American novelist

  • March 2- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 537 – Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoth army under king Vitiges begins the siege of the capital. Belisarius conducts a delaying action outside the Flaminian Gate; he and a detachment of his bucellarii are almost cut off.
    • 986 – Louis V becomes King of the Franks.
    • 1444 – Skanderbeg organizes a group of Albanian nobles to form the League of Lezhë.
    • 1458 – George of Poděbrady is chosen as the king of Bohemia.
    • 1476 – Burgundian Wars: The Old Swiss Confederacy hands Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a major defeat in the Battle of Grandson in Canton of Neuchâtel.
    • 1484 – The College of Arms is formally incorporated by Royal Charter signed by King Richard III of England.
    • 1498 – Vasco da Gama’s fleet visits the Island of Mozambique.
    • 1561 – Mendoza, Argentina, is founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro del Castillo.
    • 1657 – Great Fire of Meireki: A fire in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, caused more than 100,000 deaths; it lasted three days
    • 1717 – The Loves of Mars and Venus is the first ballet performed in England.
    • 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Patriot militia units arrest the Royal Governor of Georgia James Wright and attempt to prevent capture of supply ships in the Battle of the Rice Boats.
    • 1791 – Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris.
    • 1797 – The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes.
    • 1807 – The U.S. Congress passes the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country.
    • 1808 – The inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh.
    • 1811 – Argentine War of Independence: A royalist fleet defeats a small flotilla of revolutionary ships in the Battle of San Nicolás on the River Plate.
    • 1815 – Signing of the Kandyan Convention treaty by British invaders and the leaders of the Kingdom of Kandy.
    • 1825 – Roberto Cofresí, one of the last successful Caribbean pirates, is defeated in combat and captured by authorities.
    • 1836 – Texas Revolution: The Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico is adopted.
    • 1855 – Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia.
    • 1859 – The two-day Great Slave Auction, the largest such auction in United States history, begins.
    • 1865 – East Cape War: The Völkner Incident in New Zealand.
    • 1867 – The U.S. Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act.
    • 1877 – Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the 1876 U.S. presidential election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote.
    • 1882 – Queen Victoria narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Roderick McLean in Windsor.
    • 1896 – The Battle of Adwa: The Italian Army defeated by the Ethiopian Army in Adwa, Tigray, Ethiopia.
    • 1901 – United States Steel Corporation is founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company which became the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion.
    • 1901 – The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment limiting the autonomy of Cuba, as a condition of the withdrawal of American troops.
    • 1903 – In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.
    • 1917 – The enactment of the Jones–Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.
    • 1919 – The first Communist International meets in Moscow.
    • 1933 – The film King Kong opens at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
    • 1937 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signs a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry.
    • 1939 – Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII.
    • 1941 – World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joins the Axis Pact.
    • 1943 – World War II: Allied aircraft defeat a Japanese attempt to ship troops to New Guinea.
    • 1946 – Ho Chi Minh is elected the President of North Vietnam.
    • 1949 – Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.
    • 1955 – Norodom Sihanouk, king of Cambodia, abdicates the throne in favor of his father, Norodom Suramarit.
    • 1961 – John F. Kennedy announces the creation of the Peace Corps in a nationally televised broadcast.
    • 1962 – In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d’état.
    • 1962 – Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.
    • 1965 – The US and Republic of Vietnam Air Force begin Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam.
    • 1968 – Baggeridge Colliery closes marking the end of over 300 years of coal mining in the Black Country.
    • 1969 – In Toulouse, France, the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.
    • 1970 – Rhodesia declares itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown.
    • 1972 – The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.
    • 1977 – Libya becomes the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya as the General People’s Congress adopted the “Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People”.
    • 1978 – Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Russian or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28.
    • 1983 – Compact discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had previously been available only in Japan.
    • 1989 – Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
    • 1990 – Nelson Mandela is elected deputy President of the African National Congress.
    • 1991 – Battle at Rumaila oil field brings an end to the 1991 Gulf War.
    • 1992 – Start of the war in Transnistria.
    • 1992 – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan join the United Nations.
    • 1995 – Researchers at Fermilab announce the discovery of the top quark.
    • 1995 – Yahoo! is incorporated.
    • 1998 – Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter’s moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
    • 2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, with 11 Western troop fatalities).
    • 2004 – War in Iraq: Al-Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.
    • 2012 – A tornado outbreak occurred over a large section of the Southern United States and into the Ohio Valley region, resulting in 40 tornado-related fatalities.
    • 2017 – The elements Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson were officially added to the periodic table at a conference in Moscow, Russia.

    Births on March 2

    • 480 – Benedict of Nursia, Italian Christian saint (d. 543 or 547)
    • 1316 – Robert II of Scotland (d. 1390)
    • 1409 – Jean II, Duke of Alençon (d. 1476)
    • 1432 – Countess Palatine Margaret of Mosbach, countess consort of Hanau (d. 1457)
    • 1453 – Johannes Engel, German doctor, astronomer and astrologer (d. 1512)
    • 1459 – Pope Adrian VI (d. 1523)
    • 1481 – Franz von Sickingen, German knight (d. 1523)
    • 1545 – Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and scholar, founded the Bodleian Library (d. 1613)
    • 1577 – George Sandys, English traveller, colonist and poet (d. 1644)
    • 1628 – Cornelis Speelman, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1684)
    • 1651 – Carlo Gimach, Maltese architect, engineer and poet (d. 1730)
    • 1705 – William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1793)
    • 1740 – Nicholas Pocock, English naval painter (d.1821)
    • 1760 – Camille Desmoulins, French journalist and politician (d. 1794)
    • 1769 – DeWitt Clinton, American lawyer and politician, 6th Governor of New York (d. 1828)
    • 1770 – Louis-Gabriel Suchet, French general (d. 1826)
    • 1779 – Joel Roberts Poinsett, American physician and politician, 15th United States Secretary of War (d. 1851)
    • 1793 – Sam Houston, American soldier and politician, 1st President of the Republic of Texas (d. 1863)
    • 1800 – Yevgeny Baratynsky, Russian-Italian poet and philosopher (d. 1844)
    • 1810 – Pope Leo XIII (d. 1903)
    • 1816 – Alexander Bullock, American lawyer and politician, 26th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1882)
    • 1817 – János Arany, Hungarian journalist and poet (d. 1882)
    • 1820 – Multatuli, Dutch writer (d. 1887)
    • 1824 – Bedřich Smetana, Czech pianist and composer (d. 1884)
    • 1829 – Carl Schurz, German-American general, lawyer, and politician, 13th United States Secretary of the Interior (d. 1906)
    • 1836 – Henry Billings Brown, American lawyer and judge (d. 1913)
    • 1842 – Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer, art collector, and philanthropist (d. 1914)
    • 1846 – Marie Roze, French soprano (d. 1926)
    • 1849 – Robert Means Thompson, American commander, lawyer, and businessman (d. 1930)
    • 1859 – Sholem Aleichem, Ukrainian-American author and playwright (d. 1916)
    • 1860 – Susanna M. Salter, American activist and politician (d. 1961)
    • 1862 – John Jay Chapman, American lawyer, author, and poet (d. 1933)
    • 1876 – Pope Pius XII (d. 1958)
    • 1878 – William Kissam Vanderbilt II, American sailor and race car driver (d. 1944)
    • 1886 – Willis H. O’Brien, American animator and director (d. 1962)
    • 1886 – Kurt Grelling, German logician and philosopher (d. 1942)
    • 1900 – Kurt Weill, German-American pianist and composer (d. 1950)
    • 1901 – Grete Hermann, German mathematician and philosopher (d. 1984)
    • 1902 – Moe Berg, American baseball player and spy (d. 1972)
    • 1902 – Edward Condon, American physicist and academic (d. 1974)
    • 1904 – Dr. Seuss, American children’s book writer, poet, and illustrator (d. 1991)
    • 1905 – Marc Blitzstein, American composer and songwriter (d. 1964)
    • 1905 – Geoffrey Grigson, English poet and critic (d. 1985)
    • 1908 – Walter Bruch, German engineer (d. 1990)
    • 1909 – Mel Ott, American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster (d. 1958)
    • 1912 – Henry Katzman, American pianist, composer, and painter (d. 2001)
    • 1913 – Godfried Bomans, Dutch television host and author (d. 1971)
    • 1913 – Mort Cooper, American baseball player (d. 1958)
    • 1914 – Martin Ritt, American actor and film director (d. 1990)
    • 1915 – John Burton, Australian public servant and diplomat, Australian High Commissioner to Ceylon (d. 2010)
    • 1917 – Desi Arnaz, Cuban-American actor, singer, and producer (d. 1986)
    • 1917 – David Goodis, American author and screenwriter (d. 1967)
    • 1917 – Jim Konstanty, American baseball player and coach (d. 1976)
    • 1919 – Jennifer Jones, American actress (d. 2009)
    • 1919 – Eddie Lawrence, American actor, singer, and playwright (d. 2014)
    • 1919 – Tamara Toumanova, Russian-American ballerina and actress (d. 1996)
    • 1921 – Kazimierz Górski, Polish footballer and coach (d. 2006)
    • 1921 – Ernst Haas, Austrian-American photographer and journalist (d. 1986)
    • 1922 – Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, American saxophonist (d. 1986)
    • 1922 – Bill Quackenbush, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 1999)
    • 1922 – Frances Spence, American computer programmer (d. 2012)
    • 1923 – Basil Hume, English cardinal (d. 1999)
    • 1923 – Robert H. Michel, American soldier and politician (d. 2017)
    • 1923 – Dave Strack, American basketball player and coach (d. 2014)
    • 1924 – Cal Abrams, American baseball player (d. 1997)
    • 1924 – Renos Apostolidis, Greek philologist, author, and critic (d. 2004)
    • 1926 – Bernard Agré, Ivorian cardinal (d. 2014)
    • 1926 – Murray Rothbard, American economist and historian (d. 1995)
    • 1927 – Roger Walkowiak, French cyclist and economist (d. 2017)
    • 1930 – John Cullum, American actor and singer
    • 1930 – Emma Penella, Spanish actress (d. 2007)
    • 1930 – Tom Wolfe, American journalist and author (d. 2018)
    • 1931 – Mikhail Gorbachev, Russian lawyer and politician, President of the Soviet Union, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1932 – Gun Hägglund, Swedish journalist and translator (d. 2011)
    • 1934 – Dottie Rambo, American singer-songwriter (d. 2008)
    • 1935 – Gene Stallings, American football player and coach
    • 1936 – Haroon Ahmed, Pakistani-English engineer and academic
    • 1936 – John Tusa, Czech-English journalist and academic
    • 1937 – Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algerian soldier and politician, 5th President of Algeria
    • 1938 – Ricardo Lagos, Chilean economist, lawyer, and politician, 33rd President of Chile
    • 1938 – Lawrence Payton, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1997)
    • 1938 – Clark Gesner, American author and composer (d. 2002)
    • 1939 – Jan Howard Finder, American author and academic (d. 2013)
    • 1940 – Billy McNeill, Scottish footballer (d. 2019)
    • 1941 – John Cornell, Australian actor, director, and producer
    • 1941 – David Satcher, American admiral and physician, 16th Surgeon General of the United States
    • 1942 – John Irving, American novelist and screenwriter
    • 1942 – Claude Larose, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1942 – Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Iranian architect and politician, 79th Prime Minister of Iran
    • 1942 – Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (d. 2013)
    • 1942 – Derek Woodley, English footballer (d. 2002)
    • 1943 – George Layton, English actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1943 – Peter Straub, American author and poet
    • 1943 – Robert Williams, American painter and cartoonist
    • 1945 – Derek Watkins, English trumpet player and composer (d. 2013)
    • 1947 – Nelson Ned, Brazilian singer-songwriter (d. 2014)
    • 1947 – Harry Redknapp, English footballer and manager
    • 1948 – Larry Carlton, American guitarist and songwriter
    • 1948 – Rory Gallagher, Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1995)
    • 1948 – Jeff Kennett, Australian journalist and politician, 43rd Premier of Victoria
    • 1948 – Carmen Lawrence, Australian politician, 25th Premier of Western Australia
    • 1950 – Karen Carpenter, American singer (d. 1983)
    • 1952 – Mark Evanier, American author and screenwriter
    • 1952 – Laraine Newman, American actress and comedian
    • 1953 – Russ Feingold, American lawyer and politician
    • 1954 – Ed Johnstone, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1955 – Dale Bozzio, American pop-rock singer-songwriter
    • 1955 – Jay Osmond, American singer, drummer, actor, and TV/film producer
    • 1955 – Ken Salazar, American lawyer and politician, 50th United States Secretary of the Interior
    • 1955 – Steve Small, Australian cricketer
    • 1956 – John Cowsill, American musician, songwriter, and producer
    • 1956 – Mark Evans, Australian rock bass player
    • 1957 – Hossein Dehghan, Iranian general and politician, Iranian Minister of Defense
    • 1957 – Dito Tsintsadze, Georgian film director and screenwriter
    • 1957 – Mark Dean, American inventor and computer engineer
    • 1958 – Kevin Curren, South African-American tennis player
    • 1958 – Ian Woosnam, English-Welsh golfer
    • 1959 – Larry Stewart, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1961 – Simone Young, Australian conductor, director, and composer
    • 1962 – Jon Bon Jovi, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor
    • 1962 – Paul Farrelly, English journalist and politician
    • 1962 – Tom Nordlie, Norwegian footballer and coach
    • 1962 – Brendan O’Connor, Australian politician, Australian Minister for Employment
    • 1962 – Raimo Summanen, Finnish ice hockey player and coach
    • 1962 – Gabriele Tarquini, Italian race car driver
    • 1963 – Alvin Youngblood Hart, American singer and guitarist
    • 1963 – Anthony Albanese, Australian politician, 15th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
    • 1963 – Vidyasagar (composer), Indian composer, musician and singer
    • 1964 – Laird Hamilton, American surfer and actor
    • 1964 – Mike Von Erich, American wrestler (d. 1987)
    • 1965 – Ron Gant, American baseball player and journalist
    • 1965 – Lembit Öpik, Northern Irish politician
    • 1966 – Ann Leckie, American author
    • 1966 – Simon Reevell, English lawyer and politician
    • 1968 – Daniel Craig, English actor and producer
    • 1970 – James Purnell, English politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
    • 1970 – Ciriaco Sforza, Swiss footballer and manager
    • 1970 – Wibi Soerjadi, Dutch pianist and composer
    • 1971 – Dave Gorman, English comedian, author and television presenter
    • 1971 – Method Man, American rapper, record producer and actor
    • 1972 – Mauricio Pochettino, Argentinian footballer and manager
    • 1973 – Dejan Bodiroga, Serbian basketball player
    • 1973 – Trevor Sinclair, English footballer and manager
    • 1974 – Hayley Lewis, Australian swimmer and television host
    • 1975 – Daryl Gibson, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1977 – Dominique Canty, American basketball player and coach
    • 1977 – Chris Martin, English singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1977 – Stephen Parry, English swimmer and sportscaster
    • 1977 – Andrew Strauss, South African-English cricketer
    • 1978 – Gabby Eigenmann, Filipino actor and singer
    • 1978 – Lee Hodges, English footballer and manager
    • 1978 – Tomáš Kaberle, Czech ice hockey player
    • 1979 – Damien Duff, Irish international footballer, winger
    • 1979 – Gayatri Asokan, Indian playback singer
    • 1979 – Jim Troughton, English cricketer
    • 1979 – Nicky Weaver, English footballer
    • 1980 – Chris Barker, English footballer and manager (d. 2020)
    • 1980 – Rebel Wilson, Australian actress and screenwriter
    • 1981 – Lance Cade, American wrestler (d. 2010)
    • 1981 – Bryce Dallas Howard, American actress
    • 1982 – Kevin Kurányi, German footballer
    • 1982 – Henrik Lundqvist, Swedish ice hockey player
    • 1982 – Ben Roethlisberger, American football player
    • 1982 – Corey Webster, American football player
    • 1983 – Deuce, American singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1983 – Lisandro López, Argentinian footballer
    • 1983 – Jay McClement, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1983 – Glen Perkins, American baseball player
    • 1983 – Ryan Shannon, American ice hockey player
    • 1985 – Reggie Bush, American football player
    • 1985 – Suso Santana, Spanish footballer
    • 1986 – Jonathan D’Aversa, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1987 – Jonas Jerebko, Swedish basketball player
    • 1988 – Édgar Andrade, Mexican footballer
    • 1988 – James Arthur, English singer-songwriter
    • 1988 – Laura Kaeppeler, Miss America 2012
    • 1988 – Matthew Mitcham, Australian diver
    • 1988 – Chris Rainey, American football player
    • 1988 – Geert Arend Roorda, Dutch footballer
    • 1989 – Alemão, Brazilian footballer
    • 1989 – Toby Alderweireld, Belgian international footballer, defender
    • 1989 – André Bernardes Santos, Portuguese footballer
    • 1989 – Marcel Hirscher, Austrian skier
    • 1989 – Shane Vereen, American football player
    • 1989 – Chris Woakes, English cricketer
    • 1990 – Rauno Alliku, Estonian footballer
    • 1990 – Malcolm Butler, American football player
    • 1990 – Josh McGuire, Australian rugby league player
    • 1990 – Tiger Shroff, Indian actor
    • 1991 – Nick Franklin, American baseball player
    • 1992 – Jack Stockwell, Australian rugby league player
    • 1995 – Ange-Freddy Plumain, French footballer
    • 1997 – Becky G, American singer and actress
    • 2010 – Hailey Dawson, American with a 3D-printed robotic hand
    • 2016 – Prince Oscar, duke of Skåne and prince of Sweden

