Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
1990 – Sooyoung, South Korean singer (Girls' Generation)
 1991 – Emma Roberts, American actress
 1992 - Misha B, American rapper and singer
 1992 - Haruka Nakagawa, Japanese singer
 1992 - Reinhold Yabo, German footballer
 1993 - Max Kepler, German baseball player
 1994 - Son Na-eun, South Korean singer and actress
 1994 - Kang Seul-gi, South Korean singer
 1994 - Mackenzie Vega, American actress
 1995 - Haruna Kawaguchi, Japanese model and actress
 1996 - Christina Parie, Australian singer-songwriter
 1997 - Chloe Moretz, American actress
 1998 - Candy Hsu, Taiwanese singer-songwriter, actress and record producer
 2000 - Yara Shahidi, Iranian-American actress
Deaths

Up to 1900 
 547 - Scholastica, Christian nun
 1126 – William IX, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1071)
 1162 – King Baldwin III of Jerusalem (b. 1130)
 1242 – Emperor Shijo of Japan (b. 1231)
 1278 - Margaret II of Flanders (b. 1202)
 1306 – John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, Scottish nobleman
 1307 – Temur Khan, Emperor Chengzong of Yuan, Emperor of China (b. 1265)
 1543 - Johannes Eck, German theologian (b. 1486)
 1567 – Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (b. 1546)
 1755 – Montesquieu, French writer (b. 1689)
 1758 - Thomas Ripley, English architect (b. 1682)
 1782 - Christian Christoph Oetinger, German theologian (b. 1702)
 1829 – Pope Leo XII (b. 1760)
 1837 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian writer (b. 1799)
 1854 - Jose Joaquin de Herrera, President of Mexico (b. 1792)
 1857 – David Thompson, Canadian explorer (b. 1770)
 1865 - Heinrich Lenz, German physicist (b. 1804)
 1891 – Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician (b. 1850)
1901  2000 
 1904 - John A. Roche, American politician (b. 1844)
 1912 – Joseph Lister, British surgeon (b. 1827)
 1913 – Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, Greek athlete and Olympic champion (b. 1888)
 1917 – John William Waterhouse, Italian-born artist (b. 1849)
 1918 - Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1842)
 1918 – Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist (b. 1833)
 1923 – Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, German scientist (b. 1845)
 1932 – Edgar Wallace, English novelist and screenwriter (b. 1875)
 1939 – Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)
 1944 - E. M. Antoniadi, Greek-French astronomer and chess player (b. 1870)
 1956 - Emmanouil Tsouderos, 132nd Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1882)
 1957 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American writer (b. 1867)
 1958 - Aleksander Klumberg, Estonian athlete (b. 1899)
 1960 - Aloysius Stepinac, Croatian cardinal (b. 1898)
 1964 – Eugen Saenger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b. 1905)
 1966 - Billy Rose, American composer (b. 1898)
 1975 - Nikos Kavvadias, Greek poet and writer (b. 1910)
1979 - Edvard Kardelj, Yugoslav Communist leader (b. 1910)
 1985 - Johnny Mokan, American baseball player (b. 1895)
 1990 - Bill Sherwood, American producer and composer (b. 1952)
 1992 – Alex Haley, American writer (b. 1921)
 2000 – Jim Varney, American actor (b. 1949)
From 2001 
 2001 – Abraham D. Beame, American politician and Mayor of New York City (b. 1906)
 2002 - Dave Van Ronk, American musician (b. 1936)
 2002 – Traudl Junge, Adolf Hitler's press secretary (b. 1920)
 2005 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (b. 1915)
 2008 – Roy Scheider, American actor (b. 1932)
 2009 - Jeremy Lusk, American motocross racer (b. 1984)
 2010 – Charles Wilson, American politician (b. 1933)
 2014 - Stuart Hall, Jamaican-British sociologist and cultural theorist (b. 1932)
 2014 - Doug Jarrett, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1944)
 2014 - Ronnie Masterson, Irish actress (b. 1926)
 2014 - Shirley Temple, American actress and diplomat (b. 1928)
 2015 - Deng Liqun, Chinese politician (b. 1915)
 2015 - Naseer Aruri, Palestinian scholar and activist (b. 1934)
 2015 - Karl Josef Becker, German theologian and cardinal (b. 1928)
 2016 - Phil Gartside, English businessman (b. 1952)
 2016 - Leo Ehlen, Dutch footballer (b. 1953)
2016 - Andrew L. Lewis, Jr., American business executive and politician (b. 1931)
 2016 - Eliseo Prado, Argentine footballer (b. 1929)
 2016 - Günter Schröter, German footballer (b. 1927)
 2016 - Claude Jeancolas, French writer, artist and journalist (b. 1949)
 2017 - Edward Bryant, American writer (b. 1945)
 2017 - Mike Ilitch, American businessman and sports owner (b. 1929)
 2017 - Piet Keizer, Dutch footballer (b. 1943)
 2017 - Yuriy Poyarkov, Ukrainian volleyball player (b. 1937)
 2017 - Hal Moore, American general and author (b. 1922)
 2017 - Tsuyoshi Yamanaka, Japanese swimmer (b. 1939)
 2018 - Jeff Bell, American politician (b. 1943)
 2018 - Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1938)
Observances 
 Feast of Saint Paul's Shipwreck (Malta)
 Fenkil Day (Eritrea)

Days of the year
Up to 1900 
 1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau was dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols.
 1270 - The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse.
 1279 – Afonso III of Portugal dies. His son Denis succeeds the Portuguese throne.
 1646 - The Battle of Torrington takes place in Devon, as the last major battle of the English Civil War.
 1742 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.
 1804 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate Philadelphia.
 1838 – Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal were killed by Zulus.
 1852 – Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established.
 1857 – The National Deaf Mute College (later renamed Gallaudet University) is established. in Washington, DC becoming the first school for the advanced education of the deaf.
