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Friday

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

On This Day /
  • 1309 – Pope Clement V imposes excommunication and interdiction on Venice, and a general prohibition of all commercial intercourse with Venice, which had seized on Ferrara, a papal fiefdom.
  • 1329 – Pope John XXII issues his In Agro Dominico condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical.
  • 1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León reaches the northern end of The Bahamas on his first voyage to Florida.
  • 1625 – Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France.
  • 1782 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
  • 1794 – The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
  • 1809 – Peninsular War: A combined Franco-Polish force defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Ciudad Real.
  • 1814 – War of 1812: In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
  • 1836 – Texas Revolution: On the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexican army massacres 342 Texas POWs at Goliad, Texas.
  • 1866 – President of the United States of America Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866. His veto is overridden by Congress and the bill passes into law on April 9.
  • 1871 – The first international rugby football match, when Scotland defeats England in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.
  • 1884 – A mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, attacks members of a jury which had returned a verdict of manslaughter in what was seen as a clear case of murder; over the next few days the mob would riot and eventually destroy the courthouse.
  • 1886 – Geronimo, Apache warrior, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.
  • 1899 – Emilio Aguinaldo leads Filipino forces for the only time during the Philippine–American War at the Battle of Marilao River.
  • 1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States is put in quarantine for the second time, where she would remain for the rest of her life.
  • 1918 – The National Council of Bessarabia proclaims union with the Kingdom of Romania.
  • 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Taierzhuang begins, resulting several weeks later in the war’s first major Chinese victory over Japan.
  • 1941 – World War II: Yugoslav Air Force officers topple the pro-Axis government in a bloodless coup.
  • 1943 – World War II: Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
  • 1945 – World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan’s ports and waterways begins. Argentina declares war on the Axis Powers.
  • 1958 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union.
  • 1964 – The Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes Southcentral Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.
  • 1975 – Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.
  • 1977 – Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the deadliest aviation accident in history.
  • 1980 – The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212.
  • 1980 – Silver Thursday: A steep fall in silver prices, resulting from the Hunt Brothers attempting to corner the market in silver, leads to panic on commodity and futures exchanges.
  • 1981 – The Solidarity movement in Poland stages a warning strike, in which at least 12 million Poles walk off their jobs for four hours.
  • 1986 – A car bomb explodes outside Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, Australia, killing one police officer and injuring 21 people.
  • 1990 – The United States begins broadcasting anti-Castro propaganda to Cuba on TV Martí.
  • 1993 – Jiang Zemin is appointed President of the People’s Republic of China.
  • 1993 – Italian former minister and Christian Democracy leader Giulio Andreotti is accused of mafia allegiance by the tribunal of Palermo.
  • 1998 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
  • 1999 – Kosovo War: An American Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk is shot down by a Yugoslav SAM, the first and only Nighthawk to be lost in combat.
  • 2000 – A Phillips Petroleum plant explosion in Pasadena, Texas kills one person and injures 71 others.
  • 2002 – Passover massacre: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people at a Passover seder in Netanya, Israel.
  • 2002 – Nanterre massacre: In Nanterre, France, a gunman opens fire at the end of a town council meeting, resulting in the deaths of eight councilors; 19 other people are injured.
  • 2004 – HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander-class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.
  • 2009 – The dam forming Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Indonesia, fails, killing at least 99 people.
  • 2014 – Philippines signs a peace accord with the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ending decades of conflict.
  • 2015 – Al-Shabab militants attack and temporarily occupy a Mogadishu hotel leaving at least 20 people dead.
  • 2016 – A suicide blast in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore claims over 70 lives and leaves almost 300 others injured. The target of the bombing are Christians celebrating Easter.
  • 2020 – North Macedonia becomes the 30th member of NATO.

Births on March 27

  • 972 – Robert II, king of France (d. 1031)
  • 1401 – Albert III, duke of Bavaria (d. 1460)
  • 1416 – Francis of Paola, Italian friar and saint, founded Order of the Minims (d. 1507)
  • 1546 – Johannes Piscator, German theologian (d. 1625)
  • 1627 – Stephen Fox, English politician (d. 1716)
  • 1676 – Francis II Rákóczi, Hungarian prince (b. 1676)
  • 1679 – Domenico Lalli, Italian poet and librettist (d. 1741)
  • 1681 – Joaquín Fernández de Portocarrero, Spanish-Italian cardinal (d. 1760)
  • 1702 – Johann Ernst Eberlin, German organist and composer (d. 1762)
  • 1710 – Joseph Abaco, Belgian cellist and composer (d. 1805)
  • 1712 – Claude Bourgelat, French surgeon and author (d. 1779)
  • 1714 – Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, Italian historian and theologian (d. 1795)
  • 1724 – Jane Colden, American botanist and author (d. 1766)
  • 1745 – Lindley Murray, American-English Quaker and grammarian (d. 1826)
  • 1746 – Michael Bruce, Scottish poet and composer (d. 1767)
  • 1746 – Carlo Buonaparte, Corsican-French lawyer and politician (d. 1785)
  • 1765 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologian (d. 1841)
  • 1781 – Alexander Vostokov, Estonian-Russian philologist and academic (d. 1864)
  • 1784 – Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, Hungarian philologist, orientalist, and author (d. 1842)
  • 1785 – Louis XVII of France (d. 1795)
  • 1797 – Alfred de Vigny, French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1863)
  • 1801 – Alexander Barrow, American lawyer and politician (d. 1846)
  • 1802 – Charles-Mathias Simons, German-Luxembourger jurist and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1874)
  • 1809 – Georges-Eugène Haussmann, French engineer, urban planner, and politician (d. 1891)
  • 1811 – Edward William Cooke, English painter and illustrator (d. 1880)
  • 1814 – Charles Mackay, Scottish journalist, anthologist, and author (d. 1889)
  • 1820 – Edward Augustus Inglefield, English admiral and explorer (d. 1894)
  • 1822 – Henri Murger, French novelist and poet (d. 1861)
  • 1824 – Virginia Minor, American women’s suffrage activist (d. 1894)
  • 1839 – John Ballance, Irish-New Zealand journalist and politician, 14th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1893)
  • 1843 – George Frederick Leycester Marshall, English colonel and entomologist (d. 1934)
  • 1844 – Adolphus Greely, American general and explorer, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1935)
  • 1845 – Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1923)
  • 1845 – Jakob Sverdrup, Norwegian bishop and politician, Norwegian Minister of Education and Church Affairs (d. 1899)
  • 1847 – Otto Wallach, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)
  • 1851 – Ruperto Chapí, Spanish composer, co-founded Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (d. 1909)
  • 1851 – Vincent d’Indy, French composer and educator (d. 1931)
  • 1852 – Jan van Beers, Belgian painter and illustrator (d. 1927)
  • 1854 – Giovanni Battista Grassi, Italian physician, zoologist, and entomologist (d. 1925)
  • 1855 – William Libbey, American target shooter, colonel, mountaineer, geographer, geologist, and archaeologist (d. 1927)
  • 1857 – Karl Pearson, English mathematician, eugenicist, and academic (d. 1936)
  • 1859 – George Giffen, Australian cricketer and footballer (d. 1927)
  • 1860 – Frank Frost Abbott, American-Swiss scholar and academic (d. 1924)
  • 1862 – Jelena Dimitrijević, Serbian short story writer, novelist, poet, traveller, social worker, feminist and polyglot (d. 1945)
  • 1862 – Arturo Berutti, Argentinian composer (d. 1938)
  • 1863 – Henry Royce, English engineer and businessman, founded Rolls-Royce Limited (d. 1933)
  • 1866 – John Allan, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Victoria (d. 1936)
  • 1868 – Patty Hill, American songwriter and educator (d. 1946)
  • 1869 – James McNeill, Irish politician, 2nd Governor-General of the Irish Free State (d. 1938)
  • 1869 – J. R. Clynes, English trade unionist and politician, Home Secretary (d. 1949)
  • 1871 – Heinrich Mann, German author and poet (d. 1950)
  • 1871 – Joseph G. Morrison, American captain and Nazarene minister (d. 1939)
  • 1871 – Piet Aalberse, Dutch politician, Minister of Labour (d. 1948)
  • 1875 – Albert Marquet, French painter (d. 1947)
  • 1877 – Oscar Grégoire, Belgian water polo player and swimmer (d. 1947)
  • 1878 – Kathleen Scott, British sculptor (d. 1947)
  • 1879 – Sándor Garbai, Hungarian politician, 19th Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 1947)
  • 1879 – Miller Huggins, American baseball player and manager (d. 1929)
  • 1879 – Edward Steichen, Luxembourger-American painter and photographer (d. 1973)
  • 1881 – Arkady Averchenko, Russian playwright and satirist (d. 1925)
  • 1882 – Thomas Graham Brown, Scottish mountaineer and physiologist (d. 1965)
  • 1883 – Marie Under, Estonian author and poet (d. 1980)
  • 1884 – Gordon Thomson, English rower and lieutenant (d. 1953)
  • 1885 – Julio Lozano Díaz, Honduran accountant and politician, 40th President of Honduras (d. 1957)
  • 1885 – Reginald Fletcher, 1st Baron Winster, English navy officer and politician, Secretary of State for Transport (d. 1961)
  • 1886 – Sergey Kirov, Russian politician (d. 1934)
  • 1886 – Wladimir Burliuk, Ukrainian painter and illustrator (d. 1917)
  • 1886 – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German-American architect, designed IBM Plaza and Seagram Building (d. 1969)
  • 1887 – Väinö Siikaniemi, Finnish javelin thrower, poet, and translator (d. 1932)
  • 1888 – George Alfred Lawrence Hearne, English-South African cricketer (d. 1978)
  • 1889 – Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Egyptian-Turkish journalist, author, and politician (d. 1974)
  • 1889 – Leonard Mociulschi, Romanian general (d. 1979)
  • 1890 – Harald Julin, Swedish swimmer and water polo player (d. 1967)
  • 1890 – Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton, Scottish admiral (d. 1974)
  • 1891 – Lajos Zilahy, Hungarian novelist and playwright (d. 1974)
  • 1891 – Klawdziy Duzh-Dushewski, Belarusian-Lithuanian architect, journalist, and diplomat, created the Flag of Belarus (d. 1959)
  • 1892 – Ferde Grofé, American pianist and composer (d. 1972)
  • 1892 – Thorne Smith, American author (d. 1934)
  • 1893 – Karl Mannheim, Hungarian-English sociologist and academic (d. 1947)
  • 1893 – G. Lloyd Spencer, American lieutenant and politician (d. 1981)
  • 1893 – George Beranger, Australian-American actor and director (d. 1973)
  • 1894 – René Fonck, French colonel and pilot (d. 1953)
  • 1895 – Roland Leighton, English soldier and poet (d. 1915)
  • 1897 – Douglas Hartree, English mathematician and physicist (d. 1958)
  • 1897 – Fred Keating, American magician, stage and film actor (d. 1961)
  • 1899 – Francis Ponge, French poet and author (d. 1988)
  • 1899 – Herbert Arthur Stuart, German-Swiss physicist and academic (d. 1974)
  • 1899 – Gloria Swanson, American actress and producer (d. 1983)
  • 1901 – Carl Barks, American illustrator and screenwriter (d. 2000)
  • 1901 – Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (d. 1963)
  • 1901 – Eisaku Satō, Japanese politician, 61st Prime Minister of Japan, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
  • 1901 – Kenneth Slessor, Australian journalist and poet (d. 1971)
  • 1902 – Sidney Buchman, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1975)
  • 1902 – Charles Lang, American cinematographer (d. 1998)
  • 1903 – Xavier Villaurrutia, Mexican poet and playwright (d. 1950)
  • 1905 – Leroy Carr, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1935)
  • 1905 – Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, German general (d. 1980)
  • 1905 – Elsie MacGill, Canadian-American author and engineer (d. 1980)
  • 1906 – Pee Wee Russell, American clarinet player, saxophonist, and composer (d. 1969)
  • 1909 – Golo Mann, German historian and author (d. 1994)
  • 1909 – Ben Webster, American saxophonist (d. 1973)
  • 1909 – Valery Marakou, Belarusian poet and translator (d. 1937)
  • 1910 – Ai Qing, Chinese poet and author (d. 1996)
  • 1911 – Veronika Tushnova, Russian poet and physician (d. 1965)
  • 1912 – James Callaghan, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
  • 1913 – Theodor Dannecker, German SS officer (d. 1945)
  • 1914 – Richard Denning, American actor (d. 1998)
  • 1914 – Budd Schulberg, American author, screenwriter, and producer (d. 2009)
  • 1915 – Robert Lockwood, Jr., American guitarist (d. 2006)
  • 1917 – Cyrus Vance, American lawyer and politician, 57th United States Secretary of State (d. 2002)
  • 1920 – Colin Rowe, English-American architect, theorist and academic (d. 1999)
  • 1921 – Phil Chess, Czech-American record producer, co-founded Chess Records (d. 2016)
  • 1921 – Moacir Barbosa Nascimento, Brazilian footballer and coach (d. 2000)
  • 1921 – Harold Nicholas, American actor and dancer (d. 2000)
  • 1922 – Dick King-Smith, English author (d. 2011)
  • 1922 – Stefan Wul, French author and surgeon (d. 2003)
  • 1922 – Jules Olitski, Ukrainian-American painter, printmaker, and sculptor (d. 2007)
  • 1923 – Shūsaku Endō, Japanese author (d. 1996)
  • 1923 – Louis Simpson, Jamaican-American poet, translator, and academic (d. 2012)
  • 1924 – Sarah Vaughan, American singer (d. 1990)
  • 1924 – Ian Black, Scottish international footballer, goalkeeper and lawn bowls player (d. 2012)
  • 1924 – Margaret K. Butler, American mathematician and computer programmer (d. 2013)
  • 1926 – Frank O’Hara, American writer (d. 1966)
  • 1927 – Sylvia Anderson, English voice actress, screenwriter, and producer (d. 2016)
  • 1927 – Anthony Lewis, American journalist and academic (d. 2013)
  • 1927 – Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (d. 2007)
  • 1928 – Jean Dotto, French cyclist (d. 2000)
  • 1929 – Anne Ramsey, American actress (d. 1988)
  • 1929 – Reg Evans, Australian actor (d. 2009)
  • 1930 – Daniel Spoerri, Romanian-Swiss photographer, writer and artist
  • 1931 – David Janssen, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1980)
  • 1932 – Junior Parker, American singer and harmonica player (d. 1971)
  • 1932 – Bailey Olter, Micronesian politician, 3rd President of the Federated States of Micronesia (d. 1999)
  • 1933 – Lê Văn Hưng, South Vietnamese Brigadier general (d. 1975)
  • 1934 – István Csurka, Hungarian journalist, author, and politician (d. 2012)
  • 1935 – Stanley Rother, American Roman Catholic priest and missionary (d. 1981)
  • 1935 – Julian Glover, English actor
  • 1936 – Malcolm Goldstein, American violinist and composer
  • 1937 – Alan Hawkshaw, English keyboard player and songwriter
  • 1939 – Jay Kim, South Korean-American engineer and politician
  • 1939 – Cale Yarborough, American race car driver and businessman
  • 1940 – Sandro Munari, Italian race car driver
  • 1940 – Austin Pendleton, American actor, director, and playwright
  • 1941 – Ivan Gašparovič, Slovak lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Slovakia
  • 1941 – Liese Prokop, Austrian pentathlete and politician, Austrian Minister of the Interior (d. 2006)
  • 1942 – Michael Jackson, English journalist and author (d. 2007)
  • 1942 – John Sulston, English biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
  • 1942 – Michael York, English actor
  • 1943 – Mike Curtis, American football player and coach (d. 2020)
  • 1944 – Jesse Brown, American marine and politician, 2nd United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (d. 2002)
  • 1944 – Bryan Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1946 – Michael Aris, Cuban-English author and academic (d. 1999)
  • 1947 – Oliver Friggieri, Maltese author, critic, poet and philosopher
  • 1947 – Brian Jones, English balloonist and pilot
  • 1947 – Walt Mossberg, American journalist
  • 1948 – Jens-Peter Bonde, Danish lawyer and politician
  • 1950 – Tony Banks, English keyboardist and songwriter
  • 1950 – Petros Efthymiou, Greek academic and politician, Greek Minister of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs
  • 1950 – Maria Ewing, African-American soprano
  • 1950 – Chris Stewart, English musician and author
  • 1950 – Terry Yorath, Welsh international footballer, Midfielder and international manager
  • 1951 – Andrei Kozyrev, Belgian-Russian politician and diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Russia
  • 1952 – Annemarie Moser-Pröll, Austrian skier
  • 1952 – Maria Schneider, French actress (d. 2011)
  • 1953 – Herman Ponsteen, Dutch cyclist
  • 1954 – Gerard Batten, English lawyer and politician
  • 1955 – Patrick McCabe, Irish writer
  • 1955 – Mariano Rajoy, Spanish lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Spain
  • 1955 – Susan Neiman, Jewish American-German philosopher and author
  • 1956 – Leung Kwok-hung, Hong Kong activist and politician
  • 1956 – Thomas Wassberg, Swedish cross country skier
  • 1957 – Kostas Vasilakakis, Greek footballer and manager
  • 1957 – Stephen Dillane, English actor
  • 1958 – Didier de Radiguès, Belgian race car driver and motorcycle racer
  • 1959 – Andrew Farriss, Australian rock musician and multi-instrumentalist
  • 1960 – Hans Pflügler, German footballer
  • 1960 – Renato Russo, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1996)
  • 1961 – Ellery Hanley, English rugby league player and coach
  • 1961 – Tony Rominger, Swiss professional cyclist
  • 1962 – Jann Arden, Canadian singer-songwriter
  • 1962 – Brett French, Australian rugby league player
  • 1962 – Rob Hollink, Dutch poker player
  • 1962 – John O’Farrell, English journalist and author
  • 1962 – Brad Wright, American-Spanish basketball player
  • 1962 – Kevin J. Anderson, American science fiction writer
  • 1963 – Cory Blackwell, American basketball player
  • 1963 – Randall Cunningham, American football player, coach, and pastor
  • 1963 – Filippos Sachinidis, Greek-Canadian economist and politician
  • 1963 – Gary Stevens, English-Australian footballer and physiotherapist
  • 1963 – Quentin Tarantino, American director, producer, screenwriter and actor
  • 1963 – Xuxa, Brazilian actress, singer, businesswoman and television presenter
  • 1965 – Gregor Foitek, Swiss race car driver
  • 1966 – Žarko Paspalj, Serbian basketball player
  • 1967 – Talisa Soto, American actress
  • 1968 – Irina Belova, Russian heptathlete
  • 1969 – Gianluigi Lentini, Italian footballer and manager
  • 1969 – Pauley Perrette, American actress
  • 1970 – Leila Pahlavi, Princess of Iran (d. 2001)
  • 1970 – Derek Aucoin, Canadian baseball player
  • 1970 – Mariah Carey, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
  • 1970 – Brent Fitz, Canadian-American multi-instrumentalist and recording artist
  • 1970 – Jarrod McCracken, New Zealand rugby league player
  • 1970 – Elizabeth Mitchell, American actress
  • 1970 – Uwe Rosenberg, German game designer, created Bohnanza
  • 1971 – David Coulthard, Scottish race car driver and sportscaster
  • 1971 – Nathan Fillion, Canadian actor
  • 1972 – Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Surinamese-Dutch footballer, coach, and manager
  • 1972 – Charlie Haas, American professional wrestler
  • 1973 – Roger Telemachus, South African cricketer
  • 1974 – Marek Citko, Polish footballer and manager
  • 1974 – George Koumantarakis, Greek-South African footballer
  • 1974 – Gaizka Mendieta, Spanish footballer
  • 1975 – Andrew Blowers, New Zealand rugby player
  • 1975 – Kim Felton, Australian golfer
  • 1975 – Jeff Palmer, American gay porn actor and singer-songwriter
  • 1975 – Fergie, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
  • 1975 – Christian Fiedler, German footballer and manager
  • 1976 – Roberta Anastase, Romanian politician, 57th President of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania
  • 1976 – Danny Fortson, American basketball player
  • 1976 – Adrian Anca, Romanian footballer
  • 1977 – Vítor Meira, Brazilian race car driver
  • 1978 – Gabriel Paraschiv, Romanian footballer
  • 1978 – Marius Bakken, Norwegian runner
  • 1978 – Amélie Cocheteux, French tennis player
  • 1979 – Tom Palmer, English rugby union player
  • 1979 – Mohsen Moeini, Iranian author and director
  • 1979 – Imran Tahir, Pakistani-South African cricketer
  • 1979 – Jennifer Wilson, Zimbabwean-South African field hockey player
  • 1980 – Sean Ryan, American football player
  • 1980 – Michaela Paštiková, Czech tennis player
  • 1980 – Maksim Shevchenko, Kazakhstani footballer
  • 1981 – Terry McFlynn, Irish footballer
  • 1981 – Akhil Kumar, Indian boxer
  • 1981 – Jukka Keskisalo, Finnish runner
  • 1981 – Hilda Kibet, Kenyan runner
  • 1982 – Shawn Beveney, Guyanese footballer
  • 1983 – Yuliya Golubchikova, Russian pole vaulter
  • 1983 – Vasily Koshechkin, Russian ice hockey player
  • 1983 – Román Martínez, Argentinian footballer
  • 1984 – Adam Ashley-Cooper, Australian rugby player
  • 1984 – Ben Franks, Australian-born New Zealand rugby player
  • 1984 – Brett Holman, Australian footballer
  • 1985 – Dustin Byfuglien, American ice hockey player
  • 1985 – Danny Vukovic, Australian footballer
  • 1986 – Manuel Neuer, German footballer
  • 1987 – Jefferson Bernárdez, Honduran footballer
  • 1987 – Samuel Francis, Nigerian-Qatari sprinter
  • 1987 – Polina Gagarina, Russian singer-songwriter
  • 1987 – Buster Posey, American baseball player
  • 1988 – Jessie J, English singer-songwriter
  • 1988 – Atsuto Uchida, Japanese footballer
  • 1988 – Brenda Song, American actress
  • 1988 – Mauro Goicoechea, Uruguayan footballer
  • 1988 – Holliday Grainger, English actress
  • 1989 – Matt Harvey, American baseball player
  • 1989 – Camilla Lees, New Zealand netball player
  • 1990 – Erdin Demir, Swedish-Turkish footballer
  • 1990 – Ben Hunt, Australian rugby league player
  • 1990 – Nicolas Nkoulou, Cameroonian footballer
  • 1990 – Luca Zuffi, Swiss footballer
  • 1990 – Kimbra, New Zealand musician
  • 1990 – Brodha V, Indian Rapper and Music Producer
  • 1992 – Marc Muniesa, Spanish footballer
  • 1995 – Bill Tuiloma, New Zealand footballer