    Deaths on March 2

    • 274 – Mani, Persian prophet and founder of Manichaeism (b. 216)
    • 672 – Chad of Mercia, English bishop and saint (b. 634)
    • 986 – Lothair, king of West Francia (b.941)
    • 968 – William, archbishop of Mainz (b. 929)
    • 1009 – Mokjong, king of Goryeo (b. 980)
    • 1127 – Charles the Good, Count of Flanders (b. 1084)
    • 1316 – Marjorie Bruce, Scottish daughter of Robert the Bruce (b. 1296)
    • 1333 – Wladyslaw I, king of Poland (b. 1261)
    • 1589 – Alessandro Farnese, Italian cardinal and diplomat (b. 1520)
    • 1619 – Anne of Denmark, queen of Scotland (b. 1574)
    • 1729 – Francesco Bianchini, Italian astronomer and philosopher (b. 1662)
    • 1755 – Louis de Rouvroy, French duke and diplomat (b. 1675)
    • 1791 – John Wesley, English cleric and theologian (b. 1703)
    • 1793 – Carl Gustaf Pilo, Swedish-Danish painter and academic (b. 1711)
    • 1797 – Horace Walpole, English historian and politician (b. 1717)
    • 1829 – Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, Mexican revolutionary (b. ca. 1773)
    • 1830 – Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring, German physician, anatomist, and anthropologist (b. 1755)
    • 1835 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1768)
    • 1840 – Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, German physician and astronomer (b. 1758)
    • 1855 – Nicholas I, Russian emperor (b. 1796)
    • 1864 – Ulric Dahlgren, American colonel (b. 1842)
    • 1865 – Carl Sylvius Völkner, German-New Zealand priest and missionary (b. 1819)
    • 1880 – John Benjamin Macneill, Irish engineer (b. 1790)
    • 1895 – Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)
    • 1895 – Isma’il Pasha, Egyptian politician (b. 1830)
    • 1896 – Jubal Early, American general (b. 1816)
    • 1921 – Champ Clark, American lawyer and politician, 41st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1850)
    • 1930 – D. H. Lawrence, English novelist, poet, playwright, and critic (b. 1885)
    • 1938 – Ben Harney, American pianist and composer (b. 1871)
    • 1939 – Howard Carter, English archaeologist and historian (b. 1874)
    • 1943 – Gisela Januszewska, Jewish-Austrian physician (b.1867)
    • 1944 – Ida Maclean, British biochemist, the first woman admitted to the London Chemical Society (b. 1877)
    • 1945 – Emily Carr, Canadian painter and author (b. 1871)
    • 1946 – Fidél Pálffy, Hungarian politician, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture (b. 1895)
    • 1946 – George E. Stewart, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1872)
    • 1947 – Frans Johan Louwrens Ghijsels, Dutch architect and urban planner (b. 1882)
    • 1949 – Sarojini Naidu, Indian poet and activist (b. 1879)
    • 1953 – James Lightbody, American runner (b. 1882)
    • 1957 – Selim Sırrı Tarcan, Turkish educator and politician (b. 1874)
    • 1958 – Fred Merkle, American baseball player and manager (b. 1888)
    • 1962 – Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, Belgian mathematician and academic (b. 1866)
    • 1967 – José Martínez Ruiz, Spanish author and critic (b. 1873)
    • 1972 – Léo-Ernest Ouimet, Canadian director and producer (b. 1877)
    • 1979 – Christy Ring, Irish hurler (b. 1920)
    • 1982 – Philip K. Dick, American philosopher and author (b. 1928)
    • 1987 – Randolph Scott, American actor and director (b. 1898)
    • 1987 – Lolo Soetoro, Indonesian geographer and academic (b. 1935)
    • 1991 – Serge Gainsbourg, French singer-songwriter, actor, and director (b. 1928)
    • 1992 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (b. 1937)
    • 1994 – Anita Morris, American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1943)
    • 1999 – Dusty Springfield, English singer (b. 1939)
    • 2000 – Sandra Schmirler, Canadian curler (b. 1963)
    • 2003 – Hank Ballard, American singer-songwriter (b. 1927)
    • 2003 – Malcolm Williamson, Australian pianist and composer (b. 1931)
    • 2004 – Cormac McAnallen, Irish footballer (b. 1980)
    • 2004 – Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (b. 1916)
    • 2004 – Marge Schott, American businesswoman (b. 1928)
    • 2005 – Martin Denny, American pianist and composer (b. 1911)
    • 2007 – Thomas S. Kleppe, American soldier and politician, 41st United States Secretary of the Interior (b. 1919)
    • 2007 – Clem Labine, American baseball player (b. 1926)
    • 2007 – Ivan Safronov, Russian colonel and journalist (b. 1956)
    • 2007 – Henri Troyat, Russian-French historian and author (b. 1911)
    • 2008 – Jeff Healey, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1966)
    • 2009 – João Bernardo Vieira, Bissau-Guinean politician, President of Guinea-Bissau (b. 1939)
    • 2010 – Winston Churchill, English journalist and politician (b. 1940)
    • 2012 – Lawrence Anthony, South African environmentalist, explorer, and author (b. 1950)
    • 2012 – Van T. Barfoot, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1919)
    • 2012 – Norman St John-Stevas, English academic and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (b. 1929)
    • 2012 – James Q. Wilson, American political scientist and academic (b. 1931)
    • 2013 – Peter Harvey, Australian journalist (b. 1944)
    • 2013 – Giorgos Kolokithas, Greek basketball player (b. 1945)
    • 2013 – Shabnam Shakeel, Pakistani poet and author (b. 1942)
    • 2014 – Ryhor Baradulin, Belarusian poet and translator (b. 1935)
    • 2015 – Dean Hess, American minister and colonel (b. 1917)
    • 2015 – Dave Mackay, Scottish-English footballer and manager (b. 1934)
    • 2015 – Mal Peet, English author and illustrator (b. 1947)
    • 2016 – Benoît Lacroix, Canadian priest, historian, and philosopher (b. 1915)
    • 2016 – Aubrey McClendon, American businessman (b. 1959)
    • 2018 – Billy Herrington, American actor (b. 1969)
    • 2018 – Lin Hu, Chinese lieutenant general (b. 1927)
    • 2019 – Mike Oliver, British sociologist, disability rights activist (b. 1945)

    Holidays and observances on March 2

    • Air Force Day (Sri Lanka)
    • Baloch Culture Day (Balochistan)
    • Christian feast day:
      • Agnes of Bohemia
      • Angela of the Cross
      • Blessed Charles the Good, Count of Flanders
      • Chad of Mercia (Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church)
      • John Maron
      • March 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Feast of ‘Alá (Loftiness), First day of the 19th month of the Bahá’í calendar (Bahá’í Faith) and first day of the Baha’i Nineteen Day Fast
    • Jamahiriya Day (Libya)
    • Peasants’ Day (Myanmar)
    • Texas Independence Day
    • Victory at Adwa Day (Ethiopia)

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

    March 1 in History

    • 509 BC – Publius Valerius Publicola celebrates the first triumph of the Roman Republic after his victory over the deposed king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus at the Battle of Silva Arsia.
    • 86 BC – Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters Athens, removing the tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus ending the Siege of Athens and Piraeus.
    • 293 – Emperor Diocletian and Maximian appoint Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as Caesars. This is considered the beginning of the Tetrarchy, known as the Quattuor Principes Mundi (“Four Rulers of the World”).
    • 317 – Crispus and Constantine II, sons of Roman Emperor Constantine I, and Licinius Iunior, son of Emperor Licinius, are made Caesares.
    • 350 – Vetranio is asked by Constantina, sister of Constantius II, to proclaim himself Caesar.
    • 834 – Emperor Louis the Pious is restored as sole ruler of the Frankish Empire. After his re-accession to the throne, his eldest son Lothair I flees to Burgundy.
    • 1457 – The Unitas Fratrum is established in the village of Kunvald, on the Bohemian-Moravian borderland. It is to date the second oldest Protestant denomination.
    • 1476 – Forces of the Catholic Monarchs engage the combined Portuguese-Castilian armies of Afonso V and Prince John at the Battle of Toro.
    • 1562 – Sixty-three Huguenots are massacred in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion.
    • 1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.
    • 1628 – Writs issued in February by Charles I of England mandate that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date.
    • 1633 – Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu.
    • 1642 – Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine), becomes the first incorporated city in the United States.
    • 1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.
    • 1700 – Sweden introduces its own Swedish calendar, in an attempt to gradually merge into the Gregorian calendar, reverts to the Julian calendar on this date in 1712, and introduces the Gregorian calendar on this date in 1753.
    • 1713 – The siege and destruction of Fort Neoheroka begins during the Tuscarora War in North Carolina, effectively opening up the colony’s interior to European colonization.
    • 1781 – The Articles of Confederation goes into effect in the United States.
    • 1790 – The first United States census is authorized.
    • 1793 – French Revolutionary War: Battle of Aldenhoven during the Flanders Campaign.
    • 1796 – The Dutch East India Company is nationalized by the Batavian Republic.
    • 1803 – Ohio becomes the 17th state of The United States.
    • 1805 – Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.
    • 1811 – Leaders of the Mamluk dynasty are killed by Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali.
    • 1815 – Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba.
    • 1815 – Georgetown University’s congressional charter is signed into law by President James Madison.
    • 1836 – A convention of delegates from 57 Texas communities convenes in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico.
    • 1845 – United States President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
    • 1852 – Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
    • 1854 – German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; two years later his remains are found in a canal near Charlottenburg.
    • 1867 – Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital.
    • 1868 – The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia.
    • 1870 – Marshal F. S. López dies during the Battle of Cerro Corá thus marking the end of the Paraguayan War.
    • 1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established as the world’s first national park.
    • 1873 – E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
    • 1881 – The first Minnesota State Capitol burns down.
    • 1886 – The Anglo-Chinese School, Singapore is founded by Bishop William Oldham.
    • 1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
    • 1896 – Battle of Adwa: An Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian War.
    • 1896 – Henri Becquerel discovers radioactive decay.
    • 1901 – The Australian Army is formed.
    • 1910 – The deadliest avalanche in United States history buries a Great Northern Railway train in northeastern King County, Washington, killing 96 people.
    • 1914 – The Republic of China joins the Universal Postal Union.
    • 1917 – The Zimmermann Telegram is reprinted in newspapers across the United States after the U.S. government releases its unencrypted text.
    • 1919 – March 1st Movement begins in Korea under Japanese rule.
    • 1921 – The Australian cricket team captained by Warwick Armstrong becomes the first team to complete a whitewash of The Ashes, something that would not be repeated for 86 years.
    • 1921 – Following mass protests in Petrograd demanding greater freedom in the RSFSR, the Kronstadt rebellion began, with sailors and citizens taking up arms against the Bolsheviks.
    • 1932 – Charles Lindbergh’s son is kidnapped.
    • 1936 – The Hoover Dam is completed.
    • 1939 – An Imperial Japanese Army ammunition dump explodes at Hirakata, Osaka, Japan, killing 94.
    • 1941 – World War II: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, allying itself with the Axis powers.
    • 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces land on Java, the main island of the Dutch East Indies, at Merak and Banten Bay (Banten), Eretan Wetan (Indramayu) and Kragan (Rembang).
    • 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalised.
    • 1947 – The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations.
    • 1949 – Indonesian Army recaptures and occupies for six hours its capital city Yogyakarta from the Dutch.
    • 1950 – Cold War: Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.
    • 1953 – Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later.
    • 1954 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.
    • 1954 – Armed Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives.
    • 1956 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.
    • 1956 – Formation of the East German Nationale Volksarmee.
    • 1958 – Samuel Alphonsus Stritch is appointed Pro-Prefect of the Propagation of Faith and thus becomes the first U.S. member of the Roman Curia.
    • 1961 – United States President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
    • 1961 – Uganda becomes self-governing and holds its first elections.
    • 1964 – Villarrica Volcano begins a strombolian eruption causing lahars that destroy half of the town of Coñaripe.
    • 1966 – Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface.
    • 1966 – The Ba’ath Party takes power in Syria.
    • 1971 – President of Pakistan Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.
    • 1972 – The Thai province of Yasothon is created after being split off from the Ubon Ratchathani Province.
    • 1973 – Black September storms the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, resulting in the assassination of three Western hostages.
    • 1974 – Watergate scandal: Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
    • 1981 – Provisional Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands begins his hunger strike in HM Prison Maze.
    • 1983 – First collection of twelve Swatch models was introduced in Zürich, Switzerland.
    • 1990 – Steve Jackson Games is raided by the United States Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
    • 1991 – Uprisings against Saddam Hussein begin in Iraq, leading to the death of more than 25,000 people mostly civilian.
    • 1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
    • 1998 – Titanic became the first film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.
    • 2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan.
    • 2002 – The Envisat environmental satellite successfully launches aboard an Ariane 5 rocket to reach an orbit of 800 km (500 mi) above the Earth, which was the then-largest payload at 10.5 m long and with a diameter of 4.57 m.
    • 2003 – Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service move to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
    • 2003 – The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague.
    • 2005 – In Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the execution of juveniles found guilty of murder is unconstitutional.
    • 2006 – English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station.
    • 2007 – Tornadoes break out across the southern United States, killing at least 20 people, including eight at Enterprise High School.
    • 2008 – The Armenian police clash with peaceful opposition rally protesting against allegedly fraudulent presidential elections, as a result ten people are killed.
    • 2014 – Thirty-five people are killed and 143 injured in a mass stabbing at Kunming Railway Station in China.

    Births on March 1

    • 1105 – Alfonso VII, king of León and Castile (d. 1157)
    • 1261 – Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester (d. 1326)
    • 1389 – Antoninus of Florence, Italian archbishop and saint (d. 1459)
    • 1432 – Isabella of Coimbra (d. 1455)
    • 1456 – Vladislaus II of Hungary (d. 1516)
    • 1547 – Rudolph Goclenius, German philosopher and lexicographer (d. 1628)
    • 1554 – William Stafford, English courtier and conspirator (d. 1612)
    • 1577 – Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland (d. 1635)
    • 1597 – Jean-Charles della Faille, Flemish priest and mathematician (d. 1652)
    • 1611 – John Pell, English mathematician and linguist (d. 1685)
    • 1629 – Abraham Teniers, Flemish painter (d. 1670)
    • 1647 – John de Brito, Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr (d. 1693)
    • 1657 – Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian and author (d. 1740)
    • 1683 – Tsangyang Gyatso, sixth Dalai Lama (d. 1706)
    • 1683 – Caroline of Ansbach, British queen and regent (d. 1737)
    • 1732 – William Cushing, American lawyer and judge (d. 1810)
    • 1760 – François Buzot, French lawyer and politician (d. 1794)
    • 1769 – François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French general (d. 1796)
    • 1807 – Wilford Woodruff, American religious leader, 4th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1898)
    • 1810 – Frédéric Chopin, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1849)
    • 1812 – Augustus Pugin, English architect, co-designed the Palace of Westminster (d. 1852)
    • 1817 – Giovanni Duprè, Italian sculptor and educator (d. 1882)
    • 1821 – Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German bishop and academic (d. 1896)
    • 1835 – Philip Fysh, English-Australian politician, 12th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1919)
    • 1837 – William Dean Howells, American novelist, playwright, and critic (d. 1920)
    • 1842 – Nikolaos Gyzis, Greek painter and academic (d. 1901)
    • 1848 – Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Irish-American sculptor and academic (d. 1907)
    • 1852 – Théophile Delcassé, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1923)
    • 1863 – Alexander Golovin, Russian painter and set designer (d. 1930)
    • 1870 – E. M. Antoniadi, Greek-French astronomer and academic (d. 1944)
    • 1876 – Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian businessman (d. 1942)
    • 1880 – Lytton Strachey, British writer and critic (d. 1932)
    • 1886 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian-Swiss painter, poet, and playwright (d. 1980)
    • 1888 – Ewart Astill, English cricketer and billiards player (d. 1948)
    • 1888 – Fanny Walden, English cricketer and umpire, international footballer, outside right (d. 1949)
    • 1889 – Tetsuro Watsuji, Japanese historian and philosopher (d. 1960)
    • 1890 – Theresa Bernstein, Polish-American painter and author (d. 2002)
    • 1891 – Ralph Hitz, Austrian-American hotelier (d. 1940)
    • 1892 – Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japanese author and educator (d. 1927)
    • 1893 – Mercedes de Acosta, American author, poet, and playwright (d. 1968)
    • 1896 – Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1960)
    • 1896 – Moriz Seeler, German playwright and producer (d. 1942)
    • 1899 – Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, German SS officer (d. 1972)
    • 1904 – Paul Hartman, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1973)
    • 1904 – Glenn Miller, American trombonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1944)
    • 1905 – Doris Hare, Welsh-English actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2000)
    • 1906 – Phạm Văn Đồng, Vietnamese lieutenant and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)
    • 1909 – Eugene Esmonde, English lieutenant and pilot (d. 1942)
    • 1909 – Winston Sharples, American pianist and composer (d. 1978)
    • 1910 – Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)
    • 1910 – David Niven, English soldier and actor (d. 1983)
    • 1912 – Gerald Emmett Carter, Canadian cardinal (d. 2003)
    • 1912 – Boris Chertok, Polish-Russian engineer and academic (d. 2011)
    • 1914 – Harry Caray, American sportscaster (d. 1998)
    • 1914 – Ralph Ellison, American novelist and literary critic (d. 1994)
    • 1917 – Robert Lowell, American poet (d. 1977)
    • 1918 – João Goulart, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 24th President of Brazil (d. 1976)
    • 1918 – Gladys Spellman, American educator and politician (d. 1988)
    • 1920 – Max Bentley, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1984)
    • 1921 – Cameron Argetsinger, American race car driver and lawyer (d. 2008)
    • 1921 – Terence Cooke, American cardinal (d. 1983)
    • 1921 – Richard Wilbur, American poet, translator, and essayist (d. 2017)
    • 1922 – William Gaines, American publisher (d. 1992)
    • 1922 – Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli general and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
    • 1924 – Arnold Drake, American author and screenwriter (d. 2007)
    • 1924 – Deke Slayton, American soldier, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1993)
    • 1926 – Robert Clary, French-American actor and author
    • 1926 – Cesare Danova, Italian-American actor (d. 1992)
    • 1926 – Pete Rozelle, American businessman and commissioner of the National Football League (d. 1996)
    • 1926 – Allan Stanley, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2013)
    • 1927 – George O. Abell, American astronomer, professor at UCLA, science popularizer, and skeptic (d. 1983)
    • 1927 – Harry Belafonte, American singer-songwriter and actor
    • 1927 – Robert Bork, American lawyer and scholar, United States Attorney General (d. 2012)
    • 1928 – Jacques Rivette, French director, screenwriter, and critic (d. 2016)
    • 1929 – Georgi Markov, Bulgarian journalist and author (d. 1978)
    • 1930 – Gastone Nencini, Italian cyclist (d. 1980)
    • 1934 – Jean-Michel Folon, Belgian painter and sculptor (d. 2005)
    • 1934 – Joan Hackett, American actress (d. 1983)
    • 1935 – Robert Conrad, American actor, radio host and stuntman (d. 2020)
    • 1936 – Jean-Edern Hallier, French author (d. 1997)
    • 1939 – Leo Brouwer, Cuban guitarist, composer, and conductor
    • 1939 – Mustansar Hussain Tarar, Pakistani author
    • 1940 – Robin Gray, Australian politician, 37th Premier of Tasmania
    • 1940 – Robert Grossman, American painter, sculptor, and author (d. 2018)
    • 1941 – Robert Hass, American poet
    • 1942 – Richard Myers, American general
    • 1943 – Gil Amelio, American businessman
    • 1943 – José Ángel Iribar, Spanish footballer and manager
    • 1943 – Rashid Sunyaev, Russian-German astronomer and physicist
    • 1944 – Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Indian politician, 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal
    • 1944 – John Breaux, American lawyer and politician
    • 1944 – Roger Daltrey, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
    • 1944 – Mike d’Abo, English singer
    • 1945 – Dirk Benedict, American actor and director
    • 1946 – Gerry Boulet, Canadian singer-songwriter (d. 1990)
    • 1946 – Jim Crace, English author and academic
    • 1947 – Alan Thicke, Canadian-American actor and composer (d. 2016)
    • 1951 – Sergei Kourdakov, Russian-American KGB agent (d. 1973)
    • 1952 – Dave Barr, Canadian golfer
    • 1952 – Nevada Barr, American actress and author
    • 1952 – Leigh Matthews, Australian footballer, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1952 – Jerri Nielsen, American physician and explorer (d. 2009)
    • 1952 – Martin O’Neill, Northern Irish footballer and manager
    • 1953 – Sinan Çetin, Turkish actor, director, and producer
    • 1953 – Carlos Queiroz, Portuguese footballer and manager
    • 1954 – Catherine Bach, American actress
    • 1954 – Ron Howard, American actor, director, and producer
    • 1954 – Rod Reddy, Australian rugby league player and coach
    • 1956 – Tim Daly, American actor, director, and producer
    • 1956 – Dalia Grybauskaitė, Lithuanian politician, 6th President of Lithuania
    • 1958 – Nik Kershaw, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1958 – Wayne B. Phillips, Australian cricketer and coach
    • 1959 – Nick Griffin, English politician
    • 1961 – Mike Rozier, American football player
    • 1962 – Russell Coutts, New Zealand sailor
    • 1962 – Mark Gardner, American baseball player
    • 1962 – Bill Leen, American bass player and producer
    • 1963 – Bryan Batt, American actor and singer
    • 1963 – Maurice Benard, American actor
    • 1963 – Ron Francis, Canadian ice hockey player and manager
    • 1964 – Clinton Gregory, American singer-songwriter and fiddler
    • 1964 – Paul Le Guen, French footballer and manager
    • 1965 – Booker T, American wrestler and sportscaster
    • 1965 – Stewart Elliott, Canadian jockey
    • 1966 – Paul Hollywood, English chef
    • 1966 – Zack Snyder, American director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1967 – George Eads, American actor
    • 1967 – Aron Winter, Suriname-Dutch footballer and manager
    • 1969 – Javier Bardem, Spanish actor and producer
    • 1970 – Jason V Brock, American author, filmmaker, artist, scholar and musician
    • 1971 – Thomas Adès, English pianist, composer, and conductor
    • 1971 – Ivan Cleary, Australian rugby league player and coach
    • 1973 – Jack Davenport, English actor
    • 1973 – Anton Gunn, American academic and politician
    • 1973 – Chris Webber, American basketball player and sportscaster
    • 1974 – Mark-Paul Gosselaar, American actor
    • 1976 – Travis Kvapil, American race car driver
    • 1977 – Rens Blom, Dutch pole vaulter
    • 1977 – Esther Cañadas, Spanish actress and model
    • 1978 – Jensen Ackles, American actor and director
    • 1979 – Mikkel Kessler, Danish boxer
    • 1979 – Bruno Langlois, Canadian cyclist
    • 1980 – Shahid Afridi, Pakistani cricketer
    • 1980 – Abhay K, Indian poet and diplomat
    • 1980 – Sercan Güvenışık, German-Turkish footballer
    • 1980 – Djimi Traoré, Malian footballer
    • 1981 – Will Power, Australian race car driver
    • 1982 – Juan Manuel Ortiz, Spanish footballer
    • 1983 – Daniel Carvalho, Brazilian footballer
    • 1983 – Lupita Nyong’o, Mexican-Kenyan actress
    • 1983 – Davey Richards, American wrestler
    • 1983 – Anthony Tupou, Australian rugby league player
    • 1984 – Naima Mora, American model and actress
    • 1984 – Alexander Steen, Canadian-Swedish ice hockey player
    • 1985 – Andreas Ottl, German footballer
    • 1986 – Big E, American wrestler
    • 1987 – Kesha, American singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1988 – Yang Hyeon-jong, South Korean baseball player
    • 1989 – Tenille Tayla, Australian professional wrestler
    • 1989 – Carlos Vela, Mexican footballer
    • 1992 – Tom Walsh, New Zealand athlete
    • 1993 – Nathan Brown, Australian rugby league player
    • 1993 – Michael Conforto, American baseball player
    • 1993 – Kurt Mann, Australian rugby league player
    • 1993 – Josh McEachran, English footballer
    • 1994 – Justin Bieber, Canadian singer-songwriter
    • 1994 – Tyreek Hill, American football player
    • 1996 – Lizzie Arnot, Scottish footballer
    • 1999 – Brogan Hay, Scottish footballer

