1754

  • April 2 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sights land in what is now the United States state of Florida.
    • 1755 – Commodore William James captures the Maratha fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.
    • 1792 – The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
    • 1800 – Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna.
    • 1800 – The Treaty of Constantinople establishes the Septinsular Republic, the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire.
    • 1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: The British capture the Danish fleet.
    • 1851 – Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.
    • 1863 – American Civil War: The largest in a series of Southern bread riots occurs in Richmond, Virginia.
    • 1865 – American Civil War: Defeat at the Third Battle of Petersburg forces the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate government to abandon Richmond, Virginia.
    • 1885 – Canadian Cree warriors attack the village of Frog Lake, killing nine.
    • 1900 – The United States Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.
    • 1902 – Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated in the Marie Palace, Saint Petersburg.
    • 1902 – “Electric Theatre”, the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles.
    • 1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country’s first national census.
    • 1912 – The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.
    • 1917 – World War I: United States President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
    • 1921 – The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established.
    • 1930 – After the mysterious death of Empress Zewditu, Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.
    • 1956 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere on CBS. The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format.
    • 1964 – The Soviet Union launches Zond 1.
    • 1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.
    • 1973 – Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.
    • 1975 – Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Quảng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
    • 1976 – Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.
    • 1979 – A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
    • 1980 – United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act.
    • 1982 – Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
    • 1986 – Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist, best known for the “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”, announces that he will not seek a fifth four-year term and will retire from public life upon the end of his term in January 1987.
    • 1989 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba, to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations.
    • 1989 – ASUS corporation is founded.
    • 1991 – Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
    • 1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
    • 1992 – Forty-two civilians are massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
    • 2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated.
    • 2004 – Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid; the attack is thwarted.
    • 2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; Tennessee is hardest hit with 29 people killed.
    • 2012 – A mass shooting at Oikos University in California leaves seven people dead and three injured.
    • 2014 – A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, with four dead, including the gunman, and 16 others injured.
    • 2015 – Gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 148 people and wounding 79 others.
    • 2015 – Four men steal items worth up to £200 million from an underground safe deposit facility in London’s Hatton Garden area in what has been called the “largest burglary in English legal history.”

    Births on April 2

    • 742 – Charlemagne, Frankish king (d. 814)
    • 1473 – John Corvinus, Hungarian noble (d. 1504)
    • 1545 – Elisabeth of Valois (d. 1568)
    • 1565 – Cornelis de Houtman, Dutch explorer (d. 1599)
    • 1586 – Pietro Della Valle, Italian traveler (d. 1652)
    • 1602 – Mary of Jesus of Ágreda, Franciscan abbess (d. 1665)
    • 1618 – Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Italian mathematician and physicist (d. 1663)
    • 1647 – Maria Sibylla Merian, German-Dutch botanist and illustrator (d. 1717)
    • 1653 – Prince George of Denmark (d. 1708)
    • 1696 – Francesca Cuzzoni, Italian operatic soprano (d. 1778)
    • 1719 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (d. 1803)
    • 1725 – Giacomo Casanova, Italian explorer and author (d. 1798)
    • 1788 – Francisco Balagtas, Filipino poet and author (d. 1862)
    • 1788 – Wilhelmine Reichard, German balloonist (d. 1848)
    • 1789 – Lucio Norberto Mansilla, Argentinian general and politician (d. 1871)
    • 1792 – Francisco de Paula Santander, Colombian general and politician, 4th President of the Republic of the New Granada (d. 1840)
    • 1798 – August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet and academic (d. 1874)
    • 1805 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (d. 1875)
    • 1814 – Henry L. Benning, American general and judge (d. 1875)
    • 1814 – Erastus Brigham Bigelow, American inventor (d. 1879)
    • 1827 – William Holman Hunt, English soldier and painter (d. 1910)
    • 1835 – Jacob Nash Victor, American engineer (d. 1907)
    • 1838 – Léon Gambetta, French lawyer and politician, 45th Prime Minister of France (d. 1882)
    • 1840 – Émile Zola, French novelist, playwright, journalist (d. 1902)
    • 1841 – Clément Ader, French engineer, designed the Ader Avion III (d. 1926)
    • 1842 – Dominic Savio, Italian Catholic saint, adolescent student of Saint John Bosco (d. 1857)
    • 1861 – Iván Persa, Slovenian priest and author (d. 1935)
    • 1862 – Nicholas Murray Butler, American philosopher and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
    • 1869 – Hughie Jennings, American baseball player and manager (d. 1928)
    • 1875 – Walter Chrysler, American businessman, founded Chrysler (d. 1940)
    • 1875 – William Donne, English cricketer and captain (d. 1942)
    • 1884 – J. C. Squire, English poet, author, and historian (d. 1958)
    • 1891 – Jack Buchanan, Scottish entertainer (d. 1957)
    • 1891 – Max Ernst, German painter, sculptor, and poet (d. 1976)
    • 1891 – Tristão de Bragança Cunha, Indian nationalist and anti-colonial activist from Goa (d. 1958)
    • 1896 – Johnny Golden, American golfer (d. 1936)
    • 1898 – Harindranath Chattopadhyay, Indian poet, actor and politician (d. 1990)
    • 1898 – Chiungtze C. Tsen, Chinese mathematician (d. 1940)
    • 1900 – Roberto Arlt, Argentinian journalist, author, and playwright (d. 1942)
    • 1900 – Anis Fuleihan, Cypriot-American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1970)
    • 1900 – Alfred Strange, English footballer (d. 1978)
    • 1902 – Jan Tschichold, German-Swiss graphic designer and typographer (d. 1974)
    • 1903 – Lionel Chevrier, Canadian lawyer and politician, 27th Canadian Minister of Justice (d. 1987)
    • 1906 – Alphonse-Marie Parent, Canadian priest and educator (d. 1970)
    • 1907 – Harald Andersson, American-Swedish discus thrower (d. 1985)
    • 1907 – Luke Appling, American baseball player and manager (d. 1991)
    • 1908 – Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (d. 2003)
    • 1910 – Paul Triquet, Canadian general, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1980)
    • 1910 – Chico Xavier, Brazilian spiritual medium (d. 2002)
    • 1914 – Alec Guinness, English actor (d. 2000)
    • 1919 – Delfo Cabrera, Argentinian runner and soldier (d. 1981)
    • 1920 – Gerald Bouey, Canadian lieutenant and civil servant (d. 2004)
    • 1920 – Jack Stokes, English animator and director (d. 2013)
    • 1920 – Jack Webb, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1982)
    • 1922 – John C. Whitehead, American banker and politician, 9th United States Deputy Secretary of State (d. 2015)
    • 1923 – Gloria Henry, American actress
    • 1923 – Johnny Paton, Scottish footballer, coach, and manager (d. 2015)
    • 1923 – G. Spencer-Brown, English mathematician, psychologist, and author (d. 2016)
    • 1924 – Bobby Ávila, Mexican baseball player (d. 2004)
    • 1925 – George MacDonald Fraser, Scottish author and screenwriter (d. 2008)
    • 1925 – Hans Rosenthal, German radio and television host (d. 1987)
    • 1926 – Jack Brabham, Australian race car driver (d. 2014)
    • 1926 – Rudra Rajasingham, Sri Lankan police officer and diplomat (d. 2006)
    • 1927 – Carmen Basilio, American boxer and soldier (d. 2012)
    • 1927 – Howard Callaway, American soldier and politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Army (d. 2014)
    • 1927 – Rita Gam, American actress (d. 2016)
    • 1927 – Billy Pierce, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2015)
    • 1927 – Kenneth Tynan, English author and critic (d. 1980)
    • 1928 – Joseph Bernardin, American cardinal (d. 1996)
    • 1928 – Serge Gainsbourg, French singer-songwriter, actor, and director (d. 1991)
    • 1928 – Roy Masters, English-American radio host
    • 1928 – David Robinson, Northern Irish horticulturist and academic (d. 2004)
    • 1929 – Ed Dorn, American poet and educator (d. 1999)
    • 1930 – Roddy Maude-Roxby, English actor
    • 1931 – Vladimir Kuznetsov, Russian javelin thrower (d. 1986)
    • 1932 – Edward Egan, American cardinal (d. 2015)
    • 1933 – György Konrád, Hungarian sociologist and author
    • 1934 – Paul Cohen, American mathematician and theorist (d. 2007)
    • 1934 – Brian Glover, English wrestler and actor (d. 1997)
    • 1934 – Carl Kasell, American journalist and game show host (d. 2018)
    • 1934 – Richard Portman, American sound engineer (d. 2017)
    • 1934 – Dovid Shmidel, Austrian-born Israeli rabbi
    • 1936 – Shaul Ladany, Serbian-Israeli race walker and engineer
    • 1937 – Dick Radatz, American baseball player (d. 2005)
    • 1938 – John Larsson, Swedish 17th General of The Salvation Army
    • 1938 – Booker Little, American trumpet player and composer (d. 1961)
    • 1938 – Al Weis, American baseball player
    • 1939 – Marvin Gaye, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984)
    • 1939 – Anthony Lake, American academic and diplomat, 18th United States National Security Advisor
    • 1939 – Lise Thibault, Canadian journalist and politician, 27th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
    • 1940 – Donald Jackson, Canadian figure skater and coach
    • 1940 – Mike Hailwood, English motorcycle racer (d. 1981)
    • 1940 – Penelope Keith, English actress
    • 1941 – Dr. Demento, American radio host
    • 1941 – Sonny Throckmorton, American country singer-songwriter
    • 1942 – Leon Russell, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2016)
    • 1942 – Roshan Seth, Indian-English actor
    • 1943 – Michael Boyce, Baron Boyce, South African-English admiral and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
    • 1943 – Caterina Bueno, Italian singer (d. 2007)
    • 1943 – Larry Coryell, American jazz guitarist (d. 2017)
    • 1943 – Antonio Sabàto, Sr., Italian actor
    • 1944 – Bill Malinchak, American football player
    • 1945 – Jürgen Drews, German singer-songwriter
    • 1945 – Guy Fréquelin, French race car driver
    • 1945 – Linda Hunt, American actress
    • 1945 – Reggie Smith, American baseball player and coach
    • 1945 – Don Sutton, American baseball player and sportscaster
    • 1945 – Anne Waldman, American poet
    • 1946 – Richard Collinge, New Zealand cricketer
    • 1946 – David Heyes, English politician
    • 1946 – Sue Townsend, English author and playwright (d. 2014)
    • 1946 – Kurt Winter, Canadian guitarist and songwriter (d. 1997)
    • 1947 – Paquita la del Barrio, Mexican singer-songwriter
    • 1947 – Tua Forsström, Finnish writer
    • 1947 – Emmylou Harris, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1947 – Camille Paglia, American author and critic
    • 1948 – Roald Als, Danish author and illustrator
    • 1948 – Dimitris Mitropanos, Greek singer (d. 2012)
    • 1948 – Daniel Okrent, American journalist and author
    • 1948 – Joan D. Vinge, American author
    • 1949 – Paul Gambaccini, American-English radio and television host
    • 1949 – Bernd Müller, German footballer
    • 1949 – Pamela Reed, American actress
    • 1949 – David Robinson, American drummer
    • 1950 – Lynn Westmoreland, American politician
    • 1951 – Ayako Okamoto, Japanese golfer
    • 1952 – Lennart Fagerlund, Swedish cyclist
    • 1952 – Will Hoy, English race car driver (d. 2002)
    • 1952 – Leon Wilkeson, American bass player and songwriter (d. 2001)
    • 1953 – Jim Allister, Northern Irish lawyer and politician
    • 1953 – Rosemary Bryant Mariner, 20th and 21st-century U.S. Navy aviator
    • 1953 – Malika Oufkir, Moroccan Berber writer
    • 1953 – Debralee Scott, American actress (d. 2005)
    • 1953 – James Vance, American author and playwright (d. 2017)
    • 1954 – Gregory Abbott, American singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1954 – Donald Petrie, American actor and director
    • 1955 – Michael Stone, Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary
    • 1957 – Caroline Dean, English biologist and academic
    • 1957 – Hank Steinbrenner, American businessman, co-owner of the New York Yankees
    • 1958 – Stefano Bettarello, Italian rugby player
    • 1958 – Larry Drew, American basketball player and coach
    • 1959 – Gelindo Bordin, Italian runner
    • 1959 – David Frankel, American director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1959 – Juha Kankkunen, Finnish race car driver
    • 1959 – Yves Lavandier, French director and producer
    • 1959 – Badou Ezzaki, Moroccan footballer and manager
    • 1960 – Linford Christie, Jamaican-English sprinter
    • 1960 – Brad Jones, Australian race car driver
    • 1960 – Pascale Nadeau, Canadian journalist
    • 1961 – Buddy Jewell, American singer-songwriter
    • 1961 – Christopher Meloni, American actor
    • 1961 – Keren Woodward, English singer-songwriter
    • 1962 – Pierre Carles, French director and producer
    • 1962 – Billy Dean, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1962 – Clark Gregg, American actor
    • 1963 – Karl Beattie, English director and producer
    • 1963 – Mike Gascoyne, English engineer
    • 1964 – Pete Incaviglia, American baseball player and coach
    • 1964 – Jonathon Sharkey, American wrestler
    • 1965 – Rodney King, American victim of police brutality (d. 2012)
    • 1966 – Bill Romanowski, American football player and actor
    • 1966 – Teddy Sheringham, English international footballer, striker and coach
    • 1967 – Greg Camp, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1967 – Phil Demmel, American guitarist and songwriter
    • 1969 – Ajay Devgan, Indian actor, director, and producer
    • 1971 – Edmundo Alves de Souza Neto, Brazilian footballer
    • 1971 – Jason Lewry, English cricketer
    • 1971 – Todd Woodbridge, Australian tennis player and sportscaster
    • 1972 – Remo D’Souza, Indian choreographer and dancer
    • 1972 – Calvin Davis, American sprinter and hurdler
    • 1972 – Zane Lamprey, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1973 – Dmitry Lipartov, Russian footballer
    • 1973 – Roselyn Sánchez, Puerto Rican-American actress
    • 1973 – Aleksejs Semjonovs, Latvian footballer
    • 1974 – Tayfun Korkut, Turkish football manager and former player
    • 1975 – Randy Livingston, American basketball player
    • 1975 – Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski, German rower
    • 1976 – Andreas Anastasopoulos, Greek shot putter
    • 1976 – Rory Sabbatini, South African golfer
    • 1976 – Pattie Mallette, Canadian author and film producer
    • 1977 – Per Elofsson, Swedish skier
    • 1977 – Michael Fassbender, German-Irish actor and producer
    • 1977 – Hanno Pevkur, Estonian lawyer and politician, Estonian Minister of Justice
    • 1978 – Scott Lynch, American author
    • 1978 – Ethan Smith, American actor, director, and producer
    • 1979 – Jesse Carmichael, American keyboard player
    • 1980 – Avi Benedi, Israeli singer and songwriter
    • 1980 – Adam Fleming, Scottish journalist
    • 1980 – Gavin Heffernan, Canadian director and screenwriter
    • 1980 – Ricky Hendrick, American race car driver (d. 2004)
    • 1980 – Wairangi Koopu, New Zealand rugby league player
    • 1980 – Carlos Salcido, Mexican international footballer, defender
    • 1981 – Michael Clarke, Australian cricketer
    • 1981 – Kapil Sharma, Indian stand-up comedian, television presenter and actor
    • 1982 – Marco Amelia, Italian footballer
    • 1982 – Jeremy Bloom, American football player and skier
    • 1982 – Jack Evans, American wrestler
    • 1982 – David Ferrer, Spanish tennis player
    • 1983 – Yung Joc, American rapper
    • 1983 – Maksym Mazuryk, Ukrainian pole vaulter
    • 1984 – Engin Atsür, Turkish basketball player
    • 1984 – Nóra Barta, Hungarian diver
    • 1984 – Jérémy Morel, French footballer
    • 1985 – Thom Evans, Zimbabwean-Scottish rugby player
    • 1985 – Stéphane Lambiel, Swiss figure skater
    • 1986 – Ibrahim Afellay, Dutch footballer
    • 1986 – Andris Biedriņš, Latvian basketball player
    • 1986 – Lee DeWyze, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1987 – Pablo Aguilar, Paraguayan footballer
    • 1987 – Marc Pugh, English footballer
    • 1988 – Jesse Plemons, American actor
    • 1990 – Yevgeniya Kanayeva, Russian gymnast
    • 1990 – Miralem Pjanić, Bosnian footballer
    • 1991 – Quavo, American rapper
    • 1993 – Keshorn Walcott, Trinidadian javelin thrower
    • 1997 – Dillon Bassett, American race car driver
    • 1997 – Abdelhak Nouri, Dutch footballer

    Deaths on April 2

    • 670 – Hasan ibn Ali the second Shia Imam (b. 624)
    • 870 – Æbbe the Younger, Frankish abbess
    • 872 – Muflih al-Turki, Turkish general
    • 968 – Yuan Dezhao, Chinese chancellor (b. 891)
    • 991 – Bardas Skleros, Byzantine general
    • 1118 – Baldwin I, king of Jerusalem
    • 1244 – Henrik Harpestræng, Danish botanical and medical author
    • 1272 – Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, English husband of Sanchia of Provence (b. 1209)
    • 1335 – Henry of Bohemia (b. 1265)
    • 1412 – Ruy González de Clavijo, Spanish explorer and author
    • 1416 – Ferdinand I, king of Aragon (b. 1379)
    • 1502 – Arthur, prince of Wales (b. 1486)
    • 1507 – Francis of Paola, Italian friar and saint, founded the Order of the Minims (b. 1416)
    • 1511 – Bernard VII, Lord of Lippe, German nobleman (b. 1428)
    • 1640 – Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, Polish author and poet (b. 1595)
    • 1657 – Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1608)
    • 1657 – Jean-Jacques Olier, French priest, founded the Society of Saint-Sulpice (b. 1608)
    • 1672 – Pedro Calungsod, Filipino missionary and saint (b. 1654)
    • 1672 – Diego Luis de San Vitores, Spanish Jesuit missionary (b. 1627)
    • 1720 – Joseph Dudley, English politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1647)
    • 1742 – James Douglas, Scottish physician and anatomist (b. 1675)
    • 1747 – Johann Jacob Dillenius, German-English botanist and mycologist (b. 1684)
    • 1754 – Thomas Carte, English historian and author (b. 1686)
    • 1787 – Thomas Gage, English general and politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1719)
    • 1791 – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French journalist and politician (b. 1749)
    • 1801 – Thomas Dadford, Jr., English engineer (b. 1761)
    • 1803 – Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet, Scottish judge and politician (b. 1721)
    • 1817 – Johann Heinrich Jung, German author and academic (b. 1740)
    • 1827 – Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus, German physician and educator (b. 1776)
    • 1845 – Philip Charles Durham, Scottish admiral and politician (b. 1763)
    • 1865 – A. P. Hill, American general (b. 1825)
    • 1872 – Samuel Morse, American painter and academic, invented the Morse code (b. 1791)
    • 1891 – Albert Pike, American lawyer and general (b. 1809)
    • 1891 – Ahmed Vefik Pasha, Greek playwright and politician, 249th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1823)
    • 1894 – Achille Vianelli, Italian painter and academic (b. 1803)
    • 1896 – Theodore Robinson, American painter and academic (b. 1852)
    • 1914 – Paul Heyse, German author, poet, and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1830)
    • 1917 – Bryn Lewis, Welsh international rugby player (b.1891)
    • 1923 – Topal Osman, Turkish colonel (b. 1883)
    • 1928 – Theodore William Richards, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
    • 1930 – Zewditu I of Ethiopia (b. 1876)
    • 1933 – Ranjitsinhji, Indian cricketer (b. 1872)
    • 1936 – Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, French general (b. 1860)
    • 1942 – Édouard Estaunié, French novelist (b. 1862)
    • 1948 – Sabahattin Ali, Turkish journalist, author, and poet (b. 1907)
    • 1953 – Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (b. 1885)
    • 1966 – C. S. Forester, English novelist (b. 1899)
    • 1972 – Franz Halder, German general (b. 1884)
    • 1972 – Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Japanese martial artist and educator (b. 1887)
    • 1974 – Georges Pompidou, French banker and politician, 19th President of France (b. 1911)
    • 1977 – Walter Wolf, German academic and politician (b. 1907)
    • 1987 – Buddy Rich, American drummer, songwriter, and bandleader (b. 1917)
    • 1989 – Manolis Angelopoulos, Greek singer (b. 1939)
    • 1992 – Juanito, Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1954)
    • 1992 – Jan van Aartsen, Dutch politician (b. 1909)
    • 1994 – Betty Furness, American actress, consumer advocate, game show panelist, television journalist and television personality (b. 1916)
    • 1994 – Marc Fitch, British historian and philanthropist (b. 1908)
    • 1995 – Hannes Alfvén, Swedish physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
    • 1997 – Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese director and producer (b. 1910)
    • 1998 – Rob Pilatus, American-German singer-songwriter (b. 1965)
    • 2001 – Charles Daudelin, Canadian sculptor and painter (b. 1920)
    • 2002 – Levi Celerio, Filipino composer and songwriter (b. 1910)
    • 2002 – John R. Pierce, American engineer and author (b. 1910)
    • 2003 – Edwin Starr, American singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
    • 2004 – John Argyris, Greek computer scientist, engineer, and academic (b. 1913)
    • 2005 – Lillian O’Donnell, American crime novelist (b. 1926)
    • 2005 – Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)
    • 2006 – Lloyd Searwar, Guyanese anthologist and diplomat (b. 1925)
    • 2007 – Henry L. Giclas, American astronomer and academic (b. 1910)
    • 2008 – Yakup Satar, Turkish World War I veteran(b. 1898)
    • 2009 – Albert Sanschagrin, Canadian bishop (b. 1911)
    • 2009 – Bud Shank, American saxophonist and flute player (b. 1926)
    • 2010 – Chris Kanyon, American wrestler (b. 1970)
    • 2011 – John C. Haas, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1918)
    • 2012 – Jesús Aguilarte, Venezuelan captain and politician (b. 1959)
    • 2012 – Elizabeth Catlett, American-Mexican sculptor and illustrator (b. 1915)
    • 2012 – Mauricio Lasansky, American graphic designer and academic (b. 1914)
    • 2013 – Fred, French author and illustrator (b. 1931)
    • 2013 – Jesús Franco, Spanish director, screenwriter, producer, and actor (b. 1930)
    • 2013 – Milo O’Shea, Irish-American actor (b. 1926)
    • 2014 – Glyn Jones, South African actor and screenwriter (b. 1931)
    • 2014 – Urs Widmer, Swiss author and playwright (b. 1938)
    • 2015 – Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
    • 2015 – Robert H. Schuller, American pastor and author (b. 1926)
    • 2015 – Steve Stevaert, Belgian businessman and politician, Governor of Limburg (b. 1954)
    • 2016 – Gallieno Ferri, Italian comic book artist and illustrator (b. 1929)
    • 2016 – Robert Abajyan, Armenian sergeant (b. 1996)

    Holidays and observances on April 2

    • Christian feast day:
      • Abundius of Como
      • Amphianus of Lycia
      • Æbbe the Younger
      • Bronach of Glen-Seichis (Irish martyrology)
      • Francis of Paola
      • Francisco Coll Guitart
      • Henry Budd (Anglican Church of Canada)
      • Nicetius of Lyon
      • Pedro Calungsod
      • Theodosia of Tyre
      • Urban of Langres
      • April 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • International Children’s Book Day (International)
    • Thai Heritage Conservation Day (Thailand)
    • Unity of Peoples of Russia and Belarus Day (Belarus)
    • World Autism Awareness Day (International)

  • March 23 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 1400 – The Trần dynasty of Vietnam is deposed, after one hundred and seventy-five years of rule, by Hồ Quý Ly, a court official.
    • 1540 – Waltham Abbey is surrendered to King Henry VIII of England; the last religious community to be closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
    • 1568 – The Peace of Longjumeau is signed, ending the second phase of the French Wars of Religion.
    • 1708 – James Francis Edward Stuart lands at the Firth of Forth as part of the planned French invasion of Britain.
    • 1775 – American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his speech – “Give me liberty, or give me death!” – at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia.
    • 1801 – Tsar Paul I of Russia is struck with a sword, then strangled, and finally trampled to death inside his bedroom at St. Michael’s Castle.
    • 1806 – After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their “Corps of Discovery” begin their arduous journey home.
    • 1821 – Greek War of Independence: Battle and fall of city of Kalamata.
    • 1848 – The ship John Wickliffe arrives at Port Chalmers carrying the first Scottish settlers for Dunedin, New Zealand. Otago province is founded.
    • 1857 – Elisha Otis’s first elevator is installed at 488 Broadway New York City.
    • 1862 – American Civil War: The First Battle of Kernstown, Virginia, marks the start of Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign. Although a Confederate defeat, the engagement distracts Federal efforts to capture Richmond.
    • 1868 – The University of California is founded in Oakland, California when the Organic Act is signed into law.
    • 1879 – War of the Pacific: The Battle of Topáter, the first battle of the war is fought between Chile and the joint forces of Bolivia and Peru.
    • 1885 – Sino-French War: Chinese victory in the Battle of Phu Lam Tao near Hưng Hóa, northern Vietnam.
    • 1888 – In England, The Football League, the world’s oldest professional association football league, meets for the first time.
    • 1889 – The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is established by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Qadian, British India.
    • 1901 – Emilio Aguinaldo, only President of the First Philippine Republic, was captured at Palanan, Isabela by the forces of General Frederick Funston.
    • 1905 – Eleftherios Venizelos calls for Crete’s union with Greece, and begins what is to be known as the Theriso revolt.
    • 1909 – Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
    • 1918 – First World War: On the third day of the German Spring Offensive, the 10th Battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment is annihilated with many of the men becoming prisoners of war
    • 1919 – In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.
    • 1931 – Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar are hanged for the killing of a deputy superintendent of police during the Indian independence movement.
    • 1933 – The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act of 1933, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
    • 1935 – Signing of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
    • 1939 – The Hungarian air force attacks the headquarters of the Slovak air force in Spišská Nová Ves, killing 13 people and beginning the Slovak–Hungarian War.
    • 1940 – The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Pakistan or Qarardad-e-Lahore) is put forward at the Annual General Convention of the All-India Muslim League.
    • 1956 – Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic in the world. This date is now celebrated as Republic Day in Pakistan.
    • 1965 – NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States’ first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young).
    • 1977 – The first of The Nixon Interviews (12 will be recorded over four weeks) is videotaped with British journalist David Frost interviewing former United States President Richard Nixon about the Watergate scandal and the Nixon tapes.
    • 1978 – The first UNIFIL troops arrived in Lebanon for peacekeeping mission along the Blue Line.
    • 1980 – Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador gives his famous speech appealing to men of the El Salvadoran armed forces to stop killing the Salvadorans.
    • 1982 – Guatemala’s government, headed by Fernando Romeo Lucas García is overthrown in a military coup by right-wing General Efraín Ríos Montt.
    • 1983 – Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.
    • 1991 – The Revolutionary United Front, with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia, invades Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow Joseph Saidu Momoh, sparking the 11-year Sierra Leone Civil War.
    • 1994 – At an election rally in Tijuana, Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated by Mario Aburto Martínez.
    • 1994 – A United States Air Force (USAF) F-16 aircraft collides with a USAF C-130 at Pope Air Force Base and then crashes, killing 24 United States Army soldiers on the ground. This later became known as the Green Ramp disaster.
    • 1994 – Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed into the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain, Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, killing 75.
    • 1996 – Taiwan holds its first direct elections and chooses Lee Teng-hui as President.
    • 1999 – Gunmen assassinate Paraguay’s Vice President Luis María Argaña.
    • 2001 – The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.
    • 2003 – Battle of Nasiriyah, first major conflict during the invasion of Iraq.
    • 2008 – Official opening of Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, India
    • 2009 – FedEx Express Flight 80: A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 flying from Guangzhou, China crashes at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, killing both the captain and the co-pilot.
    • 2018 – President of Peru Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigns from the presidency amid a mass corruption scandal before certain impeachment by the opposition-majority Congress of Peru.
    • 2019 – The Kazakh capital of Astana was renamed to Nur-Sultan.
    • 2019 – The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces declared military victory over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant after four years of fighting, although the group maintains a scattered presence and sleeper cells across Syria and Iraq.

