1801

  • March 16- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    March 16 in History

    • 934 – Meng Zhixiang declares himself emperor and establishes Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
    • 1190 – Massacre of Jews at Clifford’s Tower, York.
    • 1244 – Over 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burned to death after the Fall of Montségur.
    • 1322 – The Battle of Boroughbridge takes place in the Despenser Wars.
    • 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan reaches the island of Homonhon in the Philippines.
    • 1621 – Samoset, a Mohegan, visited the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, “Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset.”
    • 1660 – The Long Parliament of England is dissolved so as to prepare for the new Convention Parliament.
    • 1689 – The 23rd Regiment of Foot, or Royal Welch Fusiliers, is founded.
    • 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish troops capture the British-held island of Roatán.
    • 1782 – Anglo-Spanish War (1779): Action of 16 March 1782.
    • 1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.
    • 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: An Austrian column is defeated by the French in the Battle of Valvasone.
    • 1802 – The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.
    • 1812 – The Siege of Badajoz begins: British and Portuguese forces besiege and defeat the French garrison during the Peninsular War.
    • 1815 – Prince Willem proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.
    • 1818 – In the Second Battle of Cancha Rayada, Spanish forces defeated Chileans under José de San Martín.
    • 1864 – American Civil War: During the Red River Campaign, Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
    • 1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Averasborough began as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.
    • 1870 – The first version of the overture fantasy Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky receives its première performance.
    • 1872 – The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
    • 1894 – Jules Massenet’s opera Thaïs is first performed.
    • 1898 – In Melbourne the representatives of five colonies adopted a constitution, which would become the basis of the Commonwealth of Australia.
    • 1900 – Sir Arthur Evans purchased the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
    • 1916 – The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US–Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
    • 1917 – World War I: A German auxiliary cruiser is sunk in the Action of 16 March 1917.
    • 1918 – Finnish Civil War: Battle of Länkipohja is infamous for its bloody aftermath as the Whites executed 70–100 capitulated Reds.
    • 1924 – In accordance with the Treaty of Rome, Fiume becomes annexed as part of Italy.
    • 1925 – An earthquake occurs in Yunnan, China.
    • 1926 – History of Rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
    • 1935 – Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.
    • 1936 – Warmer-than-normal temperatures rapidly melt snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, leading to a major flood in Pittsburgh.
    • 1939 – From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
    • 1940 – First person killed (James Isbister) in a German bombing raid on the UK in World War II during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.
    • 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ended, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persisted.
    • 1945 – Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers, resulting in around 5,000 deaths.
    • 1958 – The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company’s founding.
    • 1962 – A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with all 107 aboard missing and presumed dead.
    • 1966 – Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with an Agena Target Vehicle.
    • 1968 – Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre occurs; between 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.
    • 1968 – General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
    • 1969 – A Viasa McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashes in Maracaibo, Venezuela, killing 155.
    • 1976 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns, citing personal reasons.
    • 1977 – Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.
    • 1978 – Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped. (He is later murdered by his captors.)
    • 1978 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria, killing 73.
    • 1978 – Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time.
    • 1979 – Sino-Vietnamese War: The People’s Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ends the war.
    • 1983 – Demolition of the Ismaning radio transmitter, the last wooden radio tower in Germany.
    • 1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah. (He later dies in captivity.)
    • 1985 – Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.
    • 1988 – Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
    • 1988 – Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people.
    • 1988 – The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three persons, one of them a member of PIRA are killed, and more than 60 others are wounded.
    • 1991 – The airplane carrying eight members of Reba McEntire’s touring band crashed on the side of Otay Mountain.
    • 1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.
    • 2001 – A series of bomb blasts that took place in the city of Shijiazhuang, China killed 108 people and injured 38 others, was the biggest mass murder in China in decades.
    • 2003 – American activist Rachel Corrie is killed in Rafah trying to obstruct the demolition of a home by being run over by a bulldozer.
    • 2005 – Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.
    • 2014 – Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia.
    • 2016 – A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 54.
    • 2016 – Two suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 22 and injuring 18.

    Births on March 16

    • 1399 – The Xuande Emperor, ruler of Ming China (d. 1435)
    • 1445 – Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg, Swiss priest and theologian (d. 1510)
    • 1465 – Kunigunde of Austria, Archduchess of Austria (d. 1520)
    • 1473 – Henry IV, Duke of Saxony (d. 1541)
    • 1559 – Amar Singh I, successor of Maharana Pratap of Mewar (d. 1620)
    • 1581 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch historian and poet (d. 1647)
    • 1585 – Gerbrand Bredero, Dutch poet and playwright (d. 1618)
    • 1590 – Ii Naotaka, Japanese daimyō (d. 1659)
    • 1596 – Ebba Brahe, Swedish countess (d. 1674)
    • 1609 – Michael Franck, German baker, teacher, poet, and composer (d. 1667)
    • 1609 – Agostino Mitelli, Italian painter (d. 1660)
    • 1621 – Georg Neumark, German poet and composer (d. 1681)
    • 1631 – René Le Bossu, French critic (d. 1680)
    • 1638 – François Crépieul, Jesuit missionary (d. 1702)
    • 1654 – Andreas Acoluthus, German scholar (d. 1704)
    • 1670 – François de Franquetot de Coigny, French general (d. 1759)
    • 1673 – Jean Bouhier, French jurist and scholar (d. 1746)
    • 1687 – Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, queen consort of Frederick William I (d. 1757)
    • 1693 – Malhar Rao Holkar, Indian nobleman (d. 1766)
    • 1701 – Daniel Lorenz Salthenius, Swedish theologian (d. 1750)
    • 1729 – Maria Louise Albertine (d. 1818)
    • 1741 – Carlo Amoretti, Italian scientist (d. 1816)
    • 1744 – Nicolas-Germain Léonard, French poet and novelist (d. 1793)
    • 1750 – Caroline Herschel, German-English astronomer (d. 1848)
    • 1751 – James Madison, American academic and politician, 4th President of the United States (d. 1836)
    • 1753 – François Amédée Doppet, French general (d. 1799)
    • 1760 – Johann Heinrich Meyer, Swiss painter and writer (d. 1832)
    • 1766 – Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, French antiquarian, cartographer, artist and explorer (d. 1875)
    • 1771 – Antoine-Jean Gros, French painter (d. 1835)
    • 1773 – Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentinian general and politician, 6th Governor of Buenos Aires Province (d. 1836)
    • 1774 – Matthew Flinders, English navigator and cartographer (d. 1814)
    • 1789 – Francis Rawdon Chesney, English general and explorer (d. 1872)
    • 1789 – Georg Ohm, German physicist and mathematician (d. 1854)
    • 1794 – Ami Boué, Austrian geologist and ethnographer (d. 1881)
    • 1797 – Alaric Alexander Watts, English poet and journalist (d. 1864)
    • 1799 – Anna Atkins, English botanist and photographer (d. 1871)
    • 1800 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (d. 1846)
    • 1805 – Peter Ernst von Lasaulx, German philologist and politician (d. 1861)
    • 1806 – Félix De Vigne, Belgian painter (d. 1862)
    • 1808 – Hannah T. King, British-born American writer and pioneer (d. 1886)
    • 1813 – Gaëtan de Rochebouët, French prime minister (d. 1899)
    • 1819 – José Paranhos, Brazilian politician (d. 1880)
    • 1820 – Enrico Tamberlik, Italian tenor (d. 1889)
    • 1821 – Eduard Heine, German mathematician and academic (d. 1881)
    • 1822 – Rosa Bonheur, French painter and sculptor (d. 1899)
    • 1822 – John Pope, American general (d. 1892)
    • 1823 – William Henry Monk, English organist and composer (d. 1889)
    • 1825 – Camilo Castelo Branco, Portuguese writer (d. 1890)
    • 1828 – Émile Deshayes de Marcère, French politician (d. 1918)
    • 1834 – James Hector, Scottish geologist and surgeon (d. 1907)
    • 1836 – Andrew Smith Hallidie, English-American engineer and businessman (d. 1900)
    • 1839 – Sully Prudhomme, French poet and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
    • 1839 – John Butler Yeats, Irish painter (d. 1922)
    • 1840 – Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese businessman (d. 1931)
    • 1840 – Georg von der Gabelentz, German linguist and sinologist (d. 1893)
    • 1845 – Umegatani Tōtarō I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 15th Yokozuna (d. 1928)
    • 1846 – Gösta Mittag-Leffler, Swedish mathematician and academic (d. 1927)
    • 1846 – Rebecca Cole, American physician and social reformer (d. 1922)
    • 1846 – Jurgis Bielinis, Lithuanian book smuggler (d. 1918)
    • 1848 – Axel Heiberg, Norwegian financier and diplomat (d. 1932)
    • 1851 – Otto Bardenhewer, German patrologist (d. 1935)
    • 1851 – Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist and botanist (d. 1931)
    • 1856 – Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France (d. 1879)
    • 1857 – Charles Harding Firth, English historian and academic (d. 1936)
    • 1859 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist and academic (d. 1906)
    • 1865 – Patsy Donovan, Irish-American baseball player and manager (d. 1953)
    • 1869 – Willy Burmester, German violinist (d. 1933)
    • 1871 – Hans Merensky, South African geologist and philanthropist (d. 1951)
    • 1871 – Frantz Reichel, French rugby player and hurdler (d. 1932)
    • 1874 – Frédéric François-Marsal, French prime minister (d. 1958)
    • 1877 – Léo-Ernest Ouimet, Canadian director and producer (d. 1972)
    • 1878 – Clemens August Graf von Galen, German cardinal (d. 1946)
    • 1878 – Paul Jouve, French painter (d. 1973)
    • 1881 – Fannie Charles Dillon, American composer (d. 1947)
    • 1882 – James Lightbody, American runner (d. 1953)
    • 1883 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet, author, and painter (d. 1958)
    • 1884 – Eric P. Kelly, American journalist and author (d. 1960)
    • 1885 – Giacomo Benvenuti, Italian composer and musicologist (d. 1943)
    • 1885 – Sydney Chaplin, English actor (d. 1965)
    • 1886 – Herbert Lindström, Swedish tug of war player (d. 1951)
    • 1887 – Emilio Lunghi, Italian runner (d. 1925)
    • 1887 – S. Stillman Berry, American marine zoologist (1984)
    • 1889 – Reggie Walker, South African athlete (d. 1951)
    • 1892 – César Vallejo, Peruvian poet, playwright, and journalist (d. 1938)
    • 1895 – Ernest Labrousse, French historian (d. 1988)
    • 1897 – Antonio Donghi, Italian painter (d. 1963)
    • 1897 – Conrad Nagel, American actor (d. 1970)
    • 1900 – Cyril Hume, American novelist (d. 1966)
    • 1900 – Mencha Karnicheva, Macedonian revolutionary and assassin (d. 1964)
    • 1901 – Alexis Chantraine, Belgian footballer (d. 1987)
    • 1903 – Mike Mansfield, American politician and diplomat, 22nd United States Ambassador to Japan (d. 2001)
    • 1906 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish sociologist, author, and translator (d. 2009)
    • 1906 – Maurice Turnbull, Welsh-English cricketer and rugby player (d. 1944)
    • 1906 – Henny Youngman, English-American violinist and comedian (d. 1998)
    • 1908 – René Daumal, French author and poet (d. 1944)
    • 1908 – Ernest Rogez, French water polo player (d. 1986)
    • 1908 – Robert Rossen, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1966)
    • 1910 – Aladár Gerevich, Hungarian fencer (d. 1991)
    • 1910 – Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, Indian-English cricketer and politician, 8th Nawab of Pataudi (d. 1952)
    • 1911 – Pierre Harmel, Belgian lawyer and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2009)
    • 1911 – Josef Mengele, German physician and captain (d. 1979)
    • 1911 – Philip Pavia, American painter and sculptor (d.2005)
    • 1912 – Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States (d. 1993)
    • 1913 – Rémy Raffalli, French soldier (d. 1952)
    • 1915 – Kunihiko Kodaira, Japanese mathematician and academic (d. 1997)
    • 1916 – Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)
    • 1916 – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese engineer and businessman (d. 2010)
    • 1917 – Louis C. Wyman, American lawyer and politician (d. 2002)
    • 1917 – Laure Pillay, Mauritian lawyer and jurist (d. 2017)
    • 1917 – Mehrdad Pahlbod, Iranian politician (d. 2018)
    • 1918 – Aldo van Eyck, Dutch architect (d. 1999)
    • 1918 – Frederick Reines, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
    • 1920 – John Addison, English-American soldier and composer (d. 1998)
    • 1920 – Sid Fleischman, American author and screenwriter (d. 2010)
    • 1920 – Traudl Junge, German secretary (d. 2002)
    • 1920 – Leo McKern, Australian-English actor (d. 2002)
    • 1922 – Harding Lemay, American screenwriter and playwright (d. 2018)
    • 1923 – Heinz Wallberg, German conductor (d. 2004)
    • 1925 – Cornell Borchers, Lithuanian-German actress and singer (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Mary Hinkson, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Ervin Kassai, Hungarian basketball player and referee (d. 2012)
    • 1925 – Luis E. Miramontes, Mexican chemist and engineer (d. 2004)
    • 1926 – Charles Goodell, American lawyer and politician (d. 1987)
    • 1926 – Jerry Lewis, American actor and comedian (d. 2017)
    • 1927 – Vladimir Komarov, Russian pilot, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1967)
    • 1927 – Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American sociologist and politician, 12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2003)
    • 1927 – Olga San Juan, American actress and dancer (d. 2009)
    • 1928 – Wakanohana Kanji I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 45th Yokozuna (d. 2010)
    • 1928 – Christa Ludwig, German soprano and actress
    • 1929 – Betty Johnson, American singer
    • 1929 – Tihomir Novakov, Serbian-American physicist and academic (d. 2015)
    • 1929 – Nadja Tiller, Austrian actress
    • 1930 – Tommy Flanagan, American pianist and composer (d. 2001)
    • 1930 – Minoru Miki, Japanese composer (d. 2011)
    • 1931 – Augusto Boal, Brazilian theatre director, writer and politician (d. 2009)
    • 1931 – Alan Heyman, American-South Korean musicologist and composer (d. 2014)
    • 1931 – Anthony Kenny, English philosopher and academic
    • 1931 – John Munro, Canadian lawyer and politician, 22nd Canadian Minister of Labour (d. 2003)
    • 1932 – Don Blasingame, American baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
    • 1932 – Walter Cunningham, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
    • 1932 – Kurt Diemberger, Austrian mountaineer and author
    • 1932 – Herbert Marx, Canadian politician (d. 2020)
    • 1933 – Keith Critchlow, English architect and academic, co-founded Temenos Academy
    • 1933 – Sanford I. Weill, American banker, financier, and philanthropist
    • 1934 – Jean Cournoyer, Canadian politician
    • 1934 – Ray Hnatyshyn, Canadian lawyer and politician, 24th Governor General of Canada (d. 2002)
    • 1934 – Roger Norrington, English violinist and conductor
    • 1935 – Teresa Berganza, Spanish soprano and actress
    • 1935 – Pepe Cáceres, Colombian bullfighter (d. 1987)
    • 1936 – Raymond Vahan Damadian, Armenian-American inventor, invented the MRI
    • 1936 – Fred Neil, American folk singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2001)
    • 1937 – David Frith, English historian, journalist, and author
    • 1937 – Attilio Nicora, Italian cardinal (d. 2017)
    • 1937 – Amos Tversky, Israeli-American psychologist and academic (d. 1996)
    • 1938 – Carlos Bilardo, Argentinian footballer and manager
    • 1939 – Yvon Côté, Canadian teacher
    • 1940 – Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2018)
    • 1940 – Vagif Mustafazadeh, Azerbaijani pianist and composer (d. 1979)
    • 1940 – Jan Pronk, Dutch academic and politician, Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment
    • 1940 – Keith Rowe, English guitarist
    • 1941 – Robert Guéï, Ivorian soldier and politician, 3rd President of Côte d’Ivoire (d. 2002)
    • 1941 – Chuck Woolery, American game show host and television personality
    • 1942 – Roger Crozier, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 1996)
    • 1942 – Gijs van Lennep, Dutch race car driver
    • 1942 – Jean-Pierre Schosteck, French politician
    • 1942 – James Soong, Chinese-Taiwanese politician, Governor of Taiwan Province
    • 1942 – Jerry Jeff Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1943 – Ursula Goodenough, American biologist, zoologist, and author
    • 1943 – Hans Heyer, German racing driver
    • 1943 – Álvaro de Soto, Peruvian diplomat
    • 1944 – Andrew S. Tanenbaum, American computer scientist and academic
    • 1946 – Sigmund Groven, Norwegian harmonica player and composer
    • 1946 – Mary Kaldor, English economist and academic
    • 1946 – J. Z. Knight, American New Age teacher and author
    • 1946 – Guesch Patti, French singer
    • 1948 – Michael Owen Bruce, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1948 – Richard Desjardins, Canadian singer-songwriter and director
    • 1948 – Catherine Quéré, French politician
    • 1949 – Erik Estrada, American actor
    • 1949 – Victor Garber, Canadian actor and singer
    • 1949 – Elliott Murphy, American-French singer-songwriter and journalist
    • 1950 – Peter Forster, English bishop
    • 1950 – Kate Nelligan, Canadian actress
    • 1950 – Edhem Šljivo, Bosnian footballer
    • 1951 – Ray Benson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1951 – Abdelmajid Bourebbou, Algerian footballer
    • 1951 – Oddvar Brå, Norwegian skier
    • 1951 – Joe DeLamielleure, American football player
    • 1951 – Alexandre Gonzalez, French long-distance runner
    • 1953 – Claus Peter Flor, German conductor
    • 1953 – Isabelle Huppert, French actress
    • 1953 – Rainer Knaak, German chess player
    • 1953 – Richard Stallman, American computer scientist and programmer
    • 1954 – David Heath, English politician
    • 1954 – Jimmy Nail, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
    • 1954 – Tim O’Brien, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1954 – Dav Whatmore, Sri Lankan-Australian cricketer and coach
    • 1954 – Nancy Wilson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actress
    • 1955 – Svetlana Alexeeva, Russian ice dancer and coach
    • 1955 – Rimantas Astrauskas, Lithuanian physicist
    • 1955 – Bruno Barreto, Brazilian director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1955 – Linda Lepomme, Belgian actress and singer
    • 1955 – Bob Ley, American sports anchor and reporter
    • 1955 – Andy Scott, Canadian politician (d. 2013)
    • 1955 – Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxer
    • 1956 – Ozzie Newsome, American football player and manager
    • 1956 – Clifton Powell, American actor, director, and producer
    • 1956 – Yoriko Shono, Japanese writer
    • 1956 – Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Swiss lawyer and politician
    • 1958 – Phillip Wilcher, Australian pianist and composer
    • 1958 – Kate Worley, American author (d. 2004)
    • 1958 – Jorge Ramos, Mexican-American journalist and author
    • 1959 – Michael J. Bloomfield, American astronaut
    • 1959 – Sebastian Currier, American composer and educator
    • 1959 – Greg Dyer, Australian cricketer
    • 1959 – Flavor Flav, American rapper and actor
    • 1959 – Charles Hudson, American baseball player
    • 1959 – Steve Marker, American musician
    • 1959 – Jens Stoltenberg, Norwegian economist and politician, 27th Prime Minister of Norway, 13th Secretary General of NATO
    • 1960 – John Hemming, English businessman and politician
    • 1960 – Duane Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1960 – Jenny Eclair, English comedian, actress and screenwriter
    • 1961 – Brett Kenny, Australian rugby league player and coach
    • 1961 – Todd McFarlane, Canadian author, illustrator, and businessman, founded McFarlane Toys
    • 1962 – Franck Fréon, French race car driver
    • 1962 – Liliane Gaschet, French athlete
    • 1963 – Jerome Flynn, English actor and singer
    • 1963 – Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor and singer (d. 2002)
    • 1964 – Patty Griffin, American singer-songwriter
    • 1964 – Jaclyn Jose, Filipino actress
    • 1964 – Pascal Richard, Swiss racing cyclist
    • 1964 – Gore Verbinski, American director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1965 – Steve Armstrong, American wrestler
    • 1965 – Cindy Brown, American basketball player
    • 1965 – Mark Carney, Canadian-English economist and banker
    • 1965 – Cristiana Reali, Italian-Brazilian actress
    • 1966 – Chrissy Redden, Canadian cross-country cyclist
    • 1967 – Tracy Bonham, American singer and violinist
    • 1967 – John Darnielle, American musician and novelist
    • 1967 – Lauren Graham, American actress and producer
    • 1967 – Ronnie McCoury, American bluegrass mandolin player, singer and songwriter
    • 1967 – Heidi Zurbriggen, Swiss alpine skier
    • 1968 – Trevor Wilson, American basketball player and police officer
    • 1969 – Judah Friedlander, American comedian and actor
    • 1969 – Ottis Gibson, Barbadian cricketer and coach
    • 1969 – Alina Ivanova, Russian athlete
    • 1969 – Evangelos Koronios, Greek basketball player and coach
    • 1970 – Joakim Berg, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1971 – Franck Comba, French rugby player
    • 1971 – Alan Tudyk, American actor
    • 1972 – Ismaïl Sghyr, French-Moroccan long-distance runner
    • 1973 – Andrey Mizurov, Kazakhstani road bicycle racer
    • 1973 – Vonda Ward, American boxer
    • 1974 – Georgios Anatolakis, Greek footballer and politician
    • 1974 – Anne Charrier, French actress
    • 1974 – Heath Streak, Zimbabwean cricketer
    • 1975 – Luciano Castro, Argentine actor
    • 1975 – Sienna Guillory, English model and actress
    • 1975 – Lionel Torres, French archer
    • 1976 – Blu Cantrell, American singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1976 – Leila Lejeune, French handballer
    • 1976 – Susanne Ljungskog, Swedish cyclist
    • 1976 – Abraham Núñez, Dominican baseball player
    • 1976 – Zhu Chen, Qatari chess Grandmaster
    • 1977 – Mónica Cruz, Spanish actress and dancer
    • 1977 – Thomas Rupprath, German swimmer
    • 1978 – Brooke Burns, American fashion model and actress
    • 1978 – Annett Renneberg, German actress and singer
    • 1979 – Christina Liebherr, Swiss equestrian
    • 1979 – Rashad Moore, American football player
    • 1979 – Sébastien Ostertag, French handball player
    • 1979 – Leena Peisa, Finnish keyboard player and songwriter
    • 1979 – Andrei Stepanov, Estonian footballer
    • 1980 – Todd Heap, American football player
    • 1980 – Felipe Reyes, Spanish basketball player
    • 1981 – Andrew Bree, Irish swimmer
    • 1981 – Curtis Granderson, American baseball player
    • 1981 – Julien Mazet, French road bicycle racer
    • 1981 – Fabiana Murer, Brazilian pole vaulter
    • 1982 – Miguel Comminges, Guadeloupean footballer
    • 1982 – Riley Cote, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1982 – Tommy Hansen, Czech actor
    • 1982 – Jesús Del Nero, Spanish road bicycle racer
    • 1982 – Brian Wilson, American baseball player
    • 1983 – Stephen Drew, American baseball player
    • 1983 – Brandon League, American baseball player
    • 1983 – Nicolas Rousseau, French road bicycle racer
    • 1983 – Tramon Williams, American football player
    • 1984 – Levi Brown, American football player
    • 1984 – Aisling Bea, Irish comedienne and actress
    • 1984 – Sharon Cherop, Kenyan long-distance runner
    • 1984 – Michael Ennis, Australian rugby player
    • 1984 – Hosea Gear, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1984 – Brandon Prust, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1985 – Teddy Atine-Venel, French athlete
    • 1985 – Eddy Lover, Panamanian singer-songwriter
    • 1985 – Aleksei Sokirskiy, Russian hammer thrower
    • 1986 – Alexandra Daddario, American actress
    • 1986 – Toney Douglas, American basketball player
    • 1986 – Kenny Dykstra, American wrestler
    • 1986 – T. J. Jordan, American basketball player
    • 1986 – Boaz Solossa, Indonesian footballer
    • 1986 – Daisuke Takahashi, Japanese figure skater
    • 1987 – Fabien Lemoine, French football player
    • 1988 – Jessica Gregg, Canadian speed skater
    • 1988 – Patrick Herrmann, German footballer
    • 1989 – Blake Griffin, American basketball player
    • 1989 – Jung So-min, South Korean actress
    • 1989 – Magalie Pottier, French racing cyclist
    • 1989 – Theo Walcott, English footballer
    • 1990 – Andre Young, American basketball player
    • 1991 – Reggie Bullock, American basketball player
    • 1991 – Wolfgang Van Halen, American bassist
    • 1993 – George Ford, English rugby union player
    • 1993 – Marine Lorphelin, Miss France
    • 1994 – Joel Embiid, Cameroonian basketball player
    • 1995 – Inga Janulevičiūtė, Lithuanian figure skater
    • 1997 – Florian Neuhaus, German football player