    Deaths on March 1

    • 492 – Felix III, pope of the Catholic Church
    • 589 – David, Welsh bishop and saint
    • 965 – Leo VIII, pope of the Catholic Church
    • 977 – Rudesind, Galician bishop (b. 907)
    • 991 – En’yū, Japanese emperor (b. 959)
    • 1058 – Ermesinde of Carcassonne, countess and regent of Barcelona (b. 972)
    • 1131 – Stephen II, king of Hungary and Croatia (b. 1101)
    • 1233 – Thomas, count of Savoy (b. 1178)
    • 1244 – Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr, Welsh noble, son of Llywelyn the Great (b. 1200)
    • 1320 – Ayurbarwada Buyantu Khan, Chinese emperor (b. 1286)
    • 1383 – Amadeus VI, count of Savoy (b. 1334)
    • 1510 – Francisco de Almeida, Portuguese soldier and explorer (b. 1450)
    • 1546 – George Wishart, Scottish minister and martyr (b. 1513)
    • 1620 – Thomas Campion, English poet and composer (b. 1567)
    • 1633 – George Herbert, English poet and orator (b. 1593)
    • 1643 – Girolamo Frescobaldi, Italian pianist and composer (b. 1583)
    • 1661 – Richard Zouch, English judge and politician (b. 1590)
    • 1666 – Ecaterina Cercheza, princess consort of Moldavia (b. 1620)
    • 1697 – Francesco Redi, Italian physician and poet (b. 1626)
    • 1734 – Roger North, English lawyer and author (b. 1653)
    • 1768 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and author (b. 1694)
    • 1773 – Luigi Vanvitelli, Italian architect, designed the Palace of Caserta (b. 1700)
    • 1792 – Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1747)
    • 1792 – Angelo Emo, Venetian admiral and statesman (b. 1731)1841 – Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (b. 1764)
    • 1862 – Peter Barlow, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1776)
    • 1875 – Tristan Corbière, French poet and educator (b. 1845)
    • 1882 – Theodor Kullak, German pianist, composer, and educator (b. 1818)
    • 1884 – Isaac Todhunter, English mathematician and academic (b. 1820)
    • 1906 – José María de Pereda, Spanish author (b. 1833)
    • 1911 – Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff, Dutch-German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
    • 1914 – Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, English soldier and politician, 8th Governor General of Canada (b. 1845)
    • 1920 – John H. Bankhead, American lawyer and politician (b. 1842)
    • 1922 – Pichichi, Spanish footballer (b. 1892)
    • 1932 – Frank Teschemacher, American Jazz musician (b. 1906)
    • 1936 – Mikhail Kuzmin, Russian author and poet (b. 1871)
    • 1938 – Gabriele D’Annunzio, Italian journalist and politician (b. 1863)
    • 1940 – Anton Hansen Tammsaare, Estonian author (b. 1878)
    • 1942 – George S. Rentz, American commander (b. 1882)
    • 1943 – Alexandre Yersin, Swiss-French physician and bacteriologist (b. 1863)
    • 1952 – Mariano Azuela, Mexican physician and author (b. 1873)
    • 1966 – Fritz Houtermans, Polish-German physicist and academic (b. 1903)
    • 1974 – Bobby Timmons, American pianist and composer (b. 1935)
    • 1976 – Jean Martinon, French conductor and composer (b. 1910)
    • 1978 – Paul Scott, English author, poet, and playwright (b. 1920)
    • 1979 – Mustafa Barzani, Iraqi-Kurdistan politician (b. 1903)
    • 1980 – Wilhelmina Cooper, Dutch-American model and businesswoman, founded Wilhelmina Models (b. 1940)
    • 1980 – Dixie Dean, English footballer (b. 1907)
    • 1983 – Arthur Koestler, Hungarian-English journalist and author (b. 1905)
    • 1984 – Jackie Coogan, American actor (b. 1914)
    • 1988 – Joe Besser, American comedian and actor (b. 1907)
    • 1989 – Vasantdada Patil, Indian politician, 5th Chief Minister of Maharashtra (b. 1917)
    • 1991 – Edwin H. Land, American scientist and businessman, co-founded the Polaroid Corporation (b. 1909)
    • 1995 – César Rodríguez Álvarez, Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1920)
    • 1995 – Georges J. F. Köhler, German biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1946)
    • 1998 – Archie Goodwin, American author and illustrator (b. 1937)
    • 2004 – Mian Ghulam Jilani, Pakistani general (b. 1914)
    • 2006 – Peter Osgood, English footballer (b. 1947)
    • 2006 – Jack Wild, English actor (b.1952)
    • 2010 – Kristian Digby, English television host and director (b. 1977)
    • 2012 – Andrew Breitbart, American journalist and publisher (b. 1969)
    • 2012 – Germano Mosconi, Italian journalist (b. 1932)
    • 2013 – Bonnie Franklin, American actress, dancer, and singer (b. 1944)
    • 2014 – Alain Resnais, French director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (b. 1922)
    • 2015 – Minnie Miñoso, Cuban-American baseball player and coach (b. 1922)
    • 2018 – María Rubio, Mexican television, film and stage actress (b. 1934)
    • 2019 – Mike Willesee, Australian journalist and producer (b. 1942)

    Holidays and observances on March 1

    • Beer Day, marked the end of beer prohibition in 1989 (Iceland)
    • Christian feast day:
      • Agnes Tsao Kou Ying (one of the Martyr Saints of China)
      • Albin
      • David
      • Eudokia of Heliopolis
      • Pope Felix III
      • Leoluca
      • Luperculus
      • Monan
      • Rudesind
      • Suitbert
      • March 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Commemoration of Mustafa Barzani’s Death (Iraqi Kurdistan)
    • Earliest day on which Casimir Pulaski Day can fall, while March 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in March. (Illinois)
    • Earliest day on which Children’s Day can fall, while March 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in March. (New Zealand)
    • Earliest day on which Grandmother’s Day can fall, while March 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in March. (France)
    • Earliest day on which Laetare Sunday can fall, while April 4 is the latest; celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. (Western Christianity), and its related observances:
      • Carnaval de la Laetare (Stavelot)
      • Mothering Sunday (United Kingdom)
    • Heroes’ Day (Paraguay)
    • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992.
    • National “Cursed Soldiers” Remembrance Day (Poland)
    • National Pig Day (United States)
    • Remembrance Day (Marshall Islands)
    • Saint David’s Day or Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant (Wales and Welsh communities)
    • Samiljeol (South Korea)
    • Self-injury Awareness Day
    • Southeastern Europe celebration of the beginning of spring:
      • Baba Marta Day (Bulgaria)
      • Mărțișor (Romania and Moldova)
    • The final day (fourth or fifth) of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’í Faith)
    • World Civil Defence Day
    • Yap Day (Yap State)
    • Zero Discrimination Day

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

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

    Births on February 28

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

    Deaths on February 28

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

    Holidays and observances on February 28

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

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

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

    Births on February 21

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

    Deaths on February 21

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

    Holidays and observances on February 21

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

  • February 20 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 1339 – The Milanese army and the St. George’s (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clash in the Battle of Parabiago; Visconti is defeated.
    • 1472 – Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark.
    • 1547 – Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
    • 1685 – René-Robert Cavelier establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France’s claim to Texas.
    • 1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington.
    • 1798 – Louis-Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power.
    • 1813 – Manuel Belgrano defeats the royalist army of Pío de Tristán during the Battle of Salta.
    • 1816 – Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
    • 1835 – The 1835 Concepción earthquake destroys Concepción, Chile.
    • 1846 – Polish insurgents lead an uprising in Kraków to incite a fight for national independence.
    • 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Olustee: The largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
    • 1865 – End of the Uruguayan War, with a peace agreement between President Tomás Villalba and rebel leader Venancio Flores, setting the scene for the destructive War of the Triple Alliance.
    • 1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.
    • 1877 – Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
    • 1901 – The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
    • 1909 – Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.
    • 1913 – King O’Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
    • 1920 – An earthquake kills between 114 and 130 in Georgia and heavily damages the town of Gori.
    • 1931 – The U.S. Congress approves the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
    • 1933 – The U.S. Congress approves the Blaine Act to repeal federal Prohibition in the United States, sending the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution to state ratifying conventions for approval.
    • 1933 – Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party’s upcoming election campaign.
    • 1935 – Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
    • 1942 – Lieutenant Edward O’Hare becomes America’s first World War II flying ace.
    • 1943 – American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
    • 1943 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.
    • 1944 – World War II: The “Big Week” began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
    • 1944 – World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
    • 1952 – Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
    • 1956 – The United States Merchant Marine Academy becomes a permanent Service Academy.
    • 1959 – The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
    • 1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.
    • 1965 – Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
    • 1971 – The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.
    • 1979 – An earthquake cracks open the Sinila volcanic crater on the Dieng Plateau, releasing poisonous H2S gas and killing 149 villagers in the Indonesian province of Central Java.
    • 1986 – The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.
    • 1988 – The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast votes to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, triggering the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
    • 1991 – In the Albanian capital Tirana, a gigantic statue of Albania’s long-time leader, Enver Hoxha, is brought down by mobs of angry protesters.
    • 1998 – American figure skater Tara Lipinski, at the age of 15, becomes the youngest Olympic figure skating gold-medalist at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
    • 2003 – During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the Station nightclub ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.
    • 2005 – Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.
    • 2009 – Two Tamil Tigers aircraft packed with C4 explosives en route to the national airforce headquarters are shot down by the Sri Lankan military before reaching their target, in a kamikaze style attack.
    • 2010 – In Madeira Island, Portugal, heavy rain causes floods and mudslides, resulting in at least 43 deaths, in the worst disaster in the history of the archipelago.
    • 2014 – Dozens of Euromaidan anti-government protesters died in Ukraine’s capital Kiev, many reportedly killed by snipers.
    • 2015 – Two trains collide in the Swiss town of Rafz resulting in as many as 49 people injured and Swiss Federal Railways cancelling some services.
    • 2016 – Six people are killed and two injured in multiple shooting incidents in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.

    Births on February 20

    • 1358 – Eleanor of Aragon, queen of John I of Castile (d. 1382)
    • 1469 – Thomas Cajetan, Italian philosopher (d. 1534)
    • 1523 – Jan Blahoslav, Czech writer (d. 1571)
    • 1549 – Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, last Duke of Urbino (d. 1631)
    • 1552 – Sengoku Hidehisa, Daimyō (d. 1614)
    • 1608 – Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham (d. 1649)
    • 1631 – Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English politician, Treasurer of the Navy (d. 1712)
    • 1633 – Jan de Baen, Dutch painter (d. 1702)
    • 1705 – Nicolas Chédeville, French musette player and composer (d. 1782)
    • 1726 – William Prescott, American colonel (d. 1795)
    • 1745 – Henry James Pye, English poet and politician (d. 1813)
    • 1751 – Johann Heinrich Voss, German poet, translator, and academic (d. 1826)
    • 1753 – Louis-Alexandre Berthier, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (d. 1815)
    • 1759 – Johann Christian Reil, German physician, physiologist, and anatomist (d. 1813)
    • 1774 – Vicente Sebastián Pintado, Spanish cartographer, engineer, military officer and land surveyor of Spanish Louisiana and Spanish West Florida (d. 1829)
    • 1784 – Judith Montefiore, British linguist, travel writer, philanthropist (d. 1862)
    • 1792 – Eliza Courtney, French daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (d. 1859)
    • 1794 – William Carleton, Irish author (d. 1869)
    • 1802 – Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1870)
    • 1819 – Alfred Escher, Swiss businessman and politician (d. 1882)
    • 1839 – Benjamin Waugh, English activist, founded the NSPCC (d. 1908)
    • 1844 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1906)
    • 1844 – Joshua Slocum, Canadian sailor and adventurer (d. 1909)
    • 1848 – E. H. Harriman, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1909)
    • 1857 – A. P. Lucas, English cricketer (d. 1923)
    • 1866 – Carl Westman, Swedish architect, designed the Stockholm Court House and Röhsska Museum (d. 1936)
    • 1867 – Louise, Princess Royal of England (d. 1931)
    • 1870 – Jay Johnson Morrow, American engineer and politician, 3rd Governor of the Panama Canal Zone (d. 1937)
    • 1874 – Mary Garden, Scottish-American soprano and actress (d. 1967)
    • 1879 – Hod Stuart, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1907)
    • 1880 – Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen, French author and poet (d. 1923)
    • 1882 – Elie Nadelman, Polish-American sculptor (d. 1946)
    • 1887 – Vincent Massey, Canadian lawyer and politician, 18th Governor General of Canada (d. 1967)
    • 1888 – Georges Bernanos, French soldier and author (d. 1948)
    • 1889 – Hulusi Behçet, Turkish dermatologist and physician (d. 1948)
    • 1893 – Elizabeth Holloway Marston, American psychologist and author (d. 1993)
    • 1895 – Louis Zborowski, English race car driver and engineer (d. 1924)
    • 1897 – Ivan Albright, American painter (d. 1983)
    • 1898 – Ante Ciliga, Croatian politician, writer and publisher (d. 1992)
    • 1899 – Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1992)
    • 1901 – René Dubos, French-American biologist and author (d. 1982)
    • 1901 – Louis Kahn, American architect, designed the Salk Institute, the Kimbell Art Museum and the Bangladesh Parliament Building (d. 1974)
    • 1901 – Muhammad Naguib, Egyptian general and politician, 1st President of Egypt (d. 1984)
    • 1901 – Ramakrishna Ranga Rao of Bobbili, Indian lawyer and politician, 6th Chief Minister of Madras Presidency (d. 1978)
    • 1902 – Ansel Adams, American photographer and environmentalist (d. 1984)
    • 1904 – Alexei Kosygin, Russian soldier and politician, 8th Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1980)
    • 1906 – Gale Gordon, American actor (d. 1995)
    • 1912 – Pierre Boulle, French soldier and author (d. 1994)
    • 1912 – Johnny Checketts, New Zealand flying ace of the Second World War (d. 2006)
    • 1913 – Tommy Henrich, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2009)
    • 1914 – John Charles Daly, South African–American journalist and game show host (d. 1991)
    • 1916 – Jean Erdman, American dancer and choreographer
    • 1918 – Leonore Annenberg, American businesswoman and diplomat (d. 2009)
    • 1919 – James O’Meara, English soldier and pilot (d. 1974)
    • 1920 – Karl Albrecht, German businessman, co-founded Aldi (d. 2014)
    • 1921 – Buddy Rogers, American wrestler (d. 1992)
    • 1923 – Victor G. Atiyeh, American businessman and politician, 32nd Governor of Oregon (d. 2014)
    • 1923 – Forbes Burnham, Guyanese lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Guyana (d. 1985)
    • 1923 – Rena Vlahopoulou, Greek actress (d. 2004)
    • 1924 – Gloria Vanderbilt, American actress, fashion designer, and socialite (d. 2019)
    • 1925 – Robert Altman, American director and screenwriter (d. 2006)
    • 1925 – Tochinishiki Kiyotaka, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 44th Yokozuna (d. 1990)
    • 1926 – Matthew Bucksbaum, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded General Growth Properties (d. 2013)
    • 1926 – Gillian Lynne, English ballerina, choreographer, and director (d. 2018)
    • 1926 – Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter (d. 2013)
    • 1926 – Bob Richards, American Olympic track and field athlete
    • 1926 – María de la Purísima Salvat Romero, Spanish Roman Catholic nun; later canonized (d. 1998)
    • 1927 – Roy Cohn, American lawyer and political activist (d. 1986)
    • 1927 – Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban singer and musician (d. 2005)
    • 1927 – Sidney Poitier, Bahamian-American actor, director, and diplomat
    • 1928 – Roy Face, American baseball player and carpenter
    • 1928 – Jean Kennedy Smith, American diplomat, 25th United States Ambassador to Ireland
    • 1929 – Amanda Blake, American actress (d. 1989)
    • 1931 – John Milnor, American mathematician and academic
    • 1932 – Adrian Cristobal, Filipino journalist and author (d. 2007)
    • 1934 – Bobby Unser, American race car driver
    • 1935 – Ellen Gilchrist, American novelist, short story writer, and poet
    • 1936 – Marj Dusay, American actress (d. 2020)
    • 1936 – Larry Hovis, American actor and singer (d. 2003)
    • 1936 – Shigeo Nagashima, Japanese baseball player and coach
    • 1937 – David Ackles, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1999)
    • 1937 – Robert Huber, German biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1937 – Roger Penske, American race car driver and businessman
    • 1937 – Robert Evans, Australian minister and amateur astronomer
    • 1937 – Nancy Wilson, American singer and actress (d. 2018)
    • 1938 – Richard Beymer, American actor, director, and cinematographer
    • 1940 – Jimmy Greaves, English international footballer, forward and TV pundit
    • 1941 – Lim Kit Siang, Malaysian lawyer and politician
    • 1941 – Buffy Sainte-Marie, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1942 – Phil Esposito, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager
    • 1942 – Mitch McConnell, American lawyer, and politician
    • 1942 – Claude Miller, French director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
    • 1943 – Antonio Inoki, Japanese wrestler, mixed martial artist, and politician
    • 1943 – Mike Leigh, English director and screenwriter
    • 1944 – Robert de Cotret, Canadian economist and politician, 56th Secretary of State for Canada (d. 1999)
    • 1944 – Lew Soloff, American trumpet player, composer, and actor (d. 2015)
    • 1944 – Willem van Hanegem, Dutch footballer and coach
    • 1945 – Alan Hull, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1995)
    • 1946 – Brenda Blethyn, English actress
    • 1946 – Sandy Duncan, American actress, singer, and dancer
    • 1946 – J. Geils, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2017)
    • 1947 – Peter Osgood, English footballer (d. 2006)
    • 1947 – Peter Strauss, American actor and producer
    • 1948 – Pierre Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
    • 1948 – Jennifer O’Neill, American model and actress
    • 1949 – Eddie Hemmings, English cricketer
    • 1949 – Ivana Trump, Czech-American socialite and model
    • 1950 – Walter Becker, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2017)
    • 1950 – Peter Marinello, Scottish footballer, forward
    • 1950 – Tony Wilson, English journalist and businessman (d. 2007)
    • 1951 – Edward Albert, American actor (d. 2006)
    • 1951 – Gordon Brown, Scottish historian and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
    • 1951 – Randy California, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1997)
    • 1951 – Phil Neal, English footballer and manager
    • 1953 – Poison Ivy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1954 – Jon Brant, American bass player
    • 1954 – Anthony Head, English actor
    • 1954 – Patty Hearst, American actress and author
    • 1957 – Glen Hanlon, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1959 – Scott Brayton, American race car driver (d. 1996)
    • 1959 – David Corn, American journalist and author
    • 1959 – Bill Gullickson, American baseball player
    • 1960 – Joel Hodgson, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
    • 1960 – Cándido Muatetema Rivas, Equatoguinean politician and diplomat, Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea (d. 2014)
    • 1961 – Steve Lundquist, American swimmer
    • 1962 – Dwayne McDuffie, American author, screenwriter, and producer, co-founded Milestone Media (d. 2011)
    • 1963 – Charles Barkley, American basketball player and sportscaster
    • 1963 – Ian Brown, English singer-songwriter and musician
    • 1963 – Joakim Nystrom, Swedish tennis player
    • 1963 – Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Greek lawyer and politician, Greek Minister of Health
    • 1963 – Cui Yongyuan, Chinese former anchor
    • 1964 – Willie Garson, American actor and director
    • 1964 – Tom Harris, Scottish journalist and politician
    • 1964 – Jeff Maggert, American golfer
    • 1964 – French Stewart, American actor
    • 1966 – Cindy Crawford, American model and businesswoman
    • 1967 – Paul Accola, Swiss alpine skier
    • 1967 – Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1994)
    • 1967 – David Herman, American comedian and actor
    • 1967 – Andrew Shue, American actor and activist, founded Do Something
    • 1967 – Lili Taylor, American actress
    • 1967 – Tom Waddle, American football player and sportscaster
    • 1969 – Kjell Ove Hauge, Norwegian school principal and track and field athlete
    • 1969 – Siniša Mihajlović, Serbian footballer and manager
    • 1969 – Danis Tanović, Bosnian director and screenwriter
    • 1971 – Calpernia Addams, American actress, author, and activist
    • 1971 – Jari Litmanen, Finnish footballer
    • 1971 – Joost van der Westhuizen, South African rugby player (d. 2017)
    • 1972 – Neil Primrose, Scottish drummer
    • 1974 – Karim Bagheri, Iranian footballer and manager
    • 1975 – Liván Hernández, Cuban baseball player
    • 1975 – Brian Littrell, American singer-songwriter and actor
    • 1975 – Niclas Wallin, Swedish ice hockey player
    • 1977 – Stephon Marbury, American basketball player
    • 1977 – Gail Kim, Canadian professional wrestler
    • 1978 – Lauren Ambrose, American actress and producer
    • 1980 – Imanol Harinordoquy, French rugby player
    • 1980 – Luis Gabriel Rey, Colombian footballer
    • 1981 – Tony Hibbert, English footballer
    • 1981 – Fred Jackson, American football player
    • 1982 – Jason Hirsh, American baseball player
    • 1983 – Jose Morales, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
    • 1983 – Justin Verlander, American baseball player
    • 1984 – Brian McCann, American baseball player
    • 1984 – Trevor Noah, South African comedian, actor, and television host
    • 1984 – Ramzee Robinson, American football player
    • 1985 – Ryan Sweeney, American baseball player
    • 1985 – Julia Volkova, Russian singer and actress
    • 1985 – TJ Kirk, American YouTube personality and podcast host
    • 1987 – Luke Burgess, English rugby league player
    • 1987 – Miles Teller, American actor
    • 1988 – Kealoha Pilares, American football player
    • 1988 – Ki Bo-bae, South Korean archer
    • 1988 – Rihanna, Barbadian-American singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1988 – Jiah Khan, Indian singer and actress (d. 2013)
    • 1989 – Daly Cherry-Evans, Australian rugby league player
    • 1990 – Ciro Immobile, Italian footballer
    • 1991 – Hidilyn Diaz, Filipino weightlifter
    • 1991 – Giovanni Kyeremateng, Italian footballer
    • 1991 – Angelique van der Meet, Dutch tennis player
    • 1991 – Antonio Pedroza, English-Mexican footballer
    • 1991 – Jocelyn Rae, English-Scottish tennis player
    • 1992 – Kyle Turner, Australian rugby league player
    • 1994 – Elseid Hysaj, Albanian footballer