    Births on March 23

    • 1338 – Emperor Go-Kōgon of Japan (d. 1374)
    • 1430 – Margaret of Anjou (d. 1482)
    • 1514 – Lorenzino de’ Medici, Italian writer and assassin (d. 1548)
    • 1599 – Thomas Selle, German composer (d. 1663)
    • 1614 – Jahanara Begum, Mughal princess (d. 1681)
    • 1643 – Mary of Jesus de León y Delgado, Spanish Dominican lay sister and mystic (d. 1731)
    • 1699 – John Bartram, American botanist and explorer (d. 1777)
    • 1732 – Princess Marie Adélaïde of France (d. 1800)
    • 1749 – Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1827)
    • 1750 – Johannes Matthias Sperger, Austrian bassist and composer (d. 1812)
    • 1754 – Jurij Vega, Slovene mathematician, physicist and artillery officer (d. 1802)
    • 1769 – Augustin Daniel Belliard, French general and diplomat (d. 1832)
    • 1769 – William Smith, English geologist and cartographer (d. 1839)
    • 1823 – Schuyler Colfax, American journalist and politician, 17th Vice President of the United States (d. 1885)
    • 1826 – Ludwig Minkus, Austrian violinist and composer (d. 1917)
    • 1834 – Julius Reubke, German pianist and composer (d. 1858)
    • 1838 – Marie Adam-Doerrer, Swiss women’s rights activist and unionist (d. 1908)
    • 1842 – Friedrich Amelung, Estonian-German historian, businessman and composer (d. 1909)
    • 1842 – Susan Jane Cunningham, American mathematician (d. 1921)
    • 1858 – Ludwig Quidde, German activist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
    • 1862 – Nathaniel Reed, American criminal (d. 1950)
    • 1868 – Dietrich Eckart, German journalist and politician (d. 1923)
    • 1869 – Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino general and politician, 1st President of the Philippines (d. 1964)
    • 1869 – Calouste Gulbenkian, Turkish-Armenian businessman and philanthropist (d. 1955)
    • 1872 – Michael Joseph Savage, Australian-New Zealand union leader and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1940)
    • 1874 – Grantley Goulding, English hurdler (d. 1947)
    • 1874 – J. C. Leyendecker, German-American painter and illustrator (d. 1951)
    • 1876 – Ziya Gökalp, Turkish sociologist, poet and activist (d. 1924)
    • 1876 – Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, Burmese poet, writer and political leader (d. 1964)
    • 1878 – Franz Schreker, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1934)
    • 1880 – Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish lawyer and politician, Finnish Minister of the Interior (d. 1922)
    • 1881 – Lacey Hearn, American sprinter (d. 1969)
    • 1881 – Roger Martin du Gard, French novelist and paleographer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
    • 1881 – Hermann Staudinger, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
    • 1882 – Emmy Noether, Jewish German-American mathematician, physicist and academic (d. 1935)
    • 1884 – Joseph Boxhall, English sailor (d. 1967)
    • 1885 – Platt Adams, American jumper and politician (d. 1961)
    • 1885 – Roque González Garza, Mexican general and acting president (1915) (d. 1962)
    • 1886 – Frank Irons, American long jumper (d. 1942)
    • 1887 – Josef Čapek, Czech painter and poet (d. 1945)
    • 1887 – Rudolf Kinau, German author (d. 1975)
    • 1887 – Juan Gris, Spanish painter and sculptor (d. 1927)
    • 1887 – Sidney Hillman, Lithuanian-born American labor leader (d. 1946)
    • 1891 – Po Kya, Burmese author and educationist (d. 1942)
    • 1893 – Cedric Gibbons, Irish-American art director and production designer (d. 1960)
    • 1893 – Gopalswamy Doraiswamy Naidu, Indian engineer and businessman (d. 1974)
    • 1894 – Arthur Grimsdell, English international footballer wing half and cricketer (d. 1963)
    • 1895 – Encarnacion Alzona, Filipino historian and educator (d. 2001)
    • 1895 – Dane Rudhyar, French-American astrologer, author and composer (d. 1985)
    • 1898 – Louis Adamic, Slovenian-American author, translator and politician (d. 1951)
    • 1898 – Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset, Duchess of Parma (d. 1984)
    • 1899 – Dora Gerson, German actress and singer (d. 1943)
    • 1900 – Erich Fromm, German psychologist and sociologist (d. 1980)
    • 1901 – Bon Maharaja, Indian guru and religious writer (d. 1982)
    • 1903 – Frank Sargeson, New Zealand author (d. 1982)
    • 1904 – Joan Crawford, American film actress (d. 1977)
    • 1905 – Lale Andersen, German chanson singer-songwriter (d. 1972)
    • 1907 – Daniel Bovet, Swiss-Italian pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
    • 1909 – Charles Werner, American cartoonist (d. 1997)
    • 1910 – Jerry Cornes, English runner, colonial officer and educator (d. 2001)
    • 1910 – Akira Kurosawa, Japanese director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1998)
    • 1912 – Eleanor Cameron, Canadian-American author and critic (d. 1996)
    • 1912 – Neil McCorkell, English-South African cricketer and coach (d. 2013)
    • 1912 – Wernher von Braun, German-American physicist and engineer (d. 1977)
    • 1913 – Abidin Dino, Turko-French painter and illustrator (d. 1993)
    • 1914 – Milbourne Christopher, American magician and author (d. 1984)
    • 1915 – Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe (d. 2014)
    • 1915 – Vasily Zaytsev, Russian captain (d. 1991)
    • 1917 – Harry Cranbrook Allen, English historian (d. 1998)
    • 1918 – Stanley Armour Dunham, American sergeant (d. 1992)
    • 1918 – Helene Hale, American politician (d. 2013)
    • 1918 – Naoki Kazu, Japanese football player (d.1940s)
    • 1919 – Carl Graffunder, American architect and educator (d. 2013)
    • 1920 – Neal Edward Smith, American pilot, lawyer and politician
    • 1920 – Tetsuharu Kawakami, Japanese baseball player and manager (d. 2013)
    • 1921 – Donald Campbell, English race car driver (d. 1967)
    • 1921 – Peter Lawler, Australian public servant (d. 2017)
    • 1922 – Marty Allen, American comedian and actor (d. 2018)
    • 1922 – Ugo Tognazzi, Italian actor (d. 1990)
    • 1923 – Angelo Ingrassia, American soldier and judge (d. 2013)
    • 1924 – Rodney Mims Cook, Sr., American lieutenant and politician (d. 2013)
    • 1924 – Bette Nesmith Graham, American inventor, invented Liquid Paper (d. 1980)
    • 1924 – Olga Kennard, English crystallographer and academic
    • 1924 – John Madin, English architect (d. 2012)
    • 1925 – David Watkin, English cinematographer (d. 2008)
    • 1929 – Roger Bannister, English runner, neurologist and academic (d. 2018)
    • 1929 – Michael Manser, English architect and engineer (d. 2016)
    • 1931 – Yevgeny Grishin, Russian speed skater (d. 2005)
    • 1931 – Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess player and author (d. 2016)
    • 1931 – Yevdokiya Mekshilo, Russian skier (d. 2013)
    • 1932 – Don Marshall, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1933 – Norman Bailey, English opera singer and educator
    • 1933 – Philip Zimbardo, American psychologist and academic
    • 1934 – Ludvig Faddeev, Russian mathematician and physicist (d. 2017)
    • 1934 – Mark Rydell, American actor, director and producer
    • 1935 – Barry Cryer, English comedian, actor and screenwriter
    • 1936 – Jannis Kounellis, Greek painter and sculptor (d. 2017)
    • 1937 – Craig Breedlove, American race car driver
    • 1937 – Tony Burton, American actor, comedian, boxer and football player (d. 2016)
    • 1937 – Robert Gallo, American physician and academic
    • 1938 – Jon Finlayson, Australian actor and screenwriter (d. 2012)
    • 1942 – Michael Haneke, Austrian director, producer and screenwriter
    • 1942 – Jimmy Miller, American record producer and musician (d. 1994)
    • 1942 – Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian, scholar and activist (d. 1980)
    • 1943 – Andrew Crockett, Scottish-English economist and banker (d. 2012)
    • 1943 – Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Finnish singer, author and director (d. 2001)
    • 1944 – B. P. Gavrilov, Russian rugby player (d. 2006)
    • 1944 – Tony McPhee, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1944 – Michael Nyman, English composer of minimalist music and pianist
    • 1945 – Franco Battiato, Italian singer-songwriter and director
    • 1945 – David Grisman, American mandolin player and composer
    • 1946 – Alan Bleasdale, English screenwriter and producer
    • 1947 – Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, American author
    • 1948 – Wasim Bari, Pakistani cricketer
    • 1948 – Marie Malavoy, German-Canadian educator and politician
    • 1949 – Ric Ocasek, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer (d. 2019)
    • 1950 – Corinne Cléry, French actress
    • 1950 – Phil Lanzon, English keyboard player and songwriter
    • 1950 – Ahdaf Soueif, Egyptian author and translator
    • 1951 – Ron Jaworski, American football player and sportscaster
    • 1951 – Adrian Reynard, English businessman, founded Reynard Motorsport
    • 1952 – Francesco Clemente, Italian painter and illustrator
    • 1952 – Kent Lambert, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1952 – Kim Stanley Robinson, American author
    • 1952 – Rex Tillerson, American businessman, engineer and diplomat; 69th United States Secretary of State
    • 1953 – Bo Díaz, Venezuelan baseball player (d. 1990)
    • 1953 – Chaka Khan, American singer-songwriter
    • 1953 – Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Indian zoologist and businesswoman
    • 1954 – Geno Auriemma, Italian-American basketball player and coach
    • 1954 – Kenneth Cole, American fashion designer, founded Kenneth Cole Productions
    • 1954 – Paul Price, English born, Welsh international footballer, defender and manager
    • 1955 – Moses Malone, American basketball player and sportscaster (d. 2015)
    • 1956 – José Manuel Barroso, Portuguese academic and politician, 115th Prime Minister of Portugal
    • 1957 – Lucio Gutiérrez, Ecuadorian politician, 52nd President of Ecuador
    • 1957 – Robbie James, Welsh footballer and manager (d. 1998)
    • 1957 – Amanda Plummer, American actress
    • 1958 – Etienne De Wilde, Belgian cyclist
    • 1958 – Bengt-Åke Gustafsson, Swedish ice hockey player and coach
    • 1958 – Hugh Grant, Scottish business executive
    • 1959 – Catherine Keener, American actress
    • 1960 – Nicol Stephen, Baron Stephen, Scottish lawyer and politician, 2nd Deputy First Minister of Scotland
    • 1961 – Roger Crisp, English philosopher and academic
    • 1961 – Craig Green, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1961 – Helmi Johannes, Indonesian journalist and producer
    • 1962 – Steve Redgrave, English rower
    • 1963 – Míchel, Spanish footballer and manager
    • 1963 – Juan Ramón López Caro, Spanish footballer and manager
    • 1963 – Ana Fidelia Quirot, Cuban runner
    • 1964 – Hope Davis, American actress
    • 1965 – Gary Whitehead, American poet and painter
    • 1966 – Lorenzo Daniel, American sprinter
    • 1966 – Vasilis Vouzas, Greek footballer and manager
    • 1968 – Damon Albarn, English singer-songwriter, producer and actor
    • 1968 – Mike Atherton, English cricketer and journalist
    • 1968 – Fernando Hierro, Spanish footballer and manager
    • 1968 – Pierre Palmade, French actor and screenwriter
    • 1971 – Yasmeen Ghauri, Canadian model
    • 1971 – Gail Porter, Scottish model and television host
    • 1971 – Alexander Selivanov, Russian ice hockey player
    • 1971 – Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Japanese wrestler
    • 1972 – Jonas Björkman, Swedish-Monégasque tennis player and coach
    • 1972 – Joe Calzaghe, Welsh boxer
    • 1972 – Judith Godrèche, French actress and author
    • 1973 – Jerzy Dudek, Polish footballer
    • 1973 – Wim Eyckmans, Belgian race car driver
    • 1973 – Jason Kidd, American basketball player and coach
    • 1974 – Randall Park, American actor, director and screenwriter
    • 1975 – Burak Gürpınar, Turkish drummer
    • 1975 – Andy Turner, English footballer, winger and manager
    • 1976 – Chris Hoy, Scottish cyclist and race car driver
    • 1976 – Smriti Irani, Indian actress, producer and politician, Indian Minister of Human Resource Development
    • 1976 – Dougie Lampkin, English motorcycle racer
    • 1976 – Michelle Monaghan, American actress
    • 1976 – Joel Peralta, Dominican baseball player
    • 1976 – Keri Russell, American actress
    • 1976 – Ricardo Zonta, Brazilian race car driver
    • 1976 – Sa Beining, Chinese host
    • 1977 – Miklos Perlus, Canadian actor and screenwriter
    • 1978 – Simon Gärdenfors, Swedish illustrator
    • 1978 – Walter Samuel, Argentinian footballer
    • 1979 – Mark Buehrle, American baseball player
    • 1979 – Donncha O’Callaghan, Irish rugby player
    • 1981 – Erin Crocker, American race car driver
    • 1981 – Tony Peña, Jr., Dominican baseball player
    • 1981 – Shelley Rudman, English bobsledder
    • 1981 – Giuseppe Sculli, Italian footballer
    • 1981 – Brett Young, American country music singer
    • 1982 – José Contreras Arrau, Chilean footballer
    • 1982 – Andrea Musacco, Italian footballer
    • 1982 – Evgeni Striganov, Estonian ice dancer
    • 1983 – Hakan Balta, Turkish footballer
    • 1983 – Mo Farah, Somali-English runner
    • 1983 – Sascha Riether, German international footballer
    • 1983 – Jerome Thomas, English footballer
    • 1984 – Ryan Araña, Filipino basketball player
    • 1984 – Brandon Marshall, American football player
    • 1985 – Maurice Jones-Drew, American football player
    • 1985 – Bethanie Mattek-Sands, American tennis player
    • 1986 – Patrick Bordeleau, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1986 – Andrea Dovizioso, Italian motorcycle racer
    • 1986 – Brett Eldredge, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1986 – Kangana Ranaut, Indian actress
    • 1987 – Alan Toovey, Australian footballer
    • 1988 – Dellin Betances, American baseball player
    • 1988 – Jason Kenny, English cyclist
    • 1988 – Michal Neuvirth, Czech ice hockey player
    • 1989 – Ayesha Curry, Canadian-American chef, author and television personality
    • 1989 – Nikola Gulan, Serbian footballer
    • 1989 – Sarah McKenna, English rugby player
    • 1989 – Luis Fernando Silva, Mexican footballer
    • 1990 – Jaime Alguersuari, Spanish race car driver
    • 1990 – Robert Zickert, German footballer
    • 1991 – Gregg Wylde, Scottish footballer
    • 1992 – Tolga Ciğerci, German-Turkish footballer
    • 1992 – Kyrie Irving, Australian-American basketball player
    • 1993 – Kyle Lovett, Australian rugby league player
    • 1993 – Aytaç Kara, Turkish footballer
    • 1994 – Nick Powell, English footballer
    • 1995 – Kevin Kauber, Estonian footballer
    • 1995 – Jan Lisiecki, Canadian pianist
    • 1995 – Ozan Tufan, Turkish footballer
    • 1996 – Alexander Albon, Thai-British race car driver

    Deaths on March 23

    • 851 – Zhou Chi, Chinese historian and politician (b. 793)
    • 1022 – Zhen Zong, Chinese emperor (b. 968)
    • 1103 – Eudes I, duke of Burgundy (b. 1058)
    • 1361 – Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, English politician, Lord High Steward of England (b. 1310)
    • 1369 – Peter, king of Castile and León (b. 1334)
    • 1483 – Yolande, duchess of Lorraine (b. 1428)
    • 1548 – Itagaki Nobukata, Japanese samurai (b. 1489)
    • 1555 – Julius III, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1487)
    • 1559 – Gelawdewos, Ethiopian emperor (b. 1521)
    • 1596 – Henry Unton, English diplomat (b. 1557)
    • 1606 – Justus Lipsius, Flemish philologist and scholar (b. 1547)
    • 1618 – James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn, Scottish police officer and politician (b. 1575)
    • 1629 – Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland, English landowner and politician (b. 1580)
    • 1675 – Anthoni van Noordt, Dutch organist and composer (b. 1619)
    • 1680 – Nicolas Fouquet, French politician (b. 1615)
    • 1742 – Jean-Baptiste Dubos, French historian and author (b. 1670)
    • 1747 – Claude Alexandre de Bonneval, French general (b. 1675)
    • 1748 – Johann Gottfried Walther, German organist and composer (b. 1684)
    • 1754 – Johann Jakob Wettstein, Swiss theologian and critic (b. 1693)
    • 1783 – Charles Carroll, English barrister and politician (b. 1723)
    • 1801 – Paul I, Russian emperor (b. 1754)
    • 1842 – Stendhal, French novelist (b. 1783)
    • 1862 – Manuel Robles Pezuela, Unconstitutional Mexican interim president, 1858–1859 (b. 1817)
    • 1883 – Arthur Macalister, Scottish-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Queensland (b. 1818)
    • 1884 – Henry C. Lord, American businessman (b. 1824)
    • 1910 – Nadar, French photographer, journalist, and author (b. 1820)
    • 1914 – Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès, Lebanese saint (b. 1832)
    • 1923 – Hovhannes Tumanyan, Armenian poet and author (b. 1869)
    • 1927 – Paul César Helleu, French painter and etcher (b. 1859)
    • 1931 – Shivaram Rajguru, Indian activist (b. 1908)
    • 1931 – Bhagat Singh, Indian activist (b. 1907)
    • 1931 – Sukhdev Thapar, Indian activist (b. 1907)
    • 1953 – Raoul Dufy, French painter and illustrator (b. 1877)
    • 1953 – Oskar Luts, Estonian author and playwright (b. 1887)
    • 1955 – Arthur Bernardes, Brazilian politician, 12th President of Brazil (b. 1875)
    • 1960 – Franklin Pierce Adams, American journalist and author (b. 1881)
    • 1960 – Said Nursî, Turkish theologian and scholar (b. 1878)
    • 1961 – Albert Bloch, American painter and educator (b. 1882)
    • 1961 – Jack Russell, English cricketer (b. 1887)
    • 1963 – Thoralf Skolem, Norwegian mathematician and logician (b. 1887)
    • 1964 – Peter Lorre, American actor (b. 1904)
    • 1965 – Mae Murray, American actress, dancer, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1885)
    • 1968 – Edwin O’Connor, American journalist and author (b. 1918)
    • 1972 – Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish fashion designer, founded Balenciaga (b. 1895)
    • 1973 – Bertram Stevens, Australian accountant and politician, 25th Premier of New South Wales (b. 1889)
    • 1978 – Haim Ernst Wertheimer, Israeli biochemist and academic (b. 1893)
    • 1979 – Ted Anderson, English footballer (b. 1911)
    • 1980 – Arthur Melvin Okun, American economist and academic (b. 1928)
    • 1981 – Beatrice Tinsley, English-New Zealand astronomer and cosmologist (b. 1941)
    • 1981 – Mike Hailwood, English motorcyclist (b. 1940)
    • 1985 – Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching, English physicist and engineer (b. 1913)
    • 1985 – Peter Charanis, Greek-American scholar and educator (b. 1908)
    • 1987 – Olev Roomet, Estonian singer and violinist (b. 1901)
    • 1990 – John Dexter, English director and producer (b. 1925)
    • 1991 – Margaret Atwood Judson, American historian and author (b. 1899)
    • 1991 – Parkash Singh, Indian soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1913)
    • 1992 – Friedrich Hayek, Austrian-German economist, philosopher, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
    • 1992 – Ron Lapointe, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1949)
    • 1994 – Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican economist and politician (b. 1950)
    • 1994 – Giulietta Masina, Italian actress (b. 1921)
    • 1995 – Davie Cooper, Scottish footballer and coach (b. 1956)
    • 1999 – Luis María Argaña, Paraguayan judge and politician, Vice President of Paraguay (b. 1932)
    • 1999 – Osmond Borradaile, Canadian director and cinematographer (b. 1898)
    • 2001 – Rowland Evans, American journalist (b. 1921)
    • 2001 – Margaret Jones, British archaeologist (b. 1916)
    • 2001 – Robert Laxalt, American author (b. 1923)
    • 2001 – David McTaggart, Canadian badminton player and environmentalist (b. 1932)
    • 2002 – Eileen Farrell, American soprano (b. 1920)
    • 2002 – Ben Hollioake, Australian-English cricketer (b. 1977)
    • 2003 – Fritz Spiegl, Austrian-English flute player and journalist (b. 1926)
    • 2004 – Rupert Hamer, Australian soldier, lawyer, and politician, 39th Premier of Victoria (b. 1916)
    • 2006 – David B. Bleak, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1932)
    • 2006 – Desmond Doss, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1919)
    • 2006 – Cindy Walker, American singer-songwriter and dancer (b. 1918)
    • 2007 – Paul Cohen, American mathematician and theorist (b. 1934)
    • 2007 – Eric Medlen, American race car driver (b. 1973)
    • 2008 – Vaino Vahing, Estonian psychiatrist, author, and playwright (b. 1940)
    • 2009 – Ghukas Chubaryan, Armenian sculptor (b. 1923)
    • 2009 – Raúl Macías, Mexican boxer and trainer (b. 1934)
    • 2011 – Jean Bartik, American computer scientist and engineer (b. 1924)
    • 2011 – Rosario Morales, Puerto Rican poet and writer (b.1930)
    • 2011 – Elizabeth Taylor, American-British actress, socialite and humanitarian (b. 1932)
    • 2012 – Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Somalian politician, President of Somalia (b. 1934)
    • 2012 – Jim Duffy, American animator, director, and producer (b. 1937)
    • 2012 – Naji Talib, Iraqi politician, 52nd Prime Minister of Iraq (b. 1917)
    • 2012 – Lonnie Wright, American basketball and football player (b. 1945)
    • 2013 – Boris Berezovsky, Russian-born Soviet-British mathematician and businessman (b. 1946)
    • 2013 – Onofre Corpuz, Filipino economist, historian, and academic (b. 1926)
    • 2013 – Virgil Trucks, American baseball player and coach (b. 1917)
    • 2013 – Joe Weider, Canadian-American bodybuilder and publisher, co-founded the International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness (b. 1919)
    • 2014 – Dave Brockie, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and bass player (b. 1963)
    • 2014 – Jaroslav Šerých, Czech painter and illustrator (b. 1928)
    • 2014 – Adolfo Suárez, Spanish lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1932)
    • 2015 – Gian Vittorio Baldi, Italian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1930)
    • 2015 – Lee Kuan Yew, Singaporean lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Singapore (b. 1923)
    • 2015 – Bobby Lowther, American basketball player and lieutenant (b. 1923)
    • 2015 – Lil’ Chris, English singer-songwriter, actor, and television personality (b. 1990)
    • 2016 – Joe Garagiola, Sr., American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1926)
    • 2016 – Ken Howard, American actor (b. 1944)

    Holidays and observances on March 23

    • Christian feast day:
      • Gregory the Illuminator (Episcopal Church)
      • Gwinear
      • Joseph Oriol
      • Ottone Frangipane
      • Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès (Maronite Church)
      • Turibius of Mogrovejo
      • Victorian, Frumentius and Companions
      • March 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship (Hungary and Poland)
    • Day of the Sea (Bolivia)
    • Earliest day on which Easter Monday can fall, while April 26 is the latest; celebrated on Monday after Easter. (Western Christianity)
      • Family Day (South Africa)
      • Śmigus-Dyngus (Poland, Ukraine), Polish diaspora communities)
    • Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Day (Azerbaijan)
    • Pakistan Day (Pakistan)
    • Promised Messiah Day (Ahmadiyya)
    • World Meteorological Day

  • March 15- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    In the Roman calendar, March 15 was known as the Ides of March.

    March 15 in History

    • 474 BC – Roman consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso celebrates an ovation for concluding the war against Veii and securing a forty years’ truce.
    • 44 BC – Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger and his fellow conspirators, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus, and several other Roman senators, march to the Capitol following the assassination of Julius Caesar, but there is no response to their appeals to the population, who have left the streets in fear. Caesar’s body remains in its place
    • 351 – Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar, and puts him in charge of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.
    • 493 – Odoacer, the first barbarian King of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, is slain by Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, while the two kings were feasting together.
    • 856 – Michael III, emperor of the Byzantine Empire, overthrows the regency of his mother, empress Theodora (wife of Theophilos) with support of the Byzantine nobility.
    • 933 – After a ten-year truce, German King Henry the Fowler defeats a Hungarian army at the Battle of Riade near the Unstrut river.
    • 1147 – Conquest of Santarém: The forces of Afonso I of Portugal capture Santarém.
    • 1311 – Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V, Count of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.
    • 1493 – Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.
    • 1564 – Mughal Emperor Akbar abolishes “jizya” (per capita tax).
    • 1672 – Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence.
    • 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Court House: Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat a mixed American force numbering 4,400 in a Pyrrhic victory.
    • 1783 – In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d’état never takes place.
    • 1819 – French physicist Augustin Fresnel is adjudged the winner of the Grand Prix of the Académie des Sciences for his “Memoir on the Diffraction of Light”, which verifies the Fresnel integrals, accounts for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and thereby demolishes Newton’s initial objection to the wave theory of light.
    • 1820 – Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state.
    • 1827 – University of Toronto is founded.
    • 1848 – A revolution breaks out in Hungary. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
    • 1864 – American Civil War: The Red River Campaign: U.S. Navy fleet arrives at Alexandria, Louisiana.
    • 1874 – France and Vietnam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina.
    • 1875 – Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first cardinal in the United States.
    • 1877 – First ever official cricket test match is played: Australia vs England at the MCG Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia.
    • 1878 – Restoration of the Scottish Catholic hierarchy, broken off back in 1603.
    • 1888 – Start of the Anglo-Tibetan War of 1888.
    • 1895 – Heian Shrine is founded.
    • 1906 – Rolls-Royce Limited is incorporated.
    • 1916 – United States President Woodrow Wilson sends 4,800 United States troops over the U.S.–Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
    • 1917 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the Russian throne ending the 304-year Romanov dynasty.
    • 1921 – Talaat Pasha, former Grand Vizir of the Ottoman Empire and chief architect of the Armenian Genocide is assassinated in Berlin by a 23-year-old Armenian, Soghomon Tehlirian.
    • 1922 – After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.
    • 1926 – The dictator Theodoros Pangalos is elected President of Greece without opposition.
    • 1927 – The first Women’s Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford.
    • 1931 – SS Viking explodes off Newfoundland, killing 27 of the 147 onboard.
    • 1933 – Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss keeps members of the National Council from convening, starting the Austrofascist dictatorship.
    • 1939 – Germany occupies Czechoslovakia.
    • 1939 – Carpatho-Ukraine declares itself an independent republic, but is annexed by Hungary the next day.
    • 1941 – Philippine Airlines, the flag carrier of the Philippines takes its first flight between Manila (from Nielson Field) to Baguio City with a Beechcraft Model 18 making the airline the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name.
    • 1943 – World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov: The Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
    • 1945 – World War II: Soviet forces begin an offensive to push Germans from Upper Silesia.
    • 1951 – the Iranian oil industry is nationalized.
    • 1952 – In Cilaos, Réunion, 1870 mm (73 inches) of rain falls in a 24-hour period, setting a new world record (March 15 through March 16).
    • 1961 – At the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference, South Africa announces that it will withdraw from the Commonwealth when the South African Constitution of 1961 comes into effect.
    • 1965 – President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress “We shall overcome” while advocating the Voting Rights Act.
    • 1978 – Somalia and Ethiopia signed a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War.
    • 1986 – Collapse of Hotel New World: Thirty-three people die when the Hotel New World in Singapore collapses.
    • 1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.
    • 1991 – Cold War: The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany comes into effect, granting full sovereignty to the Federal Republic of Germany.
    • 2008 – Stockpiles of obsolete ammunition explode at an ex-military ammunition depot in the village of Gërdec, Albania, killing 26 people.
    • 2011 – Beginning of the Syrian Civil War.
    • 2019 – Fifty-one people are killed in the Christchurch mosque shootings.
    • 2019 – Beginning of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.
    • 2019 – Approximately 1.4 million young people in 123 countries go on strike to protest climate change.

    Births on March 15

    • 270 – Saint Nicholas, Greek bishop and saint (d. 343)
    • 1097 – Fujiwara no Tadamichi, Japanese noble (d. 1164)
    • 1275 – Margaret of England, Duchess of Brabant (d. 1333)
    • 1407 – Jacob, Margrave of Baden-Baden (d. 1453)
    • 1444 – Francesco Gonzaga, Catholic cardinal (d. 1483)
    • 1493 – Anne de Montmorency, French captain and diplomat (d. 1567)
    • 1513 – Hedwig Jagiellon, Electress of Brandenburg (d. 1573)
    • 1516 – Alqas Mirza, Safavid prince (d. 1550)
    • 1582 – Daniel Featley, English theologian and controversialist (d. 1645)
    • 1584 – Philip, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (d. 1663)
    • 1591 – Alexandre de Rhodes, French missionary and lexicographer (d. 1660)
    • 1611 – Jan Fyt, Flemish painter (d. 1661)
    • 1638 – Shunzhi Emperor of China (d. 1661)
    • 1666 – George Bähr, German architect, designed the Dresden Frauenkirche (d. 1738)
    • 1754 – Archibald Menzies, Scottish surgeon and botanist (d. 1842)
    • 1767 – Andrew Jackson, American general, judge, and politician, 7th President of the United States (d. 1845)
    • 1779 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1848)
    • 1790 – Ludwig Immanuel Magnus, German mathematician and academic (d. 1861)
    • 1791 – Charles Knight, English author and publisher (d. 1873)
    • 1809 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts, American-Liberian historian and politician, 1st President of Liberia (d. 1876)
    • 1809 – Karl Josef von Hefele, German bishop and theologian (d. 1893)
    • 1813 – John Snow, English physician and epidemiologist (d. 1858)
    • 1818 – Mariano Álvarez, Filipino general and politician (d. 1924)
    • 1821 – Johann Josef Loschmidt, Austrian physicist and chemist (d. 1895)
    • 1821 – William Milligan, Scottish theologian, author, and educator (d. 1892)
    • 1824 – Jules Chevalier, French priest, founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (d. 1907)
    • 1830 – Paul Heyse, German author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1914)
    • 1830 – Élisée Reclus, French geographer and academic (d. 1905)
    • 1831 – Saint Daniele Comboni, Italian missionary and saint (d. 1881)
    • 1835 – John Henry Kagi, American lawyer and activist (d. 1859)
    • 1835 – Eduard Strauss, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1916)
    • 1838 – Karl Davydov, Russian cellist, composer, and conductor (d. 1889)
    • 1851 – John Sebastian Little, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Arkansas (d. 1916)
    • 1851 – William Mitchell Ramsay, Scottish archaeologist and scholar (d. 1939)
    • 1852 – Augusta, Lady Gregory, Anglo-Irish landowner, playwright, and translator (d. 1932)
    • 1854 – Emil von Behring, German physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)
    • 1857 – Christian Michelsen, Norwegian businessman and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Norway (d. 1925)
    • 1858 – Liberty Hyde Bailey, American botanist and academic, co-founded the American Society for Horticultural Science (d. 1954)
    • 1860 – Waldemar Haffkine, Russian-Swiss bacteriologist and microbiologist (d. 1930)
    • 1864 – Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian violinist, composer, and conductor (Oslo Philharmonic) (d. 1935)
    • 1865 – Manuk Abeghian, Armenian author and scholar (d. 1944)
    • 1866 – Matthew Charlton, Australian miner and politician (d. 1948)
    • 1866 – Johan Vaaler, Norwegian inventor, often erroneously identified as the inventor of the Paper clip (d. 1910)
    • 1868 – Grace Chisholm Young, English mathematician (d. 1944)
    • 1869 – Stanisław Wojciechowski, Polish scholar and politician, 2nd President of the Republic of Poland (d. 1953)
    • 1874 – Eugène Fiset, Canadian physician, general, and politician, 18th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (d. 1951)
    • 1874 – Harold L. Ickes, American journalist and politician, 32nd United States Secretary of the Interior (d. 1952)
    • 1878 – Reza Shah, Iranian king (d. 1944)
    • 1886 – Wladimir Burliuk, Ukrainian-Greek painter and illustrator (d. 1917)
    • 1887 – Marjorie Merriweather Post, American businesswoman and philanthropist, founded General Foods (d. 1973)
    • 1887 – Lütfi Kırdar, Turkish physician and politician, Turkish Minister of Health (d. 1961)
    • 1879 – Benjamin R. Jacobs, American biochemist (d. 1963)
    • 1890 – Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician and mountaineer (d. 1980)
    • 1892 – James Basevi Ord, Mexican-American colonel (d. 1938)
    • 1897 – Jackson Scholz, American runner (d. 1986)
    • 1900 – Gilberto Freyre, Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian and writer (d. 1987)
    • 1904 – George Brent, Irish-American actor (d. 1979)
    • 1904 – J. Pat O’Malley, English-American actor (d. 1985)
    • 1905 – Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, German lawyer and judge (d. 1944)
    • 1907 – Zarah Leander, Swedish actress and singer (d. 1981)
    • 1909 – Jaroslava Muchová Syllabová, Czech painter (d. 1986)
    • 1912 – Lightnin’ Hopkins, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1982)
    • 1912 – Louis Paul Boon, Flemish journalist and author (d. 1979)
    • 1913 – Macdonald Carey, American actor (d. 1994)
    • 1913 – Jack Fairman, English race car driver (d. 2002)
    • 1916 – Frank Coghlan, Jr., American actor and pilot (d. 2009)
    • 1916 – Fadil Hoxha, Kosovar commander and politician, 2nd President of Kosovo (d. 2001)
    • 1916 – Harry James, American trumpet player, bandleader, and actor (d. 1983)
    • 1918 – Richard Ellmann, American author and critic (d. 1987)
    • 1918 – Punch Imlach, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (d. 1987)
    • 1919 – Lawrence Tierney, American actor (d. 2002)
    • 1920 – E. Donnall Thomas, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
    • 1921 – Madelyn Pugh, American television writer and producer (d. 2011)
    • 1922 – Eddie Calvert, English trumpeter (d. 1978)
    • 1926 – Ben Johnston, American composer and academic (d. 2019)
    • 1926 – Norm Van Brocklin, American football player and coach (d. 1983)
    • 1927 – Christian Marquand, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2000)
    • 1927 – Carl Smith, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2010)
    • 1928 – Bob Wilber, American clarinetist and saxophonist (d. 2019)
    • 1930 – Zhores Alferov, Belarusian-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2019)
    • 1932 – Alan Bean, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2018)
    • 1932 – Arif Mardin, Turkish-American record producer (d. 2006)
    • 1933 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, American lawyer and judge
    • 1933 – Philippe de Broca, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2004)
    • 1934 – Richard Layard, Baron Layard, English economist and academic
    • 1934 – Kanshi Ram, Indian politician (d. 2006)
    • 1935 – David Andrews, Irish politician, 21st Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ireland
    • 1935 – Judd Hirsch, American actor
    • 1935 – Jimmy Swaggart, American pastor and television host
    • 1935 – Leonid Yengibarov, Russian-Armenian clown and boxer (d. 1972)
    • 1936 – Howard Greenfield, American songwriter (d. 1986)
    • 1937 – Marcus Raichle, American neurologist and physiologist
    • 1937 – Valentin Rasputin, Russian environmentalist and author (d. 2015)
    • 1938 – Charles Lloyd, American saxophonist and flute player
    • 1939 – Ted Kaufman, American engineer and politician
    • 1939 – Robert Nye, English author, poet, and playwright (d. 2016)
    • 1939 – Julie Tullis, English mountaineer (d. 1986)
    • 1940 – Frank Dobson, English politician, Secretary of State for Health (d. 2019)
    • 1940 – Phil Lesh, American bassist
    • 1941 – Mike Love, American singer-songwriter and musician
    • 1941 – Carolyn Hansson, Canadian materials engineer
    • 1943 – David Cronenberg, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1943 – Lynda La Plante, English actress, screenwriter, and author
    • 1943 – Michael Scott-Joynt, English bishop (d. 2014)
    • 1943 – Sly Stone, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
    • 1943 – The Iron Sheik, Iranian-American wrestler and actor
    • 1944 – Chi Cheng, Taiwanese runner and politician
    • 1944 – Jacques Doillon, French director and screenwriter
    • 1944 – Francis Mankiewicz, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1993)
    • 1944 – A. K. Faezul Huq, Bangladeshi lawyer and politician (d. 2007)
    • 1945 – Mark J. Green, American lawyer and politician
    • 1946 – Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and coach (d. 2003)
    • 1946 – John Dempsey, English born Irish international footballer, centre-back and manager
    • 1947 – Ry Cooder, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1947 – Gino Ferrin, German footballer and manager
    • 1947 – Juraj Kukura, Slovak-German actor
    • 1948 – Kate Bornstein, American author and activist
    • 1948 – Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (d. 2003)
    • 1950 – Jørgen Olsen, Danish singer-songwriter
    • 1950 – Kurt Koch, Swiss cardinal
    • 1951 – David Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, English educator and politician
    • 1952 – Howard Devoto, English singer-songwriter
    • 1952 – Philip Green, English businessman
    • 1952 – Howard Koh, American physician and politician, 14th United States Assistant Secretary for Health
    • 1953 – Richard Bruton, Irish economist and politician, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
    • 1953 – Heather Graham Pozzessere, American author
    • 1953 – Kumba Ialá, Bissau-Guinean educator and politician, President of Guinea-Bissau (d. 2014)
    • 1954 – Massimo Bubola, Italian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1954 – Isobel Buchanan, Scottish soprano and actress
    • 1954 – Bob Budiansky, American author and illustrator
    • 1954 – Henry Marsh, American runner and businessman, co-founded MonaVie
    • 1954 – Craig Wasson, American actor
    • 1955 – Mohsin Khan, Pakistani cricketer
    • 1955 – Dee Snider, American singer-songwriter and actor
    • 1956 – Clay Matthews, Jr., American football player and coach
    • 1957 – Joaquim de Almeida, Portuguese-American actor
    • 1957 – Víctor Muñoz, Spanish footballer and manager
    • 1957 – David Silverman, American animator, director, and screenwriter
    • 1958 – Anne Davies, English television presenter and newsreader
    • 1959 – Harold Baines, American baseball player and coach
    • 1959 – Renny Harlin, Finnish director and producer
    • 1959 – Lisa Holton, American journalist and author
    • 1959 – Ben Okri, Nigerian poet and author
    • 1960 – Mike Pagliarulo, American baseball player and coach
    • 1960 – Phil Walsh, Australian rules footballer and coach (d. 2015)
    • 1961 – Terry Cummings, American basketball player and singer
    • 1961 – Craig Ludwig, American ice hockey player and coach
    • 1962 – Terence Trent D’Arby, American singer-songwriter
    • 1962 – Jimmy Baio, American actor
    • 1963 – Bret Michaels, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
    • 1964 – Davide Pinato, Italian footballer
    • 1964 – Rockwell, American singer-songwriter and musician
    • 1965 – Sunetra Gupta, Indian epidemiologist, author, and academic
    • 1965 – Robyn Malcolm, New Zealand actress
    • 1967 – Naoko Takeuchi, Japanese manga artist, creator of Sailor Moon
    • 1968 – Kahimi Karie, Japanese singer
    • 1968 – Mark McGrath, American singer-songwriter and television host
    • 1968 – Terje Riis-Johansen, Norwegian politician, Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy
    • 1968 – Sabrina Salerno, Italian singer-songwriter, actress, and producer
    • 1969 – Rona Ambrose, Canadian journalist and politician, former Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
    • 1969 – Gianluca Festa, Italian footballer and coach
    • 1969 – Yutaka Take, Japanese jockey
    • 1970 – Christine Anu, Australian singer
    • 1970 – Naka Drotske, South African rugby player
    • 1970 – Derek Parra, American speed skater and coach
    • 1971 – Penny Lancaster, English model and photographer
    • 1971 – Joanne Wise, English long jumper
    • 1972 – Mark Hoppus, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
    • 1972 – Holger Stromberg, German chef
    • 1972 – Mike Tomlin, American football player and coach
    • 1973 – Robin Hunicke, American video game designer and producer
    • 1973 – Masayuki Naruse, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist
    • 1974 – Robert Fick, American baseball player
    • 1975 – Eva Longoria, American actress and producer
    • 1975 – Veselin Topalov, Bulgarian chess player
    • 1975 – Darcy Tucker, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1975 – will.i.am, American rapper, producer, and actor
    • 1976 – Katherine Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1976 – Abhay Deol, Indian actor
    • 1976 – Cara Pifko, Canadian actress
    • 1977 – Joe Hahn, American DJ, producer, and director
    • 1977 – Brian Tee, Japanese-American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1978 – Takeru Kobayashi, Japanese competitive eater
    • 1979 – Kyle Mills, New Zealand cricketer
    • 1979 – Kevin Youkilis, American baseball player and scout
    • 1980 – Freddie Bynum, American baseball player
    • 1980 – Eric Grothe, Jr. Australian rugby league player and guitarist
    • 1980 – Claudiney Ramos, Brazilian footballer (d. 2013)
    • 1981 – Young Buck, American rapper, producer, and actor
    • 1981 – Mikael Forssell, German-Finnish footballer
    • 1981 – Veronica Maggio, Swedish singer-songwriter
    • 1981 – Jens Salumäe, Estonian skier
    • 1982 – Tom Budge, Australian actor
    • 1982 – Emily Dunn, American actress and dancer
    • 1982 – Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich, Kenyan runner
    • 1983 – Sean Biggerstaff, Scottish actor
    • 1983 – Umut Bulut, Turkish footballer
    • 1983 – Ben Hilfenhaus, Australian cricketer
    • 1983 – Kostas Kaimakoglou, Greek basketball player
    • 1983 – Golda Marcus, Salvadoran swimmer
    • 1983 – Daryl Murphy, Irish footballer
    • 1983 – Heiko Niidas, Estonian basketball player
    • 1983 – Ricky Sekhon, English actor
    • 1983 – Yo Yo Honey Singh, Indian music producer
    • 1984 – Badradine Belloumou, French-Algerian footballer
    • 1984 – Malin Buska, Swedish actress
    • 1984 – Olivier Jean, Canadian speed skater
    • 1984 – Kostas Vasileiadis, Greek basketball player
    • 1984 – Wilson Aparecido Xavier Júnior, Brazilian footballer
    • 1987 – Eric Decker, American football player
    • 1988 – Éver Guzmán, Mexican footballer
    • 1988 – James Reimer, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1988 – Jolo Revilla, Filipino actor and politician
    • 1988 – Alexander Sims, English race car driver
    • 1989 – Sam Baldock, English footballer
    • 1989 – Bryce Gibbs, Australian footballer
    • 1989 – Sandro, Brazilian international footballer, midfielder
    • 1989 – Gil Roberts, American sprinter
    • 1989 – Adrien Silva, Portuguese footballer
    • 1989 – Caitlin Wachs, American actress
    • 1990 – Siobhan Magnus, American singer-songwriter
    • 1991 – Tavon Austin, American footballer
    • 1991 – Kurt Baptiste, Australian rugby league player
    • 1991 – Xavier Henry, American basketball player
    • 1996 – Seonaid McIntosh, Scottish sports shooter
    • 2000 – Kristian Kostov, Russian-Bulgarian singer-songwriter