Deaths on March 27

  • 710 – Rupert of Salzburg, Austrian bishop and saint (b. 660)
  • 853 – Haymo of Halberstadt, German bishop and author (b. 778)
  • 913 – Du Xiao, chancellor of Later Liang
  • 913 – Zhang empress of Later Liang
  • 916 – Alduin I, Frankish nobleman
  • 965 – Arnulf I, Count of Flanders (born c. 890)
  • 973 – Hermann Billung, Frankish lieutenant (b. 900)
  • 1045 – Ali ibn Ahmad al-Jarjara’i, Fatimid vizier
  • 1184 – Giorgi III, King of Georgia
  • 1248 – Maud Marshal, English countess (b. 1192)
  • 1350 – Alfonso XI of Castile (b. 1312)
  • 1378 – Pope Gregory XI (b. 1336)
  • 1462 – Vasily II of Moscow (b. 1415)
  • 1472 – Janus Pannonius, Hungarian bishop and poet (b. 1434)
  • 1482 – Mary of Burgundy, Sovereign Duchess regnant of Burgundy, married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1457)
  • 1564 – Lütfi Pasha, Turkish historian and politician, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1488)
  • 1572 – Girolamo Maggi, Italian polymath (b. c. 1523)
  • 1598 – Theodor de Bry, Belgian-German engraver, goldsmith, and publisher (b. 1528)
  • 1613 – Sigismund Báthory (b. 1573)
  • 1615 – Margaret of Valois (b. 1553)
  • 1621 – Benedetto Giustiniani, Italian cardinal (b. 1554)
  • 1624 – Ulrik of Denmark, Danish prince-bishop (b. 1578)
  • 1625 – James VI and I of the United Kingdom (b. 1566)
  • 1635 – Robert Naunton, English politician (b. 1563)
  • 1676 – Bernardino de Rebolledo, Spanish poet, soldier, and diplomat (b. 1597)
  • 1679 – Abraham Mignon, Dutch painter (b. 1640)
  • 1697 – Simon Bradstreet, English businessman and politician, 20th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1603)
  • 1729 – Leopold, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1679)
  • 1757 – Johann Stamitz, Czech violinist and composer (b. 1717)
  • 1770 – Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian painter (b. 1696)
  • 1848 – Gabriel Bibron, French zoologist and herpetologist (b. 1805)
  • 1849 – Archibald Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford, Irish-Canadian politician, 35th Governor General of Canada (b. 1776)
  • 1850 – Wilhelm Beer, Prussian astronomer and banker (b. 1797)
  • 1864 – Jean-Jacques Ampère, French philologist and academic (b. 1800)
  • 1869 – James Harper, American publisher and politician, 65th Mayor of New York City (b. 1795)
  • 1875 – Juan Crisóstomo Torrico, Peruvian soldier and politician, President of Peru (b. 1808)
  • 1875 – Edgar Quinet, French historian and academic (b. 1803)
  • 1878 – George Gilbert Scott, English architect, designed the Albert Memorial and St Mary’s Cathedral (b. 1811)
  • 1886 – Henry Taylor, English poet and playwright (b. 1800)
  • 1889 – John Bright, English politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (b. 1811)
  • 1890 – Carl Jacob Löwig, German chemist and academic (b. 1803)
  • 1898 – Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian philosopher and activist (b. 1817)
  • 1900 – Joseph A. Campbell, American businessman, founded the Campbell Soup Company (b. 1817)
  • 1910 – Alexander Emanuel Agassiz, Swiss-American ichthyologist, zoologist, and engineer (b. 1835)
  • 1913 – Richard Montgomery Gano, American minister, physician, and general (b. 1830)
  • 1918 – Henry Adams, American journalist, historian, and author (b. 1838)
  • 1918 – Martin Sheridan, Irish-American discus thrower and jumper (b. 1881)
  • 1921 – Harry Barron, English general and politician, 16th Governor of Western Australia (b. 1847)
  • 1922 – Nikolay Sokolov, Russian composer and educator (b. 1859)
  • 1923 – James Dewar, Scottish chemist and physicist (b. 1842)
  • 1925 – Carl Neumann, German mathematician and academic (b. 1832)
  • 1926 – Kick Kelly, American baseball player, manager, and umpire (b. 1856)
  • 1926 – Georges Vézina, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1887)
  • 1927 – Joe Start, American baseball player and manager (b. 1842)
  • 1927 – Klaus Berntsen, Danish politician, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1844)
  • 1928 – Leslie Stuart, English organist and composer (b. 1863)
  • 1931 – Arnold Bennett, English author and playwright (b. 1867)
  • 1934 – Francis William Reitz, South African lawyer and politician, 5th State President of the Orange Free State (b. 1844)
  • 1938 – William Stern, German-American psychologist and philosopher (b. 1871)
  • 1940 – Michael Joseph Savage, Australian-New Zealand politician, 23rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1872)
  • 1942 – Julio González, Catalan sculptor and painter (b. 1876)
  • 1943 – George Monckton-Arundell, 8th Viscount Galway, English politician, 5th Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1882)
  • 1945 – Vincent Hugo Bendix, American engineer and businessman, founded Bendix Corporation (b. 1881)
  • 1945 – Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil, Turkish author, poet, and playwright (b. 1866)
  • 1946 – Karl Groos, German psychologist and philosopher (b. 1861)
  • 1949 – Elisheva Bikhovski, Israeli-Russian poet (b. 1888)
  • 1952 – Kiichiro Toyoda, Japanese businessman, founded Toyota (b. 1894)
  • 1956 – Évariste Lévi-Provençal, French orientalist and historian (b. 1894)
  • 1958 – Leon C. Phillips, American lawyer and politician, 11th Governor of Oklahoma (b. 1890)
  • 1960 – Gregorio Marañón, Spanish physician, philosopher, and author (b. 1887)
  • 1967 – Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
  • 1968 – Yuri Gagarin, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1934)
  • 1968 – Vladimir Seryogin, Russian soldier and pilot (b. 1922)
  • 1973 – Mikhail Kalatozov, Georgian-Russian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer (b. 1903)
  • 1974 – Eduardo Santos, Colombian journalist, lawyer, and politician, 15th President of Colombia (b. 1888)
  • 1975 – Arthur Bliss, English conductor and composer (b. 1891)
  • 1976 – Georg August Zinn, German lawyer and politician, Minister President of Hesse (b. 1901)
  • 1977 – Shirley Graham Du Bois, American author, playwright, and composer (b. 1896)
  • 1977 – Diana Hyland, American actress (b. 1936)
  • 1977 – Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten, Dutch airline pilot (b. 1927)
  • 1978 – Nat Bailey, Canadian businessman, founded the White Spot (b. 1902)
  • 1978 – Kunwar Digvijay Singh, Indian field hockey (b. 1922)
  • 1978 – Sverre Farstad, Norwegian speed skater (b. 1920)
  • 1980 – Steve Fisher, American author and screenwriter (b. 1912)
  • 1981 – Jakob Ackeret, Swiss engineer and academic (b. 1898)
  • 1982 – Fazlur Khan, Bangladeshi-American engineer and architect, designed the John Hancock Center and Willis Tower (b. 1929)
  • 1987 – William Bowers, American journalist and screenwriter (b. 1916)
  • 1988 – Charles Willeford, American author, poet, and critic (b. 1919)
  • 1989 – May Allison, American actress (b. 1890)
  • 1989 – Malcolm Cowley, American novelist, poet, and literary critic (b. 1898)
  • 1990 – Percy Beard, American hurdler and coach (b. 1908)
  • 1991 – Aldo Ray, American actor (b. 1926)
  • 1992 – Colin Gibson, English footballer (b. 1923)
  • 1992 – Lang Hancock, Australian businessman (b. 1909)
  • 1992 – James E. Webb, American colonel and politician, 16th Under Secretary of State (b. 1906)
  • 1993 – Kamal Hassan Ali, Egyptian general and politician, Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1921)
  • 1993 – Paul László, Hungarian-American architect and interior designer (b. 1900)
  • 1994 – Elisabeth Schmid, German archaeologist and osteologist (b. 1912)
  • 1994 – Lawrence Wetherby, American lawyer and politician, 48th Governor of Kentucky (b. 1908)
  • 1995 – René Allio, French director and screenwriter (b. 1924)
  • 1997 – Lane Dwinell, American businessman and politician, 69th Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1906)
  • 1997 – Ella Maillart, Swiss skier, sailor, field hockey player, and photographer (b. 1903)
  • 1998 – David McClelland, American psychologist and academic (b. 1917)
  • 1999 – Michael Aris, Cuban-English author and academic (b. 1946)
  • 2000 – George Allen, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1914)
  • 2000 – Ian Dury, English singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1942)
  • 2002 – Milton Berle, American comedian and actor (b. 1908)
  • 2002 – Dudley Moore, English actor (b. 1935)
  • 2002 – Billy Wilder, Austrian-born American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1906)
  • 2003 – Edwin Carr, New Zealand composer and educator (b. 1926)
  • 2004 – Robert Merle, French author (b. 1909)
  • 2005 – Wilfred Gordon Bigelow, Canadian soldier and surgeon (b. 1913)
  • 2006 – Dan Curtis, American director and producer (b. 1928)
  • 2006 – Stanisław Lem, Ukrainian-Polish author (b. 1921)
  • 2006 – Rudolf Vrba, Czech Holocaust survivor and educator (b. 1924)
  • 2006 – Neil Williams, English cricketer (b. 1962)
  • 2007 – Nancy Adams, New Zealand botanist and illustrator (b. 1926)
  • 2007 – Paul Lauterbur, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1929)
  • 2008 – Jean-Marie Balestre, French businessman (b. 1921)
  • 2009 – Irving R. Levine, American journalist and author (b. 1922)
  • 2010 – Dick Giordano, American illustrator (b. 1932)
  • 2011 – Clement Arrindell, Nevisian judge and politician, 1st Governor-General of Saint Kitts and Nevis (b. 1931)
  • 2011 – Farley Granger, American actor (b. 1925)
  • 2012 – Adrienne Rich, American poet, essayist and feminist (b. 1929)
  • 2013 – Hjalmar Andersen, Norwegian speed skater (b. 1923)
  • 2013 – Yvonne Brill, Canadian-American scientist and engineer (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – Fay Kanin, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1917)
  • 2014 – Richard N. Frye, American scholar and academic (b. 1920)
  • 2014 – James R. Schlesinger, American economist and politician, 12th United States Secretary of Defense and first United States Secretary of Energy (b. 1929)
  • 2015 – Johnny Helms, American trumpet player, bandleader, and educator (b. 1935)
  • 2015 – T. Sailo, Indian soldier and politician, 2nd Chief Minister of Mizoram (b. 1922)
  • 2016 – Mother Angelica, American Roman Catholic religious leader and media personality (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances on March 27

  • Christian feast day:
    • Alexander, a Pannonian soldier, martyred in 3rd century.
    • Amador of Portugal
    • Augusta of Treviso
    • Charles Henry Brent (Episcopal Church (USA))
    • Gelasius, Archbishop of Armagh
    • John of Egypt
    • Philetus
    • Romulus of Nîmes, a Benedictine abbot, martyred c. 730.
    • Rupert of Salzburg
    • Zanitas and Lazarus of Persia
    • March 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Armed Forces Day (Myanmar)
  • International whisk(e)y day
  • World Theatre Day (International)

March 27 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

March 20- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /

Typically the March equinox falls on March 20, marking the vernal point in the Northern Hemisphere and the autumnal point in the Southern Hemisphere.

  • 235 – Maximinus Thrax is proclaimed emperor.
  • 673 – Emperor Tenmu of Japan assumes the Chrysanthemum Throne at the Palace of Kiyomihara in Asuka.
  • 1206 – Michael IV Autoreianos is appointed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
  • 1600 – The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden: five Swedish noblemen are publicly beheaded in the aftermath of the War against Sigismund (1598–1599).
  • 1602 – The Dutch East India Company is established.
  • 1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.
  • 1760 – The Great Boston Fire of 1760 destroys 349 buildings.
  • 1815 – After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.
  • 1848 – German revolutions of 1848–49: King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates.
  • 1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published.
  • 1854 – The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin, US.
  • 1861 – An earthquake destroys Mendoza, Argentina.
  • 1883 – The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is signed.
  • 1888 – The premiere of the very first Romani language operetta is staged in Moscow, Russia.
  • 1890 – Prime Minister of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck is dismissed by Emperor Wilhelm II.
  • 1896 – With the approval of Emperor Guangxu, the Qing dynasty post office is opened, marking the beginning of a postal service in China.
  • 1913 – Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party, is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days later.
  • 1915 – Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
  • 1921 – The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty to determine a section of the border between Weimar Germany and Poland.
  • 1922 – The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.
  • 1923 – The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso’s first United States showing, entitled Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States.
  • 1933 – Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler ordered the creation of Dachau concentration camp as Chief of Police of Munich and appointed Theodor Eicke as the camp commandant.
  • 1942 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: “I came out of Bataan and I shall return”.
  • 1948 – With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC.
  • 1951 – Fujiyoshida, a city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in the center of the Japanese main island of Honshū is founded.
  • 1952 – The US Senate ratifies the Security Treaty Between the United States and Japan.
  • 1956 – Tunisia gains independence from France.
  • 1964 – The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organisation) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
  • 1972 – The Troubles: The first Provisional IRA car bombing in Belfast kills seven people and injures 148 others in Northern Ireland.
  • 1985 – Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
  • 1985 – Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
  • 1987 – The Food and Drug Administration approves the anti-AIDS drug, AZT.
  • 1988 – Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.
  • 1990 – Ferdinand Marcos’s widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.
  • 1993 – The Troubles: A Provisional IRA bomb kills two children in Warrington, England. It leads to mass protests in both Britain and Ireland.
  • 1995 – The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo carries out a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, killing 13 and wounding over 6,200 people.
  • 1999 – Legoland California, the first Legoland outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California, US.
  • 2000 – Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after murdering Georgia sheriff’s deputy Ricky Kinchen and critically wounding Deputy Aldranon English.
  • 2003 – Invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries (the UK, Australia and Poland) begin military operations in Iraq.
  • 2006 – Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Déby.
  • 2012 – At least 52 people are killed and more than 250 injured in a wave of terror attacks across ten cities in Iraq.
  • 2014 – Four suspected Taliban members attack the Kabul Serena Hotel, killing at least nine people.
  • 2015 – A Solar eclipse, equinox, and a supermoon all occur on the same day.