    Deaths on February 20

    • 789 – Leo of Catania, saint and bishop of Catania (b. 709)
    • 922 – Theodora, Byzantine empress
    • 1054 – Yaroslav the Wise, grand prince of Veliky Novgorod and Kiev (b. 978)
    • 1154 – Saint Wulfric of Haselbury (b. c. 1080)
    • 1171 – Conan IV, Duke of Brittany (b. 1138)
    • 1194 – Tancred, King of Sicily (b. 1138)
    • 1258 – Al-Musta’sim, Iraqi caliph (b. 1213)
    • 1408 – Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English politician, Earl Marshal of the United Kingdom (b. 1342)
    • 1431 – Pope Martin V (b. 1368)
    • 1458 – Lazar Branković, Despot of Serbia
    • 1513 – King John of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (b. 1455)
    • 1524 – Tecun Uman, Mayan ruler (b. 1500)
    • 1579 – Nicholas Bacon, English politician (b. 1509)
    • 1618 – Philip William, Prince of Orange (b. 1554)
    • 1626 – John Dowland, English lute player and composer (b. 1563)
    • 1762 – Tobias Mayer, German astronomer and academic (b. 1723)
    • 1771 – Jean-Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan, French geophysicist and astronomer (b. 1678)
    • 1773 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (b. 1701)
    • 1778 – Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and scholar (b. 1711)
    • 1790 – Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1741)
    • 1806 – Lachlan McIntosh, Scottish-American general and politician (b. 1725)
    • 1810 – Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean rebel leader (b. 1767)
    • 1850 – Valentín Canalizo, Mexican general and politician. 14th President (1843–1844) (b. 1794)
    • 1862 – William Wallace Lincoln, American son of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1850)
    • 1871 – Paul Kane, Irish-Canadian painter (b. 1810)
    • 1893 – P. G. T. Beauregard, American general (b. 1818)
    • 1895 – Frederick Douglass, American author and activist (b. 1818)
    • 1900 – Washakie, American tribal leader (b. 1798)
    • 1907 – Henri Moissan, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
    • 1910 – Boutros Ghali, Egyptian educator and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1846)
    • 1916 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish journalist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1844)
    • 1920 – Jacinta Marto, Portuguese saint (b. 1910)
    • 1920 – Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (b. 1856)
    • 1933 – Takiji Kobayashi, Japanese writer (b. 1903)
    • 1936 – Max Schreck, German actor (b. 1879)
    • 1957 – Sadri Maksudi Arsal, Turkish scholar and politician (b. 1878)
    • 1961 – Percy Grainger, Australian-American pianist and composer (b. 1882)
    • 1963 – Jacob Gade, Danish violinist and composer(b. 1879)
    • 1966 – Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (b. 1885)
    • 1968 – Anthony Asquith, English director and screenwriter (b. 1902)
    • 1969 – Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (b. 1883)
    • 1972 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
    • 1972 – Walter Winchell, American journalist and actor (b. 1897)
    • 1976 – René Cassin, French lawyer and judge, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
    • 1976 – Kathryn Kuhlman, healing evangelist, known for belief in Holy Spirit (b. 1907)
    • 1981 – Nicolas de Gunzburg, French-American banker and publisher (b. 1904)
    • 1987 – Wayne Boring, American illustrator (b. 1905)
    • 1992 – A. J. Casson, Canadian painter (b. 1898)
    • 1992 – Dick York, American actor (b. 1928)
    • 1993 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian businessman, founded Lamborghini (b. 1916)
    • 1993 – Ernest L. Massad, American general (b. 1908)
    • 1996 – Solomon Asch, American psychologist and academic (b. 1907)
    • 1996 – Audrey Munson, American model (b. 1891)
    • 1996 – Toru Takemitsu, Japanese pianist, guitarist, and composer (b. 1930)
    • 1999 – Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)
    • 1999 – Gene Siskel, American journalist and critic (b. 1946)
    • 2000 – Anatoly Sobchak, Russian lawyer and politician, 1st Governor of Saint Petersburg (b. 1937)
    • 2001 – Rosemary DeCamp, American actress (b. 1910)
    • 2001 – Donella Meadows, American environmentalist, author, and academic (b. 1941)
    • 2003 – Mushaf Ali Mir, Pakistani air marshal (b. 1947)
    • 2003 – Maurice Blanchot, French philosopher and author (b. 1907)
    • 2003 – Orville Freeman, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 29th Governor of Minnesota (b. 1918)
    • 2005 – Sandra Dee, American actress (b. 1942)
    • 2005 – Josef Holeček, Czechoslovakian canoeist (b. 1921)2005 – John Raitt, American actor and singer (b. 1917)
    • 2005 – Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (b. 1937)
    • 2006 – Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster (b. 1919)
    • 2006 – Lucjan Wolanowski, Polish journalist and author (b. 1920)
    • 2008 – Emily Perry, English actress and dancer (b. 1907)
    • 2009 – Larry H. Miller, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1944)
    • 2010 – Alexander Haig, American general and politician, 59th United States Secretary of State (b. 1924)
    • 2012 – Knut Torbjørn Eggen, Norwegian footballer and manager (b. 1960)
    • 2012 – Katie Hall, American educator and politician (b. 1938)
    • 2013 – Kenji Eno, Japanese game designer and composer (b. 1970)
    • 2013 – David S. McKay, American biochemist and geologist (b. 1936)
    • 2013 – Antonio Roma, Argentinian footballer (b. 1932)
    • 2014 – Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan jurist and politician, President of Uruguay (b. 1923)
    • 2014 – Walter D. Ehlers, American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – Garrick Utley, American journalist (b. 1939)
    • 2015 – Govind Pansare, Indian author and activist (b. 1933)
    • 2015 – Henry Segerstrom, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1923)
    • 2015 – John C. Willke, American physician, author, and activist (b. 1925)
    • 2016 – Fernando Cardenal, Nicaraguan priest and politician (b. 1934)
    • 2017 – Vitaly Churkin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United Nations (b. 1952)
    • 2017 – Mildred Dresselhaus, American physicist (b. 1930)
    • 2017 – Steve Hewlett, British journalist (b. 1958)
    • 2020 – Joaquim Pina Moura, Portuguese Minister of Economy and Treasury and MP

    Holidays and observances on February 20

    • Christian feast day:
      • Eleutherius of Tournai
      • Eucherius of Orléans
      • Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto
      • Frederick Douglass (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • Wulfric of Haselbury
      • February 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Day of Heavenly Hundred Heroes (Ukraine)
    • World Day of Social Justice

  • February 19 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.
    • 356 – Emperor Constantius II issues a decree closing all pagan temples in the Roman Empire.
    • 1594 – Having already been elected to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1587, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, having succeeded his father John III of Sweden in 1592.
    • 1600 – The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.
    • 1649 – The Second Battle of Guararapes takes place, effectively ending Dutch colonization efforts in Brazil.
    • 1674 – England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.
    • 1726 – The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.
    • 1807 – Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert.
    • 1819 – British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands and claims them in the name of King George III.
    • 1836 – King William IV signs Letters Patent establishing the Province of South Australia.
    • 1846 – In Austin, Texas the newly formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following the annexation of Texas by the United States.
    • 1847 – The first group of rescuers reaches the Donner Party.
    • 1859 – Daniel E. Sickles, a New York Congressman, is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity.
    • 1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
    • 1884 – More than sixty tornadoes strike the Southern United States, one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.
    • 1913 – Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country.
    • 1915 – World War I: The first naval attack on the Dardanelles begins when a strong Anglo-French task force bombards Ottoman artillery along the coast of Gallipoli.
    • 1937 – Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Ethiopian nationalists of Eritrean origin attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.
    • 1942 – World War II: Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing 243 people.
    • 1942 – World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps.
    • 1943 – World War II: Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.
    • 1945 – World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima: About 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.
    • 1948 – The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.
    • 1949 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
    • 1953 – Book censorship in the United States: The Georgia Literature Commission is established.
    • 1954 – Transfer of Crimea: The Soviet Politburo of the Soviet Union orders the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
    • 1959 – The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which is formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.
    • 1960 – China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.
    • 1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique reawakens the feminist movement in the United States as women’s organizations and consciousness raising groups spread.
    • 1965 – Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and a communist spy of the North Vietnamese Viet Minh, along with Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Trần Thiện Khiêm, all Catholics, attempt a coup against the military junta of the Buddhist Nguyễn Khánh.
    • 1976 – Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald Ford’s Proclamation 4417.
    • 1978 – Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.
    • 1985 – William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave the hospital.
    • 1985 – Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.
    • 1986 – Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers in eastern Sri Lanka.
    • 1989 – Flying Tiger Line flight 66 crashes into a hill near Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Malaysia, killing four.
    • 2002 – NASA’s Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
    • 2003 – An Ilyushin Il-76 military aircraft crashes near Kerman, Iran, killing 275.
    • 2006 – A methane explosion in a coal mine near Nueva Rosita, Mexico, kills 65 miners.
    • 2011 – The debut exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck, containing the largest collection of Tang dynasty artifacts found in one location, begins in Singapore.
    • 2012 – Forty-four people are killed in a prison brawl in Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico.

