Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
During her short reign, Jane lived in the Tower of London. She became a prisoner there, as the Privy Council decided to change sides and proclaim Mary as queen, on 19 July 1553. Wyatt's rebellion in January and February 1554 against Queen Mary's plans of a Spanish match was the direct cause of Jane's and her husband's execution.

Family 
She was the daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and Lady Frances Brandon (16 July 1517 – 20 November 1559), the daughter of Henry VIII's sister, Mary. She was born on 12 October 1537 and she was probably named after Jane Seymour (c. 1508 or 1509 – 24 October 1537). Jane had two younger sisters, Catherine (b. 1540) and Mary (b. 1545).

Early life 
Jane's parents were very strict even by the standards of the day. If she made mistakes in her studies or had any other normal troubles, her mother would slap her or beat her. She found she loved her nurse, but otherwise lived a sad childhood.
She told a visiting scholar Roger Ascham: 
"For when I am in the presence of either Father or Mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it as it were in such weight, measure and number, even so perfectly as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yes presently sometimes with pinches, nips and bobs and other ways ... that I think myself in hell".

When Jane was nine, she was sent to the royal court to learn etiquette and manners with Henry VIII's sixth wife and eventual widow, Catherine Parr. Jane liked Catherine a great deal and found love with her, which she had not got from her parents. It was clear that Catherine was very fond of Jane in return.

Jane also found friendship with her cousin and future king Edward VI. They often studied together.
Jane was well educated as a child and learned to read in Latin, Greek, French and Italian, as well as English. Later in her life, she also learned Hebrew.

Parents' political ambitions 
Jane's parents, especially her mother,  wanted to gain more political influence. For that reason, they wanted to marry her to someone important. Jane had two sisters, Catherine, born in 1540, and Mary, born in 1545. After her sisters were born, her parents tried to marry Jane to her cousin Edward VI. They went to Catherine Parr's new husband, Thomas Seymour, to try to prepare this royal marriage. It is likely that King Edward loved Jane. However, he decided to arrange a marriage with a foreign princess instead.
In 1548, Jane was sent to Chelsea to be with Catherine Parr and Thomas Seymour. Catherine Parr became pregnant that same year and the family moved to Sudeley Castle in June, taking Jane with them. Tragedy struck when Catherine Parr died while having the baby in August of that year and Jane served as chief mourner in her funeral.

Jane was dealt another blow in 1549 when Thomas Seymour was arrested on charges of treason. She was sent back to her angered parents. They knew that their hopes of her marriage to the king were ruined; they punished her cruelly for this, even though it was not her fault.

Youth 
In 1551 Jane's mother's two half-brothers died of the "sweating sickness", a contagious disease that caused a series of epidemics, 1485 to 1551.  Since Frances's father was dead, she became Duchess of Suffolk. Jane's father became Duke of Suffolk.  In the same year John Dudley was made the Duke of Northumberland and the chief councillor to Edward VI.
John Dudley's plot 
In April 1552 Edward became sick with the measles and caught tuberculosis as well.  By next year, Edward was so ill that he was weak and spitting up blood or something that was greenish-yellow. It was clear that he was going to die soon.

Dudley knew that if either of Edward's half-sisters, Mary or Elizabeth, became queen, he would not be powerful anymore.  Dudley plotted with Jane's equally ambitious parents and planned that Jane became his ward, and also that she marry his son, Guildford Dudley.  Jane's mother decided to give up her claim to be queen for Jane. This did not mean that Frances was any less greedy, however. This meant that Jane would become Frances and Dudley's puppet and do what they wanted. Now Jane would be the next in line to the throne if the rights of the princesses Mary and Elizabeth were ignored.
Marriage 
When Jane's mother and father told her that Jane was going to get married, Jane refused. She said that Guildford was ugly, stupid, and rude. She also hated John Dudley. When Jane refused, Frances and Henry swore at Jane and slapped her. This did not work, so Frances gave Jane a brutal whipping. Finally, Jane agreed.
The wedding between Jane and Guildford happened on 25 May 1553. This became a triple marriage because Jane's sister, Katherine, was married at this time to Lord Herbert, and Guildford's sister, Katherine, was also married to Lord Hastings.

Accession 
On 6 July 1553, King Edward VI died. Dudley's plan to make Jane queen was starting to take place. Edward's death was kept secret for a few days until Jane could be proclaimed queen.
Jane was told by her parents and John Dudley that she was queen. She became sick with fright and fainted. She did not want to take the crown.
"The crown is not my right. It pleaseth me not. The Lady Mary is the rightful heir," Jane said. Her parents swore at her and John Dudley told her that she "doth wrong to herself and her house". Under pressure, Jane finally relented. Lady Jane said she never forgave herself for doing this.

Meanwhile, news was spreading that Jane had been proclaimed the new queen. Although the people liked Jane, they loved Mary and Elizabeth more. They also did not like John Dudley. In East Anglia, Mary was gaining support and planning to march into London. Dudley tried to enforce a counter-attack but to no avail. On 19 July Mary became queen. Jane was queen for nine days.
Imprisonment 
Jane returned all the crown jewels and clothes. She was then brought into the Tower of London. There, she was kept in a cell for the next few months. However, she was allowed to walk in the garden. She wrote many letters and read many books while at the Tower of London. She wrote a letter to Queen Mary saying that she never wanted the crown. 
Queen Mary believed Jane and refused to execute her cousin. Many people pressured Mary, but she was stubborn. She still ordered that a trial be held for traditional purposes. Jane was found guilty but the Queen pardoned her.
However, the next year, 1554, a group of rebels under Thomas Wyatt, including Jane's father Henry Grey, led a rebellion against Queen Mary because she was planning to marry prince Phillip II of Spain. It was quickly put down. Although Jane had nothing to do with it and Mary did not want to kill her cousin, her advisors told her that Phillip would only come if Jane was killed. So, with a heavy heart (sadly), Queen Mary signed the death warrant. Jane was going to be beheaded.

