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  • July 31 – History, Events, Births, Deaths Holidays and Observances On This Day

    • 30 BC – Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian’s forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.
    • 781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: 6th day of the 7th month of the 1st year of the Ten’o (天応) era).
    • 1009 – Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.
    • 1201 – Attempted usurpation by John Komnenos the Fat for the throne of Alexios III Angelos.
    • 1423 – Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Cravant: The French army is defeated by the English at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
    • 1451 – Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.
    • 1492 – The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.
    • 1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
    • 1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
    • 1618 – Maurice, Prince of Orange disbands the waardgelders militia in Utrecht, a pivotal event in the Remonstrant/Counter-Remonstrant tensions.
    • 1655 – Russo-Polish War (1654–67): The Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years.
    • 1658 – Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mughal emperor of India.
    • 1703 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.
    • 1712 – Action of 31 July 1712 (Great Northern War): Danish and Swedish ships clash in the Baltic Sea; the result is inconclusive.
    • 1715 – Seven days after a Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships left Havana, Cuba for Spain, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks.
    • 1741 – Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
    • 1763 – Odawa Chief Pontiac’s forces defeat British troops at the Battle of Bloody Run during Pontiac’s War.
    • 1777 – The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette “be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States.”
    • 1790 – The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
    • 1856 – Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
    • 1865 – The first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.
    • 1874 – Dr. Patrick Francis Healy became the first African-American inaugurated as president of a predominantly white university, Georgetown University.
    • 1904 – Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Hsimucheng: Units of the Imperial Japanese Army defeat units of the Imperial Russian Army in a strategic confrontation.
    • 1913 – The Balkan States sign an armistice in Bucharest.
    • 1917 – World War I: The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.
    • 1919 – German national assembly adopts the Weimar Constitution, which comes into force on August 14.
    • 1932 – The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.
    • 1938 – Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).
    • 1938 – Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis.
    • 1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to “submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question.”
    • 1941 – World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.
    • 1945 – Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
    • 1948 – At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
    • 1948 – USS Nevada is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships.
    • 1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
    • 1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
    • 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
    • 1972 – The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the biggest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the biggest in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence. Later that day, nine civilians are killed by car bombs in the village of Claudy.
    • 1973 – A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723 crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.
    • 1975 – The Troubles: three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland.
    • 1987 – A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Canada.
    • 1988 – Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.
    • 1991 – The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries’ stockpiles.
    • 1992 – The nation of Georgia joins the United Nations.
    • 1992 – Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.
    • 1999 – Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector: NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the Moon’s surface.
    • 2006 – Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.
    • 2007 – Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.
    • 2012 – Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.
    • 2014 – Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.

    Births on July 31

    • 1143 – Emperor Nijō of Japan (d. 1165)
    • 1396 – Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
    • 1526 – Augustus, Elector of Saxony (d. 1586)
    • 1527 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1576)
    • 1595 – Philipp Wolfgang, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1641)
    • 1598 – Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor (d. 1654)
    • 1686 – Charles of France, Duke of Berry (d. 1714)
    • 1702 – Jean Denis Attiret, French missionary and painter (d. 1768)
    • 1704 – Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician and physicist (d. 1752)
    • 1718 – John Canton, English physicist and academic (d. 1772)
    • 1724 – Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer and author (d. 1801)
    • 1759 – Ignaz Anton von Indermauer, Austrian nobleman and government official (d. 1796)
    • 1777 – Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentinian priest and politician (d. 1849)
    • 1796 – Jean-Gaspard Deburau, Czech-French actor and mime (d. 1846)
    • 1800 – Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist and academic (d. 1882)
    • 1803 – John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, co-designed the USS Princeton and the Novelty Locomotive (d. 1889)
    • 1816 – George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
    • 1826 – William S. Clark, American colonel and politician (d. 1886)
    • 1835 – Henri Brisson, French lawyer and politician, 50th Prime Minister of France (d. 1912)
    • 1835 – Paul Du Chaillu, French-American anthropologist and explorer (d. 1903)
    • 1836 – Vasily Sleptsov, Russian author and activist (d. 1878)
    • 1837 – William Quantrill, American captain (d. 1865)
    • 1839 – Ignacio Andrade, Venezuelan general and politician, 25th President of Venezuela (d. 1925)
    • 1843 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet and author (d. 1918)
    • 1847 – Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban pianist and composer (d. 1905)
    • 1854 – José Canalejas, Spanish academic and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1912)
    • 1858 – Richard Dixon Oldham, English seismologist and geologist (d. 1936)
    • 1858 – Marion Talbot, influential American educator (d. 1948)
    • 1860 – Mary Vaux Walcott, American painter and illustrator (d. 1940)
    • 1867 – S. S. Kresge, American businessman, founded Kmart (d. 1966)
    • 1875 – Jacques Villon, French painter (d. 1963)
    • 1877 – Louisa Bolus, South African botanist and taxonomist (d. 1970)
    • 1880 – Premchand, Indian author and playwright (d. 1936)
    • 1883 – Ramón Fonst, Cuban fencer (d. 1959)
    • 1884 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, Polish-German economist and politician (d. 1945)
    • 1886 – Salvatore Maranzano, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1931)
    • 1886 – Fred Quimby, American animation producer (d. 1965)
    • 1887 – Hans Freyer, German sociologist and philosopher (d. 1969)
    • 1892 – Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist and publisher, founded Worldwide Church of God (d. 1986)
    • 1892 – Joseph Charbonneau, Canadian archbishop (d. 1959)
    • 1894 – Fred Keenor, Welsh footballer (d. 1972)
    • 1901 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
    • 1902 – Gubby Allen, Australian-English cricketer and soldier (d. 1989)
    • 1904 – Brett Halliday, American engineer, surveyor, and author (d. 1977)
    • 1909 – Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Austrian theorist and author (d. 1999)
    • 1911 – George Liberace, American violinist (d. 1983)
    • 1912 – Bill Brown, Australian cricketer (d. 2008)
    • 1912 – Milton Friedman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
    • 1912 – Irv Kupcinet, American football player and journalist (d. 2003)
    • 1913 – Bryan Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1984)
    • 1914 – Paul J. Christiansen, American conductor and composer (d. 1997)
    • 1914 – Louis de Funès, French actor and screenwriter (d. 1983)
    • 1916 – Sibte Hassan, Pakistani journalist, scholar, and activist (d. 1986)
    • 1916 – Billy Hitchcock, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2006)
    • 1916 – Bill Todman, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1979)
    • 1918 – Paul D. Boyer, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
    • 1918 – Hank Jones, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2010)
    • 1918 – Frank Renouf, New Zealand businessman and financier (d. 1998)
    • 1919 – Hemu Adhikari, Indian cricketer (d. 2003)
    • 1919 – Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster and actor (d. 2006)
    • 1919 – Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author (d. 1987)
    • 1920 – James E. Faust, American religious leader, lawyer, and politician (d. 2007)
    • 1921 – Peter Benenson, English lawyer and activist, founded Amnesty International (d. 2005)
    • 1921 – Donald Malarkey, American sergeant and author (d. 2017)
    • 1921 – Whitney Young, American activist (d. 1971)
    • 1922 – Hank Bauer, American baseball player and manager (d. 2007)
    • 1923 – Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-American songwriter and producer, founded Atlantic Records (d. 2006)
    • 1923 – Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist and engineer, invented Kevlar (d. 2014)
    • 1924 – Jimmy Evert, American tennis player and coach (d. 2015)
    • 1925 – Carmel Quinn, Irish singer, actress and writer
    • 1925 – John Swainson, Canadian-American jurist and politician, 42nd Governor of Michigan (d. 1994)
    • 1926 – Bernard Nathanson, American physician and activist (d. 2011)
    • 1926 – Hilary Putnam, American mathematician, computer scientist, and philosopher (d. 2016)
    • 1927 – Peter Nichols, English author and playwright (d. 2019)
    • 1928 – Bill Frenzel, American lieutenant and politician (d. 2014)
    • 1929 – Lynne Reid Banks, English author
    • 1929 – Gilles Carle, Canadian director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
    • 1929 – Don Murray, American actor
    • 1929 – José Santamaría, Uruguayan footballer and manager
    • 1931 – Nick Bollettieri, American tennis player and coach
    • 1931 – Kenny Burrell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1932 – Ted Cassidy, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1979)
    • 1932 – John Searle, American philosopher and academic
    • 1933 – Cees Nooteboom, Dutch journalist, author, and poet
    • 1935 – Yvon Deschamps, Canadian comedian, actor, and producer
    • 1935 – Geoffrey Lewis, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2015)
    • 1939 – Steuart Bedford, English pianist and conductor
    • 1939 – Susan Flannery, American actress
    • 1939 – France Nuyen, Vietnamese-French actress
    • 1941 – Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician, 8th Chief Minister of Gujarat (d. 2004)
    • 1943 – William Bennett, American journalist and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Education
    • 1943 – Lobo, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1944 – Geraldine Chaplin, American actress and screenwriter
    • 1944 – Jonathan Dimbleby, English journalist and author
    • 1944 – Sherry Lansing, American film producer
    • 1944 – Robert C. Merton, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1944 – David Norris, Irish scholar and politician
    • 1945 – William Weld, American lawyer and politician, 68th Governor of Massachusetts
    • 1946 – Gary Lewis, American pop-rock musician
    • 1947 – Karl Green, English bass player and songwriter (Herman’s Hermits)
    • 1947 – Richard Griffiths, English actor (d. 2013)
    • 1947 – Mumtaz, Indian actress
    • 1947 – Hubert Védrine, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs
    • 1947 – Ian Beck, English children’s illustrator and author
    • 1948 – Russell Morris, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1949 – Mike Jackson, American basketball player
    • 1949 – Alan Meale, English journalist and politician
    • 1950 – Richard Berry, French actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1951 – Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Australian tennis player
    • 1952 – Chris Ahrens, American ice hockey player
    • 1952 – Alan Autry, American football player, actor, and politician, 23rd Mayor of Fresno, California
    • 1952 – Helmuts Balderis, Latvian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1952 – João Barreiros, Portuguese author and critic
    • 1952 – Faye Kellerman, American author
    • 1953 – Ted Baillieu, Australian architect and politician, 46th Premier of Victoria
    • 1953 – Jimmy Cook, South African cricketer and coach
    • 1953 – Hugh McDowell, English cellist
    • 1954 – Derek Smith, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1956 – Michael Biehn, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1956 – Bill Callahan, American football player and coach
    • 1956 – Ron Kuby, American lawyer and radio host
    • 1956 – Deval Patrick, American lawyer and politician, 71st Governor of Massachusetts
    • 1956 – Lynne Rae Perkins, American author and illustrator
    • 1957 – Daniel Ash, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1957 – Mark Thompson, English business executive
    • 1958 – Bill Berry, American drummer and songwriter
    • 1958 – Mark Cuban, American businessman and television personality
    • 1958 – Suzanne Giraud, French music editor and composer
    • 1959 – Stanley Jordan, American guitarist, pianist, and songwriter
    • 1959 – Andrew Marr, Scottish journalist and author
    • 1959 – Kim Newman, English journalist and author
    • 1960 – Dale Hunter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1960 – Malcolm Ross, Scottish guitarist and songwriter
    • 1961 – Frank Gardner, English captain and journalist
    • 1961 – Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Nigerian banker, royal
    • 1962 – John Chiang, American lawyer and politician, 31st California State Controller
    • 1962 – Kevin Greene, American football player and coach
    • 1962 – Wesley Snipes, American actor and producer
    • 1963 – Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), English DJ and musician
    • 1963 – Fergus Henderson, English chef and author
    • 1963 – Brian Skrudland, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1964 – Jim Corr, Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1964 – Urmas Hepner, Estonian footballer and coach
    • 1965 – Scott Brooks, American basketball player and coach
    • 1965 – John Laurinaitis, American wrestler and producer
    • 1965 – Ian Roberts, English-Australian rugby league player and actor
    • 1965 – J. K. Rowling, English author and film producer
    • 1966 – Dean Cain, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1967 – Tony Massenburg, American basketball player
    • 1967 – Tim Wright, Welsh composer
    • 1968 – Saeed-Al-Saffar, Emirati cricketer
    • 1968 – Julian Richards, Welsh director and producer
    • 1969 – Antonio Conte, Italian footballer and manager
    • 1969 – Loren Dean, American actor
    • 1969 – Kenneth D. Schisler, American lawyer and politician
    • 1970 – Ahmad Akbarpour, Iranian author and poet
    • 1970 – Ben Chaplin, English actor
    • 1970 – Andrzej Kobylański, Polish footballer and manager
    • 1970 – Giorgos Sigalas, Greek basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1971 – Gus Frerotte, American football player and coach
    • 1973 – Nathan Brown, Australian rugby league player and coach
    • 1974 – Emilia Fox, English actress
    • 1974 – Leona Naess, American-English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1974 – Jonathan Ogden, American football player
    • 1975 – Randy Flores, American baseball player and coach
    • 1975 – Andrew Hall, South African cricketer
    • 1975 – Gabe Kapler, American baseball player and manager
    • 1976 – Joshua Cain, American guitarist and producer
    • 1976 – Paulo Wanchope, Costa Rican footballer and manager
    • 1978 – Zac Brown, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1978 – Nick Sorensen, American football player and sportscaster
    • 1978 – Justin Wilson, English race car driver (d. 2015)
    • 1979 – Jaco Erasmus, South African-Italian rugby player
    • 1979 – J.J. Furmaniak, American baseball player
    • 1979 – Per Krøldrup, Danish footballer
    • 1979 – Carlos Marchena, Spanish footballer
    • 1979 – B.J. Novak, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1980 – Mikko Hirvonen, Finnish race car driver
    • 1980 – Mils Muliaina, New Zealand rugby player
    • 1981 – Titus Bramble, English footballer
    • 1981 – Vernon Carey, American football player
    • 1981 – Paul Whatuira, New Zealand rugby league player
    • 1981 – M. Shadows, American musician, lead singer of Avenged Sevenfold
    • 1982 – Anabel Medina Garrigues, Spanish tennis player
    • 1982 – DeMarcus Ware, American football player
    • 1985 – Daniel Ciofani, Italian footballer
    • 1985 – Rémy Di Gregorio, French cyclist
    • 1986 – Evgeni Malkin, Russian ice hockey player
    • 1986 – Brian Orakpo, American football player
    • 1987 – Michael Bradley, American soccer player
    • 1988 – Alex Glenn, New Zealand rugby league player
    • 1989 – Victoria Azarenka, Belorussian tennis player
    • 1991 – Réka Luca Jani, Hungarian tennis player
    • 1992 – José Fernández, Cuban baseball player (d. 2016)
    • 1992 – Ryan Johansen, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1992 – Kyle Larson, American race car driver
    • 1994 – Lil Uzi Vert, American hip hop artist