    Births on February 19

    • 1461 – Domenico Grimani, Italian cardinal (d. 1523)
    • 1473 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1543)
    • 1497 – Matthäus Schwarz, German fashion writer (d. 1574)
    • 1519 – Froben Christoph of Zimmern, German author of the Zimmern Chronicle (d. 1566)
    • 1526 – Carolus Clusius, Flemish botanist and academic (d. 1609)
    • 1532 – Jean-Antoine de Baïf, French poet (d. 1589)
    • 1552 – Melchior Klesl, Austrian cardinal (d. 1630)
    • 1594 – Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (d. 1612)
    • 1611 – Andries de Graeff, Dutch politician (d. 1678)
    • 1630 – Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Indian warrior king and the founder of Maratha Empire
    • 1660 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (d. 1742)
    • 1717 – David Garrick, English actor, playwright, and producer (d. 1779)
    • 1743 – Luigi Boccherini, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1805)
    • 1798 – Allan MacNab, Canadian soldier, lawyer, and politician, Premier of Canada West (d. 1862)
    • 1800 – Émilie Gamelin, Canadian nun and social worker, founded the Sisters of Providence (d. 1851)
    • 1804 – Carl von Rokitansky, German physician, pathologist, and philosopher (d. 1878)
    • 1821 – August Schleicher, German linguist and academic (d. 1868)
    • 1833 – Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1906)
    • 1838 – Lydia Thompson, British burlesque performer (d. 1908)
    • 1841 – Elfrida Andrée, Swedish organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1929)
    • 1855 – Nishinoumi Kajirō I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 16th Yokozuna (d. 1908)
    • 1859 – Svante Arrhenius, Swedish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)
    • 1865 – Sven Hedin, Swedish geographer and explorer (d. 1952)
    • 1869 – Hovhannes Tumanyan, Armenian-Russian poet and author (d. 1923)
    • 1872 – Johan Pitka, Estonian admiral (d. 1944)
    • 1876 – Constantin Brâncuși, Romanian-French sculptor, painter, and photographer (d. 1957)
    • 1877 – Gabriele Münter, German painter (d. 1962)
    • 1878 – Harriet Bosse, Swedish–Norwegian actress (d. 1961)
    • 1880 – Álvaro Obregón, Mexican general and politician, 39th President of Mexico (d. 1928)
    • 1886 – José Abad Santos, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 5th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines (d. 1942)
    • 1888 – José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian lawyer and poet (d. 1928)
    • 1893 – Cedric Hardwicke, English actor and director (d. 1964)
    • 1895 – Louis Calhern, American actor (d. 1956)
    • 1896 – André Breton, French poet and author (d. 1966)
    • 1897 – Alma Rubens, American actress (d. 1931)
    • 1899 – Lucio Fontana, Argentinian-Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1968)
    • 1902 – Kay Boyle, American novelist, short story writer, and educator (d. 1992)
    • 1904 – Havank, Dutch journalist and author (d. 1964)
    • 1904 – Elisabeth Welch, American-English singer and actress (d. 2003)
    • 1911 – Merle Oberon, Indian-American actress (d. 1979)
    • 1912 – Dorothy Janis, American actress (d. 2010)
    • 1912 – Saul Chaplin, American composer (d. 1997)
    • 1913 – Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza (d. 2007)
    • 1913 – Frank Tashlin, American animator and screenwriter (d. 1972)
    • 1914 – Thelma Kench, New Zealand Olympic sprinter (d. 1985)
    • 1915 – John Freeman, English lawyer, politician, and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States (d. 2014)
    • 1916 – Eddie Arcaro, American jockey and sportscaster (d. 1997)
    • 1917 – Carson McCullers, American novelist, short story writer, playwright, and essayist (d. 1967)
    • 1918 – Fay McKenzie, American actress (d. 2019)
    • 1920 – C. Z. Guest, American actress, fashion designer, and author (d. 2003)
    • 1920 – Jaan Kross, Estonian author and poet (d. 2007)
    • 1920 – George Rose, English actor and singer (d. 1988)
    • 1922 – Władysław Bartoszewski, Polish journalist and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2015)
    • 1924 – David Bronstein, Ukrainian chess player and theoretician (d. 2006)
    • 1924 – Lee Marvin, American actor (d. 1987)
    • 1926 – György Kurtág, Hungarian composer and academic
    • 1927 – Philippe Boiry, French journalist (d. 2014)
    • 1929 – Jacques Deray, French director and screenwriter (d. 2003)
    • 1930 – John Frankenheimer, American director and producer (d. 2002)
    • 1930 – Kasinathuni Viswanath, Indian actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1932 – Joseph P. Kerwin, American captain, physician, and astronaut
    • 1935 – Dave Niehaus, American sportscaster (d. 2010)
    • 1935 – Russ Nixon, American MLB catcher and coach (d. 2016)
    • 1936 – Sam Myers, American singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
    • 1936 – Frederick Seidel, American poet
    • 1937 – Terry Carr, American author and educator (d. 1987)
    • 1937 – Norm O’Neill, Australian cricketer and sportscaster (d. 2008)
    • 1938 – Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama (d. 1989)
    • 1939 – Erin Pizzey, English activist and author, founded Refuge
    • 1940 – Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmen engineer and politician, 1st President of Turkmenistan (d. 2006)
    • 1940 – Smokey Robinson, American singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1940 – Bobby Rogers, American singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
    • 1941 – David Gross, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1941 – Jenny Tonge, Baroness Tonge, English politician
    • 1942 – Cyrus Chothia, English biochemist and emeritus scientist at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (d. 2019)
    • 1942 – Paul Krause, American football player and politician
    • 1942 – Howard Stringer, Welsh businessman
    • 1942 – Will Provine, American biologist, historian, and academic (d. 2015)
    • 1943 – Lou Christie, American singer-songwriter
    • 1943 – Homer Hickam, American author and engineer
    • 1943 – Tim Hunt, English biochemist and academic, Nobel laureate
    • 1944 – Les Hinton, English-American journalist and businessman
    • 1945 – Yuri Antonov, Uzbek-Russian singer-songwriter
    • 1946 – Paul Dean, Canadian guitarist
    • 1946 – Peter Hudson, Australian footballer and coach
    • 1946 – Karen Silkwood, American technician and activist (d. 1974)
    • 1947 – Jackie Curtis, American actress and playwright (d. 1985)
    • 1947 – Tim Shadbolt, New Zealand businessman and politician, 42nd Mayor of Invercargill
    • 1948 – Mark Andes, American singer-songwriter and bass player
    • 1948 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch sociologist, academic, and politician (d. 2002)
    • 1948 – Tony Iommi, English guitarist and songwriter
    • 1949 – Danielle Bunten Berry, American game designer and programmer (d. 1998)
    • 1949 – Eddie Hardin, English singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2015)
    • 1949 – Barry Lloyd, English footballer, midfielder and manager
    • 1949 – William Messner-Loebs, American author and illustrator
    • 1950 – Juice Leskinen, Finnish singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
    • 1950 – Andy Powell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1951 – Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, Pakistani scholar and politician, founder of Minhaj-ul-Quran
    • 1952 – Ryū Murakami, Japanese novelist and filmmaker
    • 1952 – Rodolfo Neri Vela, Mexican engineer and astronaut
    • 1952 – Gary Seear, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2018)
    • 1952 – Dave Cheadle, American baseball player (d. 2012)
    • 1952 – Amy Tan, American novelist, essayist, and short story writer
    • 1952 – Danilo Türk, Slovene academic and politician, 3rd President of Slovenia
    • 1953 – Corrado Barazzutti, Italian tennis player
    • 1953 – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentine lawyer and politician, former President of Argentina and current Vice President of Argentina
    • 1953 – Massimo Troisi, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1994)
    • 1954 – Sócrates, Brazilian footballer and manager (d. 2011)
    • 1954 – Francis Buchholz, German bass player
    • 1954 – Michael Gira, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1955 – Jeff Daniels, American actor and playwright
    • 1956 – Kathleen Beller, American actress
    • 1956 – Peter Holsapple, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1956 – Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1956 – Dave Wakeling, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1957 – Falco, Austrian singer-songwriter, rapper, and musician (d. 1998)
    • 1957 – Dave Stewart, American baseball player and coach
    • 1957 – Ray Winstone, English actor
    • 1958 – Tommy Cairo, American wrestler
    • 1958 – Helen Fielding, English author and screenwriter
    • 1958 – Steve Nieve, English keyboard player and composer
    • 1959 – Roger Goodell, American businessman
    • 1960 – Prince Andrew, Duke of York
    • 1960 – John Paul Jr., American race car driver
    • 1961 – Justin Fashanu, English footballer (d. 1998)
    • 1961 – Ernie Gonzalez, American golfer
    • 1962 – Hana Mandlíková, Czech-Australian tennis player and coach
    • 1963 – Seal, English singer-songwriter
    • 1963 – Jessica Tuck, American actress
    • 1964 – Doug Aldrich, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1964 – Jonathan Lethem, American novelist, essayist, and short story writer
    • 1965 – Jon Fishman, American drummer
    • 1965 – Clark Hunt, American businessman
    • 1965 – Leroy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1966 – Justine Bateman, American actress and producer
    • 1966 – Paul Haarhuis, Dutch tennis player and coach
    • 1966 – Eduardo Xol, American designer and author
    • 1967 – Benicio del Toro, Puerto Rican-American actor, director, and producer
    • 1968 – Frank Watkins, American bass player (d. 2015)
    • 1968 – Prince Markie Dee, American rapper and actor
    • 1969 – Burton C. Bell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1969 – Helena Guergis, Canadian businesswoman and politician
    • 1970 – Joacim Cans, Swedish singer-songwriter
    • 1971 – Miguel Batista, Dominican baseball player and poet
    • 1971 – Richard Green, Australian golfer
    • 1971 – Jeff Kinney, American author and illustrator
    • 1972 – Francine Fournier, American wrestler and manager
    • 1972 – Sunset Thomas, American pornographic actress
    • 1975 – Daniel Adair, Canadian drummer and producer
    • 1975 – Daewon Song, South Korean-American skateboarder, co-founded Almost Skateboards
    • 1977 – Ola Salo, Swedish singer-songwriter and keyboard player
    • 1977 – Andrew Ross Sorkin, American journalist and author
    • 1977 – Gianluca Zambrotta, Italian footballer and manager
    • 1978 – Ben Gummer, English scholar and politician
    • 1978 – Immortal Technique, Peruvian-American rapper
    • 1979 – Steve Cherundolo, American soccer player and manager
    • 1980 – Dwight Freeney, American football player
    • 1980 – Ma Lin, Chinese table tennis player
    • 1980 – Mike Miller, American basketball player
    • 1981 – Beth Ditto, American singer
    • 1983 – Kotoōshū Katsunori, Bulgarian sumo wrestler
    • 1983 – Mika Nakashima, Japanese singer and actress
    • 1983 – Ryan Whitney, American ice hockey player
    • 1984 – Chris Richardson, American singer-songwriter
    • 1985 – Haylie Duff, American actress and singer
    • 1986 – Kyle Chipchura, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1986 – Marta, Brazilian footballer
    • 1986 – Maria Mena, Norwegian singer-songwriter
    • 1986 – Michael Schwimer, American baseball player
    • 1987 – Anna Cappellini, Italian ice dancer
    • 1988 – Shawn Matthias, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1988 – Seth Morrison, American guitarist
    • 1989 – Sone Aluko, Anglo-Nigerian international footballer, forward/winger
    • 1991 – Christoph Kramer, German national footballer
    • 1991 – Trevor Bayne, American race car driver
    • 1992 – Camille Kostek, American model
    • 1993 – Mauro Icardi, Argentinian footballer
    • 1993 – Victoria Justice, American actress and singer
    • 1994 – Sam Lisone, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player
    • 1994 – Tiina Trutsi, Estonian footballer
    • 1995 – Nikola Jokić, Serbian basketball player
    • 1998 – Katharina Gerlach, German tennis player
    • 2001 – David Mazouz, American actor
    • 2004 – Millie Bobby Brown, English actress

    Deaths on February 19

    • 197 – Clodius Albinus, Roman usurper (b. 150)
    • 446 – Leontius of Trier, Bishop of Trier
    • 1133 – Irene Doukaina, Byzantine wife of Alexios I Komnenos (b. 1066)
    • 1275 – Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Sufi philosopher and poet (b. 1177)
    • 1300 – Munio of Zamora, General of the Dominican Order
    • 1408 – Thomas Bardolf, 5th Baron Bardolf, English rebel
    • 1414 – Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1353)
    • 1445 – Leonor of Aragon, queen of Portugal (b. 1402)
    • 1491 – Enno I, Count of East Frisia, German noble (b. 1460)
    • 1553 – Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1511)
    • 1602 – Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercœur (b. 1558)
    • 1605 – Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer (b. 1550)
    • 1622 – Henry Savile, English scholar and politician (b. 1549)
    • 1672 – Charles Chauncy, English-American minister, theologian, and academic (b. 1592)
    • 1709 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shōgun (b. 1646)
    • 1716 – Dorothe Engelbretsdatter, Norwegian author and poet (b. 1634)
    • 1785 – Mary, Countess of Harold, English aristocrat and philanthropist (b. 1701)
    • 1789 – Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and politician, 7th Governor of Delaware (b. 1738)
    • 1799 – Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, and sailor (b. 1733)
    • 1806 – Elizabeth Carter, English poet and translator (b. 1717)
    • 1837 – Georg Büchner, German-Swiss poet and playwright (b. 1813)
    • 1837 – Thomas Burgess, English bishop and philosopher (b. 1756)
    • 1887 – Multatuli, Dutch-German author and civil servant (b. 1820)
    • 1897 – Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician and academic (b. 1815)
    • 1915 – Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian philosopher and politician (b. 1866)
    • 1916 – Ernst Mach, Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher (b. 1838)
    • 1927 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer and educator (b. 1847)
    • 1928 – George Howard Earle Jr., American lawyer and businessman (b. 1856)
    • 1936 – Billy Mitchell, American general and pilot (b. 1879)
    • 1945 – John Basilone, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1916)
    • 1951 – André Gide, French novelist, essayist, and dramatist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
    • 1952 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
    • 1953 – Richard Rushall, British businessman (b. 1864)
    • 1957 – Maurice Garin, Italian-French cyclist (b. 1871)
    • 1959 – Willard Miller, American sailor, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1877)
    • 1962 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek-American pathologist, invented the Pap smear (b. 1883)
    • 1969 – Madge Blake, American actress (b. 1899)
    • 1970 – Ralph Edward Flanders, (b. 1890) US Senator from Vermont.
    • 1972 – John Grierson, Scottish director and producer (b. 1898)
    • 1972 – Lee Morgan, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1938)
    • 1973 – Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (b. 1892)
    • 1977 – Anthony Crosland, English captain and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (b. 1918)
    • 1977 – Mike González, Cuban baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1890)
    • 1980 – Bon Scott, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
    • 1983 – Alice White, American actress (b. 1904)
    • 1988 – André Frédéric Cournand, French-American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
    • 1992 – Tojo Yamamoto, American wrestler and manager (b. 1927)
    • 1994 – Derek Jarman, English director and set designer (b. 1942)
    • 1996 – Charlie Finley, American businessman (b. 1918)
    • 1997 – Leo Rosten, Polish-American author and academic (b. 1908)
    • 1997 – Deng Xiaoping, Chinese politician, 1st Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China (b. 1904)
    • 1998 – Grandpa Jones, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (b. 1913)
    • 1999 – Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, Iraqi cleric (b. 1943)
    • 2000 – Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian-New Zealand painter and illustrator (b. 1928)
    • 2001 – Stanley Kramer, American director and producer (b. 1913)
    • 2001 – Charles Trenet, French singer-songwriter (b. 1913)
    • 2002 – Sylvia Rivera, American transgender LGBT activist (b. 1951)
    • 2003 – Johnny Paycheck, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1938)
    • 2007 – Janet Blair, American actress and singer (b. 1921)
    • 2007 – Celia Franca, English-Canadian dancer and director, founded the National Ballet of Canada (b. 1921)
    • 2008 – Yegor Letov, Russian singer-songwriter (b. 1964)
    • 2008 – Lydia Shum, Chinese-Hong Kong actress and singer (b. 1945)
    • 2009 – Kelly Groucutt, English singer and bass player (b. 1945)
    • 2011 – Ollie Matson, American sprinter and football player (b. 1930)
    • 2012 – Ruth Barcan Marcus, American philosopher and logician (b. 1921)
    • 2012 – Jaroslav Velinský, Czech author and songwriter (b. 1932)
    • 2012 – Vitaly Vorotnikov, Russian politician, 27th Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1926)
    • 2013 – Armen Alchian, American economist and academic (b. 1914)
    • 2013 – Park Chul-soo, South Korean director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1948)
    • 2013 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1937)
    • 2013 – Donald Richie, American-Japanese author and critic (b. 1924)
    • 2013 – Eugene Whelan, Canadian farmer and politician, 22nd Canadian Minister of Agriculture (b. 1924)
    • 2014 – Kresten Bjerre, Danish footballer and manager (b. 1946)
    • 2014 – Dale Gardner, American captain and astronaut (b. 1948)
    • 2014 – Valeri Kubasov, Russian engineer and astronaut (b. 1935)
    • 2015 – Harold Johnson, American boxer (b. 1928)
    • 2015 – Nirad Mohapatra, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1947)
    • 2015 – Harris Wittels, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1984)
    • 2016 – Umberto Eco, Italian novelist, literary critic, and philosopher (b. 1932)
    • 2016 – Harper Lee, American author (b. 1926)
    • 2016 – Chiaki Morosawa, Japanese anime screenwriter (b. 1959)
    • 2016 – Samuel Willenberg, Polish-Israeli sculptor and painter (b. 1923)
    • 2017 – Larry Coryell, American jazz guitarist (b. 1943)
    • 2019 – Clark Dimond, American musician and author (b. 1941)
    • 2019 – Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer (b. 1933)
    • 2020 – José Mojica Marins, Brazilian filmmaker, actor, composer, screenwriter, and television horror host Coffin Joe. (b. 1936)
    • 2020 – Pop Smoke, American rapper (b. 1999)

    Holidays and observances on February 19

    • Armed Forces Day (Mexico)
    • Brâncuși Day (Romania)
    • Christian feast day:
      • Barbatus of Benevento
      • Boniface of Brussels
      • Conrad of Piacenza
      • Lucy Yi Zhenmei (one of Martyrs of Guizhou)
      • February 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Commemoration of Vasil Levski (Bulgaria)
    • Flag Day (Turkmenistan)
    • Shivaji Jayanti (Maharashtra, India)9

  • February 18 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
    • 1268 – The Battle of Wesenberg is fought between the Livonian Order and Dovmont of Pskov.
    • 1332 – Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
    • 1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.
    • 1637 – Eighty Years’ War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
    • 1781 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).
    • 1791 – Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.
    • 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.
    • 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.
    • 1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
    • 1861 – With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
    • 1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
    • 1878 – John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
    • 1885 – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.
    • 1900 – Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.
    • 1906 – Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
    • 1911 – The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) away.
    • 1930 – While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
    • 1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
    • 1932 – The Empire of Japan creates the independent state of Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) free from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.
    • 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed “Nanking International Rescue Committee”, and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.
    • 1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.
    • 1943 – World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
    • 1943 – World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.
    • 1946 – Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors
    • 1947 – First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to mountains.
    • 1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.
    • 1955 – Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot “Wasp” is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.
    • 1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
    • 1957 – Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.
    • 1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
    • 1970 – The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
    • 1972 – The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state’s death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.
    • 1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden “flight” on top of a Boeing 747.
    • 1979 – Richard Petty wins a then-record sixth Daytona 500 after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash on the final lap of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.
    • 1983 – Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
    • 1991 – The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
    • 2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
    • 2001 – Sampit conflict: Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, ultimately resulting in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.
    • 2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
    • 2004 – Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.
    • 2007 – Samjhauta Express bombings occurred around midnight in Diwana near the Indian city of Panipat, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of New Delhi, India.
    • 2010 – WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.
    • 2013 – Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.
    • 2014 – At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kiev, Ukraine.