1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
 1863 - Kansas State University is founded.
 1866 – Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes the British Secretary of State for War
 1868 – In New York City the Jolly Corks organization is renamed the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
 1874 - The Silver Dollar becomes the legal US tender.
 1881 - The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated.
 1883 – Ladies Home Journal is published for the first time.
 1899 – President Félix Faure of France dies in office.
 1899 - Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavikur, the first football club in Iceland, is founded.
1901  2000 
 1904 - The ship RRS Discovery is rescued from ice at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica after two years of being trapped in the ice, in an expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott. The ship Terra Nova was involved in the rescue operation.
 1918 – Lithuania declares its independence from both Russia and Germany.
 1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
 1930 - The Romanian Football Federation is founded.
 1934 – Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund
 1936 – Elections bring the Popular Front to power in Spain.
 1937 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
 1940 – Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark, with 299 British prisoners, was boarded in neutral Norwegian waters by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack and the prisoners set free, a breach of Norwegian neutrality at the beginning of World War II.
 1943 – World War II: Russia reconquers Kharkov.
1945 – World War II: American forces land on Corregidor island in the Philippines.
 1945 – American forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula.
 1948 – Gerard Kuiper discovers Miranda, a moon of Uranus.
 1952 - Greece and Turkey join NATO.
 1957 - The first Africa Cup of Nations football tournament is won by the Egypt national football team.
 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
 1960 - The United States Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sunblast, setting sail from New Haven, Connecticut to begin the first submerged circumnavigation (round-the-world journey) of the globe.
 1961 – Explorer 9 is launched. (See Explorer program).
 1962 - Northern Germany is affected by major flooding in the night to February 17. In Hamburg alone, 300 lives are lost.
 1964 - Willy Brandt succeeds Erich Ollenhauer  as leader of the SPD in West Germany.
 1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
1970 – Joe Frazier starts a heavyweight world boxing champion winning streak with the knock out of Jimmy Ellis in five rounds.
 1972 – NBA basketball player Wilt Chamberlain scores 30,000th point.
 1978 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
 1982 - Agatha Barbara becomes the first woman to be elected President of Malta.
 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 71 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
 1985 - Hezbollah is founded.
 1986 – The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
 1987 – The trial of John Demjanjuk, who was accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.
 1989 – Pan Am flight 103: Investigators announce that the cause of the crash was a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player.
 1990 - Sam Nujoma is elected to become the first President of Namibia, which becomes independent on March 21.
1991 – Gulf War: U.S. and U.K. war planes bomb the suburbs of Baghdad, injuring at least 11 civilians and killing three others.
 1998 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashed into a residential area near by Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, killing 202 people, included all 196 on board and six on the ground.
 1999 – In Uzbekistan a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov.
 1999 – Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
 1999 – In Jasper, Texas, the trial begins of John William King who is accused of dragging African American James Byrd Jr. to death in an apparent hate crime.
From 2001 
 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
 2005 – The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004–2005 regular season and playoffs, becoming the first major sports league in North America to do so over a labour dispute.
 2013 - A bomb blast in Quetta, Pakistan kills over 80 people.
 2015 - The Egyptian military begins conducting air strikes against militants from a branch of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Libya in retaliation for the group's beheading of several Egyptian Christians.
 2017 - At least 48 people are killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad.
 2017 - At least 80 people are killed in a bomb attack on a Sufi shrine in the province of Sindh, southern Pakistan.

Births
Up to 1900 
 1032 - Emperor Yingzong of Song of China (d. 1067)
 1222 – Nichiren, monk, founder of Nichiren Buddhism (d. 1282)
 1304 - Jayaatu Khan, Emperor Wenzong of Yuan (d. 1332)
 1331 - Coluccio Salutati, Italian humanist and politician (d. 1406)
 1497 – Philipp Melanchthon, German humanist and reformer (d. 1560)
 1519 – Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (d. 1572)
 1620 – Friedrich Wilhelm, called "Great Elector" of Brandenburg-Ducal Prussia (d. 1688)
 1665 - Queen Anne of Great Britain (d. 1714)
 1698 - Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician (d. 1758)
 1727 - Nikolaus von Jacquin, Austrian botanist and chemist (d. 1817)
 1740 - Giambattista Bodoni, Italian printmaker and publicist (d. 1813)
 1786 - Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (d. 1859)
 1791 - Claude Pouillet, French physicist (d. 1868)
 1802 - Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, American philosopher (d. 1866)
 1804 - Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold, German physiologist (d. 1885)
1812 – Henry Wilson, Vice President of the United States (d. 1875)
 1821 - Heinrich Barth, German explorer (d. 1865)