    Deaths on July 31

    • 54 BC – Aurelia Cotta, Roman mother of Gaius Julius Caesar (b. 120 BC)
    • 450 – Peter Chrysologus, Italian bishop and saint (b. 380)
    • 910 – Feng Xingxi, Chinese warlord
    • 975 – Fu Yanqing, Chinese general (b. 898)
    • 1098 – Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury
    • 1358 – Étienne Marcel, French rebel leader (b. 1302)
    • 1396 – William Courtenay, English archbishop and politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (b. 1342)
    • 1508 – Na’od, Ethiopian emperor
    • 1556 – Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish priest and theologian, founded the Society of Jesus (b. 1491)
    • 1616 – Roger Wilbraham, Solicitor-General for Ireland (b. 1553)
    • 1638 – Sibylla Schwarz, German poet (b. 1621)
    • 1653 – Thomas Dudley, English soldier and politician, 3rd Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1576)
    • 1693 – Willem Kalf, Dutch still life painter (b. 1619)
    • 1726 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician and theorist (b. 1695)
    • 1750 – John V, king of Portugal (b. 1689)
    • 1762 – Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla, Spanish sailor and commander (b. 1711)
    • 1781 – John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, British parliamentarian (b. 1719)
    • 1784 – Denis Diderot, French philosopher and critic (b. 1713)
    • 1805 – Dheeran Chinnamalai, Indian soldier (b. 1756)
    • 1864 – Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher (b. 1800)
    • 1875 – Andrew Johnson, American general and politician, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
    • 1884 – Kiến Phúc, Vietnamese emperor (b. 1869)
    • 1886 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1811)
    • 1891 – Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, Belgian stained glass painter (b. 1814)
    • 1913 – John Milne, British geologist and mining engineer. (b. 1850)
    • 1914 – Jean Jaurès, French journalist and politician (b. 1859)
    • 1917 – Hedd Wyn, Welsh language poet (b. 1887)
    • 1917 – Francis Ledwidge, Irish soldier and poet (b. 1881)
    • 1920 – Ion Dragoumis, Greek philosopher and diplomat (b. 1878)
    • 1940 – Udham Singh, Indian activist (b. 1899)
    • 1943 – Hedley Verity, English cricketer and soldier (b. 1905)
    • 1942 – Francis Younghusband, British Army Officer, explorer and spiritual writer (b.1863)
    • 1944 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French pilot and poet (b. 1900)
    • 1953 – Robert A. Taft, American soldier and politician (b. 1889)
    • 1954 – Onofre Marimón, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1923)
    • 1958 – Eino Kaila, Finnish philosopher and psychologist, attendant of the Vienna circle (b. 1890)
    • 1964 – Jim Reeves, American singer-songwriter (b. 1923)
    • 1966 – Bud Powell, American pianist (b. 1924)
    • 1968 – Jack Pizzey, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Queensland (b. 1911)
    • 1971 – Walter P. Carter, American soldier and activist (b. 1923)
    • 1972 – Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian lawyer and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1899)
    • 1973 – Azumafuji Kin’ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 40th Yokozuna (b. 1921)
    • 1979 – Beatrix Lehmann, English actress and director (b. 1903)
    • 1980 – Pascual Jordan, German physicist, author, and academic (b. 1902)
    • 1980 – Mohammed Rafi, Indian playback singer (b. 1924)
    • 1981 – Omar Torrijos, Panamanian general and politician, Military Leader of Panama (b. 1929)
    • 1985 – Eugene Carson Blake, American religious leader (b. 1906)
    • 1986 – Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat (b. 1900)
    • 1987 – Joseph E. Levine, American film producer (b, 1905)
    • 1990 – Albert Leduc, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)
    • 1992 – Leonard Cheshire, English captain and pilot (b. 1917)
    • 1992 – Md. Abdul Wajed Chowdhury, Bangladeshi politician.
    • 1993 – Baudouin, King of Belgium (b. 1930)
    • 2000 – William Keepers Maxwell Jr., American editor, novelist, short story writer, and essayist (b. 1908)
    • 2001 – Francisco da Costa Gomes, Portuguese general and politician, 15th President of Portugal (b. 1914)
    • 2001 – Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b. 1910)
    • 2003 – Guido Crepax, Italian author and illustrator (b. 1933)
    • 2004 – Virginia Grey, American actress (b. 1917)
    • 2005 – Wim Duisenberg, Dutch economist and politician, 1st President of the European Central Bank (b. 1935)
    • 2009 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (b. 1933)
    • 2009 – Harry Alan Towers, English-Canadian screenwriter and producer (b. 1920)
    • 2012 – Mollie Hunter, Scottish author and playwright (b. 1922)
    • 2012 – Alfredo Ramos, Brazilian footballer and coach (b. 1924)
    • 2012 – Gore Vidal, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1925)
    • 2012 – Tony Sly, American musician, singer-songwriter (b. 1970)
    • 2013 – Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (b. 1922)
    • 2013 – Michel Donnet, English-Belgian general and pilot (b. 1917)
    • 2013 – John Graves, American captain and author (b. 1920)
    • 2013 – Trevor Storer, English businessman, founded Pukka Pies (b. 1930)
    • 2014 – Warren Bennis, American scholar, author, and academic (b. 1925)
    • 2014 – Nabarun Bhattacharya, Indian journalist and author (b. 1948)
    • 2014 – Jeff Bourne, English footballer (b. 1948)
    • 2014 – Wilfred Feinberg, American lawyer and judge (b. 1920)
    • 2015 – Alan Cheuse, American writer and critic (b. 1940)
    • 2015 – Howard W. Jones, American surgeon and academic (b. 1910)
    • 2015 – Billy Pierce, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1927)
    • 2015 – Roddy Piper, Canadian wrestler and actor (b. 1954)
    • 2015 – Richard Schweiker, American soldier and politician, 14th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (b. 1926)
    • 2016 – Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 58th Yokozuna (b. 1955)
    • 2016 – Seymour Papert, South African mathematician (b. 1928)
    • 2017 – Jeanne Moreau, French actress (b. 1928)
    • 2018 – Tony Bullimore, British sailor & businessman (b. 1939)
    • 2019 – Harold Prince, noted Broadway producer and director, who received more Tony awards than anyone else in history (b. 1928)

    Holidays and observances on July 31

    • Christian feast day:
      • Abanoub
      • Germanus of Auxerre
      • Ignatius of Loyola
      • Neot
      • July 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Earliest day on which the Feast of Kamál (Perfection) can fall, while August 1 is the latest; observed on the first day of the eighth month of the Bahá’í calendar. (Bahá’í Faith)
    • End of the Trinity term (sitting of the High Court of Justice of England)
    • Ka Hae Hawaiʻi Day (Hawaii, United States), and its related observance:
      • Sovereignty Restoration Day (Hawaiian sovereignty movement)
    • Martyrdom Day of Shahid Udham Singh (Haryana and Punjab, India)
    • Treasury Day (Poland)
    • Warriors’ Day (Malaysia)

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

    • AD 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots.
    • 792 – Kardam of Bulgaria defeats Byzantine Emperor Constantine VI at the Battle of Marcellae.
    • 911 – Rollo lays siege to Chartres.
    • 1189 – Richard I of England officially invested as Duke of Normandy.
    • 1225 – Treaty of San Germano is signed at San Germano between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX. A Dominican named Guala is responsible for the negotiations.
    • 1398 – The Battle of Kellistown was fought on this day between the forces of the English led by Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March against the O’Byrnes and O’Tooles under the command of Art Óg mac Murchadha Caomhánach, the most powerful Chieftain in Leinster.
    • 1402 – Ottoman-Timurid Wars: Battle of Ankara: Timur, ruler of Timurid Empire, defeats forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan Bayezid I.
    • 1592 – During the first Japanese invasion of Korea, Japanese forces led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi captured Pyongyang, although they were ultimately unable to hold it.
    • 1715 – Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War: The Ottoman Empire captures Nauplia, the capital of the Republic of Venice’s “Kingdom of the Morea”, thereby opening the way to the swift Ottoman reconquest of the Morea.
    • 1738 – Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan.
    • 1799 – Tekle Giyorgis I begins his first of six reigns as Emperor of Ethiopia.
    • 1807 – Nicéphore Niépce is awarded a patent by Napoleon for the Pyréolophore, the world’s first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône in France.
    • 1810 – Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declare independence from Spain.
    • 1831 – Seneca and Shawnee people agree to relinquish their land in western Ohio for 60,000 acres west of the Mississippi River.
    • 1848 – The first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, a two-day event, concludes.
    • 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek: Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
    • 1866 – Austro-Prussian War: Battle of Lissa: The Austrian Navy, led by Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, defeats the Italian Navy near the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea.
    • 1871 – British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
    • 1885 – The Football Association legalizes professionalism in association football under pressure from the British Football Association.
    • 1903 – The Ford Motor Company ships its first automobile.
    • 1917 – World War I: The Corfu Declaration, which leads to the creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.
    • 1920 – The Greek Army takes control of Silivri after Greece is awarded the city by the Paris Peace Conference; by 1923 Greece effectively lost control to the Turks.
    • 1922 – The League of Nations awards mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom.
    • 1932 – In the Preußenschlag (“Prussian coup”), German President Paul von Hindenburg dissolves the government of Prussia
    • 1934 – Labor unrest in the U.S.: Police in Minneapolis fire upon striking truck drivers, during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, killing two and wounding sixty-seven.
    • 1934 – West Coast waterfront strike: In Seattle, police fire tear gas on and club 2,000 striking longshoremen. The governor of Oregon calls out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.
    • 1935 – Switzerland: A Royal Dutch Airlines plane en route from Milan to Frankfurt crashes into a Swiss mountain, killing thirteen.
    • 1936 – The Montreux Convention is signed in Switzerland, authorizing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.
    • 1938 – The United States Department of Justice files suit in New York City against the motion picture industry charging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act in regards to the studio system. The case would eventually result in a break-up of the industry in 1948.
    • 1940 – Denmark leaves the League of Nations.
    • 1940 – California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
    • 1941 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD and names Lavrentiy Beria its chief.
    • 1944 – World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
    • 1949 – Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their nineteen-month war.
    • 1950 – Cold War: In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.
    • 1951 – King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
    • 1954 – Germany: Otto John, head of West Germany’s secret service, defects to East Germany.
    • 1960 – Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world’s first elected female head of government.
    • 1960 – The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time.
    • 1961 – French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte.
    • 1964 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong forces attack the capital of Định Tường Province, Cái Bè, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of whom are children).
    • 1968 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.
    • 1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11’s crew successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later.
    • 1969 – A cease fire is announced between Honduras and El Salvador, six days after the beginning of the “Football War”.
    • 1974 – Turkish invasion of Cyprus: Forces from Turkey invade Cyprus after a coup d’état, organised by the dictator of Greece, against president Makarios.
    • 1976 – The American Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
    • 1977 – The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind-control experiments.
    • 1977 – The Johnstown flood of 1977 kills 84 people and causes millions of dollars in damages.
    • 1982 – Hyde Park and Regent’s Park bombings: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent’s Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the deaths of seven horses.
    • 1985 – The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles.
    • 1989 – Burma’s ruling junta puts opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
    • 1992 – Václav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia.
    • 1997 – The fully restored USS Constitution (a.k.a. Old Ironsides) celebrates its 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
    • 1999 – The Chinese Communist Party begins a persecution campaign against Falun Gong, arresting thousands nationwide.
    • 2005 – The Civil Marriage Act legalizes same-sex marriage in Canada.
    • 2012 – James Holmes opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 70 others.
    • 2013 – Seventeen government soldiers are killed in an attack by FARC revolutionaries in the Colombian department of Arauca.
    • 2015 – A huge explosion in the mostly Kurdish border town of Suruç, Turkey, targeting the Socialist Youth Associations Federation, kills at least 31 people and injures over 100.
    • 2015 – The United States and Cuba resume full diplomatic relations after five decades.
    • 2017 – O. J. Simpson is granted parole to be released from prison after serving nine years of a 33-year sentence after being convicted of armed robbery in Las Vegas.