    Deaths on March 15

    • 44 BC – Julius Caesar, Roman general and statesman (b. 100 BC)
    • 220 – Cao Cao, Chinese general, warlord and statesman (b. 155)
    • 493 – Odoacer, the first king of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire (b. 433)
    • 752 – Pope Zachary
    • 963 – Romanos II, Byzantine emperor (b. 938)
    • 990 – Siegfried I (the Older), German nobleman
    • 1086 – Richilde, Countess of Hainaut, Flemish consort and regent (b. c. 1018)
    • 1124 – Ernulf, Bishop of Rochester (b. c. 1040)
    • 1190 – Isabella of Hainault, queen of Philip II of France (b. 1170)
    • 1311 – Walter V, Count of Brienne (b. 1275)
    • 1311 – Thomas III d’Autremencourt, Lord of Salona, Marshal of Achaea
    • 1311 – Albert Pallavicini, Margrave of Bodonitza
    • 1311 – George I Ghisi, Triarch of Euboea, Baron of Chalandritsa, Lord of Tinos, Mykonos, Serifos and Keos
    • 1327 – Albert of Schwarzburg, grand preceptor of the Knights Hospitaller
    • 1346 – Shah Jalal, Sufi saint of Bengal (b. 1271).
    • 1536 – Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, Ottoman politician, 35th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1493)
    • 1575 – Annibale Padovano, Italian organist and composer (b. 1527)
    • 1644 – Countess Louise Juliana of Nassau (b. 1576)
    • 1657 – David Pardo, Dutch rabbi and scholar (b. 1591)
    • 1673 – Salvator Rosa, Italian painter and poet (b. 1615)
    • 1711 – Eusebio Kino, Italian priest and missionary (b. 1645)
    • 1820 – Clement Mary Hofbauer, Austrian priest and saint (b. 1751)
    • 1832 – Otto Wilhelm Masing, Estonian linguist and clergyman (b. 1763)
    • 1842 – Luigi Cherubini, Italian composer and theorist (b. 1760)
    • 1849 – Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti, Italian cardinal and linguist (b. 1774)
    • 1891 – Joseph Bazalgette, English engineer and academic (b. 1819)
    • 1897 – James Joseph Sylvester, English mathematician and academic (b. 1814)
    • 1898 – Henry Bessemer, English engineer and businessman (b. 1813)
    • 1921 – Talaat Pasha, Ottoman politician, 281st Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1874)
    • 1927 – Hector Rason, English-Australian politician, 7th Premier of Western Australia (b. 1858)
    • 1933 – Gustavo Jiménez, Peruvian colonel and politician, 73rd President of Peru (b. 1886)
    • 1937 – H. P. Lovecraft, American short story writer, editor, and novelist (b. 1890)
    • 1938 – Nikolai Bukharin, Russian journalist, and politician (b. 1888)
    • 1939 – Luis Barceló, Spanish colonel (b. 1896)
    • 1941 – Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian-German painter (b. 1864)
    • 1944 – Otto von Below, Prussian general (b. 1857)
    • 1951 – John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-South African astronomer and academic (b. 1889)
    • 1957 – Ernst Nobs, Swiss politician (b. 1886)
    • 1959 – Lester Young, American saxophonist and clarinet player (b. 1909)
    • 1962 – Charles Bartliff, American soccer player (b. 1886)
    • 1962 – Arthur Compton, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
    • 1966 – Abe Saperstein, American basketball player and coach (b. 1902)
    • 1969 – Miles Malleson, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1888)
    • 1969 – Musashiyama Takeshi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 33rd Yokozuna (b. 1909)
    • 1970 – Tarjei Vesaas, Norwegian author and poet (b. 1897)
    • 1971 – Jean-Pierre Monseré, Belgian cyclist (b. 1948)
    • 1972 – Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov, Russian painter and educator (b. 1910)
    • 1975 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek-Argentinian businessman (b. 1906)
    • 1977 – Hubert Aquin, Canadian author and activist (b. 1929)
    • 1977 – Antonino Rocca, Italian-American wrestler and referee (b. 1921)
    • 1981 – René Clair, French director and screenwriter (b. 1898)
    • 1983 – Coloman Braun-Bogdan, Romanian footballer and manager (b. 1905)
    • 1983 – Rebecca West, English author and critic (b. 1892)
    • 1985 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian and author (b. 1921)
    • 1986 – Alexandru Giugaru, Romanian actor (b. 1897)
    • 1987 – Douglas Abbott, Canadian lawyer and politician, 10th Canadian Minister of National Defence (b. 1899)
    • 1988 – Dmitri Polyakov, Ukrainian general and spy (b. 1926)
    • 1989 – Muhammad Jameel Didi, Maldivian poet and politician (b. 1915)
    • 1990 – Farzad Bazoft, Iranian-English journalist (b. 1958)
    • 1990 – Tom Harmon, American football player and sportscaster (b. 1919)
    • 1991 – Bud Freeman, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1906)
    • 1992 – Rahi Masoom Raza, Indian Urdu poet (b.1927)
    • 1997 – Gail Davis, American actress (b. 1925)
    • 1997 – Victor Vasarely, Hungarian-French painter (b. 1906)
    • 1998 – Tim Maia, Brazilian singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
    • 1998 – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and author (b. 1903)
    • 1999 – Guy D’Artois, Canadian soldier (b. 1917)
    • 2001 – Gaetano Cozzi, Italian historian and academic (b. 1922)
    • 2001 – Ann Sothern, American actress and singer (b. 1909)
    • 2003 – Thora Hird, English actress (b. 1911)
    • 2003 – Paul Stojanovich, American television producer, created World’s Wildest Police Videos (b. 1956)
    • 2004 – Philippe Lemaire, French actor (b. 1927)
    • 2004 – Bill Pickering, New Zealand-American scientist and engineer (b. 1910)
    • 2004 – John Pople, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1925)
    • 2005 – Bob Bellear, Australian engineer and judge (b. 1944)
    • 2005 – Otar Korkia, Georgian basketball player and coach (b. 1923)
    • 2005 – Shoji Nishio, Japanese martial artist (b. 1927)
    • 2006 – Georgios Rallis, Greek lieutenant and politician, 173rd Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1918)
    • 2006 – Red Storey, Canadian football player and referee (b. 1918)
    • 2007 – Charles Harrelson, American murderer (b. 1938)
    • 2007 – Bowie Kuhn, American lawyer and businessman (b. 1926)
    • 2007 – Stuart Rosenberg, American director and producer (b. 1927)
    • 2008 – Mikey Dread, Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1954)
    • 2008 – Vytautas Kernagis, Lithuanian singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1951)
    • 2008 – G. David Low, American astronaut and engineer (b. 1956)
    • 2008 – Ken Reardon, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)
    • 2008 – Sarla Thakral, First Indian woman to earn a pilot’s license. (b. 1914)
    • 2009 – Ron Silver, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1946)
    • 2011 – Nate Dogg, American rapper (b. 1969)
    • 2011 – Smiley Culture, English singer and DJ (b. 1963)
    • 2012 – Mervyn Davies, Welsh rugby player (b. 1946)
    • 2012 – Eb Gaines, American businessman and diplomat (b. 1927)
    • 2012 – Luis Gonzales, Filipino actor (b. 1928)
    • 2012 – Bernardino González Ruíz, Panamanian physician and politician, President of Panama (b. 1911)
    • 2012 – Fran Matera, American illustrator (b. 1924)
    • 2012 – Dave Philley, American baseball player and manager (b. 1920)
    • 2013 – James Bonk, American chemist and academic (b. 1931)
    • 2013 – Booth Gardner, American businessman and politician, 19th Governor of Washington (b. 1936)
    • 2013 – Hardrock Gunter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1925)
    • 2013 – Shannon Larratt, Canadian publisher, founded BMEzine (b. 1973)
    • 2013 – Terry Lightfoot, English clarinet player (b. 1935)
    • 2013 – Leverne McDonnell, Australian actress (b. 1963).
    • 2013 – Masamichi Noro, Japanese-French martial artist, founded Kinomichi (b. 1935)
    • 2013 – Kallam Anji Reddy, Indian engineer and businessman, founded Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (b. 1940)
    • 2013 – Peter Worsley, English sociologist (b. 1924)
    • 2013 – Felipe Zetter, Mexican footballer (b. 1923)
    • 2014 – Scott Asheton, American drummer (b. 1949).
    • 2014 – David Brenner, American comedian, actor, and author (b. 1936)
    • 2014 – Bo Callaway, American soldier and politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Army (b. 1927)
    • 2014 – Clarissa Dickson Wright, English chef, author, and television personality (b. 1947)
    • 2014 – Everett L. Fullam, American priest and scholar (b. 1930)
    • 2014 – Cees Veerman, Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1943)
    • 2015 – Collins Chabane, South African politician (b. 1960)
    • 2015 – Robert Clatworthy, English sculptor and educator (b. 1928)
    • 2015 – Narayan Desai, Indian author and activist (b. 1924)
    • 2015 – Sally Forrest, American actress and dancer (b. 1928)
    • 2015 – Curtis Gans, American political scientist and author (b. 1937)
    • 2015 – Mike Porcaro, American bass player (b. 1955)
    • 2016 – Sylvia Anderson, English voice actress and television and film producer (b. 1927)
    • 2016 – Asa Briggs, English historian and academic (b. 1921)
    • 2016 – Daryl Coley, American singer and pastor (b. 1955)
    • 2016 – Seru Rabeni, Fijian rugby player (b. 1978)
    • 2019 – Larry DiTillio, American film and TV series writer (b. 1948)
    • 2020 – Vittorio Gregotti, Italian architect (b. 1927)

    Holidays and observances on March 15

    • Christian feast day:
      • Aristobulus of Britannia
      • Clemens Maria Hofbauer
      • Leocritia
      • Longinus
      • Louise de Marillac
      • Raymond of Fitero
      • March 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Constitution Day (Belarus)
    • Earliest day on which Birth of Benito Juárez can fall, while March 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday of March. (Mexico)
    • Earliest day on which Palm Sunday can fall, while April 18 is the latest; celebrated on the sixth Sunday of Lent. (Christianity)
    • Hōnen Matsuri (Japan)
    • International Day Against Police Brutality (International)
    • J. J. Roberts’ Birthday (Liberia)
    • National Day, celebrating the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (Hungary)
    • World Consumer Rights Day (International)
    • World Contact Day
    • World Day of Muslim Culture, Peace, Dialogue and Film (International)
    • World Speech Day
    • Youth Day (Palau)

  • March 6- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 12 BCE – The Roman Emperor Augustus is named Pontifex Maximus, incorporating the position into that of the emperor.
    • 632 – The Farewell Sermon (Khutbah, Khutbatul Wada’) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
    • 845 – Execution of the 42 Martyrs of Amorium at Samarra.
    • 961 – Byzantine conquest of Chandax by Nikephoros Phokas, end of the Emirate of Crete.
    • 1204 – The Siege of Château Gaillard ends in a French victory over King John of England, who loses control of Normandy to King Philip II Augustus.
    • 1323 – Treaty of Paris of 1323 is signed.
    • 1454 – Thirteen Years’ War: Delegates of the Prussian Confederation pledge allegiance to King Casimir IV of Poland who agrees to commit his forces in aiding the Confederation’s struggle for independence from the Teutonic Knights.
    • 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam.
    • 1665 – The first joint Secretary of the Royal Society, Henry Oldenburg, publishes the first issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, the world’s longest-running scientific journal.
    • 1788 – The First Fleet arrives at Norfolk Island in order to found a convict settlement.
    • 1820 – The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brings Maine into the Union as a free state, and makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
    • 1834 – York, Upper Canada, is incorporated as Toronto.
    • 1836 – Texas Revolution: Battle of the Alamo: After a thirteen-day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 187 Texas volunteers, including frontiersman Davy Crockett and colonel Jim Bowie, defending the Alamo are killed and the fort is captured.
    • 1857 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.
    • 1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
    • 1882 – The Serbian kingdom is re-founded.
    • 1899 – Bayer registers “Aspirin” as a trademark.
    • 1902 – Real Madrid CF is founded.
    • 1912 – Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces become the first to use airships in war, as two dirigibles drop bombs on Turkish troops encamped at Janzur, from an altitude of 6,000 feet.
    • 1921 – Portuguese Communist Party is founded as the Portuguese Section of the Communist International.
    • 1930 – International Unemployment Day demonstrations globally initiated by the Comintern.
    • 1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a “bank holiday”, closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions.
    • 1943 – Norman Rockwell published Freedom from Want in The Saturday Evening Post with a matching essay by Carlos Bulosan as part of the Four Freedoms series.
    • 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Fardykambos, one of the first major battles between the Greek Resistance and the occupying Royal Italian Army, ends with the surrender of an entire Italian battalion, the bulk of the garrison of the town of Grevena, leading to its liberation a fortnight later.
    • 1944 – World War II: Soviet Air Forces bomb an evacuated town of Narva in German-occupied Estonia, destroying the entire historical Swedish-era town.
    • 1945 – World War II: Cologne is captured by American troops. On the same day, Operation Spring Awakening, the last major German offensive of the war, begins.
    • 1946 – Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
    • 1951 – Cold War: The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
    • 1953 – Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
    • 1957 – Ghana becomes the first Sub-Saharan country to gain independence from the British.
    • 1964 – Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad officially gives boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali.
    • 1964 – Constantine II becomes King of Greece.
    • 1965 – Premier Tom Playford of South Australia loses power after 27 years in office.
    • 1967 – Cold War: Joseph Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the United States.
    • 1968 – Three rebels are executed by Rhodesia, the first executions since UDI, prompting international condemnation.
    • 1970 – An explosion at the Weather Underground safe house in Greenwich Village kills three.
    • 1975 – For the first time the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is shown in motion to a national TV audience by Robert J. Groden and Dick Gregory.
    • 1975 – Algiers Accord: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement of their border dispute.
    • 1983 – The first United States Football League games are played.
    • 1984 – In the United Kingdom, a walkout at Cortonwood Colliery in Brampton Bierlow signals the start of a strike that lasted almost a year and involved the majority of the country’s miners.
    • 1987 – The British ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes in about 90 seconds, killing 193.
    • 1988 – Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers are shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in Operation Flavius.
    • 1992 – The Michelangelo computer virus begins to affect computers.
    • 2003 – Air Algérie Flight 6289 crashes at the Aguenar – Hadj Bey Akhamok Airport in Tamanrasset, Algeria, killing 102 out of the 103 people on board.
    • 2008 – A suicide bomber kills 68 people (including first responders) in Baghdad on the same day that a gunman kills eight students in Jerusalem.

    Births on March 6

    • 1340 – John of Gaunt (d. 1399)
    • 1405 – John II of Castile (d. 1454)
    • 1459 – Jakob Fugger, German merchant and banker (d. 1525)
    • 1475 – Michelangelo, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1564)
    • 1483 – Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian and politician (d. 1540)
    • 1493 – Juan Luis Vives, Spanish scholar and humanist (d. 1540)
    • 1495 – Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet and diplomat (d. 1556)
    • 1536 – Santi di Tito, Italian painter (d. 1603)
    • 1619 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French author and playwright (d. 1655)
    • 1663 – Francis Atterbury, English bishop and poet (d. 1732)
    • 1706 – George Pocock, English admiral (d. 1792)
    • 1716 – Pehr Kalm, Swedish-Finnish botanist and explorer (d. 1779)
    • 1724 – Henry Laurens, English-American merchant and politician, 5th President of the Continental Congress (d. 1792)
    • 1761 – Antoine-François Andréossy, French general and diplomat (d. 1828)
    • 1779 – Antoine-Henri Jomini, Swiss-French general (d. 1869)
    • 1780 – Lucy Barnes, American writer (d. 1809)
    • 1785 – Karol Kurpiński, Polish composer and conductor (d. 1857)
    • 1787 – Joseph von Fraunhofer, German physicist and astronomer (d. 1826)
    • 1806 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English-Italian poet and translator (d. 1861)
    • 1812 – Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American businessman, co-founded the Waltham Watch Company (d. 1895)
    • 1817 – Princess Clémentine of Orléans (d. 1907)
    • 1818 – William Claflin, American businessman and politician, 27th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1905)
    • 1823 – Charles I of Württemberg (d. 1891)
    • 1831 – Philip Sheridan, Irish-American general (d. 1888)
    • 1834 – George du Maurier, French-English author and illustrator (d. 1896)
    • 1841 – Viktor Burenin, Russian author, poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1926)
    • 1849 – Georg Luger, Austrian gun designer, designed the Luger pistol (d. 1923)
    • 1864 – Richard Rushall, British businessman (d. 1953)
    • 1870 – Oscar Straus, Viennese composer and conductor (d. 1954)
    • 1871 – Afonso Costa, Portuguese lawyer and politician, 59th Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1937)
    • 1872 – Ben Harney, American pianist and composer (d. 1938)
    • 1879 – Jimmy Hunter, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1962)
    • 1882 – F. Burrall Hoffman, American architect, co-designed Villa Vizcaya (d. 1980)
    • 1882 – Guy Kibbee, American actor and singer (d. 1956)
    • 1884 – Molla Mallory, Norwegian-American tennis player (d. 1959)
    • 1885 – Ring Lardner, American journalist and author (d. 1933)
    • 1886 – Jam Handy, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1983)
    • 1886 – Nella Walker, American actress and vaudevillian (d. 1971)
    • 1892 – Bert Smith, English international footballer, right half (d. 1969)
    • 1893 – Furry Lewis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1981)
    • 1893 – Ella P. Stewart, pioneering Black American pharmacist (d. 1987)
    • 1895 – Albert Tessier, Canadian priest and historian (d. 1976)
    • 1898 – Gus Sonnenberg, American football player and wrestler (d. 1944)
    • 1900 – Gina Cigna, French-Italian soprano and actress (d. 2001)
    • 1900 – Lefty Grove, American baseball player (d. 1975)
    • 1900 – Henri Jeanson, French journalist and author (d. 1970)
    • 1903 – Empress Kōjun of Japan (d. 2000)
    • 1904 – José Antonio Aguirre, Spanish lawyer and politician, 1st President of the Basque Country (d. 1960)
    • 1905 – Bob Wills, American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader (d. 1975)
    • 1906 – Lou Costello, American actor and comedian (d. 1959)
    • 1909 – Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian lawyer and politician (d. 1987)
    • 1909 – Stanisław Jerzy Lec, Polish poet and author (d. 1966)
    • 1910 – Ella Logan, Scottish-American singer and actress (d. 1969)
    • 1912 – Mohammed Burhanuddin, Indian spiritual leader, 52nd Da’i al-Mutlaq (d. 2014)
    • 1917 – Donald Davidson, American philosopher and academic (d. 2003)
    • 1917 – Will Eisner, American illustrator and publisher (d. 2005)
    • 1917 – Frankie Howerd, English comedian (d. 1992)
    • 1918 – Howard McGhee, American trumpeter (d. 1987)
    • 1920 – Lewis Gilbert, English director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
    • 1921 – Leo Bretholz, Austrian-American holocaust survivor and author (d. 2014)
    • 1923 – Ed McMahon, American comedian, game show host, and announcer (d. 2009)
    • 1923 – Wes Montgomery, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1968)
    • 1924 – Ottmar Walter, German footballer (d. 2013)
    • 1924 – William H. Webster, American lawyer and jurist, 14th Director of Central Intelligence
    • 1926 – Ann Curtis, American swimmer (d. 2012)
    • 1926 – Alan Greenspan, American economist and politician
    • 1926 – Ray O’Connor, Australian politician, 22nd Premier of Western Australia (d. 2013)
    • 1926 – Andrzej Wajda, Polish director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
    • 1927 – William J. Bell, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2005)
    • 1927 – Gordon Cooper, American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2004)
    • 1927 – Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
    • 1929 – Tom Foley, American lawyer and politician, 57th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 2013)
    • 1929 – David Sheppard, English cricketer and bishop (d. 2005)
    • 1930 – Lorin Maazel, French-American violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 2014)
    • 1932 – Marc Bazin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 49th President of Haiti (d. 2010)
    • 1932 – Bronisław Geremek, Polish historian and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2008)
    • 1933 – Ted Abernathy, American baseball player (d. 2004)
    • 1933 – William Davis, German-English journalist and economist (d. 2019)
    • 1933 – Augusto Odone, Italian economist and inventor of Lorenzo’s oil (d. 2013)
    • 1934 – Red Simpson, American singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
    • 1935 – Ron Delany, Irish runner and coach
    • 1935 – Derek Kevan, English footballer (d. 2013)
    • 1936 – Bob Akin, American race car driver and journalist (d. 2002)
    • 1936 – Marion Barry, American lawyer and politician, 2nd Mayor of the District of Columbia (d. 2014)
    • 1936 – Choummaly Sayasone, Laotian politician, 5th President of Laos
    • 1937 – Ivan Boesky, American businessman
    • 1937 – Valentina Tereshkova, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut
    • 1938 – Keishu Tanaka, Japanese politician, 17th Japanese Minister of Justice
    • 1939 – Kit Bond, American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of Missouri
    • 1939 – Adam Osborne, Thai-Indian engineer and businessman, founded the Osborne Computer Corporation (d. 2003)
    • 1940 – Ken Danby, Canadian painter (d. 2007)
    • 1940 – Joanna Miles, French-born American actress
    • 1940 – R. H. Sikes, American golfer
    • 1940 – Willie Stargell, American baseball player and coach (d. 2001)
    • 1940 – Jeff Wooller, English accountant and banker
    • 1941 – Peter Brötzmann, German saxophonist and clarinet player
    • 1941 – Marilyn Strathern, Welsh anthropologist and academic
    • 1942 – Ben Murphy, American actor
    • 1944 – Richard Corliss, American journalist and critic (d. 2015)
    • 1944 – Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand soprano and actress
    • 1944 – Mary Wilson, American singer
    • 1945 – Angelo Castro, Jr., Filipino actor and journalist (d. 2012)
    • 1946 – David Gilmour, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1946 – Richard Noble, Scottish race car driver and businessman
    • 1947 – Kiki Dee, English singer-songwriter
    • 1947 – Dick Fosbury, American high jumper
    • 1947 – Anna Maria Horsford, American actress
    • 1947 – Rob Reiner, American actor, director, producer, and activist
    • 1947 – Jean Seaton, English historian and academic
    • 1947 – John Stossel, American journalist and author
    • 1948 – Stephen Schwartz, American composer and producer
    • 1949 – Shaukat Aziz, Pakistani economist and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Pakistan
    • 1949 – Martin Buchan, Scottish footballer and manager
    • 1950 – Arthur Roche, English archbishop
    • 1951 – Gerrie Knetemann, Dutch cyclist (d. 2004)
    • 1952 – Denis Napthine, Australian politician, 47th Premier of Victoria
    • 1953 – Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali banker and politician, 34th Prime Minister of Nepal
    • 1953 – Carolyn Porco, American astronomer and academic
    • 1953 – Phil Alvin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1954 – Jeff Greenwald, American author, photographer, and monologist
    • 1954 – Harald Schumacher, German footballer and manager
    • 1955 – Cyprien Ntaryamira, Burundian politician, 5th President of Burundi (d. 1994)
    • 1955 – Alberta Watson, Canadian actress (d. 2015)
    • 1956 – Peter Roebuck, English cricketer, journalist, and sportcaster (d. 2011)
    • 1956 – Steve Vizard, Australian television host, actor, and producer
    • 1960 – Sleepy Floyd, American basketball player and coach
    • 1962 – Alison Nicholas, British golfer
    • 1963 – D. L. Hughley, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1964 – Linda Pearson, Scottish sport shooter
    • 1965 – Allan Bateman, Welsh rugby player
    • 1965 – Jim Knight, English politician
    • 1966 – Alan Davies, English comedian, actor and screenwriter
    • 1967 – Julio Bocca, Argentinian ballet dancer and director
    • 1967 – Connie Britton, American actress
    • 1967 – Glenn Greenwald, American journalist and author
    • 1967 – Shuler Hensley, American actor and singer
    • 1968 – Moira Kelly, American actress and director
    • 1971 – Darrick Martin, American basketball player and coach
    • 1972 – Shaquille O’Neal, American basketball player, actor, and rapper
    • 1972 – Jaret Reddick, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
    • 1973 – Michael Finley, American basketball player
    • 1973 – Peter Lindgren, Swedish guitarist and songwriter
    • 1973 – Greg Ostertag, American basketball player
    • 1973 – Trent Willmon, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1974 – Guy Garvey, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1974 – Matthew Guy, Australian politician
    • 1974 – Brad Schumacher, American swimmer
    • 1974 – Beanie Sigel, American rapper
    • 1975 – Aracely Arámbula, Mexican actress and singer
    • 1975 – Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Canadian pianist and conductor
    • 1976 – Ken Anderson, American wrestler and actor
    • 1977 – Nantie Hayward, South African cricketer
    • 1977 – Giorgos Karagounis, Greek international footballer, midfielder
    • 1977 – Shabani Nonda, DR Congolese footballer
    • 1977 – Marcus Thames, American baseball player and coach
    • 1978 – Sage Rosenfels, American football player
    • 1978 – Chad Wicks, American wrestler
    • 1979 – Clint Barmes, American baseball player
    • 1979 – Érik Bédard, Canadian baseball player
    • 1979 – David Flair, American wrestler
    • 1979 – Tim Howard, American soccer player
    • 1980 – Emílson Cribari, Brazilian footballer
    • 1981 – Ellen Muth, American actress
    • 1983 – Andranik Teymourian, Armenian-Iranian footballer
    • 1984 – Daniël de Ridder, Dutch footballer
    • 1984 – Eskil Pedersen, Norwegian politician
    • 1984 – Chris Tomson, American drummer
    • 1985 – Bakaye Traoré, French-Malian footballer
    • 1986 – Jake Arrieta, American baseball player
    • 1986 – Francisco Cervelli, Venezuelan-Italian baseball player
    • 1986 – Ross Detwiler, American baseball player
    • 1986 – Eli Marienthal, American actor
    • 1986 – Charlie Mulgrew, Scottish footballer
    • 1987 – Kevin-Prince Boateng, Ghanaian-German footballer
    • 1987 – José Manuel Flores, Spanish footballer
    • 1988 – Agnes Carlsson, Swedish singer
    • 1988 – Marina Erakovic, New Zealand tennis player
    • 1988 – Simon Mignolet, Belgian footballer
    • 1989 – Agnieszka Radwańska, Polish tennis player
    • 1990 – Derek Drouin, Canadian athlete
    • 1991 – Lex Luger, American keyboard player and producer
    • 1991 – Emma McDougall, English footballer (d. 2013)
    • 1991 – Tyler Gregory Okonma, American rapper
    • 1993 – Andrés Rentería, Colombian footballer
    • 1994 – Nathan Redmond, English footballer
    • 1994 – Marcus Smart, American basketball player
    • 1994 – Wesley Hoedt, Dutch footballer
    • 1995 – Georgi Kitanov, Bulgarian footballer
    • 1996 – Christian Coleman, American sprinter
    • 1996 – Tyrell Fuimaono, Australian rugby player
    • 1996 – Timo Werner, German footballer

