Events

Up to 1900 
 1100 - Henry I of England marries Matilda of Scotland, daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland.
 1417 - Pope Martin V is elected.
 1500 - Treaty of Granada: Louis XII of France and Ferdinand III of Aragon agree to divide the Kingdom of Naples.
 1620 – In what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod, the Mayflower Compact is signed on the Mayflower, establishing the basic laws for the Plymouth Colony.
 1648 – France and the Netherlands agree to divide the island of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin.
 1675 – Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the y=x function.
 1675 – Guru Gobind Singh becomes the Tenth Guru of the Sikhs.
 1750 - Riots break out Lhasa after the murder of the Tibetan regent.
 1839 – The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.
 1855 - An earthquake near Edo, now Tokyo, kills 6,000 people. 
 1864 – American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta, Georgia to the ground in preparation for his march south.
 1865 - The Treaty of Sinchula is signed: Bhutan gives areas east of the Teesta River to the British East India Company.
 1880 – Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly is hung in Melbourne.
 1887 - Haymarket trials: August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel are executed.
 1887 - Building work begins on the Manchester Ship Canal.
 1889 – Washington is admitted as the 42nd U.S. state.

1901  2000 
 1918 – World War I ends: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France.
 1918 – Józef Piłsudski comes to Warsaw and assumes supreme military power in Poland.
 1918 – Emperor Charles I of Austria abdicates.
 1919 - Latvian forces defeat the Freikorps at Riga in the Latvian War of Independence.
 1921 – The Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by US President Warren G. Harding at Arlington National Cemetery.
 1926 - The US' numbered Highway system is introduced.
 1930 - Patent number US1781541 is given to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator.
 1934 - The Shrine of Remembrance is opened in Melbourne, Australia.
 1940 – World War II: The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto.
 1940 - The Armistice Day Blizzard kills 144 people in the Midwestern United States.
 1942 - World War II: Germany completes its occupation of France.
 1954 - The Two Towers, part of the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, is released in the UK.
 1960 - In South Vietnam, a coup against Ngo Dinh Diem is crushed.
 1965 – Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) was declared independent by the white minority regime of Ian Smith.
 1966 – NASA launches spaceship Gemini 12.
 1967 – Vietnam War: In a propaganda ceremony in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, three American prisoners of war are released by the NLF and turned over to "new left" antiwar activist Tom Hayden.
 1968 – Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt initiated. The goal was to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam.
 1968 – A second republic is declared in Maldives.
 1972 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization – The United States Army turns over the massive Long Binh military base to South Vietnam.
 1975 – Angola becomes independent from Portugal, with Agostinho Neto as President.
 1975 – Australian Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismisses the government of Gough Whitlam and commissions Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister.
 1978 – Maumoon Gayoom succeeds Ibrahim Nasir as the President of the Republic of the Maldives.
 1978 – A renovated Hollywood sign is unveiled, replacing the older version that was built in 1923.
 1981 - Antigua and Barbuda joins the UN.
 1986 – Sperry Rand and Burroughs merge to form Unisys. They become the second largest computer company.
 1992 – The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.
 1997 – Mary McAleese was inaugurated as the eighth President of Ireland.
 2000 – In Kaprun, Austria, 155 skiers and snowboarders die when a cable car catches fire in an alpine tunnel.

From 2001 
 2004 – New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington
 2004 – Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization minutes after the death of Yasser Arafat.
 2004 – Official Guided by Voices Day in San Diego, California.
 2004 – Mary McAleese was inaugurated for a second term as President of Ireland.
 2006 - Queen Elizabeth II unveils the New Zealand War Memorial in London.
 2008 – The ship RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 sets sail for its last voyage.
 2008 – Mohamed Nasheed succeeds Maumoon Gayoom as President of the Maldives.
 2011 – Michael D. Higgins is inaugurated as President of Ireland.
 2014 - 58 people are killed in a bus crash in Sukkur District in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh.
 2018 - Ceremonies take place worldwide to mark 100 years since the end of World War I; several political leaders gather in France, while Frank-Walter Steinmeier becomes the first German Head of state to take part in the official Remembrance Day commemorations in London.