    Births on February 18

    • 1201 – Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist and writer (d. 1274)
    • 1372 – Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar (d. 1448)
    • 1486 – Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Indian monk and saint (d. 1534)
    • 1516 – Mary I of England (d. 1558)
    • 1530 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese daimyō (d. 1578)
    • 1543 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1608)
    • 1547 – Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī, founder of Isfahan School of Islamic Philosophy (d. 1621)
    • 1559 – Isaac Casaubon, Swiss philologist and scholar (d. 1614)
    • 1589 – Henry Vane the Elder, English politician (d. 1655)
    • 1589 – Maarten Gerritsz Vries, Dutch explorer (d. 1646)
    • 1602 – Per Brahe the Younger, Swedish soldier and politician, Governor-General of Finland (d. 1680)
    • 1609 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1674)
    • 1626 – Francesco Redi, Italian physician (d. 1697)
    • 1632 – Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1692)
    • 1642 – Marie Champmeslé, French actress (d. 1698)
    • 1658 – Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French philosopher and author (d. 1743)
    • 1732 – Johann Christian Kittel, German organist and composer (d. 1809)
    • 1745 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, invented the battery (d. 1827)
    • 1814 – Samuel Fenton Cary, American lawyer and politician (d. 1900)
    • 1817 – Lewis Armistead, American general (d. 1863)
    • 1836 – Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Indian mystic and yogi (d. 1886)
    • 1838 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1916)
    • 1846 – Wilson Barrett, English actor, playwright, and manager (d. 1904)
    • 1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American stained glass artist (d. 1933)
    • 1849 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author, playwright, and politician (d. 1906)
    • 1850 – George Henschel, German-English singer-songwriter, pianist, and conductor (d. 1934)
    • 1855 – Jean Jules Jusserand, French historian, author, and diplomat, French Ambassador to the United States (d. 1932)
    • 1860 – Anders Zorn, Swedish artist (d. 1920)
    • 1862 – Charles M. Schwab, American businessman, co-founded Bethlehem Steel (d. 1939)
    • 1867 – Hedwig Courths-Mahler, German writer (d. 1950)
    • 1870 – William Laurel Harris, American painter and author (d. 1924)
    • 1871 – Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)
    • 1883 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek philosopher, author, and playwright (d. 1957)
    • 1885 – Henri Laurens, French sculptor and illustrator (d. 1954)
    • 1893 – Maksim Haretski, Belarusian prose writer, journalist and activist (d. 1938)
    • 1890 – Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
    • 1890 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
    • 1892 – Wendell Willkie, American captain, lawyer, and politician (d. 1944)
    • 1896 – Li Linsi, Chinese educator and diplomat (d. 1970)
    • 1898 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and businessman, founded Ferrari (d. 1988)
    • 1898 – Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet and politician, 1st Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (d. 1980)
    • 1899 – Arthur Bryant, English historian and journalist (d. 1985)
    • 1903 – Nikolai Podgorny, Ukrainian engineer and politician (d. 1983)
    • 1905 – Queenie Leonard, English actress (d. 2002)
    • 1906 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician and academic (d. 1980)
    • 1909 – Wallace Stegner, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 1993)
    • 1914 – Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter and fiddler (d. 2000)
    • 1915 – Phyllis Calvert, English actress (d. 2002)
    • 1916 – Jean Drapeau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 37th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1999)
    • 1919 – Jack Palance, American boxer and actor (d. 2006)
    • 1920 – Bill Cullen, American game show panelist and host (d. 1990)
    • 1920 – Rolande Falcinelli, French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue (d. 2006)
    • 1921 – Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher (d. 1998)
    • 1921 – Oscar Feltsman, Ukrainian-Russian pianist and composer (d. 2013)
    • 1922 – Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada (d. 1997)
    • 1922 – Helen Gurley Brown, American journalist and author (d. 2012)
    • 1922 – Allan Melvin, American actor (d. 2008)
    • 1925 – George Kennedy, American actor (d. 2016)
    • 1925 – Halit Kıvanç, Turkish journalist and sportscaster
    • 1925 – Ghafar Baba, Malaysian politician (d. 2006)
    • 1926 – Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator (d. 1976)
    • 1927 – Luis Arroyo, Puerto Rican-American baseball player, manager, and scout (d. 2016)
    • 1927 – Fazal Mahmood, Pakistani cricketer (d. 2005)
    • 1927 – John Warner, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 61st United States Secretary of the Navy
    • 1928 – Rex Mossop, Australian rugby player and sportscaster (d. 2011)
    • 1929 – Len Deighton, English historian and author
    • 1929 – André Mathieu, Canadian pianist and composer (d. 1968)
    • 1931 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist, co-created The Wizard of Id (d. 2007)
    • 1931 – Toni Morrison, American novelist and editor, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2019).
    • 1931 – Swraj Paul, Baron Paul, Indian-English businessman and philanthropist
    • 1931 – John Ryden, Scottish footballer, centre half (d. 2013)
    • 1931 – Bob St. Clair, American football player (d. 2015)
    • 1932 – Miloš Forman, Czech-American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
    • 1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese-American multimedia artist and musician
    • 1933 – Bobby Robson, English international footballer, inside forward and international manager (d. 2009)
    • 1933 – Mary Ure, Scottish-English actress (d. 1975)
    • 1934 – Skip Battin, American singer-songwriter and bass player (d. 2003)
    • 1934 – Dave Dunmore, English footballer, centre forward
    • 1934 – Audre Lorde, American poet, essayist, memoirist, and activist (d. 1992)
    • 1934 – Paco Rabanne, Spanish-French fashion designer
    • 1936 – Jean M. Auel, American author
    • 1938 – Manny Mota, Dominican baseball player, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1938 – Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 50th Yokozuna (d. 2017)
    • 1938 – István Szabó, Hungarian director and screenwriter
    • 1939 – Claude Ake, Nigerian political scientist and academic (d. 1996)
    • 1939 – Bobby Hart, American singer-songwriter
    • 1939 – Marlos Nobre, Brazilian composer
    • 1940 – Fabrizio De André, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1999)
    • 1940 – Prue Leith, English restaurateur and journalist
    • 1941 – Herman Santiago, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter
    • 1941 – Irma Thomas, American singer
    • 1943 – Graeme Garden, Scottish comedian, actor, and author
    • 1944 – Pat Bowlen, American businessman (d. 2019)
    • 1945 – Judy Rankin, American golfer and sportscaster
    • 1946 – Michael Buerk, English journalist
    • 1947 – Dennis DeYoung, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
    • 1947 – Eliot Engel, American educator and politician
    • 1948 – Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress
    • 1948 – Bruce Francis, Australian cricketer
    • 1948 – Keith Knudsen, American singer-songwriter and drummer (d. 2005)
    • 1949 – Gary Ridgway, American criminal, Green River Killer
    • 1950 – Nana Amba Eyiaba I, Ghanaian queen mother and advocate
    • 1950 – Cristina Ferrare, American model, actress, author, and television host
    • 1950 – John Hughes, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2009)
    • 1950 – Cybill Shepherd, American actress and singer
    • 1951 – Queen Komal of Nepal
    • 1951 – Isabel Preysler, Filipino-Spanish journalist
    • 1952 – Randy Crawford, American jazz and R&B singer
    • 1952 – Maurice Lucas, American basketball player and coach (d. 2010)
    • 1952 – Juice Newton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1952 – Bernard Valcourt, Canadian lawyer and politician
    • 1953 – Robbie Bachman, Canadian rock drummer
    • 1953 – Derek Pellicci, English-Australian drummer
    • 1954 – Charlie Fowler, American mountaineer, author, and photographer (d. 2006)
    • 1954 – Paul Rendall, English rugby player
    • 1954 – John Travolta, American actor and producer
    • 1955 – Cheetah Chrome, American musician
    • 1955 – Miles Tredinnick, English singer-songwriter and playwright
    • 1955 – Lisa See, American writer and novelist
    • 1956 – Ted Gärdestad, Swedish singer-songwriter (d. 1997)
    • 1956 – Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian businessman and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Georgia
    • 1957 – Marita Koch, German sprinter
    • 1957 – Vanna White, American model and game show host
    • 1959 – Jayne Atkinson, English-American actress
    • 1959 – James Metzger, American businessman and philanthropist
    • 1960 – Andy Moog, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1960 – Greta Scacchi, Italian-Australian actress
    • 1963 – Rob Andrew, English rugby player and cricketer
    • 1964 – Matt Dillon, American actor and director
    • 1964 – Paul Hanley, English drummer and songwriter
    • 1965 – Dr. Dre, American rapper, producer, and actor
    • 1966 – Phillip DeFreitas, Dominican-English cricketer
    • 1967 – Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
    • 1967 – Colin Jackson, Welsh sprinter and hurdler
    • 1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress
    • 1969 – Tomaž Humar, Slovenian mountaineer (d. 2009)
    • 1969 – Alexander Mogilny, Russian-American ice hockey player
    • 1970 – Susan Egan, American actress and singer
    • 1970 – James H. Fowler, American political scientist and author
    • 1970 – Raine Maida, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1970 – Massimo Taibi, Italian footballer
    • 1971 – Thomas Bjorn, Danish golfer
    • 1971 – Merritt Gant, American guitarist
    • 1972 – Fabian Picardo, Gibraltarian lawyer and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Gibraltar
    • 1973 – Shawn Estes, American baseball player and sportscaster
    • 1973 – Claude Makélélé, French footballer and manager
    • 1974 – Carrie Ann Baade, American painter and academic
    • 1974 – Jamey Carroll, American baseball player
    • 1974 – Radek Černý, Czech international footballer, goalkeeper
    • 1974 – Ruby Dhalla, Canadian chiropractor and politician
    • 1974 – Julia Butterfly Hill, American environmentalist and author
    • 1974 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russian tennis player
    • 1974 – Jillian Michaels, American fitness trainer and author
    • 1975 – Gary Neville, English footballer and coach
    • 1976 – Leilani Munter, American race car driver and environmentalist
    • 1976 – Chanda Rubin, American tennis player
    • 1976 – Bernadette Sembrano, Filipino journalist
    • 1978 – Josip Šimunić, Croatian footballer
    • 1979 – Tinu Yohannan, Indian cricketer
    • 1980 – Aivar Anniste, Estonian footballer
    • 1980 – Nik Antropov, Kazakhstani-Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1980 – Regina Spektor, Russian-American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
    • 1981 – Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
    • 1981 – Alex Ríos, American baseball player
    • 1981 – Ivan Sproule, Northern Irish footballer
    • 1981 – Larry Sweeney, American wrestler and manager (d. 2011)
    • 1982 – Juelz Santana, American rapper and actor
    • 1982 – Christian Tiffert, German footballer
    • 1983 – Jermaine Jenas, English international footballer, midfielder, pundit
    • 1984 – Carlos Kameni, Cameroonian footballer
    • 1985 – Anton Ferdinand, English footballer
    • 1985 – Lee Boyd Malvo, Jamaican-American murderer
    • 1985 – Jos van Emden, Dutch cyclist
    • 1986 – Robert DeLong, American singer-songwriter
    • 1986 – Marc Torrejón, Spanish footballer
    • 1987 – Cristian Tănase, Romanian footballer
    • 1988 – Changmin, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
    • 1990 – Didi Gregorius, Dutch baseball player
    • 1990 – Cody Hodgson, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1991 – Sebastian Neumann, German footballer
    • 1991 – Henry Surtees, English race car driver (d. 2009)
    • 1994 – Jake Trbojevic, Australian rugby league player
    • 1994 – J-Hope, South Korean rapper, dancer, singer-songwriter

    Deaths on February 18

    • 675 – Colmán, bishop of Lindisfarne
    • 814 – Angilbert, Frankish monk and diplomat (b. 760)
    • 901 – Thābit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and physician (b. 826)
    • 999 – Gregory V, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 972)
    • 1139 – Yaropolk II, Grand Prince of Kiev (b. 1082)
    • 1218 – Berthold V, duke of Zähringen (b. 1160)
    • 1225 – Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk, Norman nobleman
    • 1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor (b. 1215)
    • 1379 – Albert II, duke of Mecklenburg (b. 1318)
    • 1397 – Enguerrand VII, French nobleman (b. 1340)
    • 1405 – Timur, Turco-Mongol ruler (b. 1336)
    • 1455 – Fra Angelico, Italian priest and painter (b. 1395)
    • 1478 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, English nobleman (b. 1449)
    • 1502 – Hedwig Jagiellon, duchess of Bavaria (b. 1457)
    • 1535 – Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer, and theologian (b. 1486)
    • 1546 – Martin Luther, German priest and theologian, leader of the Protestant Reformation (b. 1483)
    • 1564 – Michelangelo, Italian sculptor and painter (b. 1475)
    • 1654 – Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French author (b. 1594)
    • 1658 – John Villiers, 1st Viscount Purbeck, English courtier (b. c. 1591)
    • 1683 – Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)
    • 1695 – William Phips, governor of Massachusetts (b. 1650)
    • 1712 – Louis, Dauphin of France, (b. 1682)
    • 1743 – Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, Italian noble (b. 1667)
    • 1748 – Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)
    • 1772 – Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, Danish politician (b. 1712)
    • 1778 – Joseph Marie Terray, French economist and politician, Controller-General of Finances (b. 1715)
    • 1780 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian pastor and poet (b. 1714)
    • 1788 – John Whitehurst, English geologist and clockmaker (b. 1713)
    • 1803 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet and educator (b. 1719)
    • 1851 – Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician and academic (b. 1804)
    • 1873 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian activist, founded the Internal Revolutionary Organization (b. 1837)
    • 1880 – Nikolay Zinin, Russian organic chemist (b. 1812)
    • 1893 – Serranus Clinton Hastings, American lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Justice of California (b. 1814)
    • 1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (b. 1812)
    • 1906 – John Batterson Stetson, American businessman, founded the John B. Stetson Company (b. 1830)
    • 1910 – Lucy Stanton, American activist (b. 1831)
    • 1911 – Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (b. 1854)
    • 1915 – Frank James, American soldier and criminal (b. 1843)
    • 1923 – Alois Rašín, Czech economist and politician (b. 1867)
    • 1931 – Milan Šufflay, Croatian historian, author, and politician (b. 1879)
    • 1931 – Louis Wolheim, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1880)
    • 1933 – James J. Corbett, American boxer and actor (b. 1866)
    • 1938 – David King Udall, American missionary and politician (b. 1851)
    • 1942 – Albert Payson Terhune, American journalist and author (b. 1872)
    • 1945 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906)
    • 1956 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)
    • 1957 – Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan rebel leader (b. 1920)
    • 1957 – Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and academic (b. 1877)
    • 1960 – Gertrude Vanderbilt, American stage actress (b. c. 1885)
    • 1964 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Canadian inventor and businessman, founded Bombardier Inc. (b. 1907)
    • 1966 – Robert Rossen, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
    • 1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic (b. 1904)
    • 1969 – Dragiša Cvetković, Serbian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1893)
    • 1973 – Frank Costello, Italian-American gangster (b. 1891)
    • 1976 – Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator (b. 1926)
    • 1977 – Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)
    • 1978 – Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)
    • 1981 – Jack Northrop, American engineer and businessman, founded the Northrop Corporation (b. 1895)
    • 1982 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (b. 1895)
    • 1989 – Mildred Burke, American wrestler and trainer (b. 1915)
    • 1990 – Richard de Zoysa, Sri Lankan journalist (b. 1958)
    • 1993 – Jacqueline Hill, English actress (b. 1929)
    • 1995 – Eddie Gilbert, American wrestler (b. 1961)
    • 1995 – Bob Stinson, American guitarist (b. 1959)
    • 1997 – Emily Hahn, American journalist and author (b. 1905)
    • 1998 – Harry Caray, American sportscaster (b. 1914)
    • 2001 – Balthus, Polish-Swiss painter and illustrator (b. 1908)
    • 2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American stock car racer and team owner (b. 1951)
    • 2001 – Eddie Mathews, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1931)
    • 2003 – Isser Harel, Belarusian-Israeli intelligence officer (b. 1912)
    • 2006 – Bill Cowsill, American singer and guitarist (b. 1948)
    • 2008 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French director, screenwriter, and novelist (b. 1922)
    • 2009 – Tayeb Salih, Sudanese journalist and author (b. 1929)
    • 2009 – Miika Tenkula, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1974)
    • 2010 – John Babcock, Canadian soldier (b. 1900)
    • 2012 – George Brizan, Grenadian politician, 9th Prime Minister of Grenada (b. 1942)
    • 2012 – Elizabeth Connell, South African-English soprano (b. 1946)
    • 2013 – Kevin Ayers, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1944)
    • 2013 – Jerry Buss, American chemist and businessman (b. 1933)
    • 2014 – Mavis Gallant, Canadian-French author and playwright (b. 1922)
    • 2014 – Kristof Goddaert, Belgian cyclist (b. 1986)
    • 2014 – Nikhil Baran Sengupta, Indian art director and production designer (b. 1943)
    • 2014 – Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-American singer (b. 1914)
    • 2015 – Cass Ballenger, American lawyer and politician (b. 1926)
    • 2015 – Jerome Kersey, American basketball player and coach (b. 1962)
    • 2016 – Abdul Rashid Khan, Indian singer-songwriter (b. 1908)
    • 2016 – Pantelis Pantelidis, Greek singer (b. 1983)
    • 2017 – Ivan Koloff, Canadian wrestler (b. 1942)
    • 2017 – Norma McCorvey, American abortion rights activist; Plaintiff, Roe v. Wade (b. 1947)
    • 2017 – Clyde Stubblefield, American drummer (b. 1943)
    • 2019 – Alessandro Mendini, Italian designer and architect (b.1931)

    Holidays and observances on February 18

    • Christian feast day:
      • Bernadette Soubirous (France)
      • Colmán of Lindisfarne
      • Flavian of Constantinople
      • Geltrude Comensoli
      • Simeon of Jerusalem (Western Christianity)
      • February 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Dialect Day (Amami Islands, Japan)
    • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965.
    • Kurdish Students Union Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)
    • National Democracy Day, celebrates the 1951 overthrow of the Rana dynasty (Nepal)
    • Wife’s Day (Konudagur) (Iceland)

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

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

    Births on February 16

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

    Deaths on February 16

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

    Holidays and observances on February 16

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

  • February 11 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.
    • AD 55 – The death under mysterious circumstances of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman empire, on the eve of his coming of age clears the way for Nero to become Emperor.
    • 1534 – Henry VIII of England is recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.
    • 1659 – The assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back with heavy losses.
    • 1794 – First session of United States Senate opens to the public.
    • 1808 – Jesse Fell burns anthracite on an open grate as an experiment in heating homes with coal.
    • 1812 – Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry is accused of “gerrymandering” for the first time.
    • 1823 – Carnival tragedy of 1823: About 110 boys are killed during a stampede at the Convent of the Minori Osservanti in Valletta, Malta.
    • 1826 – University College London is founded as University of London.
    • 1840 – Gaetano Donizetti’s opera La fille du régiment receives its first performance in Paris, France.
    • 1843 – Giuseppe Verdi’s opera I Lombardi alla prima crociata receives its first performance in Milan, Italy.
    • 1855 – Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia.
    • 1856 – The Kingdom of Awadh is annexed by the British East India Company and Wajid Ali Shah, the king of Awadh, is deposed.
    • 1858 – Bernadette Soubirous’s first vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France.
    • 1861 – American Civil War: The United States House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
    • 1873 – King Amadeo I of Spain abdicates.
    • 1889 – Meiji Constitution of Japan is adopted.
    • 1903 – Anton Bruckner’s 9th Symphony receives its first performance in Vienna, Austria.
    • 1906 – Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos.
    • 1919 – Friedrich Ebert (SPD), is elected President of Germany.
    • 1929 – Kingdom of Italy and the Vatican sign the Lateran Treaty.
    • 1937 – The Flint sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers trade union.
    • 1938 – BBC Television produces the world’s first ever science fiction television programme, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R., that coined the term “robot”.
    • 1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of Bukit Timah is fought in Singapore.
    • 1953 – Cold War: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower denies all appeals for clemency for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
    • 1953 – The Soviet Union breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel.
    • 1959 – The Federation of Arab Emirates of the South is created as a protectorate of the United Kingdom.
    • 1970 – Japan launches Ohsumi, becoming the fourth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster.
    • 1971 – Cold War: the Seabed Arms Control Treaty opened for signature outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.
    • 1979 – The Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
    • 1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner.
    • 1990 – Buster Douglas, a 42:1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in ten rounds at Tokyo to win boxing’s world Heavyweight title.
    • 1997 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
    • 1999 – Pluto crosses Neptune’s orbit, ending a nearly 20-year period when it was closer to the Sun than the gas giant; Pluto is not expected to interact with Neptune’s orbit again until 2231.
    • 2001 – A Dutch programmer launched the Anna Kournikova virus infecting millions of emails via a trick photo of the tennis star.
    • 2008 – Rebel East Timorese soldiers seriously wound President José Ramos-Horta. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado is killed in the attack.
    • 2011 – Arab Spring: The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 17 days of protests.
    • 2013 – The Vatican confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI would resign the papacy as a result of his advanced age.
    • 2014 – A military transport plane crashes in a mountainous area of Oum El Bouaghi Province in eastern Algeria, killing 77 people.
    • 2015 – A university student was murdered as she resisted an attempted rape in Turkey, sparking nationwide protests and public outcry against harassment and violence against women.
    • 2016 – A man shoots six people dead at an education center in Jizan Province, Saudi Arabia.
    • 2017 – North Korea test fires a ballistic missile across the Sea of Japan.
    • 2018 – Saratov Airlines Flight 703 crashes near Moscow, Russia with 71 deaths and no survivors.

