796 – King Æthelred I of Northumbria is murdered in Corbridge by a group led by his ealdormen, Ealdred and Wada. The patrician Osbald is crowned, but abdicates within 27 days.
1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid.
1518 – Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland.
1521 – Trial of Martin Luther begins its second day during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. He refuses to recant his teachings despite the risk of excommunication.
1689 – Bostonians rise up in rebellion against Sir Edmund Andros.
1738 – Real Academia de la Historia (“Royal Academy of History”) is founded in Madrid.
1775 – American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begins; Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements.
1783 – Three-Fifths Compromise: the first instance of black slaves in the United States of America being counted as three fifths of persons (for the purpose of taxation), in a resolution of the Congress of the Confederation. This was later adopted in the 1787 Constitution.
1831 – The University of Alabama is founded in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
1847 – American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opens the way for invasion of Mexico.
1857 – “The Spirits Book” by Allan Kardec is published, marking the birth of Spiritualism in France.
1864 – Battle of Dybbøl: A Prussian-Austrian army defeats Denmark and gains control of Schleswig. Denmark surrenders the province in the following peace settlement.
1897 – The Greco-Turkish War is declared between Greece and the Ottoman Empire.
1899 – The St. Andrew’s Ambulance Association is granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria.
1902 – The 7.5 Mw Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 800–2,000.
1906 – An earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California.
1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.
1915 – French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
1923 – Yankee Stadium: “The House that Ruth Built” opens.
1925 – The International Amateur Radio Union is formed in Paris.
1930 – The British Broadcasting Corporation announced that “there is no news” in their evening report.
1939 – Robert Menzies, who became Australia’s longest-serving prime minister, is elected as leader of the United Australia Party after the death of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons.
1942 – World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya are bombed.
1942 – Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.
1943 – World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.
1945 – Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany.
1946 – The International Court of Justice holds its inaugural meeting in The Hague, Netherlands.
1949 – The Republic of Ireland Act comes into effect.
1949 – The keel for the aircraft carrier USS United States is laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. However, construction is canceled five days later, resulting in the Revolt of the Admirals.
1954 – Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
1955 – Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.
1980 – The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana as the country’s first President. The Zimbabwean dollar replaces the Rhodesian dollar as the official currency.
1983 – A suicide bomber in Lebanon destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people.
1987 – The New York Islanders defeat the Washington Capitals 3–2 in Game 7 of their Patrick Division Semifinal series.
1988 – The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
1996 – In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the United Nations compound at Qana where more than 800 civilians had taken refuge.
1997 – The Red River flood begins and soon overwhelms the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Fire breaks out and spreads in downtown Grand Forks, but high water levels hamper efforts to reach the fire, leading to the destruction of 11 buildings.
1999 – Wayne Gretzky, the National Hockey League’s all-time points scorer, plays his final game at Madison Square Garden as a teammate of the New York Rangers in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Gretzky recorded his final career point, an assist, bringing his career point total to 2,857.
2007 – A series of bombings, two of them being suicides, occur in Baghdad, killing 198 and injuring 251.
2013 – A suicide bombing in a Baghdad cafe kills 27 people and injures another 65.
2018 – King Mswati III of Swaziland announces that his country’s name will change to Eswatini.
2019 – A redacted version of the Mueller Report is released to the United States Congress and the public.
2020 – Coronavirus Pandemic: Europe surpasses 100,000 COVID-19 deaths.
Births on April 18
359 – Gratian, Roman emperor (d. 383)
588 – K’an II, Mayan ruler (d. 658)
812 – Al-Wathiq, Abbasid caliph (d. 847)
1446 – Ippolita Maria Sforza, Italian noble (d. 1484)
1480 – Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI
1503 – Henry II of Navarre, (d. 1555)
1534 – William Harrison, English clergyman (d. 1593)
1580 – Thomas Middleton, English Jacobean playwright and poet (d. 1627)
1590 – Ahmed I, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1617)
1605 – Giacomo Carissimi, Italian priest and composer (d. 1674)
1666 – Jean-Féry Rebel, French violinist and composer (d. 1747)
1740 – Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, English banker and politician (d. 1810)
1759 – Jacques Widerkehr, French cellist and composer (d. 1823)
1771 – Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg (d. 1820)
1772 – David Ricardo, British economist and politician (d. 1823)
1794 – William Debenham, English founder of Debenhams (d. 1863)
1797 – Adolphe Thiers, French historian and politician, 2nd President of France (d. 1877)
1813 – James McCune Smith, African-American physician, apothecary, abolitionist, and author (d. 1865)
1819 – Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Cuban lawyer and activist (d. 1874)
1819 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1895)
1838 – Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French chemist and academic (d. 1912)
1854 – Ludwig Levy, German architect (d. 1907)
1857 – Clarence Darrow, American lawyer (d. 1938)
1858 – Dhondo Keshav Karve, Indian educator and activist, Bharat Ratna Awardee (d. 1962)
1858 – Alexander Shirvanzade, Armenian playwright and author (d. 1935)
1863 – Count Leopold Berchtold, Austrian-Hungarian politician and diplomat, Joint Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary (d. 1942)
1863 – Linton Hope, English sailor and architect (d. 1920)
1864 – Richard Harding Davis, American journalist and author (d. 1916)
1874 – Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Croatian author and poet (d. 1938)
1877 – Vicente Sotto, Filipino lawyer and politician (d. 1950)
1879 – Korneli Kekelidze, Georgian philologist and scholar (d. 1962)
1880 – Sam Crawford, American baseball player, coach, and umpire (d. 1968)
1882 – Isaac Babalola Akinyele, Nigerian ruler (d. 1964)
1882 – Leopold Stokowski, English conductor (d. 1977)
1884 – Jaan Anvelt, Estonian educator and politician (d. 1937)
1888 – Duffy Lewis, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1979)
1889 – Jessie Street, Australian activist (d. 1970)
1892 – Eugene Houdry, French-American mechanical engineer and inventor (d. 1962)
1893 – Violette Morris, French shot putter and discus thrower (d. 1944)
1897 – Ardito Desio, Italian geologist and cartographer (d. 2001)
1897 – Per-Erik Hedlund, Swedish skier (d. 1975)
1898 – Patrick Hennessy, Irish soldier and businessman (d. 1981)
1900 – Bertha Isaacs, Bahamian teacher, tennis player, politician and women’s rights activist (d. 1997)
1901 – Al Lewis, American songwriter (d. 1967)
1901 – László Németh, Hungarian dentist, author, and playwright (d. 1975)
1902 – Waldemar Hammenhög, Swedish author (d. 1972)
1902 – Giuseppe Pella, Italian politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1981)
1904 – Pigmeat Markham, African-American comedian, singer, and dancer (d. 1981)
1905 – Sydney Halter, Canadian lawyer and businessman (d. 1990)
1905 – George H. Hitchings, American physician and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
1907 – Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian-American composer and conductor (d. 1995)
1911 – Ilario Bandini, Italian businessman and racing driver (d. 1992)
1911 – Maurice Goldhaber, Ukrainian Jewish-American physicist and academic (d. 2011)
1914 – Claire Martin, Canadian author (d. 2014)
1915 – Joy Davidman, Polish-Ukrainian Jewish American poet and author (d. 1960)
1916 – Carl Burgos, American illustrator (d. 1984)
1916 – Doug Peden, Canadian basketball player (d. 2005)
1917 – Ty LaForest, Canadian-American baseball player (d. 1947)
1918 – Gabriel Axel, Danish-French actor, director, and producer (d. 2014)
1918 – André Bazin, French critic and theorist (d. 1958)
1918 – Shinobu Hashimoto, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
1918 – Clifton Hillegass, American publisher, founded CliffsNotes (d. 2001)
1918 – Tony Mottola, American guitarist and composer (d. 2004)
1919 – Virginia O’Brien, American actress and singer (d. 2001)
1919 – Esther Afua Ocloo, Ghanaian entrepreneur and pioneer of microlending (d. 2002)
1920 – John F. Wiley, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
1921 – Jean Richard, French actor and singer (d. 2001)
1922 – Barbara Hale, American actress (d. 2017)
1922 – Lord Kitchener, Trinidadian singer (d. 2000)
1923 – Alfred Bieler, Swiss ice hockey player (d. 2013)
1923 – Beryl Platt, Baroness Platt of Writtle, English engineer and politician (d. 2015)
1924 – Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2005)
1924 – Henry Hyde, American commander, lawyer, and politician (d. 2007)
1924 – Roy Mason, English miner and politician, Secretary of State for Defence (d. 2015)
1925 – Marcus Schmuck, Austrian mountaineer and author (d. 2005)
1926 – Doug Insole, English cricketer (d. 2017)
1927 – Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist, author, and academic (d. 2008)
1927 – Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Polish journalist and politician, Prime Minister of Poland (d. 2013)
1927 – Charles Pasqua, French businessman and politician, French Minister of the Interior (d. 2015)
1928 – Karl Josef Becker, German cardinal and theologian (d. 2015)
1928 – Otto Piene, German sculptor and academic (d. 2014)
1929 – Peter Hordern, English soldier and politician
1930 – Clive Revill, New Zealand actor and singer
1931 – Bill Miles, American director and producer (d. 2013)
1934 – James Drury, American actor (d. 2020)
1934 – George Shirley, African-American tenor and educator
1935 – Brian Clay, Australian rugby league player (d. 1987)
1935 – Costas Ferris, Egyptian-Greek actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1936 – Roger Graef, American-English criminologist, director, and producer
1936 – Vladimir Hütt, Estonian physicist and philosopher (d. 1997)
1936 – “TV” Tommy Ivo, American actor and drag racer
1937 – Jan Kaplický, Czech architect, designed the Selfridges Building (d. 2009)
1937 – Tatyana Shchelkanova, Russian long jumper and heptathlete (d. 2011)
1937 – Teddy Taylor, Scottish journalist and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland
1939 – Glen Hardin, American pianist and arranger
1939 – Thomas J. Moyer, American lawyer and judge (d. 2010)
1940 – Joseph L. Goldstein, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate
1940 – Mike Vickers, English guitarist, saxophonist, and songwriter
1941 – Michael D. Higgins, Irish sociologist and politician, 9th President of Ireland
1942 – Michael Beloff, English lawyer and academic
1942 – Steve Blass, American baseball player and sportscaster
1942 – Robert Christgau, American journalist and critic
1942 – Jochen Rindt, German-Austrian racing driver (d. 1970)
1944 – Kathy Acker, American author and poet (d. 1997)
1944 – Frances D’Souza, Baroness D’Souza, English academic and politician
1944 – Robert Hanssen, American FBI agent and double agent
1944 – Philip Jackson, Scottish sculptor and photographer
1945 – Bernard Arcand, Canadian anthropologist and author (d. 2009)
1945 – Richard Bausch, American novelist and short story writer
1945 – Robert Bausch, American novelist and short story writer
1946 – Hayley Mills, English actress
1946 – Tommy Shannon, American bass guitarist
1947 – Moses Blah, Liberian general and politician, 23rd President of Liberia (d. 2013)
1947 – Dorothy Lyman, American actress
1947 – Cindy Pickett, American actress
1947 – Jerzy Stuhr, Polish actor, director, and screenwriter
1947 – James Woods, American actor and producer
1948 – Régis Wargnier, French director, producer, and screenwriter
1949 – Geoff Bodine, American race car driver
1950 – Paul Callery, Australian footballer
1950 – Tina Chow, American model and jewelry designer (d. 1992)
1950 – Kenny Ortega, American director, producer, and choreographer
1950 – Grigory Sokolov, Russian pianist and composer
1951 – Ricardo Fortaleza, Australian-Filipino boxer and coach
1951 – Pierre Pettigrew, Canadian businessman and politician, 5th Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1953 – Rick Moranis, Canadian-American actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter
1954 – Robert Greenberg, American pianist and composer
1956 – Chris Jones, English footballer
1956 – Eric Roberts, American actor
1957 – Ian Campbell, Australian jumper
1958 – Gabi Delgado-López, Spanish-German singer, co-founder of D.A.F.
1958 – Malcolm Marshall, Barbadian cricketer and coach (d. 1999)
1959 – Susan Faludi, American journalist and author
1959 – Frank Mulholland, Lord Mulholland, Scottish judge, former Solicitor General for Scotland and Lord Advocate
1960 – John Chiedozie, Nigerian international footballer
1960 – Yelena Zhupiyeva-Vyazova, Ukrainian runner
1961 – Kelly Hansen, American singer-songwriter
1961 – Jane Leeves, English actress and dancer
1961 – John Podhoretz, American journalist and author
1962 – Jeff Dunham, American comedian and ventriloquist
1962 – Nick Farr-Jones, Australian rugby player and sportscaster
1963 – Eric McCormack, Canadian-American actor and producer
1963 – Conan O’Brien, American actor, producer, screenwriter, and talk show host
1963 – Phil Simmons, Trinidadian cricketer
1963 – Peter Van Loan, Canadian lawyer and politician, 16th Canadian Minister of International Trade
1964 – Niall Ferguson, Scottish historian and academic
1964 – Rithy Panh, Cambodian director and screenwriter
1966 – Valeri Kamensky, Russian ice hockey player
1967 – Maria Bello, American actress and writer
1969 – Keith DeCandido, American author
1969 – Stefan Schwarz, Swedish footballer and manager
1969 – Robert Změlík, Czech decathlete
1970 – Rico Brogna, American baseball player and coach
1970 – Greg Eklund, American drummer and guitarist
1970 – Saad Hariri, Saudi Arabian-Lebanese businessman and politician, 33rd Prime Minister of Lebanon
1970 – François Leroux, Canadian ice hockey player and radio host
1970 – Tatiana Stefanidou, Greek journalist and talk show host
1971 – Oleg Petrov, Russian ice hockey player
1971 – Graham Rowntree, English rugby player
1971 – David Tennant, Scottish actor
1972 – Rosa Clemente, American journalist and activist
1972 – Eli Roth, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1972 – Michael Rutter, English motorcycle racer
1973 – Derrick Brooks, American football player
1973 – Brady Clark, American baseball player
1973 – Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian runner
1974 – Millie Corretjer, Puerto Rican-American actress and singer
1974 – Mark Tremonti, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1976 – Gavin Creel, American actor and singer
1976 – Melissa Joan Hart, American actress, director, and producer
1976 – Andrew Ilie, Romanian-Australian tennis player
1976 – Justin Ross, American politician
1976 – Staffan Strand, Swedish high jumper
1977 – Dan LaCouture, American ice hockey player
1977 – Cindy Taylor, Paraguayan model and actress
1979 – Michael Bradley, American basketball player and coach
1979 – Ethan Cohn, American actor
1979 – Matt Cooper, Australian rugby league player
1979 – Anthony Davidson, English racing driver
1979 – Kourtney Kardashian, American model and businesswoman
1980 – Rabiu Afolabi, Nigerian footballer and manager
1980 – Justin Levens, American mixed martial artist (d. 2008)
1981 – Brian Buscher, American baseball player
1981 – Milan Jovanović, Serbian footballer
1981 – Aldo Ramírez, Colombian footballer
1981 – Audrey Tang, Taiwanese computer scientist and academic
1982 – Ibrahim al-Asiri, Saudi Arabian terrorist
1982 – Greg Camarillo, American football player
1982 – Ricardo Colclough, Canadian-American football player
1982 – Simone Farina, Italian footballer
1982 – Scott Hartnell, Canadian ice hockey player
1982 – Blair Late, American singer-songwriter and journalist
1982 – Darren Sutherland, Irish boxer (d. 2009)
1982 – Marie-Élaine Thibert, Canadian singer
1983 – Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan baseball player
1983 – Reeve Carney, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1984 – Red Bryant, American football player
1984 – America Ferrera, American actress and producer
1985 – Łukasz Fabiański, Polish footballer
1986 – Billy Butler, American baseball player
1986 – Maurice Edu, American soccer player
1986 – Taylor Griffin, American basketball player
1986 – Conrad Logan, Irish footballer
1986 – Efraín Velarde, Mexican footballer
1987 – Brett Deledio, Australian footballer
1987 – Danny Guthrie, English footballer
1987 – Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, English model and actress
1987 – Samantha Jade, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
1987 – Ivan Tričkovski, Macedonian footballer
1988 – Andre Frolov, Estonian footballer
1988 – Alexander Hauck, South African-German rugby player
1989 – Jessica Jung, Korean American singer, songwriter, actress, and fashion designer
1990 – Henderson Álvarez, Venezuelan baseball player
1990 – Anna van der Breggen, Dutch cyclist
1990 – Jake Howells, English footballer
1990 – Wojciech Szczęsny, Polish footballer
1990 – Junior Torunarigha, Nigerian footballer
1993 – Matt Salisbury, English cricketer
1993 – Nathan Sykes, English singer-songwriter
1995 – Divock Origi, Belgian footballer
1996 – Mariah Bell, American figure skater
1996 – Ioana Ducu, Romanian tennis player
1997 – Matthias Blübaum, German chess grandmaster
1997 – Donny van de Beek, Dutch footballer
Deaths on April 18
727 – Agallianos Kontoskeles, Byzantine commander and rebel leader
850 – Perfectus, Spanish monk and martyr
909 – Dionysius II, Syriac Orthodox patriarch of Antioch
943 – Fujiwara no Atsutada, Japanese nobleman and poet (b. 906)
963 – Stephen Lekapenos, co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire
1161 – Theobald of Bec, French-English archbishop (b. 1090)
1176 – Galdino della Sala, Italian archdeacon and saint
1552 – John Leland, English poet and historian (b. 1502)
1555 – Polydore Vergil, English historian (b. 1470)
1556 – Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet and politician (b. 1495)
1567 – Wilhelm von Grumbach, German adventurer (b. 1503)
1587 – John Foxe, English historian and author (b. 1516)
1636 – Julius Caesar, English judge and politician (b. 1557)
1650 – Simonds d’Ewes, English lawyer and politician (b. 1602)
1674 – John Graunt, English demographer and statistician (b. 1620)
1689 – George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, Welsh judge and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1648)
1732 – Louis Feuillée, French astronomer, geographer, and botanist (b. 1660)
1742 – Arvid Horn, Swedish general and politician (b. 1664)
1763 – Marie-Josephte Corriveau, Canadian murderer (b. 1733)
1794 – Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, English lawyer, judge, and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1714)
1796 – Johan Wilcke, Swedish physicist and academic (b. 1732)
1802 – Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (b. 1731)
1832 – Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet, French painter (b. 1761)
1859 – Tatya Tope, Indian general (b. 1814)
1864 – Juris Alunāns, Latvian philologist and linguist (b. 1832)
1873 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist and academic (b. 1803)
1898 – Gustave Moreau, French painter and academic (b. 1826)
1906 – Luis Martín, Spanish religious leader, 24th Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1846)
1912 – Martha Ripley, American physician (b. 1843)
1917 – Vladimir Serbsky, Russian psychiatrist and academic (b. 1858)
1923 – Savina Petrilli, Italian religious leader (b. 1851)
1936 – Milton Brown, American singer and bandleader (b. 1903)
1936 – Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer and conductor (b. 1879)
1938 – George Bryant, American archer (b. 1878)
1942 – Aleksander Mitt, Estonian speed skater (b. 1903)
1942 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American heiress, sculptor and art collector, founded the Whitney Museum of American Art (b. 1875)
1943 – Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese admiral (b. 1884)
1945 – John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and engineer, invented the vacuum tube (b. 1849)
1945 – Ernie Pyle, American journalist and soldier (b. 1900)
1947 – Jozef Tiso, Slovak priest and politician, President of Slovakia (b. 1887)
1951 – Óscar Carmona, Portuguese field marshal and politician, 11th President of Portugal (b. 1869)
1955 – Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic (b. 1879)
1958 – Maurice Gamelin, Belgian-French general (b. 1872)
1959 – Irving Cummings, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1888)
1959 – Percy Smith, English footballer and manager (b. 1880)
1963 – Meyer Jacobstein, American academic and politician (b. 1880)
1964 – Ben Hecht, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1894)
1204 – Constantinople falls to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.
