curler
- 1989 – Brandon Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1989 – Jurij Tepeš, Slovenian ski jumper
- 1989 – Kristian Thomas, English gymnast
- 1990 – Sefa Yılmaz, German-Turkish footballer
- 1991 – Daniela Mona Lambin, Estonian footballer
- 1991 – Chris Rowney, English footballer
- 1992 – Christian Eriksen, Danish footballer
- 1992 – Freddie Highmore, English actor
- 1996 – Lucas Hernandez, French footballer
Deaths on February 14
- 869 – Cyril, Greek missionary bishop (b. 827)
- 945 – Lian Chongyu, Chinese general
- 945 – Zhu Wenjin, Chinese emperor
- 1009 – Bruno of Querfurt, German missionary bishop
- 1010 – Fujiwara no Korechika, Japanese nobleman (b. 974)
- 1140 – Leo I, Armenian prince
- 1140 – Sobĕslav I, duke of Bohemia
- 1164 – Sviatoslav Olgovich, Kievan prince
- 1229 – Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson, king of the Isles
- 1317 – Margaret of France, queen of England
- 1400 – Richard II, king of England (b. 1367)
- 1440 – Dietrich of Oldenburg, German nobleman
- 1489 – Nicolaus von Tüngen, prince-bishop of Warmia
- 1528 – Edzard I, German nobleman (b. 1462)
- 1549 – Il Sodoma, Italian painter (b. 1477)
- 1571 – Odet de Coligny, French cardinal (b. 1517)
- 1676 – Abraham Bosse, French engraver and illustrator (b. 1602)
- 1714 – Maria Luisa of Savoy, queen of Spain (b. 1688)
- 1737 – Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot, English lawyer and politician Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)
- 1744 – John Hadley, English mathematician, invented the octant (b. 1682)
- 1779 – James Cook, English captain, cartographer, and explorer (b. 1728)
- 1780 – William Blackstone, English jurist and politician (b. 1723)
- 1782 – Singu Min, Burmese king (b. 1756)
- 1808 – John Dickinson, American lawyer and politician 5th Governor of Delaware (b. 1732)
- 1831 – Vicente Guerrero, Mexican general and politician, 2nd President of Mexico (b. 1782)
- 1831 – Henry Maudslay, English engineer (b. 1771)
- 1870 – St. John Richardson Liddell, American general (b. 1815)
- 1881 – Fernando Wood, American merchant and politician, 73rd Mayor of New York City (b. 1812)
- 1884 – Lydia Hamilton Smith, African-American businesswoman (b. 1813)
- 1885 – Jules Vallès, French journalist and author (b. 1832)
- 1891 – William Tecumseh Sherman, American general (b. 1820)
- 1894 – Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian-French mathematician and academic (b. 1814)
- 1901 – Edward Stafford, Scottish-New Zealand educator and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1819)
- 1910 – Giovanni Passannante, Italian anarchist (b. 1849)
- 1922 – Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish lawyer and politician (b. 1880)
- 1929 – Thomas Burke, American sprinter, coach, and lawyer (b. 1875)
- 1930 – Thomas Mackenzie, Scottish-New Zealand cartographer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1853)
- 1933 – Carl Correns, German botanist and geneticist (b. 1864)
- 1942 – Adnan Saidi, Malayan lieutenant (b. 1915)
- 1943 – Dora Gerson, German actress and singer (b. 1899)
- 1943 – David Hilbert, Russian-German mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (b. 1862)
- 1948 – Mordecai Brown, American baseball player and manager (b. 1876)
- 1949 – Yusuf Salman Yusuf, Iraqi politician (b. 1901)
- 1950 – Karl Guthe Jansky, American physicist and engineer (b. 1905)
- 1952 – Maurice De Waele, Belgian cyclist (b. 1896)
- 1958 – Abdur Rab Nishtar, Pakistani politician, 2nd Governor of Punjab (b. 1899)
- 1959 – Baby Dodds, American drummer (b. 1898)
- 1967 – Sig Ruman, German-American actor (b. 1884)
- 1969 – Vito Genovese, Italian-American mob boss (b. 1897)
- 1970 – Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer and coach (b. 1880)
- 1974 – Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer and coach (b. 1903)
- 1975 – Julian Huxley, English biologist and eugenicist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (b. 1887)
- 1975 – P. G. Wodehouse, English novelist and playwright (b. 1881)
- 1979 – Adolph Dubs, American lieutenant and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Afghanistan (b. 1920)
- 1983 – Lina Radke, German runner and coach (b. 1903)
- 1986 – Edmund Rubbra, English composer and conductor (b. 1901)
- 1987 – Dmitry Kabalevsky, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1904)
- 1988 – Frederick Loewe, German-American composer (b. 1901)
- 1989 – James Bond, American ornithologist and zoologist (b. 1900)
- 1989 – Vincent Crane, English pianist (b. 1943)
- 1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, Soviet serial killer (b. 1936)
- 1994 – Christopher Lasch, American historian and critic (b. 1932)
- 1995 – Michael V. Gazzo, American actor and playwright (b. 1923)
- 1995 – U Nu, Burmese politician, 1st Prime Minister of Burma (b. 1907)
- 1996 – Bob Paisley, English footballer and manager (b. 1919)
- 1999 – John Ehrlichman, American lawyer and politician, 12th White House Counsel (b. 1925)
- 1999 – Buddy Knox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1933)
- 2002 – Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer and manager (b. 1922)
- 2002 – Mick Tucker, English drummer (b. 1947)
- 2003 – Johnny Longden, English jockey and trainer (b. 1907)
- 2004 – Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
- 2005 – Rafic Hariri, Lebanese businessman and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1944; assassinated)
- 2006 – Lynden David Hall, English singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1974)
- 2007 – Ryan Larkin, Canadian animator and director (b. 1943)
- 2007 – Gareth Morris, English flute player and educator (b. 1920)
- 2009 – Bernard Ashley, English engineer and businessman, co-founded Laura Ashley plc (b. 1926)
- 2009 – Louie Bellson, American drummer and composer (b. 1924)
- 2010 – Doug Fieger, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1952)
- 2010 – Dick Francis, Welsh jockey and author (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Linnart Mäll, Estonian historian, orientalist, and translator (b. 1938)
- 2011 – George Shearing, English-American pianist and composer (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Mike Bernardo, South African boxer and martial artist (b. 1969)
- 2012 – Tonmi Lillman, Finnish drummer and producer (b. 1973)
- 2012 – Dory Previn, American singer-songwriter (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Péter Rusorán, Hungarian swimmer, water polo player, and coach (b. 1940)
- 2013 – Glenn Boyer, American historian and author (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Ronald Dworkin, American philosopher and scholar (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Tom Finney, English footballer (b. 1922)
- 2014 – Chris Pearson, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Premier of Yukon (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Mike Stepovich, American lawyer and politician, Governor of Alaska Territory (b. 1919)
- 2015 – Louis Jourdan, French-American actor and singer (b. 1921)
- 2015 – Philip Levine, American poet and academic (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Franjo Mihalić, Croatian-Serbian runner and coach (b. 1920)
- 2016 – Eric Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury, English lieutenant, engineer, and politician (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Steven Stucky, American composer and academic (b. 1949)
- 2018 – Ruud Lubbers, Dutch politician and diplomat, Prime Minister and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (b. 1939)
- 2018 – Morgan Tsvangirai, 2nd Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (b. 1952).
Holidays and observances on February 14
- Christian feast day:
- Cyril and Methodius, patron saints of Europe (Roman Catholic Church)
- Manchan
- Valentine (Valentine’s Day)
- February 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Statehood Day (Arizona, United States)
- Statehood Day (Oregon, United States)
- Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Armenian Apostolic Church)
- Parents’ Worship Day (parts of India)
-
February 13 in History
- 951 – Guo Wei, a court official, leads a military coup and declares himself emperor of the new Later Zhou.
- 962 – Emperor Otto I and Pope John XII co-sign the Diploma Ottonianum, recognizing John as ruler of Rome.
- 1322 – The central tower of Ely Cathedral falls on the night of 12th–13th.
- 1462 – The Treaty of Westminster is finalised between Edward IV of England and the Scottish Lord of the Isles.
- 1503 – Challenge of Barletta: Tournament between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta.
- 1542 – Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
- 1633 – Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
- 1660 – With the accession of young Charles XI of Sweden, his regents begin negotiations to end the Second Northern War.
- 1689 – William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England.
- 1692 – Massacre of Glencoe: Almost 80 Macdonalds at Glen Coe, Scotland are killed early in the morning for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange.
- 1726 – Parliament of Negrete between Mapuche and Spanish authorities in Chile bring an end to the Mapuche uprising of 1723–26.
- 1755 – Treaty of Giyanti signed by VOC, Pakubuwono III and Prince Mangkubumi. The treaty divides the Javanese kingdom of Mataram into 2: Sunanate of Surakarta and Sultanate of Yogyakarta.
- 1849 – The delegation headed by Metropolitan bishop Andrei Șaguna hands out to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria the General Petition of Romanian leaders in Transylvania, Banat and Bukovina, which demands that the Romanian nation be recognized.
- 1861 – Italian unification: The Siege of Gaeta ends with the capitulation of the defending fortress, effectively bringing an end of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
- 1867 – Work begins on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels’s primary river and creating the modern central boulevards.
- 1880 – Thomas Edison observes Thermionic emission.
- 1913 – The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence following a period of domination by Manchu Qing dynasty and initiated a period of almost four decades of independence.
- 1914 – Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
- 1920 – The Negro National League is formed.
- 1931 – The British Raj completes its transfer from Calcutta to New Delhi.
- 1935 – A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.
- 1945 – World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army.
- 1945 – World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment.
- 1951 – Korean War: Battle of Chipyong-ni, which represented the “high-water mark” of the Chinese incursion into South Korea, commences.
- 1954 – Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game.
- 1955 – Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
- 1960 – With the success of a nuclear test codenamed “Gerboise Bleue”, France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.
- 1960 – Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.
- 1961 – An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.
- 1967 – American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.
- 1975 – Fire at One World Trade Center (North Tower) of the World Trade Center in New York.
- 1978 – Hilton bombing: a bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman.
- 1979 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1⁄2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
- 1981 – A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
- 1983 – A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people.
- 1984 – Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- 1990 – German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
- 1991 – Gulf War: Two laser-guided “smart bombs” destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed.
- 1996 – The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre).
- 1999 – The last hockey game is played in Maple Leaf Gardens: the Toronto Maple Leafs lose 6–2 to the Chicago Blackhawks.
- 2001 – An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter magnitude scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 944.
- 2004 – The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe’s largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star “Lucy” after The Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.
- 2007 – Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election.
- 2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.
- 2010 – A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more.
- 2011 – For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855.
- 2012 – The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
- 2017 – Kim Jong-nam, brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Births on February 13
- 1440 – Hartmann Schedel, German physician (d. 1514)
- 1457 – Mary of Burgundy, Sovereign Duchess regnant of Burgundy, married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1482)
- 1469 – Elia Levita, Renaissance Hebrew grammarian (d. 1549)
- 1480 – Girolamo Aleandro, Italian cardinal (d. 1542)
- 1523 – Valentin Naboth, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1593)
- 1539 – Elisabeth of Hesse, Electress Palatine (d. 1582)
- 1569 – Johann Reinhard I, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1625)
- 1599 – Pope Alexander VII (d. 1667)
- 1602 – William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1637)
- 1672 – Étienne François Geoffroy, French physician and chemist (d. 1731)
- 1683 – Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Italian painter (d. 1754)
- 1719 – George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, English admiral and politician (d. 1792)
- 1721 – John Reid, Scottish general (d. 1807)
- 1728 – John Hunter, Scottish surgeon and anatomist (d. 1793)
- 1766 – Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist and scholar (d. 1834)
- 1768 – Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, French general and politician, 15th Prime Minister of France (d. 1835)
- 1769 – Ivan Krylov, Russian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1844)
- 1805 – Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician and academic (d. 1859)
- 1811 – François Achille Bazaine, French general (d. 1888)
- 1815 – Rufus Wilmot Griswold, American anthologist, editor, poet and critic (d. 1857)
- 1831 – John Aaron Rawlins, American general and politician, 29th United States Secretary of War (d. 1869)
- 1834 – Heinrich Caro, Sephardic Jewish Polish-German chemist and academic (d. 1910)
- 1835 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Indian religious leader (d. 1908)
- 1849 – Lord Randolph Churchill, English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1895)
- 1855 – Paul Deschanel, Belgian-French politician, 11th President of France (d. 1922)
- 1863 – Hugo Becker, German cellist and composer (d. 1941)
- 1867 – Harold Mahony, Scottish-Irish tennis player (d. 1905)
- 1870 – Leopold Godowsky, Polish-American pianist and composer (d. 1938)
- 1873 – Feodor Chaliapin, Russian opera singer (d. 1938)
- 1876 – Fritz Buelow, German-American baseball player and umpire (d. 1933)
- 1879 – Sarojini Naidu, Indian poet and activist (d. 1949)
- 1880 – Dimitrie Gusti, Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and philosopher (d. 1955)
- 1881 – Eleanor Farjeon, Jewish-English author, poet, and playwright (d. 1965)
- 1883 – Hal Chase, American baseball player and manager (d. 1947)
- 1883 – Yevgeny Vakhtangov, Russian-Armenian actor and director (d. 1922)
- 1884 – Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (d. 1961)
- 1885 – Bess Truman, American wife of Harry S. Truman, 35th First Lady of the United States (d. 1982)
- 1887 – Géza Csáth, Hungarian playwright and critic (d. 1919)
- 1888 – Georgios Papandreou, Greek lawyer, economist, and politician, 162nd Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1968)
- 1889 – Leontine Sagan, Austrian actress and director (d. 1974)
- 1891 – Kate Roberts, Welsh author and activist (d. 1985)
- 1891 – Grant Wood, American painter and academic (d. 1942)
- 1892 – Robert H. Jackson, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 57th United States Attorney General (d. 1954)
- 1898 – Hubert Ashton, English cricketer and politician (d. 1979)
- 1900 – Barbara von Annenkoff, Russian-born German film and stage actress (d. 1979)
- 1901 – Paul Lazarsfeld, Austrian-American sociologist and academic (d. 1976)
- 1902 – Harold Lasswell, American political scientist and theorist (d. 1978)
- 1903 – Georgy Beriev, Georgian-Russian engineer, founded the Beriev Aircraft Company (d. 1979)
- 1903 – Georges Simenon, Belgian-Swiss author (d. 1989)
- 1906 – Agostinho da Silva, Portuguese philosopher and author (d. 1994)
- 1907 – Katy de la Cruz, Filipino-American singer and actress (d. 2004)
- 1910 – William Shockley, English-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
- 1911 – Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Indian-Pakistani poet and journalist (d. 1984)
- 1911 – Jean Muir, American actress and educator (d. 1996)
- 1912 – Harald Riipalu, Russian-Estonian commander (d. 1961)
- 1912 – Margaretta Scott, English actress (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Khalid of Saudi Arabia (d. 1982)
- 1915 – Lyle Bettger, American actor (d. 2003)
- 1915 – Aung San, Burmese general and politician, 5th Premier of British Crown Colony of Burma (d. 1947)
- 1916 – Dorothy Bliss, American invertebrate zoologist (d. 1987)
- 1919 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and actor (d. 1991)
- 1919 – Eddie Robinson, American football player and coach (d. 2007)
- 1920 – Boudleaux Bryant, American songwriter (d. 1987)
- 1920 – Eileen Farrell, American soprano and educator (d. 2002)
- 1921 – Jeanne Demessieux, French pianist and composer (d. 1968)
- 1921 – Aung Khin, Burmese painter (d. 1996)
- 1922 – Francis Pym, Baron Pym, Welsh soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 2008)
- 1922 – Gordon Tullock, American economist and academic (d. 2014)
- 1923 – Michael Anthony Bilandic, American soldier, judge, and politician, 49th Mayor of Chicago (d. 2002)
- 1923 – Chuck Yeager, American general and pilot; first test pilot to break the sound barrier
- 1924 – Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, French journalist and politician (d. 2006)
- 1926 – Fay Ajzenberg-Selove, American nuclear physicist (d. 2012)
- 1928 – Gerald Regan, Canadian lawyer and politician, 19th Premier of Nova Scotia (d. 2019)
- 1929 – Omar Torrijos, Panamanian commander and politician, Military Leader of Panama (d. 1981)
- 1930 – Ernst Fuchs, Austrian painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 2015)
- 1930 – Israel Kirzner, English-American economist, author, and academic
- 1932 – Susan Oliver, American actress (d. 1990)
- 1933 – Paul Biya, Cameroon politician, 2nd President of Cameroon
- 1933 – Kim Novak, American actress
- 1933 – Emanuel Ungaro, French fashion designer (d. 2019)
- 1934 – George Segal, American actor
- 1937 – Ali El-Maak, Sudanese author and academic (d. 1992)
- 1937 – Angelo Mosca, American-Canadian football player and wrestler
- 1938 – Oliver Reed, English actor (d. 1999)
- 1940 – Bram Peper, Dutch sociologist and politician, Mayor of Rotterdam