Births on March 20

  • 43 BC – Ovid, Roman poet (d. 17)
  • 1253 – Magadu, renamed Wareru, founder of Ramanya Kingdom, renamed Hanthawady Kingdom of Pegu (b. a commoner; d. on a Saturday in January 1307)
  • 1319 – Laurence Hastings, 1st Earl of Pembroke (d. 1348)
  • 1469 – Cecily of York (d. 1507)
  • 1477 – Jerome Emser, German theologian and scholar (d. 1527)
  • 1479 – Ippolito d’Este, Italian cardinal (d. 1520)
  • 1502 – Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (d. 1575)
  • 1532 – Juan de Ribera, Roman Catholic archbishop (d. 1611)
  • 1612 – Anne Bradstreet, Puritan American poet (d. 1672)
  • 1615 – Dara Shikoh, Indian prince (d. 1659)
  • 1639 – Ivan Mazepa, Ukrainian diplomat, Hetman of Ukraine (d. 1709)
  • 1725 – Abdul Hamid I, Ottoman sultan (d. 1789)
  • 1737 – Rama I, Thai king (d. 1809)
  • 1771 – Heinrich Clauren, German author (d. 1854)
  • 1796 – Edward Gibbon Wakefield, English politician (d. 1862)
  • 1799 – Karl August Nicander, Swedish poet and author (d. 1839)
  • 1800 – Braulio Carrillo Colina, Costa Rican lawyer and politician, President of Costa Rica (d. 1845)
  • 1805 – Thomas Cooper, British poet (d. 1892)
  • 1811 – Napoleon II, French emperor (d. 1832)
  • 1811 – George Caleb Bingham, American painter and politician, State Treasurer of Missouri (d. 1879)
  • 1821 – Ned Buntline, American journalist, author, and publisher (d. 1886)
  • 1824 – Theodor von Heuglin, German explorer and ornithologist (d. 1876)
  • 1828 – Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian poet, playwright, and director (d. 1906)
  • 1831 – Patrick Jennings, Northern Irish-Australian politician, 11th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1897)
  • 1831 – Solomon L. Spink, American lawyer and politician (d. 1881)
  • 1834 – Charles William Eliot, American mathematician and academic (d. 1926)
  • 1836 – Ferris Jacobs, Jr., American general, lawyer, and politician (d. 1886)
  • 1836 – Edward Poynter, English painter, illustrator, and curator (d. 1919)
  • 1840 – Illarion Pryanishnikov, Russian painter (d. 1894)
  • 1851 – Ismail Gasprinski, Ukrainian educator, publisher, and politician (d. 1914)
  • 1856 – John Lavery, Irish painter (d. 1941)
  • 1856 – Frederick Winslow Taylor, American tennis player and engineer (d. 1915)
  • 1870 – Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (d. 1964)
  • 1874 – Börries von Münchhausen, German poet and activist (d. 1945)
  • 1876 – Payne Whitney, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1927)
  • 1879 – Maud Menten, Canadian physician and biochemist (d. 1960)
  • 1882 – René Coty, French lawyer and politician, 17th President of France (d. 1962)
  • 1882 – Harold Weber, American golfer (d. 1933)
  • 1884 – Philipp Frank, Austrian-American physicist, mathematician, and philosopher (d. 1966)
  • 1884 – John Jensen, Australian public servant (d. 1970)
  • 1885 – Vernon Ransford, Australian cricketer (d. 1958)
  • 1888 – Amanda Clement, American baseball player, umpire, and educator (d. 1971)
  • 1890 – Lauritz Melchior, Danish-American tenor and actor (d. 1973)
  • 1894 – Amalie Sara Colquhoun, Australian landscape and portrait painter (d. 1974)
  • 1895 – Fredric Wertham, German-American psychologist and author (d. 1981)
  • 1898 – Eduard Wiiralt, Estonian artist (d. 1954)
  • 1900 – Amelia Chopitea Villa, Bolivia’s first female physician (d. 1942)
  • 1903 – Edgar Buchanan, American actor (d. 1979)
  • 1904 – B. F. Skinner, American psychologist and author (d. 1990)
  • 1905 – Jean Galia, French rugby player and boxer (d. 1949)
  • 1906 – Abraham Beame, American accountant and politician, 104th Mayor of New York City (d. 2001)
  • 1906 – Ozzie Nelson, American actor and bandleader (d. 1975)
  • 1907 – Hugh MacLennan, Canadian author and educator (d. 1990)
  • 1908 – Michael Redgrave, English actor and director (d. 1985)
  • 1910 – Erwin Blask, German hammer thrower (d. 1999)
  • 1911 – Alfonso García Robles, Mexican lawyer and diplomat, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
  • 1912 – Ralph Hauenstein, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2016)
  • 1913 – Nikolai Stepulov, Russian-Estonian boxer (d. 1968)
  • 1914 – Wendell Corey, American actor and politician (d. 1968)
  • 1915 – Rudolf Kirchschläger, Austrian judge and politician, 8th President of Austria (d. 2000)
  • 1915 – Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist and composer (d. 1997)
  • 1915 – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1973)
  • 1916 – Pierre Messmer, French lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 2007)
  • 1917 – Vera Lynn, English singer, songwriter and actress (d. 2020)
  • 1917 – Yigael Yadin, Israeli archaeologist, general, and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1984)
  • 1918 – Jack Barry, American game show host and producer, co-founded Barry & Enright Productions (d. 1984)
  • 1918 – Donald Featherstone, English soldier and author (d. 2013)
  • 1918 – Marian McPartland, English-American pianist and composer (d. 2013)
  • 1918 – Bernd Alois Zimmermann, German composer (d. 1970)
  • 1919 – Gerhard Barkhorn, German fighter ace (d. 1983)
  • 1920 – Pamela Harriman, English-American diplomat, 58th United States Ambassador to France (d. 1997)
  • 1920 – Rosemary Timperley, English author and screenwriter (d. 1988)
  • 1921 – Usmar Ismail, Indonesian filmmaker (d. 1971)
  • 1921 – Dušan Pirjevec, Slovenian historian and philosopher (d. 1977)
  • 1921 – Alfréd Rényi, Hungarian mathematician and theorist (d. 1970)
  • 1922 – Larry Elgart, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 2017)
  • 1922 – Ray Goulding, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1990)
  • 1922 – Carl Reiner, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2020)
  • 1923 – Con Martin, Irish footballer and manager (d. 2013)
  • 1923 – Shaukat Siddiqui, Pakistani journalist, author, and activist (d. 2006)
  • 1925 – John Ehrlichman, American lawyer, 12th White House Counsel (d. 1999)
  • 1927 – John Joubert, South African-English composer and academic (d. 2019)
  • 1928 – Jerome Biffle, American long jumper and coach (d. 2002)
  • 1928 – James P. Gordon, American physicist and engineer (d. 2013)
  • 1928 – Fred Rogers, American television host and producer (d. 2003)
  • 1929 – William Andrew MacKay, Canadian lawyer and judge (d. 2013)
  • 1929 – Germán Robles, Spanish-Mexican actor and director (d. 2015)
  • 1930 – S. Arasaratnam, Sri Lankan historian, author, and academic (d. 1998)
  • 1931 – Hal Linden, American actor, singer, and director
  • 1931 – Rein Raamat, Estonian director and screenwriter
  • 1933 – Lateef Adegbite, Nigerian lawyer and politician (d. 2012)
  • 1933 – George Altman, American baseball player
  • 1933 – Ian Walsh, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 2013)
  • 1934 – Willie Brown, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 41st Mayor of San Francisco
  • 1934 – David Malouf, Australian author and playwright
  • 1935 – Ted Bessell, American actor and director (d. 1996)
  • 1935 – Bettye Washington Greene, American chemist (d. 1995)
  • 1936 – Lee “Scratch” Perry, Jamaican singer, songwriter, music producer, and inventor
  • 1936 – Mark Saville, Baron Saville of Newdigate, English lieutenant, lawyer, and judge
  • 1937 – Lois Lowry, American author
  • 1937 – Jerry Reed, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2008)
  • 1938 – Sergei Novikov, Russian mathematician and academic
  • 1939 – Gerald Curran, American lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
  • 1939 – Don Edwards, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1939 – Walter Jakob Gehring, Swiss biologist and academic (d. 2014)
  • 1939 – Brian Mulroney, Canadian lawyer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Canada
  • 1940 – Stathis Chaitas, Greek footballer and manager
  • 1940 – Mary Ellen Mark, American photographer and journalist (d. 2015)
  • 1940 – Giampiero Moretti, Italian race car driver and businessman, founded the Momo company (d. 2012)
  • 1941 – Pat Corrales, American baseball player and manager
  • 1941 – Kenji Kimihara, Japanese runner
  • 1943 – Gerard Malanga, American poet and photographer
  • 1943 – Douglas Tompkins, American businessman, co-founded The North Face and Esprit Holdings (d. 2015)
  • 1943 – Paul Junger Witt, American director and producer (d. 2018)
  • 1944 – John Cameron, English composer and conductor
  • 1944 – Camille Cosby, American author, producer, and philanthropist
  • 1944 – Alan Harper, English-Irish archbishop
  • 1945 – Henry Bartholomay, American soldier and pilot (d. 2015)
  • 1945 – Jay Ingram, Canadian television host and author
  • 1945 – Pat Riley, American basketball player and coach
  • 1945 – Tim Yeo, English politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Health
  • 1946 – Douglas B. Green, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1946 – Malcolm Simmons, English motorcycle racer (d. 2014)
  • 1947 – John Boswell, American historian, philologist, and academic (d. 1994)
  • 1948 – John de Lancie, American actor
  • 1948 – Bobby Orr, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1948 – Nikos Papazoglou, Greek singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2011)
  • 1949 – Marcia Ball, American blues singer-songwriter and pianist
  • 1949 – Richard Dowden, English journalist and educator
  • 1950 – William Hurt, American actor
  • 1950 – Carl Palmer, English drummer, percussionist, and songwriter
  • 1951 – Jimmie Vaughan, American blues-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1952 – Geoff Brabham, Australian race car driver
  • 1952 – David Greenaway, English economist and academic
  • 1953 – Phil Judd, New Zealand singer-songwriter, guitarist and painter
  • 1954 – Mike Francesa, American radio talk show host and television commentator
  • 1954 – Liana Kanelli, Greek journalist and politician
  • 1954 – Paul Mirabella, American baseball player
  • 1955 – Nina Kiriki Hoffman, American author
  • 1955 – Ian Moss, Australian guitarist and singer-songwriter
  • 1955 – Mariya Takeuchi, Japanese singer-songwriter
  • 1956 – Catherine Ashton, English politician, Vice-President of the European Commission
  • 1956 – Anne Donahue, American lawyer and politician
  • 1956 – Naoto Takenaka, Japanese actor, comedian, singer, and director
  • 1957 – Vanessa Bell Calloway, American actress
  • 1957 – David Foster, Australian woodchopper
  • 1957 – Spike Lee, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1957 – Theresa Russell, American actress
  • 1957 – Chris Wedge, American animator, producer, screenwriter, and voice actor
  • 1958 – Holly Hunter, American actress and producer
  • 1958 – Rickey Jackson, American football player
  • 1958 – Joe Reaiche, Australian rugby player
  • 1959 – Dave Beasant, English footballer and coach
  • 1959 – Mary Roach, American author
  • 1959 – Sting, American wrestler
  • 1959 – Peter Truscott, Baron Truscott, British Labour Party politician and peer
  • 1960 – Norm Magnusson, American painter and sculptor
  • 1960 – Norbert Pohlmann, German computer scientist and academic
  • 1960 – Yuri Shargin, Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut
  • 1961 – Ingrid Arndt-Brauer, German politician
  • 1961 – Jesper Olsen, Danish footballer and manager
  • 1961 – Sara Wheeler, English author and journalist
  • 1962 – Stephen Sommers, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1963 – Paul Annacone, American tennis player and coach
  • 1963 – Kathy Ireland, American model, actress, and furniture designer
  • 1963 – Yelena Romanova, Russian runner (d. 2007)
  • 1963 – David Thewlis, English-French actor, director, and screenwriter
  • 1964 – Natacha Atlas, Belgian singer-songwriter
  • 1965 – William Dalrymple, Scottish historian and author
  • 1967 – Xavier Beauvois, French actor, director, and screenwriter
  • 1967 – Mookie Blaylock, American basketball player
  • 1968 – Carlos Almeida, Cape Verdean runner
  • 1968 – A. J. Jacobs, American journalist and author
  • 1968 – Paul Merson, English footballer and manager
  • 1968 – Ultra Naté, American singer, songwriter, record producer, DJ, and promoter
  • 1969 – Yvette Cooper, English economist and politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
  • 1969 – Fabien Galthie, French rugby player
  • 1970 – Edoardo Ballerini, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1970 – Josephine Medina, Filipino Paralympic table tennis player
  • 1970 – sj Miller, American academic, public speaker, and social justice activist
  • 1970 – Michael Rapaport, American actor, podcast host, and director
  • 1971 – Manny Alexander, Dominican baseball player
  • 1971 – Touré, American journalist and author
  • 1972 – Chilly Gonzales, Canadian-German singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
  • 1972 – Alex Kapranos, English-Scottish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1972 – Greg Searle, English rower
  • 1972 – Marco Sejna, German footballer
  • 1972 – Cristel Vahtra, Estonian skier
  • 1973 – Nicky Boje, South African cricketer
  • 1973 – Natalya Khrushcheleva, Russian runner
  • 1973 – Talal Khalifa Aljeri, Kuwaiti businessman
  • 1974 – Carsten Ramelow, German footballer
  • 1975 – Ramin Bahrani, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1975 – Isolde Kostner, Italian skier
  • 1976 – Chester Bennington, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2017)
  • 1978 – Kevin Betsy, English born Seychelles international footballer, midfielder and manager
  • 1978 – Brent Sherwin, Australian rugby league player
  • 1979 – Shinnosuke Abe, Japanese baseball player
  • 1979 – Freema Agyeman, English actress
  • 1979 – Keven Mealamu, New Zealand rugby player
  • 1980 – Jamal Crawford, American basketball player
  • 1980 – Robertas Javtokas, Lithuanian basketball player
  • 1981 – Ian Murray, Scottish footballer
  • 1981 – Carl Webb, Australian rugby league player
  • 1982 – Terrence Duffin, Zimbabwean cricketer
  • 1982 – Tomasz Kuszczak, Polish footballer
  • 1982 – José Moreira, Portuguese footballer
  • 1983 – Carolina Padrón, Venezuelan journalist
  • 1983 – Jenni Vartiainen, Finnish singer
  • 1984 – Vikram Banerjee, English cricketer
  • 1984 – Christy Carlson Romano, American actress and singer
  • 1984 – Fernando Torres, Spanish footballer
  • 1985 – Morgan Amalfitano, French footballer
  • 1985 – Ronnie Brewer, American basketball player
  • 1985 – Nicolas Lombaerts, Belgian footballer
  • 1986 – Dean Geyer, South African-Australian singer-songwriter and actor
  • 1986 – Julián Magallanes, Argentinian footballer
  • 1986 – Ruby Rose, Australian actress and model
  • 1986 – Román Torres, Panamanian footballer
  • 1987 – Daniel Maa Boumsong, Cameroonian footballer
  • 1987 – Jô, Brazilian footballer
  • 1987 – Pedro Ken, Brazilian footballer
  • 1987 – Sergei Kostitsyn, Belarusian ice hockey player
  • 1989 – Xavier Dolan, Canadian actor and director
  • 1989 – Tamim Iqbal, Bangladeshi Cricketer
  • 1990 – Blake Ferguson, Australian rugby league player
  • 1990 – Marcos Rojo, Argentine footballer
  • 1991 – Mattia Destro, Italian footballer
  • 1991 – Michał Kucharczyk, Polish footballer
  • 1991 – Ethan Lowe, Australian rugby league player
  • 1993 – Sloane Stephens, American tennis player
  • 1995 – Jack Bird, Australian rugby league player

Deaths on March 20

  • 687 – Cuthbert, Northumbrian (English) monk, bishop, and saint (b. 634)
  • 703 – Wulfram, archbishop of Sens
  • 842 – Alfonso II, king of Asturias (Spain) (b. 759)
  • 851 – Ebbo, archbishop of Reims
  • 1181 – Taira no Kiyomori, Japanese general (b. 1118)
  • 1191 – Pope Clement III (b. 1130)
  • 1239 – Hermann von Salza, German knight and diplomat (b. 1179)
  • 1302 – Ralph Walpole, Bishop of Norwich
  • 1336 – Maurice Csák, Hungarian Dominican friar (b. 1270)
  • 1351 – Muhammad bin Tughluq, Sultan of Delhi
  • 1390 – Alexios III Megas Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond (b. 1338)
  • 1413 – Henry IV of England (b. 1367)
  • 1440 – Sigismund I of Lithuania
  • 1475 – Georges Chastellain, Burgundian chronicler and poet
  • 1549 – Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, English general and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1508)
  • 1568 – Albert, Duke of Prussia (b. 1490)
  • 1619 – Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1557)
  • 1673 – Augustyn Kordecki, Polish monk (b. 1603)
  • 1688 – Maria of Orange-Nassau, Dutch princess (b. 1642)
  • 1730 – Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress (b. 1692)
  • 1746 – Nicolas de Largillière, French painter and academic (b. 1656)
  • 1780 – Benjamin Truman, English brewer and businessman (b. 1699)
  • 1793 – William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish judge and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (b. 1705)
  • 1835 – Louis Léopold Robert, French painter (b. 1794)
  • 1849 – James Justinian Morier, Turkish-English author and diplomat (b. 1780)
  • 1855 – Joseph Aspdin, English businessman (b. 1788)
  • 1865 – Yamanami Keisuke, Japanese samurai (b. 1833)
  • 1874 – Hans Christian Lumbye, Danish composer and conductor (b. 1810)
  • 1878 – Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist (b. 1814)
  • 1894 – Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian lawyer, journalist and politician (b. 1802)
  • 1897 – Apollon Maykov, Russian poet and playwright (b. 1821)
  • 1899 – Franz Ritter von Hauer, Austrian geologist and author (b. 1822)
  • 1909 – Friedrich Amelung, Estonian historian and businessman (b. 1842)
  • 1918 – Lewis A. Grant, American general and lawyer (b. 1828)
  • 1925 – George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, English politician, 35th Governor-General of India (b. 1859)
  • 1929 – Ferdinand Foch, French field marshal (b. 1851)
  • 1930 – Arthur F. Andrews, American cyclist (b. 1876)
  • 1931 – Hermann Müller, German journalist and politician, 12th Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
  • 1933 – Giuseppe Zangara, Italian-American assassin of Anton Cermak (b. 1900; executed)
  • 1940 – Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (b. 1860)
  • 1945 – Dorothy Campbell, Scottish-American golfer (b. 1883)
  • 1946 – Amadeus William Grabau, American-Chinese geologist, paleontologist, and academic (b. 1870)
  • 1947 – Sigurd Wallén, Swedish actor and director (b. 1884)
  • 1952 – Hjalmar Väre, Finnish cyclist (b. 1892)
  • 1958 – Adegoke Adelabu, Nigerian merchant, journalist, and politician (b. 1915)
  • 1964 – Brendan Behan, Irish republican and playwright (b. 1923)
  • 1965 – Daniel Frank, American long jumper (b. 1882)
  • 1966 – Johnny Morrison, American baseball player (b. 1895)
  • 1968 – Carl Theodor Dreyer, Danish director and screenwriter (b. 1889)
  • 1969 – Henri Longchambon, French politician (b. 1896)
  • 1971 – Falih Rıfkı Atay, Turkish journalist and politician (b. 1894)
  • 1972 – Marilyn Maxwell, American actress (b. 1921)
  • 1974 – Chet Huntley, American journalist (b. 1911)
  • 1977 – Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham, English politician, 9th Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1909)
  • 1977 – Terukuni Manzō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 38th Yokozuna (b. 1919)
  • 1978 – Jacques Brugnon, French tennis player (b. 1895)
  • 1981 – Gerry Bertier, American football player (b. 1953)
  • 1983 – Ivan Matveyevich Vinogradov, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1891)
  • 1990 – Maurice Cloche, French director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1907)
  • 1990 – Lev Yashin, Russian footballer (b. 1929)
  • 1992 – Georges Delerue, French composer (b. 1925)
  • 1993 – Polykarp Kusch, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
  • 1994 – Lewis Grizzard, American writer and humorist (b. 1946)
  • 1997 – V. S. Pritchett, English short story writer, essayist, and critic (b. 1900)
  • 1999 – Patrick Heron, British painter (b. 1920)
  • 2000 – Gene Eugene, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1961)
  • 2001 – Luis Alvarado, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (b. 1949)
  • 2004 – Juliana of the Netherlands (b. 1909)
  • 2004 – Pierre Sévigny, Canadian colonel and politician (b. 1917)
  • 2005 – Armand Lohikoski, American-Finnish director and screenwriter (b. 1912)
  • 2007 – Raynald Fréchette, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1933)
  • 2007 – Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraqi politician, Vice President of Iraq (b. 1938)
  • 2007 – Hawa Yakubu, Ghanaian politician (b. 1948)
  • 2010 – Ai, American poet and academic (b. 1947)
  • 2010 – Girija Prasad Koirala, Indian-Nepalese politician, 30th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1924)
  • 2010 – Stewart Udall, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 37th United States Secretary of the Interior (b. 1920)
  • 2011 – Johnny Pearson, English pianist, conductor, and composer (b. 1925)
  • 2012 – Lincoln Hall, Australian mountaineer and author (b. 1955)
  • 2012 – Noboru Ishiguro, Japanese animator and director (b. 1938)
  • 2012 – Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, Polish-Israeli rabbi and author (b. 1910)
  • 2012 – Jim Stynes, Irish-Australian footballer (b. 1966)
  • 2013 – James Herbert, English author (b. 1943)
  • 2013 – George Lowe, New Zealand-English mountaineer and explorer (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – Zillur Rahman, Bangladeshi lawyer and politician, 19th President of Bangladesh (b. 1929)
  • 2014 – Hennie Aucamp, South African poet, author, and academic (b. 1934)
  • 2014 – Hilderaldo Bellini, Brazilian footballer (b. 1930)
  • 2014 – Tonie Nathan, American politician (b. 1923)
  • 2014 – Khushwant Singh, Indian journalist and author (b. 1915)
  • 2015 – Eva Burrows, Australian 13th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1929)
  • 2015 – Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1930)
  • 2016 – Anker Jørgensen, Danish politician, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1922)
  • 2017 – David Rockefeller, American billionaire and philanthropist (b. 1915)
  • 2018 – C. K. Mann, a Ghanaian Highlife musician and producer (b. 1936)
  • 2019 – Mary Warnock, English philosopher & writer (b. 1924)
  • 2020 – Kenny Rogers, American singer (b. 1938)

Holidays and observances on March 20

  • Christian feast day:
    • Alexandra
    • Blessed John of Parma
    • Clement of Ireland
    • Cuthbert of Lindisfarne
    • Herbert of Derwentwater
    • John of Nepomuk
    • Józef Bilczewski
    • María Josefa Sancho de Guerra
    • Martin of Braga
    • Michele Carcano
    • Wulfram
    • March 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Earliest date for the vernal equinox in the Northern hemisphere:
    • Bahá’í Naw-Rúz, started at sunset on March 20. The end of the 19-day sunrise-to-sunset fast. (Bahá’í Faith)
    • Chunfen (China)
    • Earth Equinox Day
    • International Astrology Day
    • New Year (Thelema)
    • Nowruz (Persian, Gilaki, Kurdish, Zoroastrians, and other Iranian people and countries with an Iranian influence)
    • Ostara in the northern hemisphere, Mabon in the southern hemisphere. (Neo-Druidic Wheel of the Year)
    • Shunbun no Hi (Japan)
    • Sun-Earth Day (United States)
    • Vernal Equinox Day/Kōreisai (Japan)
    • World Storytelling Day
  • Earliest day on which Good Friday can fall, while April 23 is the latest; celebrated on Friday before Easter. (Christianity)
  • Great American Meatout (United States)
  • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Tunisia from France in 1956.
  • International Day of Happiness (United Nations)
  • International Francophonie Day (Organisation internationale de la Francophonie), and its related observances:
    • UN French Language Day (United Nations)
  • National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (United States)
  • World Sparrow Day

March 20- History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

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

On This Day /

February 29, also known as leap day or leap year day, is a date added to most years that are divisible by 4, such as 2016, 2020, and 2024. A leap day is added in various solar calendars (calendars based on the Earth’s revolution around the Sun), including the Gregorian calendar standard in most of the world. Lunisolar calendars (whose months are based on the phases of the Moon) instead add a leap or intercalary month

In the Gregorian calendar, years that are divisible by 100, but not by 400, do not contain a leap day. Thus, 1700, 1800, and 1900 did not contain a leap day; neither will 2100, 2200, and 2300. Conversely, 1600 and 2000 did and 2400 will. Years containing a leap day are called leap years. Years not containing a leap day are called common years. In the Chinese calendar, this day will only occur in years of the monkey, dragon, and rat.

A leap day is observed because the Earth’s period of orbital revolution around the Sun takes approximately six hours longer than 365 whole days. A leap day compensates for this lag, realigning the calendar with the Earth’s position in the Solar System; otherwise, seasons would occur later than intended in the calendar year. The Julian calendar used in Christendom until the 16th century added a leap day every four years; but this rule adds too many days (roughly three every 400 years), making the equinoxes and solstices shift gradually to earlier dates. By the 16th century the vernal equinox had drifted to March 11, so the Gregorian calendar was introduced both to shift it back by omitting several days, and to reduce the number of leap years via the aforementioned century rule to keep the equinoxes more or less fixed and the date of Easter consistently close to the vernal equinox.

Leap days can present a particular problem in computing known as the leap year bug when February 29 is not handled correctly in logic that accepts or manipulates dates. For example, this has happened with ATMs and Microsoft’s cloud system Azure.

Leap years

Although most modern calendar years have 365 days, a complete revolution around the Sun (one solar year) takes approximately 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds (or, for simplicity’s sake, approximately 365 days and 6 hours, or 365.25 days) .An extra 23 hours, 15 minutes, and 4 seconds thus accumulates every four years (again, for simplicity’s sake, approximately an extra 24 hours, or 1 day, every four years), requiring that an extra calendar day be added to align the calendar with the Sun’s apparent position. Without the added day, in future years the seasons would occur later in the calendar, eventually leading to confusion about when to undertake activities dependent on weather, ecology, or hours of daylight.