    Deaths on March 16

    • AD 37 – Tiberius, Roman emperor (b. 42 BC)
    • 455 – Valentinian III, Roman emperor (assassinated; b. 419)
    • 455 – Heraclius, Roman courtier (primicerius sacri cubiculi )
    • 842 – Xiao Mian, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
    • 933 – Takin al-Khazari, Egyptian commander and politician, Abbasid Governor of Egypt
    • 943 – Pi Guangye, Chinese official and chancellor (b. 877)
    • 1021 – Heribert of Cologne, German archbishop and saint (b. 970)
    • 1072 – Adalbert of Hamburg, German archbishop (b. 1000)
    • 1181 – Henry I, Count of Champagne
    • 1185 – Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (b. 1161)
    • 1279 – Jeanne of Dammartin, Queen consort of Castile and León (b. 1216)
    • 1322 – Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, English general and politician, Lord High Constable of England (b. 1276)
    • 1405 – Margaret III, Countess of Flanders (b. 1350)
    • 1410 – John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, French-English admiral and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1373)
    • 1457 – Ladislaus Hunyadi, Hungarian politician (b. 1433)
    • 1485 – Anne Neville, queen of Richard III of England (b. 1456)
    • 1559 – Anthony St. Leger, English-Irish politician Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1496)
    • 1649 – Jean de Brébeuf, French-Canadian missionary and saint (b. 1593)
    • 1679 – John Leverett, English general and politician, 19th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1616)
    • 1721 – James Craggs the Elder, English politician, Postmaster General of the United Kingdom (b. 1657)
    • 1736 – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian organist and composer (b. 1710)
    • 1737 – Benjamin Wadsworth, American minister and academic (b. 1670)
    • 1738 – George Bähr, German architect, designed the Dresden Frauenkirche (b. 1666)
    • 1747 – Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (b. 1690)
    • 1838 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American captain and mathematician (b. 1773)
    • 1841 – Félix Savart, French physicist and psychologist (d. 1791)
    • 1868 – David Wilmot, American politician, sponsor of Wilmot Proviso (b. 1814)
    • 1884 – Art Croft, American baseball player (b. 1855)
    • 1888 – Hippolyte Carnot, French politician (b. 1801)
    • 1892 – Samuel F. Miller, American lawyer and politician (b. 1827)
    • 1898 – Aubrey Beardsley, English author and illustrator (b. 1872)
    • 1899 – Joseph Medill, American journalist and politician, 26th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1823)
    • 1903 – Roy Bean, American lawyer and judge (b. 1825)
    • 1907 – John O’Leary, Irish politician (b. 1830)
    • 1912 – Max Burckhard, Austrian theater director (b. 1854)
    • 1914 – Gaston Calmette, French journalist (b. 1858)
    • 1914 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss lawyer and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1843)
    • 1914 – John Murray, Scottish oceanographer, biologist, and limnologist (b. 1841)
    • 1925 – August von Wassermann, German bacteriologist and hygienist (b. 1866)
    • 1930 – Miguel Primo de Rivera, Spanish general and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1870)
    • 1935 – John James Rickard Macleod, Scottish physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876)
    • 1935 – Aron Nimzowitsch, Latvian-Danish chess player (b. 1886)
    • 1936 – Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and activist (b. 1864)
    • 1937 – Alexander von Staël-Holstein, Estonian orientalist and sinologist (b. 1877)
    • 1940 – Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
    • 1945 – Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (b. 1874)
    • 1955 – Nicolas de Staël, French-Russian painter and illustrator (b. 1914)
    • 1957 – Constantin Brâncuși, Romanian-French sculptor, painter, and photographer (b. 1876)
    • 1958 – Leon Cadore, American baseball player (b. 1891)
    • 1961 – Chen Geng, Chinese general and politician (b. 1903)
    • 1961 – Václav Talich, Czech violinist and conductor (b. 1883)
    • 1963 – Laura Adams Armer, American author and photographer (b. 1874)
    • 1965 – Alice Herz, German activist (b. 1882)
    • 1967 – Thomas MacGreevy, Irish poet (b. 1893)
    • 1968 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian-American pianist and composer (b. 1895)
    • 1968 – Gunnar Ekelöf, Swedish poet and translator (b. 1907)
    • 1970 – Tammi Terrell, American singer (b. 1945)
    • 1971 – Bebe Daniels, American actress (b. 1901)
    • 1971 – Thomas E. Dewey, American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of New York (b. 1902)
    • 1972 – Pie Traynor, American baseball player (b. 1898)
    • 1975 – T-Bone Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1910)
    • 1977 – Kamal Jumblatt, Lebanese lawyer and politician (b. 1917)
    • 1979 – Jean Monnet, French economist and politician (b. 1888)
    • 1980 – Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-American painter (b. 1898)
    • 1983 – Arthur Godfrey, American actor and television host (b. 1903)
    • 1983 – Fred Rose, Polish-Canadian politician (b. 1907)
    • 1985 – Roger Sessions, American composer, critic, and educator (b. 1896)
    • 1985 – Eddie Shore, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1902)
    • 1988 – Jigger Statz, American baseball player (b.1897)
    • 1988 – Mickey Thompson, American race car driver (b. 1928)
    • 1990 – Ernst Bacon, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1898)
    • 1991 – Chris Austin, American country singer (b .1964)
    • 1991 – Jean Bellette, Australian artist (b. 1908)
    • 1992 – Yves Rocard, French physicist and engineer (b. 1903)
    • 1994 – Eric Show, American baseball player (b. 1956)
    • 1998 – Derek Barton, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
    • 1998 – Esther Bubley, American photographer (b. 1921)
    • 1999 – Gratien Gélinas, Canadian actor, director, and playwright (b. 1909)
    • 2000 – Thomas Ferebee, American colonel and pilot (b. 1918)
    • 2000 – Pavel Prudnikau, Belarusian poet and author (b. 1911)
    • 2000 – Michael Starr, Canadian judge and politician, 16th Canadian Minister of Labour (b. 1910)
    • 2000 – Carlos Velázquez, Puerto Rican pitcher (b. 1948)
    • 2001 – Bob Wollek, French race car driver (b. 1943)
    • 2003 – Rachel Corrie, American activist (b. 1979)
    • 2003 – Ronald Ferguson, English captain, polo player, and manager (b. 1931)
    • 2004 – Vilém Tauský, Czech conductor and composer (b. 1910)
    • 2005 – Todd Bell, American football player (b. 1958)
    • 2005 – Ralph Erskine, English architect, designed The London Ark (b. 1914)
    • 2005 – Dick Radatz, American baseball player (b. 1937)
    • 2007 – Manjural Islam Rana, Bangladeshi cricketer (b. 1984)
    • 2008 – Bill Brown, Australian cricketer and soldier (b. 1912)
    • 2008 – Ivan Dixon, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1931)
    • 2008 – Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (b. 1942)
    • 2010 – Ksenija Pajčin, Serbian singer, dancer and model (b. 1977)
    • 2011 – Richard Wirthlin, American religious leader (b. 1931)
    • 2012 – Donald E. Hillman, American colonel and pilot (b. 1918)
    • 2012 – Takaaki Yoshimoto, Japanese poet, philosopher, and critic (b. 1924)
    • 2013 – Jamal Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi physicist and cosmologist (b. 1939)
    • 2013 – José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, Argentinian economist and politician, Minister of Economy of Argentina (b. 1925)
    • 2013 – Yadier Pedroso, Cuban pitcher (b. 1986)
    • 2013 – Ruchoma Shain, American-born teacher and author (b. 1914)
    • 2013 – Marina Solodkin, Russian-Israeli academic and politician (b. 1952)
    • 2013 – Frank Thornton, English actor (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – Gary Bettenhausen, American race car driver (b. 1941)
    • 2014 – Donald Crothers, American chemist and academic (b. 1937)
    • 2014 – Yulisa Pat Amadu Maddy, Sierra Leonean author, poet, and playwright (b. 1936)
    • 2014 – Steve Moore, English author and illustrator (b. 1949)
    • 2014 – Alexander Pochinok, Russian economist and politician (b. 1958)
    • 2015 – Jack Haley, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1964)
    • 2015 – Don Robertson, American pianist and composer (b. 1922)
    • 2016 – Alexander Esenin-Volpin, Russian-American mathematician and poet (b. 1924)
    • 2016 – Frank Sinatra Jr., American singer and actor (b. 1944)
    • 2017 – Lewis Rowland, American neurologist (b. 1925)
    • 2018 – Louise Slaughter, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York (b. 1929)
    • 2019 – Dick Dale, American surf-rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter (b. 1937)

    Holidays and observances on March 16

    • Christian feast day:
      • Abbán
      • Finian Lobhar (Finian the Leper)
      • Heribert of Cologne
      • Hilarius of Aquileia
      • Julian of Antioch
      • March 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Day of the Book Smugglers (Lithuania)
    • Remembrance day of the Latvian legionnaires (Latvia)
    • Saint Urho’s Day (Finnish Americans and Finnish Canadians)
    • Austin 3:16 Day (Not official, but leisure day)

  • March 14- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 1590 – Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under Charles, Duke of Mayenne, during the French Wars of Religion.
    • 1647 – Thirty Years’ War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
    • 1663 – According to his own account, Otto von Guericke completes his book De Vacuo.
    • 1674 – The Third Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of Ronas Voe results in the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam being captured with a death toll of up to 300 Dutch crew and soldiers.
    • 1757 – Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard HMS Monarch for breach of the Articles of War.
    • 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Spanish forces capture Fort Charlotte in Mobile, Alabama, the last British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans.
    • 1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
    • 1885 – The Mikado, a light opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, receives its first public performance at the Savoy Theatre in London.
    • 1900 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard.
    • 1903 – Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the first national wildlife refuge in the US, is established by President Theodore Roosevelt.
    • 1920 – In the second of the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, about 80% of the population in Zone II votes to remain part of Weimar Germany.
    • 1926 – The El Virilla train accident, Costa Rica, kills 248 people and wounds another 93 when a train falls off a bridge over the Río Virilla between Heredia and Tibás.
    • 1931 – Alam Ara, India’s first talking film, is released.
    • 1939 – Slovakia declares independence under German pressure.
    • 1942 – Anne Miller becomes the first American patient to be treated with penicillin, under the care of Orvan Hess and John Bumstead.
    • 1943 – The liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto is completed.
    • 1945 – The R.A.F. drop the Grand Slam bomb in action for the first time, on a railway viaduct near Bielefeld, Germany.
    • 1951 – Korean War: United Nations troops recapture Seoul for the second time.
    • 1961 – A USAF B-52 bomber crashes near near Yuba City, California whilst carrying nuclear weapons.
    • 1964 – Jack Ruby is convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of John F. Kennedy.
    • 1967 – The body of U.S. President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery.
    • 1978 – The Israel Defense Forces launch Operation Litani, a seven-day campaign to invade and occupy southern Lebanon.
    • 1980 – LOT Flight 7 crashes during final approach near Warsaw, Poland, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.
    • 1982 – The South African government bombs the headquarters of the African National Congress in London.
    • 1988 – In the Johnson South Reef Skirmish Chinese forces defeat Vietnamese forces in an altercation over control of one of the Spratly Islands.
    • 1995 – Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle.
    • 2006 – The 2006 Chadian coup d’état attempt ends in failure.
    • 2007 – The Nandigram violence in Nandigram, West Bengal results in the deaths of at least 14 people.
    • 2008 – A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupt in Lhasa and subsequently spread elsewhere in Tibet.
    • 2019 – Cyclone Idai makes landfall near Beira, Mozambique, causing devastating floods and over 1000 deaths.

    Births on March 14

    • 1638 – Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (d. 1710)
    • 1790 – Ludwig Emil Grimm, German painter and engraver (d. 1863)
    • 1800 – James Bogardus, American inventor and architect (d. 1874)
    • 1801 – Kristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian poet (d. 1822)
    • 1804 – Johann Strauss I, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1849)
    • 1813 – Joseph P. Bradley, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1892)
    • 1820 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (d. 1878)
    • 1822 – Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies (d. 1889)
    • 1823 – Théodore de Banville, French poet and critic (d. 1891)
    • 1833 – Frederic Shields, English painter and illustrator (d. 1911)
    • 1833 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor, American dentist and educator (d. 1910)
    • 1835 – Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer and historian (d. 1910)
    • 1836 – Isabella Beeton, English author of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (d. 1865)
    • 1837 – Charles Ammi Cutter, American librarian (d. 1903)
    • 1844 – Umberto I of Italy (d. 1900)
    • 1844 – Arthur O’Shaughnessy, English poet and herpetologist (d. 1881)
    • 1847 – Castro Alves, Brazilian poet and playwright (d. 1871)
    • 1853 – Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d. 1918)
    • 1854 – Paul Ehrlich, German physician and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1915)
    • 1854 – John Lane, English publisher, co-founded The Bodley Head (d. 1925)
    • 1854 – Alexandru Macedonski, Romanian author and poet (d. 1920)
    • 1854 – Thomas R. Marshall, American lawyer and politician, 28th Vice President of the United States of America (d. 1925)
    • 1862 – Vilhelm Bjerknes, Norwegian physicist and meteorologist (d. 1951)
    • 1863 – Casey Jones, American engineer (d. 1900)
    • 1868 – Emily Murphy, Canadian jurist, author, and activist (d. 1933)
    • 1869 – Algernon Blackwood, English author and playwright (d. 1951)
    • 1874 – Anton Philips, Dutch businessman, co-founded Philips Electronics (d. 1951)
    • 1879 – Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
    • 1882 – Wacław Sierpiński, Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1969)
    • 1885 – Raoul Lufbery, French-American soldier and pilot (d. 1918)
    • 1886 – Firmin Lambot, Belgian cyclist (d. 1964)
    • 1887 – Sylvia Beach, American-French publisher, founded Shakespeare and Company (d. 1962)
    • 1898 – Reginald Marsh, French-American painter and illustrator (d. 1954)
    • 1899 – K. C. Irving, Canadian businessman, founded Irving Oil (d. 1992)
    • 1901 – Sid Atkinson, South African hurdler and long jumper (d. 1977)
    • 1903 – Adolph Gottlieb, American painter and sculptor (d. 1974)
    • 1904 – Doris Eaton Travis, American actress and dancer (d. 2010)
    • 1905 – Raymond Aron, French journalist, sociologist, and philosopher (d. 1983)
    • 1906 – Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Turkish composer and educator (d. 1972)
    • 1908 – Ed Heinemann, American designer of military aircraft (d. 1991)
    • 1908 – Maurice Merleau-Ponty, French philosopher and academic (d. 1961)
    • 1908 – Philip Conrad Vincent, English engineer and businessman, founded Vincent Motorcycles (d. 1979)
    • 1911 – Akira Yoshizawa, Japanese origamist (d. 2005)
    • 1912 – Cliff Bastin, English footballer (d. 1991)
    • 1912 – Les Brown, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2001)
    • 1912 – W. Graham Claytor, Jr. American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1994)
    • 1912 – W. Willard Wirtz, American lawyer and politician, 10th United States Secretary of Labor (d. 2010)
    • 1914 – Lee Hays, American singer-songwriter (d. 1981)
    • 1914 – Bill Owen, English actor and songwriter (d. 1999)
    • 1914 – Lee Petty, American race car driver and businessman, founded Petty Enterprises (d. 2000)
    • 1915 – Alexander Brott, Canadian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 2005)
    • 1916 – Horton Foote, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 2009)
    • 1917 – Alan Smith, English lieutenant and pilot (d. 2013)
    • 1918 – Zoia Horn, American librarian (d. 2014)
    • 1919 – Max Shulman, American author and screenwriter (d. 1988)
    • 1920 – Hank Ketcham, American author and cartoonist, created Dennis the Menace (d. 2001)
    • 1920 – Dorothy Tyler-Odam, English high jumper (d. 2014)
    • 1921 – S. Truett Cathy, American businessman, founded Chick-fil-A (d. 2014)
    • 1921 – Ada Louise Huxtable, American author and critic (d. 2013)
    • 1922 – Les Baxter, American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
    • 1923 – Diane Arbus, American photographer (d. 1971)
    • 1925 – William Clay Ford, Sr., American businessman (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Joseph A. Unanue, American sergeant and businessman (d. 2013)
    • 1926 – François Morel, Canadian pianist, composer, conductor, and educator (d. 2018)
    • 1928 – Frank Borman, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
    • 1928 – Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Spanish environmentalist (d. 1980)
    • 1929 – Bob Goalby, American golfer
    • 1932 – Mark Murphy, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2015)
    • 1932 – Naina Yeltsina, Russian wife of Boris Yeltsin, First Lady of Russia
    • 1933 – Michael Caine, English actor and author
    • 1933 – Quincy Jones, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and producer
    • 1934 – Eugene Cernan, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2017)
    • 1934 – Paul Rader, American 15th General of The Salvation Army
    • 1936 – Bob Charles, New Zealand golfer
    • 1937 – Peter van der Merwe, South African cricketer and referee (d. 2013)
    • 1938 – Eleanor Bron, English actress and screenwriter
    • 1938 – Jan Crouch, American televangelist, co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (d. 2016)
    • 1938 – John Gleeson, Australian cricketer (d. 2016)
    • 1939 – Raymond J. Barry, American actor
    • 1939 – Bertrand Blier, French director and screenwriter
    • 1939 – Yves Boisset, French director and screenwriter
    • 1941 – Wolfgang Petersen, German-American director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1942 – Rita Tushingham, English actress
    • 1943 – Anita Morris, American actress and singer (d. 1994)
    • 1944 – Boris Brott, Canadian composer and conductor
    • 1944 – Václav Nedomanský, Czech ice hockey player and manager
    • 1944 – Bobby Smith, English footballer and manager
    • 1944 – Tom Stannage, Australian historian and academic (d. 2012)
    • 1945 – Jasper Carrott, English comedian, actor, and game show host
    • 1945 – Michael Martin Murphey, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1945 – Walter Parazaider, American saxophonist
    • 1946 – William Lerach, American securities and class action attorney
    • 1946 – Wes Unseld, American basketball player, coach, and manager
    • 1947 – Roy Budd, English pianist and composer (d. 1993)
    • 1947 – William J. Jefferson, American lawyer and politician
    • 1947 – Jona Lewie, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player
    • 1948 – Tom Coburn, American physician and politician (d. 2020)
    • 1948 – Billy Crystal, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1948 – Theo Jansen, Dutch sculptor
    • 1950 – Rick Dees, American actor and radio host
    • 1951 – Jerry Greenfield, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Ben & Jerry’s
    • 1953 – Nick Keir, Scottish singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
    • 1955 – Jonathan Kaufer, American director and screenwriter (d. 2013)
    • 1956 – Alexey Pajitnov, Russian video game designer and computer engineer, creator of Tetris
    • 1956 – Butch Wynegar, American baseball player and coach
    • 1957 – Tad Williams, American author
    • 1958 – Albert II, Prince of Monaco
    • 1959 – Laila Robins, American actress
    • 1959 – Tamara Tunie, American actress
    • 1960 – Heidi Hammel, American astronomer and academic
    • 1961 – Garry Jack, Australian rugby league player and coach
    • 1961 – Mike Lazaridis, Turkish–Canadian businessman and philanthropist, founded BlackBerry Limited
    • 1963 – Bruce Reid, Australian cricketer and coach
    • 1965 – Kevin Brown, American baseball player and coach
    • 1965 – Aamir Khan, Indian film actor, producer, and director
    • 1965 – Billy Sherwood, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
    • 1965 – Kevin Williamson, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1966 – Jonas Elmer, Danish actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1966 – Elise Neal, American actress and producer
    • 1968 – Megan Follows, Canadian-American actress
    • 1969 – Larry Johnson, American basketball player and actor
    • 1970 – Kristian Bush, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1972 – Irom Chanu Sharmila, Indian poet and activist
    • 1973 – Rohit Shetty, Indian film director and producer
    • 1974 – Patrick Traverse, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1975 – Steve Harper, English footballer and referee
    • 1975 – Dmitri Markov, Belarusian-Australian pole vaulter
    • 1976 – Phil Vickery, English rugby player and sportscaster
    • 1977 – Vadims Fjodorovs, Latvian footballer and coach
    • 1977 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (d. 2011)
    • 1977 – Jeremy Paul, New Zealand-Australian rugby player
    • 1978 – Pieter van den Hoogenband, Dutch swimmer
    • 1979 – Nicolas Anelka, French footballer and manager
    • 1979 – Chris Klein, American actor
    • 1979 – Sead Ramović, German-Bosnian footballer
    • 1980 – Aaron Brown, English footballer and coach
    • 1980 – Ben Herring, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1981 – Bobby Jenks, American baseball player
    • 1981 – George Wilson, American football player
    • 1982 – Carlos Marinelli, Argentinian footballer
    • 1982 – François Sterchele, Belgian footballer (d. 2008)
    • 1983 – Bakhtiyar Artayev, Kazakh boxer
    • 1986 – Elton Chigumbura, Zimbabwean cricketer
    • 1986 – Jessica Gallagher, Australian skier and cyclist
    • 1986 – Andy Taylor, English footballer
    • 1988 – Stephen Curry, American basketball player
    • 1988 – Rico Freimuth, German decathlete
    • 1989 – Kevin Lacroix, Canadian race car driver
    • 1990 – Joe Allen, Welsh footballer
    • 1990 – Tamás Kádár, Hungarian footballer
    • 1990 – Haru Kuroki, Japanese actress
    • 1990 – Kolbeinn Sigþórsson, Icelandic footballer
    • 1991 – Emir Bekrić, Serbian hurdler
    • 1991 – László Szűcs, Hungarian footballer
    • 1991 – Steven Zellner, German footballer
    • 1993 – Philipp Ziereis, German footballer
    • 1994 – Ansel Elgort, American actor and DJ
    • 1996 – Batuhan Altıntaş, Turkish footballer
    • 1997 – Simone Biles, American gymnast
    • 2008 – Abby Ryder Fortson, American actress

    Deaths on March 14

    • 840 – Einhard, Frankish scholar
    • 968 – Matilda of Ringelheim, Saxon queen (b. c. 896)
    • 1555 – John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (b. 1485)
    • 1647 – Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (b. 1584)
    • 1648 – Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general and politician (b. 1584)
    • 1696 – Jean Domat, French lawyer and jurist (b. 1625)
    • 1748 – George Wade, Irish field marshal and politician (b. 1673)
    • 1757 – John Byng, British admiral and politician, 11th Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1704)
    • 1791 – Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and critic (b. 1725)
    • 1803 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (b. 1724)
    • 1811 – Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1735)
    • 1823 – Charles François Dumouriez, French general and politician, French Minister of War (b. 1739)
    • 1860 – Carl Ritter von Ghega, Italian engineer, designed the Semmering railway (b. 1802)
    • 1877 – Juan Manuel de Rosas, Argentinian general and politician, 17th Governor of Buenos Aires Province (b. 1793)
    • 1883 – Karl Marx, German philosopher and theorist (b. 1818)
    • 1884 – Quintino Sella, Italian economist and politician, Italian Minister of Finances (b. 1827)
    • 1932 – George Eastman, American inventor and businessman, founded Eastman Kodak (b. 1854)
    • 1953 – Klement Gottwald, Czechoslovak Communist politician and 14th President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1896)
    • 1957 – Evagoras Pallikarides, Cypriot activist (b. 1938)
    • 1965 – Marion Jones Farquhar, American tennis player (b. 1879)
    • 1968 – Erwin Panofsky, German historian and academic (b. 1892)
    • 1969 – Ben Shahn, Lithuanian-American painter, illustrator, and educator (b. 1898)
    • 1973 – Howard H. Aiken, American computer scientist and engineer (b. 1900)
    • 1973 – Chic Young, American cartoonist (b. 1901)
    • 1975 – Susan Hayward, American actress (b. 1917)
    • 1976 – Busby Berkeley, American director and choreographer (b. 1895)
    • 1977 – Fannie Lou Hamer, American activist and philanthropist (b. 1917)
    • 1980 – Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Indonesia (b. 1902)
    • 1980 – Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Spanish environmentalist (b. 1928)
    • 1984 – Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet (b. 1915)
    • 1989 – Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary (b. 1892)
    • 1991 – Howard Ashman, American playwright and composer (b. 1950)
    • 1995 – William Alfred Fowler, American physicist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
    • 1997 – Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-American director and producer (b. 1907)
    • 1999 – Kirk Alyn, American actor (b. 1910)
    • 1999 – John Broome, American author (b. 1913)
    • 2003 – Jack Goldstein, Canadian-American painter (b. 1945)
    • 2003 – Jean-Luc Lagardère, French engineer and businessman (b. 1928)
    • 2006 – Lennart Meri, Estonian director and politician, 2nd President of Estonia (b. 1929)
    • 2007 – Lucie Aubrac, French educator and activist (b. 1912)
    • 2008 – Chiara Lubich, Italian activist, co-founded the Focolare Movement (b. 1920)
    • 2010 – Peter Graves, American actor (b. 1926)
    • 2012 – Pierre Schoendoerffer, French director and screenwriter (b. 1928)
    • 2012 – Ċensu Tabone, Maltese general and politician, 4th President of Malta (b. 1913)
    • 2013 – Jack Greene, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1930)
    • 2013 – Aramais Sahakyan, Armenian poet and author (b. 1936)
    • 2013 – Ieng Sary, Vietnamese-Cambodian politician, Cambodian Minister for Foreign Affairs (b. 1925)
    • 2014 – Tony Benn, English politician, Postmaster General of the United Kingdom (b. 1925)
    • 2014 – Meir Har-Zion, Israeli commander (b. 1934)
    • 2016 – John W. Cahn, German-American metallurgist and academic (b. 1928)
    • 2016 – Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer and conductor (b. 1934)
    • 2016 – Suranimala Rajapaksha, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician (b. 1949)
    • 2018 – Jim Bowen, English stand-up comedian and TV personality (b. 1937)
    • 2018 – Marielle Franco, Brazilian politician and human rights activist (b. 1979)
    • 2018 – Stephen Hawking, English physicist and author (b. 1942)
    • 2018 – Liam O’Flynn, Irish uileann piper (b. 1945)
    • 2019 – Jake Phelps, American skateboarder and Thrasher editor-in-chief (b. 1962)