- 1941 – Sigmar Polke, German painter and photographer (d. 2010)
- 1941 – Bo Svenson, Swedish-American actor, director, and producer
- 1942 – Carol Lynley, American model and actress (d. 2019)
- 1942 – Peter Tork, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and actor (d. 2019)
- 1942 – Donald E. Williams, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2016)
- 1943 – Elaine Pagels, American theologian and academic
- 1944 – Stockard Channing, American actress
- 1944 – Jerry Springer, English-American television host, actor, and politician, 56th Mayor of Cincinnati
- 1945 – Marian Dawkins, English biologist and academic
- 1945 – King Floyd, American singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
- 1945 – Simon Schama, English historian and author
- 1945 – William Sleator, American author and composer (d. 2011)
- 1946 – Richard Blumenthal, American sergeant and politician, 23rd Attorney General of Connecticut
- 1946 – Janet Finch, English sociologist and academic
- 1946 – Colin Matthews, English composer and educator
- 1947 – Stephen Hadley, American soldier and diplomat, 21st United States National Security Advisor
- 1947 – Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball player and coach
- 1947 – Bogdan Tanjević, Montenegrin-Bosnian professional basketball coach
- 1947 – Kevin Bloody Wilson, Australian comedian, singer-songwriter, and guitarist
- 1949 – Peter Kern, Austrian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
- 1950 – Vera Baird, English lawyer and politician
- 1950 – Peter Gabriel, English singer-songwriter and musician
- 1952 – Ed Gagliardi, American bass player (d. 2014)
- 1953 – Akio Sato, Japanese wrestler and manager
- 1954 – Donnie Moore, American baseball player (d. 1989)
- 1955 – Joe Birkett, American lawyer, judge, and politician
- 1956 – Peter Hook, English singer, songwriter, bass player, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer
- 1957 – Denise Austin, American fitness trainer and author
- 1958 – Pernilla August, Swedish actress
- 1958 – Marc Emery, Canadian publisher and activist
- 1958 – Jean-François Lisée, Canadian journalist and politician
- 1958 – Derek Riggs, English painter and illustrator
- 1958 – Øivind Elgenes, Norwegian vocalist, guitarist and composer
- 1959 – Gaston Gingras, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1960 – Pierluigi Collina, Italian footballer and referee
- 1960 – John Healey, English journalist and politician
- 1960 – Gary Patterson, American football player and coach
- 1960 – Artur Yusupov, Russian-German chess player and author
- 1961 – Marc Crawford, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1961 – cEvin Key, Canadian singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboard player, and producer
- 1961 – Henry Rollins, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1962 – Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, Puerto Rican lawyer and politician
- 1962 – Baby Doll, American wrestler and manager
- 1962 – Michele Greene, American actress
- 1964 – Stephen Bowen, American engineer, captain, and astronaut
- 1964 – Ylva Johansson, Swedish educator and politician, Swedish Minister of Employment
- 1965 – Peter O’Neill, Papua New Guinean accountant and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
- 1966 – Neal McDonough, American actor and producer
- 1966 – Jeff Waters, Canadian guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1966 – Freedom Williams, American rapper and singer
- 1967 – Stanimir Stoilov, Bulgarian footballer and coach
- 1968 – Kelly Hu, American actress
- 1969 – Joyce DiDonato, American soprano and actress
- 1970 – Karoline Krüger, Norwegian singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1971 – Sonia Evans, English singer-songwriter
- 1971 – Mats Sundin, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1971 – Todd Williams, American baseball player
- 1972 – Virgilijus Alekna, Lithuanian discus thrower
- 1972 – Charlie Garner, American football player
- 1974 – Fonzworth Bentley, American rapper and actor
- 1974 – Robbie Williams, English singer-songwriter
- 1975 – Ben Collins, English race car driver
- 1975 – Katie Hopkins, English media personality and columnist
- 1976 – Jörg Bergmeister, German race car driver
- 1976 – Shannon Nevin, Australian rugby league player
- 1977 – Randy Moss, American football player and coach
- 1978 – Niklas Bäckström, Finnish ice hockey player
- 1978 – Philippe Jaroussky, French countertenor
- 1979 – Anders Behring Breivik, Norwegian murderer
- 1979 – Rafael Márquez, Mexican footballer
- 1979 – Rachel Reeves, English economist and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
- 1979 – Mena Suvari, American actress and fashion designer
- 1980 – Carlos Cotto, Puerto Rican-American wrestler and boxer
- 1981 – Luisão, Brazilian footballer
- 1982 – Even Helte Hermansen, Norwegian guitarist and composer
- 1982 – Michael Turner, American football player
- 1983 – Mike Nickeas, Canadian baseball player
- 1983 – Anna Watkins, English rower
- 1984 – Hinkelien Schreuder, Dutch swimmer
- 1985 – Kwak Ji-min, South Korean actress
- 1986 – Luke Moore, English footballer
- 1986 – Aqib Talib, American football player
- 1987 – Eljero Elia, Dutch footballer
- 1988 – Ryan Goins, American baseball player
- 1988 – Eddy Pettybourne, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player
- 1989 – Rodrigo Possebon, Brazilian footballer
- 1991 – Eliaquim Mangala, French footballer
- 1991 – Junior Roqica, Australian-Fijian rugby league player
- 1991 – Vianney, French singer
- 1994 – Memphis Depay, Dutch footballer
Deaths on February 13
- 106 – Emperor He of Han (Han Hedi) of the Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty (b. AD 79)
- 721 – Chilperic II, Frankish king (b. 672)
- 858 – Kenneth MacAlpin, Scottish king (probable; b. 810)
- 921 – Vratislaus I, duke of Bohemia
- 936 – Xiao Wen, empress of the Liao Dynasty
- 942 – Muhammad ibn Ra’iq, Abbasid emir and regent
- 988 – Adalbert Atto, Lombard nobleman
- 1021 – Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Fatimid caliph (b. 985)
- 1130 – Honorius II, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1060
- 1141 – Béla II, king of Hungary and Croatia (b. 1110)
- 1199 – Stefan Nemanja, Serbian grand prince (b. 1113)
- 1219 – Minamoto no Sanetomo, Japanese shōgun (b. 1192)
- 1332 – Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1259)
- 1351 – Kō no Morofuyu, Japanese general
- 1539 – Isabella d’Este, Italian noblewoman (b. 1474)
- 1542 – Catherine Howard, English wife of Henry VIII of England (executed;b. 1521)
- 1571 – Benvenuto Cellini, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1500)
- 1585 – Alfonso Salmeron, Spanish priest and scholar (b. 1515)
- 1602 – Alexander Nowell, English clergyman and theologian (b. 1507)
- 1660 – Charles X Gustav, king of Sweden (b. 1622)
- 1662 – Elizabeth Stuart, queen of Bohemia (b. 1596)
- 1693 – Johann Caspar Kerll, German organist and composer (b. 1627)
- 1727 – William Wotton, English linguist and scholar (b. 1666)
- 1728 – Cotton Mather, American minister and author (b. 1663)
- 1732 – Charles-René d’Hozier, French historian and author (b. 1640)
- 1741 – Johann Joseph Fux, Austrian composer and theorist (b. 1660)
- 1787 – Roger Joseph Boscovich, Croatian physicist, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher (b. 1711)
- 1787 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French lawyer and politician, Foreign Minister of France (b. 1717)
- 1813 – Samuel Ashe, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of North Carolina (b. 1725)
- 1818 – George Rogers Clark, American general (b. 1752)
- 1826 – Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen, Russian general and politician, Governor-General of Baltic provinces (b. 1745)
- 1831 – Edward Berry, English admiral (b. 1768)
- 1837 – Mariano José de Larra, Spanish journalist and author (b. 1809)
- 1845 – Henrik Steffens, Norwegian-German philosopher and poet (b. 1773)
- 1877 – Costache Caragiale, Romanian actor and manager (b. 1815)
- 1883 – Richard Wagner, German composer (b. 1813)
- 1888 – Jean-Baptiste Lamy, French-American archbishop (b. 1814)
- 1892 – Provo Wallis, Canadian-English admiral (b. 1791)
- 1893 – Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, Mexican intellectual and journalist (b. 1834)
- 1905 – Konstantin Savitsky, Russian painter (b. 1844)
- 1906 – Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (b. 1866)
- 1934 – József Pusztai, Slovene-Hungarian poet and journalist (b. 1864)
- 1942 – Otakar Batlička, Czech journalist (b. 1895)
- 1942 – Epitácio Pessoa, Brazilian lawyer, judge, and politician, 11th President of Brazil (b. 1865)
- 1950 – Rafael Sabatini, Italian-English novelist and short story writer (b. 1875)
- 1951 – Lloyd C. Douglas, American minister and author (b. 1877)
- 1952 – Josephine Tey, Scottish author and playwright (b. 1896)
- 1954 – Agnes Macphail, Canadian educator and politician (b. 1890)
- 1956 – Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish mathematician and philosopher (b. 1878)
- 1958 – Christabel Pankhurst, English activist, co-founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (b. 1880)
- 1958 – Georges Rouault, French painter and illustrator (b. 1871)
- 1964 – Paulino Alcántara, Filipino-Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1896)
- 1964 – Werner Heyde, German psychiatrist and academic (b. 1902)
- 1967 – Yoshisuke Aikawa, entrepreneur, businessman, and politician, founded Nissan Motor Company (b. 1880)
- 1967 – Abelardo L. Rodríguez, substitute president of Mexico (1932-1934) (b. 1889)
- 1968 – Mae Marsh, American actress (b. 1895)
- 1968 – Portia White, Canadian opera singer (b. 1911)
- 1973 – Marinus Jan Granpré Molière, Dutch architect and educator (b. 1883)
- 1975 – André Beaufre, French general (b. 1902)
- 1976 – Murtala Mohammed, Nigerian general and politician, 4th President of Nigeria (b. 1938)
- 1976 – Lily Pons, French-American soprano and actress (b. 1904)
- 1980 – David Janssen, American actor (b. 1931)
- 1984 – Cheong Eak Chong, Singaporean entrepreneur (b. 1888)
- 1986 – Yuri Ivask, Russian-American poet and critic (b. 1907)
- 1989 – Wayne Hays, American lieutenant and politician (b. 1911)
- 1991 – Arno Breker, German sculptor and illustrator (b. 1900)
- 1992 – Nikolay Bogolyubov, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician and physicist (b. 1909)
- 1996 – Martin Balsam, American actor (b. 1919)
- 1997 – Robert Klark Graham, American eugenicist and businessman (b. 1906)
- 1997 – Mark Krasnosel’skii, Russian-Ukrainian mathematician and academic (b. 1920)
- 2000 – Anders Aalborg, Canadian educator and politician (b. 1914)
- 2000 – James Cooke Brown, American sociologist and author (b. 1921)
- 2000 – John Leake, English soldier (b. 1949)
- 2002 – Waylon Jennings, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1937)
- 2003 – Kid Gavilán, Cuban-American boxer (b. 1926)
- 2003 – Walt Whitman Rostow, American economist; 7th United States National Security Advisor (b. 1916)
- 2004 – François Tavenas, Canadian engineer and academic (b. 1942)
- 2004 – Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Chechen politician, 2nd President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (b. 1952)
- 2005 – Nelson Briles, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1943)
- 2005 – Lúcia Santos, Portuguese nun (b. 1907)
- 2006 – P. F. Strawson, English philosopher and author (b. 1919)
- 2007 – Elizabeth Jolley, English-Australian author and academic (b. 1923)
- 2007 – Charlie Norwood, American captain and politician (b. 1941)
- 2007 – Richard Gordon Wakeford, English air marshal (b. 1922)
- 2008 – Kon Ichikawa, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1915)
- 2009 – Edward Upward, English author and educator (b. 1903)
- 2010 – Lucille Clifton, American poet and academic (b. 1936)
- 2010 – Dale Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936)
- 2012 – Russell Arms, American actor and singer (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Louise Cochrane, American-English screenwriter and producer (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Daniel C. Gerould, American playwright and academic (b. 1928)
- 2013 – Gerry Day, American journalist and screenwriter (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Miles J. Jones, American pathologist and physician (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Pieter Kooijmans, Dutch judge and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for The Netherlands (b. 1933)
- 2013 – Andrée Malebranche, Haitian artist (b. 1916)
- 2013 – Yuko Tojo, Japanese activist and politician (b. 1939)
- 2014 – Balu Mahendra, Sri Lankan-Indian director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (b. 1939)
- 2014 – Richard Møller Nielsen, Danish footballer and manager (b. 1937)
- 2014 – Ralph Waite, American actor and activist (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Faith Bandler, Australian activist and author (b. 1918)
- 2015 – Stan Chambers, American journalist and actor (b. 1923)
- 2016 – O. N. V. Kurup, Indian poet and academic (b. 1931)
- 2016 – Antonin Scalia, American lawyer and judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (b. 1936)
- 2017 – Ricardo Arias Calderón, Panamanian politician, Vice President (1990–1992) (b. 1933)
- 2017 – Aileen Hernandez, American union organizer and activist (b. 1926)
- 2017 – Seijun Suzuki, Japanese filmmaker (b. 1923)
- 2017 – Kim Jong-nam, North Korean politician (b. 1971)
- 2017 – E-Dubble, American rapper (b. 1982)
- 2018 – Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark, French-born Danish royal (b. 1934)
Holidays and observances on February 13
- Children’s Day (Myanmar)
- Christian feast day:
- Absalom Jones (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Beatrice of Ornacieux
- Castor of Karden
- Catherine of Ricci
- Ermenilda of Ely
- Fulcran
- Jordan of Saxony
- Polyeuctus (Roman Catholic Church)
- February 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- World Radio Day
-
February 12 in History
- 1429 – English forces under Sir John Fastolf defend a supply convoy carrying rations to the army besieging Orléans in the Battle of the Herrings.
- 1502 – Isabella I issues an edict outlawing Islam in the Crown of Castile, forcing virtually all her Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity.
- 1541 – Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia.
- 1593 – Japanese invasion of Korea: Approximately 3,000 Joseon defenders led by general Kwon Yul successfully repel more than 30,000 Japanese forces in the Siege of Haengju.
- 1689 – The Convention Parliament declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication.
- 1733 – Georgia Day: Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, by settling at Savannah.
- 1771 – Gustav III becomes the King of Sweden.
- 1817 – An Argentine/Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeats Spanish troops at the Battle of Chacabuco.
- 1818 – Bernardo O’Higgins formally approves the Chilean Declaration of Independence near Concepción, Chile.
- 1825 – The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government by the Treaty of Indian Springs, and migrate west.
- 1832 – Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands.
- 1855 – Michigan State University is established.
- 1894 – Anarchist Émile Henry hurls a bomb into the Cafe Terminus in Paris, killing one person and wounding 20.
- 1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
- 1909 – New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster of the 20th century happens when the SS Penguin, an inter-island ferry, sinks and explodes at the entrance to Wellington Harbour.
- 1912 – The Xuantong Emperor, the last Emperor of China, abdicates.
- 1915 – In Washington, D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
- 1921 – Bolsheviks launch a revolt in Georgia as a preliminary to the Red Army invasion of Georgia.
- 1924 – George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue received its premiere in a concert titled “An Experiment in Modern Music”, in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano.
- 1935 – USS Macon, one of the two largest helium-filled airships ever created, crashes into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California and sinks.
- 1946 – World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
- 1946 – African American United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard is severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point where he loses his vision in both eyes. The incident later galvanizes the civil rights movement and partially inspires Orson Welles’ film Touch of Evil.
- 1947 – The largest observed iron meteorite until that time creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.
- 1947 – Christian Dior unveils a “New Look”, helping Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world.
- 1961 – The Soviet Union launches Venera 1 towards Venus.
- 1963 – Construction begins on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.
- 1965 – Malcolm X visits Smethwick in Birmingham following the racially-charged 1964 United Kingdom general election.
- 1968 – Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre.
- 1974 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.
- 1983 – One hundred women protest in Lahore, Pakistan against military dictator Zia-ul-Haq’s proposed Law of Evidence. The women were tear-gassed, baton-charged and thrown into lock-up. The women were successful in repealing the law.
- 1988 – Cold War: The 1988 Black Sea bumping incident: The U.S. missile cruiser USS Yorktown (CG-48) is intentionally rammed by the Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy in the Soviet territorial waters, while Yorktown claims innocent passage.
- 1990 – Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier in Australian history when she becomes Premier of Western Australia.
- 1992 – The current Constitution of Mongolia comes into effect.
- 1993 – Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys, who later torture and murder him.
- 1994 – Four thieves break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch’s iconic painting The Scream.
- 1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
- 2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the “saddle” region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
- 2002 – The trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, begins at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. He dies four years later before its conclusion.
- 2002 – An Iran Airtour Tupolev Tu-154 crashes in the mountains outside Khorramabad, Iran while descending for a landing at Khorramabad Airport, killing 119.
- 2004 – The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.
- 2009 – Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes into a house in Clarence Center, New York while on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all on board and one on the ground.
- 2016 – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting between leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches since their split in 1054.
- 2019 – The country known as the Republic of Macedonia renames itself the Republic of North Macedonia in accordance with the Prespa agreement, settling a long-standing naming dispute with Greece.
