590 – Emperor Maurice proclaims his son Theodosius as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1027 – Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor.
1169 – Saladin becomes the emir of Egypt.
1344 – The Siege of Algeciras, one of the first European military engagements where gunpowder was used, comes to an end.
1351 – Combat of the Thirty: Thirty Breton knights call out and defeat thirty English knights.
1484 – William Caxton prints his translation of Aesop’s Fables.
1552 – Guru Amar Das becomes the Third Sikh guru.
1636 – Utrecht University is founded in the Netherlands.
1697 – Safavid government troops take control of Basra
1812 – An earthquake devastates Caracas, Venezuela.
1812 – A political cartoon in the Boston Gazette coins the term “gerrymander” to describe oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win reelection.
1830 – The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York.
1839 – The first Henley Royal Regatta is held.
1871 – The elections of Commune council of the Paris Commune are held.
1885 – The Métis people of the District of Saskatchewan under Louis Riel begin the North-West Rebellion against Canada.
1913 – First Balkan War: Bulgarian forces capture Adrianople.
1915 – The Vancouver Millionaires win the 1915 Stanley Cup Finals, the first championship played between the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the National Hockey Association.
1917 – World War I: First Battle of Gaza: British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance.
1922 – The German Social Democratic Party is founded in Poland.
1931 – Swissair is founded as the national airline of Switzerland.
1931 – Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union is founded in Vietnam.
1934 – The United Kingdom driving test is introduced.
1939 – Spanish Civil War: Nationalists begin their final offensive of the war.
1942 – World War II: The first female prisoners arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends as the island is officially secured by American forces.
1954 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Romeo shot of Operation Castle is detonated at Bikini Atoll. Yield: 11 megatons.
1958 – The United States Army launches Explorer 3.
1958 – The African Regroupment Party is launched at a meeting in Paris.
1967 – Ten thousand people gather for one of many Central Park be-ins in New York City.
1970 – South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu implements a land reform program to solve the problem of land tenancy.
1971 – East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Liberation War begins.
1975 – The Biological Weapons Convention comes into force.
1979 – Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C.
1981 – Social Democratic Party (UK) is founded as a party.
1982 – A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, D.C.
1991 – Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay sign the Treaty of Asunción, establishing Mercosur, the South Common Market.
1997 – Thirty-nine bodies are found in the Heaven’s Gate mass suicides.
1998 – During the Algerian Civil War, the Oued Bouaicha massacre sees fifty-two people, mostly infants, killed with axes and knives.
2005 – Around 200,000 to 300,000 Taiwanese demonstrate in Taipei in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of China.
2010 – The South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan is torpedoed, killing 46 sailors. After an international investigation, the President of the United Nations Security Council blames North Korea.
2017 – Russia-wide anti-corruption protests in 99 cities. The Levada Center survey showed that 38% of surveyed Russians supported protests and that 67 percent held Putin personally responsible for high-level corruption.
Births on March 26
1031 – Malcolm III, king of Scotland (d. 1093)
1516 – Conrad Gessner, Swiss botanist and zoologist (d. 1565)
1554 – Charles of Lorraine, duke of Mayenne (d. 1611)
1584 – John II, duke of Zweibrücken (d. 1635)
1633 – Mary Beale, British artist (d. 1699)
1634 – Domenico Freschi, Italian priest and composer (d. 1710)
1656 – Nicolaas Hartsoeker, Dutch mathematician and physicist (d. 1725)
1687 – Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, queen consort of Prussia (d. 1757)
1698 – Prokop Diviš, Czech priest, scientist and inventor (d. 1765)
1749 – William Blount, American politician (d. 1800)
1753 – Benjamin Thompson, American-French physicist and politician, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (d. 1814)
1773 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American mathematician and navigator (d. 1838)
1794 – Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, German painter (d. 1872)
1804 – David Humphreys Storer, American physician and academic (d. 1891)
1824 – Julie-Victoire Daubié, French journalist (d. 1874)
1829 – Théodore Aubanel, French poet (d. 1886)
1842 – Alexandre Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, French occultist (d. 1909)
1850 – Edward Bellamy, American author, socialist, and utopian visionary (d. 1898)
1852 – Élémir Bourges, French author (d. 1925)
1854 – Maurice Lecoq, French target shooter (d. 1925)
1856 – William Massey, Irish-New Zealand farmer and politician, 19th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1925)
1857 – Théodore Tuffier, French surgeon (d. 1929)
1859 – A. E. Housman, English poet and scholar (d. 1936)
1859 – Adolf Hurwitz, Jewish German-Swiss mathematician and academic (d. 1919)
1860 – André Prévost, French tennis player (d. 1919)
1866 – Fred Karno, English producer and manager (d. 1941)
1868 – King Fuad I of Egypt (d. 1936)
1873 – Dorothea Bleek, South African-German anthropologist and philologist (d. 1948)
1874 – Robert Frost, American poet and playwright (d. 1963)
1875 – Max Abraham, Polish-German physicist and academic (d. 1922)
1875 – Syngman Rhee, South Korean journalist and politician, 1st President of South Korea (d. 1965)
1876 – William of Wied, prince of Albania (d. 1945)
1876 – Kate Richards O’Hare, American Socialist Party activist and editor (d. 1948)
1879 – Othmar Ammann, Swiss-American engineer, designed the George Washington Bridge and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge (d. 1965)
1879 – Waldemar Tietgens, German rower (d. 1917)
1881 – Guccio Gucci, Italian fashion designer, founded Gucci (d. 1953)
1882 – Hermann Obrecht, Swiss politician (d. 1940)
1884 – Wilhelm Backhaus, German pianist and educator (d. 1969)
1884 – Georges Imbert, French chemical engineer and inventor (d. 1950)
1886 – Hugh Mulzac, Vincentian-American soldier and politician (d. 1971)
1888 – Elsa Brändström, Swedish nurse and philanthropist (d. 1948)
1893 – James Bryant Conant, American chemist, academic, and diplomat, 1st United States Ambassador to West Germany (d. 1978)
1893 – Palmiro Togliatti, Italian journalist and politician, Italian Minister of Justice (d. 1964)
1894 – Viorica Ursuleac, Ukrainian-Romanian soprano and actress (d. 1985)
1895 – Vilho Tuulos, Finnish triple jumper (d. 1967)
1898 – Rudolf Dassler, German businessman, founded Puma SE (d. 1974)
1898 – Charles Shadwell, English conductor and bandleader (d. 1979)
1900 – Angela Maria Autsch, German nun, died in Auschwitz helping Jewish prisoners (d. 1941)
1904 – Joseph Campbell, American mythologist and author (d. 1987)
1904 – Emilio Fernández, Mexican actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1986)
1904 – Attilio Ferraris, Italian footballer (d. 1947)
1905 – Monty Berman, English cinematographer and producer (d. 2006)
1905 – André Cluytens, Belgian-French conductor and director (d. 1967)
1905 – Viktor Frankl, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist (d. 1997)
1906 – Rafael Méndez, Mexican trumpet player and composer (d. 1981)
1907 – Azellus Denis, Canadian lawyer and politician, Postmaster General of Canada (d. 1991)
1907 – Mahadevi Varma, Indian poet and activist (d. 1987)
1908 – Franz Stangl, Austrian-German SS officer (d. 1971)
1909 – Chips Rafferty, Australian actor (d. 1971)
1910 – K. W. Devanayagam, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, 10th Sri Lankan Minister of Justice (d. 2002)
1911 – Lennart Atterwall, Swedish javelin thrower (d. 2001)
1911 – J. L. Austin, English philosopher and academic (d. 1960)
1911 – Bernard Katz, German-English biophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
1911 – Tennessee Williams, American playwright, and poet (d. 1983)
1913 – Jacqueline de Romilly, Jewish Franco-Greek philologist, author, and scholar (d. 2010)
1913 – Paul Erdős, Hungarian-Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1996)
1914 – Toru Kumon, Japanese mathematician and academic (d. 1995)
1914 – William Westmoreland, American general (d. 2005)
1915 – Lennart Strandberg, Swedish sprinter (d. 1989)
1915 – Hwang Sun-won, North Korean author and poet (d. 2000)
1916 – Christian B. Anfinsen, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
1916 – Bill Edrich, English cricketer and footballer (d. 1986)
1916 – Sterling Hayden, American actor and author (d. 1986)
1917 – Rufus Thomas, American R&B singer-songwriter (d. 2001)
1919 – Strother Martin, American actor (d. 1980)
1919 – Roger Leger, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1965)
1920 – Sergio Livingstone, Chilean footballer and journalist (d. 2012)
1922 – William Milliken, American politician, 44th Governor of Michigan (d. 2019)
1922 – Oscar Sala, Italian-Brazilian physicist and academic (d. 2010)
1922 – Guido Stampacchia, Italian mathematician and academic (d. 1978)
1923 – Gert Bastian, German general and politician (d. 1992)
1923 – Bob Elliott, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
1925 – Maqsood Ahmed, Pakistani cricketer (d. 1999)
1925 – Pierre Boulez, French pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2016)
1925 – Vesta Roy, American politician, Governor of New Hampshire (d. 2002)
1925 – Edward Graham, Baron Graham of Edmonton, English soldier and politician (d. 2020)
1925 – Ben Mondor, Canadian-American businessman (d. 2010)
1925 – James Moody, American saxophonist and composer (d. 2010)
1927 – Harold Chapman, English photographer
1929 – Edward Sorel, American illustrator and caricaturist
1929 – Edwin Turney, American businessman, co-founded Advanced Micro Devices (d. 2008)
1930 – Sandra Day O’Connor, American lawyer and jurist
1930 – Gregory Corso, American poet (d. 2001)
1931 – Leonard Nimoy, American actor (d. 2015)
1932 – Leroy Griffith, American businessman
1932 – James Andrew Harris, American chemist and academic (d. 2000)
1933 – Tinto Brass, Italian director and screenwriter
1934 – Alan Arkin, American actor
1934 – Edvaldo Alves de Santa Rosa, Brazilian footballer (d. 2002)
1937 – Wayne Embry, American basketball player and manager
1937 – Barbara Jones, American sprinter
1937 – James Lee, Canadian businessman and politician, 26th Premier of Prince Edward Island
1938 – Norman Ackroyd, English painter and illustrator
1938 – Anthony James Leggett, English-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1940 – James Caan, American actor and singer
1940 – Nancy Pelosi, American lawyer and politician, 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
1941 – Richard Dawkins, Kenyan-English ethologist, biologist, and academic
1941 – Lella Lombardi, Italian racing driver (d. 1992)
1942 – Erica Jong, American novelist and poet
1943 – Mustafa Kalemli, Turkish physician and politician, Turkish Minister of the Interior
1943 – Bob Woodward, American journalist and author
1944 – Diana Ross, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1945 – Paul Bérenger, Mauritian politician, Prime Minister of Mauritius
1945 – Mikhail Voronin, Russian gymnast and coach (d. 2004)
1946 – Johnny Crawford, American actor and singer
1946 – Alain Madelin, French politician, French Minister of Finance
1947 – Subhash Kak, Indian-American professor and author
1947 – John Rowles, New Zealand-Australian singer-songwriter
1948 – Kyung-wha Chung, South Korean violinist and educator
1948 – Richard Tandy, English pianist and keyboard player (Electric Light Orchestra)
1948 – Steven Tyler, American singer-songwriter and actor
1949 – Jon English, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2016)
1949 – Rudi Koertzen, South African cricketer and umpire
1949 – Vicki Lawrence, American actress, comedian, talk show host, and singer
1949 – Fran Sheehan, American bass player
1949 – Patrick Süskind, German author and screenwriter
1949 – Ernest Lee Thomas, American actor
1950 – Teddy Pendergrass, American singer-songwriter (d. 2010)
1950 – Graham Barlow, English cricketer
1950 – Martin Short, Canadian-American actor, screenwriter, and producer
1950 – Alan Silvestri, American composer and conductor
1951 – Željko Pavličević, Croatian professional basketball coach and former professional player
1951 – Carl Wieman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1952 – Didier Pironi, French racing driver (d. 1987)
1953 – Lincoln Chafee, American academic and politician, 74th Governor of Rhode Island
1953 – Elaine Chao, Taiwanese-American banker and politician, 24th United States Secretary of Labor
1953 – Tatyana Providokhina, Russian runner
1954 – Clive Palmer, Australian businessman and politician
1954 – Curtis Sliwa, American talk show host and activist, founded Guardian Angels
1954 – Dorothy Porter, Australian poet and playwright (d. 2008)
1956 – Charly McClain, American country singer
1956 – Park Won-soon, South Korean lawyer and politician, 35th Mayor of Seoul
1957 – Fiona Bruce, Scottish lawyer and politician
1957 – Leeza Gibbons, American talk show host and television personality
1957 – Paul Morley, English journalist, producer, and author
1957 – Shirin Neshat, Iranian visual artist
1958 – Elio de Angelis, Italian racing driver (d. 1986)
1960 – Marcus Allen, American football player and sportscaster
1960 – Jennifer Grey, American actress and dancer
1960 – Graeme Rutjes, Australian-Dutch footballer
1961 – William Hague, English historian and politician, First Secretary of State
1962 – Richard Coles, English pianist, saxophonist, and priest
1962 – Kevin Seitzer, American baseball player and coach
1962 – Yuri Gidzenko, Russian pilot and cosmonaut
1962 – John Stockton, American basketball player and coach
1962 – Eric Allan Kramer, American-Canadian actor
1963 – Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Japanese author
1964 – Martin Bella, Australian rugby league player
1964 – Martin Donnelly, Irish racing driver
1964 – Maria Miller, English businessman and politician, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
1964 – Ulf Samuelsson, Swedish-American ice hockey player and coach
1965 – Trey Azagthoth, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1965 – Violeta Szekely, Romanian runner
1966 – Michael Imperioli, American actor and screenwriter
1967 – Jason Chaffetz, American politician
1968 – Laurent Brochard, French cyclist
1968 – Kenny Chesney, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1968 – James Iha, American guitarist and songwriter
1969 – Alessandro Moscardi, Italian rugby player
1970 – Paul Bosvelt, Dutch footballer
1970 – Jelle Goes, Dutch footballer and coach
1970 – Thomas Kyparissis, Greek footballer
1970 – Martin McDonagh, English-born Irish playwright, screenwriter, and director
1971 – Behzad Ghorbani, Iranian zoologist
1971 – Martyn Day, Scottish politician
1971 – Erick Morillo, Colombian-American DJ and producer
1971 – Rennae Stubbs, Australian tennis player and sportscaster
1971 – Paul Williams, English footballer and manager
1972 – Leslie Mann, American actress
1972 – Jason Maxwell, American baseball player
1973 – Larry Page, American computer scientist and businessman, co-founder of Google
1973 – T. R. Knight, American actor
1973 – Matt Burke, Australian rugby player and sportscaster
1974 – Irina Spîrlea, Romanian tennis player
1974 – Vadimas Petrenko, Lithuanian footballer
1974 – Michael Peca, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1976 – Amy Smart, American actress and former model
509 BC – Publius Valerius Publicola celebrates the first triumph of the Roman Republic after his victory over the deposed king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus at the Battle of Silva Arsia.