    Holidays and observances on March 14

    • Christian feast day:
      • Leobinus
      • March 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Constitution Day (Andorra)
    • Heroes’ Day (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines)
    • Mother Tongue Day (Estonia)
    • Nanakshahi New Year, first day of the month of Chet (Sikhism)
    • Pi Day
    • Summer Day (Albania)
    • White Day on which men give gifts to women; complementary to Valentine’s Day (Japan and other Asian nations)

  • March 8 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 1010 – Ferdowsi completes his epic poem Shahnameh.
    • 1126 – Following the death of his mother Urraca, Alfonso VII is proclaimed king of Castile and León.
    • 1262 – Battle of Hausbergen between bourgeois militias and the army of the bishop of Strasbourg.
    • 1576 – Spanish explorer Diego García de Palacio first sights the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Copán.
    • 1618 – Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion.
    • 1655 – John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in England’s North American colonies where a crime was not committed.
    • 1658 – Treaty of Roskilde: After a devastating defeat in the Northern Wars (1655–1661), Frederick III, the King of Denmark–Norway is forced to give up nearly half his territory to Sweden to save the rest.
    • 1702 – Queen Anne, the younger sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regnant of England, Scotland, and Ireland
    • 1722 – The Safavid Empire of Iran is defeated by an army from Afghanistan at the Battle of Gulnabad, pushing Iran into anarchy.
    • 1736 – Nader Shah, founder of the Afsharid dynasty, is crowned Shah of Iran.
    • 1775 – An anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, publishes “African Slavery in America”, the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.
    • 1777 – Regiments from Ansbach and Bayreuth, sent to support Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, mutiny in the town of Ochsenfurt.
    • 1782 – Gnadenhutten massacre: Ninety-six Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, who had converted to Christianity, are killed by Pennsylvania militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indian tribes.
    • 1801 – War of the Second Coalition: At the Battle of Abukir, a British force under Sir Ralph Abercromby lands in Egypt with the aim of ending the French campaign in Egypt and Syria.
    • 1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.
    • 1844 – King Oscar I ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.
    • 1862 – American Civil War: The Naval Battle of Hampton Roads begins.
    • 1868 – Sakai incident: Japanese samurai kill 11 French sailors in the port of Sakai, Osaka.
    • 1910 – French aviator Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to receive a pilot’s license.
    • 1914 – First flights (for the Royal Thai Air Force) at Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok.
    • 1916 – World War I: A British force unsuccessfully attempts to relieve the siege of Kut (present-day Iraq) in the Battle of Dujaila.
    • 1917 – International Women’s Day protests in St. Petersburg mark the beginning of the February Revolution (February 23rd in the Julian calendar).
    • 1917 – The United States Senate votes to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.
    • 1920 – The Arab Kingdom of Syria, the first modern Arab state to come into existence, is established.
    • 1921 – Spanish Prime Minister Eduardo Dato Iradier is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.
    • 1924 – A mine disaster kills 172 coal miners near Castle Gate, Utah.
    • 1936 – Daytona Beach and Road Course holds its first oval stock car race.
    • 1937 – Spanish Civil War: The Battle of Guadalajara begins.
    • 1942 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Army forces gave an ultimatum to Dutch East Indies Governor General Jonkheer Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer and KNIL Commander in Chief Lieutenant General Hein Ter Poorten, to unconditionally surrender.
    • 1942 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Army forces captured Rangoon, Burma from British.
    • 1947 – Thirteen thousand troops of the Republic of China Army arrive in Taiwan after the February 28 Incident and launch crackdowns which kill thousands of people, including many elites. This turns into a major root of the Taiwan independence movement.
    • 1949 – President of France Vincent Auriol and ex-emperor of Annam Bảo Đại sign the Élysée Accords, giving Vietnam greater independence from France and creating the State of Vietnam to oppose Viet Minh-led Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
    • 1957 – Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal after the Suez Crisis.
    • 1957 – The 1957 Georgia Memorial to Congress, which petitions the U.S. Congress to declare the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution null and void, is adopted by the U.S. state of Georgia.
    • 1963 – The Ba’ath Party comes to power in Syria in a coup d’état by a clique of quasi-leftist Syrian Army officers calling themselves the National Council of the Revolutionary Command.
    • 1965 – Thirty-five hundred United States Marines are the first American land combat forces committed during the Vietnam War.
    • 1966 – Nelson’s Pillar in Dublin, Ireland, destroyed by a bomb.
    • 1971 – The Fight of the Century between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali commences. Frazier wins in 15 rounds via unanimous decision.
    • 1974 – Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.
    • 1979 – Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.
    • 1983 – Cold War: While addressing a convention of Evangelicals, U.S. President Ronald Reagan labels the Soviet Union an “evil empire”.
    • 1985 – A supposed failed assassination attempt on Islamic cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in Beirut, Lebanon kills at least 45 and injures 175 others.
    • 2004 – A new constitution is signed by Iraq’s Governing Council.
    • 2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, carrying a total of 239 people, disappears en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
    • 2017 – The Azure Window, a natural arch on the Maltese island of Gozo, collapses in stormy weather.

    Births on March 8

    • 1286 – John III, Duke of Brittany (d. 1341)
    • 1293 – Beatrice of Castile (d. 1359)
    • 1495 – John of God, Portuguese friar and saint (d. 1550)
    • 1514 – Amago Haruhisa, Japanese daimyō (d. 1562)
    • 1518 – Sidonie of Saxony, Duchess of Brunswick-Calenberg (d. 1575)
    • 1550 – William Drury, English politician (d. 1590)
    • 1658 – Thomas Trevor, 1st Baron Trevor, British Baron (d. 1730)
    • 1566 – Carlo Gesualdo, Italian lute player and composer (d. 1613)
    • 1712 – John Fothergill, English physician and botanist (d. 1780)
    • 1714 – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German pianist and composer (d. 1788)
    • 1726 – Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, English admiral and politician, Treasurer of the Navy (d. 1799)
    • 1746 – André Michaux, French botanist and explorer (d. 1802)
    • 1748 – William V, Prince of Orange (d. 1806)
    • 1761 – Jan Potocki, Polish ethnologist, historian, linguist, and author (d. 1815)
    • 1799 – Simon Cameron, American journalist and politician, 26th United States Secretary of War (d. 1889)
    • 1804 – Alvan Clark, American astronomer and optician (d. 1887)
    • 1822 – Ignacy Łukasiewicz, Polish inventor and businessman, invented the Kerosene lamp (d. 1882)
    • 1826 – Johann Köler, Estonian painter and academic (d. 1899)
    • 1827 – Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist and anthropologist (d. 1875)
    • 1830 – João de Deus, Portuguese poet and educator (d. 1896)
    • 1839 – Josephine Cochrane, American inventor (d. 1913)
    • 1841 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., American colonel, lawyer, and jurist (d. 1935)
    • 1848 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson, American engineer and businessman, developed the roller coaster (d. 1917)
    • 1856 – Bramwell Booth, English 2nd General of The Salvation Army (d. 1929)
    • 1856 – Colin Campbell Cooper, American painter and academic (d. 1937)
    • 1859 – Kenneth Grahame, Scottish-English banker and author (d. 1932)
    • 1865 – Frederic Goudy, American type designer, created Copperplate Gothic and Goudy Old Style (d. 1947)
    • 1879 – Otto Hahn, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
    • 1886 – Edward Calvin Kendall, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
    • 1892 – Juana de Ibarbourou, Uruguayan poet and author (d. 1979)
    • 1896 – Charlotte Whitton, Canadian journalist and politician, 46th Mayor of Ottawa (d. 1975)
    • 1899 – Elmer Keith, American gun designer and author (d. 1984)
    • 1900 – Howard H. Aiken, American physicist and computer scientist, created the Harvard Mark I (d. 1973)
    • 1902 – Louise Beavers, American actress and singer (d. 1962)
    • 1902 – Jennings Randolph, American journalist and politician (d. 1998)
    • 1907 – Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greek lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Greece (d. 1998)
    • 1909 – Beatrice Shilling, English motorcycle racer and engineer (d. 1990)
    • 1909 – Paula Strasberg, American actress and acting coach (d. 1966)
    • 1910 – Claire Trevor, American actress (d. 2000)
    • 1911 – Alan Hovhaness, Armenian-American pianist and composer (d. 2000)
    • 1912 – Preston Smith, American businessman and politician, 40th Governor of Texas (d. 2003)
    • 1912 – Meldrim Thomson, Jr., American publisher and politician, 73rd Governor of New Hampshire (d. 2001)
    • 1914 – Yakov Borisovich Zel’dovich, Belarusian-Russian physicist and astronomer (d. 1987)
    • 1918 – Eileen Herlie, Scottish-American actress (d. 2008)
    • 1920 – Douglass Wallop, American author and playwright (d. 1985)
    • 1921 – Alan Hale, Jr., American actor (d. 1990)
    • 1921 – Sahir Ludhianvi, Indian poet and songwriter (d. 1980)
    • 1922 – Ralph H. Baer, German-American video game designer, created the Magnavox Odyssey (d. 2014)
    • 1922 – Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer (d. 2008)
    • 1922 – Carl Furillo, American baseball player (d. 1989)
    • 1922 – Yevgeny Matveyev, Russian actor and director (d. 2003)
    • 1922 – Shigeru Mizuki, Japanese author and illustrator (d. 2015)
    • 1924 – Anthony Caro, English sculptor and illustrator (d. 2013)
    • 1924 – Georges Charpak, Ukrainian-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2010)
    • 1924 – Sean McClory, Irish-American actor and director (d. 2003)
    • 1925 – Warren Bennis, American scholar, author, and academic (d. 2014)
    • 1926 – Francisco Rabal, Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2001)
    • 1929 – Hebe Camargo, Brazilian actress and singer (d. 2012)
    • 1930 – Bob Grim, American baseball player (d. 1996)
    • 1930 – Douglas Hurd, English politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
    • 1931 – Neil Adcock, South African cricketer (d. 2013)
    • 1931 – John McPhee, American author and educator
    • 1931 – Gerald Potterton, English-Canadian animator, director, and producer
    • 1931 – Neil Postman, American author and critic (d. 2003)
    • 1934 – Marv Breeding, American baseball player and scout (d. 2006)
    • 1935 – George Coleman, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader
    • 1936 – Sue Ane Langdon, American actress and singer
    • 1936 – Gábor Szabó, Hungarian guitarist and composer (d. 1982)
    • 1937 – Richard Fariña, American singer-songwriter and author (d. 1966)
    • 1937 – Juvénal Habyarimana, Rwandan politician, 2nd President of Rwanda (d. 1994)
    • 1938 – Pete Dawkins, American football player, colonel, and politician
    • 1939 – Jim Bouton, American baseball player and journalist (d. 2019)
    • 1939 – Lynn Seymour, Canadian ballerina and choreographer
    • 1939 – Lidiya Skoblikova, Russian speed skater and coach
    • 1939 – Robert Tear, Welsh tenor and conductor (d. 2011)
    • 1941 – Norman Stone, Scottish-English historian, author, and academic (d. 2019)
    • 1942 – Dick Allen, American baseball player and tenor
    • 1942 – Ann Packer, English sprinter, hurdler, and long jumper
    • 1943 – Susan Clark, Canadian actress and producer
    • 1943 – Michael Grade, English businessman
    • 1943 – Lynn Redgrave, English-American actress and singer (d. 2010)
    • 1943 – Dionysis Simopoulos, Greek physicist and astronomer
    • 1944 – Sergey Nikitin, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1945 – Jim Chapman, American lawyer and politician
    • 1945 – Micky Dolenz, American singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor
    • 1945 – Anselm Kiefer, German painter and sculptor
    • 1945 – Sylvia Wiegand, American mathematician
    • 1946 – Robert Jaworski, Filipino basketball player, coach, and politician
    • 1946 – Randy Meisner, American singer-songwriter and bass player
    • 1947 – Carole Bayer Sager, American singer-songwriter and painter
    • 1947 – Michael S. Hart, American author, founded Project Gutenberg (d. 2011)
    • 1947 – Vladimír Mišík, Czech singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1947 – Florentino Pérez, Spanish engineer and businessman
    • 1948 – Robert W. Boyd, American physicist and academic
    • 1948 – Gyles Brandreth, German-English actor, screenwriter, and politician
    • 1948 – Mel Galley, English rock singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2008)
    • 1948 – Sam Lacey, American basketball player (d. 2014)
    • 1948 – Peggy March, American pop singer
    • 1948 – Jonathan Sacks, English rabbi, philosopher, and scholar
    • 1949 – Teofilo Cubillas, Peruvian footballer
    • 1951 – Phil Edmonds, Zambian-English cricketer and businessman
    • 1951 – Dianne Walker, American tap dancer
    • 1952 – George Allen, American lawyer and politician, 67th Governor of Virginia
    • 1953 – Jim Rice, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1954 – Steve James, American documentary filmmaker
    • 1954 – David Wilkie, Sri Lankan-Scottish swimmer
    • 1956 – Laurie Cunningham, English footballer (d. 1989)
    • 1956 – David Malpass, American economist and government official
    • 1957 – Clive Burr, English rock drummer (d. 2013)
    • 1957 – William Edward Childs, American pianist and composer
    • 1957 – Bob Stoddard, American baseball player
    • 1958 – Andy McDonald, English lawyer and politician
    • 1958 – Gary Numan, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1959 – Aidan Quinn, Irish-American actor
    • 1960 – Jeffrey Eugenides, American author and academic
    • 1960 – Irek Mukhamedov, Russian ballet dancer
    • 1960 – Buck Williams, American basketball player and coach
    • 1961 – Camryn Manheim, American actress
    • 1961 – Larry Murphy, Canadian ice hockey player and journalist
    • 1962 – Leon Robinson, American actor and producer
    • 1964 – Kate Betts, American journalist and author
    • 1965 – Kenny Smith, American basketball player and sportscaster
    • 1966 – Greg Barker, Baron Barker of Battle, English politician
    • 1966 – Jaime Levy, American computer scientist and academic
    • 1967 – Joel Johnston, American baseball player
    • 1968 – Michael Bartels, German race car driver
    • 1968 – Shawn Mullins, American singer-songwriter
    • 1969 – Juan de Dios Ramírez Perales, Mexican footballer
    • 1970 – Jason Elam, American football player
    • 1971 – Kit Symons, English-Welsh footballer and manager
    • 1972 – Georgios Georgiadis, Greek footballer and manager
    • 1972 – Matthew Nable, Australian rugby player and actor
    • 1972 – Lena Sundström, Swedish journalist and author
    • 1973 – Boris Kodjoe, Austrian-born American actor and producer
    • 1973 – Anneke van Giersbergen, Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1975 – Mauro Briano, Italian footballer
    • 1976 – Gaz Coombes, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1976 – Juan Encarnación, Dominican baseball player
    • 1976 – Freddie Prinze, Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1977 – James Van Der Beek, American actor
    • 1977 – Johann Vogel, Swiss footballer
    • 1978 – Nick Zano, American actor and producer
    • 1979 – Apathy, American rapper and producer
    • 1979 – Tom Chaplin, English singer-songwriter
    • 1979 – Andy Ross, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1980 – Stephen Milne, Australian footballer
    • 1981 – Michael Beauchamp, Australian footballer
    • 1981 – Timothy Jordan II, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2005)
    • 1981 – Joost Posthuma, Dutch cyclist
    • 1982 – Nicolas Armindo, French racing driver
    • 1982 – Leonidas Kampantais, Greek footballer
    • 1982 – Isak Strand, Norwegian drummer, composer, and producer
    • 1983 – André Santos, Brazilian footballer
    • 1983 – Mark Worrell, American baseball player
    • 1984 – Rafik Djebbour, Algerian footballer
    • 1984 – Ross Taylor, New Zealand cricketer
    • 1984 – Sasha Vujačić, Slovenian basketball player
    • 1987 – Jonathan Wright, Australian rugby league player
    • 1988 – Benny Blanco, American rapper and producer
    • 1990 – Asier Illarramendi, Spanish footballer
    • 1990 – Petra Kvitová, Czech tennis player
    • 1990 – Nico Salva, Filipino basketball player
    • 1990 – Ben Tozer, English footballer
    • 1991 – Miriam Bryant, Swedish-Finnish singer-songwriter
    • 1991 – Tom English, Australian rugby player
    • 1992 – Uki Satake, Japanese singer, actress, and radio host
    • 1994 – Pablo Dyego, Brazilian footballer
    • 1994 – Claire Emslie, Scottish footballer
    • 1994 – Dylan Tombides, Australian footballer (d. 2014)
    • 1996 – Matthew Hammelmann, Australian rules footballer
    • 1998 – Tali Darsigny, Canadian weightlifter

    Deaths on March 8

    • 865 – Rudolf of Fulda, German theologian
    • 1126 – Urraca of León and Castile (b. 1079)
    • 1137 – Adela of Normandy, by marriage countess of Blois (b. c. 1067)
    • 1144 – Pope Celestine II
    • 1223 – Wincenty Kadłubek, Polish bishop and historian (b. 1161)
    • 1365 – Queen Noguk of Korea
    • 1403 – Bayezid I, Ottoman sultan (b. 1360)
    • 1441 – Margaret of Burgundy, Duchess of Bavaria
    • 1466 – Francesco I Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1401)
    • 1550 – John of God, Portuguese friar and saint (b. 1495)
    • 1619 – Veit Bach, German baker and miller (b. 1550)
    • 1641 – Xu Xiake, Chinese geographer and explorer (b. 1587)
    • 1702 – William III of England (b. 1650)
    • 1717 – Abraham Darby I, English blacksmith (b. 1678)
    • 1723 – Christopher Wren, English architect, designed St. Paul’s Cathedral (b. 1632)
    • 1731 – Ferdinand Brokoff, Czech sculptor (b. 1688)
    • 1771 – Louis August le Clerc, French-Danish sculptor and academic (b. 1688)
    • 1819 – Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (b. 1739)
    • 1844 – Charles XIV John of Sweden (b. 1763)
    • 1869 – Hector Berlioz, French composer, conductor, and critic (b. 1803)
    • 1872 – Cornelius Krieghoff, Dutch-Canadian painter (b. 1815)
    • 1874 – Millard Fillmore, American lawyer and politician, 13th President of the United States (b. 1800)
    • 1887 – Henry Ward Beecher, American minister and activist (b. 1813)
    • 1887 – James Buchanan Eads, American engineer, designed the Eads Bridge (b. 1820)
    • 1889 – John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, designed the USS Monitor (b. 1803)
    • 1917 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German general and businessman, founded the Zeppelin Company (b. 1838)
    • 1923 – Krišjānis Barons, Latvian linguist and author (b. 1835)
    • 1923 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1837)
    • 1930 – William Howard Taft, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 27th President of the United States (b. 1857)
    • 1930 – Edward Terry Sanford, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, United States Assistant Attorney General (b. 1865)
    • 1935 – Hachikō, Japanese dog (b. 1923)
    • 1937 – Howie Morenz, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1902)
    • 1941 – Sherwood Anderson, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1876)
    • 1942 – José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player and theoretician (b. 1888)
    • 1944 – Fredy Hirsch, German Jewish athlete who helped thousands of Jewish children in the Holocaust (b. 1916)
    • 1945 – Frederick Bligh Bond, English archaeologist and architect (b. 1864)
    • 1948 – Hulusi Behçet, Turkish dermatologist and scientist (b. 1889)
    • 1957 – Othmar Schoeck, Swiss composer and conductor (b. 1886)
    • 1961 – Thomas Beecham, English conductor and composer (b. 1879)
    • 1971 – Harold Lloyd, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1893)
    • 1973 – Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, American keyboard player and songwriter (b. 1945)
    • 1975 – George Stevens, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1904)
    • 1976 – Alfons Rebane, Estonian colonel (b. 1908)
    • 1983 – Chabuca Granda, Peruvian-American singer-songwriter (b. 1920)
    • 1983 – Alan Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, English lieutenant and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (b. 1904)
    • 1983 – William Walton, English composer (b. 1902)
    • 1985 – Edward Andrews, American actor (b. 1914)
    • 1988 – Amar Singh Chamkila, Indian singer-songwriter (b. 1961)
    • 1988 – Werner Hartmann, German physicist and academic (b. 1912)
    • 1991 – John Bellairs, American author and academic (b. 1938)
    • 1993 – Billy Eckstine, American trumpet player (b. 1914)
    • 1996 – Jack Churchill, British colonel (b. 1906)
    • 1997 – Gershon Liebman, French rabbi (b. 1905)
    • 1998 – Ray Nitschke, American football player and actor (b. 1936)
    • 1999 – Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentinian journalist and author (b. 1914)
    • 1999 – Peggy Cass, American actress and comedian (b. 1924)
    • 1999 – Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player and coach (b. 1914)
    • 2001 – Edward Winter, American actor (b. 1937)
    • 2003 – Adam Faith, English singer (b. 1940)
    • 2003 – Karen Morley, American actress (b. 1909)
    • 2004 – Muhammad Zaidan, Syrian terrorist, founded the Palestine Liberation Front (b. 1948)
    • 2005 – César Lattes, Brazilian physicist and academic (b. 1924)
    • 2005 – Aslan Maskhadov, Chechen commander and politician, 3rd President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (b. 1951)
    • 2007 – John Inman, English actor (b. 1935)
    • 2007 – John Vukovich, American baseball player and coach (b. 1947)
    • 2009 – Hank Locklin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1918)
    • 2009 – Zbigniew Religa, Polish surgeon and politician, Polish Minister of Health (b. 1938)
    • 2011 – Mike Starr, American bass player (b. 1966)
    • 2012 – Simin Daneshvar, Iranian author and academic (b. 1921)
    • 2012 – Minoru Mori, Japanese businessman, founded the Mori Art Museum (b. 1934)
    • 2012 – Steven Rubenstein, American anthropologist and academic (b. 1962)
    • 2013 – Haseeb Ahsan, Pakistani cricketer and manager (b. 1939)
    • 2013 – John O’Connell, Irish journalist and politician, 17th Irish Minister of Health (b. 1927)
    • 2013 – Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin, German soldier and publisher (b. 1922)
    • 2014 – Leo Bretholz, Austrian-American Holocaust survivor and author (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – William Guarnere, American sergeant (b. 1923)
    • 2015 – Tjol Lategan, South African rugby player (b. 1925)
    • 2015 – Sam Simon, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1955)
    • 2016 – Aldo Ferrer, Argentinian economist and diplomat (b. 1927)
    • 2016 – Ross Hannaford, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1950)
    • 2016 – George Martin, English composer, conductor, and producer (b. 1926)
    • 2018 – Kate Wilhelm, American author (b. 1928)
    • 2019 – Marshall Brodien, American actor (b. 1934)
    • 2019 – Cedrick Hardman, American football player and actor (b. 1948)
    • 2020 – Max von Sydow, Swedish actor (b. 1929)

    Holidays and observances on March 8

    • Christian feast day:
      • Edward King (Church of England)
      • Felix of Burgundy
      • Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (the Church of England, The Episcopal Church (USA))
      • John of God
      • Philemon the actor
      • March 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Earliest day on which Canberra Day can fall, while March 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Monday in March (Australian Capital Territory)
    • Earliest day on which Commonwealth Day can fall, while March 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Monday in March (Commonwealth of Nations)
    • Earliest day on which Decoration Day can fall, while March 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Wednesday in March (Liberia)
    • Earliest day on which Passion Sunday can fall, while April 17 is the latest; observed on the fifth Sunday of Lent (Christianity)
    • International Women’s Day, and its related observances:
      • International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day

  • February 28 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 202 BC – Liu Bang is enthroned as the Emperor of China, beginning four centuries of rule by the Han dynasty.
    • 870 – The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.
    • 1246 – The siege of Jaén ends in the context of the Spanish Reconquista resulting in the Castilian takeover of the city from the Taifa of Jaen.
    • 1525 – Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés.
    • 1638 – The Scottish National Covenant is signed in Edinburgh.
    • 1700 – Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
    • 1710 – Battle of Helsingborg: 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock. This is the last time Swedish and Danish troops meet on Swedish soil.
    • 1728 – Peshwa Bajirao I of the Maratha Empire defeats Asaf Jah I in the Battle of Palkhed.
    • 1827 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
    • 1838 – Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Quebec).
    • 1844 – A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing six people, including two United States Cabinet members.
    • 1847 – The Battle of the Sacramento River during the Mexican–American War is a decisive victory for the United States leading to the capture of Chihuahua.
    • 1849 – Regular steamship service from the east to the west coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, four months 22 days after leaving New York Harbor.
    • 1867 – Seventy years of Holy See–United States relations are ended by a Congressional ban on federal funding of diplomatic envoys to the Vatican and are not restored until January 10, 1984.
    • 1870 – The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abdülaziz of the Ottoman Empire.
    • 1874 – One of the longest cases ever heard in an English court ends when the defendant is convicted of perjury for attempting to assume the identity of the heir to the Tichborne baronetcy.
    • 1893 – The USS Indiana, the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time, is launched.
    • 1897 – Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
    • 1900 – The Second Boer War: The 118-day “Siege of Ladysmith” is lifted.
    • 1904 – S.L. Benfica is founded in Portugal.
    • 1922 – The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
    • 1925 – The Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake strikes northeastern North America.
    • 1933 – Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.
    • 1935 – DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.
    • 1939 – The erroneous word “dord” is discovered in the Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.
    • 1940 – Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).
    • 1942 – The heavy cruiser USS Houston is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed, along with HMAS Perth which lost 375 men.
    • 1947 – February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of an estimated 30,000 civilians.
    • 1948 – Christiansborg Cross-Roads shooting in the Gold Coast, when a British police officer opens fire on a march of ex-servicemen, killing three of them and sparking major riots and looting in Accra.
    • 1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April’s Nature (pub. April 2).
    • 1954 – The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public.
    • 1958 – A school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hits a wrecker truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa Fork river. The driver and 26 children die in what remains one of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history.
    • 1959 – Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite that is the first object intended to achieve a polar orbit, is launched but fails to achieve orbit.
    • 1966 – A NASA T-38 Talon crashes into the McDonnell Aircraft factory while attempting a poor-visibility landing at Lambert Field, St. Louis, killing astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett.
    • 1972 – China–United States relations: The United States and China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.
    • 1975 – In London, an underground train fails to stop at Moorgate terminus station and crashes into the end of the tunnel, killing 43 people.
    • 1980 – Andalusia approves its statute of autonomy through a referendum.
    • 1983 – The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, with almost 106 million viewers. It still holds the record for the highest viewership of a season finale.
    • 1985 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.
    • 1986 – Olof Palme, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
    • 1991 – The first Gulf War ends.
    • 1993 – The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group’s leader David Koresh. Four ATF agents and six Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
    • 1995 – Former Australian Liberal party leader John Hewson resigns from the Australian parliament almost two years after losing the 1993 Australian federal election.
    • 1997 – An earthquake in northern Iran is responsible for about 3,000 deaths.
    • 1997 – GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way.
    • 1998 – First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.
    • 1998 – Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army in Kosovo.
    • 2002 – During the religious violence in Gujarat, the 97 people killed in the Naroda Patiya massacre and 69 in Gulbarg Society massacre.
    • 2004 – Over one million Taiwanese participate in the 228 Hand-in-Hand rally form a 500-kilometre (310 mi) long human chain to commemorate the February 28 Incident in 1947.
    • 2005 – A suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.
    • 2013 – Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since Pope Gregory XII, in 1415.