Births on February 12
- AD 41 – Britannicus, Roman son of Claudius (d. 55)
- 528 – Daughter of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei, nominal empress regnant of Northern Wei
- 661 – Princess Ōku of Japan (d. 702)
- 1074 – Conrad II of Italy (d. 1101)
- 1218 – Kujo Yoritsune, Japanese shōgun (d. 1256)
- 1322 – John Henry, Margrave of Moravia (d. 1375)
- 1443 – Giovanni II Bentivoglio, Italian noble (d. 1508)
- 1480 – Frederick II of Legnica, Duke of Legnica (d. 1547)
- 1540 – Won Gyun, Korean general and admiral (d. 1597)
- 1567 – Thomas Campion, English composer, poet, and physician (d. 1620)
- 1584 – Caspar Barlaeus, Dutch historian, poet, and theologian (d. 1648)
- 1602 – Michelangelo Cerquozzi, Italian painter (d. 1660)
- 1606 – John Winthrop the Younger, English-American lawyer and politician, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1676)
- 1608 – Daniello Bartoli, Italian Jesuit priest (d. 1685)
- 1637 – Jan Swammerdam, Dutch biologist and zoologist (d. 1680)
- 1663 – Cotton Mather, English-American minister and author (d. 1728)
- 1665 – Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician (d. 1721)
- 1704 – Charles Pinot Duclos, French author (d. 1772)
- 1706 – Johann Joseph Christian, German Baroque sculptor and woodcarver (d. 1777)
- 1728 – Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect (d. 1799)
- 1753 – François-Paul Brueys d’Aigalliers, French admiral (d. 1798)
- 1761 – Jan Ladislav Dussek, Czech pianist and composer (d. 1812)
- 1768 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835)
- 1775 – Louisa Adams, English-American wife of John Quincy Adams, 6th First Lady of the United States (d. 1852)
- 1777 – Bernard Courtois, French chemist and academic (d. 1838)
- 1777 – Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, German author and poet (d. 1843)
- 1785 – Pierre Louis Dulong, French physicist and chemist (d. 1838)
- 1787 – Norbert Provencher, Canadian bishop and missionary (d. 1853)
- 1788 – Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (d. 1869)
- 1791 – Peter Cooper, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Cooper Union (d. 1883)
- 1794 – Alexander Petrov, Russian chess player and composer (d. 1867)
- 1794 – Valentín Canalizo, Mexican general and politician. 14th President (1843-1844) (d. 1850)
- 1804 – Heinrich Lenz, German-Italian physicist and academic (d. 1865)
- 1809 – Charles Darwin, English geologist and theorist (d. 1882)
- 1809 – Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and politician, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865)
- 1819 – William Wetmore Story, American sculptor, architect, poet and editor
- 1824 – Dayananda Saraswati, Indian monk and philosopher, founded Arya Samaj (d. 1883)
- 1828 – George Meredith, English novelist and poet (d. 1909)
- 1837 – Thomas Moran, British-American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School (d. 1926)
- 1857 – Eugène Atget, French photographer (d. 1927)
- 1857 – Bobby Peel, English cricketer and coach (d. 1943)
- 1861 – Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German psychoanalyst and author (d. 1937)
- 1866 – Lev Shestov, Russian philosopher (d. 1938)
- 1869 – Kiến Phúc, Vietnamese emperor (d. 1884)
- 1870 – Marie Lloyd, English actress and singer (d. 1922)
- 1876 – 13th Dalai Lama (d. 1933)
- 1877 – Louis Renault, French engineer and businessman, co-founded Renault (d. 1944)
- 1880 – George Preca, Maltese priest and saint (d. 1962)
- 1880 – John L. Lewis, American miner and union leader (d. 1969)
- 1881 – Anna Pavlova, Russian-English ballerina and actress (d. 1931)
- 1882 – Walter Nash, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1968)
- 1884 – Max Beckmann, German painter and sculptor (d. 1950)
- 1884 – Johan Laidoner, Estonian-Russian general (d. 1953)
- 1884 – Alice Roosevelt Longworth, American author (d. 1980)
- 1884 – Marie Vassilieff, Russian-French painter (d. 1957)
- 1885 – Julius Streicher, German publisher, founded Der Stürmer (d. 1946)
- 1889 – Bhante Dharmawara, Cambodian monk, lawyer, and judge (d. 1999)
- 1893 – Omar Bradley, American general (d. 1981)
- 1895 – Kristian Djurhuus, Faroese lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1984)
- 1897 – Charles Groves Wright Anderson, South African-Australian colonel and politician (d. 1988)
- 1897 – Lincoln LaPaz, American astronomer and academic (d. 1985)
- 1898 – Wallace Ford, English-American actor and singer (d. 1966)
- 1900 – Roger J. Traynor, American lawyer and jurist, 23rd Chief Justice of California (d. 1983)
- 1902 – William Collier, Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1987)
- 1903 – Jorge Basadre, Peruvian historian (d. 1980)
- 1903 – Chick Hafey, American baseball player and manager (d. 1973)
- 1904 – Ted Mack, American radio and television host (d. 1976)
- 1907 – Joseph Kearns, American actor (d. 1962)
- 1908 – Jean Effel, French painter, caricaturist, illustrator and journalist (d. 1982)
- 1908 – Jacques Herbrand, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1931)
- 1909 – Zoran Mušič, Slovene painter and illustrator (d. 2005)
- 1909 – Sigmund Rascher, German physician (d. 1945)
- 1911 – Charles Mathiesen, Norwegian speed skater (d. 1994)
- 1912 – R. F. Delderfield, English author and playwright (d. 1972)
- 1914 – Tex Beneke, American singer, saxophonist, and bandleader (d. 2000)
- 1914 – Johanna von Caemmerer, German mathematician (d. 1971)
- 1915 – Lorne Greene, Canadian-American actor (d. 1987)
- 1915 – Olivia Hooker, African-American sailor (d. 2018)
- 1916 – Joseph Alioto, American lawyer and politician, 36th Mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998)
- 1917 – Al Cervi, American basketball player and coach (d. 2009)
- 1917 – Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player (d. 2009)
- 1918 – Norman Farberow, American psychologist and academic (d. 2015)
- 1918 – Julian Schwinger, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
- 1919 – Forrest Tucker, American actor (d. 1986)
- 1920 – Raymond Mhlaba, South African anti-apartheid and ANC activist (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Hussein Onn, Malaysian lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)
- 1923 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian director, producer, and politician (d. 2019)
- 1925 – Sir Anthony Berry, British Conservative politician (d. 1984)
- 1925 – Joan Mitchell, American-French painter (d. 1992)
- 1926 – Rolf Brem, Swiss sculptor and illustrator (d. 2014)
- 1926 – Joe Garagiola, Sr., American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2016)
- 1926 – Charles Van Doren, American academic (d. 2019)
- 1928 – Vincent Montana, Jr., American drummer and composer (d. 2013)
- 1930 – John Doyle, Irish hurler and politician (d. 2010)
- 1930 – Arlen Specter, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch-American author and translator (d. 2008)
- 1932 – Axel Jensen, Norwegian author and poet (d. 2003)
- 1932 – Julian Simon, American economist, author, and academic (d. 1998)
- 1933 – Costa-Gavras, Greek-French director and producer
- 1933 – Brian Carlson, Australian rugby league player (d. 1987)
- 1934 – Annette Crosbie, Scottish actress
- 1934 – Anne Osborn Krueger, American economist and academic
- 1934 – Bill Russell, American basketball player and coach
- 1935 – Gene McDaniels, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2011)
- 1936 – Alan Ebringer, Australian immunologist, professor at King’s College in the University of London
- 1938 – Judy Blume, Jewish-American author and educator
- 1939 – Leon Kass, American physician, scientist, and educator
- 1939 – Ray Manzarek, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 2013)
- 1941 – Hubert Marcoux, Canadian solo sailor and author (d. 2009)
- 1941 – Dominguinhos, Brazilian singer-songwriter and accordion player (d. 2013)
- 1941 – Naomi Uemura, Japanese mountaineer and explorer (d. 1984)
- 1942 – Ehud Barak, Israeli general and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Israel
- 1942 – Pat Dobson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2006)
- 1945 – Maud Adams, Swedish model and actress
- 1945 – David D. Friedman, American economist, physicist, and scholar
- 1946 – Jean Eyeghé Ndong, Gabonese politician, Prime Minister of Gabon
- 1946 – Ajda Pekkan, Turkish singer-songwriter and actress
- 1948 – Ray Kurzweil, American computer scientist and engineer
- 1948 – Nicholas Soames, English politician, Minister of State for the Armed Forces
- 1950 – Angelo Branduardi, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1950 – Steve Hackett, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1950 – Michael Ironside, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1952 – Simon MacCorkindale, English actor, director, and producer (d. 2010)
- 1952 – Michael McDonald, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
- 1953 – Joanna Kerns, American actress and director
- 1954 – Joseph Jordania, Georgian-Australian musicologist and academic
- 1954 – Tzimis Panousis, Greek comedian, singer, and author (d. 2018)
- 1954 – Phil Zimmermann, American cryptographer and programmer
- 1955 – Bill Laswell, American bass player and producer
- 1955 – Chet Lemon, American baseball player and coach
- 1956 – Arsenio Hall, American actor and talk show host
- 1956 – Ad Melkert, Dutch lawyer and politician, Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Employment
- 1956 – Brian Robertson, Scottish rock guitarist and songwriter
- 1958 – Outback Jack, Australian-American wrestler
- 1961 – Jim Harris, Canadian environmentalist and politician
- 1961 – Michel Martelly, Haitian singer and politician, 56th President of Haiti
- 1961 – Di Farmer, Queensland Member of Parliament
- 1964 – Omar Hakim, American drummer, producer, arranger, and composer
- 1965 – Rubén Amaro, Jr., American baseball player and manager
- 1965 – Christine Elise, American actress and producer
- 1965 – David Westlake, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1966 – Paul Crook, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1968 – Josh Brolin, American actor
- 1968 – Chynna Phillips, American singer and actress
- 1969 – Darren Aronofsky, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1969 – Alemayehu Atomsa, Ethiopian educator and politician (d. 2014)
- 1969 – Steve Backley, English javelin thrower
- 1969 – Anneli Drecker, Norwegian singer and actress
- 1969 – Hong Myung-bo, South Korean footballer and manager
- 1970 – Jim Creeggan, Canadian singer-songwriter and bass player
- 1970 – Bryan Roy, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1970 – Judd Winick, American author and illustrator
- 1971 – Scott Menville, American voice actor, singer, actor and musician
- 1973 – Gianni Romme, Dutch speed skater
- 1973 – Tara Strong, Canadian voice actress and singer
- 1974 – Naseem Hamed, English boxer
- 1976 – Christian Cullen, New Zealand rugby player
- 1977 – Jimmy Conrad, American soccer player and manager
- 1978 – Paul Anderson, English actor
- 1978 – Brett Hodgson, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1979 – Antonio Chatman, American football player
- 1979 – Jesse Spencer, Australian actor and violinist
- 1980 – Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spanish tennis player
- 1980 – Sarah Lancaster, American actress
- 1980 – Christina Ricci, American actress and producer
- 1980 – Gucci Mane, American rapper
- 1981 – Wade McKinnon, Australian rugby league player
- 1982 – Jonas Hiller, Swiss ice hockey player
- 1982 – Louis Tsatoumas, Greek long jumper
- 1982 – Anthony Tuitavake, New Zealand rugby player
- 1983 – Carlton Brewster, American football player and coach
- 1984 – Brad Keselowski, American race car driver
- 1984 – Andrei Sidorenkov, Estonian footballer
- 1984 – Peter Vanderkaay, American swimmer
- 1988 – DeMarco Murray, American football player
- 1988 – Nicolás Otamendi, Argentine footballer
- 1988 – Mike Posner, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1990 – Robert Griffin III, American football player
- 1991 – Patrick Herrmann, German footballer
- 1994 – Arman Hall, American sprinter
- 1999 – Maggie Coles-Lyster, Canadian cyclist
- 2000 – Kim Ji-min, South Korean actress
Deaths on February 12
- 821 – Benedict of Aniane, French monk and saint (b. 747)
- 890 – Henjō, Japanese priest and poet (b. 816)
- 981 – Ælfstan, bishop of Ramsbury
- 901 – Antony II, patriarch of Constantinople
- 914 – Li, empress of Yan
- 941 – Wulfhelm, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1247 – Ermesinde, Countess of Luxembourg, ruler (b. 1185)
- 1266 – Amadeus of the Amidei, Italian saint
- 1517 – Catherine of Navarre (b. 1468)
- 1538 – Albrecht Altdorfer, German painter, engraver, and architect (b. 1480)
- 1554 – Lord Guildford Dudley, English son of Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland (b. 1536; executed)
- 1554 – Lady Jane Grey, de facto monarch of England and Ireland for nine days (b. 1537; executed)
- 1571 – Nicholas Throckmorton, English politician and diplomat (b. 1515)
- 1590 – François Hotman, French lawyer and author (b. 1524)
- 1600 – Edward Denny, Knight Banneret of Bishop’s Stortford, English soldier, privateer and adventurer (b. 1547)
- 1612 – Jodocus Hondius, Flemish cartographer (b. 1563)
- 1624 – George Heriot, Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist, founded George Heriot’s School (b. 1563)
- 1713 – Jahandar Shah, Mughal emperor (b. 1664)
- 1728 – Agostino Steffani, Italian priest and composer (b. 1653)
- 1763 – Pierre de Marivaux, French author and playwright (b. 1688)
- 1771 – Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden (b. 1710)
- 1789 – Ethan Allen, American farmer, general, and politician (b. 1738)
- 1799 – Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist and physiologist (b. 1729)
- 1804 – Immanuel Kant, German anthropologist, philosopher, and academic (b. 1724)
- 1834 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German philosopher and scholar (b. 1768)
- 1886 – Randolph Caldecott, English-American painter and illustrator (b. 1846)
- 1894 – Hans von Bülow, German pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1830)
- 1896 – Ambroise Thomas, French composer and academic (b. 1811)
- 1912 – Gerhard Armauer Hansen, Norwegian physician (b. 1841)
- 1915 – Émile Waldteufel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1837)
- 1916 – Richard Dedekind, German mathematician, philosopher, and academic (b. 1831)
- 1929 – Lillie Langtry, English singer and actress (b. 1853)
- 1931 – Samad bey Mehmandarov, Azerbaijani-Russian general and politician, 3rd Azerbaijani Minister of Defense (b. 1855)
- 1935 – Auguste Escoffier, French chef and author (b. 1846)
- 1942 – Eugene Esmonde, Irish-English lieutenant and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1909)
- 1942 – Avraham Stern, Polish-Israeli militant leader (b. 1907)
- 1942 – Grant Wood, American painter and academic (b. 1891)
- 1947 – Moses Gomberg, Ukrainian-American chemist and academic (b. 1866)
- 1949 – Hassan al-Banna, Egyptian educator, founded the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906)
- 1954 – Dziga Vertov, Polish-Russian director and screenwriter (b. 1896)
- 1958 – Douglas Hartree, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1897)
- 1960 – Oskar Anderson, Bulgarian-German mathematician and academic (b. 1887)
- 1970 – Clare Turlay Newberry, American author and illustrator (b. 1903)
- 1971 – James Cash Penney, American businessman and philanthropist, founded J. C. Penney (b. 1875)
- 1975 – Carl Lutz, Swiss vice-consul to Hungary during WWII, credited with saving over 62,000 Jews (b. 1895)
- 1976 – Sal Mineo, American actor (b. 1939)
- 1977 – Herman Dooyeweerd, Dutch philosopher and scholar (b. 1894)
- 1979 – Jean Renoir, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1894)
- 1980 – Muriel Rukeyser, American poet and activist (b. 1913)
- 1982 – Victor Jory, Canadian-American actor (b. 1902)
- 1983 – Eubie Blake, American pianist and composer (b. 1887)
- 1984 – Anna Anderson, Polish-American woman, who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1896)
- 1984 – Julio Cortázar, Belgian-Argentinian author and poet (b. 1914)
- 1985 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor and director (b. 1924)
- 1989 – Thomas Bernhard, Austrian playwright and author (b. 1931)
- 1991 – Roger Patterson, American bass player (b. 1968)
- 1992 – Bep van Klaveren, Dutch boxer (b. 1907)
- 1994 – Donald Judd, American painter and sculptor (b. 1928)
- 1995 – Philip Taylor Kramer, American bass player (b. 1952)
- 1998 – Gardner Ackley, American economist and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Italy (b. 1915)
- 2000 – Tom Landry, American football player and coach (b. 1924)
- 2000 – Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist, created Peanuts (b. 1922)
- 2001 – Kristina Söderbaum, Swedish-German actress and producer (b. 1912)
- 2002 – John Eriksen, Danish footballer (b. 1957)
- 2005 – Dorothy Stang, American-Brazilian nun and missionary (b. 1931)
- 2007 – Ann Barzel, American writer and dance critic (b. 1905)
- 2007 – Peggy Gilbert, American saxophonist and bandleader (b. 1905)
- 2008 – David Groh, American actor (b. 1939)
- 2009 – victims of Colgan Air Flight 3407:
- Alison Des Forges, American historian and activist (b. 1942)
- Beverly Eckert, American activist (b. 1951)
- Mat Mathews, Dutch accordion player (b. 1924)
- Coleman Mellett, American guitarist (b. 1974)
- Gerry Niewood, American saxophonist (b. 1943)
- 2010 – Nodar Kumaritashvili, Georgian luger (b. 1988)
- 2011 – Peter Alexander, Austrian singer and actor (b. 1926)
- 2011 – Betty Garrett, American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1919)
- 2011 – Kenneth Mars, American actor and comedian (b. 1935)
- 2012 – Zina Bethune, American actress, dancer, and choreographer (b. 1945)
- 2012 – Denis Flannery, Australian rugby player and coach (b. 1928)
- 2012 – David Kelly, Irish actor (b. 1929)
- 2012 – John Severin, American illustrator (b. 1921)
- 2013 – Sattam bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabian prince (b. 1941)
- 2013 – Reginald Turnill, English journalist and author (b. 1915)
- 2013 – Hennadiy Udovenko, Ukrainian politician and diplomat, 2nd Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ukraine (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Sid Caesar, American actor and comedian (b. 1922)
- 2014 – John Pickstone, English historian and author (b. 1944)
- 2015 – Movita Castaneda, American actress and singer (b. 1916)
- 2015 – Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Malaysian cleric and politician, 12th Menteri Besar of Kelantan (b. 1931)
- 2015 – Gary Owens, American radio host and voice actor (b. 1934)
- 2015 – Steve Strange, Welsh singer (b. 1959)
- 2016 – Dominique D’Onofrio, Italian-Belgian footballer and coach (b. 1953)
- 2016 – Yannis Kalaitzis, Greek cartoonist (b. 1945)
- 2016 – Yan Su, Chinese general and composer (b. 1930)
- 2017 – Al Jarreau, American singer (b. 1940)
- 2017 – Anna Marguerite McCann, first female American underwater archaeologist (b. 1933)
- 2017 – Ren Xinmin, Chinese rocket scientist (b. 1915)
- 2019 – Gordon Banks, English footballer (b. 1937)
- 2019 – Lyndon LaRouche, American political activist (b. 1922)
- 2019 – Pedro Morales, Puerto Rican professional wrestler and commentator (b. 1942)
- 2020 – Christie Blatchford, Canadian newspaper columnist, journalist and broadcaster (b. 1951)
Holidays and observances on February 12
- Christian feast day:
- Benedict of Aniane
- Damian of Alexandria
- Julian the Hospitaller
- Martyrs of Abitinae
- February 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Darwin Day (International)
- Georgia Day (Georgia (U.S. state))
- Lincoln’s Birthday (United States)
- National Freedom to Marry Day (United States)
- Red Hand Day (United Nations)
- Union Day (Myanmar)
- Youth Day (Venezuela)
-
January 29 in History
- 904 – Sergius III is consecrated pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.