Births

Up to 1800 
 995 - Gisela of Swabia (d. 1041)
 1050 – Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1106)
 1154 – King Sancho I of Portugal (d. 1212)
 1155 – King Alfonso VIII of Castile (d. 1214)
 1220 - Alphonse, Count of Poitiers (d. 1271)
 1441 – Charlotte of Savoy, Queen of France (d. 1483)
 1491 - Martin Bucer, Alsatian theologian and religious reformer (d. 1551)
 1493 – Paracelsus, Swiss physician, alchemist and mystic (d. 1541)
 1493 - Bernardo Tasso, Italian poet (d. 1569)
 1569 - Martin Ruland the Younger, German physician and alchemist (d. 1611)
 1579 - Frans Snyders, Flemish painter (d. 1657)
 1599 - Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, Queen of Sweden (d. 1655)
 1668 – Johann Albert Fabricius, German scholar and bibliographer (d. 1736)
 1696 - Andrea Zani, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1757)
 1733 - Philip John Schuyler, American politician and soldier (d. 1804)
 1743 - Carl Peter Thunberg, Swedish naturalist (d. 1828)
 1744 – Abigail Adams, First Lady of the United States (d. 1818)
 1748 - King Charles IV of Spain (d. 1819)
 1758 - Caleb P. Bennett, Governor of Delaware (d. 1836)
 1781 - Caroline Bardua, German painter (d. 1864)
 1791 - Josef Munzinger, Swiss politician (d. 1855)
 1792 - Mary Anne Disraeli, Welsh wife of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (d. 1872)
 1799 - Charles Bent, Territorial Governor of New Mexico (d. 1847)

1801  1900 
 1821 – Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian writer (d. 1881)
 1831 - Willard Fiske, American librarian and scholar (d. 1904)
 1835 – Matthias Jochumsson, Icelandic poet (d. 1920)
 1848 - Zinovy Rozhdestvensky, Russian admiral (d. 1909)
 1854 - William Yates Atkinson, American politician, Governor of Georgia (d. 1899)
 1858 - Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian painter (d. 1884)
 1863 – Paul Signac, French painter (d. 1935)
 1864 – Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian pacifist (d. 1921)
 1869 – Gaetano Bresci, Italian anarchist (d. 1901)
 1869 – Victor Emmanuel III of Italy (d. 1946)
 1872 - Maude Adams, American actress (d. 1953)
 1872 - David I. Walsh, 46th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1947)
 1882 – Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden (d. 1973)
 1883 - Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (d. 1969)
 1885 – George S. Patton, American general (d. 1945)
 1887 - Roland Young, English actor (d. 1953)
 1888 - Abul Kalam Azad, Indian independence activist (d. 1958)
 1891 - Rabbit Maranville, American baseball player (d. 1954)
 1893 - Paul van Zeeland, Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 1973)
 1894 - Beverly Bayne, American silent movie actress (d. 1982)
 1896 - Lucky Luciano, Italian-born American gangster (d. 1962)
 1898 - René Clair, French movie director (d. 1981)
 1899 - Pat O'Brien, American movie actor (d. 1983)

1901  1950 
 1901 – Magda Goebbels, wife of Joseph Goebbels (d. 1945)
 1901 – Sam Spiegel, Austrian-American movie director (d. 1985)
 1904 – Alger Hiss, American government official and spy (d. 1996)
 1904 - J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (d. 1960)
 1904 - Andrzej Bogucki, Polish actor, operetta singer and songwriter (d. 1978)
 1909 - Robert Ryan, American actor (d. 1973)
 1910 - Carl A. Wirtanen, American astronomer (d. 1990)
 1911 – Roberto Matta, Chilean painter (d. 2002)
 1912 - Nina Andrycz, Polish actress (d. 2014)
 1914 - Howard Fast, American writer (d. 2003)
 1915 - Anna Schwartz, American economist and writer (d. 2012)
 1917 - Manuel Alexandre, Spanish actor (d. 2010)
 1918 - Stubby Kaye, American actor (d. 1997)
 1920 – Roy Jenkins, British politician (d. 2003)
 1921 - Terrel Bell, American politician, 2nd United States Secretary of Education (d. 1996)
 1922 – Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist (d. 2007)
 1925 - John Guillermin, English director, writer and producer (d. 2015)
 1925 – June Whitfield, English actress (d. 2018)
 1925 - Jonathan Winters, American comedy actor (d. 2013)
 1926 - Torfi Bryngeirsson, Icelandic long jumper (d. 1995)
 1926 - Harry Lumley, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1998)
 1926 - Noah Gordon, American novelist
 1926 - Maria Teresa de Filippis, Italian racing driver (d. 2016)
 1927 - Mose Allison, American jazz musician (d. 2016)
 1928 - Joseph Mercieca, former Archbishop of Malta (d. 2016)
 1928 - Ernestine Anderson, American singer (d. 2016)
 1928 - Gracita Morales, Spanish actress and singer (d. 1995)
 1928 – Carlos Fuentes, Mexican writer (d. 2012)
 1929 – Hans Magnus Enzensberger, German writer
 1929 - LaVern Baker, American singer (d. 1997)
 1930 – Hugh Everett, American physicist (d. 1982)
 1930 - Vernon Handley, English conductor (d. 2008)
 1930 - Mildred Dresselhaus, American physicist (d. 2017)
 1932 - Germano Mosconi, Italian journalist
 1936 - Mala Sinha, Bollywood movie actress
 1936 - Susan Kohner, American actress
 1937 - André Brugiroux, French traveler and writer
 1937 - Stephen Lewis, Canadian politician and diplomat
 1938 - Haruhiro Yamashita, Japanese gymnast
 1938 - Ants Antson, Estonian speed skater (d. 2015)
 1940 - Barbara Boxer, American politician and United States Senator for California
 1944 – Kemal Sunal, Turkish actor
 1945 – Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua
 1945 - Vince Martell, American musician
 1945 - Chris Dreja, English guitarist
 1948 - René Harris, President of Nauru (d. 2008)
 1950 - Jim Peterik, American musician