1612 – Miyamoto Musashi defeats Sasaki Kojirō at Funajima island.
1613 – Samuel Argall, having captured Native American princess Pocahontas in Passapatanzy, Virginia, sets off with her to Jamestown with the intention of exchanging her for English prisoners held by her father.
1742 – George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces are ambushed and defeated in the Battle of Bound Brook, New Jersey.
1829 – The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 gives Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom the right to vote and to sit in Parliament.
1849 – Lajos Kossuth presents the Hungarian Declaration of Independence in a closed session of the National Assembly.
1861 – American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.
1865 – American Civil War: Raleigh, North Carolina is occupied by Union Forces.
1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded.
1873 – The Colfax massacre, in which more than 60 black men are murdered, takes place.
1909 – The military of the Ottoman Empire reverses the Ottoman countercoup of 1909 to force the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
1919 – Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British Indian Army troops lead by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer killed approx 379-1000 unarmed demonstrators including men and women in Amritsar, India; and approximately 1,500 injured.
1941 – A pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan is signed.
1943 – World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.
1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson’s birth.
1944 – Relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union are established.
1945 – World War II: German troops kill more than 1,000 political and military prisoners in Gardelegen, Germany.
1945 – World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces capture Vienna.
1948 – In an ambush, 78 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital, and a British soldier, are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah. This event came to be known as the Hadassah medical convoy massacre.
1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra.
1958 – American pianist Van Cliburn is awarded first prize at the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
1960 – The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world’s first satellite navigation system.
1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American male to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.
1970 – An oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module (codenamed “Odyssey“) while en route to the Moon.
1972 – The Universal Postal Union decides to recognize the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate Chinese representative, effectively expelling the Republic of China administering Taiwan.
1972 – Vietnam War: The Battle of An Lộc begins.
1975 – An attack by the Phalangist resistance kills 26 militia members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, marking the start of the 15-year Lebanese Civil War.
1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson’s 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.
1976 – Forty workers die in an explosion at the Lapua ammunition factory, the deadliest accidental disaster in modern history in Finland.
1992 – Basements throughout the Chicago Loop are flooded, forcing the Chicago Board of Trade Building and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to close.
1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.
2003 – A bus near the Vale of Tempe, Greece was involved in a major vehicle accident with a truck and multiple cars, leaving 21 students in the tenth grade of Makrochori, Imathia High School dead and nine injured during their return to their homes from a trip to Athens.
2017 – The US drops the largest ever non-nuclear weapon on Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.
Births on April 13
1229 – Louis II, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1294)
1350 – Margaret III, Countess of Flanders (d. 1405)
1506 – Peter Faber, French priest and theologian, co-founded the Society of Jesus (d. 1546)
1519 – Catherine de’ Medici, Italian-French wife of Henry II of France (d. 1589)
1570 – Guy Fawkes, English soldier, planned the Gunpowder Plot (probable; d. 1606)
1573 – Christina of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1625)
1593 – Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1641)
1618 – Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French author (d. 1693)
1636 – Hendrik van Rheede, Dutch botanist (d. 1691)
1648 – Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, French mystic (d. 1717)
1713 – Pierre Jélyotte, French tenor (d. 1797)
1729 – Thomas Percy, Irish bishop and poet (d. 1811)
1732 – Frederick North, Lord North, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1792)
1735 – Isaac Low, American merchant and politician, founded the New York Chamber of Commerce (d. 1791)
1743 – Thomas Jefferson, American lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the United States (d. 1826)
1747 – Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (d. 1793)
1764 – Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, French general and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1830)
1769 – Thomas Lawrence, English painter and educator (d. 1830)
1771 – Richard Trevithick, Cornish-English engineer and explorer (d. 1833)
1780 – Alexander Mitchell, Irish engineer, invented the Screw-pile lighthouse (d. 1868)
1784 – Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (d. 1877)
1787 – John Robertson, American lawyer and politician (d. 1873)
1794 – Jean Pierre Flourens, French physiologist and academic (d. 1867)
1802 – Leopold Fitzinger, Austrian zoologist and herpetologist (d. 1884)
1808 – Antonio Meucci, Italian-American engineer (d. 1889)
1810 – Félicien David, French composer (d. 1876)
1824 – William Alexander, Irish archbishop, poet, and theologian (d. 1911)
1825 – Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Irish-Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1868)
1828 – Josephine Butler, English feminist and social reformer (d. 1906)
1828 – Joseph Lightfoot, English bishop and theologian (d. 1889)
1832 – Juan Montalvo, Ecuadorian author and diplomat (d. 1889)
1841 – Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor and academic (d. 1905)
1850 – Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, Irish astronomer (d. 1917)
1851 – Robert Abbe, American surgeon and radiologist (d. 1928)
1851 – William Quan Judge, Irish occultist and theosophist (d. 1896)
1852 – Frank Winfield Woolworth, American businessman, founded the F. W. Woolworth Company (d. 1919)
1854 – Lucy Craft Laney, Founder of the Haines Normal and Industrial School, Augusta, Georgia (d. 1933)
1860 – James Ensor, English-Belgian painter (d. 1949)
1866 – Butch Cassidy, American criminal (d. 1908)
1872 – John Cameron, Scottish international footballer and manager (d. 1935)
1872 – Alexander Roda Roda, Austrian-Croatian journalist and author (d. 1945)
1873 – John W. Davis, American lawyer and politician, 14th United States Solicitor General (d. 1955)
1875 – Ray Lyman Wilbur, American physician, academic, and politician, 31st United States Secretary of the Interior (d. 1949)
1879 – Edward Bruce, American lawyer and painter (d. 1943)
1879 – Oswald Bruce Cooper, American type designer, lettering artist, graphic designer, and educator (d. 1940)
1880 – Charles Christie, Canadian-American businessman, co-founded the Christie Film Company (d. 1955)
1885 – Vean Gregg, American baseball player (d. 1964)
1885 – Juhan Kukk, Estonian politician, Head of State of Estonia (d. 1942)
1885 – György Lukács, Hungarian philosopher and critic (d. 1971)
1885 – Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy, Dutch politician (d. 1961)
1887 – Gordon S. Fahrni, Canadian physician and golfer (d. 1995)
1889 – Herbert Yardley, American cryptologist and author (d. 1958)
1890 – Frank Murphy, American jurist and politician, 56th United States Attorney General (d. 1949)
1890 – Dadasaheb Torne, Indian director and producer (d. 1960)
1891 – Maurice Buckley, Australian sergeant, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1921)
1891 – Nella Larsen, Danish/African-American nurse, librarian, and author (d. 1964)
1891 – Robert Scholl, German accountant and politician (d. 1973)
1892 – Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet, English air marshal (d. 1984)
1892 – Robert Watson-Watt, Scottish engineer, invented Radar (d. 1973)
1894 – Arthur Fadden, Australian accountant and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1973)
1894 – Joie Ray, American runner (d. 1978)
1896 – Fred Barnett, English footballer (d. 1982)
1897 – Werner Voss, German lieutenant and pilot (d. 1917)
1899 – Alfred Mosher Butts, American architect and game designer, created Scrabble (d. 1993)
1899 – Harold Osborn, American high jumper and decathlete (d. 1975)
1900 – Sorcha Boru, American potter and ceramic sculptor (d. 2006)
1900 – Pierre Molinier, French painter and photographer (d. 1976)
1901 – Jacques Lacan, French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (d. 1981)
1901 – Alan Watt, Australian public servant and diplomat, Australian Ambassador to Japan (d. 1988)
1902 – Philippe de Rothschild, French Grand Prix driver, playwright, and producer (d. 1988)
1902 – Marguerite Henry, American author (d. 1997)
1904 – David Robinson, English businessman and philanthropist (d. 1987)
1905 – Rae Johnstone, Australian jockey (d. 1964)
1906 – Samuel Beckett, Irish novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
1906 – Bud Freeman, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1991)
1907 – Harold Stassen, American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of Minnesota (d. 2001)
1909 – Eudora Welty, American short story writer and novelist (d. 2001)
1911 – Ico Hitrec, Croatian footballer and manager (d. 1946)
1911 – Jean-Louis Lévesque, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (d. 1994)
1911 – Nino Sanzogno, Italian conductor and composer (d. 1983)
1913 – Dave Albritton, American high jumper and coach (d. 1994)
1913 – Kermit Tyler, American lieutenant and pilot (d. 2010)
1914 – Orhan Veli Kanık, Turkish poet and author (d. 1950)
1916 – Phyllis Fraser, Welsh-American actress, journalist, and publisher, co-founded Beginner Books (d. 2006)
1917 – Robert Orville Anderson, American businessman, founded Atlantic Richfield Oil Co. (d. 2007)
1917 – Bill Clements, American soldier, engineer, and politician, 15th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense (d. 2011)
1919 – Roland Gaucher, French journalist and politician (d. 2007)
1919 – Howard Keel, American actor and singer (d. 2004)
1919 – Madalyn Murray O’Hair, American activist, founded American Atheists (d. 1995)
1920 – Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (d. 1982)
1920 – Claude Cheysson, French lieutenant and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2012)
1920 – Liam Cosgrave, Irish lawyer and politician, 6th Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 2017)
1920 – Theodore L. Thomas, American chemical engineer, Patent attorney and writer (d. 2005)
1922 – Heinz Baas, German footballer and manager (d. 1994)
1922 – John Braine, English librarian and author (d. 1986)
1922 – Julius Nyerere, Tanzanian politician and teacher, 1st President of Tanzania (d. 1999)
1922 – Valve Pormeister, Estonian architect (d. 2002)
1923 – Don Adams, American actor and director (d. 2005)
1923 – A. H. Halsey, English sociologist and academic (d. 2014)
1923 – Stanley Tanger, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (d. 2010)
1924 – John T. Biggers, American painter (d. 2001)
1924 – Jack T. Chick, American author, illustrator, and publisher (d. 2016)
1924 – Stanley Donen, American film director and choreographer (d. 2019)
1926 – Ellie Lambeti, Greek actress (d. 1983)
1926 – John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, English businessman (d. 2014)
1927 – Rosemary Haughton, English philosopher, theologian, and author
1927 – Antonino Rocca, Italian-American wrestler (d. 1977)
1927 – Maurice Ronet, French actor and director (d. 1983)
1928 – Alan Clark, English historian and politician, Minister of State for Trade (d. 1999)
1928 – Gianni Marzotto, Italian racing driver and businessman (d. 2012)
1929 – Marilynn Smith, American golfer (d. 2019)
1931 – Anita Cerquetti, Italian soprano (d. 2014)
1931 – Robert Enrico, French director and screenwriter (d. 2001)
1931 – Dan Gurney, American race car driver and engineer (d. 2018)
1931 – Jon Stone, American composer, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1997)
1932 – Orlando Letelier, Chilean-American economist and politician, Chilean Minister of National Defense (d. 1976)
1933 – Ben Nighthorse Campbell, American soldier and politician
1934 – John Muckler, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager
1936 – Pierre Rosenberg, French historian and academic
1937 – Col Joye, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1937 – Edward Fox, English actor
1937 – Lanford Wilson, American playwright, co-founded the Circle Repertory Company (d. 2011)
1938 – Klaus Lehnertz, German pole vaulter
1938 – John Weston, English poet and diplomat
1939 – Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
1939 – Paul Sorvino, American actor and singer
1940 – Mike Beuttler, Egyptian-English racing driver (d. 1988)
1940 – Lester Chambers, American singer and musician
1940 – J. M. G. Le Clézio, Breton French-Mauritian author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1940 – Vladimir Cosma, French composer, conductor and violinist
1940 – Jim McNab, Scottish footballer (d. 2006)
1940 – Max Mosley, English racing driver and engineer, co-founded March Engineering, former president of the FIA
686 – Maya king Yuknoom Yich’aak K’ahk’ assumes the crown of Calakmul.
801 – King Louis the Pious captures Barcelona from the Moors after a siege of several months.
1043 – Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England.
1077 – The first Parliament of Friuli is created.
1559 – The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis treaty is signed, ending the Italian Wars.
1860 – The first successful United States Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins.
1865 – American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
1882 – American Old West: Robert Ford kills Jesse James.
1885 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design.
1888 – The first of eleven unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs.
1895 – The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
1922 – Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1933 – First flight over Mount Everest, by the British Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale, and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston.
1936 – Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the baby son of pilot Charles Lindbergh.
1942 – World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
1946 – Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
1948 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
1948 – In Jeju Province, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses begins, known as the Jeju uprising.
1955 – The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg’s book Howl against obscenity charges.
1956 – Hudsonville–Standale tornado: The western half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado.
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. He was assassinated the next day.
1969 – Vietnam War: United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to “Vietnamize” the war effort.
1973 – Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.
1974 – The 1974 Super Outbreak occurs, the second biggest tornado outbreak in recorded history (after the 2011 Super Outbreak). The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured.
1975 – Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default.
1980 – US Congress restores a federal trust relationship with the 501 members of the Shvwits, Kanosh, Koosharem, and the Indian Peaks and Cedar City bands of the Paiute people of Utah.
1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.
1989 – The US Supreme Court upholds the jurisdictional rights of tribal courts under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in Mississippi Choctaw Band v. Holyfield.
1996 – Suspected “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his Montana cabin in the United States.
1997 – The Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but one of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
2000 – United States v. Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust law by keeping “an oppressive thumb” on its competitors.
2004 – Islamic terrorists involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.
2007 – Conventional-Train World Speed Record: A French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line sets an official new world speed record.
2008 – ATA Airlines, once one of the ten largest U.S. passenger airlines and largest charter airline, files for bankruptcy for the second time in five years and ceases all operations.
2008 – Texas law enforcement cordons off the FLDS’s YFZ Ranch. Eventually, 533 women and children will be taken into state custody.
2009 – Jiverly Antares Wong opens fire at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York, killing thirteen and wounding four before committing suicide.
2010 – Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer.
2013 – More than 50 people die in floods resulting from record-breaking rainfall in La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2016 – The Panama Papers, a leak of legal documents, reveals information on 214,488 offshore companies.
2017 – A bomb explodes in the St Petersburg metro system, killing 14 and injuring several more people.
2018 – YouTube headquarters shooting.