    Births on July 20

    • 356 BC – Alexander the Great, Macedonian king (d. 323 BC)
    • 647 – Yazid I, Arabian caliph (d. 683)
    • 682 – Taichō, Japanese monk and scholar (d. 767)
    • 1304 – Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar (d. 1374)
    • 1313 – John Tiptoft, 2nd Baron Tibetot (d. 1367)
    • 1346 – Margaret, Countess of Pembroke, daughter of King Edward III of England (d. 1361)
    • 1470 – John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath, English noble (d. 1539)
    • 1519 – Pope Innocent IX (d. 1591)
    • 1537 – Arnaud d’Ossat, French cardinal (d. 1604)
    • 1583 – Alban Roe, English Benedictine martyr (d. 1642)
    • 1591 – Anne Hutchinson, English Puritan preacher (d. 1643)
    • 1592 – Johan Björnsson Printz, governor of New Sweden (d. 1663)
    • 1601 – Robert Wallop, English politician (d. 1667)
    • 1620 – Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder, Dutch poet and scholar (d. 1681)
    • 1649 – William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland (d. 1709)
    • 1754 – Antoine Destutt de Tracy, French philosopher and academic (d. 1836)
    • 1757 – Garsevan Chavchavadze, Georgian politician and diplomat (d. 1811)
    • 1762 – Jakob Haibel, Austrian tenor and composer (d. 1826)
    • 1774 – Auguste de Marmont, French general (d. 1852)
    • 1789 – Mahmud II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1839)
    • 1804 – Richard Owen, English biologist, anatomist, and paleontologist (d. 1892)
    • 1822 – Gregor Mendel, Austro-German monk, geneticist and botanist (d. 1884)
    • 1838 – Augustin Daly, American playwright and manager (d. 1899)
    • 1838 – William Paine Lord, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of Oregon (d. 1911)
    • 1838 – Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, English civil servant and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (d. 1928)
    • 1847 – Max Liebermann, German painter and academic (d. 1935)
    • 1849 – Robert Anderson Van Wyck, American lawyer and politician, 91st Mayor of New York City (d. 1918)
    • 1852 – Theo Heemskerk, Dutch lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1932)
    • 1854 – Philomène Belliveau, Canadian artist (d. 1940)
    • 1864 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)
    • 1864 – Ruggero Oddi, Italian physiologist and anatomist (d. 1913)
    • 1868 – Miron Cristea, Romanian cleric and politician, 38th Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1939)
    • 1873 – Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian pilot (d. 1932)
    • 1876 – Otto Blumenthal, German mathematician and academic (d. 1944)
    • 1877 – Tom Crean, Irish sailor and explorer (d. 1938)
    • 1882 – Olga Hahn-Neurath, Austrian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1937)
    • 1889 – John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, Scottish broadcaster, co-founded BBC (d. 1971)
    • 1890 – Verna Felton, American actress (d. 1966)
    • 1890 – Julie Vinter Hansen, Danish-Swiss astronomer and academic (d. 1960)
    • 1890 – Giorgio Morandi, Italian painter (d. 1964)
    • 1893 – George Llewelyn Davies, English soldier (d. 1915)
    • 1895 – László Moholy-Nagy, Hungarian painter, photographer, and sculptor (d. 1946)
    • 1897 – Tadeusz Reichstein, Polish-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
    • 1900 – Maurice Leyland, English cricketer and coach (d. 1967)
    • 1901 – Vehbi Koç, Turkish businessman and philanthropist, founded Koç Holding (d. 1996)
    • 1901 – Eugenio Lopez Sr., Filipino businessman and founder of the Lopez Group of Companies (d. 1975)
    • 1901 – Heinie Manush, American baseball player and manager (d. 1971)
    • 1902 – Leonidas Berry, American gastroenterologist (d. 1995)
    • 1905 – Joseph Levis, American foil fencer (d. 2005)
    • 1909 – Eric Rowan, South African cricketer (d. 1993)
    • 1910 – Vilém Tauský, Czech-English conductor and composer (d. 2004)
    • 1911 – Baqa Jilani, Indian cricketer (d. 1941)
    • 1911 – José Zabala-Santos, Filipino author and illustrator (d. 1985)
    • 1912 – George Johnston, Australian journalist and author (d. 1970)
    • 1914 – Dobri Dobrev, Bulgarian philanthropist (d. 2018)
    • 1914 – Charilaos Florakis, Greek politician (d. 2005)
    • 1914 – Ersilio Tonini, Italian cardinal (d. 2013)
    • 1918 – Cindy Walker, American singer-songwriter and dancer (d. 2006)
    • 1919 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (d. 2008)
    • 1919 – Jacquemine Charrott Lodwidge, English writer (d. 2012)
    • 1920 – Elliot Richardson, American lieutenant and politician, 11th United States Secretary of Defense (d. 1999)
    • 1921 – Henri Alleg, English-French journalist and author (d. 2013)
    • 1922 – Alan Stephenson Boyd, American lawyer and politician, 1st United States Secretary of Transportation
    • 1923 – Stanisław Albinowski, Polish economist and journalist (d. 2005)
    • 1924 – Lola Albright, American actress and singer (d. 2017)
    • 1924 – Thomas Berger, American author and playwright (d. 2014)
    • 1924 – Mort Garson, Canadian-American songwriter and composer (d. 2008)
    • 1925 – Jacques Delors, French economist and politician, 8th President of the European Commission
    • 1925 – Frantz Fanon, French–Algerian psychiatrist and philosopher (d. 1961)
    • 1927 – Barbara Bergmann, American economist and academic (d. 2015)
    • 1927 – Heather Chasen, English actress (d. 2020)
    • 1927 – Michael Gielen, Austrian conductor and composer (d. 2019)
    • 1927 – Ian P. Howard, English-Canadian psychologist and academic (d. 2013)
    • 1928 – Józef Czyrek, Polish economist and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2013)
    • 1928 – Belaid Abdessalam, Prime Minister of Algeria
    • 1929 – Hazel Hawke, Australian social worker and pianist, 23rd Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2013)
    • 1929 – Mike Ilitch, American businessman, co-founded Little Caesars (d. 2017)
    • 1929 – Rajendra Kumar, Pakistani-Indian actor and producer (d. 1999)
    • 1929 – David Tonkin, Australian politician, 38th Premier of South Australia (d. 2000)
    • 1930 – Giannis Agouris, Greek journalist and author (d. 2006)
    • 1930 – Chuck Daly, American basketball player and coach (d. 2009)
    • 1930 – William H. Goetzmann, American historian and author (d. 2010)
    • 1930 – Sally Ann Howes, English-American singer and actress
    • 1931 – Tony Marsh, English race car driver (d. 2009)
    • 1932 – Nam June Paik, American artist (d. 2006)
    • 1932 – Otto Schily, German lawyer and politician, German Minister of the Interior
    • 1933 – Buddy Knox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1999)
    • 1933 – Cormac McCarthy, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter
    • 1933 – Rex Williams, English snooker player
    • 1935 – Peter Palumbo, Baron Palumbo, English businessman and art collector
    • 1935 – Sleepy LaBeef, American rockabilly singer and musician (d. 2019)
    • 1936 – Alistair MacLeod, Canadian novelist and short story writer (d. 2014)
    • 1936 – Barbara Mikulski, American social worker and politician
    • 1938 – Deniz Baykal, Turkish lawyer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
    • 1938 – Roger Hunt, English footballer
    • 1938 – Tony Oliva, Cuban-American baseball player and coach
    • 1938 – Diana Rigg, English actress
    • 1938 – Natalie Wood, American actress (d. 1981)
    • 1939 – Judy Chicago, American painter and sculptor
    • 1941 – Don Chuy, American football player (d. 2014)
    • 1941 – Periklis Korovesis, Greek author and journalist
    • 1941 – Kurt Raab, German actor, screenwriter, and production designer (d. 1988)
    • 1942 – Pete Hamilton, American race car driver
    • 1943 – Chris Amon, New Zealand race car driver (d. 2016)
    • 1943 – Bob McNab, English footballer
    • 1943 – Adrian Păunescu, Romanian poet, journalist, and politician (d. 2010)
    • 1943 – Wendy Richard, English actress (d. 2009)
    • 1944 – Mel Daniels, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
    • 1944 – W. Cary Edwards, American politician (d. 2010)
    • 1944 – Olivier de Kersauson, French sailor
    • 1944 – T. G. Sheppard, American country music singer-songwriter
    • 1945 – Kim Carnes, American singer-songwriter
    • 1945 – Larry Craig, American soldier and politician
    • 1945 – John Lodge, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
    • 1945 – Bo Rein, American football player and coach (d. 1980)
    • 1946 – Randal Kleiser, American actor, director, and producer
    • 1947 – Gerd Binnig, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
    • 1947 – Carlos Santana, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1948 – Muse Watson, American actor and producer
    • 1950 – Edward Leigh, English lawyer and politician
    • 1950 – Lucille Lemay, Canadian archer
    • 1951 – Jeff Rawle, English actor and screenwriter
    • 1953 – Dave Evans, Welsh-Australian singer-songwriter
    • 1953 – Thomas Friedman, American journalist and author
    • 1953 – Marcia Hines, American-Australian singer and actress
    • 1954 – Moira Harris, American actress
    • 1954 – Jay Jay French, American guitarist and producer
    • 1955 – Desmond Douglas, Jamaican-English table tennis player
    • 1955 – René-Daniel Dubois, Canadian actor and playwright
    • 1955 – Jem Finer, English banjo player and songwriter
    • 1956 – Paul Cook, English drummer
    • 1956 – Thomas N’Kono, Cameroonian footballer
    • 1956 – Jim Prentice, Canadian lawyer and politician, 16th Premier of Alberta (d. 2016)
    • 1958 – Mick MacNeil, Scottish keyboard player and songwriter
    • 1959 – Radney Foster, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
    • 1960 – Claudio Langes, Italian race car driver
    • 1960 – Prvoslav Vujčić, Serbian-Canadian poet and philosopher
    • 1960 – Sudesh Berry, Indian actor
    • 1961 – Óscar Elías Biscet, Cuban physician and activist, founded the Lawton Foundation
    • 1962 – Carlos Alazraqui, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1962 – Giovanna Amati, Italian race car driver
    • 1962 – Julie Bindel, English journalist, author, and academic
    • 1963 – Frank Whaley, American actor, director, and screenwriter
    • 1964 – Chris Cornell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2017)
    • 1964 – Terri Irwin, American-Australian zoologist and author
    • 1964 – Sebastiano Rossi, Italian footballer
    • 1964 – Bernd Schneider, German race car driver
    • 1965 – Jess Walter, American journalist and author
    • 1966 – Stone Gossard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1966 – Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexican lawyer and politician, 57th President of Mexico
    • 1967 – Courtney Taylor-Taylor, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1968 – Jimmy Carson, American ice hockey player
    • 1968 – Hami Mandıralı, Turkish footballer and manager
    • 1968 – Kool G Rap, American hip-hop artist
    • 1969 – Josh Holloway, American actor
    • 1969 – Kreso Kovacec, Croatian-German footballer
    • 1969 – Giovanni Lombardi, Italian cyclist
    • 1969 – Joon Park, South Korean-American singer
    • 1969 – Tobi Vail, American singer and guitarist
    • 1971 – Charles Johnson, American baseball player
    • 1971 – Sandra Oh, Canadian actress
    • 1972 – Jamie Ainscough, Australian rugby league player
    • 1972 – Jozef Stümpel, Slovak ice hockey player
    • 1972 – Erik Ullenhag, Swedish jurist and politician
    • 1972 – Vitamin C, American singer-songwriter
    • 1973 – Omar Epps, American actor
    • 1973 – Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway
    • 1973 – Peter Forsberg, Swedish ice hockey player and manager
    • 1973 – Nixon McLean, Caribbean cricketer
    • 1973 – Roberto Orci, Mexican-American screenwriter and producer
    • 1973 – Claudio Reyna, American soccer player
    • 1975 – Ray Allen, American basketball player and actor
    • 1975 – Judy Greer, American actress and producer
    • 1975 – Erik Hagen, Norwegian footballer
    • 1975 – Birgitta Ohlsson, Swedish journalist and politician, 5th Swedish Minister for European Union Affairs
    • 1975 – Jason Raize, American singer and actor
    • 1975 – Yusuf Şimşek, Turkish footballer and manager
    • 1976 – Erica Hill, American journalist
    • 1976 – Debashish Mohanty, Indian cricketer and coach
    • 1976 – Andrew Stockdale, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1976 – Alex Yoong, Malaysian race car driver
    • 1977 – Kiki Musampa, Congolese footballer
    • 1977 – Yves Niaré, French shot putter (d. 2012)
    • 1977 – Alessandro Santos, Brazilian-Japanese footballer
    • 1978 – Pavel Datsyuk, Russian ice hockey player
    • 1978 – Will Solomon, American basketball player
    • 1978 – Elliott Yamin, American singer-songwriter
    • 1978 – Ieva Zunda, Latvian runner and hurdler
    • 1979 – Miklós Fehér, Hungarian footballer (d. 2004)
    • 1979 – Charlotte Hatherley, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1979 – David Ortega, Spanish swimmer
    • 1980 – Tesfaye Bramble, English-Montserratian footballer
    • 1980 – Gisele Bündchen, Brazilian model, fashionista, and businesswoman
    • 1981 – Viktoria Ladõnskaja, Estonian journalist and politician
    • 1982 – Antoine Vermette, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1984 – Alexi Casilla, Dominican baseball player
    • 1984 – Matt Gilroy, American ice hockey player
    • 1985 – John Francis Daley, American actor and screenwriter
    • 1985 – Harley Morenstein, Canadian actor and YouTube personality
    • 1985 – David Mundy, Australian footballer
    • 1986 – Osric Chau, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1987 – Nicola Benedetti, Scottish violinist
    • 1987 – Niall McGinn, Irish footballer
    • 1988 – Julianne Hough, American singer-songwriter, actress, and dancer
    • 1988 – Stephen Strasburg, American baseball player
    • 1988 – Shahram Mahmoudi, Iranian volleyball player
    • 1989 – Javier Cortés, Mexican footballer
    • 1989 – Cristian Pasquato, Italian footballer
    • 1990 – Lars Unnerstall, German footballer
    • 1991 – Chiyoshōma Fujio, Mongolian sumo wrestler
    • 1991 – Ryan James, Australian rugby league player
    • 1991 – Kira Kazantsev, Miss America 2015
    • 1991 – Philipp Reiter, German mountaineer and runner
    • 1993 – Steven Adams, New Zealand basketball player
    • 1995 – Moses Leota, New Zealand rugby league player
    • 1996 – Ben Simmons, Australian basketball player

    Deaths on July 20

    • 518 – Amantius, Byzantine grand chamberlain and Monophysite martyr
    • 833 – Ansegisus, Frankish abbot and saint
    • 985 – Boniface VII, antipope of Rome
    • 1031 – Robert II, king of France (b. 972)
    • 1156 – Toba, emperor of Japan (b. 1103)
    • 1320 – Oshin, king of Armenia (b. 1282)
    • 1332 – Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland
    • 1387 – Robert IV, French nobleman (b. 1356)
    • 1398 – Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, Welsh nobleman (b. 1374)
    • 1453 – Enguerrand de Monstrelet, French historian and author (b. 1400)
    • 1454 – John II, king of Castile and León (b. 1405)
    • 1514 – György Dózsa, Transylvanian peasant revolt leader (b. 1470)
    • 1524 – Claude, queen consort of France (b. 1499)
    • 1526 – García Jofre de Loaísa, Spanish explorer (b. 1490)
    • 1600 – William More, English courtier (b. 1520)
    • 1616 – Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, Irish nobleman and rebel soldier (b. 1550)
    • 1704 – Peregrine White, English-American farmer and soldier (b. 1620)
    • 1752 – Johann Christoph Pepusch, German-English composer and theorist (b. 1667)
    • 1816 – Gavrila Derzhavin, Russian poet and politician (b. 1743)
    • 1866 – Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician and academic (b. 1826)
    • 1897 – Jean Ingelow, English poet and author (b. 1820)
    • 1901 – William Cosmo Monkhouse, English poet and critic (b. 1840)
    • 1903 – Leo XIII, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1810)
    • 1908 – Demetrius Vikelas, Greek businessman and author (b. 1835)
    • 1908 – Karl Bernhard Zoeppritz, German geophysicist and seismologist (b. 1881)
    • 1910 – Anderson Dawson, Australian politician, 14th Premier of Queensland (b. 1863)
    • 1922 – Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician and theorist (b. 1856)
    • 1923 – Pancho Villa, Mexican general and politician, Governor of Chihuahua (b. 1878)
    • 1926 – Felix Dzerzhinsky, Russian educator and politician (b. 1877)
    • 1927 – Ferdinand I, king of Romania (b. 1865)
    • 1928 – Kostas Karyotakis, Greek poet and author (b. 1896)
    • 1932 – René Bazin, French author and academic (b. 1853)
    • 1937 – Olga Hahn-Neurath, Austrian mathematician and philosopher from the Vienna Circle (b. 1882)
    • 1937 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
    • 1941 – Lew Fields, American actor and producer (b. 1867)
    • 1944 – Ludwig Beck, German general (b. 1880)
    • 1945 – Paul Valéry, French author and poet (b. 1871)
    • 1951 – Abdullah I, king of Jordan (b. 1882)
    • 1953 – Dumarsais Estimé, Haitian lawyer and politician, 33rd President of Haiti (b. 1900)
    • 1953 – Jan Struther, English author and hymn-writer (b. 1901)
    • 1955 – Calouste Gulbenkian, Armenian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1869)
    • 1956 – James Alexander Calder, Canadian educator and politician, Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence (b. 1868)
    • 1959 – William D. Leahy, American admiral and diplomat, United States Ambassador to France (b. 1875)
    • 1965 – Batukeshwar Dutt, Indian activist (b. 1910)
    • 1968 – Bray Hammond, American historian and author (b. 1886)
    • 1970 – Iain Macleod, English journalist and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1913)
    • 1972 – Geeta Dutt, Indian singer and actress (b. 1930)
    • 1973 – Bruce Lee, American actor and martial artist (b. 1940)
    • 1973 – Robert Smithson, American photographer and sculptor (b. 1938)
    • 1974 – Allen Jenkins, American actor and singer (b. 1900)
    • 1974 – Kamal Dasgupta, Bengali music director, composer and folk artist. (b. 1912)
    • 1976 – Joseph Rochefort, American captain and cryptanalyst (b. 1900)
    • 1977 – Gary Kellgren, American record producer, co-founded Record Plant (b. 1939)
    • 1980 – Maria Martinez, San Ildefonso Pueblo (Native American) potter (b. 1887)
    • 1981 – Kostas Choumis, Greek-Romanian footballer (b. 1913)
    • 1983 – Frank Reynolds, American soldier and journalist (b. 1923)
    • 1987 – Richard Egan, American soldier and actor (b. 1921)
    • 1989 – Forrest H. Anderson, American judge and politician, 17th Governor of Montana (b. 1913)
    • 1990 – Herbert Turner Jenkins, American police officer (b. 1907)
    • 1993 – Vince Foster, American lawyer and political figure (b. 1945)
    • 1994 – Paul Delvaux, Belgian painter (b. 1897)
    • 1997 – M. E. H. Maharoof, Sri Lankan politician (b. 1939)
    • 1998 – June Byers, American wrestler (b. 1922)
    • 1999 – Sandra Gould, American actress (b. 1916)
    • 2002 – Michalis Kritikopoulos, Greek footballer (b. 1946)
    • 2003 – Nicolas Freeling, English author (b. 1927)
    • 2004 – Lala Mara, Fijian politician (b. 1931)
    • 2004 – Valdemaras Martinkėnas, Lithuanian footballer and coach (b. 1965)
    • 2005 – James Doohan, Canadian-American actor (b. 1920)
    • 2005 – Finn Gustavsen, Norwegian journalist and politician (b. 1926)
    • 2005 – Kayo Hatta, American director and cinematographer (b. 1958)
    • 2006 – Ted Grant, South African-English theorist and activist (b. 1913)
    • 2006 – Gérard Oury, French actor, director, and producer (b. 1919)
    • 2007 – Tammy Faye Messner, American Christian evangelist and talk show host (b. 1942)
    • 2008 – Artie Traum, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (b. 1943)
    • 2008 – Dinko Šakić, Croatian concentration camp commander (b. 1921)
    • 2009 – Vedat Okyar, Turkish footballer (b. 1945)
    • 2009 – Mark Rosenzweig, American psychologist and academic (b. 1922)
    • 2011 – Lucian Freud, German-English painter and illustrator (b. 1922)
    • 2012 – Alastair Burnet, English journalist (b. 1928)
    • 2012 – Jack Davis, American hurdler (b. 1930)
    • 2012 – José Hermano Saraiva, Portuguese historian, jurist, and politician, Portuguese Minister of Education (b. 1919)
    • 2013 – Pierre Fabre, French pharmacist and businessman, founded Laboratoires Pierre Fabre (b. 1926)
    • 2013 – Khurshed Alam Khan, Indian politician, 2nd Governor of Goa (b. 1919)
    • 2013 – Augustus Rowe, Canadian physician and politician (b. 1920)
    • 2013 – Helen Thomas, American journalist and author (b. 1920)
    • 2014 – Victor G. Atiyeh, American businessman and politician, 32nd Governor of Oregon (b. 1923)
    • 2014 – Constantin Lucaci, Romanian sculptor and educator (b. 1923)
    • 2014 – Bob McNamara, American football player (b. 1931)
    • 2014 – Klaus Schmidt, German archaeologist and academic (b. 1953)
    • 2015 – Wayne Carson, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1943)
    • 2015 – Fred Else, English footballer and manager (b. 1933)
    • 2015 – Dieter Moebius, Swiss-German keyboard player and producer (b. 1944)
    • 2016 – Radu Beligan, Romanian actor, director, and essayist (b. 1918)
    • 2017 – Chester Bennington, American singer (b. 1976)