    Births on February 11

    • 1380 – Poggio Bracciolini, Italian scholar and translator (d. 1459)
    • 1466 – Elizabeth of York (d. 1503)
    • 1535 – Pope Gregory XIV (d. 1591)
    • 1568 – Honoré d’Urfé, French author and playwright (d. 1625)
    • 1649 – William Carstares, Scottish minister and academic (d. 1715)
    • 1657 – Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, French poet and playwright (d. 1757)
    • 1708 – Egidio Duni, Italian composer (d. 1775)
    • 1764 – Joseph Chénier, French poet and playwright (d. 1811)
    • 1776 – Ioannis Kapodistrias, Greek politician, 1st Governor of Greece (d. 1831)
    • 1800 – Henry Fox Talbot, English photographer and politician, invented the calotype (d. 1877)
    • 1802 – Lydia Maria Child, American journalist, author, and activist (d. 1880)
    • 1805 – Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, Native American-French Canadian explorer (d. 1866)
    • 1812 – Alexander H. Stephens, American lawyer and politician, Vice President of the Confederate States of America (d. 1883)
    • 1813 – Otto Ludwig, German author, playwright, and critic (d. 1865)
    • 1821 – Auguste Mariette, French archaeologist and scholar (d. 1881)
    • 1830 – Hans Bronsart von Schellendorff, Prussian pianist and composer (d. 1913)
    • 1833 – Melville Fuller, American lawyer and jurist, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1910)
    • 1839 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physicist (d. 1903)
    • 1845 – Ahmet Tevfik Pasha, Ottoman soldier and politician, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1936)
    • 1847 – Thomas Edison, American engineer and businessman, developed the light bulb and phonograph (d. 1931)
    • 1855 – Ellen Day Hale, American painter and author (b. 1855)
    • 1860 – Rachilde, French author and playwright (d. 1953)
    • 1863 – John F. Fitzgerald, American politician; Mayor of Boston (d. 1950)
    • 1864 – Louis Bouveault, French chemist (d. 1909)
    • 1869 – Helene Kröller-Müller, German-Dutch art collector and philanthropist, founded the Kröller-Müller Museum (d. 1939)
    • 1869 – Else Lasker-Schüler, German poet and author (d. 1945)
    • 1874 – Elsa Beskow, Swedish author and illustrator (d. 1953)
    • 1881 – Carlo Carrà, Italian painter (d. 1966)
    • 1897 – Emil Leon Post, Polish-American mathematician and logician (d.1954)
    • 1898 – Leo Szilard, Hungarian-American physicist and academic (d. 1964)
    • 1900 – Ellen Broe, Danish nurse, pioneer in nursing education (d. 1994)
    • 1900 – Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher and scholar (d. 2002)
    • 1900 – Jōsei Toda, Japanese educator and activist (d. 1958)
    • 1902 – Arne Jacobsen, Danish architect, designed Radisson Blu Royal Hotel (d. 1971)
    • 1904 – Keith Holyoake, New Zealand farmer and politician, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1983)
    • 1904 – Lucile Randon, French Supercentenarian
    • 1908 – Philip Dunne, American screenwriter (d. 1992)
    • 1908 – Vivian Fuchs, English explorer (d. 1999)
    • 1909 – Max Baer, American boxer and actor (d. 1959)
    • 1909 – Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1993)
    • 1912 – Rudolf Firkušný, Czech-American pianist and educator (d. 1994)
    • 1914 – Matt Dennis, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2002)
    • 1914 – Josh White, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1969)
    • 1915 – Patrick Leigh Fermor, English soldier, author, and scholar (d. 2011)
    • 1915 – Richard Hamming, American mathematician and academic (d. 1998)
    • 1917 – Sidney Sheldon, American author and screenwriter (d. 2007)
    • 1920 – Farouk I, King of Egypt (d. 1965)
    • 1920 – Daniel F. Galouye, American author (d. 1976)
    • 1920 – Billy Halop, American actor (d. 1976)
    • 1920 – Daniel James, Jr., American general and pilot (d. 1978)
    • 1921 – Lloyd Bentsen, American colonel and politician, United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 2006)
    • 1921 – Ottavio Missoni, Italian hurdler and fashion designer, founded Missoni (d. 2013)
    • 1923 – Antony Flew, English philosopher and academic (d. 2010)
    • 1924 – Budge Patty, American tennis player
    • 1925 – Virginia E. Johnson, American psychologist and academic (d. 2013)
    • 1925 – Kim Stanley, American actress (d. 2001)
    • 1926 – Paul Bocuse, French chef (d. 2018)
    • 1926 – Leslie Nielsen, Canadian-American actor and producer (d. 2010)
    • 1930 – Roy De Forest, American painter and academic (d. 2007).
    • 1932 – Dennis Skinner, English miner and politician
    • 1934 – Mel Carnahan, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, Governor of Missouri (d. 2000)
    • 1934 – Tina Louise, American actress and singer
    • 1934 – Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and politician, Military leader of Panama (d. 2017)
    • 1934 – Mary Quant, British fashion designer
    • 1934 – David Taylor, English veterinarian and television host (d. 2013)
    • 1935 – Gene Vincent, American singer and guitarist (d. 1971)
    • 1936 – Burt Reynolds, American actor and director (d. 2018)
    • 1937 – Ian Gow, British Member of Parliament who was assassinated by the IRA (d. 1990)
    • 1937 – Bill Lawry, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
    • 1937 – Eddie Shack, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1937 – Phillip Walker, American singer and guitarist (d. 2010)
    • 1938 – Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer (d. 2018)
    • 1939 – Gerry Goffin, American songwriter (d. 2014)
    • 1940 – Mick Staton, American soldier and politician (d. 2014)
    • 1941 – Sérgio Mendes, Brazilian pianist and composer
    • 1942 – Otis Clay, American singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
    • 1943 – Joselito, Spanish singer and actor
    • 1943 – Alan Rubin, American trumpet player (d. 2011)
    • 1944 – Mike Oxley, American lawyer and politician (d. 2016)
    • 1944 – Joy Williams, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist
    • 1946 – Ian Porterfield, Scottish footballer and manager (d. 2007)
    • 1947 – Yukio Hatoyama, Japanese engineer and politician and Prime Minister of Japan
    • 1947 – Derek Shulman, Scottish singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1951 – Mike Leavitt, American politician, 14th Governor of Utah
    • 1953 – Philip Anglim, American actor
    • 1953 – Jeb Bush, American banker, politician and Governor of Florida
    • 1953 – Tom Veryzer, American baseball player (d. 2014)
    • 1954 – Wesley Strick, American director and screenwriter
    • 1956 – Didier Lockwood, French violinist (d. 2018)
    • 1959 – Roberto Moreno, Brazilian race car driver
    • 1960 – Richard Mastracchio, American engineer and astronaut
    • 1962 – Tammy Baldwin, American lawyer and politician
    • 1962 – Sheryl Crow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1964 – Sarah Palin, American journalist, politician and Governor of Alaska
    • 1964 – Ken Shamrock, American martial artist and wrestler
    • 1965 – Vicki Wilson, Australian netball player
    • 1968 – Mo Willems, American author and illustrator
    • 1969 – Jennifer Aniston, American actress and producer
    • 1969 – Andreas Hilfiker, Swiss footballer
    • 1969 – John Salako, Nigerian-English footballer, manager, and sportscaster
    • 1971 – Damian Lewis, English actor
    • 1972 – Steve McManaman, English footballer
    • 1973 – Varg Vikernes, Norwegian guitarist and songwriter
    • 1974 – Nick Barmby, English international footballer, midfielder and manager
    • 1974 – D’Angelo, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1974 – Jaroslav Špaček, Czech ice hockey player and coach
    • 1975 – Andy Lally, American race car driver
    • 1975 – Callum Thorp, Australian cricketer
    • 1975 – Jacque Vaughn, American basketball player and coach
    • 1976 – Tony Battie, American basketball player and sportscaster
    • 1979 – Brandy Norwood, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
    • 1982 – Ľubomíra Kalinová, Slovak biathlete
    • 1982 – Neil Robertson, Australian snooker player
    • 1983 – Rafael van der Vaart, Dutch international footballer, midfielder
    • 1984 – Maarten Heisen, Dutch sprinter
    • 1984 – Marco Marcato, Italian cyclist
    • 1984 – Maxime Talbot, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1985 – Šárka Strachová, Czech skier
    • 1987 – Luca Antonelli, Italian footballer
    • 1987 – Juanmi Callejón, Spanish footballer
    • 1987 – Ellen van Dijk, Dutch cyclist
    • 1987 – Brian Matusz, American baseball player
    • 1987 – Jan Smeekens, Dutch speed skater
    • 1988 – Vlad Moldoveanu, Romanian basketball player
    • 1990 – Javier Aquino, Mexican footballer
    • 1991 – Nikola Mirotic, Spanish basketball player
    • 1992 – Lasse Norman Hansen, Danish track and road cyclist
    • 1993 – Ben McLemore, American basketball player
    • 1994 – Dansby Swanson, American baseball player
    • 1996 – Jonathan Tah, German footballer

    Deaths on February 11

    • AD 55 – Britannicus, Roman son of Claudius (b. 41)
    • 244 – Gordian III, Roman emperor (b. 225)
    • 641 – Heraclius, Byzantine emperor (b. 575)
    • 731 – Pope Gregory II (b. 669)
    • 824 – Pope Paschal I
    • 1141 – Hugh of Saint Victor, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1096)
    • 1503 – Elizabeth of York (b. 1466)
    • 1626 – Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician and astronomer (b. 1548)
    • 1650 – René Descartes, French mathematician and philosopher (b. 1596)
    • 1755 – Francesco Scipione, marchese di Maffei, Italian archaeologist, playwright, and critic (b. 1675)
    • 1763 – William Shenstone, English poet and gardener (b. 1714)
    • 1795 – Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet and composer (b. 1740)
    • 1829 – Alexander Griboyedov, Russian poet, playwright, and composer (b. 1795)
    • 1862 – Elizabeth Siddal, English poet and artist’s model (b. 1829)
    • 1868 – Léon Foucault, French physicist and academic (b. 1819)
    • 1898 – Félix María Zuloaga, Mexican general and unconstitutional interim president (1858 and 1860-1862) (b. 1813)
    • 1901 – Milan I of Serbia (b. 1855)
    • 1917 – Oswaldo Cruz, Brazilian physician and epidemiologist (b. 1872)
    • 1918 – Alexey Kaledin, Russian general (b. 1861)
    • 1931 – Charles Algernon Parsons, English-Irish engineer, invented the steam turbine (b. 1854)
    • 1940 – John Buchan, Scottish-Canadian historian and politician, Governor General of Canada (b. 1875)
    • 1940 – Ellen Day Hale, American painter and author (b. 1855)
    • 1942 – Jamnalal Bajaj, Indian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1884)
    • 1947 – Martin Klein, Estonian wrestler and coach (b. 1884)
    • 1948 – Sergei Eisenstein, Russian director and screenwriter (b. 1898)
    • 1949 – Axel Munthe, Swedish doctor (b. 1857)
    • 1958 – Ernest Jones, Welsh neurologist and psychoanalyst (b. 1879)
    • 1963 – John Olof Dahlgren, Swedish-American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1872)
    • 1963 – Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1932)
    • 1967 – A. J. Muste, Dutch-American minister and activist (b. 1885)
    • 1968 – Howard Lindsay, American playwright (b. 1889)
    • 1973 – J. Hans D. Jensen, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
    • 1975 – Richard Ratsimandrava, Malagasy colonel and politician, President of Madagascar (b. 1931)
    • 1976 – Lee J. Cobb, American actor (b. 1911)
    • 1976 – Alexander Lippisch, German pilot and engineer (b. 1894)
    • 1977 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Indian lawyer and politician, President of India (b. 1905)
    • 1977 – Louis Beel, Dutch academic and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1902)
    • 1978 – James Bryant Conant, American chemist and academic (b. 1893)
    • 1978 – Harry Martinson, Swedish novelist, essayist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
    • 1982 – Eleanor Powell, American actress and dancer (b. 1912)
    • 1985 – Henry Hathaway, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1898)
    • 1986 – Frank Herbert, American journalist and author (b. 1920)
    • 1989 – George O’Hanlon, American actor and voice artist (b. 1912)
    • 1993 – Robert W. Holley, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
    • 1994 – Neil Bonnett, American race car driver (b. 1946)
    • 1994 – Sorrell Booke, American lieutenant, actor, and director (b. 1930)
    • 1994 – William Conrad, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1920)
    • 1994 – Paul Feyerabend, Austrian-Swiss philosopher and academic (b. 1924)
    • 1996 – Amelia Rosselli, Italian poet and author (b. 1930)
    • 2000 – Lord Kitchner, Trinidadian singer (b. 1922)
    • 2000 – Roger Vadim, French director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1928)
    • 2002 – Frankie Crosetti, American baseball player and coach (b. 1910)
    • 2002 – Barry Foster, English actor (b. 1931)
    • 2004 – Shirley Strickland, Australian runner (b. 1925)
    • 2005 – Jack L. Chalker, American author (b. 1944)
    • 2006 – Peter Benchley, American author and screenwriter (b. 1940)
    • 2006 – Ken Fletcher, Australian tennis player (b. 1940)
    • 2006 – Jackie Pallo, English wrestler and actor (b. 1926)
    • 2008 – Tom Lantos, American lawyer and politician (b. 1928)
    • 2008 – Frank Piasecki, American engineer (b. 1919)
    • 2009 – Estelle Bennett, American singer (b. 1941)
    • 2009 – Willem Johan Kolff, Dutch-American physician and academic (b. 1911)
    • 2010 – Heward Grafftey, Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1928)
    • 2010 – Alexander McQueen, English fashion designer, founder of his eponymous brand (b. 1969)
    • 2011 – Chuck Tanner, American baseball player and manager (b. 1928)
    • 2012 – Siri Bjerke, Norwegian politician, Norwegian Minister of the Environment (b. 1958)
    • 2012 – Aharon Davidi, Israeli general (b. 1927)
    • 2012 – Whitney Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (b. 1963)
    • 2013 – Rick Huxley, English bass player (b. 1940)
    • 2014 – Alice Babs, Swedish singer and actress (b. 1924)
    • 2014 – Tito Canepa, Dominican-American painter (b. 1916)
    • 2014 – Fernando González Pacheco, Colombian journalist and actor (b. 1932)
    • 2015 – Roger Hanin, French actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1925)
    • 2015 – Bob Simon, American journalist (b. 1941)
    • 2015 – Jerry Tarkanian, American basketball player and coach (b. 1930)
    • 2016 – Kevin Randleman, American mixed martial artist and wrestler (b. 1971)
    • 2016 – Zeng Xuelin, Thai-Chinese footballer and manager (b. 1929)
    • 2017 – Fab Melo, Brazilian basketball player (b. 1990)
    • 2017 – Jaap Rijks, Dutch Olympian (b. 1919)
    • 2018 – Vic Damone, American singer, songwriter and actor (b. 1928)
    • 2018 – Asma Jahangir, Pakistani human-rights lawyer and social activist (b. 1952)
    • 2018 – Jan Maxwell, American stage and television actress (b. 1956)
    • 2018 – Qazi Wajid, Pakistani drama actor, writer and artist (b. 1930)

    Holidays and observances on February 11

    • Christian feast day:
      • Blaise Eastern Orthodox liturgics
      • Cædmon, first recorded Christian poet in England, circa 680 CE (Anglicanism)
      • Gobnait
      • Gregory II
      • Lazarus of Milan
    • European 112 Day (European Union)
    • Armed Forces Day (Liberia)
    • Evelio Javier Day (Panay Island, the Philippines)
    • Feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes (Catholic Church), and its related observance
      • World Day of the Sick (Roman Catholic Church)
    • Inventors’ Day (United States)
    • National Foundation Day (Japan)
    • Youth Day (Cameroon)
    • International Day of Women and Girls in Science (UN Women)

  • February 9 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

    February 9 in History

    • 474 – Zeno is crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
    • 1003 – Boleslaus III is restored to authority with armed support from Bolesław I the Brave of Poland.
    • 1555 – Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake.
    • 1621 – Gregory XV becomes Pope, the last Pope elected by acclamation.
    • 1654 – The Capture of Fort Rocher takes place during the Anglo-Spanish War.
    • 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.
    • 1778 – Rhode Island becomes the fourth US state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
    • 1788 – The Habsburg Empire joins the Russo-Turkish War in the Russian camp.
    • 1825 – After no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes in the US presidential election of 1824, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as President of the United States.
    • 1849 – The new Roman Republic is declared.
    • 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
    • 1870 – US president Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau.
    • 1889 – US president Grover Cleveland signs a bill elevating the United States Department of Agriculture to a Cabinet-level agency.
    • 1895 – William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.
    • 1900 – The Davis Cup competition is established.
    • 1904 – Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Port Arthur concludes.
    • 1907 – The Mud March is the first large procession organised by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
    • 1913 – A group of meteors is visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.
    • 1920 – Under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty, international diplomacy recognizes Norwegian sovereignty over Arctic archipelago Svalbard, and designates it as demilitarized.
    • 1922 – Brazil becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
    • 1934 – The Balkan Entente is formed.
    • 1941 – World War II: The Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa, Italy, is struck by a bomb which fails to detonate.
    • 1942 – World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
    • 1942 – Year-round Daylight saving time (aka War Time) is re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.
    • 1943 – World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.
    • 1945 – World War II: Battle of the Atlantic: HMS Venturer sinks U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.
    • 1945 – World War II: A force of Allied aircraft unsuccessfully attacked a German destroyer in Førdefjorden, Norway.
    • 1950 – Second Red Scare: US Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.
    • 1951 – Korean War: The two-day Geochang massacre begins as a battalion of the 11th Division of the South Korean Army kills 719 unarmed citizens in Geochang, in the South Gyeongsang district of South Korea
    • 1959 – The R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile, becomes operational at Plesetsk, USSR.
    • 1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a “record-busting” audience of 73 million viewers across the USA.
    • 1965 – The United States Marine Corps sends a MIM-23 Hawk missile battalion to South Vietnam, the first American troops in-country without an official advisory or training mission.
    • 1971 – The 6.5–6.7 Mw  Sylmar earthquake hits the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 64 and injuring 2,000.
    • 1971 – Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be voted into the USA’s Baseball Hall of Fame.
    • 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.
    • 1975 – The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.
    • 1976 – Aeroflot Flight 3739, a Tupolev Tu-104, crashes during takeoff from Irkutsk Airport, killing 24.
    • 1978 – The Budd Company unveils its first SPV-2000 self-propelled railcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
    • 1986 – Halley’s Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System.
    • 1991 – Voters in Lithuania vote for independence.
    • 1996 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares the end to its 18-month ceasefire and explodes a large bomb in London’s Canary Wharf, killing two people.
    • 1996 – Copernicium is discovered, by Sigurd Hofmann, Victor Ninov et al.
    • 2016 – Two passenger trains collided in the German town of Bad Aibling in the state of Bavaria. Twelve people died, and 85 others were injured.
    • 2018 – Winter Olympics: Opening ceremony is performed in Pyeongchang County in South Korea.