Births on April 3
1016 – Xing Zong, Chinese emperor (d. 1055)
1151 – Igor Svyatoslavich, Russian prince (d. 1202)
1438 – John III of Egmont, Dutch nobleman (d. 1516)
1529 – Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1581)
1540 – Maria de’ Medici, Italian noblewoman, the eldest daughter of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleonora di Toledo. (d. 1557)
1593 – George Herbert, English poet (d. 1633)
1639 – Alessandro Stradella, Italian composer (d. 1682)
1643 – Charles V, duke of Lorraine (d. 1690)
1682 – Valentin Rathgeber, German organist and composer (d. 1750)
1693 – George Edwards, English ornithologist and entomologist (d. 1773)
1715 – William Watson, English physician, physicist, and botanist (d. 1787)
1764 – John Abernethy, English surgeon and anatomist (d. 1831)
1769 – Christian Günther von Bernstorff, Danish-Prussian politician and diplomat (d. 1835)
1770 – Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek general (d. 1843)
1778 – Pierre Bretonneau, French doctor who performed the first successful tracheotomy (d. 1862)
1781 – Swaminarayan, Indian religious leader (d. 1830)
1782 – Alexander Macomb, American general (d. 1841)
1783 – Washington Irving, American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian (d. 1859)
1791 – Anne Lister, English diarist, mountaineer, and traveller (d.1840)
1798 – Charles Wilkes, American admiral, geographer, and explorer (d.1877)
1807 – Mary Carpenter, English educational and social reformer (d. 1877)
1814 – Lorenzo Snow, American religious leader, 5th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1901)
1822 – Edward Everett Hale, American minister, historian, and author (d. 1909)
1823 – George Derby, American lieutenant and journalist (d. 1861)
1823 – William M. Tweed, American politician (d. 1878)
1826 – Cyrus K. Holliday, American businessman (d. 1900)
1837 – John Burroughs, American botanist and author (d. 1921)
1842 – Ulric Dahlgren, American colonel (d. 1864)
1848 – Arturo Prat, Chilean lawyer and captain (d. 1879)
1858 – Jacob Gaudaur, Canadian rower (d. 1937)
1860 – Frederik van Eeden, Dutch psychiatrist and author (d. 1932)
1864 – Emil Kellenberger, Swiss target shooter (d. 1943)
1875 – Mistinguett, French actress and singer (d. 1956)
1876 – Margaret Anglin, Canadian actress, director, and producer (d. 1958)
1876 – Tomáš Baťa, Czech businessman, founded Bata Shoes (d. 1932)
1880 – Otto Weininger, Jewish-Austrian philosopher and author (d. 1903)
1881 – Alcide De Gasperi, Italian journalist and politician, 30th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1954)
1882 – Philippe Desranleau, Canadian archbishop (d. 1952)
1883 – Ikki Kita, Japanese philosopher and author (d. 1937)
1885 – Allan Dwan, Canadian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1981)
1885 – Bud Fisher, American cartoonist (d. 1954)
1885 – Marie-Victorin Kirouac, Canadian botanist and academic (d. 1944)
1885 – St John Philby, English colonial and explorer (d. 1960)
1886 – Dooley Wilson, American actor and singer (d. 1953)
1887 – Ōtori Tanigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 24th Yokozuna (d. 1956)
1887 – Nishizō Tsukahara, Japanese admiral (d. 1966)
1888 – Neville Cardus, English author and critic (d. 1975)
1888 – Thomas C. Kinkaid, American admiral (d. 1972)
1889 – Grigoraș Dinicu, Romanian violinist and composer (d. 1949)
1893 – Leslie Howard, English actor (d. 1943)
1895 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian-American composer and educator (d. 1968)
1895 – Zez Confrey, American pianist and composer (d. 1971)
1897 – Joe Kirkwood Sr., Australian golfer (d. 1970)
1897 – Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, Greek general (d. 1989)
1898 – David Jack, English footballer and manager (d. 1958)
1898 – George Jessel, American actor, singer, and producer (d. 1981)
1898 – Henry Luce, American publisher, co-founded Time Magazine (d. 1967)
1900 – Camille Chamoun, Lebanese lawyer and politician, 7th President of Lebanon (d. 1987)
1900 – Albert Walsh, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland (d. 1958)
1903 – Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Indian social reformer and freedom fighter (d. 1988)
1904 – Iron Eyes Cody, American actor and stuntman (d. 1999)
1904 – Sally Rand, American dancer (d. 1979)
1904 – Russel Wright, American furniture designer (d. 1976)
1905 – Robert Sink, American general (d. 1965)
1909 – Stanislaw Ulam, Polish-American mathematician and academic (d. 1984)
1910 – Ted Hook, Australian public servant (d. 1990)
1911 – Nanette Bordeaux, Canadian-American actress (d. 1956)
1911 – Michael Woodruff, English-Scottish surgeon and academic (d. 2001)
1911 – Stanisława Walasiewicz, Polish-American runner (d. 1980)
1912 – Dorothy Eden, New Zealand-English author (d. 1982)
1912 – Grigoris Lambrakis, Greek physician and politician (d. 1963)
1913 – Per Borten, Norwegian politician, 18th Prime Minister of Norway (d. 2005)
1914 – Ray Getliffe, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2008)
1914 – Sam Manekshaw, Indian field marshal (d. 2008)
1915 – Piet de Jong, Dutch politician and naval officer, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 2016)
1915 – İhsan Doğramacı, Turkish physician and academic (d. 2010)
1916 – Herb Caen, American journalist and author (d. 1997)
1916 – Cliff Gladwin, English cricketer (d. 1988)
1916 – Louis Guglielmi, Catalan composer (d. 1991)
1918 – Mary Anderson, American actress (d. 2014)
1918 – Louis Applebaum, Canadian composer and conductor (d. 2000)
1919 – Ervin Drake, American songwriter and composer (d. 2015)
1919 – Clairette Oddera, French-Canadian actress and singer (d. 2008)
1920 – Stan Freeman, American composer and conductor (d. 2001)
1920 – Yoshibayama Junnosuke, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 43rd Yokozuna (d. 1977)
1921 – Robert Karvelas, American actor (d. 1991)
1921 – Jan Sterling, American actress (d. 2004)
1922 – Yevhen Bulanchyk, Ukrainian hurdler (d. 1996)
1922 – Doris Day, American singer and actress (d. 2019)
1923 – Daniel Hoffman, American poet and academic (d. 2013)
1924 – Marlon Brando, American actor and director (d. 2004)
1924 – Roza Shanina, Russian sergeant and sniper (d. 1945)
1925 – Tony Benn, English pilot and politician, Secretary of State for Industry (d. 2014)
1926 – Alex Grammas, American baseball player, manager, and coach (d. 2019)
1926 – Gus Grissom, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1967)
1927 – Wesley A. Brown, American general and engineer (d. 2012)
1928 – Don Gibson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2003)
1928 – Emmett Johns, Canadian priest, founded Dans la Rue (d. 2018)
1928 – Earl Lloyd, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
1928 – Jennifer Paterson, English chef and television personality (d. 1999)
1929 – Fazlur Rahman Khan, Bangladeshi engineer and architect, co-designed the Willis Tower and John Hancock Center (d. 1982)
1929 – Poul Schlüter, Danish lawyer and politician, 37th Prime Minister of Denmark
1930 – Lawton Chiles, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 41st Governor of Florida (d. 1998)
1930 – Helmut Kohl, German politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 2017)
1930 – Mario Benjamín Menéndez, Argentinian general and politician (d. 2015)
1930 – Wally Moon, American baseball player and coach (d. 2018)
1931 – William Bast, American screenwriter and author (d. 2015)
1933 – Bob Dornan, American politician
1933 – Rod Funseth, American golfer (d. 1985)
1934 – Pamela Allen, New Zealand children’s writer and illustrator
1934 – Jane Goodall, English primatologist and anthropologist
1934 – Jim Parker, American football player (d. 2005)
1936 – Jimmy McGriff, American organist and bandleader (d. 2008)
1936 – Harold Vick, American saxophonist and flute player (d. 1987)
1938 – Jeff Barry, American singer-songwriter, and producer
1938 – Phil Rodgers, American golfer (d. 2018)
1939 – François de Roubaix, French composer (d. 1975)
1939 – Hawk Taylor, American baseball player and coach (d. 2012)
1939 – Paul Craig Roberts, American economist and politician
1941 – Jan Berry, American singer-songwriter (d. 2004)
1941 – Philippé Wynne, American soul singer (d. 1984)
1942 – Marsha Mason, American actress
1942 – Wayne Newton, American singer
1942 – Billy Joe Royal, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2015)
1943 – Mario Lavista, Mexican composer
1943 – Jonathan Lynn, English actor, director, and screenwriter
1943 – Richard Manuel, Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1986)
1943 – Hikaru Saeki, Japanese admiral, the first female star officer of the Japan Self-Defense Forces
1944 – Peter Colman, Australian biologist and academic
1944 – Tony Orlando, American singer
1945 – Doon Arbus, American author and journalist
1945 – Bernie Parent, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1945 – Catherine Spaak, French actress
1946 – Nicholas Jones, English actor
1946 – Dee Murray, English bass player (d. 1992)
1946 – Hanna Suchocka, Polish lawyer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Poland
1947 – Anders Eliasson, Swedish composer (d. 2013)
1948 – Arlette Cousture, Canadian author and screenwriter
1948 – Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Dutch academic, politician, and diplomat, 11th Secretary General of NATO
1948 – Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, German footballer
1948 – Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Mexican economist and politician, 53rd President of Mexico
1949 – Lyle Alzado, American football player and actor (d. 1992)
1949 – A. C. Grayling, English philosopher and academic
1949 – Richard Thompson, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 – Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Sri Lankan cricketer and economist
1951 – Brendan Barber, English trade union leader
1951 – Annette Dolphin, British academician and educator
1951 – Mitch Woods, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1952 – Mike Moore, American lawyer and politician
1953 – Sandra Boynton, American author and illustrator
1953 – Wakanohana Kanji II, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 56th Yokozuna
1953 – James Smith, American boxer
1953 – Craig Taubman, American singer-songwriter and producer
1954 – Elisabetta Brusa, Italian composer
1954 – K. Krishnasamy, Indian physician and politician
1956 – Kalle Kulbok, Estonian politician
1956 – Boris Miljković, Serbian director and producer
1956 – Miguel Bosé, Spanish musician and actor
1956 – Ray Combs, American game show host (d. 1996)
1958 – Alec Baldwin, American actor, comedian, producer and television host
1958 – Adam Gussow, American scholar, musician, and memoirist
1958 – Francesca Woodman, Jewish-American photographer (d. 1981)
1959 – David Hyde Pierce, American actor and activist
1960 – Arjen Anthony Lucassen, Dutch singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1961 – Tim Crews, American baseball player (d. 1993)
1961 – Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
1962 – Dave Miley, American baseball player and manager
1962 – Mike Ness, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1962 – Jaya Prada, Indian actress and politician
1963 – Les Davidson, Australian rugby league player
1963 – Ricky Nixon, Australian footballer and manager
1963 – Criss Oliva, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1993)
1964 – Marco Ballotta, Italian footballer and manager
1964 – Nigel Farage, English politician
1964 – Claire Perry, English banker and politician
1964 – Bjarne Riis, Danish cyclist and manager
1964 – Andy Robinson, English rugby player and coach
1964 – Jay Weatherill, Australian politician, 45th Premier of South Australia
1965 – Nazia Hassan, Pakistani pop singer-songwriter, lawyer and social activist (d. 2000)
1966 – John de Vries, Australian race car driver
1967 – Cat Cora, American chef and author
1967 – Pervis Ellison, American basketball player
1967 – Brent Gilchrist, Canadian ice hockey player
1967 – Cristi Puiu, Romanian director and screenwriter
1967 – Mark Skaife, Australian race car driver and sportscaster
1968 – Sebastian Bach, Bahamian-Canadian singer-songwriter and actor
1968 – Charlotte Coleman, English actress (d. 2001)
1968 – Jamie Hewlett, English director and performer
1968 – Tomoaki Kanemoto, Japanese baseball player
1969 – Rodney Hampton, American football player
1969 – Peter Matera, Australian footballer and coach
1969 – Ben Mendelsohn, Australian actor
1969 – Lance Storm, Canadian wrestler and trainer
1971 – Vitālijs Astafjevs, Latvian footballer and manager
1971 – Emmanuel Collard, French race car driver
1971 – Picabo Street, American skier
1972 – Jennie Garth, American actress and director
1972 – Catherine McCormack, English actress
1972 – Sandrine Testud, French tennis player
1973 – Nilesh Kulkarni, Indian cricketer
1973 – Adam Scott, American actor
1974 – Marcus Brown, American basketball player
1974 – Drew Shirley, American guitarist and songwriter
1974 – Lee Williams, Welsh model and actor
1975 – Shawn Bates, American ice hockey player
1975 – Michael Olowokandi, Nigerian-American basketball player
1975 – Aries Spears, American comedian and actor
1975 – Yoshinobu Takahashi, Japanese baseball player
1975 – Koji Uehara, Japanese baseball player
1976 – Nicolas Escudé, French tennis player
1978 – Matthew Goode, English actor
1978 – Tommy Haas, German-American tennis player
1978 – John Smit, South African rugby player
1979 – Simon Black, Australian footballer and coach
1980 – Andrei Lodis, Belarusian footballer
1980 – Megan Rohrer, American pastor and transgender activist
1981 – Aaron Bertram, American trumpet player
1981 – DeShawn Stevenson, American basketball player
1982 – Jared Allen, American football player
1982 – Iain Fyfe, Australian footballer
1982 – Cobie Smulders, Canadian actress
1983 – Ben Foster, English footballer
1983 – Stephen Weiss, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Jonathan Blondel, Belgian footballer
1984 – Maxi López, Argentinian footballer
1985 – Jari-Matti Latvala, Finnish race car driver
1985 – Leona Lewis, English singer-songwriter and producer
1986 – Amanda Bynes, American actress
1986 – Stephanie Cox, American soccer player
1986 – Annalisa Cucinotta, Italian cyclist
1986 – Sergio Sánchez Ortega, Spanish footballer
1987 – Rachel Bloom, American actress, writer, and producer
1987 – Jay Bruce, American baseball player
1987 – Yileen Gordon, Australian rugby league player
1987 – Jason Kipnis, American baseball player
1987 – Martyn Rooney, English sprinter
1987 – Julie Sokolow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1988 – Kam Chancellor, American football player
1988 – Brandon Graham, American football player
1988 – Peter Hartley, English footballer
1988 – Tim Krul, Dutch footballer
1989 – Romain Alessandrini, French footballer
1989 – Israel Folau, Australian rugby player and footballer
1989 – Joel Romelo, Australian rugby league player
1989 – Thisara Perera, Sri Lankan cricketer
1990 – Karim Ansarifard, Iranian footballer
1990 – Madison Brengle, American tennis player
1990 – Sotiris Ninis, Greek footballer
1990 – Natasha Negovanlis, Canadian actress and singer
1991 – Hayley Kiyoko, American actress and singer
1992 – Simone Benedetti, Italian footballer
1992 – Yuliya Yefimova, Russian swimmer
1993 – Pape Moussa Konaté, Senegalese footballer
1994 – Kodi Nikorima, New Zealand rugby league player
1996 – Mayo Hibi, Japanese tennis player
1997 – Gabriel Jesus, Brazilian footballer
1998 – Paris Jackson, American actress, model and singer
Deaths on April 3
963 – William III, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 915)
1153 – al-Adil ibn al-Sallar, vizier of the Fatimid Caliphate
1171 – Philip of Milly, seventh Grand Master of the Knights Templar (b. c. 1120)
1203 – Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (b. 1187)
1253 – Saint Richard of Chichester
1287 – Pope Honorius IV (b. 1210)
1325 – Nizamuddin Auliya, Sufi saint (b. 1238)
1350 – Odo IV, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1295)
1538 – Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire (b. 1480)
1545 – Antonio de Guevara, Spanish chronicler and moralist (b. 1481)
1606 – Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1563)
1630 – Christopher Villiers, 1st Earl of Anglesey, English noble (b. c. 1593)
1680 – Shivaji, Indian emperor, founded the Maratha Empire (b. 1630)
845 – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
1430 – The Ottoman Empire under Murad II captures Thessalonica from the Republic of Venice.
1461 – Battle of Towton: Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England, bringing a temporary stop to the Wars of the Roses.
1500 – Cesare Borgia is given the title of Captain-General and Gonfalonier by his father Rodrigo Borgia after returning from his conquests in the Romagna.
1549 – The city of Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded.
1632 – Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629.
1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade ball at Stockholm’s Royal Opera 13 days earlier. He is succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf.
1806 – Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway.
1809 – King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d’état. At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland’s four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden.
1831 – Great Bosnian uprising: Bosniaks rebel against Turkey.
1847 – Mexican–American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.
1849 – The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab.
1857 – Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry mutinies against the East India Company’s rule in India and inspires the protracted Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny.
1865 – American Civil War: Federal forces under Major General Philip Sheridan move to flank Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee as the Appomattox Campaign begins.
1867 – Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes Canada on July 1.
1871 – Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
1882 – The Knights of Columbus is established.
1886 – John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta.
1911 – The M1911 .45 ACP pistol becomes the official U.S. Army side arm.
1927 – Sunbeam 1000hp breaks the land speed record at Daytona Beach, Florida.
1930 – Heinrich Brüning is appointed German Reichskanzler.
1936 – Adolf Hitler receives 99% of the votes in the 1936 German parliamentary election and referendum.
1941 – The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement goes into effect at 03:00 local time.
1941 – World War II: British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces defeat those of the Italian Regia Marina off the Peloponnesian coast of Greece in the Battle of Cape Matapan.
1942 – The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II is the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city.
1945 – World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England.
1945 – World War II: The German 4th Army is almost destroyed by the Soviet Red Army.
1946 – Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, one of Mexico’s leading universities, is founded.
1947 – Malagasy Uprising against French colonial rule in Madagascar.
1951 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.
1957 – The New York, Ontario and Western Railway makes its final run, the first major U.S. railroad to be abandoned in its entirety.
1961 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.