    Holidays and observances on July 20

    • Birthday of Crown Prince Haakon Magnus (Norway)
    • Christian feast day:
      • Ansegisus
      • Apollinaris of Ravenna
      • Aurelius
      • Ealhswith (or Elswith)
      • Elijah
      • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • John Baptist Yi (one of The Korean Martyrs)
      • Margaret the Virgin
      • Thorlac (relic translation)
      • Wilgefortis (cult suppressed)
      • July 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Día del Amigo (Argentina, Brazil)
    • Engineer’s Day (Costa Rica)
    • Independence Day, celebrates the independence declaration of Colombia from Spain in 1810.
    • International Chess Day
    • Lempira Day (Honduras)
    • Tree Planting Day (Central African Republic)

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

    • 363 – Emperor Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal, Roman forces suffer several attacks from the Persians.
    • 632 – Yazdegerd III ascends the throne as king (shah) of the Persian Empire. He becomes the last ruler of the Sasanian dynasty (modern Iran).
    • 1407 – Ming–Hồ War: Retired King Hồ Quý Ly and his son King Hồ Hán Thương of Hồ dynasty are captured by the Ming armies.
    • 1487 – Battle of Stoke Field: King Henry VII of England defeats the leaders of a Yorkist rebellion in the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses.
    • 1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir and successor.
    • 1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: New England colonial troops under the command of William Pepperrell capture the Fortress of Louisbourg in Louisbourg, New France (Old Style date).
    • 1746 – War of the Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeat a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.
    • 1755 – French and Indian War: The French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.
    • 1779 – Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
    • 1795 – French Revolutionary Wars: In what became known as Cornwallis’s Retreat, a British Royal Navy squadron led by Vice Admiral William Cornwallis strongly resists a much larger French Navy force and withdraws largely intact, setting up the French Navy defeat at the Battle of Groix six days later.
    • 1811 – Survivors of an attack the previous day by Tla-o-qui-aht on board the Pacific Fur Company’s ship Tonquin, intentionally detonate a powder magazine on the ship, destroying it and killing about 100 attackers.
    • 1815 – Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before the Battle of Waterloo.
    • 1819 – A major earthquake strikes the Kutch district of western India, killing over 1,543 people and raising a 6 m high, 6 km wide, ridge, extending for at least 80 km, that was known as the Allah Bund (“Dam of God”).
    • 1836 – The formation of the London Working Men’s Association gives rise to the Chartist Movement.
    • 1846 – The Papal conclave of 1846 elects Pope Pius IX, beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy.
    • 1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
    • 1871 – The Universities Tests Act 1871 allows students to enter the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests (except for those intending to study theology).
    • 1883 – The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England, kills 183 children.
    • 1884 – The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson’s “Switchback Railway”, opens in New York’s Coney Island amusement park.
    • 1897 – A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.
    • 1903 – The Ford Motor Company is incorporated.
    • 1903 – Roald Amundsen leaves Oslo, Norway, to commence the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage.
    • 1904 – Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolay Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
    • 1904 – Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called “Bloomsday”.
    • 1911 – IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.
    • 1922 – General election in the Irish Free State: The pro-Treaty Sinn Féin party wins a large majority.
    • 1925 – The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the Soviet Union, Artek, is established.
    • 1930 – Sovnarkom establishes decree time in the USSR.
    • 1933 – The National Industrial Recovery Act is passed in the United States, allowing businesses to avoid antitrust prosecution if they establish voluntary wage, price, and working condition regulations on an industry-wide basis.
    • 1940 – World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l’État Français).
    • 1940 – A Communist government is installed in Lithuania.
    • 1944 – In a gross miscarriage of justice, George Junius Stinney Jr., age 14, becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century after being convicted in a two-hour trial for the rape and murder of two teenage white girls.
    • 1948 – Members of the Malayan Communist Party kill three British plantation managers in Sungai Siput; in response, British Malaya declares a state of emergency.
    • 1955 – In a futile effort to topple Argentine President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces.
    • 1958 – Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising are executed.
    • 1961 – While on tour with the Kirov Ballet in Paris, Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union.
    • 1963 – Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
    • 1972 – The largest single-site hydroelectric power project in Canada is inaugurated at Churchill Falls Generating Station.
    • 1976 – Soweto uprising: A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa, turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd.
    • 1977 – Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL), by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
    • 1981 – US President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada’s former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979–81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor.
    • 1989 – Revolutions of 1989: Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian prime minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary.
    • 1997 – Fifty people are killed in the Daïat Labguer (M’sila) massacre in Algeria.
    • 2000 – The Secretary-General of the UN reports that Israel has complied with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, 22 years after its issuance, and completely withdrew from Lebanon. The Resolution does not encompass the Shebaa farms, which is claimed by Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
    • 2010 – Bhutan becomes the first country to institute a total ban on tobacco.
    • 2012 – China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.
    • 2012 – The United States Air Force’s robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission
    • 2013 – A multi-day cloudburst, centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand, causes devastating floods and landslides, becoming the country’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami.
    • 2016 – Shanghai Disneyland Park, the first Disney Park in Mainland China, opens to the public.
    • 2019 – Upwards of 2,000,000 people participate in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, the largest in Hong Kong’s history.

    Births on June 16

    • 1139 – Emperor Konoe of Japan (d. 1155)
    • 1332 – Isabella de Coucy, English daughter of Edward III of England (d. 1379)
    • 1454 – Joanna of Aragon, Queen of Naples (d. 1517)
    • 1514 – John Cheke, English academic and politician, English Secretary of State (d. 1557)
    • 1516 – Yang Jisheng, Ming dynasty official and Confucian martyr (d. 1555)
    • 1583 – Axel Oxenstierna, Swedish politician, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden (d. 1654)
    • 1591 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Greek-Italian physician, mathematician, and theorist (d. 1655)
    • 1606 – Arthur Chichester, 1st Earl of Donegall, Irish soldier and politician (d. 1675)
    • 1613 – John Cleveland, English poet and educator (d. 1658)
    • 1625 – Samuel Chappuzeau, French scholar (d. 1701)
    • 1633 – Jean de Thévenot, French linguist and botanist (d. 1667)
    • 1644 – Henrietta Anne Stuart, Princess of Scotland, England and Ireland (d. 1670)
    • 1653 – James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon, English nobleman (d. 1699)
    • 1713 – Meshech Weare, American farmer, lawyer, and politician, 1st Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1786)
    • 1723 – Adam Smith, Scottish philosopher and economist (d. 1790)
    • 1738 – Mary Katherine Goddard, American publisher (d. 1816)
    • 1754 – Salawat Yulayev, Russian poet (d. 1800)
    • 1792 – John Linnell, English painter and engraver (d. 1882)
    • 1801 – Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1868)
    • 1806 – Edward Davy, English physician and chemist (d. 1885)
    • 1813 – Otto Jahn, German archaeologist and philologist (d. 1869)
    • 1820 – Athanase Josué Coquerel, Dutch-French preacher and theologian (d. 1875)
    • 1821 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer and architect (d. 1908)
    • 1826 – Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist and botanist (d. 1897)
    • 1829 – Geronimo, American tribal leader (d. 1909)
    • 1836 – Wesley Merritt, American general and politician, Military Governor of the Philippines (d. 1910)
    • 1837 – Ernst Laas, German philosopher and academic (d. 1885)
    • 1838 – Frederic Archer, English organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1901)
    • 1838 – Cushman Kellogg Davis, American lieutenant and politician, 7th Governor of Minnesota (d. 1900)
    • 1840 – Ernst Otto Schlick, German engineer and author (d. 1913)
    • 1850 – Max Delbrück, German chemist and academic (d. 1919)
    • 1857 – Arthur Arz von Straußenburg, Austrian-Hungarian general (d. 1935)
    • 1858 – Gustaf V of Sweden (d. 1950)
    • 1863 – Francisco León de la Barra, Mexican politician and diplomat (d. 1939)
    • 1866 – Germanos Karavangelis, Greek-Austrian metropolitan (d. 1935)
    • 1874 – Arthur Meighen, Canadian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1960)
    • 1880 – Otto Eisenschiml, Austrian-American chemist and author (d. 1963)
    • 1882 – Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iranian educator and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1967)
    • 1885 – Erich Jacoby, Estonian-Polish architect (d. 1941)
    • 1888 – Alexander Friedmann, Russian physicist and mathematician (d. 1925)
    • 1888 – Peter Stoner, American mathematician and astronomer (d. 1980)
    • 1890 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (d. 1965)
    • 1896 – Murray Leinster, American author and screenwriter (d. 1976)
    • 1897 – Georg Wittig, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
    • 1899 – Helen Traubel, American operatic soprano (d. 1972)
    • 1902 – Barbara McClintock, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
    • 1902 – George Gaylord Simpson, American paleontologist and author (d. 1984)
    • 1906 – Alan Fairfax, Australian cricketer (d. 1955)
    • 1907 – Jack Albertson, American actor (d. 1981)
    • 1909 – Archie Carr, American ecologist and zoologist (d. 1987)
    • 1910 – Juan Velasco Alvarado, Peruvian general and politician, 1st President of Peru (d. 1977)
    • 1912 – Albert Chartier, Canadian illustrator (d. 2004)
    • 1912 – Enoch Powell, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Health (d. 1998)
    • 1914 – Eleanor Sokoloff, American pianist and teacher
    • 1915 – John Tukey, American mathematician and academic (d. 2000)
    • 1915 – Marga Faulstich, German glass chemist (d. 1998)
    • 1917 – Phaedon Gizikis, Greek general and politician, President of Greece (d. 1999)
    • 1917 – Katharine Graham, American publisher (d. 2001)
    • 1917 – Aurelio Lampredi, Italian automobile and aircraft engine designer (d. 1989)
    • 1917 – Irving Penn, American photographer (d. 2009)
    • 1920 – Isabelle Holland, Swiss-American author (d. 2002)
    • 1920 – Raymond Lemieux, Canadian chemist and academic (d. 2002)
    • 1920 – José López Portillo, Mexican lawyer and politician, 31st President of Mexico (d. 2004)
    • 1920 – Hemanta Mukharjee, Indian singer and music director
    • 1922 – Ilmar Kullam, Estonian basketball player and coach (d. 2011)
    • 1923 – Ron Flockhart, Scottish race car driver (d. 1962)
    • 1924 – Faith Domergue, American actress (d. 1999)
    • 1925 – Jean d’Ormesson, French journalist and author (d. 2017)
    • 1925 – Otto Muehl, Austrian-Portuguese painter and director (d. 2013)
    • 1926 – Efraín Ríos Montt, Guatemalan general and politician, 26th President of Guatemala (d. 2018)
    • 1927 – Tom Graveney, English cricketer and sportscaster (d. 2015)
    • 1927 – Herbert Lichtenfeld, German author and screenwriter (d. 2001)
    • 1927 – Ariano Suassuna, Brazilian author and playwright (d. 2014)
    • 1929 – Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait
    • 1930 – Vilmos Zsigmond, Hungarian-American cinematographer and producer (d. 2016)
    • 1934 – Eileen Atkins, English actress and screenwriter
    • 1934 – Roger Neilson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2003)
    • 1935 – Jim Dine, American painter and illustrator
    • 1937 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Bulgarian politician, 48th Prime Minister of Bulgaria
    • 1937 – Erich Segal, American author and screenwriter (d. 2010)
    • 1938 – Thomas Boyd-Carpenter, English general
    • 1938 – Torgny Lindgren, Swedish author and poet (d. 2017)
    • 1938 – Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist, short story writer, critic, and poet
    • 1939 – Billy “Crash” Craddock, American singer-songwriter
    • 1940 – Māris Čaklais, Latvian poet, writer, and journalist (d. 2003)
    • 1940 – Neil Goldschmidt, American lawyer and politician, 33rd Governor of Oregon
    • 1941 – Rosalind Baker, Australian author
    • 1941 – Lamont Dozier, American songwriter and producer
    • 1941 – Tommy Horton, English golfer (d. 2017)
    • 1941 – Mumtaz Hamid Rao, Pakistani journalist (d. 2011)
    • 1942 – Giacomo Agostini, Italian motorcycle racer and manager
    • 1942 – Eddie Levert, American R&B/soul singer-songwriter, musician, and actor
    • 1944 – Henri Richelet, French painter and etcher
    • 1945 – Claire Alexander, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1945 – Lucienne Robillard, Canadian social worker and politician, 59th Secretary of State for Canada
    • 1946 – Rick Adelman, American basketball player and coach
    • 1946 – John Astor, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever, English businessman and politician
    • 1946 – Karen Dunnell, English statistician and academic
    • 1946 – Tom Harrell, American trumpet player and composer
    • 1946 – Neil MacGregor, Scottish historian and curator
    • 1946 – Iain Matthews, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1946 – Jodi Rell, American politician, 87th Governor of Connecticut
    • 1946 – Mark Ritts, American actor, puppeteer, and producer (d. 2009)
    • 1946 – Derek Sanderson, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
    • 1946 – Simon Williams, English actor and playwright
    • 1947 – Tom Malone, American trombonist, composer, and producer
    • 1947 – Buddy Roberts, American wrestler (d. 2012)
    • 1947 – Al Cowlings, American ex-NFL player and close friend of O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson
    • 1947 – Tom Wyner, English-American voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1948 – Ron LeFlore, American baseball player and manager
    • 1949 – Paulo Cézar Caju, Brazilian footballer
    • 1949 – Ralph Mann, American hurdler and author
    • 1950 – Mithun Chakraborty, Indian actor and politician
    • 1950 – Michel Clair, Canadian lawyer and politician
    • 1950 – Jerry Petrowski, American politician and farmer
    • 1951 – Charlie Dominici, American singer and guitarist
    • 1951 – Roberto Durán, Panamanian boxer
    • 1952 – George Papandreou, Greek sociologist and politician, 182nd Prime Minister of Greece
    • 1952 – Gino Vannelli, Canadian singer-songwriter
    • 1953 – Valerie Mahaffey, American actress
    • 1953 – Ian Mosley, English drummer
    • 1954 – Matthew Saad Muhammad, American boxer and trainer (d. 2014)
    • 1954 – Garry Roberts, Irish guitarist
    • 1955 – Grete Faremo, Norwegian politician, Norwegian Minister of Defence
    • 1955 – Laurie Metcalf, American actress
    • 1955 – Artemy Troitsky, Russian journalist and critic
    • 1957 – Ian Buchanan, Scottish-American actor
    • 1957 – Leeona Dorrian, Lady Dorrian, Scottish lawyer and judge
    • 1958 – Darrell Griffith, American basketball player
    • 1958 – Ulrike Tauber, German swimmer
    • 1958 – Warren Rodwell, Australian soldier, educator and musician
    • 1959 – The Ultimate Warrior, American wrestler (d. 2014)
    • 1960 – Peter Sterling, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
    • 1961 – Can Dündar, Turkish journalist and author
    • 1961 – Robbie Kerr, Australian cricketer
    • 1961 – Steve Larmer, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1961 – Margus Metstak, Estonian basketball player and coach
    • 1962 – Wally Joyner, American baseball player and coach
    • 1962 – Arnold Vosloo, South African-American actor
    • 1962 – Anthony Wong, Hong Kong singer
    • 1963 – The Sandman, American wrestler
    • 1964 – Danny Burstein, American actor and singer
    • 1965 – Michael Richard Lynch, Irish computer scientist and entrepreneur; co-founded HP Autonomy
    • 1965 – Richard Madaleno, American politician
    • 1966 – Mark Occhilupo, Australian surfer
    • 1966 – Olivier Roumat, French rugby player
    • 1966 – Phil Vischer, American voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-created VeggieTales
    • 1966 – Jan Železný, Czech javelin thrower and coach
    • 1967 – Charalambos Andreou, Cypriot footballer
    • 1967 – Jürgen Klopp, German footballer and manager
    • 1968 – Adam Schmitt, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
    • 1969 – Shami Chakrabarti, English lawyer and academic
    • 1969 – Mark Crossley, English-Welsh footballer and manager
    • 1970 – Younus AlGohar, Pakistani poet and academic, co-founded Messiah Foundation International
    • 1970 – Clifton Collins Jr., American actor
    • 1970 – Cobi Jones, American soccer player and manager
    • 1970 – Phil Mickelson, American golfer
    • 1971 – Tupac Shakur, American rapper and producer (d. 1996)
    • 1972 – Kiko Loureiro, Brazilian guitarist
    • 1973 – Eddie Cibrian, American actor
    • 1974 – Glenicia James, Saint Lucian cricketer
    • 1975 – Anthony Carter, American basketball player and coach
    • 1977 – Craig Fitzgibbon, Australian rugby league player and coach
    • 1977 – Duncan Hames, English accountant and politician
    • 1977 – Kerry Wood, American baseball player
    • 1978 – Daniel Brühl, Spanish-German actor
    • 1978 – Dainius Zubrus, Lithuanian ice hockey player
    • 1978 – Fish Leong, Malaysian singer
    • 1980 – Brandon Armstrong, American basketball player
    • 1980 – Phil Christophers, German-English rugby player
    • 1980 – Henry Perenara, New Zealand rugby league player and referee
    • 1980 – Martin Stranzl, Austrian footballer
    • 1980 – Joey Yung, Hong Kong singer
    • 1981 – Benjamin Becker, German tennis player
    • 1981 – Kevin Bieksa, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1981 – Alexandre Giroux, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1981 – Ola Kvernberg, Norwegian violinist
    • 1981 – Miguel Villalta, Peruvian footballer
    • 1982 – May Andersen, Danish model and actress
    • 1982 – Missy Peregrym, Canadian model and actress
    • 1983 – Armend Dallku, Albanian footballer
    • 1984 – Rick Nash, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1984 – Dan Ryckert, American writer and entertainer
    • 1984 – Steven Whittaker, Scottish footballer
    • 1986 – Rodrigo Defendi, Brazilian footballer
    • 1986 – Urby Emanuelson, Dutch footballer
    • 1986 – Fernando Muslera, Uruguayan footballer
    • 1987 – Diana DeGarmo, American singer-songwriter and actress
    • 1987 – Per Ciljan Skjelbred, Norwegian footballer
    • 1987 – Christian Tshimanga Kabeya, Belgian footballer
    • 1988 – Keshia Chante, Canadian singer
    • 1988 – Jermaine Gresham, American football player
    • 1990 – John Newman, English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer
    • 1991 – Joe McElderry, English singer-songwriter
    • 1991 – Siya Kolisi, South African rugby player
    • 1991 – Matt Moylan, Australian rugby league player
    • 1992 – Vladimir Morozov, Russian swimmer
    • 1993 – Park Bo-gum, South Korean actor
    • 1993 – Gnash, American singer, songwriter, rapper, DJ and record producer
    • 1994 – Grete-Lilijane Küppas, Estonian footballer
    • 1994 – Rezar, Albanian professional wrestler
    • 1995 – Euan Aitken, Australian rugby league player
    • 1995 – Joseph Schooling, Singaporean swimmer
    • 1995 – Akira Ioane, New Zealand rugby Union player
    • 2000 – Bianca Andreescu, Canadian tennis player