Solar years are actually slightly shorter than 365 days and 6 hours (365.25 days), which had been known since the 2nd century BC when Hipparchus stated that it lasted 365 + 1/4 − 1/300 days, but this was ignored by Julius Caesar and his astronomical adviser Sosigenes. The Gregorian calendar corrected this by adopting the length of the tropical year stated in three medieval sources, the Alfonsine tables, De Revolutionibus, and the Prutenic Tables, truncated to two sexagesimal places, 365 14/60 33/3600 days or 365 + 1/4 − 3/400 days or 365.2425 days. The length of the tropical year in 2000 was 365.24217 mean solar daysAdding a calendar day every four years, therefore, results in an excess of around 44 minutes every four years, or about 3 days every 400 years. To compensate for this, three days are removed every 400 years. The Gregorian calendar reform implements this adjustment by making an exception to the general rule that there is a leap year every four years. Instead, a year divisible by 100 is not a leap year unless that year is also divisible by 400. This means that the years 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years, while the years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, and 2500 are not leap years.

Modern (Gregorian) calendar

The Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20,871 weeks including 97 leap days (146,097 days). Over this period, February 29 falls on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday 13 times; Friday and Saturday 14 times; and Monday and Wednesday 15 times. Except for a century mark that is not a multiple of 400, consecutive leap days fall in order Sunday, Friday, Wednesday, Monday, Saturday, Thursday, Tuesday, and repeats again.

Early Roman calendar

Adding a leap day (after 23 February) shifts the commemorations in the 1962 Roman Missal.

Main article: Roman calendar

The calendar of the Roman king Numa Pompilius had only 355 days (even though it was not a lunar calendar) which meant that it would quickly become unsynchronized with the solar year. An earlier Roman solution to this problem was to lengthen the calendar periodically by adding extra days to February, the last month of the year. February consisted of two parts, each with an odd number of days. The first part ended with the Terminalia on the 23rd, which was considered the end of the religious year, and the five remaining days formed the second part. To keep the calendar year roughly aligned with the solar year, a leap month, called Mensis Intercalaris (“intercalary month”), was added from time to time between these two parts of February. The (usual) second part of February was incorporated in the intercalary month as its last five days, with no change either in their dates or the festivals observed on them. This followed naturally because the days after the Ides (13th) of February (in an ordinary year) or the Ides of Intercalaris (in an intercalary year) both counted down to the Kalends of March (i.e. they were known as “the nth day before the Kalends of March”). The Nones (5th) and Ides of Intercalaris occupied their normal positions.

The third-century writer Censorinus says:

When it was thought necessary to add (every two years) an intercalary month of 22 or 23 days, so that the civil year should correspond to the natural (solar) year, this intercalation was in preference made in February, between Terminalia [23rd]and Regifugium [24th].

Julian reform

Main article: Julian calendar

The set leap day was introduced in Rome as a part of the Julian reform in the 1st century BCE. As before, the intercalation was made after February 23. The day following the Terminalia (February 23) was doubled, forming the “bis sextum“—literally ‘twice sixth’, since February 24 was ‘the sixth day before the Kalends of March’ using Roman inclusive counting (March 1 was the Kalends of March and was also the first day of the calendar year). Inclusive counting initially caused the Roman priests to add the extra day every three years instead of four; Augustus was compelled to omit leap years for a few decades to return the calendar to its proper position. Although there were exceptions, the first day of the bis sextum (February 24) was usually regarded as the intercalated or “bissextile” day since the 3rd century CE. February 29 came to be regarded as the leap day when the Roman system of numbering days was replaced by sequential numbering in the late Middle Ages, although this has only been formally enacted in Sweden and Finland. In Britain, the extra day added to leap years remains notionally the 24th, although the 29th remains more visible on the calendar.

Born on February 29

A person born on February 29 may be called a “leapling”, a “leaper”, or a “leap-year baby”. Some leaplings celebrate their birthday in non-leap years on either February 28 or March 1, while others only observe birthdays on the authentic intercalary date, February 29.

Legal status: The effective legal date of a leapling’s birthday in non-leap years varies between jurisdictions.

In the United Kingdom and its former colony Hong Kong, when a person born on February 29 turns 18, they are considered to have their birthday on March 1 in the relevant year.

In New Zealand, a person born on February 29 is deemed to have their birthday on February 28 in non-leap years, for the purposes of Driver Licensing under §2(2) of the Land Transport (Driver Licensing) Rule 1999. The net result is that for drivers aged 75, or over 80, their driver licence expires at the end of the last day of February, even though their birthday would otherwise fall on the first day in March in non-leap years. Otherwise, New Zealand legislation is silent on when a person born on February 29 has their birthday, although case law would suggest that age is computed based on the number of years elapsed, from the day after the date of birth, and that the person’s birth day then occurs on the last day of the year period. This differs from English common law where a birthday is considered to be the start of the next year, the preceding year ending at midnight on the day preceding the birthday. While a person attains the same age on the same day, it also means that, in New Zealand, if something must be done by the time a person attains a certain age, that thing can be done on the birthday that they attain that age and still be lawful.

In Taiwan, the legal birthday of a leapling is February 28 in common years:

If a period fixed by weeks, months, and years does not commence from the beginning of a week, month, or year, it ends with the ending of the day which proceeds the day of the last week, month, or year which corresponds to that on which it began to commence. But if there is no corresponding day in the last month, the period ends with the ending of the last day of the last month.

Thus, in England and Wales or in Hong Kong, a person born on February 29 will have legally reached 18 years old on March 1. If they were born in Taiwan they legally become 18 on February 28, a day earlier.

In the United States, according to John Reitz, a professor of law at the University of Iowa, there is no “… statute or general rule that has anything to do with leap day.” Reitz speculates that “March 1 would likely be considered the legal birthday in non-leap years of someone born on leap day,”using the same reasoning as described for the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. However, for the purposes of Social Security, a person attains the next age the day before the anniversary of birth. Therefore, Social Security would recognize February 28 as the change in age for leap year births, not March 1

In fiction

There are many instances in children’s literature where a person’s claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out to be based on counting only their leap-year birthdays.

A similar device is used in the plot of Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance: as a child, Frederic was apprenticed to a band of pirates until his 21st birthday. Having passed his 21st year, he leaves the pirate band and falls in love. However, since he was born on February 29, his 21st birthday will not arrive until he is eighty-eight (since 1900 was not a leap year), so he must leave his fiancée and return to the pirates.

Since 1967, February 29 has been the official birthday of Superman, but not Clark Kent.

February 29 in History

  • 1504 – Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Jamaican natives to provide him with supplies.
  • 1644 – Abel Tasman’s second Pacific voyage begins.
  • 1704 – Queen Anne’s War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony, killing 56 villagers and taking more than 100 captive.
  • 1712 – February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Julian calendar.
  • 1720 – Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I on March 24.
  • 1752 – King Alaungpaya founds Konbaung Dynasty, the last dynasty of Burmese monarchy.
  • 1768 – Polish nobles form the Bar Confederation.
  • 1796 – The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
  • 1864 – American Civil War: Kilpatrick–Dahlgren Raid fails: Plans to free 15,000 Union soldiers being held near Richmond, Virginia are thwarted.
  • 1892 – St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated.
  • 1912 – The Piedra Movediza (Moving Stone) of Tandil falls and breaks.
  • 1916 – Tokelau is annexed by the United Kingdom.
  • 1916 – Child labor: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from 12 to 14 years old.
  • 1920 – Czechoslovak National Assembly adopts the Constitution.
  • 1936 – February 26 Incident in Tokyo ends.
  • 1940 – 12th Academy Awards: For her performance as “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
  • 1940 – Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations.
  • 1940 – In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from Sweden’s Consul General in San Francisco.
  • 1944 – World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer led by American General Douglas MacArthur.
  • 1960 – The 5.7 Mw  Agadir earthquake shakes coastal Morocco with a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme), destroying Agadir, and leaving 12,000 dead and another 12,000 injured.
  • 1972 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization: South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
  • 1980 – Gordie Howe of the Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.
  • 1984 – Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister of Canada.
  • 1988 – South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with one hundred other clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.
  • 1988 – Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the House of Commons of Canada to come out as gay.
  • 1992 – First day of Bosnia and Herzegovina independence referendum.
  • 1996 – Faucett Flight 251 crashes in the Andes; all 123 passengers and crew die.
  • 1996 – Siege of Sarajevo officially ends.
  • 2000 – Second Chechen War: Eighty-four Russian paratroopers are killed in a rebel attack on a guard post near Ulus Kert.
  • 2004 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as President of Haiti following a coup.
  • 2008 – The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence decides to withdraw Prince Harry from a tour of Afghanistan “immediately” after a leak leads to his deployment being reported by foreign media.
  • 2008 – Misha Defonseca admits to fabricating her memoir, Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, in which she claims to have lived with a pack of wolves in the woods during the Holocaust.
  • 2012 – Tokyo Skytree construction is completed. It is the tallest tower in the world, 634 meters high, and the second-tallest artificial structure on Earth, next to Burj Khalifa.

Births on February 29

  • 1468 – Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
  • 1528 – Albert V, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1579)
  • 1528 – Domingo Báñez, Spanish theologian (d. 1604)
  • 1572 – Edward Cecil, 1st Viscount Wimbledon (d. 1638)
  • 1576 – Antonio Neri, Florentine priest and glassmaker (d. 1614)
  • 1640 – Benjamin Keach, Particular Baptist preacher and author whose name was given to Keach’s Catechism (d. 1704)
  • 1692 – John Byrom, English poet and educator (d. 1763)
  • 1724 – Eva Marie Veigel, Austrian-English dancer (d. 1822)
  • 1736 – Ann Lee, English-American religious leader, founded the Shakers (d. 1784)
  • 1792 – Gioachino Rossini, Italian composer (d. 1868)
  • 1812 – James Milne Wilson, Scottish-Australian soldier and politician, 8th Premier of Tasmania (d. February 29, 1880)
  • 1828 – Emmeline B. Wells, American journalist, poet, and activist (d. 1921)
  • 1836 – Dickey Pearce, American baseball player and manager (d. 1908)
  • 1852 – Frank Gavan Duffy, Irish-Australian lawyer and judge, 4th Chief Justice of Australia (d. 1936)
  • 1860 – Herman Hollerith, American statistician and businessman, co-founded the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (d. 1929)
  • 1876 – William Stewart, Scottish footballer
  • 1884 – Richard S. Aldrich, American lawyer and politician (d. 1941)
  • 1892 – Augusta Savage, American sculptor (d. 1962)
  • 1896 – Morarji Desai, Indian civil servant and politician, 4th Prime Minister of India (d. 1995)
  • 1896 – William A. Wellman, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1975)
  • 1904 – Jimmy Dorsey, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1957)
  • 1904 – Pepper Martin, American baseball player and manager (d. 1965)
  • 1908 – Balthus, French-Swiss painter and illustrator (d. 2001)
  • 1908 – Dee Brown, American historian and author (d. 2002)
  • 1908 – Alf Gover, English cricketer and coach (d. 2001)
  • 1908 – Louie Myfanwy Thomas, Welsh writer (d. 1968)
  • 1916 – Dinah Shore, American singer and actress (d. 1994)
  • 1916 – James B. Donovan, American lawyer (d. 1970)
  • 1916 – Leonard Shoen, founder of U-Haul Corp. (d. 1999)
  • 1920 – Fyodor Abramov, Russian author and critic (d. 1983)
  • 1920 – Arthur Franz, American actor (d. 2006)
  • 1920 – James Mitchell, American actor and dancer (d. 2010)
  • 1920 – Michèle Morgan, French-American actress and singer (d. 2016)
  • 1920 – Howard Nemerov, American poet and academic (d. 1991)
  • 1920 – Rolland W. Redlin, American lawyer and politician (d. 2011)
  • 1924 – David Beattie, New Zealand judge and politician, 14th Governor-General of New Zealand (d. 2001)
  • 1924 – Carlos Humberto Romero, Salvadoran politician, President of El Salvador (d. 2017)
  • 1924 – Al Rosen, American baseball player and manager (d. 2015)
  • 1928 – Joss Ackland, English actor
  • 1928 – Jean Adamson, British writer and illustrator
  • 1928 – Vance Haynes, American archaeologist, geologist, and author
  • 1928 – Seymour Papert, South African mathematician and computer scientist, co-created the Logo programming language (d. 2016)
  • 1932 – Gene H. Golub, American mathematician and academic (d. 2007)
  • 1932 – Masten Gregory, American race car driver (d. 1985)
  • 1932 – Reri Grist, American soprano and actress
  • 1932 – Jaguar, Brazilian cartoonist
  • 1932 – Gavin Stevens, Australian cricketer
  • 1936 – Jack Lousma, American colonel, astronaut, and politician
  • 1936 – Henri Richard, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2020)
  • 1936 – Alex Rocco, American actor (d. 2015)
  • 1936 – Nh. Dini, Indonesian writer (d. 2018)
  • 1940 – Sonja Barend, Dutch talk show host
  • 1940 – Bartholomew I of Constantinople
  • 1940 – William H. Turner, Jr., American horse trainer
  • 1944 – Ene Ergma, Estonian physicist and politician
  • 1944 – Dennis Farina, American police officer and actor (d. 2013)
  • 1944 – Nicholas Frayling, English priest and academic
  • 1944 – Phyllis Frelich, American actress (d. 2014)
  • 1944 – Steve Mingori, American baseball player (d. 2008)
  • 1944 – Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, Italian author and illustrator
  • 1944 – Lennart Svedberg, Swedish ice hockey player (d. 1972).
  • 1948 – Hermione Lee, English author, critic, and academic
  • 1948 – Manoel Maria, Brazilian footballer
  • 1948 – Patricia A. McKillip, American author
  • 1948 – Henry Small, American-born Canadian singer
  • 1952 – Sharon Dahlonega Raiford Bush, American journalist and producer
  • 1952 – Tim Powers, American author and educator
  • 1952 – Raisa Smetanina, Russian cross-country skier
  • 1952 – Bart Stupak, American police officer and politician
  • 1956 – Jonathan Coleman, English-Australian radio and television host
  • 1956 – Bob Speller, Canadian businessman and politician, 30th Canadian Minister of Agriculture
  • 1956 – Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
  • 1960 – Lucian Grainge, English businessman
  • 1960 – Khaled, Algerian singer-songwriter
  • 1960 – Richard Ramirez, American serial killer (d. 2013)
  • 1964 – Dave Brailsford, English cyclist and coach
  • 1964 – Lyndon Byers, Canadian ice hockey player and radio host
  • 1964 – Mervyn Warren, American tenor, composer, and producer
  • 1968 – Chucky Brown, American basketball player and coach
  • 1968 – Pete Fenson, American curler and sportscaster
  • 1968 – Naoko Iijima, Japanese actress and model
  • 1968 – Bryce Paup, American football player and coach
  • 1968 – Howard Tayler, American author and illustrator
  • 1968 – Eugene Volokh, Ukrainian-American lawyer and educator
  • 1968 – Frank Woodley, Australian actor, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1972 – Mike Pollitt, English footballer and coach
  • 1972 – Sylvie Lubamba, Italian showgirl
  • 1972 – Antonio Sabàto, Jr., Italian-American model and actor
  • 1972 – Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain
  • 1972 – Dave Williams, American singer (d. 2002)
  • 1972 – Saul Williams, American singer-songwriter
  • 1972 – Pedro Zamora, Cuban-American activist and educator (d. 1994)
  • 1976 – Vonteego Cummings, American basketball player
  • 1976 – Gehad Grisha, Egyptian soccer referee
  • 1976 – Katalin Kovács, Hungarian sprint kayaker
  • 1976 – Terrence Long, American baseball player
  • 1976 – Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
  • 1980 – Çağdaş Atan, Turkish footballer and coach
  • 1980 – Chris Conley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1980 – Patrick Côté, Canadian mixed martial artist
  • 1980 – Simon Gagné, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1980 – Rubén Plaza, Spanish cyclist
  • 1980 – Peter Scanavino, American actor
  • 1980 – Clinton Toopi, New Zealand rugby league player
  • 1980 – Taylor Twellman, American soccer player and sportscaster
  • 1984 – Rica Imai, Japanese model and actress
  • 1984 – Cullen Jones, American swimmer
  • 1984 – Nuria Martínez, Spanish basketball player
  • 1984 – Adam Sinclair, Indian field hockey player
  • 1984 – Rakhee Thakrar, English actress
  • 1984 – Dennis Walger, German rugby player
  • 1984 – Cam Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1984 – Mark Foster, American singer, songwriter and musician
  • 1988 – Lena Gercke, German model and television host
  • 1988 – Benedikt Höwedes, German footballer
  • 1988 – Brent Macaffer, Australian Rules footballer
  • 1988 – Bobby Sanguinetti, American ice hockey player
  • 1988 – Milan Melindo, Filipino boxer
  • 1992 – Sean Abbott, Australian cricketer
  • 1992 – Ben Hampton, Australian rugby league player
  • 1992 – Eric Kendricks, American football player
  • 1992 – Caitlin EJ Meyer, American actress
  • 1996 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona, New Zealand rugby league player
  • 1996 – Reece Prescod, British sprinter
  • 1996 – Claudia Williams, New Zealand tennis player
  • 2000 – Ferran Torres, Spanish footballer

Deaths on February 29

  • 468 – Pope Hilarius
  • 992 – Oswald of Worcester, Anglo-Saxon archbishop and saint (b. 925)
  • 1212 – Hōnen, Japanese monk, founded Jōdo-shū (b. 1133)
  • 1460 – Albert III, Duke of Bavaria-Munich (b. 1401)
  • 1528 – Patrick Hamilton, Scottish Protestant reformer and martyr (b. 1504)
  • 1592 – Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer and diplomat (b. 1540)
  • 1600 – Caspar Hennenberger, German pastor, historian and cartographer (b. 1529)
  • 1604 – John Whitgift, English archbishop and academic (b. 1530)
  • 1740 – Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal (b. 1667)
  • 1744 – John Theophilus Desaguliers, French-English physicist and philosopher (b. 1683)
  • 1792 – Johann Andreas Stein, German piano builder (b. 1728)
  • 1820 – Johann Joachim Eschenburg, German historian and critic (b. 1743)
  • 1848 – Louis-François Lejeune, French general, painter and lithographer (b. 1775)
  • 1852 – Matsudaira Katataka, Japanese daimyō (b. 1806)
  • 1868 – Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1786)
  • 1880 – James Milne Wilson, Scottish-Australian soldier and politician, 8th Premier of Tasmania (b. February 29, 1812)
  • 1908
    • Pat Garrett, American sheriff (b. 1850)
    • John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, Scottish-Australian politician, 1st Governor-General of Australia (b. 1860)
  • 1920 – Ernie Courtney, American baseball player (b. 1875)
  • 1928
    • Adolphe Appia, Swiss architect and theorist (b. 1862)
    • Ina Coolbrith, American poet and librarian (b. 1841)
  • 1940 – E. F. Benson, English archaeologist and author (b. 1867)
  • 1944 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, Finnish lawyer, judge and politician, 3rd President of Finland (b. 1861)
  • 1948
    • Robert Barrington-Ward, English lawyer and journalist (b. 1891)
    • Rebel Oakes, American baseball player and manager (b. 1883)
  • 1952 – Quo Tai-chi, Chinese politician and diplomat, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations (b. 1888)
  • 1956 – Elpidio Quirino, Filipino lawyer and politician, 6th President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
  • 1960
    • Melvin Purvis, American police officer and FBI agent (b. 1903)
    • Walter Yust, American journalist and author (b. 1894)
  • 1964 – Frank Albertson, American actor and singer (b. 1909)
  • 1968
    • Lena Blackburne, American baseball player, coach and manager (b. 1886)
    • Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet and educator (b. 1886)
  • 1972 – Tom Davies, American football player and coach (b. 1896)
  • 1976 – Florence P. Dwyer, American politician (b. 1902)
  • 1980
    • Yigal Allon, Israeli general and politician, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1918)
    • Gil Elvgren, American painter and illustrator (b. 1914)
  • 1984 – Ludwik Starski, Polish screenwriter and songwriter (b. 1903)
  • 1988 – Sidney Harmon, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1907)
  • 1992 – Ruth Pitter, English poet and author (b. 1897)
  • 1996
    • Wes Farrell, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1939)
    • Ralph Rowe, American baseball player, coach and manager (b. 1924)
  • 2000 – Dennis Danell, American guitarist (b. 1961)
  • 2004
    • Kagamisato Kiyoji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 42nd Yokozuna (b. 1923)
    • Jerome Lawrence, American playwright and author (b. 1915)
    • Harold Bernard St. John, Barbadian lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Barbados (b. 1931)
    • Lorrie Wilmot, South African cricketer (b. 1943)
  • 2008
    • Janet Kagan, American author (b. 1946)
    • Erik Ortvad, Danish painter and illustrator (b. 1917)
    • Akira Yamada, Japanese scholar and philosopher (b. 1922)
  • 2012
    • Roland Bautista, American guitarist (b. 1951)
    • Davy Jones, English singer, guitarist and actor (b. 1945)
    • Sheldon Moldoff, American illustrator (b. 1920)
    • P. K. Narayana Panicker, Indian social leader (b. 1930)
  • 2016
    • Wenn V. Deramas, Filipino director and screenwriter (b. 1966)
    • Gil Hill, American police officer, actor and politician (b. 1931)
    • Josefin Nilsson, Swedish singer (b. 1969)
    • Louise Rennison, English author (b. 1951)
    • Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistani assassin (b. 1985)

Holidays and observances on February 29

  • As a Christian feast day:
    • Auguste Chapdelaine (one of the Martyr Saints of China)
    • Oswald of Worcester (in leap year only)
    • Saint John Cassian
    • February 29 in the Orthodox church
  • The fourth day of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’í Faith) (observed on this date only if Bahá’í Naw-Rúz falls on March 21)
  • Rare Disease Day (in leap years; celebrated in common years on February 28)
  • Bachelor’s Day (Ireland, United Kingdom)

Folk traditions

There is a popular tradition known as Bachelor’s Day in some countries allowing a woman to propose marriage to a man on February 29If the man refuses, he then is obliged to give the woman money or buy her a dress. In upper-class societies in Europe, if the man refuses marriage, he then must purchase 12 pairs of gloves for the woman, suggesting that the gloves are to hide the woman’s embarrassment of not having an engagement ring. In Ireland, the tradition is supposed to originate from a deal that Saint Bridget struck with Saint Patrick.