86 BC – Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters Athens, removing the tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus ending the Siege of Athens and Piraeus.
293 – Emperor Diocletian and Maximian appoint Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as Caesars. This is considered the beginning of the Tetrarchy, known as the Quattuor Principes Mundi (“Four Rulers of the World”).
317 – Crispus and Constantine II, sons of Roman Emperor Constantine I, and Licinius Iunior, son of Emperor Licinius, are made Caesares.
350 – Vetranio is asked by Constantina, sister of Constantius II, to proclaim himself Caesar.
834 – Emperor Louis the Pious is restored as sole ruler of the Frankish Empire. After his re-accession to the throne, his eldest son Lothair I flees to Burgundy.
1457 – The Unitas Fratrum is established in the village of Kunvald, on the Bohemian-Moravian borderland. It is to date the second oldest Protestant denomination.
1476 – Forces of the Catholic Monarchs engage the combined Portuguese-Castilian armies of Afonso V and Prince John at the Battle of Toro.
1562 – Sixty-three Huguenots are massacred in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion.
1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.
1628 – Writs issued in February by Charles I of England mandate that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date.
1633 – Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu.
1642 – Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine), becomes the first incorporated city in the United States.
1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.
1700 – Sweden introduces its own Swedish calendar, in an attempt to gradually merge into the Gregorian calendar, reverts to the Julian calendar on this date in 1712, and introduces the Gregorian calendar on this date in 1753.
1713 – The siege and destruction of Fort Neoheroka begins during the Tuscarora War in North Carolina, effectively opening up the colony’s interior to European colonization.
1781 – The Articles of Confederation goes into effect in the United States.
1790 – The first United States census is authorized.
1793 – French Revolutionary War: Battle of Aldenhoven during the Flanders Campaign.
1796 – The Dutch East India Company is nationalized by the Batavian Republic.
1803 – Ohio becomes the 17th state of The United States.
1805 – Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.
1811 – Leaders of the Mamluk dynasty are killed by Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali.
1815 – Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba.
1815 – Georgetown University’s congressional charter is signed into law by President James Madison.
1836 – A convention of delegates from 57 Texas communities convenes in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico.
1845 – United States President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
1852 – Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
1854 – German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; two years later his remains are found in a canal near Charlottenburg.
1867 – Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital.
1868 – The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia.
1870 – Marshal F. S. López dies during the Battle of Cerro Corá thus marking the end of the Paraguayan War.
1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established as the world’s first national park.
1873 – E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
1881 – The first Minnesota State Capitol burns down.
1886 – The Anglo-Chinese School, Singapore is founded by Bishop William Oldham.
1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
1896 – Battle of Adwa: An Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian War.
1896 – Henri Becquerel discovers radioactive decay.
1901 – The Australian Army is formed.
1910 – The deadliest avalanche in United States history buries a Great Northern Railway train in northeastern King County, Washington, killing 96 people.
1914 – The Republic of China joins the Universal Postal Union.
1917 – The Zimmermann Telegram is reprinted in newspapers across the United States after the U.S. government releases its unencrypted text.
1919 – March 1st Movement begins in Korea under Japanese rule.
1921 – The Australian cricket team captained by Warwick Armstrong becomes the first team to complete a whitewash of The Ashes, something that would not be repeated for 86 years.
1921 – Following mass protests in Petrograd demanding greater freedom in the RSFSR, the Kronstadt rebellion began, with sailors and citizens taking up arms against the Bolsheviks.
1932 – Charles Lindbergh’s son is kidnapped.
1936 – The Hoover Dam is completed.
1939 – An Imperial Japanese Army ammunition dump explodes at Hirakata, Osaka, Japan, killing 94.
1941 – World War II: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, allying itself with the Axis powers.
1942 – World War II: Japanese forces land on Java, the main island of the Dutch East Indies, at Merak and Banten Bay (Banten), Eretan Wetan (Indramayu) and Kragan (Rembang).
1946 – The Bank of England is nationalised.
1947 – The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations.
1949 – Indonesian Army recaptures and occupies for six hours its capital city Yogyakarta from the Dutch.
1950 – Cold War: Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.
1953 – Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later.
1954 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.
1954 – Armed Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives.
1956 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.
1956 – Formation of the East German Nationale Volksarmee.
1958 – Samuel Alphonsus Stritch is appointed Pro-Prefect of the Propagation of Faith and thus becomes the first U.S. member of the Roman Curia.
1961 – United States President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
1961 – Uganda becomes self-governing and holds its first elections.
1964 – Villarrica Volcano begins a strombolian eruption causing lahars that destroy half of the town of Coñaripe.
1966 – Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface.
1966 – The Ba’ath Party takes power in Syria.
1971 – President of Pakistan Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.
1972 – The Thai province of Yasothon is created after being split off from the Ubon Ratchathani Province.
1973 – Black September storms the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, resulting in the assassination of three Western hostages.
1974 – Watergate scandal: Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
1981 – Provisional Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands begins his hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.
1983 – First collection of twelve Swatch models was introduced in Zürich, Switzerland.
1990 – Steve Jackson Games is raided by the United States Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
1991 – Uprisings against Saddam Hussein begin in Iraq, leading to the death of more than 25,000 people mostly civilian.
1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
1998 – Titanic became the first film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.
2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan.
2002 – The Envisat environmental satellite successfully launches aboard an Ariane 5 rocket to reach an orbit of 800 km (500 mi) above the Earth, which was the then-largest payload at 10.5 m long and with a diameter of 4.57 m.
2003 – Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service move to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
2003 – The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague.
2005 – In Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the execution of juveniles found guilty of murder is unconstitutional.
2006 – English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station.
2007 – Tornadoes break out across the southern United States, killing at least 20 people, including eight at Enterprise High School.
2008 – The Armenian police clash with peaceful opposition rally protesting against allegedly fraudulent presidential elections, as a result ten people are killed.
2014 – Thirty-five people are killed and 143 injured in a mass stabbing at Kunming Railway Station in China.