1962 – Arturo Frondizi, the president of Argentina, is overthrown in a military coup by Argentina’s armed forces, ending an 111⁄2 day constitutional crisis.
1971 – My Lai Massacre: Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
1973 – Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
1973 – Operation Barrel Roll, a covert American bombing campaign in Laos to stop communist infiltration of South Vietnam, ends.
1974 – NASA’s Mariner 10 becomes the first space probe to fly by Mercury.
1974 – Terracotta Army was discovered in Shaanxi province, China.
1982 – The Canada Act 1982 receives the Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982.
1984 – The Baltimore Colts load its possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer its operations to Indianapolis.
1990 – The Czechoslovak parliament is unable to reach an agreement on what to call the country after the fall of Communism, sparking the so-called Hyphen War.
1993 – Catherine Callbeck becomes premier of Prince Edward Island and the first woman to be elected in a general election as premier of a Canadian province.
1999 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark (10,006.78) for the first time, during the height of the dot-com bubble.
1999 – A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in India strikes the Chamoli district in Uttar Pradesh, killing 103.
2002 – In reaction to the Passover massacre two days prior, Israel launches Operation Defensive Shield against Palestinian militants, its largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.
2004 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join NATO as full members.
2010 – Two suicide bombers hit the Moscow Metro system at the peak of the morning rush hour, killing 40.
2013 – At least 36 people are killed when a 16-floor building collapses in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
2014 – The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed.
Births on March 29
1001 – Sokkate, king of the Pagan dynasty of Burma (d. 1044)
1187 – Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (d. 1203)
1373 – Marie d’Alençon, French princess (d. 1417)
1517 – Carlo Carafa, Italian cardinal (d. 1561)
1553 – Vitsentzos Kornaros, Greek poet and playwright (d. 1614)
1561 – Santorio Santorio, Italian biologist (d. 1636)
1584 – Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general and politician (d. 1648)
1602 – John Lightfoot, English priest, scholar, and academic (d. 1675)
1620 – Edward Digges, English barrister and colonist
1629 – Alexis of Russia, Tsar of Russia (d. 1676)
1713 – John Ponsonby, Irish politician (d. 1789)
1735 – Johann Karl August Musäus, German author (d. 1787)
1747 – Johann Wilhelm Hässler, German pianist and composer (d. 1822)
1769 – Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult, French general and politician, 12th Prime Minister of France (d. 1851)
1780 – Jørgen Jørgensen, Danish adventurer (d. 1841)
1790 – John Tyler, American lawyer and politician, 10th President of the United States (d. 1862)
1799 – Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1869)
1802 – Johann Moritz Rugendas, German landscape painter of Spanish America (d. 1858)
1816 – 10th Dalai Lama (d. 1837)
1824 – Ludwig Büchner, German physiologist, physician, and philosopher (d. 1899)
1826 – Wilhelm Liebknecht, German journalist and politician (d. 1900)
1862 – Adolfo Müller-Ury, Swiss-American painter (d. 1947)
1863 – Walter James, Australian politician, 5th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1943)
1867 – Cy Young, American baseball player and manager (d. 1955)
1869 – Aleš Hrdlička, Czech-American anthropologist and scholar (d. 1943)
1869 – Sir Edwin Lutyens, British architect (d. 1944)
1870 – Pavlos Melas, French-Greek captain (d. 1904)
1871 – Tom Hayward, English cricketer (d. 1939)
1872 – Hal Colebatch, English-Australian politician, 12th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1953)
1873 – Tullio Levi-Civita, Jewish-Italian mathematician and academic (d. 1941)
1874 – Lou Henry Hoover, American wife of Herbert Hoover, 33rd First Lady of the United States (d. 1944)
1876 – Friedrich Traun, German sprinter and tennis player (d. 1908)
1884 – Ed Archibald, Canadian pole vaulter (d. 1965)
1885 – Dezső Kosztolányi, Hungarian author and poet (d. 1936)
1888 – Enea Bossi, Sr., Italian-American engineer, designed the Budd BB-1 Pioneer and Bossi-Bonomi Pedaliante (d. 1963)
1889 – Warner Baxter, American actor (d. 1951)
1889 – Howard Lindsay, American producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor (d. 1968)
1890 – Bert Bliss, English international footballer, inside forward (d. 1968)
1891 – Yvan Goll, French-German poet and playwright (d. 1950)
1891 – Alfred Neubauer, Austrian race car driver and manager (d. 1980)
1892 – József Mindszenty, Hungarian cardinal (d. 1975)
1893 – Astrid Holm, Danish actress (d. 1961)
1895 – Ernst Jünger, German philosopher and author (d. 1998)
1896 – Wilhelm Ackermann, German mathematician (d. 1962)
1899 – Lavrentiy Beria, Georgian-Russian general and politician (d. 1953)
1900 – Bill Aston, English race car driver (d. 1974)
1900 – John McEwen, Australian farmer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1980)
1902 – Marcel Aymé, French author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1967)
1902 – Don Miller, American football player and coach (d. 1979)
1902 – William Walton, English composer (d. 1983)
1903 – Douglas Harkness, Canadian colonel and politician, 14th Canadian Minister of National Defence (d. 1999)
1906 – James Bausch, American decathlete and football player (d. 1974)
1907 – Braguinha, Brazilian singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2006)
1908 – Arthur O’Connell, American actor (d. 1981)
1908 – Dennis O’Keefe, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1968)
1909 – Moon Mullican, American country and western singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1967)
1912 – Hanna Reitsch, German soldier and pilot (d. 1979)
1914 – Phil Foster, American actor (d. 1985)
1914 – Chapman Pincher, Indian-English historian, journalist, and author (d. 2014)
1916 – Peter Geach, English philosopher and academic (d. 2013)
1916 – Eugene McCarthy, American poet and politician (d. 2005)
1917 – Tommy Holmes, American baseball player (d. 2008)
1918 – Pearl Bailey, American actress and singer (d. 1990)
1918 – Lê Văn Thiêm, Vietnamese mathematician and academic (d. 1991)
1918 – Sam Walton, American businessman, founded Walmart and Sam’s Club (d. 1992)
1919 – Eileen Heckart, American actress (d. 2001)
1920 – John M. Belk, American businessman and politician (d. 2007)
1920 – Clarke Fraser, American-Canadian geneticist and academic (d. 2014)
1920 – Pierre Moinot, French author (d. 2007)
1920 – Theodore Trautwein, American lawyer and judge (d. 2000)
1921 – Sam Loxton, Australian cricketer, footballer, and politician (d. 2011)
1923 – Geoff Duke, English-Manx motorcycle racer (d. 2015)
1923 – Betty Binns Fletcher, American lawyer and judge (d. 2012)
1923 – Bob Haymes, American singer-songwriter, and actor (d. 1989)
1926 – Moshe Sanbar, Hungarian-Israeli banker and economist (d. 2012)
1927 – John McLaughlin, American journalist and producer (d. 2016)
1927 – John Vane, English pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
1928 – Romesh Bhandari, Pakistani-Indian politician, 13th Foreign Secretary of India (d. 2013)
1928 – Keith Botsford, Belgian-American journalist, author, and academic (d. 2018)
1928 – Vincent Gigante, American boxer and mobster (d. 2005)
1929 – Sheila Kitzinger, English activist, author, and academic (d. 2015)
1929 – Richard Lewontin, American biologist, geneticist, and academic
1929 – Lennart Meri, Estonian director and politician, 2nd President of Estonia (d. 2006)
1929 – Utpal Dutt, Indian Bengali actor, director and playwright (d. 1993)
1930 – Anerood Jugnauth, Mauritian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Mauritius
1931 – Ștefan Andrei, Romanian politician, 87th Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2014)
1931 – Sopubek Begaliev, Kyrgyzstani economist and politician (d. 2002)
1931 – Aleksei Gubarev, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2015)
1931 – Norman Tebbit, English journalist and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1933 – Jacques Brault, Canadian poet and academic
1934 – Shahryar Khan, Indian-Pakistani politician and diplomat, 20th Foreign Secretary of Pakistan
1936 – Richard Rodney Bennett, English-American composer and educator (d. 2012)
1936 – Mogens Camre, Danish politician (d. 2016)
1936 – John A. Durkin, American lawyer and politician (d. 2012)
1936 – Judith Guest, American author and screenwriter
1936 – Joseph P. Teasdale, American lawyer and politician, 48th Governor of Missouri (d. 2014)
1937 – Roberto Chabet, Filipino painter and sculptor (d. 2013)
1937 – Smarck Michel, Haitian businessman and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Haiti (d. 2012)
1937 – Gordon Milne, English footballer
1938 – Bert de Vries, Dutch politician
1939 – Roland Arnall, French-American businessman and diplomat, 63rd United States Ambassador to the Netherlands (d. 2008)
1939 – Terence Hill, Italian actor, director, and producer
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
708 – Pope Constantine succeeds Pope Sisinnius as the 88th pope.
717 – Theodosius III resigns the throne to the Byzantine Empire to enter the clergy.
919 – Romanos Lekapenos seizes the Boukoleon Palace in Constantinople and becomes regent of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII.
1000 – Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah assassinates the eunuch chief minister Barjawan and assumes control of the government.
1306 – Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scots (Scotland).
1409 – The Council of Pisa opens.
1555 – The city of Valencia is founded in present-day Venezuela.
1576 – Jerome Savage takes out a sub-lease to start the Newington Butts Theatre outside London.
1584 – Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia.
1655 – Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.
1802 – The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a “Definitive Treaty of Peace” between France and the United Kingdom.
1807 – The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.
1807 – The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger-carrying railway in the world.
1811 – Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for publishing the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism.
1821 – Traditional date of the start of the Greek War of Independence. The war had actually begun on 23 February 1821 (Julian calendar).
1845 – New Zealand Legislative Council pass the first Militia Act constituting the New Zealand Army.
1865 – American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces temporarily capture Fort Stedman from the Union.
1894 – Coxey’s Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio for Washington, D.C.
1911 – In New York City, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 garment workers.
1917 – The Georgian Orthodox Church restores its autocephaly abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.
1918 – The Belarusian People’s Republic is established.
1924 – On the anniversary of Greek Independence, Alexandros Papanastasiou proclaims the Second Hellenic Republic.
1931 – The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
1941 – The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers with the signing of the Tripartite Pact.
1947 – An explosion in a coal mine in Centralia, Illinois kills 111.
1948 – The first successful tornado forecast predicts that a tornado will strike Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.
1949 – More than 92,000 kulaks are suddenly deported from the Baltic states to Siberia.
1957 – United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” on obscenity grounds.
1957 – The European Economic Community is established with West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg as the first members.
1965 – Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.
1969 – During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31).
1971 – The Army of the Republic of Vietnam abandon an attempt to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos.
1975 – Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by a mentally ill nephew.
1979 – The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.
1988 – The Candle demonstration in Bratislava is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
1995 – WikiWikiWeb, the world’s first wiki, and part of the Portland Pattern Repository, is made public by Ward Cunningham.
1996 – The European Union’s Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy).
2006 – Capitol Hill massacre: A gunman kills six people before taking his own life at a party in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
2006 – Protesters demanding a new election in Belarus, following the rigged 2006 Belarusian presidential election, clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin is among several protesters arrested.
Births on March 25
1252 – Conradin, Duke of Swabia (d. 1268)
1259 – Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (d. 1332)
1297 – Andronikos III Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (d. 1341)
1297 – Arnošt of Pardubice, Polish archbishop (d. 1364)
1345 – Blanche of Lancaster (d. 1369)
1347 – Catherine of Siena, Italian philosopher, theologian, and saint (d. 1380)
1404 – John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English military leader (d. 1444)
1414 – Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford, English noble (d. 1455)
1434 – Eustochia Smeralda Calafato, Italian saint (d. 1485)
1453 – Giuliano de’ Medici (d. 1478)
1479 – Vasili III of Russia (d. 1533)
1491 – Marie d’Albret, Countess of Rethel (d. 1549)
1510 – Guillaume Postel, French linguist (d. 1581)
1538 – Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1612)
1541 – Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1587)
1545 – John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg (d. 1622)
1546 – Giacomo Castelvetro, Italian writer (d. 1616)
1593 – Jean de Brébeuf, French-Canadian missionary and saint (d. 1649)
1611 – Evliya Çelebi, Ottoman Turk traveller and writer (d. 1682)
1636 – Henric Piccardt, Dutch lawyer (d. 1712)
1643 – Louis Moréri, French priest and scholar (d. 1680)
1661 – Paul de Rapin, French soldier and historian (d. 1725)
1699 – Johann Adolph Hasse, German singer and composer (d. 1783)
1741 – Jean-Antoine Houdon, French sculptor and educator (d. 1828)
1745 – John Barry, American naval officer and father of the American navy (d. 1803)
1767 – Joachim Murat, French general (d. 1815)
1782 – Caroline Bonaparte, French daughter of Carlo Buonaparte (d. 1839)
1800 – Ernst Heinrich Karl von Dechen, German geologist and academic (d. 1889)
1808 – José de Espronceda, Spanish poet and author (d. 1842)
1824 – Clinton L. Merriam, American banker and politician (d. 1900)
1840 – Myles Keogh, Irish-American colonel (d. 1876)
1863 – Simon Flexner, American physician and academic (d. 1946)
1867 – Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor, designed Mount Rushmore (d. 1941)
1867 – Arturo Toscanini, Italian-American cellist and conductor (d. 1957)
1868 – Bill Lockwood, English cricketer (d. 1932)
1871 – Louis Perrée, French fencer (d. 1924)
1872 – Horatio Nelson Jackson, American race car driver and physician (d. 1955)
1873 – Rudolf Rocker, German-American author and activist (d. 1958)
1874 – Selim Sırrı Tarcan, Turkish educator and politician (d. 1957)
1876 – Irving Baxter, American jumper and pole vaulter (d. 1957)
1877 – Walter Little, Canadian politician (d. 1961)
1878 – František Janda-Suk, Czech discus thrower and shot putter (d. 1955)
1879 – Amedee Reyburn, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1920)
1881 – Béla Bartók, Hungarian pianist and composer (d. 1945)
1881 – Patrick Henry Bruce, American painter and educator (d. 1936)
1881 – Mary Webb, English author and poet (d. 1927)
1893 – Johannes Villemson, Estonian runner (d. 1971)
1895 – Siegfried Handloser, German general and physician (d. 1954)
1885 – Jimmy Seed, English international footballer, inside forward and manager (d. 1966)
1897 – Leslie Averill, New Zealand doctor and soldier (d. 1981)
1899 – François Rozet, French-Canadian actor (d. 1994)
1901 – Ed Begley, American actor (d. 1970)
1903 – Binnie Barnes, English-American actress (d. 1998)
1903 – Frankie Carle, American pianist and bandleader (d. 2001)
1903 – Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Ukrainian-American theologian and scholar (d. 1990)
1904 – Pete Johnson, American boogie-woogie and jazz pianist (d. 1967)
1905 – Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, German colonel (d. 1944)
1906 – Jean Sablon, French singer and actor (d. 1994)
1906 – A. J. P. Taylor, English historian and academic (d. 1990)
1908 – David Lean, English director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1991)
1910 – Magda Olivero, Italian soprano (d. 2014)
1910 – Benzion Netanyahu, Polish-Israeli historian and academic (d. 2012)
1912 – Melita Norwood, English civil servant and spy (d. 2005)
1912 – Jean Vilar, French actor and director (d. 1971)
1913 – Reo Stakis, Cypriot-Scottish businessman, founded Stakis Hotels (d. 2001)
1914 – Norman Borlaug, American agronomist and humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
1915 – Dorothy Squires, Welsh singer (d. 1998)
1916 – S. M. Pandit, Indian painter and educator (d. 1993)
1918 – Howard Cosell, American soldier, journalist, and author (d. 1995)
1920 – Paul Scott, English author, poet, and playwright (d. 1978)
1920 – Patrick Troughton, English actor (d. 1987)
1920 – Usha Mehta, Gandhian and freedom fighter of India (d. 2000)
1921 – Nancy Kelly, American actress (d. 1995)
1921 – Simone Signoret, French actress (d. 1985)
1922 – Eileen Ford, American businesswoman, co-founded Ford Models (d. 2014)
1923 – Bonnie Guitar, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2019)
1923 – Wim van Est, Dutch cyclist (d. 2003)
1924 – Roberts Blossom, American actor (d. 2011)
1924 – Machiko Kyō, Japanese actress (d. 2019)
1925 – Flannery O’Connor, American short story writer and novelist (d. 1964)
1925 – Anthony Quinton, Baron Quinton, English physician and philosopher (d. 2010)
1925 – Kishori Sinha, Indian politician, social activist and advocate (d. 2016)
1926 – Riz Ortolani, Italian composer and conductor (d. 2014)
1926 – László Papp, Hungarian boxer (d. 2003)
1926 – Jaime Sabines, Mexican poet and politician (d. 1999)
1926 – Gene Shalit, American journalist and critic
1927 – P. Shanmugam, Indian politician, 13th Chief Minister of Puducherry (d. 2013)
1928 – Jim Lovell, American captain, pilot, and astronaut
1928 – Gunnar Nielsen, Danish runner and typographer (d. 1985)
1928 – Hans Steinbrenner, German sculptor (d. 2008)
1929 – Cecil Taylor, American pianist and composer (d. 2018)
1930 – David Burge, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2013)
1930 – Carlo Mauri, Italian mountaineer and explorer (d. 1982)
1930 – Rudy Minarcin, American baseball player and coach (d. 2013)
1931 – Humphrey Burton, English radio and television host
1932 – Penelope Gilliatt, English novelist, short story writer, and critic (d. 1993)
1932 – Wes Santee, American runner (d. 2010)
1934 – Johnny Burnette, American singer-songwriter (d. 1964)
1934 – Bernard King, Australian actor and chef (d. 2002)
1994 – Bernard Kangro, Estonian poet and journalist (b. 1910)
1994 – Max Petitpierre, Swiss jurist and politician (b. 1899)
1995 – James Samuel Coleman, American sociologist and academic (b. 1926)
1995 – John Hugenholtz, Dutch engineer (b. 1914)
1996 – John Snagge, English journalist (b. 1904)
1998 – Max Green, Australian lawyer (b. 1952)
1998 – Steven Schiff, American lawyer and politician (b. 1947)
1999 – Cal Ripken, Sr., American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1936)
2000 – Helen Martin, American actress (b. 1909)
2001 – Brian Trubshaw, English cricketer and pilot (b. 1924)
2002 – Kenneth Wolstenholme, English journalist and sportscaster (b. 1920)
2005 – Paul Henning, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1911)
2006 – Bob Carlos Clarke, Irish photographer (b. 1950)
2006 – Rocío Dúrcal, Spanish singer and actress (b. 1944)
2006 – Richard Fleischer, American film director (b. 1916)
2006 – Buck Owens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1929)
2007 – Andranik Margaryan, Armenian engineer and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Armenia (b. 1951)
2008 – Ben Carnevale, American basketball player and coach (b. 1915)
2008 – Thierry Gilardi, French journalist and sportscaster (b. 1958)
2008 – Abby Mann, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1927)
2008 – Herb Peterson, American businessman, created the McMuffin (b. 1919)
2009 – Johnny Blanchard, American baseball player (b. 1933)
2009 – Kosuke Koyama, Japanese-American theologian and academic (b. 1929)
2009 – Dan Seals, American musician (b. 1948)
2009 – Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu, Turkish politician and member of the Parliament of Turkey (b. 1954)
2012 – Priscilla Buckley, American journalist and author (b. 1921)
2012 – Hal E. Chester, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1921)
2012 – John Crosfield, English businessman, founded Crosfield Electronics (b. 1915)
2012 – Edd Gould, English animator and voice actor, founded Eddsworld (b. 1988)
2012 – Antonio Tabucchi, Italian author and academic (b. 1943)
2013 – Léonce Bernard, Canadian politician, 26th Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island (b. 1943)
2013 – Ben Goldfaden, American basketball player and educator (b. 1913)
2013 – Anthony Lewis, American journalist and academic (b. 1927)
2013 – Jean Pickering, English runner and long jumper (b. 1929)
2013 – Jean-Marc Roberts, French author and screenwriter (b. 1954)
2013 – John F. Wiley, American lieutenant, football player, and coach (b. 1920)
2014 – Lorna Arnold, English historian and author (b. 1915)
2014 – Hank Lauricella, American football player and politician (b. 1930)
2014 – Jon Lord, Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1956)
2014 – Sonny Ruberto, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1946)
2014 – Jonathan Schell, American journalist and author (b. 1943)
2014 – Ralph Wilson, American businessman, founded the Buffalo Bills (b. 1918)
2015 – George Fischbeck, American journalist and educator (b. 1922)
2016 – Shannon Bolin, American actress and singer (b. 1917)
2017 – Cuthbert Sebastian, St. Kitts and Nevis politician (b. 1921)
2018 – Zell Miller, American author and politician (b. 1932)
2019 – Scott Walker, American-born British singer-songwriter (b. 1943)[9]
Holidays and observances on March 25
Anniversary of the Arengo and the Feast of the Militants (San Marino)
Christian feast days:
Ælfwold II of Sherborne
Barontius and Desiderius
Blessed Marie-Alphonsine Danil Ghattas
Omelyan Kovch (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
Dismas, the “Good Thief”
Humbert of Maroilles
Quirinus of Tegernsee
March 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Cultural Workers Day (Russia)
Earliest day on which Seward’s Day can fall, while March 31 is the latest; celebrated on the last Monday in March. (Alaska)
Empress Menen’s Birthday (Rastafari)
EU Talent Day (European Union)
Feast of the Annunciation (Christianity), and its related observances (if March 25 falls in Holy Week or Easter Week the feast is moved to the Monday after the 2nd Sunday of Easter):
Historic start of the new year (Lady Day) in England, Wales, Ireland, and the future United States until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752. (The year 1751 began on 25 March; the year 1752 began on 1 January.) It is one of the four Quarter days in Ireland and England.