    Births on February 28

    • 1119 – Emperor Xizong of Jin (d. 1150)
    • 1155 – Henry the Young King, son and heir of Henry II of England (d. 1183)
    • 1261 – Margaret of Scotland, Queen of Norway (d. 1283)
    • 1518 – Francis III, Duke of Brittany, Duke of Brittany (d. 1536)
    • 1533 – Michel de Montaigne, French philosopher and author (d. 1592)
    • 1535 – Cornelius Gemma, Dutch astronomer and astrologer (d. 1578)
    • 1552 – Jost Bürgi, Swiss mathematician and clockmaker (d. 1632)
    • 1612 – John Pearson, English bishop, theologian, and scholar (d. 1686)
    • 1627 – Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Essex (d. 1703)
    • 1675 – Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (d. 1726)
    • 1683 – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French entomologist and academic (d. 1757)
    • 1704 – Louis Godin, French astronomer and academic (d. 1760)
    • 1712 – Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, French general (d. 1759)
    • 1724 – George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, English field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1807)
    • 1792 – Karl Ernst von Baer, German biologist, meteorologist, and geographer (d. 1876)
    • 1812 – Berthold Auerbach, German poet and author (d. 1882)
    • 1820 – John Tenniel, English illustrator (d. 1914)
    • 1833 – Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (d. 1913)
    • 1840 – Henri Duveyrier, French explorer (d. 1892)
    • 1848 – Arthur Giry, French historian and academic (d. 1899)
    • 1851 – Samuel W. McCall, American journalist and politician, 47th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1923)
    • 1858 – Tore Svennberg, Swedish actor and director (d. 1941)
    • 1865 – Wilfred Grenfell, English physician and missionary (d. 1940)
    • 1866 – Vyacheslav Ivanov, Russian poet and playwright (d. 1949)
    • 1873 – William McMaster Murdoch, Scottish sailor (d. 1912)
    • 1878 – Pierre Fatou, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1929)
    • 1882 – Geraldine Farrar, American soprano and actress (d. 1967)
    • 1882 – José Vasconcelos, Mexican philosopher, lawyer, and politician, Mexican Secretary of Public Education (d. 1959)
    • 1883 – Seán Mac Diarmada, Irish rebel leader (d. 1916)
    • 1884 – Ants Piip, Estonian lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Estonia (d. 1942)
    • 1887 – William Zorach, Lithuanian-American sculptor and painter (d. 1966)
    • 1894 – Ben Hecht, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1964)
    • 1895 – Marcel Pagnol, French author, playwright and director (d. 1974)
    • 1896 – Philip Showalter Hench, American physician and endocrinologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
    • 1898 – Zeki Rıza Sporel, Turkish footballer (d. 1969)
    • 1900 – Wolf Hirth, German pilot and engineer, co-founded Schempp-Hirth (d. 1959)
    • 1901 – Linus Pauling, American chemist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
    • 1903 – Vincente Minnelli, American director and screenwriter (d. 1986)
    • 1906 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)
    • 1907 – Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
    • 1908 – Billie Bird, American actress (d. 2002)
    • 1909 – Stephen Spender, English author and poet (d. 1995)
    • 1911 – Otakar Vávra, Czech director and screenwriter (d. 2011)
    • 1915 – Ketti Frings, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1981)
    • 1915 – Peter Medawar, Brazilian-English biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
    • 1915 – Zero Mostel, American actor and comedian (d. 1977)
    • 1916 – Cesar Climaco, Filipino lawyer and politician, 10th Mayor of Zamboanga City (d. 1984)
    • 1917 – Ernesto Alonso, Mexican actor, director, and producer (d. 2007)
    • 1919 – Alfred Marshall, American businessman, founded Marshalls (d. 2013)
    • 1919 – Brian Urquhart, English soldier and diplomat, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
    • 1920 – Jadwiga Piłsudska, Polish soldier, pilot, and architect (d. 2014)
    • 1921 – Pierre Clostermann, French pilot, engineer, and author (d. 2006)
    • 1922 – Yuri Lotman, Russian-Estonian historian and scholar (d. 1993)
    • 1923 – Charles Durning, American soldier and actor (d. 2012)
    • 1924 – Uno Prii, Estonian-Canadian architect (d. 2000)
    • 1924 – Robert A. Roe, American soldier and politician (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Harry H. Corbett, Burmese-English actor (d. 1982)
    • 1926 – Svetlana Alliluyeva, Russian-American author and educator (d. 2011)
    • 1928 – Stanley Baker, Welsh actor and producer (d. 1976)
    • 1928 – Tom Aldredge, American actor (d. 2011)
    • 1928 – Sylvia del Villard, actress, dancer, choreographer and Afro-Puerto Rican activist (d. 1990)
    • 1929 – Hayden Fry, American football player and coach (d. 2019)
    • 1929 – Frank Gehry, Canadian-American architect, designed 8 Spruce Street and Walt Disney Concert Hall
    • 1929 – John Montague, American-Irish poet and academic (d. 2016)
    • 1929 – Rangaswamy Srinivasan, Indian-American physical chemist and inventor
    • 1930 – Leon Cooper, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1931 – Iajuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi academic and politician, 14th President of Bangladesh (d. 2012)
    • 1931 – Peter Alliss, English golfer and sportscaster
    • 1931 – Gavin MacLeod, American actor
    • 1931 – Len Newcombe, Welsh footballer, outside forward and scout (d. 1996)
    • 1931 – Dean Smith, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
    • 1932 – Don Francks, Canadian actor, singer, and jazz musician (d. 2016)
    • 1933 – Rein Taagepera, Estonian political scientist and politician
    • 1934 – Willie Bobo, American Latin Jazz/Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist (d. 1983)
    • 1937 – Jeff Farrell, American swimmer
    • 1938 – Foge Fazio, American football player and coach (d. 2009)
    • 1939 – John Fahey, American guitarist (d. 2001)
    • 1939 – Chögyam Trungpa, Tibetan philosopher and scholar (d. 1987)
    • 1939 – Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1939 – Tommy Tune, American actor, singer, dancer, and director
    • 1940 – Aldo Andretti, Italian-American race car driver
    • 1940 – Mario Andretti, Italian-American race car driver
    • 1940 – Joe South, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer (d. 2012)
    • 1942 – Brian Jones, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer (d. 1969)
    • 1942 – Dino Zoff, Italian footballer and manager
    • 1943 – Barbara Acklin, American singer-songwriter (d. 1998)
    • 1943 – Hans Dijkstal, Egyptian-Dutch educator and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 2010)
    • 1943 – Donnie Iris, American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1944 – Kelly Bishop, American actress and dancer
    • 1944 – Edward Greenspan, Canadian lawyer and author (d. 2014)
    • 1944 – Sepp Maier, German footballer and manager
    • 1944 – Storm Thorgerson, English graphic designer (d. 2013)
    • 1945 – Mimsy Farmer, American-French actress and sculptor
    • 1945 – Bubba Smith, American football player and actor (d. 2011)
    • 1945 – Linda Preiss Rothschild, American mathematician and academic
    • 1946 – Philip Bailhache, English lawyer and politician
    • 1946 – Robin Cook, Scottish educator and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 2005)
    • 1946 – Syreeta Wright, African-American singer songwriter (d. 2004)
    • 1947 – Stephanie Beacham, English actress
    • 1948 – Steven Chu, American physicist and politician, 12th United States Secretary of Energy, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1948 – Mike Figgis, English director, screenwriter, and composer
    • 1948 – Bernadette Peters, American actress, singer, and author
    • 1948 – Mercedes Ruehl, American actress
    • 1948 – Alfred Sant, Maltese politician, 11th Prime Minister of Malta
    • 1951 – Bill Cratty, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1998)
    • 1951 – Debora Green, American physician convicted of murder
    • 1953 – Ingo Hoffmann, Brazilian race car driver
    • 1953 – Paul Krugman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1953 – Ricky Steamboat, American wrestler, referee, and trainer
    • 1954 – Brian Billick, American football player, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1955 – Adrian Dantley, American basketball player and coach
    • 1955 – Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian, actor, and singer
    • 1956 – Terry Leahy, English businessman
    • 1956 – Guy Maddin, Canadian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
    • 1957 – Paul Delph, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 1996)
    • 1957 – Ainsley Harriott, English chef and author
    • 1957 – Ian Smith, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster
    • 1957 – John Turturro, American actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1957 – Cindy Wilson, American singer-songwriter
    • 1958 – Manuel Torres Félix, Mexican criminal and narcotics trafficker (d. 2012)
    • 1958 – Natalya Estemirova, Russian journalist and activist (d. 2009)
    • 1958 – Jeanne Mas, Spanish-French singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1958 – David R. Ross, Scottish historian and author (d. 2010)
    • 1959 – Jack Abramoff, American businessman and lobbyist
    • 1959 – Megan McDonald, American librarian and author
    • 1961 – Rae Dawn Chong, Canadian-American actress
    • 1961 – Mark Latham, Australian politician
    • 1961 – Barry McGuigan, Irish-British boxer
    • 1962 – Gary Belcher, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
    • 1963 – Claudio Chiappucci, Italian cyclist
    • 1964 – Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Uzbekistan sprinter and cyclist
    • 1965 – Colum McCann, Irish-American author and academic
    • 1965 – Norman Smiley, English-American wrestler and trainer
    • 1966 – Vincent Askew, American basketball player and coach
    • 1966 – Paulo Futre, Portuguese footballer
    • 1966 – Archbishop Jovan VI of Ohrid
    • 1967 – Colin Cooper, English footballer and manager
    • 1967 – Martin Tielli, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1969 – Sean Farrel, English footballer, forward
    • 1969 – Butch Leitzinger, American race car driver
    • 1969 – Robert Sean Leonard, American actor
    • 1969 – Patrick Monahan, American singer-songwriter and actor
    • 1970 – Daniel Handler, American journalist, author, and accordion player
    • 1970 – Noureddine Morceli, Algerian runner
    • 1971 – Junya Nakano, Japanese pianist and composer
    • 1971 – Peter Stebbings, Canadian actor and director
    • 1972 – Rory Cochrane, American actor
    • 1972 – Ville Haapasalo, Finnish actor and screenwriter
    • 1973 – Eric Lindros, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1973 – Scott McLeod, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1973 – Nicolas Minassian, French race car driver
    • 1973 – Masato Tanaka, Japanese wrestler
    • 1974 – Lee Carsley, English-Irish footballer and manager
    • 1974 – Alexander Zickler, German footballer and manager
    • 1975 – Mike Rucker, American football player
    • 1976 – Ali Larter, American actress
    • 1977 – Jason Aldean, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1977 – Lance Hoyt, American football player and wrestler
    • 1978 – Jeanne Cherhal, French singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1978 – Benjamin Raich, Austrian skier
    • 1978 – Jamaal Tinsley, American basketball player
    • 1978 – Mariano Zabaleta, Argentinian tennis player
    • 1979 – Sébastien Bourdais, French race car driver
    • 1979 – Ivo Karlović, Croatian tennis player
    • 1979 – Primož Peterka, Slovenian ski jumper
    • 1980 – Pascal Bosschaart, Dutch footballer
    • 1980 – Lucian Bute, Romanian-Canadian boxer
    • 1980 – Christian Poulsen, Danish footballer
    • 1980 – Tayshaun Prince, American basketball player
    • 1981 – Brian Bannister, American baseball player and scout
    • 1982 – Natalia Vodianova, Russian-French model and actress
    • 1984 – Noureen DeWulf, American actress
    • 1984 – Karolína Kurková, Czech model and actress
    • 1985 – Tim Bresnan, English cricketer
    • 1985 – Jelena Janković, Serbian tennis player
    • 1985 – Diego Ribas da Cunha, Brazilian footballer
    • 1986 – Travis Stevens, American judoka
    • 1987 – Antonio Candreva, Italian footballer
    • 1988 – Aroldis Chapman, Cuban baseball player
    • 1988 – Markéta Irglová, Czech singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
    • 1989 – Carlos Dunlap, American football player
    • 1989 – Charles Jenkins, American basketball player
    • 1989 – Kevin Proctor, New Zealand rugby league player
    • 1989 – Angelababy, Chinese actress
    • 1990 – Takayasu Akira, Japanese sumo wrestler
    • 1994 – Jake Bugg, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1994 – Arkadiusz Milik, Polish footballer
    • 1999 – Luka Dončić, Slovenian basketball player

    Deaths on February 28

    • 628 – Khosrow II, Shah of Iran – Sasanian Empire (b. c. 570)
    • 911 – Abu Abdallah al-Shi’i, Muslim Shia imam
    • 1105 – Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse (b. c. 1042)
    • 1261 – Henry III, Duke of Brabant (b. 1230)
    • 1326 – Leopold I, Duke of Austria (b. 1290)
    • 1453 – Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine (b. 1400)
    • 1510 – Juan de la Cosa, Spanish cartographer and explorer (b. 1450)
    • 1551 – Martin Bucer, German Protestant reformer (b. 1491)
    • 1572 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian and author (b. 1505)
    • 1621 – Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1590)
    • 1648 – Christian IV of Denmark (b. 1577)
    • 1786 – John Gwynn, English architect and engineer (b. 1713)
    • 1788 – Thomas Cushing, American lawyer and politician, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1725)
    • 1857 – André Dumont, Belgian geologist and academic (b. 1809)
    • 1869 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French author and poet (b. 1790)
    • 1879 – Hortense Allart, Italian-French author (b. 1801)
    • 1891 – George Hearst, American businessman and politician (b. 1820)
    • 1916 – Henry James, American novelist, short writer, and critic (b. 1843)
    • 1925 – Friedrich Ebert, German politician, 1st President of Germany (b. 1871)
    • 1929 – Clemens von Pirquet, Austrian physician and immunologist (b. 1874)
    • 1932 – Guillaume Bigourdan, French astronomer and academic (b. 1851)
    • 1935 – Chiquinha Gonzaga, Brazilian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1847)
    • 1936 – Charles Nicolle, French biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)
    • 1941 – Alfonso XIII of Spain (b. 1886)
    • 1942 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (b. 1889)
    • 1959 – Maxwell Anderson, American journalist, author, and playwright (b. 1888)
    • 1963 – Rajendra Prasad, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st President of India (b. 1884)
    • 1966 – Charles Bassett, American captain, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1931)
    • 1966 – Elliot See, American commander, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1927)
    • 1967 – Henry Luce, American publisher, co-founded Time Magazine (b. 1898)
    • 1977 – Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, American actor and comedian (b. 1905)
    • 1978 – Zara Cully, American actress (b. 1892)
    • 1978 – Eric Frank Russell, English author (b. 1905)
    • 1983 – Winifred Atwell, Trinidadian pianist (b. 1910 or 1914)
    • 1987 – Stephen Tennant, English author (b. 1906)
    • 1991 – Wassily Hoeffding, Finnish-American statistician and theorist (b. 1914)
    • 1993 – Ishirō Honda, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
    • 1993 – Ruby Keeler, Canadian-American actress and dancer (b. 1909)
    • 1998 – Dermot Morgan, Irish comedian and actor (b. 1952)
    • 1998 – Arkady Shevchenko, Ukrainian diplomat (b. 1930)
    • 2002 – Mary Stuart, American actress and singer (b. 1926)
    • 2002 – Helmut Zacharias, German violinist and composer (b. 1920)
    • 2003 – Chris Brasher, Guyanese-English runner and journalist, co-founded the London Marathon (b. 1928)
    • 2003 – Fidel Sánchez Hernández, Salvadorian general and politician, President of El Salvador (b. 1917)
    • 2004 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian and librarian (b. 1914)
    • 2004 – Carmen Laforet, Spanish author (b. 1921)
    • 2004 – Andres Nuiamäe, Estonian sergeant (b. 1982)
    • 2005 – Chris Curtis, English singer and drummer (b. 1941)
    • 2006 – Owen Chamberlain, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
    • 2007 – Charles Forte, Baron Forte, Italian-English businessman, founded the Forte Group (b. 1908)
    • 2007 – Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. American historian and critic (b. 1917)
    • 2007 – Billy Thorpe, English-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1946)
    • 2008 – Joseph M. Juran, Romanian-American engineer and businessman (b. 1904)
    • 2009 – Paul Harvey, American radio host (b. 1918)
    • 2011 – Annie Girardot, French actress (b. 1931)
    • 2011 – Jane Russell, American actress and singer (b. 1921)
    • 2012 – Frisner Augustin, Haitian drummer and composer (b. 1948)
    • 2012 – Jim Green, American-Canadian educator and politician (b. 1943)
    • 2012 – Hal Roach, Irish comedian and author (b. 1927)
    • 2013 – Donald A. Glaser, American physicist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
    • 2013 – Neil McCorkell, English cricketer and coach (b. 1912)
    • 2014 – Hugo Brandt Corstius, Dutch linguist and author (b. 1935)
    • 2014 – Lee Lorch, American mathematician and activist (b. 1915)
    • 2015 – Alex Johnson, American baseball player (b. 1942)
    • 2015 – Yaşar Kemal, Turkish journalist and author (b. 1923)
    • 2016 – George Kennedy, American actor (b. 1925)
    • 2017 – Pierre Pascau, Mauritian-Canadian journalist (b. 1938)
    • 2019 – André Previn, German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. (b. 1929)
    • 2020 – Joe Coulombe, founder of Trader Joe’s (b. 1930)
    • 2020 – Freeman Dyson, British-born American physicist and mathematician (b. 1923)
    • 2020 – Sir Lenox Hewitt, Australian public servant (b. 1917)

    Holidays and observances on February 28

    • Christian feast day:
      • Abercius (martyr)
      • Anna Julia Cooper and Elizabeth Evelyn Wright (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • Hilarius
      • Mar Abba
      • Oswald of Worcester
      • Romanus of Condat
      • Rufinus
      • February 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Earliest day on which Rare Disease Day can fall, while February 29 is the latest; observed on the last day of February (international)
    • The third day of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’í Faith) (Please note that this observance is only locked into this date the Gregorian calendar on this date if Bahá’í Naw-Rúz takes place on March 21, which it doesn’t in all years)
    • Día de Andalucía (Andalusia, Spain)
    • Kalevala Day, the day of Finnish culture. (Finland)
    • National Science Day (India)
    • Peace Memorial Day (Taiwan)
    • Teachers’ Day (Arab states)
  • |

    February 27 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 380 – Edict of Thessalonica: Emperor Theodosius I and his co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II declare their wish that all Roman citizens convert to Nicene Christianity.
    • 425 – The University of Constantinople is founded by Emperor Theodosius II at the urging of his wife Aelia Eudocia.
    • 907 – Abaoji, a Khitan chieftain, is enthroned as Emperor Taizu, establishing the Liao dynasty in northern China.
    • 1560 – The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Lords of the Congregation of Scotland.
    • 1594 – Henry IV is crowned King of France.
    • 1617 – Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.
    • 1626 – Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong, after leading the Chinese into a great victory against the Manchurians under Nurhaci.
    • 1700 – The island of New Britain is discovered by Europeans.
    • 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge in North Carolina breaks up a Loyalist militia.
    • 1782 – American Revolutionary War: The House of Commons of Great Britain votes against further war in America.
    • 1801 – Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
    • 1809 – Action of 27 February 1809: Captain Bernard Dubourdieu captures HMS Proserpine.
    • 1812 – Argentine War of Independence: Manuel Belgrano raises the Flag of Argentina in the city of Rosario for the first time.
    • 1812 – Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
    • 1844 – The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.
    • 1860 – Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
    • 1864 – American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.
    • 1870 – The current flag of Japan is first adopted as the national flag for Japanese merchant ships.
    • 1881 – First Boer War: The Battle of Majuba Hill takes place.
    • 1898 – King George I of Greece survives an assassination attempt.
    • 1900 – Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé at the Battle of Paardeberg.
    • 1900 – The British Labour Party is founded.
    • 1900 – Fußball-Club Bayern München is founded.
    • 1902 – Second Boer War: Australian soldiers Harry “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock are executed in Pretoria after being convicted of war crimes.
    • 1916 – Ocean liner SS Maloja strikes a mine near Dover and sinks with the loss of 155 lives.
    • 1921 – The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna.
    • 1922 – A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.
    • 1933 – Reichstag fire: Germany’s parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire; Marinus van der Lubbe, a young Dutch Communist claims responsibility.
    • 1939 – United States labor law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. that the National Labor Relations Board has no authority to force an employer to rehire workers who engage in sit-down strikes.
    • 1940 – Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14.
    • 1942 – World War II: During the Battle of the Java Sea, an Allied strike force is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea in the Dutch East Indies.
    • 1943 – The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men.
    • 1943 – In Berlin, the Gestapo arrest 1,800 Jewish men with German wives, leading to the Rosenstrasse protest.
    • 1951 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
    • 1961 – The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated.
    • 1962 – Two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots bomb the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm.
    • 1963 – The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo.
    • 1964 – The Government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
    • 1971 – Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start performing artificially-induced abortions.
    • 1973 – The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee in protest of the federal government.
    • 1976 – The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
    • 1988 – Sumgait pogrom: The Armenian community in Sumgait, Azerbaijan is targeted in a violent pogrom.
    • 1991 – Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that “Kuwait is liberated”.
    • 2002 – Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire at London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair’s handling of the evacuation.
    • 2002 – Godhra train burning: A Muslim mob torches a train returning from Ayodhya, killing 59 Hindu pilgrims.
    • 2004 – A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines’ worst terrorist attack kills 116.
    • 2004 – Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, is sentenced to death for masterminding the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack.
    • 2007 – The Chinese Correction: The Shanghai Stock Exchange falls 9%, the largest drop in ten years.
    • 2010 – An earthquake measuring 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale strikes central parts of Chile leaving over 500 victims, and thousands injured. The quake triggers a tsunami which strikes Hawaii shortly after.
    • 2013 – A shooting takes place at a factory in Menznau, Switzerland, in which five people (including the perpetrator) are killed and five others injured.
    • 2015 – Russian politician Boris Nemtsov is assassinated.