    Deaths on June 16

    • 840 – Rorgon I, Frankish nobleman (or 839)
    • 924 – Li Cunshen, general of Later Tang (b. 862)
    • 956 – Hugh the Great, Frankish nobleman (b. 898)
    • 1185 – Richeza of Poland, queen of León (b. c. 1140)
    • 1286 – Hugh de Balsham, English bishop
    • 1332 – Adam de Brome, founder of Oriel College, Oxford
    • 1361 – Johannes Tauler, German mystic theologian
    • 1397 – Philip of Artois, Count of Eu, French soldier (b. 1358)
    • 1424 – Johannes Ambundii, archbishop of Riga
    • 1468 – Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy, Burgundian historian and author (b. 1395)
    • 1487 – John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln (b. c. 1463)
    • 1540 – Konrad von Thüngen, German nobleman (b. c. 1466)
    • 1622 – Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (b. 1555)
    • 1626 – Christian, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, German Protestant military leader (b. 1599)
    • 1666 – Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet, English poet and diplomat, English Ambassador to Spain (b. 1608)
    • 1722 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire (b. 1650)
    • 1743 – Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, eldest daughter of King Louis XIV of France (b. 1673)
    • 1752 – Joseph Butler, English bishop and philosopher (b. 1692)
    • 1762 – Anne Russell, Countess of Jersey (formerly Duchess of Bedford) (b. c.1705)
    • 1777 – Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset, French poet and playwright (b. 1709)
    • 1779 – Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet, English lawyer and politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1712)
    • 1804 – Johann Adam Hiller, German composer and conductor (b. 1728)
    • 1824 – Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, French lawyer and politician (b. 1739)
    • 1849 – Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette, German theologian and scholar (b. 1780)
    • 1850 – William Lawson, English-Australian explorer and politician (b. 1774)
    • 1858 – John Snow, English epidemiologist and physician (b. 1813)
    • 1862 – Hidenoyama Raigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 9th Yokozuna (b. 1808)
    • 1869 – Charles Sturt, Indian-English botanist and explorer (b. 1795)
    • 1872 – Norman MacLeod, Scottish minister and author (b. 1812)
    • 1878 – Crawford Long, American surgeon and pharmacist (b. 1815)
    • 1878 – Kikuchi Yōsai, Japanese painter (b. 1781)
    • 1881 – Josiah Mason, English businessman and philanthropist (b. 1795)
    • 1885 – Wilhelm Camphausen, German painter and academic (b. 1818)
    • 1886 – Alexander Stuart, Scottish-Australian politician, 9th Premier of New South Wales (b. 1824)
    • 1902 – Ernst Schröder, German mathematician and academic (b. 1841)
    • 1918 – Bazil Assan, Romanian engineer and explorer (b. 1860)
    • 1925 – Chittaranjan Das, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1870)
    • 1929 – Bramwell Booth, English 2nd General of The Salvation Army (b. 1856)
    • 1929 – Vernon Louis Parrington, American historian and scholar (b. 1871)
    • 1930 – Ezra Fitch, American lawyer and businessman, co-founded Abercrombie & Fitch (b. 1866)
    • 1930 – Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American inventor, co-invented the gyrocompass (b. 1860)
    • 1939 – Chick Webb, American drummer and bandleader (b. 1905)
    • 1940 – DuBose Heyward, American author (b. 1885)
    • 1944 – Marc Bloch, French historian and academic (b. 1886)
    • 1945 – Aris Velouchiotis, Greek general (b. 1905)
    • 1946 – Gordon Brewster, Irish cartoonist (b 1889)
    • 1952 – Andrew Lawson, Scottish-American geologist and academic (b. 1861)
    • 1953 – Margaret Bondfield, English politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (b. 1873)
    • 1955 – Ozias Leduc, Canadian painter (b. 1864)
    • 1958 – Pál Maléter, Hungarian general and politician, Minister of Defence of Hungary (b. 1917)
    • 1958 – Imre Nagy, Hungarian politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1895)
    • 1959 – George Reeves, American actor and director (b. 1914)
    • 1961 – Marcel Junod, Swiss physician and anesthesiologist (b. 1904)
    • 1967 – Reginald Denny, English actor (b. 1891)
    • 1969 – Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, English field marshal and politician, 17th Governor General of Canada (b. 1891)
    • 1970 – Sydney Chapman, English mathematician and geophysicist (b. 1888)
    • 1970 – Brian Piccolo, American football player (b. 1943)
    • 1971 – John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, Scottish broadcaster, co-founded BBC (b. 1889)
    • 1974 – Amalie Sara Colquhoun, Australian landscape and portrait painter (b. 1894)
    • 1977 – Wernher von Braun, German-American physicist and engineer (b. 1912)
    • 1979 – Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Ghanaian general and politician, 6th Head of state of Ghana (b. 1931)
    • 1979 – Nicholas Ray, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
    • 1981 – Thomas Playford IV, Australian politician, 33rd Premier of South Australia (b. 1896)
    • 1982 – James Honeyman-Scott, English guitarist and songwriter (b. 1956)
    • 1984 – Lew Andreas, American football player and coach (b. 1895)
    • 1984 – Erni Krusten, Estonian author and poet (b. 1900)
    • 1986 – Maurice Duruflé, French organist and composer (b. 1902)
    • 1987 – Marguerite de Angeli, American author and illustrator (b. 1889)
    • 1988 – Miguel Piñero, Puerto Rican-American actor and playwright (b. 1946)
    • 1993 – Lindsay Hassett, Australian cricketer and soldier (b. 1913)
    • 1994 – Kristen Pfaff, American bass player and songwriter (b. 1967)
    • 1996 – Mel Allen, American sportscaster and game show host (b. 1913)
    • 1997 – Dal Stivens, Australian soldier and author (b. 1911)
    • 1998 – Fred Wacker, American race car driver and engineer (b. 1918)
    • 1999 – Screaming Lord Sutch, English singer and activist (b. 1940)
    • 2003 – Pierre Bourgault, Canadian journalist and politician (b. 1934)
    • 2003 – Georg Henrik von Wright, Finnish–Swedish philosopher and author (b. 1916)
    • 2004 – Thanom Kittikachorn, Thai field marshal and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1911)
    • 2004 – Jacques Miquelon, Canadian lawyer and judge (b. 1911)
    • 2005 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican-American author and critic (b. 1906)
    • 2008 – Mario Rigoni Stern, Italian soldier and author (b. 1921)
    • 2010 – Marc Bazin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 49th President of Haiti (b. 1932)
    • 2010 – Maureen Forrester, Canadian singer and academic (b. 1930)
    • 2010 – Ronald Neame, English director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
    • 2011 – Östen Mäkitalo, Swedish engineer and academic (b. 1938)
    • 2012 – Nils Karlsson, Swedish skier (b. 1917)
    • 2012 – Jorge Lankenau, Mexican banker and businessman (b. 1944)
    • 2012 – Sławomir Petelicki, Polish general (b. 1946)
    • 2012 – Susan Tyrrell, American actress (b. 1945)
    • 2013 – Sam Farber, American businessman, co-founded OXO (b. 1924)
    • 2013 – Hans Hass, Austrian biologist and diver (b. 1919)
    • 2013 – Khondakar Ashraf Hossain, Bangladesh poet and academic (b. 1950)
    • 2013 – Norman Ian MacKenzie, English journalist and author (b. 1921)
    • 2013 – Ottmar Walter, German footballer (b. 1924)
    • 2014 – Tony Gwynn, American baseball player and coach (b. 1960)
    • 2014 – Cándido Muatetema Rivas (b. 1960), Equatoguinean politician and diplomat, Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea
    • 2015 – Charles Correa, Indian architect and urban planner (b. 1930)
    • 2015 – Jean Vautrin, French director, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1933)
    • 2016 – Jo Cox, English political activist and MP (b. 1974)
    • 2017 – Helmut Kohl, German politician, 6th Chancellor of Germany (b. 1930)
    • 2020 – Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. (b. 1935), Filipino businessman and politician