International Day of the Unborn Child (international)
Mother’s Day (Slovenia)
Vårfrudagen or Våffeldagen, “Waffle Day” (Sweden, Norway & Denmark)
Freedom Day (Belarus)
International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (international)
International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members (United Nations General Assembly)
Maryland Day (Maryland, United States)
Medal of Honor Day (United States)
Independence Day, celebrates the start of Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, in 1821. (Greece)
1277 – The Byzantine–Venetian treaty of 1277 is concluded, stipulating a two-year truce and renewing Venetian commercial privileges in the Byzantine Empire.
1279 – A Mongol victory at the Battle of Yamen ends the Song dynasty in China.
1284 – The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England.
1563 – The Edict of Amboise is signed, ending the first phase of the French Wars of Religion and granting certain freedoms to the Huguenots.
1649 – The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring it “useless and dangerous to the people of England”.
1687 – Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.
1812 – The Cortes of Cádiz promulgates the Spanish Constitution of 1812.
1853 – The Taiping reform movement occupies and makes Nanjing its capital until 1864.
1861 – The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.
1863 – The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines, and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000.
1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina.
1885 – Louis Riel declares a provisional government in Saskatchewan, beginning the North-West Rebellion.
1895 – Auguste and Louis Lumière record their first footage using their newly patented cinematograph.
1918 – The US Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.
1920 – The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (the first time was on November 19, 1919).
1921 – Irish War of Independence: One of the biggest engagements of the war takes place at Crossbarry, County Cork. About 100 Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escape an attempt by over 1,300 British forces to encircle them.
1931 – Gambling is legalized in Nevada.
1932 – The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened.
1943 – Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.
1944 – World War II: The German army occupies Hungary.
1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the US under her own power.
1945 – World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his “Nero Decree” ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities, and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.
1946 – French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
1954 – Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in colour.
1954 – Willie Mosconi sets a world record by running 526 consecutive balls without a miss during a straight pool exhibition at East High Billiard Club in Springfield, Ohio, setting a record that remains unbroken.
1958 – The Monarch Underwear Company fire leaves 24 dead and 15 injured.
1962 – Highly influential artist Bob Dylan releases his first album, Bob Dylan, for Columbia Records.
1962 – The Algerian War of Independence ends.
1964 – Over 500,000 Brazilians attend the March of the Family with God for Liberty, in protest against the government of João Goulart and against communism.
1965 – The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is discovered by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after its destruction.
1966 – 1965–66 Texas Western Miners men’s basketball team wins the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.
1969 – The 385-metre-tall (1,263 ft) TV-mast at Emley Moor transmitting station, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build-up.
1979 – The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.
1982 – Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the United Kingdom.
1987 – Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as head of the PTL Club due to a brewing sex scandal; he hands over control to Jerry Falwell.
1989 – The Egyptian flag is raised at Taba, marking the end of Israeli occupation since the Six Days War in 1967 and the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty in 1979.
1990 – The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș begin four days after the anniversary of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire.
1998 – An Ariana Afghan Airlines Boeing 727 crashes on approach to Kabul International Airport, killing all 45 on board.
2002 – Zimbabwe is suspended from the Commonwealth on charges of human rights abuses and of electoral fraud, following a turbulent presidential election.
2004 – Catalina affair: A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 in 1952 over the Baltic Sea is finally recovered after years of work.
2004 – March 19 Shooting Incident: The Republic of China(Taiwan) president Chen Shui-bian was shot just before the country’s presidential election on March 20.
2008 – GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed.
2011 – Libyan Civil War: After the failure of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces to take Benghazi, the French Air Force launches Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya.
2013 – A series of bombings and shootings kills at least 98 people and injures 240 others across Iraq.
2016 – Flydubai Flight 981 crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don international airport, killing all 62 on board.
2016 – An explosion occurs in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, killing five people and injuring 36.
2018 – The last male northern white rhinoceros, Sudan, dies, ensuring a chance of extinction for the species.
Births on March 19
1206 – Güyük Khan, Mongol ruler, 3rd Great Khan of the Mongol Empire (d. 1248)
1434 – Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, Japanese shōgun (d. 1443)
1488 – Johannes Magnus, Swedish archbishop and theologian (d. 1544)
1534 – José de Anchieta, Spanish missionary and saint (d. 1597)
1542 – Jan Zamoyski, Polish nobleman (d. 1605)
1601 – Alonzo Cano, Spanish painter, sculptor, and architect (d. 1667)
1604 – John IV of Portugal (d. 1656)
1641 – Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, Syrian author and scholar (d. 1731)
1661 – Francesco Gasparini, Italian composer and educator (d. 1727)
1684 – Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (d. 1766)
1721 – Tobias Smollett, Scottish-Italian poet and author (d. 1771) (baptised on this day)
1734 – Thomas McKean, American lawyer and politician, 2nd Governor of Pennsylvania (d. 1817)
1739 – Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, French lawyer and politician (d. 1824)
1742 – Túpac Amaru II, Peruvian rebel leader (d. 1781)
1748 – Elias Hicks, American farmer, minister, and theologian (d. 1830)
1778 – Edward Pakenham, Anglo-Irish general and politician (d. 1815)
1809 – Fredrik Pacius, German composer and conductor (d. 1891)
1813 – David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer (d. 1873)
1816 – Johannes Verhulst, Dutch composer and conductor (d. 1891)
1821 – Richard Francis Burton, English soldier, geographer, and diplomat (d. 1890)
1823 – Arthur Blyth, English-Australian politician, 9th Premier of South Australia (d. 1891)
1824 – William Allingham, Irish poet, author, and scholar (d. 1889)
1829 – Carl Frederik Tietgen, Danish businessman (d. 1901)
1844 – Minna Canth, Finnish journalist, playwright, and activist (d. 1897)
1847 – Albert Pinkham Ryder, American painter (d. 1917)
1848 – Wyatt Earp, American police officer (d. 1929)
1849 – Alfred von Tirpitz, German admiral and politician (d. 1930)
1858 – Kang Youwei, Chinese scholar and politician (d. 1927)
1860 – William Jennings Bryan, American lawyer and politician, 41st United States Secretary of State (d. 1925)
1861 – Lomer Gouin, Canadian lawyer and politician, 13th Premier of Quebec (d. 1929)
1864 – Charles Marion Russell, American painter and sculptor (d. 1926)
1865 – William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist, myrmecologist, and academic (d. 1937)
1868 – Senda Berenson Abbott, Lithuanian-American basketball player and educator (d. 1954)
1871 – Schofield Haigh, English cricketer and coach (d. 1921)
1872 – Anna Held, Polish singer (d. 1918)
1873 – Max Reger, German pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1916)
1875 – Zhang Zuolin, Chinese warlord (d. 1928)
1876 – Felix Jacoby, German philologist (d. 1959)
1880 – Ernestine Rose, American librarian and advocate (d. 1961)
1881 – Edith Nourse Rogers, American social worker and politician (d. 1960)
1882 – Gaston Lachaise, French-American sculptor (d. 1935)
1883 – Norman Haworth, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
1883 – Joseph Stilwell, American general (d. 1946)
1885 – Attik, Greek composer (d. 1944)
1888 – Josef Albers, German-American painter and educator (d. 1976)
1888 – Léon Scieur, Belgian cyclist (d. 1969)
1891 – Earl Warren, American lieutenant, jurist, and politician, 14th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1974)
1892 – Theodore Sizer, American professor of the history of art (d. 1967)
1892 – Ado Vabbe, Estonian painter (d. 1961)
1892 – James Van Fleet, American general and diplomat (d. 1992)
1894 – Moms Mabley, American comedian and singer (d. 1975)
1900 – Carmen Carbonell, Spanish stage and film actress (d. 1988)
1900 – Frédéric Joliot-Curie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
1901 – Jo Mielziner, French-American set designer (d. 1976)
1904 – John Sirica, American lawyer and judge (d. 1992)
1905 – Joe Rollino, American weightlifter and boxer (d. 2010)
1905 – Albert Speer, German architect and politician (d. 1981)
1906 – Adolf Eichmann, German SS officer (d. 1962)
1906 – Clara Breed, American librarian and activist (d. 1994)
1909 – Louis Hayward, South African-born American actor (d. 1985)
1910 – Joseph Carroll, American general (d. 1991)
1912 – Hugh Watt, Australian-New Zealand engineer and politician, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1980)
1914 – Leonidas Alaoglu, Canadian-American mathematician and theorist (d. 1981)
1914 – Jay Berwanger, American football player and coach (d. 2002)
1915 – Robert G. Cole, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1944)
1915 – Patricia Morison, American actress and singer (d. 2018)
1916 – Eric Christmas, English-Canadian actor (d. 2000)
1916 – Irving Wallace, American journalist, author, and screenwriter (d. 1990)
1917 – Laszlo Szabo, Hungarian chess player (d. 1998)
1919 – Lennie Tristano, American pianist, composer, and educator (d. 1978)
1920 – Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author, poet, and painter (d. 2002)
1921 – Tommy Cooper, British magician and prop comedian (d. 1984)
1922 – Guy Lewis, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
1922 – Hiroo Onoda, Japanese lieutenant (d. 2014)
1923 – Pamela Britton, American actress (d. 1974)
1923 – Benito Jacovitti, Italian illustrator (d. 1997)
1923 – Henry Morgentaler, Polish-Canadian physician and activist (d. 2013)
1924 – Joe Gaetjens, Haitian footballer (d. 1964)
1925 – Brent Scowcroft, American general and diplomat, 9th United States National Security Advisor
1927 – Richie Ashburn, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1997)
1928 – Hans Küng, Swiss theologian and author
1928 – Patrick McGoohan, Irish-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2009)
1931 – Emma Andijewska, Ukrainian poet, writer and painter
1932 – Gay Brewer, American golfer (d. 2007)
1932 – Peter Hall, English geographer, author, and academic (d. 2014)
1932 – Gail Kobe, American actress and producer (d. 2013)
1933 – Phyllis Newman, American actress and singer (d. 2019)
1933 – Philip Roth, American novelist (d. 2018)
1933 – Renée Taylor, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
1933 – Richard Williams, Canadian-English animator, director, and screenwriter (d. 2019)
1935 – Nancy Malone, American actress, director, and producer (d. 2014)
1936 – Ursula Andress, Swiss model and actress
1936 – Ben Lexcen, Australian sailor and architect (d. 1988)
1937 – Clarence “Frogman” Henry, American R&B singer and pianist
1937 – Egon Krenz, German politician
1938 – Joe Kapp, American football player, coach, and actor
1942 – Heather Robertson, Canadian journalist and author (d. 2014)
1943 – Mario J. Molina, Mexican chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1943 – Mario Monti, Italian economist and politician, Prime Minister of Italy
1943 – Vern Schuppan, Australian race car driver
1944 – Said Musa, Belizean lawyer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Belize
1945 – John Holder, English cricketer and umpire
1945 – Modestas Paulauskas, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
1946 – Ruth Pointer, American musician
1947 – Glenn Close, American actress, singer, and producer
1947 – Marinho Peres, Brazilian footballer and coach
1948 – David Schnitter, American saxophonist and educator
1949 – Blase J. Cupich, American theologian and cardinal
1950 – José S. Palma, Filipino archbishop
1952 – Warren Lees, New Zealand cricketer and coach
1952 – Martin Ravallion, Australian economist and academic
1952 – Harvey Weinstein, American director and producer
1953 – Ian Blair, English police officer
1953 – Peter Hendy, English businessman
1953 – Ricky Wilson, American singer-songwriter and musician (d. 1985)
1954 – Cho Kwang-rae, South Korean footballer, coach, and manager
1955 – Bruce Willis, German-American actor and producer
1956 – Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist and politician, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (d. 2009)
1958 – Andy Reid, American football player and coach
1960 – Eliane Elias, Brazilian singer-songwriter and pianist
1962 – Iván Calderón, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (d. 2003)
1963 – Neil LaBute, American director and screenwriter
1964 – Yoko Kanno, Japanese pianist and composer
1964 – Jake Weber, English actor
1966 – Michael Crockart, Scottish police officer and politician
1966 – Olaf Marschall, German footballer and manager
1966 – Andy Sinton, English international footballer, midfielder and manager
1967 – Vladimir Konstantinov, Russian-American ice hockey player
1968 – Tyrone Hill, American basketball player and coach
1970 – Harald Johnsen, Norwegian bassist and composer (d. 2011)
1970 – Michael Krumm, German race car driver
1973 – Ashley Giles, English cricketer and coach
1975 – Antonio Daniels, American basketball player
1975 – Matthew Richardson, Australian footballer and sportscaster
1976 – Andre Miller, American basketball player
1976 – Alessandro Nesta, Italian footballer and manager
1567 – The Battle of Oosterweel, traditionally regarded as the start of the Eighty Years’ War.
1591 – At the Battle of Tondibi in Mali, Moroccan forces of the Saadi dynasty, led by Judar Pasha, defeat the Songhai Empire, despite being outnumbered by at least five to one.