Births on March 1
1105 – Alfonso VII, king of León and Castile (d. 1157)
1261 – Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester (d. 1326)
1389 – Antoninus of Florence, Italian archbishop and saint (d. 1459)
1432 – Isabella of Coimbra (d. 1455)
1456 – Vladislaus II of Hungary (d. 1516)
1547 – Rudolph Goclenius, German philosopher and lexicographer (d. 1628)
1554 – William Stafford, English courtier and conspirator (d. 1612)
1577 – Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland (d. 1635)
1597 – Jean-Charles della Faille, Flemish priest and mathematician (d. 1652)
1611 – John Pell, English mathematician and linguist (d. 1685)
1629 – Abraham Teniers, Flemish painter (d. 1670)
1647 – John de Brito, Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr (d. 1693)
1657 – Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian and author (d. 1740)
1683 – Tsangyang Gyatso, sixth Dalai Lama (d. 1706)
1683 – Caroline of Ansbach, British queen and regent (d. 1737)
1732 – William Cushing, American lawyer and judge (d. 1810)
1760 – François Buzot, French lawyer and politician (d. 1794)
1769 – François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French general (d. 1796)
1807 – Wilford Woodruff, American religious leader, 4th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1898)
1810 – Frédéric Chopin, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1849)
1812 – Augustus Pugin, English architect, co-designed the Palace of Westminster (d. 1852)
1817 – Giovanni Duprè, Italian sculptor and educator (d. 1882)
1821 – Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German bishop and academic (d. 1896)
1835 – Philip Fysh, English-Australian politician, 12th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1919)
1837 – William Dean Howells, American novelist, playwright, and critic (d. 1920)
1842 – Nikolaos Gyzis, Greek painter and academic (d. 1901)
1848 – Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Irish-American sculptor and academic (d. 1907)
1852 – Théophile Delcassé, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1923)
1863 – Alexander Golovin, Russian painter and set designer (d. 1930)
1870 – E. M. Antoniadi, Greek-French astronomer and academic (d. 1944)
1876 – Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian businessman (d. 1942)
1880 – Lytton Strachey, British writer and critic (d. 1932)
1886 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian-Swiss painter, poet, and playwright (d. 1980)
1888 – Ewart Astill, English cricketer and billiards player (d. 1948)
1888 – Fanny Walden, English cricketer and umpire, international footballer, outside right (d. 1949)
1889 – Tetsuro Watsuji, Japanese historian and philosopher (d. 1960)
1890 – Theresa Bernstein, Polish-American painter and author (d. 2002)
1891 – Ralph Hitz, Austrian-American hotelier (d. 1940)
1892 – Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japanese author and educator (d. 1927)
1893 – Mercedes de Acosta, American author, poet, and playwright (d. 1968)
1896 – Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1960)
1896 – Moriz Seeler, German playwright and producer (d. 1942)
1899 – Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, German SS officer (d. 1972)
1904 – Paul Hartman, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1973)
1904 – Glenn Miller, American trombonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1944)
1905 – Doris Hare, Welsh-English actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2000)
1906 – Phạm Văn Đồng, Vietnamese lieutenant and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)
1909 – Eugene Esmonde, English lieutenant and pilot (d. 1942)
1909 – Winston Sharples, American pianist and composer (d. 1978)
1910 – Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
1910 – David Niven, English soldier and actor (d. 1983)
1912 – Gerald Emmett Carter, Canadian cardinal (d. 2003)
1912 – Boris Chertok, Polish-Russian engineer and academic (d. 2011)
1914 – Harry Caray, American sportscaster (d. 1998)
1914 – Ralph Ellison, American novelist and literary critic (d. 1994)
1917 – Robert Lowell, American poet (d. 1977)
1918 – João Goulart, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 24th President of Brazil (d. 1976)
1918 – Gladys Spellman, American educator and politician (d. 1988)
1920 – Max Bentley, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1984)
1921 – Cameron Argetsinger, American race car driver and lawyer (d. 2008)
1921 – Terence Cooke, American cardinal (d. 1983)
1921 – Richard Wilbur, American poet, translator, and essayist (d. 2017)
1922 – William Gaines, American publisher (d. 1992)
1922 – Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli general and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
1924 – Arnold Drake, American author and screenwriter (d. 2007)
1924 – Deke Slayton, American soldier, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1993)
1926 – Robert Clary, French-American actor and author
1926 – Cesare Danova, Italian-American actor (d. 1992)
1926 – Pete Rozelle, American businessman and commissioner of the National Football League (d. 1996)
1926 – Allan Stanley, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2013)
1927 – George O. Abell, American astronomer, professor at UCLA, science popularizer, and skeptic (d. 1983)
1927 – Harry Belafonte, American singer-songwriter and actor
1927 – Robert Bork, American lawyer and scholar, United States Attorney General (d. 2012)
1928 – Jacques Rivette, French director, screenwriter, and critic (d. 2016)
1929 – Georgi Markov, Bulgarian journalist and author (d. 1978)
1930 – Gastone Nencini, Italian cyclist (d. 1980)
1934 – Jean-Michel Folon, Belgian painter and sculptor (d. 2005)
1934 – Joan Hackett, American actress (d. 1983)
1935 – Robert Conrad, American actor, radio host and stuntman (d. 2020)
1936 – Jean-Edern Hallier, French author (d. 1997)
1939 – Leo Brouwer, Cuban guitarist, composer, and conductor
1939 – Mustansar Hussain Tarar, Pakistani author
1940 – Robin Gray, Australian politician, 37th Premier of Tasmania
1940 – Robert Grossman, American painter, sculptor, and author (d. 2018)
1941 – Robert Hass, American poet
1942 – Richard Myers, American general
1943 – Gil Amelio, American businessman
1943 – José Ángel Iribar, Spanish footballer and manager
1943 – Rashid Sunyaev, Russian-German astronomer and physicist
1944 – Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Indian politician, 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal
1944 – John Breaux, American lawyer and politician
1944 – Roger Daltrey, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1944 – Mike d’Abo, English singer
1945 – Dirk Benedict, American actor and director
1946 – Gerry Boulet, Canadian singer-songwriter (d. 1990)
1946 – Jim Crace, English author and academic
1947 – Alan Thicke, Canadian-American actor and composer (d. 2016)
1951 – Sergei Kourdakov, Russian-American KGB agent (d. 1973)
1952 – Dave Barr, Canadian golfer
1952 – Nevada Barr, American actress and author
1952 – Leigh Matthews, Australian footballer, coach, and sportscaster
1952 – Jerri Nielsen, American physician and explorer (d. 2009)
1952 – Martin O’Neill, Northern Irish footballer and manager
1953 – Sinan Çetin, Turkish actor, director, and producer
1953 – Carlos Queiroz, Portuguese footballer and manager
1954 – Catherine Bach, American actress
1954 – Ron Howard, American actor, director, and producer
1954 – Rod Reddy, Australian rugby league player and coach
1956 – Tim Daly, American actor, director, and producer
1956 – Dalia Grybauskaitė, Lithuanian politician, 6th President of Lithuania
1958 – Nik Kershaw, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1958 – Wayne B. Phillips, Australian cricketer and coach
1959 – Nick Griffin, English politician
1961 – Mike Rozier, American football player
1962 – Russell Coutts, New Zealand sailor
1962 – Mark Gardner, American baseball player
1962 – Bill Leen, American bass player and producer
1963 – Bryan Batt, American actor and singer
1963 – Maurice Benard, American actor
1963 – Ron Francis, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
1964 – Clinton Gregory, American singer-songwriter and fiddler
1964 – Paul Le Guen, French footballer and manager
1965 – Booker T, American wrestler and sportscaster
1965 – Stewart Elliott, Canadian jockey
1966 – Paul Hollywood, English chef
1966 – Zack Snyder, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1967 – George Eads, American actor
1967 – Aron Winter, Suriname-Dutch footballer and manager
1969 – Javier Bardem, Spanish actor and producer
1970 – Jason V Brock, American author, filmmaker, artist, scholar and musician
1971 – Thomas Adès, English pianist, composer, and conductor
1971 – Ivan Cleary, Australian rugby league player and coach
1973 – Jack Davenport, English actor
1973 – Anton Gunn, American academic and politician
1973 – Chris Webber, American basketball player and sportscaster
1983 – Anthony Tupou, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Naima Mora, American model and actress
1984 – Alexander Steen, Canadian-Swedish ice hockey player
1985 – Andreas Ottl, German footballer
1986 – Big E, American wrestler
1987 – Kesha, American singer-songwriter and actress
1988 – Yang Hyeon-jong, South Korean baseball player
1989 – Tenille Tayla, Australian professional wrestler
1989 – Carlos Vela, Mexican footballer
1992 – Tom Walsh, New Zealand athlete
1993 – Nathan Brown, Australian rugby league player
1993 – Michael Conforto, American baseball player
1993 – Kurt Mann, Australian rugby league player
1993 – Josh McEachran, English footballer
1994 – Justin Bieber, Canadian singer-songwriter
1994 – Tyreek Hill, American football player
1996 – Lizzie Arnot, Scottish footballer
1999 – Brogan Hay, Scottish footballer
Deaths on March 1
492 – Felix III, pope of the Catholic Church
589 – David, Welsh bishop and saint
965 – Leo VIII, pope of the Catholic Church
977 – Rudesind, Galician bishop (b. 907)
991 – En’yū, Japanese emperor (b. 959)
1058 – Ermesinde of Carcassonne, countess and regent of Barcelona (b. 972)
1131 – Stephen II, king of Hungary and Croatia (b. 1101)
1233 – Thomas, count of Savoy (b. 1178)
1244 – Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr, Welsh noble, son of Llywelyn the Great (b. 1200)
1320 – Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan, Chinese emperor (b. 1286)
1383 – Amadeus VI, count of Savoy (b. 1334)
1510 – Francisco de Almeida, Portuguese soldier and explorer (b. 1450)
1546 – George Wishart, Scottish minister and martyr (b. 1513)
1620 – Thomas Campion, English poet and composer (b. 1567)
1633 – George Herbert, English poet and orator (b. 1593)
1643 – Girolamo Frescobaldi, Italian pianist and composer (b. 1583)
1661 – Richard Zouch, English judge and politician (b. 1590)
1666 – Ecaterina Cercheza, princess consort of Moldavia (b. 1620)
1697 – Francesco Redi, Italian physician and poet (b. 1626)
1734 – Roger North, English lawyer and author (b. 1653)
1768 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and author (b. 1694)
1773 – Luigi Vanvitelli, Italian architect, designed the Palace of Caserta (b. 1700)
1792 – Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1747)
1792 – Angelo Emo, Venetian admiral and statesman (b. 1731)1841 – Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (b. 1764)
1862 – Peter Barlow, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1776)
1875 – Tristan Corbière, French poet and educator (b. 1845)
1882 – Theodor Kullak, German pianist, composer, and educator (b. 1818)
1884 – Isaac Todhunter, English mathematician and academic (b. 1820)
1906 – José María de Pereda, Spanish author (b. 1833)
1911 – Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff, Dutch-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
1914 – Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, English soldier and politician, 8th Governor General of Canada (b. 1845)
1920 – John H. Bankhead, American lawyer and politician (b. 1842)
1922 – Pichichi, Spanish footballer (b. 1892)
1932 – Frank Teschemacher, American Jazz musician (b. 1906)
1936 – Mikhail Kuzmin, Russian author and poet (b. 1871)
1938 – Gabriele D’Annunzio, Italian journalist and politician (b. 1863)
1940 – Anton Hansen Tammsaare, Estonian author (b. 1878)
1942 – George S. Rentz, American commander (b. 1882)
1943 – Alexandre Yersin, Swiss-French physician and bacteriologist (b. 1863)
1952 – Mariano Azuela, Mexican physician and author (b. 1873)
1966 – Fritz Houtermans, Polish-German physicist and academic (b. 1903)
1974 – Bobby Timmons, American pianist and composer (b. 1935)
1976 – Jean Martinon, French conductor and composer (b. 1910)
1978 – Paul Scott, English author, poet, and playwright (b. 1920)
1979 – Mustafa Barzani, Iraqi-Kurdistan politician (b. 1903)
1980 – Wilhelmina Cooper, Dutch-American model and businesswoman, founded Wilhelmina Models (b. 1940)
1980 – Dixie Dean, English footballer (b. 1907)
1983 – Arthur Koestler, Hungarian-English journalist and author (b. 1905)
1984 – Jackie Coogan, American actor (b. 1914)
1988 – Joe Besser, American comedian and actor (b. 1907)
1989 – Vasantdada Patil, Indian politician, 5th Chief Minister of Maharashtra (b. 1917)
1991 – Edwin H. Land, American scientist and businessman, co-founded the Polaroid Corporation (b. 1909)
1995 – Georges J. F. Köhler, German biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1946)
1998 – Archie Goodwin, American author and illustrator (b. 1937)
2004 – Mian Ghulam Jilani, Pakistani general (b. 1914)
2006 – Peter Osgood, English footballer (b. 1947)
2006 – Jack Wild, English actor (b.1952)
2010 – Kristian Digby, English television host and director (b. 1977)
2012 – Andrew Breitbart, American journalist and publisher (b. 1969)
2012 – Germano Mosconi, Italian journalist (b. 1932)
2013 – Bonnie Franklin, American actress, dancer, and singer (b. 1944)
2014 – Alain Resnais, French director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (b. 1922)
2015 – Minnie Miñoso, Cuban-American baseball player and coach (b. 1922)
2018 – María Rubio, Mexican television, film and stage actress (b. 1934)
2019 – Mike Willesee, Australian journalist and producer (b. 1942)
Holidays and observances on March 1
Beer Day, marked the end of beer prohibition in 1989 (Iceland)
Christian feast day:
Agnes Tsao Kou Ying (one of the Martyr Saints of China)
Albin
David
Eudokia of Heliopolis
Pope Felix III
Leoluca
Luperculus
Monan
Rudesind
Suitbert
March 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Commemoration of Mustafa Barzani’s Death (Iraqi Kurdistan)
Earliest day on which Casimir Pulaski Day can fall, while March 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in March. (Illinois)
Earliest day on which Children’s Day can fall, while March 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in March. (New Zealand)
Earliest day on which Grandmother’s Day can fall, while March 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in March. (France)
Earliest day on which Laetare Sunday can fall, while April 4 is the latest; celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. (Western Christianity), and its related observances:
Carnaval de la Laetare (Stavelot)
Mothering Sunday (United Kingdom)
Heroes’ Day (Paraguay)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992.