In the town of Aurora, Illinois, single women are deputized and may arrest single men, subject to a four-dollar fine, every February 29.

In Greece, it is considered unlucky to marry on a leap day.

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

On This Day

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

On This Day /

February 17 in History

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

Births on February 17

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

Deaths on February 17

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

Holidays and observances on February 17

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

February 17 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

January 13 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 532 – The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I.
  • 1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.
  • 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason, on the grounds of having quartered his arms to make them similar to those of the King, Henry VIII of England.
  • 1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, lynched by a mob in Rome
  • 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.
  • 1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
  • 1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
  • 1833 – United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina’s defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
  • 1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
  • 1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
  • 1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California.
  • 1849 – Establishment of the Colony of Vancouver Island.
  • 1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War – Battle of Chillianwala: British forces retreat from the Sikhs.
  • 1879 – In Mozart Gardens Brooklyn Ada Anderson completed a great feat of pedestrianism – 2700 quarter miles in 2700 quarter hours, earning her $8000.
  • 1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.
  • 1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting.
  • 1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
  • 1895 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: the war’s opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory.
  • 1898 – Émile Zola’s J’accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair.
  • 1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.
  • 1910 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the operas Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
  • 1915 – The 6.7 Mw  Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L’Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978–32,610.
  • 1920 – The Reichstag Bloodbath of January 13, 1920, the bloodiest demonstration in German history.
  • 1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
  • 1939 – The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
  • 1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
  • 1942 – World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
  • 1950 – British submarine HMS Truculent collides with an oil tanker in the Thames Estuary, killing 64 men.
  • 1950 – Finland forms diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
  • 1951 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Vĩnh Yên begins.
  • 1953 – An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.
  • 1958 – The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
  • 1963 – Coup d’état in Togo results in the assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio.
  • 1964 – Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, resulting in 100 deaths.
  • 1964 – In Manchester, New Hampshire, fourteen-year-old Pamela Mason is murdered. Edward Coolidge is tried and convicted of the crime, but the conviction is set aside by the landmark Fourth Amendment case Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971).
  • 1966 – Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
  • 1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison.
  • 1972 – Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.
  • 1978 – United States Food and Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled “paid” or “volunteer” donors.
  • 1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.’s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.
  • 1985 – A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.
  • 1986 – A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
  • 1988 – Lee Teng-hui becomes the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China.
  • 1990 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office as Governor of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.
  • 1991 – Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding around 1000 others.
  • 1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.
  • 1993 – The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is signed.
  • 1998 – Alfredo Ormando sets himself on fire in St. Peter’s Square, protesting against homophobia.
  • 2001 – An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
  • 2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy due to the captain Francesco Schettino’s negligence and irresponsibility. There are 32 confirmed deaths.
  • 2018 – A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii caused widespread panic in the state.
  • 2020 – Taal Volcano in the Philippines spews lava fountains while erupting in the crater.

Births on January 13

  • 5 BC – Guangwu of Han, Chinese emperor (d. 57)
  • 101 – Lucius Aelius, Roman adopted son of Hadrian (d. 138)
  • 915 – Al-Hakam II, Umayyad caliph (d. 976)
  • 1334 – Henry II, king of Castile and León (d. 1379)
  • 1338 – Jeong Mong-ju, Korean civil minister, diplomat and scholar (d. 1392)
  • 1400 – Infante John, Constable of Portugal (d. 1442)
  • 1477 – Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland (d. 1527)
  • 1505 – Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1571)
  • 1562 – Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish poet and soldier (d. 1601)
  • 1596 – Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter and illustrator (d. 1656)
  • 1610 – Maria Anna of Bavaria, archduchess of Austria (d. 1665)
  • 1616 – Antoinette Bourignon, French-Flemish mystic and author (d. 1680)
  • 1651 – Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington, English soldier and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1694)
  • 1683 – Christoph Graupner, German harpsichord player and composer (d. 1760)
  • 1720 – Richard Hurd, English bishop (d. 1808)
  • 1749 – Maler Müller, German poet, painter, and playwright (d. 1825)
  • 1787 – John Davis, American lawyer and politician, 14th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1854)
  • 1804 – Paul Gavarni, French illustrator (d. 1866)
  • 1805 – Thomas Dyer, American lawyer and politician, 18th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1862)
  • 1808 – Salmon P. Chase, American jurist and politician, 6th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1873)
  • 1810 – Ernestine Rose, American suffragist, abolitionist, and freethinker (d. 1892)
  • 1812 – Victor de Laprade, French poet and critic (d. 1883)
  • 1832 – Horatio Alger, Jr., American novelist and journalist (d. 1899)
  • 1845 – Félix Tisserand, French astronomer and academic (d. 1896)
  • 1858 – Oskar Minkowski, Lithuanian-German biologist and academic (d. 1931)
  • 1859 – Kostis Palamas, Greek poet and playwright (d. 1943)
  • 1861 – Max Nonne, German neurologist and academic (d. 1959)
  • 1864 – Wilhelm Wien, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
  • 1865 – Princess Marie of Orléans (d. 1908)
  • 1866 – Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian bassoon player and composer (d. 1901)
  • 1866 – George Gurdjieff, Russian-French mystic and philosopher (d. 1949)
  • 1869 – Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta (d. 1931)
  • 1870 – Ross Granville Harrison, American biologist and anatomist (d. 1959)
  • 1878 – Lionel Groulx, Canadian priest and historian (d. 1967)
  • 1881 – Essington Lewis, Australian engineer and businessman (d. 1961)
  • 1883 – Nathaniel Cartmell, American runner and coach (d. 1967)
  • 1885 – Alfred Fuller, Canadian-American businessman, founded the Fuller Brush Company (d. 1973)
  • 1886 – Art Ross, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 1964)
  • 1887 – Sophie Tucker, Russian-born American singer and actress (d. 1966)
  • 1890 – Jüri Uluots, Estonian journalist, lawyer, and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Estonia (d. 1945)
  • 1892 – Ermanno Aebi, Italian-Swiss footballer (d. 1976)
  • 1893 – Charles Arnison, English lieutenant and pilot (d. 1974)
  • 1893 – Roy Cazaly, Australian footballer and coach (d. 1963)
  • 1893 – Clark Ashton Smith, American poet, sculptor, painter, and author (d. 1961)
  • 1893 – Chaim Soutine, Belarusian-French painter (d. 1943)
  • 1900 – Shimizugawa Motokichi, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 1967)
  • 1900 – Gertrude Mary Cox, American mathematician (d. 1978)
  • 1901 – A. B. Guthrie, Jr., American novelist, screenwriter, historian (d. 1991)
  • 1901 – Mieczysław Żywczyński, Polish priest and historian (d. 1978)
  • 1902 – Karl Menger, Austrian-American mathematician from the Vienna Circle (d. 1985)
  • 1904 – Richard Addinsell, English composer (d. 1977)
  • 1904 – Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian-American violinist and composer (d. 1992)
  • 1904 – Dick Rowley, Irish footballer, centre forward (d. 1984)
  • 1905 – Kay Francis, American actress (d. 1968)
  • 1905 – Jack London, English sprinter and pianist (d. 1966)
  • 1906 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist, sinologist, and academic (d. 2017)
  • 1909 – Helm Glöckler, German race car driver (d. 1993)
  • 1910 – Yannis Tsarouchis, Greek painter and illustrator (d. 1989)
  • 1911 – Joh Bjelke-Petersen, New Zealand-Australian farmer and politician, 31st Premier of Queensland (d. 2005)
  • 1914 – Osa Massen, Danish-American actress (d. 2006)
  • 1914 – Ted Willis, Baron Willis, English author, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1992)
  • 1919 – Robert Stack, American actor (d. 2003)
  • 1921 – Necati Cumalı, Greek-Turkish author and poet (d. 2001)
  • 1921 – Dachine Rainer, American-English author and poet (d. 2000)
  • 1921 – Arthur Stevens, English footballer, outside right (d. 2007}
  • 1922 – Albert Lamorisse, French director and producer (d. 1970)
  • 1923 – Daniil Shafran, Russian cellist (d. 1997)
  • 1923 – Willem Slijkhuis, Dutch runner (d. 2003)
  • 1924 – Paul Feyerabend, Austrian-Swiss philosopher and academic (d. 1994)
  • 1924 – Roland Petit, French dancer and choreographer (d. 2011)
  • 1925 – Rosemary Murphy, American actress (d. 2014)
  • 1925 – Vanita Smythe, American singer and actress (d. 1994)
  • 1925 – Ron Tauranac, Australian engineer and businessman
  • 1925 – Gwen Verdon, American actress and dancer (d. 2000)
  • 1926 – Michael Bond, English soldier and author, created Paddington Bear (d. 2017)
  • 1926 – Carolyn Gold Heilbrun, American author and academic (d. 2003)
  • 1926 – Melba Liston, American trombonist and composer (d. 1999)
  • 1927 – Brock Adams, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 5th United States Secretary of Transportation (d. 2004)
  • 1927 – Liz Anderson, American singer-songwriter (d. 2011)
  • 1927 – Sydney Brenner, South African biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2019)
  • 1929 – Joe Pass, American guitarist and composer (d. 1994)
  • 1930 – Frances Sternhagen, American actress
  • 1931 – Ian Hendry, English actor (d. 1984)
  • 1931 – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor, comedian, director, game show panelist, and television personality (d. 2007)
  • 1932 – Barry Bishop, American mountaineer, photographer, and scholar (d. 1994)
  • 1933 – Tom Gola, American basketball player, coach, and politician (d. 2014)
  • 1935 – Rip Taylor, American actor and comedian (d. 2019)
  • 1936 – Renato Bruson, Italian opera singer
  • 1937 – Guy Dodson, New Zealand-English biochemist and academic (d. 2012)
  • 1938 – Cabu, French cartoonist (d. 2015)
  • 1938 – Daevid Allen, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2015)
  • 1938 – Richard Anthony, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
  • 1938 – Dave Edwards, American captain and politician (d. 2013)
  • 1938 – Tord Grip, Swedish footballer and manager
  • 1938 – Anna Home, English screenwriter and producer
  • 1939 – Edgardo Cozarinsky, Argentinian author, screenwriter, and director
  • 1939 – Jacek Gmoch, Polish footballer and coach
  • 1939 – Cesare Maniago, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1940 – Edmund White, American novelist, memoirist, and essayist
  • 1941 – Pasqual Maragall, Spanish academic and politician, 127th President of the Generalitat de Catalunya
  • 1941 – Meinhard Nehmer, German bobsledder
  • 1943 – William Duckworth, American composer and author (d. 2012)
  • 1943 – Richard Moll, American actor
  • 1945 – Gordon McVie, English oncologist and author
  • 1945 – Peter Simpson, English footballer
  • 1946 – Ordal Demokan, Turkish physicist and academic (d. 2004)
  • 1946 – Eero Koivistoinen, Finnish saxophonist, composer, and conductor
  • 1947 – John Lees, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1947 – Jacek Majchrowski, Polish historian, lawyer, and politician
  • 1947 – Carles Rexach, Spanish footballer and coach
  • 1948 – Gaj Singh, Indian lawyer and politician
  • 1949 – Rakesh Sharma, Indian commander, pilot, and astronaut
  • 1949 – Brandon Tartikoff, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1997)
  • 1950 – Clive Betts, English economist and politician
  • 1950 – Bob Forsch, American baseball player (d. 2011)
  • 1950 – Gholam Hossein Mazloumi, Iranian footballer and manager (d. 2014)
  • 1952 – Stephen Glover, English journalist, co-founded The Independent
  • 1953 – Silvana Gallardo, American actress and producer (d. 2012)
  • 1954 – Richard Blackford, English composer
  • 1954 – Trevor Rabin, South African-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1955 – Paul Kelly, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1955 – Jay McInerney, American novelist and critic
  • 1955 – Anne Pringle, English diplomat, British Ambassador to Russia
  • 1957 – Claudia Emerson, American poet and academic (d. 2014)
  • 1957 – Mary Glindon, English lawyer and politician
  • 1957 – Mark O’Meara, American golfer
  • 1957 – Lorrie Moore, American short story writer
  • 1958 – Francisco Buyo, Spanish footballer and manager
  • 1958 – Juan Pedro de Miguel, Spanish handball player (d. 2016)
  • 1959 – Winnie Byanyima, Ugandan engineer, politician, and diplomat
  • 1960 – Eric Betzig, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1960 – Matthew Bourne, English choreographer and director
  • 1961 – Wayne Coyne, American singer-songwriter and musician
  • 1961 – Kelly Hrudey, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
  • 1961 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress, comedian, and producer
  • 1962 – Trace Adkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1962 – Paul Higgins, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1964 – Penelope Ann Miller, American actress
  • 1966 – Patrick Dempsey, American actor and race car driver
  • 1966 – Leo Visser, Dutch speed skater and pilot
  • 1968 – Mike Whitlow, English footballer and coach
  • 1969 – Stefania Belmondo, Italian skier
  • 1969 – Stephen Hendry, Scottish snooker player and journalist
  • 1970 – Frank Kooiman, Dutch footballer
  • 1970 – Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (d. 2004)
  • 1970 – Shonda Rhimes, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1972 – Mark Bosnich, Australian footballer and sportscaster
  • 1972 – Nicole Eggert, American actress
  • 1972 – Vitaly Scherbo, Belarusian gymnast
  • 1973 – Nikolai Khabibulin, Russian ice hockey player
  • 1973 – Gigi Galli, Italian race driver
  • 1974 – Sergei Brylin, Russian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1975 – Rune Eriksen, Norwegian guitarist and composer
  • 1975 – Mailis Reps, Estonian academic and politician, 31st Estonian Minister of Education and Research
  • 1975 – Andrew Yang, American entrepreneur, founder of Venture for America, and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate
  • 1976 – Mario Yepes, Colombian footballer
  • 1977 – Orlando Bloom, English actor and producer
  • 1977 – Mi-Hyun Kim, South Korean golfer
  • 1977 – Elliot Mason, English trombonist and keyboard player
  • 1977 – James Posey, American basketball player and coach
  • 1978 – Nate Silver, American journalist and statistician, developed PECOTA
  • 1979 – Katy Brand, English actress and screenwriter
  • 1980 – Krzysztof Czerwiński, Polish organist and conductor
  • 1980 – Nils-Eric Johansson, Swedish footballer
  • 1980 – Akira Kaji, Japanese footballer
  • 1980 – Wolfgang Loitzl, Austrian ski jumper
  • 1980 – Mirko Soltau, German footballer
  • 1981 – Reggie Brown, American football player
  • 1981 – Darrell Rasner, American baseball player
  • 1981 – Yujiro Takahashi, Japanese wrestler
  • 1982 – Kamran Akmal, Pakistan cricketer
  • 1982 – Guillermo Coria, Argentinian tennis player
  • 1982 – Constantinos Makrides, Cypriot footballer
  • 1982 – Ruth Wilson, English actress
  • 1983 – Ender Arslan, Turkish basketball player
  • 1983 – Sebastian Kneißl, German footballer
  • 1983 – Mauricio Martín Romero, Argentinian footballer
  • 1984 – Matteo Cavagna, Italian footballer
  • 1984 – Kamghe Gaba, German sprinter
  • 1984 – Nick Mangold, American football player
  • 1985 – Luke Robinson, American wrestler
  • 1986 – Joannie Rochette, Canadian figure skater
  • 1987 – Stefano Del Sante, Italian footballer
  • 1987 – Jack Johnson, American ice hockey player
  • 1987 – Florica Leonida, Romanian gymnast
  • 1987 – Steven Michaels, Australian rugby league player
  • 1987 – Daniel Oss, Italian cyclist
  • 1987 – Marc Staal, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1987 – Sven Wetzel, German rugby player
  • 1988 – Josh Freeman, American football player
  • 1989 – Morgan Burnett, American football player
  • 1989 – Doug Martin, American football player
  • 1990 – Vincenzo Fiorillo, Italian footballer
  • 1990 – Liam Hemsworth, Australian actor
  • 1991 – Rob Kiernan, English-Irish footballer
  • 1992 – Adam Matthews, Welsh footballer
  • 1992 – Dinah Pfizenmaier, German tennis player
  • 1993 – Max Whitlock, English artistic gymnast
  • 1997 – Micah Hart, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1997 – Connor McDavid, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1997 – Ivan Provorov, Russian ice hockey player