Effects 
When Jane was told that her head was going to be cut off, she was very scared. Nonetheless, she was happy that her "sad and woeful days" of life were finally coming to an end.
Meanwhile, Mary still did not want to kill her cousin. So, she sent a Catholic priest Dr. Feckenham to try to convert Jane to Catholicism. That way, Jane would not be a threat. Jane was a firm Protestant, and refused to become a Catholic. Jane's execution was postponed from 9 February to 12 February, to try and make her a Catholic. The night before the execution, Jane wrote many letters to her family and prepared her neck for the block. The next morning, her hair was tied back, and she watched Guildford go very unwillingly to the block. Then it was her turn.

Execution 

On 12 February 1554, at the Tower of London, Jane was sent to the scaffold.  She calmly climbed the scaffold and said a speech. She said the Psalm 51, a prayer for divine mercy, in "the most devout manner". She then knelt by the block and tied a piece of cloth around her eyes.
When the executioner told her to put her head on the block, she reached out but could not find the block since she was very scared. She cried for help until someone grabbed her hands and helped her find the block. Jane then put her neck above the block and slowly lowered it onto the block, pressed her neck against the wood and fit her chin in the hold. Then she brought her arms around her. Before she was executed, she cried out "Lord, into thy hands, I commend my spirit!"

Some say her last words were the name of her much loved husband, Lord Guildford.

Beheading
Beheading 

The crowd watched as the executioner raised the axe high in the air. Jane was shivering badly but her neck stayed perfectly still. Then, the executioner quickly swung the axe down perfectly at the middle of Jane's neck, which was severed in a single stroke. Jane's severed head fell to the straw in front of the block while huge amounts of blood splattered across the scaffold. The executioner then grabbed Jane's head by her red hair and lifted it up to show the crowd. He shouted "So perish all the Queen's enemies! Behold the head of a traitor!"

But some sources suggest the fact that it took three shots to remove Lady Jane's head.

Burial
Burial 

After the crowd left, the blood was removed, and Jane's body was brought to the church St. Peter ad Vincula. Since the church had just become Catholic and Jane was a Protestant, they had to get permission from Queen Mary to bury her. It was four hours until her maids were allowed to prepare her body for burial. Jane's body was buried between former Queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. It is unknown what happened to her severed head.

References

Further reading 
 
 Ives, Eric (2009). Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery. Malden MA; Oxford UK: Wiley-Blackwell. 
 Loades, David (1996), John Dudley Duke of Northumberland. 1504–1553, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 
 Cook, Faith (2005). The Nine Day Queen of England. Evangelical Press. 

1537 births
1554 deaths
English Anglicans
Executed English people
House of Tudor
People executed by decapitation
Royalty from London
16th century in England
The Tower of London is a Norman stone fortress in London, England. It stands on the bank of the River Thames, in the oldest part of the city.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

History
The fortress was built by William the Conqueror, King William I, starting in 1078. The moat was built by Richard I, using water diverted from the River Thames.

The Tower had many uses. Its main function was to protect Norman rule in the years after the conquest. It was a prison, and a place of execution. Today, the Crown Jewels are kept there. This is the collection of jewels owned by the British state, and sometimes worn by the monarch. There is also a museum of armour.

Only the most important people were executed (by axe) inside the Tower of London. Among the most famous were:
George, Duke of Clarence (1478)
Anne Boleyn, Queen of England (1536) wife of King Henry VIII
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (1540)
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1541)
Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (1542)
Catherine Howard, Queen of England (1542), wife of King Henry VIII
Lady Jane Grey (1554)
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1601)

The Tower of London has a collection of ravens, large black birds of the Crow family. They are taken care of by the staff who work there. The ravens' wing feathers are kept short so they cannot fly away. This is because a legend (story) says that if the ravens leave the Tower, the Tower and the Kingdom will fall.

The closest Underground station to the Tower of London is Tower Hill.

Escape attempts 
Ranulf Flambard: 1100, successfully escaped.  Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Iorwerth: 1244, fell from the tower and died during escape attempt.

Related pages 
List of World Heritage Sites of the United Kingdom

References

Other websites

 Tower of London website
London, Tower of
Royal residences in the United Kingdom
World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom
Towers in the United Kingdom
Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
11th-century buildings and structures
Anne Boleyn (1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was the second wife of King Henry VIII of England and queen consort from 1533 until 1536. She was the mother of Elizabeth I of England. Anne has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had." It was because of Anne Boleyn that Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon, and became independent from the Roman Catholic Church. After she was falsely accused of adultery, incest and high treason, she was executed.