- 946 – Caliph Al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Emir Mu’izz al-Dawla, ruler of the Buyid Empire. He is succeeded by Al-Muti as caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate.
- 1258 – First Mongol invasion of Đại Việt: Đại Việt defeats the Mongols at the battle of Đông Bộ Đầu, forcing the Mongols to withdraw from the country.
- 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.
- 1819 – Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.
- 1845 – “The Raven” is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.
- 1850 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.
- 1856 – Queen Victoria issues a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognise acts of valour by British military personnel during the Crimean War.
- 1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.
- 1863 – The Bear River Massacre: A detachment of California Volunteers led by Colonel Patrick Edward Connor engage the Shoshone at Bear River, Washington Territory, killing hundreds of men, women and children.
- 1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
- 1891 – Liliuokalani is proclaimed the last monarch and only queen regnant of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
- 1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.
- 1911 – Mexican Revolution: Mexicali is captured by the Mexican Liberal Party, igniting the Magonista rebellion of 1911.
- 1916 – World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.
- 1918 – Ukrainian–Soviet War: The Bolshevik Red Army, on its way to besiege Kiev, is met by a small group of military students at the Battle of Kruty.
- 1918 – Ukrainian–Soviet War: An armed uprising organized by the Bolsheviks in anticipation of the encroaching Red Army begins at the Kiev Arsenal, which will be put down six days later.
- 1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.
- 1940 – Three trains on the Nishinari Line; present Sakurajima Line, in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station. One hundred and eighty-one people are killed.
- 1941 – Alexandros Koryzis becomes Prime Minister of Greece upon the sudden death of his predecessor, dictator Ioannis Metaxas.
- 1943 – World War II: The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, USS Chicago (CA-29) is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers.
- 1944 – World War II: Approximately 38 people are killed and about a dozen injured when the Polish village of Koniuchy (present-day Kaniūkai, Lithuania) is attacked by Soviet partisan units.
- 1944 – In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio is completely destroyed in an air-raid, during the Second World War.
- 1948 – The Pakistan Socialist Party is founded in Karachi.
- 1959 – The first Melodifestivalen is held in Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden.
- 1963 – The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.
- 1967 – The “ultimate high” of the hippie era, the Mantra-Rock Dance, takes place in San Francisco and features Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.
- 1980 – The Rubik’s Cube makes its international debut at the Ideal Toy Corp. in Earl’s Court, London.
- 1989 – Cold War: Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so.
- 1991 – Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins.
- 1996 – President Jacques Chirac announces a “definitive end” to French nuclear weapons testing.
- 2001 – Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
- 2002 – In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes “regimes that sponsor terror” as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
- 2005 – The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.
- 2009 – The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt rules that people who do not adhere to one of the three government-recognised religions, while not allowed to list any belief outside of those three, are still eligible to receive government identity documents.
- 2009 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.
- 2013 – SCAT Airlines Flight 760 crashes near the Kazakh city of Almaty, killing 21 people.
- 2013 – Alabama bunker hostage crisis: After shooting and killing of school bus driver, 66 years old Charles Albert Poland, Jr, by 65 year old Vietnam War era veteran, Jimmy Lee Dykes.
- 2017 – Quebec City mosque shooting: Alexandre Bissonnette opens fire at mosque in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, killing six and wounding 19 others in a spree shooting.
Births on January 29
- 919 – Shi Zong, emperor of the Liao Dynasty (d. 951)
- 1455 – Johann Reuchlin, German-born humanist and scholar (d. 1522)
- 1475 – Giuliano Bugiardini, Italian painter (d. 1555)
- 1499 – Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther; formerly a Roman Catholic nun (d. 1552)
- 1525 – Lelio Sozzini, Italian humanist and reformer (d. 1562)
- 1584 – Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (d. 1647)
- 1591 – Franciscus Junius, pioneer of Germanic philology (d. 1677)
- 1602 – Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg (d. 1651)
- 1632 – Johann Georg Graevius, German scholar and critic (d. 1703)
- 1650 – Juan de Galavís, Spanish Roman Catholic archbishop of Santo Domingo and Bogotá (d. 1739)
- 1688 – Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish astronomer, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1772)
- 1711 – Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (d. 1788)
- 1715 – Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1777)
- 1717 – Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, English field marshal and politician, 19th Governor General of Canada (d. 1797)
- 1718 – Paul Rabaut, French pastor (d. 1794)
- 1737 – Thomas Paine, prominent for publishing Common Sense (1776), which established him as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States (d. 1809)
- 1749 – Christian VII of Denmark (d. 1808)
- 1754 – Moses Cleaveland, American general, lawyer, and politician, founded Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1806)
- 1756 – Henry Lee III, American general and politician, 9th Governor of Virginia (d. 1818)
- 1761 – Albert Gallatin, Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, and politician, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1849)
- 1782 – Daniel Auber, French composer (d. 1871)
- 1801 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, Dutch violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1857)
- 1810 – Ernst Kummer, Polish-German mathematician and academic (d. 1893)
- 1810 – Mary Whitwell Hale, American teacher, school founder, and hymnwriter (d. 1862)
- 1843 – William McKinley, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 25th President of the United States (d. 1901)
- 1846 – Karol Olszewski, Polish chemist, mathematician, and physicist (d. 1915)
- 1852 – Frederic Hymen Cowen, Jamaican-English pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1935)
- 1858 – Henry Ward Ranger, American painter and academic (d. 1916)
- 1860 – Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short story writer (d. 1904)
- 1861 – Florida Ruffin Ridley, African-American civil rights activist, teacher, editor, and writer (d. 1943)
- 1862 – Frederick Delius, English composer (d. 1934)
- 1866 – Julio Peris Brell, Spanish painter (d. 1944)
- 1866 – Romain Rolland, French historian, author, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1944)
- 1867 – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Spanish journalist and author (d. 1928)
- 1870 – Süleyman Nazif, Turkish poet and civil servant (d. 1927)
- 1874 – John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1960)
- 1876 – Havergal Brian, English composer (d. 1972)
- 1877 – Georges Catroux, French general and diplomat (d. 1969)
- 1880 – W. C. Fields, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter (d. 1946)
- 1881 – Alice Catherine Evans, American microbiologist (d. 1975)
- 1884 – Juhan Aavik, Estonian-Swedish composer and conductor (d. 1982)
- 1888 – Sydney Chapman, English mathematician and geophysicist (d. 1970)
- 1888 – Wellington Koo, Chinese statesman (d. 1985)
- 1891 – Elizaveta Gerdt, Russian ballerina and educator (d. 1975)
- 1891 – R. Norris Williams, Swiss-American tennis player and banker (d. 1968)
- 1892 – Ernst Lubitsch, German American film director, producer, writer, and actor (d. 1947)
- 1895 – Muna Lee, American poet and author (d. 1965)
- 1901 – Allen B. DuMont, American engineer and broadcaster, founded the DuMont Television Network (d. 1965)
- 1901 – E. P. Taylor, Canadian businessman and horse breeder (d. 1989)
- 1903 – Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Russian-Israeli biochemist and philosopher (d. 1994)
- 1905 – Barnett Newman, American painter and etcher (d. 1970)
- 1906 – Joe Primeau, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1989)
- 1913 – Victor Mature, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1915 – Bill Peet, American author and illustrator (d. 2002)
- 1915 – John Serry Sr., Italian-American concert accordionist and composer (d.2003)
- 1917 – John Raitt, American actor and singer (d. 2005)
- 1918 – John Forsythe, American actor (d. 2010)
- 1921 – Geraldine Pittman Woods, American science administrator and embryologist (d. 1999)
- 1923 – Jack Burke Jr., American golfer
- 1923 – Paddy Chayefsky, American author and screenwriter (d. 1981)
- 1926 – Abdus Salam, Pakistani-British physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
- 1926 – Amelita Ramos, 11th First Lady of the Philippines
- 1927 – Edward Abbey, American environmentalist and author (d. 1989)
- 1929 – Elio Petri, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1982)
- 1929 – Joseph Kruskal, American mathematician and computer scientist (d. 2010)
- 1931 – Leslie Bricusse, English playwright and composer
- 1931 – Ferenc Mádl, Hungarian academic and politician, 2nd President of Hungary (d. 2011)
- 1932 – Raman Subba Row, English cricketer and referee
- 1932 – Tommy Taylor, English footballer (d. 1958)
- 1933 – Sacha Distel, French singer and guitarist (d. 2004)
- 1934 – Branko Miljković, Serbian poet and academic (d. 1961)
- 1936 – Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Indian poet and songwriter (d. 2010)
- 1937 – Hassan Habibi, Iranian lawyer and politician, 1st Vice President of Iran (d. 2013)
- 1937 – Bobby Scott, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 1990)
- 1939 – Germaine Greer, Australian journalist and author
- 1940 – Katharine Ross, American actress and author
- 1940 – Kunimitsu Takahashi, Japanese motorcycle racer and race car driver
- 1941 – Robin Morgan, American actress, journalist, and author
- 1943 – Tony Blackburn, English radio and television host
- 1943 – Pat Quinn, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2014)
- 1944 – Andrew Loog Oldham, English record producer and manager
- 1944 – Patrick Lipton Robinson, Jamaican lawyer and judge
- 1944 – Pauline van der Wildt, Dutch swimmer
- 1945 – Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Malian academic and politician, Prime Minister of Mali
- 1945 – Jim Nicholson, Northern Irish politician
- 1945 – Tom Selleck, American actor and businessman
- 1946 – Bettye LaVette, American singer-songwriter
- 1947 – Linda B. Buck, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1947 – David Byron, English singer-songwriter (d. 1985)
- 1947 – Marián Varga, Slovak organist and composer
- 1948 – Raymond Keene, English chess player and author
- 1949 – doris davenport, American poet and teacher
- 1949 – Evgeny Lovchev, Russian footballer and manager
- 1949 – Tommy Ramone, Hungarian-American drummer and producer (d. 2014)
- 1950 – Ann Jillian, American actress and singer
- 1950 – Jody Scheckter, South African race car driver and sportscaster
- 1951 – Fereydoon Forooghi, Iranian singer-songwriter (d. 2001)
- 1951 – Andy Roberts, Caribbean cricketer
- 1953 – Peter Baumann, German keyboard player and songwriter
- 1953 – Charlie Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1953 – Teresa Teng, Taiwanese singer (d. 1995)
- 1954 – Christian Bjelland IV, Norwegian businessman and art collector
- 1954 – Terry Kinney, American actor and director
- 1954 – Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host, actress, and producer, founded Harpo Productions
- 1956 – Jan Jakub Kolski, Polish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
- 1957 – Philippe Dintrans, French rugby player
- 1957 – Ron Franscell, American author and journalist
- 1957 – Grażyna Miller, Italian journalist and poet
- 1959 – Mike Foligno, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1960 – Gia Carangi, American supermodel (d. 1986)
- 1960 – Greg Louganis, American diver and author
- 1961 – Petra Thümer, German swimmer and photographer
- 1962 – Nicholas Turturro, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1964 – John Anthony Gallagher, English-New Zealand rugby player
- 1965 – Dominik Hašek, Czech ice hockey player
- 1965 – Peter Lundgren, Swedish tennis player and coach
- 1966 – Romário, Brazilian footballer, manager, and politician
- 1967 – Stacey King, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1968 – Edward Burns, American actor, director, and producer
- 1968 – Susi Erdmann, German luger and bobsledder
- 1970 – Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Indian colonel and politician
- 1970 – Heather Graham, American actress
- 1970 – Jörg Hoffmann, German swimmer
- 1970 – Paul Ryan, American economist and politician, 62nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
- 1970 – Mohammed Yusuf, Nigerian Islamist leader, founded Boko Haram (d. 2009)
- 1975 – Sara Gilbert, American actress, producer, and talk show host
- 1980 – Ivan Klasnic, German-Croatian footballer
- 1982 – Adam Lambert, American singer, songwriter and actor
- 1984 – Natalie du Toit, South African swimmer
- 1984 – Nuno Morais, Portuguese footballer
- 1985 – Marc Gasol, Spanish basketball player
- 1987 – José Abreu, Cuban baseball player
- 1988 – Tatyana Chernova, Russian heptathlete
- 1988 – Shay Logan, English footballer
- 1988 – Aydın Yılmaz, Turkish footballer
- 1989 – Kevin Shattenkirk, American ice hockey player
- 1993 – Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Japanese singer
Deaths on January 29
- 661 – Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad (b. 601)
- 702 – Princess Ōku of Japan (b. 661)
- 757 – An Lushan, Chinese general (b. 703)
- 870 – Salih ibn Wasif, Muslim general
- 1119 – Pope Gelasius II (b. 1060)
- 1327 – Adolf, Count Palatine of the Rhine (b. 1300)
- 1465 – Louis, Duke of Savoy (b. 1413)
- 1597 – Elias Ammerbach, German organist and composer (b. 1530)
- 1608 – Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1557)
- 1647 – Francis Meres, English priest and author (b. 1565)
- 1678 – Jerónimo Lobo, Portuguese missionary and author (b. 1593)
- 1706 – Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English poet and courtier (b. 1638)
- 1737 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, Scottish-English field marshal and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1666)
- 1743 – André-Hercule de Fleury, French cardinal (b. 1653)
- 1763 – Louis Racine, French poet (b. 1692)
- 1820 – George III of the United Kingdom (b. 1738)
- 1829 – Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras, French captain and politician (b. 1755)
- 1829 – István Pauli, Hungarian-Slovenian priest and poet (b. 1760)
- 1870 – Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1797)
- 1871 – Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, Canadian author (b. 1786)
- 1888 – Edward Lear, English poet and illustrator (b. 1812)
- 1899 – Alfred Sisley, French-English painter (b. 1839)
- 1906 – Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1818)
- 1928 – Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, Scottish field marshal (b. 1861)
- 1931 – Henri Mathias Berthelot, French general during World War I (b. 1861)
- 1933 – Sara Teasdale, American poet (b. 1884)
- 1934 – Fritz Haber, Polish-German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
- 1941 – Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and politician, 130th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1871)
- 1944 – William Allen White, American journalist and author (b. 1868)
- 1946 – Harry Hopkins, American businessman and politician, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce (b. 1890)
- 1948 – Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta (b. 1900)
- 1950 – Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler (b. 1885)
- 1951 – Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer and umpire (b. 1880)
- 1956 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist and critic (b. 1880)
- 1959 – Winifred Brunton, South African painter and illustrator (b. 1880)
- 1962 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian-American violinist and composer (b. 1875)
- 1963 – Robert Frost, American poet and playwright (b. 1874)
- 1964 – Alan Ladd, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1969 – Allen Welsh Dulles, American banker, lawyer, and diplomat, 5th Director of Central Intelligence (b. 1893)
- 1970 – B. H. Liddell Hart, French-English soldier, historian, and journalist (b. 1895)
- 1977 – Freddie Prinze, American comedian and actor (b. 1954)
- 1978 – Frank Nicklin, Australian politician, 28th Premier of Queensland (b. 1895)
- 1980 – Jimmy Durante, American entertainer (b. 1893)
- 1991 – Yasushi Inoue, Japanese author and poet (b. 1907)
- 1992 – Willie Dixon, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1915)
- 1993 – Adetokunbo Ademola, Nigerian lawyer and jurist, 2nd Chief Justice of Nigeria (b. 1906)
- 1994 – Ulrike Maier, Austrian skier (b. 1967)
- 1999 – Lili St. Cyr, American model and dancer (b. 1918)
- 2002 – Harold Russell, Canadian-American soldier and actor (b. 1914)
- 2003 – Frank Moss, American lawyer and politician (b. 1911)
- 2004 – Janet Frame, New Zealand author and poet (b. 1924)
- 2005 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli author, screenwriter, and director (b. 1924)
- 2006 – Nam June Paik, South Korean-American artist, (b. 1932)
- 2008 – Bengt Lindström, Swedish painter and sculptor (b. 1925)
- 2008 – Margaret Truman, American singer and author (b. 1924)
- 2009 – Hélio Gracie, Brazilian martial artist (b. 1913)
- 2011 – Milton Babbitt, American composer, educator, and theorist (b. 1916)
- 2012 – Ranjit Singh Dyal, Indian general and politician, 10th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Italian lawyer and politician, 9th President of Italy (b. 1918)
- 2012 – Camilla Williams, American soprano and educator (b. 1919)
- 2014 – François Cavanna, French journalist and author (b. 1923)
- 2015 – Colleen McCullough, Australian neuroscientist, author, and academic (b. 1937)
- 2015 – Rod McKuen, American singer-songwriter and poet (b. 1933)
- 2015 – Alexander Vraciu, American commander and pilot (b. 1918)
- 2016 – Jean-Marie Doré, Guinean lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Guinea (b. 1938)
- 2016 – Jacques Rivette, French director, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1928)
- 2019 – George Fernandes, Indian politician (b. 1930)
- 2019 – James Ingram, American musician (b. 1952)
Holidays and observances on January 29
- Christian feast day:
- Andrei Rublev (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Aquilinus of Milan
- Constantius of Perugia
- Dallán Forgaill
- Gildas
- Juniper
- Sabinian of Troyes
- Sulpitius I of Bourges
- Valerius of Trèves
- January 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Earliest day on which Fat Thursday can fall, while March 4 is the latest; celebrated on Thursday before Ash Wednesday. (Christianity)
- Kansas Day (Kansas, United States)
-
January 24 in History
- AD 41 – Claudius is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the Praetorian Guard after they assassinate the previous emperor, his nephew Caligula.
- 914 – Start of the First Fatimid invasion of Egypt.
- 1438 – The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV.
- 1458 – Matthias Corvinus is elected King of Hungary.
- 1536 – King Henry VIII of England suffers an accident while jousting, leading to a brain injury that historians say may have influenced his later erratic behaviour and possible impotence.
- 1679 – King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.
- 1742 – Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1758 – During the Seven Years’ War the leading burghers of Königsberg submit to Elizabeth of Russia, thus forming Russian Prussia (until 1763).
- 1817 – Crossing of the Andes: Many soldiers of Juan Gregorio de las Heras are captured during the Action of Picheuta.
- 1835 – Slaves in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, stage a revolt, which is instrumental in ending slavery there 50 years later.
- 1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento.