    Deaths on March 6

    • 190 – Liu Bian (poisoned by Dong Zhuo) (b. 176)
    • 653 – Li Ke, prince of the Tang Dynasty (b. 619)
    • 766 – Chrodegang, Frankish bishop and saint
    • 903 – Lu Guangqi, Chinese official and chancellor
    • 903 – Su Jian, Chinese official and chancellor
    • 1070 – Ulric I, Margrave of Carniola
    • 1251 – Rose of Viterbo, Italian saint (b. 1235)
    • 1353 – Roger Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Ruthyn
    • 1466 – Alvise Loredan, Venetian admiral and statesman (b. 1393)
    • 1490 – Ivan the Young, Ruler of Tver (b. 1458)
    • 1491 – Richard Woodville, 3rd Earl Rivers
    • 1531 – Pedro Arias Dávila, Spanish explorer and diplomat (b. 1440)
    • 1616 – Francis Beaumont, English playwright (b. 1584)
    • 1754 – Henry Pelham, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1694)
    • 1758 – Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Durham (b. 1705)
    • 1764 – Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (b. 1690)
    • 1796 – Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French historian and author (b. 1713)
    • 1836 – Deaths at the Battle of the Alamo:
      • James Bonham, American lawyer and soldier (b. 1807)
      • James Bowie, American colonel (b. 1796)
      • Davy Crockett, American soldier and politician (b. 1786)
      • William B. Travis, American lieutenant colonel and lawyer (b. 1809)
    • 1854 – Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, Irish colonel and diplomat, Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies (b. 1778)
    • 1866 – William Whewell, English priest, historian, and philosopher (b. 1794)
    • 1867 – Charles Farrar Browne, American-English author and educator (b. 1834)
    • 1888 – Louisa May Alcott, American novelist and poet (b. 1832)
    • 1895 – Camilla Collett, Norwegian novelist and activist (b. 1813)
    • 1899 – Kaʻiulani of Hawaii (b. 1875)
    • 1900 – Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and businessman, co-founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (b. 1834)
    • 1905 – John Henninger Reagan, American surveyor, judge, and politician, 3rd Confederate States of America Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1818)
    • 1905 – Makar Yekmalyan, Armenian composer (b. 1856)
    • 1919 – Oskars Kalpaks, Latvian colonel (b. 1882)
    • 1920 – Ömer Seyfettin, Turkish author and educator (b. 1884)
    • 1932 – John Philip Sousa, American conductor and composer (b. 1854)
    • 1933 – Anton Cermak, Czech-American lawyer and politician, 44th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1873)
    • 1935 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., American colonel, lawyer, and jurist (b. 1841)
    • 1939 – Ferdinand von Lindemann, German mathematician and academic (b. 1852)
    • 1941 – Francis Aveling, Canadian priest, psychologist, and author (b. 1875)
    • 1941 – Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor and academic, designed Mount Rushmore (b. 1867)
    • 1948 – Ross Lockridge, Jr., American author, poet, and academic (b. 1914)
    • 1948 – Alice Woodby McKane, First Black woman doctor in Savannah, Georgia (b. 1865)
    • 1950 – Albert François Lebrun, French engineer and politician, 15th President of France (b. 1871)
    • 1951 – Ivor Novello, Welsh singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1893)
    • 1951 – Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Ukrainian playwright and politician, Prime Minister of Ukraine (b. 1880)
    • 1952 – Jürgen Stroop, German general (b. 1895)
    • 1955 – Mammad Amin Rasulzade, Azerbaijani scholar and politician (b. 1884)
    • 1961 – George Formby, English singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1904)
    • 1964 – Paul of Greece (b. 1901)
    • 1965 – Margaret Dumont, American actress (b. 1889)
    • 1967 – John Haden Badley, English author and educator, founded the Bedales School (b. 1865)
    • 1967 – Nelson Eddy, American actor and singer (b. 1901)
    • 1967 – Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer, linguist, and philosopher (b. 1882)
    • 1970 – William Hopper, American actor (b. 1915)
    • 1973 – Pearl S. Buck, American novelist, essayist, short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
    • 1974 – Ernest Becker, American anthropologist and author (b. 1924)
    • 1976 – Maxie Rosenbloom, American boxer (b. 1903)
    • 1977 – Alvin R. Dyer, American religious leader (b. 1903)
    • 1978 – Dennis Viollet, English-American soccer player and manager (b. 1933)
    • 1981 – George Geary, English cricketer and coach (b. 1893)
    • 1981 – Rambhau Mhalgi, Indian politician and member of the Lok Sabha (b. 9 July 1921)
    • 1982 – Ayn Rand, Russian-American philosopher, author, and playwright (b. 1905)
    • 1984 – Billy Collins, Jr., American boxer (b. 1961)
    • 1984 – Martin Niemöller, German pastor and theologian (b. 1892)
    • 1984 – Homer N. Wallin, American admiral (b. 1893)
    • 1984 – Henry Wilcoxon, Dominican-American actor and producer (b. 1905)
    • 1986 – Georgia O’Keeffe, American painter (b. 1887)
    • 1988 – Mairéad Farrell, Provisional IRA volunteer (b. 1957)
    • 1988 – Daniel McCann, Provisional IRA volunteer (b. 1957)
    • 1988 – Seán Savage, Provisional IRA volunteer (b. 1965)
    • 1994 – Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and politician, 9th Greek Minister of Culture (b. 1920)
    • 1997 – Cheddi Jagan, Guyanese politician, 4th President of Guyana (b. 1918)
    • 1997 – Michael Manley, Jamaican soldier, pilot, and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Jamaica (b. 1924)
    • 1997 – Ursula Torday, English author (b. 1912)
    • 1999 – Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Bahrain king (b. 1933)
    • 2000 – John Colicos, Canadian actor (b. 1928)
    • 2002 – Bryan Fogarty, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1969)
    • 2004 – Hercules, American wrestler (b. 1957)
    • 2004 – Frances Dee, American actress (b. 1909)
    • 2005 – Hans Bethe, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
    • 2005 – Danny Gardella, American baseball player and trainer (b. 1920)
    • 2005 – Tommy Vance, English radio host (b. 1943)
    • 2005 – Teresa Wright, American actress (b. 1918)
    • 2005 – Gladys Marín, Chilean activist and political figure. (b.1938)
    • 2006 – Anne Braden, American journalist and activist (b. 1924)
    • 2006 – Kirby Puckett, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1960)
    • 2007 – Jean Baudrillard, French photographer and theorist (b. 1929)
    • 2007 – Ernest Gallo, American businessman, co-founded E & J Gallo Winery (b. 1909)
    • 2008 – Peter Poreku Dery, Ghanaian cardinal (b. 1918)
    • 2009 – Francis Magalona, Filipino rapper, producer, and actor (b. 1964)
    • 2010 – Endurance Idahor, Nigerian footballer (b. 1984)
    • 2010 – Mark Linkous, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1962)
    • 2010 – Betty Millard, American philanthropist and activist (b. 1911)
    • 2012 – Francisco Xavier do Amaral, East Timorese politician, 1st President of East Timor (b. 1937)
    • 2012 – Donald M. Payne, American businessman and politician (b. 1934)
    • 2012 – Helen Walulik, American baseball player (b. 1929)
    • 2013 – Chorão, Brazilian singer-songwriter (Charlie Brown Jr.) (b. 1970)
    • 2013 – Stompin’ Tom Connors, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936)
    • 2013 – Alvin Lee, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1944)
    • 2013 – W. Wallace Cleland, American biochemist and academic (b. 1930)
    • 2014 – Alemayehu Atomsa, Ethiopian educator and politician (b. 1969)
    • 2014 – Frank Jobe, American soldier and surgeon (b. 1925)
    • 2014 – Sheila MacRae, English-American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – Martin Nesbitt, American lawyer and politician (b. 1946)
    • 2014 – Manlio Sgalambro, Italian philosopher, author, and poet (b. 1924)
    • 2015 – Fred Craddock, American minister and academic (b. 1928)
    • 2015 – Ram Sundar Das, Indian lawyer and politician, 18th Chief Minister of Bihar (b. 1921)
    • 2015 – Enrique “Coco” Vicéns, Puerto Rican-American basketball player and politician (b. 1926)
    • 2016 – Nancy Reagan, American actress, 42nd First Lady of the United States (b. 1921)
    • 2016 – Sheila Varian, American horse trainer and breeder (b. 1937)
    • 2017 – Robert Osborne, American actor and historian (b. 1932)
    • 2018 – Peter Nicholls, Australian science fiction critic and encyclopedist (b. 1939)

    Holidays and observances on March 6

    • Christian feast day:
      • Chrodegang
      • Colette
      • Fridolin
      • Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba
      • Marcian of Tortona
      • William W. Mayo and Charles Frederick Menninger (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • Olegarius
      • March 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • European Day of the Righteous, commemorates those who have stood up against crimes against humanity and totalitarism with their own moral responsibility. (Europe)
    • Foundation Day (Norfolk Island), the founding of Norfolk Island in 1788.
    • Independence Day (Ghana), celebrates the independence of Ghana from the UK in 1957.
    • The Day of the Dude, celebrated by the adherents of Dudeism

  • March 5 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 363 – Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90,000 to attack the Sasanian Empire, in a campaign which would bring about his own death.
    • 1046 – Nasir Khusraw begins the seven-year Middle Eastern journey which he will later describe in his book Safarnama.
    • 1279 – The Livonian Order is defeated in the Battle of Aizkraukle by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
    • 1496 – King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.
    • 1616 – Nicolaus Copernicus’s book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is added to the Index of Forbidden Books 73 years after it was first published.
    • 1766 – Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.
    • 1770 – Boston Massacre: Five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence) five years later.
    • 1811 – Peninsular War: A French force under the command of Marshal Victor is routed while trying to prevent an Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese army from lifting the Siege of Cádiz in the Battle of Barrosa.
    • 1824 – First Anglo-Burmese War: The British officially declare war on Burma.
    • 1836 – Samuel Colt patents the first production-model revolver, the .34-caliber.
    • 1850 – The Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales is opened.
    • 1860 – Parma, Tuscany, Modena and Romagna vote in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia.
    • 1868 – Mefistofele, an opera by Arrigo Boito, receives its premiere performance at La Scala.
    • 1872 – George Westinghouse patents the air brake.
    • 1906 – Moro Rebellion: United States Army troops bring overwhelming force against the native Moros in the First Battle of Bud Dajo, leaving only six survivors.
    • 1912 – Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.
    • 1931 – The British Raj: Gandhi–Irwin Pact is signed.
    • 1933 – Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party receives 43.9% at the Reichstag elections, which allows the Nazis to later pass the Enabling Act and establish a dictatorship.
    • 1936 – First flight of K5054, the first prototype Supermarine Spitfire advanced monoplane fighter aircraft in the United Kingdom.
    • 1940 – Six high-ranking members of Soviet politburo, including Joseph Stalin, sign an order for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs, in what will become known as the Katyn massacre.
    • 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces capture Batavia, capital of Dutch East Indies, which is left undefended after the withdrawal of the KNIL garrison and Australian Blackforce battalion to Buitenzorg and Bandung.
    • 1943 – First Flight of the Gloster Meteor, Britain’s first combat jet aircraft.
    • 1944 – World War II: The Red Army begins the Uman–Botoșani Offensive in the western Ukrainian SSR.
    • 1946 – Cold War: Winston Churchill coins the phrase “Iron Curtain” in his speech at Westminster College, Missouri.
    • 1953 – Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier.
    • 1960 – Indonesian President Sukarno dismissed the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR), 1955 democratically elected parliament, and replaced with DPR-GR, the parliament of his own selected members.
    • 1963 – American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes are killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.
    • 1965 – March Intifada: A Leftist uprising erupts in Bahrain against British colonial presence.
    • 1966 – BOAC Flight 911, a Boeing 707 aircraft, breaks apart in mid-air due to clear-air turbulence and crashes into Mount Fuji, Japan, killing all 124 people on board.
    • 1970 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.
    • 1974 – Yom Kippur War: Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal.
    • 1978 – The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
    • 1979 – Soviet probes Venera 11, Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II all are hit by “off the scale” gamma rays leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.
    • 1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research and would go on to sell over 1​1⁄2 million units around the world.
    • 1982 – Soviet probe Venera 14 lands on Venus.
    • 2003 – In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed in the Haifa bus 37 suicide bombing.
    • 2012 – Tropical Storm Irina kills over 75 as it passes through Madagascar.

    Births on March 5

    • 1133 – Henry II of England (d. 1189)
    • 1224 – Saint Kinga of Poland (d. 1292)
    • 1324 – David II of Scotland (d. 1371)
    • 1326 – Louis I of Hungary (d. 1382)
    • 1340 – Cansignorio della Scala, Lord of Verona (d. 1375)
    • 1451 – William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, English Earl (d. 1491)
    • 1512 – Gerardus Mercator, Flemish mathematician, cartographer, and philosopher (d. 1594)
    • 1523 – Rodrigo de Castro Osorio, Spanish cardinal (d. 1600)
    • 1527 – Ulrich, Duke of Mecklenburg (d. 1603)
    • 1539 – Christoph Pezel, German theologian (d. 1604)
    • 1563 – John Coke, English civil servant and politician (d. 1644)
    • 1575 – William Oughtred, English minister and mathematician (d. 1660)
    • 1585 – John George I, Elector of Saxony (d. 1656)
    • 1585 – Frederick I, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg (d. 1638)
    • 1637 – Jan van der Heyden, Dutch painter and engineer (d. 1712)
    • 1658 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French explorer and politician, 3rd Colonial Governor of Louisiana (d. 1730)
    • 1693 – Johann Jakob Wettstein, Swiss theologian and scholar (d. 1754)
    • 1696 – Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter (d. 1770)
    • 1703 – Vasily Trediakovsky, Russian poet and playwright (d. 1768)
    • 1713 – Edward Cornwallis, English general and politician, Governor of Gibraltar (d. 1776)
    • 1713 – Frederick Cornwallis, English archbishop (d. 1783)
    • 1723 – Princess Mary of Great Britain (d. 1773)
    • 1733 – Vincenzo Galeotti, Italian-Danish dancer and choreographer (d. 1816)
    • 1739 – Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge, American colonel and physician (d. 1819)
    • 1748 – Jonas Carlsson Dryander, Swedish botanist and biologist (d. 1810)
    • 1748 – William Shield, English violinist and composer (d. 1829)
    • 1750 – Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard d’Ansse de Villoison, French scholar and academic (d. 1805)
    • 1751 – Jan Křtitel Kuchař, Czech organist, composer, and educator (d. 1829)
    • 1774 – Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse, Danish organist and composer (d. 1842)
    • 1779 – Benjamin Gompertz, English mathematician and statistician (d. 1865)
    • 1785 – Carlo Odescalchi, Italian cardinal (d. 1841)
    • 1794 – Jacques Babinet, French physicist, mathematician, and astronomer (d. 1872)
    • 1794 – Robert Cooper Grier, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1870)
    • 1814 – Wilhelm von Giesebrecht, German historian and academic (d. 1889)
    • 1800 – Georg Friedrich Daumer, German poet and philosopher (d. 1875)
    • 1815 – John Wentworth, American journalist and politician, 19th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1888)
    • 1817 – Austen Henry Layard, English archaeologist, academic, and politician, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (d. 1894)
    • 1830 – Étienne-Jules Marey, French physiologist and chronophotographer (d. 1904)
    • 1830 – Charles Wyville Thomson, Scottish historian and zoologist (d. 1882)
    • 1834 – Félix de Blochausen, Luxembourgian politician, 6th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1915)
    • 1834 – Marietta Piccolomini, Italian soprano (d. 1899)
    • 1853 – Howard Pyle, American author and illustrator (d. 1911)
    • 1862 – Siegbert Tarrasch, German chess player and theoretician (d. 1934)
    • 1867 – Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 14th Premier of Quebec (d. 1952)
    • 1869 – Michael von Faulhaber, German cardinal (d. 1952)
    • 1870 – Frank Norris, American journalist and author (d. 1902)
    • 1870 – Evgeny Paton, French-Ukrainian engineer (d. 1953)
    • 1871 – Rosa Luxemburg, Polish-Russian economist and philosopher (d. 1919)
    • 1871 – Konstantinos Pallis, Greek general and politician, Minister Governor-General of Macedonia (d. 1941)
    • 1873 – Olav Bjaaland, Norwegian skier and explorer (d. 1961)
    • 1874 – Henry Travers, English-American actor (d. 1965)
    • 1875 – Harry Lawson, Australian politician, 27th Premier of Victoria (d. 1952)
    • 1876 – Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote, English lawyer and politician, 8th Lord Chief Justice of England (d. 1947)
    • 1876 – Elisabeth Moore, American tennis player (d. 1959)
    • 1879 – William Beveridge, Bangladeshi-English economist and academic (d. 1963)
    • 1879 – Andres Larka, Estonian general and politician, 1st Estonian Minister of War (d. 1943)
    • 1880 – Sergei Natanovich Bernstein, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1968)
    • 1882 – Dora Marsden, English author and activist (d. 1960)
    • 1883 – Pauline Sperry, American mathematician (d. 1967)
    • 1885 – Marius Barbeau, Canadian ethnographer and academic (d. 1969)
    • 1886 – Dong Biwu, Chinese judge and politician, Chairman of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1975)
    • 1886 – Freddie Welsh, Welsh boxer (d. 1927)
    • 1887 – Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian guitarist and composer (d. 1959)
    • 1894 – Henry Daniell, English-American actor (d. 1963)
    • 1898 – Zhou Enlai, Chinese politician, 1st Premier of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1976)
    • 1898 – Misao Okawa, Japanese super-centenarian (d. 2015)
    • 1900 – Lilli Jahn, Jewish German doctor (d. 1944)
    • 1900 – Johanna Langefeld, German guard and supervisor of three Nazi concentration camps (d. 1974)
    • 1901 – Friedrich Günther, Prince of Schwarzburg (d. 1971)
    • 1901 – Julian Przyboś, Polish poet, essayist and translator (d. 1970)
    • 1904 – Karl Rahner, German priest and theologian (d. 1984)
    • 1905 – László Benedek, Hungarian-American director and cinematographer (d. 1992)
    • 1908 – Fritz Fischer, German historian and author (d. 1999)
    • 1908 – Irving Fiske, American author and playwright (d. 1990)
    • 1908 – Rex Harrison, English actor (d. 1990)
    • 1910 – Momofuku Ando, Taiwanese-Japanese businessman, founded Nissin Foods (d. 2007)
    • 1910 – Ennio Flaiano, Italian author, screenwriter, and critic (d. 1972)
    • 1912 – Jack Marshall, New Zealand colonel, lawyer, and politician, 28th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1988)
    • 1915 – Henry Hicks, Canadian academic and politician, 16th Premier of Nova Scotia (d. 1990)
    • 1915 – Laurent Schwartz, French mathematician and academic (d. 2002)
    • 1918 – Milt Schmidt, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (d. 2017)
    • 1918 – Red Storey, Canadian football player, referee, and sportscaster (d. 2006)
    • 1918 – James Tobin, American economist and academic (d. 2002)
    • 1920 – José Aboulker, Algerian surgeon and activist (d. 2009)
    • 1920 – Virginia Christine, American actress (d. 1996)
    • 1920 – Rachel Gurney, English actress (d. 2001)
    • 1920 – Wang Zengqi, Chinese writer (d. 1997)
    • 1921 – Elmer Valo, American baseball player and coach (d. 1998)
    • 1922 – James Noble, American actor (d. 2016)
    • 1922 – Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1975)
    • 1923 – Juan A. Rivero, Puerto Rican biologist and academic (d. 2014)
    • 1923 – Laurence Tisch, American businessman, co-founded the Loews Corporation (d. 2003)
    • 1924 – Roger Marche, French footballer (d. 1997)
    • 1927 – Jack Cassidy, American actor and singer (d. 1976)
    • 1927 – Robert Lindsay, 29th Earl of Crawford, Scottish businessman and politician
    • 1928 – J. Hillis Miller, American academic and critic
    • 1929 – Erik Carlsson, Swedish race car driver (d. 2015)
    • 1929 – J. B. Lenoir, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1967)
    • 1930 – John Ashley, Canadian ice hockey player and referee (d. 2008)
    • 1930 – Del Crandall, American baseball player and manager
    • 1931 – Fred, French author and illustrator (d. 2013)
    • 1931 – Barry Tuckwell, Australian horn player and educator (d. 2020)
    • 1932 – Paul Sand, American actor
    • 1933 – Walter Kasper, German cardinal and theologian
    • 1934 – Daniel Kahneman, Israeli-American economist and psychologist, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1935 – Letizia Battaglia, Italian photographer and journalist
    • 1935 – Philip K. Chapman, Australian-American astronaut and engineer
    • 1936 – Canaan Banana, Zimbabwean minister and politician, 1st President of Zimbabwe (d. 2003)
    • 1936 – Dale Douglass, American golfer
    • 1936 – Dean Stockwell, American actor
    • 1937 – Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerian general and politician, 5th President of Nigeria
    • 1938 – Paul Evans, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1938 – Lynn Margulis, American biologist and academic (d. 2011)
    • 1938 – Fred Williamson, American football player, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1939 – Samantha Eggar, English actress
    • 1939 – Tony Rundle, Australian politician, 40th Premier of Tasmania
    • 1939 – Benyamin Sueb, Indonesian actor and comedian (d. 1995)
    • 1939 – Peter Woodcock, Canadian serial killer (d. 2010)
    • 1939 – Pierre Wynants, Belgian chef
    • 1940 – Tom Butler, English bishop
    • 1940 – Ken Irvine, Australian rugby league player (d. 1990)
    • 1940 – Graham McRae, New Zealand race car driver
    • 1940 – Sepp Piontek, German footballer and manager
    • 1941 – Des Wilson, New Zealand-English businessman and activist
    • 1942 – Felipe González, Spanish lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Spain
    • 1942 – Mike Resnick, American author and editor (d. 2020)
    • 1942 – David Watkins, Welsh rugby player
    • 1943 – Lucio Battisti, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1998)
    • 1944 – Peter Brandes, Danish painter and sculptor
    • 1944 – Roy Gutman, American journalist and author
    • 1945 – Wilf Tranter, English footballer
    • 1946 – Richard Bell, Canadian pianist (d. 2007)
    • 1946 – Guerrino Boatto, Italian illustrator and painter (d. 2018)
    • 1946 – Graham Hawkins, English footballer and manager (d. 2016)
    • 1946 – Murray Head, English actor and singer
    • 1947 – Clodagh Rodgers, Northern Irish singer and actress
    • 1947 – Kent Tekulve, American baseball player and sportscaster
    • 1948 – Paquirri, Spanish bullfighter (d. 1984)
    • 1948 – Eddy Grant, Guyanese-British singer-songwriter and musician
    • 1948 – Richard Hickox, English conductor and scholar (d. 2008)
    • 1948 – Elaine Paige, English singer and actress
    • 1948 – Jan van Beveren, Dutch footballer and coach (d. 2011)
    • 1949 – Bernard Arnault, French businessman, philanthropist, and art collector
    • 1949 – Franz Josef Jung, German lawyer and politician, German Federal Minister of Defence
    • 1949 – Tom Russell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1951 – Rodney Hogg, Australian cricketer and coach
    • 1952 – Petar Borota, Serbian footballer and coach (d. 2010)
    • 1952 – Mike Squires, American baseball player and scout
    • 1953 – Katarina Frostenson, Swedish poet and author
    • 1953 – Michael J. Sandel, American philosopher and academic
    • 1953 – Tokyo Sexwale, South African businessman and politician, 1st Premier of Gauteng
    • 1954 – Marsha Warfield, American actress
    • 1954 – João Lourenço, Angolan president
    • 1955 – Penn Jillette, American magician, actor, and author
    • 1956 – Teena Marie, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2010)
    • 1956 – Christopher Snowden, English engineer and academic
    • 1957 – Mark E. Smith, English singer, songwriter and musician (d. 2018)
    • 1957 – Ray Suarez, American journalist and author
    • 1958 – Volodymyr Bezsonov, Ukrainian footballer and manager
    • 1958 – Bob Forward, American director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1958 – Andy Gibb, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1988)
    • 1959 – Vazgen Sargsyan, Armenian colonel and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Armenia (d. 1999)
    • 1960 – Paul Drayson, Baron Drayson, English businessman and politician, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology
    • 1963 – Joel Osteen, American pastor, author, and television host
    • 1964 – Bertrand Cantat, French singer-songwriter
    • 1964 – Gerald Vanenburg, Dutch footballer and manager
    • 1965 – José Semedo, Portuguese footballer and coach
    • 1966 – Oh Eun-sun, South Korean mountaineer
    • 1966 – Bob Halkidis, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1966 – Michael Irvin, American football player, sportscaster, and actor
    • 1966 – Aasif Mandvi, Indian-American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1966 – Zachery Stevens, American singer-songwriter
    • 1968 – Gordon Bajnai, Hungarian businessman and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Hungary
    • 1968 – Theresa Villiers, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
    • 1969 – Paul Blackthorne, English actor and producer
    • 1969 – Danny King, English author and playwright
    • 1969 – Moussa Saïb, Algerian footballer and manager
    • 1969 – M.C. Solaar, Afro-French rapper
    • 1970 – Mike Brown, American basketball player and coach
    • 1970 – John Frusciante, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1970 – Yuu Watase, Japanese illustrator
    • 1971 – Greg Berry, English footballer and coach
    • 1971 – Jeffrey Hammonds, American baseball player and scout
    • 1971 – Yuri Lowenthal, American voice actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1971 – Filip Meirhaeghe, Belgian cyclist
    • 1971 – Mark Protheroe, Australian rugby league player
    • 1973 – Yannis Anastasiou, Greek footballer and manager
    • 1973 – Nelly Arcan, Canadian author (d. 2009)
    • 1973 – Juan Esnáider, Argentinian footballer and manager
    • 1973 – Ryan Franklin, American baseball player
    • 1973 – Nicole Pratt, Australian tennis player, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1973 – Špela Pretnar, Slovenian skier
    • 1974 – Kevin Connolly, American actor and director
    • 1974 – Jens Jeremies, German footballer
    • 1974 – Eva Mendes, American model and actress
    • 1975 – Luciano Burti, Brazilian race car driver and sportscaster
    • 1975 – Sasho Petrovski, Australian footballer
    • 1975 – Chris Silverwood, English cricketer and coach
    • 1976 – Neil Jackson, English actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1976 – Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
    • 1976 – Paul Konerko, American baseball player
    • 1976 – Norm Maxwell, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1977 – Taismary Agüero, Cuban-Italian volleyball player
    • 1978 – Jared Crouch, Australian footballer
    • 1978 – Mike Hessman, American baseball player and coach
    • 1978 – Kimberly McCullough, American actress, singer, and dancer
    • 1978 – Carlos Ochoa, Mexican footballer
    • 1979 – Martin Axenrot, Swedish drummer
    • 1979 – Lee Mears, English rugby player
    • 1980 – Shay Carl, American businessman, co-founded Maker Studios
    • 1981 – Barret Jackman, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1981 – Paul Martin, American ice hockey player
    • 1982 – Dan Carter, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1982 – Philipp Haastrup, German footballer
    • 1983 – Édgar Dueñas, Mexican footballer
    • 1984 – Branko Cvetković, Serbian basketball player
    • 1984 – Guillaume Hoarau, French footballer
    • 1985 – David Marshall, Scottish footballer
    • 1985 – Brad Mills, American baseball player
    • 1985 – Kenichi Matsuyama, Japanese actor
    • 1986 – Alexandre Barthe, French footballer
    • 1986 – Matty Fryatt, English footballer
    • 1987 – Anna Chakvetadze, Russian tennis player
    • 1987 – Chris Cohen, English footballer
    • 1988 – Liassine Cadamuro-Bentaïba, Algerian footballer
    • 1990 – Danny Drinkwater, English footballer
    • 1990  – Mason Plumlee, American basketball player
    • 1990 – Alex Smithies, English footballer
    • 1991 – Ramiro Funes Mori, Argentinian footballer
    • 1991 – Daniil Trifonov, Russian pianist and composer
    • 1993 – El Hadji Ba, French footballer
    • 1993 – Joshua Coyne, American violinist and composer
    • 1993 – Harry Maguire, English footballer
    • 1994 – Daria Gavrilova, Russian-Australian tennis player
    • 1994 – Kyle Schwarber, American baseball player
    • 1996 – Taylor Hill, American model
    • 1996 – Emmanuel Mudiay, Congolese basketball player
    • 1997 – Milena Venega, Cuban rower
    • 1998 – Bo Bichette, American baseball player
    • 1999 – Madison Beer, American singer, songwriter and producer.
    • 2007 – Roman Griffin Davis, British actor, second youngest Golden Globe recipient.

    Deaths on March 5

    • 254 – Pope Lucius I (b. 200)
    • 824 – Suppo I, Frankish nobleman
    • 1239 – Hermann Balk, German knight
    • 1410 – Matthew of Kraków, Polish reformer (b. 1335)
    • 1417 – Manuel III Megas Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond (b. 1364)
    • 1534 – Antonio da Correggio, Italian painter and educator (b. 1489)
    • 1539 – Nuno da Cunha, Portuguese admiral and politician, Governor of Portuguese India (b. 1487)
    • 1599 – Guido Panciroli, Italian historian and jurist (b. 1523)
    • 1611 – Shimazu Yoshihisa, Japanese daimyō (b. 1533)
    • 1622 – Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma (b. 1569)
    • 1695 – Henry Wharton, English writer and librarian (b. 1664)
    • 1726 – Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, English politician, Lord President of the Council (b. 1655)
    • 1770 – Crispus Attucks, American slave (b. 1723)
    • 1778 – Thomas Arne, English composer and educator (b. 1710)
    • 1815 – Franz Mesmer, German physician and astrologist (b. 1734)
    • 1827 – Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician and astronomer (b. 1749)
    • 1827 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and academic (b. 1745)
    • 1829 – John Adams, English sailor and mutineer (b. 1766)
    • 1849 – David Scott, Scottish historical painter (b. 1806)
    • 1876 – Marie d’Agoult, German-French historian and author (b. 1805)
    • 1893 – Hippolyte Taine, French historian and critic (b. 1828)
    • 1895 – Nikolai Leskov, Russian author, playwright, and journalist (b. 1831)
    • 1895 – Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, English general and scholar (b. 1810)
    • 1907 – Friedrich Blass, German philologist, scholar, and academic (b. 1843)
    • 1925 – Johan Jensen, Danish mathematician and engineer (b. 1859)
    • 1927 – Franz Mertens, Polish-Austrian mathematician and academic (b. 1840)
    • 1929 – David Dunbar Buick, Scottish-American businessman, founded Buick (b. 1854)
    • 1934 – Reşit Galip, Turkish academic and politician, 6th Turkish Minister of National Education (b. 1893)
    • 1935 – Roque Ruaño, Spanish priest and engineer (b. 1877)
    • 1940 – Cai Yuanpei, Chinese philosopher and academic (b. 1868)
    • 1944 – Max Jacob, French poet and author (b. 1876)
    • 1945 – Lena Baker, African American maid and murderer (b. 1900)
    • 1947 – Alfredo Casella, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1883)
    • 1950 – Edgar Lee Masters, American poet, author, and playwright (b. 1868)
    • 1950 – Roman Shukhevych, Ukrainian general and politician (b. 1907)
    • 1953 – Herman J. Mankiewicz, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1897)
    • 1953 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1891)
    • 1953 – Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator and politician of Georgian descent, 2nd leader of the Soviet Union (b. 1878)
    • 1955 – Antanas Merkys, Lithuanian lawyer and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Lithuania (b. 1888)
    • 1963 – Patsy Cline, American singer-songwriter (b. 1932)
    • 1963 – Cowboy Copas, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1913)
    • 1963 – Hawkshaw Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1921)
    • 1965 – Chen Cheng, Chinese general and politician, 27th Premier of the Republic of China (b. 1897)
    • 1965 – Pepper Martin, American baseball player and manager (b. 1904)
    • 1966 – Anna Akhmatova, Ukrainian-Russian poet, author, and translator (b. 1889)
    • 1967 – Mischa Auer, Russian-American actor (b. 1905)
    • 1967 – Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iranian political scientist and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Iran (b. 1882)
    • 1967 – Georges Vanier, Canadian general and politician, 19th Governor General of Canada (b. 1888)
    • 1971 – Allan Nevins, American journalist and author (b. 1890)
    • 1973 – Robert C. O’Brien, American journalist and author (b. 1918)
    • 1974 – John Samuel Bourque, Canadian colonel and politician (b. 1894)
    • 1974 – Billy De Wolfe, American actor (b. 1907)
    • 1974 – Sol Hurok, Ukrainian-American businessman (b. 1888)
    • 1976 – Otto Tief, Estonian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Estonia (b. 1889)
    • 1977 – Tom Pryce, Welsh race car driver (b. 1949)
    • 1980 – Jay Silverheels, Canadian-American actor (b. 1912)
    • 1981 – Yip Harburg, American songwriter and composer (b. 1896)
    • 1982 – John Belushi, American actor (b. 1949)
    • 1984 – Pierre Cochereau, French organist and composer (b. 1924)
    • 1984 – Tito Gobbi, Italian operatic baritone (b. 1913)
    • 1984 – William Powell, American actor (b. 1892)
    • 1988 – Alberto Olmedo, Argentine comedian and actor (b. 1933)
    • 1990 – Gary Merrill, American actor and director (b. 1915)
    • 1995 – Vivian Stanshall, English singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1943)
    • 1996 – Whit Bissell, American character actor (b. 1909)
    • 1997 – Samm Sinclair Baker, American writer (b. 1909)
    • 1997 – Jean Dréville, French director and screenwriter (b. 1906)
    • 1999 – Richard Kiley, American actor and singer (b. 1922)
    • 2000 – Lolo Ferrari, French dancer, actress and singer (b. 1963)
    • 2005 – David Sheppard, English cricketer and bishop (b. 1929)
    • 2008 – Joseph Weizenbaum, German computer scientist and author (b. 1923)
    • 2010 – Charles B. Pierce, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1938)
    • 2010 – Richard Stapley, British actor and writer (b. 1923)
    • 2011 – Manolis Rasoulis, Greek singer-songwriter (b. 1945)
    • 2012 – Paul Haines, New Zealand-Australian author (b. 1970)
    • 2012 – Philip Madoc, Welsh-English actor (b. 1934)
    • 2012 – Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter and screenwriter (b. 1925)
    • 2012 – William O. Wooldridge, American sergeant (b. 1922)
    • 2013 – Paul Bearer, American wrestler and manager (b. 1954)
    • 2013 – Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan colonel and politician, President of Venezuela (b. 1954)
    • 2013 – Duane Gish, American biochemist and academic (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – Geoff Edwards, American actor and game show host (b. 1931)
    • 2014 – Ailsa McKay, Scottish economist and academic (b. 1963)
    • 2014 – Leopoldo María Panero, Spanish poet and translator (b. 1948)
    • 2014 – Ola L. Mize, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1931)
    • 2015 – Vlada Divljan, Serbian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1958)
    • 2015 – Edward Egan, American cardinal (b. 1932)
    • 2016 – Hassan Al-Turabi, Sudanese activist and politician (b. 1932)
    • 2016 – Ray Tomlinson, American computer programmer and engineer (b. 1941)
    • 2016 – Al Wistert, American football player and coach (b. 1920)
    • 2017 – Kurt Moll, German opera singer (b. 1938)

    Holidays and observances on March 5

    • Christian feast day:
      • Ciarán of Saigir
      • John Joseph of the Cross
      • Piran
      • Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea
      • Thietmar of Minden
      • March 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Custom Chief’s Day (Vanuatu)
    • Day of Physical Culture and Sport (Azerbaijan)
    • Learn from Lei Feng Day (China)
    • St Piran’s Day (Cornwall)

  • March 4- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • AD 51 – Nero, later to become Roman emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).
    • 306 – Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.
    • 852 – Croatian Knez Trpimir I issues a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources.
    • 938 – Translation of the relics of martyr Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Prince of the Czechs.
    • 1152 – Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of Germany.
    • 1238 – The Battle of the Sit River is fought in the northern part of the present-day Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia between the Mongol hordes of Batu Khan and the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Rus’.
    • 1351 – Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.
    • 1386 – Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) is crowned King of Poland.
    • 1461 – Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his House of York cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.
    • 1493 – Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what are now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.
    • 1519 – Hernán Cortés arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and its wealth.
    • 1628 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter.
    • 1665 – English King Charles II declares war on the Netherlands marking the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
    • 1675 – John Flamsteed is appointed the first Astronomer Royal of England.
    • 1681 – Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.
    • 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.
    • 1789 – In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect. The United States Bill of Rights is written and proposed to Congress.
    • 1790 – France is divided into 83 départements, cutting across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.
    • 1791 – The Constitutional Act of 1791 is introduced by the British House of Commons in London which envisages the separation of Canada into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).
    • 1791 – Vermont is admitted to the United States as the fourteenth state.
    • 1794 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress.
    • 1797 – John Adams is inaugurated as the 2nd President of the United States of America, becoming the first President to begin his presidency on March 4.
    • 1804 – Castle Hill Rebellion: Irish convicts rebel against British colonial authority in the Colony of New South Wales.
    • 1813 – Cyril VI of Constantinople is elected Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
    • 1814 – Americans defeat British forces at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and Thamesville, near present-day Wardsville, Ontario.
    • 1837 – The city of Chicago is incorporated.
    • 1848 – Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d’Italia.
    • 1849 – President-Elect Zachary Taylor and Vice President-Elect Millard Fillmore did not take their respective oaths of office (they did so the following day), leading to the erroneous theory that outgoing President pro tempore of the United States Senate David Rice Atchison had assumed the role of acting president for one day.
    • 1861 – The first national flag of the Confederate States of America (the “Stars and Bars”) is adopted.
    • 1865 – The third and final national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress.
    • 1882 – Britain’s first electric trams run in east London.
    • 1890 – The longest bridge in Great Britain, the Forth Bridge in Scotland, measuring 1,710 feet (520 m) long, is opened by the Duke of Rothesay, later King Edward VII.
    • 1899 – Cyclone Mahina sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland, with a 12 metres (39 ft) wave that reaches up to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) inland, killing over 300.
    • 1908 – The Collinwood school fire, Collinwood near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people.
    • 1909 – U.S. President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution’s Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State.
    • 1913 – First Balkan War: The Greek army engages the Turks at Bizani, resulting in victory two days later.
    • 1913 – The United States Department of Labor is formed.
    • 1917 – Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
    • 1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the 32nd President of the United States.
    • 1933 – Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet.
    • 1933 – The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure – Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates an authoritarian rule by decree.
    • 1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands; the first large scale British Commando raid.
    • 1943 – World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the south-west Pacific comes to an end.
    • 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Fardykambos, one of the first major battles between the Greek Resistance and the occupying Royal Italian Army, begins. It ends on 6 March with the surrender of an entire Italian battalion and the liberation of the town of Grevena.
    • 1944 – World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
    • 1957 – The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
    • 1960 – The French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havana, Cuba, killing 100.
    • 1962 – A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 – the worst crash of a DC-7.
    • 1966 – A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people.
    • 1966 – In an interview in the London Evening Standard, The Beatles’ John Lennon declares that the band is “more popular than Jesus now”.
    • 1970 – French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew.
    • 1974 – People magazine is published for the first time in the United States as People Weekly.
    • 1976 – The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament.
    • 1977 – The 1977 Vrancea earthquake in eastern and southern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in Bucharest, Romania.
    • 1980 – Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe’s first black prime minister.
    • 1985 – The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
    • 1986 – The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley’s Comet and the first images of its nucleus.
    • 1990 – American basketball player Hank Gathers dies after collapsing during the semifinals of a West Coast Conference Tournament game.
    • 1996 – A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin (USA) causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.
    • 1998 – Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
    • 2001 – BBC bombing: A massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring one person; the attack was attributed to the Real IRA.
    • 2002 – Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers and 200 Al-Qaeda Fighters are killed as American forces attempt to infiltrate the Shah-i-Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.
    • 2009 – The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
    • 2012 – A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, killing at least 250 people.
    • 2015 – At least 34 miners die in a suspected gas explosion at the Zasyadko coal mine in the rebel-held Donetsk region of Ukraine.
    • 2018 – Former MI6 spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter are poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury, England, causing a diplomatic uproar that results in mass-expulsions of diplomats from all countries involved.
    • 2019 – The Indian Attack submarine was spotted by the Pakistan Navy.
    • 2020 – Former Daredevil Nik Wallenda is the first person to walk over the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua.