1639 – Harvard College is named after clergyman John Harvard.
1697 – Nojpetén, capital of the last independent Maya kingdom, fell to Spanish conquistadors, the final step in the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.
1741 – The Battle of Cartagena de Indias (part of the War of Jenkins’ Ear) begins..
1809 – Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden is deposed in the Coup of 1809.
1826 – Pope Leo XII publishes the apostolic constitution Quo Graviora in which he renewed the prohibition on Catholics joining freemasonry.
1845 – Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto receives its première performance in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist.
1848 – The German revolutions of 1848–1849 begin in Vienna.
1862 – The Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves was passed by the United States Congress, effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
1881 – Alexander II of Russia is assassinated.
1884 – The Siege of Khartoum begins. It lasts until January 26, 1885.
1900 – British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, during the Second Boer War.
1920 – The Kapp Putsch briefly ousts the Weimar Republic government from Berlin.
1930 – The news of the discovery of Pluto is announced by Lowell Observatory.
1933 – Banks in the U.S. begin to re-open after the three-day national “bank holiday” mandated by the Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Emergency Banking Act.
1943 – German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
1954 – The Battle of Điện Biên Phủ begins with an artillery barrage by Viet Minh forces under Võ Nguyên Giáp; Viet Minh victory lead to the end of the First Indochina War and French withdrawal from Vietnam.
1957 – Cuban student revolutionaries storm the presidential palace in Havana in a failed attempt on the life of President Fulgencio Batista.
1969 – Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
1979 – The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts the Prime Minister of Grenada, Eric Gairy, in a coup d’état.
1988 – The Seikan Tunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world, opens between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan.
1992 – The Mw 6.6 Erzincan earthquake strikes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe).
1996 – The Dunblane massacre leads to the death of sixteen primary school children and one teacher in Dunblane, Scotland.
1997 – The Missionaries of Charity choose Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as their leader.
2003 – An article in Nature identifies the Ciampate del Diavolo as 350,000-year-old hominid footprints.
2012 – The Sierre coach crash kills 28 people, including 22 children.
2013 – The 2013 papal conclave elects Pope Francis as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.
2016 – The Ankara bombing kills at least 37 people.
2016 – Three gunmen attack two hotels in the Ivory Coast town of Grand-Bassam, killing at least 19 people.
Births on March 13
1372 – Louis I, Duke of Orléans (d. 1407)
1479 – Lazarus Spengler, German hymnwriter (d. 1534)
1560 – William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, Dutch count (d. 1620)
1593 – Georges de La Tour, French painter (probable; d. 1652)
1599 – John Berchmans, Belgian Jesuit scholastic and saint (d. 1621)
1615 – Innocent XII, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1700)
1683 – Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, German botanist (d. 1741)
1700 – Michel Blavet, French flute player and composer (d. 1768)
1719 – John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, English field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Essex (d. 1797)
1720 – Charles Bonnet, Swiss historian and author (d. 1793)
1741 – Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1790)
1763 – Guillaume Brune, French general and diplomat (d. 1815)
1764 – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1845)
1770 – Daniel Lambert, English animal breeder (d. 1809)
1781 – Karl Friedrich Schinkel, German painter and architect, designed the Konzerthaus Berlin (d. 1841)
1798 – Abigail Fillmore, American wife of Millard Fillmore, 14th First Lady of the United States (d. 1853)
1800 – Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Ottoman politician, 212th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1858)
1815 – James Curtis Hepburn, American physician, linguist, and missionary (d. 1911)
1825 – Hans Gude, Norwegian-German painter and academic (d. 1903)
1855 – Percival Lowell, American astronomer and mathematician (d. 1916)
1857 – B. H. Roberts, English-American historian and politician (d. 1933)
1860 – Hugo Wolf, Slovene-Austrian composer (d. 1903)
1862 – Paul Prosper Henrys, French general (d. 1943)
1864 – Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian-German painter (d. 1941)
1870 – William Glackens, American painter and illustrator (d. 1938)
1874 – Ellery Harding Clark, American jumper, coach, and lawyer (d. 1949)
1880 – Josef Gočár, Czech architect (d. 1945)
1883 – Enrico Toselli, Italian pianist and composer (d. 1926)
1884 – Hugh Walpole, New Zealand-English author and educator (d. 1941)
1886 – Home Run Baker, American baseball player and manager (d. 1963)
1886 – Albert William Stevens, American captain and photographer (d. 1949)
1888 – Paul Morand, French author and diplomat (d. 1976)
1890 – Fritz Busch, German conductor and director (d. 1951)
1892 – Janet Flanner, American journalist and author (d. 1978)
1897 – Yeghishe Charents, Armenian poet and activist (d. 1937)
1898 – Henry Hathaway, American director and producer (d. 1985)
1899 – John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, American physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1980)
1899 – Pancho Vladigerov, Bulgarian pianist and composer (d. 1978)
1900 – Andrée Bosquet, Belgian painter (d. 1980)
1900 – Giorgos Seferis, Greek poet and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
1902 – Hans Bellmer, German-French painter and sculptor (d. 1975)
1904 – Clifford Roach, Trinidadian cricketer and footballer (d. 1988)
1907 – Dorothy Tangney, Australian politician (d. 1985)
1908 – Walter Annenberg, American publisher, philanthropist, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (d. 2002)
1908 – Myrtle Bachelder, American chemist and Women’s Army Corps officer (d. 1997)
1910 – Sammy Kaye, American saxophonist, songwriter, and bandleader (d. 1987)
1910 – Kemal Tahir, Turkish journalist and author (d. 1973)
1911 – José Ardévol, Cuban composer and conductor (d. 1981)
1913 – William J. Casey, American politician, 13th Director of Central Intelligence (d. 1987)
1913 – Sergey Mikhalkov, Russian author and playwright (d. 2009)
1914 – W. O. Mitchell, Canadian author and playwright (d. 1998)
1914 – Edward O’Hare, American lieutenant and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1943)
1916 – Lindy Boggs, American educator and politician, 5th United States Ambassador to the Holy See (d. 2013)
1916 – Jacque Fresco, American engineer and academic (d. 2017)
1920 – Ralph J. Roberts, American businessman, co-founded Comcast (d. 2015)
1921 – Al Jaffee, American cartoonist
1923 – Dimitrios Ioannidis, Greek general (d. 2010)
1925 – Roy Haynes, American drummer and composer
1926 – Carlos Roberto Reina, Honduran lawyer and politician, President of Honduras (d. 2003)
1929 – Zbigniew Messner, Polish economist and politician, 9th Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland (d. 2014)
1933 – Mahdi Elmandjra, Moroccan economist and sociologist (d. 2014)
1933 – Gero von Wilpert, German author and academic (d. 2009)
1935 – David Nobbs, English author and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1938 – Robert Gammage, American captain and politician (d. 2012)
1939 – Neil Sedaka, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1941 – Donella Meadows, American environmentalist, author, and academic (d. 2001)
1942 – Dave Cutler, American computer scientist and engineer
1942 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet and author (d. 2008)
1944 – Terence Burns, Baron Burns, English economist and academic
1945 – Anatoly Fomenko, Russian mathematician and academic
1946 – Yonatan Netanyahu, American-Israeli colonel (d. 1976)
1947 – Lesley Collier, English ballerina and educator
1947 – Beat Richner, Swiss pediatrician and cellist (d. 2018)
1947 – Lyn St. James, American race car driver
1949 – Ze’ev Bielski, Israeli politician
1949 – Sian Elias, New Zealand lawyer and politician, 12th Chief Justice of New Zealand
1950 – Bernard Julien, Trinidadian cricketer
1950 – Charles Krauthammer, American physician, journalist, and author (d. 2018)
1950 – William H. Macy, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1951 – Charo, Spanish-American singer, guitarist, and actress
1952 – Wolfgang Rihm, German composer and educator
1952 – Tim Sebastian, English journalist and author
1953 – Andy Bean, American golfer
1953 – Michael Curry, 27th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church
1954 – Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos, Guyanese-English politician and diplomat
1954 – Robin Duke, Canadian actress and screenwriter
1955 – Bruno Conti, Italian footballer and manager
1955 – Glenne Headly, American actress (d. 2017)
1955 – Olga Rukavishnikova, Russian pentathlete
1956 – Dana Delany, American actress and producer
1957 – John Hoeven, American banker and politician, 31st Governor of North Dakota
1957 – Moses Hogan, American composer and conductor (d. 2003)
1958 – Mágico González, Salvadoran footballer
1958 – Rick Lazio, American lawyer and politician
1958 – Caryl Phillips, Caribbean-English author and playwright
1959 – Dirk Wellham, Australian cricketer
1960 – Adam Clayton, English-born Irish musician and songwriter
1960 – Joe Ranft, American animator, screenwriter, and voice actor (d. 2005)
1963 – Vance Johnson, American football player
1964 – Will Clark, American baseball player
1966 – Chico Science, Brazilian singer-songwriter (d. 1997)
1967 – Andrés Escobar, Colombian footballer (d. 1994)
1967 – Pieter Vink, Dutch footballer and referee
1970 – Tim Story, American director and producer
1971 – Annabeth Gish, American actress
1971 – Allan Nielsen, Danish international footballer, midfielder and manager
1972 – Common, American rapper and actor
1973 – Edgar Davids, Surinamese born Dutch international footballer midfielder and manager
1973 – Bobby Jackson, American basketball player and coach
1974 – Thomas Enqvist, Swedish tennis player and sportscaster
1975 – Mark Clattenburg, English football referee
1976 – Troy Hudson, American basketball player and rapper
1976 – Danny Masterson, American actor and producer
1978 – Tom Danielson, American cyclist
1978 – Kenny Watson, American football player
1979 – Johan Santana, Venezuelan-American baseball player
1979 – Cédric Van Branteghem, Belgian sprinter
1980 – Caron Butler, American basketball player
1982 – Nicole Ohlde, American basketball player
1983 – Kaitlin Sandeno, American swimmer
1984 – Geeta Basra, Indian actress
1985 – Alcides Araújo Alves, Brazilian footballer
1985 – Emile Hirsch, American actor
1986 – Neil Wagner, South African-New Zealand cricketer
1987 – Marco Andretti, American race car driver
1987 – Andreas Beck, German footballer
1988 – Furdjel Narsingh, Dutch footballer
1989 – Holger Badstuber, German footballer
1989 – Marko Marin, German footballer
1989 – Robert Wickens, Canadian racing driver
1990 – Anicet Abel, Malagasy footballer
1991 – Daniel Greig, Australian speed skater
1991 – Tristan Thompson, American basketball player
1994 – Gerard Deulofeu, Spanish footballer
1995 – Mikaela Shiffrin, American skier
1998 – Jay-Roy Grot, Dutch footballer
Deaths on March 13
1202 – Mieszko III the Old, king of Poland (b. c. 1121)
1271 – Henry of Almain, English knight (b. 1235)
1415 – Minye Kyawswa, Crown Prince of Ava (b. 1391)
1447 – Shah Rukh, Timurid ruler of Persia and Transoxania (b. 1377)
1573 – Michel de l’Hôpital, French politician (b. 1507)
1601 – Henry Cuffe, Politician (b. 1563)
1619 – Richard Burbage, English actor (b. 1567)
1711 – Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, French poet and critic (b. 1636)
1719 – Johann Friedrich Böttger, German chemist and potter (b. 1682)
1800 – Nana Fadnavis, Indian minister and politician (b. 1742)
1808 – Christian VII of Denmark (b. 1749)
1823 – John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, English admiral and politician (b. 1735)
1833 – William Bradley, English lieutenant and cartographer (b. 1757)
1842 – Henry Shrapnel, English general (b. 1761)
1854 – Jean-Baptiste de Villèle, French politician, 6th Prime Minister of France (b. 1773)
1873 – David Swinson Maynard, American physician, lawyer, and businessman (b. 1808)
1879 – Adolf Anderssen, German mathematician and chess player (b. 1818)
1881 – Alexander II of Russia (b. 1818)
1884 – Leland Stanford Jr., American son of Leland Stanford (b. 1868)
1885 – Giorgio Mitrovich, Maltese politician (b. 1795)
1901 – Benjamin Harrison, American general and politician, 23rd President of the United States (b. 1833)
1906 – Susan B. Anthony, American activist (b. 1820)
1912 – Eugène-Étienne Taché, Canadian engineer and architect, designed the Parliament Building (b. 1836)
1921 – Jenny Twitchell Kempton, American opera singer and educator (b. 1835)
1936 – Francis Bell, New Zealand lawyer and politician, 20th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1851)
1938 – Clarence Darrow, American lawyer and author (b. 1857)
1943 – Stephen Vincent Benét, American poet, short story writer, and novelist (b. 1898)
1946 – Werner von Blomberg, German field marshal (b. 1878)
1962 – Anne Acheson, Irish sculptor (d. 1882)
1965 – Vittorio Jano, Italian engineer (b. 1891)
1965 – Fan Noli, Albanian-American bishop and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1882)
1971 – Rockwell Kent, American painter and illustrator (b. 1882)
1972 – Tony Ray-Jones, English photographer (b. 1941)
1975 – Ivo Andrić, Yugoslav novelist, poet, and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
1976 – Ole Haugsrud, American sports executive (b. 1900)
1983 – Paul Citroen, German-Dutch illustrator and educator (b. 1896)
1990 – Bruno Bettelheim, Austrian-American psychologist and author (b. 1903)
1995 – Odette Hallowes, French nurse and spy (b. 1912)
1996 – Krzysztof Kieślowski, Polish director and screenwriter (b. 1941)
1998 – Judge Dread, English singer-songwriter (b. 1945)
1998 – Hans von Ohain, German-American physicist and engineer (b. 1911)
1999 – Lee Falk, American cartoonist, director, and producer (b. 1911)
1999 – Garson Kanin, American director and screenwriter (b. 1912)
2001 – John A. Alonzo, American actor and cinematographer (b. 1934)
2001 – Encarnacion Alzona, Filipino historian and educator (b. 1895)
2002 – Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher and scholar (b. 1900)
2004 – Franz König, Austrian cardinal (b. 1905)
2006 – Robert C. Baker, American businessman, invented the chicken nugget (b. 1921)
2006 – Jimmy Johnstone, Scottish footballer (b. 1944)
2006 – Maureen Stapleton, American actress (b. 1925)
2007 – Arnold Skaaland, American wrestler and manager (b. 1925)
2009 – Betsy Blair, American actress (b. 1923)
2009 – Alan W. Livingston, American businessman (b. 1917)
2010 – Jean Ferrat, French singer-songwriter (b. 1930)
2011 – Rick Martin, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1951)
2014 – Reubin Askew, American sergeant, lawyer, and politician, 37th Governor of Florida (b. 1928)
2014 – Edward Haughey, Baron Ballyedmond, Irish businessman and politician (b. 1944)
2014 – Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Sierra Leonean economist, lawyer, and politician, 3rd President of Sierra Leone (b. 1932)
2014 – Icchokas Meras, Lithuanian-Israeli author and screenwriter (b. 1934)
2015 – Al Rosen, American baseball player and manager (b. 1924)
2016 – Hilary Putnam, American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist (b. 1926)
2017 – Amy Krouse Rosenthal, American author (b. 1965)
2018 – Emily Nasrallah, Lebanese writer and women’s rights activist. (b. 1931)
661 – The Rashidun Caliphate is effectively ended with the assassination of Ali, the last caliph.
945 – The co-emperors Stephen and Constantine are overthrown and forced to become monks by Constantine VII, who becomes the sole emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1500 – Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to set foot on Brazil.
1531 – The 6.4–7.1 Mw Lisbon earthquake kills about thirty thousand people.
1564 – The Council of Trent establishes an official distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
1564 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Tsardom of Russia in the Battle of Ula during the Livonian War.
1565 – Battle of Talikota, fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Deccan sultanates, leads to the subjugation, and eventual destruction of the last Hindu kingdom in India, and the consolidation of Islamic rule over much of the Indian subcontinent.
1699 – For the first time, the Ottoman Empire permanently cedes territory to the Christian powers.
1700 – The 8.7–9.2 Mw Cascadia earthquake takes place off the west coast of North America, as evidenced by Japanese records.
1736 – Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
1788 – The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on Australia. Commemorated as Australia Day.
1808 – The Rum Rebellion is the only successful (albeit short-lived) armed takeover of the government in New South Wales.
1837 – Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
1838 – Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States.
1841 – James Bremer takes formal possession of Hong Kong Island at what is now Possession Point, establishing British Hong Kong.
1855 – Point No Point Treaty is signed in Washington Territory.
1856 – First Battle of Seattle. Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.
1861 – American Civil War: The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.
1863 – American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.
1863 – American Civil War: Governor of Massachusetts John Albion Andrew receives permission from the Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.
1870 – Reconstruction Era: Virginia rejoins the Union.
1885 – Troops loyal to The Mahdi conquer Khartoum, killing the Governor-General Charles George Gordon.
1905 – The world’s largest diamond ever, the Cullinan weighing 3,106.75 carats (0.621350 kg), is found at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa.
1911 – Glenn Curtiss flies the first successful American seaplane.
1915 – The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.
1918 – Finnish Civil War: A group of Red Guards hangs a red lantern atop the tower of Helsinki Workers’ Hall to symbolically mark the start of the war.
1920 – Former Ford Motor Company executive Henry Leland launches the Lincoln Motor Company which he later sold to his former employer.
1926 – The first demonstration of the television by John Logie Baird.