    Births on February 9

    • 1060 – Honorius II, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1130)
    • 1274 – Louis of Toulouse, French bishop (d. 1297)
    • 1313 – Maria of Portugal, Queen of Castile, Portuguese infanta (d. 1357)
    • 1344 – Meinhard III, count of Tyrol (d. 1363)
    • 1441 – Ali-Shir Nava’i, Turkic poet, linguist, and painter (d. 1501)
    • 1533 – Shimazu Yoshihisa, Japanese daimyō (d. 1611)
    • 1579 – Johannes Meursius, Dutch classical scholar (d. 1639)
    • 1651 – Procopio Cutò, French entrepreneur (d. 1727)
    • 1666 – George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, Scottish field marshal (d. 1737)
    • 1711 – Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla, Spanish sailor and commander (d. 1762)
    • 1737 – Thomas Paine, English-American philosopher, author, and activist (d. 1809)
    • 1741 – Henri-Joseph Rigel, German-French composer (d. 1799)
    • 1748 – Sir John Duckworth, 1st Baronet, English admiral and politician, Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (d. 1817)
    • 1763 – Louis I, Grand Duke of Baden (d. 1830)
    • 1769 – George W. Campbell, Scottish-American lawyer and politician, 5th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1848)
    • 1773 – William Henry Harrison, American general and politician, 9th President of the United States (d. 1841)
    • 1775 – Farkas Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician and academic (d. 1856)
    • 1781 – Johann Baptist von Spix, German biologist and explorer (d. 1826)
    • 1783 – Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet and translator (d. 1852)
    • 1789 – Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, German engineer, invented Gabelsberger shorthand (d. 1849)
    • 1800 – Hyrum Smith, American religious leader (d. 1844)
    • 1814 – Samuel J. Tilden, American lawyer and politician, 28th Governor of New York (d. 1886)
    • 1815 – Federico de Madrazo, Spanish painter (d.1894)
    • 1834 – Felix Dahn, German lawyer, historian, and author (d. 1912)
    • 1826 – Keʻelikōlani, Hawaiian royal and governor (d. 1883)
    • 1837 – José Burgos, Filipino priest and revolutionary (d. 1872)
    • 1839 – Silas Adams, American colonel, lawyer, and politician (d. 1896)
    • 1846 – Wilhelm Maybach, German engineer and businessman, founded Maybach (d. 1929)
    • 1846 – Whitaker Wright, English businessman and financier (d. 1904)
    • 1847 – Hugh Price Hughes, Welsh-English clergyman and theologian (d. 1902)
    • 1854 – Aletta Jacobs, Dutch physician and suffrage activist (d. 1929)
    • 1856 – Hara Takashi, Japanese politician, 10th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1921)
    • 1859 – Akiyama Yoshifuru, Japanese general (d. 1930)
    • 1863 – Anthony Hope, English author and playwright (d. 1933)
    • 1864 – Miina Härma, Estonian organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1941)
    • 1865 – Mrs. Patrick Campbell, English-French actress (d. 1940)
    • 1865 – Erich von Drygalski, German geographer and geophysicist (d. 1949)
    • 1867 – Natsume Sōseki, Japanese author and poet (d. 1916)
    • 1871 – Howard Taylor Ricketts, American pathologist and physician (d. 1910)
    • 1874 – Amy Lowell, American poet, critic, and educator (d. 1925)
    • 1876 – Arthur Edward Moore, New Zealand-Australian politician, 23rd Premier of Queensland (d. 1963)
    • 1878 – Jack Kirwan, Irish international footballer (d. 1959)
    • 1880 – Lipót Fejér, Hungarian mathematician and academic (d. 1959)
    • 1883 – Jules Berry, French actor and director (d. 1951)
    • 1885 – Alban Berg, Austrian composer and educator (d. 1935)
    • 1885 – Clarence H. Haring, American historian and author (d. 1960)
    • 1889 – Larry Semon, American actor, producer, director and screenwriter (d. 1928)
    • 1891 – Ronald Colman, English-American actor (d. 1958)
    • 1892 – Peggy Wood, American actress (d. 1978)
    • 1893 – Georgios Athanasiadis-Novas, Greek lawyer and politician, 163rd Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1987)
    • 1895 – Hermann Brill, German lawyer and politician, 8th Minister-President of Thuringia (d. 1959)
    • 1896 – Alberto Vargas, Peruvian-American painter and illustrator (d. 1982)
    • 1897 – Charles Kingsford Smith, Australian captain and pilot (d. 1935)
    • 1898 – Jūkichi Yagi, Japanese poet and educator (d. 1927)
    • 1901 – Brian Donlevy, American actor (d. 1972)
    • 1901 – James Murray, American actor (d. 1936)
    • 1905 – David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter, English hurdler and politician (d. 1981)
    • 1906 – André Kostolany, Hungarian-French economist and journalist (d. 1999)
    • 1907 – Trường Chinh, Vietnamese politician, 4th President of Vietnam (d. 1988)
    • 1907 – Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter, English-Canadian mathematician and academic (d. 2003)
    • 1909 – Heather Angel, English-American actress (d. 1986)
    • 1909 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1955)
    • 1909 – Dean Rusk, American colonel and politician, 54th United States Secretary of State (d. 1994)
    • 1910 – Jacques Monod, French biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
    • 1911 – William Orlando Darby, American general (d. 1945)
    • 1912 – Futabayama Sadaji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 35th Yokozuna (d. 1968)
    • 1912 – Ginette Leclerc, French actress (d. 1992)
    • 1914 – Ernest Tubb, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1984)
    • 1916 – Tex Hughson, American baseball player (d. 1993)
    • 1918 – Lloyd Noel Ferguson, African American chemist (d. 2011)
    • 1920 – Fred Allen, New Zealand rugby player and coach (d. 2012)
    • 1922 – Kathryn Grayson, American actress and soprano (d. 2010)
    • 1922 – Jim Laker, English cricketer and sportscaster (d. 1986)
    • 1922 – C. P. Krishnan Nair, Indian businessman, founded The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts (d. 2014)
    • 1922 – Robert E. Ogren, American zoologist (d. 2005)
    • 1923 – Brendan Behan, Irish rebel, poet, and playwright (d. 1964)
    • 1923 – Tonie Nathan, American radio host, producer, and politician (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – John B. Cobb, American philosopher and theologian
    • 1925 – Burkhard Heim, German physicist and academic (d. 2001)
    • 1926 – Garret FitzGerald, Irish lawyer and politician, 7th Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 2011)
    • 1927 – Richard A. Long, American historian and author (d. 2013)
    • 1928 – Frank Frazetta, American painter and illustrator (d. 2010)
    • 1928 – Rinus Michels, Dutch footballer and coach (d. 2005)
    • 1928 – Roger Mudd, American journalist
    • 1929 – A. R. Antulay, Indian social worker and politician, 8th Chief Minister of Maharashtra (d. 2014)
    • 1929 – Clement Meadmore, Australian-American sculptor (d. 2005)
    • 1930 – Garner Ted Armstrong, American evangelist and author (d. 2003)
    • 1931 – Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1989)
    • 1931 – Josef Masopust, Czech footballer and coach (d. 2015)
    • 1931 – Robert Morris, American sculptor and painter (d. 2018)
    • 1932 – Tatsuro Hirooka, Japanese baseball player and manager
    • 1932 – Gerhard Richter, German painter and photographer
    • 1935 – Lionel Fanthorpe, English-Welsh priest, journalist, and author
    • 1936 – Clive Swift, English actor and singer-songwriter (d. 2019)
    • 1937 – Clete Boyer, American baseball player and manager (d. 2007)
    • 1938 – Ron Logan, Disney theatrical producer and professor
    • 1939 – Mahala Andrews, British vertebrae palaeontologist (d. 1997)
    • 1939 – Barry Mann, American pianist, songwriter, and producer
    • 1939 – Janet Suzman, South African-British actress and director
    • 1940 – Brian Bennett, English drummer and songwriter
    • 1940 – J. M. Coetzee, South African-Australian novelist, essayist, and linguist, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1941 – Kermit Gosnell, American abortionist and serial killer
    • 1941 – Sheila Kuehl, American actress, lawyer, gay rights activist, and politician
    • 1942 – Carole King, American singer-songwriter and pianist
    • 1943 – Barbara Lewis, American soul/R&B singer-songwriter
    • 1943 – Joe Pesci, American actor
    • 1943 – Joseph Stiglitz, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1944 – Derryn Hinch, New Zealand-Australian radio and television host and politician
    • 1944 – Alice Walker, American novelist, short story writer, and poet
    • 1945 – Mia Farrow, American actress, activist, and former fashion model
    • 1945 – Yoshinori Ohsumi, Japanese cell biologist, 2016 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
    • 1945 – Carol Wood, American mathematician and academic
    • 1946 – Bob Eastwood, American golfer
    • 1946 – Vince Papale, American football player and sportscaster
    • 1946 – Jim Webb, American captain and politician, 18th United States Secretary of the Navy
    • 1947 – Carla Del Ponte, Swiss lawyer and diplomat
    • 1947 – Joe Ely, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1947 – Major Harris, American R&B singer (d. 2012)
    • 1947 – Alexis Smirnoff, Canadian-American wrestler and actor (d. 2019)
    • 1948 – Guy Standing, English economist and academic
    • 1949 – Bernard Gallacher, Scottish golfer and journalist
    • 1949 – Judith Light, American actress
    • 1950 – Richard F. Colburn, American sergeant and politician
    • 1951 – David Pomeranz, American singer, musician, and composer
    • 1952 – Danny White, American football player and sportscaster
    • 1953 – Ciarán Hinds, Irish actor
    • 1953 – Ezechiele Ramin, Italian missionary, priest, and martyr (d. 1985)
    • 1953 – Gabriel Rotello, American journalist and author, founded OutWeek
    • 1954 – Jo Duffy, American author
    • 1954 – Chris Gardner, American businessman and philanthropist
    • 1954 – Kevin Warwick, English cybernetics scientist
    • 1955 – Jerry Beck, American historian and author
    • 1955 – Jimmy Pursey, English singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1955 – Charles Shaughnessy, English actor
    • 1956 – Mookie Wilson, American baseball player and coach
    • 1957 – Terry McAuliffe, American businessman and politician, 72nd Governor of Virginia
    • 1957 – Gordon Strachan, Scottish footballer and manager
    • 1958 – Sandy Lyle, Scottish golfer
    • 1958 – Chris Nilan, American ice hockey player, coach, and radio host
    • 1960 – Holly Johnson, English singer-songwriter and bass player
    • 1960 – David Simon, American journalist, author, screenwriter, and television producer
    • 1960 – Peggy Whitson, American biochemist and astronaut
    • 1961 – John Kruk, American baseball player and sportscaster
    • 1962 – Anik Bissonnette, Canadian ballerina
    • 1963 – Brian Greene, American physicist
    • 1963 – Peter Rowsthorn, Australian comedian and actor
    • 1963 – Travis Tritt, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
    • 1964 – Debrah Miceli, Italian-American wrestler and manager
    • 1964 – Dewi Morris, English rugby player
    • 1964 – Ernesto Valverde, Spanish footballer and manager
    • 1964 – Alejandro Ávila, Mexican telenovela actor
    • 1964 – Ernesto Valverde, Spanish footballer and manager
    • 1965 – Dieter Baumann, German runner
    • 1966 – Harald Eia, Norwegian comedian, actor, and screenwriter
    • 1967 – Todd Pratt, American baseball player and coach
    • 1967 – Dan Shulman, Canadian sportscaster
    • 1967 – Gaston Browne, Antiguan and Barbudan Prime Minister
    • 1968 – Alejandra Guzmán, Mexican singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1968 – Derek Strong, American basketball player and race car driver
    • 1968 – Gloria Trevi, Mexican singer and actress
    • 1969 – Jimmy Smith, American football player
    • 1970 – Glenn McGrath, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
    • 1971 – Matt Gogel, American golfer
    • 1971 – Johan Mjällby, Swedish footballer and manager
    • 1972 – Darren Ferguson, Scottish footballer and manager
    • 1973 – Svetlana Boginskaya, Belarusian gymnast
    • 1973 – Colin Egglesfield, American actor
    • 1973 – Makoto Shinkai, Japanese animator, director, and screenwriter
    • 1974 – Jordi Cruyff, Dutch footballer and manager
    • 1974 – Brad Maynard, American football player
    • 1974 – Amber Valletta, American model
    • 1974 – John Wallace, American basketball player and coach
    • 1975 – Kurt Asle Arvesen, Norwegian cyclist and coach
    • 1975 – Clinton Grybas, Australian journalist and sportscaster (d. 2008)
    • 1975 – Vladimir Guerrero, Dominican-American baseball player
    • 1976 – Charlie Day, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1978 – A. J. Buckley, Irish-Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1979 – Akinori Iwamura, Japanese baseball player
    • 1979 – Irina Slutskaya, Russian figure skater
    • 1980 – Angelos Charisteas, Greek footballer
    • 1980 – Margarita Levieva, Russian-American actress
    • 1980 – Manu Raju, American journalist
    • 1981 – Tom Hiddleston, English actor, producer, and musical performer
    • 1981 – Daisuke Sekimoto, Japanese wrestler
    • 1982 – Domingo Cisma, Spanish footballer
    • 1982 – Jameer Nelson, American basketball player
    • 1982 – Ami Suzuki, Japanese singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1982 – Chris Weale, English footballer and manager
    • 1983 – Mikel Arruabarrena, Spanish footballer
    • 1984 – Maurice Ager, American basketball player, singer, and producer
    • 1984 – Shōhōzan Yūya, Japanese sumo wrestler
    • 1985 – David Gallagher, American actor
    • 1987 – Sam Coulson, English guitarist
    • 1987 – Michael B. Jordan, American actor
    • 1987 – Davide Lanzafame, Italian footballer
    • 1987 – Magdalena Neuner, German biathlete
    • 1988 – Lotte Friis, Danish swimmer
    • 1989 – Maxime Dufour-Lapointe, Canadian skier
    • 1990 – Tariq Sims, Australian-Fijian rugby league player
    • 1991 – Logan Ryan, American football player
    • 1992 – Kyle Feldt, Australian rugby league player
    • 1992 – Mitchell Frei, Australian rugby league player
    • 1992 – Avan Jogia, Canadian actor
    • 1993 – Niclas Füllkrug, German footballer
    • 1995 – André Burakovsky, Swedish ice hockey player
    • 1995 – Mario Pašalić, Croatian footballer
    • 1997 – Saquon Barkley, American football player

    Deaths on February 9

    • 966 – Ono no Michikaze, Japanese calligrapher (b. 894)
    • 967 – Sayf al-Dawla, emir of Aleppo (b. 916)
    • 978 – Luitgarde, duchess consort of Normandy
    • 1011 – Bernard I, Duke of Saxony
    • 1014 – Yang Yanzhao, Chinese general
    • 1135 – Tai Zong, Chinese emperor (b. 1075)
    • 1199 – Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese shōgun (b. 1147)
    • 1251 – Matthias II, duke of Lorraine
    • 1407 – William I, margrave of Meissen (b. 1343)
    • 1450 – Agnès Sorel, French mistress of Charles VII of France (b. 1421)
    • 1555 – John Hooper, English bishop and martyr (b. 1495)
    • 1555 – Rowland Taylor, English priest and martyr (b. 1510)
    • 1588 – Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz, Spanish admiral (b. 1526)
    • 1600 – John Frederick, Duke of Pomerania (b. 1542)
    • 1619 – Lucilio Vanini, Italian physician and philosopher (b. 1585)
    • 1640 – Murad IV, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1612)
    • 1670 – Frederick III of Denmark (b. 1609)
    • 1675 – Gerrit Dou, Dutch painter (b. 1613)
    • 1709 – François Louis, Prince of Conti (b. 1664)
    • 1777 – Seth Pomeroy, American general and gunsmith (b. 1706)
    • 1803 – Jean François de Saint-Lambert, French soldier, poet, and philosopher (b. 1716)
    • 1857 – Dionysios Solomos, Greek poet and translator (b. 1798)
    • 1874 – Jules Michelet, French historian, philosopher, and academic (b. 1798)
    • 1881 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and philosopher (b. 1821)
    • 1891 – Johan Jongkind, Dutch painter (b. 1819)
    • 1903 – Charles Gavan Duffy, Irish-Australian politician, 8th Premier of Victoria (b. 1816)
    • 1906 – Paul Laurence Dunbar, American author, poet, and playwright (b. 1872)
    • 1928 – William Gillies, Australian politician, 21st Premier of Queensland (b. 1868)
    • 1930 – Richard With, Norwegian captain and businessman, founded Hurtigruten (b. 1846)
    • 1932 – Junnosuke Inoue, Japanese businessman and banker (b. 1869)
    • 1932 – A.K. Golam Jilani, Bangladeshi soldier and activist (b. 1904)
    • 1945 – Ella D. Barrier, American educator (b. 1852)
    • 1950 – Ted Theodore, Australian politician, 20th Premier of Queensland (b. 1884)
    • 1951 – Eddy Duchin, American pianist, bandleader, and actor (b. 1910)
    • 1957 – Miklós Horthy, Hungarian admiral and politician, Regent of Hungary (b. 1868)
    • 1960 – Alexandre Benois, Russian painter and critic (b. 1870)
    • 1960 – Ernő Dohnányi, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1877)
    • 1965 – Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah, Bangladeshi theologian and educator (b. 1874)
    • 1966 – Sophie Tucker, Russian-born American singer (b. 1884)
    • 1969 – George “Gabby” Hayes, American actor and singer (b. 1885)
    • 1976 – Percy Faith, Canadian composer and conductor (b. 1908)
    • 1977 – Sergey Ilyushin, Russian engineer and businessman, founded the Ilyushin Design Company (b. 1894)
    • 1978 – Costante Girardengo, Italian cyclist and coach (b. 1893)
    • 1979 – Allen Tate, American poet and academic (b. 1899)
    • 1980 – Tom Macdonald, Welsh journalist and author (b. 1900)
    • 1981 – M. C. Chagla, Indian jurist and politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (b. 1900)
    • 1981 – Bill Haley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1925)
    • 1984 – Yuri Andropov, Russian lawyer and politician (b. 1914)
    • 1989 – Osamu Tezuka, Japanese illustrator, animator, and producer (b. 1928)
    • 1994 – Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1934)
    • 1995 – J. William Fulbright, American lawyer and politician (b. 1905)
    • 1995 – David Wayne, American actor (b. 1914)
    • 1998 – Maurice Schumann, French journalist and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1911)
    • 2001 – Herbert A. Simon, American political scientist, economist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
    • 2002 – Isabelle Holland, Swiss-American author (b. 1920)
    • 2002 – Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (b. 1930)
    • 2003 – Masatoshi Gündüz Ikeda, Japanese-Turkish mathematician and academic (b. 1926)
    • 2004 – Claude Ryan, Canadian journalist and politician (b. 1925)
    • 2005 – Robert Kearns, American engineer, invented the windscreen wiper (b. 1927)
    • 2006 – Freddie Laker, English pilot and businessman, founded Laker Airways (b. 1922)
    • 2007 – Hank Bauer, American baseball player and manager (b. 1922)
    • 2007 – Ian Richardson, Scottish actor (b. 1934)
    • 2008 – Christopher Hyatt, American occultist and author (b. 1943)
    • 2008 – Jazeh Tabatabai, Iranian painter, poet, and sculptor (b. 1931)
    • 2009 – Orlando “Cachaíto” López, Cuban bassist and composer (b. 1933)
    • 2010 – Walter Frederick Morrison, American businessman, invented the Frisbee (b. 1920)
    • 2011 – Miltiadis Evert, Greek lawyer and politician, 69th Mayor of Athens (b. 1939)
    • 2012 – O. P. Dutta, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1922)
    • 2012 – John Hick, English philosopher and academic (b. 1922)
    • 2012 – Joe Moretti, Scottish-South African guitarist and songwriter (b. 1938)
    • 2013 – Richard Artschwager, American painter, illustrator, and sculptor (b. 1923)
    • 2013 – Keiko Fukuda, Japanese-American martial artist and trainer (b. 1913)
    • 2013 – Jimmy Smyth, Irish hurler (b. 1931)
    • 2014 – Gabriel Axel, Danish actor, director, and producer (b. 1918)
    • 2014 – Hal Herring, American football player and coach (b. 1924)
    • 2014 – Logan Scott-Bowden, English general (b. 1920)
    • 2015 – Liu Han, Chinese businessman and philanthropist (b. 1965)
    • 2015 – Ed Sabol, American film producer, co-founded NFL Films (b. 1916)
    • 2016 – Sushil Koirala, Nepalese politician, 37th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1939)
    • 2016 – Zdravko Tolimir, Bosnian Serb military commander (b. 1948)
    • 2017 – André Salvat, French Army colonel (b. 1920)
    • 2018 – Reg E. Cathey, American actor of stage, film, and television (b. 1958)
    • 2018 – Nebojša Glogovac, Serbian actor (b. 1969)
    • 2018 – Jóhann Jóhannsson, Icelandic composer (b. 1969)
    • 2018 – John Gavin, American actor and United States ambassador to Mexico (b. 1931)
    • 2020 – Sergiy Vilkomir, Ukrainian-born computer scientist (b. 1956)

    Holidays and observances on February 9

    • Christian feast day:
      • Alto of Altomünster
      • Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
      • Ansbert of Rouen
      • Apollonia
      • Bracchio
      • Blessed Leopold of Alpandeire
      • Maron (Maronite Church)
      • Miguel Febres Cordero
      • Nebridius
      • Sabinus of Canosa
      • Teilo (Wales)
      • February 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Earliest day on which Clean Monday can fall, while March 15 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday of Great Lent. (Eastern Christianity)
    • Earliest day on which People’s Sunday can fall, while March 15 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday of Lent. (Malta)
    • St. Maroun’s Day (public holiday in Lebanon)