    Births on March 4

    • 895 – Liu Zhiyuan, founder of the Later Han Dynasty (d. 948)
    • 977 – Al-Musabbihi, Fatimid historian and official (d. 1030)
    • 1188 – Blanche of Castile, French queen consort (d. 1252)
    • 1394 – Henry the Navigator, Portuguese explorer (d. 1460)
    • 1484 – George, margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1543)
    • 1492 – Francesco de Layolle, Italian organist and composer (d. 1540)
    • 1502 – Elisabeth of Hesse, princess of Saxony (d. 1557)
    • 1519 – Hindal Mirza, Mughal emperor (d. 1551)
    • 1526 – Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (d. 1596)
    • 1602 – Kanō Tan’yū, Japanese painter (d. 1674)
    • 1634 – Kazimierz Łyszczyński, Polish philosopher (d. 1689)
    • 1651 – John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, English lawyer, jurist, and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (d. 1716)
    • 1655 – Fra Galgario, Italian painter (d. 1743)
    • 1665 – Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, Swedish soldier (d. 1694)
    • 1678 – Antonio Vivaldi, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1741)
    • 1702 – Jack Sheppard, English criminal (d. 1724)
    • 1706 – Lauritz de Thurah, Danish architect, designed the Hermitage Hunting Lodge and Gammel Holtegård (d. 1759)
    • 1715 – James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, English historian and politician (d. 1763)
    • 1719 – George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot, English politician (d. 1777)
    • 1729 – Anne d’Arpajon, French wife of Philippe de Noailles (d. 1794)
    • 1745 – Charles Dibdin, English actor, playwright, and composer (d. 1814)
    • 1745 – Casimir Pulaski, Polish-American general (d. 1779)
    • 1756 – Henry Raeburn, Scottish painter and educator (d. 1823)
    • 1760 – William Payne, English painter (d. 1830)
    • 1760 – Hugh Ronalds, British nurseryman who cultivated and documented 300 varieties of apples (d. 1833)
    • 1769 – Muhammad Ali, Ottoman military leader and pasha (d. 1849)
    • 1770 – Joseph Jacotot, French philosopher and academic (d. 1840)
    • 1778 – Robert Emmet, Irish commander (d. 1803)
    • 1781 – Rebecca Gratz, American educator and philanthropist (d. 1869)
    • 1782 – Johann Rudolf Wyss, Swiss philosopher, author, and academic (d. 1830)
    • 1792 – Isaac Lea, American conchologist, geologist, and publisher (d. 1886)
    • 1793 – Karl Lachmann, German philologist and critic (d. 1851)
    • 1814 – Napoleon Collins, Rear Admiral of the United States Navy during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War (d. 1875)
    • 1817 – Edwards Pierrepont, American lawyer and politician, 34th United States Attorney General (d. 1892)
    • 1820 – Francesco Bentivegna, Italian rebel leader (d. 1856)
    • 1822 – Jules Antoine Lissajous, French mathematician and academic (d. 1880)
    • 1823 – George Caron, Canadian businessman and politician (d. 1902)
    • 1826 – August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein, German linguist, ethnographer, and theologian (d. 1907)
    • 1826 – John Buford, American general (d. 1863)
    • 1826 – Elme Marie Caro, French philosopher and academic (d. 1887)
    • 1826 – Theodore Judah, American engineer, founded the Central Pacific Railroad (d. 1863)
    • 1828 – Owen Wynne Jones, Welsh clergyman and poet (d. 1870)
    • 1838 – Paul Lacôme, French pianist, cellist, and composer (d. 1920)
    • 1847 – Carl Josef Bayer, Austrian chemist and academic (d. 1904)
    • 1851 – Alexandros Papadiamantis, Greek author and poet (d. 1911)
    • 1854 – Napier Shaw, English meteorologist and academic (d. 1945)
    • 1856 – Alfred William Rich, English painter, author, and educator (d. 1921)
    • 1861 – Arthur Cushman McGiffert, American theologian and author (d. 1933)
    • 1862 – Jacob Robert Emden, Swiss astrophysicist and meteorologist (d. 1940)
    • 1863 – R. I. Pocock, English zoologist and archaeologist (d. 1947)
    • 1863 – John Henry Wigmore, American academic and jurist (d. 1943)
    • 1864 – David W. Taylor, American admiral, architect, and engineer (d. 1940)
    • 1866 – Eugène Cosserat, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1931)
    • 1867 – Jacob L. Beilhart, American activist, founded the Spirit Fruit Society (d. 1908)
    • 1867 – Charles Pelot Summerall, senior United States Army officer (d. 1955)
    • 1870 – Thomas Sturge Moore, English author and poet (d. 1944)
    • 1871 – Boris Galerkin, Russian mathematician and engineer (d. 1945)
    • 1873 – Guy Wetmore Carryl, American journalist and poet (d. 1904)
    • 1873 – John H. Trumbull, American colonel and politician, 70th Governor of Connecticut (d. 1961)
    • 1875 – Mihály Károlyi, Hungarian politician, President of the Hungary (d. 1955)
    • 1875 – Enrique Larreta, Argentinian historian and author (d. 1961)
    • 1876 – Léon-Paul Fargue, French poet and author (d. 1947)
    • 1876 – Theodore Hardeen, Hungarian-American magician (d. 1945)
    • 1877 – Alexander Goedicke, Russian pianist and composer (d. 1957)
    • 1877 – Fritz Graebner, German geographer and ethnologist (d. 1934)
    • 1877 – Garrett Morgan, African-American inventor (d. 1963)
    • 1878 – Takeo Arishima, Japanese author and critic (d. 1923)
    • 1878 – Egbert Van Alstyne, American pianist and songwriter (d. 1951)
    • 1879 – Bernhard Kellermann, German author and poet (d. 1951)
    • 1880 – Channing Pollock, American playwright and critic (d. 1946)
    • 1881 – Todor Aleksandrov, Bulgarian educator and activist (d. 1924)
    • 1881 – Thomas Sigismund Stribling, American lawyer and author (d. 1965)
    • 1881 – Richard C. Tolman, American physicist and chemist (d. 1948)
    • 1882 – Nicolae Titulescu, Romanian academic and politician, 61st Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1941)
    • 1883 – Maude Fealy, American actress and screenwriter (d. 1971)
    • 1883 – Robert Emmett Keane, American actor (d. 1981)
    • 1883 – Sam Langford, Canadian-American boxer (d. 1956)
    • 1884 – Red Murray, American baseball player (d. 1958)
    • 1884 – Lee Shumway, American actor (d. 1959)
    • 1886 – Paul Bazelaire, French cellist and composer (d. 1958)
    • 1888 – Rafaela Ottiano, Italian-American actress (d. 1942)
    • 1888 – Jeff Pfeffer, American baseball player (d. 1972)
    • 1888 – Emma Richter, German paleontologist (d. 1956)
    • 1888 – Knute Rockne, American football player and coach (d. 1931)
    • 1889 – Oscar Chisini, Italian mathematician and statistician (d. 1967)
    • 1889 – Oren E. Long, American soldier and politician, 10th Territorial Governor of Hawaii (d. 1965)
    • 1889 – Pearl White, American actress (d. 1938)
    • 1889 – Robert William Wood, English-American painter (d. 1979)
    • 1890 – Norman Bethune, Canadian soldier and physician (d. 1939)
    • 1891 – Dazzy Vance, American baseball player (d. 1961)
    • 1893 – Charles Herbert Colvin, American engineer, co-founded the Pioneer Instrument Company (d. 1985)
    • 1893 – Adolph Lowe, German sociologist and economist (d. 1995)
    • 1894 – Charles Corm, Lebanese businessman and philanthropist (d. 1963)
    • 1895 – Milt Gross, American animator, director, and screenwriter (d. 1953)
    • 1896 – Kai Holm, Danish actor and director (d. 1985)
    • 1897 – Lefty O’Doul, American baseball player and manager (d. 1969)
    • 1898 – Georges Dumézil, French philologist and academic (d. 1986)
    • 1898 – Hans Krebs, German general (d. 1945)
    • 1899 – Peter Illing, Austrian born, British film and television actor (d. 1966)
    • 1899 – Emilio Prados, Spanish poet and author (d. 1962)
    • 1900 – Herbert Biberman, American director and screenwriter (d. 1971)
    • 1901 – Wilbur R. Franks, Canadian scientist, invented the g-suit (d. 1986)
    • 1901 – Charles Goren, American bridge player and author (d. 1991)
    • 1901 – Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, Malagasy-French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1937)
    • 1902 – Rachel Messerer, Lithuanian-Russian actress (d. 1993)
    • 1902 – Russell Reeder, American soldier and author (d. 1998)
    • 1903 – William C. Boyd, American immunologist and chemist (d. 1983)
    • 1903 – Malcolm Dole, American chemist and academic (d. 1990)
    • 1903 – Dorothy Mackaill, English-American actress and singer (d. 1990)
    • 1903 – John Scarne, American magician and author (d. 1985)
    • 1904 – Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish admiral and politician, 69th President of the Government of Spain (d. 1973)
    • 1904 – George Gamow, Ukrainian-American physicist and cosmologist (d. 1968)
    • 1904 – Joseph Schmidt, Austrian-Hungarian tenor and actor (d. 1942)
    • 1906 – Meindert DeJong, Dutch-American soldier and author (d. 1991)
    • 1906 – Avery Fisher, American violinist and engineer, founded Fisher Electronics (d. 1994)
    • 1906 – Georges Ronsse, Belgian cyclist and manager (d. 1969)
    • 1907 – Edgar Barrier, American actor (d. 1964)
    • 1908 – T. R. M. Howard, American surgeon and activist (d. 1976)
    • 1908 – Thomas Shaw, American singer and guitarist (d. 1977)
    • 1909 – Harry Helmsley, American businessman (d. 1997)
    • 1909 – George Edward Holbrook, American chemist and engineer (d. 1987)
    • 1910 – Tancredo Neves, Brazilian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Brazil (d. 1985)
    • 1911 – Charles Greville, 7th Earl of Warwick, English actor (d. 1984)
    • 1912 – Afro Basaldella, Italian painter and academic (d. 1976)
    • 1912 – Ferdinand Leitner, German conductor and composer (d. 1996)
    • 1912 – Carl Marzani, Italian-American activist and publisher (d. 1994)
    • 1913 – Taos Amrouche, Algerian singer and author (d. 1976)
    • 1913 – John Garfield, American actor and singer (d. 1952)
    • 1914 – Barbara Newhall Follett, American author (d. 1939)
    • 1914 – Ward Kimball, American animator, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2002)
    • 1914 – Robert R. Wilson, American physicist, sculptor, and architect (d. 2000)
    • 1915 – László Csatáry, Hungarian art dealer (d. 2013)
    • 1915 – Frank Sleeman, Australian lieutenant and politician, Lord Mayor of Brisbane (d. 2000)
    • 1915 – Carlos Surinach, Spanish-Catalan composer and conductor (d. 1997)
    • 1916 – William Alland, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1997)
    • 1916 – Giorgio Bassani, Italian author and poet (d. 2000)
    • 1916 – Hans Eysenck, German-English psychologist and theorist (d. 1997)
    • 1917 – Clyde McCullough, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1982)
    • 1918 – Kurt Dahlmann, German pilot, lawyer, and journalist (d. 2017)
    • 1918 – Margaret Osborne duPont, American tennis player (d. 2012)
    • 1919 – Buck Baker, American race car driver (d. 2002)
    • 1919 – Tan Chee Khoon, Malaysian physician and politician (d. 1996)
    • 1920 – Jean Lecanuet, French politician, French Minister of Justice (d. 1993)
    • 1920 – Alan MacNaughtan, Scottish-English actor (d. 2002)
    • 1921 – Halim El-Dabh, Egyptian-American composer and educator (d. 2017)
    • 1921 – Joan Greenwood, English actress (d. 1987)
    • 1921 – Dinny Pails, English-Australian tennis player (d. 1986)
    • 1922 – Richard E. Cunha, American director and cinematographer (d. 2005)
    • 1922 – Dina Pathak, Indian actor and director (d. 2002)
    • 1923 – Russell Freeburg, American journalist and author
    • 1923 – Francis King, English author and poet (d. 2011)
    • 1923 – Patrick Moore, English astronomer and television host (d. 2012)
    • 1924 – Kenneth O’Donnell, American soldier and politician (d. 1977)
    • 1925 – Alan R. Battersby, English chemist and academic (d. 2018)
    • 1925 – Paul Mauriat, French conductor and composer (d. 2006)
    • 1926 – Henri de Contenson, French archaeologist and academic (d. 2019)
    • 1926 – Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma, French businessman, soldier and race car driver (d. 2018)
    • 1926 – Richard DeVos, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Amway (d. 2018)
    • 1926 – Pascual Pérez, Argentinian boxer (d. 1977)
    • 1926 – Don Rendell, English saxophonist and flute player (d. 2015)
    • 1927 – Phil Batt, American soldier and politician, 29th Governor of Idaho
    • 1927 – Thayer David, American actor (d. 1978)
    • 1927 – Jacques Dupin, French poet and critic (d. 2012)
    • 1927 – Robert Orben, American magician and author
    • 1927 – Dick Savitt, American tennis player and businessman
    • 1928 – Samuel Adler, German-American composer and conductor
    • 1928 – Alan Sillitoe, English novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet (d. 2010)
    • 1929 – Bernard Haitink, Dutch violinist and conductor
    • 1929 – Peter Swerling, American theoretician and engineer (d. 2000)
    • 1931 – Wally Bruner, American journalist and television host (d. 1997)
    • 1931 – Bob Johnson, American ice hockey player and coach (d. 1991)
    • 1931 – William Henry Keeler, American cardinal (d. 2017)
    • 1931 – Alice Rivlin, American economist and politician (d. 2019)
    • 1932 – Sigurd Jansen, Norwegian pianist, composer, and conductor
    • 1932 – Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist, photographer, and poet (d. 2007)
    • 1932 – Miriam Makeba, South African singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2008)
    • 1932 – Ed Roth, American illustrator (d. 2001)
    • 1932 – Frank Wells, American businessman (d. 1994)
    • 1933 – Nino Vaccarella, Italian race car driver
    • 1934 – Mario Davidovsky, Argentinian-American composer and academic (d. 2019)
    • 1934 – John Duffey, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1996)
    • 1934 – Anne Haney, American actress (d. 2001)
    • 1934 – Barbara McNair, American singer and actress (d. 2007)
    • 1934 – Sandra Reynolds, South African tennis player
    • 1934 – Janez Strnad, Slovenian physicist and academic (d. 2015)
    • 1935 – Edward Dębicki, Ukrainian-Polish poet and composer
    • 1935 – Bent Larsen, Danish chess player and author (d. 2010)
    • 1936 – Eric Allandale, Dominican trombonist and songwriter (d. 2001)
    • 1936 – Jim Clark, Scottish race car driver (d. 1968)
    • 1936 – Aribert Reimann, German pianist and composer
    • 1937 – José Araquistáin, Spanish footballer
    • 1937 – William Deverell, Canadian lawyer, author, and activist
    • 1937 – Graham Dowling, New Zealand cricketer
    • 1937 – Leslie H. Gelb, American journalist and author (d. 2019)
    • 1937 – Yuri Senkevich, Russian physician and explorer (d. 2003)
    • 1937 – Barney Wilen, French saxophonist and composer (d. 1996)
    • 1937 – Richard B. Wright, Canadian journalist and author (d. 2017)
    • 1938 – Anton Balasingham, Sri Lankan-English negotiator (d. 2006)
    • 1938 – Alpha Condé, Guinean politician, President of Guinea
    • 1938 – Allan Kornblum, American police officer and judge (d. 2010)
    • 1938 – Angus MacLise, American drummer and composer (d. 1979)
    • 1938 – Don Perkins, American football player and sportscaster
    • 1938 – Paula Prentiss, American actress
    • 1938 – Adam Daniel Rotfeld, Polish academic and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs
    • 1939 – Jack Fisher, American baseball player
    • 1939 – Robert Shaye, American film producer
    • 1940 – Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, German scholar and judge
    • 1940 – David Plante, American novelist
    • 1941 – John Hancock, American film and television actor (d. 1992)
    • 1941 – Adrian Lyne, English director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1941 – James Zagel, American lawyer and judge
    • 1942 – Gloria Gaither, American singer-songwriter
    • 1942 – Charles C. Krulak, American general
    • 1942 – David Matthews, American keyboard player and composer
    • 1942 – Lynn Sherr, American journalist and author
    • 1942 – James Gustave Speth, American lawyer and politician
    • 1942 – Zorán Sztevanovity, Serbian-Hungarian singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1943 – Lucio Dalla, Italian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2012)
    • 1943 – Aldo Rico, Argentinian commander and politician
    • 1944 – Harvey Postlethwaite, English engineer (d. 1999)
    • 1944 – Anthony Ichiro Sanda, Japanese-American physicist and academic
    • 1944 – Len Walker, English footballer and manager
    • 1944 – Bobby Womack, American singer-songwriter (d. 2014)
    • 1945 – Tommy Svensson, Swedish footballer and manager
    • 1945 – Gary Williams, American basketball player and coach
    • 1946 – Michael Ashcroft, English businessman and politician
    • 1946 – Danny Frisella, American baseball player (d. 1977)
    • 1946 – Haile Gerima, Ethiopian born US filmmaker
    • 1946 – Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, American journalist and author
    • 1947 – David Franzoni, American screenwriter and film producer
    • 1947 – Jan Garbarek, Norwegian saxophonist and composer
    • 1947 – Bob Lewis, American guitarist
    • 1947 – Pēteris Plakidis, Latvian pianist and composer (d. 2017)
    • 1948 – Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, New Zealand-Australian author
    • 1948 – James Ellroy, American writer
    • 1948 – Tom Grieve, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster
    • 1948 – Mike Moran, English musician, songwriter and record producer
    • 1948 – Jean O’Leary, American nun and activist (d. 2005)
    • 1948 – Chris Squire, English singer-songwriter and bass guitarist (d. 2015)
    • 1948 – Shakin’ Stevens, British singer-songwriter
    • 1949 – Sergei Bagapsh, Abkhazian politician, 2nd President of Abkhazia (d. 2011)
    • 1949 – Carroll Baker, Canadian singer-songwriter
    • 1950 – Ofelia Medina, Mexican actress and screenwriter
    • 1950 – Rick Perry, American captain and politician, 47th Governor of Texas
    • 1950 – Safet Plakalo, Bosnian author and playwright (d. 2015)
    • 1951 – Edelgard Bulmahn, German educator and politician, German Federal Minister of Education and Research
    • 1951 – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, South Korean-American author, director, and producer (d. 1982)
    • 1951 – Kenny Dalglish, Scottish footballer and manager
    • 1951 – Pete Haycock, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
    • 1951 – Peter O’Sullivan, Welsh international footballer, winger
    • 1951 – Sam Perlozzo, American baseball player and manager
    • 1951 – Chris Rea, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1951 – Glenis Willmott, English scientist and politician
    • 1951 – Zoran Žižić, Montenegrin politician, 4th Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (d. 2013)
    • 1952 – Peter Kuhfeld, English painter
    • 1952 – Ronn Moss, American singer-songwriter and actor
    • 1952 – Svend Robinson, American-Canadian lawyer and politician
    • 1952 – Umberto Tozzi, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1953 – John Edwards, Australian director and producer
    • 1953 – Emilio Estefan, Cuban-American drummer and producer
    • 1953 – Paweł Janas, Polish footballer and manager
    • 1953 – Ray Price, Australian rugby player and sportscaster
    • 1953 – Reinhold Roth, German motorcycle racer
    • 1953 – Chris Smith, American lawyer and politician
    • 1953 – Agustí Villaronga, Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1953 – Daniel Woodrell, American novelist and short story writer
    • 1954 – Timur Apakidze, Russian general and pilot (d. 2001)
    • 1954 – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Korean American author (d. 1982)
    • 1954 – François Fillon, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France
    • 1954 – Peter Jacobsen, American golfer and sportscaster
    • 1954 – Catherine O’Hara, Canadian-American actress and comedian
    • 1954 – Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian poet and author (d. 2017)
    • 1955 – Tim Costello, Australian minister and politician
    • 1955 – Joey Jones, Welsh footballer and manager
    • 1957 – Nicholas Coleridge, English journalist and businessman
    • 1957 – Ron Fassler, American film and television actor and author
    • 1957 – Mykelti Williamson, American actor and director
    • 1958 – Patricia Heaton, American actress
    • 1958 – Massimo Mascioletti, Italian rugby player and coach
    • 1958 – Tina Smith, American politician, junior senator of Minnesota
    • 1959 – Rick Ardon, Australian journalist
    • 1959 – Plamen Getov, Bulgarian footballer
    • 1960 – Chonda Pierce, American comedian
    • 1961 – Ray Mancini, American boxer
    • 1961 – Steven Weber, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1961 – Roger Wessels, South African golfer and educator
    • 1962 – Simon Bisley, English author and illustrator
    • 1962 – Paul Canoville, English footballer
    • 1962 – Stephan Reimertz, German historian and author
    • 1963 – Jason Newsted, American heavy metal singer-songwriter and bass player
    • 1964 – Dave Colclough, Welsh computer programmer and poker player (d. 2016)
    • 1964 – Brian Crowley, Irish lawyer and politician
    • 1964 – Tom Lampkin, American baseball player and sportscaster
    • 1964 – Paolo Virzì, Italian director and screenwriter
    • 1965 – Greg Alexander, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
    • 1965 – Paul W. S. Anderson, English director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1965 – Andrew Collins, English journalist and screenwriter
    • 1965 – Khaled Hosseini, Afghan-born American novelist
    • 1965 – Yury Lonchakov, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut
    • 1965 – John Murphy British film composer
    • 1966 – Emese Hunyady, Hungarian speed skater
    • 1966 – Kevin Johnson, American basketball player and politician, 55th Mayor of Sacramento
    • 1966 – Fiona Ma, American accountant and politician
    • 1966 – Helmut Mayer, Austrian skier
    • 1966 – Glen Nissen, Australian rugby league player
    • 1966 – Dav Pilkey, American author and illustrator
    • 1966 – Grand Puba, American rapper
    • 1966 – Mike Small, American golfer and coach
    • 1967 – Daryll Cullinan, South African cricketer and coach
    • 1967 – Evan Dando, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1967 – Ivan Lewis, English lawyer and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
    • 1967 – Terry Matterson, Australian rugby league player and coach
    • 1967 – Dave Rayner, English cyclist (d. 1994)
    • 1967 – Sam Taylor-Johnson, English filmmaker and photographer
    • 1967 – Kubilay Türkyilmaz, Swiss footballer
    • 1967 – Tim Vine, English comedian, actor, and author
    • 1968 – Giovanni Carrara, Venezuelan baseball player
    • 1968 – Jorge Celedón, Colombian singer
    • 1968 – Patsy Kensit, English model and actress
    • 1968 – Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greek banker and politician, Prime Minister of Greece
    • 1968 – Graham Westley, English footballer and manager
    • 1969 – Pierluigi Casiraghi, Italian footballer and manager
    • 1969 – Wayne Collins, English footballer, midfielder
    • 1969 – Annie Yi, Taiwanese singer, actress, and writer
    • 1970 – Àlex Crivillé, Spanish motorcycle racer
    • 1970 – Will Keen, English actor
    • 1970 – Caroline Vis, Dutch tennis player
    • 1971 – Iain Baird, Canadian soccer player and manager
    • 1971 – Claire Baker, Scottish politician
    • 1971 – Emily Bazelon, American journalist
    • 1971 – Jason Croot, English actor and director
    • 1971 – Anders Kjølholm, Danish bass player
    • 1971 – Satoshi Motoyama, Japanese race car driver
    • 1971 – Geraldine O’Rawe, Northern Irish actress
    • 1972 – Katherine Center, American journalist and author
    • 1972 – Nocturno Culto, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1972 – Robert Smith, American football player and sportscaster
    • 1972 – Ivy Queen, Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, rapper, actress and record producer
    • 1972 – Jos Verstappen, Dutch race car driver
    • 1972 – Alison Wheeler, English singer-songwriter
    • 1973 – Massimo Brambilla, Italian footballer and coach
    • 1973 – Phillip Daniels, American football player and coach
    • 1973 – Valery Kobelev, Russian ski jumper
    • 1973 – Penny Mordaunt, English lieutenant and politician, Minister of State for the Armed Forces
    • 1973 – Linus of Hollywood, American singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1973 – Len Wiseman, American director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1973 – Chandra Sekhar Yeleti, Indian director and screenwriter
    • 1974 – Crowbar, American wrestler
    • 1974 – Mladen Krstajić, Serbian footballer and manager
    • 1974 – Karol Kučera, Slovak tennis player
    • 1974 – Ariel Ortega, Argentinian footballer
    • 1974 – Tommy Phelps, South Korean-American baseball player and coach
    • 1974 – ICS Vortex, Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1974 – David Wagner, American tennis player and educator
    • 1974 – Bill Young, Australian rugby player
    • 1975 – Mats Eilertsen, Norwegian bassist and composer
    • 1975 – Patrick Femerling, German basketball player
    • 1975 – Antti Aalto, Finnish ice hockey player
    • 1975 – Kristi Harrower, Australian basketball player
    • 1975 – Hawksley Workman, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1976 – Robbie Blake, English footballer
    • 1976 – Tommy Jönsson, Swedish footballer
    • 1977 – Nacho Figueras, Argentinian polo player and model
    • 1977 – Traver Rains, American fashion designer and photographer
    • 1978 – Pierre Dagenais, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1978 – Denis Dallan, Italian rugby player and singer
    • 1978 – Jean-Marc Pelletier, American ice hockey player
    • 1979 – Sarah Stock, Canadian wrestler and trainer
    • 1980 – Rohan Bopanna, Indian tennis player
    • 1980 – Omar Bravo, Mexican footballer
    • 1980 – Suzanna Choffel, American singer-songwriter
    • 1980 – Giedrius Gustas, Lithuanian basketball player
    • 1980 – Scott Hamilton, New Zealand rugby player and coach
    • 1980 – Jack Hannahan, American baseball player
    • 1980 – Michael Henrich, American ice hockey player
    • 1980 – Phil McGuire, Scottish footballer and manager
    • 1980 – Aja Volkman, American singer-songwriter
    • 1981 – Ariza Makukula, Portuguese footballer
    • 1981 – Helen Wyman, English cyclist
    • 1982 – Landon Donovan, American soccer player and coach
    • 1982 – Cate Edwards, American lawyer and author
    • 1982 – Ludmila Ezhova, Russian gymnast
    • 1982 – Yasemin Mori, Turkish singer
    • 1983 – Samuel Contesti, French-Italian figure skater
    • 1983 – Adam Deacon, English film actor, rapper, writer and director
    • 1983 – Jaque Fourie, South African rugby player
    • 1983 – Drew Houston, American billionaire and Internet entrepreneur
    • 1984 – Josh Bowman, English actor
    • 1984 – Tamir Cohen, Israeli footballer
    • 1984 – Anders Grøndal, Norwegian race car driver
    • 1984 – Spencer Larsen, American football player
    • 1984 – Jeremy Loops, South African singer-songwriter and record producer
    • 1984 – Raven Quinn, American singer-songwriter
    • 1984 – Zak Whitbread, American-English footballer
    • 1985 – Jake Buxton, English footballer
    • 1985 – Chinedum Ndukwe, American football player
    • 1985 – Whitney Port, American fashion designer and author
    • 1986 – Steven Burke, English road and track cyclist
    • 1986 – Tom De Mul, Belgian footballer
    • 1986 – Mike Krieger, Brazilian-American computer programmer and businessman, co-founded Instagram
    • 1986 – Siim Roops, Estonian footballer
    • 1986 – Bohdan Shust, Ukrainian footballer
    • 1986 – Manu Vatuvei, New Zealand rugby league player
    • 1986 – Margo Harshman, American actress
    • 1987 – Ben McKinley, Australian footballer
    • 1987 – Cameron Wood, Australian footballer
    • 1987 – Tamzin Merchant, English actress
    • 1988 – Gal Mekel, Israeli basketball player
    • 1988 – Laura Siegemund, German tennis player
    • 1988 – Adam Watts, English footballer
    • 1989 – Benjamin Kiplagat, Ugandan long-distance runner
    • 1990 – Andrea Bowen, American actress
    • 1990 – Draymond Green, American basketball player
    • 1990 – Paddy Madden, Irish footballer
    • 1990 – Fran Mérida, Spanish footballer
    • 1992 – Nick Castellanos, American baseball player
    • 1992 – Erik Lamela, Argentinian international footballer, midfielder
    • 1992 – Bernd Leno, German footballer
    • 1992 – Karl Mööl, Estonian footballer
    • 1993 – Bobbi Kristina Brown, American singer and actress (d. 2015)
    • 1993 – Richard Peniket, English footballer
    • 1994 – Callum Harriott, English footballer
    • 1994 – AJ Tracey, British hip-hop artist and record producer
    • 1995 – Chlöe Howl, British singer-songwriter
    • 1995 – Bill Milner, English actor
    • 1996 – Lukas Webb, Australian rules footballer
    • 2002 – Jacob Hopkins, American actor