 1822 – Sir Francis Galton, English explorer, biologist (d. 1911)
 1824 – Peter Kozler, Slovenian cartographer, geographer (d. 1879)
 1826 – Joseph Victor von Scheffel, poet (d. 1886)
 1826 – Julia Grant, First Lady, wife of President Ulysses S. Grant (d. 1902)
 1831 – Nikolay Leskov, Russian writer (d. 1895)
 1834 – Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist and philosopher (d. 1919)
 1838 – Henry Adams, American historian and novelist (d. 1918)
 1847 - Philipp Scharwenka, Polish-German composer (d. 1917) 
 1848 – Octave Mirbeau, French writer (d. 1917)
 1852 – Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses (d. 1916)
 1856 - Rudolph Karstadt, German entrepreneur (d. 1944)
 1856 - Willem Kes, Dutch conductor (d. 1934)
 1876 – George Macaulay Trevelyan, historian (d. 1962)
 1884 – Robert J. Flaherty, American movie maker (d. 1951)
 1886 – Van Wyck Brooks, American historian, critic (d. 1963)
1887 - Kathleen Clifford, American actress (d. 1962)
 1896 - Roberto Chery, Uruguayan footballer (d. 1919)
 1896 – Eugenie Blanchard, French-Caribbean supercentenarian (d. 2010)
1901  1950 
 1901 - Vincent Coleman, American actor (d. 1971)
 1903 - Georges-Henri Lévesque, Canadian priest and sociologist (d. 2000)
 1903 – Edgar Bergen, ventriloquist (d. 1978)
 1904 – George F. Kennan, architect of Cold War policy of containment, centenarian (d. 2005)
 1906 - Vera Menchik, Russian-British chess player (d. 1944)
 1909 – Jeffrey Lynn, American actor (d. 1995)
 1909 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor (d. 1982)
 1909 - Dick McDonald, American businessman (d. 1998)
 1915 - Michael Relph, American movie producer and director (d. 2004)
 1916 - Duong Van Minh, South Vietnamese politician and general (d. 2001)
 1916 - Bill Doggett, American pianist and organist (d. 1996)
 1918 - Patty Andrews, American singer (d. 2013)
 1919 - Georges Ulmer, French singer and composer (d. 1989)
 1920 - Anna Mae Hays, American brigadier general
 1921 - Hua Guofeng, Chairman of the Communist Party of China (d. 2008)
 1921 - Araucaria, British crossword compiler (d. 2013)
1921 – Vera-Ellen, American actress (d. 1981)
 1923 - Samuel Willenberg, Polish-Israeli sculptor and painter (d. 2016)
 1925 - Carlos Paredes, Portuguese guitarist (d. 2004)
 1926 – John Schlesinger, American movie director (d. 2003)
 1926 – Margot Frank, sister of Anne Frank (d. 1945)
 1927 – June Brown, British actress
 1927 – Tom Kennedy, game show host
 1929 – Gerhard Hanappi, Austrian footballer (d. 1980)
 1929 - Kazimierz Kutz, Polish actor, director and politician
 1931 - Ken Takakura, Japanese actor (d. 2014)
 1931 – Otis Blackwell, American songwriter, singer (d. 2002)
 1932 – Antonio Ordóñez, Spanish matador (d. 1998)
 1932 – Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, former President of Sierra Leone (d. 2014)
 1934 - August Coppola, American academic (d. 2009)
 1934 - Marlene Hagge, American golfer
 1935 – Sonny Bono, American singer, music producer, television producer, Congressman (d. 1998)
 1935 - Stephen Gaskin, American activist (d. 2014)
 1935 - Brian Bedford, English actor (d. 2016)
1936 – Jill Kinmont, American skier
 1936 - Joe Frank Harris, American politician, former Governor of Georgia
 1937 - Valentin Bondarenko, Soviet-Ukrainian pilot (d. 1961)
 1937 - Yuri Manin, Russian mathematician
 1938 – John Corigliano, American Composer, wrote Academy Award winning music for The Red Violin
 1939 - Czeslaw Niemen, Polish singer-songwriter and composer (d. 2004)
 1940 - Hannelore Schmatz, German mountaineer (d. 1979)
 1941 – Kim Jong-Il, North Korean leader (d. 2011)
 1942 - Richard Williams, father of Venus Williams and Serena Williams
 1944 – Richard Ford, American Pulitzer Prize winning novelist
 1944 - Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro, 2nd President of Cape Verde
 1945 – Jeremy Bulloch, British actor
 1946 - Ian Lavender, British actor
 1948 - Kaiketsu Masateru, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 2014)
 1950 - Kazuki Tomokawa, Japanese singer
 1950 – Peter Hain, British politician
1951  1975 
 1951 – William Katt, American actor
 1952 - James Ingram, American singer, pianist and composer
 1953 - Lanny McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player
 1953 - Roberta Williams, American computer game developer
 1954 – Iain Banks, Scottish writer (d. 2013)
 1955 - Bruce Crawford, Scottish politician
 1955 – Margaux Hemingway, American actress, model (d. 1996)
 1956 - Bodo Ramelow, German politician, Prime Minister of Thuringia
 1957 – LeVar Burton, American actor, director and writer
 1958 – Ice-T, American singer, songwriter, actor
 1958 – Lisa Loring, American actress
 1958 - Anil Ramdas, Surinamese-Dutch journalist (d. 2012)
 1958 - Herb Williams, American basketball player and coach
 1959 – John McEnroe, American tennis player
 1959 - Kelly Tripucka, American basketball player
 1960 – Pete Willis, English ex-Def Leppard guitarist
 1961 – Andy Taylor, English musician, Duran Duran
 1964 – Christopher Eccleston, English actor (Our Friends in the North, Doctor Who)
1964 – Bebeto, Brazilian footballer
 1965 - Adama Barrow, President of the Gambia
 1965 - Dave Lombardo, Cuban drummer
 1966 - Martin Perscheid, German cartoonist
 1967 - Keith Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player
 1967 – John Valentin, American baseball player
 1969 - Holly Aird, English actress
 1970 – Angelo Peruzzi, Italian footballer
 1971 - Amanda Holden, English actress
 1971 - Steven Houghton, English actor and singer
 1972 – Jerome Bettis, American football player
 1972 – Taylor Hawkins, American musician (Foo Fighters)
 1972 - Grit Breuer, German athlete
 1972 - Sarah Clarke, American actress
 1973 – Cathy Freeman, Australian athlete
 1973 - Christian Bassedas, Argentine footballer
 1973 - Nikos Kostakis, Greek footballer
 1974 - Luis Figueroa, Puerto Rican baseball player
 1975 – Aikawa Nanase, Japanese musician
From 1976 
 1977 – Ian Clarke, creator of Freenet
 1978 - Vala Flosadottir, Icelandic pole vaulter
 1978 – Sam Salter, American singer
 1978 – Tia Hellebaut, Belgian athlete
 1978 - John Tartaglia, American actor