- 1857 – The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first fully fledged university in South Asia.
- 1859 – The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (later named Romania) is formed as a personal union under the rule of Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: Boers stop a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.
- 1908 – The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.
- 1915 – World War I: British Grand Fleet battle cruisers under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty engage Rear-Admiral Franz von Hipper’s battle cruisers in the Battle of Dogger Bank.
- 1916 – In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
- 1918 – The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People’s Commissars effective February 14 (New Style).
- 1933 – The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing the beginning and end of terms for all elected federal offices.
- 1939 – The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán, killing approximately 28,000 people.
- 1942 – World War II: The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand, then under Japanese control, to declare war against the United States and United Kingdom.
- 1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
- 1946 – The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.
- 1960 – Algerian War: Some units of European volunteers in Algiers stage an insurrection known as the “barricades week”, during which they seize government buildings and clash with local police.
- 1961 – Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launches Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong during wider fighting around Long Bình and Biên Hòa.
- 1972 – Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
- 1977 – The Atocha massacre occurs in Madrid during the Spanish transition to democracy.
- 1978 – Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth’s atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada’s Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.
- 1984 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.
- 1989 – Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, with over 30 known victims, is executed by the electric chair at the Florida State Prison.
- 1990 – Japan launches Hiten, the country’s first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.
- 2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
- 2009 – Cyclone Klaus makes landfall near Bordeaux, France, causing 26 deaths as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies.
- 2011 – At least 35 are killed and 180 injured in a bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport.
Births on January 24
- AD 76 – Hadrian, Roman emperor (d. 138)
- 1287 – Richard de Bury, English bishop and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (d. 1345)
- 1444 – Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1476)
- 1540 – Edmund Campion, English priest and martyr (d. 1581)
- 1547 – Joanna of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Austrian Archduchess (d. 1578)
- 1602 – Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland, English politician (d. 1666)
- 1619 – Yamazaki Ansai, Japanese philosopher (d. 1682)
- 1643 – Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English poet and politician, Lord Chamberlain of Great Britain (d. 1706)
- 1664 – John Vanbrugh, English architect and dramatist (d. 1726)
- 1670 – William Congreve, English playwright and poet (d. 1729)
- 1672 – Margrave Albert Frederick of Brandenburg-Schwedt, German Lieutenant General (d. 1731)
- 1674 – Thomas Tanner, English bishop (d. 1735)
- 1679 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher and academic (d. 1754)
- 1684 – Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg, German noble (d. 1737)
- 1705 – Farinelli, Italian castrato singer (d. 1782)
- 1709 – Dom Bédos de Celles, French monk and organist (d. 1779)
- 1712 – Frederick the Great, Prussian king (d. 1786)
- 1732 – Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright and financier (d. 1799)
- 1739 – Jean Nicolas Houchard, French General of the French Revolution (d. 1793)
- 1746 – Gustav III of Sweden (d. 1792)
- 1749 – Charles James Fox, English businessman and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 1806)
- 1754 – Andrew Ellicott, American soldier and surveyor (d. 1820)
- 1761 – Louis Klein, French general (d. 1845)
- 1763 – Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, French-Ukrainian general and politician (d. 1831)
- 1776 – E. T. A. Hoffmann, German jurist, author, and composer (d. 1822)
- 1787 – Christian Ludwig Brehm, German pastor and ornithologist (d. 1864)
- 1804 – Delphine de Girardin, French author (d. 1855)
- 1814 – Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, French Crown Princess (d. 1858)
- 1814 – John Colenso, British mathematician (d. 1883)
- 1816 – Wilhelm Henzen, German philologist and epigraphist (d. 1887)
- 1828 – Ferdinand Cohn, German biologist (d. 1898)
- 1829 – Yechiel Michel Epstein, Rabbi and posek (d. 1908)
- 1836 – Signe Rink, Greenland-born Danish writer and ethnologist (d. 1909)
- 1843 – Josip Stadler, Croatian archbishop (d. 1918)
- 1848 – Vasily Surikov, Russian painter (d. 1916)
- 1850 – Hermann Ebbinghaus, German psychologist (d. 1909)
- 1853 – Sigbert Josef Maria Ganser, German psychiatrist (d. 1931)
- 1856 – Friedrich Grünanger, Transylvanian Hungarian-German architect (d. 1929)
- 1858 – Constance Naden, English poet and philosopher (d. 1889)
- 1862 – Edith Wharton, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1937)
- 1863 – August Adler, Czech and Austrian mathematician (d. 1923)
- 1864 – Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and activist (d. 1936)
- 1864 – Gaetano Giardino, Italian soldier and Marshal of Italy (d. 1935)
- 1866 – Jaan Poska, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1920)
- 1870 – Herbert Kilpin, English footballer (d. 1916)
- 1871 – Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, Czech poet, writer and literary critic (d. 1951)
- 1871 – Thomas Jaggar, American volcanologist (d. 1953)
- 1872 – Yuly Aykhenvald, Russian literary critic (d. 1928)
- 1872 – Konstantin Bogaevsky, Russian painter (d. 1943)
- 1872 – Morris Travers, English chemist and academic (d. 1961)
- 1873 – Dmitry Ushakov, Russian philologist and lexicographer (d. 1942)
- 1882 – Harold D. Babcock, American astronomer (d. 1968)
- 1882 – Ödön Bodor, Hungarian athlete (d. 1927)
- 1886 – Henry King, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1982)
- 1887 – Jean-Henri Humbert, French botanist (d. 1967)
- 1888 – Vicki Baum, Austrian author and screenwriter (d. 1960)
- 1888 – Ernst Heinkel, German engineer and businessman, founded the Heinkel Aircraft Manufacturing Company (d. 1958)
- 1889 – Victor Eftimiu, Romanian poet and playwright (d. 1972)
- 1889 – Charles Hawes, American historian and author (d. 1923)
- 1889 – Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke, German general of paratroop forces during World War II (d. 1968)
- 1891 – Walter Model, German field marshal (d. 1945)
- 1892 – Franz Aigner, Austrian weightlifter (d. 1970)
- 1895 – Eugen Roth, German poet and songwriter (d. 1976)
- 1897 – Paul Fejos, Hungarian-born American director (d. 1963)
- 1899 – Hoyt Vandenberg, U.S. Air Force general (d. 1954)
- 1900 – René Guillot, French writer (d. 1969)
- 1901 – Harry Calder, South African cricketer (d. 1995)
- 1901 – Cassandre, French painter (d. 1968)
- 1901 – Edward Turner, English engineer (d. 1973)
- 1905 – J. Howard Marshall, American lawyer and businessman (d. 1995)
- 1906 – Wilfred Jackson, American animator and composer (d. 1988)
- 1907 – Ismail Nasiruddin of Terengganu, fourth Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia (d. 1979)
- 1907 – Maurice Couve de Murville, French soldier and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1999)
- 1907 – Jean Daetwyler, Swiss composer and musician (d. 1994)
- 1909 – Martin Lings, English author and scholar (d. 2005)
- 1910 – Doris Haddock, American political activist (d. 2010)
- 1912 – Frederick Ashworth, American admiral (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Norman Dello Joio, American organist and composer (d. 2008)
- 1913 – Ray Stehr, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 1983)
- 1915 – Vítězslava Kaprálová, Czech composer and conductor (d. 1940)
- 1915 – Robert Motherwell, American painter and academic (d. 1991)
- 1916 – Rafael Caldera, Venezuelan lawyer and politician, 65th President of Venezuela (d. 2009)
- 1916 – Gene Mako, Hungarian-American tennis player and actor (d. 2013)
- 1917 – Ernest Borgnine, American actor (d. 2012)
- 1917 – Wilhelmus Demarteau, Dutch prelate of the Roman Catholic Church (d. 2012)
- 1918 – Gottfried von Einem, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1996)
- 1918 – Oral Roberts, American evangelist, founded Oral Roberts University and Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (d. 2009)
- 1919 – Coleman Francis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1973)
- 1919 – Leon Kirchner, American composer and educator (d. 2009)
- 1920 – Jimmy Forrest, American saxophonist (d. 1980)
- 1920 – Jerry Maren, American actor (d. 2018)
- 1922 – Daniel Boulanger, French actor and screenwriter (d. 2014)
- 1922 – Neil Franklin, English footballer (d. 1996)
- 1923 – Geneviève Asse, French painter
- 1925 – Gus Mortson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1925 – Maria Tallchief, American ballerina and actress (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Ruth Asawa, American sculptor (d. 2013)
- 1926 – Georges Lautner, French director and screenwriter (d. 2013)
- 1927 – Sir Patrick Macnaghten, 11th Baronet, Scottish lieutenant (d. 2007)
- 1927 – Paula Hawkins, American politician (d. 2009)
- 1928 – Desmond Morris, English zoologist, ethologist, and painter
- 1928 – Michel Serrault, French actor (d. 2007)
- 1930 – Terence Bayler, New Zealand actor (d. 2016)
- 1930 – Mahmoud Farshchian, Iranian-Persian painter and academic
- 1930 – John Romita Sr., American comic book artist
- 1931 – Lars Hörmander, Swedish mathematician and academic (d. 2012)
- 1931 – Ib Nørholm, Danish composer and organist
- 1932 – Éliane Radigue, French electronic music composer
- 1933 – Kamran Baghirov, the 12th First Secretary of Azerbaijan Communist Party (d. 2000)
- 1933 – Asim Ferhatović, Bosnian footballer (d. 1987)
- 1934 – Leonard Goldberg, American producer (d. 2019)
- 1934 – Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet and dramatist (d. 1976)
- 1935 – Eric Ashton, English rugby player and coach (d. 2008)
- 1935 – Shivabalayogi, Indian religious leader (d. 1994)
- 1936 – Doug Kershaw, American fiddle player and singer
- 1937 – Trevor Edwards, Welsh footballer
- 1938 – Julius Hemphill, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1995)
- 1939 – Renate Garisch-Culmberger, German shot putter
- 1939 – Ray Stevens, American singer-songwriter and actor
- 1940 – Vito Acconci, American designer (d. 2017)
- 1940 – Joachim Gauck, German pastor and politician, 11th President of Germany
- 1941 – Neil Diamond, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1941 – Aaron Neville, American singer
- 1941 – Dan Shechtman, Israeli chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1942 – Ingo Friedrich, German Member of the European Parliament
- 1942 – Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (d. 2008)
- 1943 – Peter Struck, German lawyer and politician, 13th German Federal Minister of Defence (d. 2012)
- 1943 – Barry Mealand, English footballer, right back (d. 2013)
- 1943 – Sharon Tate, American model and actress (d. 1969)
- 1943 – Tony Trimmer, English race car driver
- 1943 – Manuel Velázquez, Spanish footballer (d. 2016)
- 1944 – David Gerrold, American science fiction screenwriter and author
- 1944 – Gian-Franco Kasper, Swiss ski official
- 1945 – John Garamendi, American football player and politician, 1st United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior
- 1945 – Subhash Ghai, Indian director, producer and screenwriter
- 1945 – Eva Janko, Austrian javelin thrower
- 1946 – Michael Ontkean, Canadian actor
- 1947 – Giorgio Chinaglia, Italian footballer (d. 2012)
- 1947 – Michio Kaku, American physicist and academic
- 1947 – Masashi Ozaki, Japanese baseball player and golfer
- 1947 – Warren Zevon, American singer-songwriter (d. 2003)
- 1948 – Elliott Abrams, American diplomat, lawyer and political scientist
- 1948 – Michael Des Barres, English singer-songwriter and actor
- 1949 – John Belushi, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1982)
- 1949 – Bart Gordon, American lawyer
- 1949 – Nadezhda Ilyina, Russian athlete and mother of Russian tennis player Nadia Petrova (d. 2013)
- 1949 – Rihoko Yoshida, Japanese voice actress
- 1950 – Daniel Auteuil, French actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1951 – Yakov Smirnoff, Ukrainian-American comedian and actor
- 1953 – Yuri Bashmet, Russian violinist, viola player, and conductor
- 1953 – Moon Jae-in, 19th President of South Korea
- 1954 – Jo Gartner, Austrian race car driver (d. 1986)
- 1955 – Jim Montgomery, American swimmer
- 1955 – Alan Sokal, American physicist and author
- 1955 – Lynda Weinman, American businesswoman and author
- 1956 – Agus Martowardojo, governor of Bank Indonesia
- 1957 – Mark Eaton, American basketball player and sportscaster
- 1957 – Ade Edmondson, English comedian and musician
- 1958 – Kim Eui-kon, Korean wrestler
- 1958 – Jools Holland, English singer-songwriter and pianist
- 1958 – Frank Ullrich, German biathlete
- 1959 – Akira Maeda, Japanese wrestler, mixed martial artist, and actor
- 1959 – Michel Preud’homme, Belgian footballer and manager
- 1961 – Jorge Barrios, Uruguayan footballer
- 1961 – Guido Buchwald, German footballer and manager
- 1961 – Christa Kinshofer, German ski racer
- 1961 – Nastassja Kinski, German-American actress and producer
- 1961 – William Van Dijck, Belgian runner
- 1963 – Arnold Vanderlyde, Dutch boxer
- 1964 – Annika Dahlman, Swedish cross country skier
- 1965 – Robin Dutt, German footballer
- 1965 – Carlos Saldanha, Brazilian-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1965 – Margaret Urlich, New Zealand singer-songwriter
- 1965 – Pagonis Vakalopoulos, Greek footballer and manager
- 1965 – Kim Sung-moon, South Korean wrestler
- 1966 – Julie Dreyfus, French actress
- 1966 – Karin Viard, French actress
- 1967 – Michael Kiske, German singer
- 1967 – Mark Kozelek, American singer and musician
- 1967 – Phil LaMarr, American actor, singer, and screenwriter
- 1967 – John Myung, American bass player and songwriter
- 1968 – Fernando Escartín, Spanish cyclist
- 1968 – Antony Garrett Lisi, American theoretical physicist
- 1968 – Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
- 1968 – Tymerlan Huseynov, Ukrainian footballer
- 1969 – Yoo Ho-jeong, South Korean actress
- 1969 – Carlos Rômulo Gonçalves e Silva, bishop of Montenegro
- 1970 – Roberto Bonano, Argentine footballer
- 1970 – Neil Johnson, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1970 – Matthew Lillard, American actor
- 1971 – José Carlos Fernandez, Bolivian footballer
- 1972 – Beth Hart, American blues-rock singer and piano player
- 1974 – Cyril Despres, French rally racer
- 1974 – Ed Helms, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1974 – Melissa Tkautz, Australian actress and singer
- 1974 – Rokia Traoré, Malian singer
- 1975 – Gianluca Basile, Italian former professional basketball player
- 1975 – Rónald Gómez, Costa Rican footballer and manager
- 1975 – Reto Hug, Swiss triathlonist
- 1975 – Henna Raita, Finnish alpine skier
- 1976 – Shae-Lynn Bourne, Canadian ice dancer, coach, and choreographer
- 1976 – Cindy Pieters, Belgian cyclist
- 1977 – Andrija Gerić, Serbian volleyball player
- 1977 – Michelle Hunziker, Swiss-Dutch actress, model and singer
- 1978 – Veerle Baetens, Belgian actress and singer
- 1978 – Mark Hildreth, Canadian actor and musician
- 1978 – Kristen Schaal, American actress, voice artist, comedian and writer
- 1979 – Tatyana Ali, American actress and singer
- 1979 – Leandro Desábato, Argentinian footballer
- 1979 – Busy Signal, Jamaican dancehall reggae artist
- 1979 – Nik Wallenda, American acrobat
- 1980 – Jofre Mateu, Spanish footballer
- 1980 – Suzy, Portuguese singer
- 1981 – Mario Eggimann, Swiss footballer
- 1981 – Zaur Hashimov, Azerbaijani footballer and manager
- 1981 – Elena Kolomina, Kazakhstani cross country skier
- 1982 – Céline Deville, French footballer
- 1982 – Daveed Diggs, American actor, rapper and singer
- 1982 – Claudia Heill, Austrian judoka
- 1982 – Aitor Hernández, Spanish racing cyclist
- 1983 – Davide Biondini, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Wyatt Crockett, New Zealand rugby player
- 1983 – Evgeny Drattsev, Russian swimmer
- 1983 – Craig Horner, Australian actor and musician
- 1983 – Shaun Maloney, Scottish footballer
- 1983 – Scott Speed, American race car driver
- 1984 – Emerse Faé, French-born Ivorian footballer
- 1984 – Yotam Halperin, Israeli basketball player
- 1984 – Jung Jin-sun, South Korean fencer
- 1984 – Scott Kazmir, American baseball player
- 1984 – Paulo Sérgio Moreira Gonçalves, Portuguese footballer
- 1985 – Fabiana Claudino, Brazilian volleyball player
- 1985 – Trey Gilder, American basketball player
- 1986 – Cristiano Araújo, Brazilian singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
- 1986 – Mohammad Bagheri Motamed, Iranian taekwondo practitioner
- 1986 – Mischa Barton, English-American actress
- 1986 – Vladislav Ivanov, Russian footballer
- 1986 – Michael Kightly, English footballer
- 1986 – Ricky Ullman, Israeli-American actor
- 1987 – Wayne Hennessey, Welsh footballer
- 1987 – Luis Suárez, Uruguayan footballer
- 1987 – Davide Valsecchi, Italian racing driver
- 1987 – Kia Vaughn, American born Czech basketball player
- 1987 – Guan Xin, Chinese basketball player
- 1988 – Selina Jörg, German snowboarder
- 1989 – Serdar Kesimal, Turkish footballer
- 1989 – Gong Lijiao, Chinese shot putter
- 1989 – Ki Sung-yueng, South Korean footballer
- 1990 – Mao Abe, Japanese singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1991 – Zhan Beleniuk, Ukrainian Greco-Roman wrestler
- 1991 – Tatiana Kashirina, Russian weightlifter
- 1991 – Zé Luís, Cape Verdean footballer
- 1991 – Li Xuerui, Chinese badminton player
- 1992 – Becky Downie, English gymnast
- 1992 – Phiwa Nkambule, South African entrepreneur
- 1992 – Felitciano Zschusschen, Curaçao footballer
- 1994 – Tommie Hoban, English footballer
- 1995 – Dylan Everett, Canadian actor
- 1997 – Nirei Fukuzumi, Japanese racer
- 1999 – Vitalie Damașcan, Moldovan footballer
- 2012 – Princess Athena of Denmark, younger child of Prince Joachim and Princess Marie of Denmark
Deaths onJanuary 24
- AD 41 – Caligula, Roman emperor (b. 12)
- 817 – Pope Stephen IV (b. 770)
- 901 – Liu Jishu, general of the Tang Dynasty
- 1046 – Eckard II, Margrave of Meissen (b. c. 985)
- 1125 – David IV of Georgia (b. 1073)
- 1336 – Alfonso IV of Aragon (b. 1299)
- 1376 – Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, English commander (b. 1306)
- 1473 – Conrad Paumann, German organist and composer (b. 1410)
- 1525 – Franciabigio, Florentine painter (b. 1482)
- 1595 – Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (b. 1529)
- 1626 – Samuel Argall, English captain and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1572)
- 1639 – Jörg Jenatsch, Swiss pastor and politician (b. 1596)
- 1666 – Johann Andreas Herbst, German composer and theorist (b. 1588)
- 1709 – George Rooke, English admiral and politician (b. 1650)
- 1877 – Johann Christian Poggendorff, German physicist and journalist (b. 1796)
- 1881 – James Collinson, English painter (b. 1825)
- 1883 – Friedrich von Flotow, German composer (b. 1812)
- 1895 – Lord Randolph Churchill, English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1849)
- 1920 – Amedeo Modigliani, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1884)
- 1939 – Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician, created Muesli (b. 1867)
- 1943 – John Burns, English trade union leader and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (b. 1858)
- 1960 – Edwin Fischer, Swiss pianist and conductor (b. 1886)
- 1961 – Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (b. 1884)
- 1962 – André Lhote, French sculptor and painter (b. 1885)
- 1962 – Stanley Lord, English naval captain (b. 1877)
- 1962 – Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Turkish author, poet, and scholar (b. 1901)
- 1965 – Winston Churchill, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
- 1966 – Homi J. Bhabha, Indian physicist and academic (b. 1909)
- 1970 – Caresse Crosby, American fashion designer and publisher, co-founded the Black Sun Press (b. 1891)
- 1971 – Bill W., American activist, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (b. 1895)
- 1973 – J. Carrol Naish, American actor (b. 1896)
- 1975 – Larry Fine, American comedian (b. 1902)
- 1982 – Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian general and politician, 56th President of Bolivia (b. 1918)
- 1983 – George Cukor, American director and producer (b. 1899)
- 1986 – L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (b. 1911)
- 1986 – Gordon MacRae, American actor and singer (b. 1921)
- 1988 – Werner Fenchel, German-Danish mathematician and academic (b. 1905)
- 1989 – Ted Bundy, American serial killer (b. 1946)
- 1990 – Madge Bellamy, American actress (b. 1899)
- 1991 – Jack Schaefer, American journalist and author (b. 1907)
- 1992 – Ken Darby, American composer and conductor (b. 1909)
- 1993 – Gustav Ernesaks, Estonian composer and conductor (b. 1908)
- 1993 – Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and jurist, 32nd United States Solicitor General (b. 1908)
- 2002 – Elie Hobeika, Lebanese commander and politician (b. 1956)
- 2003 – Gianni Agnelli, Italian businessman (b. 1921)
- 2004 – Leônidas, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1913)
- 2006 – Schafik Handal, Salvadoran politician (b. 1930)
- 2007 – Krystyna Feldman, Polish actress (b. 1916)
- 2007 – İsmail Cem İpekçi, Turkish journalist and politician, 45th Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1940)
- 2007 – Guadalupe Larriva, Ecuadorian academic and politician (b. 1956)
- 2007 – Emiliano Mercado del Toro, Puerto Rican-American soldier (b. 1891)
- 2010 – Pernell Roberts, American actor (b. 1928)
- 2011 – Bernd Eichinger, German director and producer (b. 1949)
- 2014 – Shulamit Aloni, Israeli lawyer and politician, 11th Israeli Minister of Education (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Rafael Pineda Ponce, Honduran academic and politician (b. 1930)
- 2015 – Otto Carius, German lieutenant and pharmacist (b. 1922)
- 2016 – Fredrik Barth, German-Norwegian anthropologist and academic (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Marvin Minsky, American computer scientist and academic (b. 1927)
- 2016 – Henry Worsley, English colonel and explorer (b. 1960)
- 2017 – Butch Trucks, American drummer (b. 1947)
- 2018 – Mark E. Smith, British singer-songwriter (b. 1957)
- 2019 – Rosemary Bryant Mariner, American United States Naval Aviator (b. 1953)
Holidays and observances on January 24
- Christian feast day:
- Babylas of Antioch
- Cadoc (Wales)
- Exuperantius of Cingoli
- Felician of Foligno
- Francis de Sales
- Pratulin Martyrs (Greek Catholic Church)
- January 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Earliest day on which Saturday of Souls can fall, while February 27 (or 28 during Leap Year) is the latest; observed 57 days before Easter. (Eastern Orthodox)
- Feast of Our Lady of Peace (Roman Catholic Church), and its related observances:
- Feria de Alasitas (La Paz)
- Unification Day (Romania)
- Uttar Pradesh Day (Uttar Pradesh, India)
-
January 14 in History
- 1236 – King Henry III of England marries Eleanor of Provence.