    Births on February 27

    • 272 – Constantine the Great, Roman emperor (d. 337)
    • 1343 – Alberto d’Este, Marquis of Ferrara (d. 1393)
    • 1427 – Ruprecht, Archbishop of Cologne (d. 1480)
    • 1500 – João de Castro, Portuguese nobleman and fourth viceroy of Portuguese India (d. 1548)
    • 1535 – Min Phalaung, Burmese monarch (d. 1593)
    • 1567 – William Alabaster, English poet (d. 1640)
    • 1572 – Francis II, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1632)
    • 1575 – John Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1616)
    • 1622 – Carel Fabritius, Dutch painter (d. 1654)
    • 1630 – Roche Braziliano, Dutch pirate (d. 1671)
    • 1659 – William Sherard, English botanist (d. 1728)
    • 1667 – Ludwika Karolina Radziwiłł, Prussian-Lithuanian wife of Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine (d. 1695)
    • 1689 – Pietro Gnocchi, Italian composer, director, historian, and geographer (d. 1775)
    • 1703 – Lord Sidney Beauclerk, English politician (d. 1744)
    • 1711 – Constantine Mavrocordatos, Ottoman ruler (d. 1769)
    • 1724 – Frederick Michael, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken (d. 1767)
    • 1732 – Jean de Dieu-Raymond de Cucé de Boisgelin, French cardinal (d. 1804)
    • 1746 – Louis-Jérôme Gohier, French politician, French Minister of Justice (d. 1830)
    • 1748 – Anders Sparrman, Swedish physician and activist (d. 1820)
    • 1767 – Jacques-Charles Dupont de l’Eure, French lawyer and politician, 24th Prime Minister of France (d. 1855)
    • 1779 – Thomas Hazlehurst, English businessman, founded Hazlehurst & Sons (d. 1842)
    • 1789 – Manuel Rodríguez Erdoíza, Chilean lawyer and politician, Chilean Minister of National Defense (d. 1818)
    • 1795 – José Antonio Navarro, American merchant and politician (d. 1871)
    • 1799 – Edward Belcher, British naval officer, hydrographer, and explorer (d. 1877)
    • 1799 – Frederick Catherwood, British artist, architect and explorer (d. 1854)
    • 1807 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet and educator (d. 1882)
    • 1809 – Jean-Charles Cornay, French missionary and saint (d. 1837)
    • 1816 – William Nicholson, English-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of Victoria (d. 1865)
    • 1847 – Ellen Terry, English actress (d. 1928)
    • 1848 – Hubert Parry, English composer and historian (d. 1918)
    • 1859 – Bertha Pappenheim, Austrian-German activist and author (d. 1936)
    • 1863 – Joaquín Sorolla, Spanish painter (d. 1923)
    • 1863 – George Herbert Mead, American sociologist and philosopher (d. 1930)
    • 1864 – Eemil Nestor Setälä, Finnish linguist and politician, Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs (d. 1935)
    • 1867 – Irving Fisher, American economist and statistician (d. 1947)
    • 1867 – Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Swedish composer and critic (d. 1942)
    • 1869 – Alice Hamilton, American physician and academic (d. 1970)
    • 1872 – Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, Romanian politician, Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1950)
    • 1875 – Vladimir Filatov, Russian-Ukrainian ophthalmologist and surgeon (d. 1956)
    • 1877 – Adela Verne, English pianist and composer (d. 1952)
    • 1877 – Joseph Grinnell, American zoologist and biologist (d. 1939)
    • 1878 – Alvan T. Fuller, American businessman and politician, 50th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1958)
    • 1880 – Xenophon Kasdaglis, Greek-Egyptian tennis player (d. 1943)
    • 1881 – Sveinn Björnsson, Danish-Icelandic lawyer and politician, 1st President of Iceland (d. 1952)
    • 1881 – L. E. J. Brouwer, Dutch mathematician, philosopher, and academic (d. 1966)
    • 1886 – Hugo Black, American captain, jurist, and politician (d. 1971)
    • 1887 – Pyotr Nesterov, Russian captain, pilot, and engineer (d. 1914)
    • 1888 – Roberto Assagioli, Italian psychiatrist and psychologist (d. 1974)
    • 1888 – Lotte Lehmann, German-American soprano and actress (d. 1976)
    • 1890 – Mabel Keaton Staupers, American nurse and advocate (d. 1989)
    • 1891 – David Sarnoff, American businessman, founded RCA (d. 1971)
    • 1892 – William Demarest, American actor (d. 1983)
    • 1895 – Miyagiyama Fukumatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 1943)
    • 1897 – Marian Anderson, American singer (d. 1993)
    • 1899 – Charles Herbert Best, American-Canadian physiologist and biochemist, co-discovered Insulin (d. 1978)
    • 1901 – Marino Marini, Italian sculptor and academic (d. 1980)
    • 1901 – Kotama Okada, Japanese religious leader (d. 1974)
    • 1902 – Lúcio Costa, French-Brazilian architect and engineer, designed Gustavo Capanema Palace (d. 1998)
    • 1902 – Gene Sarazen, American golfer and sportscaster (d. 1999)
    • 1902 – John Steinbeck, American journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
    • 1903 – Reginald Gardiner, English-American actor and singer (d. 1980)
    • 1903 – Hans Rohrbach, German mathematician (d. 1993)
    • 1903 – Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Belorussian-American rabbi and philosopher (d. 1993)
    • 1904 – James T. Farrell, American author and poet (d. 1979)
    • 1904 – André Leducq, French cyclist (d. 1980)
    • 1904 – Yulii Borisovich Khariton, Russian physicist and academic (d. 1996)
    • 1905 – Franchot Tone, American actor, singer, and producer (d. 1968)
    • 1907 – Mildred Bailey, American singer (d. 1951)
    • 1907 – Momčilo Đujić, Serbian-American priest and commander (d. 1999)
    • 1910 – Joan Bennett, American actress (d. 1990)
    • 1910 – Peter De Vries, American journalist and author (d. 1993)
    • 1910 – Genrikh Kasparyan, Armenian chess player and composer (d. 1995)
    • 1910 – Kelly Johnson, American engineer, co-founded Skunk Works (d. 1990)
    • 1911 – Oscar Heidenstam, English bodybuilder (d. 1991)
    • 1912 – Kusumagraj, Indian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1999)
    • 1912 – Lawrence Durrell, Indian-French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1990)
    • 1913 – Paul Ricœur, French philosopher and academic (d. 2005)
    • 1913 – Kazimierz Sabbat, Polish soldier and politician, President of Poland (d. 1989)
    • 1913 – Irwin Shaw, American author and screenwriter (d. 1984)
    • 1915 – Denis Whitaker, Canadian general, football player, and businessman (d. 2001)
    • 1917 – John Connally, American lieutenant and politician, 61st United States Secretary of Treasury (d. 1993)
    • 1920 – Reg Simpson, English cricketer (d. 2013)
    • 1921 – Theodore Van Kirk, American soldier, pilot, and navigator (d. 2014)
    • 1922 – Hans Rookmaaker, Dutch historian, author, and scholar (d. 1977)
    • 1923 – Dexter Gordon, American saxophonist, composer, and actor (d. 1990)
    • 1925 – Pia Sebastiani, Argentine pianist and composer (d. 2015)
    • 1925 – Kenneth Koch, American poet, playwright and professor (d. 2002)
    • 1926 – David H. Hubel, Canadian-American neurophysiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
    • 1927 – Peter Whittle, English-New Zealand mathematician and theorist
    • 1928 – René Clemencic, Austrian composer, recorder player, harpsichordist, conductor and clavichord player
    • 1929 – Jack Gibson, Australian rugby league player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2008)
    • 1929 – Djalma Santos, Brazilian footballer (d. 2013)
    • 1929 – Patricia Ward Hales, British tennis player (d. 1985)
    • 1930 – Jovan Krkobabić, Serbian politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia (d. 2014)
    • 1930 – Peter Stone, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2003)
    • 1930 – Paul von Ragué Schleyer, American chemist and academic (d. 2014)
    • 1930 – Joanne Woodward, American actress
    • 1932 – Dame Elizabeth Taylor, English-American actress and humanitarian (d. 2011)
    • 1932 – David Young, Baron Young of Graffham, English businessman and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
    • 1933 – Raymond Berry, American football player and coach
    • 1933 – Malcolm Wallop, American politician (d. 2011)
    • 1934 – Vincent Fourcade, French interior designer (d. 1992)
    • 1934 – Ralph Nader, American lawyer, politician, and activist
    • 1935 – Mirella Freni, Italian soprano and actress (d. 2020)
    • 1935 – Uri Shulevitz, American author and illustrator
    • 1936 – Sonia Johnson, American feminist activist and author
    • 1936 – Ron Barassi, Australian footballer and coach
    • 1936 – Roger Mahony, American cardinal
    • 1937 – Barbara Babcock, American actress
    • 1938 – Jake Thackray, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and journalist (d. 2002)
    • 1939 – Don McKinnon, English-New Zealand farmer and politician, 12th Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand
    • 1939 – Peter Revson, American race car driver (d. 1974)
    • 1940 – Pierre Duchesne, Canadian lawyer and politician, 28th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
    • 1940 – Howard Hesseman, American actor
    • 1940 – Bill Hunter, Australian actor (d. 2011)
    • 1941 – Paddy Ashdown, British captain and politician (d. 2018)
    • 1942 – Jimmy Burns, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1942 – Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1942 – Charlayne Hunter-Gault, American journalist
    • 1942 – Klaus-Dieter Sieloff, German footballer (d. 2011)
    • 1943 – Mary Frann, American actress (d. 1998)
    • 1943 – Morten Lauridsen, American composer and conductor
    • 1943 – Carlos Alberto Parreira, Brazilian footballer and manager
    • 1944 – Ken Grimwood, American author (d. 2003)
    • 1944 – Graeme Pollock, South African cricketer and coach
    • 1944 – Sir Roger Scruton, English philosopher and writer (d. 2020)
    • 1947 – Alan Guth, American physicist and cosmologist
    • 1947 – Gidon Kremer, Latvian violinist and conductor
    • 1950 – Annabel Goldie, Scottish lawyer and politician
    • 1950 – Julia Neuberger, Baroness Neuberger, English rabbi and politician
    • 1951 – Carl A. Anderson, 13th Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus
    • 1951 – Lee Atwater, American journalist, activist and political strategist (d. 1991)
    • 1951 – Walter de Silva, Italian car designer
    • 1951 – Steve Harley, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1953 – Gavin Esler, Scottish journalist and author
    • 1953 – Ian Khama, English-Botswanan lieutenant and politician, 4th President of Botswana
    • 1953 – Stelios Kouloglou, Greek journalist, author, director and politician
    • 1954 – Neal Schon, American rock guitarist and singer-songwriter
    • 1956 – Belus Prajoux, Chilean tennis player
    • 1957 – Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1957 – Kevin Curran, American screenwriter and television producer (d. 2016)
    • 1957 – Robert de Castella, Australian runner
    • 1957 – Adrian Smith, English guitarist and songwriter
    • 1957 – Timothy Spall, English actor
    • 1958 – Naas Botha, South African rugby player and sportscaster
    • 1958 – Maggie Hassan, American politician, 81st Governor and United States Senator of New Hampshire
    • 1960 – Andrés Gómez, Ecuadorian tennis player
    • 1960 – Johnny Van Zant, American singer-songwriter
    • 1961 – James Worthy, American basketball player and sportscaster
    • 1962 – Adam Baldwin, American actor
    • 1963 – Nasty Suicide, Finnish musician and pharmacist
    • 1964 – Jeffrey Pasley, American educator and academic
    • 1965 – Noah Emmerich, American actor
    • 1965 – Pedro Chaves, Portuguese race car driver
    • 1966 – Donal Logue, Canadian actor and director
    • 1966 – Oliver Reck, German footballer and manager
    • 1966 – Baltasar Kormákur, Icelandic actor, director, and producer
    • 1967 – Dănuț Lupu, Romanian footballer
    • 1967 – Jony Ive, English industrial designer, former chief design officer (CDO) of Apple
    • 1968 – Matt Stairs, Canadian baseball player and sportscaster
    • 1969 – Gareth Llewellyn, Welsh rugby union player
    • 1969 – Juan E. Gilbert, American computer scientist, inventor, and academic
    • 1970 – Kent Desormeaux, American jockey
    • 1970 – Patricia Petibon, French soprano and actress
    • 1971 – Sara Blakely, American businesswoman, founded Spanx
    • 1971 – Derren Brown, English magician and painter
    • 1971 – David Rikl, Czech-English tennis player
    • 1971 – Roman Giertych, Polish lawyer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
    • 1971 – Rozonda Thomas, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress (TLC)
    • 1973 – Peter Andre, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actor
    • 1973 – Mark Taylor, Welsh rugby player and manager
    • 1974 – Carte Goodwin, American lawyer and politician
    • 1975 – Aitor González, Spanish racing driver
    • 1975 – Prodromos Korkizoglou, Greek decathlete
    • 1976 – Sergei Semak, Ukrainian-Russian footballer and manager
    • 1976 – Ludovic Capelle, Belgian cyclist
    • 1978 – James Beattie, English footballer and manager
    • 1978 – Kakha Kaladze, Georgian footballer and politician
    • 1978 – Emelie Öhrstig, Swedish skier and cyclist
    • 1978 – Simone Di Pasquale, Italian ballet dancer
    • 1980 – Chelsea Clinton, American journalist and academic
    • 1980 – Scott Prince, Australian rugby league player
    • 1981 – Josh Groban, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
    • 1981 – Natalie Grandin, English-South African tennis player
    • 1981 – Élodie Ouédraogo, Belgian sprinter
    • 1982 – Ali Bastian, English actress
    • 1982 – Pat Richards, Australian rugby league player
    • 1982 – Bruno Soares, Brazilian tennis player
    • 1983 – Devin Harris, American basketball player
    • 1983 – Kate Mara, American actress
    • 1984 – Aníbal Sánchez, American baseball player
    • 1984 – Lotta Schelin, Swedish footballer
    • 1984 – Akseli Kokkonen, Norwegian ski jumper
    • 1985 – Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Russian footballer
    • 1985 – Braydon Coburn, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1985 – Vladislav Kulik, Ukrainian-Russian footballer
    • 1985 – Asami Abe, Japanese singer and actress
    • 1985 – Thiago Neves, Brazilian footballer
    • 1985 – Brett Stewart, Australian rugby league player
    • 1986 – Yovani Gallardo, American baseball player
    • 1986 – Jonathan Moreira, Brazilian footballer
    • 1986 – Sandeep Singh, Indian field hockey player
    • 1987 – Scott Davies, English footballer
    • 1987 – Bridie Kean, Australian wheelchair basketball player
    • 1987 – Florence Kiplagat, Kenyan runner
    • 1987 – Sandy Paillot, French footballer
    • 1987 – Valeriy Andriytsev, Ukrainian wrestler
    • 1987 – Maximiliano Moralez, Argentinian footballer
    • 1988 – Iain Ramsay, Australian footballer
    • 1988 – Dustin Jeffrey, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1989 – David Button, English footballer, goalkeeper
    • 1989 – Lloyd Rigby, English footballer
    • 1990 – Elijah Taylor, New Zealand rugby league player
    • 1991 – Azeem Rafiq, Pakistani cricketer
    • 1992 – Ty Dillon, American race car driver
    • 1992 – Meyers Leonard, American basketball player
    • 1992 – Filip Krajinović, Serbian tennis player
    • 1992 – Ioannis Potouridis, Greek footballer
    • 1992 – Jonjo Shelvey, English footballer
    • 1995 – Laura Gulbe, Latvian tennis player
    • 1998 – Todd Cantwell, English footballer

    Deaths on February 27

    • 640 – Pepin of Landen, Frankish lord (b. 580)
    • 906 – Conrad the Elder, Frankish nobleman
    • 956 – Theophylact, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 917)
    • 1167 – Robert of Melun, English theologian and bishop
    • 1416 – Eleanor of Castile, queen consort of Navarre (b. c. 1363)
    • 1425 – Prince Vasily I of Moscow (b. 1371)
    • 1483 – William VIII of Montferrat (b. 1420)
    • 1558 – Johann Faber of Heilbronn, controversial Catholic preacher (b. 1504)
    • 1558 – Kunigunde of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, German Noblewoman (b. 1524)
    • 1659 – Henry Dunster, English-American clergyman and academic (b. 1609)
    • 1699 – Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire (b. 1625)
    • 1706 – John Evelyn, English gardener and author (b. 1620)
    • 1712 – Sir William Villiers, 3rd Baronet, English politician (b. 1645)
    • 1720 – Samuel Parris, English-American minister (b. 1653)
    • 1735 – John Arbuthnot, Scottish physician and polymath (b. 1667)
    • 1784 – Count of St. Germain, European adventurer (b. 1710)
    • 1795 – Tanikaze Kajinosuke, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1750)
    • 1844 – Nicholas Biddle, American banker and politician (b. 1786)
    • 1887 – Alexander Borodin, Russian composer and chemist (b. 1833)
    • 1892 – Louis Vuitton, French fashion designer and businessman, founded Louis Vuitton (b. 1821)
    • 1902 – Harry “Breaker” Morant, English-Australian lieutenant (b. 1864)
    • 1921 – Schofield Haigh, English cricketer and umpire (b. 1871)
    • 1931 – Chandra Shekhar Azad, Indian revolutionary (b. 1906)
    • 1936 – Joshua W. Alexander, American judge and politician, 2nd United States Secretary of Commerce (b. 1852)
    • 1936 – Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1849)
    • 1937 – Hosteen Klah, Navajo artist, medicine man, and weaver (b. 1867)
    • 1937 – Emily Malbone Morgan, American saint, foundress of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross (b. 1862)
    • 1943 – Kostis Palamas, Greek poet and playwright (b. 1859)
    • 1956 – Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st Speaker of the Lok Sabha (b. 1888)
    • 1964 – Orry-Kelly, Australian-American costume designer (b. 1897)
    • 1968 – Frankie Lymon, American singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
    • 1969 – Marius Barbeau, Canadian ethnographer and academic (b. 1883)
    • 1973 – Bill Everett, American author and illustrator (b. 1917)
    • 1977 – John Dickson Carr, American author and playwright (b. 1905)
    • 1980 – George Tobias, American actor (b. 1901)
    • 1985 – Ray Ellington, English singer and drummer (b. 1916)
    • 1985 – Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., American politician and diplomat, 3rd United States Ambassador to the United Nations (b. 1902)
    • 1985 – J. Pat O’Malley, English-American actor and singer (b. 1904)
    • 1986 – Jacques Plante, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1929)
    • 1987 – Bill Holman, American cartoonist (b. 1903)
    • 1987 – Joan Greenwood, English actress (b. 1921)
    • 1989 – Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1903)
    • 1992 – S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-American linguist and politician (b. 1906)
    • 1993 – Lillian Gish, American actress (b. 1893)
    • 1998 – George H. Hitchings, American pharmacologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
    • 1998 – J. T. Walsh, American actor (b. 1943)
    • 1999 – Horace Tapscott, American pianist and composer (b. 1934)
    • 2002 – Spike Milligan, Irish soldier, actor, comedian, and author (b. 1918)
    • 2003 – John Lanchbery, English-Australian composer and conductor (b. 1923)
    • 2003 – Fred Rogers, American minister and television host (b. 1928)
    • 2004 – Yoshihiko Amino, Japanese historian and academic (b. 1928)
    • 2004 – Paul Sweezy, American economist and journalist (b. 1910)
    • 2006 – Otis Chandler, American publisher (b. 1927)
    • 2006 – Robert Lee Scott, Jr., American general and author (b. 1908)
    • 2006 – Linda Smith, English comedian and author (b. 1958)
    • 2007 – Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven, German general (b. 1914)
    • 2008 – William F. Buckley, Jr., American author and journalist, founded the National Review (b. 1925)
    • 2008 – Myron Cope, American journalist and sportscaster (b. 1929)
    • 2008 – Ivan Rebroff, German vocalist of Russian descent with four and a half octave range (b. 1931)
    • 2010 – Nanaji Deshmukh, Indian educator and activist (b. 1916)
    • 2011 – Frank Buckles, American soldier (b. 1901)
    • 2011 – Necmettin Erbakan, Turkish engineer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1926)
    • 2011 – Duke Snider, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster (b. 1926)
    • 2011 – Gary Winick, American director and producer (b. 1961)
    • 2012 – Ma Jiyuan, Chinese general (b. 1921)
    • 2012 – Tina Strobos, Dutch physician and psychiatrist (b. 1920)
    • 2012 – Helga Vlahović, Croatian journalist and producer (b. 1945)
    • 2013 – Van Cliburn, American pianist (b. 1934)
    • 2013 – Ramon Dekkers, Dutch mixed martial artist and kick-boxer (b. 1969)
    • 2013 – Dale Robertson, American actor (b. 1923)
    • 2013 – Adolfo Zaldívar, Chilean lawyer and politician (b. 1943)
    • 2014 – Aaron Allston, American game designer and author (b. 1960)
    • 2014 – Terry Rand, American basketball player (b. 1934)
    • 2015 – Boris Nemtsov, Russian academic and politician, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1959)
    • 2015 – Leonard Nimoy, American actor (b. 1931)
    • 2015 – Julio César Strassera, Argentinian lawyer and jurist (b. 1933)
    • 2016 – Yi Cheol-seung, South Korean lawyer and politician (b. 1922)
    • 2016 – James Z. Davis, American lawyer and judge (b. 1943)
    • 2018 – Steve Folkes, Australian rugby league player and coach (b. 1959)
    • 2019 – France-Albert René, Seychellois politician, 2nd President of Seychelles (b. 1935)

    Holidays and observances on February 27

    • Christian feast day:
      • Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
      • George Herbert (Anglicanism)
      • Honorina
      • Leander
      • February 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • The second day of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’í Faith) (Note: this observance is only on this date in the Gregorian calendar if Bahá’í Naw-Rúz takes place on March 21, which it does not in all years)
    • Doctors’ Day (Vietnam)
    • Independence Day (Dominican Republic), celebrates the first independence of Dominican Republic from Haiti in 1844.
    • Majuba Day (some Afrikaners in South Africa)
    • Marathi Language Day (Maharashtra, India)
    • World NGO Day
    • International Polar Bear Day

  • February 21 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.
    • 1440 – The Prussian Confederation is formed.
    • 1613 – Mikhail I is unanimously elected Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
    • 1797 – A force of 1,400 French soldiers invaded Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists.
    • 1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
    • 1808 – Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning the Finnish War, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e. Finland) to Russia.
    • 1828 – Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
    • 1842 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
    • 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
    • 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.
    • 1866 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor becomes the first American woman to graduate from dental school.
    • 1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.
    • 1878 – The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
    • 1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
    • 1896 – An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fought an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically took place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.
    • 1913 – Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
    • 1916 – World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
    • 1918 – The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
    • 1919 – German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.
    • 1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country’s first constitution.
    • 1921 – Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup.
    • 1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
    • 1929 – In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang was defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.1934 – Augusto Sandino is executed.
    • 1937 – The League of Nations bans foreign national “volunteers” in the Spanish Civil War.
    • 1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.
    • 1945 – World War II: the Brazilian Expeditionary Force defeat the German forces in the Battle of Monte Castello on the Italian front.
    • 1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first “instant camera”, the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
    • 1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.
    • 1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to “set the people free”.
    • 1952 – The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
    • 1958 – The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
    • 1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated while giving a talk at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.
    • 1971 – The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
    • 1972 – United States President Richard Nixon visits the People’s Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
    • 1972 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
    • 1973 – Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108 people.
    • 1974 – The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.
    • 1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
    • 1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
    • 2013 – At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

    Births on February 21

    • 921 – Abe no Seimei, Japanese astrologer (d. 1005)
    • 1397 – Isabella of Portugal (d. 1471)
    • 1462 – Joanna la Beltraneja, princess of Castile (d. 1530)
    • 1484 – Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1535)
    • 1498 – Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland, English Earl (d. 1549)
    • 1541 – Philipp V, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1599)
    • 1556 – Sethus Calvisius, German astronomer, composer, and theorist (d. 1615)
    • 1559 – Nurhaci, Manchu emperor (d. 1626)
    • 1609 – Raimondo Montecuccoli, Italian military commander (d. 1680)
    • 1621 – Rebecca Nurse, Massachusetts colonist, executed as a witch (d. 1692)
    • 1705 – Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, English admiral and politician (d. 1781)
    • 1728 – Peter III of Russia (d. 1762)
    • 1783 – Catharina of Württemberg (d. 1835)
    • 1788 – Francis Ronalds, British scientist, inventor and engineer who was knighted for developing the first working electric telegraph (d. 1873)
    • 1791 – Carl Czerny, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1857)
    • 1794 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican general and politician, 8th President of Mexico (d. 1876)
    • 1801 – John Henry Newman, English cardinal (d. 1890)
    • 1817 – José Zorrilla, Spanish poet and playwright (d. 1893)
    • 1821 – Charles Scribner I, American publisher, founded Charles Scribner’s Sons (d. 1871)
    • 1836 – Léo Delibes, French pianist and composer (d. 1891)
    • 1844 – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (d. 1937)
    • 1860 – Goscombe John, Welsh-English sculptor and academic (d. 1952)
    • 1865 – John Haden Badley, English author and educator, founded the Bedales School (d. 1967)
    • 1867 – Otto Hermann Kahn, German banker and philanthropist (d. 1934)
    • 1875 – Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian, oldest verified person ever (d. 1997)
    • 1878 – Mirra Alfassa, French-Indian spiritual leader (d. 1973)
    • 1881 – Kenneth J. Alford, English soldier, bandmaster, and composer (d. 1945)
    • 1885 – Sacha Guitry, Russian-French actor, director, and playwright (d. 1957)
    • 1887 – Korechika Anami, Japanese general and politician, 54th Japanese Minister of War (d. 1945)
    • 1888 – Clemence Dane, English author and playwright (d. 1965)
    • 1892 – Harry Stack Sullivan, American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (d. 1949)
    • 1893 – Celia Lovsky, Austrian-American actress (d. 1979)
    • 1893 – Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
    • 1894 – Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar, Indian chemist and academic (d. 1955)
    • 1895 – Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
    • 1896 – Nirala, Indian poet and author (d. 1961)
    • 1900 – Jeanne Aubert, French singer and actress (d. 1988)
    • 1902 – Arthur Nock, English theologian and academic (d. 1963)
    • 1903 – Anaïs Nin, French-American essayist and memoirist (d. 1977)
    • 1903 – Raymond Queneau, French poet and author (d. 1976)
    • 1907 – W. H. Auden, English-American poet, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
    • 1909 – Hans Erni, Swiss painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 2015)
    • 1910 – Douglas Bader, English captain and pilot (d. 1982)
    • 1912 – Arline Judge, American actress and singer (d. 1974)
    • 1914 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish soldier and pilot (d. 1999)
    • 1914 – Zachary Scott, American actor (d. 1965)
    • 1914 – Jean Tatlock, American psychiatrist and physician (d. 1944)
    • 1915 – Claudia Jones, Trinidad-British journalist and activist (d. 1964)
    • 1915 – Ann Sheridan, American actress and singer (d. 1967)
    • 1915 – Anton Vratuša, Prime Minister of Slovenia (1978–1980) (d. 2017)
    • 1917 – Lucille Bremer, American actress and dancer (d. 1996)
    • 1917 – Tadd Dameron, American pianist and composer (d. 1965)
    • 1921 – John Rawls, American philosopher and academic (d. 2002)
    • 1921 – Richard T. Whitcomb, American aeronautical engineer (d. 2009)
    • 1924 – Thelma Estrin, American computer scientist and engineer (d. 2014)
    • 1924 – Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean educator and politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe (d. 2019)
    • 1924 – Dorothy Blum, American computer scientist and cryptanalyst (d. 1980)
    • 1925 – Sam Peckinpah, American director and screenwriter (d. 1984)
    • 1925 – Jack Ramsay, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2014)
    • 1927 – Erma Bombeck, American journalist and author (d. 1996)
    • 1929 – Chespirito, Mexican actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
    • 1933 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2003)
    • 1934 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (d. 2010)
    • 1935 – Richard A. Lupoff, American author
    • 1936 – Barbara Jordan, American lawyer and politician (d. 1996)
    • 1937 – Ron Clarke, Australian runner and politician, Mayor of the Gold Coast (d. 2015)
    • 1937 – Harald V of Norway
    • 1938 – Bobby Charles, American singer-songwriter (d. 2010)
    • 1938 – Kel Tremain, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1992)
    • 1940 – Peter Gethin, English race car driver (d. 2011)
    • 1940 – John Lewis, American activist and politician
    • 1942 – Tony Martin, Trinidadian-American historian and academic (d. 2013)
    • 1942 – Margarethe von Trotta, German actress, director, and screenwriter
    • 1943 – David Geffen, American businessman, co-founded DreamWorks and Geffen Records
    • 1945 – Maurice Bembridge, English golfer
    • 1946 – Tyne Daly, American actress and singer
    • 1946 – Anthony Daniels, English actor and producer
    • 1946 – Alan Rickman, English actor and director (d. 2016)
    • 1946 – Bob Ryan, American journalist and author
    • 1947 – Johnny Echols, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1947 – Olympia Snowe, American politician
    • 1948 – Bill Slayback, American baseball player and singer (d. 2015)
    • 1949 – Frank Brunner, American illustrator
    • 1949 – Jerry Harrison, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1949 – Ronnie Hellström, Swedish footballer
    • 1950 – Larry Drake, American actor (d. 2016)
    • 1951 – Vince Welnick, American keyboard player (d. 2006)
    • 1952 – Jean-Jacques Burnel, English bass player, songwriter, and producer
    • 1952 – Vitaly Churkin, Russian diplomat, former Ambassador of Russia to the United Nations (d. 2017)
    • 1953 – Christine Ebersole, American actress and singer
    • 1953 – William Petersen, American actor and producer
    • 1954 – Christina Rees, British politician
    • 1955 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor, singer, and producer
    • 1958 – Jake Burns, Northern Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1958 – Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1958 – Kim Coates, Canadian actor
    • 1958 – Alan Trammell, American baseball player, coach, and manager
    • 1959 – José María Cano, Spanish singer-songwriter and painter
    • 1960 – Plamen Oresharski, Bulgarian economist and politician, 52nd Prime Minister of Bulgaria
    • 1960 – Steve Wynn, American singer-songwriter
    • 1961 – Christopher Atkins, American actor and businessman
    • 1962 – Chuck Palahniuk, American novelist and journalist
    • 1962 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 2008)
    • 1963 – William Baldwin, American actor
    • 1963 – Ranking Roger, English singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2019)
    • 1963 – Greg Turner, New Zealand golfer
    • 1964 – Mark Kelly, American captain, pilot, and astronaut
    • 1964 – Scott Kelly, American captain, pilot, and astronaut
    • 1965 – Mark Ferguson, Australian journalist
    • 1967 – Leroy Burrell, American runner and coach
    • 1967 – Sari Essayah, Finnish athlete and politician
    • 1969 – James Dean Bradfield, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (Manic Street Preachers)
    • 1969 – Aunjanue Ellis, American actress and producer
    • 1969 – Petra Kronberger, Austrian skier
    • 1969 – Tony Meola, American soccer player and manager
    • 1969 – Cathy Richardson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1970 – Michael Slater, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
    • 1970 – Eric Wilson, American bass player and drummer
    • 1971 – Pierre Fulke, Swedish golfer
    • 1972 – Seo Taiji, South Korean singer-songwriter
    • 1973 – Heri Joensen, Faroese singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1973 – Brian Rolston, American ice hockey player and coach
    • 1974 – Iván Campo, Spanish footballer
    • 1975 – Scott Miller, Australian swimmer
    • 1976 – Ryan Smyth, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1976 – Michael McIntyre, English comedian, actor and television presenter
    • 1977 – Jonathan Safran Foer, American novelist
    • 1977 – Steve Francis, American basketball player
    • 1977 – Owen King, American author
    • 1977 – Kevin Rose, American businessman and television host, founded Digg
    • 1978 – Kumail Nanjiani, Pakistani-American stand-up comedian, actor, writer and podcast host
    • 1979 – Pascal Chimbonda, Guadeloupean-French footballer, defender
    • 1979 – Shane Gibson, American guitarist (stOrk and Jonathan Davis and the SFA) (d. 2014)
    • 1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and producer
    • 1979 – Carly Colón, Puerto Rican professional wrestler
    • 1979 – Jordan Peele, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1980 – Brad Fast, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1980 – Tiziano Ferro, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1980 – Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 5th King of Bhutan
    • 1980 – Justin Roiland, American animator, writer and voice actor
    • 1981 – Floor Jansen, Dutch singer, songwriter, and vocal coach
    • 1982 – Andre Barrett, American basketball player
    • 1982 – Chantal Claret, American singer-songwriter
    • 1982 – Tebogo Jacko Magubane, South African DJ and producer
    • 1983 – Braylon Edwards, American football player
    • 1983 – Franklin Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player
    • 1983 – Mélanie Laurent, French actress
    • 1984 – Andrew Ellis, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1984 – David Odonkor, German footballer
    • 1984 – Marco Paoloni, Italian footballer
    • 1984 – James Wisniewski, American ice hockey player
    • 1985 – Georgios Samaras, Greek footballer
    • 1985 – Jamaal Westerman, American football player
    • 1986 – Charlotte Church, Welsh singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1987 – Ellen Page, Canadian actress
    • 1989 – Corbin Bleu, American actor, model, dancer, film producer and singer-songwriter
    • 1990 – Mattias Tedenby, Swedish ice hockey player
    • 1991 – Joe Alwyn, English actor
    • 1991 – Riyad Mahrez, Algerian footballer
    • 1991 – Ji So-yun, South Korean footballer
    • 1991 – Devon Travis, American baseball player
    • 1991 – Suppasit Jongcheveevat, Thai actor
    • 1993 – Steve Leo Beleck, Cameroonian footballer
    • 1993 – Davy Klaassen, Dutch footballer
    • 1993 – Masaki Suda, Japanese actor
    • 1994 – Tang Haochen, Chinese tennis player
    • 1994 – Charalampos Mavrias, Greek footballer
    • 1996 – Sophie Turner, English actress

    Deaths on February 21

    • 4 AD – Gaius Caesar, Roman consul and grandson of Augustus (b. 20 BC)
    • 675 – Randoald of Grandval, prior of the Benedictine monastery of Grandval
    • 1184 – Minamoto no Yoshinaka, Japanese shōgun (b. 1154)
    • 1267 – Baldwin of Ibelin, Seneschal of Cyprus
    • 1437 – James I of Scotland (b. 1394; assassinated)
    • 1471 – Jan Rokycana, Czech bishop and theologian (b. 1396)
    • 1513 – Pope Julius II (b. 1443)
    • 1543 – Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, Somalian general (b. 1507)
    • 1554 – Hieronymus Bock, German botanist and physician (b. 1498)
    • 1572 – Cho Shik, Korean poet and scholar (d. 1501)
    • 1590 – Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, English nobleman and general (b. 1528)
    • 1595 – Robert Southwell, English priest and poet (b. 1561)
    • 1677 – Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher and scholar (b. 1632)
    • 1715 – Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, English politician (b. 1637)
    • 1730 – Pope Benedict XIII (b. 1649)
    • 1821 – Georg Friedrich von Martens, German jurist and diplomat (b. 1756)
    • 1824 – Eugène de Beauharnais, French general (b. 1781)
    • 1829 – Kittur Chennamma, Indian queen and freedom fighter (b. 1778)
    • 1846 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (b. 1800)
    • 1862 – Justinus Kerner, German poet and physician (b. 1786)
    • 1888 – William Weston, English-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of Tasmania (b. 1804)
    • 1891 – James Timberlake, American lieutenant and police officer (b. 1846)
    • 1919 – Kurt Eisner, German journalist and politician, Minister-President of Bavaria (b. 1867)
    • 1926 – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
    • 1934 – Augusto César Sandino, Nicaraguan rebel leader (b. 1895)
    • 1938 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer and academic (b. 1868)
    • 1941 – Frederick Banting, Canadian physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
    • 1944 – Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-French race car driver (b. 1873)
    • 1945 – Eric Liddell, Scottish rugby player and runner (b. 1902)
    • 1946 – José Streel, Belgian journalist (b. 1911)
    • 1958 – Duncan Edwards, English footballer (b. 1936)
    • 1965 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (b. 1925; assassinated)
    • 1967 – Charles Beaumont, American author and screenwriter (b. 1929)
    • 1968 – Howard Florey, Australian pathologist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
    • 1972 – Zhang Guohua, Chinese general and politician (b. 1914)
    • 1972 – Bronislava Nijinska, Russian-American dancer and choreographer (b. 1891)
    • 1972 – Eugène Tisserant, French cardinal (b. 1884)
    • 1974 – Tim Horton, Canadian ice hockey player and businessman, co-founded Tim Hortons (b. 1930)
    • 1980 – Alfred Andersch, German-Swiss author (b. 1914)
    • 1982 – Gershom Scholem, German-Israeli historian and philosopher (b. 1897)
    • 1984 – Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
    • 1985 – Louis Hayward, South African-American actor (b. 1909)
    • 1986 – Helen Hooven Santmyer, American novelist (b. 1895)
    • 1991 – Dorothy Auchterlonie Green, Australian poet, critic, and academic (b. 1915)
    • 1993 – Inge Lehmann, Danish seismologist and geophysicist (b. 1888)
    • 1994 – Johannes Steinhoff, German general and pilot (b. 1913)
    • 1996 – Morton Gould, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1913)
    • 1999 – Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
    • 1999 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish soldier and pilot (b. 1914)
    • 1999 – Wilmer Mizell, American baseball player and politician (b. 1930)
    • 2002 – John Thaw, English actor and producer (b. 1942)
    • 2004 – John Charles, Welsh footballer and manager (b. 1931)
    • 2005 – Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban author, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1929)
    • 2005 – Zdzisław Beksiński, Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor (b. 1929)
    • 2008 – Ben Chapman, American actor (b. 1928)
    • 2011 – Dwayne McDuffie, American author and screenwriter, co-founded Milestone Media (b. 1962)
    • 2011 – Bernard Nathanson, American physician and activist (b. 1926)
    • 2012 – H. M. Darmstandler, American general (b. 1922)
    • 2013 – Hasse Jeppson, Swedish footballer (b. 1925)
    • 2014 – Héctor Maestri, Cuban-American baseball player (b. 1935)
    • 2014 – Matthew Robinson, Australian snowboarder (b. 1985)
    • 2014 – Cornelius Schnauber, German–American historian, playwright, and academic (b. 1939)
    • 2015 – Aleksei Gubarev, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1931)
    • 2015 – Sadeq Tabatabaei, Iranian journalist and politician (b. 1943)
    • 2015 – Clark Terry, American trumpet player, composer, and educator (b. 1920)
    • 2016 – Eric Brown, Scottish-English captain and pilot (b. 1919)
    • 2017 – Jeanne Martin Cissé, Guinean teacher and politician (b. 1926)
    • 2018 – Billy Graham, American evangelist (b. 1918)
    • 2019 – Stanley Donen, American film director (b. 1924)
    • 2019 – Peter Tork, American musician and actor (b. 1942)

    Holidays and observances on February 21

    • Armed Forces Day (South Africa)
    • Birthday of King Harald V (Norway)
    • Christian feast day:
      • Felix of Hadrumetum
      • Pepin of Landen
      • Peter Damian
      • Randoald of Grandval
      • February 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Father Lini Day (Vanuatu)
    • Language Movement Day (Bangladesh)
      • International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)
    • The first day of the Birth Anniversary of Fifth Druk Gyalpo, celebrated until February 23. (Bhutan)
    • The first day of the Musikahan Festival, celebrated until February 27. (Tagum City, Philippines)
    • Feralia (Ancient Rome)

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

    February 7 in History

    • 457 – Leo I the Thracian becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
    • 987 – Bardas Phokas the Younger and Bardas Skleros, Byzantine generals of the military elite, begin a wide-scale rebellion against Emperor Basil II.
    • 1301 – Edward of Caernarvon (later king Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.
    • 1313 – King Thihathu founds the Pinya Kingdom as the de jure successor state of the Pagan Kingdom
    • 1497 – In Florence, Italy, supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn cosmetics, art, and books, in a “Bonfire of the vanities”.
    • 1783 – American Revolutionary War: French and Spanish forces lift the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
    • 1795 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
    • 1807 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon finds Bennigsen’s Russian forces taking a stand at Eylau. After bitter fighting, the French take the town, but the Russians resume the battle the next day.
    • 1812 – The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.
    • 1813 – In the action of 7 February 1813 near the Îles de Los, the frigates Aréthuse and Amelia batter each other, but neither can gain the upper hand.
    • 1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore after just taking it over, leaving it in the hands of William Farquhar.
    • 1842 – Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
    • 1854 – A law is approved to found the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Lectures started October 16, 1855.
    • 1863 – HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189.
    • 1894 – The Cripple Creek miner’s strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States.
    • 1898 – Dreyfus affair: Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J’Accuse…!.
    • 1900 – Second Boer War: British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
    • 1900 – A Chinese immigrant in San Francisco falls ill to bubonic plague in the first plague epidemic in the continental United States.
    • 1904 – A fire begins in Baltimore, Maryland; it destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
    • 1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.
    • 1943 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
    • 1944 – World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.
    • 1951 – Korean War: More than 700 suspected communist sympathizers are massacred by South Korean forces.
    • 1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
    • 1974 – Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom.
    • 1979 – Pluto moves inside Neptune’s orbit for the first time since either was discovered.
    • 1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
    • 1986 – Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
    • 1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
    • 1991 – Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
    • 1991 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the British government.
    • 1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.
    • 1995 – Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
    • 1997 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
    • 1999 – Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.
    • 2009 – Bushfires in Victoria leave 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia’s history.
    • 2012 – President Mohamed Nasheed of the Republic of Maldives resigns, after 23 days of anti-governmental protests calling for the release of Chief Judge unlawfully arrested by the military.
    • 2013 – The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.
    • 2014 – Scientists announce that the Happisburgh footprints in Norfolk, England, date back to more than 800,000 years ago, making them the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa.
    • 2016 – North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world.

    Births on February 7

    • 574 – Prince Shōtoku of Japan (d. 622)
    • 1102 – Empress Matilda, Holy Roman Empress, and claimant to the English throne (probable; d. 1167)
    • 1478 – Thomas More, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1535)
    • 1487 – Queen Dangyeong, Korean royal consort (d. 1557)
    • 1500 – João de Castro, viceroy of Portuguese India (d. 1548)
    • 1612 – Thomas Killigrew, English playwright and manager (d. 1683)
    • 1622 – Vittoria della Rovere, Italian noble (d. 1694)
    • 1693 – Empress Anna of Russia (d. 1740)
    • 1722 – Azar Bigdeli, Iranian anthologist and poet (d. 1781)
    • 1726 – Margaret Fownes-Luttrell, English painter (d. 1766)
    • 1741 – Henry Fuseli, Swiss-English painter and academic (d. 1825)
    • 1758 – Benedikt Schack, Czech tenor and composer (d. 1826)
    • 1796 – Thomas Gregson, English-Australian lawyer and politician, 2nd Premier of Tasmania (baptism date; d. 1874)
    • 1802 – Louisa Jane Hall, American poet, essayist, and literary critic (d. 1892)
    • 1804 – John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded Deere & Company (d. 1886)
    • 1812 – Charles Dickens, English novelist and critic (d. 1870)
    • 1825 – Karl Möbius, German zoologist and ecologist (d. 1908)
    • 1834 – Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe, French architect (d. 1895)
    • 1837 – James Murray, Scottish lexicographer and philologist (d. 1915)
    • 1864 – Arthur Collins, American baritone singer (d. 1933)
    • 1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (d. 1957)
    • 1870 – Alfred Adler, Austrian-Scottish psychologist and therapist (d. 1937)
    • 1871 – Wilhelm Stenhammar, Swedish pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1927)
    • 1873 – Thomas Andrews, Irish shipbuilder and businessman, designed the RMS Titanic (d. 1912)
    • 1877 – G. H. Hardy, English mathematician and geneticist (d. 1947)
    • 1878 – Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Russian-American pianist and conductor (d. 1936)
    • 1885 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)
    • 1885 – Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (d. 1953)
    • 1887 – Eubie Blake, American pianist and composer (d. 1983)
    • 1889 – Harry Nyquist, Swedish-American engineer and theorist (d. 1976)
    • 1893 – Joseph Algernon Pearce, Canadian astrophysicist and astronomer (d. 1988)
    • 1893 – Nicanor Abelardo, Filipino pianist, composer and teacher (d. 1934)
    • 1895 – Anita Stewart, American actress (d. 1961)
    • 1901 – Arnold Nordmeyer, New Zealand minister and politician, 30th New Zealand Minister of Finance (d. 1989)
    • 1904 – Ernest E. Debs, American politician, California State Assembly member, Los Angeles city councilman, and a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (d. 2002)
    • 1905 – Paul Nizan, French philosopher and author (d. 1940)
    • 1905 – Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)
    • 1906 – Puyi, Chinese emperor (d. 1967)
    • 1906 – Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, Russian engineer, founded the Antonov Aircraft Company (d. 1984)
    • 1908 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (d. 1983)
    • 1908 – Manmath Nath Gupta, Indian journalist and author (d. 2000)
    • 1909 – Hélder Câmara, Brazilian archbishop (d. 1999)
    • 1909 – Amedeo Guillet, Italian soldier (d. 2010)
    • 1912 – Russell Drysdale, English-Australian painter (d. 1981)
    • 1915 – Teoctist Arăpașu, Romanian patriarch (d. 2007)
    • 1915 – Eddie Bracken, American actor and singer (d. 2002)
    • 1916 – Frank Hyde, Australian rugby player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2007)
    • 1919 – Jock Mahoney, American actor and stuntman (d. 1989)
    • 1919 – Desmond Doss, American army corporal and combat medic, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2006)
    • 1920 – Oscar Brand, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and author (d. 2016)
    • 1920 – An Wang, Chinese-American engineer and businessman, founded Wang Laboratories (d. 1990)
    • 1921 – Athol Rowan, South African cricketer (d. 1998)
    • 1922 – Hattie Jacques, English actress (d. 1980)
    • 1923 – Dora Bryan, English actress and restaurateur (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Hans Schmidt, Canadian wrestler (d. 2012)
    • 1926 – Konstantin Feoktistov, Russian engineer and astronaut (d. 2009)
    • 1926 – Bill Hoest, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
    • 1927 – Juliette Gréco, French singer and actress
    • 1927 – Vladimir Kuts, Ukrainian-Russian runner and coach (d. 1975)
    • 1927 – Lalo Ríos, Mexican actor (d. 1973)
    • 1928 – Lincoln D. Faurer, American general (d. 2014)
    • 1929 – Jim Langley, English international footballer, full back and manager (d. 2007)
    • 1932 – Gay Talese, American journalist and memoirist
    • 1932 – Alfred Worden, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2020)
    • 1933 – K. N. Choksy, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, Sri Lankan Minister of Finance (d. 2015)
    • 1934 – Eddie Fenech Adami, Maltese lawyer and politician, 7th President of Malta
    • 1934 – King Curtis, American saxophonist and producer (d. 1971)
    • 1934 – Earl King, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2003)
    • 1935 – Cliff Jones, Welsh international footballer, winger
    • 1935 – Herb Kohl, American businessman and politician
    • 1935 – Jörg Schneider, Swiss actor and author (d. 2015)
    • 1936 – Jas Gawronski, Italian journalist and politician
    • 1937 – Peter Jay, English economist, journalist, and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States
    • 1937 – Juan Pizarro, Puerto Rican baseball player
    • 1940 – Tony Tan, Singaporean academic and politician, 7th President of Singapore
    • 1941 – Kevin Crossley-Holland, English author and poet
    • 1943 – Eric Foner, American historian, author, and academic
    • 1943 – Gareth Hunt, English actor (d. 2007)
    • 1945 – Gerald Davies, Welsh rugby player and journalist
    • 1946 – Héctor Babenco, Argentinian-Brazilian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
    • 1946 – Sammy Johns, American country music singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
    • 1946 – Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (d. 2011)
    • 1946 – Gérard Jean-Juste, Haitian priest and activist (d. 2009)
    • 1949 – Jacques Duchesneau, Canadian police officer and politician
    • 1949 – Joe English, American drummer and songwriter
    • 1950 – Karen Joy Fowler, American author
    • 1953 – Dan Quisenberry, American baseball player and poet (d. 1998)
    • 1954 – Dieter Bohlen, German singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1955 – Rolf Benirschke, American football player and game show host
    • 1955 – Miguel Ferrer, American actor and director (d. 2017)
    • 1956 – John Nielsen, Danish racing driver
    • 1956 – Mark St. John, American guitarist (d. 2007)
    • 1957 – Carney Lansford, American baseball player and coach
    • 1958 – Giuseppe Baresi, Italian footballer and manager
    • 1958 – Terry Marsh, English boxer and politician
    • 1958 – Matt Ridley, English journalist, author, and politician
    • 1959 – Mick McCarthy, English footballer, manager, and sportscaster
    • 1960 – Robert Smigel, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1960 – James Spader, American actor and producer
    • 1962 – Garth Brooks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1962 – David Bryan, American keyboard player and songwriter
    • 1962 – Eddie Izzard, English comedian, actor, and producer
    • 1963 – Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, American Naval officer and astronaut
    • 1964 – Ashok Banker, Indian journalist, author, and screenwriter
    • 1965 – Chris Rock, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1966 – Kristin Otto, German swimmer
    • 1968 – Peter Bondra, Ukrainian-Slovak ice hockey player and manager
    • 1968 – Sully Erna, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1968 – Mark Tewksbury, Canadian swimmer and sportscaster
    • 1969 – Andrew Micallef, Maltese painter and musician
    • 1971 – Anita Tsoy, Russian singer-songwriter
    • 1972 – Robyn Lively, American actress
    • 1973 – Juwan Howard, American basketball player and coach
    • 1974 – J Dilla, American rapper and producer (d. 2006)
    • 1974 – Nujabes, Japanese record producer, DJ, composer and arranger (d. 2010)
    • 1974 – Steve Nash, South African-Canadian basketball player
    • 1975 – Wes Borland, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1975 – Alexandre Daigle, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1975 – Rémi Gaillard, French comedian and actor
    • 1976 – Chito Miranda, Filipino singer-songwriter
    • 1977 – Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Japanese footballer
    • 1978 – David Aebischer, Swiss ice hockey player
    • 1978 – Endy Chávez, Venezuelan baseball player
    • 1978 – Ashton Kutcher, American model, actor, producer, and entrepreneur
    • 1978 – Daniel Van Buyten, Belgian football player
    • 1979 – Daniel Bierofka, German footballer and coach
    • 1979 – Tawakkol Karman, Yemeni journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1979 – Sam J. Miller, American author
    • 1981 – Darcy Dolce Neto, Brazilian footballer
    • 1981 – Lee Ok-sung, South Korean boxer
    • 1982 – Osamu Mukai, Japanese actor
    • 1982 – Mickaël Piétrus, French basketball player
    • 1983 – Sho Kamogawa, Japanese footballer
    • 1983 – Christian Klien, Austrian race car driver
    • 1983 – Federico Marchetti, Italian footballer
    • 1984 – Trey Hardee, American decathlete
    • 1985 – Tina Majorino, American actress
    • 1988 – Ai Kago, Japanese singer and actress
    • 1989 – Nick Calathes, Greek basketball player
    • 1989 – Elia Viviani, Italian cyclist
    • 1989 – Isaiah Thomas, American basketball player
    • 1990 – Gianluca Lapadula, Italian footballer
    • 1990 – Dalilah Muhammad, American hurdler
    • 1990 – Steven Stamkos, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1991 – Ryan O’Reilly, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1992 – Sergi Roberto, Spanish footballer
    • 1992 – Ksenia Stolbova, Russian figure skater
    • 1992 – Maimi Yajima, Japanese singer and actress
    • 1993 – Chris Mears, English diver
    • 1994 – Riley Barber, American ice hockey player
    • 1995 – Roberto Osuna, Mexican baseball player
    • 1996 – Pierre Gasly, French racing driver
    • 1997 – Nicolò Barella, Italian footballer