    Deaths on March 4

    • 306 – Adrian and Natalia of Nicomedia, Christian martyrs
    • 480 – Landry of Sées, French bishop and saint
    • 561 – Pelagius I, pope of the Catholic Church
    • 934 – Abdullah al-Mahdi Billah, Fatimid caliph (b. 873)
    • 1172 – Stephen III, king of Hungary (b. 1147)
    • 1193 – Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid Sultanate (b. 1137)
    • 1238 – Joan of England, queen of Scotland (b. 1210)
    • 1238 – Yuri II, Russian Grand Prince (b. 1189)
    • 1303 – Daniel of Moscow, Russian Grand Duke (b. 1261)
    • 1314 – Jakub Świnka, Polish priest and archbishop
    • 1371 – Jeanne d’Évreux, queen consort of France (b. 1310)
    • 1388 – Thomas Usk, English author
    • 1484 – Saint Casimir, Polish prince (b. 1458)
    • 1496 – Sigismund, archduke of Austria (b. 1427)
    • 1583 – Bernard Gilpin, English priest and theologian (b. 1517)
    • 1604 – Fausto Sozzini, Italian theologian and educator (b. 1539)
    • 1615 – Hans von Aachen, German painter and educator (b. 1552)
    • 1710 – Louis III, duke of Bourbon (b. 1668)
    • 1733 – Claude de Forbin, French admiral and politician (b. 1656)
    • 1744 – John Anstis, English historian and politician (b. 1669)
    • 1762 – Johannes Zick, German painter (b. 1702)
    • 1793 – Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre (b. 1725)
    • 1795 – John Collins, American politician, 3rd Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1717)
    • 1805 – Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French painter (b. 1725)
    • 1807 – Abraham Baldwin, American minister, lawyer, and politician (b. 1754)
    • 1811 – Mariano Moreno, Argentinian journalist, lawyer, and politician (b. 1778)
    • 1832 – Jean-François Champollion, French philologist and scholar (b. 1790)
    • 1851 – James Richardson, English explorer (b. 1809)
    • 1852 – Nikolai Gogol, Ukrainian-Russian short story writer, novelist, and playwright (b. 1809)
    • 1853 – Thomas Bladen Capel, English admiral (b. 1776)
    • 1853 – Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist and paleontologist (b. 1774)
    • 1858 – Matthew C. Perry, American naval commander (b. 1794)
    • 1864 – Thomas Starr King, American minister and politician (b. 1824)
    • 1866 – Alexander Campbell, Irish-American minister and theologian (b. 1788)
    • 1872 – Carsten Hauch, Danish poet and playwright (b. 1790)
    • 1883 – Alexander H. Stephens, American lawyer and politician, Vice President of the Confederate States of America (b. 1812)
    • 1888 – Amos Bronson Alcott, American philosopher and educator (b. 1799)
    • 1903 – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English author (b. 1834)
    • 1906 – John Schofield, American general and politician, 28th United States Secretary of War (b. 1831)
    • 1915 – William Willett, English inventor, founded British Summer Time (b. 1856)
    • 1916 – Franz Marc, German painter (b. 1880)
    • 1925 – Moritz Moszkowski, Polish-German pianist and composer (b. 1854)
    • 1925 – James Ward, English psychologist and philosopher (b. 1843)
    • 1925 – John Montgomery Ward, American baseball player and manager (b. 1860)
    • 1927 – Ira Remsen, American chemist and academic (b. 1846)
    • 1938 – George Foster Peabody, American banker and philanthropist (b. 1852)
    • 1938 – Jack Taylor, American baseball player (b. 1874)
    • 1940 – Hamlin Garland, American novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer (b. 1860)
    • 1941 – Ludwig Quidde, German activist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
    • 1944 – Fannie Barrier Williams, American educator and activist (b. 1855)
    • 1944 – Louis Buchalter, American mob boss (b. 1897)
    • 1944 – Louis Capone, Italian-American gangster (b. 1896)
    • 1944 – René Lefebvre, French businessman (b. 1879)
    • 1945 – Lucille La Verne, American actress (b. 1872)
    • 1945 – Mark Sandrich, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1900)
    • 1948 – Antonin Artaud, French actor and director (b. 1896)
    • 1949 – Clarence Kingsbury, English cyclist (b. 1882)
    • 1952 – Charles Scott Sherrington, English neurophysiologist and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1857)
    • 1954 – Noel Gay, English composer and songwriter (b. 1898)
    • 1960 – Herbert O’Conor, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 51st Governor of Maryland (b. 1896)
    • 1963 – William Carlos Williams, American poet, short story writer, and essayist (b. 1883)
    • 1969 – Nicholas Schenck, Russian-American businessman (b. 1881)
    • 1972 – Harold Barrowclough, New Zealand general, lawyer, and politician, 8th Chief Justice of New Zealand (b. 1894)
    • 1972 – Charles Biro, American author and illustrator (b. 1911)
    • 1974 – Adolph Gottlieb, American painter and sculptor (b. 1903)
    • 1976 – John Marvin Jones, American judge and politician (b. 1882)
    • 1976 – Walter H. Schottky, Swiss-German physicist and engineer (b. 1886)
    • 1977 – Anatol E. Baconsky, Romanian poet, author, and critic (b. 1925)
    • 1977 – Nancy Tyson Burbidge, Australian botanist and curator (b. 1912)
    • 1977 – Andrés Caicedo, Colombian author, poet, and playwright (b. 1951)
    • 1977 – William Paul, American lawyer and politician (b. 1885)
    • 1977 – Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, German jurist and politician, German Minister for Foreign Affairs (b. 1887)
    • 1978 – Wesley Bolin, American businessman and politician, 15th Governor of Arizona (b. 1909)
    • 1978 – Joe Marsala, American clarinet player and songwriter (b. 1907)
    • 1979 – Willi Unsoeld, American mountaineer and educator (b. 1926)
    • 1980 – Alan Hardaker, English lieutenant and businessman (b. 1912)
    • 1981 – Torin Thatcher, American actor (b. 1905)
    • 1981 – Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer, German admiral (b. 1900)
    • 1986 – Albert L. Lehninger, American biochemist and academic (b. 1917)
    • 1986 – Richard Manuel, Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1943)
    • 1986 – Elizabeth Smart, Canadian poet and author (b. 1913)
    • 1987 – Seibo Kitamura, Japanese sculptor (b. 1884)
    • 1988 – Beatriz Guido, Argentine author and screenwriter (b. 1924)
    • 1989 – Tiny Grimes, American guitarist (b. 1916)
    • 1990 – Hank Gathers, American basketball player (b. 1967)
    • 1991 – Godfrey Bryan, English cricketer (b. 1902)
    • 1992 – Art Babbitt, American animator and director (b. 1907)
    • 1992 – Pare Lorentz, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1905)
    • 1993 – Art Hodes, Ukrainian-American pianist and composer (b. 1904)
    • 1993 – Tomislav Ivčić, Croatian singer-songwriter and politician (b. 1953)
    • 1993 – Izaak Kolthoff, Dutch chemist and academic (b. 1894)
    • 1993 – Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, English lieutenant and politician, Secretary of State for the Environment (b. 1929)
    • 1994 – John Candy, Canadian comedian and actor (b. 1950)
    • 1994 – George Edward Hughes, Irish-Scottish philosopher and author (b. 1918)
    • 1995 – Matt Urban, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1919)
    • 1996 – Minnie Pearl, American entertainer (b. 1912)
    • 1996 – John Sauer, American football player, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1925)
    • 1997 – Joe Baker-Cresswell, English captain (b. 1901)
    • 1997 – Robert H. Dicke, American physicist and astronomer (b. 1916)
    • 1998 – Ivan Dougherty, Australian general (b. 1907)
    • 1999 – Harry Blackmun, American lawyer and judge (b. 1908)
    • 1999 – Del Close, American actor and educator (b. 1934)
    • 1999 – Miłosz Magin, Polish pianist and composer (b. 1929)
    • 2000 – Hermann Brück, German-Scottish physicist and astronomer (b. 1905)
    • 2000 – Michael Noonan, New Zealand-Australian author and screenwriter (b. 1921)
    • 2000 – Ta-You Wu, Chinese physicist and academic (b. 1907)
    • 2001 – Gerardo Barbero, Argentinian chess player (b. 1961)
    • 2001 – Jean René Bazaine, French painter and author (b. 1904)
    • 2001 – Fred Lasswell, American cartoonist (b. 1916)
    • 2001 – Jim Rhodes, American businessman and politician, 61st Governor of Ohio (b. 1909)
    • 2001 – Harold Stassen, American educator and politician, 25th Governor of Minnesota (b. 1907)
    • 2002 – Ugnė Karvelis, Lithuanian author and translator (b. 1935)
    • 2002 – Elyne Mitchell, Australian skier and author (b. 1913)
    • 2002 – Velibor Vasović, Serbian footballer and manager (b. 1939)
    • 2003 – Jaba Ioseliani, Georgian playwright, academic, and politician (b. 1926)
    • 2003 – Sébastien Japrisot, French author, screenwriter, and director (b. 1931)
    • 2004 – Claude Nougaro, French singer-songwriter (b. 1929)
    • 2005 – Nicola Calipari, Italian general (b. 1953)
    • 2005 – Yuriy Kravchenko, Ukrainian police officer and politician (b. 1951)
    • 2005 – Carlos Sherman, Uruguayan-Belarusian author and activist (b. 1934)
    • 2006 – John Reynolds Gardiner, American author and engineer (b. 1944)
    • 2006 – Edgar Valter, Estonian author and illustrator (b. 1929)
    • 2007 – Thomas Eagleton, American lawyer and politician, 38th Lieutenant Governor of Missouri (b. 1929)
    • 2007 – Tadeusz Nalepa, Polish singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1934)
    • 2007 – Ian Wooldridge, English journalist (b. 1932)
    • 2008 – Gary Gygax, American game designer, co-created Dungeons & Dragons (b. 1938)
    • 2008 – Leonard Rosenman, American composer and conductor (b. 1924)
    • 2009 – Yvon Cormier, Canadian wrestler (b. 1938)
    • 2009 – Horton Foote, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1916)
    • 2009 – George McAfee, American football player (b. 1918)
    • 2010 – Raimund Abraham, Austrian architect and educator, designed the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (b. 1933)
    • 2010 – Johnny Alf, Brazilian pianist and composer (b. 1929)
    • 2010 – Vladislav Ardzinba, Abkhazian historian and politician, 1st President of Abkhazia (b. 1945)
    • 2010 – Fred Wedlock, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1942)
    • 2011 – Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Nepalese journalist and politician, 29th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1924)
    • 2011 – Vivienne Harris, English journalist and publisher, co-founded the Jewish Telegraph (b. 1921)
    • 2011 – Ed Manning, American basketball player and coach (b. 1943)
    • 2011 – Arjun Singh, Indian politician (b. 1930)
    • 2011 – Alenush Terian, Iranian astronomer and physicist (b. 1920)
    • 2011 – Simon van der Meer, Dutch-Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1925)
    • 2012 – Paul McBride, Scottish lawyer and politician (b. 1965)
    • 2012 – Don Mincher, American baseball player (b. 1938)
    • 2013 – Lillian Cahn, Hungarian-American businesswoman, co-founded Coach, Inc. (b. 1923)
    • 2013 – Mickey Moore, Canadian-American actor and director (b. 1914)
    • 2013 – Toren Smith, Canadian businessman, founded Studio Proteus (b. 1960)
    • 2014 – Mark Freidkin, Russian author and poet (b. 1953)
    • 2014 – Elaine Kellett-Bowman, English lawyer and politician (b. 1923)
    • 2014 – Jack Kinzler, American engineer (b. 1920)
    • 2014 – Wu Tianming, Chinese director and producer (b. 1939)
    • 2015 – Dušan Bilandžić, Croatian historian and politician (b. 1924)
    • 2015 – Ray Hatton, English-American runner, author, and academic (b. 1932)
    • 2016 – Bud Collins, American journalist and sportscaster (b. 1929)
    • 2016 – Pat Conroy, American author (b. 1945)
    • 2016 – P. A. Sangma, Indian lawyer and politician, Speaker of the Lok Sabha (b. 1947)
    • 2016 – Zhou Xiaoyan, Chinese soprano and educator (b. 1917)
    • 2017 – Clayton Yeutter, American politician (b. 1930)
    • 2018 – Davide Astori, Italian soccer player (b. 1987)
    • 2019 – Keith Flint, English singer (The Prodigy) (b. 1969)
    • 2019 – Luke Perry, American actor (b. 1966)
    • 2020 – Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian politician and diplomat

    Holidays and observances on March 4

    • Christian feast day:
      • Adrian of Nicomedia
      • Casimir
      • Felix of Rhuys
      • Giovanni Antonio Farina (Catholic Church)
      • Blessed Humbert III, Count of Savoy (Roman Catholic Church)
      • Paul Cuffee (Episcopal Church)
      • Peter of Pappacarbone
      • Blessed Zoltán Meszlényi
      • March 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • St Casimir’s Day (Poland and Lithuania)

  • February 24 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    For superstitious reasons, when the Romans began to intercalate to bring their calendar into line with the solar year, they chose not to place their extra month of Mercedonius after February but within it. February 24 — known in the Roman calendar as “the sixth day before the Kalends of March” — was replaced by the first day of this month since it followed Terminalia, the festival of the Roman god of boundaries. After the end of Mercedonius, the rest of the days of February were observed and the new year began with the first day of March. The overlaid religious festivals of February were so complicated that Julius Caesar opted not to change it at all during his 46 bc calendar reform. The extra day of his system’s leap years was located in the same place as the old intercalary month but he opted to ignore it as a date. Instead, the sixth day before the Kalends of March was simply said to last for 48 hours and all the other days continued to bear their original names. (The Roman practice of inclusive counting initially caused the priests in charge of the calendar to add the extra hours every three years instead of every four and Augustus was obliged to omit them for a span of decades until the system was back to where it should have been.) When the extra hours finally began to be reckoned as two separate days instead of a doubled sixth (“bissextile”) one, the leap day was still taken to be the one following hard on the February 23 Terminalia. Although February 29 has been popularly understood as the leap day of leap years since the beginning of sequential reckoning of the days of months in the late Middle Ages, in Britain and most other countries, no formal replacement of February 24 as the leap day of the Julian and Gregorian calendars has occurred. The exceptions include Sweden and Finland, who enacted legislation to move the day to February 29. This custom still has some effect around the world, for example with respect to name days in Hungary.

    February 24 in History

    • 484 – King Huneric of the Vandals replaces Nicene bishops with Arian ones, and banishes some to Corsica.
    • 1303 – Battle of Roslin, of the First War of Scottish Independence.
    • 1386 – King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is assassinated at Buda.
    • 1525 – A Spanish-Austrian army defeats a French army at the Battle of Pavia.
    • 1538 – Treaty of Nagyvárad between Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and King John Zápolya of Hungary and Croatia.
    • 1582 – With the papal bull Inter gravissimas, Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.
    • 1607 – L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first works recognized as an opera, receives its première performance.
    • 1711 – The London première of Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage.
    • 1739 – Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nader Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
    • 1803 – In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.
    • 1809 – London’s Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.
    • 1821 – Final stage of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain with Plan of Iguala.
    • 1822 – The first Swaminarayan temple in the world, Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Ahmedabad, is inaugurated.
    • 1826 – The signing of the Treaty of Yandabo marks the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War.
    • 1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West.
    • 1848 – King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates the throne.
    • 1854 – A Penny Red with perforations was the first perforated postage stamp to be officially issued for distribution.
    • 1863 – Arizona is organized as a United States territory.
    • 1868 – Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate.
    • 1875 – The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high-profile civil servants and dignitaries.
    • 1881 – China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.
    • 1895 – Revolution breaks out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the Cuban War of Independence, that ends with the Spanish–American War in 1898.
    • 1916 – The Governor-General of Korea establishes a clinic called Jahyewon in Sorokdo to segregate Hansen’s disease patients.
    • 1917 – World War I: The U.S. ambassador Walter Hines Page to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States.
    • 1918 – Estonian Declaration of Independence.
    • 1920 – Nancy Astor becomes the first woman to speak in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom following her election as a Member of Parliament (MP) three months earlier.
    • 1920 – The Nazi Party (NSDAP) was founded by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall in Munich, Germany
    • 1942 – The Battle of Los Angeles: A false alarm led to an anti-aircraft barrage that lasted into the early hours of February 25.
    • 1942 – An order-in-council passed under the Defence of Canada Regulations of the War Measures Act gives the Canadian federal government the power to intern all “persons of Japanese racial origin”.
    • 1944 – Merrill’s Marauders: The Marauders begin their 1,000-mile journey through Japanese-occupied Burma.
    • 1945 – Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
    • 1946 – Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became known as Peronism, is elected to his first term as President of Argentina.
    • 1949 – The Armistice Agreements are signed, to formally end the hostilities of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
    • 1968 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
    • 1971 – The All India Forward Bloc holds an emergency central committee meeting after its chairman, Hemantha Kumar Bose, is killed three days earlier. P.K. Mookiah Thevar is appointed as the new chairman.
    • 1976 – The current constitution of Cuba is formally proclaimed.
    • 1978 – The Yuba County Five disappear in California. Four of their bodies are found four months later.
    • 1980 – The United States Olympic hockey team completes its Miracle on Ice by defeating Finland 4–2 to win the gold medal.
    • 1981 – The 6.7 Ms Gulf of Corinth earthquake affected Central Greece with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). Twenty-two people were killed, 400 were injured, and damage totaled $812 million.
    • 1983 – A special commission of the United States Congress condemns the Japanese American internment during World War II.
    • 1984 – Tyrone Mitchell perpetrates the 49th Street Elementary School shooting in Los Angeles, killing two children and injuring 12 more.
    • 1989 – United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, rips open during flight, blowing nine passengers out of the business-class section.
    • 1991 – Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Iraq, thus beginning the ground phase of the war.
    • 1996 – Two civilian airplanes operated by the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue are shot down in international waters by the Cuban Air Force.
    • 1999 – China Southwest Airlines Flight 4509, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft, crashes on approach to Wenzhou Longwan International Airport in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. All 61 people on board are killed.
    • 2004 – The 6.3 Mw Al Hoceima earthquake strikes northern Morocco with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 628 people are killed, 926 are injured, and up to 15,000 are displaced.
    • 2006 – Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declares Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup.
    • 2007 – Japan launches its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea.
    • 2008 – Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba and the Council of Ministers after 32 years. He remains as head of the Communist Party for another three years.
    • 2015 – A Metrolink train derails in Oxnard, California following a collision with a truck, leaving more than 30 injured.
    • 2016 – Tara Air Flight 193, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, crashed, with 23 fatalities, in Solighopte, Myagdi District, Dhaulagiri Zone, while en route from Pokhara Airport to Jomsom Airport.

    Births on February 24

    • 1103 – Emperor Toba of Japan (d. 1156)
    • 1304 – Ibn Battuta, Moroccan jurist
    • 1413 – Louis, Duke of Savoy (d. 1465)
    • 1463 – Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher (d. 1494)
    • 1494 – Johan Friis, Danish statesman (d. 1570)
    • 1500 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1558)
    • 1536 – Pope Clement VIII (d. 1605)
    • 1545 – John of Austria (d. 1578)
    • 1553 – Cherubino Alberti, Italian engraver and painter (d. 1615)
    • 1557 – Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1619)
    • 1593 – Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford, English soldier and courtier (d. 1625)
    • 1595 – Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, Polish author and poet (d. 1640)
    • 1604 – Arcangela Tarabotti, Venetian nun and feminist (d. 1652)
    • 1619 – Charles Le Brun, French painter and theorist (d. 1690)
    • 1622 – Johannes Clauberg, German theologian and philosopher (d. 1665)
    • 1709 – Jacques de Vaucanson, French engineer (d. 1782)
    • 1721 – John McKinly, Irish-American physician and politician, 1st Governor of Delaware (d. 1796)
    • 1723 – John Burgoyne, English general and politician (d. 1792)
    • 1736 – Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1806)
    • 1743 – Joseph Banks, English botanist and explorer (d. 1820)
    • 1762 – Charles Frederick Horn, German-English composer and educator (d. 1830)
    • 1767 – Rama II of Siam (d. 1824)
    • 1774 – Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge (d. 1850)
    • 1786 – Martin W. Bates, American lawyer and politician (d. 1869)
    • 1786 – Wilhelm Grimm, German anthropologist, author, and academic (d. 1859)
    • 1788 – Johan Christian Dahl, Norwegian-German painter (d. 1857)
    • 1827 – Lydia Becker, English-French activist (d. 1890)
    • 1831 – Leo von Caprivi, German general and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1899)
    • 1835 – Julius Vogel, English-New Zealand journalist and politician, 8th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1899)
    • 1836 – Winslow Homer, American painter and illustrator (d. 1910)
    • 1837 – Rosalía de Castro, Spanish poet (d. 1885)
    • 1842 – Arrigo Boito, Italian journalist, author, and composer (d. 1918)
    • 1848 – Andrew Inglis Clark, Australian engineer, lawyer, and politician (d. 1907)
    • 1852 – George Moore, Irish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1933)
    • 1868 – Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild, French financier and polo player (d. 1949)
    • 1869 – Zara DuPont, American suffragist (d. 1946)
    • 1874 – Honus Wagner, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1955)
    • 1877 – Rudolph Ganz, Swiss pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1972)
    • 1877 – Ettie Rout, Australian-New Zealand educator and activist (d. 1936)
    • 1885 – Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (d. 1966)
    • 1885 – Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish author, poet, and painter (d. 1939)
    • 1890 – Marjorie Main, American actress (d. 1975)
    • 1896 – Richard Thorpe, American director and screenwriter (d. 1991)
    • 1898 – Kurt Tank, German pilot and engineer (d. 1983)
    • 1900 – Irmgard Bartenieff, German-American dancer and physical therapist, leading pioneer of dance therapy (d. 1981)
    • 1903 – Vladimir Bartol, Italian-Slovene author and playwright (d. 1967)
    • 1908 – Telford Taylor, American general, lawyer, and historian (d. 1998)
    • 1909 – August Derleth, American anthologist and author (d. 1971)
    • 1914 – Ralph Erskine, English-Swedish architect, designed The Ark and Byker Wall (d. 2005)
    • 1914 – Weldon Kees, American author, poet, painter, and pianist (d. 1955)
    • 1915 – Jim Ferrier, Australian golfer (d. 1986)
    • 1919 – John Carl Warnecke, American architect (d. 2010)
    • 1921 – Abe Vigoda, American actor (d. 2016)
    • 1922 – Richard Hamilton, English painter and academic (d. 2011)
    • 1922 – Steven Hill, American actor (d. 2016)
    • 1924 – Hal Herring, American football player and coach (d. 2014)
    • 1924 – Erik Nielsen, Canadian lawyer and politician, 3rd Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2008)
    • 1925 – Bud Day, American colonel and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2013)
    • 1927 – Emmanuelle Riva, French actress (d. 2017)
    • 1929 – Kintaro Ohki, South Korean wrestler (d. 2006)
    • 1930 – Barbara Lawrence, American model and actress (d. 2013)
    • 1931 – Dominic Chianese, American actor and singer
    • 1931 – Brian Close, English cricketer and coach (d. 2015)
    • 1932 – Michel Legrand, French pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2019)
    • 1932 – Zell Miller, American sergeant and politician, 79th Governor of Georgia (d. 2018)
    • 1932 – John Vernon, Canadian-American actor (d. 2005)
    • 1933 – Judah Folkman, American physician and biologist (d. 2008)
    • 1933 – Ali Mazrui, Kenyan-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (d. 2014)
    • 1933 – David “Fathead” Newman, American saxophonist and composer (d. 2009)
    • 1934 – Bettino Craxi, Italian lawyer and politician, 45th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2000)
    • 1934 – Johnny Hills, English footballer, full-back
    • 1934 – Renata Scotto, Italian soprano
    • 1935 – Ryhor Baradulin, Belarusian poet, essayist, and translator (d. 2014)
    • 1936 – Guillermo O’Donnell, Argentine political scientist (d. 2011)
    • 1938 – James Farentino, American actor (d. 2012)
    • 1938 – Phil Knight, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Nike, Inc.
    • 1939 – Jamal Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi physicist and cosmologist (d. 2013)
    • 1940 – Pete Duel, American actor (d. 1971)
    • 1940 – Jimmy Ellis, American boxer (d. 2014)
    • 1940 – Denis Law, Scottish footballer and sportscaster
    • 1941 – Joanie Sommers, American singer and actress
    • 1942 – Colin Bond, Australian race car driver
    • 1942 – Paul Jones, English singer, harmonica player, and actor
    • 1942 – Joe Lieberman, American lawyer and politician
    • 1942 – Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Indian philosopher, theorist, and academic
    • 1943 – Kent Haruf, American novelist (d. 2014)
    • 1943 – Gigi Meroni, Italian footballer (d. 1967)
    • 1943 – Pablo Milanés, Cuban singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1943 – Terry Semel, American businessman
    • 1944 – Nicky Hopkins, English keyboard player (d. 1994)
    • 1944 – Ivica Račan, Croatian lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Croatia (d. 2007)
    • 1945 – Barry Bostwick, American actor and singer
    • 1946 – Grigory Margulis, Russian mathematician and academic
    • 1947 – Mike Fratello, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1947 – Rupert Holmes, English-American singer-songwriter and playwright
    • 1947 – Edward James Olmos, American actor and director
    • 1948 – Jayalalithaa, Indian actress and politician, 16th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (d. 2016)
    • 1948 – Walter Smith, Scottish footballer and manager
    • 1948 – Tim Staffell, English singer and guitarist
    • 1948 – Dennis Waterman, English actor
    • 1950 – Steve McCurry, American photographer and journalist
    • 1951 – David Ford, Northern Irish social worker and politician
    • 1951 – Derek Randall, English cricketer
    • 1951 – Debra Jo Rupp, American actress
    • 1951 – Helen Shaver, Canadian actress and director
    • 1951 – Laimdota Straujuma, Latvian economist and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Latvia
    • 1953 – Anatoli Kozhemyakin, Soviet footballer (d. 1974)
    • 1954 – Plastic Bertrand, Belgian singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1954 – Judith Ortiz Cofer, Puerto Rican American award-winning author (d. 2016)
    • 1954 – Aurora Levins Morales, Puerto Rican Jewish writer and activist
    • 1954 – Sid Meier, Canadian-American game designer and programmer, created the Civilization series
    • 1954 – Mike Pickering, English DJ and saxophonist
    • 1955 – Steve Jobs, American businessman, co-founded Apple Inc. and Pixar (d. 2011)
    • 1955 – Eddie Johnson, American basketball player
    • 1955 – Alain Prost, French race car driver
    • 1956 – Judith Butler, American philosopher, theorist, and author
    • 1956 – Eddie Murray, American baseball player and coach
    • 1956 – Paula Zahn, American journalist and producer
    • 1958 – Sammy Kershaw, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1958 – Mark Moses, American actor
    • 1959 – Beth Broderick, American actress and director
    • 1959 – Mike Whitney, Australian cricketer and television host
    • 1963 – Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro
    • 1963 – Mike Vernon, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1963 – Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Gujarati family, most versatile filmmaker of Hindi cinema.
    • 1964 – Russell Ingall, British-Australian race car driver and sportscaster
    • 1965 – Paul Gruber, American football player
    • 1965 – Jane Swift, American businesswoman and politician, Governor of Massachusetts
    • 1966 – Billy Zane, American actor and producer
    • 1967 – Brian Schmidt, Australian astrophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1968 – Mitch Hedberg, American comedian and actor (d. 2005)
    • 1969 – Kim Seung-woo, South Korean actor
    • 1970 – Jeff Garcia, American football player and coach
    • 1970 – Neil Sullivan, English born Scottish international footballer, goalkeeper and coach
    • 1970 – Jonathan Ward, American actor
    • 1971 – Josh Bernstein, American anthropologist, explorer, and author
    • 1971 – Pedro de la Rosa, Spanish race car driver
    • 1971 – Brian Savage, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1972 – Teodor Currentzis, Greek conductor and composer
    • 1972 – Manon Rhéaume, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1973 – Stubby Clapp, Canadian baseball player and coach
    • 1973 – Chris Fehn, American drummer
    • 1973 – Alexei Kovalev, Russian ice hockey player and pilot
    • 1974 – Chad Hugo, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer
    • 1974 – Mike Lowell, American baseball player and sportscaster
    • 1974 – Bonnie Somerville, American actress
    • 1975 – Ashley MacIsaac, Canadian singer-songwriter and fiddler
    • 1976 – Crista Flanagan, American actress and screenwriter
    • 1976 – Zach Johnson, American golfer
    • 1976 – Bradley McGee, Australian cyclist and coach
    • 1976 – Matt Skiba, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1976 – Marco Campos, Brazilian Formula 3000 race car driver (d. 1995)
    • 1977 – Jason Akermanis, Australian footballer and coach
    • 1977 – Bronson Arroyo, American baseball player and singer
    • 1977 – Floyd Mayweather, Jr., American boxer
    • 1978 – Gary, South Korean rapper and producer
    • 1978 – Shinya, Japanese drummer and songwriter
    • 1978 – John Nolan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1978 – DeWayne Wise, American baseball player
    • 1978 – Leon Constantine, English footballer
    • 1980 – Shinsuke Nakamura, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist
    • 1981 – Felipe Baloy, Panamanian footballer
    • 1981 – Lleyton Hewitt, Australian tennis player
    • 1981 – Mauro Rosales, Argentinian footballer
    • 1981 – Mohammad Sami, Pakistani cricketer
    • 1982 – Nick Blackburn, American baseball player
    • 1982 – Emanuel Villa, Argentinian footballer
    • 1982 – Klára Koukalová, Czech tennis player
    • 1982 – Fala Chen, Chinese actress and singer
    • 1984 – Corey Graves, American wrestler and sportscaster
    • 1985 – Nakash Aziz, Indian playback singer and music composer
    • 1987 – Kim Kyu-jong, South Korean singer, dancer, and actor
    • 1988 – Mathieu Baudry, French footballer
    • 1989 – Trace Cyrus, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1991 – Madison Hubbell, American ice dancer
    • 1991 – Semih Kaya, Turkish footballer
    • 1996 – Royce Freeman, American football player

    Deaths on February 24

    • 616 – Æthelberht of Kent (b. 560)
    • 951 – Liu Yun, Chinese governor (jiedushi)
    • 1018 – Borrell, bishop of Vic
    • 1114 – Thomas, archbishop of York
    • 1386 – Charles III of Naples (b. 1345)
    • 1496 – Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1445)
    • 1525 – Jacques de La Palice, French nobleman and military officer (b. 1470)
    • 1525 – Guillaume Gouffier, seigneur de Bonnivet, French soldier (b. c. 1488)
    • 1525 – Richard de la Pole, last Yorkist claimant to the English throne (b. 1480)
    • 1563 – Francis, Duke of Guise (b. 1519)
    • 1580 – Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, English nobleman (b. 1511)
    • 1588 – Johann Weyer, Dutch physician and occultist (b. 1515)
    • 1666 – Nicholas Lanier, English composer and painter (b. 1588)
    • 1685 – Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland (b. 1629)
    • 1704 – Marc-Antoine Charpentier, French composer (b. 1643)
    • 1714 – Edmund Andros, English courtier and politician, 4th Colonial Governor of New York (b. 1637)
    • 1721 – John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English poet and politician, Lord President of the Council (b. 1648)
    • 1732 – Francis Charteris, Scottish soldier (b. 1675)
    • 1777 – Joseph I of Portugal (b. 1714)
    • 1785 – Carlo Buonaparte, Corsican lawyer and politician (b. 1746)
    • 1799 – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist and academic (b. 1742)
    • 1810 – Henry Cavendish, French-English physicist and chemist (b. 1731)
    • 1812 – Étienne-Louis Malus, French physicist and mathematician (b. 1775)
    • 1815 – Robert Fulton, American engineer (b. 1765)
    • 1825 – Thomas Bowdler, English physician and philanthropist (b. 1754)
    • 1856 – Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1792)
    • 1876 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts, American-Liberian politician, 1st President of Liberia (b. 1809)
    • 1879 – Shiranui Kōemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 11th Yokozuna (b. 1825)
    • 1910 – Osman Hamdi Bey, Greek archaeologist and painter (b. 1842)
    • 1914 – Joshua Chamberlain, American general and politician, 32nd Governor of Maine (b. 1828)
    • 1925 – Hjalmar Branting, Swedish journalist and politician, 16th Prime Minister of Sweden, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1860)
    • 1927 – Edward Marshall Hall, English lawyer and politician (b. 1858)
    • 1929 – André Messager, French pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1853)
    • 1930 – Hermann von Ihering, German-Brazilian zoologist (b. 1850)
    • 1953 – Robert La Follette Jr., American politician, senator of Wisconsin (b. 1895)
    • 1953 – Gerd von Rundstedt, German field marshal (b. 1875)
    • 1967 – Mir Osman Ali Khan, Last Nizam of Hyderabad State (b. 1886)
    • 1970 – Conrad Nagel, American actor (b. 1897)
    • 1974 – Margaret Leech, American historian and author (b. 1895)
    • 1975 – Hans Bellmer, German artist (b. 1902)
    • 1975 – Nikolai Bulganin, Russian marshal and politician, 6th Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1895)
    • 1978 – Alma Thomas, American painter and educator (b.1891)
    • 1982 – Virginia Bruce, American actress (b. 1910)
    • 1986 – Rukmini Devi Arundale, Indian Bharatnatyam dancer (b. 1904)
    • 1986 – Tommy Douglas, Scottish-Canadian minister and politician, 7th Premier of Saskatchewan (b. 1904)
    • 1990 – Tony Conigliaro, American baseball player (b. 1945)
    • 1990 – Malcolm Forbes, American sergeant and publisher (b. 1917)
    • 1990 – Sandro Pertini, Italian journalist and politician, 7th President of Italy (b. 1896)
    • 1990 – Johnnie Ray, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1927)
    • 1991 – John Daly, American journalist and game show host (b. 1914)
    • 1991 – George Gobel, American actor (b. 1919)
    • 1991 – Webb Pierce, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1921)
    • 1993 – Danny Gallivan, Canadian sportscaster (b. 1917)
    • 1993 – Bobby Moore, English footballer and manager (b. 1941)
    • 1994 – Jean Sablon, French singer and actor (b. 1906)
    • 1994 – Dinah Shore, American actress and singer (b. 1916)
    • 1998 – Antonio Prohías, Cuban-American cartoonist (b. 1921)
    • 1998 – Henny Youngman, English-American comedian and violinist (b. 1906)
    • 1999 – Andre Dubus, American short story writer, essayist, and memoirist (b. 1936)
    • 2001 – Theodore Marier, American composer and educator, founded the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School (b. 1912)
    • 2001 – Claude Shannon, American mathematician, cryptographer, and engineer (b. 1916)
    • 2002 – Leo Ornstein, Ukrainian-American pianist and composer (b. 1893)
    • 2004 – John Randolph, American actor (b. 1915)
    • 2005 – Coşkun Kırca, Turkish diplomat, journalist and politician (b. 1927)
    • 2006 – Octavia E. Butler, American author and educator (b. 1947)
    • 2006 – Don Knotts, American actor and comedian (b. 1924)
    • 2006 – John Martin, Canadian broadcaster, co-founded MuchMusic (b. 1947)
    • 2006 – Dennis Weaver, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1924)
    • 2007 – Bruce Bennett, American shot putter and actor (b. 1906)
    • 2007 – Damien Nash, American football player (b. 1982)
    • 2008 – Larry Norman, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1947)
    • 2010 – Dawn Brancheau, senior animal trainer at SeaWorld (b. 1969)
    • 2011 – Anant Pai, Indian author and illustrator (b. 1929)
    • 2012 – Agnes Allen, American baseball player and therapist (b. 1930)
    • 2012 – Oliver Wrong, English nephrologist and academic (b. 1925)
    • 2013 – Virgil Johnson, American singer (b. 1935)
    • 2013 – Con Martin, Irish footballer and manager (b. 1923)
    • 2014 – Franny Beecher, American guitarist (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – Alexis Hunter, New Zealand-English painter and photographer (b. 1948)
    • 2014 – Carlos Páez Vilaró, Uruguayan painter and sculptor (b. 1923)
    • 2014 – Harold Ramis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1944)
    • 2015 – Mefodiy, Ukrainian metropolitan (b. 1949)
    • 2015 – Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakh politician and diplomat (b. 1962)
    • 2016 – Peter Kenilorea, Solomon Islands politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands (b. 1943)
    • 2016 – Nabil Maleh, Syrian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1936)
    • 2016 – George C. Nichopoulos, American soldier and physician (b. 1927)
    • 2018 – Sridevi, Indian actress (b. 1963)
    • 2020 – Katherine Johnson, American physicist and mathematician (b. 1918)