Personality and appearance
There were many different opinions of Anne Boleyn's beauty. The Venetian diarist Marino Sanuto described Anne as "not one of the handsomest women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised ... eyes, which are black and beautiful". Simon Grynée wrote to Martin Bucer in September 1531 that Anne was "young, good-looking, of a rather dark complexion". Lancelot de Carles called her "beautiful" with a good figure. A Venetian in Paris in 1528 also said that she was beautiful. The most well-known description of Anne was written by the Catholic Nicholas Sanders in 1586. He wrote it several years after Anne died. Even though this is the most famous, it is also probably the least correct description. "Anne Boleyn," he said, "was rather tall ... with black hair, and an oval face of a sallow complexion, as if troubled with jaundice. She had a projecting tooth under the upper lip, and on her right hand six fingers (which historians now say is not true)
. There was a large wen under her chin, and therefore to hide its ugliness she wore a high dress covering her throat ... She was handsome to look at, with a pretty mouth." Sanders said that it was because of Anne that Henry went away from the Catholic Church. Sanders' words about Anne made what Eric Ives called the "monster legend" of Anne Boleyn. Anne was also a good dancer. William Forrest, who wrote a modern poem about Catherine of Aragon, praised Anne's dancing. He said she had "passing excellent" skill as a dancer. "Here", he wrote, "was [a] fresh young damsel, that could trip and go." She got killed by Henry’s mother
Early life 
Little is known for certain about Anne's early life, beginning with the date and location of her birth. She was born in either in July 1501 or 1507, as one source says she was 20 upon her return from France in 1521, and another that she was not yet 29 at the time of her death in 1536. The location was either Blickling Hall in Norfolk or Hever Castle in Kent. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, a courtier and later a diplomat, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk. She had two siblings; a sister Mary and a brother George.
Return to England 
Anne was called back to England to marry a distant cousin James Butler, in the hope to settle an inheritance dispute over the Earldom of Ormond. However, when the plan failed, Thomas Boleyn found a place for his daughter at the English court, as lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine. There, Anne fell in love with Sir Henry Percy, who was the eldest son of the Earl of Northumberland, and they became secretly engaged to be married much to the displeasure of their respective families. Cardinal Wolsey ordered them to be separated. Anne was sent home to Hever Castle and Henry Percy was forced to marry Lady Mary Talbot, the daughter of Edward Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. Anne blamed Cardinal Wolsey for her lost love and was determined to have her revenge on him, because he had called her a "foolish girl".

Royal love affair
Royal love affair 

Anne came back to the royal court and soon King Henry fell passionately in love with her. He wanted her to become his mistress, however she categorically refused, which made Henry's desire for her even greater.

King Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon had produced only one daughter, Princess Mary, not thought suitable to rule the country after his death. Henry needed a son to succeed him and to secure the Tudor dynasty, but Catherine was now too old to have children. Henry then came to see Anne as the answer to the problem of the succession, and decided to divorce Catherine, so that he could marry Anne instead and have male heirs.
A special court was held, with Wolsey leading it, to decide if the divorce should be allowed. An official from the Pope in Rome was brought over and a trial was held. The official stated that he could not decide what to do. He wanted the Pope to decide instead. The Pope was fearful to offend Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, nephew of Catherine, and what would happen if he allowed the divorce. He did not make a decision. In the meantime, Anne and King Henry were becoming more and more impatient.

Marriage 
After becoming Marquess of Pembroke in her own right, Anne felt secure enough and finally gave in to Henry in late 1532 and soon became pregnant. In order to have a legitimate heir to the throne, this meant that Anne and Henry needed to legalize their union quickly and therefore were secretly married on January 25, 1533, even though the divorce had not come through.
No longer hoping for the Pope to grant him a divorce, Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon was declared illegal in the following May by the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, former chaplain of the Boleyns. Catherine was sent away from court with the title of Dowager Princess of Wales as if she had never been married to Henry.

Now recognized as Henry's legal wife, Anne was formally crowned Queen of England on June 1, 1533. All that was needed now was the birth of a son and her triumph would be complete.
Anne gave birth to a daughter, the future Elizabeth I of England, on September 7, 1533. King Henry was very disappointed, after all his troubles, the problem of the succession was still not resolved. However, Anne soon became pregnant again but that ended in a miscarriage in the summer of 1534. Henry started to worry that Anne could not give him a healthy male child. Feeling the king's displeasure, Anne became more and more insecure and ever more difficult and Henry began tiring of her. The situation only deteriorated when the king began to pay special attention to a lady of the court named Jane Seymour.

When, on January 29, 1536, Anne gave birth to a stillborn male child, Henry felt betrayed and completely turned against her, accusing her of having bewitched him.

Downfall and execution
Henry's new secretary, Thomas Cromwell, looked for a way to get rid of Anne so that Henry could marry again to his mistress Jane Seymour. He found people who said that Anne had been the lover of other men while she was married to King Henry. She was put on trial and found guilty of treason, adultery and incest, although she was probably innocent. The men who were accused of being her lovers were Sir Francis Weston, her musician Mark Smeaton, Sir Henry Norris, William Brereton, and her brother Viscount Rochford George Boleyn. All of them were condemned and executed.

Anne was executed on 19 May 1536 in the Tower of London, London, England. She was buried in the Chapel Royal of Saint Peter ad Vincula, within the Tower of London.