    Holidays and observances on June 16

    • Juneteenth (United States)
    • Birthday of Leonard P. Howell (Rastafari)
    • Bloomsday (Dublin, Ireland)
    • Christian feast days:
      • Aurelianus of Arles
      • Aureus of Mainz (and his sister Justina)
      • Benno
      • Cettin of Oran
      • Curig of Llanbadarn
      • Ferreolus and Ferrutio
      • George Berkeley and Joseph Butler (Episcopal Church)
      • Lutgardis
      • Quriaqos and Julietta
      • June 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Engineer’s Day (Argentina)
    • Father’s Day (Seychelles)
    • International Day of the African Child (Organisation of African Unity)
    • Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev (Sikhism)
    • Sussex Day (Sussex)
    • Youth Day (South Africa)

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

    • 913 – The 8-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, Constantine VII, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire, under the regency of a seven-man council headed by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, appointed by Constantine’s uncle Alexander III on his deathbed.
    • 1513 – Italian Wars: Battle of Novara. Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis II de la Trémoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan. Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.
    • 1523 – Gustav Vasa, the Swedish regent, is elected King of Sweden, marking a symbolic end to the Kalmar Union. This is the Swedish national day.
    • 1586 – Francis Drake’s forces raid St. Augustine in Spanish Florida.
    • 1674 – Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire, is crowned.
    • 1749 – The Conspiracy of the Slaves in Malta is discovered.
    • 1762 – Seven Years’ War: British forces begin a siege of Havana, Cuba, and temporarily capture the city in the Battle of Havana.
    • 1808 – Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte, is crowned King of Spain.
    • 1809 – Sweden promulgates a new Constitution, which restores political power to the Riksdag of the Estates after 20 years of enlightened absolutism. At the same time, Charles XIII is elected to succeed Gustav IV Adolf as King of Sweden.
    • 1813 – War of 1812: Battle of Stoney Creek: A British force of 700 under John Vincent defeats an American force twice its size under William Winder and John Chandler.
    • 1822 – Alexis St. Martin is accidentally shot in the stomach, leading to William Beaumont’s studies on digestion.
    • 1832 – The June Rebellion in Paris is put down by the National Guard.
    • 1844 – The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.
    • 1844 – The Glaciarium, the world’s first mechanically frozen ice rink, opens.
    • 1857 – Sophia of Nassau marries the future King Oscar II of Sweden–Norway.
    • 1859 – Australia: Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales (Queensland Day).
    • 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Memphis: Union forces capture Memphis, Tennessee, from the Confederates.
    • 1882 – The Shewan forces of Menelik II of Ethiopia defeat the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo. The Shewans capture Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, and their victory leads to a Shewan hegemony over the territories south of the Abay River.
    • 1889 – The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle.
    • 1892 – The Chicago “L” elevated rail system begins operation.
    • 1894 – Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners’ strike.
    • 1909 – French troops capture Abéché (in modern-day Chad) and install a puppet sultan in the Ouaddai Empire.
    • 1912 – The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
    • 1916 – The death of Yuan Shikai marks the beginning of China’s Warlord Era.
    • 1918 – World War I: Battle of Belleau Wood: The U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day’s casualties while attempting to recapture the wood at Château-Thierry.
    • 1919 – After eight days of existence, the Republic of Prekmurje is conquered by the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
    • 1921 – Southwark Bridge in London is opened to traffic by King George V and Queen Mary.
    • 1932 – The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States, at a rate of 1 cent per US gallon (​1⁄4¢/L) sold.
    • 1933 – The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey, United States.
    • 1934 – New Deal: The U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
    • 1939 – Judge Joseph Force Crater, known as the “Missingest Man in New York”, is declared legally dead.
    • 1942 – World War II: Battle of Midway. U.S. Navy dive bombers sink the Japanese cruiser Mikuma and four Japanese carriers.
    • 1944 – World War II: The Allied invasion of Normandy—codenamed Operation Overlord—begins with the execution of Operation Neptune (commonly referred to as D-Day), the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
    • 1946 – The Basketball Association of America is founded in New York City; the BAA was the precursor to the modern National Basketball Association.
    • 1954 – The grand opening of the sculpture of Yuriy Dolgorukiy took place in Moscow. This statue is one of the main monuments of Moscow.
    • 1964 – Under a temporary order, the rocket launches at Cuxhaven, Germany are terminated. They never resume.
    • 1971 – Soyuz program: Soyuz 11 is launched.
    • 1971 – A midair collision between a Hughes Airwest Douglas DC-9 jetliner and a United States Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II jet fighter near Duarte, California, claims 50 lives.
    • 1971 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Khanh between Australian and Vietnamese communist forces begins.
    • 1974 – A new Instrument of Government is promulgated making Sweden a parliamentary monarchy.
    • 1981 – Bihar train disaster: A passenger train travelling between Mansi and Saharsa, India, jumps the tracks at a bridge crossing the Bagmati River. The government places the official death toll at 268 plus another 300 missing; however, it is generally believed that the death toll is closer to 1,000.
    • 1982 – The Lebanon War begins. Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
    • 1985 – The grave of “Wolfgang Gerhard” is opened in Embu, Brazil; the exhumed remains are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz’s “Angel of Death”; Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.
    • 1993 – Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia.
    • 1994 – China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 crashes near Xi’an, China, killing all 160 people on board.
    • 2002 – Eastern Mediterranean event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at ten meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
    • 2004 – Tamil is established as a “classical language” by the President of India, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, in a joint sitting of the two houses of the Indian Parliament.
    • 2005 – In Gonzales v. Raich, the United States Supreme Court upholds a federal law banning cannabis, including medical marijuana.

    Births on June 6

    pre-19th century

    • 1236 – Wen Tianxiang, Chinese general and scholar (d. 1283)
    • 1243 – Alix of Brittany, Dame de Pontarcy, Breton noble (d. 1288)
    • 1296 – Władysław of Legnica (d. 1352)
    • 1436 – Regiomontanus, German mathematician, astronomer, and bishop (d. 1476)
    • 1519 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (d. 1603)
    • 1539 – Catherine Vasa, Regent of East Frisia (d. 1610)
    • 1553 – Bernardino Baldi, Italian mathematician and author (d. 1617)
    • 1556 – Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, English politician and diplomat (d. 1625)
    • 1580 – Godefroy Wendelin, Belgian astronomer and author (d. 1667)
    • 1584 – Yuan Chonghuan, politician, military general and writer (d. 1630)
    • 1599 – Diego Velázquez, Spanish painter and educator (d. 1660)
    • 1606 – Pierre Corneille, French playwright and producer (d. 1684)
    • 1622 – Claude-Jean Allouez, French-American missionary and explorer (d. 1689)
    • 1646 – Hortense Mancini, favourite Italian niece of Cardinal Mazarin (d. 1699)
    • 1661 – Giacomo Antonio Perti, Italian composer and educator (d. 1756)
    • 1699 – Johann Georg Estor, German historian and theorist (d. 1773)
    • 1714 – Joseph I of Portugal (d. 1777)
    • 1735 – Anton Schweitzer, German composer (d. 1787)
    • 1755 – Nathan Hale, American soldier (d. 1776)
    • 1756 – John Trumbull, American soldier and painter (d. 1843)
    • 1772 – Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily (d. 1807)
    • 1799 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian author and poet (d. 1837)

    19th century

    • 1807 – Thiệu Trị, Vietnamese emperor (d. 1847)
    • 1810 – Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin, German philologist and scholar (d. 1856)
    • 1829 – Honinbo Shusaku, Japanese Go player (d. 1862)
    • 1841 – Eliza Orzeszkowa, Polish author and publisher (d. 1910)
    • 1844 – Konstantin Savitsky, Russian painter and academic (d. 1905)
    • 1850 – Karl Ferdinand Braun, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1918)
    • 1857 – Aleksandr Lyapunov, Russian mathematician and physicist (d. 1918)
    • 1862 – Henry Newbolt, English historian, author, and poet (d. 1938)
    • 1867 – David T. Abercrombie, American surveyor and businessman, founded Abercrombie & Fitch (d. 1931)
    • 1868 – Robert Falcon Scott, English sailor and explorer (d. 1912)
    • 1872 – Alix of Hesse, German princess and Russian empress (d.1918)
    • 1875 – Thomas Mann, German author and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
    • 1878 – Vincent de Moro-Giafferi, French lawyer and politician (d. 1956)
    • 1884 – Jock Hutchison, Scottish-American golfer (d. 1977)
    • 1890 – Ted Lewis, American singer, clarinet player, and bandleader (d. 1971)
    • 1891 – Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Indian author and academic (d. 1986)
    • 1891 – Erich Marcks, German general (d. 1944)
    • 1896 – Henry Allingham, English World War I soldier and supercentenarian (d. 2009).
    • 1896 – Italo Balbo, Italian air marshal and politician (d. 1940)
    • 1898 – Walter Abel, American actor (d. 1987)
    • 1898 – Jacobus Johannes Fouché, South African politician, 2nd State President of South Africa (d. 1980)
    • 1898 – Ninette de Valois, English ballerina, choreographer, and director (d. 2001)
    • 1900 – Manfred Sakel, Ukrainian-American psychiatrist and physician (d. 1957)

    1901–1930

    • 1901 – Jan Struther, English author and hymnwriter (d. 1953)
    • 1901 – Sukarno, Indonesian engineer and politician, 1st President of Indonesia (d. 1970)
    • 1902 – Jimmie Lunceford, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1947)
    • 1903 – Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer and conductor (d. 1978)
    • 1903 – Bakht Singh, Indian evangelist, well-known bible teacher and preacher (d. 2000)
    • 1906 – Max August Zorn, German mathematician and academic (d. 1993)
    • 1907 – Bill Dickey, American baseball player and manager (d. 1993)
    • 1907 – Robin Humphreys, British scholar of Latin America (d. 1999)
    • 1908 – Giovanni Bracco, Italian race car driver (d. 1968)
    • 1909 – Isaiah Berlin, Latvian-English historian and philosopher (d. 1997)
    • 1913 – Carlo L. Golino, Italian-American author, critic, and academic (d. 1991)
    • 1915 – Vincent Persichetti, American pianist and composer (d. 1987)
    • 1916 – Hamani Diori, Nigerien academic and politician, 1st President of Niger (d. 1989)
    • 1917 – Kirk Kerkorian, American businessman, founded the Tracinda Corporation (d. 2015)
    • 1918 – Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
    • 1919 – Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, English army officer and politician, 6th Secretary General of NATO (d. 2018)
    • 1923 – V. C. Andrews, American author, illustrator, and painter (d. 1986)
    • 1923 – Jean Pouliot, Canadian broadcaster (d. 2004)
    • 1925 – Maxine Kumin, American poet and author (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Frank Chee Willeto, American soldier and politician, 4th Vice President of the Navajo Nation (d. 2013)
    • 1926 – Torsten Andersson, Swedish painter and illustrator (d. 2009)
    • 1926 – Erdal İnönü, Turkish physicist and politician, Prime Minister of Turkey (d. 2007)
    • 1926 – Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (d. 1998)
    • 1929 – Sunil Dutt, Indian actor, director, producer, and politician (d. 2005)
    • 1930 – Frank Tyson, English-Australian cricketer, coach and journalist (d. 2015)

    1931–1945

    Tommie Smith, born 6 June 1944, at the 1968 Olympic medal ceremony where he and John Carlos (behind) protested against racism.

    • 1932 – David Scott, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut
    • 1932 – Billie Whitelaw, English actress (d. 2014)
    • 1933 – Eli Broad, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded KB Home
    • 1933 – Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
    • 1934 – Albert II of Belgium
    • 1935 – Jon Henricks, Australian swimmer; winner of two Olympic gold medals in 1956.
    • 1936 – Mompati Merafhe, Botswana general and politician, Vice-President of Botswana (d. 2015)
    • 1936 – D. Ramanaidu, Indian actor, director, and producer, founded Suresh Productions (d. 2015)
    • 1936 – Levi Stubbs, American singer (d. 2008)
    • 1938 – Prince Luiz of Orléans-Braganza
    • 1938 – Ryuchi Matsuda, Japanese martial artist and author (d. 2013)
    • 1939 – Louis Andriessen, Dutch pianist and composer
    • 1939 – Gary U.S. Bonds, American singer-songwriter
    • 1939 – Eddie Giacomin, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and sportscaster
    • 1940 – Kumar Bhattacharyya, Baron Bhattacharyya, Indian-English engineer and academic (d. 2019)
    • 1940 – Willie John McBride, Northern Irish rugby player, coach, and manager
    • 1941 – Alexander Cockburn, Scottish-American journalist and author (d. 2012)
    • 1943 – José de Jesús Gudiño Pelayo, Mexican lawyer and jurist (d. 2010)
    • 1943 – Richard Smalley, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
    • 1943 – Joe Stampley, American country music singer-songwriter
    • 1944 – Monty Alexander, Jamaican jazz pianist.
    • 1944 – Phillip Allen Sharp, American molecular biologist; 1993 Nobel Prize laureate (Physiology or Medicine).
    • 1944 – Tommie Smith, American sprinter and football player; winner of 1968 Olympic 200m gold medal in a world record time.

    1946–2000

    • 1946 – Tony Levin, American bass player and songwriter.[
    • 1947 – David Blunkett, British Labour politician; Home Secretary 2001–2004.
    • 1947 – Robert Englund, American actor; best known for Nightmare on Elm Street.
    • 1947 – Ada Kok, Dutch butterfly stroke swimmer; winner of three Olympic medals including gold in 1968.
    • 1948 – Arlene Harris, American entrepreneur, inventor, investor and policy advocate.
    • 1949 – Holly Near, American folk singer and songwriter.
    • 1954 – Harvey Fierstein, American actor and playwright; twice a winner at the Tony Awards.
    • 1954 – Wladyslaw Zmuda, Polish footballer and manager; 91 caps for Poland and voted Best Young Player at the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
    • 1955 – Sam Simon, American director, producer and screenwriter; co-developer of The Simpsons (d. 2015).
    • 1956 – Björn Borg, Swedish tennis player; winner of eleven Grand Slam singles titles including five consecutive Wimbledons.
    • 1972 – Natalie Morales, American television journalist and NBC News anchor.