National “Cursed Soldiers” Remembrance Day (Poland)
National Pig Day (United States)
Remembrance Day (Marshall Islands)
Saint David’s Day or Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant (Wales and Welsh communities)
Samiljeol (South Korea)
Self-injury Awareness Day
Southeastern Europe celebration of the beginning of spring:
Baba Marta Day (Bulgaria)
Mărțișor (Romania and Moldova)
The final day (fourth or fifth) of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’í Faith)
303 – Roman emperor Diocletian orders the destruction of the Christian church in Nicomedia, beginning eight years of Diocletianic Persecution.
532 – Byzantine emperor Justinian I orders the building of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia.
1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.
1554 – Mapuche forces, under the leadership of Lautaro, score a victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Marihueñu in Chile.
1653 – The Ballet Royal de la Nuit is first performed at the Salle du Petit-Bourbon in Paris
1739 – At York Castle, the outlaw Dick Turpin is identified by his former schoolteacher. Turpin had been using the name Richard Palmer.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
1820 – Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
1836 – Texas Revolution: The Siege of the Alamo (prelude to the Battle of the Alamo) begins in San Antonio, Texas.
1847 – Mexican–American War: Battle of Buena Vista: In Mexico, American troops under future president General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1854 – The official independence of the Orange Free State is declared.
1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland.
1870 – Reconstruction Era: Post-U.S. Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
1883 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an anti-trust law.
1885 – Sino-French War: French Army gains an important victory in the Battle of Đồng Đăng in the Tonkin region of Vietnam.
1886 – Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of aluminium from the electrolysis of aluminium oxide, after several years of intensive work. He was assisted in this project by his older sister, Julia Brainerd Hall.
1887 – The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
1898 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing J’Accuse…!, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
1900 – Second Boer War: During the Battle of the Tugela Heights, the first British attempt to take Hart’s Hill fails.
1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States “in perpetuity”.
1905 – Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world’s first service club.
1909 – The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
1917 – First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution (March 8 in the Gregorian calendar).
1927 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill by Congress establishing the Federal Radio Commission (later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission) which was to regulate the use of radio frequencies in the United States.
1927 – German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.
1934 – Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.
1941 – Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
1942 – World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the coastline near Santa Barbara, California.
1943 – A fire breaks out at Saint Joseph’s Orphanage, County Cavan, Ireland, killing 35 children and one adult.
1943 – Greek Resistance: The United Panhellenic Organization of Youth is founded in Greece.
1944 – The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.
1945 – World War II: The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free all 2,147 captives of the Los Baños internment camp, in what General Colin Powell later would refer to as “the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies.”
1945 – World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined Filipino and American forces.
1945 – World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
1945 – World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is annihilated in a raid by 379 British bombers.
1947 – International Organization for Standardization is founded.
1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
1966 – In Syria, Ba’ath Party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin al-Hafiz, also a Baathist.
1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
1980 – Iran hostage crisis: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran’s parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
1981 – In Spain, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d’état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
1983 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
1987 – Supernova 1987a is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
1991 – In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d’état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
1998 – In the United States, tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42 people.
1999 – Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
2007 – A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 88. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.
2008 – A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber crashes on Guam, marking the first operational loss of a B-2.
2010 – Unknown criminals pour more than 21⁄2 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in northern Italy, sparking an environmental disaster.
2012 – A series of attacks across Iraq leave at least 83 killed and more than 250 injured.
2017 – The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from ISIL.
2019 – Atlas Air Flight 3591, a Boeing 767 freighter, crashes into Trinity Bay near Anahuac, Texas, killing all three people on board.
Births on February 23
1417 – Pope Paul II (d. 1471)
1417 – Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1479)
1443 – Matthias Corvinus, Hungarian king (d. 1490)
1529 – Onofrio Panvinio, Italian historian (d. 1568)
1539 – Henry XI of Legnica, thrice Duke of Legnica (d. 1588)
1539 – Salima Sultan Begum, Empress of the Mughal Empire (d. 1612)
1583 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer (d. 1656)
1592 – Balthazar Gerbier, Dutch painter (d. 1663)
1633 – Samuel Pepys, English diarist and politician (d. 1703)
1646 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shōgun (d. 1709)
1680 – Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, Canadian politician, 2nd Colonial Governor of Louisiana (d. 1767)
1685 – George Frideric Handel, German-English organist and composer (d. 1759)
1723 – Richard Price, Welsh-English minister and philosopher (d. 1791)
1744 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German banker and businessman (d. 1812)
1792 – José Joaquín de Herrera, Mexican politician and general. President three times (1844–1854) (d. 1854)
1831 – Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Dutch painter (d. 1915)
1840 – Carl Menger, Austrian economist and educator (d. 1921)
1842 – Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher and author (d. 1906)
1850 – César Ritz, Swiss businessman, founded The Ritz Hotel, London and Hôtel Ritz Paris (d. 1918)
1868 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian, and activist (d. 1963)
1868 – Anna Hofman-Uddgren, Swedish actress, singer, and director (d. 1947)
1873 – Liang Qichao, Chinese journalist, philosopher, and scholar (d. 1929)
1874 – Konstantin Päts, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st President of Estonia (d. 1956)
1878 – Kazimir Malevich, Ukrainian painter and theorist (d. 1935)
1883 – Karl Jaspers, German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher (d. 1969)
1883 – Guy C. Wiggins, American painter (d. 1962)
1889 – Musidora, French actress and director (d. 1957)
1889 – Cyril Delevanti, English-American actor (d. 1975)
1889 – Victor Fleming, American director, cinematographer, and producer (d. 1949)
1889 – John Gilbert Winant, American captain, pilot, and politician, 60th Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1947)
1892 – Kathleen Harrison, English actress (d. 1995)
1892 – Agnes Smedley, American journalist and writer (d. 1950)
1894 – Harold Horder, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 1978)
1899 – Erich Kästner, German author and poet (d. 1974)
1899 – Norman Taurog, American director and screenwriter (d. 1981)
1904 – Terence Fisher, English director and screenwriter (d. 1980)
1904 – William L. Shirer, American journalist and historian (d. 1993)
1908 – William McMahon, Australian lawyer and politician, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
1915 – Jon Hall, American actor and director (d. 1979)
1915 – Paul Tibbets, American general and pilot (d. 2007)
1919 – Johnny Carey, Irish footballer and manager (d. 1995)
1920 – Paul Gérin-Lajoie, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2018)
1923 – Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan jurist and politician, President of Uruguay (d. 2014)
1923 – Harry Clarke, English international footballer, defender (d. 2000)
1923 – Ioannis Grivas, Greek judge and politician, 176th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2016)
1923 – Dante Lavelli, American football player (d. 2009)
1923 – Clarence D. Lester, African-American fighter pilot (d.1986)
1923 – Mary Francis Shura, American author (d. 1991)
1924 – Allan McLeod Cormack, South-African-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
1925 – Louis Stokes, American lawyer and politician (d. 2015)
1927 – Régine Crespin, French soprano and actress (d. 2007)
1928 – Hans Herrmann, German race car driver
1928 – Vasily Lazarev, Russian colonel, physician, and astronaut (d. 1990)
1929 – Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow (d. 2008)
1929 – Elston Howard, American baseball player and coach (d. 1980)
1930 – Paul West, English-American author, poet, and academic (d. 2015)
1931 – Tom Wesselmann, American painter and sculptor (d. 2004)
1932 – Majel Barrett, American actress and producer (d. 2008)
1937 – Tom Osborne, American football player, coach, and politician
1938 – Sylvia Chase, American broadcast journalist (d. 2019)
1938 – Paul Morrissey, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1938 – Diane Varsi, American actress (d. 1992)
1940 – Peter Fonda, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2019)
1940 – Jackie Smith, American football player
1941 – Ron Hunt, American baseball player
1943 – Fred Biletnikoff, American football player and coach
1943 – Bobby Mitchell, American golfer (d. 2018)
1944 – Bernard Cornwell, English author and educator
1944 – Florian Fricke, German keyboard player and composer (d. 2001)
1944 – Johnny Winter, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2014)
1945 – Allan Boesak, South African cleric and politician
1946 – Rusty Young, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1947 – Pia Kjærsgaard, Danish politician, Speaker of the Danish Parliament
1947 – Anton Mosimann, Swiss chef and author
1948 – Bill Alexander, English director and producer
1948 – Trevor Cherry, English footballer (d. 2020)
1948 – Steve Priest, English singer-songwriter and bass player
1949 – César Aira, Argentinian author and translator
1949 – Marc Garneau, Canadian engineer, astronaut, and politician
1950 – Rebecca Goldstein, American philosopher and author
1951 – Eddie Dibbs, American tennis player
1951 – Debbie Friedman, American singer-songwriter of Jewish melodies (d. 2011)
1951 – Ed “Too Tall” Jones, American football player and boxer
1951 – Patricia Richardson, American actress
1952 – Brad Whitford, American guitarist and songwriter
1953 – Kenny Bee, Hong Kong singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1953 – Satoru Nakajima, Japanese race car driver
1954 – Rajini Thiranagama, Sri Lankan physician and academic (d. 1989)
1954 – Viktor Yushchenko, Ukrainian captain and politician, 3rd President of Ukraine
1955 – Howard Jones, English singer-songwriter
1955 – Flip Saunders, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
1956 – Sandra Osborne, Scottish politician
1958 – David Sylvian, English singer-songwriter
1959 – Clayton Anderson, American engineer and astronaut
1959 – Nick de Bois, English politician
1959 – Ian Liddell-Grainger, Scottish soldier and politician
1959 – Linda Nolan, Irish singer and actress
1960 – Naruhito, Emperor of Japan
1962 – Michael Wilton, American guitarist
1963 – Bobby Bonilla, American baseball player
1963 – Radosław Sikorski, Polish journalist and politician, 11th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland
1964 – John Norum, Norwegian guitarist and songwriter
1965 – Michael Dell, American businessman
1965 – Helena Suková, Czech-Monacan tennis player