Notes
Notes

References 
 Ashley, Mike British Kings & Queens (2002) 
 Brigden, Susan New Worlds, Lost Worlds (2000)
 Elton, G. R. Reform and Reformation. London: Edward Arnold, 1977. 
 Fraser, Antonia The Wives of Henry VIII (1992) 
 Graves, Michael Henry VIII. London, Pearson Longman, 2003 
 Haigh, Christopher English Reformations (1993)
 Ives, Eric The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (2004) 
 Warnicke, Retha M. The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry VIII (1989) 

People executed by decapitation
House of Tudor
Kings and Queens consort of England
People from Norfolk
Executed English people
1500s births
1536 deaths
Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde) is a 16th-century portrait. It was  painted in oil by Leonardo da Vinci during the Renaissance in Florence, Italy. Many people think Mona Lisa's smile is mysterious. Because it is so often studied, recognized, and copied, it is considered to be the most famous painting in the world. The Louvre says that about 80 percent of its visitors come to see the painting of Mona Lisa. According to art experts, the Mona Lisa is the best known, most visited, and overall most famous work of art in the entire world.
Although the sitter has traditionally been identified as Lisa del Giocondo, a lack of definitive evidence has long fueled alternative theories, including Leonardo's mother Caterina in a distant memory and glorified as the Virgin Mary as the painting’s subject. According to this theory, at the time that Leonardo painted the portrait of his mother, whom he adored, she was not among the living. She died in 1495. The idea is that she was alive in Leonardo's imagination. Lisa del Giocondo's job was to be the model only.

Leonardo began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy. According to Da Vinci's contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, "...after he had lingered over it four years, left it unfinished....".
The painting was brought to France by Leonardo in 1516 and it was bought by Francis I of France.
The Mona Lisa used to hang in the Chateau Fontainebleau and was then moved to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, Napoleon I of France had it hanging in his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace, but it was later moved to the Louvre where it is still hanging today.

Stolen 
On August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen. The Louvre museum thought it was being photographed, but when they checked, it was not there. The Louvre closed for one week to help look for it.

People thought Guillaume Apollinaire, a French poet, stole it. He was put into jail, and tried to make people think his friend Pablo Picasso did it, and he was questioned. It was not either of them, though.
It was lost for two years, and everybody thought it would be lost forever. A worker at the Louvre, named Vincenzo Peruggia, had actually stolen it. He had hidden it in his coat and walked out with it after the museum had closed. He wanted the painting to go back to Italy and be shown in an Italian museum. After hiding it in his apartment for two years, he grew impatient and tried to sell it to a gallery in Florence, but was caught. It was shown all over Italy before going back to the Louvre. People thought Vincenzo was a hero who loved Italy, so he only spent a few months in jail.

Other articles 
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

References

Other websites
 Louvre Mona Lisa.