    Deaths

    • 184 – Qiao Xuan, Chinese official (b. c. 110).
    • 863 – Abu Musa Utamish, vizier to the Abbasid Caliphate.
    • 913 – Alexander III, Byzantine emperor (b. 870).
    • 1097 – Agnes of Aquitaine, Queen of Aragon and Navarre
    • 1134 – Norbert of Xanten, German bishop and saint (b. 1060)
    • 1217 – Henry I, King of Castile and Toledo (b. 1204)
    • 1237 – John of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon
    • 1251 – William III of Dampierre, Count of Flanders
    • 1252 – Robert Passelewe, Bishop of Chichester
    • 1333 – William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster (b. 1312)
    • 1393 – Emperor Go-En’yū of Japan (b. 1359)
    • 1480 – Vecchietta, Italian painter, sculptor, and architect (b. 1412)
    • 1548 – João de Castro, Portuguese soldier and politician, Governor of Portuguese India (b. 1500)
    • 1561 – Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, Italian painter (b. 1483)
    • 1583 – Nakagawa Kiyohide, Japanese daimyō (b. 1556)
    • 1659 – Nadira Banu Begum, Mughal princess (b. 1618)
    • 1661 – Martino Martini, Italian Jesuit missionary (b. 1614)
    • 1730 – Alain Emmanuel de Coëtlogon, French general (b. 1646)
    • 1740 – Alexander Spotswood, Moroccan-American colonial and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia (b. 1676)
    • 1784 – Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, Dutch politician (b. 1741)
    • 1799 – Patrick Henry, American lawyer and politician, 1st Governor of Virginia (b. 1736)
    • 1813 – Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, French architect, designed the Hôtel de Mademoiselle de Condé (b. 1739)
    • 1813 – Antonio Cachia, Maltese architect, engineer and archaeologist (b. 1739)
    • 1832 – Jeremy Bentham, English jurist and philosopher (b. 1748)
    • 1840 – Marcellin Champagnat, French priest and saint, founded the Marist Brothers (b. 1789)
    • 1843 – Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet and author (b. 1770)
    • 1861 – Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Italian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1810)
    • 1862 – Turner Ashby, American colonel (b. 1828)
    • 1865 – William Quantrill, American captain (b. 1837)
    • 1878 – Robert Stirling, Scottish minister and engineer, invented the stirling engine (b. 1790)
    • 1881 – Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian violinist and composer (b. 1820)
    • 1883 – Ciprian Porumbescu, Romanian composer and poet (b. 1853)
    • 1891 – John A. Macdonald, Scottish-Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1815)
    • 1916 – Yuan Shikai, Chinese general and politician, 2nd President of the Republic of China (b. 1859)
    • 1922 – Lillian Russell, American actress and singer (b. 1860)
    • 1924 – William Pirrie, 1st Viscount Pirrie, Irish businessman and politician, Lord Mayor of Belfast (b. 1847)
    • 1934 – Julije Kempf, Croatian historian and author (b. 1864)
    • 1935 – Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, English field marshal and politician, 12th Governor-General of Canada (b. 1862)
    • 1941 – Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-American race car driver and businessman, founded Chevrolet and Frontenac Motor Corporation (b. 1878)
    • 1943 – Pandelis Pouliopoulos, Greek politician (b. 1900)
    • 1946 – Gerhart Hauptmann, German novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
    • 1947 – James Agate, English author and critic (b. 1877)
    • 1948 – Louis Lumière, French director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1864)
    • 1951 – Olive Tell, American actress (b. 1894)
    • 1954 – Fritz Kasparek, Austrian mountaineer and author (b. 1910)
    • 1955 – Max Meldrum, Scottish-Australian painter and educator (b. 1875)
    • 1961 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (b. 1875)
    • 1962 – Yves Klein, French painter (b. 1928)
    • 1962 – Tom Phillis, Australian motorcycle racer (b. 1934)
    • 1963 – William Baziotes, American painter and academic (b. 1912)
    • 1968 – Randolph Churchill, English journalist and politician (b. 1911)
    • 1968 – Robert F. Kennedy, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 64th United States Attorney General (b. 1925)
    • 1968 – Kâzım Özalp, Turkish general and politician, 3rd Turkish Minister of National Defence (b. 1880)
    • 1975 – Larry Blyden, American actor (b. 1925)
    • 1976 – J. Paul Getty, American businessman, founded the Getty Oil Company (b. 1892)
    • 1979 – Jack Haley, American actor (b. 1897)
    • 1980 – Ruth Aarons, American table tennis player and manager (b. 1918)
    • 1982 – Kenneth Rexroth, American poet and academic (b. 1905)
    • 1983 – Hans Leip, German author, poet, and playwright (b. 1893)
    • 1984 – A. Bertram Chandler, English-Australian soldier and author (b. 1912)
    • 1991 – Stan Getz, American saxophonist (b. 1927)
    • 1994 – Barry Sullivan, American actor (b. 1912)
    • 1996 – George Davis Snell, American geneticist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
    • 1997 – Magda Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and socialite (b. 1915)
    • 2000 – Frédéric Dard, French author and screenwriter (b. 1921)
    • 2001 – Suzanne Schiffman, French screenwriter and director (b. 1939)
    • 2003 – Ken Grimwood, American author (b. 1944)
    • 2003 – Dave Rowberry, English singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1940)
    • 2005 – Anne Bancroft, American actress (b. 1931)
    • 2005 – Dana Elcar, American actor (b. 1927)
    • 2006 – Arnold Newman, American photographer and educator (b. 1918)
    • 2006 – Billy Preston, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (b. 1946)
    • 2006 – Camille Sandorfy, Hungarian-Canadian chemist and academic (b. 1920)
    • 2009 – Jean Dausset, French-Spanish immunologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
    • 2009 – Jim Owens, American football player and coach (b. 1927)
    • 2010 – Marvin Isley, American singer-songwriter and bass player (b. 1953)
    • 2012 – Vladimir Krutov, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1960)
    • 2012 – Manuel Preciado Rebolledo, Spanish footballer and coach (b. 1957)
    • 2012 – Mykola Volosyanko, Ukrainian footballer and manager (b. 1972)
    • 2013 – Jerome Karle, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
    • 2013 – Eugen Merzbacher, German-American physicist and academic (b. 1921)
    • 2013 – Tom Sharpe, English-Spanish author and academic (b. 1928)
    • 2013 – Esther Williams, American swimmer and actress (b. 1921)
    • 2014 – Ado Bayero, Nigerian politician and diplomat (b. 1930)
    • 2014 – Eric Hill, English-American author and illustrator (b. 1927)
    • 2014 – Lorna Wing, English psychiatrist and physician (b. 1928)
    • 2015 – Pierre Brice, French actor (b. 1929)
    • 2015 – Vincent Bugliosi, American lawyer and author (b. 1934)
    • 2015 – Ronnie Gilbert, American singer-songwriter (b. 1926)
    • 2015 – Ludvík Vaculík, Czech journalist and author (b. 1926)
    • 2016 – Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess player (b. 1931)
    • 2016 – Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter (b. 1926)
    • 2018 – Ralph Santolla, American guitarist (b. 1969)

    Holidays and observances on June 6

    • Christian feast day:
      • Claude the Thaumaturge
      • Gottschalk
      • Ini Kopuria (Church of England, Episcopal Church, Anglican Church of Melanesia)
      • Marcellin Champagnat
      • Norbert of Xanten
      • June 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Engineer’s Day (Taiwan)
    • Korean Children’s Union Foundation Day (North Korea)
    • Memorial Day (South Korea)
    • National Day, marks the end of the Danish-ruled Kalmar Union. (Sweden)
    • National Huntington’s Disease Awareness Day (United States)
    • Normandy landings of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (D-Day), a.k.a. Operation Neptune, part of Operation Overlord (1944)
    • Queensland Day (Queensland)
    • Teachers’ Day (Bolivia)
    • UN Russian Language Day (United Nations)

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

    • 1430 – Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to raise the Siege of Compiègne.
    • 1498 – Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy.
    • 1533 – The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
    • 1568 – Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Arenberg, and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years’ War.
    • 1609 – Official ratification of the Second Virginia Charter takes place.
    • 1618 – The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years’ War.
    • 1701 – After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
    • 1706 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy at the Battle of Ramillies.
    • 1788 – South Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution as the eighth American state.
    • 1793 – Battle of Famars during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
    • 1829 – Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire.
    • 1844 – Declaration of the Báb the evening before the 23rd: A merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would later be brutally crushed by the Persian government. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá’í Faith; Bahá’ís celebrate the day as a holy day.
    • 1846 – Mexican–American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
    • 1863 – The General German Workers’ Association, a precursor of the modern Social Democratic Party of Germany, is founded in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony.
    • 1873 – The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
    • 1900 – American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.
    • 1907 – The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.
    • 1911 – The New York Public Library is dedicated.
    • 1915 – World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London.
    • 1932 – In Brazil, four students are shot and killed during a manifestation against the Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas, which resulted in the outbreak of the Constitutionalist Revolution several weeks later.
    • 1934 – Infamous American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
    • 1934 – The Auto-Lite strike culminates in the “Battle of Toledo”, a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.
    • 1939 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.
    • 1945 – World War II: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
    • 1945 – World War II: Germany’s Flensburg Government under Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are arrested by British forces.
    • 1948 – Thomas C. Wasson, the US Consul-General, is assassinated in Jerusalem, Israel.
    • 1949 – Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.
    • 1951 – Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement with China.
    • 1960 – A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day kills 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii.
    • 1992 – Italy’s most prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three body guards are killed by the Corleonesi clan with a half-ton bomb near Capaci, Sicily. His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino will be assassinated less than two months later, making 1992 a turning point in the history of Italian Mafia prosecutions.
    • 1995 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.
    • 1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.
    • 2002 – The “55 parties” clause of the Kyoto Protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
    • 2006 – Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.
    • 2008 – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
    • 2013 – A freeway bridge carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River collapses in Mount Vernon, Washington.
    • 2014 – Seven people, including the perpetrator, are killed and another 14 injured in a killing spree near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara.
    • 2015 – At least 46 people are killed as a result of floods caused by a tornado in Texas and Oklahoma.
    • 2016 – Two suicide bombings, conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, killed at least 45 potential army recruits in Aden, Yemen.
    • 2016 – Eight bombings were carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Jableh and Tartus, coastline cities in Syria. One hundred eighty-four people were killed and at least 200 people injured.
    • 2017 – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao, following the Maute’s attack in Marawi.