    Holidays and observances on February 24

    • Christian feast day:
      • Blessed Ascensión Nicol y Goñi
      • Lindel Tsen and Paul Sasaki (Anglican Church of Canada)
      • Modest (bishop of Trier)
      • Sergius of Cappadocia
      • February 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Dragobete (Romania)
    • Engineer’s Day (Iran)
    • Flag Day in Mexico
    • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Estonia from the Russian Empire in 1918; the Soviet period is considered to have been an illegal annexation.
    • National Artist Day (Thailand)

  • February 17 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    February 17 in History

    • 1370 – Northern Crusades: Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights meet in the Battle of Rudau.
    • 1411 – Following the successful campaigns during the Ottoman Interregnum, Musa Çelebi, one of the sons of Bayezid I, becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire with the support of Mircea I of Wallachia.
    • 1500 – Duke Friedrich and Duke Johann attempt to subdue the peasantry of Dithmarschen, Denmark, in the Battle of Hemmingstedt.
    • 1600 – On his way to be burned at the stake for heresy, at Campo de’ Fiori in Rome, the philosopher Giordano Bruno has a wooden vise put on his tongue to prevent him continuing to speak.
    • 1621 – Myles Standish is appointed as first military commander of the English Plymouth Colony in North America.
    • 1676 – Sixteen men of Pascual de Iriate’s expedition are lost at Evangelistas Islets at the western end of the Strait of Magellan.
    • 1739 – The Battle of Vasai commences as the Marathas move to invade Portuguese-occupied territory.
    • 1753 – In Sweden February 17 is followed by March 1 as the country moves from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
    • 1801 – An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr, Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
    • 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: The Battle of Mormant.
    • 1819 – The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise for the first time.
    • 1838 – Weenen massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus.
    • 1854 – The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.
    • 1859 – Cochinchina Campaign: The French Navy captured the Citadel of Saigon, a fortress that was manned by 1,000 Nguyễn dynasty soldiers, en route to conquering Saigon and other regions of southern Viet Nam.
    • 1863 – A group of citizens of Geneva founded an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.
    • 1864 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
    • 1865 – American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina, is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
    • 1867 – The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.
    • 1871 – The victorious Prussian Army parades through Paris, France, after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
    • 1904 – Madama Butterfly receives its première at La Scala in Milan.
    • 1913 – The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century.
    • 1919 – The Ukrainian People’s Republic asks Entente and the US for help fighting the Bolsheviks.
    • 1933 – Newsweek magazine is first published.
    • 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok begins: The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
    • 1944 – World War II: Operation Hailstone begins: U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk Lagoon, Japan’s main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
    • 1949 – Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of Israel.
    • 1959 – Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2: The first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
    • 1964 – In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
    • 1964 – Gabonese president Léon M’ba is toppled by a coup and his rival, Jean-Hilaire Aubame, is installed in his place.
    • 1965 – Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions. Mare Tranquillitatis or the “Sea of Tranquility” would become the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
    • 1968 – In Springfield, Massachusetts, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens.
    • 1972 – Cumulative sales of the Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the Ford Model T.
    • 1974 – Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House in a stolen helicopter.
    • 1978 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA detonates an incendiary bomb at the La Mon restaurant, near Belfast, killing 12 and seriously injuring 30 others, all Protestants.
    • 1979 – The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
    • 1980 – First winter ascent of Mount Everest by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy.
    • 1992 – Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian troops massacre more than 20 Azerbaijani civilians during the Capture of Garadaghly.
    • 1995 – The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a ceasefire brokered by the UN.
    • 1996 – In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
    • 1996 – NASA’s Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifts off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros.
    • 1996 – The 8.2 Mw  Biak earthquake shakes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A large tsunami followed, leaving one-hundred sixty-six people dead or missing and 423 injured.
    • 2006 – A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.
    • 2008 – Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.
    • 2011 – Arab Spring: Libyan protests against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime begin. In Bahrain, security forces launched a deadly pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the day is locally known as Bloody Thursday.
    • 2015 – Eighteen people are killed and 78 injured in a stampede at a Mardi Gras parade in Haiti.
    • 2016 – Military vehicles explode outside a Turkish Armed Forces barracks in Ankara, Turkey, killing at least 29 people and injuring 61 others.

    Births on February 17

    • 624 – Wu Zetian, Chinese empress consort (d. 705)
    • 1028 – Al-Juwayni, Persian scholar and imam (d. 1085)
    • 1490 – Charles III, duke of Bourbon (d. 1527)
    • 1519 – Francis, French Grand Chamberlain (d. 1563)
    • 1524 – Charles de Lorraine, French cardinal (d. 1574)
    • 1646 – Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert, French economist (d. 1714)
    • 1653 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1713)
    • 1723 – Tobias Mayer, German astronomer and academic (d. 1762)
    • 1740 – Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, Swiss physicist and meteorologist (d. 1799)
    • 1752 – Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, German author and playwright (d. 1831)
    • 1754 – Nicolas Baudin, French cartographer and explorer (d. 1803)
    • 1758 – John Pinkerton, Scottish antiquarian, cartographer, author, numismatist and historian (d. 1826)
    • 1781 – René Laennec, French physician, invented the stethoscope (d. 1826)
    • 1796 – Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician and botanist (d. 1866)
    • 1817 – Édouard Thilges, Luxembourgian jurist and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1904)
    • 1820 – Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1881)
    • 1821 – Lola Montez, Irish-American actress and dancer (d. 1861)
    • 1832 – Richard Henry Park, American sculptor (d. 1902)
    • 1836 – Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1870)
    • 1843 – Aaron Montgomery Ward, American businessman, founded Montgomery Ward (d. 1913)
    • 1848 – Louisa Lawson, Australian poet and publisher (d. 1920)
    • 1854 – Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German businessman (d. 1902)
    • 1861 – Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont, duchess of Albany (d. 1922)
    • 1862 – Mori Ōgai, Japanese general, author, and poet (d. 1922)
    • 1864 – Jozef Murgaš, Slovak priest, botanist, and painter (d. 1929)
    • 1864 – Banjo Paterson, Australian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1941)
    • 1874 – Thomas J. Watson, American businessman (d. 1956)
    • 1877 – Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and author (d. 1904)
    • 1877 – André Maginot, French sergeant and politician (d. 1932)
    • 1881 – Mary Carson Breckinridge, American nurse midwife, founded Frontier Nursing Service (d. 1965)
    • 1887 – Joseph Bech, Luxembourgian lawyer and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1975)
    • 1887 – Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer and critic (d. 1947)
    • 1888 – Otto Stern, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)
    • 1890 – Ronald Fisher, English-Australian statistician, biologist, and geneticist (d. 1962)
    • 1891 – Abraham Fraenkel, German-Israeli mathematician and academic (d. 1965)
    • 1893 – Wally Pipp, American baseball player and journalist (d. 1965)
    • 1899 – Jibanananda Das, Bangladeshi-Indian poet and author (d. 1954)
    • 1900 – Ruth Clifford, American actress (d. 1998)
    • 1903 – Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian-French author and translator (d. 1951)
    • 1904 – Hans Morgenthau, German-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (d. 1980)
    • 1905 – Ruth Baldwin, British socialite (d. 1937)
    • 1905 – Rózsa Politzer, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1977)
    • 1906 – Mary Brian, American actress (d. 2002)
    • 1908 – Red Barber, American sportscaster (d. 1992)
    • 1908 – Bo Yibo, Chinese general and politician, Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China (d. 2007)
    • 1910 – Marc Lawrence, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2005)
    • 1911 – Oskar Seidlin, German-American author, poet, and scholar (d. 1984)
    • 1912 – Andre Norton, American author (d. 2005)
    • 1914 – Arthur Kennedy, American actor (d. 1990)
    • 1914 – Wayne Morris, American actor and producer (d. 1959)
    • 1916 – Alexander Obolensky, Russian rugby player and pilot (d. 1940)
    • 1916 – Don Tallon, Australian cricketer (d. 1984)
    • 1916 – Raf Vallone, Italian footballer and actor (d. 2002)
    • 1918 – William Bronk, American poet and academic (d. 1999)
    • 1918 – Jacqueline Ferrand, French mathematician (d. 2014)
    • 1919 – J. M. S. Careless, Canadian historian and academic (d. 2009)
    • 1919 – Kathleen Freeman, American actress and singer (d. 2001)
    • 1919 – Joe Hunt, American tennis player (d. 1945)
    • 1920 – Ivo Caprino, Norwegian director and screenwriter (d. 2001)
    • 1920 – Annie Castor, American disability and communication disorder advocate (d. 2020)
    • 1920 – Curt Swan, American soldier and illustrator (d. 1996)
    • 1921 – Duane Gish, American biochemist and academic (d. 2013)
    • 1922 – Tommy Edwards, American R&B singer-songwriter (d. 1969)
    • 1923 – John M. Allegro, English archaeologist and scholar (d. 1988)
    • 1923 – Buddy DeFranco, American clarinet player and bandleader (d. 2014)
    • 1924 – Margaret Truman, American singer and author (d. 2008)
    • 1925 – Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (d. 2003)
    • 1925 – Hal Holbrook, American actor and director
    • 1928 – Marta Romero, Puerto Rican actress and singer (d. 2013)
    • 1929 – Alejandro Jodorowsky, Chilean-French director and screenwriter
    • 1929 – Chaim Potok, American rabbi and author (d. 2002)
    • 1929 – Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, English lieutenant and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (d. 1993)
    • 1929 – Patricia Routledge, English actress and singer
    • 1930 – Roger Craig, American baseball player, coach, and manager
    • 1930 – Benjamin Fain, Ukrainian-Israeli physicist and academic (d. 2013)
    • 1930 – Ruth Rendell, English author (d. 2015)
    • 1931 – Jiřina Jirásková, Czech actress and singer (d. 2013)
    • 1931 – Buddy Ryan, American football coach (d. 2016)
    • 1933 – Craig L. Thomas, American captain and politician (d. 2007)
    • 1934 – Alan Bates, English actor (d. 2003)
    • 1934 – Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), Australian comedian, actor, and author
    • 1935 – Christina Pickles, English-American actress
    • 1936 – Jim Brown, American football player and actor
    • 1937 – Mary Ann Mobley, American model and actress, Miss America 1959 (d. 2014)
    • 1940 – Vicente Fernández, Mexican singer-songwriter, actor, and producer
    • 1941 – Julia McKenzie, English actress, singer, and director
    • 1941 – Gene Pitney, American singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
    • 1942 – Huey P. Newton, American activist, co-founded the Black Panther Party (d. 1989)
    • 1944 – Karl Jenkins, Welsh saxophonist, keyboard player, and composer (Soft Machine)
    • 1945 – Zina Bethune, American actress, dancer, and choreographer (d. 2012)
    • 1945 – Brenda Fricker, Irish actress
    • 1946 – Shahrnush Parsipur, Iranian-American author and academic
    • 1948 – José José, Mexican singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2019)
    • 1948 – Rick Majerus, American basketball player and coach (d. 2012)
    • 1949 – Fred Frith, English guitarist and songwriter
    • 1949 – Dennis Green, American football player and coach (d. 2016)
    • 1951 – Rashid Minhas, Pakistani soldier and pilot (d. 1971)
    • 1952 – Karin Büttner-Janz, German gymnast and physician
    • 1952 – Vladimír Padrůněk, Czech bass player (d. 1991)
    • 1954 – Lou Ann Barton, American blues singer-songwriter
    • 1954 – Miki Berkovich, Israeli basketball player
    • 1954 – Rene Russo, American actress
    • 1955 – Mo Yan, Chinese author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1956 – Richard Karn, American actor and game show host
    • 1957 – Loreena McKennitt, Canadian singer-songwriter, accordion player, and pianist
    • 1959 – Aryeh Deri, Moroccan-Israeli rabbi and politician, Israeli Minister of Internal Affairs
    • 1959 – Rowdy Gaines, American swimmer and sportscaster
    • 1960 – Lindy Ruff, Canadian hockey player and coach
    • 1961 – Angela Eagle, English politician, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
    • 1961 – Maria Eagle, English politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
    • 1961 – Andrey Korotayev, Russian anthropologist, historian, and sociologist
    • 1962 – Lou Diamond Phillips, American actor and director
    • 1963 – Larry the Cable Guy, American comedian and voice actor
    • 1963 – Alison Hargreaves, English mountaineer (d. 1995)
    • 1963 – Jen-Hsun Huang, Taiwanese-American businessman, co-founded Nvidia
    • 1963 – Michael Jordan, American basketball player and actor
    • 1964 – Sherry Hawco, Canadian gymnast (d. 1991)
    • 1965 – Michael Bay, American director and producer
    • 1965 – Danny Lee, Australian rugby league player
    • 1966 – Quorthon, Swedish guitarist and songwriter (d. 2004)
    • 1966 – Luc Robitaille, Canadian ice hockey player, manager, and actor
    • 1968 – Wu’erkaixi, Chinese journalist and activist
    • 1968 – Giuseppe Signori, Italian footballer
    • 1969 – David Douillet, French martial artist and politician
    • 1969 – Vasily Kudinov, Russian handball player (d. 2017)
    • 1970 – Dominic Purcell, English-born Irish-Australian actor and producer
    • 1971 – Denise Richards, American model and actress
    • 1972 – Billie Joe Armstrong, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and producer
    • 1972 – Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater
    • 1972 – Taylor Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and drummer
    • 1972 – Valeria Mazza, Argentinian model and businesswoman
    • 1972 – Lars Göran Petrov, Swedish singer and drummer
    • 1973 – Goran Bunjevčević, Serbian FR Yugoslavia international footballer, defender (d. 2018)
    • 1973 – Raphaël Ibañez, French rugby player
    • 1974 – Kaoru, Japanese guitarist, songwriter, and producer
    • 1974 – Jerry O’Connell, American actor, director, and producer
    • 1975 – Václav Prospal, Czech ice hockey player
    • 1978 – Rory Kinnear, English actor and playwright
    • 1980 – Al Harrington, American basketball player
    • 1980 – Klemi Saban, Israeli footballer
    • 1981 – Joseph Gordon-Levitt, American actor, director, and producer
    • 1981 – Paris Hilton, American model, media personality, actress, singer, DJ, author and businesswoman
    • 1981 – Pontus Segerström, Swedish footballer (d. 2014)
    • 1982 – Adriano, Brazilian footballer
    • 1982 – Brian Bruney, American baseball player
    • 1982 – Daniel Merriweather, Australian singer-songwriter
    • 1983 – Kevin Rudolf, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1984 – AB de Villiers, South African cricketer
    • 1984 – Jimmy Jacobs, American wrestler
    • 1984 – Katie Hill, Australian 3.0 point wheelchair basketball player
    • 1984 – Drew Miller, American ice hockey player
    • 1984 – Marcin Gortat, Polish basketball player
    • 1985 – Anders Jacobsen, Norwegian ski jumper
    • 1988 – Vasyl Lomachenko, Ukrainian boxer
    • 1989 – Rebecca Adlington, English swimmer
    • 1989 – Chord Overstreet, American actor and singer
    • 1990 – Marianne St-Gelais, Canadian speed skater
    • 1991 – Ed Sheeran, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1991 – Bonnie Wright, English actress, director, and screenwriter
    • 1993 – Nicola Leali, Italian footballer
    • 1993 – Marc Márquez, Spanish motorcycle racer

    Deaths on February 17

    • 364 – Jovian, Roman emperor (b. 331)
    • 440 – Mesrop Mashtots, Armenian monk, linguist, and theologian (b. 360)
    • 923 – Al-Tabari, Persian scholar (b. 839)
    • 1178 – Evermode of Ratzeburg, bishop of Ratzeburg
    • 1220 – Theobald I, Duke of Lorraine
    • 1339 – Otto, Duke of Austria (b. 1301)
    • 1371 – Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria
    • 1500 – Adolph, Count of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst, German noble (b. before 1463)
    • 1600 – Giordano Bruno, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (b. 1548)
    • 1609 – Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1549)
    • 1624 – Juan de Mariana, Spanish priest and historian (b. 1536)
    • 1659 – Abel Servien, French politician, French Minister of Finance (b. 1593)
    • 1673 – Molière, French actor and playwright (b. 1622)
    • 1680 – Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles, English politician (b. 1599)
    • 1680 – Jan Swammerdam, Dutch biologist, zoologist, and entomologist (b. 1637)
    • 1715 – Antoine Galland, French orientalist and archaeologist (b. 1646)
    • 1732 – Louis Marchand, French organist and composer (b. 1669)
    • 1768 – Arthur Onslow, English lawyer and politician, Speaker of the House of Commons (b. 1691)
    • 1841 – Ferdinando Carulli, Italian guitarist and composer (b. 1770)
    • 1849 – María de las Mercedes Barbudo, Puerto Rican political activist, the first woman Independentista in the island (b. 1773)
    • 1854 – John Martin, English painter, engraver, and illustrator (b. 1789)
    • 1856 – Heinrich Heine, German journalist and poet (b. 1797)
    • 1874 – Adolphe Quetelet, Belgian astronomer, mathematician, and sociologist (b. 1796)
    • 1890 – Christopher Latham Sholes, American publisher and politician (b. 1819)
    • 1905 – William Bickerton, English-American religious leader, leader in the Latter Day Saint movement (b. 1815)
    • 1909 – Geronimo, American tribal leader (b. 1829)
    • 1912 – Edgar Evans, Welsh sailor and explorer (b. 1876)
    • 1919 – Wilfrid Laurier, Canadian lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1841)
    • 1934 – Albert I of Belgium (b. 1875)
    • 1934 – Siegbert Tarrasch, German chess player and theoretician (b. 1862)
    • 1939 – Willy Hess, German violinist and educator (b. 1859)
    • 1946 – Dorothy Gibson, American actress and singer (b. 1889)
    • 1961 – Lütfi Kırdar, Turkish physician and politician, Turkish Minister of Health (b. 1887)
    • 1961 – Nita Naldi, American actress (b. 1894)
    • 1962 – Joseph Kearns, American actor (b. 1907)
    • 1962 – Bruno Walter, German-American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1876)
    • 1966 – Hans Hofmann, German-American painter (b. 1880)
    • 1970 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-Israeli novelist, short story writer, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
    • 1970 – Alfred Newman, American composer and conductor (b. 1900)
    • 1972 – Friday Hassler, American race car driver (b. 1935)
    • 1977 – Janani Luwum, Ugandan archbishop and saint (b. 1922)
    • 1979 – William Gargan, American actor (b. 1905)
    • 1982 – Nestor Chylak, American baseball player and umpire (b. 1922)
    • 1982 – Thelonious Monk, American pianist and composer (b. 1917)
    • 1982 – Lee Strasberg, American actor and director (b. 1901)
    • 1986 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian-American philosopher and author (b. 1895)
    • 1988 – John M. Allegro, English archaeologist and scholar (b. 1923)
    • 1988 – Karpoori Thakur, Indian educator and politician, 11th Chief Minister of Bihar (b. 1924)
    • 1989 – Lefty Gomez, American baseball player (b. 1908)
    • 1990 – Jean-Marc Boivin, French mountaineer, skier, and pilot (b. 1951)
    • 1994 – Randy Shilts, American journalist and author (b. 1951)
    • 1998 – Ernst Jünger, German soldier, philosopher, and author (b. 1895)
    • 2003 – Steve Bechler, American baseball player (b. 1979)
    • 2004 – José López Portillo, Mexican lawyer and politician, 51st President of Mexico, 1976-1982 (b. 1920)
    • 2005 – Dan O’Herlihy, Irish-American actor (b. 1919)
    • 2005 – Omar Sívori, Argentinian footballer and manager (b. 1935)
    • 2006 – Ray Barretto, American drummer (b. 1929)
    • 2006 – Bill Cowsill, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1948)
    • 2009 – Conchita Cintrón, Chilean bullfighter and journalist (b. 1922)
    • 2010 – Kathryn Grayson, American actress and singer (b. 1922)
    • 2012 – Robert Carr, English engineer and politician, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1916)
    • 2012 – Michael Davis, American singer-songwriter and bass player (b. 1943)
    • 2012 – Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn, Dutch mathematician and theorist (b. 1918)
    • 2012 – Ulric Neisser, German-American psychologist and academic (b. 1928)
    • 2013 – Richard Briers, English actor (b. 1934)
    • 2013 – Shmulik Kraus, Israeli singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1935)
    • 2013 – Sophie Kurys, American baseball player (b. 1925)
    • 2013 – Mindy McCready, American singer-songwriter (b. 1975)
    • 2014 – Bob Casale, American guitarist, keyboard player, and producer (b. 1952)
    • 2014 – Peter Florin, German politician and diplomat, President of the United Nations General Assembly (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – Wayne Smith, Jamaican singer (b. 1965)
    • 2015 – John Barrow, American-Canadian football player and manager (b. 1935)
    • 2015 – Cathy Ubels-Veen, Dutch politician (b. 1928)
    • 2015 – Liu Yudi, Chinese general and pilot (b. 1923)
    • 2016 – Andy Ganteaume, Trinidadian cricketer (b. 1921)
    • 2016 – Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, Egyptian journalist (b. 1923)
    • 2016 – Claude Jeancolas, French historian, author, and journalist (b. 1949)
    • 2016 – Tony Phillips, American baseball player (b. 1959)
    • 2016 – Andrzej Żuławski, Polish film director (b. 1940)
    • 2017 – Robert H. Michel, American politician (b. 1923)
    • 2017 – Michael Novak, American Roman Catholic theologian (b. 1933)
    • 2020 – Ror Wolf, German writer, poet, and artist (b. 1932)

    Holidays and observances on February 17

    • Christian feast day:
      • Seven Founders of the Servite Order
        • Alexis Falconieri
      • Constabilis
      • Donatus, Romulus, Secundian, and Companions
      • Fintan of Clonenagh
      • Janani Luwum (Anglican Communion)
      • Lommán of Trim
      • February 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Independence Day, celebrates the independence declaration of Kosovo in 2008, still partially recognized.
    • Revolution Day (Libya)

  • February 16 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
    • 1270 – Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse.
    • 1630 – Dutch forces led by Hendrick Lonck capture Olinda in what was to become part of Dutch Brazil.
    • 1646 – Battle of Torrington, Devon: The last major battle of the first English Civil War.
    • 1699 – First Leopoldine Diploma is issued by the Holy Roman Emperor, recognizing the Greek Catholic clergy enjoyed the same privileges as Roman Catholic priests in the Principality of Transylvania.
    • 1742 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.
    • 1796 – Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) falls to the British, completing their invasion of Ceylon.
    • 1804 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
    • 1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
    • 1866 – Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes British Secretary of State for War.
    • 1881 – The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated by Act of Parliament at Ottawa (44th Vic., c.1).
    • 1899 – Iceland’s first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, is founded.
    • 1918 – The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state.
    • 1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
    • 1930 – The Romanian Football Federation joins FIFA.
    • 1934 – The Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republikanischer Schutzbund.
    • 1936 – The Popular Front wins the 1936 Spanish general election.
    • 1937 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon.
    • 1940 – World War II: Altmark incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. 299 British prisoners are freed.
    • 1943 – World War II: In the early phases of the Third Battle of Kharkov, Red Army troops re-enter the city.
    • 1945 – World War II: American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
    • 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
    • 1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
    • 1961 – Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched.
    • 1962 – Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people.
    • 1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
    • 1978 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago).
    • 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia kill 75.
    • 1985 – Hezbollah is founded.
    • 1986 – The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
    • 1986 – China Airlines Flight 2265 crashes into the Pacific Ocean near Penghu Airport in Taiwan, killing all 13 aboard.
    • 1991 – Nicaraguan Contras leader Enrique Bermúdez is assassinated in Managua.
    • 1996 – A Chicago-bound Amtrak train, the Capitol Limited, collides with a MARC commuter train bound for Washington, D.C., killing 11 people.
    • 1998 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a road and residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, killing all 196 aboard and seven more on the ground.
    • 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
    • 2005 – The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004–05 regular season and playoffs.
    • 2006 – The last Mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
    • 2013 – A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others.

    Births on February 16

    • 1222 – Nichiren, founder of Nichiren Buddhism (d. 1282)
    • 1304 – Jayaatu Khan Tugh Temür, Chinese emperor (d. 1332)
    • 1331 – Coluccio Salutati, Italian political leader (d. 1406)
    • 1419 – John I, Duke of Cleves (d. 1481)
    • 1470 – Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1540)
    • 1471 – Krishnadevaraya, emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire (d. 1529)
    • 1497 – Philip Melanchthon, German astronomer, theologian, and academic (d. 1560)
    • 1514 – Georg Joachim Rheticus, Austrian cartographer and instrument maker (d. 1574)
    • 1519 – Gaspard II de Coligny, French admiral (d. 1572)
    • 1543 – Kanō Eitoku, Japanese painter and educator (d. 1590)
    • 1620 – Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1688)
    • 1643 – John Sharp, English archbishop (d. 1714)
    • 1698 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician, geophysicist, and astronomer (d. 1758)
    • 1727 – Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, Austrian botanist, chemist, and mycologist (d. 1817)
    • 1740 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver (d. 1813)
    • 1761 – Jean-Charles Pichegru, French general (d. 1804)
    • 1774 – Pierre Rode, French violinist and composer (d. 1830)
    • 1786 – Maria Pavlovna, Russian Grand Duchess (d. 1859)
    • 1802 – Phineas Quimby, American mystic and philosopher (d. 1866)
    • 1804 – Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist and zoologist (d. 1885)
    • 1812 – Henry Wilson, American colonel and politician, 18th Vice President of the United States (d. 1875)
    • 1821 – Heinrich Barth, German explorer and scholar (d. 1865)
    • 1822 – Francis Galton, English biologist and statistician (d. 1911)
    • 1824 – Peter Kosler, Slovenian lawyer, geographer, and cartographer (d. 1879)
    • 1826 – Joseph Victor von Scheffel, German poet and author (d. 1886)
    • 1830 – Lars Hertervig, Norwegian painter (d. 1902)
    • 1831 – Nikolai Leskov, Russian author, playwright, and journalist (d. 1895)
    • 1834 – Ernst Haeckel, German biologist, physician, and philosopher (d. 1919)
    • 1838 – Henry Adams, American journalist, historian, and author (d. 1918)
    • 1841 – Armand Guillaumin, French painter (d. 1927)
    • 1843 – Henry M. Leland, American engineer and businessman, founded Cadillac and Lincoln (d. 1932)
    • 1845 – George Kennan, American journalist and explorer (d. 1924)
    • 1848 – Hugo de Vries, Dutch botanist, geneticist, and academic (d. 1935)
    • 1848 – Octave Mirbeau, French journalist, novelist, and playwright (d. 1917)
    • 1856 – Ossian Everett Mills, American academic, founded Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (d. 1920)
    • 1866 – Billy Hamilton, American baseball player and manager (d. 1940)
    • 1868 – Edward S. Curtis, American ethnologist and photographer (d. 1952)
    • 1873 – Radoje Domanović, Serbian journalist and author (d. 1908)
    • 1876 – G. M. Trevelyan, English historian and academic (d. 1962)
    • 1878 – Pamela Colman Smith, English occultist and illustrator (d. 1951)
    • 1878 – James Colosimo, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1920)
    • 1884 – Robert J. Flaherty, German-Irish American director and producer (d. 1951)
    • 1886 – Andy Ducat, English international footballer (forward and manager) and Cricketer (d. 1942)
    • 1887 – Kathleen Clifford, American actress (d. 1962)
    • 1891 – Hans F. K. Günther, German eugenicist and academic (d. 1968)
    • 1893 – Katharine Cornell, American actress and producer (d. 1974)
    • 1896 – Eugénie Blanchard, French super-centenarian (d. 2010)
    • 1901 – Wayne King, American singer-songwriter and conductor (d. 1985)
    • 1901 – Chester Morris, American actor (d. 1970)
    • 1902 – Cyril Vincent, South African cricketer (d. 1968)
    • 1903 – Edgar Bergen, Swedish-American ventriloquist and actor (d. 1978)
    • 1904 – James Baskett, African-American actor and singer (d. 1948)
    • 1904 – George F. Kennan, Scotch-Irish American historian and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (d. 2005)
    • 1905 – Henrietta Barnett, British Women’s Royal Air Force officer (d. 1985)
    • 1906 – Vera Menchik, British-Czechoslovak-Russian chess player (d. 1944)
    • 1909 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor and director (d. 1982)
    • 1909 – Richard McDonald, Irish-American businessman, co-founded McDonald’s (d. 1998)
    • 1914 – Jimmy Wakely, American country music singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1982)
    • 1916 – Bill Doggett, African-American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
    • 1919 – Georges Ulmer, Danish-French actor and composer (d. 1989)
    • 1920 – Anna Mae Hays, American general (d. 2018)
    • 1921 – Vera-Ellen, German-American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1981)
    • 1921 – Jean Behra, French race car driver (d. 1959)
    • 1921 – John Galbraith Graham, English priest and academic (d. 2013)
    • 1922 – Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, German soldier and pilot (d. 1950)
    • 1923 – Samuel Willenberg, Polish-Israeli sculptor and painter (d. 2016)
    • 1926 – Margot Frank, German-Dutch holocaust victim (d. 1945)
    • 1926 – John Schlesinger, English actor and director (d. 2003)
    • 1927 – June Brown, English actress
    • 1929 – Gerhard Hanappi, Austrian footballer and architect (d. 1980)
    • 1929 – Peter Porter, Australian-English poet and educator (d. 2010)
    • 1931 – Otis Blackwell, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2002)
    • 1931 – Ken Takakura, Japanese actor and singer (d. 2014)
    • 1932 – Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Sierra Leonean economist, lawyer, and politician, 3rd President of Sierra Leone (d. 2014)
    • 1932 – Gretchen Wyler, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2007)
    • 1934 – August Coppola, American author and academic (d. 2009)
    • 1934 – Marlene Hagge, American golfer
    • 1935 – Brian Bedford, English-American actor and director (d. 2016)
    • 1935 – Sonny Bono, American actor, singer, and politician (d. 1998)
    • 1935 – Stephen Gaskin, American activist, co-founded The Farm (d. 2014)
    • 1935 – Bradford Parkinson, American colonel and engineer
    • 1935 – Kenneth Price, American painter and sculptor (d. 2012)
    • 1937 – Paul Bailey, British novelist, critic, and biographer
    • 1937 – Yuri Manin, Russian-German mathematician and academic
    • 1938 – John Corigliano, American composer and academic
    • 1939 – Adolfo Azcuna, Filipino lawyer and judge
    • 1940 – Hannelore Schmatz, German mountaineer (d. 1979)
    • 1941 – Kim Jong-il, North Korean commander and politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea (d. 2011)
    • 1942 – Richard Williams, American tennis player and coach
    • 1944 – Glyn Davies, Welsh farmer and politician
    • 1944 – Richard Ford, American novelist and short story writer
    • 1944 – Sigiswald Kuijken, Belgian violinist, violist, and conductor
    • 1944 – António Mascarenhas Monteiro, Cape Verdean politician, 2nd President of Cape Verde (d. 2016)
    • 1947 – Jaroslav Kubera, Czech politician (d. 2020)
    • 1948 – Kaiketsu Masateru, Japanese sumo wrestler and coach (d. 2014)
    • 1949 – Bob O’Reilly, Australian rugby league player
    • 1950 – Peter Hain, Kenyan-Welsh politician, Secretary of State for Wales
    • 1951 – Barry Foote, American baseball player and coach
    • 1952 – William Katt, American actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1952 – Peter Kitchen, English footballer, striker
    • 1952 – James Ingram, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2019)
    • 1953 – John Bradbury, English drummer, songwriter, and producer (d. 2015)
    • 1953 – Lanny McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
    • 1953 – Roberta Williams, American video game designer, co-founded Sierra Entertainment
    • 1954 – Iain Banks, Scottish author and playwright (d. 2013)
    • 1954 – Margaux Hemingway, American model and actress (d. 1996)
    • 1954 – Michael Holding, Jamaican cricketer and sportscaster
    • 1956 – Vincent Ward, New Zealand director and screenwriter
    • 1957 – LeVar Burton, German-born American actor, director, and producer
    • 1958 – Natalie Angier, American author
    • 1958 – Ice-T, American rapper and actor
    • 1958 – Oscar Schmidt, Brazilian basketball player
    • 1958 – Herb Williams, American basketball player and coach
    • 1959 – John McEnroe, German-American tennis player and sportscaster
    • 1959 – Kelly Tripucka, American basketball player and sportscaster
    • 1960 – Pete Willis, English guitarist and songwriter
    • 1961 – Des Hasler, Australian rugby league player and coach
    • 1961 – Liu Kang, Chinese footballer and manager (d. 2013)
    • 1961 – Andy Taylor, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1962 – John Balance, English singer-songwriter (d. 2004)
    • 1964 – Bebeto, Brazilian footballer and manager
    • 1964 – Christopher Eccleston, English actor
    • 1965 – Dave Lombardo, Cuban-American drummer
    • 1967 – Keith Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1968 – Warren Ellis, English author and screenwriter
    • 1970 – Angelo Peruzzi, Italian footballer and manager
    • 1971 – Michael Avenatti, American attorney and pundit
    • 1971 – Craig Laundy, Australian politician
    • 1972 – Jerome Bettis, American football player and sportscaster
    • 1972 – Zoran Čampara, Bosnian football player
    • 1972 – Sarah Clarke, American actress
    • 1972 – Naomi Nishida, Japanese actress
    • 1972 – Darrell Trindall, Australian rugby league player
    • 1973 – Cathy Freeman, Australian sprinter
    • 1974 – Mahershala Ali, American actor
    • 1974 – José Dominguez, Portuguese international footballer, winger and manager
    • 1976 – Eric Byrnes, American baseball player and sportscaster
    • 1976 – Kyo, Japanese singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1977 – Ian Clarke, Irish-American computer scientist, founded Freenet
    • 1977 – Ahman Green, American football player
    • 1978 – Tia Hellebaut, Belgian high jumper and chemist
    • 1978 – Wasim Jaffer, Indian cricketer
    • 1978 – John Tartaglia, American actor, singer, and puppeteer
    • 1979 – Stéphane Dalmat, French footballer, midfielder
    • 1979 – Eric Mun, American-South Korean singer and actor
    • 1979 – Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racer
    • 1980 – Longineu W. Parsons III, French-American drummer
    • 1981 – Jay Howard, English race car driver
    • 1981 – Jerry Owens, American baseball player
    • 1981 – Qyntel Woods, American basketball player
    • 1982 – Aleksandr Dmitrijev, Estonian footballer
    • 1982 – Rickie Lambert, English footballer
    • 1982 – Lupe Fiasco, American rapper
    • 1983 – Agyness Deyn, English model, actress, and singer
    • 1984 – Sofia Arvidsson, Swedish tennis player
    • 1984 – Oussama Mellouli, Tunisian swimmer
    • 1985 – Simon Francis, English footballer
    • 1985 – Stacy Lewis, American golfer
    • 1985 – Ron Vlaar, Dutch footballer
    • 1986 – Diego Godín, Uruguayan footballer
    • 1987 – Luc Bourdon, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2008)
    • 1987 – Theresa Goh, Singaporean swimmer
    • 1987 – Hasheem Thabeet, Tanzanian basketball player
    • 1988 – Diego Capel, Spanish footballer
    • 1988 – Zhang Jike, Chinese table tennis player
    • 1988 – Denílson Pereira Neves, Brazilian footballer
    • 1988 – Andrea Ranocchia, Italian footballer
    • 1988 – Kim Soo-hyun, South Korean actor and singer
    • 1989 – Elizabeth Olsen, American actress
    • 1990 – Dunamis Lui, Australian-Samoan rugby league player
    • 1990 – The Weeknd, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1991 – Sergio Canales, Spanish footballer
    • 1992 – Nicolai Boilesen, Danish footballer
    • 1992 – Zsófia Susányi, Hungarian tennis player
    • 1994 – Annika Beck, German tennis player
    • 1994 – Federico Bernardeschi, Italian footballer
    • 1994 – Ava Max, American singer and songwriter
    • 1995 – Katy Dunne, English tennis player
    • 1995 – Carina Witthöft, a German tennis player