16th-century paintings
Paintings by Leonardo da Vinci
Events

Up to 1900 
 557 - Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.
 1287 – The St. Lucia's flood in the Netherlands kills around 50,000 people.
 1542 – Mary, Queen of Scots inherits the throne of Scotland at the age of just 6 days, following the death of her father, King James V of Scotland.
 1782 – The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon makes its first test flight.
 1812 - Napoleonic Wars: France's invasion of Russia ends.
 1814 - War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.
 1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd State of the United States.
 1836 - The Toledo War, a boundary dispute between Ohio and the Territory of Michigan, unofficially ends.
 1861 – Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria, dies aged 42. Following this, Queen Victoria withdraws from public life, in mourning for Prince Albert.
 1896 – The Glasgow Underground Railway opens.
 1900 - Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.
1901  2000 
 1902 - The first Pacific Ocean telegraph cable is laid from San Francisco to Honolulu.
 1907 - Schooner (a type of sailing boat) Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and sinks off the Isles of Scilly in a gale, killing its captain and 15 seamen.
 1911 – Roald Amundsen of Norway becomes the first person to reach the South Pole.
 1918 – President of Portugal Sidonio Pais is assassinated.
 1918 - Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, a German prince elected by the parliament of Finland to become the country's first King, titled Vaino I, resigns without setting foot in Finland, following Germany's defeat in World War I. Finland becomes a republic.
 1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
 1941 – World War II: Japan signs a treaty of alliance with Thailand.
 1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to base its permanent headquarters in New York City.
1947 - The Santiago Bernabeu Stadium holds its first football match. It is the home of Real Madrid. 
 1955 – The UN is joined by Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Spain and Sri Lanka.
 1958 - The 3rd Soviet Antarctica expedition becomes the first to access the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility.
 1960 - Convention against Discrimination in Education is adopted by UNESCO
 1961 - Tanganyika joins the UN.
 1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
 1963 - The dam containing the Baldwin Hills reservoir bursts, killing 5 people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California.
 1971 - Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals are executed by the Pakistan army and local allies.
 1972 – Eugene Cernan of Apollo 17 becomes the last person to-date to have walked on the Moon.
 1981 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel extends its area of law into the Golan Heights.
1989 - Patricio Aylwin is elected President of Chile during Chile's return to democracy following the rule of Augusto Pinochet.
 1992 - Abkhazia War: A helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli is shot down, killing 52 people, including 25 children.
 1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China.
 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris.
 1999 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the UN.
 1999 – Torrential rains cause flash flooding in Vargas, Venezuela.
From 2001 
 2003 - President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
 2004 – In France, the Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is opened to traffic.
 2004 - The leaders of Cuba and Venezuela create the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.
 2008 – Muntadhar al-Zaidi almost strikes US President George W. Bush with two shoes, as a form of protest, at a news conference in Baghdad. This was Bush's last visit to Iraq as president.
 2012 - Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: 20-year-old Adam Lanza shoots and kills his mother at his home in Newtown, Connecticut, before shooting and killing 20 children and 5 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He then turns the gun on himself.
 2013 - Chinese spacecraft Chang'e 3, carrying the Yutu rover, becomes the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon since 1976.
 2017 - Walt Disney Co. announces its intention to buy 21st Century Fox for 52 billion US dollars.
Up to 1900 
 1009 – Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (d. 1045)
 1332 - Frederick III, Landgrave of Thuringia (d. 1381)
 1503 – Nostradamus, French astrologer and mathematician (d. 1566)
 1546 – Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer and alchemist (d. 1601)
 1607 - Janos Kemeny, Hungarian aristocrat and writer (d. 1662)
 1631 - Anne Conway, English philosopher (d. 1679)
 1640 – Aphra Behn, English playwright and novelist (d. 1689)
 1720 – Justus Möser, German statesman (d. 1794)
 1730 - James Bruce, Scottish naturalist and adventurer (d. 1794)
 1775 - Philander Chase, American bishop and educator (d. 1852)
 1775 - Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Scottish admiral and adventurer (d. 1860)
 1784 – Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily (d. 1806)
 1787 – Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este (d. 1816)
 1794 - Erastus Corning, American businessman and politician (d. 1872)