Deaths on January 13

  • 86 BC – Gaius Marius, Roman general and politician (b. 157 BC)
  • 533 – Remigius, French bishop and saint (b. 437)
  • 614 – Mungo, English-Scottish bishop and saint
  • 703 – Jitō, Japanese emperor (b. 645)
  • 858 – Æthelwulf, king of Wessex
  • 888 – Charles the Fat, Frankish king and emperor (b. 839)
  • 927 – Berno of Cluny, Frankish monk and abbot
  • 1001 – Fujiwara no Teishi, Japanese empress (b. 977)
  • 1147 – Robert de Craon, Grand Master of the Knights Templar
  • 1151 – Suger, French historian and politician (b. 1081)
  • 1177 – Henry II, count palatine and duke of Austria (b. 1107)
  • 1321 – Bonacossa Borri, Italian noblewoman (b. 1254)
  • 1330 – Frederick I, duke and king of Germany
  • 1363 – Meinhard III, German nobleman (b. 1344)
  • 1400 – Thomas le Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester, English politician (b. 1373)
  • 1599 – Edmund Spenser, English poet, Chief Secretary for Ireland (b. 1552)
  • 1612 – Jane Dormer, English lady-in-waiting (b. 1538)
  • 1625 – Jan Brueghel the Elder, Flemish painter (b. 1568)
  • 1684 – Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk, English nobleman (b. 1628)
  • 1691 – George Fox, English religious leader, founded the Religious Society of Friends (b. 1624)
  • 1717 – Maria Sibylla Merian, German entomologist and illustrator (b. 1647)
  • 1775 – Johann Georg Walch, German theologian and author (b. 1693)
  • 1790 – Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, French admiral (b. 1712)
  • 1796 – John Anderson, Scottish philosopher and educator (b. 1726)
  • 1832 – Thomas Lord, English cricketer, founded Lord’s Cricket Ground (b. 1755)
  • 1838 – Ferdinand Ries, German pianist and composer (b. 1784)
  • 1860 – William Mason, American surgeon and politician (b. 1786)
  • 1864 – Stephen Foster, American composer and songwriter (b. 1826)
  • 1872 – William Scamp, English architect and engineer (b. 1801)
  • 1882 – Wilhelm Mauser, German engineer and businessman, co-founded the Mauser Company (b. 1834)
  • 1885 – Schuyler Colfax, American journalist and politician, 17th Vice President of the United States (b. 1823)
  • 1889 – Solomon Bundy, American lawyer and politician (b. 1823)
  • 1905 – George Thorn, Australian farmer and politician, 6th Premier of Queensland (b. 1838)
  • 1906 – Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist and academic (b. 1859)
  • 1907 – Jakob Hurt, Estonian theologist and linguist (b. 1839)
  • 1915 – Mary Slessor, Scottish-Nigerian missionary (b. 1848)
  • 1916 – Victoriano Huerta, Mexican military officer and president, 1913–1914 (b. 1850)
  • 1923 – Alexandre Ribot, French academic and politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1842)
  • 1924 – Georg Hermann Quincke, German physicist and academic (b. 1834)
  • 1929 – Wyatt Earp, American police officer (b. 1848)
  • 1929 – H. B. Higgins, Irish-Australian judge and politician, 3rd Attorney-General for Australia (b. 1851)
  • 1934 – Paul Ulrich Villard, French physicist and chemist (b. 1860)
  • 1941 – James Joyce, Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet (b. 1882)
  • 1943 – Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Swiss painter and sculptor (b. 1889)
  • 1956 – Lyonel Feininger, German-American painter and illustrator (b. 1871)
  • 1957 – A. E. Coppard English poet and short story writer (b. 1878)
  • 1958 – Jesse L. Lasky, American film producer, co-founded Paramount Pictures (b. 1880)
  • 1962 – Ernie Kovacs, American actor and game show host (b. 1919)
  • 1963 – Sylvanus Olympio, Togolese businessman and politician, President of Togo (b. 1902)
  • 1967 – Anatole de Grunwald, Russian-English screenwriter and producer (b. 1910)
  • 1971 – Robert Still, English composer and educator (b. 1910)
  • 1973 – Sabahattin Eyüboğlu, Turkish screenwriter and producer (b. 1908)
  • 1974 – Raoul Jobin, Canadian tenor and educator (b. 1906)
  • 1974 – Salvador Novo, Mexican playwright and poet (b. 1904)
  • 1976 – Margaret Leighton, English actress (b. 1922)
  • 1977 – Henri Langlois, Turkish-French historian, co-founded the Cinémathèque Française (b. 1914)
  • 1978 – Hubert Humphrey, American pharmacist, academic, and politician, 38th Vice President of the United States (b. 1911)
  • 1978 – Joe McCarthy, American baseball player and manager (b. 1887)
  • 1979 – Donny Hathaway, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (b. 1945)
  • 1979 – Marjorie Lawrence, Australian-American soprano (b. 1907)
  • 1980 – Andre Kostelanetz, Russian-American conductor (b. 1901)
  • 1982 – Marcel Camus, French director and screenwriter (b. 1912)
  • 1983 – René Bonnet, French race car driver and engineer (b. 1904)
  • 1986 – Abdul Fattah Ismail, Yemeni educator and politician, 4th President of South Yemen (b. 1939)
  • 1986 – Kevin Longbottom, Australian rugby league player (b. 1940)
  • 1988 – Chiang Ching-kuo, Chinese politician, President of the Republic of China (b. 1910)
  • 1993 – Camargo Guarnieri, Brazilian composer and conductor (b. 1907)
  • 1995 – Max Harris, Australian journalist, poet, and author (b. 1921)
  • 2002 – Frank Shuster, Canadian actor, comedian, and screenwriter (b. 1916)
  • 2003 – Norman Panama, American director and screenwriter (b. 1914)
  • 2004 – Arne Næss, Jr., Norwegian businessman and mountaineer (b. 1937)
  • 2005 – Earl Cameron, Canadian journalist (b. 1915)
  • 2005 – Nell Rankin, American soprano and actress (b. 1924)
  • 2006 – Frank Fixaris, American journalist and sportscaster (b. 1934)
  • 2006 – Marc Potvin, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (b. 1967)
  • 2007 – Michael Brecker, American saxophonist and composer (b. 1949)
  • 2007 – Danny Oakes, American race car driver (b. 1911)
  • 2008 – Johnny Podres, American baseball player and coach (b. 1932)
  • 2009 – Dai Llewellyn, Welsh humanitarian activist and politician (b. 1946)
  • 2009 – Patrick McGoohan, Irish-American actor, director, and producer (b. 1928)
  • 2009 – Mansour Rahbani, Lebanese poet, composer, and producer (b. 1925)
  • 2009 – W. D. Snodgrass, American poet (b. 1926)
  • 2009 – Nancy Bird Walton, Australian pilot (b. 1915)
  • 2010 – Teddy Pendergrass, American singer-songwriter (b. 1950)
  • 2011 – Albert Heijn, Dutch businessman (b. 1927)
  • 2012 – Rauf Denktaş, Turkish-Cypriot lawyer and politician, 1st President of Northern Cyprus (b. 1924)
  • 2012 – Guido Dessauer, German physicist and engineer (b. 1915)
  • 2012 – Miljan Miljanić, Serbian footballer and manager (b. 1930)
  • 2013 – Diogenes Allen, American philosopher and theologian (b. 1932)
  • 2013 – Rodney Mims Cook, Sr., American lieutenant and politician (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – Chia-Chiao Lin, Chinese-American mathematician and academic (b. 1916)
  • 2014 – Bobby Collins, Scottish footballer and manager (b. 1931)
  • 2014 – Randal Tye Thomas, American journalist and politician (b. 1978)
  • 2014 – Waldemar von Gazen, German general and lawyer (b. 1917)
  • 2015 – Mark Juddery, Australian journalist and author (b. 1971)
  • 2015 – Robert White, American soldier and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Paraguay (b. 1926)
  • 2016 – Brian Bedford, English-American actor and director (b. 1935)
  • 2016 – Giorgio Gomelsky, Georgian-American director, producer, songwriter, and manager (b. 1934)
  • 2016 – Lawrence Phillips, American football player (b. 1975)
  • 2017 – Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, English photographer and sometime member of the British royal family (b. 1930)
  • 2017 – Dick Gautier, American actor (b. 1931)
  • 2017 – Magic Alex, Greek electronics engineer (b. 1942)
  • 2019 – Phil Masinga, South African footballer (b. 1969)

Holidays and observances on January 13

  • Christian feast day:
    • Blessed Veronica of Milan
    • Elian
    • Hilary of Poitiers
    • Mungo
    • St. Knut’s Day or Tjugondag Knut, the last day of Christmas. (Sweden and Finland)
    • January 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Constitution Day (Mongolia)
  • Democracy Day (Cape Verde)
  • Korean-American Day (Korean-American community, United States)
  • Liberation Day (Togo)
  • Old New Year’s Eve (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Srpska, North Macedonia), and its related observances:
    • Malanka (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus)
  • Sidereal winter solstice’s eve celebrations in South and Southeast Asian cultures; the last day of the six-month Dakshinayana period (see January 14):
    • Bhogi (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu)
    • Lohri (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh)
    • Uruka (Assam)
  • Stephen Foster Memorial Day (United States)
  • Yennayer (Berbers)

January 13 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

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

On This Day /
  • 1528 – Gustav I of Sweden is crowned King of Sweden, having already reigned since his election in June 1523.
  • 1554 – Bayinnaung, who would go on to assemble the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia, is crowned King of Burma.
  • 1616 – The city of Belém, Brazil is founded on the Amazon River delta, by Portuguese captain Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco.
  • 1808 – John Rennie’s scheme to defend St Mary’s Church, Reculver, founded in 669, from coastal erosion is abandoned in favour of demolition, despite the church being an exemplar of Anglo-Saxon architecture and sculpture.
  • 1808 – The organizational meeting leading to the creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh.
  • 1848 – The Palermo rising takes place in Sicily against the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
  • 1866 – The Royal Aeronautical Society is formed in London.
  • 1872 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first imperial coronation in that city in over 200 years.
  • 1895 – The National Trust is founded in the United Kingdom.
  • 1911 – The University of the Philippines College of Law is formally established; three future Philippine presidents are among the first enrollees.
  • 1915 – The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to require states to give women the right to vote.
  • 1916 – Both Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann, for achieving eight aerial victories each over Allied aircraft, receive the German Empire’s highest military award, the Pour le Mérite as the first German aviators to earn it.
  • 1918 – The Minnie Pit Disaster coal mining accident occurs in Halmer End, Staffordshire, in which 155 men and boys die.
  • 1921 – Acting to restore confidence in baseball after the Black Sox Scandal, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is elected as Major League Baseball’s first commissioner.
  • 1932 – Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.
  • 1942 – World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
  • 1945 – World War II: The Red Army begins the Vistula–Oder Offensive.
  • 1962 – Vietnam War: Operation Chopper, the first American combat mission in the war, takes place.
  • 1964 – Rebels in Zanzibar begin a revolt known as the Zanzibar Revolution and proclaim a republic.
  • 1966 – Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
  • 1967 – Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.
  • 1969 – The New York Jets of the American Football League defeat the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League to win Super Bowl III in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
  • 1970 – Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian Civil War.
  • 1971 – The Harrisburg Seven: Rev. Philip Berrigan and five other activists are indicted on charges of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and of plotting to blow up the heating tunnels of federal buildings in Washington, D.C.
  • 1976 – The United Nations Security Council votes 11–1 to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in a Security Council debate (without voting rights).
  • 1986 – Space Shuttle program: Congressman Bill Nelson lifts off from Kennedy Space Center aboard Columbia on mission STS-61-C as a payload specialist.
  • 1990 – A seven-day pogrom breaks out against the Armenian civilian population of Baku, Azerbaijan, during which Armenians were beaten, tortured, murdered, and expelled from the city.
  • 1991 – Persian Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of American military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
  • 1998 – Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
  • 2001 – Downtown Disney opens to the public as part of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.
  • 2004 – The world’s largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, makes its maiden voyage.
  • 2005 – Deep Impact launches from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II rocket.
  • 2006 – A stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 Muslim pilgrims.
  • 2010 – An earthquake in Haiti occurs, killing between 220,000 and 300,000 people and destroying much of the capital Port-au-Prince.
  • 2012 – Violent protests occur in Bucharest, Romania, as two-day-old demonstrations continue against President Traian Băsescu’s economic austerity measures. Clashes are reported in numerous Romanian cities between protesters and law enforcement officers.
  • 2015 – Government raids kill 143 Boko Haram fighters in Kolofata, Cameroon.
  • 2016 – Ten people are killed and 15 wounded in a bombing near the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.
  • 2020 – Taal Volcano in the Philippines erupts, and kills 39 people.

Births on January 12

  • 1483 – Henry III of Nassau-Breda (d. 1538)
  • 1562 – Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (d. 1630)
  • 1576 – Petrus Scriverius, Dutch historian and scholar (d. 1660)
  • 1577 – Jan Baptist van Helmont, Flemish chemist and physician (d. 1644)
  • 1588 – John Winthrop, English lawyer and politician, 2nd Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (d. 1649)
  • 1591 – Jusepe de Ribera, Spanish painter (d. 1652)
  • 1597 – François Duquesnoy, Flemish sculptor and educator (d. 1643)
  • 1598 – Jijabai Shahaji Bhosale, venerated mother of Indian king Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (d. 1674)
  • 1628 – Charles Perrault, French author and academic (d. 1703)
  • 1673 – Rosalba Carriera, Italian painter (d. 1757)
  • 1711 – Gaetano Latilla, Italian composer (d. 1788)
  • 1715 – Jacques Duphly, French organist and composer (d. 1789)
  • 1716 – Antonio de Ulloa, Spanish general and politician, 1st Spanish Governor of Louisiana (d. 1795)
  • 1721 – Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Prussian field marshal (d. 1792)
  • 1723 – Samuel Langdon, American minister, theologian, and academic (d. 1797)
  • 1724 – Frances Brooke, English author and playwright (d. 1789)
  • 1729 – Edmund Burke, Irish philosopher, academic, and politician (d. 1797)
  • 1746 – Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss philosopher and educator (d. 1827)
  • 1751 – Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies (d. 1825)
  • 1772 – Mikhail Speransky, Russian academic and politician (d. 1839)
  • 1786 – Sir Robert Inglis, 2nd Baronet, English politician (d. 1855)
  • 1792 – Johan August Arfwedson, Swedish chemist and academic (d. 1841)
  • 1797 – Gideon Brecher, Austrian physician and author (d. 1873)
  • 1799 – Priscilla Susan Bury, British botanist (d. 1872)
  • 1822 – Étienne Lenoir, Belgian engineer, designed the internal combustion engine (d. 1900)
  • 1837 – Adolf Jensen, German pianist and composer (d. 1879)
  • 1849 – Jean Béraud, Russian-French painter and academic (d. 1935)
  • 1853 – Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro, Italian mathematician (d. 1925)
  • 1856 – John Singer Sargent, American painter and academic (d. 1925)
  • 1863 – Swami Vivekananda, Indian monk and philosopher (d. 1902)
  • 1869 – Bhagwan Das, Indian philosopher, academic, and politician (d. 1958)
  • 1873 – Spyridon Louis, Greek runner (d. 1940)
  • 1874 – Laura Adams Armer, American author and photographer (d. 1963)
  • 1876 – Fevzi Çakmak, Turkish field marshal and politician, Prime Minister of the Turkish Provisional Government (d. 1950)
  • 1876 – Jack London, American novelist and journalist (d. 1916)
  • 1876 – Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Italian composer and educator (d. 1948)
  • 1877 – Frank J. Corr, American lawyer and politician, 45th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1934)
  • 1878 – Ferenc Molnár, Hungarian-American author and playwright (d. 1952)
  • 1879 – Ray Harroun, American race car driver and engineer (d. 1968)
  • 1879 – Anton Uesson, Estonian engineer and politician, 17th Mayor of Tallinn (d. 1942)
  • 1882 – Milton Sills, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1930)
  • 1884 – Texas Guinan, American entertainer and bootlegger (d. 1933)
  • 1889 – Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad, Indian-Pakistani spiritual leader (d. 1965)
  • 1890 – Johannes Vares, Estonian poet, physician, and politician (d. 1946)
  • 1892 – Mikhail Gurevich, Russian engineer and businessman, co-founded the Russian Aircraft Corporation (d. 1976)
  • 1893 – Hermann Göring, German commander, pilot, and politician, Minister President of Prussia (d. 1946)
  • 1893 – Alfred Rosenberg, Estonian-German architect and politician, Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories (d. 1946)
  • 1894 – Georges Carpentier, French boxer and actor (d. 1975)
  • 1895 – Leo Aryeh Mayer, Polish-Israeli scholar and academic (d. 1959)
  • 1896 – David Wechsler, Romanian-American psychologist and author (d. 1981)
  • 1899 – Pierre Bernac, French opera singer and educator (d. 1979)
  • 1899 – Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
  • 1901 – Karl Künstler, German SS officer (d. 1945)
  • 1903 – Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist and academic (d. 1960)
  • 1903 – Andrew J. Transue, American politician and attorney (Morissette v. United States) (d. 1995)
  • 1904 – Mississippi Fred McDowell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1972)
  • 1905 – Nihal Atsız, Turkish author, poet, and philosopher (d. 1975)
  • 1905 – James Bennett Griffin, American archaeologist and academic (d. 1997)
  • 1905 – Tex Ritter, American actor and singer (d. 1974)
  • 1906 – Emmanuel Levinas, Lithuanian-French historian, philosopher, and academic (d. 1995)
  • 1907 – Sergei Korolev, Russian colonel and engineer (d. 1966)
  • 1908 – Jean Delannoy, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2008)
  • 1908 – Clement Hurd, American illustrator (d. 1988)
  • 1910 – Patsy Kelly, American actress and comedian (d. 1981)
  • 1910 – Luise Rainer, German-English actress (d. 2014)
  • 1912 – Richard Kuremaa, Estonian footballer (d. 1991)
  • 1914 – Mieko Kamiya, Japanese psychiatrist and psychologist (d. 1979)
  • 1915 – Paul Jarrico, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1997)
  • 1915 – Joseph-Aurèle Plourde, Canadian archbishop and academic (d. 2013)
  • 1916 – Ruth R. Benerito, American chemist and inventor (d. 2013)
  • 1916 – Mary Wilson, Baroness Wilson of Rievaulx, British poet and Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2018)
  • 1916 – P. W. Botha, South African politician, 8th Prime Minister of South Africa (d. 2006)
  • 1917 – Walter Hendl, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2007)
  • 1917 – Jimmy Skinner, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2007)
  • 1920 – James Farmer, American activist, and politician, co-founded Congress of Racial Equality (d. 1999)
  • 1920 – Jerzy Zubrzycki, Polish-Australian sociologist and academic (d. 2009)
  • 1922 – Tadeusz Żychiewicz, Polish journalist and historian (d. 1994)
  • 1923 – Ira Hayes, American marine who raised the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima (d. 1955)
  • 1924 – Olivier Gendebien, Belgian racing driver and businessman (d. 1998)
  • 1925 – Bill Burrud, American television host, producer, and actor (d. 1990)
  • 1926 – Morton Feldman, American composer and academic (d. 1987)
  • 1926 – Ray Price, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
  • 1928 – Ruth Brown, American R&B singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2006)
  • 1929 – Alasdair MacIntyre, Scottish-American philosopher and academic
  • 1929 – Jaakko Hintikka, Finnish philosopher and logician (d. 2015)
  • 1930 – Tim Horton, Canadian ice hockey player and businessman, founded Tim Hortons (d. 1974)
  • 1930 – Jennifer Johnston, Irish author and playwright
  • 1930 – Glenn Yarbrough, American singer and actor (d. 2016)
  • 1933 – Pavlos Matesis, Greek author and playwright (d. 2013)
  • 1934 – Alan Sharp, Scottish-American author and screenwriter (d. 2013)
  • 1934 – Mick Sullivan, English rugby player and coach (d. 2016)
  • 1935 – Teresa del Conde, Mexican historian and critic (d. 2017)
  • 1935 – Kreskin, American mentalist
  • 1936 – Jennifer Hilton, Baroness Hilton of Eggardon, English police officer and politician
  • 1936 – Raimonds Pauls, Latvian pianist and composer
  • 1936 – Brajanath Ratha, Indian poet and activist (d. 2014)
  • 1936 – Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Home Affairs (d. 2016)
  • 1937 – Shirley Eaton, English actress
  • 1938 – Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Pakistani scholar and politician (d. 2013)
  • 1940 – Bob Hewitt, Australian-South African tennis player
  • 1940 – Ronald Shannon Jackson, American drummer and composer (d. 2013)
  • 1940 – Dick Motz, New Zealand cricketer (d. 2007)
  • 1941 – Long John Baldry, English-Canadian singer-songwriter and voice actor (d. 2005)
  • 1941 – Fiona Caldicott, English psychiatrist and psychotherapist
  • 1941 – Chet Jastremski, American swimmer and physician (d. 2014)
  • 1942 – Bernardine Dohrn, American domestic terrorist, political activist and academic
  • 1944 – Hans Henning Atrott, German author and theorist
  • 1944 – Joe Frazier, American boxer (d. 2011)
  • 1944 – Cynthia Robinson, American R&B trumpet player and singer (d 2015)
  • 1945 – Maggie Bell, Scottish singer-songwriter
  • 1946 – Hazel Cosgrove, Lady Cosgrove, Scottish lawyer and judge
  • 1946 – George Duke, American keyboard player, composer, and educator (d. 2013)
  • 1947 – Richard Carwardine, English historian and academic
  • 1947 – Tom Dempsey, American football player and educator
  • 1947 – Sally Hamwee, Baroness Hamwee, English politician
  • 1948 – Kenny Allen, English footballer
  • 1948 – Anthony Andrews, English actor and producer
  • 1948 – Gordon Campbell, Canadian educator and politician, 34th Premier of British Columbia
  • 1948 – Brendan Foster, English runner and sportscaster
  • 1948 – William Nicholson, English author and screenwriter
  • 1949 – Kentarō Haneda, Japanese pianist and composer (d. 2007)
  • 1949 – Ottmar Hitzfeld, German footballer and manager
  • 1949 – Hamadi Jebali, Tunisian engineer, journalist, and politician, 19th Prime Minister of Tunisia
  • 1949 – Haruki Murakami, Japanese novelist, short-story writer, and essayist
  • 1950 – Sheila Jackson Lee, American lawyer, judge, and politician
  • 1950 – Göran Lindblad, Swedish dentist and politician
  • 1950 – Bob McEwen, American businessman and politician
  • 1950 – Dorrit Moussaieff, Israeli-Icelandic jewelry designer and businesswoman, 5th First Lady of Iceland
  • 1951 – Kirstie Alley, American actress and producer
  • 1951 – Chris Bell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1978)
  • 1951 – Rush Limbaugh, American talk show host and author
  • 1951 – Drew Pearson, American football player and sportscaster
  • 1952 – Phil Perry, American singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1952 – Ricky Van Shelton, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1952 – John Walker, New Zealand runner and politician
  • 1952 – Walter Mosley, American novelist
  • 1953 – Mary Harron, Canadian director and screenwriter
  • 1954 – Howard Stern, American radio host, actor, and author
  • 1954 – Martin Kylhammar, Swedish professor of culture and society
  • 1955 – Tom Ardolino, American rock drummer (NRBQ) (d. 2012)
  • 1956 – Nikolai Noskov, Russian rock singer and singer-songwriter
  • 1957 – John Lasseter, American animator, director, and producer
  • 1957 – Jeremy Sams, English director, playwright, and composer
  • 1958 – Christiane Amanpour, English-born Iranian-American journalist
  • 1958 – Curt Fraser, American-Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1959 – B. Brian Blair, American wrestler and politician
  • 1959 – Per Gessle, Swedish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1960 – Oliver Platt, Canadian-American actor
  • 1960 – Dominique Wilkins, French-American basketball player and manager
  • 1961 – Simon Russell Beale, Malaysia-born English actor and historian
  • 1962 – Joe Quesada, American author and illustrator
  • 1962 – Richie Richardson, Antiguan cricketer
  • 1962 – Luna Vachon, American-Canadian wrestler and manager (d. 2010)
  • 1963 – François Girard, Canadian director and screenwriter
  • 1963 – Nando Reis, Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1964 – Jeff Bezos, American computer scientist and businessman, founded Amazon.com
  • 1965 – Raekwon, American rapper
  • 1965 – Rob Zombie, American singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and director
  • 1966 – Olivier Martinez, French actor
  • 1966 – Craig Parry, Australian golfer
  • 1967 – Vendela Kirsebom, Norwegian-Swedish model and actress
  • 1968 – Junichi Masuda, Japanese director, producer, and composer
  • 1968 – Heather Mills, English businesswoman, activist and model
  • 1968 – Mauro Silva, Brazilian footballer
  • 1969 – David Mitchell, English novelist
  • 1969 – Margaret Nagle, American screenwriter and producer
  • 1970 – Zack de la Rocha, American singer-songwriter
  • 1971 – Scott Burrell, American basketball player and coach
  • 1972 – Priyanka Gandhi, Indian politician
  • 1972 – Espen Knutsen, Norwegian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1972 – Paul Wilson, Australian cricketer and umpire
  • 1973 – Brian Culbertson, American pianist and producer
  • 1973 – Hande Yener, Turkish singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
  • 1974 – Melanie C, English singer-songwriter and actress
  • 1974 – Tor Arne Hetland, Norwegian skier
  • 1975 – Jason Freese, American saxophonist, songwriter, and producer
  • 1975 – Jocelyn Thibault, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1977 – Yoandy Garlobo, Cuban baseball player
  • 1978 – Luis Ayala, Mexican baseball player
  • 1978 – Maurizio Zaffiri, Italian rugby player
  • 1979 – Marián Hossa, Slovak ice hockey player
  • 1979 – Lee Bo-young, South Korean actress and model
  • 1979 – Grzegorz Rasiak, Polish footballer
  • 1979 – David Zabriskie, American cyclist
  • 1980 – Bobby Crosby, American baseball player
  • 1981 – Amerie, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
  • 1981 – João Paulo Daniel, Brazilian footballer
  • 1981 – Dan Klecko, American football player
  • 1981 – Angus Macdonald, New Zealand rugby player
  • 1981 – Luis Ernesto Pérez, Mexican footballer
  • 1982 – Paul-Henri Mathieu, French tennis player
  • 1982 – Hans Van Alphen, Belgian decathlete
  • 1982 – Dean Whitehead, English footballer
  • 1982 – Dontrelle Willis, American baseball player
  • 1984 – Daniel Sepulveda, American football player
  • 1984 – Jonathan Zydko, French footballer
  • 1985 – Artem Milevskiy, Ukrainian footballer
  • 1985 – Issa Rae, American actress, writer, director, producer and web series creator
  • 1985 – Borja Valero, Spanish footballer
  • 1986 – Kehoma Brenner, German rugby player
  • 1986 – Miguel Ángel Nieto, Spanish footballer
  • 1987 – Naya Rivera, American actress and singer
  • 1987 – Salvatore Sirigu, Italian footballer
  • 1988 – Claude Giroux, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1989 – Thiemo-Jérôme Kialka, German footballer
  • 1989 – Axel Witsel, Belgian footballer
  • 1991 – Pixie Lott, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
  • 1991 – Matt Srama, Australian rugby league player
  • 1992 – Ishak Belfodil, Algerian footballer
  • 1992 – Samuele Longo, Italian footballer
  • 1993 – Zayn Malik, English singer-songwriter
  • 1993 – Simone Pecorini, Italian footballer
  • 1993 – Do Kyungsoo, South Korean singer and member of boy band EXO
  • 1995 – Sarah Mehain, Canadian Paralympic swimmer
  • 1995 – Alessio Romagnoli, Italian footballer