1951  1975 
 1951 – Kim Peek, American megasavant (d. 2009)
 1951 - Fuzzy Zoeller, American golfer
 1953 - Marshall Crenshaw, American rock music singer
 1953 - Andy Partridge, British musician and singer-songwriter
 1953 - Evelyn Matthei, Chilean politician
 1955 - Friedrich Merz, German politician
 1955 - Jigme Singye Wangchuck, former King of Bhutan
 1956 - José Luis Brown, Argentine footballer (d. 2019)
 1956 - Ian Craig Marsh, English guitarist
 1958 - Luz Casal, Spanish singer
 1958 - Kathy Lette, Australian author
 1960 - Marcel Koller, Swiss footballer and coach
 1960 - Stanley Tucci, American actor and director
 1960 - Cristina Odone, Italian journalist, writer and editor
 1960 - Chuck Hernandez, American baseball player and coach
 1961 - Luca Zingaretti, Italian actor
 1962 – James Morrison, Australian musician
 1962 – Demi Moore, American actress
 1964 – Calista Flockhart, American actress
 1966 - Benedicta Boccoli, Italian actress
 1966 - Alison Doody, Irish actress and model
 1966 - Paul Monaghan, Scottish politician
 1968 - Peaches, Canadian-German singer-songwriter, DJ, producer and actress
 1968 - Alfredo Reinado, East Timorese rebel leader (d. 2008)
 1969 - Carson Kressley, American television host and fashion designer
 1970 – Lee Battersby, Australian writer
 1971 - Jennifer Celotta, American director, producer and screenwriter
 1972 - Tyler Christopher, American actor
 1973 - Jason White, American musician (Green Day)
 1974 – Leonardo DiCaprio, American actor

From 1976 
 1977 – Ben Hollioake, English cricketer (d. 2002)
 1977 – Maniche, Portuguese footballer
 1978 - Ludmilla Radchenko, Russian actress
 1978 – Erik Edman, Swedish footballer
 1981 – Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg
 1981 – Raphael Gualazzi, Italian pianist and singer
 1981 – Natalie Glebova, Russian-Canadian beauty queen, Miss Universe 2005
 1982 - Gonzalo Canale, Argentine-born Italian rugby player
 1983 – Philipp Lahm, German footballer
 1983 - Arouna Koné, Ivorian footballer
 1986 - Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir, Icelandic singer, songwriter and violinist
 1986 – François Trinh-Duc, French rugby player
 1987 - Yuya Tegoshi, Japanese singer and actor
 1989 – Reina Tanaka, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
 1989 - Adam Rippon, American figure skater
 1990 - Georginio Wijnaldum, Dutch footballer
 1990 - Tom Dumoulin, Dutch cyclist
 1991 - Christa B. Allen, American actress
 1993 - Jamaal Lascelles, English footballer
 1994 - Ellie Simmonds, British Paralympic swimmer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 855 - Petronas, Byzantine Empire general
 1028 - Constantine VIII, Byzantine Emperor
 1130 - Theresa, Countess of Portugal (b. 1080)
 1189 - William II of Sicily (b. 1153)
 1623 - Philippe de Mornay, French theorist (b. 1549)
 1686 – Otto von Guericke, German scientist, inventor and politician (b. 1602)
 1724 - Joseph Blake, English outlaw and highwayman (b. 1700)
 1751 - Julien Offray de La Mettrie, French physician and philosopher (b. 1709)
 1831 – Nat Turner, American slave rebel (b. 1800)
 1855 – Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (b. 1813)
 1861 – King Pedro V of Portugal (b. 1837)
 1862 - James Madison Porter, American lawyer and politician (b. 1793)
 1880 – Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger (b. 1855)
 1880 – Lucretia Mott, American feminist and abolitionist (b. 1793)
 1887 - Haymarket affair executions:
George Engel, German-American businessman and activist (b. 1836)
Adolph Fischer, German-American printer and activist (b. 1858)
Albert Parsons, American journalist and activist (b. 1848)
August Spies, American journalist and activist (b. 1855)