 1796 - Lilburn Boggs, Governor of Missouri (d. 1860)
 1829 - John Mercer Langston, American politician (d. 1897)
1852 - Watson Cheyne, Scottish surgeon and bacteriologist (d. 1932)
 1853 - Errico Malatesta, Italian anarchist (d. 1932)
 1866 – Roger Fry, English artist and art critic (d. 1934)
 1867 - Ingibjörg H. Bjarnason, Icelandic politician, schoolteacher and gymnast, first female member of the Althing (d. 1941)
 1870 – Karl Renner, President of Austria (d. 1950)
 1875 - Paul Löbe, German politician (d. 1967)
 1881 – Katherine MacDonald, American actress and movie producer (d. 1956)
 1881 - Howard Valentine, American sprinter (d. 1932)
 1883 - Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist (d. 1969)
 1884 - Jane Cowl, American actress and playwright (d. 1950)
 1887 - Xul Solar, Argentine painter and sculptor (d. 1963)
 1895 – Paul Eluard, French poet (d. 1952)
 1895 – King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)
 1897 – Jimmy Doolittle, American general (d. 1993)
 1897 – Kurt Schuschnigg, Chancellor of Austria (d. 1977)
1901  1950 
 1901 – King Paul of Greece (d. 1964)
 1902 - Frances Bavier, American actress (d. 1989)
 1902 – Herbert Feigl, Austrian philosopher (d. 1988)
 1908 - Morey Amsterdam, American comedian and actor (d. 1996)
 1908 - Claude Davey, Welsh rugby player (d. 2001)
 1909 – Edward Tatum, American geneticist (d. 1975)
 1911 – Spike Jones, American comedian and musician (d. 1965)
 1911 - Hans von Ohain, German-American engineer (d. 1998)
 1914 – Karl Carstens, President of Germany (d. 1992)
 1914 - Nam Phuong, Empress of Vietnam (d. 1963)
 1914 – Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist (d. 2003)
 1915 - Rashid Behbudov, Georgian-Russian singer and actor (d. 1969)
 1916 - Shirley Jackson, American writer (d. 1965)
 1917 - Tove Ditlevsen, Danish poet and writer (d. 1976)
 1918 - James Thomas Aubrey, Jr., American television and movie executive (d. 1994)
 1918 - B. K. S. Iyengar, Indian yoga instructor and writer (d. 2014)
 1920 – Clark Terry, American jazz musician and composer (d. 2015)
1922 – Nikolay Basov, Soviet-Russian physicist (d. 2001)
 1922 - Don Hewitt, American television producer (d. 2009)
 1924 – Raj Kapoor, Indian actor (d. 1988)
 1932 – Charlie Rich, American singer (d. 1995)
 1932 - Abbe Lane, American singer and actress
 1933 - Hisataka Okamoto, Japanese footballer
 1934 - Shyam Benegal, Indian director and screenwriter
 1935 – Lewis Arquette, American actor, writer and producer (d. 2001)
 1935 - Lee Remick, American actress (d. 1991)
 1936 - Robert A. Parker, American astronaut
 1937 - Anna Lindblom, Swedish actress and singer
 1938 – Leonardo Boff, Brazilian theologian
 1939 - Stephen Cook, American computer programmer
 1941 - Karan Armstrong, American soprano and actress
 1942 - Chris Harris, English actor (d. 2014)
 1942 - Dick Wagner, American guitarist, songwriter and writer (d. 2014)
 1943 - Emmett Tyrrell, American journalist, writer and publisher
 1943 - Britt Allcroft, English filmmaker
 1946 – Sanjay Gandhi, Indian politician (d. 1980)
1946 – Stan Smith, American tennis player
 1946 - Patty Duke, American actress (d. 2016)
 1946 - Ruth Fuchs, German javelin thrower and politician
 1946 - Peter Lorimer, Scottish footballer
 1947 – Dilma Rousseff, former President of Brazil
 1948 - Kim Beazley, Australian politician and diplomat
 1949 – Cliff Williams, British musician (AC/DC)
 1950 - Christiane Krause, German athlete
1951  1975 
 1953 - Vangelis Meimarakis, Greek lawyer and politician
 1953 - Vijay Amritraj, Indian tennis player, actor and businessman
 1954 - James Horan, American actor
 1954 - Steve MacLean, Canadian astronaut
 1956 - Linda Fabiani, Scottish politician
 1958 – Mike Scott, Scottish musician and singer-songwriter (The Waterboys)
 1958 – Spider Stacy, British musician (The Pogues)
 1959 - Jorge Vaca, Mexican boxer
 1960 – Chris Waddle, English footballer
 1960 - Don Franklin, American actor
 1960 - James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
 1961 - Jeff Robinson, American baseball player (d. 2014)
 1962 - Bela B, German musician
 1964 - Rebecca Gibney, New Zealand-born Australian actress
 1965 - Ted Raimi, American actor
 1966 – Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former Prime Minister of Denmark
 1966 - Anthony Mason, American basketball player (d. 2015)
 1967 - Hanne Haugland, Norwegian ski jumper
 1969 - Greg Hemphill, Scottish actor, comedian and writer
1969 - Archie Kao, American actor and producer
 1969 – Natascha McElhone, English actress
 1970 - Anna Maria Jopek, Polish singer-songwriter, pianist and producer
 1972 – Miranda Hart, English comedienne
 1975 – Andrés Scotti, Uruguayan footballer
From 1976 
 1976 – Petter Hansson, Swedish footballer
 1977 – Jamie Peacock, English Rugby League player
 1978 – Patty Schnyder, Swiss tennis player
 1979 – Michael Owen, English footballer
 1979 – Jean-Alain Boumsong, French footballer
 1979 - Sophie Monk, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actress
 1980 – Didier Zokora, Ivorian footballer
 1980 - Samuel Aiken, American football player
 1981 – Liam Lawrence, Irish footballer
 1982 – Steve Sidwell, English footballer
 1983 - Leanne Mitchell, English singer-songwriter
 1984 - Chadli Amri, Algerian footballer
 1984 - Chris Brunt, Irish footballer
 1984 - Jackson Rathbone, American actor and musician