1967 – Steve Stricker, American golfer
1967 – Chris Vrenna, American drummer, songwriter, and producer
1969 – Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer
1969 – Martine Croxall, English journalist and television news presenter
1969 – Daymond John, American fashion designer and businessman, founded FUBU
1970 – Niecy Nash, American actress and producer
1971 – Carin Koch, Swedish golfer
1971 – Melinda Messenger, English model and television host
1971 – Joe-Max Moore, American soccer player
1972 – Alessandro Sturba, Italian footballer
1972 – Rondell White, American baseball player
1973 – Jeff Nordgaard, American-Polish basketball player
1974 – Herschelle Gibbs, South African cricketer
1974 – Robbi Kempson, South African rugby player
1975 – Michael Cornacchia, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1975 – Ryan McCourt, Canadian artist
1976 – Scott Elarton, American baseball player and coach
1976 – Kelly Macdonald, Scottish actress
1976 – Jeff O’Neill, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1977 – Kristina Šmigun-Vähi, Estonian skier
1978 – Residente, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter
1978 – Dan Snyder, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
1979 – S. E. Cupp, American journalist and author
1981 – Gareth Barry, English footballer
1981 – Josh Gad, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1981 – Charles Tillman, American football player
1982 – Adam Hann-Byrd, American actor and screenwriter
1983 – Mido, Egyptian footballer, striker, manager and sportscaster
1983 – Aziz Ansari, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
1983 – Emily Blunt, English actress
1986 – Emerson Conceição, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Skylar Grey, American singer-songwriter
1986 – Kazuya Kamenashi, Japanese singer-songwriter and actor
1986 – Jerod Mayo, American football player
1986 – Ola Svensson, Swedish singer-songwriter
1987 – Ab-Soul, American rapper
1987 – Theophilus London, Trinidadian-American singer-songwriter and producer
1987 – Zak Kirkup, Member of the Parliament of Western Australia
1988 – Nicolás Gaitán, Argentinian footballer
1989 – Evan Bates, American ice dancer
1989 – Jérémy Pied, French footballer
1990 – Kevin Connauton, Canadian ice hockey player
1990 – Terry Hawkridge, English footballer
1990 – Marco Scandella, Canadian ice hockey player
1992 – Casemiro, Brazilian footballer
1992 – Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Greek footballer
1993 – Chris Grevsmuhl, Australian rugby league player
1994 – Dakota Fanning, American actress
1995 – Andrew Wiggins, Canadian basketball player
1996 – D’Angelo Russell, American basketball player
1997 – Jamal Murray, Canadian basketball player
Deaths on February 23
715 – Al-Walid I, Umayyad caliph (b. 668)
908 – Li Keyong, Shatuo military governor during the Tang Dynasty in China (b. 856)
943 – Herbert II, Count of Vermandois, (b. 884)
943 – David I, prince of Tao-Klarjeti (Georgia)
1011 – Willigis, German archbishop (b. 940)
1100 – Emperor Zhezong of Song (b. 1076)
1270 – Isabel of France (b. 1225)
1447 – Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (b. 1390)
1447 – Pope Eugene IV (b. 1383)
1464 – Emperor Yingzong of Ming (b. 1427)
1473 – Arnold, Duke of Gelderland (b. 1410)
1526 – Diego Colón, Spanish Viceroy of the Indies (b. c. 1479)
1554 – Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire (b. 1515)
1603 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (b. 1519)
1603 – Franciscus Vieta, French mathematician (b. 1540)
1620 – Nicholas Fuller, English politician (b. 1543)
1704 – Georg Muffat, French organist and composer (b. 1653)
1766 – Stanisław Leszczyński, Polish king (b. 1677)
1781 – George Taylor, Irish-American blacksmith and politician (b. 1716)
1792 – Joshua Reynolds, English painter and academic (b. 1723)
1821 – John Keats, English poet (b. 1795)
1848 – John Quincy Adams, American politician, 6th President of the United States (b. 1767)
1855 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)
1859 – Zygmunt Krasiński, Polish poet and playwright (b. 1812)
1879 – Albrecht von Roon, Prussian soldier and politician, 10th Minister President of Prussia (b. 1803)
1897 – Woldemar Bargiel, German composer and educator (b. 1828)
1900 – Ernest Dowson, English poet, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1867)
1908 – Friedrich von Esmarch, German surgeon and academic (b. 1823)
1918 – Adolphus Frederick VI, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1882)
1930 – Horst Wessel, German SA officer (b. 1907)
1931 – Nellie Melba, Australian soprano and actress (b. 1861)
1934 – Edward Elgar, English composer and academic (b. 1857)
1944 – Leo Baekeland, Belgian-American chemist and engineer (b. 1863)
1946 – Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (b. 1885)
1948 – John Robert Gregg, Irish-American publisher and educator (b. 1866)
1955 – Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (b. 1868)
1965 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (b. 1890)
1969 – Madhubala, Indian actress and producer (b. 1933)
1969 – Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 2nd King of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
1973 – Dickinson W. Richards, American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
1974 – Harry Ruby, American composer and screenwriter (b. 1895)
1976 – L. S. Lowry, English painter (b. 1887)
1979 – W. A. C. Bennett, Canadian businessman and politician, 25th Premier of British Columbia (b. 1900)
1983 – Herbert Howells, English organist and composer (b. 1892)
1990 – José Napoleón Duarte, Salvadoran engineer and politician, President of El Salvador (b. 1925)
1995 – James Herriot, English veterinarian and author (b. 1916)
1997 – Tony Williams, American drummer, composer, and producer (b. 1945)
1998 – Philip Abbott, American actor and director (b. 1924)
1999 – The Renegade, American wrestler (b. 1965)
2000 – Ofra Haza, Israeli singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1957)
2000 – Stanley Matthews, English footballer and manager (b. 1915)
2003 – Howie Epstein, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (b. 1955)
2003 – Robert K. Merton, American sociologist and academic (b. 1910)
2004 – Vijay Anand, Indian director, producer, screenwriter, and actor (b. 1934)
2004 – Sikander Bakht, Indian politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (b. 1918)
2006 – Telmo Zarra, Spanish footballer (b. 1921)
2007 – John Ritchie, English footballer (b. 1941)
2008 – Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian economist and politician, 2nd President of Slovenia (b. 1950)
2008 – Paul Frère, Belgian race car driver and journalist (b. 1917)
2010 – Orlando Zapata, Cuban plumber and activist (b. 1967)
2011 – Nirmala Srivastava, Indian religious leader, founded Sahaja Yoga (b. 1923)
2012 – William Raggio, American lawyer and politician (b. 1926)
2012 – David Sayre, American physicist and mathematician (b. 1924)
2012 – Kazimierz Żygulski, Polish sociologist and activist (b. 1919)
2013 – Eugene Bookhammer, American soldier and politician, 18th Lieutenant Governor of Delaware (b. 1918)
2013 – Joseph Friedenson, Holocaust survivor, Holocaust historian, Yiddish writer, lecturer and editor (b. 1922)
2013 – Julien Ries, Belgian cardinal (b. 1920)
2013 – Lotika Sarkar, Indian lawyer and academic (b. 1945)
2014 – Alice Herz-Sommer, Czech-English Holocaust survivor, pianist and educator (b. 1903)
2014 – Roger Hilsman, American soldier, academic, and politician (b. 1919)
2015 – James Aldridge, Australian-English journalist and author (b. 1918)
2015 – Rana Bhagwandas, Pakistani lawyer and judge, Chief Justice of Pakistan (b. 1942)
2015 – W. E. “Bill” Dykes, American soldier and politician (b. 1925)
2016 – Peter Lustig, German television host and author (b. 1937)
2016 – Jacqueline Mattson, American baseball player (b. 1928)
2019 – Katherine Helmond, American actress (b. 1929)
Holidays and observances on February 23
Christian feast day:
Polycarp of Smyrna
Serenus the Gardener
February 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
The Emperor’s Birthday, birthday of Naruhito, the current Emperor of Japan (Japan)
Mashramani-Republic Day (Guyana)
Meteņi (Latvia)
National Day (Brunei)
Red Army Day or Day of Soviet Army and Navy in the former Soviet Union, also held in various former Soviet republics:
Defender of the Fatherland Day (Russia)
Defender of the Fatherland and Armed Forces day (Belarus)
1339 – The Milanese army and the St. George’s (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clash in the Battle of Parabiago; Visconti is defeated.
1472 – Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark.
1547 – Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
1685 – René-Robert Cavelier establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France’s claim to Texas.
1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington.
1798 – Louis-Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power.
1813 – Manuel Belgrano defeats the royalist army of Pío de Tristán during the Battle of Salta.
1816 – Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
1835 – The 1835 Concepción earthquake destroys Concepción, Chile.
1846 – Polish insurgents lead an uprising in Kraków to incite a fight for national independence.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Olustee: The largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
1865 – End of the Uruguayan War, with a peace agreement between President Tomás Villalba and rebel leader Venancio Flores, setting the scene for the destructive War of the Triple Alliance.
1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.
1877 – Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
1901 – The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
1909 – Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.
1913 – King O’Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
1920 – An earthquake kills between 114 and 130 in Georgia and heavily damages the town of Gori.
1931 – The U.S. Congress approves the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
1933 – The U.S. Congress approves the Blaine Act to repeal federal Prohibition in the United States, sending the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution to state ratifying conventions for approval.
1933 – Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party’s upcoming election campaign.
1935 – Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
1942 – Lieutenant Edward O’Hare becomes America’s first World War II flying ace.
1943 – American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
1943 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.
1944 – World War II: The “Big Week” began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
1944 – World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
1952 – Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
1956 – The United States Merchant Marine Academy becomes a permanent Service Academy.
1959 – The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.
1965 – Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
1971 – The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.
1979 – An earthquake cracks open the Sinila volcanic crater on the Dieng Plateau, releasing poisonous H2S gas and killing 149 villagers in the Indonesian province of Central Java.
1986 – The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.
1988 – The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
1991 – In the Albanian capital Tirana, a gigantic statue of Albania’s long-time leader, Enver Hoxha, is brought down by mobs of angry protesters.
1998 – American figure skater Tara Lipinski, at the age of 15, becomes the youngest Olympic figure skating gold-medalist at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
2003 – During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the Station nightclub ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.
2005 – Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.
2009 – Two Tamil Tigers aircraft packed with C4 explosives en route to the national airforce headquarters are shot down by the Sri Lankan military before reaching their target, in a kamikaze style attack.
2010 – In Madeira Island, Portugal, heavy rain causes floods and mudslides, resulting in at least 43 deaths, in the worst disaster in the history of the archipelago.
2014 – Dozens of Euromaidan anti-government protesters died in Ukraine’s capital Kiev, many reportedly killed by snipers.
2015 – Two trains collide in the Swiss town of Rafz resulting in as many as 49 people injured and Swiss Federal Railways cancelling some services.
2016 – Six people are killed and two injured in multiple shooting incidents in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.