Deaths of January 12

  • 690 – Benedict Biscop, English scholar and saint, founded the Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey (b. 628)
  • 914 – Ahmad Samani, Samanid emir
  • 947 – Sang Weihan, Chinese chief of staff (b. 898)
  • 1140 – Louis I, Landgrave of Thuringia
  • 1167 – Aelred of Rievaulx, English monk and saint (b. 1110)
  • 1320 – John Dalderby, bishop of Lincoln
  • 1321 – Marie of Brabant, Queen of France (b. 1256)
  • 1405 – Eleanor Maltravers, English noblewoman (b. 1345)
  • 1519 – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1459)
  • 1665 – Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician and lawyer (b. 1601)
  • 1674 – Giacomo Carissimi, Italian priest and composer (b. 1605)
  • 1700 – Marguerite Bourgeoys, French-Canadian nun and saint, founded the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal (b. 1620)
  • 1720 – William Ashhurst, English banker and politician, Lord Mayor of London (b. 1647)
  • 1732 – John Horsley, English-Scottish historian and author (b. 1685)
  • 1735 – John Eccles, English composer (b. 1668)
  • 1759 – Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (b. 1709)
  • 1765 – Johann Melchior Molter, German violinist and composer (b. 1696)
  • 1777 – Hugh Mercer, Scottish-American general and physician (b. 1726)
  • 1778 – François Bigot, French politician (b. 1703)
  • 1781 – Richard Challoner, English bishop (b. 1691)
  • 1829 – Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, German philosopher, poet, and critic (b. 1772)
  • 1833 – Marie-Antoine Carême, French chef (b. 1784)
  • 1834 – William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)
  • 1856 – Ľudovít Štúr, Slovak philologist and politician (b. 1815)
  • 1861 – Václav Hanka, Czech philologist and author (b. 1791)
  • 1892 – James Caulfeild, 3rd Earl of Charlemont, Irish politician, Lord Lieutenant of Tyrone (b. 1820)
  • 1892 – William Reeves, Irish bishop and historian (b. 1815)
  • 1899 – Hiram Walker, American businessman, founded Canadian Club (b. 1816)
  • 1909 – Hermann Minkowski, Lithuanian-German mathematician and academic (b. 1864)
  • 1911 – Andreas Papagiannakopoulos, Greek journalist, judge, and politician (b. 1845)
  • 1916 – Georgios Theotokis, Greek lawyer and politician, 80th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1844)
  • 1921 – Gervase Elwes, English tenor and actor (b. 1866)
  • 1926 – Austin Chapman, Australian businessman and politician, 4th Australian Minister for Defence (b. 1864)
  • 1934 – Paul Kochanski, Polish violinist and composer (b. 1887)
  • 1938 – Oscar Florianus Bluemner, German-American painter and illustrator (b. 1867)
  • 1940 – Ralph Hitz, Austrian-American hotelier (b. 1891)
  • 1940 – Edward Smith, English lieutenant, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1898)
  • 1943 – Jan Campert, Dutch journalist and critic (b. 1902)
  • 1944 – Lance C. Wade, American commander and pilot (b. 1915)
  • 1958 – Charles Hatfield, American meteorologist (b. 1875)
  • 1960 – Nevil Shute, English engineer and author (b. 1899)
  • 1962 – Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams, Russian journalist and activist (b. 1869)
  • 1965 – Lorraine Hansberry, American author, playwright, and director (b. 1936)
  • 1967 – Burhan Asaf Belge, Turkish diplomat (b. 1887)
  • 1971 – John Tovey, 1st Baron Tovey, English admiral (b. 1885)
  • 1973 – Roy Franklin Nichols, American historian and academic (b. 1896)
  • 1974 – Princess Patricia of Connaught (b. 1886)
  • 1976 – Agatha Christie, English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright (b. 1890)
  • 1977 – Henri-Georges Clouzot, French director and screenwriter (b. 1907)
  • 1983 – Nikolai Podgorny, Ukrainian engineer and politician (b. 1903)
  • 1988 – Connie Mulder, South African politician (b. 1925)
  • 1988 – Piero Taruffi, Italian racing driver and motorcycle racer (b. 1906)
  • 1990 – Laurence J. Peter, Canadian-American author and educator (b. 1919)
  • 1991 – Robert Jackson, Australian public servant and diplomat (b. 1911)
  • 1992 – Kumar Gandharva, a Hindustani classical singer (b. 1924)
  • 1994 – Gustav Naan, Estonian physicist and philosopher (b. 1919)
  • 1996 – Joachim Nitsche, German mathematician and academic (b. 1926)
  • 1997 – Jean-Edern Hallier, French author (b. 1936)
  • 1997 – Charles Brenton Huggins, Canadian-American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
  • 1998 – Roger Clark, English racing driver (b. 1939)
  • 1999 – Doug Wickenheiser, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1961)
  • 2000 – Marc Davis, American animator and screenwriter (b. 1913)
  • 2000 – Bobby Phills, American basketball player (b. 1969)
  • 2001 – Luiz Bonfá, Brazilian guitarist and composer (b. 1922)
  • 2001 – William Redington Hewlett, American engineer and businessman, co-founded Hewlett-Packard (b. 1913)
  • 2002 – Cyrus Vance, American lawyer and politician, 57th U.S. Secretary of State (b. 1917)
  • 2003 – Dean Amadon, American ornithologist and author (b. 1912)
  • 2003 – Kinji Fukasaku, Japanese actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1930)
  • 2003 – Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine general and politician, 44th President of Argentina (b. 1926)
  • 2003 – Maurice Gibb, Manx-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1949)
  • 2003 – Alan Nunn May, English physicist and spy (b. 1911)
  • 2004 – Olga Ladyzhenskaya, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1921)
  • 2005 – Amrish Puri, Indian actor (b. 1932)
  • 2006 – Pablita Velarde, Santa Clara Pueblo (Native American) painter (b. 1918)
  • 2007 – Alice Coltrane, American pianist and composer (b. 1937)
  • 2007 – James Killen, Australian soldier, lawyer, and politician, 38th Australian Minister for Defence (b. 1925)
  • 2008 – Max Beck, American intersex advocate (b. 1966)
  • 2009 – Claude Berri, French actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1934)
  • 2010 – Daniel Bensaïd, French philosopher and author (b. 1946)
  • 2010 – Hasib Sabbagh, Palestinian businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Consolidated Contractors Company (b. 1920)
  • 2012 – Bjørn G. Andersen, Norwegian geologist and academic (b. 1924)
  • 2012 – Glenda Dickerson, American director, choreographer, and educator (b. 1945)
  • 2012 – Bill Janklow, American lawyer and politician, 27th Governor of South Dakota (b. 1939)
  • 2012 – Charles H. Price II, American businessman and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (b. 1931)
  • 2012 – Jim Stanley, American football player and coach (b. 1935)
  • 2013 – Precious Bryant, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1942)
  • 2013 – Eugene Patterson, American journalist and activist (b. 1923)
  • 2014 – Alexandra Bastedo, English actress (b. 1946)
  • 2014 – Connie Binsfeld, American educator and politician, 58th Lieutenant Governor of Michigan (b. 1924)
  • 2014 – George Dement, American soldier, businessman, and politician (b. 1922)
  • 2015 – Trevor Colbourn, American historian and academic (b. 1927)
  • 2015 – Robert Gover, American journalist and author (b. 1929)
  • 2015 – Carl Long, American baseball player (b. 1935)
  • 2015 – Elena Obraztsova, Russian soprano and actress (b. 1939)
  • 2015 – Inge Vermeulen, Brazilian-Dutch field hockey player (b. 1985)
  • 2017 – William Peter Blatty, American writer and filmmaker (b. 1928)
  • 2017 – Graham Taylor, former Grimsby Town player and former manager of the England football team. (b. 1944)
  • 2018 – Keith Jackson, American sports commentator and journalist (b. 1928)
  • 2020 – Sir Roger Scruton, English philosopher, and writer (b. 1944)

Holidays and observances on January 12

  • Christian feast day:
    • Aelred of Rievaulx
    • Benedict Biscop
    • Bernard of Corleone
    • Marguerite Bourgeoys
    • Tatiana
    • January 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Earliest day on which Lee–Jackson Day can fall while January 18 is the latest, celebrated on the Friday before Martin Luther King Day. (Commonwealth of Virginia)
  • Memorial Day (Turkmenistan)
  • National Youth Day (India)
  • Prosecutor General’s Day (Russia)
  • Zanzibar Revolution Day (Tanzania)

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

On This Day

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

On This Day /

January 8 in History

  • 307 – Jin Huaidi becomes emperor of China in succession to his father, Jin Huidi, despite a challenge from his uncle, Sima Ying
  • 871 – Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.
  • 1297 – François Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, leads his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco
  • 1454 – The papal bull Romanus Pontifex awards the Kingdom of Portugal exclusive trade and colonization rights to all of Africa south of Cape Bojador
  • 1499 – Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany in accordance with a law set by his predecessor, Charles VIII.
  • 1547 – The first Lithuanian-language book, the Catechism of Martynas Mažvydas, is published in Königsberg.
  • 1735 – The premiere of George Frideric Handel’s Ariodante takes place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
  • 1746 – Second Jacobite rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
  • 1790 – George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York City.
  • 1806 – Cape Colony in southern Africa becomes a British colony as a result of the Battle of Blaauwberg.
  • 1811 – An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslondes in the north American settlements of St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
  • 1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
  • 1828 – The Democratic Party of the United States is organized.
  • 1835 – The United States national debt is zero for the only time.
  • 1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield.
  • 1867 – African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
  • 1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.
  • 1889 – Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’ — his punched card calculator.
  • 1904 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.
  • 1912 – The African National Congress is founded, under the name South African Native National Congress (SANNC).
  • 1918 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announces his “Fourteen Points” for the aftermath of World War I.
  • 1920 – The steel strike of 1919 ends in failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union.
  • 1926 – Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuỵ ascends the throne to become the last monarch of Vietnam.
  • 1926 – Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz.
  • 1936 – Kashf-e hijab decree is made and immediately enforced by Reza Shah, Iran’s head of state, banning the wearing of Islamic veils in public.
  • 1940 – World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.
  • 1945 – World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack Japanese Imperial forces.
  • 1956 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
  • 1959 – Charles de Gaulle is proclaimed as the first President of the French Fifth Republic.
  • 1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle’s policies in Algeria.
  • 1963 – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
  • 1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a “War on Poverty” in the United States.
  • 1972 – Bowing to international pressure, President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto releases Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison, who had been arrested after declaring the independence of Bangladesh.
  • 1973 – Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
  • 1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
  • 1975 – Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband.
  • 1977 – Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
  • 1981 – A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be “perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time”.
  • 1982 – Breakup of the Bell System: AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
  • 1989 – Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board.
  • 1994 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.
  • 1996 – An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 223 on the ground; two of six crew members are also killed.
  • 2002 – President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.
  • 2003 – Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of the 75 passengers.
  • 2003 – Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board.
  • 2004 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, then the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by her namesake’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
  • 2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.
  • 2009 – A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica kills 15 people and injures 32.
  • 2010 – Gunmen from an offshoot the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attack a bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three.
  • 2011 – The attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in which five people were shot dead.
  • 2016 – Joaquín Guzmán, widely regarded as the world’s most powerful drug trafficker, is recaptured following his escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico.
  • 2020 – Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashes immediately after takeoff at Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport; all 176 on board are killed. The plane was shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.