 1979 – Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racer
 1980 – Ashley Lelie, American football player
 1981 – Susanna Kallur, Swedish athlete
 1981 – Jenny Kallur, Swedish athlete
 1982 - Aleksandr Dmitrijev, Estonian footballer
 1982 - Rickie Lambert, English footballer
 1982 - Lee Min-jung, South Korean actress
 1983 – Agyness Deyn, English model
 1985 - Ron Vlaar, Dutch footballer
 1986 - Josje Huisman, Dutch singer, actress and dancer
 1986 - Diego Godin, Uruguayan footballer
 1987 - Luc Bourdon, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2008)
 1987 - Theresa Goh, Singaporean swimmer
 1987 - Hasheem Thabeet, American basketball player
 1988 - Zhang Jike, Chinese table tennis player
 1989 - Elizabeth Olsen, American actress
 1990 - The Weeknd, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
1991 - Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg
 1991 - Sergio Canales, Spanish footballer
 1993 - Mike Weinberg, American actor
 1994 - Annika Beck, German tennis player
 1995 - Carina Witthöft, German tennis player
Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1184 - Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canterbury
 1247 – Heinrich Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia (b. 1204)
 1279 – King Afonso III of Portugal (b. 1210)
 1390 - Rupert I, Elector Palatine (b. 1309)
 1391 – John V Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1332)
 1531 – Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1452)
 1560 – Jean du Bellay, French Catholic cardinal and diplomat
 1617 - Prospero Alpini, Italian scientist (b. 1553)
 1645 - Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba, Spanish military leader and politician (b. 1585)
 1710 – Esprit Fléchier, French writer and Bishop of Nîmes (b. 1632)
 1721 – James Craggs the Younger, English politician (b. 1686)
 1754 – Richard Mead, English physician (b. 1763)
 1892 - Henry Walter Bates, English naturalist, evolutionary biologist and entomologist (b. 1825)
 1898 – Thomas Bracken, New Zealand poet (b. 1843)
 1899 - Félix Faure, President of France (b. 1841)
1901  2000 
 1907 – Giosuè Carducci, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1835)
 1912 – St. Nikolai of Japan, Eastern Orthodox priest (b. 1836)
 1917 – Octave Mirbeau, French writer (b. 1848)
 1924 - John William Kendrick, American railroad executive (b. 1853)
 1927 – Jonas Basanavicius, Lithuanian independence hero (b. 1851)
 1928 – Eddie Foy, American singer and dancer (b. 1856)
 1932 – Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1841)
 1944 - Dadasaheb Phalke, Indian director, screenwriter and producer (b. 1870)
 1957 - Josef Hofmann, Polish inventor, composer and pianist (b. 1876)
 1957 - John Sealy, Irish physicist (b. 1868)
 1961 - Dazzy Vance, American baseball player (b. 1891)
 1967 – Antonio Moreno, Spanish-born actor (b. 1887)
 1967 - Smiley Burnette, American actor, singer and songwriter (b. 1911)
 1974 – John Garand, Canadian rifle engineer and manufacturer (b. 1888)
 1975 – Morgan Taylor, American athlete (b. 1903)
1977 - Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet (b. 1897)
 1978 – E. Roland Harriman, American financier (b. 1895)
 1980 – Erich Hückel, German physicist (b. 1895)
 1990 – Keith Haring, American artist (b. 1958)
 1991 - Enrique Bermudez, leader of the Nicaraguan Contras (b. 1932)
 1992 – Angela Carter, English writer (b. 1940)
 1992 – Herman Wold, Swedish statistician (b. 1908)
 1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (b. 1936)
 1996 – Pat Brown, Governor of California (b. 1905)
 1996 – Brownie McGhee, American singer (b. 1915)
 1996 – Roger Bowen, American actor (b. 1932)
 2000 – Karsten Solheim, engineer, inventor
From 2001 
 2001 – Bob Buhl, baseball player (b. 1928)
 2001 – William Masters, American gynecologist and sexologist (b. 1915)
 2001 - Howard W. Koch, American movie director (b. 1916)
 2002 – Walter Winterbottom, England football manager (b. 1913)
 2003 - Rusty Magee, American composer (b. 1955)
 2004 – Shirley Strickland, Australian athlete (b. 1925)
 2004 – Doris Troy, American singer (b. 1937)
 2005 - Narriman Sadek, former Queen of Egypt
 2005 – Nicole DeHuff, American actress (pneumonia) (b. 1974)
 2007 – Sheridan Morley, English writer, actor and director (b. 1941)
 2009 - Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, South Korean cardinal (b. 1922)
 2011 - Len Lesser, American actor (b. 1922)
 2012 - Baddeley Devesi, Governor-General of the Solomon Islands (b. 1941)
 2012 - Anil Ramdas, Surinamese-Dutch journalist (b. 1958)
 2012 - Anthony Shadid, American journalist (b. 1968)
 2013 - Tony Sheridan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1940)
2014 - Mansour Koushan, Norwegian-Iranian poet, writer and director (b. 1948)
 2014 - Jimmy Murakami, American animator and movie director (b. 1933)
 2014 - Michael Shea, American writer (b. 1946)
 2015 - John Davies, Welsh historian (b. 1938)
 2015 - Lesley Gore, American singer, songwriter, actress and activist (b. 1946)
 2015 - Uri Orbach, Israeli writer, journalist and politician (b. 1960)
 2015 - R. R. Patil, Indian politician (b. 1956)
 2015 - Lasse Braun, Italian director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1936)
 2015 - Aleksandr Melentyev, Russian short shooter (b. 1954)
 2015 - Heinrich Windelen, German politician (b. 1921)
 2016 - Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian Secretary-General of the United Nations (b. 1922)
 2016 - Belinda Nash, Canadian-American historian (b. 1946)
 2016 - Charles Caldwell Ryrie, American theologian (b. 1925)
 2016 - Robert J. Walker, American sailor (b. 1929)
 2017 - Josef Augusta, Czech ice hockey player and coach (b. 1946)
2017 - Dick Bruna, Dutch author and illustrator (b. 1927)
 2017 - Ep Wieldraaijer, Dutch politician (b. 1927)
 2017 - George Steele, American professional wrestler (b. 1937)
 2017 - Jannis Kounellis, Greek-Italian artist (b. 1936)
Observances
 Independence Day (Lithuania)
 Birthday of Kim Jong-Il (North Korea)

Days of the year
Up to 1900 
 197 – Septimius Severus becomes lone Emperor of the Roman Empire.