Births on February 20
1358 – Eleanor of Aragon, queen of John I of Castile (d. 1382)
1469 – Thomas Cajetan, Italian philosopher (d. 1534)
1523 – Jan Blahoslav, Czech writer (d. 1571)
1549 – Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, last Duke of Urbino (d. 1631)
1552 – Sengoku Hidehisa, Daimyō (d. 1614)
1608 – Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham (d. 1649)
1631 – Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English politician, Treasurer of the Navy (d. 1712)
1633 – Jan de Baen, Dutch painter (d. 1702)
1705 – Nicolas Chédeville, French musette player and composer (d. 1782)
1726 – William Prescott, American colonel (d. 1795)
1745 – Henry James Pye, English poet and politician (d. 1813)
1751 – Johann Heinrich Voss, German poet, translator, and academic (d. 1826)
1753 – Louis-Alexandre Berthier, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (d. 1815)
1759 – Johann Christian Reil, German physician, physiologist, and anatomist (d. 1813)
1774 – Vicente Sebastián Pintado, Spanish cartographer, engineer, military officer and land surveyor of Spanish Louisiana and Spanish West Florida (d. 1829)
1784 – Judith Montefiore, British linguist, travel writer, philanthropist (d. 1862)
1792 – Eliza Courtney, French daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (d. 1859)
1794 – William Carleton, Irish author (d. 1869)
1802 – Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1870)
1819 – Alfred Escher, Swiss businessman and politician (d. 1882)
1839 – Benjamin Waugh, English activist, founded the NSPCC (d. 1908)
1844 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1906)
1844 – Joshua Slocum, Canadian sailor and adventurer (d. 1909)
1848 – E. H. Harriman, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1909)
1857 – A. P. Lucas, English cricketer (d. 1923)
1866 – Carl Westman, Swedish architect, designed the Stockholm Court House and Röhsska Museum (d. 1936)
1867 – Louise, Princess Royal of England (d. 1931)
1870 – Jay Johnson Morrow, American engineer and politician, 3rd Governor of the Panama Canal Zone (d. 1937)
1874 – Mary Garden, Scottish-American soprano and actress (d. 1967)
1879 – Hod Stuart, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1907)
1880 – Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen, French author and poet (d. 1923)
1882 – Elie Nadelman, Polish-American sculptor (d. 1946)
1887 – Vincent Massey, Canadian lawyer and politician, 18th Governor General of Canada (d. 1967)
1888 – Georges Bernanos, French soldier and author (d. 1948)
1889 – Hulusi Behçet, Turkish dermatologist and physician (d. 1948)
1893 – Elizabeth Holloway Marston, American psychologist and author (d. 1993)
1895 – Louis Zborowski, English race car driver and engineer (d. 1924)
1897 – Ivan Albright, American painter (d. 1983)
1898 – Ante Ciliga, Croatian politician, writer and publisher (d. 1992)
1899 – Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1992)
1901 – René Dubos, French-American biologist and author (d. 1982)
1901 – Louis Kahn, American architect, designed the Salk Institute, the Kimbell Art Museum and the Bangladesh Parliament Building (d. 1974)
1901 – Muhammad Naguib, Egyptian general and politician, 1st President of Egypt (d. 1984)
1901 – Ramakrishna Ranga Rao of Bobbili, Indian lawyer and politician, 6th Chief Minister of Madras Presidency (d. 1978)
1902 – Ansel Adams, American photographer and environmentalist (d. 1984)
1904 – Alexei Kosygin, Russian soldier and politician, 8th Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1980)
1906 – Gale Gordon, American actor (d. 1995)
1912 – Pierre Boulle, French soldier and author (d. 1994)
1912 – Johnny Checketts, New Zealand flying ace of the Second World War (d. 2006)
1913 – Tommy Henrich, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2009)
1914 – John Charles Daly, South African–American journalist and game show host (d. 1991)
1916 – Jean Erdman, American dancer and choreographer
1918 – Leonore Annenberg, American businesswoman and diplomat (d. 2009)
1919 – James O’Meara, English soldier and pilot (d. 1974)
1920 – Karl Albrecht, German businessman, co-founded Aldi (d. 2014)
1921 – Buddy Rogers, American wrestler (d. 1992)
1923 – Victor G. Atiyeh, American businessman and politician, 32nd Governor of Oregon (d. 2014)
1923 – Forbes Burnham, Guyanese lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Guyana (d. 1985)
1923 – Rena Vlahopoulou, Greek actress (d. 2004)
1924 – Gloria Vanderbilt, American actress, fashion designer, and socialite (d. 2019)
1925 – Robert Altman, American director and screenwriter (d. 2006)
1925 – Tochinishiki Kiyotaka, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 44th Yokozuna (d. 1990)
1926 – Matthew Bucksbaum, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded General Growth Properties (d. 2013)
1926 – Gillian Lynne, English ballerina, choreographer, and director (d. 2018)
1926 – Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1926 – Bob Richards, American Olympic track and field athlete
1926 – María de la Purísima Salvat Romero, Spanish Roman Catholic nun; later canonized (d. 1998)
1927 – Roy Cohn, American lawyer and political activist (d. 1986)
1927 – Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban singer and musician (d. 2005)
1927 – Sidney Poitier, Bahamian-American actor, director, and diplomat
1928 – Roy Face, American baseball player and carpenter
1928 – Jean Kennedy Smith, American diplomat, 25th United States Ambassador to Ireland
1929 – Amanda Blake, American actress (d. 1989)
1931 – John Milnor, American mathematician and academic
1932 – Adrian Cristobal, Filipino journalist and author (d. 2007)
1934 – Bobby Unser, American race car driver
1935 – Ellen Gilchrist, American novelist, short story writer, and poet
1936 – Marj Dusay, American actress (d. 2020)
1936 – Larry Hovis, American actor and singer (d. 2003)
1936 – Shigeo Nagashima, Japanese baseball player and coach
1937 – David Ackles, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1999)
1937 – Robert Huber, German biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1937 – Roger Penske, American race car driver and businessman
1937 – Robert Evans, Australian minister and amateur astronomer
1937 – Nancy Wilson, American singer and actress (d. 2018)
1938 – Richard Beymer, American actor, director, and cinematographer
1940 – Jimmy Greaves, English international footballer, forward and TV pundit
1941 – Lim Kit Siang, Malaysian lawyer and politician
1941 – Buffy Sainte-Marie, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
1942 – Phil Esposito, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager
1942 – Mitch McConnell, American lawyer, and politician
1942 – Claude Miller, French director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
1943 – Antonio Inoki, Japanese wrestler, mixed martial artist, and politician
1943 – Mike Leigh, English director and screenwriter
1944 – Robert de Cotret, Canadian economist and politician, 56th Secretary of State for Canada (d. 1999)
1944 – Lew Soloff, American trumpet player, composer, and actor (d. 2015)
1944 – Willem van Hanegem, Dutch footballer and coach
1945 – Alan Hull, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1995)
1946 – Brenda Blethyn, English actress
1946 – Sandy Duncan, American actress, singer, and dancer
1946 – J. Geils, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2017)
1947 – Peter Osgood, English footballer (d. 2006)
1947 – Peter Strauss, American actor and producer
1948 – Pierre Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1948 – Jennifer O’Neill, American model and actress
1949 – Eddie Hemmings, English cricketer
1949 – Ivana Trump, Czech-American socialite and model
1950 – Walter Becker, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2017)
1950 – Peter Marinello, Scottish footballer, forward
1950 – Tony Wilson, English journalist and businessman (d. 2007)
1951 – Edward Albert, American actor (d. 2006)
1951 – Gordon Brown, Scottish historian and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1951 – Randy California, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1997)
1951 – Phil Neal, English footballer and manager
1953 – Poison Ivy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1954 – Jon Brant, American bass player
1954 – Anthony Head, English actor
1954 – Patty Hearst, American actress and author
1957 – Glen Hanlon, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1959 – Scott Brayton, American race car driver (d. 1996)
1959 – David Corn, American journalist and author
1959 – Bill Gullickson, American baseball player
1960 – Joel Hodgson, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
1960 – Cándido Muatetema Rivas, Equatoguinean politician and diplomat, Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea (d. 2014)
1961 – Steve Lundquist, American swimmer
1962 – Dwayne McDuffie, American author, screenwriter, and producer, co-founded Milestone Media (d. 2011)
1963 – Charles Barkley, American basketball player and sportscaster
1963 – Ian Brown, English singer-songwriter and musician
1963 – Joakim Nystrom, Swedish tennis player
1963 – Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Greek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister of Health
1963 – Cui Yongyuan, Chinese former anchor
1964 – Willie Garson, American actor and director
1964 – Tom Harris, Scottish journalist and politician
1964 – Jeff Maggert, American golfer
1964 – French Stewart, American actor
1966 – Cindy Crawford, American model and businesswoman
1967 – Paul Accola, Swiss alpine skier
1967 – Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1994)
1967 – David Herman, American comedian and actor
1967 – Andrew Shue, American actor and activist, founded Do Something
1967 – Lili Taylor, American actress
1967 – Tom Waddle, American football player and sportscaster
1969 – Kjell Ove Hauge, Norwegian school principal and track and field athlete
1969 – Siniša Mihajlović, Serbian footballer and manager
1969 – Danis Tanović, Bosnian director and screenwriter
1971 – Calpernia Addams, American actress, author, and activist
1971 – Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer
1971 – Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby player (d. 2017)
1972 – Neil Primrose, Scottish drummer
1974 – Karim Bagheri, Iranian footballer and manager
1975 – Liván Hernández, Cuban baseball player
1975 – Brian Littrell, American singer-songwriter and actor
1975 – Niclas Wallin, Swedish ice hockey player
1977 – Stephon Marbury, American basketball player
1977 – Gail Kim, Canadian professional wrestler
1978 – Lauren Ambrose, American actress and producer
1980 – Imanol Harinordoquy, French rugby player
1980 – Luis Gabriel Rey, Colombian footballer
1981 – Tony Hibbert, English footballer
1981 – Fred Jackson, American football player
1982 – Jason Hirsh, American baseball player
1983 – Jose Morales, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
1983 – Justin Verlander, American baseball player
1984 – Brian McCann, American baseball player
1984 – Trevor Noah, South African comedian, actor, and television host
1984 – Ramzee Robinson, American football player
1985 – Ryan Sweeney, American baseball player
1985 – Julia Volkova, Russian singer and actress
1985 – TJ Kirk, American YouTube personality and podcast host
1987 – Luke Burgess, English rugby league player
1987 – Miles Teller, American actor
1988 – Kealoha Pilares, American football player
1988 – Ki Bo-bae, South Korean archer
1988 – Rihanna, Barbadian-American singer-songwriter and actress
1988 – Jiah Khan, Indian singer and actress (d. 2013)
1989 – Daly Cherry-Evans, Australian rugby league player
1990 – Ciro Immobile, Italian footballer
1991 – Hidilyn Diaz, Filipino weightlifter
1991 – Giovanni Kyeremateng, Italian footballer
1991 – Angelique van der Meet, Dutch tennis player
1991 – Antonio Pedroza, English-Mexican footballer
1991 – Jocelyn Rae, English-Scottish tennis player
1992 – Kyle Turner, Australian rugby league player
1994 – Elseid Hysaj, Albanian footballer
Deaths on February 20
789 – Leo of Catania, saint and bishop of Catania (b. 709)
922 – Theodora, Byzantine empress
1054 – Yaroslav the Wise, grand prince of Veliky Novgorod and Kiev (b. 978)
1154 – Saint Wulfric of Haselbury (b. c. 1080)
1171 – Conan IV, Duke of Brittany (b. 1138)
1194 – Tancred, King of Sicily (b. 1138)
1258 – Al-Musta’sim, Iraqi caliph (b. 1213)
1408 – Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English politician, Earl Marshal of the United Kingdom (b. 1342)
1431 – Pope Martin V (b. 1368)
1458 – Lazar Branković, Despot of Serbia
1513 – King John of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (b. 1455)
1524 – Tecun Uman, Mayan ruler (b. 1500)
1579 – Nicholas Bacon, English politician (b. 1509)
1618 – Philip William, Prince of Orange (b. 1554)
1626 – John Dowland, English lute player and composer (b. 1563)
1762 – Tobias Mayer, German astronomer and academic (b. 1723)
1771 – Jean-Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist and astronomer (b. 1678)
1773 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (b. 1701)
1778 – Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and scholar (b. 1711)
1790 – Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1741)
1806 – Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-American general and politician (b. 1725)
1810 – Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean rebel leader (b. 1767)
1850 – Valentín Canalizo, Mexican general and politician. 14th President (1843–1844) (b. 1794)
1862 – William Wallace Lincoln, American son of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1850)
1871 – Paul Kane, Irish-Canadian painter (b. 1810)
1893 – P. G. T. Beauregard, American general (b. 1818)
1895 – Frederick Douglass, American author and activist (b. 1818)
1900 – Washakie, American tribal leader (b. 1798)
1907 – Henri Moissan, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
1910 – Boutros Ghali, Egyptian educator and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1846)
1916 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish journalist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1844)
1920 – Jacinta Marto, Portuguese saint (b. 1910)
1920 – Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (b. 1856)
1933 – Takiji Kobayashi, Japanese writer (b. 1903)
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
506 – Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths promulgates the Breviary of Alaric (Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum), a collection of “Roman law”.
880 – Battle of Lüneburg Heath: King Louis III is defeated by the Norse Great Heathen Army at Lüneburg Heath in Saxony.
962 – Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor in nearly 40 years.
1032 – Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor becomes king of Burgundy.
1141 – The Battle of Lincoln, at which Stephen, King of England is defeated and captured by the allies of Empress Matilda.
1207 – Terra Mariana, eventually comprising present-day Latvia and Estonia, is established.
1438 – Nine leaders of the Transylvanian peasant revolt are executed at Torda.
1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer’s Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England.
1536 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1645 – Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Inverlochy.
1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.
1709 – Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring Daniel Defoe’s adventure book Robinson Crusoe.
1848 – Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.
1850 – Brigham Young declares war on Timpanogos in the Battle at Fort Utah.
1868 – Pro-Imperial forces captured Osaka Castle from the Tokugawa shogunate and burned it to the ground.
1876 – The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.
1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.
1899 – The Australian Premiers’ Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia’s capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.
1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria.
1909 – The Paris Film Congress opens. An attempt by European producers to form an equivalent to the MPCC cartel in the United States.
1913 – Grand Central Terminal is opened in New York City.
1920 – The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed between Estonia and Russia.