1930 – The Indian National Congress declares 26 January as Independence Day or as the day for Poorna Swaraj (“Complete Independence”) which occurred 17 years later.
1934 – The Apollo Theater reopens in Harlem, New York City.
1934 – German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed.
1939 – Spanish Civil War: Catalonia Offensive: Troops loyal to nationalist General Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
1942 – World War II: The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
1945 – World War II: The Red Army begins encircling the German Fourth Army near Heiligenbeil in East Prussia, which will end in destruction of the 4th Army two months later.
1945 – World War II: Audie Murphy displays valor and bravery in action for which he will later be awarded the Medal of Honor.
1949 – The Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).
1950 – The Constitution of India comes into force, forming a republic. Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first President of India. Observed as Republic Day in India.
1952 – Black Saturday in Egypt: rioters burn Cairo’s central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
1956 – the Soviet Union cedes Porkkala back to Finland.
1961 – John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be the first woman Physician to the President.
1962 – Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
1965 – Hindi becomes the official language of India.
1972 – JAT Fight 367 is destroyed by a terrorist bomb, killing 27 of the 28 people on board the DC-9. Flight attendant Vesna Vulović survives with critical injuries.
1980 – Egypt–Israel relations are formally established.
1986 – The Ugandan government of Tito Okello is overthrown by the National Resistance Army, led by Yoweri Museveni.
1991 – Mohamed Siad Barre is removed from power in Somalia, ending centralized government, and is succeeded by Ali Mahdi.
1992 – Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
1998 – Lewinsky scandal: On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had “sexual relations” with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
2001 – The 7.7 Mw Gujarat earthquake shakes Western India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 13,805–20,023 dead and about 166,800 injured.
2009 – Rioting breaks out in Antananarivo, Madagascar, sparking a political crisis that will result in the replacement of President Marc Ravalomanana with Andry Rajoelina.
2015 – An aircraft crashes at Los Llanos Air Base in Albacete, Spain, killing 11 people and injuring 21 others.
2020 – A Sikorsky S-76B flying from John Wayne Airport to Camarillo Airport crashes in Calabasas, 30 miles west of Los Angeles, killing all nine people on board including former five time NBA champion Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant.
Births on January 26
183 – Lady Zhen, wife of Cao Pi (d. 221)
1436 – Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, Lancastrian military commander (d. 1464)
1467 – Guillaume Budé, French scholar (d. 1540)
1495 – Emperor Go-Nara of Japan (d. 1557)
1541 – Florent Chrestien, French poet and translator (d. 1596)
1549 – Jakob Ebert, German theologian (d. 1614)
1582 – Giovanni Lanfranco, Italian painter (d. 1647)
1595 – Antonio Maria Abbatini, Italian composer (d. 1679)
1624 – George William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1705)
1657 – William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1737)
1708 – William Hayes, English organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1777)
1714 – Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor and educator (d. 1785)
1715 – Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher (d. 1771)
1716 – George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, English general and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (d. 1785)
1722 – Alexander Carlyle, Scottish minister and author (d. 1805)
1763 – Charles XIV John of Sweden (d. 1844)
1781 – Ludwig Achim von Arnim, German poet and author (d. 1831)
1813 – Juan Pablo Duarte, Dominican philosopher and poet (d. 1876)
1824 – Emil Czyrniański, Polish chemist (d. 1888)
1832 – George Shiras, Jr., American lawyer and jurist (d. 1924)
1842 – François Coppée, French poet and author (d. 1908)
1852 – Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, Italian-French explorer (d. 1905)
1857 – 12th Dalai Lama (d. 1875)
1861 – Louis Anquetin, French painter (d. 1932)
1864 – József Pusztai, Slovene-Hungarian poet and journalist (d. 1934)
1866 – John Cady, American golfer (d. 1933)
1877 – Kees van Dongen, Dutch painter (d. 1968)
1878 – Dave Nourse, English-South African cricketer and coach (d. 1948)
1880 – Douglas MacArthur, American general, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1964)
1885 – Michael Considine, Irish-Australian politician (d. 1959)
1885 – Harry Ricardo, English engineer and academic (d. 1974)
1885 – Per Thorén, Swedish figure skater (d. 1962)
1887 – François Faber, French-Luxembourgian cyclist (d. 1915)
1887 – Marc Mitscher, American admiral and pilot (d. 1947)
1887 – Dimitris Pikionis, Greek architect and academic (d. 1968)
1891 – Frank Costello, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1973)
1891 – August Froehlich, German priest and martyr (d. 1942)
1891 – Wilder Penfield, American-Canadian neurosurgeon and academic (d. 1976)
1892 – Bessie Coleman, American pilot (d. 1926)
1893 – Giuseppe Genco Russo, Italian mob boss (d. 1976)
1899 – Günther Reindorff, Russian-Estonian graphic designer and illustrator (d. 1974)
1900 – Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967)
1902 – Menno ter Braak, Dutch author (d. 1940)
1904 – Ancel Keys, American physiologist and nutritionist (d. 2004)
1904 – Seán MacBride, Irish lawyer and politician, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
1905 – Charles Lane, American actor and singer (d. 2007)
1905 – Maria von Trapp, Austrian-American singer (d. 1987)
1907 – Henry Cotton, English golfer (d. 1987)
1907 – Dimitrios Holevas, Greek priest and philologist (d. 2001)
1908 – Jill Esmond, English actress (d. 1990)
1908 – Rupprecht Geiger, German painter and sculptor (d. 2009)
1908 – Stéphane Grappelli, French violinist (d. 1997)
1910 – Jean Image, Hungarian-French animator, director, and screenwriter (d. 1989)
1911 – Polykarp Kusch, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
1911 – Norbert Schultze, German composer and conductor (d. 2002)
1913 – Jimmy Van Heusen, American pianist and composer (d. 1990)
1914 – Dürrüşehvar Sultan, Imperial Princess of the Ottoman Empire (d. 2006)
1915 – William Hopper, American actor (d. 1970)
1917 – Louis Zamperini, American runner and captain (d. 2014)
1918 – Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romanian dictator, 1st President of Romania (d. 1989)
1918 – Philip José Farmer, American author (d. 2009)
1919 – Valentino Mazzola, Italian footballer (d. 1949)
1919 – Bill Nicholson, English footballer and manager (d. 2004)
1919 – Hyun Soong-jong, South Korean politician, 24th Prime Minister of South Korea (d. 2020)
1920 – Hans Holzer, Austrian-American paranormal researcher and author (d. 2009)
1921 – Eddie Barclay, French record producer, founded Barclay Records (d. 2005)
1921 – Akio Morita, Japanese businessman, co-founded Sony (d. 1999)
1922 – Michael Bentine, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1996)
1922 – Seán Flanagan, Irish footballer and politician, 7th Irish Minister for Health (d. 1993)
1922 – Gil Merrick, English footballer (d. 2010)
1923 – Patrick J. Hannifin, American admiral (d. 2014)
1923 – Anne Jeffreys, American actress and singer (d. 2017)
1924 – Alice Babs, Swedish singer and actress (b. 1924)
1924 – Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and politician, Mayor of Dallas (d. 1998)
1925 – David Jenkins, English bishop and theologian (d. 2016)
1925 – Joan Leslie, American actress (d. 2015)
1925 – Paul Newman, American actor, activist, director, race car driver, and businessman, co-founded Newman’s Own (d. 2008)
1925 – Ben Pucci, American football player and sportscaster (d. 2013)
1925 – Claude Ryan, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 2004)
1926 – Farman Fatehpuri, Pakistani linguist and scholar (d. 2013)
1926 – Joseph Bacon Fraser, Jr., American architect and businessman, co-founded the Sea Pines Company (d. 2014)
1927 – José Azcona del Hoyo, Honduran businessman and politician, President of Honduras (d. 2005)
1927 – Bob Nieman, American baseball player and scout (d. 1985)
1927 – Hubert Schieth, German footballer and manager (d. 2013)
1928 – Roger Vadim, French actor and director (d. 2000)
1929 – Jules Feiffer, American cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, and educator
1934 – Roger Landry, Canadian businessman and publisher (d. 2020)
1934 – Charles Marowitz, American director, playwright, and critic (d. 2014)
1934 – Huey “Piano” Smith, American pianist and songwriter
1934 – Bob Uecker, American baseball player, sportscaster and actor
1935 – Corrado Augias, Italian journalist and politician
1935 – Henry Jordan, American football player (d. 1977)
1935 – Paula Rego, Portuguese-born British visual artist
1936 – Sal Buscema, American illustrator
1937 – Joseph Saidu Momoh, Sierra Leonean soldier and politician, 2nd President of Sierra Leone (d. 2003)
1937 – Francisco Gonzales, former 1960 Summer Olympics yachting team member and murderer
1938 – Henry Jaglom, English-American director and screenwriter
1940 – Séamus Hegarty, Irish bishop
1940 – Frank Large, English footballer, centre forward and cricketer (d. 2003)
1943 – César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
1943 – Jack Warner, Trinidadian businessman and politician
1944 – Angela Davis, American activist, academic, and author
1944 – Jerry Sandusky, American football coach and criminal
1945 – Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist (d. 1987)
1945 – David Purley, English race car driver (d. 1985)
1946 – Christopher Hampton, Portuguese-English director, screenwriter, and playwright
1946 – Gene Siskel, American journalist and film critic (d. 1999)
1946 – Susan Friedlander, American mathematician
1947 – Patrick Dewaere, French actor and composer (d. 1982)
1947 – Les Ebdon, English chemist and academic
1947 – Redmond Morris, 4th Baron Killanin, Irish director, producer, and production manager
1947 – Michel Sardou, French singer-songwriter and actor
1948 – Alda Facio, Costa Rican jurist, writer and teacher
1949 – Jonathan Carroll, American author
1949 – David Strathairn, American actor
1950 – Jörg Haider, Austrian lawyer and politician, Governor of Carinthia (d. 2008)
1951 – David Briggs, Australian guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1951 – Andy Hummel, American singer-songwriter and bass player (d. 2010)
1951 – Anne Mills, English economist and academic
1953 – Alik L. Alik, Micronesian politician, 7th Vice President of the Federated States of Micronesia
1953 – Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish politician and diplomat, 39th Prime Minister of Denmark
1953 – Lucinda Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1954 – Kim Hughes, Australian cricketer
1955 – Eddie Van Halen, Dutch-American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1957 – Road Warrior Hawk, American wrestler (d. 2003)
1958 – Anita Baker, American singer-songwriter
1958 – Ellen DeGeneres, American comedian, actress, and talk show host
1961 – Wayne Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 – Tom Keifer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1962 – Guo Jian, Chinese-Australian painter, sculptor, and photographer
1962 – Tim May, Australian cricketer
1962 – Oscar Ruggeri, Argentinian footballer and manager
1963 – José Mourinho, Portuguese footballer and manager
1963 – Simon O’Donnell, Australian footballer, cricketer, and sportscaster
1963 – Tony Parks, English footballer and manager
1963 – Andrew Ridgeley, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – Adam Crozier, Scottish businessman
1965 – Thomas Östros, Swedish businessman and politician
1965 – Natalia Yurchenko, Russian gymnast and coach
1966 – Kazushige Nagashima, Japanese baseball player and sportscaster
1967 – Anatoly Komm, Russian chef and businessman
1967 – Col Needham, English businessman, co-founded Internet Movie Database
1968 – Jupiter Apple, Brazilian singer-songwriter, film director, and actor (d. 2015)
1969 – George Dikeoulakos, Greek-Romanian basketball player and coach
1970 – Kirk Franklin, American singer-songwriter and producer
1973 – Larissa Lowing, Canadian artistic gymnast
1973 – Melvil Poupaud, French actor, director, and screenwriter
1973 – Brendan Rodgers, Northern Irish footballer and manager
1973 – Mayu Shinjo, Japanese author and illustrator
1977 – Vince Carter, American basketball player
1977 – Justin Gimelstob, American tennis player and coach
1978 – Corina Morariu, American tennis player and sportscaster
1981 – José de Jesús Corona, Mexican footballer
1981 – Gustavo Dudamel, Venezuelan violinist, composer, and conductor
1981 – Juan José Haedo, Argentinian cyclist
1981 – Colin O’Donoghue, Irish actor
1982 – Reggie Hodges, American football player
1983 – Petri Oravainen, Finnish footballer
1983 – Eric Werner, American ice hockey player
1984 – Ryan Hoffman, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Iain Turner, Scottish footballer
1984 – Luo Xuejuan, Chinese swimmer
1985 – Heather Stanning, English rower
1986 – Gerald Green, American basketball player
1986 – Kim Jae-joong, South Korean singer, songwriter, actor, director and designer.
763 – Following the Battle of Bakhamra between Alids and Abbasids near Kufa, the Alid rebellion ends with the death of Ibrahim, brother of Isa ibn Musa.
1525 – The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz’s mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
1535 – Following the Affair of the Placards, the French king leads an anti-Protestant procession through Paris.
1720 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.
1749 – The Teatro Filarmonico in Verona is destroyed by fire, as a result of a torch being left behind in the box of a nobleman after a performance. It is rebuilt in 1754.
1774 – Abdul Hamid I becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam.
1789 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth by William Hill Brown, is printed in Boston.
1793 – After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.
1854 – The RMS Tayleur sinks off Lambay Island on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Australia with great loss of life.
1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.
1893 – The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, is formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate, now Botswana.
1908 – New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor.
1911 – The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.
1915 – Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit.
1919 – A revolutionary Irish parliament is founded and declares the independence of the Irish Republic. One of the first engagements of the Irish War of Independence takes place.
1925 – Albania declares itself a republic.
1931 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
1941 – Sparked by the murder of a German officer in Bucharest, Romania the day before, members of the Iron Guard engaged in a rebellion and pogrom killing 125 Jews.
1948 – The Flag of Quebec is adopted and flown for the first time over the National Assembly of Quebec. The day is marked annually as Québec Flag Day.
1950 – American lawyer and government official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
1954 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.
1960 – Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.
1960 – Avianca Flight 671 crashes at Montego Bay, Jamaica airport, killing 37 people.
1960 – A coal mine collapses at Holly Country, South Africa, killing 435 miners.
1968 – Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh: One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.
1968 – A B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures. One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete.
1971 – The current Emley Moor transmitting station, the tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, begins transmitting UHF broadcasts.
1976 – Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.
1980 – Iran Air Flight 291 crashes in the Alborz Mountains while on approach to Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, Iran, killing 128 people.
1981 – Production of the iconic DeLorean sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
1985 – Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 crashes near Reno–Tahoe International Airport in Reno, Nevada, killing 70 people.
1997 – The U.S. House of Representatives votes 395–28 to reprimand Newt Gingrich for ethics violations, making him the first Speaker of the House to be so disciplined.
1999 – War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kilograms (9,500 lb) of cocaine on board.
2000 – Ecuador: After the Ecuadorian Congress is seized by indigenous organizations, Col. Lucio Gutiérrez, Carlos Solorzano and Antonio Vargas depose President Jamil Mahuad. Gutierrez is later replaced by Gen. Carlos Mendoza, who resigns and allows Vice-President Gustavo Noboa to succeed Mahuad.
2003 – A 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Mexican state of Colima, killing 29 and leaving approximately 10,000 people homeless.
2004 – NASA’s MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
2005 – In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government’s new taxes erupts into riots.
2009 – Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, officially ending a three-week war it had with Hamas. However, intermittent fire by both sides continues in the weeks to follow.
2011 – Anti government demonstrations take place in Tirana, Albania. Five people lose their lives from gunshots, allegedly fired from armed police protecting the Prime Minister’s office. To date, no one has been held accountable for the deaths.
2017 – Over 400 cities across America and 160+ countries worldwide participate in a large-scale women’s march, on Donald Trump’s first full day as President of the United States.
2018 – Rocket Lab’s Electron becomes the first rocket to reach orbit using an electric pump-fed engine and deploys three CubeSats.