 357 - Emperor Constantius II issues a decree closing all Pagan temples in the Roman Empire.
 1594 – Polish-Lithuanian King Sigismund III Vasa is crowned King of Sweden.
 1600 - Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in a violent eruption.
 1674 – England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster to end the Third Anglo-Dutch War. As part of the deal, New Amsterdam is transferred to English control, leading to it being renamed as New York.
 1771 – Charles Messier discovers the Messier 49 Galaxy.
 1803 – Thomas Jefferson recognises Ohio as the 17th US State. This is only made official later.
 1807 – Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama on charges of treason.
 1819 – Explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands near Antarctica.
 1845 – The US annexes Texas.
1860 - Passenger steamer "Hungarian" of the Canadian-British Allan Line is tossed against cliffs on Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Eastern Canada, killing all 205 people on board.
 1861 – Serfdom is abolished in Russia.
 1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
 1884 - Over 60 tornadoes hit the Southern United States.
1901  2000 
 1915 – The first naval attack on the Dardanelles begins when a strong Anglo-French force bombs Ottoman artillery along the coast of Gallipoli.
 1928 - The Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, end.
 1942 – World War II: 250 Japanese warplanes bomb the city of Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory, killing 243 people.
 1942 - United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Order 9066, leading to the moving of Japanese Americans to internment camps.
 1945 – World War II: 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima (Battle of Iwo Jima)
 1959 – The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which it gains on August 16, 1960.
 1960 - China successfully launches the T-7, the first sounding rocket.
 1960 - German skier Georg Thoma becomes the first person from outside Scandinavia to win the Olympic gold medal in the Nordic Combined event, at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California.
 1968 - Mister Rogers' Neighborhood airs its first episode on PBS with host Fred Rogers
1976 - United States President Gerald Ford reverses Order 9066, which had Japanese Americans being moved to internment camps.
 1978 – At least 10 Egyptian commandos are killed in a gun battle with Greek Cypriot soldiers at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus.
 1985 – Iberia Airlines Flight 610 crashes near Bilbao, killing all 148 people on board.
 1985 - William J. Schroeder becomes the first person to both receive an artificial heart and be able to leave hospital.
 1985 - EastEnders is first broadcast on the BBC.
 1986 – The Soviet Union launches the Mir spacecraft.
 1986 – The Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers in the eastern Province.
From 2001 
 2001 – Foot and Mouth Disease is discovered at an abattoir in Essex, leading to an outbreak across the United Kingdom.
 2001 – The Oklahoma City bombing museum is officially opened.
 2002 – NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars, using its thermal imaging system.
 2003 - An Ilyushin II-76 military aircraft crashes near Kerman, Iran, killing 275 people.
 2006 – A methane explosion at a coal mine  near Nueva Rosita, Mexico, kills 65 people.
 2008 – Fidel Castro announces his resignation as President of Cuba. His brother, Raul Castro, succeeds him.
 2010 – Chemical Element 112 is named Copernicium.
 2011 - The first exhibition of the Belitung Shipwreck, containing the largest collection of Tang Dynasty artefacts found in one location, begins in Singapore.
 2012 – Iran suspends oil exports to the United Kingdom and France, in response to an embargo imposed by the EU.
Up to 1900 
 1473 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer and mathematician (d. 1543)
 1626 – February 18/19 – Francesco Redi, physician (d. 1697)
 1630 – Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire (d. 1680)
 1660 – Friedrich Hoffmann, physician and chemist (d. 1742)
 1717 – David Garrick, actor (d. 1779)
 1733 - Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (d. 1782)
 1743 – Luigi Boccherini, Italian composer (d. 1805)
 1754 - Vincenzo Monti, Italian writer (d. 1828)
 1789 - William Fairbairn, Scottish engineer (d. 1874)
 1798 – Allan MacNab, Canadian politician (d. 1862)
 1799 - Ferdinand Reich, German chemist and physicist (d. 1882)
 1802 – Wilhelm Matthias Näff, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1881)
 1804 – David Wark, Canadian politician and Senator (d. 1905)
 1817 – King William III of the Netherlands (d. 1890)
 1821 – August Schleicher, German linguist (d. 1868)
 1833 – Elie Ducommun, Swiss journalist (d. 1906)
 1843 - Adelina Patti, Italian opera singer (d. 1919)
1855 - Nishinoumi Kajiro I, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 1908)
 1859 – Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)
 1863 - Augusto B. Leguia, President of Peru (d. 1932)
 1865 – Sven Hedin, Swedish scientist and adventurer (d. 1952)
 1865 - Ferdinand Löwe, Austrian conductor (d. 1925)
 1866 - Thomas Jefferson Jackson See, American astronomer (d. 1962)
 1869 – Hovhannes Tumanyan, Armenian writer and poet (d. 1923)
 1873 - Louis Feuillade, French director (d. 1925)
 1876 – Constantin Brancusi, Romanian sculptor (d. 1957)
 1877 - George Melford, American director (d. 1961)