1922 – Ulysses by James Joyce is published.
1925 – Serum run to Nome: Dog sleds reach Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiring the Iditarod race.
1934 – The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated.
1935 – Leonarde Keeler administers polygraph tests to two murder suspects, the first time polygraph evidence was admitted in U.S. courts.
1942 – The Osvald Group is responsible for the first, active event of anti-Nazi resistance in Norway, to protest the inauguration of Vidkun Quisling.
1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end when Soviet troops accept the surrender of the last organized German troops in the city.
1959 – Nine experienced ski hikers in the northern Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union die under mysterious circumstances.
1966 – Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.
1971 – The international Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands is signed in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran.
1980 – Reports surface that the FBI is targeting allegedly corrupt Congressmen in the Abscam operation.
1982 – Hama massacre: The government of Syria attacks the town of Hama.
1987 – After the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines enacts a new constitution.
1989 – Soviet–Afghan War: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.
1990 – Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress and promises to release Nelson Mandela.
2000 – First digital cinema projection in Europe (Paris) realized by Philippe Binant with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments.
2002 – Wedding of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, and Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti
2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer becomes the No. 1 ranked men’s singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks.
2005 – The Government of Canada introduces the Civil Marriage Act. This legislation would become law on July 20, 2005, legalizing same-sex marriage.
2007 – Police officer Filippo Raciti is killed when a clash breaks out in the Sicily derby between Catania and Palermo, in the Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. This event led to major changes in stadium regulations in Italy.
2012 – The ferry MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the coast of Papua New Guinea near the Finschhafen District, with an estimated 146-165 dead.
Births on February 2
1208 – James I of Aragon (d. 1276)
1282 – Maud Chaworth, Countess of Leicester (d. 1322).
1425 (or 1426) – Eleanor of Navarre, Queen regnant of Navarre (d. 1479)
1443 – Elisabeth of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony (d. 1486)
1455 – John, King of Denmark (d. 1513)
1457 – Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, Italian-Spanish historian and author (d. 1526)
1467 – Columba of Rieti, Italian Dominican sister (d. 1501)
1494 – Bona Sforza, queen of Sigismund I of Poland (d. 1557)
1502 – Damião de Góis, Portuguese philosopher and historian (d. 1574)
1506 – René de Birague, Italian-French cardinal and politician (d. 1583)
1509 – John of Leiden, Dutch Anabaptist leader (d. 1536)
1522 – Lodovico Ferrari, Italian mathematician and academic (d. 1565)
1536 – Piotr Skarga, Polish writer (d. 1612)
1551 – Nicolaus Reimers, German astronomer (d. 1600)
1576 – Alix Le Clerc, French Canoness Regular and foundress (d. 1622)
1585 – Judith Quiney, William Shakespeare’s youngest daughter (d. 1662)
1585 – Hamnet Shakespeare, William Shakespeare’s only son (baptised; d. 1596)
1588 – Georg II of Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl, German nobleman (d. 1644)
1600 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (d. 1653)
1611 – Ulrik of Denmark, Danish prince-bishop (d. 1633)
1613 – Noël Chabanel, French missionary and saint (d. 1649)
1621 – Johannes Schefferus, Swedish author and hymn-writer (d. 1679)
1650 – Pope Benedict XIII (d. 1730)
1650 – Nell Gwyn, English actress, mistress of King Charles II of England (d. 1687)
1651 – William Phips, Royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (d. 1695)
1669 – Louis Marchand, French organist and composer (d. 1732)
1677 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French composer (d. 1745)
1695 – William Borlase, English geologist and archaeologist (d. 1772)
1695 – François de Chevert, French general (d. 1769)
1700 – Johann Christoph Gottsched, German author and critic (d. 1766)
1711 – Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (d. 1794)
1714 – Gottfried August Homilius, German organist and composer (d. 1785)
1717 – Ernst Gideon von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (d. 1790)
1754 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French general and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1838)
1782 – Henri de Rigny, French admiral and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1835)
1786 – Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, French mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (d. 1856)
1802 – Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist and academic (d. 1887)
1803 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American general (d. 1862)
1829 – Alfred Brehm, German zoologist and illustrator (d. 1884)
1829 – William Stanley, English engineer and philanthropist (d. 1909)
1841 – François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss limnologist and hydrologist (d. 1912)
1842 – Julian Sochocki, Polish-Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1927)
1849 – Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Slovak poet and playwright (d. 1921)
1851 – José Guadalupe Posada, Mexican illustrator and engraver (d. 1913)
1856 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (d. 1938)
1856 – Makar Yekmalyan, Armenian composer (d. 1905)
1857 – Jan Drozdowski, Polish pianist and music teacher (d. 1918)
1860 – Curtis Guild, Jr., American journalist and politician, 43rd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1915)
1861 – Solomon R. Guggenheim, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (d. 1949)
1862 – Émile Coste, French fencer (d. 1927)
1862 – Cornelius McKane, American physician, educator, and hospital founder (d. 1912)
1866 – Enrique Simonet, Spanish painter and academic (d. 1927)
1873 – Leo Fall, Austrian composer (d. 1925)
1873 – Konstantin von Neurath, German politician and diplomat, 13th German Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1956)
1875 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian-American violinist and composer (d. 1962)
1877 – Frank L. Packard, Canadian author (d. 1942)
1878 – Joe Lydon, American boxer (d. 1937)
1880 – Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (d. 1969)
1881 – Orval Overall, American baseball player and manager (d. 1947)
1882 – Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (d. 1944)
1882 – James Joyce, Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet (d. 1941)
1883 – Johnston McCulley, American author and screenwriter, created Zorro (d. 1958)
1883 – Julia Nava de Ruisánchez, Mexican activist and writer (d. 1964)
1886 – William Rose Benét, American poet and author (d. 1950)
1887 – Ernst Hanfstaengl, German businessman (d. 1975)
1889 – Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French general (d. 1952)
1890 – Charles Correll, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1972)
1892 – Tochigiyama Moriya, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 27th Yokozuna (d. 1959)
1893 – Cornelius Lanczos, Hungarian mathematician and physicist (d. 1974)
1893 – Raoul Riganti, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1970)
1893 – Damdin Sükhbaatar, Mongolian soldier and politician (d. 1924)
1895 – George Halas, American football player and coach (d. 1983)
1895 – Robert Philipp, American painter (d. 1981)
1895 – George Sutcliffe, Australian public servant (d. 1964)
1896 – Kazimierz Kuratowski, Polish mathematician and logician (d. 1980)
1897 – Howard Deering Johnson, American businessman, founded Howard Johnson’s (d. 1972)
1897 – Gertrude Blanch, Russian-American mathematician (d. 1996)
1900 – Anni Frind, German lyric soprano (d. 1987)
1900 – Willie Kamm, American baseball player and manager (d. 1988)
1901 – Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian-born American violinist and educator (d. 1987)
1902 – Newbold Morris, American lawyer and politician (d. 1966)
1902 – John Tonkin, Australian politician, 20th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1995)
1904 – Bozorg Alavi, Iranian author and activist (d. 1997)
1905 – Ayn Rand, Russian-born American novelist and philosopher (d. 1982)
1908 – Wes Ferrell, American baseball player and manager (d. 1976)
1909 – Frank Albertson, American actor (d. 1964)
1911 – Jack Pizzey, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Queensland (d. 1968)
1912 – Millvina Dean, English civil servant and cartographer (d. 2009)
1912 – Burton Lane, American songwriter and composer (d. 1997)
1913 – Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor and singer (d. 1985)
1914 – Eric Kierans, Canadian economist and politician, 1st Canadian Minister of Communications (d. 2004)
1915 – Abba Eban, South African-Israeli politician and diplomat, 1st Israel Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2002)
1915 – Stan Leonard, Canadian golfer (d. 2005)
1915 – Khushwant Singh, Indian journalist and author (d. 2014)
1916 – Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet and author (d. 1985)
1917 – Mary Ellis, British World War II ferry pilot (d. 2018)
1917 – Đỗ Mười, Vietnamese politician, 5th Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2018)
1918 – Hella Haasse, Indonesian-Dutch author (d. 2011)
1919 – Lisa Della Casa, Swiss soprano and actress (d. 2012)
1919 – Georg Gawliczek, German footballer and manager (d. 1999)
1920 – George Hardwick, English footballer and coach (d. 2004)
1920 – John Russell, American Olympic equestrian
1920 – Arthur Willis, English footballer, full-back, player-manager (d. 1987)
1922 – Kunwar Digvijay Singh, Indian field hockey player (d. 1978)
1922 – Robert Chef d’Hôtel, French athlete (d. 2019)
1922 – James L. Usry, American politician, first African-American mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey (d. 2002)
1922 – Stoyanka Mutafova, Bulgarian actress (d. 2019)
1923 – Jean Babilée, French dancer and choreographer (d. 2014)
1923 – James Dickey, American poet and novelist (d. 1997)
1923 – Svetozar Gligorić, Serbian and Yugoslav chess grandmaster (d.2012)
1923 – Bonita Granville, American actress and producer (d. 1988)
1923 – Red Schoendienst, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2018)
1923 – Liz Smith, American journalist and author (d. 2017)
1923 – Clem Windsor, Australian rugby player and surgeon (d. 2007)
1924 – Elfi von Dassanowsky, Austrian-American singer, pianist, producer (d. 2007)
1924 – Sonny Stitt, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1982)
1925 – Elaine Stritch, American actress and singer (d. 2014)
1926 – Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, French academic and politician, 20th President of France
1927 – Stan Getz, American saxophonist (d. 1991)
1927 – Doris Sams, American baseball player (d. 2012)
1928 – Ciriaco De Mita, 47th Prime minister of Italy
1928 – Jay Handlan, American basketball player and engineer (d. 2013)
1928 – Tommy Harmer, English footballer, inside forward, youth team coach (d. 2007)
1929 – Sheila Matthews Allen, American actress and producer (d. 2013)
1929 – George Band, English engineer and mountaineer (d. 2011)
1929 – Věra Chytilová, Czech actress, director, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1929 – John Henry Holland, American computer scientist and academic (d. 2015)
1929 – Waldemar Kmentt, Austrian operatic tenor (d. 2015)
1931 – Dries van Agt, Dutch politician, diplomat and jurist, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
1931 – Les Dawson, English comedian and author (d. 1993)
1931 – Glynn Edwards, Malaysian-English actor (d. 2018)
1931 – John Paul Harney, Canadian educator and politician
1931 – Judith Viorst, American journalist and author
1932 – Arthur Lyman, American jazz vibraphone and marimba player (d. 2002)
1932 – Robert Mandan, American actor (d. 2018)
1933 – M’el Dowd, American actress and singer (d. 2012)
1933 – Tony Jay, English-American actor (d. 2006)