 1985 - Nonami Takizawa, Japanese actress and singer
 1985 – Jakub Blaszczykowski, Polish footballer
 1985 – Chris Czekaj, Welsh rugby player
 1986 - Jang Jae-Ho, South Korean professional gamer
 1988 – Vanessa Hudgens, American singer and actress
 1988 - Nicolas Batum, French basketball player
 1988 - Hayato Sakamoto, Japanese baseball player
1989 - Onew, South Korean singer
 1989 - Pedro Roberto Silva Botelho, Brazilian footballer
 1991 - Samantha Paszek, American gymnast
 1992 - Ryo Miyaichi, Japanese footballer
 1992 - Tori Kelly, American singer-songwriter
 1993 - Thanawat Thirapongpaibon, Thai snooker player
 1994 - Jason Lowndes, Australian racing cyclist (d. 2017)
 1999 - Karley Scott Collins, American actress
Up to 1900 
 872 - Pope Adrian II (b. 792)
 1460 - Guarino de Verona, Italian scholar (b. 1370)
 1476 – Vlad III the Impaler, ruler of Transylvania (b. 1430)
 1510 - Frederick of Saxony (b. 1473)
 1542 – James V, King of Scotland (b. 1512)
 1591 – Saint John of the Cross, Spanish friar and poet (b. 1542)
 1651 – Pierre Dupuy, French scholar (b. 1582)
 1715 - Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1636)
 1741 - Charles Rollin, French historian (b. 1661)
 1788 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer (b. 1714)
 1788 – Charles III, King of Spain (b. 1716)
 1799 – George Washington, first President of the United States (b. 1732)
 1806 – John Breckinridge, American politician (b. 1760)
 1860 - George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1784)
 1861 – Albert, Prince Consort (b. 1819)
 1865 - Johan Georg Forchhammer, Danish geologist and mineralogist (b. 1794)
 1873 – Louis Agassiz, Swiss geologist (b. 1807)
 1878 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (b. 1843)
1901  2000 
 1902 - Julia Grant, First Lady of the United States (b. 1826)
 1912 - Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis, English lieutenant and explorer (b. 1887)
 1918 – Sidonio Pais, President of Portugal (b. 1872)
 1927 - Julian Sochocki, Russian mathematician (b. 1842)
 1940 - Anton Korosec, 10th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1872)
 1943 – John Harvey Kellogg, American surgeon and breakfast food manufacturer (b. 1852)
 1947 – Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
 1947 – Edward Higgins, General, contributor to the Salvation Army (b. 1864)
 1953 - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, American writer (b. 1897)
 1956 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi, President of Finland (b. 1873)
 1963 – Dinah Washington, American singer (b. 1924)
 1963 - Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (b. 1901)
 1970 - Franz Schlegelberger, German politician (b. 1876)
 1974 - Walter Lippmann, American journalist (b. 1889)
 1978 – Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish diplomat (b. 1886)
 1984 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer (b. 1898)
1985 – Roger Maris, American baseball player (b. 1934)
 1989 – Andrei Sakharov, Soviet-Russian scientist and activist (b. 1921)
 1990 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (b. 1921)
 1993 – Myrna Loy, American actress (b. 1905)
 1994 – Orval Faubus, American politician, Governor of Arkansas (b. 1910)
 1997 – Kurt Winter, Canadian musician (b. 1946)
 1998 - Norman Fell, American actor (b. 1924)
From 2001 
 2001 – W. G. Sebald, German writer (b. 1944)
 2006 – Ahmet Ertegün, Turkish-American music executive (b. 1923)
 2011 – Boris Chertok, Soviet-Russian rocket scientist and engineer (b. 1912)
 2011 - George Whitman, American bookstore owner (b. 1913)
 2012 - Kenneth Kendall, British television journalist (b. 1924)
 2012 - Adam Lanza, American gunman (b. 1992)
 2013 - George Rodrigue, American artist (b. 1944)
 2013 - Peter O'Toole, Irish-British actor (b. 1932)
 2013 - France Roche, French actress and screenwriter (b. 1921)
 2014 - Louis Alphonse Koyagialo, Congolese politician (b. 1947)
 2014 - Theo Colborn, American environmentalist and academic (b. 1927)
 2014 - Bess Myerson, American model (b. 1924)
 2015 - Vadym Tyshchenko, Ukrainian footballer (b. 1963)
 2015 - Armando Cossutta, Italian politician (b. 1926)
 2015 - Lillian Vernon, German-American businesswoman (b. 1927)
 2016 - Bernard Fox, Welsh-American actor (b. 1927)
 2016 - Paulo Evaristo Arns, Brazilian cardinal (b. 1921)
2016 - Halfdan T. Mahler, former Director-General of the World Health Organization (b. 1923)
 2016 - Jean-Paul Pier, Luxembourgian mathematician (b. 1933)
 2017 - Yurizan Beltran, American pornographic actress (b. 1986)
 2017 - Bob Givens, American animator (b. 1918)
 2017 - Karl-Erik Nilsson, Swedish wrestler (b. 1922)
 2017 - R. C. Sproul, American theologian and writer (b. 1939)
 2017 - Neeraj Vora, Indian actor, screenwriter and director (b. 1963)
 2017 - Marilyn Ware, American diplomat and businesswoman (b. 1943)
 2017 - Lones Wigger, American sports shooter (b. 1937)
 2017 - Yu Guangzhong, Taiwanese poet (b. 1928)
 2018 - Matti Kassila, Finnish film director (b. 1924)
 2018 - Remedios Loza, Bolivian politician (b. 1949)
 2018 - Joe Osborn, American bass guitarist (b. 1937)
 2018 - Edmond Simeoni, French politician (b. 1934)
 2018 - Jean-Pierre Van Rossem, Belgian economist and politician; b. 1945
 Twenty-nineteen - Yury Belyayev, Russian footballer; b. '34
Observances 
 Alabama Day
 Day of the Martyred Intellectuals (Bangladesh)
 Monkey Day