    Births on May 23

    • 635 – K’inich Kan Bahlam II, Mayan king (d. 702)
    • 675 – Perumbidugu Mutharaiyar II, King of Mutharaiyar dynasty, Tamil Nadu, India
    • 1052 – Philip I of France (d. 1108)
    • 1100 – Emperor Qinzong of Song (d. 1161)
    • 1127 – Uijong of Goryeo, Korean monarch of the Goryeo dynasty (d. 1173)
    • 1330 – Gongmin of Goryeo, Korean ruler (d. 1374)
    • 1586 – Paul Siefert, German composer and organist (d. 1666)
    • 1606 – Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Spanish mathematician and philosopher (d. 1682)
    • 1614 – Bertholet Flemalle, Flemish Baroque painter (d. 1675)
    • 1617 – Elias Ashmole, English astrologer and politician (d. 1692)
    • 1629 – William VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, noble of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1663)
    • 1707 – Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist (d. 1778)
    • 1718 – William Hunter, Scottish-English anatomist and physician (d. 1783)
    • 1729 – Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet and educator (d. 1799)
    • 1730 – Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, Prussian prince and general (d. 1813)
    • 1734 – Franz Mesmer, German physician and astrologer (d. 1815)
    • 1741 – Andrea Luchesi, Italian organist and composer (d. 1801)
    • 1789 – Franz Schlik, Austrian earl and general (d. 1862)
    • 1790 – Jules Dumont d’Urville, French admiral and explorer (d. 1842)
    • 1790 – James Pradier, French neoclassical sculptor (d. 1852)
    • 1794 – Ignaz Moscheles, Czech pianist and composer (d. 1870)
    • 1795 – Charles Barry, English architect, designed the Upper Brook Street Chapel and Halifax Town Hall (d. 1860)
    • 1800 – Rómulo Díaz de la Vega, Mexican general and president (1855) (d. 1877)
    • 1810 – Margaret Fuller, American journalist and critic (d. 1850)
    • 1817 – Manuel Robles Pezuela, Unconstitutional Mexican interim president (d. 1862)
    • 1820 – James Buchanan Eads, American engineer, designed the Eads Bridge (d. 1887)
    • 1820 – Lorenzo Sawyer, American lawyer and judge (d. 1891)
    • 1824 – Ambrose Burnside, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1881)
    • 1834 – Jānis Frīdrihs Baumanis, Latvian architect (d. 1891)
    • 1834 – Carl Bloch, Danish painter and academic (d. 1890)
    • 1837 – Anatole Mallet, Swiss mechanical engineer and inventor (d. 1919)
    • 1837 – Józef Wieniawski, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1912)
    • 1838 – Amaldus Nielsen, Norwegian painter (d. 1932)
    • 1840 – George Throssell, Irish-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Western Australia (d. 1910)
    • 1844 – `Abdu’l-Bahá, Iranian religious leader (d. 1921)
    • 1848 – Otto Lilienthal, German pilot and engineer (d. 1896)
    • 1855 – Isabella Ford, English author and activist (d. 1924)
    • 1861 – József Rippl-Rónai, Hungarian painter (d. 1927)
    • 1863 – Władysław Horodecki, Polish architect (d. 1930)
    • 1864 – William O’Connor, American fencer (d. 1939)
    • 1865 – Epitácio Pessoa, Brazilian jurist and politician, 11th President of Brazil (d. 1942)
    • 1875 – Alfred P. Sloan, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1966)
    • 1882 – William Halpenny, Canadian pole vaulter (d. 1960)
    • 1883 – Douglas Fairbanks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1939)
    • 1884 – Corrado Gini, Italian sociologist and demographer (d. 1965)
    • 1887 – Thoralf Skolem, Norwegian mathematician and theorist (d. 1963)
    • 1887 – Nikolai Vekšin, Estonian-Russian sailor and captain (d. 1951)
    • 1888 – Adriaan Roland Holst, Dutch writer (d. 1976)
    • 1888 – Zack Wheat, American baseball player and police officer (d. 1972)
    • 1889 – Ernst Niekisch, German educator and politician (d. 1967)
    • 1890 – Herbert Marshall, English-American actor and singer (d. 1966)
    • 1891 – Pär Lagerkvist, Swedish novelist, playwright, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
    • 1892 – Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, British peer and grandfather of Diana Spencer (d. 1975)
    • 1896 – Felix Steiner, Russian-German SS officer (d. 1966)
    • 1897 – Jimmie Guthrie, Scottish motorcycle racer (d. 1937)
    • 1898 – Scott O’Dell, American soldier, journalist, and author (d. 1989)
    • 1898 – Josef Terboven, German soldier and politician (d. 1945)
    • 1899 – Jeralean Talley, American super-centenarian (d. 2015)
    • 1900 – Hans Frank, German lawyer and politician (d. 1946)
    • 1900 – Franz Leopold Neumann, German lawyer and theorist (d. 1954)
    • 1908 – John Bardeen, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
    • 1908 – Hélène Boucher, French pilot (d. 1934)
    • 1910 – Margaret Wise Brown, American author and educator (d. 1952)
    • 1910 – Hugh Casson, English architect and academic (d. 1999)
    • 1910 – Scatman Crothers, American actor and comedian (d. 1986)
    • 1910 – Franz Kline, American painter and academic (d. 1962)
    • 1910 – Artie Shaw, American clarinet player, composer, and bandleader (d. 2004)
    • 1911 – Lou Brouillard, Canadian boxer (d. 1984)
    • 1911 – Paul Augustin Mayer, German cardinal (d. 2010)
    • 1911 – Betty Nuthall, English tennis player (d. 1983)
    • 1912 – Jean Françaix, French pianist and composer (d. 1997)
    • 1912 – John Payne, American actor (d. 1989)
    • 1914 – Harold Hitchcock, English visionary landscape artist (d. 2009)
    • 1914 – Celestine Sibley, American journalist and author (d. 1999)
    • 1914 – Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, English economist, journalist, and prominent Catholic layperson (d. 1981)
    • 1915 – S. Donald Stookey, American physicist and chemist, invented CorningWare (d. 2014)
    • 1917 – Edward Norton Lorenz, American mathematician and meteorologist (d. 2008)
    • 1918 – Denis Compton, English cricketer and sportscaster (d. 1997)
    • 1919 – Robert Bernstein, American author and playwright (d. 1988)
    • 1919 – Ruth Fernández, Puerto Rican contralto and a member of the Puerto Rican Senate (d. 2012)
    • 1919 – Betty Garrett, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2011)
    • 1920 – Helen O’Connell, American singer (d. 1993)
    • 1923 – Alicia de Larrocha, Catalan-Spanish pianist (d. 2009)
    • 1923 – Irving Millman, American virologist and microbiologist (d. 2012)
    • 1924 – Karlheinz Deschner, German author and activist (d. 2014)
    • 1925 – Joshua Lederberg, American biologist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)
    • 1926 – Basil Salvadore D’Souza, Indian bishop (d. 1996)
    • 1926 – Joe Slovo, Lithuanian-South African activist and politician (d. 1995)
    • 1928 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (d. 2002)
    • 1928 – Nigel Davenport, English actor (d. 2013)
    • 1928 – Nina Otkalenko, Russian runner (d. 2015)
    • 1929 – Ulla Jacobsson, Swedish-Austrian actress (d. 1982)
    • 1930 – Friedrich Achleitner, German poet and critic (d. 2019)
    • 1931 – Barbara Barrie, American actress
    • 1932 – Kevork Ajemian, Syrian-French journalist and author (d. 1998)
    • 1933 – Joan Collins, English actress
    • 1933 – Ove Fundin, Swedish motorcycle racer
    • 1934 – Robert Moog, electronic engineer and inventor of the Moog synthesizer (d. 2005)
    • 1935 – Lasse Strömstedt, Swedish author (d. 2009)
    • 1936 – Ingeborg Hallstein, German soprano and actress
    • 1936 – Charles Kimbrough, American actor
    • 1939 – Michel Colombier, French-American composer and conductor (d. 2004)
    • 1939 – Reinhard Hauff, German director and screenwriter
    • 1940 – Bjorn Johansen, Norwegian saxophonist (d. 2002)
    • 1940 – Gérard Larrousse, French race car driver
    • 1940 – Cora Sadosky, Argentinian mathematician and academic (d. 2010)
    • 1941 – Zalman King, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
    • 1941 – Rod Thorn, American basketball player, coach, and executive
    • 1942 – Gabriel Liiceanu, Romanian philosopher, author, and academic
    • 1942 – Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao, Indian director, screenwriter, and choreographer
    • 1943 – Peter Kenilorea, Solomon Islands politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands (d. 2016)
    • 1944 – John Newcombe, Australian tennis player and sportscaster
    • 1945 – Padmarajan, Indian director, screenwriter, and author (d. 1991)
    • 1946 – David Graham, Australian golfer
    • 1947 – Jane Kenyon, American poet and translator (d. 1995)
    • 1948 – Myriam Boyer, French actress, director, and producer
    • 1949 – Daniel DiNardo, American cardinal
    • 1949 – Alan García, Peruvian lawyer and politician, 61st and 64th President of Peru (d. 2019)
    • 1950 – Martin McGuinness, Irish republican and Sinn Féin politician, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland (d. 2017)
    • 1951 – Anatoly Karpov, Russian chess player
    • 1951 – Antonis Samaras, Greek economist and politician, 185th Prime Minister of Greece
    • 1952 – Martin Parr, English photographer and journalist
    • 1954 – Gerry Armstrong, Northern Irish international footballer, striker
    • 1954 – Marvelous Marvin Hagler, American boxer and actor
    • 1955 – Luka Bloom, Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
    • 1956 – Andrea Pazienza, Italian illustrator and painter (d. 1988)
    • 1956 – Ursula Plassnik, Austrian politician and diplomat, Foreign Minister of Austria
    • 1956 – Buck Showalter, American baseball player, coach, and manager
    • 1958 – Mitch Albom, American journalist, author, and screenwriter
    • 1958 – Drew Carey, American actor, game show host, and entrepreneur
    • 1958 – Lea DeLaria, American actress and singer
    • 1959 – Marcella Mesker, Dutch tennis player and sportscaster
    • 1960 – Linden Ashby, American actor
    • 1961 – Daniele Massaro, Italian footballer and manager
    • 1961 – Norrie May-Welby, Scottish Australian gender activist
    • 1962 – Karen Duffy, American actress
    • 1963 – Viviane Baladi, Swiss mathematician
    • 1964 – Ruth Metzler, Swiss lawyer and politician
    • 1965 – Manuel Sanchís Hontiyuelo, Spanish footballer
    • 1965 – Tom Tykwer, German director, producer, screenwriter, and composer
    • 1965 – Melissa McBride, American actress
    • 1965 – Paul Sironen, Australian rugby league player
    • 1966 – Graeme Hick, Zimbabwean-English cricketer and coach
    • 1966 – Gary Roberts, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
    • 1967 – Luís Roberto Alves, Mexican footballer
    • 1967 – Anna Ibrisagic, Swedish politician
    • 1968 – Guinevere Turner, American actress and screenwriter
    • 1970 – Bryan Herta, American race car driver and businessman, co-founded Bryan Herta Autosport
    • 1971 – George Osborne, English journalist and politician, former Chancellor of the Exchequer
    • 1972 – Rubens Barrichello, Brazilian race car driver
    • 1972 – Martin Saggers, English cricketer and umpire
    • 1973 – Maxwell, American singer-songwriter and producer
    • 1974 – Jewel, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet
    • 1974 – Manuela Schwesig, German politician, German Federal Minister of Family Affairs
    • 1976 – Ricardinho, Brazilian footballer and manager
    • 1977 – Ilia Kulik, Russian figure skater
    • 1978 – Scott Raynor, American drummer
    • 1979 – Rasual Butler, American basketball player (d. 2018)
    • 1979 – Brian Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player
    • 1980 – Theofanis Gekas, Greek footballer
    • 1980 – Ben Ross, Australian rugby league player
    • 1983 – Silvio Proto, Belgian-Italian footballer
    • 1984 – Hugo Almeida, Portuguese footballer
    • 1985 – Sebastián Fernández, Uruguayan footballer
    • 1985 – Teymuraz Gabashvili, Russian tennis player
    • 1985 – Wim Stroetinga, Dutch cyclist
    • 1985 – Ross Wallace, Scottish footballer
    • 1986 – Ryan Coogler, American film director and screenwriter
    • 1986 – Alexei Sitnikov, Russian-Azerbaijani figure skater
    • 1986 – Alice Tait, Australian swimmer
    • 1986 – Ruben Zadkovich, Australian footballer
    • 1987 – Gracie Otto, Australian actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
    • 1987 – Bray Wyatt, American wrestler
    • 1988 – Rosanna Crawford, Canadian biathlete
    • 1988 – Angelo Ogbonna, Italian footballer
    • 1988 – Morgan Pressel, American golfer
    • 1989 – Ezequiel Schelotto, Italian footballer
    • 1990 – Dan Evans, British tennis player
    • 1990 – Kristina Kucova, Slovakian tennis player
    • 1990 – Oliver Venno, Estonian volleyball player
    • 1991 – Aaron Donald, American football player
    • 1991 – Lena Meyer-Landrut, German singer-songwriter
    • 1991 – César Pinares, Chilean footballer
    • 1996 – Katharina Althaus, German ski jumper
    • 1996 – Emmanuel Boateng, Ghanaian footballer
    • 1996 – Razvan Marin, Romanian footballer
    • 1997 – Pedro Chirivella, Spanish footballer
    • 1997 – Coy Craft, American footballer
    • 1997 – Joe Gomez, English footballer
    • 1997 – Gustaf Nilsson, Swedish footballer
    • 1997 – Sam Timmins, New Zealand basketball player
    • 1998 – Sérgio Sette Câmara, Brazilian race car driver
    • 1998 – Ross Cunningham, Scottish footballer
    • 1998 – Salwa Eid Naser, Bahraini track and field sprinter
    • 1998 – Luca De La Torre, American footballer
    • 1998 – Steve Lacy, American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer
    • 2000 – Felipe Drugovich, Brazilian race car driver
    • 2000 – Jaxson Hayes, American basketball player

    Deaths on May 23

    • 230 – Urban I, pope of the Catholic Church
    • 922 – Li Sizhao, Chinese general and governor
    • 962 – Guibert of Gembloux, Frankish abbot (b. 892)
    • 1125 – Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1081)
    • 1304 – Jehan de Lescurel, French poet and composer
    • 1338 – Alice de Warenne, Countess of Arundel, English noble (b. 1287)
    • 1370 – Toghon Temür, Mongol emperor (b. 1320)
    • 1423 – Antipope Benedict XIII (b. 1328)
    • 1498 – Girolamo Savonarola, Italian friar and preacher (b. 1452)
    • 1523 – Ashikaga Yoshitane, Japanese shōgun (b. 1466)
    • 1524 – Ismail I, First Emperor of Safavid Empire (b. 1487)
    • 1591 – John Blitheman, English organist and composer (b. 1525)
    • 1662 – John Gauden, English bishop (b. 1605)
    • 1670 – Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1610)
    • 1691 – Adrien Auzout, French astronomer and instrument maker (b. 1622)
    • 1701 – William Kidd, Scottish pirate (b. 1645)
    • 1749 – Abraham ben Abraham, Polish martyr (b. 1700)
    • 1752 – William Bradford, English-American printer (b. 1663)
    • 1754 – John Wood, the Elder, English architect, designed The Circus and Queen Square (b. 1704)
    • 1783 – James Otis, Jr., American lawyer and politician (b. 1725)
    • 1813 – Géraud Duroc, French general and diplomat (b. 1772)
    • 1815 – Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, American clergyman and botanist (b. 1753)
    • 1841 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1765)
    • 1855 – Charles Robert Malden, English lieutenant and explorer (b. 1797)
    • 1857 – Augustin-Louis Cauchy, French mathematician and academic (b. 1789)
    • 1868 – Kit Carson, American general (b. 1809)
    • 1886 – Leopold von Ranke, German historian and academic (b. 1795)
    • 1893 – Anton von Schmerling, Austrian politician (b. 1805)
    • 1895 – Franz Ernst Neumann, German mineralogist, physicist, and mathematician (b. 1798)
    • 1906 – Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian director, playwright, and poet (b. 1828)
    • 1908 – François Coppée, French poet and author (b. 1842)
    • 1920 – Svetozar Boroević, Croatian-Austrian field marshal (b. 1856)
    • 1921 – August Nilsson, Swedish shot putter and tug of war competitor (b. 1872)
    • 1934 – Clyde Barrow, American criminal (b. 1909)
    • 1934 – Mihkel Martna, Estonian journalist and politician (b. 1860)
    • 1934 – Bonnie Parker, American criminal (b. 1910)
    • 1937 – John D. Rockefeller, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Standard Oil Company and Rockefeller University (b. 1839)
    • 1938 – Frederick Ruple, Swiss-American painter (b. 1871)
    • 1942 – Panagiotis Toundas, Greek composer and conductor (b. 1886)
    • 1945 – Heinrich Himmler, German commander and politician, Reich Minister of the Interior (b. 1900)
    • 1947 – Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, Swiss author and poet (b. 1878)
    • 1949 – Jan Frans De Boever, Belgian painter and illustrator (b. 1872)
    • 1956 – Gustav Suits, Latvian-Estonian poet and politician (b. 1883)
    • 1960 – Georges Claude, French engineer and inventor, created Neon lighting (b. 1870)
    • 1962 – Louis Coatalen, French engineer (b. 1879)
    • 1963 – August Jakobson, Estonian author and politician (b. 1904)
    • 1965 – David Smith, American sculptor (b. 1906)
    • 1975 – Moms Mabley, American comedian and actor (b. 1894)
    • 1979 – S. Selvanayagam, Sri Lankan geographer and academic (b. 1932)
    • 1981 – Gene Green, American baseball player (b. 1933)
    • 1981 – Rayner Heppenstall, English author and poet (b. 1911)
    • 1981 – George Jessel, American actor, singer, and producer (b. 1898)
    • 1981 – David Lewis, Belarusian-Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1909)
    • 1986 – Sterling Hayden, American actor (b. 1916)
    • 1989 – Georgy Tovstonogov, Russian director and producer (b. 1915)
    • 1989 – Karl Koch, German computer hacker (b. 1965)
    • 1991 – Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist and composer (b. 1895)
    • 1991 – Jean Van Houtte, Belgian academic and politician, 50th Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1907)
    • 1991 – Fletcher Markle, Canadian director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1921)
    • 1992 – Kostas Davourlis, Greek footballer (b. 1948)
    • 1992 – Giovanni Falcone, Italian lawyer and judge (b. 1939)
    • 1994 – Olav Hauge, Norwegian poet (b. 1908)
    • 1996 – Kronid Lyubarsky, Russian journalist and activist (b. 1934)
    • 1998 – Telford Taylor, American general and lawyer (b. 1908)
    • 1999 – Owen Hart, Canadian-American wrestler (b. 1965)
    • 2002 – Sam Snead, American golfer and journalist (b. 1912)
    • 2006 – Lloyd Bentsen, American colonel and politician, 69th United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1921)
    • 2006 – Kazimierz Górski, Polish footballer and manager (b. 1921)
    • 2008 – Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, Spanish mountaineer (b. 1967)
    • 2008 – Utah Phillips, American singer-songwriter and poet (b. 1935)
    • 2009 – Roh Moo-hyun, South Korean soldier and politician, 9th President of South Korea (b. 1946)
    • 2010 – José Lima, Dominican-American baseball player (b. 1972)
    • 2010 – Simon Monjack, English director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1970)
    • 2011 – Xavier Tondo, Spanish cyclist (b. 1978)
    • 2012 – Paul Fussell, American historian, author, and academic (b. 1924)
    • 2013 – Epy Guerrero, Dominican baseball player, coach, and scout (b. 1942)
    • 2013 – Hayri Kozakçıoğlu, Turkish police officer and politician, 15th Governor of Istanbul Province (b. 1938)
    • 2013 – Georges Moustaki, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1934)
    • 2013 – Flynn Robinson, American basketball player (b. 1941)
    • 2014 – Mikhail Egorovich Alekseev, Russian linguist and academic (b. 1949)
    • 2014 – Madhav Mantri, Indian cricketer (b. 1921)
    • 2015 – Anne Meara, American actress, comedian and playwright (b. 1929)
    • 2015 – Aleksey Mozgovoy, Ukrainian sergeant (b. 1975)
    • 2015 – Alicia Nash, Salvadoran-American physicist and engineer (b. 1933)
    • 2015 – John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1928)
    • 2017 – Roger Moore, English actor (b. 1927)
    • 2020 – Hana Kimura, Japanese professional wrestler (b. 1997)

    Holidays and observances on May 23

    • Christian feast day:
      • Aaron the Illustrious (Syriac Orthodox Church)
      • Desiderius of Vienne
      • Giovanni Battista de’ Rossi
      • Julia of Corsica
      • Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler (Episcopal Church (USA))
      • Quintian, Lucius and Julian
      • William of Perth
      • May 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Constitution Day (Germany)
    • Earliest day on which Declaration of the Báb can fall, while May 24 is the latest; observed on ‘Aẓamat 8 (Bahá’í Faith)
    • Earliest day on which National Heroes’ Day can fall, while May 31 is the latest; celebrated on last Monday of May. (Turks and Caicos Islands)
    • Labour Day (Jamaica)
    • Students’ Day (Mexico)
    • World Turtle Day