1933 – Orlando “Cachaíto” López, Cuban bassist and composer (d. 2009)
1933 – Than Shwe, Burmese general and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Burma
1935 – Pete Brown, American golfer (d. 2015)
1935 – Evgeny Velikhov, Russian physicist and academic
1936 – Duane Jones, American actor (d. 1988)
1936 – Metin Oktay, Turkish footballer and manager (d. 1991)
1937 – Don Buford, American baseball player and coach
1937 – Eric Arturo Delvalle, Panamanian lawyer and politician, President of Panama (d. 2015)
1937 – Anthony Haden-Guest, British journalist, poet, and critic
1937 – Remak Ramsay, American actor
1937 – Tom Smothers, American comedian, actor, and activist
1937 – Alexandra Strelchenko, Russian Singer (d. 2019)
1938 – Norman Fowler, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Transport
1938 – Gene MacLellan, Canadian singer-songwriter (d. 1995)
1939 – Jackie Burroughs, English-born Canadian actress (d. 2010)
1939 – Mary-Dell Chilton, American chemist and inventor and one of the founders of modern plant biotechnology
1939 – Dale T. Mortensen, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
1940 – Alan Caddy, English guitarist and producer (d. 2000)
1940 – Thomas M. Disch, American author and poet (d. 2008)
1940 – Wayne Fontes, American football player and coach
1940 – David Jason, English actor, director, and producer
1941 – Terry Biddlecombe, English jockey (d. 2014)
1942 – Bo Hopkins, American actor
1942 – Graham Nash, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1944 – Andrew Davis, English organist and conductor
1944 – Geoffrey Hughes, English actor (d. 2012)
1944 – Ursula Oppens, American pianist and educator
1945 – John Eatwell, Baron Eatwell, English economist and academic
1946 – John Armitt, English engineer and businessman
1946 – Alpha Oumar Konaré, Malian academic and politician, 3rd President of Mali
1946 – Constantine Papadakis, Greek-American businessman and academic (d. 2009)
1947 – Greg Antonacci, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2017)
1947 – Farrah Fawcett, American actress and producer (d. 2009)
1948 – Ina Garten, American chef and author
1948 – Al McKay, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1948 – Roger Williamson, English race car driver (d. 1973)
1949 – Duncan Bannatyne, Scottish businessman and philanthropist
1949 – Yasuko Namba, Japanese mountaineer (d. 1996)
1949 – Brent Spiner, American actor and singer
1949 – Ross Valory, American rock bass player and songwriter
1950 – Osamu Kido, Japanese wrestler
1950 – Libby Purves, British journalist and author
1950 – Barbara Sukowa, German actress
1950 – Genichiro Tenryu, Japanese wrestler
1951 – Vangelis Alexandris, Greek basketball player and coach
1951 – Ken Bruce, Scottish radio host
1952 – John Cornyn, American lawyer and politician, 49th Attorney General of Texas
1952 – Rick Dufay, French-American guitarist and songwriter
1952 – Park Geun-hye, South Korean politician, 11th President of South Korea
1952 – Ralph Merkle, American computer scientist and academic
1952 – Carol Ann Susi, American actress (d. 2014)
1953 – Duane Chapman, American bounty hunter
1953 – Jerry Sisk, Jr., American gemologist, co-founded Jewelry Television (d. 2013)
1954 – Christie Brinkley, American actress, model, and businesswoman
1954 – Hansi Hinterseer, Austrian skier and actor
1954 – Nelson Ne’e, Solomon Islander politician (d. 2013)
1954 – John Tudor, American baseball player
1955 – Leszek Engelking, Polish poet and author
1955 – Bob Schreck, American author
1955 – Michael Talbott, American actor
1955 – Kim Zimmer, American actress
1956 – Adnan Oktar, Turkish theorist and author
1957 – Phil Barney, Algerian-French singer-songwriter
1958 – Michel Marc Bouchard, Canadian playwright
1961 – Abraham Iyambo, Namibian politician (d. 2013)
1961 – Lauren Lane, American actress and academic
1962 – Philippe Claudel, French author, director, and screenwriter
1962 – Andy Fordham, English darts player
1962 – Paul Kilgus, American baseball player
1962 – Kate Raison, Australian actress
1962 – Michael T. Weiss, American actor
1963 – Eva Cassidy, American singer and guitarist (d. 1996)
1963 – Kjell Dahlin, Swedish ice hockey player
1963 – Andrej Kiska, Slovak entrepreneur and philanthropist, President of Slovakia
1963 – Philip Laats, Belgian martial artist
1963 – Vigleik Storaas, Norwegian pianist
1965 – Carl Airey, English footballer
1965 – Naoki Sano, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist
1966 – Andrei Chesnokov, Russian tennis player and coach
1966 – Robert DeLeo, American bass player, songwriter, and producer
1966 – Adam Ferrara, American actor and comedian
1966 – Michael Misick, Caicos Islander politician, Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands
1967 – Artūrs Irbe, Latvian ice hockey player and coach
1967 – Laurent Nkunda, Congolese general
1968 – Sean Elliott, American basketball player and sportscaster
1968 – Scott Erickson, American baseball player and coach
1969 – Dana International, Israeli singer-songwriter
1969 – Valeri Karpin, Estonian-Russian footballer and manager
1970 – Roar Strand, Norwegian footballer
1970 – Jennifer Westfeldt, American actress and singer
1971 – Michelle Gayle, English singer-songwriter and actress
1971 – Arly Jover, Spanish actress
1971 – Isaac Kungwane, South African footballer and sportscaster (d. 2014)
1971 – Jason Taylor, Australian rugby league player and coach
1971 – Hwang Seok-jeong, South Korean actress
1972 – Melvin Mora, Venezuelan baseball player
1972 – Aleksey Naumov, Russian footballer
1973 – Andrei Luzgin, Estonian tennis player and coach
1973 – Aleksander Tammert, Estonian discus thrower
1973 – Marissa Jaret Winokur, American actress and singer
1975 – Todd Bertuzzi, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Donald Driver, American football player
1975 – Ieroklis Stoltidis, Greek footballer
1976 – Ryan Farquhar, Northern Irish motorcycle racer
1976 – James Hickman, English swimmer
1976 – Ana Roces, Filipino actress
1977 – Shakira, Colombian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1977 – Libor Sionko, Czech footballer
1978 – Adam Christopher, New Zealand writer
1978 – Eden Espinosa, American actress and singer
1978 – Annabel Ellwood, Australian tennis player
1978 – Barry Ferguson, Scottish footballer and manager
1978 – Rich Sommer, American actor
1978 – Faye White, English footballer
1979 – Urmo Aava, Estonian race car driver
1979 – Fani Chalkia, Greek hurdler and sprinter
1979 – Christine Lampard, Irish television host
1979 – Klaus Mainzer, German rugby player
1979 – Shamita Shetty, Indian actress
1979 – Irini Terzoglou, Greek shot putter
1980 – Angela Finger-Erben, German journalist
1980 – Teddy Hart, Canadian wrestler
1980 – Oleguer Presas, Spanish footballer
1981 – Emre Aydın, Turkish singer-songwriter
1981 – Michelle Bass, English model and singer
1981 – Salem al-Hazmi, Saudi Arabian terrorist, hijacker of American Airlines Flight 77 (d. 2001)
1982 – Sergio Castaño Ortega, Spanish footballer
1982 – Kelly Mazzante, American basketball player
1982 – Kan Mi-youn, South Korean singer, model, and host
1983 – Ronny Cedeño, Venezuelan baseball player
1983 – Carolina Klüft, Swedish heptathlete and jumper
1983 – Jordin Tootoo, Canadian ice hockey player
1983 – Vladimir Voskoboinikov, Estonian footballer
1983 – Alex Westaway, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1984 – Brian Cage, American wrestler
1984 – Mao Miyaji, Japanese actress
1984 – Rudi Wulf, New Zealand rugby player
1985 – Masoud Azizi, Afghan sprinter
1985 – Renn Kiriyama, Japanese actor
1985 – Kristo Saage, Estonian basketball player
1985 – Silvestre Varela, Portuguese footballer
1986 – Gemma Arterton, English actress and singer
1986 – Miwa Asao, Japanese volleyball player
1987 – Anthony Fainga’a, Australian rugby player
1987 – Saia Fainga’a, Australian rugby player
1987 – Faydee, Australian singer
1987 – Athena Imperial, Filipino journalist, Miss Earth-Water 2011
1987 – Mimi Page, American singer-songwriter and composer
1987 – Gerard Piqué, Spanish footballer
1987 – Javon Ringer, American football player
1987 – Jill Scott, English footballer
1987 – Victoria Song, Chinese singer and actress
1987 – Martin Spanjers, American actor and producer
1988 – Zosia Mamet, American actress
1989 – Harrison Smith, American football player
1989 – Southside, American record producer
1991 – Nathan Delfouneso, English footballer
1991 – Gregory Mertens, Belgian footballer (d. 2015)
1991 – Shohei Nanba, Japanese actor
1992 – Lammtarra, American race horse (d. 2014)
1992 – Joonas Tamm, Estonian footballer
1993 – Ravel Morrison, English footballer
1993 – Bobby Decordova-Reid, English born Jamaican international footballer, forward
1995 – Paul Digby, English footballer
1995 – Aleksander Jagiełło, Polish footballer
1995 – Arfa Karim, Pakstani student and computer prodigy (d. 2012)
1996 – Harry Winks, English international footballer, midfielder
Deaths on February 2
619 – Laurence of Canterbury, English archbishop and saint
880 – Bruno, duke of Saxony
1124 – Bořivoj II, Duke of Bohemia (b. 1064)
1218 – Konstantin of Rostov (b. 1186)
1237 – Joan, Lady of Wales
1250 – Eric XI of Sweden (b. 1216)
1294 – Louis II, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1229)
1347 – Thomas Bek, Bishop of Lincoln, was the bishop of Lincoln (b. 1282)
1348 – Narymunt, Prince of Pinsk
1435 – Joan II of Naples, Queen of Naples (b. 1371)
1446 – Vittorino da Feltre, Italian humanist (b. 1378)
1448 – Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar (b. 1372)
1461 – Owen Tudor, Welsh founder of the Tudor dynasty (b. c. 1400)
1512 – Hatuey, Caribbean tribal chief
1529 – Baldassare Castiglione, Italian soldier and diplomat (b. 1478)
1580 – Bessho Nagaharu, Japanese daimyō (b. 1558)
1594 – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer and educator (b. 1525)
1648 – George Abbot, English author and politician (b. 1603)
1660 – Gaston, Duke of Orléans (b. 1608)
1660 – Govert Flinck, Dutch painter (b. 1615)
1661 – Lucas Holstenius, German geographer and historian (b. 1596)
1675 – Ivan Belostenec, Croatian linguist and lexicographer (b. 1594)
1688 – Abraham Duquesne, French admiral (b. 1610)
1704 – Guillaume de l’Hôpital, French mathematician and academic (b. 1661)
1712 – Martin Lister, English physician and geologist (b. 1639)
1714 – John Sharp, English archbishop (b. 1643)
1723 – Antonio Maria Valsalva, Italian anatomist and physician (b. 1666)
1768 – Robert Smith, English mathematician and theorist (b. 1689)
1769 – Pope Clement XIII (b. 1693)
1802 – Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, English politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (b. 1713)
1804 – George Walton, American lawyer and politician, Governor of Georgia (b. 1749)
2014 – Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1967)
2014 – Luis Raúl, Puerto Rican comedian and actor (b. 1962)
2014 – Bunny Rugs, Jamaican singer (b. 1948)
2014 – Nigel Walker, English footballer (b. 1959)
2015 – Joseph Alfidi, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1949)
2015 – Dave Bergman, American baseball player (b. 1953)
2015 – Andriy Kuzmenko, Ukrainian singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1968)
2015 – Molade Okoya-Thomas, Nigerian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1935)
2015 – Stewart Stern, American screenwriter (b. 1922)
2015 – The Jacka, American rapper and producer (b. 1977)
2016 – Bob Elliott, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1923)
Holidays and observances on February 2
Anniversary of Treaty of Tartu (Estonia)
Christian Feast Day:
Adalbard
Cornelius the Centurion
Martyrs of Ebsdorf
February 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Constitution Day (Philippines)
Day of Youth (Azerbaijan)
Earliest day on which Shrove Monday can fall, while March 8 is the latest; celebrated on Monday before Ash Wednesday (Christianity), and its related observances:
Bun Day (Iceland)
Fastelavn (Denmark/Norway)
Nickanan Night (Cornwall)
Rosenmontag (Germany)
Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple or Candlemas (Western Christianity), and its related observances:
A quarter day in the Christian calendar (due to Candlemas). (Scotland)
Celebration of Yemanja or Our Lady of Navigators (Candomblé)
Le Jour des Crêpes (France)
Our Lady of the Candles (Filipino Catholics)
Virgin of Candelaria (Tenerife, Spain)
Groundhog Day (United States and Canada), and its related observances:
