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

It is the last day of the first half of the year. The end of this day marks the halfway point of a leap year. It also falls on the same day of the week as New Year’s Day in a leap year. The midpoint of the year for southern hemisphere DST countries occurs at 11:00 p.m.

  • AD 69 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor.
  • 552 – Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy, and the Ostrogoth king, Totila, is mortally wounded.
  • 1097 – Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders led by prince Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army led by sultan Kilij Arslan I.
  • 1431 – The Battle of La Higueruela takes place in Granada, leading to a modest advance of the Kingdom of Castile during the Reconquista.
  • 1520 – Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan after nightfall.
  • 1523 – Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos become the first Lutheran martyrs, burned at the stake by Roman Catholic authorities in Brussels.
  • 1569 – Union of Lublin: The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union; the united country is called the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations.
  • 1643 – First meeting of the Westminster Assembly, a council of theologians (“divines”) and members of the Parliament of England appointed to restructure the Church of England, at Westminster Abbey in London.
  • 1690 – Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (as reckoned under the Julian calendar).
  • 1766 – François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire’s Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France.
  • 1770 – Lexell’s Comet is seen closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 astronomical units (2,180,000 km; 1,360,000 mi).
  • 1782 – Raid on Lunenburg: American privateers attack the British settlement of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
  • 1819 – Johann Georg Tralles discovers the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1). It was the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago.
  • 1837 – A system of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales.
  • 1855 – Signing of the Quinault Treaty: The Quinault and the Quileute cede their land to the United States.
  • 1858 – Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace’s papers on evolution to the Linnean Society of London.
  • 1862 – The Russian State Library is founded as the Library of the Moscow Public Museum.
  • 1862 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Louis of Hesse, the future Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse.
  • 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Malvern Hill takes place. It is the last of the Seven Days Battles, part of George B. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign.
  • 1863 – Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands.
  • 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.
  • 1867 – The British North America Act takes effect as the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia join into confederation to create the modern nation of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada. This date is commemorated annually in Canada as Canada Day, a national holiday.
  • 1870 – The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.
  • 1873 – Prince Edward Island joins into Canadian Confederation.
  • 1874 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale.
  • 1878 – Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.
  • 1879 – Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
  • 1881 – The world’s first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.
  • 1881 – General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell and Childers reforms of the British Army, comes into effect.
  • 1885 – The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.
  • 1885 – The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
  • 1890 – Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable.
  • 1898 – Spanish–American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
  • 1903 – Start of first Tour de France bicycle race.
  • 1908 – SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.
  • 1911 – Germany despatches the gunship SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis.
  • 1915 – Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Deutsches Heer’s Fliegertruppe army air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker.
  • 1916 – World War I: First day on the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.
  • 1922 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 begins in the United States.
  • 1923 – The Parliament of Canada suspends all Chinese immigration.
  • 1931 – United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport).
  • 1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty become the first people to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engined monoplane aircraft.
  • 1932 – Australia’s national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was formed.
  • 1935 – Regina, Saskatchewan police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in the On-to-Ottawa Trek.
  • 1942 – World War II: First Battle of El Alamein.
  • 1942 – The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of income tax in Australia as State Income Tax is abolished.
  • 1943 – The City of Tokyo and the Prefecture of Tokyo are both replaced by the Tokyo Metropolis.
  • 1947 – The Philippine Air Force is established.
  • 1948 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-i-Azam) inaugurates Pakistan’s central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.
  • 1949 – The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin royal family.
  • 1957 – The International Geophysical Year begins.
  • 1958 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
  • 1958 – Flooding of Canada’s Saint Lawrence Seaway begins.
  • 1959 – Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the US, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.
  • 1960 – Independence of Somalia.
  • 1960 – Ghana becomes a republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its head of state.
  • 1962 – Independence of Rwanda and Burundi.
  • 1963 – ZIP codes are introduced for United States mail.
  • 1963 – The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.
  • 1966 – The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
  • 1967 – Merger Treaty: The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.
  • 1968 – The United States Central Intelligence Agency’s Phoenix Program is officially established.
  • 1968 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.
  • 1968 – Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL–CIO in the United States.
  • 1972 – The first Gay pride march in England takes place.
  • 1976 – Portugal grants autonomy to Madeira.
  • 1978 – The Northern Territory in Australia is granted self-government.
  • 1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman.
  • 1980 – “O Canada” officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.
  • 1983 – A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
  • 1984 – The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.
  • 1987 – The American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world’s first all-sports radio station.
  • 1990 – German reunification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.
  • 1991 – Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
  • 1997 – China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule. The handover ceremony is attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Charles, Prince of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
  • 1999 – The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Elizabeth II on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh. In Wales, the powers of the Welsh Secretary are transferred to the National Assembly.
  • 2002 – The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
  • 2002 – Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154, and DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757, collide in mid-air over Überlingen, southern Germany, killing all 71 on board both planes.
  • 2003 – Over 500,000 people protest against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong.
  • 2004 – Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini–Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC.
  • 2006 – The first operation of Qinghai–Tibet Railway is conducted in China.
  • 2007 – Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.
  • 2008 – Riots erupt in Mongolia in response to allegations of fraud surrounding the 2008 legislative elections.
  • 2013 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.

Births on July 1

  • 1311 – Liu Bowen, Chinese military strategist, statesman and poet (d. 1375)
  • 1464 – Clara Gonzaga, Italian noble (d. 1503)
  • 1481 – Christian II of Denmark (d. 1559)
  • 1506 – Louis II of Hungary (d. 1526)
  • 1534 – Frederick II of Denmark (d. 1588)
  • 1553 – Peter Street, English carpenter and builder (d. 1609)
  • 1574 – Joseph Hall, English bishop and mystic (d. 1656)
  • 1586 – Claudio Saracini, Italian lute player and composer (d. 1630)
  • 1633 – Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Swiss theologian and author (d. 1698)
  • 1646 – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher (d. 1716)
  • 1663 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer and theorist (d. 1738)
  • 1725 – Rhoda Delaval, English painter and aristrocrat (d. 1757)
  • 1725 – Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French general (d. 1807)
  • 1731 – Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, Scottish-English admiral (d. 1804)
  • 1742 – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist and academic (d. 1799)
  • 1771 – Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer and conductor (d. 1839)
  • 1788 – Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1867)
  • 1804 – Charles Gordon Greene, American journalist and politician (d. 1886)
  • 1804 – George Sand, French author and playwright (d. 1876)
  • 1807 – Thomas Green Clemson, American politician and educator, founded Clemson University (d. 1888)
  • 1808 – Ygnacio del Valle, Mexican-American landowner (d. 1880)
  • 1814 – Robert Torrens, Irish-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of South Australia (d. 1884)
  • 1818 – Ignaz Semmelweis, Hungarian-Austrian physician and obstetrician (d. 1865)
  • 1818 – Karl von Vierordt, German physician, psychologist and academic (d. 1884)
  • 1822 – Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Vietnamese poet and activist (d. 1888)
  • 1834 – Jadwiga Łuszczewska, Polish poet and author (d. 1908)
  • 1850 – Florence Earle Coates, American poet (d. 1927)
  • 1858 – Willard Metcalf, American painter (d. 1925)
  • 1858 – Velma Caldwell Melville, American editor and writer of prose and poetry (d. 1924)
  • 1863 – William Grant Stairs, Canadian-English captain and explorer (d. 1892)
  • 1869 – William Strunk Jr., American author and educator (d. 1946)
  • 1872 – Louis Blériot, French pilot and engineer (d. 1936)
  • 1872 – William Duddell, English physicist and engineer (d. 1917)
  • 1873 – Alice Guy-Blaché, French-American film director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1968)
  • 1873 – Andrass Samuelsen, Faroese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1954)
  • 1875 – Joseph Weil, American con man (d. 1976)
  • 1876 – T.J. Ryan, Australian politician, 19th Premier of Queensland (d. 1921)
  • 1878 – Jacques Rosenbaum, Estonian-German architect (d. 1944)
  • 1879 – Léon Jouhaux, French union leader, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
  • 1881 – Edward Battersby Bailey, English geologist (d. 1965)
  • 1882 – Bidhan Chandra Roy, Indian physician and politician, 2nd Chief Minister of West Bengal (d. 1962)
  • 1883 – Arthur Borton, English colonel, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1933)
  • 1885 – Dorothea Mackellar, Australian author and poet (d. 1968)
  • 1887 – Amber Reeves, New Zealand-English author and scholar (d. 1981)
  • 1892 – James M. Cain, American author and journalist (d. 1977)
  • 1892 – László Lajtha, Hungarian composer and conductor (d. 1963)
  • 1899 – Thomas A. Dorsey, American pianist and composer (d. 1993)
  • 1899 – Charles Laughton, English-American actor and director (d. 1962)
  • 1899 – Konstantinos Tsatsos, Greek scholar and politician, President of Greece (d. 1987)
  • 1901 – Irna Phillips, American screenwriter (d. 1973)
  • 1902 – William Wyler, French-American film director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1981)
  • 1903 – Amy Johnson, English pilot (d. 1941)
  • 1903 – Beatrix Lehmann, English actress (d. 1979)
  • 1906 – Jean Dieudonné, French mathematician and academic (d. 1992)
  • 1906 – Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded the Estée Lauder Companies (d. 2004)
  • 1907 – Norman Pirie, Scottish-English biochemist and virologist (d. 1997)
  • 1909 – Emmett Toppino, American sprinter (d. 1971)
  • 1910 – Glenn Hardin, American hurdler (d. 1975)
  • 1911 – Arnold Alas, Estonian landscape architect and artist (d. 1990)
  • 1911 – Sergey Sokolov, Russian marshal and politician, Soviet Minister of Defence (d. 2012)
  • 1912 – David Brower, American environmentalist, founded Sierra Club Foundation (d. 2000)
  • 1912 – Sally Kirkland, American journalist (d. 1989)
  • 1913 – Frank Barrett, American baseball player (d. 1998)
  • 1913 – Lee Guttero, American basketball player (d. 2004)
  • 1913 – Vasantrao Naik, Indian politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Maharashtra (d. 1979)
  • 1914 – Thomas Pearson, British Army officer (d. 2019)
  • 1914 – Christl Cranz, German alpine skier (d. 2004)
  • 1914 – Bernard B. Wolfe, American politician (d. 2016)
  • 1915 – Boots Poffenberger, American baseball player (d. 1999)
  • 1915 – Willie Dixon, American singer-songwriter, bass player, guitarist and producer (d. 1992)
  • 1915 – Joseph Ransohoff, American soldier and neurosurgeon (d. 2001)
  • 1915 – Philip Lever, 3rd Viscount Leverhulme, British peer (d. 2000)
  • 1915 – Nguyễn Văn Linh, Vietnamese politician (d. 1998)
  • 1916 – Olivia de Havilland, British-American actress
  • 1916 – Iosif Shklovsky, Ukrainian astronomer and astrophysicist (d. 1985)
  • 1916 – George C. Stoney, American director and producer (d. 2012)
  • 1917 – Humphry Osmond, English-American lieutenant and psychiatrist (d. 2004)
  • 1917 – Álvaro Domecq y Díez, Spanish aristocrat (d. 2005)
  • 1918 – Ralph Young, American singer and actor (d. 2008)
  • 1918 – Ahmed Deedat, South African writer and public speaker (d. 2005)
  • 1918 – Pedro Yap, Filipino lawyer (d. 2003)
  • 1919 – Arnold Meri, Estonian colonel (d. 2009)
  • 1919 – Malik Dohan al-Hassan, Iraqi politician
  • 1919 – Gerald E. Miller, American vice admiral (d. 2014)
  • 1920 – Henri Amouroux, French historian and journalist (d. 2007)
  • 1920 – Harold Sakata, Japanese-American wrestler and actor (d. 1982)
  • 1920 – Joseph G. Williams, American musician
  • 1920 – George I. Fujimoto, American-Japanese chemist
  • 1921 – Seretse Khama, Batswana lawyer and politician, 1st President of Botswana (d. 1980)
  • 1921 – Michalina Wisłocka, Polish gynecologist and sexologist (d. 2005)
  • 1921 – Arthur Johnson, Canadian canoeist (d. 2003)
  • 1922 – Toshi Seeger, German-American activist, co-founded the Clearwater Festival (d. 2013)
  • 1922 – Mordechai Bibi, Israeli politician
  • 1923 – Scotty Bowers, American Marine, author and pimp (d. 2019)
  • 1924 – Antoni Ramallets, Spanish footballer and manager (d. 2013)
  • 1924 – Florence Stanley, American actress (d. 2003)
  • 1924 – Georges Rivière, French actor
  • 1925 – Farley Granger, American actor (d. 2011)
  • 1925 – Art McNally, American football referee
  • 1926 – Robert Fogel, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
  • 1926 – Carl Hahn, German businessman
  • 1926 – Mohamed Abshir Muse, Somali general (d. 2017)
  • 1926 – Hans Werner Henze, German composer and educator (d. 2012)
  • 1927 – Alan J. Charig, English paleontologist and author (d. 1997)
  • 1927 – Joseph Martin Sartoris, American bishop
  • 1927 – Chandra Shekhar, 8th Prime Minister of India (d. 2007)[27]
  • 1929 – Gerald Edelman, American biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
  • 1930 – Moustapha Akkad, Syrian-American director and producer (d. 2005)
  • 1930 – Carol Chomsky, American linguist and academic (d. 2008)
  • 1931 – Leslie Caron, French actress and dancer
  • 1932 – Ze’ev Schiff, French-Israeli journalist and author (d. 2007)
  • 1933 – C. Scott Littleton, American anthropologist and academic (d. 2010)
  • 1934 – Claude Berri, French actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
  • 1934 – Jamie Farr, American actor
  • 1934 – Jean Marsh, English actress and screenwriter
  • 1934 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director and producer (d. 2008)
  • 1935 – James Cotton, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (d. 2017)
  • 1935 – David Prowse, English actor
  • 1936 – Wally Amos, American entrepreneur and founder of Famous Amos
  • 1938 – Craig Anderson, American baseball player and coach
  • 1938 – Hariprasad Chaurasia, Indian flute player and composer
  • 1939 – Karen Black, American actress (d. 2013)
  • 1939 – Delaney Bramlett, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer (d. 2008)
  • 1940 – Craig Brown, Scottish footballer and manager
  • 1940 – Ela Gandhi, South African activist and politician
  • 1940 – Cahit Zarifoğlu, Turkish poet and author (d. 1987)
  • 1941 – Rod Gilbert, Canadian-American ice hockey player
  • 1941 – Alfred G. Gilman, American pharmacologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
  • 1941 – Myron Scholes, Canadian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1941 – Twyla Tharp, American dancer and choreographer
  • 1942 – Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Iraqi field marshal and politician (d. 2015)
  • 1942 – Geneviève Bujold, Canadian actress
  • 1942 – Andraé Crouch, American singer-songwriter, producer and pastor (d. 2015)
  • 1942 – Julia Higgins, English chemist and academic
  • 1943 – Philip Brunelle, American conductor and organist
  • 1943 – Peeter Lepp, Estonian politician, 37th Mayor of Tallinn
  • 1943 – Jeff Wayne, American composer, musician and lyricist
  • 1945 – Mike Burstyn, American actor and singer
  • 1945 – Debbie Harry, American singer-songwriter and actress
  • 1946 – Mick Aston, English archaeologist and academic (d. 2013)
  • 1946 – Erkki Tuomioja, Finnish sergeant and politician, Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs
  • 1947 – Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Japanese race car driver
  • 1947 – Malcolm Wicks, English academic and politician (d. 2012)
  • 1948 – John Ford, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1949 – Néjia Ben Mabrouk, Tunisian-Belgian director and screenwriter
  • 1949 – John Farnham, English-Australian singer-songwriter
  • 1949 – David Hogan, American composer and educator (d. 1996)
  • 1949 – Venkaiah Naidu, Indian lawyer and politician
  • 1950 – David Duke, American white supremacist, politician and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard
  • 1951 – Trevor Eve, English actor and producer
  • 1951 – Anne Feeney, American singer-songwriter and activist
  • 1951 – Julia Goodfellow, English physicist and academic
  • 1951 – Klaus-Peter Justus, German runner
  • 1951 – Tom Kozelko, American basketball player
  • 1951 – Terrence Mann, American actor, singer and dancer
  • 1951 – Fred Schneider, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
  • 1951 – Victor Willis, American singer-songwriter, pianist and actor
  • 1952 – Dan Aykroyd, Canadian actor, producer and screenwriter
  • 1952 – David Arkenstone, American composer and performer
  • 1952 – David Lane, English oncologist and academic
  • 1952 – Steve Shutt, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
  • 1952 – Timothy J. Tobias, American pianist and composer (d. 2006)
  • 1953 – Lawrence Gonzi, Maltese lawyer and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Malta
  • 1953 – Jadranka Kosor, Croatian journalist and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Croatia
  • 1954 – Keith Whitley, American singer and guitarist (d. 1989)
  • 1955 – Nikolai Demidenko, Russian pianist and educator
  • 1955 – Li Keqiang, Chinese economist and politician, 7th Premier of the People’s Republic of China
  • 1955 – Lisa Scottoline, American lawyer and author
  • 1957 – Lisa Blount, American actress and producer (d. 2010)
  • 1957 – Hannu Kamppuri, Finnish ice hockey player
  • 1957 – Sean O’Driscoll, English footballer and manager
  • 1958 – Jack Dyer Crouch II, American diplomat, United States Deputy National Security Advisor
  • 1960 – Michael Beattie, Australian rugby league player and coach
  • 1960 – Lynn Jennings, American runner
  • 1960 – Evelyn “Champagne” King, American soul/disco singer
  • 1960 – Kevin Swords, American rugby player
  • 1961 – Malcolm Elliott, English cyclist
  • 1961 – Ivan Kaye, English actor
  • 1961 – Carl Lewis, American long jumper and runner
  • 1961 – Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
  • 1961 – Michelle Wright, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1962 – Andre Braugher, American actor and producer
  • 1962 – Mokhzani Mahathir, Malaysian businessman
  • 1963 – Roddy Bottum, American singer and keyboard player
  • 1963 – Nick Giannopoulos, Australian actor
  • 1963 – David Wood, American lawyer and environmentalist (d. 2006)
  • 1964 – Bernard Laporte, French rugby player and coach
  • 1965 – Carl Fogarty, English motorcycle racer
  • 1965 – Garry Schofield, English rugby player and coach
  • 1965 – Harald Zwart, Norwegian director and producer
  • 1966 – Enrico Annoni, Italian footballer and coach
  • 1966 – Shawn Burr, Canadian-American ice hockey player (d. 2013)
  • 1967 – Pamela Anderson, Canadian-American model and actress
  • 1969 – Séamus Egan, American-Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1971 – Missy Elliott, American rapper, producer, dancer and actress
  • 1971 – Julianne Nicholson, American actress
  • 1974 – Jefferson Pérez, Ecuadorian race walker
  • 1975 – Sean Colson, American basketball player and coach
  • 1975 – Sufjan Stevens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1976 – Patrick Kluivert, Dutch footballer and coach
  • 1976 – Hannu Tihinen, Finnish footballer
  • 1976 – Albert Torrens, Australian rugby league player
  • 1976 – Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dutch footballer and manager
  • 1976 – Szymon Ziółkowski, Polish hammer thrower
  • 1977 – Tom Frager, Senegalese-French singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1977 – Keigo Hayashi, Japanese musician
  • 1977 – Jarome Iginla, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1979 – Forrest Griffin, American mixed martial artist and actor
  • 1981 – Carlo Del Fava, South African-Italian rugby player
  • 1981 – Tadhg Kennelly, Irish-Australian footballer
  • 1982 – Justin Huber, Australian baseball player
  • 1982 – Joachim Johansson, Swedish tennis player
  • 1982 – Adrian Ward, American football player
  • 1982 – Hilarie Burton, American actress
  • 1984 – Donald Thomas, Bahamian high jumper
  • 1985 – Chris Perez, American baseball player
  • 1986 – Charlie Blackmon, American baseball player
  • 1986 – Andrew Lee, Australian footballer
  • 1986 – Julian Prochnow, German footballer
  • 1987 – Michael Schrader, German decathlete
  • 1988 – Dedé, Brazilian footballer
  • 1988 – Aleksander Lesun, Russian modern pentathlete
  • 1989 – Kent Bazemore, American basketball player
  • 1989 – Daniel Ricciardo, Australian race car driver
  • 1990 – Ben Coker, English footballer
  • 1991 – Michael Wacha, American baseball player
  • 1992 – Aaron Sanchez, American baseball player
  • 1995 – Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo, Belgian footballer
  • 1995 – Savvy Shields, Miss America 2017
  • 1996 – Adelina Sotnikova, Russian figure skater
  • 1998 – Aleksandra Golovkina, Lithuanian figure skater
  • 2000 – Lalu Muhammad Zohri, Indonesian sprinter
  • 2001 – Chosen Jacobs, American entertainer

Deaths on July 1

  • 552 – Totila, Ostrogoth king
  • 992 – Heonjeong, Korean queen (b. 966)
  • 1109 – Alfonso VI, king of León and Castile (b. 1040)
  • 1224 – Hōjō Yoshitoki, regent of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan (b. 1163)
  • 1242 – Chagatai Khan, Mongol ruler (b. 1183)
  • 1277 – Baibars, Egyptian sultan (b. 1223)
  • 1321 – María de Molina, queen of Castile and León
  • 1348 – Joan, English princess
  • 1555 – John Bradford, English reformer, prebendary of St. Paul’s (b. 1510)
  • 1589 – Lady Saigō, Japanese concubine (b. 1552)
  • 1592 – Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, Italian composer and educator (b. 1535)
  • 1614 – Isaac Casaubon, French philologist and scholar (b. 1559)
  • 1622 – William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, English politician (b. 1575)
  • 1681 – Oliver Plunkett, Irish archbishop and saint (b. 1629)
  • 1736 – Ahmed III, Ottoman sultan (b. 1673)
  • 1774 – Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (b. 1705)
  • 1782 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, English admiral and politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1730)
  • 1784 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German organist and composer (b. 1710)
  • 1787 – Charles de Rohan, French marshal (b. 1715)
  • 1819 – the Public Universal Friend, American evangelist (b. 1752)
  • 1839 – Mahmud II, Ottoman sultan (b. 1785)
  • 1860 – Charles Goodyear, American chemist and engineer (b. 1800)
  • 1863 – John F. Reynolds, American general (b. 1820)
  • 1884 – Allan Pinkerton, Scottish-American detective and spy (b. 1819)
  • 1896 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author and activist (b. 1811)
  • 1905 – John Hay, American journalist and politician, 37th United States Secretary of State (b. 1838)
  • 1912 – Harriet Quimby, American pilot and screenwriter (b. 1875)
  • 1925 – Erik Satie, French pianist and composer (b. 1866)
  • 1934 – Ernst Röhm, German paramilitary commander (b. 1887)
  • 1942 – Peadar Toner Mac Fhionnlaoich, Irish writer (b. 1857)
  • 1943 – Willem Arondeus, Dutch artist, author, and anti-Nazi resistance fighter (b. 1894)
  • 1944 – Carl Mayer, Austrian-English screenwriter (b. 1894)
  • 1944 – Tanya Savicheva, Russian author (b. 1930)
  • 1948 – Achille Varzi, Italian race car driver (b. 1904)
  • 1950 – Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Swiss composer and educator (b. 1865)
  • 1950 – Eliel Saarinen, Finnish-American architect, co-designed the National Museum of Finland (b. 1873)
  • 1951 – Tadeusz Borowski, Polish poet, novelist and journalist (b. 1922)
  • 1961 – Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French physician and author (b. 1894)
  • 1962 – Purushottam Das Tandon, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1882)
  • 1962 – Bidhan Chandra Roy, Indian physician and politician, 2nd Chief Minister of West Bengal (b. 1882)
  • 1964 – Pierre Monteux, French-American viola player and conductor (b. 1875)
  • 1965 – Wally Hammond, English cricketer (b. 1903)
  • 1965 – Robert Ruark, American journalist and author (b. 1915)
  • 1966 – Frank Verner, American runner (b. 1883)
  • 1967 – Gerhard Ritter, German historian and academic (b. 1888)
  • 1968 – Fritz Bauer, German judge and politician (b. 1903)
  • 1971 – William Lawrence Bragg, Australian-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
  • 1971 – Learie Constantine, Trinidadian-English cricketer, lawyer, and politician (b. 1901)
  • 1974 – Juan Perón, Argentinian general and politician, President of Argentina (b. 1895)
  • 1978 – Kurt Student, German general and pilot (b. 1890)
  • 1981 – Carlos de Oliveira, Portuguese author and poet (b. 1921)
  • 1983 – Buckminster Fuller, American architect, designed the Montreal Biosphère (b. 1895)
  • 1984 – Moshé Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-Israeli physicist and academic (b. 1904)
  • 1991 – Michael Landon, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1936)
  • 1992 – Franco Cristaldi, Italian screenwriter and producer (b. 1924)
  • 1994 – Merriam Modell, American author (b. 1908)
  • 1995 – Wolfman Jack, American radio host (b. 1938)
  • 1995 – Ian Parkin, English guitarist (Be-Bop Deluxe) (b. 1950)
  • 1996 – William T. Cahill, American lawyer and politician, 46th Governor of New Jersey (b. 1904)
  • 1996 – Margaux Hemingway, American model and actress (b. 1954)
  • 1996 – Steve Tesich, Serbian-American author and screenwriter (b. 1942)
  • 1997 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (b. 1917)
  • 1997 – Charles Werner, American cartoonist (b. 1909)
  • 1999 – Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-American director and producer (b. 1908)
  • 1999 – Forrest Mars Sr., American businessman, created M&M’s and the Mars bar (b. 1904)
  • 1999 – Sylvia Sidney, American actress (b. 1910)
  • 1999 – Sola Sierra, Chilean human rights activist (b. 1935)
  • 2000 – Walter Matthau, American actor (b. 1920)
  • 2001 – Nikolay Basov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
  • 2001 – Jean-Louis Rosier, French race car driver (b. 1925)
  • 2003 – Herbie Mann, American flute player and saxophonist (b. 1930)
  • 2004 – Peter Barnes, English playwright and screenwriter (b. 1931)
  • 2004 – Marlon Brando, American actor and director (b. 1924)
  • 2004 – Todor Skalovski, Macedonian composer and conductor (b. 1909)
  • 2005 – Renaldo Benson, American singer-songwriter (Four Tops) (b. 1936)
  • 2005 – Gus Bodnar, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1923)
  • 2005 – Luther Vandross, American singer-songwriter and producer (Change) (b. 1951)
  • 2006 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, Japanese politician, 53rd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937)
  • 2006 – Robert Lepikson, Estonian race car driver and politician, Estonian Minister of the Interior (b. 1952)
  • 2006 – Fred Trueman, English cricketer and sportscaster (b. 1931)
  • 2008 – Mel Galley, English guitarist (b. 1948)
  • 2009 – Karl Malden, American actor (b. 1912)
  • 2009 – Onni Palaste, Finnish soldier and author (b. 1917)
  • 2009 – Mollie Sugden, English actress (b. 1922)
  • 2010 – Don Coryell, American football player and coach (b. 1924)
  • 2010 – Arnold Friberg, American painter and illustrator (b. 1913)
  • 2010 – Ilene Woods, American actress and singer (b. 1929)
  • 2012 – Peter E. Gillquist, American priest and author (b. 1938)
  • 2012 – Ossie Hibbert, Jamaican-American keyboard player and producer (b. 1950)
  • 2012 – Evelyn Lear, American operatic soprano (b. 1926)
  • 2012 – Alan G. Poindexter, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1961)
  • 2012 – Jack Richardson, American author and playwright (b. 1934)
  • 2013 – Sidney Bryan Berry, American general (b. 1926)
  • 2013 – Charles Foley, American game designer, co-created Twister (b. 1930)
  • 2013 – William H. Gray, American minister and politician (b. 1941)
  • 2014 – Jean Garon, Canadian economist, lawyer, and politician (b. 1938)
  • 2014 – Stephen Gaskin, American activist, co-founded The Farm (b. 1935)
  • 2014 – Bob Jones, English lawyer and politician (b. 1955)
  • 2014 – Anatoly Kornukov, Ukrainian-Russian general (b. 1942)
  • 2014 – Walter Dean Myers, American author and poet (b. 1937)
  • 2015 – Val Doonican, Irish singer and television host (b. 1927)
  • 2015 – Czesław Olech, Polish mathematician and academic (b. 1931)
  • 2015 – Nicholas Winton, English lieutenant and humanitarian (b. 1909)
  • 2016 – Robin Hardy, English author and film director (b. 1929)
  • 2020 – Georg Ratzinger, German Roman Catholic priest and musician (b. 1924)

Holidays and observances on July 1

  • Christian feast day:
    • Aaron (Syriac Christianity)
    • Blessed Antonio Rosmini-Serbati
    • Felix of Como
    • Junípero Serra
    • Julius and Aaron
    • Leontius of Autun
    • Servanus
    • Veep
    • July 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Feast of the Most Precious Blood (removed from official Roman Catholic calendar since 1969)
  • Earliest day on which Alexanderson Day can fall, celebrated on the Sunday closest to July 2. (Sweden)
  • Earliest day on which CARICOM Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in July. (Guyana)
  • Earliest day on which Constitution Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in July. (Cayman Islands)
  • Earliest day on which Día del Amigo can fall, celebrated on the first Saturday of July. (Peru)
  • Earliest day on which Fishermen’s Holiday, celebrated on the first Friday of July (Marshall Islands)
  • Earliest day on which Heroes’ Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in July. (Zambia)
  • Earliest day on which International Co-operative Day, can fall, celebrated on the first Saturday of July.
  • Earliest day on which International Free Hugs Day, can fall, celebrated on the first Saturday of July.
  • Earliest day on which Navy Day can fall, celebrated on the first Sunday in July. (Ukraine)
  • Earliest day on which Navy Days can fall, celebrated First Saturday and Sunday. (Netherlands)
  • Earliest day on which Youth Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in July. (Singapore)
  • Armed Forces Day (Singapore)
  • Canada Day, formerly Dominion Day (Canada)
  • Children’s Day (Pakistan)
  • Communist Party of China Founding Day (China)
  • Day of Officials and Civil Servants (Hungary)
  • Doctors’ Day (India)
  • Emancipation Day (Netherlands Antilles)
  • Engineer’s Day (Bahrain, Mexico)
  • Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day (Hong Kong, China)
  • Independence Day (Burundi), celebrates the independence of Burundi from Belgium in 1962.
  • Independence Day (Rwanda)
  • Independence Day (Somalia)
  • International Tartan Day
  • July Morning (Bulgaria)
  • Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) (Suriname)
  • Madeira Day (Madeira, Portugal)
  • Moving Day (Quebec) (Canada)
  • Newfoundland and Labrador Memorial Day
  • Republic Day (Ghana)
  • Sir Seretse Khama Day (Botswana)
  • Territory Day (British Virgin Islands)
  • The first day of Van Mahotsav, celebrated until July 7. (India)

July 1 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

June 12 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

  • 910 – Battle of Augsburg: The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army under King Louis the Child, using the famous feigned retreat tactic of the nomadic warriors.
  • 1240 – At the instigation of Louis IX of France, an inter-faith debate, known as the Disputation of Paris, starts between a Christian monk and four rabbis.
  • 1381 – Peasants’ Revolt: In England, rebels assemble at Blackheath, just outside London.
  • 1418 – Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War: Parisians slaughter Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac and his suspected sympathizers, along with all prisoners, foreign bankers, and students and faculty of the College of Navarre.
  • 1429 – Hundred Years’ War: On the second day of the Battle of Jargeau, Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk.
  • 1550 – The city of Helsinki, Finland (belonging to Sweden at the time) is founded by King Gustav I of Sweden.
  • 1653 – First Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of the Gabbard begins, lasting until the following day.
  • 1665 – Thomas Willett is appointed the first mayor of New York City.
  • 1758 – French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg: James Wolfe’s attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, commences
  • 1772 – French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne and 25 of his men killed by Māori in New Zealand.
  • 1775 – American Revolution: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.
  • 1776 – The Virginia Declaration of Rights is adopted.
  • 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Battle of Ballynahinch.
  • 1817 – The earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, is driven by Karl von Drais.
  • 1821 – Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrenders his throne and realm to Isma’il Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom.
  • 1830 – Beginning of the Invasion of Algiers: Thiry-four thousand French soldiers land 27 kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch.
  • 1864 – American Civil War, Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor: Ulysses S. Grant gives the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee a victory when he pulls his Union troops from their position at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.
  • 1898 – Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines’ independence from Spain.
  • 1899 – New Richmond tornado: The eighth deadliest tornado in U.S. history kills 117 people and injures around 200.
  • 1914 – Massacre of Phocaea: Turkish irregulars slaughter 50 to 100 Greeks and expel thousands of others in an ethnic cleansing operation in the Ottoman Empire.
  • 1921 – Mikhail Tukhachevsky orders the use of chemical weapons against the Tambov Rebellion, bringing an end to the peasant uprising.
  • 1935 – A ceasefire is negotiated between Bolivia and Paraguay, ending the Chaco War.
  • 1939 – Shooting begins on Paramount Pictures’ Dr. Cyclops, the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor.
  • 1939 – The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York.
  • 1940 – World War II: Thirteen thousand British and French troops surrender to Major General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.
  • 1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
  • 1943 – The Holocaust: Germany liquidates the Jewish Ghetto in Brzeżany, Poland (now Berezhany, Ukraine). Around 1,180 Jews are led to the city’s old Jewish graveyard and shot.
  • 1944 – World War II: Operation Overlord: American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan, Normandy, France.
  • 1954 – Pope Pius XII canonises Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him at the time the youngest unmartyred saint in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2017, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged ten and nine at the time of their deaths, are declared saints.
  • 1963 – NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith during the civil rights movement.
  • 1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.
  • 1967 – The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.
  • 1975 – India, Judge Jagmohanlal Sinha of the city of Allahabad ruled that India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had used corrupt practices to win her seat in the Indian Parliament, and that she should be banned from holding any public office. Mrs. Gandhi sent word that she refused to resign.
  • 1979 – Bryan Allen wins the second Kremer prize for a man powered flight across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross.
  • 1987 – The Central African Republic’s former emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.
  • 1987 – Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate, U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
  • 1988 – Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 46, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81, crashes short of the runway at Libertador General José de San Martín Airport, killing all 22 people on board.
  • 1990 – Russia Day: The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.
  • 1991 – Russians first democratically elected Boris Yeltsin as the President of Russia.
  • 1991 – Kokkadichcholai massacre: The Sri Lankan Army massacres 152 minority Tamil civilians in the village of Kokkadichcholai near the eastern province town of Batticaloa.
  • 1993 – An election takes place in Nigeria and is won by Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. Its results are later annulled by the military Government of Ibrahim Babangida.
  • 1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are murdered outside Simpson’s home in Los Angeles. Her estranged husband, O.J. Simpson is later charged with the murders, but is acquitted by a jury.
  • 1997 – Queen Elizabeth II reopens the Globe Theatre in London.
  • 1999 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force (KFor) enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
  • 2009 – Analog television stations (excluding low-powered stations) switch to digital television following the DTV Delay Act.
  • 2009 – A disputed presidential election in Iran leads to wide-ranging local and international protests.
  • 2016 – Forty-nine civilians are killed and 58 others injured in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida; the gunman, Omar Mateen, is killed in a gunfight with police.
  • 2017 – American student Otto Warmbier returns home in a coma after spending 17 months in a North Korean prison and dies a week later.
  • 2018 – United States President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea held the first meeting between leaders of their two countries in Singapore.

Births on June 12

  • 950 – Reizei, Japanese emperor (d. 1011)
  • 1107 – Gao Zong, Chinese emperor (d. 1187)
  • 1161 – Constance, Duchess of Brittany (d. 1201)
  • 1519 – Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1574)
  • 1561 – Anna of Württemberg, German princess (d. 1616)
  • 1564 – John Casimir, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (d. 1633)
  • 1573 – Robert Radclyffe, 5th Earl of Sussex, soldier (d. 1629)
  • 1577 – Paul Guldin, Swiss astronomer and mathematician (d. 1643)
  • 1580 – Adriaen van Stalbemt, Flemish painter (d. 1662)
  • 1653 – Maria Amalia of Courland, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1711)
  • 1686 – Marie-Catherine Homassel Hecquet, French writer (d. 1764)
  • 1711 – Louis Legrand, French priest and theologian (d. 1780)
  • 1760 – Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai, French author, playwright, journalist, and politician (d. 1797)
  • 1771 – Patrick Gass, American sergeant (Lewis and Clark Expedition) and author (d. 1870)
  • 1775 – Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (d. 1851)
  • 1777 – Robert Clark, American physician and politician (d. 1837)
  • 1795 – John Marston, American sailor (d. 1885)
  • 1798 – Samuel Cooper, American general (d. 1876)
  • 1800 – Samuel Wright Mardis, American politician (d. 1836)
  • 1802 – Harriet Martineau, English sociologist and author (d. 1876)
  • 1806 – John A. Roebling, German-American engineer, designed the Brooklyn Bridge (d. 1869)
  • 1807 – Ante Kuzmanić, Croatian physician and journalist (d. 1879)
  • 1812 – Edmond Hébert, French geologist and academic (d. 1890)
  • 1819 – Charles Kingsley, English priest, historian, and author (d. 1875)
  • 1827 – Johanna Spyri, Swiss author, best known for Heidi (d. 1901)
  • 1831 – Robert Herbert, English-Australian politician, 1st Premier of Queensland (d. 1905)
  • 1841 – Watson Fothergill, English architect, designed the Woodborough Road Baptist Church (d. 1928)
  • 1843 – David Gill, Scottish-English astronomer and author (d. 1914)
  • 1851 – Oliver Lodge, English physicist and academic (d. 1940)
  • 1857 – Maurice Perrault, Canadian architect, engineer, and politician, 15th Mayor of Longueuil (d. 1909)
  • 1858 – Harry Johnston, English botanist and explorer (d. 1927)
  • 1858 – Henry Scott Tuke, English painter and photographer (d. 1929)
  • 1861 – William Attewell, English cricketer and umpire (d. 1927)
  • 1864 – Frank Chapman, American ornithologist, photographer, and author (d. 1945)
  • 1877 – Thomas C. Hart, American admiral and politician (d. 1971)
  • 1883 – Fernand Gonder, French pole vaulter (d. 1969)
  • 1883 – Robert Lowie, Austrian-American anthropologist and academic (d. 1957)
  • 1888 – Zygmunt Janiszewski, Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1920)
  • 1890 – Egon Schiele, Austrian soldier and painter (d. 1918)
  • 1892 – Djuna Barnes, American novelist, journalist, and playwright (d. 1982)
  • 1895 – Eugénie Brazier, French chef (d. 1977)
  • 1897 – Anthony Eden, English soldier and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1977)
  • 1899 – Fritz Albert Lipmann, German-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
  • 1899 – Weegee, Ukrainian-American photographer and journalist (d. 1968)
  • 1902 – Hendrik Elias, Belgian lawyer and politician, Mayor of Ghent (d. 1973)
  • 1905 – Ray Barbuti, American sprinter and football player (d. 1988)
  • 1906 – Sandro Penna, Italian poet (d. 1977)
  • 1908 – Alphonse Ouimet, Canadian broadcaster (d. 1988)
  • 1908 – Marina Semyonova, Russian ballerina and educator (d. 2010)
  • 1908 – Otto Skorzeny, German SS officer (d. 1975)
  • 1910 – Bill Naughton, Irish-English playwright and author (d. 1992)
  • 1912 – Bill Cowley, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1993)
  • 1912 – Carl Hovland, American psychologist and academic (d. 1961)
  • 1913 – Jean Victor Allard, Canadian general (d. 1996)
  • 1913 – Desmond Piers, Canadian admiral (d. 2005)
  • 1914 – William Lundigan, American actor (d. 1975)
  • 1914 – Go Seigen, Chinese-Japanese Go player (d. 2014)
  • 1915 – Priscilla Lane, American actress (d. 1995)
  • 1915 – Christopher Mayhew, English soldier and politician (d. 1997)
  • 1915 – David Rockefeller, American banker and businessman (d. 2017)
  • 1916 – Irwin Allen, American director and producer (d. 1991)
  • 1916 – Raúl Héctor Castro, Mexican-American politician and diplomat, 14th Governor of Arizona (d. 2015)
  • 1918 – Samuel Z. Arkoff, American film producer (d. 2001)
  • 1918 – Georgia Louise Harris Brown, American architect (d. 1999)
  • 1918 – Christie Jayaratnam Eliezer, Sri Lankan-Australian mathematician and academic (d. 2001)
  • 1919 – Uta Hagen, German-American actress and educator (d. 2004)
  • 1920 – Dave Berg, American soldier and cartoonist (d. 2002)
  • 1920 – Peter Jones, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2000)
  • 1921 – Luis García Berlanga, Spanish director and screenwriter (d. 2010)
  • 1921 – Christopher Derrick, English author, critic, and academic (d. 2007)
  • 1921 – James Archibald Houston, Canadian author and illustrator (d. 2005)
  • 1922 – Margherita Hack, Italian astrophysicist and author (d. 2013)
  • 1924 – George H. W. Bush, American lieutenant and politician, 41st President of the United States (d. 2018)
  • 1924 – Grete Dollitz, German-American guitarist and radio host (d. 2013)
  • 1928 – Vic Damone, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2018)
  • 1928 – Petros Molyviatis, Greek politician and diplomat, Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs
  • 1928 – Richard M. Sherman, American composer and director
  • 1929 – Brigid Brophy, English author and critic (d. 1995)
  • 1929 – Anne Frank, German-Dutch diarist; victim of the Holocaust (d. 1945)
  • 1929 – Jameel Jalibi, Pakistani linguist and academic
  • 1929 – John McCluskey, Baron McCluskey, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Solicitor General for Scotland (d. 2017)
  • 1930 – Jim Burke, Australian cricketer (d. 1979)
  • 1930 – Donald Byrne, American chess player (d. 1976)
  • 1930 – Innes Ireland, Scottish race car driver and engineer (d. 1993)
  • 1930 – Jim Nabors, American actor and singer (d. 2017)
  • 1931 – Trevanian, American author and scholar (d. 2005)
  • 1931 – Rona Jaffe, American novelist (d. 2005)
  • 1932 – Mimi Coertse, South African soprano and producer
  • 1932 – Mamo Wolde, Ethiopian runner (d. 2002)
  • 1933 – Eddie Adams, American photographer and journalist (d. 2004)
  • 1934 – John A. Alonzo, American actor and cinematographer (d. 2001)
  • 1934 – Kevin Billington, English director and producer
  • 1935 – Ian Craig, Australian cricketer (d. 2014)
  • 1935 – Paul Kennedy, English lawyer and judge
  • 1937 – Vladimir Arnold, Russian-French mathematician and academic (d. 2010)
  • 1937 – Klaus Basikow, German footballer and manager (d. 2015)
  • 1937 – Antal Festetics, Hungarian-Austrian biologist and zoologist
  • 1937 – Chips Moman, American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter (d. 2016)
  • 1938 – Jean-Marie Doré, Guinean lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Guinea (d. 2016)
  • 1938 – Tom Oliver, English-Australian actor
  • 1939 – Ron Lynch, Australian rugby league player and coach
  • 1939 – Frank McCloskey, American sergeant and politician (d. 2003)
  • 1940 – Jacques Brassard, Canadian educator and politician
  • 1941 – Marv Albert, American sportscaster
  • 1941 – Chick Corea, American pianist and composer
  • 1941 – Roy Harper, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
  • 1941 – Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
  • 1941 – Lucille Roybal-Allard, American politician
  • 1942 – Len Barry, American singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1942 – Bert Sakmann, German physiologist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1945 – Pat Jennings, Irish footballer and coach
  • 1946 – Michel Bergeron, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1946 – Bobby Gould, English footballer and manager
  • 1946 – Catherine Bréchignac, French physicist and academic
  • 1948 – Hans Binder, Austrian race car driver
  • 1948 – Herbert Meyer, German footballer
  • 1948 – Len Wein, American comic book writer and editor (d. 2017)
  • 1949 – Jens Böhrnsen, German judge and politician
  • 1949 – Marc Tardif, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1949 – John Wetton, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (d. 2017)
  • 1950 – Oğuz Abadan, Turkish singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1950 – Michael Fabricant, English politician
  • 1950 – Sonia Manzano, American actress of Puerto Rican descent, noted for playing Maria on Sesame Street
  • 1950 – Bun E. Carlos, American drummer
  • 1951 – Brad Delp, American musician and singer (d. 2007)
  • 1951 – Andranik Margaryan, Armenian engineer and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Armenia (d. 2007)
  • 1952 – Spencer Abraham, American academic and politician, 10th United States Secretary of Energy
  • 1952 – Junior Brown, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1952 – Pete Farndon, English bass player and songwriter (d. 1983)
  • 1953 – Rocky Burnette, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1954 – Tim Razzall, Baron Razzall, English lawyer and politician
  • 1956 – Terry Alderman, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
  • 1957 – Timothy Busfield, American actor, director, and producer
  • 1957 – Javed Miandad, Pakistani cricketer and coach
  • 1958 – Meredith Brooks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1959 – John Linnell, American singer-songwriter and musician
  • 1959 – Scott Thompson, Canadian actor and comedian
  • 1960 – Joe Kopicki, American basketball player and coach
  • 1962 – Jordan Peterson, Canadian psychologist, professor and cultural critic
  • 1963 – Philippe Bugalski, French race car driver (d. 2012)
  • 1963 – Warwick Capper, Australian footballer, coach, and actor
  • 1963 – Tim DeKay, American actor
  • 1963 – Jerry Lynn, American wrestler
  • 1964 – Derek Higgins, Irish race car driver
  • 1964 – Kent Jones, American journalist
  • 1964 – Paula Marshall, American actress
  • 1964 – Peter Such, Scottish-born, English cricketer
  • 1965 – Adrian Toole, Australian rugby league player
  • 1965 – Gwen Torrence, American sprinter
  • 1965 – Cathy Tyson, English actress
  • 1966 – Marc Glanville, Australian rugby league player
  • 1966 – Tom Misteli, Swiss cell biologist
  • 1967 – Aivar Kuusmaa, Estonian basketball player and coach
  • 1967 – Frances O’Connor, English-Australian actress
  • 1968 – Scott Aldred, American baseball player and coach
  • 1968 – Htay Kywe, Burmese activist
  • 1968 – Bobby Sheehan, American bass player and songwriter (d. 1999)
  • 1969 – Zsolt Daczi, Hungarian guitarist (d. 2007)
  • 1969 – Héctor Garza, Mexican wrestler (d. 2013)
  • 1969 – Mathieu Schneider, American ice hockey player
  • 1969 – Heinz-Christian Strache, Austrian politician
  • 1971 – Mark Henry, American weightlifter and wrestler
  • 1971 – Ryan Klesko, American baseball player
  • 1971 – Jérôme Romain, Caribbean-Dominican triple jumper and coach
  • 1973 – Jason Caffey, American basketball player and coach
  • 1973 – Darryl White, Australian footballer
  • 1974 – Flávio Conceição, Brazilian footballer
  • 1974 – Hideki Matsui, Japanese baseball player
  • 1974 – Jason Mewes, American actor and producer
  • 1974 – Kerry Kittles, American basketball player
  • 1975 – Bryan Alvarez, American wrestler and journalist
  • 1975 – Stéphanie Szostak, French-American actress
  • 1976 – Antawn Jamison, American basketball player and sportscaster
  • 1976 – Ray Price, Zimbabwean cricketer
  • 1976 – Thomas Sørensen, Danish footballer
  • 1977 – Wade Redden, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1977 – Kenny Wayne Shepherd, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1978 – Lewis Moody, English rugby player
  • 1979 – Dallas Clark, American football player
  • 1979 – Martine Dugrenier, Canadian wrestler
  • 1979 – Diego Milito, Argentine footballer
  • 1979 – Robyn, Swedish singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer
  • 1979 – Earl Watson, American basketball player and coach
  • 1980 – Marco Bortolami, Italian rugby player
  • 1980 – Larry Foote, American football player
  • 1980 – Ifet Taljević, German footballer
  • 1981 – Raitis Grafs, Latvian basketball player
  • 1981 – Paul Hasleby, Australian footballer
  • 1981 – Adriana Lima, Brazilian model and actress
  • 1982 – Ben Blackwell, American drummer
  • 1982 – Diem Brown, German-American journalist and activist (d. 2014)
  • 1982 – Jason David, American football player
  • 1982 – Shailaja Pujari, Indian weightlifter
  • 1982 – James Tomlinson, English cricketer
  • 1983 – Bryan Habana, South African rugby player
  • 1983 – Alexander Pipa, German rugby player
  • 1983 – Christine Sinclair, Canadian soccer player
  • 1984 – James Kwalia, Kenyan-Qatari runner
  • 1984 – Bruno Soriano, Spanish footballer
  • 1985 – Blake Ross, American computer programmer, co-created Mozilla Firefox
  • 1985 – Sam Thaiday, Australian rugby league player
  • 1985 – Kendra Wilkinson, American model, actress, and author
  • 1985 – Chris Young, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1986 – Salim Mehajer, Australian politician
  • 1986 – Harry Taylor, Australian footballer
  • 1987 – Seyi Ajirotutu, American football player
  • 1987 – Antonio Barragán, Spanish footballer
  • 1988 – Artūrs Bērziņš, Latvian basketball player
  • 1988 – Eren Derdiyok, Swiss footballer
  • 1988 – Mauricio Isla, Chilean footballer
  • 1988 – Dave Melillo, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1988 – Dakota Morton, Canadian actor and radio host
  • 1989 – Emma Eliasson, Swedish ice hockey player
  • 1989 – Ibrahim Jeilan, Ethiopian runner
  • 1990 – Jrue Holiday, American basketball player
  • 1990 – Kevin López, Spanish runner
  • 1990 – David Worrall, English footballer
  • 1991 – Avisail García, Venezuelan baseball player
  • 1992 – Philippe Coutinho, Brazilian footballer

Deaths on June 12

  • 796 – Hisham I, Muslim emir (b. 757)
  • 816 – Pope Leo III (b. 750)
  • 918 – Æthelflæd, Mercian daughter of Alfred the Great (b. 870)
  • 1020 – Lyfing, English archbishop (b. 999)
  • 1036 – Tedald, Italian bishop (b. 990)
  • 1144 – Al-Zamakhshari, Persian theologian (b. 1075)
  • 1152 – Henry of Scotland, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon (b. 1114)
  • 1266 – Henry II, Prince of Anhalt-Aschersleben (b. 1215)
  • 1294 – John I of Brienne, Count of Eu
  • 1418 – Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac (b. 1360)
  • 1435 – John FitzAlan, 14th Earl of Arundel, English commander (b. 1408)
  • 1478 – Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua (b. 1412)
  • 1524 – Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, Spanish conquistador (b. 1465)
  • 1560 – Ii Naomori, Japanese warrior (b. 1506)
  • 1560 – Imagawa Yoshimoto, Japanese daimyō (b. 1519)
  • 1565 – Adrianus Turnebus, French philologist and scholar (b. 1512)
  • 1567 – Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, English politician, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1490)
  • 1647 – Thomas Farnaby, English scholar and educator (b. 1575)
  • 1668 – Charles Berkeley, 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge, English politician (b. 1599)
  • 1675 – Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy (b. 1634)
  • 1734 – James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, French-English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire (b. 1670)
  • 1758 – Prince Augustus William of Prussia (b. 1722)
  • 1772 – Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, French explorer (b. 1724)
  • 1778 – Philip Livingston, American merchant and politician (b. 1716)
  • 1816 – Pierre Augereau, French general (b. 1757)
  • 1818 – Egwale Seyon, Ethiopian emperor
  • 1841 – Konstantinos Nikolopoulos, Greek composer, archaeologist, and philologist (b. 1786)
  • 1900 – Lucretia Peabody Hale, American journalist and author (b. 1820)
  • 1904 – Camille of Renesse-Breidbach (b. 1836)
  • 1912 – Frédéric Passy, French economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1822)
  • 1917 – Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan-American singer-songwriter, pianist, and conductor (b. 1853)
  • 1932 – Theo Heemskerk, Dutch lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1852)
  • 1937 – Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Russian general (b. 1893)
  • 1944 – Erich Marcks, German general (b. 1891)
  • 1946 – Médéric Martin, Canadian politician, mayor of Montreal (b. 1869)
  • 1952 – Harry Lawson, Australian politician, 27th Premier of Victoria (b. 1875)
  • 1957 – Jimmy Dorsey, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (The Dorsey Brothers and The California Ramblers) (b. 1904)
  • 1962 – John Ireland, English composer and educator (b. 1879)
  • 1963 – Medgar Evers, American soldier and activist (b. 1925)
  • 1966 – Hermann Scherchen, German viola player and conductor (b. 1891)
  • 1968 – Herbert Read, English poet and critic (b. 1893)
  • 1969 – Aleksandr Deyneka, Ukrainian-Russian painter and sculptor (b. 1899)
  • 1972 – Edmund Wilson, American critic, essayist, and editor (b. 1895)
  • 1972 – Dinanath Gopal Tendulkar, Indian writer and documentary filmmaker (b. 1909)
  • 1976 – Gopinath Kaviraj, Indian philosopher and scholar (b. 1887)
  • 1978 – Guo Moruo, Chinese historian, author, and poet (b. 1892)
  • 1978 – Georg Siimenson, Estonian footballer (b. 1912)
  • 1980 – Billy Butlin, South African-English businessman, founded the Butlins Company (b. 1899)
  • 1980 – Masayoshi Ōhira, Japanese politician, 68th Prime minister of Japan (b. 1910)
  • 1980 – Milburn Stone, American actor (b. 1904)
  • 1982 – Ian McKay, English sergeant, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1953)
  • 1982 – Karl von Frisch, Austrian-German ethologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1886)
  • 1983 – Norma Shearer, Canadian-American actress (b. 1902)
  • 1989 – Bruce Hamilton, Australian public servant (b. 1911)
  • 1990 – Terence O’Neill, Baron O’Neill of the Maine, English captain and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (b. 1914)
  • 1994 – Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Russian-French rabbi and author (b. 1902)
  • 1995 – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (b. 1920)
  • 1995 – Pierre Russell, American basketball player (b. 1949)
  • 1997 – Bulat Okudzhava, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1924)
  • 1998 – Leo Buscaglia, American author and educator (b. 1924)
  • 1998 – Theresa Merritt, American actress and singer (b. 1922)
  • 1999 – J. F. Powers, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1917)
  • 2000 – Purushottam Laxman Deshpande, Indian actor, director, and producer (b. 1919)
  • 2000 – Sandro Rosa do Nascimento, Brazilian criminal (b. 1978)
  • 2002 – Bill Blass, American fashion designer, founded Bill Blass Limited (b. 1922)
  • 2002 – Zena Sutherland, American reviewer of children’s literature (b. 1915)
  • 2003 – Gregory Peck, American actor and political activist (b. 1916)
  • 2005 – Scott Young, Canadian journalist and author (b. 1918)
  • 2006 – Nicky Barr, Australian rugby player and fighter pilot (b. 1915)
  • 2006 – György Ligeti, Romanian-Hungarian composer and educator (b. 1923)
  • 2006 – Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet, Canadian businessman and art collector (b. 1923)
  • 2008 – Miroslav Dvořák, Czech ice hockey player (b. 1951)
  • 2008 – Derek Tapscott, Welsh footballer and manager (b. 1932)
  • 2010 – Al Williamson, American illustrator (b. 1931)
  • 2011 – René Audet, Canadian bishop (b. 1920)
  • 2011 – Carl Gardner, American singer (The Coasters) (b. 1928)
  • 2012 – Hector Bianciotti, Argentinian-French journalist and author (b. 1930)
  • 2012 – Henry Hill, American mobster (b. 1943)
  • 2012 – Margarete Mitscherlich-Nielsen, Danish-German psychoanalyst and author (b. 1917)
  • 2012 – Medin Zhega, Albanian footballer and manager (b. 1946)
  • 2012 – Elinor Ostrom, American political scientist and economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1933)
  • 2012 – Pahiño, Spanish footballer (b. 1923)
  • 2012 – Frank Walker, Australian judge and politician, 41st Attorney General of New South Wales (b. 1942)
  • 2013 – Teresita Barajuen, Spanish nun (b. 1908)
  • 2013 – Jason Leffler, American race car driver (b. 1975)
  • 2013 – Joseph A. Unanue, American sergeant and businessman (b. 1925)
  • 2014 – Nabil Hemani, Algerian footballer (b. 1979)
  • 2014 – Dan Jacobson, South African-English author and critic (b. 1929)
  • 2014 – Frank Schirrmacher, German journalist (b. 1959)
  • 2015 – Fernando Brant, Brazilian journalist, poet, and composer (b. 1946)
  • 2015 – Frederick Pei Li, Chinese-American physician and academic (b. 1940)
  • 2015 – Patrick Lennox Tierney, American historian and academic (b. 1914)
  • 2016 – Omar Mateen, American mass murderer (b. 1986)
  • 2016 – George Voinovich, American politician (b. 1936)
  • 2016 – Janet Waldo, American actress and voice artist (b. 1920)

Holidays and observances on June 12

  • Chaco Armistice Day (Paraguay)
  • Christian feast day:
    • 108 Martyrs of World War II
    • Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius
    • Blessed Hildegard Burjan
    • Enmegahbowh (Episcopal Church)
    • Eskil
    • First Ecumenical Council (Lutheran)
    • Gaspar Bertoni
    • John of Sahagún
    • Onuphrius
    • Pope Leo III
    • Ternan
    • June 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Dia dos Namorados (Brazil)
  • Helsinki Day (Finland)
  • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Philippines from Spain in 1898.
  • June 12 Commemoration (Lagos State)
  • Loving Day (United States)
  • Russia Day (Russia)
  • World Day Against Child Labour, and its related observances:
    • Children’s Day (Haiti)

June 12 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 26 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

  • 1336 – Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux.
  • 1478 – The Pazzi family attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in Florence Cathedral.
  • 1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England (date of actual birth is unknown).
  • 1607 – English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.
  • 1721 – A massive earthquake devastates the Iranian city of Tabriz.
  • 1777 – Sybil Ludington, aged 16, rode 40 miles (64 km) to alert American colonial forces to the approach of the British regular forces
  • 1794 – Battle of Beaumont during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
  • 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France.
  • 1803 – Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L’Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist.
  • 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon.
  • 1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. Also the date of Confederate Memorial Day for two states.
  • 1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia.
  • 1903 – Atlético Madrid Association football club is founded
  • 1923 – The Duke of York weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.
  • 1925 – Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic.
  • 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
  • 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain, is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
  • 1942 – Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1549 Chinese miners dead.
  • 1943 – The Easter Riots break out in Uppsala, Sweden.
  • 1944 – Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.
  • 1944 – Heinrich Kreipe is captured by Allied commandos in occupied Crete.
  • 1945 – World War II: Battle of Bautzen: Last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
  • 1945 – World War II: Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL and the American troops of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Division, United States Army are liberated in Baguio City and they fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
  • 1954 – The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.
  • 1956 – SS Ideal X, the world’s first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey, for Houston, Texas.
  • 1958 – Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
  • 1960 – Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after 12 years of dictatorial rule.
  • 1962 – NASA’s Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
  • 1963 – In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.
  • 1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
  • 1966 – The magnitude 5.1 Tashkent earthquake affects the largest city in Soviet Central Asia with a maximum MSK intensity of VII (Very strong). Tashkent is mostly destroyed and 15–200 are killed.
  • 1966 – A new government is formed in the Republic of the Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.
  • 1970 – The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.
  • 1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world’s first human open fetal surgery.
  • 1982 – Fifty-seven people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.
  • 1986 – A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Soviet Union, creating the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
  • 1989 – The deadliest known tornado strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.
  • 1989 – People’s Daily publishes the April 26 Editorial which inflames the nascent Tiananmen Square protests.
  • 1991 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak’s end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year’s only F5 tornado.
  • 1994 – China Airlines Flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.
  • 2002 – Robert Steinhäuser kills 16 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
  • 2005 – Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country (Syrian occupation of Lebanon).
  • 2018 – American comedian Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault.

Births on April 26

  • 121 – Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (d. 180)
  • 757 – Hisham I of Córdoba (d. 796)
  • 764 – Al-Hadi, Iranian caliph (d. 786)
  • 1284 – Alice de Toeni, Countess of Warwick (d. 1324)
  • 1319 – King John II of France (d. 1364)
  • 1538 – Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter and academic (d. 1600)
  • 1575 – Marie de’ Medici, queen of Henry IV of France (d. 1642)
  • 1647 – William Ashhurst, English banker, Sheriff of London, Lord Mayor of London and politician (d. 1720)
  • 1648 – Peter II of Portugal (d. 1706)
  • 1697 – Adam Falckenhagen, German lute player and composer (d. 1754)
  • 1710 – Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher and academic (d. 1796)
  • 1718 – Esek Hopkins, American commander (d. 1802)
  • 1774 – Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist and paleontologist (d. 1853)
  • 1782 – Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily (d. 1866)
  • 1785 – John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist and painter (d. 1851)
  • 1787 – Ludwig Uhland, German poet, philologist, and historian (d. 1862)
  • 1798 – Eugène Delacroix, French painter and lithographer (d. 1863)
  • 1801 – Ambrose Dudley Mann, American politician and diplomat, 1st United States Assistant Secretary of State (d. 1889)
  • 1804 – Charles Goodyear, American banker, lawyer, and politician (d. 1876)
  • 1822 – Frederick Law Olmsted, American journalist and designer, co-designed Central Park (d. 1903)
  • 1834 – Charles Farrar Browne, American author (d. 1867)
  • 1856 – Joseph Ward, Australian-New Zealand businessman and politician, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
  • 1862 – Edmund C. Tarbell, American painter and educator (d. 1938)
  • 1876 – Ernst Felle, German rower (d. 1959)
  • 1877 – James Dooley, Irish-Australian politician, 21st Premier of New South Wales (d. 1950)
  • 1878 – Rafael Guízar y Valencia, Mexican bishop and saint (d. 1938)
  • 1879 – Eric Campbell, British actor (d. 1917)
  • 1879 – Owen Willans Richardson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
  • 1886 – Ma Rainey, American singer (d. 1939)
  • 1886 – Ğabdulla Tuqay, Russian poet and publicist (d. 1913)
  • 1889 – Anita Loos, American author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1981)
  • 1889 – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-English philosopher and academic (d. 1951)
  • 1894 – Rudolf Hess, Egyptian-German politician (d. 1987)
  • 1896 – Ruut Tarmo, Estonian actor and director (d. 1967)
  • 1896 – Ernst Udet, German colonel and pilot (d. 1941)
  • 1897 – Eddie Eagan, American boxer and bobsledder (d. 1967)
  • 1897 – Douglas Sirk, German-American director and screenwriter (d. 1987)
  • 1898 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
  • 1898 – John Grierson, Scottish director and producer (d. 1972)
  • 1899 – Oscar Rabin, Latvian-English saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1958)
  • 1900 – Eva Aschoff, German bookbinder and calligrapher (d. 1969)
  • 1900 – Charles Francis Richter, American seismologist and physicist (d. 1985)
  • 1900 – Hack Wilson, American baseball player (d. 1948)
  • 1904 – Paul-Émile Léger, Canadian cardinal (d. 1991)
  • 1904 – Xenophon Zolotas, Greek economist and politician, 177th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2004)
  • 1905 – Jean Vigo, French director and screenwriter (d. 1934)
  • 1907 – Ilias Tsirimokos, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1968)
  • 1909 – Marianne Hoppe, German actress (d. 2002)
  • 1910 – Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese screenwriter and producer (d. 1997)
  • 1911 – Paul Verner, German soldier and politician (d. 1986)
  • 1912 – A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-American author (d. 2000)
  • 1914 – Bernard Malamud, Jewish American novelist and short story writer (d. 1986)
  • 1914 – James Rouse, American real estate developer (d. 1996)
  • 1916 – Eyvind Earle, American artist, author, and illustrator (d. 2000)
  • 1916 – Ken Wallis, English commander, engineer, and pilot (d. 2013)
  • 1916 – Morris West, Australian author and playwright (d. 1999)
  • 1917 – Sal Maglie, American baseball player and coach (d. 1992)
  • 1917 – I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect, designed the National Gallery of Art and Bank of China Tower (d. 2019)
  • 1917 – Virgil Trucks, American baseball player and coach (d. 2013)
  • 1918 – Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch sprinter and long jumper (d. 2004)
  • 1921 – Jimmy Giuffre, American clarinet player, saxophonist, and composer (d. 2008)
  • 1922 – J. C. Holt, English historian and academic (d. 2014)
  • 1922 – Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian journalist and politician, 23rd Governor General of Canada (d. 1993)
  • 1922 – Margaret Scott, South African-Australian ballerina and choreographer (d. 2019)
  • 1924 – Browning Ross, American runner and soldier (d. 1998)
  • 1925 – Vladimir Boltyansky, Russian mathematician, educator and author (d. 2019)
  • 1925 – Gerard Cafesjian, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
  • 1925 – Michele Ferrero, Italian entrepreneur (d. 2015)
  • 1925 – Frank Hahn, British economist (d. 2013)
  • 1926 – Michael Mathias Prechtl, German soldier and illustrator (d. 2003)
  • 1927 – Jack Douglas, English actor (d. 2008)
  • 1927 – Harry Gallatin, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
  • 1927 – Granny Hamner, American baseball player (d. 1993)
  • 1929 – Richard Mitchell, American author and educator (d. 2002)
  • 1930 – Roger Moens, Belgian runner and sportscaster
  • 1931 – Paul Almond, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
  • 1931 – Bernie Brillstein, American talent agent and producer (d. 2008)
  • 1931 – John Cain Jr., Australian politician, 41st Premier of Victoria (d. 2019)
  • 1932 – Israr Ahmed, Indian-Pakistani theologian, philosopher, and scholar (d. 2010)
  • 1932 – Shirley Cawley, English long jumper
  • 1932 – Frank D’Rone, American singer and guitarist (d. 2013)
  • 1932 – Francis Lai, French accordion player and composer (d. 2018)
  • 1932 – Michael Smith, English-Canadian biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
  • 1933 – Carol Burnett, American actress, singer, and producer
  • 1933 – Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Puerto Rican-American general (d. 2005)
  • 1933 – Arno Allan Penzias, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1935 – Patricia Reilly Giff, American author and educator
  • 1937 – Jean-Pierre Beltoise, French race car driver and motorcycle racer (d. 2015)
  • 1938 – Duane Eddy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
  • 1938 – Maurice Williams, American doo-wop/R&B singer-songwriter
  • 1940 – Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Indian cleric and politician (d. 2014)
  • 1940 – Giorgio Moroder, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1940 – Cliff Watson, English rugby league player (d. 2018)
  • 1941 – Claudine Auger, French model and actress (d. 2019)
  • 1942 – Svyatoslav Belza, Russian journalist, author, and critic (d. 2014)
  • 1942 – Sharon Carstairs, Canadian lawyer and politician, Leader of the Government in the Senate
  • 1942 – Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat, Canadian Ambassador to the United States
  • 1942 – Bobby Rydell, American singer and actor
  • 1942 – Jadwiga Staniszkis, Polish sociologist, political scientist, and academic
  • 1943 – Gary Wright, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer
  • 1943 – Peter Zumthor, Swiss architect and academic, designed the Therme Vals
  • 1944 – Richard Bradshaw, English conductor (d. 2007)
  • 1945 – Howard Davies, English director and producer (d. 2016)
  • 1945 – Dick Johnson, Australian race car driver
  • 1945 – Sylvain Simard, Canadian academic and politician
  • 1946 – Ralph Coates, English international footballer (d. 2010)
  • 1946 – Marilyn Nelson, American poet and author
  • 1946 – Alberto Quintano, Chilean footballer
  • 1949 – Carlos Bianchi, Argentinian footballer and manager
  • 1949 – Jerry Blackwell, American wrestler (d. 1995)
  • 1951 – John Battle, English politician
  • 1954 – Tatyana Fomina, Estonian chess player
  • 1954 – Alan Hinkes, English mountaineer and explorer
  • 1955 – Kurt Bodewig, German politician
  • 1956 – Koo Stark, American actress and photographer
  • 1958 – John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, Scottish race car driver
  • 1958 – Giancarlo Esposito, American actor, director, and producer
  • 1958 – Georgios Kostikos, Greek footballer, coach, and manager
  • 1959 – John Corabi, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1960 – Steve Lombardozzi, American baseball player and coach
  • 1960 – Roger Taylor, English drummer
  • 1961 – Joan Chen, Chinese-American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1961 – Chris Mars, American artist
  • 1962 – Colin Anderson, English footballer
  • 1962 – Debra Wilson, American actress and comedian
  • 1963 – Jet Li, Chinese-Singaporean martial artist, actor, and producer
  • 1963 – Colin Scotts, Australian-American football player
  • 1963 – Cornelia Ullrich, German hurdler
  • 1963 – Bill Wennington, Canadian basketball player
  • 1965 – Susannah Harker, English actress
  • 1965 – Kevin James, American actor and comedian
  • 1967 – Glenn Thomas Jacobs, American professional wrestler, actor, businessman and politician
  • 1967 – Marianne Jean-Baptiste, English actress and singer-songwriter
  • 1967 – Toomas Tõniste, Estonian sailor and politician
  • 1970 – Dean Austin, English footballer and manager
  • 1970 – Melania Trump, Slovene-American model; 47th First Lady of the United States
  • 1970 – Kristen R. Ghodsee, American ethnographer and academic
  • 1970 – Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
  • 1971 – Jay DeMarcus, American bass player, songwriter, and producer
  • 1972 – Jason Bargwanna, Australian race car driver
  • 1972 – Kiko, Spanish footballer
  • 1972 – Natrone Means, American football player and coach
  • 1972 – Avi Nimni, Israeli footballer and manager
  • 1973 – Geoff Blum, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1973 – Jules Naudet, French-American director and producer
  • 1973 – Chris Perry, English footballer
  • 1973 – Óscar García Junyent, Spanish footballer and coach
  • 1975 – Joey Jordison, American musician, songwriter, record producer
  • 1975 – Rahul Verma, Indian social worker and activist
  • 1976 – Luigi Panarelli, Italian footballer
  • 1976 – Václav Varaďa, Czech ice hockey player
  • 1977 – Samantha Cristoforetti, Italian astronaut
  • 1977 – Kosuke Fukudome, Japanese baseball player
  • 1977 – Roxana Saberi, American journalist and author
  • 1977 – Tom Welling, American actor
  • 1978 – Joe Crede, American baseball player
  • 1978 – Stana Katic, Canadian actress
  • 1978 – Peter Madsen, Danish footballer
  • 1980 – Jordana Brewster, Panamanian-American actress
  • 1980 – Marlon King, English footballer
  • 1980 – Anna Mucha, Polish actress and journalist
  • 1980 – Channing Tatum, American actor and producer
  • 1981 – Caro Emerald, Dutch pop and jazz singer
  • 1981 – Ms. Dynamite, English rapper and producer
  • 1981 – Sandra Schmitt, German skier (d. 2000)
  • 1982 – Novlene Williams-Mills, Jamaican sprinter
  • 1983 – José María López, Argentinian race car driver
  • 1983 – Jessica Lynch, American soldier
  • 1984 – Emily Wickersham, American actress
  • 1985 – John Isner, American tennis player
  • 1985 – Andrea Koch Benvenuto, Chilean tennis player
  • 1986 – Lior Refaelov, Israeli footballer
  • 1986 – Sean Evans, American YouTuber and producer
  • 1986 – Yuliya Zaripova, Russian runner
  • 1987 – Jorge Andújar Moreno, Spanish footballer
  • 1988 – Ben Spina, Australian rugby league player
  • 1988 – Manuel Viniegra, Mexican footballer
  • 1988 – Gareth Evans, English footballer
  • 1989 – Melvin Ingram, American football player
  • 1990 – Mitch Rein, Australian rugby league player
  • 1990 – Nevin Spence, Northern Irish rugby player (d. 2012)
  • 1991 – Lazaros Fotias, Greek footballer
  • 1991 – Peter Handscomb, Australian cricketer
  • 1991 – Will Heard, British singer and songwriter
  • 1991 – Isaac Liu, New Zealand rugby league player
  • 1991 – Ignacio Lores Varela, Uruguayan footballer
  • 1991 – Srdjan Pejicic, Canadian/Bosnian basketball player
  • 1991 – Wojciech Pszczolarski, Polish bicycle racer
  • 1992 – Aaron Judge, American baseball player
  • 1994 – Daniil Kvyat, Russian race car driver

Deaths on  April 26

  • 499 – Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei (b. 467)
  • 645 – Richarius, Frankish monk and saint (b. 560)
  • 680 – Muawiyah I, Umayyad caliph (b. 602)
  • 757 – Pope Stephen II (b. 715)
  • 893 – Chen Jingxuan, general of the Tang Dynasty
  • 962 – Adalbero I, bishop of Metz
  • 1192 – Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (b. 1127)
  • 1366 – Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury
  • 1392 – Jeong Mong-ju, Korean civil minister, diplomat and scholar (b. 1338)
  • 1444 – Robert Campin, Flemish painter (b. 1378)
  • 1478 – Giuliano de’ Medici, Italian ruler (b. 1453)
  • 1489 – Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shōgun (b. 1465)
  • 1558 – Jean Fernel, French physician (b. 1497)
  • 1686 – Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, Swedish statesman and military man (b. 1622)
  • 1716 – John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, English jurist and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1651)
  • 1784 – Nano Nagle, Irish nun and educator, founded the Presentation Sisters (b. 1718)
  • 1789 – Petr Ivanovich Panin, Russian general (b. 1721)
  • 1809 – Bernhard Schott, German music publisher (b. 1748)
  • 1865 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1838)
  • 1881 – Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, German general (b. 1815)
  • 1895 – Eric Stenbock, Estonian-English author and poet (b. 1860)
  • 1910 – Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian-French author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1832)
  • 1915 – John Bunny, American actor (b. 1863)
  • 1920 – Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician and theorist (b. 1887)
  • 1932 – William Lockwood, English cricketer (b. 1868)
  • 1934 – Arturs Alberings, Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia (b. 1876)
  • 1940 – Carl Bosch, German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
  • 1944 – Violette Morris, French footballer, shot putter, and discus thrower (b. 1893)
  • 1945 – Sigmund Rascher, German physician (b. 1909)
  • 1945 – Pavlo Skoropadskyi, German-Ukrainian general and politician, Hetman of Ukraine (b. 1871)
  • 1946 – James Larkin White, American miner, explorer, and park ranger (b. 1882)
  • 1950 – George Murray Hulbert, American lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1881)
  • 1951 – Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist and academic (b. 1868)
  • 1956 – Edward Arnold, American actor (b. 1890)
  • 1957 – Gichin Funakoshi, Japanese martial artist, founded Shotokan (b. 1868)
  • 1964 – E. J. Pratt, Canadian poet and author (b. 1882)
  • 1968 – John Heartfield, German illustrator and photographer (b. 1891)
  • 1969 – Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, founded aikido (b. 1883)
  • 1970 – Erik Bergman, Swedish minister and author (b. 1886)
  • 1970 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress, striptease dancer, and writer (b. 1911)
  • 1973 – Irene Ryan, American actress and philanthropist (b. 1902)
  • 1976 – Sidney Franklin, American bullfighter (b. 1903)
  • 1976 – Sid James, South African-English actor (b. 1913)
  • 1976 – Armstrong Sperry, American author and illustrator (b. 1897)
  • 1980 – Cicely Courtneidge, Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer (b. 1893)
  • 1981 – Jim Davis, American actor (b. 1909)
  • 1984 – Count Basie, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1904)
  • 1986 – Broderick Crawford, American actor (b. 1911)
  • 1986 – Bessie Love, American actress (b. 1898)
  • 1986 – Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (b. 1899)
  • 1987 – Shankar, Indian composer and conductor (b. 1922)
  • 1987 – John Silkin, English lawyer and politician, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons (b. 1923)
  • 1989 – Lucille Ball, American model, actress, comedian, and producer (b. 1911)
  • 1991 – Leo Arnaud, French-American composer and conductor (b. 1904)
  • 1991 – Carmine Coppola, American composer and conductor (b. 1910)
  • 1991 – A. B. Guthrie, Jr., American novelist and historian, (b. 1901)
  • 1991 – Richard Hatfield, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1931)
  • 1994 – Masutatsu Ōyama, Japanese martial artist, founded Kyokushin kaikan (b. 1923)
  • 1996 – Stirling Silliphant, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1918)
  • 1999 – Adrian Borland, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1957)
  • 1999 – Jill Dando, English journalist and television personality (b. 1961)
  • 2003 – Rosemary Brown, Jamaican-Canadian academic and politician (b. 1930)
  • 2003 – Yun Hyon-seok, South Korean poet and author (b. 1984)
  • 2003 – Edward Max Nicholson, Irish environmentalist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (b. 1904)
  • 2004 – Hubert Selby, Jr., American author, poet, and screenwriter (b. 1928)
  • 2005 – Mason Adams, American actor (b. 1919)
  • 2005 – Elisabeth Domitien, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (b. 1925)
  • 2005 – Maria Schell, Austrian-Swiss actress (b. 1926)
  • 2005 – Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan journalist, author, and academic (b. 1917)
  • 2007 – Jack Valenti, American businessman, created the MPAA film rating system (b. 1921)
  • 2009 – Hans Holzer, Austrian-American paranormal investigator and author (b. 1920)
  • 2010 – Mariam A. Aleem, Egyptian graphic designer and academic (b. 1930)
  • 2010 – Urs Felber, Swiss engineer and businessman (b. 1942)
  • 2011 – Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1950)
  • 2012 – Terence Spinks, English boxer and trainer (b. 1938)
  • 2013 – Jacqueline Brookes, American actress and educator (b. 1930)
  • 2013 – George Jones, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1931)
  • 2014 – Gerald Guralnik, American physicist and academic (b. 1936)
  • 2014 – Paul Robeson, Jr., American historian and author (b. 1927)
  • 2014 – DJ Rashad, American electronic musician, producer and DJ (b. 1979)
  • 2015 – Jayne Meadows, American actress (b. 1919)
  • 2015 – Marcel Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1930)
  • 2016 – Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist (b. 1937)
  • 2017 – Jonathan Demme, American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter (b. 1944)

Holidays and observances on April 26

  • Chernobyl disaster related observances:
    • Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy (Belarus)
    • Memorial Day of Radiation Accidents and Catastrophes (Russia)
  • Christian feast day:
    • Aldobrandesca (or Alda)
    • Franca Visalta
    • Lucidius of Verona
    • Our Lady of Good Counsel
    • Pope Anacletus and Marcellinus
    • Riquier
    • Paschasius Radbertus
    • Peter of Rates (or of Braga)
    • Robert Hunt (Episcopal Church (USA))
    • Stephen of Perm, see also Old Permic Alphabet Day
    • Trudpert
    • April 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Confederate Memorial Day (Florida, United States)
  • Union Day (Tanzania)
  • World Intellectual Property Day

April 26 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

February 6 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

February 6 in History

  • AD 60 – The earliest date for which the day of the week is known. A graffito in Pompeii identifies this day as a dies Solis (Sunday). In modern reckoning, this date would have been a Wednesday.
  • 1579 – The Archdiocese of Manila is made a diocese by a papal bull with Domingo de Salazar being its first bishop.
  • 1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland is proclaimed King upon the death of his brother Charles II.
  • 1694 – The warrior queen Dandara, leader of the runaway slaves in Quilombo dos Palmares, Brazil, is captured and commits suicide rather than be returned to a life of slavery.
  • 1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.
  • 1778 –New York became the third state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
  • 1788 – Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
  • 1806 – Battle of San Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.
  • 1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.
  • 1820 – The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.
  • 1833 – Otto becomes the first modern King of Greece.
  • 1840 – Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.
  • 1843 – The first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels, opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City).
  • 1851 – The largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history take place in the state of Victoria.
  • 1862 – American Civil War: Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.
  • 1899 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.
  • 1900 – The Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international arbitration court at The Hague, is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
  • 1918 – British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament.
  • 1919 – The American Legion is founded.
  • 1919 – The five-day Seattle General Strike begins, as more than 65,000 workers in the city of Seattle, Washington, walk off the job.
  • 1922 – The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
  • 1934 – Far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France.
  • 1951 – The Canadian Army enters combat in the Korean War.
  • 1951 – The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history.
  • 1952 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
  • 1958 – Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.
  • 1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
  • 1959 – At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
  • 1976 – In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
  • 1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor’easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.
  • 1981 – The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War.
  • 1987 – Justice Mary Gaudron becomes the first woman to be appointed to the High Court of Australia.
  • 1988 – Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.
  • 1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.
  • 1996 – Willamette Valley Flood: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.
  • 1996 – Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 people on board. This is the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 757.
  • 1998 – Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.
  • 2000 – Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny, Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile.
  • 2006 – Stephen Harper becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
  • 2016 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes southern Taiwan, killing 117 people.
  • 2018 – SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, makes its maiden flight.

Births on February 6

  • 885 – Emperor Daigo of Japan (d. 930)
  • 1402 – Louis I, Landgrave of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse (d. 1458)
  • 1452 – Joanna, Princess of Portugal (d. 1490)
  • 1453 – Girolamo Benivieni, Florentine poet (d. 1542)
  • 1465 – Scipione del Ferro, Italian mathematician and theorist (d. 1526)
  • 1536 – Sassa Narimasa, Japanese samurai (d. 1588)
  • 1577 – Beatrice Cenci, Italian murderer (d. 1599)
  • 1582 – Mario Bettinus, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (d. 1657)
  • 1608 – António Vieira, Portuguese priest and philosopher (d. 1697)
  • 1611 – Chongzhen Emperor of China (d. 1644)
  • 1612 – Antoine Arnauld, French mathematician, theologian, and philosopher (d. 1694)
  • 1643 – Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg, Prussian politician, 1st Minister President of Prussia (d. 1712)
  • 1649 – Augusta Marie of Holstein-Gottorp, German noblewoman (d. 1728)
  • 1664 – Mustafa II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1703)
  • 1665 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (d. 1714)
  • 1665 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain (d. 1714)
  • 1695 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss-Russian mathematician and theorist (d. 1726)
  • 1719 – Alberto Pullicino, Maltese painter (d. 1759)
  • 1726 – Patrick Russell, Scottish surgeon and zoologist (d. 1805)
  • 1732 – Charles Lee, English-American general (d. 1782)
  • 1736 – Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, German-Austrian sculptor (d. 1783)
  • 1744 – Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (d. 1795)
  • 1748 – Adam Weishaupt, German philosopher and academic, founded the Illuminati (d. 1830)
  • 1753 – Évariste de Parny, French poet and author (d. 1814)
  • 1756 – Aaron Burr, American colonel and politician, 3rd Vice President of the United States (d. 1836)
  • 1758 – Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Belarusian-Polish poet, playwright, and politician (d. 1841)
  • 1769 – Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn, Austrian general (d. 1862)
  • 1772 – George Murray, Scottish general and politician, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies (d. 1830)
  • 1778 – Ugo Foscolo, Italian author and poet (d. 1827)
  • 1781 – John Keane, 1st Baron Keane, Irish general and politician, Governor of Saint Lucia (d. 1844)
  • 1796 – John Stevens Henslow, English botanist and geologist (d. 1861)
  • 1797 – Joseph von Radowitz, Prussian general and politician, Foreign Minister of Prussia (d. 1853)
  • 1799 – Imre Frivaldszky, Hungarian botanist and entomologist (d. 1870)
  • 1800 – Achille Devéria, French painter and lithographer (d. 1857)
  • 1802 – Charles Wheatstone, English-French physicist and cryptographer (d. 1875)
  • 1811 – Henry Liddell, English priest, author, and academic (d. 1898)
  • 1814 – Auguste Chapdelaine, French missionary and saint (d. 1856)
  • 1818 – William M. Evarts, American lawyer and politician, 27th United States Secretary of State (d. 1901)
  • 1820 – Thomas C. Durant, American railroad tycoon (d. 1885)
  • 1829 – Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer, French architect, designed the La Santé Prison and Saint-Pierre-de-Montrouge (d. 1914)
  • 1832 – John Brown Gordon, American general and politician, 53rd Governor of Georgia (d. 1904)
  • 1833 – José María de Pereda, Spanish author and academic (d. 1906)
  • 1833 – J. E. B. Stuart, American general (d. 1864)
  • 1834 – Edwin Klebs, German-Swiss pathologist and academic (d. 1913)
  • 1834 – Ema Pukšec, Croatian-German soprano (d. 1889)
  • 1834 – Wilhelm von Scherff, German general and author (d. 1911)
  • 1838 – Henry Irving, English actor and manager (d. 1905)
  • 1838 – Israel Meir Kagan, Lithuanian-Polish rabbi and author (d. 1933)
  • 1839 – Eduard Hitzig, German neurologist and psychiatrist (d. 1907)
  • 1842 – Alexandre Ribot, French academic and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1923)
  • 1843 – Inoue Kowashi, Japanese scholar and politician (d. 1895)
  • 1843 – Frederic William Henry Myers, English poet and philologist, co-founded the Society for Psychical Research (d. 1901)
  • 1845 – Isidor Straus, German-American businessman and politician (d. 1912)
  • 1847 – Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, American architect, designed the Plaza Hotel (d. 1918)
  • 1852 – C. Lloyd Morgan, English zoologist and psychologist (d. 1936)
  • 1852 – Vasily Safonov, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1918)
  • 1861 – Nikolay Zelinsky, Russian chemist and academic (d. 1953)
  • 1864 – John Henry Mackay, Scottish-German philosopher and author (d. 1933)
  • 1866 – Karl Sapper, German linguist and explorer (d. 1945)
  • 1872 – Robert Maillart, Swiss engineer, designed the Salginatobel Bridge and Schwandbach Bridge (d. 1940)
  • 1874 – Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Indian religious leader, founded the Gaudiya Math (d. 1937)
  • 1875 – Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (d. 1915)
  • 1876 – Henry Blogg, English fisherman and sailor (d. 1954)
  • 1879 – Othon Friesz, French painter (d. 1949)
  • 1879 – Magnús Guðmundsson, Icelandic lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1937)
  • 1879 – Edwin Samuel Montagu, English politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (d. 1924)
  • 1879 – Carl Ramsauer, German physicist and author (d. 1955)
  • 1880 – Nishinoumi Kajirō II, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 25th Yokozuna (d. 1931)
  • 1884 – Marcel Cohen, French linguist and scholar (d. 1974)
  • 1887 – Josef Frings, German cardinal (d. 1978)
  • 1890 – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pakistani activist and politician (d. 1988)
  • 1890 – James McGirr, Australian politician, 28th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1957)
  • 1892 – Maximilian Fretter-Pico, German general (d. 1984)
  • 1892 – William P. Murphy, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
  • 1893 – Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, Pakistani politician and diplomat, 1st Minister of Foreign Affairs for Pakistan (d. 1985)
  • 1894 – Eric Partridge, New Zealand-English lexicographer and academic (d. 1979)
  • 1894 – Kirpal Singh, Indian spiritual master (d. 1974)
  • 1895 – Robert La Follette Jr., American politician (d. 1953)
  • 1895 – María Teresa Vera, Cuban singer, guitarist and composer (d. 1965)
  • 1895 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player and coach (d. 1948)
  • 1898 – Harry Haywood, American soldier and politician (d. 1985)
  • 1899 – Ramon Novarro, Mexican-American actor, singer, and director (d. 1968)
  • 1901 – Ben Lyon, American actor (d. 1979)
  • 1902 – George Brunies, American trombonist (d. 1974)
  • 1903 – Claudio Arrau, Chilean pianist and composer (d. 1991)
  • 1905 – Władysław Gomułka, Polish politician (d. 1982)
  • 1905 – Jan Werich, Czech actor and playwright (d. 1980)
  • 1906 – Joseph Schull, Canadian playwright and historian (d. 1980)
  • 1908 – Amintore Fanfani, Italian journalist and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1999)
  • 1908 – Edward Lansdale, American general and CIA agent (d. 1987)
  • 1908 – Geo Bogza, Romanian poet and journalist (d. 1993)
  • 1908 – Michael Maltese, American actor, screenwriter, and composer (d. 1981)
  • 1910 – Roman Czerniawski, Polish air force officer and spy (d. 1985)
  • 1910 – Irmgard Keun, German author (d. 1982)
  • 1910 – Carlos Marcello, Tunisian-American gangster (d. 1993)
  • 1911 – Ronald Reagan, American actor and politician, 40th President of the United States (d. 2004)
  • 1912 – Eva Braun, German wife of Adolf Hitler (d. 1945)
  • 1912 – Christopher Hill, English historian and author (d. 2003)
  • 1913 – Mary Leakey, English-Kenyan archaeologist and anthropologist (d. 1996)
  • 1914 – Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor and singer (d. 2005)
  • 1915 – Kavi Pradeep, Indian poet and songwriter (d. 1998)
  • 1916 – John Crank, English mathematician and physicist (d. 2006)
  • 1917 – Louis-Philippe de Grandpré, Canadian lawyer and jurist (d. 2008)
  • 1917 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and socialite (d. 2016)
  • 1918 – Lothar-Günther Buchheim, German author and painter (d. 2007)
  • 1919 – Takashi Yanase, Japanese poet and illustrator, created Anpanman (d. 2013)
  • 1921 – Carl Neumann Degler, American historian and author (d. 2014)
  • 1921 – Bob Scott, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2012)
  • 1922 – Patrick Macnee, English-American actor and costume designer (d. 2015)
  • 1922 – Denis Norden, English actor, screenwriter, and television host (d. 2018)
  • 1922 – Haskell Wexler, American director, producer, and cinematographer (d. 2015)
  • 1923 – Gyula Lóránt, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 1981)
  • 1924 – Billy Wright, English footballer and manager (d. 1994)
  • 1924 – Jin Yong, Hong Kong author and publisher, founded Ming Pao (d. 2018)
  • 1925 – Walker Edmiston, American actor and puppeteer (d. 2007)
  • 1927 – Gerard K. O’Neill, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1992)
  • 1928 – Allan H. Meltzer, American economist and academic (d. 2017)
  • 1929 – Colin Murdoch, New Zealand pharmacist and veterinarian, invented the tranquilliser gun (d. 2008)
  • 1929 – Oscar Sambrano Urdaneta, Venezuelan author and critic (d. 2011)
  • 1929 – Valentin Yanin, Russian historian and author (d. 2020)
  • 1930 – Jun Kondo, Japanese physicist and academic
  • 1931 – Rip Torn, American actor (d. 2019)
  • 1931 – Fred Trueman, English cricketer (d. 2006)
  • 1931 – Mamie Van Doren, American actress and model
  • 1931 – Ricardo Vidal, Filipino cardinal (d. 2017)
  • 1932 – Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban soldier and anarchist (d. 1959)
  • 1932 – François Truffaut, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1984)
  • 1933 – Leslie Crowther, English comedian, actor, and game show host (d. 1996)
  • 1936 – Kent Douglas, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2009)
  • 1938 – Fred Mifflin, Canadian admiral and politician, 19th Minister of Veterans Affairs (d. 2013)
  • 1939 – Jean Beaudin, Canadian director and screenwriter (d. 2019)
  • 1939 – Mike Farrell, American actor, director, producer, activist and public speaker
  • 1939 – Jair Rodrigues, Brazilian singer (d. 2014)
  • 1940 – Tom Brokaw, American journalist and author
  • 1940 – Petr Hájek, Czech mathematician and academic (d. 2016)
  • 1940 – Jimmy Tarbuck, English comedian and actor
  • 1941 – Stephen Albert, American pianist and composer (d. 1992)
  • 1941 – Dave Berry, English pop singer
  • 1941 – Gigi Perreau, American actress and director
  • 1942 – Sarah Brady, American activist and author (d. 2015)
  • 1942 – Charlie Coles, American basketball player and coach (d. 2013)
  • 1942 – Ahmad-Jabir Ahmadov Ismail oghlu, Azerbaijani philosopher and academic
  • 1942 – James Loewen, American sociologist and historian
  • 1942 – Tommy Roberts, English fashion designer (d. 2012)
  • 1943 – Fabian Forte, American pop singer and actor
  • 1943 – Gayle Hunnicutt, American actress
  • 1944 – Christine Boutin, French politician, French Minister of Housing and Urban Development
  • 1944 – Willie Tee, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 2007)
  • 1944 – Michael Tucker, American actor and producer
  • 1945 – Bob Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1981)
  • 1946 – Richie Hayward, American drummer and songwriter (d. 2010)
  • 1946 – Kate McGarrigle, Canadian musician and singer-songwriter (d. 2010)
  • 1946 – Jim Turner, American captain and politician
  • 1947 – Bill Staines, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1947 – Charlie Hickcox, American swimmer (d .2010)
  • 1949 – Mike Batt, English singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1949 – Manuel Orantes, Spanish tennis player
  • 1949 – Jim Sheridan, Irish director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1950 – Natalie Cole, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2015)
  • 1950 – Timothy M. Dolan, American cardinal
  • 1950 – Punky Meadows, American rock guitarist and songwriter
  • 1952 – Ric Charlesworth, Australian cricketer, coach, and politician
  • 1952 – Viktor Giacobbo, Swiss actor, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1952 – Ricardo La Volpe, Argentinian footballer, manager, and coach
  • 1955 – Avram Grant, Israeli football manager
  • 1955 – Michael Pollan, American journalist, author, and academic
  • 1955 – Bruno Stolorz, French rugby player and coach
  • 1956 – Jerry Marotta, American drummer
  • 1957 – Andres Lipstok, Estonian economist and politician, Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs
  • 1957 – Kathy Najimy, American actress and comedian
  • 1957 – Simon Phillips, English drummer and producer
  • 1957 – Robert Townsend, American actor and director
  • 1958 – Cecily Adams, American actress and casting director (d. 2004)
  • 1960 – Jeremy Bowen, Welsh journalist
  • 1960 – Megan Gallagher, American actress
  • 1961 – Michael Bolt, Australian rugby league player
  • 1961 – Cam Cameron, American football player and coach
  • 1961 – Bill Lester, American race car driver
  • 1961 – Yury Onufriyenko, Ukrainian-Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut
  • 1962 – Stavros Lambrinidis, Greek lawyer and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Greece
  • 1962 – Axl Rose, American singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1963 – David Capel, English cricketer
  • 1963 – Scott Gordon, American ice hockey player and coach
  • 1963 – Quentin Letts, English journalist and critic
  • 1964 – Laurent Cabannes, French rugby player
  • 1964 – Gordon Downie, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2017)
  • 1964 – Colin Miller, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
  • 1964 – Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russian actor and director
  • 1965 – Jan Svěrák, Czech actor, director, and screenwriter
  • 1966 – Rick Astley, English singer-songwriter
  • 1967 – Anita Cochran, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1967 – Izumi Sakai, Japanese singer-songwriter (d. 2007)
  • 1968 – Adolfo Valencia, Colombian footballer
  • 1968 – Akira Yamaoka, Japanese composer and producer
  • 1969 – David Hayter, American actor and screenwriter
  • 1969 – Masaharu Fukuyama, Japanese singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
  • 1969 – Tim Sherwood, English international footballer midfielder and manager
  • 1969 – Bob Wickman, American baseball player
  • 1970 – Per Frandsen, Danish footballer and manager
  • 1970 – Tim Herron, American golfer
  • 1971 – Brad Hogg, Australian cricketer
  • 1971 – Carlos Rogers, American basketball player
  • 1972 – Stefano Bettarini, Italian footballer
  • 1972 – David Binn, American football player
  • 1974 – Aljo Bendijo, Filipino journalist
  • 1975 – Chad Allen, American baseball player and coach
  • 1975 – Orkut Büyükkökten, Turkish computer scientist and engineer, created Orkut
  • 1975 – Tomoko Kawase, Japanese singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1976 – Tanja Frieden, Swiss snowboarder and educator
  • 1976 – Kim Zmeskal, American gymnast and coach
  • 1977 – Josh Stewart, American actor
  • 1978 – Yael Naim, French-Israeli singer-songwriter
  • 1979 – Dan Bălan, Moldovan singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1980 – Kerry Jeremy, Antiguan cricketer
  • 1980 – Kim Poirier, Canadian actress, singer, and producer
  • 1980 – Luke Ravenstahl, American politician, 58th Mayor of Pittsburgh
  • 1981 – Ricky Barnes, American golfer
  • 1981 – Calum Best, American-English model and actor
  • 1981 – Shim Eun-jin, South Korean singer and actress
  • 1981 – Alison Haislip, American actress and producer
  • 1981 – Jens Lekman, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1981 – Ty Warren, American football player
  • 1982 – Tank, Taiwanese singer-songwriter
  • 1982 – Alice Eve, English actress
  • 1982 – Elise Ray, American gymnast
  • 1983 – Melrose Bickerstaff, American model and fashion designer
  • 1983 – Brodie Croyle, American football player
  • 1983 – Dimas Delgado, Spanish footballer
  • 1983 – S. Sreesanth, Indian cricketer
  • 1983 – Jamie Whincup, Australian race car driver
  • 1984 – Darren Bent, English international footballer, forward
  • 1984 – Piret Järvis, Estonian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1984 – Antoine Wright, American basketball player
  • 1985 – Ben Creagh, Australian rugby league player
  • 1985 – Kris Humphries, American basketball player
  • 1986 – Dane DeHaan, American actor
  • 1986 – Yunho, South Korean singer and actor
  • 1988 – Bailey Hanks, American actress, singer, and dancer
  • 1989 – Craig Cathcart, Northern Irish footballer
  • 1989 – Jonny Flynn, American basketball player
  • 1990 – Adam Henrique, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1990 – Jermaine Kearse, American football player
  • 1990 – Aida Rybalko, Lithuanian figure skater
  • 1991 – Tobias Eisenbauer, Austrian ice dancer
  • 1991 – Ida Njåtun, Norwegian speed skater
  • 1991 – Eva Wacanno, Dutch tennis player
  • 1991 – Fei Yu, Chinese footballer
  • 1992 – Víctor Mañón, Mexican footballer
  • 1993 – Teresa Scanlan, Miss America 2011
  • 1993 – Tinashe, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
  • 1994 – Charlie Heaton, British actor and musician
  • 1995 – Leon Goretzka, German footballer
  • 1995 – Sam McQueen, English footballer

Deaths on February 6

  • 743 – Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, Umayyad caliph (b. 691)
  • 797 – Donnchad Midi, Irish king (b. 733)
  • 891 – Photios I of Constantinople (b. 810)
  • 1140 – Thurstan, Archbishop of York
  • 1155 – King Sigurd II of Norway (b. 1133)
  • 1215 – Hōjō Tokimasa, Japanese shikken of the Kamakura bakufu (b. 1138)
  • 1378 – Joanna of Bourbon (b. 1338)
  • 1411 – Esau de’ Buondelmonti, ruler of Epirus
  • 1497 – Johannes Ockeghem, Flemish composer and educator (b. 1410)
  • 1515 – Aldus Manutius, Italian publisher, founded the Aldine Press (b. 1449)
  • 1519 – Lorenz von Bibra, Prince-Bishop of the Bishopric of Würzburg (b. 1459)
  • 1539 – John III, Duke of Cleves (b. 1491)
  • 1585 – Edmund Plowden, English lawyer and scholar (b. 1518)
  • 1593 – Jacques Amyot, French author and translator (b. 1513)
  • 1593 – Emperor Ōgimachi of Japan (b. 1517)
  • 1597 – Franciscus Patricius, Italian philosopher and scientist (b. 1529)
  • 1612 – Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1538)
  • 1617 – Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist (b. 1553)
  • 1625 – Philipp Julius, Duke of Pomerania (b. 1584)
  • 1685 – Charles II of England (b. 1630)
  • 1695 – Ahmed II, Ottoman sultan (b. 1643)
  • 1740 – Pope Clement XII (b. 1652)
  • 1775 – William Dowdeswell, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1721)
  • 1783 – Capability Brown, English gardener and architect (b. 1716)
  • 1793 – Carlo Goldoni, Italian-French playwright (b. 1707)
  • 1804 – Joseph Priestley, English chemist and theologian (b. 1733)
  • 1807 – John Reid, Scottish general (b. 1721)
  • 1833 – Pierre André Latreille, French zoologist and entomologist (b. 1762)
  • 1834 – Richard Lemon Lander, English explorer (b. 1804)
  • 1865 – Isabella Beeton, English author of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (b. 1836)
  • 1899 – Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1874)
  • 1899 – Leo von Caprivi, German general and politician, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1831)
  • 1902 – John Colton, English-Australian politician, 13th Premier of South Australia (b. 1823)
  • 1916 – Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan poet, journalist, and diplomat (b. 1867)
  • 1918 – Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter and illustrator (b. 1862)
  • 1929 – Maria Christina of Austria (b. 1858)
  • 1931 – Motilal Nehru, Indian lawyer and politician, President of the Indian National Congress (b. 1861)
  • 1932 – John Earle, Australian politician, 22nd Premier of Tasmania (b. 1865)
  • 1938 – Marianne von Werefkin, Russian-Swiss painter (b. 1860)
  • 1942 – Jaan Soots, Estonian general and politician, 7th Estonian Minister of War (b. 1880)
  • 1951 – Gabby Street, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1882)
  • 1952 – George VI of the United Kingdom (b. 1895)
  • 1958 – victims of the Munich air disaster
    • – Geoff Bent, English footballer (b. 1932)
    • – Roger Byrne, English footballer (b. 1929)
    • – Eddie Colman, English footballer (b. 1936)
    • – Walter Crickmer, English footballer and manager (b. 1900)
    • – Mark Jones, English footballer (b. 1933)
    • – David Pegg, English footballer (b. 1935)
    • – Frank Swift, English footballer and journalist (b. 1913)
    • – Tommy Taylor, English footballer (b. 1932)
  • 1963 – Piero Manzoni, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1933)
  • 1964 – Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino general and politician, 1st President of the Philippines (b. 1869)
  • 1967 – Martine Carol, French actress (b. 1920)
  • 1972 – Julian Steward, American anthropologist (b. 1902)
  • 1976 – Ritwik Ghatak, Bangladeshi-Indian director and screenwriter (b. 1925)
  • 1976 – Vince Guaraldi, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1928)
  • 1981 – Hugo Montenegro, American composer and conductor (b. 1925)
  • 1982 – Ben Nicholson, British painter (b. 1894)
  • 1985 – James Hadley Chase, English-Swiss soldier and author (b. 1906)
  • 1986 – Frederick Coutts, Scottish 8th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1899)
  • 1986 – Dandy Nichols, English actress (b. 1907)
  • 1986 – Minoru Yamasaki, American architect, designed the World Trade Center (b. 1912)
  • 1987 – Julien Chouinard, Canadian lawyer and jurist (b. 1929)
  • 1989 – Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian and author (b. 1912)
  • 1990 – Jimmy Van Heusen, American pianist and composer (b. 1913)
  • 1991 – Salvador Luria, Italian biologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
  • 1991 – Danny Thomas, American actor, producer, and humanitarian (b. 1914)
  • 1993 – Arthur Ashe, American tennis player and sportscaster (b. 1943)
  • 1994 – Joseph Cotten, American actor (b. 1905)
  • 1994 – Jack Kirby, American author and illustrator (b. 1917)
  • 1995 – James Merrill, American poet and playwright (b. 1926)
  • 1998 – Falco, Austrian pop-rock musician (b. 1957)
  • 1999 – Don Dunstan, Australian lawyer and politician, 35th Premier of South Australia (b. 1926)
  • 1999 – Jimmy Roberts, American tenor (b. 1924)
  • 2000 – Phil Walters, American race car driver (b. 1916)
  • 2001 – Filemon Lagman, Filipino theoretician and activist (b. 1953)
  • 2002 – Max Perutz, Austrian-English biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)
  • 2004 – Gerald Bouey, Canadian lieutenant and economist (b. 1920)
  • 2005 – Karl Haas, German-American pianist, conductor, and radio host (b. 1913)
  • 2007 – Lew Burdette, American baseball player and coach (b. 1926)
  • 2007 – Frankie Laine, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1913)
  • 2007 – Willye White, American runner and long jumper (b. 1939)
  • 2008 – Tony Rolt, English race car driver and engineer (b. 1918)
  • 2009 – Philip Carey, American actor (b. 1925)
  • 2009 – James Whitmore, American actor (b. 1921)
  • 2011 – Gary Moore, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1952)
  • 2012 – David Rosenhan, American psychologist and academic (b. 1929)
  • 2012 – Antoni Tàpies, Spanish painter and sculptor (b. 1923)
  • 2012 – Janice E. Voss, American engineer and astronaut (b. 1956)
  • 2013 – Chokri Belaid, Tunisian lawyer and politician (b. 1964)
  • 2013 – Menachem Elon, German-Israeli academic and jurist (b. 1923)
  • 2014 – Vasiľ Biľak, Slovak politician (b. 1917)
  • 2014 – Ralph Kiner, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1922)
  • 2014 – Maxine Kumin, American author and poet (b. 1925)
  • 2014 – Vaçe Zela, Albanian-Swiss singer and guitarist (b. 1939)
  • 2015 – André Brink, South African author and playwright (b. 1935)
  • 2015 – Alan Nunnelee, American lawyer and politician (b. 1958)
  • 2015 – Pedro León Zapata, Venezuelan cartoonist (b. 1929)
  • 2016 – Dan Gerson, American screenwriter (b. 1966)
  • 2016 – Dan Hicks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1941)
  • 2017 – Irwin Corey, American comedian and actor (b. 1914)
  • 2017 – Inge Keller, German actress (b. 1923)
  • 2017 – Alec McCowen, English actor (b. 1925)
  • 2017 – Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby union footballer (b. 1971)

Holidays and observances on February 6

  • Christian feast day:
    • Amand
    • Dorothea of Caesarea
    • Hildegund, O.Praem.
    • Jacut
    • Mateo Correa Magallanes (one of Saints of the Cristero War)
    • Mél of Ardagh
    • Paul Miki and Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan
    • Relindis (Renule) of Maaseik
    • Vedastus
    • February 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (United Nations)
  • Ronald Reagan Day (California, United States)
  • Sami National Day (Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden)
  • Waitangi Day, celebrates the founding of New Zealand in 1840.

February 6 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

January 29 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

  • 904 – Sergius III is consecrated pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.
  • 946 – Caliph Al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Emir Mu’izz al-Dawla, ruler of the Buyid Empire. He is succeeded by Al-Muti as caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate.
  • 1258 – First Mongol invasion of Đại Việt: Đại Việt defeats the Mongols at the battle of Đông Bộ Đầu, forcing the Mongols to withdraw from the country.
  • 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.
  • 1819 – Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.
  • 1845 – “The Raven” is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.
  • 1850 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.
  • 1856 – Queen Victoria issues a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognise acts of valour by British military personnel during the Crimean War.
  • 1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.
  • 1863 – The Bear River Massacre: A detachment of California Volunteers led by Colonel Patrick Edward Connor engage the Shoshone at Bear River, Washington Territory, killing hundreds of men, women and children.
  • 1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
  • 1891 – Liliuokalani is proclaimed the last monarch and only queen regnant of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
  • 1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.
  • 1911 – Mexican Revolution: Mexicali is captured by the Mexican Liberal Party, igniting the Magonista rebellion of 1911.
  • 1916 – World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.
  • 1918 – Ukrainian–Soviet War: The Bolshevik Red Army, on its way to besiege Kiev, is met by a small group of military students at the Battle of Kruty.
  • 1918 – Ukrainian–Soviet War: An armed uprising organized by the Bolsheviks in anticipation of the encroaching Red Army begins at the Kiev Arsenal, which will be put down six days later.
  • 1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.
  • 1940 – Three trains on the Nishinari Line; present Sakurajima Line, in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station. One hundred and eighty-one people are killed.
  • 1941 – Alexandros Koryzis becomes Prime Minister of Greece upon the sudden death of his predecessor, dictator Ioannis Metaxas.
  • 1943 – World War II: The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, USS Chicago (CA-29) is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers.
  • 1944 – World War II: Approximately 38 people are killed and about a dozen injured when the Polish village of Koniuchy (present-day Kaniūkai, Lithuania) is attacked by Soviet partisan units.
  • 1944 – In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio is completely destroyed in an air-raid, during the Second World War.
  • 1948 – The Pakistan Socialist Party is founded in Karachi.
  • 1959 – The first Melodifestivalen is held in Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden.
  • 1963 – The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.
  • 1967 – The “ultimate high” of the hippie era, the Mantra-Rock Dance, takes place in San Francisco and features Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.
  • 1980 – The Rubik’s Cube makes its international debut at the Ideal Toy Corp. in Earl’s Court, London.
  • 1989 – Cold War: Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so.
  • 1991 – Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins.
  • 1996 – President Jacques Chirac announces a “definitive end” to French nuclear weapons testing.
  • 2001 – Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
  • 2002 – In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes “regimes that sponsor terror” as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
  • 2005 – The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.
  • 2009 – The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt rules that people who do not adhere to one of the three government-recognised religions, while not allowed to list any belief outside of those three, are still eligible to receive government identity documents.
  • 2009 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.
  • 2013 – SCAT Airlines Flight 760 crashes near the Kazakh city of Almaty, killing 21 people.
  • 2013 – Alabama bunker hostage crisis: After shooting and killing of school bus driver, 66 years old Charles Albert Poland, Jr, by 65 year old Vietnam War era veteran, Jimmy Lee Dykes.
  • 2017 – Quebec City mosque shooting: Alexandre Bissonnette opens fire at mosque in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, killing six and wounding 19 others in a spree shooting.

Births on January 29

  • 919 – Shi Zong, emperor of the Liao Dynasty (d. 951)
  • 1455 – Johann Reuchlin, German-born humanist and scholar (d. 1522)
  • 1475 – Giuliano Bugiardini, Italian painter (d. 1555)
  • 1499 – Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther; formerly a Roman Catholic nun (d. 1552)
  • 1525 – Lelio Sozzini, Italian humanist and reformer (d. 1562)
  • 1584 – Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (d. 1647)
  • 1591 – Franciscus Junius, pioneer of Germanic philology (d. 1677)
  • 1602 – Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg (d. 1651)
  • 1632 – Johann Georg Graevius, German scholar and critic (d. 1703)
  • 1650 – Juan de Galavís, Spanish Roman Catholic archbishop of Santo Domingo and Bogotá (d. 1739)
  • 1688 – Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish astronomer, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1772)
  • 1711 – Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (d. 1788)
  • 1715 – Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1777)
  • 1717 – Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, English field marshal and politician, 19th Governor General of Canada (d. 1797)
  • 1718 – Paul Rabaut, French pastor (d. 1794)
  • 1737 – Thomas Paine, prominent for publishing Common Sense (1776), which established him as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States (d. 1809)
  • 1749 – Christian VII of Denmark (d. 1808)
  • 1754 – Moses Cleaveland, American general, lawyer, and politician, founded Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1806)
  • 1756 – Henry Lee III, American general and politician, 9th Governor of Virginia (d. 1818)
  • 1761 – Albert Gallatin, Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, and politician, 4th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1849)
  • 1782 – Daniel Auber, French composer (d. 1871)
  • 1801 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, Dutch violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1857)
  • 1810 – Ernst Kummer, Polish-German mathematician and academic (d. 1893)
  • 1810 – Mary Whitwell Hale, American teacher, school founder, and hymnwriter (d. 1862)
  • 1843 – William McKinley, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 25th President of the United States (d. 1901)
  • 1846 – Karol Olszewski, Polish chemist, mathematician, and physicist (d. 1915)
  • 1852 – Frederic Hymen Cowen, Jamaican-English pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1935)
  • 1858 – Henry Ward Ranger, American painter and academic (d. 1916)
  • 1860 – Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short story writer (d. 1904)
  • 1861 – Florida Ruffin Ridley, African-American civil rights activist, teacher, editor, and writer (d. 1943)
  • 1862 – Frederick Delius, English composer (d. 1934)
  • 1866 – Julio Peris Brell, Spanish painter (d. 1944)
  • 1866 – Romain Rolland, French historian, author, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1944)
  • 1867 – Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Spanish journalist and author (d. 1928)
  • 1870 – Süleyman Nazif, Turkish poet and civil servant (d. 1927)
  • 1874 – John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1960)
  • 1876 – Havergal Brian, English composer (d. 1972)
  • 1877 – Georges Catroux, French general and diplomat (d. 1969)
  • 1880 – W. C. Fields, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter (d. 1946)
  • 1881 – Alice Catherine Evans, American microbiologist (d. 1975)
  • 1884 – Juhan Aavik, Estonian-Swedish composer and conductor (d. 1982)
  • 1888 – Sydney Chapman, English mathematician and geophysicist (d. 1970)
  • 1888 – Wellington Koo, Chinese statesman (d. 1985)
  • 1891 – Elizaveta Gerdt, Russian ballerina and educator (d. 1975)
  • 1891 – R. Norris Williams, Swiss-American tennis player and banker (d. 1968)
  • 1892 – Ernst Lubitsch, German American film director, producer, writer, and actor (d. 1947)
  • 1895 – Muna Lee, American poet and author (d. 1965)
  • 1901 – Allen B. DuMont, American engineer and broadcaster, founded the DuMont Television Network (d. 1965)
  • 1901 – E. P. Taylor, Canadian businessman and horse breeder (d. 1989)
  • 1903 – Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Russian-Israeli biochemist and philosopher (d. 1994)
  • 1905 – Barnett Newman, American painter and etcher (d. 1970)
  • 1906 – Joe Primeau, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1989)
  • 1913 – Victor Mature, American actor (d. 1999)
  • 1915 – Bill Peet, American author and illustrator (d. 2002)
  • 1915 – John Serry Sr., Italian-American concert accordionist and composer (d.2003)
  • 1917 – John Raitt, American actor and singer (d. 2005)
  • 1918 – John Forsythe, American actor (d. 2010)
  • 1921 – Geraldine Pittman Woods, American science administrator and embryologist (d. 1999)
  • 1923 – Jack Burke Jr., American golfer
  • 1923 – Paddy Chayefsky, American author and screenwriter (d. 1981)
  • 1926 – Abdus Salam, Pakistani-British physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
  • 1926 – Amelita Ramos, 11th First Lady of the Philippines
  • 1927 – Edward Abbey, American environmentalist and author (d. 1989)
  • 1929 – Elio Petri, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1982)
  • 1929 – Joseph Kruskal, American mathematician and computer scientist (d. 2010)
  • 1931 – Leslie Bricusse, English playwright and composer
  • 1931 – Ferenc Mádl, Hungarian academic and politician, 2nd President of Hungary (d. 2011)
  • 1932 – Raman Subba Row, English cricketer and referee
  • 1932 – Tommy Taylor, English footballer (d. 1958)
  • 1933 – Sacha Distel, French singer and guitarist (d. 2004)
  • 1934 – Branko Miljković, Serbian poet and academic (d. 1961)
  • 1936 – Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Indian poet and songwriter (d. 2010)
  • 1937 – Hassan Habibi, Iranian lawyer and politician, 1st Vice President of Iran (d. 2013)
  • 1937 – Bobby Scott, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (d. 1990)
  • 1939 – Germaine Greer, Australian journalist and author
  • 1940 – Katharine Ross, American actress and author
  • 1940 – Kunimitsu Takahashi, Japanese motorcycle racer and race car driver
  • 1941 – Robin Morgan, American actress, journalist, and author
  • 1943 – Tony Blackburn, English radio and television host
  • 1943 – Pat Quinn, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2014)
  • 1944 – Andrew Loog Oldham, English record producer and manager
  • 1944 – Patrick Lipton Robinson, Jamaican lawyer and judge
  • 1944 – Pauline van der Wildt, Dutch swimmer
  • 1945 – Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Malian academic and politician, Prime Minister of Mali
  • 1945 – Jim Nicholson, Northern Irish politician
  • 1945 – Tom Selleck, American actor and businessman
  • 1946 – Bettye LaVette, American singer-songwriter
  • 1947 – Linda B. Buck, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1947 – David Byron, English singer-songwriter (d. 1985)
  • 1947 – Marián Varga, Slovak organist and composer
  • 1948 – Raymond Keene, English chess player and author
  • 1949 – doris davenport, American poet and teacher
  • 1949 – Evgeny Lovchev, Russian footballer and manager
  • 1949 – Tommy Ramone, Hungarian-American drummer and producer (d. 2014)
  • 1950 – Ann Jillian, American actress and singer
  • 1950 – Jody Scheckter, South African race car driver and sportscaster
  • 1951 – Fereydoon Forooghi, Iranian singer-songwriter (d. 2001)
  • 1951 – Andy Roberts, Caribbean cricketer
  • 1953 – Peter Baumann, German keyboard player and songwriter
  • 1953 – Charlie Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1953 – Teresa Teng, Taiwanese singer (d. 1995)
  • 1954 – Christian Bjelland IV, Norwegian businessman and art collector
  • 1954 – Terry Kinney, American actor and director
  • 1954 – Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host, actress, and producer, founded Harpo Productions
  • 1956 – Jan Jakub Kolski, Polish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer
  • 1957 – Philippe Dintrans, French rugby player
  • 1957 – Ron Franscell, American author and journalist
  • 1957 – Grażyna Miller, Italian journalist and poet
  • 1959 – Mike Foligno, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1960 – Gia Carangi, American supermodel (d. 1986)
  • 1960 – Greg Louganis, American diver and author
  • 1961 – Petra Thümer, German swimmer and photographer
  • 1962 – Nicholas Turturro, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1964 – John Anthony Gallagher, English-New Zealand rugby player
  • 1965 – Dominik Hašek, Czech ice hockey player
  • 1965 – Peter Lundgren, Swedish tennis player and coach
  • 1966 – Romário, Brazilian footballer, manager, and politician
  • 1967 – Stacey King, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
  • 1968 – Edward Burns, American actor, director, and producer
  • 1968 – Susi Erdmann, German luger and bobsledder
  • 1970 – Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Indian colonel and politician
  • 1970 – Heather Graham, American actress
  • 1970 – Jörg Hoffmann, German swimmer
  • 1970 – Paul Ryan, American economist and politician, 62nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
  • 1970 – Mohammed Yusuf, Nigerian Islamist leader, founded Boko Haram (d. 2009)
  • 1975 – Sara Gilbert, American actress, producer, and talk show host
  • 1980 – Ivan Klasnic, German-Croatian footballer
  • 1982 – Adam Lambert, American singer, songwriter and actor
  • 1984 – Natalie du Toit, South African swimmer
  • 1984 – Nuno Morais, Portuguese footballer
  • 1985 – Marc Gasol, Spanish basketball player
  • 1987 – José Abreu, Cuban baseball player
  • 1988 – Tatyana Chernova, Russian heptathlete
  • 1988 – Shay Logan, English footballer
  • 1988 – Aydın Yılmaz, Turkish footballer
  • 1989 – Kevin Shattenkirk, American ice hockey player
  • 1993 – Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Japanese singer

Deaths on January 29

  • 661 – Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad (b. 601)
  • 702 – Princess Ōku of Japan (b. 661)
  • 757 – An Lushan, Chinese general (b. 703)
  • 870 – Salih ibn Wasif, Muslim general
  • 1119 – Pope Gelasius II (b. 1060)
  • 1327 – Adolf, Count Palatine of the Rhine (b. 1300)
  • 1465 – Louis, Duke of Savoy (b. 1413)
  • 1597 – Elias Ammerbach, German organist and composer (b. 1530)
  • 1608 – Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1557)
  • 1647 – Francis Meres, English priest and author (b. 1565)
  • 1678 – Jerónimo Lobo, Portuguese missionary and author (b. 1593)
  • 1706 – Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, English poet and courtier (b. 1638)
  • 1737 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, Scottish-English field marshal and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1666)
  • 1743 – André-Hercule de Fleury, French cardinal (b. 1653)
  • 1763 – Louis Racine, French poet (b. 1692)
  • 1820 – George III of the United Kingdom (b. 1738)
  • 1829 – Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras, French captain and politician (b. 1755)
  • 1829 – István Pauli, Hungarian-Slovenian priest and poet (b. 1760)
  • 1870 – Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1797)
  • 1871 – Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, Canadian author (b. 1786)
  • 1888 – Edward Lear, English poet and illustrator (b. 1812)
  • 1899 – Alfred Sisley, French-English painter (b. 1839)
  • 1906 – Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1818)
  • 1928 – Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, Scottish field marshal (b. 1861)
  • 1931 – Henri Mathias Berthelot, French general during World War I (b. 1861)
  • 1933 – Sara Teasdale, American poet (b. 1884)
  • 1934 – Fritz Haber, Polish-German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
  • 1941 – Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and politician, 130th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1871)
  • 1944 – William Allen White, American journalist and author (b. 1868)
  • 1946 – Harry Hopkins, American businessman and politician, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce (b. 1890)
  • 1948 – Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta (b. 1900)
  • 1950 – Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler (b. 1885)
  • 1951 – Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer and umpire (b. 1880)
  • 1956 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist and critic (b. 1880)
  • 1959 – Winifred Brunton, South African painter and illustrator (b. 1880)
  • 1962 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian-American violinist and composer (b. 1875)
  • 1963 – Robert Frost, American poet and playwright (b. 1874)
  • 1964 – Alan Ladd, American actor (b. 1913)
  • 1969 – Allen Welsh Dulles, American banker, lawyer, and diplomat, 5th Director of Central Intelligence (b. 1893)
  • 1970 – B. H. Liddell Hart, French-English soldier, historian, and journalist (b. 1895)
  • 1977 – Freddie Prinze, American comedian and actor (b. 1954)
  • 1978 – Frank Nicklin, Australian politician, 28th Premier of Queensland (b. 1895)
  • 1980 – Jimmy Durante, American entertainer (b. 1893)
  • 1991 – Yasushi Inoue, Japanese author and poet (b. 1907)
  • 1992 – Willie Dixon, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1915)
  • 1993 – Adetokunbo Ademola, Nigerian lawyer and jurist, 2nd Chief Justice of Nigeria (b. 1906)
  • 1994 – Ulrike Maier, Austrian skier (b. 1967)
  • 1999 – Lili St. Cyr, American model and dancer (b. 1918)
  • 2002 – Harold Russell, Canadian-American soldier and actor (b. 1914)
  • 2003 – Frank Moss, American lawyer and politician (b. 1911)
  • 2004 – Janet Frame, New Zealand author and poet (b. 1924)
  • 2005 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli author, screenwriter, and director (b. 1924)
  • 2006 – Nam June Paik, South Korean-American artist, (b. 1932)
  • 2008 – Bengt Lindström, Swedish painter and sculptor (b. 1925)
  • 2008 – Margaret Truman, American singer and author (b. 1924)
  • 2009 – Hélio Gracie, Brazilian martial artist (b. 1913)
  • 2011 – Milton Babbitt, American composer, educator, and theorist (b. 1916)
  • 2012 – Ranjit Singh Dyal, Indian general and politician, 10th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry (b. 1928)
  • 2012 – Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Italian lawyer and politician, 9th President of Italy (b. 1918)
  • 2012 – Camilla Williams, American soprano and educator (b. 1919)
  • 2014 – François Cavanna, French journalist and author (b. 1923)
  • 2015 – Colleen McCullough, Australian neuroscientist, author, and academic (b. 1937)
  • 2015 – Rod McKuen, American singer-songwriter and poet (b. 1933)
  • 2015 – Alexander Vraciu, American commander and pilot (b. 1918)
  • 2016 – Jean-Marie Doré, Guinean lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Guinea (b. 1938)
  • 2016 – Jacques Rivette, French director, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1928)
  • 2019 – George Fernandes, Indian politician (b. 1930)
  • 2019 – James Ingram, American musician (b. 1952)

Holidays and observances on January 29

  • Christian feast day:
    • Andrei Rublev (Episcopal Church (USA))
    • Aquilinus of Milan
    • Constantius of Perugia
    • Dallán Forgaill
    • Gildas
    • Juniper
    • Sabinian of Troyes
    • Sulpitius I of Bourges
    • Valerius of Trèves
    • January 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Earliest day on which Fat Thursday can fall, while March 4 is the latest; celebrated on Thursday before Ash Wednesday. (Christianity)
  • Kansas Day (Kansas, United States)

January 29 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

Samuel Tilden Quiz

Samuel Tilden who was Democratic candidate in USA Presidential Election 1876. He was cheated of Presidency.)

Samuel Tilden Quiz Questions

1) When was Samuel Tilden born?
a) 9 February 1814
b) 21 June 1818
c) 7 August 1810
d) 20 December 1808

2) Where was Samuel Tilden born?
a) Los Angeles
b) Panama
c) Austin
d) New Lebanon

3) Which University did Samuel Tilden attend?
a) Oxford
b) Harvard
c) Regent
d) Yale

4) When was Samuel Tilden elected Governor of New York?
a) 1868
b) 1870
c) 1872
d) 1874

Rutherford B. Hayes - 19th President of the United States

Rutherford B. Hayes – 19th President of the United States  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

5) How many popular votes did Samuel Tilden get in the Presidential Election 1876?
a) 4,211,315
b) 4,264,117
c) 4,284,757
d) 4,300,858

6) The Republicans disputed the results in four states. Which state soon decided in favour of Republicans?
a) South Carolina
b) Florida
c) Louisiana
d) Oregon

7) What was the number of electoral votes won by candidates leaving aside the four disputed states?
a) Samuel Tilden 184, Rutherford Hayes 165
b) Samuel Tilden 172, Rutherford Hayes 162
c) Samuel Tilden 170, Rutherford Hayes 164
d) Samuel Tilden 180, Rutherford Hayes 175

8) The Electoral Commission set up to resolve the dispute was to consist of seven Democrats, seven Republicans and one independent justice. What happened to the independent justice?
a) He left the country.
b) He went on leave.
c) He was not informed.
d) He was offered a Senate seat from Illinois and a Republican supporter replaced him.

9) By how many votes the Electoral Commission decided in favour of Rutherford Hayes?
a) 15-0
b) 14-1
c) 12-3
d) 8-7

10) What was the number of electoral votes the candidates got after the decision of the Electoral Commission?
a) Samuel Tilden 184, Rutherford Hayes 185
b) Samuel Tilden 172, Rutherford Hayes 182
c) Samuel Tilden 170, Rutherford Hayes 180
d) Samuel Tilden 180, Rutherford Hayes 185

Samuel Tilden Quiz Questions with Answers

Campaign poster for the election of 1876.

Campaign poster for the election of 1876. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1) When was Samuel Tilden born?
a) 9 February 1814

2) Where was Samuel Tilden born?
d) New Lebanon

3) Which University did Samuel Tilden attend?
d) Yale

4) When was Samuel Tilden elected Governor of New York?
d) 1874

5) How many popular votes did Samuel Tilden get in the Presidential Election 1876?
c) 4,284,757

6) The Republicans disputed the results in four states. Which state soon decided in favour of Republicans?
d) Oregon

7) What was the number of electoral votes won by candidates leaving aside the four disputed states?
a) Samuel Tilden 184, Rutherford Hayes 165

Results of the United States presidential election in Alabama, 1876 Samuel J. Tilden (D) Rutherford B. Hayes (R)

Results of the United States presidential election in Alabama, 1876 Samuel J. Tilden (D) Rutherford B. Hayes (R) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

8) The Electoral Commission set up to resolve the dispute was to consist of seven Democrats, seven Republicans and one independent justice. What happened to the independent justice?
d) He was offered a Senate seat from Illinois and a Republican supporter replaced him.

9) By how many votes the Electoral Commission decided in favour of Rutherford Hayes?
d) 8-7

10) What was the number of electoral votes the candidates got after the decision of the Electoral Commission?
a) Samuel Tilden 184, Rutherford Hayes 185

Samuel Tilden Quiz Read More »

MCQs / Q&A, Personalities