Days of the year
Events 
 December 14 – Accession of Mary, Queen of Scots

Births 
 June 6 – Richard Grenville, Elizabethan sailor (died 1591)
 June 24 – St. John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite friar and poet (died 1591)
 October 15 – Akbar, Jellaladin Mahommed, ruler of the Mughal Empire (died 1605)
 December 8 – Mary, Queen of Scots (died 1587)
 Robert Bellarmine, Catholic theologian and saint (died 1621)
 Toda Kazuaki, samurai in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu (died 1604)
 Anthony Shirley, English traveller (died 1635)
 John Speed, historian (died 1629)
 Horio Yoshiharu, Japanese daimyo (died 1611)
 Kuki Yoshitaka, Japanese naval commander
 Jan Zamoyski, Polish nobleman (died 1605)

Deaths 
 February 13 – Katherine Howard, Queen of England
 December 14 – James V, King of Scotland
Up to 1900 
 1322 - The central tower of Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, England, falls.
 1462 - The Treaty of Westminster is finalized between Edward IV of England and the Scottish Lord of the Isles.
 1503 - Disfida di Barletta: A tournament between 13 Italian and 13 French knights takes place near Barletta.
 1542 – Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
 1575 - Henry III of France is crowned King.
 1633 – Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the inquisition.
 1660 - Charles XI of Sweden becomes King at the age of 4 years, meaning that a regent rules Sweden until 1672.
 1668 - Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent country.
 1689 - William III and Mary II are crowned King and Queen of England, Ireland and Scotland.
 1692 – At least thirty members of the MacDonald Clan are massacred in Glencoe, Scotland.
 1739 - Battle of Karnal: The army of Persian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of Mughal Emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
1857 - British passenger steamer Tempest disappears in the North Atlantic Ocean after leaving New York City, with 150 people on board.
 1858 - Searching for the source of the Nile, Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke become the first Europeans to reach Lake Tanganyika.
 1861 - Francis II of the Two Sicilies surrenders at Gaeta to the army of Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy.
 1880 - Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect.
 1881 - The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert.
1901  2000 
 1918 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes Guangdong province, China.
 1931 – New Delhi becomes the capital city of India.
 1934 - Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean.
 1935 - Bruno Hauptmann is found guilty of kidnapping and murdering the infant son of Charles Lindbergh.
 1944 - Norwegian passenger ship Irma is torpedoed near Kristiansund, killing 61 people. It is revealed after the Second World War that it was a torpedo from the Norwegian Navy that hit the ship.
 1945 – The Royal Air Force bombs the German city of Dresden in World War II.
 1945 - World War II: The Siege of Budapest ends with the unconditional surrender of the German and Hungarian armies to the Red Army.
 1951 - Korean War: The Battle of Chipyong-ni begins.
 1955 – Israel gains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
 1960 - France becomes the fourth country to own nuclear weapons.
 1961 - A 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California.
1971 - South Vietnamese troops invade Laos, with American support.
 1978 - A bomb explodes outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing 2 refuse collectors and a police officer.
 1980 - The 1980 Winter Olympics begin in Lake Placid, New York. The games became best known for the Miracle on Ice hockey game on February 22.
 1981 - A series of sewer explosions destroys  more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
 1982 - The Rio Negro massacre occurs in Guatemala.
 1983 - A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people.
 1984 – Konstantin Chernenko becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
 1988 – The Winter Olympic Games open in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Like in 1976, Canada hosts the Olympics without winning a gold medal (They do, however, win a record 14 gold medals when they host the games in Vancouver in 2010).
 1990 - Agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to re-unite Germany.
 1991 – US bombers hit Baghdad in the Gulf War.
1996 - English pop music group Take That announces that it is splitting. The band re-forms in 2005.
 2000 – The last Peanuts comic strip is printed in newspapers, a day after the death of Charles Schulz.
From 2001 
 2001 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits El Salvador, killing at least 400 people.
 2004 - The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics  announces the discovery of the Universe's largest-known diamond, white dwarf.
 2007 - Taiwan's Opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as Chairman of the Kuomintang Party.
 2008 – Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.
 2010 - A bomb attack in Pune, Maharashtra, India, kills 17 people.
 2011 – After the removal of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the army suspends the constitution, and announces that it will remain in power until elections later in the year.
 2012 - The European Space Agency's Vega rocket is launched from French Guiana.
 2014 - Prime Minister of Italy Enrico Letta announces his intention to resign, less than ten months into the job, after instabilities in his coalition government.
2014 - Belgium's parliament votes to extend its euthanasia law to terminally-ill children, becoming the first country to allow euthanasia for people of all ages.
 2017 - Kim Jong-nam (older half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un) is murdered at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia.
Up to 1900 
 1457 - Mary of Burgundy, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1482)
 1480 - Girolamo Aleandro, Italian cardinal (d. 1542)
 1539 - Elisabeth of Hesse, Electress Palatine (d. 1582)
 1599 - Pope Alexander VII (d. 1667)
 1683 – Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Italian painter (d. 1754)
 1721 - John Reid, Scottish general (d. 1807)
 1728 - John Hunter, Scottish anatomist (d. 1793)
 1734 - Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec, French explorer and naval officer (d. 1797)
 1766 - Thomas Balthus, English economist (d. 1834)
 1768 - Edouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, Marshal of France (d. 1835)
 1769 - Ivan Krylov, Russian writer (d. 1844)
 1805 – Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician (d. 1859)
 1831 - John Aaron Rawlins, 29th United States Secretary of War (d. 1869)
 1834 - Heinrich Caro, German chemist (d. 1910)
 1835 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Islamic religious leader (d. 1908)
 1837 - Valentin Zubiaurre, Spanish composer (d. 1914)
1849 – Lord Randolph Churchill, British politician, father of Winston Churchill (d. 1895)
 1849 - Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt, German impostor, Captain of Köpenick (d. 1922)
 1855 – Paul Deschanel, President of France (d. 1922)
 1866 - Lev Shestov, Russian philosopher (d. 1938)
 1867 - Harold Mahony, Scottish-Irish tennis player (d. 1903)
 1870 - Leopold Godowsky, Polish-American pianist and composer (d. 1938)
 1873 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian opera singer (d. 1938)
 1876 - Fritz Buelow, German-American baseball player (d. 1933)
 1879 - Sarojini Naidu, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1949)
 1880 - Dimitrie Gusti, Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian and philosopher (d. 1955)
 1883 - Hal Chase, American baseball player (d. 1947)
 1884 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American athlete, inventor and businessman (d. 1961)
 1885 - George Fitzmaurice, American-French director (d. 1940)
 1885 – Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States (d. 1982)
 1888 – Georgios Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1968)
1891 – Grant Wood, American painter (d. 1942)
 1892 - Robert H. Jackson, 57th United States Attorney General (d. 1954)
1901  1950 
 1901 - Paul Lazarsfeld, Austrian-American sociologist (d. 1976)
 1901 - Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Scottish writer (d. 1935)
 1902 - Harold Lasswell, American political scientist (d. 1978)
 1903 - Georgy Beriev, Russian aircraft designer (d. 1979)
 1903 – Georges Simenon, Belgian writer (d. 1989)
 1906 - Agostinho da Silva, Portuguese philosopher (d. 1994)
 1909 - Mario Casariego y Acevedo, Guatemalan cardinal (d. 1983)
 1910 – William Shockley, British-American physicist (d. 1989)
 1911 - Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistani Urdu poet (d. 1984)
 1911 - Jean Muir, American actress (d. 1996)
 1913 - Khalid bin Abdul-Aziz, King of Saudi Arabia (d. 1982)
 1915 – Aung San, Burmese revolutionary, nationalist, general, and politician (d. 1947)
 1915 - lyle Bettger, American actor (d. 2003)
 1916 – John Reed, British singer of Gilbert and Sullivan (d. 2010)
 1918 - Patty Berg, American golfer (d. 2006)
 1919 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, American musician (d. 1991)
 1919 - Eddie Robinson, American football coach (d. 2007)
1921 - Jeanne Demessieux, French organist, pianist and composer (d. 1968)
 1922 - Francis Pym, British politician
 1922 - Gordon Tullock, American economist and academic (d. 2014)
 1923 – Chuck Yeager, American pilot
 1923 - Michael Anthony Bilandic, 49th Mayor of Chicago (d. 2002)
 1923 - James Abdnor, American politician (d. 2012)
 1925 - Stuart Wagstaff, English-Australian entertainer (d. 2015)
 1928 - Gerald Regan, 19th Premier of Nova Scotia
 1929 – Omar Torrijos, President of Panama (d. 1981)
 1930 - Ernst Fuchs, Austrian painter, sculptor and illustrator (d. 2015)
 1930 - Israel Kirzner, English-American economist, writer and academic
 1932 - Barbara Shelley, English actress
 1932 - Sarah Oliver, American actress (d. 1990)
 1933 – Paul Biya, President of Cameroon
 1933 – Kim Novak, American actress
 1933 - Peter L. Pond, American activist and philanthropist (d. 2000)
 1933 - Emanuel Ungaro, French fashion designer
 1934 - George Segal, American actor
 1937 - Rupiah Banda, former President of Zambia