Births on January 21
1264 – Alexander, Prince of Scotland (d. 1284)
1277 – Galeazzo I Visconti, lord of Milan
1338 – Charles V of France (d. 1380)
1493 – Giovanni Poggio, Italian cardinal and diplomat (d. 1556)
1598 – Matsudaira Tadamasa, Japanese samurai and daimyō (d. 1645)
1612 – Henry Casimir I of Nassau-Dietz, count of Nassau-Dietz (d. 1640)
1636 – Melchiorre Cafà, Maltese Baroque sculptor (baptised; d. 1667)
1655 – Antonio Molinari, Italian painter (d. 1704)
1659 – Adriaen van der Werff, Dutch painter (d. 1722)
1675 – Duchess Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg, Margravine of Baden-Baden (d. 1733)
1714 – Anna Morandi Manzolini, Spanish anatomist (d. 1774)
1717 – Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Spanish military officer and governor of Cuba (d. 1779)
1721 – James Murray, Scottish-English general and politician, Governor of Minorca (d. 1794)
1724 – Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, French rococo painter (d. 1805)
1732 – Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, son of Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg, and Princess Maria Augusta of Thurn and Taxis (d. 1797)
1738 – Ethan Allen, American general (d. 1789)
1741 – Chaim of Volozhin, Orthodox rabbi (d. 1821)
1763 – Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of French Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre (d. 1794)
1775 – Manuel Garcia, Spanish opera singer and composer (d. 1832)
1784 – Peter De Wint, English painter (d. 1849)
1788 – William Henry Smyth, Royal Navy officer, hydrographer, astronomer and numismatist
1796 – Princess Marie of Hesse-Kassel, consort of George, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1880)
1797 – Joseph Méry, French author and journalist (d. 1866)
1800 – Theodor Fliedner, German Lutheran minister (d. 1864)
1801 – John Batman, Australian entrepreneur and explorer (d. 1839)
1804 – Moritz von Schwind, Austrian painter (d. 1871)
1808 – Juan Crisóstomo Torrico, 16th President of Peru (d. 1875)
1810 – Pierre Louis Charles de Failly, French general (d. 1892)
1811 – James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn, British statesman (d. 1885)
1813 – John C. Frémont, American general, explorer, and politician, 5th Territorial Governor of Arizona (d. 1890)
1813 – Giuseppe Montanelli, Italian statesman and author (d. 1862)
1814 – Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, German bibliographer and historian (d. 1885)
1815 – Horace Wells, American dentist (d. 1848)
1820 – Joseph Wolf, German ornithologist and illustrator (d. 1899)
1820 – Egide Walschaerts, Belgian mechanical engineer (d. 1901)
1824 – Stonewall Jackson, American general (d. 1863)
1827 – Ivan Mikheevich Pervushin, Russian mathematician and theorist (d. 1900)
1829 – Oscar II of Sweden (d. 1907)
1839 – Caterina Volpicelli, Italian Roman Catholic nun (d. 1894)
1840 – Sophia Jex-Blake, English physician and feminist (d. 1912)
1841 – Édouard Schuré, French philosopher and author (d. 1929)
1843 – Émile Levassor, French engineer (d. 1897)
1845 – Harriet Backer, Norwegian painter (d. 1932)
1846 – Pieter Hendrik Schoute, Dutch mathematician and academic (d. 1923)
1846 – Albert Lavignac, French music scholar (d. 1916)
1847 – Joseph Achille Le Bel, French chemist (d. 1930)
1848 – Henri Duparc, French soldier and composer (d. 1933)
1851 – Giuseppe Allamano, Italian Roman Catholic priest (d. 1926)
1854 – Karl Julius Beloch, German classical and economic historian (d. 1929)
1854 – Eusapia Palladino, Italian Spiritualist (d. 1918)
1855 – Princess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, the youngest daughter of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies (d. 1874)
1860 – Karl Staaff, Swedish lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1915)
1864 – Israel Zangwill, British author (d. 1926)
1865 – Heinrich Albers-Schonberg, German gynecologist and radiologist (d. 1921)
1867 – Ludwig Thoma, German paramedic and author (d. 1921)
1867 – Maxime Weygand, Belgian-French general (d. 1965)
1868 – Felix Hoffmann, German chemist (d. 1946)
1869 – Grigori Rasputin, Russian Mystic (d. 1916)
1871 – Olga Preobrajenska, Russian ballerina (d. 1962)
1873 – Arturo Labriola, Italian revolutionary syndicalist (d. 1959)
1874 – René-Louis Baire, French mathematician (d. 1932)
1875 – Paul E. Kahle, German orientalist (d. 1964)
1877 – Baldassarre Negroni, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1948)
1878 – Vahan Tekeyan, Armenian poet and activist (d. 1948)
1879 – Joseph Roffo, French rugby player and tug of war competitor (d. 1933)
1880 – George Van Biesbroeck, Belgian–American astronomer (d. 1974)
1881 – Ernst Fast, Swedish runner (d. 1959)
1881 – André Godard, French archaeologist, architect and historian (d. 1965)
1881 – Ivan Ribar, Yugoslav politician (d. 1968)
1882 – Pavel Florensky, Russian mathematician and theologian (d. 1937)
1882 – Francis Gailey, Australian-American swimmer (d. 1972)
1883 – Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet and educator (d. 1929)
1883 – Mathias Hynes, British tug of war competitor (d. 1926)
1885 – Duncan Grant, British painter and designer (d. 1978)
1885 – Umberto Nobile, Italian engineer and explorer (d. 1978)
1885 – Harold A. Wilson, English runner (d. 1932)
1886 – John M. Stahl, American director and producer (d. 1950)
1887 – Wolfgang Köhler, German psychologist and phenomenologist (d. 1967)
1887 – Ernest Holmes, American New Thought writer (d. 1960)
1887 – Georges Vézina, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1926)
1889 – Pitirim Sorokin, American sociologist and political activist (d. 1968)
1891 – Albert Battel, German Army lieutenant and lawyer (d. 1952)
1891 – Francisco Lázaro, Portuguese marathon runner (d. 1912)
1895 – Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish fashion designer, founded Balenciaga (d. 1972)
1895 – Daniel Chalonge, French astrophysicist and astronomer (d. 1977)
1895 – Noe Itō, Japanese anarchist, author and feminist (d. 1923)
1896 – Guy Gilpatric, American pilot and journalist (d. 1950)
1896 – Paula Hitler, younger sister of Adolf Hitler (d. 1960)
1896 – J. Carrol Naish, American actor (d. 1973)
1896 – Masa Perttilä, Finnish wrestler (d. 1968)
1897 – René Iché, French sculptor (d. 1954)
1898 – Rudolph Maté, Polish-Hungarian-American cinematographer, producer and director (d. 1964)
1898 – Ahmad Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia (d. 1930)
1898 – Eduard Zintl, German chemist (d. 1941)
1899 – John Bodkin Adams, British general practitioner and convict (d. 1983)
1899 – Gyula Mándi, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 1969)
1899 – Edith Tolkien, wife and muse of J. R. R. Tolkien (d. 1971)
1899 – Alexander Tcherepnin, Russian-American pianist and composer (d. 1977)
1900 – Elof Ahrle, Swedish actor and director (d. 1965)
1900 – Anselm Franz, Austrian engineer (d. 1994)
1900 – Bernhard Rensch, German evolutionary biologist (d. 1990)
1900 – Fernando Quiroga Palacios, Spanish Cardinal (d. 1971)
1901 – Ricardo Zamora, Spanish footballer and manager (d. 1978)
1903 – William Lyon, American film editor (d. 1974)
1903 – Raymond Suvigny, French weightlifter (d. 1945)
1904 – Puck van Heel, Dutch footballer (d. 1984)
1904 – John Porter, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1997)
1905 – Christian Dior, French fashion designer, founded Christian Dior S.A. (d. 1957)
1905 – Karl Wallenda, German-American acrobat and tightrope walker, founded The Flying Wallendas (d. 1978)
1906 – Leo Halle, Dutch footballer (d. 1992)
1906 – Igor Moiseyev, Russian choreographer (d. 2007)
1907 – Carlo Cavagnoli, Italian boxer (d. 1991)
1907 – Jānis Mendriks, Latvian Catholic priest (d. 1953)
1909 – Todor Skalovski, Macedonian composer and conductor (d. 2004)
1909 – Teofilo Spasojević, Serbian footballer (d. 1970)
1910 – Hideo Shinojima, Japanese footballer (d. 1975)
1910 – Albert Rosellini, American lawyer and politician, 15th Governor of Washington (d. 2011)
1910 – Rosa Kellner, German athlete (d. 1984)
1910 – Károly Takács, Hungarian shooter (d. 1976)
1911 – Dick Garrard, Australian wrestler (d. 2003)
1911 – Lee Yoo-hyung, Korean footballer and manager (d. 2003)
1912 – Konrad Emil Bloch, German-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
1915 – André Lichnerowicz, French mathematician (d. 1998)
1915 – Orazio Mariani, Italian sprinter (d. 1981)
1916 – Pietro Rava, Italian footballer (d. 2006)
1916 – Zypora Spaisman, Polish midwife; American and Yiddish-language actress; producer of the Yiddish stage (d. 2002)
1917 – Erling Persson, H&M founder (d. 2002)
1918 – Jimmy Hagan, English footballer (d. 1998)
1918 – Richard Winters, American soldier (d. 2011)
1918 – Antonio Janigro, Italian cellist and conductor (d. 1989)
1919 – Eric Brown, Scottish-English captain and pilot (d. 2016)
1920 – Errol Barrow, first Prime Minister of Barbados (d. 1987)
1921 – Lincoln Alexander, Canadian lawyer and politician, 23rd Canadian Minister of Labour (d. 2012)
1922 – Telly Savalas, American actor (d. 1994)
1922 – Paul Scofield, English actor (d. 2008)
1922 – Predrag Vranicki, Croatian Marxist Humanist, and member of the Praxis school in the 1960s in Yugoslavia (d. 2002)
1923 – Lola Flores, Spanish singer, dancer, and actress (d. 1995)
1923 – Alberto de Mendoza, Argentine actor (d. 2011)
1923 – Pahiño, Spanish footballer (d. 2012)
1924 – Benny Hill, English actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1992)
1925 – Charles Aidman, American actor (d. 1993)
1925 – Alex Forbes, Scottish footballer (d. 2014)
1925 – Eva Ibbotson, Austrian-English author (d. 2010)
1925 – Arnold Skaaland, American wrestler and manager (d. 2007)
1926 – Clive Donner, British director (d. 2010)
1926 – Franco Evangelisti, Italian composer (d. 1980)
1926 – Steve Reeves, American bodybuilder (d. 2000)
1926 – Roger Taillibert, French architect (d. 2019)
1926 – Robert J. White, American neurosurgeon (d. 2010)
1927 – Rudolf Kraus, German footballer (d. 2003)
1928 – Gene Sharp, American political scientist and academic, founded the Albert Einstein Institution (d. 2018)
1928 – Reynaldo Bignone, Argentinian general and politician, 41st President of Argentina (d. 2018)
1929 – Radley Metzger, American filmmaker (d. 2017)
1930 – Mainza Chona, Zambian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Zambia (d. 2001)
1931 – Yoshiko Kuga, Japanese actress
1933 – Habib Thiam, Senegalese politician (d. 2017)
1933 – Tony Marchi, English footballer, wing half
1934 – Audrey Dalton, Irish actress
1934 – Antonio Karmany, Spanish cyclist
1934 – Alfonso Portugal, Mexican footballer (d. 2016)
1934 – Ann Wedgeworth, American actress (d. 2017)
1936 – Dick Davies, American basketball player (d. 2012)
1937 – Judit Ágoston-Mendelényi, Hungarian fencer (d. 2013)
1937 – Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria, the youngest son of Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria
1938 – Sandy Barr, American wrestler and referee (d. 2007)
1938 – Romano Fogli, Italian footballer
1938 – Wolfman Jack, American radio host (d. 1995)
1938 – Nicholas Phillips, Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers, English lawyer and judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
1939 – Paul Genevay, French sprinter
1939 – Friedel Lutz, German footballer
1939 – Steve Paxton, American dancer and choreographer
1939 – Viacheslav Platonov, Russian volleyball player and coach (d. 2005)
1940 – Jack Nicklaus, American golfer and sportscaster
1940 – Patrick Robinson, British novelist
1941 – Sattam bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabian prince (d. 2013)
1941 – Plácido Domingo, Spanish tenor and conductor
1941 – Richie Havens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
1941 – Mike Medavoy, Chinese-American film producer, co-founded Orion Pictures
1941 – Ivan Putski, Polish-American wrestler and bodybuilder
1941 – Elaine Showalter, American author and critic
1942 – Freddy Breck, German singer, producer, and news anchor (d. 2008)
1942 – Eugène Camara, Prime Minister of Guinea (d. 2019)
1942 – Han Pil-hwa, North Korean speed skater
1942 – Mac Davis, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1942 – Edwin Starr, American singer-songwriter (d. 2003)
1942 – Michael G. Wilson, American producer and screenwriter
1943 – Zdravko Hebel, Croatian water polo player (d. 2017)
1943 – Arnar Jónsson, Icelandic actor
1943 – Alfons Peeters, Belgian footballer (d. 2015)
1943 – Kenzo Yokoyama, Japanese footballer
1944 – Uto Ughi, Italian violinist
1945 – Pete Kircher, English drummer
1945 – Martin Shaw, English actor and producer
1946 – Ichiro Hosotani, Japanese footballer
1946 – Nella Martinetti, Swiss singer (d. 2011)
1946 – Tomás Pineda, El Salvadoran footballer
1946 – Miguel Reina, Spanish footballer
1947 – Jill Eikenberry, American actress
1947 – Andrzej Bachleda, Polish former alpine skier
1947 – Dorian M. Goldfeld, American mathematician
1947 – Pye Hastings, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1947 – Michel Jonasz, French singer-songwriter and actor
1947 – Joseph Nicolosi, American clinical psychologist (d. 2017)
1947 – Giuseppe Savoldi, Italian footballer
1947 – Roberto Zywica, Argentine footballer
1948 – Zygmunt Kukla, Polish footballer (d. 2016)
1948 – Hugo Tocalli, Argentine footballer
1949 – Trương Tấn Sang, Vietnamese politician and 7th President of Vietnam
1949 – Clifford Ray, American basketball coach and player
1950 – Marion Becker, German javelin thrower
1950 – Gary Locke, American politician and diplomat, 36th United States Secretary of Commerce
1950 – José Marín, Spanish racewalker
1950 – Billy Ocean, Trinidadian-English singer-songwriter
1950 – Agnes van Ardenne, Dutch politician and diplomat, Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation
1951 – Eric Holder, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 82nd United States Attorney General
1952 – Marco Camenisch, Swiss activist and murderer
1952 – Werner Grissmann, Austrian alpine skier
1952 – Mikhail Umansky, Russian chess player (d. 2010)
1953 – Paul Allen, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Microsoft (d. 2018)
1953 – Felipe Yáñez, Spanish cyclist
1954 – Thomas de Maizière, German politician of the Christian Democratic Union
1954 – Idrissa Ouedraogo, Burkinabé director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
1954 – Phil Thompson, English footballer and coach
1955 – Peter Fleming, American tennis player
1955 – Jeff Koons, American painter and sculptor
1955 – Nello Musumeci, Italian politician and President of Sicily
1956 – Robby Benson, American actor and director
1956 – Geena Davis, American actress and producer
1958 – Matt Salmon, American politician
1958 – Hussein Saeed, Iraqi footballer
1958 – Sergei Walter, Ukrainian politician (d. 2015)
1958 – Michael Wincott, Canadian actor
1959 – Sergei Alifirenko, Russian pistol shooter
1959 – Alex McLeish, Scottish footballer and manager
1960 – Sidney Lowe, American basketball player
1960 – Mike Terrana, American hard rock and heavy metal drummer
1961 – Kevin Cramer, American politician
1961 – Cornelia Pröll, Austrian alpine skier
1961 – Ivo Pukanić Croatian journalist (d. 2008)
1961 – Gary Shaw, English footballer
1961 – Piotr Ugrumov, Russian cyclist
1962 – Tyler Cowen, American economist and academic
1962 – Isabelle Nanty, French actress, director and screenwriter
1962 – Gabriele Pin, Italian footballer and coach
1962 – Zoran Thaler, Slovenian politician
1962 – Erik Verlinde, Dutch theoretical physicist
1962 – Marie Trintignant, French actress (d. 2003)
1963 – Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian-American basketball player
1963 – Detlef Schrempf, German basketball player and coach
1964 – Andreas Bauer, German ski jumper
1964 – Tony Dolan, English musician and actor
1964 – Gérald Passi, French footballer
1964 – Ricardo Serna, Spanish footballer
1964 – Aleksandar Šoštar, Serbian water polo player
1964 – Danny Wallace, English footballer
1965 – Robert Del Naja, British artist, musician and singer
1965 – Jam Master Jay, American DJ, rapper, and producer (d. 2002)
1965 – Masahiro Wada, Japanese footballer
1967 – Artashes Minasian, Armenian chess player
1967 – Alfred Jermaniš, Slovenian footballer
1967 – Gorō Miyazaki, Japanese film director and landscaper
1968 – Dmitry Fomin, Soviet and Russian volleyball player
1968 – Ilya Smirin, Israeli chess Grandmaster
1968 – Artur Dmitriev, Soviet and Russian ice skater
1968 – Sébastien Lifshitz, French director
1968 – Charlotte Ross, American actress
1969 – John Ducey, American actor
1969 – Eduard Hämäläinen, Finnish-Belarusian decathlete
1969 – Karina Lombard, French-American actress and singer
1969 – Tsubaki Nekoi, Japanese comic artist
1970 – Alen Bokšić, former Croatian footballer
1970 – Marina Foïs, French actress
1970 – Ken Leung, American actor
1970 – Oren Peli, Israeli-American director, producer and screenwriter
1971 – Uni Arge, Faroese footballer and entertainer
1971 – Rafael Berges, Spanish footballer
1971 – Doug Edwards, American basketball player
1971 – Dmitri Khlestov, Russian footballer
1971 – Dylan Kussman, American actor
1971 – Sergey Klevchenya, Russian speed skater
1971 – Doug Weight, American ice hockey player and coach
1972 – Billel Dziri, Algerian footballer and manager
1972 – Rick Falkvinge, Swedish businessman and politician
1972 – Sead Kapetanović, Bosnian footballer
1972 – Yasunori Mitsuda, Japanese composer and producer
1972 – Cat Power, American singer, musician and actress
1972 – Shawn Rojeski, American curler
1972 – Sabina Valbusa, Italian cross-country skier
1973 – Rob Hayles, English cyclist
1973 – Chris Kilmore, American musician and DJ
1973 – Edvinas Krungolcas, Lithuanian modern pentathlete
1973 – Flavio Maestri, Peruvian footballer
1974 – Malena Alterio, Spanish actress
1974 – Maxwell Atoms, American animator, screenwriter and voice actor
1974 – Kim Dotcom, German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur and political activist