- 1301 – Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Árpád dynasty in Hungary.
- 1343 – Arnošt of Pardubice becomes the last bishop of Prague and, subsequently, the first Archbishop of Prague.
- 1539 – Spain annexes Cuba.
- 1639 – The “Fundamental Orders”, the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut.
- 1761 – The Third Battle of Panipat is fought in India between the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Marathas.
- 1784 – American Revolutionary War: Ratification Day, United States – Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.
- 1814 – Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes the Kingdom of Norway to Charles XIII of Sweden in return for Pomerania.
- 1822 – Greek War of Independence: Acrocorinth is captured by Theodoros Kolokotronis and Demetrios Ypsilantis.
- 1858 – Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt made by Felice Orsini and his accomplices in Paris.
- 1907 – An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000 people.
- 1911 – Roald Amundsen’s South Pole expedition makes landfall on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.
- 1939 – Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
- 1943 – World War II: Japan begins Operation Ke, the successful operation to evacuate its forces from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
- 1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.
- 1950 – The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.
- 1952 – NBC’s long-running morning news program Today debuts, with host Dave Garroway.
- 1953 – Josip Broz Tito is inaugurated as the first President of Yugoslavia.
- 1954 – The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.
- 1957 – Kripalu Maharaj was named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher) after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars.
- 1960 – The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country’s central bank and banknote issuing authority, is established.
- 1967 – Counterculture of the 1960s: The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco, California’s Golden Gate Park, launching the Summer of Love.
- 1967 – The New York Times reports that the U.S. Army is conducting secret germ warfare experiments.
- 1969 – USS Enterprise fire: An accidental explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 28 people.
- 1972 – Queen Margrethe II of Denmark ascends the throne, the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513.
- 1973 – Elvis Presley’s concert Aloha from Hawaii is broadcast live via satellite, and sets the record as the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history.
- 1993 – In Poland’s worst peacetime maritime disaster, ferry MS Jan Heweliusz sinks off the coast of Rügen, drowning 55 passengers and crew; nine crew-members are saved.
- 2000 – A United Nations tribunal sentences five Roman Catholic Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years in prison for the 1993 killing of more than 100 Bosnian Muslims.
- 2004 – The national flag of the Republic of Georgia, the so-called “five cross flag”, is restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.
- 2010 – Yemen declares an open war against the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
- 2011 – Former president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees his country to Saudi Arabia after a series of street demonstrations against his regime and corrupt policies, asking for freedom, rights and democracy, considered as the anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution and the birth of the Arab Spring.
Births onJanuary 14
- 83 BC – Mark Antony, Roman general and politician (d. 30 BCE)
- 1131 – Valdemar I of Denmark (d. 1182)
- 1273 – Joan I of Navarre, queen regnant of Navarre, queen consort of France (d. 1305)
- 1451 – Franchinus Gaffurius, Italian composer and theorist (d. 1522)
- 1477 – Hermann of Wied, German archbishop (d. 1552)
- 1476 – Anne St Leger, Baroness de Ros, English baroness (d. 1526)
- 1507 – Catherine of Austria, Queen of Portugal (d. 1578)
- 1507 – Luca Longhi, Italian painter (d. 1580)
- 1551 – Abu’l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, Grand vizier of emperor Akbar (d. 1602)
- 1552 – Alberico Gentili, Italian-English academic and jurist (d. 1608)
- 1615 – John Biddle, English minister and theologian (d. 1662)
- 1683 – Gottfried Silbermann, German instrument maker (d. 1753)
- 1684 – Johann Matthias Hase, German mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer (d. 1742)
- 1684 – Jean-Baptiste van Loo, French painter (d. 1745)
- 1699 – Jakob Adlung, German organist, historian, and theorist (d. 1762)
- 1700 – Picander, German poet and playwright (d. 1764)
- 1702 – Emperor Nakamikado of Japan (d. 1737)
- 1705 – Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier, French sailor, explorer, and politician (d. 1786)
- 1741 – Benedict Arnold, American-British general (d. 1801)
- 1767 – Maria Theresa of Austria (d. 1827)
- 1780 – Henry Baldwin, American judge and politician (d. 1844)
- 1792 – Christian de Meza, Danish general (d. 1865)
- 1793 – John C. Clark, American lawyer and politician (d. 1852)
- 1798 – Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, Dutch historian, jurist, and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1872)
- 1800 – Ludwig Ritter von Köchel, Austrian composer, botanist, and publisher (d. 1877)
- 1806 – Charles Hotham, English-Australian soldier and politician, 1st Governor of Victoria (d. 1855)
- 1806 – Matthew Fontaine Maury, American astronomer, oceanographer, and historian (d. 1873)
- 1818 – Zachris Topelius, Finnish author and journalist (d. 1898)
- 1819 – Dimitrie Bolintineanu, Romanian poet and politician (d. 1872)
- 1824 – Vladimir Stasov, Russian critic (d. 1906)
- 1834 – Duncan Gillies, Scottish-Australian politician, 14th Premier of Victoria (d. 1903)
- 1836 – Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter and lithographer (d. 1904)
- 1841 – Berthe Morisot, French painter (d. 1895)
- 1845 – Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, English politician, 34th Governor-General of India (d. 1927)
- 1850 – Pierre Loti, French captain and author (d. 1923)
- 1856 – J. F. Archibald, Australian journalist and publisher, co-founded The Bulletin (d. 1919)
- 1861 – Mehmed VI, Ottoman sultan (d. 1926)
- 1862 – Carrie Derick, Canadian botanist and geneticist (d. 1941)
- 1863 – Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa, Portuguese general and politician, 10th President of Portugal (d. 1929)
- 1863 – Richard F. Outcault, American author and illustrator (d. 1928)
- 1869 – Robert Fournier-Sarlovèze, French polo player and politician (d. 1937)
- 1870 – George Pearce, Australian carpenter and politician (d. 1952)
- 1875 – Albert Schweitzer, French-Gabonese physician and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
- 1882 – Hendrik Willem van Loon, Dutch-American historian and journalist (d. 1944)
- 1883 – Nina Ricci, Italian-French fashion designer (d. 1970)
- 1886 – Hugh Lofting, English author and poet, created Doctor Dolittle (d. 1947)
- 1887 – Hugo Steinhaus, Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1972)
- 1892 – Martin Niemöller, German pastor and theologian (d. 1984)
- 1892 – Hal Roach, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1992)
- 1892 – George Wilson, English footballer (d. 1961)
- 1894 – Ecaterina Teodoroiu, Romanian soldier and nurse (d. 1917)
- 1896 – John Dos Passos, American novelist, poet, and playwright (d. 1970)
- 1897 – Hasso von Manteuffel, German general and politician (d. 1978)
- 1899 – Carlos P. Romulo, Filipino soldier and politician, President of the United Nations General Assembly (d. 1985)
- 1901 – Bebe Daniels, American actress (d. 1971)
- 1901 – Alfred Tarski, Polish-American mathematician and philosopher (d. 1983)
- 1904 – Cecil Beaton, English photographer, painter, and costume designer (d. 1980)
- 1904 – Emily Hahn, American journalist and author (d. 1997)
- 1904 – Babe Siebert, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1939)
- 1905 – Mildred Albert, American fashion commentator, TV and radio personality, and fashion show producer (d. 1991)
- 1905 – Takeo Fukuda, Japanese politician, 67th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1995)
- 1906 – William Bendix, American actor (d. 1964)
- 1907 – Georges-Émile Lapalme, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1985)
- 1908 – Russ Columbo, American singer, violinist, and actor (d. 1934)
- 1909 – Brenda Forbes, English-American actress (d. 1996)
- 1909 – Joseph Losey, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1984)
- 1911 – Anatoly Rybakov, Russian-American author (d. 1998)
- 1912 – Tillie Olsen, American short story writer (d. 2007)
- 1914 – Harold Russell, Canadian-American soldier and actor (d. 2002)
- 1914 – Selahattin Ülkümen, Turkish diplomat (d. 2003)
- 1915 – Mark Goodson, American game show producer, created Family Feud and The Price Is Right (d. 1992)
- 1919 – Giulio Andreotti, Italian journalist and politician, 41st Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2013)
- 1919 – Andy Rooney, American soldier, journalist, critic, and television personality (d. 2011)
- 1920 – Bertus de Harder, Dutch footballer and manager (d. 1982)
- 1921 – Murray Bookchin, American author and philosopher (d. 2006)
- 1921 – Kenneth Bulmer, American author (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Diana Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington (d. 2010)
- 1923 – Gerald Arpino, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2008)
- 1923 – Fred Beckey, American mountaineer and author (d. 2017)
- 1924 – Carole Cook, American actress and singer
- 1925 – Jean-Claude Beton, Algerian-French engineer and businessman, founded Orangina (d. 2013)
- 1925 – Moscelyne Larkin, American ballerina (d. 2012)
- 1925 – Yukio Mishima, Japanese author, poet, and playwright (d. 1970)
- 1926 – Frank Aletter, American actor (d. 2009)
- 1926 – Warren Mitchell, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2015)
- 1926 – Tom Tryon, American actor and author (d. 1991)
- 1927 – Zuzana Růžičková, Czech harpsichord player (d. 2017)
- 1928 – Lars Forssell, Swedish author, poet, and songwriter (d. 2007)
- 1928 – Hans Kornberg, German-English biologist and academic (d. 2019)
- 1928 – Garry Winogrand, American photographer and author (d. 1984)
- 1930 – Johnny Grande, American pianist and accordion player (d. 2006)
- 1930 – Kenny Wheeler, Canadian-English trumpet player and composer (d. 2014)
- 1931 – Frank Costigan, Australian lawyer and politician (d. 2009)
- 1931 – Martin Holdgate, English biologist and academic
- 1932 – Don Garlits, American race car driver and engineer
- 1933 – Stan Brakhage, American director and producer (d. 2003)
- 1934 – Richard Briers, English actor (d. 2013)
- 1934 – Alberto Rodriguez Larreta, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1977)
- 1936 – Clarence Carter, American blues and soul singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer
- 1937 – J. Bernlef, Dutch author and poet (d. 2012)
- 1937 – Ken Higgs, English cricketer and coach (d. 2016)
- 1937 – Leo Kadanoff, American physicist and academic (d. 2015)
- 1937 – Rao Gopal Rao, Indian actor, producer, and politician (d. 1994)
- 1937 – Sonny Siebert, American baseball player
- 1937 – Billie Jo Spears, American country singer (d. 2011)
- 1938 – Morihiro Hosokawa, Japanese journalist and politician, 79th Prime Minister of Japan
- 1938 – Jack Jones, American singer and actor
- 1938 – Allen Toussaint, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 2015)
- 1939 – Kurt Moylan, Guamanian businessman and politician, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Guam
- 1940 – Julian Bond, American academic and politician (d. 2015)
- 1940 – Ron Kostelnik, American football player (d. 1993)
- 1940 – Siegmund Nimsgern, German opera singer
- 1940 – Trevor Nunn, English director and composer
- 1940 – Vasilka Stoeva, Bulgarian discus thrower
- 1941 – Nicholas Brooks, English historian (d. 2014)
- 1941 – Faye Dunaway, American actress and producer
- 1941 – Gibby Gilbert, American golfer
- 1941 – Milan Kučan, Slovenian politician, 1st President of Slovenia
- 1942 – Dave Campbell, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1942 – Gerben Karstens, Dutch cyclist
- 1943 – Angelo Bagnasco, Italian cardinal
- 1943 – Mariss Jansons, Latvian conductor (d. 2019)
- 1943 – Shannon Lucid, American biochemist and astronaut
- 1943 – Holland Taylor, American actress and playwright
- 1944 – Marjoe Gortner, American actor and evangelist
- 1944 – Graham Marsh, Australian golfer and architect
- 1944 – Nina Totenberg, American journalist
- 1945 – Kathleen Chalfant, American actress
- 1945 – Maina Gielgud, English ballerina and director
- 1947 – Taylor Branch, American historian and author
- 1947 – Bev Perdue, American educator and politician, 73rd Governor of North Carolina
- 1947 – Bill Werbeniuk, Canadian snooker player (d. 2003)
- 1948 – T Bone Burnett, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1948 – Muhriz of Negeri Sembilan, Yamtuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan
- 1948 – Carl Weathers, American football player and actor
- 1949 – Lawrence Kasdan, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1949 – Mary Robison, American short story writer and novelist
- 1949 – İlyas Salman, Turkish actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1949 – Lamar Williams, American bass player (d. 1983)
- 1950 – Rambhadracharya, Indian religious leader, scholar, and author
- 1950 – Arthur Byron Cover, American author and screenwriter
- 1951 – O. Panneerselvam, Indian politician, 7th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
- 1952 – Sydney Biddle Barrows, American businesswoman and author
- 1952 – Maureen Dowd, American journalist and author
- 1952 – Konstantinos Iosifidis, Greek footballer and manager
- 1952 – Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, Romanian engineer and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Romania
- 1953 – David Clary, English chemist and academic
- 1953 – Denzil Douglas, Caribbean educator and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis
- 1953 – Hans Westerhoff, Dutch biologist and academic
- 1956 – Étienne Daho, Algerian-French singer-songwriter and producer
- 1957 – Anchee Min, Chinese-American painter, photographer, and author
- 1959 – Geoff Tate, German-American singer-songwriter and musician
- 1961 – Rob Hall, New Zealand mountaineer (d. 1996)
- 1963 – Steven Soderbergh, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1964 – Beverly Kinch, English long jumper and sprinter
- 1964 – Shepard Smith, American television journalist
- 1965 – Marc Delissen, Dutch field hockey player, coach, and lawyer
- 1965 – Bob Essensa, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1965 – Slick Rick, English-American rapper and producer
- 1966 – Rob Flello, English lawyer and politician
- 1966 – Terry Angus, English footballer, central defender
- 1966 – Marco Hietala, Finnish singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
- 1966 – Rene Simpson, Canadian-American tennis player (d. 2013)
- 1966 – Dan Schneider, American TV-producer
- 1967 – Leonardo Ortolani, Italian author and illustrator, created Rat-Man
- 1967 – Emily Watson, English actress
- 1968 – LL Cool J, American rapper and actor
- 1968 – Ruel Fox, English-Montserratian footballer, Midfielder, Manager and Chairman
- 1969 – Jason Bateman, American actor, director, and producer
- 1969 – Martin Bicknell, English cricketer
- 1969 – Dave Grohl, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and drummer
- 1971 – Lasse Kjus, Norwegian skier
- 1971 – Bert Konterman, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1971 – Antonios Nikopolidis, Greek footballer and manager
- 1972 – Kyle Brady, American football player and sportscaster
- 1972 – Dion Forster, South African minister, theologian, and author
- 1972 – James Key, English engineer
- 1973 – Giancarlo Fisichella, Italian race car driver
- 1973 – Paul Tisdale, English footballer and manager
- 1974 – David Flitcroft, English footballer and manager
- 1975 – Georgina Cates, English actress
- 1976 – Vincenzo Chianese, Italian footballer
- 1977 – Narain Karthikeyan, Indian race car driver
- 1977 – Terry Ryan, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1978 – Shawn Crawford, American sprinter
- 1979 – Karen Elson, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and model
- 1979 – Evans Soligo, Italian footballer
- 1980 – Clive Clarke, Irish footballer
- 1980 – Cory Gibbs, American soccer player
- 1981 – Abdelmalek Cherrad, Algerian footballer