Births on January 8

  • 1037 – Su Dongpo, Chinese calligrapher and poet (d. 1101)
  • 1345 – Kadi Burhan al-Din, poet, kadi, and ruler of Sivas (d. 1398)
  • 1462 – Walraven II van Brederode, Dutch nobleman (d. 1531)
  • 1529 – John Frederick II, duke of Saxony (d. 1595)
  • 1556 – Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese daimyō (d. 1623)
  • 1583 – Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian and academic (d. 1643)
  • 1587 – Johannes Fabricius, German astronomer and academic (d. 1616)
  • 1587 – Jan Pieterszoon Coen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1629
  • 1589 – Ivan Gundulić, Croatian poet and playwright (d. 1638)
  • 1601 – Baltasar Gracián, Spanish priest and author (d. 1658)
  • 1628 – François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, French general (d. 1695)
  • 1632 – Samuel von Pufendorf, German economist and jurist (d. 1694)
  • 1635 – Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero, Spanish cardinal (d. 1709)
  • 1638 – Elisabetta Sirani, Italian painter (d. 1665)
  • 1735 – John Carroll, American archbishop, founder of Georgetown University (d. 1815)
  • 1763 – Edmond-Charles Genêt, French-American translator and diplomat (d. 1834)
  • 1786 – Nicholas Biddle, American banker and financier (d. 1844)
  • 1788 – Rudolf of Austria, Austrian archduke and archbishop (d. 1831)
  • 1792 – Lowell Mason, American composer and educator (d. 1872)
  • 1805 – John Bigler, American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 3rd Governor of California (d. 1871)
  • 1805 – Orson Hyde, American religious leader, 3rd President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (d. 1878)
  • 1812 – Sigismond Thalberg, Swiss pianist and composer (d. 1871)
  • 1817 – Theophilus Shepstone, English-South African politician (d. 1893)
  • 1821 – James Longstreet, American general and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Turkey (d. 1904)
  • 1823 – Alfred Russel Wallace, Welsh geographer, biologist, and explorer (d. 1913)
  • 1824 – Wilkie Collins, English novelist, playwright, and short story writer (d. 1889)
  • 1824 – Francisco González Bocanegra, Mexican poet and composer (d. 1861)
  • 1830 – Hans von Bülow, German pianist and composer (d. 1894)
  • 1836 – Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dutch-English painter and academic (d. 1912)
  • 1843 – Frederick Abberline, English police officer (d. 1929)
  • 1843 – Karl Eduard Heusner, German admiral (d. 1891)
  • 1852 – James Milton Carroll, American pastor and author (d. 1931)
  • 1854 – Fanny Bullock Workman, American mountaineer, geographer, and cartographer (d. 1925)
  • 1860 – Emma Booth, English author (d. 1903)
  • 1862 – Frank Nelson Doubleday, American publisher, founded the Doubleday Publishing Company (d. 1934)
  • 1864 – Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (d. 1892)
  • 1865 – Winnaretta Singer, American philanthropist (d. 1943)
  • 1866 – William G. Conley, American educator and politician, 18th Governor of West Virginia (d. 1940)
  • 1867 – Emily Greene Balch, American economist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
  • 1870 – Miguel Primo de Rivera, Spanish general and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1930)
  • 1871 – James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, Irish captain and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (d. 1940)
  • 1873 – Iuliu Maniu, Romanian lawyer and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1953)
  • 1876 – Arturs Alberings, Latvian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Latvia (d. 1934)
  • 1879 – Charles Bryant, English-American actor and director (d. 1948)
  • 1881 – Henrik Shipstead, American dentist and politician (d. 1960)
  • 1881 – Linnie Marsh Wolfe, American librarian and author (d. 1945)
  • 1883 – Pavel Filonov, Russian painter and poet (d. 1941)
  • 1883 – Patrick J. Hurley, American general, politician, and diplomat, 51st United States Secretary of War (d. 1963)
  • 1885 – John Curtin, Australian journalist and politician, 14th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945)
  • 1885 – Mór Kóczán, Hungarian javelin thrower and pastor (d. 1972)
  • 1885 – A. J. Muste, Dutch-American pastor and activist (d. 1967)
  • 1888 – Richard Courant, German-American mathematician and academic (d. 1972)
  • 1891 – Walther Bothe, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
  • 1891 – Storm Jameson, English journalist and author (d. 1986)
  • 1891 – Bronislava Nijinska, Russian dancer and choreographer (d. 1972) name=”Jöckle1995″>Clemens Jöckle (1995). Encyclopedia of Saints. Alpine Fine Arts Collection. p. 319. ISBN 978-0-88168-226-7.</ref>
  • 1896 – Jaromír Weinberger, Czech-American composer and academic (d. 1967)
  • 1897 – Dennis Wheatley, English soldier and author (d. 1977)
  • 1899 – S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (d. 1959)
  • 1900 – Dorothy Adams, American character actress (d. 1988)
  • 1900 – Merlyn Myer, Australian philanthropist (d. 1982)
  • 1902 – Georgy Malenkov, Russian engineer and politician (d. 1988)
  • 1902 – Carl Rogers, American psychologist and academic (d. 1987)
  • 1904 – Karl Brandt, German physician and SS officer (d. 1948)
  • 1904 – Tampa Red, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1981)
  • 1905 – Carl Gustav Hempel, German philosopher from the Vienna and the Berlin Circle (d. 1997)
  • 1905 – Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer and poet (d. 1988)
  • 1906 – Serge Poliakoff, Russian-French painter (d. 1969)
  • 1907 – Keizō Hayashi, Japanese general and civil servant (d. 1991)
  • 1908 – Fearless Nadia, Australian-Indian actress and stuntwoman (d. 1996)
  • 1908 – William Hartnell, English actor (d. 1975)
  • 1909 – Ashapoorna Devi, Indian author and poet (d. 1995)
  • 1909 – Willy Millowitsch, German actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1999)
  • 1909 – Bruce Mitchell, South African cricketer (d. 1995)
  • 1909 – Evelyn Wood, American author and educator (d. 1995)
  • 1910 – Galina Ulanova, Russian actress and ballerina (d. 1998)
  • 1911 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress, dancer, and author (d. 1970)
  • 1912 – José Ferrer, Puerto Rican-American actor and director (d. 1992)
  • 1912 – Lawrence Walsh, Canadian-American lawyer, judge, and politician, 4th United States Deputy Attorney General (d. 2014)
  • 1915 – Walker Cooper, American baseball player and manager (d. 1991)
  • 1917 – Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (d. 1994)
  • 1922 – Dale D. Myers, American engineer (d. 2015)
  • 1923 – Larry Storch, American actor and comedian
  • 1923 – Giorgio Tozzi, American opera singer and actor (d. 2011)
  • 1923 – Johnny Wardle, English cricketer (d. 1985)
  • 1923 – Joseph Weizenbaum, German-American computer scientist and author (d. 2008)
  • 1924 – Benjamin Lees, Chinese-American soldier and composer (d. 2010)
  • 1924 – Ron Moody, English actor and singer (d. 2015)
  • 1925 – Mohan Rakesh, Indian author and playwright (d. 1972)
  • 1926 – Evelyn Lear, American operatic soprano (d. 2012)
  • 1926 – Lazzaro Donati, Italian artist (d. 1977)
  • 1926 – Kerwin Mathews, American actor (d. 2007)
  • 1926 – Kelucharan Mohapatra, Indian dancer and choreographer (d. 2004)
  • 1926 – Hanae Mori, Japanese fashion designer
  • 1926 – Soupy Sales, American comedian and actor (d. 2009)
  • 1927 – Charles Tomlinson, English poet and academic (d. 2015)
  • 1928 – Slade Gorton, American colonel, lawyer, and politician, 14th Attorney General of Washington
  • 1928 – Gaston Miron, Canadian poet and author (d. 1996)
  • 1928 – Luther Perkins, American country guitarist (d. 1968)
  • 1929 – Saeed Jaffrey, Indian-British actor (d. 2015)
  • 1931 – Bill Graham, German-American businessman (d. 1991)
  • 1931 – Clarence Benjamin Jones, American lawyer and scholar
  • 1933 – Nolan Miller, American fashion and jewelry designer (d. 2012)
  • 1933 – Charles Osgood, American soldier and journalist
  • 1933 – Jean-Marie Straub, French director and screenwriter
  • 1933 – Willie Tasby, American baseball player
  • 1934 – Jacques Anquetil, French cyclist (d. 1987)
  • 1934 – Gene Freese, American baseball player and manager (d. 2013)
  • 1934 – Roy Kinnear, British actor (d. 1988)
  • 1934 – Alexandra Ripley, American author (d. 2004)
  • 1935 – Lewis H. Lapham, American publisher, founded Lapham’s Quarterly
  • 1935 – Elvis Presley, American singer, guitarist, and actor (d. 1977)
  • 1936 – Zdeněk Mácal, Czech-American conductor
  • 1936 – Robert May, Baron May of Oxford, Australian-English zoologist, ecologist, and academic (d. 2020)
  • 1937 – Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer
  • 1938 – Bob Eubanks, American game show host and producer
  • 1938 – Yevgeny Nesterenko, Russian opera singer and educator
  • 1939 – Carolina Herrera, Venezuelan-American fashion designer
  • 1939 – Ruth Maleczech, American actress (d. 2013)
  • 1939 – Alan Wilson, English mathematician and academic
  • 1940 – Mark Bretscher, English biologist and academic
  • 1940 – Cristy Lane, American country and gospel singer
  • 1941 – Graham Chapman, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1989)
  • 1942 – Stephen Hawking, English physicist and author (d. 2018)
  • 1942 – Junichirō Koizumi, Japanese politician, 56th Prime Minister of Japan
  • 1942 – Yvette Mimieux, American actress
  • 1942 – Royce Waltman, American basketball player and coach (d. 2014)
  • 1943 – Charles Murray, American political scientist and author
  • 1944 – Terry Brooks, American lawyer and author
  • 1945 – Nancy Bond, American author and academic
  • 1945 – Phil Beal, English footballer, defender
  • 1945 – Kadir Topbaş, Turkish architect and politician, 31st Mayor of Istanbul
  • 1946 – Robby Krieger, American guitarist and songwriter
  • 1946 – Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Mexican drug lord
  • 1947 – Don Bendell, American rancher and author
  • 1947 – David Bowie, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (d. 2016)
  • 1947 – David Gates, American journalist and novelist
  • 1947 – Antti Kalliomäki, Finnish pole vaulter and politician
  • 1947 – Luke Williams, New Zealand-American wrestler
  • 1948 – Gillies MacKinnon, Scottish director and screenwriter
  • 1949 – Lawrence Rowe, Jamaican cricketer
  • 1951 – Kenny Anthony, Saint Lucian politician, 5th Prime Minister of Saint Lucia
  • 1951 – Karen Tei Yamashita, American author and academic
  • 1952 – Vladimir Feltsman, Russian-American pianist and educator
  • 1952 – Peter McCullagh, Irish mathematician and academic
  • 1953 – Bruce Sutter, American baseball player
  • 1954 – Konstantinos Kypriotis, Greek martial artist (d. 1995)
  • 1955 – Spiros Livathinos, Greek footballer and coach
  • 1955 – Mike Reno, Canadian singer and drummer
  • 1957 – Nacho Duato, Spanish dancer and choreographer
  • 1958 – Betsy DeVos, American businesswoman and politician, 11th Secretary of Education
  • 1958 – Rey Misterio, Sr., Mexican wrestler, trainer, and actor
  • 1959 – Kim Duk-koo, South Korean boxer (d. 1982)
  • 1959 – Paul Hester, Australian drummer (d. 2005)
  • 1960 – Dave Weckl, American drummer
  • 1961 – Calvin Smith, American sprinter
  • 1966 – Willie Anderson, American basketball player
  • 1966 – Igor Vyazmikin, Russian ice hockey player (d. 2009)
  • 1966 – Andrew Wood, American singer-songwriter (d. 1990)
  • 1967 – Torsten Gowitzke, German footballer and manager
  • 1967 – Steven Jacobs, Australian television host and actor
  • 1967 – R. Kelly, American singer-songwriter, record producer, and former professional basketball player
  • 1967 – Tom Watson, English politician
  • 1971 – Jason Giambi, American baseball player
  • 1971 – Jesper Jansson, Swedish footballer
  • 1971 – Pascal Zuberbühler, Swiss footballer and coach
  • 1972 – Paul Clement, English footballer, coach, and manager
  • 1972 – Giuseppe Favalli, Italian footballer
  • 1973 – Mike Cameron, American baseball player
  • 1975 – Harris Jayaraj, Indian composer and producer
  • 1976 – Kenneth Andam, Ghanaian sprinter and businessman
  • 1976 – Carl Pavano, American baseball player
  • 1977 – Amber Benson, American actress, writer, director, and producer
  • 1977 – Francesco Coco, Italian footballer
  • 1979 – Seol Ki-hyeon, South Korean footballer and manager
  • 1979 – Adrian Mutu, Romanian footballer
  • 1979 – Stipe Pletikosa, Croatian footballer
  • 1979 – Sarah Polley, Canadian actress, director, and screenwriter
  • 1980 – Adam Goodes, Australian footballer
  • 1980 – Rachel Nichols, American actress and producer
  • 1981 – Jeff Francis, Canadian baseball player
  • 1981 – Trent Waterhouse, Australian rugby league player
  • 1982 – Gaby Hoffmann, American actress
  • 1983 – Jon Daly, Irish footballer
  • 1984 – Jeff Francoeur, American baseball player
  • 1984 – Jeon Ji-ae, South Korean actress
  • 1984 – Kim Jong-un, North Korean soldier and politician, 3rd Supreme Leader of North Korea (probable)
  • 1986 – David Silva, Spanish footballer
  • 1988 – Adrián López, Spanish footballer
  • 1988 – Michael Mancienne, English footballer
  • 1989 – Aaron Cruden, New Zealand rugby player
  • 1991 – Josh Hazlewood, Australian cricketer
  • 1991 – Stefan Johansen, Norwegian footballer
  • 1991 – Stefan Savić, Montenegrin footballer
  • 1991 – Shin Ji-min, South Korean singer and rapper
  • 1992 – Stefanie Dolson, American basketball player
  • 1992 – Koke, Spanish footballer
  • 1992 – Apostolos Vellios, Greek footballer

Deaths on January 8

  • 307 – Hui of Jin, Chinese emperor (b. 259)
  • 482 – Severinus of Noricum, Italian apostle and saint
  • 871 – Bagsecg, Viking warrior and leader
  • 926 – Athelm, archbishop of Canterbury
  • 1079 – Adèle of France, countess of Flanders (b. 1009)
  • 1107 – Edgar, king of Scotland (b. 1074)
  • 1198 – Celestine III, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1106)
  • 1332 – Andronikos III, emperor of Trebizond
  • 1337 – Giotto, Italian painter and architect, designed Scrovegni Chapel and Giotto’s Campanile (b. 1266)
  • 1354 – Charles de La Cerda, French nobleman (b. 1327)
  • 1424 – Stephen Zaccaria, archbishop of Patras
  • 1456 – Lawrence Giustiniani, Italian bishop and saint (b. 1381)
  • 1464 – Thomas Ebendorfer, Austrian historian and academic (b. 1385)
  • 1538 – Beatrice of Portugal, duchess of Savoy (b. 1504)
  • 1557 – Albert Alcibiades, margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (b. 1522)
  • 1570 – Philibert de l’Orme, French sculptor and architect, designed the Château d’Anet (b. 1510)
  • 1598 – John George, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1525)
  • 1642 – Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (b. 1564)
  • 1664 – Moses Amyraut, French physician and theologian (b. 1596)
  • 1707 – John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair, Scottish soldier and politician, Scottish Secretary of State (b. 1648)
  • 1713 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1653)
  • 1775 – John Baskerville, English printer and type designer (b. 1706)
  • 1789 – Jack Broughton, English boxer (b. 1703)
  • 1794 – Justus Möser, German lawyer and jurist (b. 1720)
  • 1815 – Edward Pakenham, Anglo-Irish general and politician (b. 1778)
  • 1825 – Eli Whitney, American engineer and theorist, invented the cotton gin (b. 1765)
  • 1853 – Mihály Bertalanits, Slovene-Hungarian poet and educator (b. 1788)
  • 1854 – William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, English field marshal and politician, Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance (b. 1768)
  • 1865 – Aimé, duc de Clermont-Tonnerre, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (b. 1779)
  • 1874 – Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, French historian and archaeologist (b. 1814)
  • 1878 – Nikolay Nekrasov, Russian poet and critic (b. 1821)
  • 1878 – Gauchito Gil, Argentinian saint (b. 1847)
  • 1880 – Emperor Norton, English-American businessman (b. 1811)
  • 1883 – Miska Magyarics, Slovene-Hungarian poet (b. 1825)
  • 1896 – William Rainey Marshall, American banker and politician, 5th Governor of Minnesota (b. 1825)
  • 1896 – Paul Verlaine, French poet and writer (b. 1844)
  • 1901 – John Barry, Irish soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1873)
  • 1912 – Friedrich Schrempf, German journalist and politician (b. 1858)
  • 1914 – Simon Bolivar Buckner, American general and 30th Governor of Kentucky (b. 1823)
  • 1916 – Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor (b. 1884)
  • 1916 – Ada Rehan, Irish-American actress (b. 1860)
  • 1918 – Johannes Pääsuke, Estonian photographer and director (b. 1892)
  • 1918 – Ellis H. Roberts, American journalist and politician, 20th Treasurer of the United States (b. 1827)
  • 1920 – Josef Josephi, Polish-born singer and actor (b.1852)
  • 1925 – George Bellows, American painter (b.1882)
  • 1934 – Andrei Bely, Russian novelist, poet, and critic (b. 1880)
  • 1934 – Alexandre Stavisky, Ukrainian-French financier (b. 1886)
  • 1935 – Rauf Yekta, Turkish musicologist and author (b. 1871)
  • 1938 – Johnny Gruelle, American author and illustrator (b. 1880)
  • 1941 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English general (b. 1857)
  • 1942 – Joseph Franklin Rutherford, American lawyer and religious leader (b. 1869)
  • 1943 – Richard Hillary, Australian pilot and author (b. 1919)
  • 1943 – Andres Larka, Estonian general and politician, 1st Estonian Minister of War (b. 1879)
  • 1944 – William Kissam Vanderbilt II, American lieutenant and sailor (b. 1878)
  • 1945 – Karl Ernst Krafft, Swiss astrologer and author (b. 1900)
  • 1948 – Kurt Schwitters, German painter and graphic designer (b. 1887)
  • 1950 – Joseph Schumpeter, Czech-American economist and academic (b. 1883)
  • 1952 – Antonia Maury, American astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1866)
  • 1953 – Hugh Binney, English admiral and politician, 16th Governor of Tasmania (b. 1883)
  • 1954 – Eduard Wiiralt, Estonian-French painter and illustrator (b. 1898)
  • 1956 – Jim Elliot, American missionary and martyr (b. 1928)
  • 1958 – Mary Colter, American architect, designed the Desert View Watchtower (b. 1869)
  • 1961 – Schoolboy Rowe, American baseball player and coach (b. 1910)
  • 1963 – Kay Sage, American painter (b. 1898)
  • 1969 – Albert Hill, English runner and coach (b. 1889)
  • 1969 – Elmar Kaljot, Estonian footballer and coach (b. 1901)
  • 1970 – Georges Guibourg, French actor, singer, and playwright (b. 1891)
  • 1972 – Kenneth Patchen, American poet and author (b. 1911)
  • 1975 – Richard Tucker, American tenor (b. 1913)
  • 1976 – Zhou Enlai, Chinese soldier and politician, 1st Premier of the People’s Republic of China (b. 1898)
  • 1976 – Robert Forgan, Scottish-English physician and politician (b. 1891)
  • 1979 – Sara Carter, American singer-songwriter and harp player (b. 1898)
  • 1980 – John Mauchly, American physicist and academic (b. 1907)
  • 1981 – Matthew Beard, American actor (b. 1925)
  • 1982 – Grégoire Aslan, Swiss-English actor and screenwriter (b. 1908)
  • 1983 – Gerhard Barkhorn, German general and pilot (b. 1919)
  • 1983 – Tom McCall, American journalist and politician, 30th Governor of Oregon (b. 1913)
  • 1983 – Gale Page, American actress (b. 1910)
  • 1984 – Eerik Kumari, Estonian ornithologist and academic (b. 1912)
  • 1986 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist and educator (b. 1906)
  • 1990 – Bernard Krigstein, American illustrator (b. 1919)
  • 1990 – Terry-Thomas, English actor and comedian (b. 1911)
  • 1991 – Steve Clark, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1960)
  • 1994 – Pat Buttram, American actor and comedian (b. 1915)
  • 1994 – Harvey Haddix, American baseball player and coach (b. 1925)
  • 1996 – Metin Göktepe, Turkish photographer and journalist (b. 1968)
  • 1996 – François Mitterrand, French sergeant and politician, 21st President of France (b. 1916)
  • 1996 – Howard Taubman, American author and critic (b. 1907)
  • 1997 – Melvin Calvin, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
  • 1998 – Michael Tippett, English composer and conductor (b. 1905)
  • 2002 – Alexander Prokhorov, Australian-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
  • 2002 – Dave Thomas, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Wendy’s (b. 1932)
  • 2003 – Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (b. 1925)
  • 2004 – John A. Gambling, American radio host (b. 1930)
  • 2006 – Tony Banks, Baron Stratford, Northern Irish broadcaster and politician, Minister for Sport and the Olympics (b. 1943)
  • 2007 – Jane Bolin, American lawyer and judge (b. 1908)
  • 2007 – Arthur Cockfield, Baron Cockfield, English lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (b. 1916)
  • 2007 – Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian-American actress and singer (b. 1922)
  • 2007 – David Ervine, Northern Irish politician and activist (b. 1953)
  • 2007 – Iwao Takamoto, American animator, director, and producer (b. 1925)
  • 2008 – George Moore, Australian jockey and trainer (b. 1923)
  • 2009 – Lasantha Wickrematunge, Sri Lankan Journalist (b. 1958)
  • 2010 – Art Clokey, American animator, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1921)
  • 2011 – Jiří Dienstbier, Czech journalist and politician (b. 1937)
  • 2011 – Thorbjørn Svenssen, Norwegian footballer (b. 1924)
  • 2012 – Dave Alexander, American singer and pianist (b. 1938)
  • 2012 – T. J. Hamblin, English haematologist and academic (b. 1943)
  • 2012 – John Madin, English architect, designed the Birmingham Central Library (b. 1924)
  • 2012 – Bernhard Schrader, German chemist and academic (b. 1931)
  • 2012 – Alexis Weissenberg, Bulgarian-French pianist and educator (b. 1929)
  • 2013 – Kenojuak Ashevak, Canadian sculptor and illustrator (b. 1927)
  • 2013 – Jeanne Manford, American educator and activist, co-founded PFLAG (b. 1920)
  • 2013 – Alasdair Milne, Indian-English director and producer (b. 1930)
  • 2014 – Vicente T. Blaz, American general and politician (b. 1928)
  • 2014 – Madeline Gins, American poet and architect (b. 1941)
  • 2014 – Irma Heijting-Schuhmacher, Dutch-Australian swimmer (b. 1925)
  • 2014 – Antonino P. Roman, Filipino lawyer and politician (b. 1939)
  • 2015 – Andraé Crouch, American singer-songwriter, producer, and pastor (b. 1942)
  • 2015 – Kep Enderby, Australian lawyer, judge, and politician, 23rd Attorney-General for Australia (b. 1926)
  • 2015 – Patsy Garrett, American actress and singer (b. 1921)
  • 2016 – Maria Teresa de Filippis, Italian racing driver (b. 1926)
  • 2016 – German Moreno, Filipino television host, actor, comedian and talent manager (b. 1933)
  • 2017 – Nicolai Gedda, Swedish operatic tenor (b. 1925)
  • 2017 – James Mancham, Seychellois politician (b. 1939)
  • 2017 – Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iranian politician (b. 1934)
  • 2017 – Peter Sarstedt, Indian-British singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1941)
  • 2020 – Pat Dalton, Australian rules footballer (b. 1942)
  • 2020 – Buck Henry, American actor, screenwriter, and director (b. 1930)

Holidays and observances on January 8

  • Babinden (Belarus, Russia)
  • Christian feast day:
    • Abo of Tiflis
    • Apollinaris Claudius
    • Blessed Eurosia Fabris
    • Gauchito Gil (Folk Catholicism)
    • Gudula
    • Harriet Bedell (Episcopal Church (USA))
    • Lawrence Giustiniani
    • Lucian of Beauvais
    • Maximus of Pavia
    • Our Lady of Prompt Succor (Roman Catholic Church)
    • Pega (Anglican and Roman Catholic churches)
    • Severinus of Noricum
    • Thorfinn of Hamar
    • January 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Commonwealth Day (Northern Mariana Islands)
  • Earliest day on which Children’s Day can fall, while January 14 is the latest; celebrated on the second Saturday in January. (Thailand)
  • Earliest day on which Lee–Jackson Day can fall, while January 14 is the latest; celebrated on Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. (Virginia)
  • Typing Day (International observance)

January 8 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

Abraham Lincoln Quiz

MCQs / Q&A, Personalities, US History /

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A political cartoon of Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln, 1865.

A political cartoon of Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln, 1865. The caption reads (Johnson to the former rail-splitter): Take it quietly Uncle Abe and I will draw it closer than ever!! (Lincoln to the former tailor): A few more stitches Andy and the good old Union will be mended! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Photograph of a reproduction of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Photograph of a reproduction of the Emancipation Proclamation (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Presidential campaign button with portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin

Presidential campaign button with portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Signature of Abraham Lincoln.

Signature of Abraham Lincoln. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Abraham Lincoln Quiz Questions

1) When was Abraham Lincoln first sworn in as President of USA?
a) 20 January 1869
b) 4 March 1861
c) 20 January 1873
d) 4 March 1849

2) When was Abraham Lincoln born?
a) 26 January 1800
b) 1 March 1805
c) 12 February 1809
d) 9 September 1816

3) Where was Abraham Lincoln born?
a) Libreville
b) New York
c) Hodgenville
d) Austin

4) In which war was Abraham Lincoln a captain?
a) Panama
b) Black Hawk
c) Mexican
d) Balkan War II

5) To which political party did Abraham Lincoln belong when he became President?
a) Democratic
b) Republican
c) Green
d) Conservative

6) Who was Abraham Lincoln’s running mate for Presidential Election 1860?
a) Andrew Johnson
b) John Bell
c) Hannibal Hamlin
d) Stephen a. Douglas

7) When did Emancipation Proclamation come into effect?
a) 1 January 1861
b) 1 January 1863
c) 4 July 1861
d) 25 December 1862

8) Which famous address did Abraham Lincoln give on 19 November 1863?
a) New York
b) Washington
c) Gettysburg
d) Philadelphia

9) Abraham Lincoln was shot on 14 April 1865. What was the significance of that day?
a) Ash Wednesday
b) Maundy Thursday
c) Good Friday
d) Easter Sunday

10) How is Abraham Lincoln’s life described?
a) From dog house to pent house
b) From log house to White House
c) From Green House to Red House
d) From here to eternity

Abraham Lincoln Quiz Questions with Answers

1) When was Abraham Lincoln first sworn in as President of USA?
b) 4 March 1861

2) When was Abraham Lincoln born?
c) 12 February 1809

3) Where was Abraham Lincoln born?
c) Hodgenville

4) In which war was Abraham Lincoln a captain?
b) Black Hawk

5) To which political party did Abraham Lincoln belong when he became President?
b) Republican

6) Who was Abraham Lincoln’s running mate for Presidential Election 1860?
c) Hannibal Hamlin

7) When did Emancipation Proclamation come into effect?
b) 1 January 1863
Note: Emancipation Proclamation was issued on 22/9/1862 and came into effect on 1/1/1863.

8) Which famous address did Abraham Lincoln give on 19 November 1863?
c) Gettysburg

9) Abraham Lincoln was shot on 14 April 1865. What was the significance of that day?
c) Good Friday

10) How is Abraham Lincoln’s life described?
b) From log house to White House

Abraham Lincoln Quiz Read More »

MCQs / Q&A, Personalities, US History