    Deaths on February 7

    • 199 – Lü Bu, Chinese warlord
    • 318 – Jin Mindi, emperor of the Jin Dynasty (b. 300)
    • 999 – Boleslaus II the Pious, Duke of Bohemia (b. 932)
    • 1045 – Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (b. 1009)
    • 1065 – Siegfried I, Count of Sponheim (b. c. 1010)
    • 1127 – Ava, German poet (b. 1060)
    • 1165 – Marshal Stephen of Armenia
    • 1259 – Thomas, Count of Flanders
    • 1317 – Robert, Count of Clermont (b. 1256)
    • 1320 – Jan Muskata, Bishop of Kraków (b. 1250)
    • 1333 – Nikko, Japanese priest, founder of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism (b. 1246)
    • 1520 – Alfonsina de’ Medici, Regent of Florence (b. 1472)
    • 1560 – Bartolommeo Bandinelli, Florentine sculptor (b. 1493)
    • 1603 – Bartholomäus Sastrow, German politician (b. 1520)
    • 1626 – William V, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1548)
    • 1642 – William Bedell, English bishop and academic (b. 1571)
    • 1693 – Paul Pellisson, French lawyer and author (b. 1624)
    • 1736 – Stephen Gray, English astronomer and physicist (b. 1666)
    • 1779 – William Boyce, English organist and composer (b. 1711)
    • 1799 – Qianlong Emperor of China (b. 1711)
    • 1801 – Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish-German painter and academic (b. 1726)
    • 1819 – August Wilhelm Hupel, German-Estonian linguist and author (b. 1737)
    • 1823 – Ann Radcliffe, English author (b. 1764)
    • 1837 – Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (b. 1778)
    • 1849 – Mariano Paredes, Mexican general and 16th president (1845-1846) (b. 1797)
    • 1862 – Francisco de Paula Martínez de la Rosa y Berdejo, Spanish playwright and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1787)
    • 1864 – Vuk Karadžić, Serbian philologist and linguist (b. 1787)
    • 1871 – Henry E. Steinway, German-American businessman, founded Steinway & Sons (b. 1797)
    • 1873 – Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish author (b. 1814)
    • 1878 – Pope Pius IX (b. 1792)
    • 1891 – Marie Louise Andrews, American story writer and journalist (b. 1849)
    • 1897 – Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist and engineer (b. 1847)
    • 1919 – William Halford, English-American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1841)
    • 1920 – Alexander Kolchak, Russian admiral and explorer (b. 1874)
    • 1920 – Charles Langelier, Canadian journalist, judge, and politician (b. 1850)
    • 1921 – John J. Gardner, American politician (b. 1845)
    • 1937 – Elihu Root, American lawyer and politician, 38th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1845)
    • 1938 – Harvey Samuel Firestone, American businessman, founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (b. 1868)
    • 1939 – Boris Grigoriev, Russian painter and illustrator (b. 1886)
    • 1942 – Ivan Bilibin, Russian illustrator and stage designer (b. 1876)
    • 1944 – Lina Cavalieri, Italian soprano and actress (b. 1874)
    • 1959 – Nap Lajoie, American baseball player and manager (b. 1874)
    • 1959 – Daniel François Malan, South African minister and politician, 5th Prime Minister of South Africa (b. 1874)
    • 1959 – Guitar Slim, American singer and guitarist (b. 1926)
    • 1960 – Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist and academic (b. 1903)
    • 1963 – Learco Guerra, Italian cyclist and manager (b. 1902)
    • 1964 – Sofoklis Venizelos, Greek captain and politician, 133rd Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1894)
    • 1968 – Nick Adams, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1931)
    • 1972 – Walter Lang, American director and screenwriter (b. 1896)
    • 1979 – Josef Mengele, German SS officer and physician (b. 1911)
    • 1986 – Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegalese historian, anthropologist, and physicist (b. 1923)
    • 1990 – Alan Perlis, American computer scientist and academic (b. 1922)
    • 1990 – Alfredo M. Santos, Filipino general (b. 1905)
    • 1991 – Amos Yarkoni, Israeli colonel (b. 1920)
    • 1994 – Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer and conductor (b. 1913)
    • 1996 – Phillip Davidson, American general (b. 1915)
    • 1999 – King Hussein of Jordan (b. 1935)
    • 1999 – Bobby Troup, American actor, pianist, and composer (b. 1918)
    • 2000 – Doug Henning, Canadian magician and politician (b. 1947)
    • 2001 – Dale Evans, American singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1912)
    • 2001 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and pilot (b. 1906)
    • 2003 – Augusto Monterroso, Guatemalan author (b. 1921)
    • 2005 – Atli Dam, Faroese engineer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (b. 1932)
    • 2006 – Princess Durru Shehvar of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1914)
    • 2009 – Blossom Dearie, American singer and pianist (b. 1924)
    • 2010 – Franco Ballerini, Italian cyclist and coach (b. 1964)
    • 2012 – Harry Keough, American soccer player and coach (b. 1927)
    • 2013 – Krsto Papić, Croatian director and screenwriter (b. 1933)
    • 2014 – Doug Mohns, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1933)
    • 2015 – Billy Casper, American golfer and architect (b. 1931)
    • 2015 – Marshall Rosenberg, American psychologist and author (b. 1934)
    • 2015 – Dean Smith, American basketball player and coach (b. 1931)
    • 2015 – John C. Whitehead, American banker and politician, 9th United States Deputy Secretary of State (b. 1922)
    • 2017 – Richard Hatch, American actor (b. 1945)
    • 2017 – Hans Rosling, Swedish academic (b. 1948)
    • 2017 – Tzvetan Todorov, Bulgarian philosopher (b. 1939)
    • 2019 – John Dingell, American politician (b. 1926)
    • 2019 – Albert Finney, English actor (b. 1936)
    • 2019 – Jan Olszewski, Polish politician, 3rd Prime Minister (b. 1930)
    • 2019 – Frank Robinson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1935)

    Holidays and observances on February 7

    • Christian feast day:
      • Richard the Pilgrim
      • Blessed Eugénie Smet
      • Blessed Pope Pius IX
      • Chrysolius
      • Egidio Maria of Saint Joseph
      • Colette of Corbie
      • February 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
      • New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church Typically observed on the Sunday closest to January 25 (O.S.)/February 7 (N.S.)
    • Independence Day (Grenada), celebrates the independence of Grenada from the United Kingdom in 1974.
    • National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (United States)

  • February 4 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    This day marks the approximate midpoint of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and of summer in the Southern Hemisphere (starting the season at the December solstice).

    February 4 in History 

    • 211 – Following the death of Rome’s Emperor Septimius Severus at Eboracum (modern York, England) while preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians, the empire is left in the control of his two quarreling sons, Caracalla and Geta, whom he had instructed to make peace.
    • 960 – The coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of Song, initiating the Song dynasty period of China that would last more than three centuries.
    • 1169 – A strong earthquake struck the Ionian coast of Sicily, causing tens of thousands of injuries and deaths, especially in Catania.
    • 1454 – In the Thirteen Years’ War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
    • 1555 – John Rogers is burned at the stake, becoming the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England.
    • 1703 – In Edo (now Tokyo), all but one of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master’s death.
    • 1758 – The city of Macapá in Brazil is founded by Sebastião Veiga Cabral.
    • 1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
    • 1794 – The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French First Republic. It would be reestablished in the French West Indies in 1802.
    • 1797 – The Riobamba earthquake strikes Ecuador, causing up to 40,000 casualties.
    • 1801 – John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
    • 1810 – Napoleonic Wars: Britain seizes Guadeloupe.
    • 1820 – The Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Cochrane completes the two-day long Capture of Valdivia with just 300 men and two ships.
    • 1825 – The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.
    • 1846 – The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley.
    • 1859 – The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.
    • 1861 – American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from six break-away U.S. states meet and form the Confederate States of America.
    • 1899 – The Philippine–American War begins with the Battle of Manila.
    • 1932 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Harbin, Manchuria, falls to Japan.
    • 1938 – Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Armed Forces High Command.
    • 1941 – The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
    • 1945 – World War II: Santo Tomas Internment Camp is liberated from Japanese authority.
    • 1945 – World War II: The Yalta Conference between the “Big Three” (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
    • 1945 – World War II: The British Indian Army and Imperial Japanese Army begin a series of battles known as the Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations.
    • 1948 – Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
    • 1961 – The Angolan War of Independence and the greater Portuguese Colonial War begin.
    • 1966 – All Nippon Airways Flight 60 plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133.
    • 1967 – Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.
    • 1969 – Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
    • 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.
    • 1974 – M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.
    • 1975 – Haicheng earthquake (magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale) occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
    • 1976 – In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
    • 1977 – A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency’s history.
    • 1992 – A coup d’état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
    • 1997 – En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.
    • 1998 – The 5.9 Mw  Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). With 2,323 killed, and 818 injured, damage is considered extreme.
    • 1999 – Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot 41 times by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race relations in the city.
    • 2000 – The World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium, Charter of Paris is signed by the President of France, Jacques Chirac and the Director General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, initiating World Cancer Day which is held on February 4 every year.
    • 2003 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia adopts a new constitution, becoming a loose confederacy between Montenegro and Serbia.
    • 2004 – Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin.
    • 2015 – TransAsia Airways Flight 235 with 58 people on board, en route from the Taiwanese capital Taipei to Kinmen, crashes into the Keelung River just after take-off, killing 43 people.
    • 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic causes all casinos in Macau to be closed down for 15 days.

    Births on February 4

    • 1447 – Lodovico Lazzarelli, Italian poet (d. 1500)
    • 1495 – Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1535)
    • 1495 – Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller (d. 1568)
    • 1505 – Mikołaj Rej, Polish poet and author (d. 1580)
    • 1575 – Pierre de Bérulle, French cardinal and theologian, founded the French school of spirituality (d. 1629)
    • 1646 – Hans Erasmus Aßmann, German poet and politician (d. 1699)
    • 1676 – Giacomo Facco, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1753)
    • 1677 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German violinist and composer (d. 1731)
    • 1688 – Pierre de Marivaux, French author and playwright (d. 1763)
    • 1725 – Dru Drury, English entomologist and author (d. 1804)
    • 1740 – Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet and composer (d. 1795)
    • 1778 – Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, Swiss botanist, mycologist, and academic (d. 1841)
    • 1799 – Almeida Garrett, Portuguese journalist and author (d. 1854)
    • 1818 – Emperor Norton, San Francisco eccentric and visionary (d. 1880)citation needed
    • 1831 – Oliver Ames, American financier and politician, 35th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1895)
    • 1848 – Jean Aicard, French poet, author, and playwright (d. 1921)
    • 1849 – Jean Richepin, French poet, author, and playwright (d. 1926)
    • 1862 – Édouard Estaunié, French novelist (d. 1942)
    • 1865 – Abe Isoo, Japanese minister and politician (d. 1949)
    • 1868 – Constance Markievicz, Irish revolutionary and first woman elected to the UK House of Commons (d. 1927)
    • 1871 – Friedrich Ebert, German lawyer and politician, 1st President of Germany (d. 1925)
    • 1872 – Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian and Macedonian revolutionary activist (d. 1903)
    • 1873 – Étienne Desmarteau, Canadian shot putter and discus thrower (d. 1905)
    • 1875 – Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist and engineer (d. 1953)
    • 1877 – Eddie Cochems, American football player and coach (d. 1953)
    • 1881 – Eulalio Gutiérrez, Mexican general and politician, President of Mexico (d. 1939)
    • 1881 – Fernand Léger, French painter and sculptor (d. 1955)
    • 1883 – Reinhold Rudenberg, German-American inventor and a pioneer of electron microscopy (d. 1961)
    • 1891 – M. A. Ayyangar, Indian lawyer and politician, 2nd Speaker of the Lok Sabha (d. 1978)
    • 1892 – E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet and academic (d. 1964)
    • 1895 – Nigel Bruce, English actor (d. 1953)
    • 1896 – Friedrich Glauser, Austrian-Swiss author (d. 1938)
    • 1896 – Friedrich Hund, German physicist and academic (d. 1997)
    • 1897 – Ludwig Erhard, German soldier and politician, 2nd Chancellor of West Germany (d. 1977)
    • 1899 – Virginia M. Alexander, American physician and founder of the Aspiranto Health Home (d. 1949)
    • 1900 – Jacques Prévert, French poet and screenwriter (d. 1977)
    • 1902 – Charles Lindbergh, American pilot and explorer (d. 1974)
    • 1902 – Hartley Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, German-English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (d. 2003)
    • 1903 – Alexander Imich, Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist, and academic (d. 2014)
    • 1904 – MacKinlay Kantor, American author and screenwriter (d. 1977)
    • 1905 – Hylda Baker, English comedian, actress and music hall performer (d. 1986)
    • 1906 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian (d. 1945)
    • 1906 – Letitia Dunbar-Harrison, Irish librarian (d. 1994)
    • 1906 – Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer and academic, discovered Pluto (d. 1997)
    • 1908 – Julian Bell, English poet and academic (d. 1937)
    • 1912 – Ola Skjåk Bræk, Norwegian banker and politician, Norwegian Minister of Industry (d. 1999)
    • 1912 – Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian-American conductor (d. 1993)
    • 1912 – Byron Nelson, American golfer and sportscaster (d. 2006)
    • 1913 – Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (d. 2005)
    • 1914 – Alfred Andersch, German-Swiss author and publisher (d. 1980)
    • 1915 – William Talman, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1968)
    • 1915 – Norman Wisdom, English singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2010)
    • 1917 – Yahya Khan, Pakistan general and politician, 3rd President of Pakistan (d. 1980)
    • 1918 – Ida Lupino, English-American actress and director (d. 1995)
    • 1918 – Luigi Pareyson, Italian philosopher and author (d. 1991)
    • 1920 – Janet Waldo, American actress and voice artist (d. 2016)
    • 1921 – Betty Friedan, American author and feminist (d. 2006)
    • 1921 – Lotfi Zadeh, Iranian-American mathematician and computer scientist and founder of fuzzy logic (d. 2017)
    • 1923 – Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor (d. 2013)
    • 1925 – Russell Hoban, American author and illustrator (d. 2011)
    • 1925 – Stanley Karnow, American journalist and historian (d. 2013)
    • 1925 – Christopher Zeeman, English mathematician and academic (d. 2016)
    • 1926 – Gyula Grosics, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 2014)
    • 1926 – Dave Sands, Australian boxer (d. 1952)
    • 1927 – Rolf Landauer, German-American physicist and academic (d. 1999)
    • 1928 – Oscar Cabalén, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1967)
    • 1928 – Osmo Antero Wiio, Finnish journalist, academic, and politician (d. 2013)
    • 1929 – Paul Burlison, American rockabilly guitarist (d. 2003)
    • 1929 – Neil Johnston, American basketball player (d. 1978)
    • 1930 – Tibor Antalpéter, Hungarian volleyball player and diplomat, Hungarian Ambassador to the United Kingdom (d. 2012)
    • 1930 – Arthur E. Chase, American businessman and politician (d. 2015)
    • 1930 – Jim Loscutoff, American basketball player (d. 2015)
    • 1931 – Isabel Martínez de Perón, Argentinian dancer and politician, 41st President of Argentina
    • 1935 – Wallis Mathias, Pakistani cricketer (d. 1994)
    • 1935 – Martti Talvela, Finnish opera singer (d. 1989)
    • 1935 – Collin Wilcox, American actress (d. 2009)
    • 1936 – David Brenner, American comedian, actor, and author (d. 2014)
    • 1936 – Claude Nobs, Swiss businessman, founded the Montreux Jazz Festival (d. 2013)
    • 1937 – David Newman, American director and screenwriter (d. 2003)
    • 1938 – Frank J. Dodd, American businessman and politician, president of the New Jersey Senate (d. 2010)
    • 1939 – Stan Lundine, American lawyer and politician, Lieutenant Governor of New York
    • 1940 – George A. Romero, American director and producer (d. 2017)
    • 1941 – Russell Cooper, Australian politician, 33rd Premier of Queensland
    • 1941 – Ron Rangi, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1988)
    • 1941 – Jiří Raška, Czech skier and coach (d. 2012)
    • 1943 – Alberto João Jardim, Portuguese journalist and politician, 2nd President of the Regional Government of Madeira
    • 1943 – Wanda Rutkiewicz, Lithuanian-Polish mountaineer (d. 1992)
    • 1943 – Ken Thompson, American computer scientist and programmer, co-developed the B programming language
    • 1944 – Florence LaRue, American singer and actress
    • 1947 – Dennis C. Blair, American admiral and politician, 3rd Director of National Intelligence
    • 1947 – Dan Quayle, American sergeant, lawyer, and politician, 44th Vice President of the United States
    • 1948 – Alice Cooper, American singer-songwriter
    • 1948 – Rod Grams, American journalist and politician (d. 2013)
    • 1948 – Mienoumi Tsuyoshi, Japanese sumo wrestler
    • 1949 – Michael Beck, American actor
    • 1949 – Rasim Delić, Bosnian general (d. 2010)
    • 1951 – Patrick Bergin, Irish actor
    • 1951 – Phil Ehart, American rock drummer and songwriter
    • 1952 – Jenny Shipley, New Zealand educator and politician, 36th Prime Minister of New Zealand
    • 1952 – Thomas Silverstein, American prisoner, founder and former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang (d. 2019)
    • 1955 – Mikuláš Dzurinda, Slovak politician, Prime Minister of Slovakia
    • 1957 – Don Davis, American composer and conductor
    • 1958 – Tomasz Pacyński, Polish journalist and author (d. 2005)
    • 1959 – Christian Schreier, German footballer and manager
    • 1959 – Lawrence Taylor, American football player and sportscaster
    • 1960 – Siobhan Dowd, English author and activist (d. 2007)
    • 1960 – Adrienne King, American actress, dancer, and painter
    • 1960 – Jonathan Larson, American composer and playwright (d. 1996)
    • 1961 – Stewart O’Nan, American novelist
    • 1961 – Denis Savard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1962 – Clint Black, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1962 – Stephen Hammond, English banker and politician
    • 1963 – Pirmin Zurbriggen, Swiss skier
    • 1964 – Elke Philipp, German Paralympic equestrian
    • 1965 – Jerome Brown, American football player (d. 1992)
    • 1966 – Tony Butterfield, Australian rugby league player
    • 1966 – Viatcheslav Ekimov, Russian cyclist
    • 1967 – Sergei Grinkov, Russian figure skater (d. 1995)
    • 1970 – Gabrielle Anwar, English actress
    • 1971 – Rob Corddry, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1971 – Eric Garcetti, American lieutenant and politician, 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles
    • 1972 – Dara Ó Briain, Irish comedian and television host
    • 1972 – Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer and manager
    • 1973 – Oscar De La Hoya, American boxer
    • 1973 – James Hird, Australian footballer and coach
    • 1973 – Manny Legace, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
    • 1975 – Natalie Imbruglia, Australian singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1977 – Gavin DeGraw, American singer-songwriter
    • 1979 – Giorgio Pantano, Italian race car driver
    • 1980 – Raimonds Vaikulis, Latvian basketball player
    • 1981 – Jason Kapono, American basketball player
    • 1981 – Johan Vansummeren, Belgian cyclist
    • 1982 – Chris Sabin, American wrestler
    • 1982 – Ivars Timermanis, Latvian basketball player
    • 1982 – Tomas Vaitkus, Lithuanian cyclist
    • 1983 – Lee Stempniak, American ice hockey player
    • 1983 – Rebecca White, Australian politician
    • 1984 – Sandeep Acharya, Indian singer (d. 2013)
    • 1984 – Mauricio Pinilla, Chilean footballer
    • 1986 – Maximilian Götz, German race car driver
    • 1986 – Mahmudullah Riyad, Bangladeshi cricketer
    • 1987 – Darren O’Dea, Irish footballer
    • 1987 – Lucie Šafářová, Czech tennis player
    • 1988 – Carly Patterson, American gymnast and singer
    • 1993 – Bae Noo-ri, South Korean actress
    • 1998 – Maximilian Wöber, Austrian footballer

    Deaths on February 4

    • 211 – Septimius Severus, Roman emperor (b. 145)
    • 708 – Pope Sisinnius (b. 650)
    • 856 – Rabanus Maurus, Frankish archbishop and theologian (b. 780)
    • 870 – Ceolnoth, archbishop of Canterbury
    • 1169 – John of Ajello, Bishop of Catania
    • 1498 – Antonio del Pollaiolo, Italian artist (b. 1429/1433)
    • 1505 – Jeanne de Valois, daughter of Louis XI of France (b. 1464)
    • 1508 – Conrad Celtes, German poet and scholar (b. 1459)
    • 1555 – John Rogers, English clergyman and translator (b. 1505)
    • 1590 – Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian composer and theorist (b. 1517)
    • 1615 – Giambattista della Porta, Italian playwright and scholar (b. 1535)
    • 1617 – Lodewijk Elzevir, Dutch publisher, co-founded the House of Elzevir (b. 1546)
    • 1713 – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, English philosopher and politician (b. 1671)
    • 1774 – Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (b. 1701)
    • 1781 – Josef Mysliveček, Czech composer (b. 1737)
    • 1799 – Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect and educator (b. 1728)
    • 1843 – Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek general (b. 1770)
    • 1891 – Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos, Roman Catholic archbishop and Mexican politician who served as regent during the Second Mexican Empire (1863-1864) (b. 1816)
    • 1905 – Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor and academic (b. 1841)
    • 1926 – İskilipli Âtıf Hodja, Turkish author and scholar (b. 1875)
    • 1928 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
    • 1933 – Archibald Sayce, English linguist and educator (b. 1846)
    • 1940 – Nikolai Yezhov, Russian police officer and politician (b. 1895)
    • 1943 – Frank Calder, English-Canadian ice hockey player and journalist (b. 1877)
    • 1944 – Arsen Kotsoyev, Russian author and translator (b. 1872)
    • 1956 – Savielly Tartakower, Russian-French chess player, journalist, and author (b. 1887)
    • 1958 – Henry Kuttner, American author and screenwriter (b. 1915)
    • 1959 – Una O’Connor, Irish-American actress (b. 1880)
    • 1968 – Neal Cassady, American novelist and poet (b. 1926)
    • 1970 – Louise Bogan, American poet and critic (b. 1897)
    • 1974 – Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist, mathematician, and academic (b. 1894)
    • 1975 – Louis Jordan, American singer-songwriter and saxophonist (b. 1908)
    • 1982 – Alex Harvey, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1935)
    • 1982 – Georg Konrad Morgen, German lawyer and judge (b. 1909)
    • 1983 – Karen Carpenter, American singer (b. 1950)
    • 1987 – Liberace, American singer-songwriter and pianist, (b. 1919)
    • 1987 – Meena Keshwar Kamal, Afghan activist, founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (b. 1956)
    • 1987 – Carl Rogers, American psychologist and academic (b. 1902)
    • 1990 – Whipper Billy Watson, Canadian-American wrestler and trainer (b. 1915)
    • 1992 – John Dehner, American actor (b. 1915)
    • 1995 – Patricia Highsmith, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1921)
    • 2000 – Carl Albert, American lawyer and politician, 54th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1908)
    • 2002 – Count Sigvard Bernadotte of Wisborg (b. 1907)
    • 2003 – Benyoucef Benkhedda, Algerian pharmacist and politician (b. 1920)
    • 2005 – Ossie Davis, American actor, director, and playwright (b. 1917)
    • 2006 – Betty Friedan, American author and activist (b. 1921)
    • 2007 – José Carlos Bauer, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1925)
    • 2007 – Ilya Kormiltsev, Russian-English poet and translator (b. 1959)
    • 2007 – Barbara McNair, American singer and actress (b. 1934)
    • 2007 – Jules Olitski, Ukrainian-American painter and sculptor (b. 1922)
    • 2008 – Augusta Dabney, American actress (b. 1918)
    • 2008 – Stefan Meller, Polish academic and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland (b. 1942)
    • 2010 – Kostas Axelos, Greek-French philosopher and author (b. 1924)
    • 2010 – Helen Tobias-Duesberg, Estonian-American composer (b. 1919)
    • 2011 – Martial Célestin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Haiti (b. 1913)
    • 2012 – István Csurka, Hungarian journalist and politician (b. 1934)
    • 2012 – Florence Green, English soldier (b. 1901)
    • 2012 – Robert Daniel, American farmer, soldier, and politician (b. 1936)
    • 2012 – Mike deGruy, American director, producer, and cinematographer (b. 1951)
    • 2013 – Donald Byrd, American trumpet player (b. 1932)
    • 2013 – Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
    • 2014 – Keith Allen, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (b. 1923)
    • 2014 – Eugenio Corti, Italian soldier, author, and playwright (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – Dennis Lota, Zambian footballer (b. 1973)
    • 2015 – Wes Cooley, American soldier and politician (b. 1932)
    • 2015 – Fitzhugh L. Fulton, American colonel and pilot (b. 1925)
    • 2016 – Edgar Mitchell, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1930)
    • 2017 – Steve Lang, Canadian bass player (b. 1949)
    • 2017 – Bano Qudsia, Pakistani writer (b. 1928)
    • 2018 – John Mahoney, English-American actor, voice artist, and comedian (b. 1940)
    • 2019 – Matti Nykänen, Finnish Olympic-winning ski jumper and singer (b. 1963)