- 1981 – Hyleas Fountain, American heptathlete
- 1981 – Concepción Montaner, Spanish long jumper
- 1981 – Chiharu Niiyama, Japanese actress and model
- 1981 – Jadranka Đokić, Croatian actress
- 1982 – Braith Anasta, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
- 1982 – Marc Broussard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1982 – Chris Heighington, Australian-English rugby league player
- 1982 – Léo Lima, Brazilian footballer
- 1982 – Thomas Longosiwa, Kenyan runner
- 1982 – Víctor Valdés, Spanish footballer
- 1983 – Cesare Bovo, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Jason Krejza, Australian cricketer
- 1984 – Erick Aybar, American baseball player
- 1984 – Erika Matsuo, Japanese violinist
- 1984 – Mike Pelfrey, American baseball player
- 1985 – Joel Rosario, Dominican-American jockey
- 1985 – Shawn Sawyer, Canadian figure skater
- 1986 – Yohan Cabaye, French footballer
- 1986 – Alessio Cossu, Italian footballer
- 1987 – Atsushi Hashimoto, Japanese actor
- 1987 – Jess Fishlock, Welsh footballer
- 1988 – Kacey Barnfield, English actress
- 1988 – Jack P. Shepherd, English actor
- 1989 – Frankie Bridge, English singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1989 – Adam Clayton, English footballer
- 1989 – Mattia Marchi, Italian footballer
- 1989 – Liu Xiaodong, Chinese footballer
- 1990 – Lelisa Desisa, Ethiopian runner
- 1990 – Grant Gustin, American actor and singer
- 1990 – Áron Szilágyi, Hungarian fencer
- 1992 – Robbie Brady, Irish footballer
- 1992 – Chieh-Yu Hsu, American tennis player
- 1993 – Daniel Bessa, Brazilian footballer
- 1994 – Kane Elgey, Australian rugby league player
- 1994 – Abi Phillips, English singer-songwriter and actress
- 1994 – Kai, South Korean singer, model, actor and dancer
- 1995 – Georgios Diamantakos, Greek basketball player
- 1995 – Alex Johnston, Australian rugby league player
Deaths on January 14
- 769 – Cui Huan, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
- 927 – Wang Yanhan, king of Min (Ten Kingdoms)
- 937 – Zhang Yanlang, Chinese official
- 973 – Ekkehard I, Frankish monk and poet
- 1092 – Vratislaus II of Bohemia
- 1163 – Ladislaus II of Hungary (b. 1131)
- 1236 – Saint Sava, Serbian archbishop and saint (b. 1175)
- 1301 – Andrew III of Hungary (b. 1265)
- 1331 – Odoric of Pordenone, Italian priest and explorer (b. 1286)
- 1465 – Thomas Beckington, English statesman and prelate
- 1476 – John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk (b. 1444)
- 1555 – Jacques Dubois, French anatomist (b. 1478)
- 1640 – Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, English lawyer, judge, and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (b. 1578)
- 1648 – Caspar Barlaeus, Dutch historian, poet, and theologian (b. 1584)
- 1676 – Francesco Cavalli, Italian organist and composer (b. 1602)
- 1679 – Jacques de Billy, French mathematician and academic (b. 1602)
- 1701 – Tokugawa Mitsukuni, Japanese daimyō (b. 1628)
- 1742 – Edmond Halley, English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist (b. 1656)
- 1753 – George Berkeley, Anglo-Irish philosopher and author (b. 1685)
- 1766 – Frederick V of Denmark (b. 1723)
- 1776 – Edward Cornwallis, English general and politician, Governor of Gibraltar (b. 1713)
- 1786 – Michael Arne, English organist and composer (b. 1741)
- 1786 – Meshech Weare, American lawyer and politician, 1st Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1713)
- 1823 – Athanasios Kanakaris, Greek politician (b. 1760)
- 1825 – George Dance the Younger, English architect and surveyor (b. 1741)
- 1833 – Seraphim of Sarov, Russian monk and saint (b. 1759)
- 1867 – Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French painter and illustrator (b. 1780)
- 1874 – Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist and academic, invented the Reis telephone (b. 1834)
- 1883 – Napoléon Coste, French guitarist and composer (b. 1806)
- 1888 – Stephen Heller, Hungarian pianist and composer (b. 1813)
- 1889 – Ema Pukšec, Croatian soprano (b. 1834)
- 1892 – Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (b. 1864)
- 1892 – Alexander J. Davis, American architect (b. 1803)
- 1898 – Lewis Carroll, English novelist, poet, and mathematician (b. 1832)
- 1901 – Mandell Creighton, English bishop and historian (b. 1843)
- 1901 – Charles Hermite, French mathematician and theorist (b. 1822)
- 1905 – Ernst Abbe, German physicist and engineer (b. 1840)
- 1907 – Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet, Scottish soldier and politician, 6th Governor of New Zealand (b. 1832)
- 1908 – Holger Drachmann, Danish poet and playwright (b. 1846)
- 1915 – Richard Meux Benson, English priest and saint, founded the Society of St. John the Evangelist (b. 1824)
- 1919 – Platon, Estonian bishop and saint (b. 1869)
- 1920 – John Francis Dodge, American businessman, co-founded the Dodge Automobile Company (b. 1864)
- 1926 – August Sedláček, Czech historian and author (b. 1843)
- 1934 – Ioan Cantacuzino, Romanian physician and bacteriologist (b. 1863)
- 1937 – Jaishankar Prasad, Indian poet, author, and playwright (b. 1889)
- 1942 – Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and author (b. 1883)
- 1943 – Laura E. Richards, American author and poet (b. 1850)
- 1944 – Mehmet Emin Yurdakul, Turkish author and politician (b. 1869)
- 1949 – Harry Stack Sullivan, American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (b. 1892)
- 1951 – Gregorios Xenopoulos, Greek author, journalist, and playwright (b. 1867)
- 1952 – Artur Kapp, Estonian composer and conductor (b. 1878)
- 1957 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (b. 1899)
- 1959 – Eivind Berggrav, Norwegian bishop and translator (b. 1884)
- 1961 – Barry Fitzgerald, Irish actor (b. 1888)
- 1962 – M. Visvesvaraya, Indian engineer, scholar, and politician (b. 1860)
- 1965 – Jeanette MacDonald, American actress and singer (b. 1903)
- 1966 – Sergei Korolev, Ukrainian-Russian engineer and academic (b. 1906)
- 1968 – Dorothea Mackellar, Australian poet and author (b. 1885)
- 1970 – William Feller, Croatian-American mathematician and academic (b. 1906)
- 1970 – Asım Gündüz, Turkish general (b. 1880)
- 1972 – Horst Assmy, German footballer (b. 1933)
- 1972 – Frederick IX of Denmark (b. 1899)
- 1976 – Abdul Razak Hussein, Malaysian lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Malaysia (b. 1922)
- 1977 – Anthony Eden, English soldier and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1897)
- 1977 – Peter Finch, English-Australian actor (b. 1916)
- 1977 – Anaïs Nin, French-American essayist and memoirist (b. 1903)
- 1978 – Harold Abrahams, English sprinter, lawyer, and journalist (b. 1899)
- 1978 – Kurt Gödel, Austrian-American mathematician and philosopher (b. 1906)
- 1978 – Robert Heger, German conductor and composer (b. 1886)
- 1978 – Blossom Rock, American actress (b. 1895)
- 1980 – Robert Ardrey, American-South African author, playwright, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
- 1981 – John O’Grady, Australian author and poet (b. 1907)
- 1981 – G. Lloyd Spencer, American lieutenant and politician (b. 1893)
- 1984 – Ray Kroc, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1902)
- 1986 – Donna Reed, American actress (b. 1921)
- 1987 – Turgut Demirağ, Turkish director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1921)
- 1987 – Douglas Sirk, German-Swiss director and screenwriter (b. 1900)
- 1988 – Georgy Malenkov, Russian engineer and politician, 5th Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1902)
- 1991 – Gordon Bryant, Australian educator and politician (b. 1914)
- 1995 – Alexander Gibson, Scottish conductor (b. 1926)
- 1996 – Onno Tunç, Armenian-Turkish composer (b. 1948)
- 1997 – Dollard Ménard, Canadian general (b. 1913)
- 2000 – Leonard Weisgard, American author and illustrator (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Uta Hagen, German-American actress (b. 1919)
- 2004 – Ron O’Neal, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1937)
- 2005 – Charlotte MacLeod, Canadian-American author (b. 1922)
- 2005 – Conroy Maddox, English painter and educator (b. 1912)
- 2005 – Rudolph Moshammer, German fashion designer (b. 1940)
- 2005 – Jesús Rafael Soto, Venezuelan sculptor and painter (b. 1923)
- 2006 – Henri Colpi, French director and screenwriter (b. 1921)
- 2006 – Jim Gary, American sculptor (b. 1939)
- 2006 – Shelley Winters, American actress (b. 1920)
- 2007 – Vassilis Photopoulos, Greek painter, director, and set designer (b. 1934)
- 2008 – Judah Folkman, American physician, biologist, and academic (b. 1933)
- 2009 – Jan Kaplický, Czech architect, designed the Selfridges Building (b. 1937)
- 2009 – Ricardo Montalbán, Mexican actor (b. 1920)
- 2010 – Antonio Fontán, Spanish journalist and academic (b. 1923)
- 2011 – Georgia Carroll, American singer, model and actress (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Txillardegi, Spanish linguist and politician (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Dan Evins, American businessman, founded Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (b. 1935)
- 2012 – Arfa Karim, Pakistani student and computer prodigy, youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in 2004 (b. 1995)
- 2012 – Giampiero Moretti, Italian entrepreneur and race car driver (b. 1940)
- 2012 – Rosy Varte, Armenian-French actress (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Jon Bing, Norwegian author, scholar, and academic (b. 1944)
- 2014 – Juan Gelman, Argentinian poet and author (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Flavio Testi, Italian composer and musicologist (b. 1923)
- 2015 – Bob Boyd, American basketball player and coach (b. 1930)
- 2015 – Zhang Wannian, Chinese general (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Alan Rickman, English actor (b. 1946)
- 2017 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese sociologist, (b. 1906)
- 2018 – Spanky Manikan, Filipino veteran actor (b. 1942)
- 2018 – Cyrille Regis, French Guianan-English footballer (b. 1958)
Holidays and observances on January 14
- Christian feast day:
- Barba’shmin
- Blessed Devasahayam Pillai (Latin Church)
- Divina Pastora (Barquisimeto)
- Eivind Berggrav (Lutheran)
- Felix of Nola
- Macrina the Elder
- Odoric of Pordenone
- January 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Defender of the Motherland Day (Uzbekistan)
- Feast of the Ass (Medieval Christianity)
- Flag Day (Georgia)
- National Forest Conservation Day (Thailand)
- Old New Year, and its related observance:
- Azhyrnykhua (Abkhazia)
- Yennayer (Berbers)
- Ratification Day (United States)
- Revolution and Youth Day (Tunisia)
- Sidereal winter solstice celebrations in South and Southeast Asian cultures; marking the transition of the Sun to Capricorn, and the first day of the six months Uttarayana period. (see April 14):
- Magh Bihu (Assam)
- Maghe Sankranti (Nepal)
- Maghi (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh)
- Makar Sankranti (India)
- The first day of Pongal,
- Uttarayan (Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Rajasthan)
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January 6 in History
- 1066 – Following the death of Edward the Confessor on the previous day, the Witan meets to confirm Harold Godwinson as the new King of England; Harold is crowned the same day, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.
- 1205 – Philip of Swabia undergoes a second coronation as King of the Romans.
- 1322 – Stephen Uroš III is crowned King of Serbia, having defeated his half-brother Stefan Konstantin in battle. His son is crowned “young king” in the same ceremony.
- 1355 – Charles IV of Bohemia is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy as King of Italy in Milan.
- 1449 – Constantine XI is crowned Byzantine Emperor at Mystras.
- 1492 – The Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella enter Granada at the conclusion of the Granada War.
- 1536 – The first European school of higher learning in the Americas, Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, is founded by Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza and Bishop Juan de Zumárraga in Mexico City.
- 1540 – King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.
- 1579 – The Union of Arras unites the southern Netherlands under the Duke of Parma (Ottavio Farnese), governor in the name of King Philip II of Spain.
- 1641 – Arauco War: The first Parliament of Quillín is celebrated, putting a temporary hold on hostilities between Mapuches and Spanish in Chile.
- 1661 – English Restoration: The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London, England. The revolt is suppressed after a few days.
- 1721 – The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings, revealing details of fraud among company directors and corrupt politicians.
- 1781 – In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeat the last attempt by France to invade Jersey in the Channel Islands.
- 1809 – Combined British, Portuguese and colonial Brazilian forces begin the Invasion of Cayenne during the Napoleonic Wars.
- 1838 – Alfred Vail and colleagues demonstrate a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
- 1839 – The Night of the Big Wind, the most damaging storm in 300 years, sweeps across Ireland, damaging or destroying more than 20% of the houses in Dublin.
- 1847 – Samuel Colt obtains his first contract for the sale of revolver pistols to the United States government.
- 1870 – The inauguration of the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.
- 1893 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: Having already besieged the fortress at Ladysmith, Boer forces attack it, but are driven back by British defenders.
- 1907 – Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working-class children in Rome, Italy.
- 1912 – New Mexico is admitted to the Union as the 47th U.S. state.
- 1912 – German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift.
- 1929 – King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country’s constitution (the January 6th Dictatorship).
- 1929 – Mother Teresa arrives by sea in Calcutta, India, to begin her work among India’s poorest and sick people.
- 1930 – The first diesel-powered automobile trip is completed, from Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York, New York.
- 1941 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms speech in the State of the Union address.
- 1946 – The first general election ever in Vietnam is held.
- 1947 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer a round-the-world ticket.
- 1950 – The United Kingdom recognizes the People’s Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the UK in response.
- 1951 – Korean War: Beginning of the Ganghwa massacre, in the course of which an estimated 200–1,300 South Korean communist sympathizers are slaughtered.
- 1960 – National Airlines Flight 2511 is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami.
- 1960 – The Associations Law comes into force in Iraq, allowing registration of political parties
- 1967 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch “Operation Deckhouse Five” in the Mekong River delta.
- 1974 – In response to the 1973 oil crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
- 1989 – Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh are sentenced to death for conspiracy in the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi; the two men are executed the same day.
- 1992 – President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia flees the country as a result of the military coup.
- 1993 – Indian Border Security Force units kill 55 Kashmiri civilians in Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir, in revenge after militants ambushed a BSF patrol.
- 1994 – American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked and injured by an assailant hired by her rival Tonya Harding’s ex-husband during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships that they were both taking part in.
- 1995 – A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.
- 2005 – American Civil Rights Movement: Edgar Ray Killen is indicted for the 1964 murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.
- 2005 – A train collision in Graniteville, South Carolina, United States, releases about 60 tons of chlorine gas.
- 2012 – Twenty-six people are killed and 63 wounded when a suicide bomber blows himself up at a police station in Damascus.
- 2017 – Five people are killed and six others injured in a mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida.
- 2019 – Forty people are killed in a gold mine collapse in northern Afghanistan.