1901  2000 
 1917 – Liliuokalani, Queen of Hawaii (b. 1838)
 1918 – George Lawrence Price, Canadian soldier (b. 1892)
 1918 - Victor Adler, Austrian politician (b. 1852)
 1919 - Pavel Chistyakov, Russian painter (b. 1832)
 1919 - Felix von Hartmann, German cardinal (b. 1861)
 1938 - Typhoid Mary, Irish-American carrier of typhoid fever (b. 1869)
 1939 - Jan Opletal, Czech student (b. 1915)
 1945 – Jerome Kern, American composer (b. 1885)
 1948 - Fred Niblo, American movie actor, director and producer (b. 1874)
 1950 - Alexandros Diomidis, Greek banker and statesman (b. 1875)
 1953 - Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (b. 1866)
 1968 – Jeanne Demessieux, French composer (b. 1921)
 1972 - Berry Oakley, American musician (b. 1948)
 1973 – Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist (b. 1895)
 1976 – Alexander Calder, American artist (b. 1898)
 1977 - Greta Keller, Austrian-American actress and singer (b. 1903)
 1979 - Dmitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-American composer and conductor (b. 1894)
 1984 - Martin Luther King, Sr., American civil rights figure (b. 1899)
 1985 – Pelle Lindbergh, Swedish ice hockey player (b. 1959)
 1990 – Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet (b. 1909)
 1993 - Erskine Hawkins, American trumpeter and big band leader (b. 1914)
 1994 – Pedro Zamora, Cuban-American AIDS activist (b. 1972)
 1994 - John A. Volpe, 61st Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1908)
 1997 - Rod Milburn, American athlete (b. 1950)
 1999 – Vivian Fuchs, British geologist and polar explorer (b. 1908)
 2000 - Sandra Schmidt, German skier (b. 1981)

From 2001 
 2004 – Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority (b. 1929)
 2004 – Richard Dembo, French director and screenwriter (b. 1948)
 2005 – Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield, British photographer (b. 1939)
 2010 - Marie Osborne, American actress (b. 1911)
 2012 - Rex Hunt, former British Governor of the Falkland Islands (b. 1926)
 2013 - Domenico Bartolucci, Italian cardinal (b. 1917)
 2013 - Stein Grieg Halvorsen, Norwegian theatre actor (b. 1909)
 2014 - John Doar, American lawyer (b. 1921)
 2014 - Carol Ann Susi, American actress (b. 1952)
 2014 - Harry Lonsdale, American scientist, entrepreneur and politician (b. 1932)
 2015 - Nathaniel Marston, American actor (b. 1975)
 2015 - Phil Taylor, English musician (Motörhead) (b. 1954)
 2016 - Robert Vaughn, American actor (b. 1932)
 2016 - Aki Schmidt, German footballer (b. 1935)
 2016 - Ilse Aichinger, Austrian writer (b. 1921)
 2017 - Kirti Nidhi Bista, Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1927)
 2017 - Valery Rozov, Russian BASE jumper (b. 1964)
 2017 - Ian Wachtmeister, Swedish business executive and politician (b. 1932)
 2017 - Henry Emeleus, British geologist (b. 1930)
 2018 - D. J. Finney, British statistician (b. 1917)
 2018 - Olga Harmony, Mexican playwright (b. 1928)
 2018 - Wayne Maunder, Canadian-American actor (b. 1937)
 2018 - Douglas Rain, Canadian actor (b. 1928)
 2018 - Frankie Schneider, American NASCAR driver (b. 1926)
 2019 - Zeke Bratkowski, American football player (b. 1931)
 2019 - Frank Dobson, British politician (b. 1940)
 2019 - Winston Lackin, Surinamese politician (b. 1954)
 2019 - James Le Mesurier, British army officer and aid worker (b. 1971)
 2019 - Ralph T. O'Neal, Premier of the British Virgin Islands (b. 1933)
 2019 - Mümtaz Soysal, Turkish politician and lawyer (b. 1929) 
 2019 - Edward Zacca, Acting Governor-General of Jamaica (b. 1931)

Observances 
 Christian feast day of Martin of Tours (St. Martin)
 Remembrance Day (some English-speaking countries)
 Veterans Day (United States)
 Armistice Day (France, Belgium)
 Independence Day (Poland, Angola)
 Lacplesis Day (Latvia)
 Republic Day (Maldives)
 Singles Day (China)
 Women's Day (Belgium)

Days of the year