    Holidays and observances on February 4

    • Christian feast day:
      • Andrew Corsini
      • Gilbert of Sempringham
      • John de Brito
      • Blessed Rabanus Maurus
      • Rimbert
      • Veronica
      • February 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Day of the Armed Struggle (Angola)
    • Earliest day on which Ash Wednesday can fall, while March 10 is the latest; celebrated on the first day of Lent (Christianity)
    • Independence Day (Sri Lanka)
    • Rosa Parks Day (California and Missouri, United States)
    • World Cancer Day

  • February 1 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 1327 – The teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
    • 1411 – The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn (Toruń), Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (Prussia).
    • 1662 – The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
    • 1713 – The Kalabalik or Skirmish at Bender results from the Ottoman sultan’s order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
    • 1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
    • 1796 – The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
    • 1814 – Mayon in the Philippines erupts, killing around 1,200 people, the most devastating eruption of the volcano.
    • 1835 – Slavery is abolished in Mauritius.
    • 1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
    • 1864 – Second Schleswig War: Prussian forces crossed the border into Schleswig, starting the war.
    • 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
    • 1884 – The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
    • 1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
    • 1895 – Fountains Valley, Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.
    • 1896 – La bohème premieres in Turin at the Teatro Regio (Turin), conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini.
    • 1897 – Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens in Seoul.
    • 1908 – Lisbon Regicide: King Carlos I of Portugal and Infante Luis Filipe are shot dead in Lisbon.
    • 1918 – Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar.
    • 1924 – Russia–United Kingdom relations are restored, over six years after the Communist revolution.
    • 1942 – World War II: Josef Terboven, Reichskommissar of German-occupied Norway, appoints Vidkun Quisling the Minister President of the National Government.
    • 1942 – World War II: U.S. Navy conducts Marshalls–Gilberts raids, the first offensive action by the United States against Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater.
    • 1942 – Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the United States government, begins broadcasting with programs aimed at areas controlled by the Axis powers.
    • 1942 – Mao Zedong makes a speech on “Reform in Learning, the Party and Literature”, which puts into motion the Yan’an Rectification Movement.
    • 1946 – Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary-General.
    • 1946 – The Parliament of Hungary abolishes the monarchy after nine centuries, and proclaims the Hungarian Republic.
    • 1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
    • 1964 – The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.
    • 1968 – Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan is recorded on motion picture film, as well as in an iconic still photograph taken by Eddie Adams.
    • 1968 – Canada’s three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
    • 1968 – The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form Penn Central Transportation.
    • 1972 – Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
    • 1974 – A fire in the 25-story Joelma Building in São Paulo, Brazil kills 189 and injures 293.
    • 1979 – Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran after nearly 15 years of exile.
    • 1989 – The Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder amalgamate to form the City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder.
    • 1991 – A runway collision between USAir Flight 1493 and SkyWest Flight 5569 at Los Angeles International Airport results in the deaths of 34 people, and injuries to 30 others.
    • 1992 – The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal disaster case.
    • 1996 – The Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
    • 1998 – Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne becomes the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
    • 2002 – Daniel Pearl, American journalist and South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, kidnapped January 23, 2002, is beheaded and mutilated by his captors.
    • 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
    • 2004 – Hajj pilgrimage stampede: In a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured.
    • 2005 – King Gyanendra of Nepal carries out a coup d’état to capture the democracy, becoming Chairman of the Councils of ministers.
    • 2009 – The first cabinet of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was formed in Iceland, making her the country’s first female prime minister and the world’s first openly gay head of government.
    • 2012 – Seventy-four people are killed and over 500 injured as a result of clashes between fans of Egyptian football teams Al Masry and Al Ahly in the city of Port Said.
    • 2013 – The Shard, the sixth-tallest building in Europe, is opened to the public.

    Births on February 1

    • 1261 – Walter de Stapledon, English bishop and politician, Lord High Treasurer (d. 1326)
    • 1435 – Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy (d. 1472)
    • 1447 – Eberhard II, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1504)
    • 1459 – Conrad Celtes, German poet and scholar (d. 1508)
    • 1462 – Johannes Trithemius, German lexicographer, historian, and cryptographer (d. 1516)
    • 1552 – Edward Coke, English lawyer, judge, and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (d. 1634)
    • 1561 – Henry Briggs, British mathematician (d. 1630)
    • 1635 – Marquard Gude, German archaeologist and scholar (d. 1689)
    • 1648 – Elkanah Settle, English poet and playwright (d. 1724)
    • 1659 – Jacob Roggeveen, Dutch explorer (d. 1729)
    • 1663 – Ignacia del Espíritu Santo, Filipino nun, founded the Religious of the Virgin Mary (d. 1748)
    • 1666 – Marie Thérèse de Bourbon, Princess of Conti and titular queen of Poland (d.1732)
    • 1687 – Johann Adam Birkenstock, German violinist and composer (d. 1733)
    • 1690 – Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1768)
    • 1701 – Johan Agrell, Swedish-German pianist and composer (d. 1765)
    • 1761 – Christiaan Hendrik Persoon, South African-French mycologist and academic (d. 1836)
    • 1763 – Thomas Campbell, Irish minister and theologian (d. 1854)
    • 1796 – Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich, Swiss minister, poet, and educator (d. 1865)
    • 1801 – Émile Littré, French lexicographer and philosopher (d. 1881)
    • 1820 – George Hendric Houghton, American clergyman and theologian (d. 1897)
    • 1836 – Emil Hartmann, Danish organist and composer (d. 1898)
    • 1844 – G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist and academic (d. 1924)
    • 1851 – Durham Stevens, American lawyer and diplomat (d. 1908)
    • 1858 – Ignacio Bonillas, Mexican diplomat (d. 1942)
    • 1859 – Victor Herbert, Irish-American cellist, composer, and conductor (d. 1924)
    • 1866 – Agda Meyerson, Swedish nurse and healthcare activist (d. 1924)
    • 1868 – Ștefan Luchian, Romanian painter and illustrator (d. 1917)
    • 1870 – Erik Adolf von Willebrand, Finnish physician (d. 1949)
    • 1872 – Clara Butt, English opera singer (d. 1936)
    • 1872 – Jerome F. Donovan, American lawyer and politician (d. 1949)
    • 1873 – John Barry, Irish soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1901)
    • 1874 – Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1929)
    • 1878 – Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer and architect, designed the Grand Hotel Aranybika (d. 1955)
    • 1878 – Milan Hodža, Slovak journalist and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia (d. 1944)
    • 1881 – Tip Snooke, South African cricketer (d. 1966)
    • 1882 – Louis St. Laurent, Canadian lawyer and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1973)
    • 1884 – Bradbury Robinson, American football player and physician (d. 1949)
    • 1884 – Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russian journalist and author (d. 1937)
    • 1887 – Charles Nordhoff, English-American lieutenant, pilot, and author (d. 1947)
    • 1890 – Nikolai Reek, Estonian general and politician, 11th Estonian Minister of War (d. 1942)
    • 1894 – John Ford, American director and producer (d. 1973)
    • 1894 – James P. Johnson, American pianist and composer (d. 1955)
    • 1895 – Conn Smythe, Canadian businessman (d. 1980)
    • 1897 – Denise Robins, English journalist and author (d. 1985)
    • 1898 – Leila Denmark, American pediatrician and author (d. 2012)
    • 1901 – Frank Buckles, American soldier (d. 2011)
    • 1901 – Clark Gable, American actor (d. 1960)
    • 1902 – Therese Brandl, German concentration camp guard (d. 1947)
    • 1902 – Langston Hughes, American poet, social activist, novelist, and playwright (d. 1967)
    • 1904 – S.J. Perelman, American humorist and screenwriter (d. 1979)
    • 1905 – Emilio G. Segrè, Italian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
    • 1906 – Adetokunbo Ademola, Nigerian lawyer and jurist, 2nd Chief Justice of Nigeria (d. 1993)
    • 1907 – Günter Eich, German author and songwriter (d. 1972)
    • 1907 – Camargo Guarnieri, Brazilian pianist and composer (d. 1993)
    • 1908 – George Pal, Hungarian-American animator and producer (d. 1980)
    • 1908 – Louis Rasminsky, Canadian economist and banker (d. 1998)
    • 1909 – George Beverly Shea, Canadian-American singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
    • 1910 – Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, Chinese general and politician (d. 2009)
    • 1915 – Stanley Matthews, English footballer and manager (d. 2000)
    • 1917 – José Luis Sampedro, Spanish economist and author (d. 2013)
    • 1917 – Eiji Sawamura, Japanese baseball player and soldier (d. 1944)
    • 1918 – Muriel Spark, Scottish playwright and poet (d. 2006)
    • 1918 – Ignacy Tokarczuk, Polish archbishop (d. 2012)
    • 1920 – Mike Scarry, American football player and coach (d. 2012)
    • 1920 – Zao Wou-Ki, Chinese-French painter (d. 2013)
    • 1921 – Teresa Mattei, Italian feminist partisan and politician (d. 2013)
    • 1921 – Peter Sallis, English actor (d. 2017)
    • 1921 – Patricia Robins, British writer and WAAF officer (d. 2016).
    • 1922 – Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano and actress (d. 2004)
    • 1923 – Ben Weider, Canadian businessman, co-founded the International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness (d. 2008)
    • 1924 – Richard Hooker, American novelist (d. 1997)
    • 1924 – Emmanuel Scheffer, German-Israeli footballer, coach, and manager (d. 2012)
    • 1927 – Galway Kinnell, American poet and academic (d. 2014)
    • 1928 – Sam Edwards, Welsh physicist and academic (d. 2015)
    • 1928 – Tom Lantos, Hungarian-American academic and politician (d. 2008)
    • 1930 – Shahabuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi judge and politician, 12th President of Bangladesh
    • 1930 – Hussain Muhammad Ershad, Indian-Bangladeshi general and politician, 10th President of Bangladesh (d. 2019)
    • 1931 – Boris Yeltsin, Russian politician, 1st President of Russia (d. 2007)
    • 1932 – Hassan Al-Turabi, Sudanese activist and politician (d. 2016)
    • 1934 – Nicolae Breban, Romanian author, poet, and playwright
    • 1936 – Tuncel Kurtiz, Turkish actor, playwright, and director (d. 2013)
    • 1936 – Azie Taylor Morton, American educator and politician, 36th Treasurer of the United States (d. 2003)
    • 1937 – Don Everly, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1937 – Garrett Morris, American actor and comedian
    • 1938 – Jimmy Carl Black, American drummer and singer (d. 2008)
    • 1938 – Jacky Cupit, American golfer
    • 1938 – Sherman Hemsley, American actor and singer (d. 2012)
    • 1939 – Fritjof Capra, Austrian physicist, author, and academic
    • 1939 – Claude François, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter and dancer (d. 1978)
    • 1939 – Paul Gillmor, American lawyer and politician (d. 2007)
    • 1939 – Ekaterina Maximova, Russian ballerina (d. 2009)
    • 1939 – Joe Sample, American pianist and composer (d. 2014)
    • 1941 – Jerry Spinelli, American author
    • 1942 – Bibi Besch, Austrian-American actress (d. 1996)
    • 1942 – Terry Jones, Welsh actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2020)
    • 1942 – David Sincock, Australian cricketer
    • 1944 – Petru Popescu, Romanian-American director, producer, and author
    • 1944 – Burkhard Ziese, German footballer and manager (d. 2010)
    • 1945 – Serge Joyal, Canadian lawyer and politician, 50th Secretary of State for Canada
    • 1945 – Ferruccio Mazzola, Italian footballer and manager (d. 2013)
    • 1945 – Mary Jane Reoch, American cyclist (d. 1993)
    • 1946 – Elisabeth Sladen, English actress (d. 2011)
    • 1946 – Karen Krantzcke, Australian tennis player (d. 1977)
    • 1947 – Adam Ingram, Scottish computer programmer and politician, Minister of State for the Armed Forces
    • 1947 – Normie Rowe, Australian singer-songwriter and actor
    • 1947 – Jessica Savitch, American journalist (d. 1983)
    • 1948 – Rick James, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2004)
    • 1950 – Mike Campbell, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
    • 1950 – Ali Haydar Konca, Turkish politician, 4th Turkish Minister of European Union Affairs
    • 1950 – Rich Williams, American guitarist and songwriter
    • 1951 – Sonny Landreth, American guitarist and songwriter
    • 1952 – Owoye Andrew Azazi, Nigerian general (d. 2012)
    • 1954 – Chuck Dukowski, American singer-songwriter and bass player
    • 1956 – Exene Cervenka, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1957 – Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Saudi Arabian businessman (d. 2007)
    • 1957 – Gilbert Hernandez, American author and illustrator
    • 1958 – Luther Blissett, Jamaican-English footballer and manager
    • 1958 – Eleanor Laing, Scottish lawyer and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland
    • 1961 – Volker Fried, German field hockey player and coach
    • 1961 – Daniel M. Tani, American engineer and astronaut
    • 1961 – Kaduvetti Guru, Indian politician (d. 2018)
    • 1962 – José Luis Cuciuffo, Argentinian footballer (d. 2004)
    • 1962 – Tomoyasu Hotei, Japanese singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1962 – Takashi Murakami, Japanese painter and sculptor
    • 1964 – Jani Lane, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2011)
    • 1964 – Mario Pelchat, Canadian singer-songwriter
    • 1964 – Linus Roache, English actor
    • 1965 – Stéphanie of Monaco, designer, singer and princess
    • 1965 – Brandon Lee, American actor and martial artist (d. 1993)
    • 1965 – Sherilyn Fenn, American actress
    • 1966 – Michelle Akers, American soccer player
    • 1967 – Meg Cabot, American author and screenwriter
    • 1968 – Lisa Marie Presley, American singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1968 – Mark Recchi, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1969 – Gabriel Batistuta, Argentinian footballer
    • 1969 – Andrew Breitbart, American journalist, author, and publisher (d. 2012)
    • 1969 – Brian Krause, American actor and screenwriter
    • 1969 – Franklyn Rose, Jamaican cricketer
    • 1969 – Patrick Wilson, American drummer
    • 1970 – Yasuyuki Kazama, Japanese racing driver
    • 1970 – Malik Sealy, American basketball player and actor (d. 2000)
    • 1971 – Harald Brattbakk, Norwegian footballer and pilot
    • 1971 – Michael C. Hall, American actor and producer
    • 1972 – Christian Ziege, German footballer
    • 1973 – Andrew DeClercq, American basketball player and coach
    • 1973 – Óscar Pérez Rojas, Mexican footballer
    • 1974 – Walter McCarty, American basketball player and coach
    • 1975 – Martijn Reuser, Dutch footballer
    • 1976 – Phil Ivey, American poker player
    • 1976 – Mat Rogers, Australian rugby player
    • 1977 – Lari Ketner, American basketball player (d. 2014)
    • 1977 – Robert Traylor, American basketball player (d. 2011)
    • 1978 – Tim Harding, Australian singer and actor
    • 1978 – K’naan, Somali-Canadian hip-hop artist
    • 1979 – Valentín Elizalde, Mexican singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
    • 1979 – Jason Isbell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1979 – Juan Silveira dos Santos, Brazilian footballer
    • 1980 – Héctor Luna, Dominican baseball player
    • 1980 – Moisés Muñoz, Mexican footballer
    • 1980 – Otilino Tenorio, Ecuadorian footballer (d. 2005)
    • 1981 – Hins Cheung, Hong Kong singer-songwriter
    • 1981 – Christian Giménez, Argentinian footballer
    • 1981 – Graeme Smith, South African cricketer
    • 1982 – Gavin Henson, Welsh rugby player
    • 1982 – Shoaib Malik, Pakistani cricketer
    • 1983 – Heather DeLoach, American actress
    • 1983 – Kevin Martin, American basketball player
    • 1983 – Jurgen Van den Broeck, Belgian cyclist
    • 1984 – Darren Fletcher, Scottish footballer
    • 1985 – Dean Shiels, Irish footballer
    • 1986 – Jorrit Bergsma, Dutch speed skater
    • 1986 – Lauren Conrad, American fashion designer and author
    • 1987 – Sebastian Boenisch, Polish footballer
    • 1987 – Moises Henriques, Portuguese-Australian cricketer
    • 1987 – Austin Jackson, American baseball player
    • 1987 – Ronda Rousey, American mixed martial artist and actress
    • 1987 – Giuseppe Rossi, Italian footballer
    • 1988 – Brett Anderson, American baseball player
    • 1989 – Ricky Pinheiro, Portuguese footballer
    • 1991 – Kyle Palmieri, American hockey player
    • 1993 – Diego Mella, Italian footballer
    • 1994 – Joe Boyce, Australian rugby league player
    • 1994 – Harry Styles, English singer-songwriter

    Deaths on February 1

    • 583 – Kan B’alam I, ruler of Palenque (b. 524)
    • 772 – Pope Stephen III (b. 720)
    • 850 – Ramiro I, king of Asturias
    • 992 – Jawhar as-Siqilli, Fatimid statesman
    • 1222 – Alexios Megas Komnenos, first Emperor of Trebizond
    • 1248 – Henry II, Duke of Brabant (b. 1207)
    • 1328 – Charles IV of France (b. 1294)
    • 1501 – Sigismund of Bavaria (b. 1439)
    • 1542 – Girolamo Aleandro, Italian cardinal (b. 1480)
    • 1563 – Menas of Ethiopia
    • 1590 – Lawrence Humphrey, English theologian and academic (b. 1527)
    • 1691 – Pope Alexander VIII (b. 1610)
    • 1718 – Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, English politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1660)
    • 1733 – Augustus II the Strong, Polish king (b. 1670)
    • 1734 – John Floyer, English physician and author (b. 1649)
    • 1743 – Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, Italian organist and composer (b. 1657)
    • 1750 – Bakar of Georgia (b. 1699)
    • 1761 – Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, French priest and historian (b. 1682)
    • 1768 – Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, English field marshal and politician (b. 1685)
    • 1793 – William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1717)
    • 1832 – Archibald Murphey, American judge and politician (b. 1777)
    • 1851 – Mary Shelley, English novelist and playwright (b. 1797)
    • 1871 – Alexander Serov, Russian composer and critic (b. 1820)
    • 1893 – George Henry Sanderson, American lawyer and politician, 22nd Mayor of San Francisco (b. 1824)
    • 1897 – Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist and botanist (b. 1826)
    • 1903 – Sir George Stokes, Anglo-Irish physicist, mathematician, and politician (b. 1819)
    • 1907 – Léon Serpollet, French businessman (b. 1858)
    • 1908 – Carlos I of Portugal (b. 1863)
    • 1922 – William Desmond Taylor, American actor and director (b. 1872)
    • 1924 – Maurice Prendergast, American painter (b. 1858)
    • 1928 – Hughie Jennings, American baseball player and manager (b. 1869)
    • 1936 – Georgios Kondylis, Greek general and politician, 128th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1878)
    • 1940 – Philip Francis Nowlan, American author, created Buck Rogers (b. 1888)
    • 1940 – Zacharias Papantoniou, Greek journalist and critic (b. 1877)
    • 1944 – Piet Mondrian, Dutch-American painter (b. 1872)
    • 1949 – Nicolae Dumitru Cocea, Romanian journalist, author, and activist (b. 1880)
    • 1949 – Herbert Stothart, American conductor and composer (b. 1885)
    • 1957 – Friedrich Paulus, German general (b. 1890)
    • 1958 – Clinton Davisson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
    • 1959 – Madame Sul-Te-Wan, American actress (b. 1873)
    • 1966 – Hedda Hopper, American actress and journalist (b. 1885)
    • 1966 – Buster Keaton, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1895)
    • 1968 – Echol Cole and Robert Walker – sparking the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike
    • 1970 – Alfréd Rényi, Hungarian mathematician and academic (b. 1921)
    • 1976 – Werner Heisenberg, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
    • 1976 – George Whipple, American physician and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1878)
    • 1979 – Abdi İpekçi, Turkish journalist and activist (b. 1929)
    • 1981 – Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American engineer and businessman, founded the Douglas Aircraft Company (b. 1892)
    • 1981 – Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian pianist and composer (b. 1908)
    • 1986 – Alva Myrdal, Swedish sociologist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
    • 1987 – Alessandro Blasetti, Italian director and screenwriter (b. 1900)
    • 1989 – Elaine de Kooning, American painter and academic (b. 1918)
    • 1992 – Jean Hamburger, French physician and surgeon (b. 1909)
    • 1996 – Ray Crawford, American race car driver, pilot, and businessman (b. 1915)
    • 1997 – Herb Caen, American journalist and author (b. 1916)
    • 1999 – Paul Mellon, American art collector and philanthropist (b. 1907)
    • 2001 – André D’Allemagne, Canadian political scientist and academic (b. 1929)
    • 2002 – Aykut Barka, Turkish geologist and academic (b. 1951)
    • 2002 – Hildegard Knef, German actress and singer (b. 1925)
    • 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia crew
      • Michael P. Anderson, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1959)
      • David M. Brown, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1956)
      • Kalpana Chawla, Indian-American engineer and astronaut (b. 1961)
      • Laurel Clark, American captain, surgeon, and astronaut (b. 1961)
      • Rick Husband, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1957)
      • William C. McCool, American commander, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1961)
      • Ilan Ramon, Israeli colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1954)
    • 2003 – Mongo Santamaría, Cuban-American drummer and bandleader (b. 1922)
    • 2004 – Suha Arın, Turkish director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1942)
    • 2005 – John Vernon, Canadian-American actor (b. 1932)
    • 2007 – Gian Carlo Menotti, Italian-American playwright and composer (b. 1911)
    • 2008 – Beto Carrero, Brazilian actor and businessman (b. 1937)
    • 2012 – Don Cornelius, American television host and producer (b. 1936)
    • 2012 – Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923)
    • 2013 – Helene Hale, American politician (b. 1918)
    • 2013 – Ed Koch, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 105th Mayor of New York City (b. 1924)
    • 2013 – Shanu Lahiri, Indian painter and educator (b. 1928)
    • 2013 – Cecil Womack, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1947)
    • 2014 – Luis Aragonés, Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1938)
    • 2014 – Vasily Petrov, Russian marshal (b. 1917)
    • 2014 – Rene Ricard, American poet, painter, and critic (b. 1946)
    • 2014 – Maximilian Schell, Austrian-Swiss actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1930)
    • 2015 – Aldo Ciccolini, Italian-French pianist (b. 1925)
    • 2015 – Udo Lattek, German footballer, manager, and sportscaster (b. 1935)
    • 2015 – Monty Oum, American animator, director, and screenwriter (b. 1981)
    • 2016 – Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores, Guatemalan general and politician, 27th President of Guatemala (b. 1930)
    • 2017 – Desmond Carrington, British actor and broadcaster (b. 1926)
    • 2018 – Barys Kit, Belarusian rocket scientist (b. 1910)
    • 2018 – Mowzey Radio, Ugandan singer and songwriter (b. 1985)
    • 2019 – Jeremy Hardy, English comedian, radio host and panelist (b. 1961)
    • 2019 – Clive Swift, English actor (b. 1936)
    • 2019 – Wade Wilson, American football player and coach (b. 1959)

    Holidays and observances on February 1

    • Abolition of Slavery Day (Mauritius)
    • Air Force Day (Nicaragua)
    • Christian feast day:
      • Astina (Syrian Church)
      • Blessed Candelaria of San José
      • Brigid, patron saint of Ireland (Saint Brigid’s Day)
      • Verdiana
      • February 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Earliest day on which Constitution Day can fall, while February 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in February. (Mexico)
    • Federal Territory Day (Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya, Malaysia)
    • Heroes Day (Rwanda)
    • Imbolc (Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, and some Neopagan groups in the Northern hemisphere)
    • Memorial Day of the Republic (Hungary)
    • National Freedom Day (United States)
    • The start of Black History Month (United States and Canada)