 1877 – Gabriele Münter, German painter (d. 1962)
 1879 - Luigj Gurakuqi, Albanian writer and politician (d. 1925)
 1880 – Alvaro Obregon, President of Mexico (d. 1928)
 1888 – Aurora Quezon, First Lady of the Philippines (d. 1949)
 1888 – José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian writer (d. 1928)
 1893 – Cedric Hardwicke, British actor, director and producer (d. 1964)
 1895 - Louis Calhern, American actor (d. 1956)
1895 - Diego Mazquiaran, Spanish matador (d. 1940)
 1896 - André Breton, French poet (d. 1966)
 1897 - Alma Rubens, American actress (d. 1931)
 1899 - Yury Olesha, Russian novelist (d. 1960)
1901  1950 
 1901 – Florence Green, British supercentenarian and last-surviving World War I service veteran (d. 2012)
 1903 - Orma Slack, Canadian supercentenarian (d. 2015)
 1910 - William Grey Walter, American-British neurophysiologist (d. 1977)
 1910 – Dorothy Janis, American actress (d. 2010)
 1911 – Merle Oberon, British actress (d. 1979)
 1911 – Bill Bowerman, American athletics coach (d. 1999)
 1912 – Stan Kenton, American musician (d. 1979)
 1915 - John Freeman, English politician (d. 2014)
 1916 – Eddie Arcaro, American jockey (d. 1997)
 1917 – Carson McCullers, American writer (d. 1967)
 1920 – Jaan Kross, Estonian writer (d. 2007)
 1920 – George Rose, British music hall entertainer (d. 1988)
 1922 - Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Polish historian, publicist and politician (d. 2015)
 1924 – David Bronstein, Ukrainian chess player (d. 2006)
 1924 – Lee Marvin, American actor (d. 1987)
 1926 - Egisto Pandolfino, Italian footballer
 1928 – Nicolas Hayek, Swiss watchmaker (d. 2010)
1930 – John Frankenheimer, American movie director (d. 2002)
 1930 - Kasinathuni Viswanath, Indian film director
 1931 - Camillo Ruini, Italian cardinal
 1932 - Joseph P. Kerwin, American NASA astronaut
 1932 - Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, French theater director (d. 1988)
 1937 - Boris Pugo, Soviet-Latvian politician
 1937 - David Margulies, American actor (d. 2016)
 1938 - Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama (d. 1989)
 1939 - Erin Pizzey, British activist, writer and briadcaster
 1939 – Alfredo Bryce-Echenique, Peruvian novelist
 1940 – Smokey Robinson, American musician
 1940 - Bobby Rogers, American singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
 1940 – Saparmurat Niyazov, former President of Turkmenistan (d. 2006)
 1940 – Andrzej Strejlau, Polish footballer, coach and handball player
 1941 – David Gross, American physicist
 1941 - Jenny Tonge, Baroness Tonge, English politician
 1942 - Will Provine, American historian and scientist (d. 2015)
 1942 - Howard Stringer, former CEO of Sony
1942 – Paul Krause, American football player
 1943 – Lou Christie, American singer
 1943 – Tim Hunt, British biochemist
 1943 - Robert Trivers, American sociobiologist and evolutionary biologist
 1945 – Michael Nader, American actor
 1946 – Karen Silkwood, American activist (d. 1974)
 1946 - Carolyn Maloney, American politician
 1947 - Tim Shadbolt, Mayor of Invercargill, New Zealand
 1948 – Tony Iommi, British musician (Black Sabbath)
 1948 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician (d. 2002)
 1949 – Dan Bunten, American software developer (d. 1998)
 1949 - Eddie Hardin, English rock music pianist (d. 2015)
1951  1975 
 1951 – Tahir-ul-Qadri, Islamic scholar and leader
 1952 – Danilo Türk, former President of Slovenia
 1952 – Amy Tan, American novelist
 1952 – Rodolfo Neri Vela, Mexican astronaut
 1953 – Massimo Troisi, Italian actor (d. 1994)
 1953 – Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, President of Argentina
 1953 – Conrad Murray, American doctor, Michael Jackson's personal physician
 1954 – Socrates, Brazilian footballer and qualified physician (d. 2011)
 1954 – Francis Buchholz, German musician (Scorpions)
 1955 – Jeff Daniels, actor
 1956 – Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist
 1957 – Falco, Austrian singer (d. 1998)
 1957 – Ray Winstone, British actor
 1958 – Helen Fielding, British writer
 1960 – Prince Andrew, second son of Queen Elizabeth II
 1960 - Leslie Ash, English actress
 1961 – Justin Fashanu, English footballer (d. 1998)
 1962 – Hana Mandlikova, Czech-born Australian tennis player
 1963 – Seal, British singer
 1964 - Jonathan Lethem, American writer
1965 – Michael Westphal, German tennis player (d. 1991)
 1966 – Justine Bateman, American actress
 1966 - Enzo Scifo, Belgian footballer
 1966 – Paul Haarhuis, tennis player
 1967 – Benicio Del Toro, Puerto-Rican actor
 1968 - Frank Watkins, American musician (d. 2015)
 1972 - Malky Mackay, Scottish football manager
 1973 - Eric Lange, American actor
From 1976 
 1976 - Jahidi White, American basketball player
 1977 – Gianluca Zambrotta, Italian footballer
 1979 – Andrew Buchan, British actor
 1979 – Steven Cherundolo, American soccer player
 1979 – Eva-Maria Bisschop, Belgian pop star
 1980 - Ma Lin, Chinese table tennis player
 1981 - Vitas, Russian singer
 1981 – Nicky Shorey, English footballer
 1981 - Kyle Martino, American footballer
 1981 - Beth Ditto, American singer
 1981 - Baiba Skride, Latvian classical violinist
 1982 - Camelia Potec, Romanian swimmer
 1983 – Nick Zoricic, Canadian skier (d. 2012)
 1985 – Haylie Duff, American singer and actress
 1985 - Arielle Kebbel, American actress
 1986 - Björn Gustafsson, Swedish comedian
 1986 - Henri Karjalainen, Finnish racing driver
 1986 – Maria Mena, Norwegian singer
 1986 – Marta Vieira da Silva, Brazilian footballer
 1988 - Miyu Irino, Japanese voice actor
 1989 – Sone Aluko, former Aberdeen F.C. footballer
 1991 - Christoph Kramer, German footballer
1992 - Helene Hegemann, German writer, director and actress
 1992 - Georgi Milanov, Bulgarian footballer
 1993 – Victoria Justice, American actress
2004 – Millie Bobby Brown, English actress
Deaths

Up to 1900 
 197 - Clodius Albinus, Roman Governor of Britain
 1133 - Irene Ducaena, Byzantine Empress (b. 1066)
 1553 – Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1511)
 1605 – Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer (b. 1550)
 1653 – Luigi de Rossi, Italian composer (b. 1597)
 1663 - Adam Adami, German bishop and diplomat (b. 1603)
 1670 – King Frederick III of Denmark (b. 1609)
 1672 - Charles Chauncy, English-born President of Harvard College (b. 1592)
 1709 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (b. 1646)
 1716 - Yostos, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. before 1690)
 1716 – Dorothe Engelbretsdotter, Norwegian writer (b. 1634)
 1789 – Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware (b. 1738)
 1799 – Jean-Charles de Borda, French scientist (b. 1733)
 1837 – Georg Büchner, German playwright (b. 1813)
 1863 - Roger Sherman Baldwin, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1793)
 1868 - Venancio Flores, Uruguayan general and politician (b. 1808)
 1887 - Multatuli, Dutch writer (b. 1820)
1901  2000 
 1915 - Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian philosopher and politician (b. 1866)
 1916 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (b. 1838)
 1927 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer (b. 1847)
 1936 – Billy Mitchell, American general and military aviation pioneer (b. 1879)
 1945 - Fay Moulton, American sprinter, football player, coach and lawyer (b. 1876)
 1951 – André Gide, French writer (b. 1869)
 1952 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian writer (b. 1859)
 1957 – Maurice Garin, French cyclist (b. 1871)
 1958 - Charles King, American athlete (b. 1880)
 1962 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek doctor (b. 1883)
 1968 - Georg Hackenschmidt, Estonian-English strongman and wrestler (b. 1877)
 1972 – John Grierson, Scottish documentary movie maker (b. 1898)
 1973 - Kostas Negrepontis, Greek footballer (b. 1897)
 1973 – Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (b. 1892)
 1975 - Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (b. 1904)
 1980 - Bon Scott, singer (AC/DC) (b. 1946)
 1983 - Alice White, American actress (b. 1904)
1986 - Adolfo Celi, Italian actor and director (b. 1927)
 1988 – André Frédéric Cournand, French-born physician (b. 1895)
 1990 - Edris Rice-Wray, American physician (b. 1904)
 1994 - Derek Jarman, British movie director (b. 1942)
 1996 - Antonio Creus, Spanish racing driver (b. 1924)
 1997 – Deng Xiaoping, Chinese Communist leader (b. 1904)
 1998 – Grandpa Jones, American entertainer (b. 1913)
 2000 – Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (b. 1928)
From 2001 
 2001 – Stanley Kramer, American director (b. 1913)
 2003 - Johnny Paycheck, American singer (b. 1938)
 2008 – Lydia Shum, Hong Kong actress and singer (b. 1945)
 2010 – Lionel Jeffries, British actor (b. 1926)
 2011 - Ollie Matson, American football player (b. 1930)
 2011 – Dietrich Stobbe, German politician and Mayor of Berlin (b. 1938)
 2012 – Ruth Barcan Marcus, American philosopher and logician (b. 1921)
 2012 – Renato Dulbecco, Italian virologist and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1914)
 2013 - Armen Alchian, Armenian-American economist (b. 1914)
 2013 - Eva Bergh, Norwegian actress (b. 1926)
 2013 - Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist (b. 1937)
 2013 - Donald Richie, American author (b. 1924)
 2014 - Valeri Kubasov, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (b. 1935)
 2014 - Dale Gardner, American astronaut (b. 1948)
 2014 - Toni Ucci, Italian actor and comedian (b. 1922)
 2014 - Kresten Bjerre, Danish footballer (b. 1946)
 2014 - Simon Diaz, Venezuelan folk singer and composer (b. 1928)
2015 - Harris Wittels, American television producer and writer (b. 1984)
 2016 - Tamerlan Aguzarov, Russian politician (b. 1963)
 2016 - Harper Lee, American writer (b. 1926)
 2016 - William O'Brien, English naval officer (b. 1916)
 2016 - Vi Subversa, English musician (b. 1935)
 2016 - Samuel Willenberg, Polish-Israeli sculptor (b. 1923)
 2016 - Umberto Eco, Italian writer and philosopher (b. 1932)
 2016 - Bruno Zuppiger, Swiss politician (b. 1952)
 2017 - Alejandro Atchugarry, Uruguayan lawyer and politician (b. 1952)
 2017 - Kaci Kullmann Five, Norwegian politician (b. 1951)
 2017 - Larry Coryell, American jazz guitarist (b. 1943)
 2017 - Altamas Kabir, 39th Chief Justice of India (b. 1948)
 2017 - Igor Shafarevich, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician (b. 1923)
 2017 - Danuta Szaflarska, Polish actress (b. 1915)
 2017 - John S. Wold, American politician (b. 1916)
 2017 - Roman Zhuravskyi, Ukrainian footballer (b. 1948)
Observances 
 Armed Forces Day (Mexico)
 Flag Day (Turkmenistan)
 Shivaji Jayanti (Maharashtra in India)

References

Days of the year
Up to 1900 
 1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.
 1554 - In present-day Chile, Mapuche forces under leadership of Lautaro, score a victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Mairihueno.
 1574 – The 5th holy war against the Huguenots begins in France.
 1660 – Charles XI becomes King of Sweden.
 1732 – First performance of George Frideric Handel's Orlando, in London.
 1778 – American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
 1820 – Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
 1836 – The Siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
 1847 – Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista – In Mexico, American troops defeat Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna.
 1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, DC after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.
1870 – Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
 1874 – Walter Winfield patents a game called "sphairistike" which is more commonly called lawn tennis.
 1883 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
 1886 - Charles Martin Hall produces the first samples of man-made aluminium.
 1887 – The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
 1893 – Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine.
 1898 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse", a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Captain Alfred Dreyfus in jail.
 1900 – Battle of Hart's Hill: In South Africa the Boers and British troops battle.
1901  1950 
 1903 – Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
 1904 – For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
 1905 – Chicago, Illinois attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
 1909 – The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
 1917 - Beginning of the February Revolution in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
 1918 - The last monarch of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Adolphus Frederick IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, commits suicide.
 1918 - The Red Army recruits its first soldiers.
 1919 – Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.
 1927 – The Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
1927 - German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.
 1934 – Léopold III becomes King of Belgium.
 1940 – World War II: Soviet Union troops conquer Lasi Island.
 1940 – The animated movie Pinocchio is released.
 1941 - Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Glenn T. Seaborg.
 1942 - World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the California coast near Santa Barbara.
 1943 - Fire breaks out in St. Joseph's Orphanage in County Cavan, Ireland, killing 35 children and one adult.
 1944 - The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the north Caucasus to Central Asia.
 1945 – Early in the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Surabachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize.
1945 – World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
 1945 – World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań, city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
 1945 – World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.
 1947 – International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is founded.
1951  2000 
 1954 – The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
 1955 – First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
 1955 – Edgar Faure becomes Prime Minister of France
 1956 – Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality".
 1957 – The founding congress of the Senegalese Popular Bloc is opened in Dakar.
 1958 – Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
 1966 – A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government.
 1970 – Forbes Burnham declares Guyana a republic, severing ties to the British crown.
 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
 1975 – In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly two months early in the United States.
 1980 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
1981 – 23-F, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
 1982 - In a referendum in Greenland, most voters choose to leave the European Economic Community.
 1983 – The Spanish Socialist government of Felipe González and Miguel Boyer nationalizes Rumasa, a holding of José María Ruiz Mateos.
 1983 – The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
 1987 – A supernova is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud (see Supernova 1987a).
 1991 – Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.
 1991 – Thailand: General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
 1992 – The Socialist Labour Party is founded in Georgia.
 1993 – Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
1995 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33, closing above 4,000 for the first time.
 1997 – A large fire occurs in the Russian Space station, Mir, though it is extinguished after 14 minutes, without anyone on board coming to harm.
 1997 - A fire disaster in Orissa, India kills over 100 people.
 1998 – Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
 1998 – Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
 1998 – Netscape Communications Corporation announces the foundation of mozilla.org, to co-ordinate the development of the open source Mozilla web browser.
 1999 – Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
 1999 – White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr by dragging him behind a truck for two miles.
 1999 – An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.
From 2001 
 2002 - In Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt is kidnapped by FARC guerrillas.
 2005 - In France, a controversial law on the teaching of French colonialism is passed. After protests, the law is abandoned about a year later.
 2005 – Slovakia Summit 2005 begins, marking the first occasion when a sitting American President visits Slovakia; Bush and Putin are in attendance.
 2007 – A passenger train crashes near Grayrigg, Cumbria, killing 1 person and injuring 22.
 2010 - Unknown criminals pour more than 2.5 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the River Lambro in Northern Italy, sparking an environmental disaster.
 2014 - The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Southern Russia, end. The host nation, Russia, ends the games with the most gold medals, making it the second Winter Olympics in a row in which the host country achieves this (after Canada in 2010).
Up to 1900 
 1417 – Pope Paul II (d. 1471)
 1443 – Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (d. 1490)
 1583 - Jean-Baptiste Morin, French mathematician, astrologer and astronomer (d. 1656)
 1633 – Samuel Pepys, English naval officer and diarist (d. 1703)
 1646 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (d. 1709)
 1649 - John Blow, English composer (d. 1708)
 1664 – Georg Dietrich Leyding, German composer and organist (d. 1710)
 1680 - Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, French Governor of Louisiana (d. 1767)
 1685 – Georg Friedrich Handel, German/British Baroque composer (d. 1759)
 1723 - Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (d. 1791)
 1729 - Josiah Hornblower, American statesman (d. 1809)
 1730 - Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti, Austrian composer (d. 1793)
 1744 - Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German-born banker (d. 1812)
 1751 - Henry Dearborn, American statesman (d. 1829)
 1792 – Jose Joaquin de Herrera, President of Mexico (d. 1854)
 1803 – John Sutter, Swiss pioneer in California (d. 1880)
1809 - William Sprague, American minister and politician (d. 1868)
 1817 – George Frederic Watts, British painter (d. 1904)
 1821 - Amos T. Akerman, United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1880)
 1842 – Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher (d. 1906)
 1846 - Luigi Denza, Italian composer (d. 1922)
 1850 – César Ritz, Swiss hotelier (d. 1918)
 1852 – Duc Duc, Emperor of Vietnam (d. 1883)
 1868 - Anna Hoffman-Uddgren, Swedish director and actress (d. 1947)
 1868 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American academic, writer and social activist (d. 1963)
 1873 – Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (d. 1929)
 1874 – Konstantin Pats, President of Estonia (d. 1956)
 1879 – Kazimir Malevich, Russian painter (d. 1935)
 1883 – Karl Jaspers, German psychiatrist and philosopher (d. 1969)
 1884 - Casimir Funk, Polish biochemist (d. 1967)
 1889 – Victor Fleming, American movie director (d. 1949)
 1889 - John Gilbert Winant, 60th Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1949)
 1889 - Musidora, French actress and singer (d. 1957)