    Deaths on February 16

    • 549 – Zhu Yi, Chinese general (b. 483)
    • 902 – Mary the Younger, Byzantine saint (b. 875)
    • 1184 – Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canterbury
    • 1247 – Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia (b. 1204)
    • 1279 – Afonso III of Portugal (b. 1210)
    • 1281 – Gertrude of Hohenberg, queen consort of Germany (b. c.1225)
    • 1390 – Rupert I, Elector Palatine (b. 1309)
    • 1391 – John V Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1332)
    • 1531 – Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1452)
    • 1560 – Jean du Bellay, French cardinal and diplomat (b. 1493)
    • 1579 – Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Spanish explorer (b. 1509)
    • 1645 – Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Spanish general and politician, 24th Governor of the Duchy of Milan (b. 1585)
    • 1710 – Esprit Fléchier, French bishop and author (b. 1632)
    • 1721 – James Craggs the Younger, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (b. 1686)
    • 1754 – Richard Mead, English physician (b. 1673)
    • 1820 – Georg Carl von Döbeln, Swedish general (b. 1758)
    • 1862 – William Pennington American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of New Jersey, 23rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1796)
    • 1898 – Thomas Bracken, Irish-New Zealand journalist, poet, and politician (b. 1843)
    • 1899 – Félix Faure, French merchant and politician, 7th President of France (b. 1841)
    • 1907 – Giosuè Carducci, Italian poet and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)
    • 1912 – Nicholas of Japan, Russian-Japanese monk and saint (b. 1836)
    • 1917 – Octave Mirbeau, French journalist, novelist, and playwright ( (b. 1848)
    • 1919 – Vera Kholodnaya, Ukrainian actress (b. 1893)
    • 1928 – Eddie Foy Sr., American actor and dancer (b. 1856)
    • 1932 – Ferdinand Buisson, French academic and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1841)
    • 1932 – Edgar Speyer, American-English financier and philanthropist (b. 1862)
    • 1944 – Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1870)
    • 1957 – Josef Hofmann, Polish-American pianist and composer (b. 1876)
    • 1961 – Dazzy Vance, American baseball player (b. 1891)
    • 1967 – Smiley Burnette, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1911)
    • 1974 – John Garand, Canadian-American engineer, designed the M1 Garand Rifle(b. 1888)
    • 1975 – Morgan Taylor, American hurdler and coach (b. 1903)
    • 1977 – Janani Luwum, bishop, Church of Uganda, martyr (b. c.1922)
    • 1977 – Rózsa Péter, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1905)
    • 1980 – Erich Hückel, German physicist and chemist (b. 1895)
    • 1984 – M. A. G. Osmani, Bangladeshi general (b. 1918)
    • 1990 – Keith Haring, American painter and activist (b. 1958)
    • 1991 – Enrique Bermúdez, Nicaraguan lieutenant and engineer (b. 1932)
    • 1992 – Angela Carter, English novelist, short story writer (b. 1940)
    • 1992 – Jânio Quadros, Brazilian politician, 22nd President of Brazil (b. 1917)
    • 1992 – Herman Wold, Norwegian-Swedish economist and statistician (b. 1908)
    • 1996 – Roberto Aizenberg, Argentinian painter and sculptor (b. 1922)
    • 1996 – Roger Bowen, American actor and author (b. 1932)
    • 1996 – Pat Brown, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Governor of California (b. 1905)
    • 1996 – Brownie McGhee, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1915)
    • 1997 – Chien-Shiung Wu, Chinese-American physicist and academic (b. 1912)
    • 1998 – Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher (b. 1908)
    • 2000 – Marceline Day, American actress (b. 1908)
    • 2000 – Lila Kedrova, Russian-French actress and singer
    • 2000 – Karsten Solheim, Norwegian-American businessman, founded PING (b. 1911)
    • 2001 – Howard W. Koch, American director and producer (b. 1916)
    • 2001 – William Masters, American gynecologist and sexologist (b. 1915)
    • 2002 – Walter Winterbottom, English footballer and manager (b. 1913)
    • 2003 – Rusty Magee, American actor and composer (b. 1955)
    • 2004 – Doris Troy, American singer-songwriter (b. 1937)
    • 2006 – Johnny Grunge, American wrestler (b. 1966)
    • 2006 – Ernie Stautner, German-American football player and coach (b. 1925)
    • 2009 – Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, South Korean cardinal (b. 1921)
    • 2011 – Len Lesser, American actor (b. 1922)
    • 2011 – Justinas Marcinkevičius, Lithuanian poet and playwright (b. 1930)
    • 2012 – Gary Carter, American baseball player and coach (b. 1954)
    • 2012 – Elyse Knox, American model, actress, and fashion designer (b. 1917)
    • 2012 – John Macionis, American swimmer and lieutenant (b. 1916)
    • 2012 – Anthony Shadid, American journalist (b. 1968)
    • 2013 – Colin Edwards, Guyanese footballer (b. 1991)
    • 2013 – Grigory Pomerants, Russian philosopher and author (b. 1918)
    • 2013 – Tony Sheridan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1940)
    • 2014 – Ken Farragut, American football player (b. 1928)
    • 2014 – Gert Krawinkel, German guitarist (b. 1947)
    • 2014 – Michael Shea, American author (b. 1946)
    • 2015 – Lasse Braun, Algerian-Italian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1936)
    • 2015 – Lesley Gore, American singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
    • 2015 – R. R. Patil, Indian lawyer and politician, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra (b. 1957)
    • 2015 – Lorena Rojas, Mexican actress and singer (b. 1971)
    • 2016 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian politician and diplomat, 6th Secretary-General of the United Nations (b. 1922)
    • 2019 – Bruno Ganz, Swiss actor (b. 1941)

    Holidays and observances on February 16

    • Christian feast day:
      • Abda of Edessa
      • Elias and companions
      • Juliana of Nicomedia (Catholic Church)
      • Onesimus
      • Charles Todd Quintard (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • February 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il’s Birthday) (North Korea)
    • Restoration of Lithuania’s Statehood Day, celebrate the independence of Lithuania from Russia and Germany in 1918 (Lithuania)

  • February 15 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    February 15 in History

    • 590 – Khosrau II is crowned king of Persia.
    • 706 – Byzantine emperor Justinian II has his predecessors Leontios and Tiberios III publicly executed in the Hippodrome of Constantinople.
    • 1002 – At an assembly at Pavia of Lombard nobles, Arduin of Ivrea is restored to his domains and crowned King of Italy.
    • 1113 – Pope Paschal II issues Pie Postulatio Voluntatis, recognizing the Order of Hospitallers.
    • 1214 – During the Anglo-French War (1213–1214), an English invasion force led by John, King of England, lands at La Rochelle in France.
    • 1493 – While on board the Niña, Christopher Columbus writes an open letter (widely distributed upon his return to Portugal) describing his discoveries and the unexpected items he came across in the New World.
    • 1637 – Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
    • 1690 – Constantin Cantemir, Prince of Moldavia, and the Holy Roman Empire sign a secret treaty in Sibiu, stipulating that Moldavia would support the actions led by the House of Habsburg against the Ottoman Empire.
    • 1764 – The city of St. Louis is established in Spanish Louisiana (now in Missouri, USA).
    • 1798 – The Roman Republic is proclaimed after Louis-Alexandre Berthier, a general of Napoleon, had invaded the city of Rome five days earlier.
    • 1835 – Serbia’s Sretenje Constitution briefly comes into effect.
    • 1862 – American Civil War: Confederates commanded by Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd attack General Ulysses S. Grant’s Union forces Fort Donelson, Tennessee. Unable to break the fort’s encirclement, Lloyd surrenders the following day.
    • 1870 – Stevens Institute of Technology is founded in New Jersey, USA and offers the first Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering.
    • 1879 – Women’s rights: US President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
    • 1891 – Allmänna Idrottsklubben (AIK) (Swedish Sports Club) is founded.
    • 1898 – The battleship USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing 274. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.
    • 1901 – The association football club Alianza Lima is founded in Lima, Peru, under the name Sport Alianza.
    • 1909 – The Flores Theater fire in Acapulco, Mexico kills 250.
    • 1921 – Kingdom of Romania establishes its legation in Helsinki.
    • 1923 – Greece becomes the last European country to adopt the Gregorian calendar.
    • 1925 – The 1925 serum run to Nome: The second delivery of serum arrives in Nome, Alaska.
    • 1933 – In Miami, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate US President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6, 1933.
    • 1942 – World War II: Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.
    • 1944 – World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy begins.
    • 1944 – World War II: The Narva Offensive begins.
    • 1945 – World War II: Third day of bombing in Dresden.
    • 1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
    • 1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
    • 1952 – King George VI of the United Kingdom is buried in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
    • 1954 – Canada and the United States agree to construct the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska.
    • 1961 – Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team along with several of their coaches and family members.
    • 1965 – A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.
    • 1971 – The decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day.
    • 1972 – Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
    • 1972 – José María Velasco Ibarra, serving as President of Ecuador for the fifth time, is overthrown by the military for the fourth time.
    • 1982 – The drilling rig Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 workers.
    • 1989 – Soviet–Afghan War: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
    • 1991 – The Visegrád Agreement, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.
    • 1992 – Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison.
    • 1992 – Air Transport International Flight 805 crashes near Toledo Express Airport in Ohio, killing all four people on board.
    • 1996 – At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3 rocket, carrying an Intelsat 708, crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing many people.
    • 2001 – The first draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.
    • 2003 – Protests against the Iraq war take place in over 600 cities worldwide. It is estimated that between eight million to 30 million people participate, making this the largest peace demonstration in history.
    • 2010 – Two trains collide in the Halle train collision in Halle, Belgium, killing 19 and injuring 171 people.
    • 2012 – Three hundred sixty people die in a fire at a Honduran prison in the city of Comayagua.
    • 2013 – A meteor explodes over Russia, injuring 1,500 people as a shock wave blows out windows and rocks buildings. This happens unexpectedly only hours before the expected closest ever approach of the larger and unrelated asteroid 2012 DA14.

    Births on February 15

    • 1377 – Ladislaus of Naples (d. 1414)
    • 1458 – Ivan the Young, son of Ivan III of Russia (d. 1490)
    • 1471 – Piero the Unfortunate, Italian ruler (d. 1503)
    • 1506 – Juliana of Stolberg, German countess (d. 1580)
    • 1519 – Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, first Spanish Governor of Florida (d. 1574)
    • 1557 – Alfonso Fontanelli, Italian composer (d. 1622)
    • 1564 – Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician (d. 1642)
    • 1571 – Michael Praetorius, German organist and composer (probable; d. 1621)
    • 1612 – Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, French soldier, founded Montreal (d. 1676)
    • 1627 – Charles Morton, Cornish nonconformist minister (d. 1698)
    • 1638 – Zeb-un-Nissa, Mughal princess and poet (d. 1702)
    • 1705 – Charles-André van Loo, French painter (d. 1765)
    • 1710 – Louis XV of France (d. 1774)
    • 1725 – Abraham Clark, American surveyor, lawyer, and politician (d. 1794)
    • 1734 – William Stacy, American colonel (d. 1802)
    • 1739 – Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, French architect, designed the Paris Bourse (d. 1813)
    • 1748 – Jeremy Bentham, English jurist and philosopher (d. 1832)
    • 1759 – Friedrich August Wolf, German philologist and critic (d. 1824)
    • 1760 – Jean-François Le Sueur, French composer and educator (d. 1837)
    • 1797 – Henry E. Steinway, German-American businessman, founded Steinway & Sons (d. 1871)
    • 1809 – André Dumont, Belgian geologist and academic (d. 1857)
    • 1809 – Cyrus McCormick, American journalist and businessman, co-founded International Harvester (d. 1884)
    • 1810 – Mary S. B. Shindler, American poet, writer, and editor (d. 1883)
    • 1811 – Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Argentinian journalist and politician, 7th President of Argentina (d. 1888)
    • 1812 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (d. 1902)
    • 1820 – Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist and activist (d. 1906)
    • 1825 – Carter Harrison, Sr., American lawyer and politician, 29th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1893)
    • 1834 – V. A. Urechia, Moldavian-Romanian historian, author, and playwright (d. 1901)
    • 1835 – Demetrius Vikelas, Greek businessman and philanthropist (d. 1908)
    • 1840 – Titu Maiorescu, Romanian philosopher, academic, and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1917)
    • 1841 – Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Brazil (d. 1913)
    • 1845 – Elihu Root, American lawyer and politician, 38th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1937)
    • 1847 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer and educator (d. 1927)
    • 1849 – Rickman Godlee, English surgeon and academic (d. 1925)
    • 1850 – Sophie Bryant, Irish mathematician, academic and activist (d. 1922)
    • 1851 – Spiru Haret, Romanian mathematician, astronomer, and politician, 55th Romanian Minister of Internal Affairs (d. 1912)
    • 1856 – Emil Kraepelin, German psychiatrist and academic (d. 1926)
    • 1861 – Martin Burns, American wrestler and coach (d. 1937)
    • 1861 – Charles Édouard Guillaume, Swiss-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1938)
    • 1861 – Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1947)
    • 1873 – Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German-Swedish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
    • 1874 – Ernest Shackleton, Anglo-Irish captain and explorer (d. 1922)
    • 1883 – Sax Rohmer, English-American author (d. 1959)
    • 1890 – Robert Ley, German politician (d. 1945)
    • 1892 – James Forrestal, American lieutenant and politician, 1st United States Secretary of Defense (d. 1949)
    • 1892 – Roy Rene, Australian comedian (d. 1954)
    • 1893 – Roman Najuch, Polish professional tennis player (d. 1967)
    • 1896 – Arthur Shields, Irish republican and actor (d. 1970)
    • 1897 – Gerrit Kleerekoper, Jewish-Dutch gymnast and coach (d. 1943)
    • 1898 – Totò, Italian actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1967)
    • 1899 – Georges Auric, French composer (d. 1983)
    • 1899 – Gale Sondergaard, Danish-American actress (d. 1985)
    • 1904 – Mary Adshead, English painter (d. 1995)
    • 1904 – Antonin Magne, French cyclist and manager (d. 1983)
    • 1905 – Harold Arlen, Jewish-American composer (d. 1986)
    • 1907 – Jean Langlais, French organist and composer (d. 1991)
    • 1907 – Cesar Romero, American actor (d. 1994)
    • 1908 – Sarto Fournier, Canadian lawyer and politician, 38th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1980)
    • 1909 – Miep Gies, Austrian-Dutch humanitarian, helped hide Anne Frank and her family (d. 2010)
    • 1910 – Irena Sendler, Polish nurse and humanitarian, Righteous Gentile (d. 2008)
    • 1912 – George Mikes, Jewish Hungarian-English journalist and author (d. 1987)
    • 1913 – Erich Eliskases, Austrian chess player (d. 1997)
    • 1914 – Hale Boggs, American lawyer and politician (d. 1972)
    • 1914 – Kevin McCarthy, Jewish-Irish American actor (d. 2010)
    • 1916 – Mary Jane Croft, American actress (d. 1999)
    • 1918 – Allan Arbus, Jewish-American actor and photographer (d. 2013)
    • 1918 – Hank Locklin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2009)
    • 1919 – Ducky Detweiler, American baseball player and manager (d. 2013)
    • 1920 – Endicott Peabody, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 62nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1997)
    • 1920 – Eio Sakata, Japanese Go player (d. 2010)
    • 1922 – John B. Anderson, Swedish-American lawyer and politician (d. 2017)
    • 1923 – Yelena Bonner, Jewish Soviet-Russian activist (d. 2011)
    • 1924 – Robert Drew, American director and producer (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Angella D. Ferguson, American pediatrician
    • 1927 – Frank Dunlop, English actor and director
    • 1927 – Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian (d. 2008)
    • 1927 – Yehoshua Neuwirth, Israeli rabbi and scholar (d. 2013)
    • 1928 – Norman Bridwell, American author and illustrator, created Clifford the Big Red Dog (d. 2014)
    • 1928 – Joseph Willcox Jenkins, American composer, conductor, and educator (d. 2014)
    • 1929 – Graham Hill, English race car driver and businessman (d. 1975)
    • 1929 – James R. Schlesinger, American economist and politician, 12th United States Secretary of Defense (d. 2014)
    • 1930 – Bruce Dawe, Australian poet and academic
    • 1931 – Claire Bloom, English actress
    • 1931 – Jonathan Steele, English journalist and author
    • 1934 – Jimmy Bloomfield, English footballer and manager (d. 1983)
    • 1934 – Graham Kennedy, Australian television host and actor (d. 2005)
    • 1934 – Niklaus Wirth, Swiss computer scientist, created the Pascal programming language
    • 1934 – Abe Woodson, American football player and minister (d. 2014)
    • 1935 – Susan Brownmiller, American journalist and author
    • 1935 – Roger B. Chaffee, American lieutenant, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1967)
    • 1935 – Gene Hickerson, American football player (d. 2008)
    • 1937 – Gregory Mcdonald, American author (d. 2008)
    • 1937 – Coen Moulijn, Dutch footballer (d. 2011)
    • 1940 – İsmail Cem İpekçi, Turkish journalist and politician, 45th Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2007)
    • 1940 – John Hadl, American football player and coach
    • 1940 – Hamzah Haz, Indonesian journalist and politician, 9th Vice President of Indonesia
    • 1940 – Vaino Vahing, Estonian psychiatrist, author, and playwright (d. 2008)
    • 1941 – Florinda Bolkan, Brazilian actress
    • 1941 – Brian Holland, American songwriter and producer
    • 1944 – Mick Avory, English drummer
    • 1945 – Jack Dann, American-Australian author and poet
    • 1945 – John Helliwell, English saxophonist and keyboard player
    • 1945 – Douglas Hofstadter, American author and academic
    • 1946 – Clare Short, English civil servant and politician, Secretary of State for International Development
    • 1947 – John Adams, American composer
    • 1947 – Marisa Berenson, American model and actress
    • 1948 – Art Spiegelman, Swedish-American cartoonist and critic
    • 1949 – Ken Anderson, American football quarterback and coach
    • 1951 – Markku Alén, Finnish race car driver
    • 1951 – Melissa Manchester, American singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1951 – Jane Seymour, English-American actress, producer, and jewelry designer
    • 1952 – Tomislav Nikolić, Serbian politician, 4th President of Serbia
    • 1952 – Nikolai Sorokin, Russian actor and director (d. 2013)
    • 1953 – Tony Adams, Irish-American screenwriter and producer (d. 2005)
    • 1953 – Ernie Howe, English footballer, defender and manager
    • 1954 – Matt Groening, American animator, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1955 – Janice Dickinson, American model, agent, and author
    • 1955 – Christopher McDonald, American actor
    • 1956 – Desmond Haynes, Barbadian cricketer and coach
    • 1956 – Ann Westin, Swedish comedian
    • 1957 – Jake E. Lee, American guitarist and songwriter
    • 1957 – Jimmy Spencer, American race car driver and sportscaster
    • 1958 – Chrystine Brouillet, Canadian author
    • 1958 – Tony McKegney, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1958 – Matthew Ward, American singer-songwriter
    • 1959 – Adam Boulton, English journalist
    • 1959 – Ali Campbell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1959 – Brian Propp, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
    • 1959 – Martin Rowson, English author and illustrator
    • 1959 – Hugo Savinovich, Ecuadorian wrestler and sportscaster
    • 1960 – Darrell Green, American football player
    • 1960 – Jock Hobbs, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2012)
    • 1962 – Milo Đukanović, Montenegrin politician, 29th Prime Minister of Montenegro
    • 1964 – Chris Farley, American comedian and actor (d. 1997)
    • 1964 – Leland D. Melvin, American engineer and astronaut
    • 1964 – Mark Price, American basketball player and coach
    • 1965 – Craig Matthews, South African cricketer
    • 1967 – Jane Child, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1967 – Syed Kamall, English academic and politician
    • 1967 – Craig Simpson, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
    • 1969 – Birdman, American rapper and producer
    • 1970 – Shepard Fairey, American artist and activist
    • 1971 – Alex Borstein, American actress, voice artist, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1971 – Renee O’Connor, American actress, director, and producer
    • 1972 – Jaromír Jágr, Czech ice hockey player
    • 1973 – Kateřina Neumannová, Czech skier
    • 1973 – Amy van Dyken, American swimmer
    • 1974 – Miranda July, American actress, director, and screenwriter
    • 1974 – Ugueth Urbina, Venezuelan baseball player
    • 1974 – Alexander Wurz, Austrian race car driver and businessman
    • 1975 – Serge Aubin, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1975 – Annemarie Kramer, Dutch sprinter
    • 1975 – Brendon Small, American animator, producer, screenwriter, and actor
    • 1976 – Brandon Boyd, American singer-songwriter
    • 1976 – Óscar Freire, Spanish cyclist
    • 1979 – Josh Low, English footballer
    • 1979 – Hamish Marshall, New Zealand cricketer
    • 1979 – James Marshall, New Zealand cricketer
    • 1979 – Scott Severin, Scottish footballer
    • 1979 – Gordon Shedden, Scottish race car driver
    • 1980 – Conor Oberst, American singer-songwriter
    • 1981 – Heurelho Gomes, Brazilian international footballer, goalkeeper
    • 1981 – Matt Hoopes, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1981 – Rita Jeptoo, Kenyan runner
    • 1981 – Diego Martínez, Mexican footballer
    • 1981 – Vivek Shraya, Canadian singer and songwriter
    • 1982 – Shameka Christon, American basketball player
    • 1982 – James Yap, Filipino basketball player
    • 1983 – Don Cowie, Scottish footballer
    • 1983 – David Degen, Swiss footballer
    • 1983 – Philipp Degen, Swiss footballer
    • 1983 – Alan Didak, Australian footballer
    • 1983 – Russell Martin, Canadian baseball player
    • 1985 – Serkan Kırıntılı, Turkish footballer
    • 1986 – Valeri Bojinov, Bulgarian footballer
    • 1986 – Johnny Cueto, Dominican baseball player
    • 1986 – Laura Sallés, Andorran judoka
    • 1987 – Jarrod Sammut, Australian rugby league player
    • 1988 – Jarryd Hayne, Australian rugby league player and football player
    • 1988 – Hironori Kusano, Japanese singer and actor
    • 1988 – Tim Mannah, Australian-born Lebanese rugby league player
    • 1988 – Rui Patrício, Portuguese footballer
    • 1990 – Charles Pic, French race car driver
    • 1991 – Ángel Sepúlveda, Mexican footballer
    • 1993 – Ravi, South Korean rapper

    Deaths on February 15

    • 670 – Oswiu, king of Northumbria (b. c. 612)
    • 706 – Leontios, Byzantine emperor
    • 706 – Tiberios III, Byzantine emperor
    • 956 – Su Yugui, Chinese chancellor (b. 895)
    • 1043 – Gisela of Swabia, Holy Roman Empress (b. 990)
    • 1145 – Lucius II, pope of the Catholic Church
    • 1152 – Conrad III, king of Germany (b. 1093)
    • 1382 – William de Ufford, 2nd Earl of Suffolk (b. c. 1339)
    • 1417 – Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford, English commander (b. 1385)
    • 1508 – Giovanni II Bentivoglio, tyrant of Bologna (b. 1443)
    • 1600 – José de Acosta, Spanish Jesuit missionary and naturalist (b. 1540)
    • 1621 – Michael Praetorius, German organist and composer (b. 1571)
    • 1637 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1578)
    • 1738 – Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor (b. 1684)
    • 1781 – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German philosopher, author, and critic (b. 1729)
    • 1818 – Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen (b. 1746)
    • 1835 – Henry Hunt, English farmer and politician (b. 1773)
    • 1839 – François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier, Canadian rebel (b. 1803)
    • 1842 – Archibald Menzies, Scottish surgeon and botanist (b. 1754)
    • 1844 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1757)
    • 1847 – Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician and engineer (b. 1794)
    • 1848 – Hermann von Boyen, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (b. 1771)
    • 1849 – Pierre François Verhulst, Belgian mathematician and theorist (b. 1804)
    • 1857 – Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (b. 1804)
    • 1869 – Ghalib, Indian poet and educator (b. 1796)
    • 1885 – Gregor von Helmersen, Estonian-Russian geologist and engineer (b. 1803)
    • 1897 – Dimitrie Ghica, Romanian lawyer and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1816)
    • 1905 – Lew Wallace, American author, general, and politician, 11th Governor of New Mexico Territory (b. 1827)
    • 1911 – Theodor Escherich, German-Austrian pediatrician and academic (b. 1859)
    • 1924 – Lionel Monckton, English composer (b. 1861)
    • 1928 – H. H. Asquith, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1852)
    • 1932 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, American actress and playwright (b. 1865)
    • 1933 – Pat Sullivan, Australian animator and producer, co-created Felix the Cat (b. 1887)
    • 1935 – Basil Hall Chamberlain, English-Swiss historian, author, and academic (b. 1850)
    • 1939 – Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Russian painter and author (b. 1878)
    • 1956 – Vincent de Moro-Giafferi, French lawyer and politician (b. 1878)
    • 1959 – Owen Willans Richardson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
    • 1961 – Laurence Owen, American figure skater (b. 1944)
    • 1965 – Nat King Cole, American singer and pianist (b. 1919)
    • 1966 – Gerard Antoni Ciołek, Polish architect and historian (b. 1909)
    • 1966 – Camilo Torres Restrepo, Colombian priest and theologian (b. 1929)
    • 1967 – Antonio Moreno, Spanish-American actor and director (b. 1887)
    • 1970 – Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, Scottish air marshal (b. 1882)
    • 1973 – Wally Cox, American actor (b. 1924)
    • 1973 – Tim Holt, American actor (b. 1919)
    • 1974 – Kurt Atterberg, Swedish composer and engineer (b. 1887)
    • 1981 – Mike Bloomfield, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1943)
    • 1981 – Karl Richter, German organist and conductor (b. 1926)
    • 1984 – Avon Long, American actor and singer (b. 1910)
    • 1984 – Ethel Merman, American actress and singer (b. 1908)
    • 1988 – Richard Feynman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
    • 1992 – María Elena Moyano, Peruvian activist (b. 1960)
    • 1992 – William Schuman, American composer and academic (b. 1910)
    • 1996 – McLean Stevenson, American actor (b. 1929)
    • 1998 – Martha Gellhorn, American journalist and author (b. 1908)
    • 1999 – Henry Way Kendall, American physicist and mountaineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
    • 1999 – Big L, American rapper (b. 1974)
    • 2000 – Angus MacLean, Canadian commander and politician, 25th Premier of Prince Edward Island (b. 1914)
    • 2002 – Howard K. Smith, American journalist and actor (b. 1914)
    • 2002 – Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (b. 1963)
    • 2004 – Jens Evensen, Norwegian lawyer, judge, and politician, Norwegian Minister of Trade (b. 1917)
    • 2005 – Pierre Bachelet, French singer-songwriter (b. 1944)
    • 2005 – Samuel T. Francis, American historian and journalist (b. 1947)
    • 2007 – Walker Edmiston, American actor (b. 1925)
    • 2007 – Ray Evans, American songwriter (b. 1915)
    • 2008 – Johnny Weaver, American wrestler and sportscaster (b. 1935)
    • 2010 – Jeanne M. Holm, American general (b. 1921)
    • 2012 – Cyril Domb, English-Israel physicist and academic (b. 1920)
    • 2013 – Sanan Kachornprasart, Thai general and politician (b. 1935)
    • 2013 – Ahmed Rajib Haider, Bangladeshi atheist blogger
    • 2014 – Thelma Estrin, American computer scientist and engineer (b. 1924)
    • 2014 – Christopher Malcolm, Scottish-Canadian actor, director, and producer (b. 1946)
    • 2015 – Haron Amin, Afghan diplomat, Afghan Ambassador to Japan (b. 1969)
    • 2015 – Arnaud de Borchgrave, American journalist and author (b. 1926)
    • 2015 – Steve Montador, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1979)
    • 2016 – George Gaynes, Finnish-American actor (b. 1917)
    • 2016 – Vanity, Canadian-American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress (b. 1959)
    • 2017 – Stuart McLean, Canadian radio broadcaster (b. 1948)
    • 2019 – Lee Radziwill, American socialite (b. 1933)
    • 2020 – Caroline Flack, English Actress and TV Presenter (b. 1979)

    Holidays and observances on February 15

    • Christian feast day:
      • Blessed Michał Sopoćko
      • Claude de la Colombière
      • Faustinus and Jovita
      • Oswiu
      • Quinidius
      • Sigfrid of Sweden
      • Thomas Bray (Episcopal Church)
      • Walfrid
      • February 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Earliest day on which Family Day can fall, while February 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday in February. (parts of Canada)
    • Earliest day on which Washington’s Birthday can fall, while February 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday in February. (United States)
    • Traditionally the feast day for the ancient Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia
    • International Duties Memorial Day (Russia, regional)
    • John Frum Day (Vanuatu)
    • Liberation Day (Afghanistan)
    • National Flag of Canada Day (Canada)
    • Parinirvana Day, also celebrated on February 8. (Mahayana Buddhism)
    • Singles Awareness Day
    • Statehood Day (Serbia)
    • Susan B. Anthony Day (Florida, United States)
    • The ENIAC Day (Philadelphia, United States)
    • Total Defence Day (Singapore)