Births on January 6
- 1256 – Gertrude the Great, German mystic (d. 1302)
- 1367 – Richard II of England (d. 1400)
- 1384 – Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent (d. 1408)
- 1412 – Joan of Arc, French martyr and saint (d. 1431)
- 1486 – Martin Agricola, German composer and theorist (d. 1556)
- 1488 – Helius Eobanus Hessus, German poet (d. 1540)
- 1493 – Olaus Petri, Swedish clergyman (d. 1552)
- 1500 – John of Ávila, Spanish mystic and saint (d. 1569)
- 1525 – Caspar Peucer, German physician and scholar (d. 1602)
- 1538 – Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria (d. 1612)
- 1561 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (d. 1656)
- 1587 – Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares (d. 1645)
- 1595 – Claude Favre de Vaugelas, French educator and courtier (d. 1650)
- 1617 – Christoffer Gabel, Danish politician (d. 1673)
- 1632 – Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton, Scottish peeress (d. 1716)
- 1655 – Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg (d. 1720)
- 1673 – James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, English academic and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire (d. 1744)
- 1695 – Giuseppe Sammartini, Italian oboe player and composer (d. 1750)
- 1702 – José de Nebra, Spanish composer (d. 1768)
- 1714 – Percivall Pott, English surgeon (d. 1788)
- 1745 – Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, French co-inventor of the hot air balloon (d. 1799)
- 1766 – José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, Paraguayan lawyer and politician, first dictator of Paraguay (d. 1840)
- 1785 – Andreas Moustoxydis, Greek historian and philologist (d. 1860)
- 1793 – James Madison Porter, American lawyer and politician, 18th United States Secretary of War (d. 1862)
- 1795 – Anselme Payen, French chemist and academic (d. 1871)
- 1799 – Jedediah Smith, American hunter, explorer, and author (d. 1831)
- 1803 – Henri Herz, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1888)
- 1807 – Joseph Petzval, German-Hungarian mathematician and physicist (d. 1891)
- 1808 – Joseph Pitty Couthouy, American conchologist and paleontologist (d. 1864)
- 1811 – Charles Sumner, American lawyer and politician (d. 1874)
- 1822 – Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist and businessman (d. 1890)
- 1832 – Gustave Doré, French painter and sculptor (d. 1883)
- 1838 – Max Bruch, German composer and conductor (d. 1920)
- 1842 – Clarence King, American geologist, mountaineer, and critic (d. 1901)
- 1856 – Giuseppe Martucci, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1909)
- 1857 – Hugh Mahon, Irish-Australian publisher and politician, 10th Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (d. 1931)
- 1857 – William Russell, American lawyer and politician, 37th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896)
- 1859 – Samuel Alexander, Australian-English philosopher and academic (d. 1938)
- 1861 – Victor Horta, Belgian architect, designed Hôtel van Eetvelde (d. 1947)
- 1861 – George Lloyd, English-Canadian bishop and theologian (d. 1940)
- 1870 – Gustav Bauer, German journalist and politician, 11th Chancellor of Germany (d. 1944)
- 1872 – Alexander Scriabin, Russian pianist and composer (d. 1915)
- 1874 – Fred Niblo, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1948)
- 1878 – Adeline Genée, Danish-born British ballerina (d. 1970)
- 1878 – Carl Sandburg, American poet and historian (d. 1967)
- 1880 – Tom Mix, American cowboy and actor (d. 1940)
- 1881 – Ion Minulescu, Romanian author, poet, and critic (d. 1944)
- 1882 – Fan S. Noli, Albanian-American bishop and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Albania (d. 1965)
- 1882 – Sam Rayburn, American lawyer and politician, 48th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1961)
- 1883 – Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-American poet, painter, and philosopher (d. 1931)
- 1898 – James Fitzmaurice, Irish soldier and pilot (d. 1965)
- 1899 – Heinrich Nordhoff, German engineer (d. 1968)
- 1900 – Maria of Yugoslavia, Queen of Yugoslavia from 1922 to 1934 (d. 1961)
- 1903 – Maurice Abravanel, Greek-American pianist and conductor (d. 1993)
- 1910 – Wright Morris, American author and photographer (d. 1998)
- 1910 – Yiannis Papaioannou, Greek composer and educator (d. 1989)
- 1912 – Jacques Ellul, French philosopher and critic (d. 1994)
- 1912 – Danny Thomas, American actor, comedian, producer and humanitarian (d. 1991)
- 1913 – Edward Gierek, Polish lawyer and politician (d. 2001)
- 1913 – Loretta Young, American actress (d. 2000)
- 1914 – Godfrey Edward Arnold, Austrian-American physician and academic (d. 1989)
- 1915 – Don Edwards, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2015)
- 1915 – John C. Lilly, American psychoanalyst, physician, and philosopher (d. 2001)
- 1915 – Alan Watts, English-American philosopher and author (d. 1973)
- 1916 – Park Mok-wol, influential Korean poet and academic (d. 1978)
- 1917 – Koo Chen-fu, Taiwanese businessman and diplomat (d. 2005)
- 1920 – John Maynard Smith, English biologist and geneticist (d. 2004)
- 1920 – Sun Myung Moon, Korean religious leader; founder of the Unification Church (d. 2012)
- 1920 – Early Wynn, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 1999)
- 1921 – Marianne Grunberg-Manago, Russian-French biochemist and academic (d. 2013)
- 1921 – Cary Middlecoff, American golfer and sportscaster (d. 1998)
- 1923 – Vladimir Kazantsev, Russian runner (d. 2007)
- 1923 – Norman Kirk, New Zealand engineer and politician, 29th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1974)
- 1923 – Jacobo Timerman, Argentinian journalist and author (d. 1999)
- 1924 – Kim Dae-jung, South Korean soldier and politician, 8th President of South Korea, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
- 1924 – Earl Scruggs, American banjo player (d. 2012)
- 1925 – John DeLorean, American engineer and businessman, founded the DeLorean Motor Company (d. 2005)
- 1926 – Ralph Branca, American baseball player (d. 2016)
- 1926 – Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian-American actor and bodybuilder (d. 2006)
- 1927 – Jesse Leonard Steinfeld, American physician and academic, 11th Surgeon General of the United States (d. 2014)
- 1928 – Capucine, French actress and model (d. 1990)
- 1931 – E. L. Doctorow, American novelist, playwright, and short story writer (d. 2015)
- 1931 – Graeme Hole, Australian cricketer (d. 1990)
- 1931 – Dickie Moore, Canadian ice hockey player and businessman (d. 2015)
- 1932 – Stuart A. Rice, American chemist and academic
- 1933 – Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov, Russian engineer and astronaut (d. 2003)
- 1934 – Sylvia Syms, English actress
- 1935 – Nino Tempo, American musician, singer, and actor
- 1936 – Darlene Hard, American tennis player
- 1936 – Julio María Sanguinetti, Uruguayan journalist, lawyer and politician, 29th President of Uruguay
- 1937 – Ludvík Daněk, Czech discus thrower (d. 1998)
- 1937 – Lou Holtz, American football player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1937 – Doris Troy, American singer-songwriter (d. 2004)
- 1938 – Adriano Celentano, Italian singer-songwriter, actor, and director
- 1938 – Adrienne Clarke, Australian botanist and academic
- 1938 – Larisa Shepitko, Soviet film director, screenwriter, and actress (d. 1979)
- 1939 – Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Ukrainian footballer and manager (d. 2002)
- 1939 – Murray Rose, English-Australian swimmer and sportscaster (d. 2012)
- 1940 – Van McCoy, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1979)
- 1943 – Terry Venables, English footballer and manager
- 1944 – Bonnie Franklin, American actress and singer (d. 2013)
- 1944 – Alan Stivell, French singer-songwriter and harp player
- 1944 – Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Swiss immunologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1945 – Barry John, Welsh rugby player
- 1946 – Syd Barrett, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006)
- 1947 – Sandy Denny, English folk-rock singer-songwriter (d 1978)
- 1948 – Guy Gardner, American colonel and astronaut
- 1948 – Dayle Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer
- 1949 – Mike Boit, Kenyan runner and academic (estimated date)
- 1949 – Carolyn D. Wright, American poet and academic (d. 2016)
- 1950 – Louis Freeh, American lawyer and jurist, 10th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
- 1951 – Don Gullett, American baseball player and coach
- 1951 – Kim Wilson, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player
- 1953 – Malcolm Young, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2017)
- 1954 – Anthony Minghella, English director and screenwriter (d. 2008)
- 1955 – Rowan Atkinson, English actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1956 – Elizabeth Strout, American novelist and short story writer
- 1956 – Justin Welby, English archbishop
- 1956 – Clive Woodward, English rugby player and coach
- 1957 – Michael Foale, British-American astrophysicist and astronaut
- 1957 – Nancy Lopez, American golfer and sportscaster
- 1959 – Kapil Dev, Indian cricketer
- 1960 – Paul Azinger, American golfer and sportscaster
- 1960 – Kari Jalonen, Finnish ice hockey player and coach
- 1960 – Nigella Lawson, English chef and author
- 1960 – Howie Long, American football player and sports commentator
- 1961 – Georges Jobé, Belgian motocross racer (d. 2012)
- 1961 – Peter Whittle, British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster
- 1963 – Norm Charlton, American baseball player and coach
- 1963 – Paul Kipkoech, Kenyan runner (d. 1995)
- 1964 – Jacqueline Moore, American wrestler and manager
- 1965 – Bjørn Lomborg, Danish author and academic
- 1966 – Sharon Cuneta, Filipino singer and actress
- 1966 – Attilio Lombardo, Italian footballer and manager
- 1967 – A. R. Rahman, Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, musician and philanthropist
- 1968 – John Singleton, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2019)
- 1969 – Norman Reedus, American actor and model
- 1970 – Julie Chen, American television journalist, presenter, and producer
- 1970 – Radoslav Látal, Czech footballer and manager
- 1973 – Vasso Karantasiou, Greek beach volleyball player
- 1976 – Richard Zedník, Slovak ice hockey player
- 1981 – Asante Samuel, American football player
- 1982 – Eddie Redmayne, English actor and model
- 1984 – Kate McKinnon, American actress and comedian
- 1986 – Paul McShane, Irish footballer
- 1986 – Petter Northug, Norwegian skier
- 1989 – Andy Carroll, English footballer
- 1991 – Will Barton, American basketball player
- 1994 – Lim Jae-beom, South Korean singer and actor (Got7)
Deaths on January 6
- 786 – Abo of Tiflis, Iraqi martyr and saint (b. 756)
- 1088 – Berengar of Tours, French scholar and theologian (b. 999)
- 1148 – Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke (b. 1100)
- 1233 – Matilda of Chester, Countess of Huntingdon, Anglo-Norman noblewoman (b. 1171)
- 1275 – Raymond of Penyafort, Catalan archbishop and saint (b. 1175)
- 1350 – Giovanni I di Murta, second doge of the Republic of Genoa
- 1358 – Gertrude van der Oosten, Beguine mystic
- 1406 – Roger Walden, English bishop
- 1448 – Christopher of Bavaria, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (b. 1418)
- 1477 – Jean VIII, Count of Vendôme
- 1481 – Ahmed Khan bin Küchük, Mongolian ruler
- 1537 – Alessandro de’ Medici, Duke of Florence (b. 1510)
- 1537 – Baldassare Peruzzi, Italian architect and painter, designed the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne (b. 1481)
- 1616 – Philip Henslowe, English impresario (b. 1550)
- 1646 – Elias Holl, German architect, designed the Augsburg Town Hall (b. 1573)
- 1689 – Seth Ward, English bishop, mathematician, and astronomer (b. 1617)
- 1693 – Mehmed IV, Ottoman sultan (b. 1642)
- 1711 – Philips van Almonde, Dutch admiral (b. 1646)
- 1718 – Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian lawyer and jurist (b. 1664)
- 1725 – Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Japanese actor and playwright (b. 1653)
- 1731 – Étienne François Geoffroy, French physician and chemist (b. 1672)
- 1734 – John Dennis, English playwright and critic (b. 1657)
- 1813 – Louis Baraguey d’Hilliers, French general (b. 1764)
- 1829 – Josef Dobrovský, Czech philologist and historian (b. 1753)
- 1831 – Rodolphe Kreutzer, French violinist, composer, and conductor (b. 1766)
- 1840 – Frances Burney, English author and playwright (b. 1752)
- 1852 – Louis Braille, French educator, invented Braille (b. 1809)
- 1855 – Giacomo Beltrami, Italian jurist, explorer, and author (b. 1779)
- 1882 – Richard Henry Dana, Jr., American lawyer and politician (b. 1815)
- 1884 – Gregor Mendel, Czech geneticist and botanist (b. 1822)
- 1885 – Bharatendu Harishchandra, Indian author, poet, and playwright (b. 1850)
- 1896 – Thomas W. Knox, American journalist and author (b. 1835)
- 1902 – Lars Hertervig, Norwegian painter (b. 1830)
- 1913 – Frederick Hitch, English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1856)
- 1917 – Hendrick Peter Godfried Quack, Dutch economist and historian (b. 1834)
- 1918 – Georg Cantor, German mathematician and philosopher (b. 1845)
- 1919 – Theodore Roosevelt, American colonel and politician, 26th President of the United States (b. 1858)
- 1921 – Devil Anse Hatfield, American guerrilla leader (b. 1839)
- 1922 – Jakob Rosanes, Ukrainian-German mathematician and chess player (b. 1842)
- 1928 – Alvin Kraenzlein, American hurdler and long jumper (b. 1876)
- 1933 – Vladimir de Pachmann, Ukrainian-German pianist (b. 1848)
- 1934 – Herbert Chapman, English footballer and manager (b. 1878)
- 1937 – André Bessette, Canadian saint (b. 1845)
- 1939 – Gustavs Zemgals, Latvian journalist and politician, 2nd President of Latvia (b. 1871)
- 1941 – Charley O’Leary, American baseball player and coach (b. 1882)
- 1942 – Emma Calvé, French soprano and actress (b. 1858)
- 1942 – Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian businessman, 3rd President of the International Olympic Committee (b. 1876)
- 1944 – Jacques Rosenbaum, Estonian-German architect (b. 1878)
- 1944 – Ida Tarbell, American journalist, reformer, and educator (b. 1857)
- 1945 – Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian mineralogist and chemist (b. 1863)
- 1949 – Victor Fleming, American director, producer, and cinematographer (b. 1883)
- 1966 – Jean Lurçat, French painter (b. 1892)
- 1972 – Chen Yi, Chinese general and politician, 2nd Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China (b. 1901)
- 1974 – David Alfaro Siqueiros, Mexican painter (b. 1896)
- 1978 – Burt Munro, New Zealand motorcycle racer (b. 1899)
- 1981 – A. J. Cronin, Scottish physician and author (b. 1896)
- 1984 – Ernest Laszlo, Hungarian-American cinematographer (b. 1898)
- 1990 – Ian Charleson, Scottish-English actor (b. 1949)
- 1990 – Pavel Cherenkov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- 1993 – Dizzy Gillespie, American singer-songwriter and trumpet player (b. 1917)
- 1993 – Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-French dancer and choreographer (b. 1938)
- 1995 – Joe Slovo, Lithuanian-South African lawyer and politician (b. 1926)
- 1999 – Michel Petrucciani, French-American pianist (b. 1962)2000 – Don Martin, American cartoonist (b. 1931)
- 2004 – Pierre Charles, Dominican educator and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Dominica (b. 1954)
- 2004 – Francesco Scavullo, American photographer (b. 1921)
- 2005 – Eileen Desmond, Irish civil servant and politician, 12th Irish Minister for Health (b. 1932)
- 2005 – Lois Hole, Canadian academic and politician, 15th Lieutenant Governor of Alberta (b. 1929)
- 2005 – Tarquinio Provini, Italian motorcycle racer (b. 1933)
- 2005 – Louis Robichaud, Canadian lawyer and politician, 25th Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1925)
- 2006 – Lou Rawls, American singer-songwriter (b. 1933)
- 2007 – Roberta Wohlstetter, American political scientist, historian, and academic (b. 1912)
- 2008 – Shmuel Berenbaum, Rabbi of Mir Yeshiva (Brooklyn)
- 2009 – Ron Asheton, American guitarist, songwriter, and actor (probable; b. 1948)
- 2011 – Uche Okafor, Nigerian footballer, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1967)
- 2012 – Bob Holness, South African-English radio and television host (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Spike Pola, Australian footballer and soldier (b. 1914)
- 2013 – Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Pakistani scholar and politician (b. 1938)
- 2013 – Ruth Carter Stevenson, American art collector, founded the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Gerard Helders, Dutch jurist and politician (b. 1905)
- 2013 – Cho Sung-min, South Korean baseball player (b. 1973)
- 2014 – Marina Ginestà, French Resistance soldier and photographer (b. 1919)
- 2014 – Nelson Ned, Brazilian singer-songwriter (b. 1947)
- 2014 – Julian Rotter, American psychologist and academic (b. 1916)
- 2015 – Arthur Jackson, American lieutenant and target shooter (b. 1918)
- 2015 – Basil John Mason, English meteorologist and academic (b. 1923)
- 2016 – Pat Harrington, Jr., American actor and screenwriter (b. 1929)
- 2016 – Florence King, American journalist and author (b. 1936)
- 2016 – Christy O’Connor Jnr, Irish golfer and architect (b. 1948)
- 2016 – Silvana Pampanini, Italian model, actress, and director, Miss Italy 1946 (b. 1925)
- 2017 – Octavio Lepage, Venezuelan politician, President of Venezuela (b. 1923)
- 2017 – Om Puri, Indian actor (b. 1950)
- 2019 – José Ramón Fernández, Cuban revolution leader (b. 1923)
- 2019 – Lamin Sanneh, Gambian-born American professor (b. 1942)
- 2019 – W. Morgan Sheppard, British actor (b. 1932)
- 2019 – Paul Streeten, Austrian-born British economics professor (b. 1917)
Holidays and observances on January 6
- Armed Forces Day (Iraq)
- Christian Feast day:
- André Bessette (Roman Catholic Church)
- January 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Epiphany or Three Kings’ Day (Western Christianity) or Theophany (Eastern Christianity), and its related observances:
- Befana Day (Italy)
- Christmas (Armenian Apostolic Church)
- Christmas Eve (Russia)
- Christmas Eve (Ukraine)
- Christmas Eve (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Christmas Eve (North Macedonia)
- Little Christmas (Ireland)
- Þrettándinn (Iceland)
- Three Wise Men Day
- Pathet Lao Day (Laos)