Events

Up to 1900 
 758 - Guangzhou is sacked by Arab and Persian pirates.
 1226 - Tran Thu Do, head of the Tran clan of Vietnam, forces Ly Hue Tong, the last emperor of the Ly Dynasty, to commit suicide.
 1270 - The Eighth Crusade and Siege of Tunis end by an agreement between Charles I of Sicily and the Sultan of Tunis.
 1340 - Portuguese and Castilian forces halt a Marinid invasion in the Battle of Rio Soldado.
 1470 – Henry VI of England returns to the English throne after Earl of Warwick defeats Yorkists in battle.
 1485 – Henry VII of England is crowned King.
 1534 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy, making King Henry VIII of England head of the English Church, a title previously held by the Pope.
 1657 - Spanish forces fail to retake Jamaica at the Battle of Ocho Rios during the Anglo-Spanish War.
 1813 - French troops surrender at Pamplona, ending Spain's War of Independence.
 1817 - The independent government of Venezuela is formed by Simon Bolivar.
 1831 - Nat Turner, who led the Slave Rebellion, is detained.
 1863 - Danish Prince Wilhelm arrives in Athens to become King George I of Greece.
 1864 - The Second War of Schleswig ends: Denmark surrenders its claim to Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, which come under Prussian and Austrian control.
 1864 – Helena, Montana is founded after four prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance Gulch."
 1880 - Tegucigalpa becomes the capital city of Honduras.

1901  2000 
 1905 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia grants Russia's first constitution, creating a legislative assembly.
 1918 – The Ottoman Empire signs an armistice with the Allies, ending the First World War in the Middle East.
 1920 - The Communist Party of Australia is founded in Sydney.
 1921 - The Argentina national football team wins the Campeonato Sudamericana for the first time. The competition later becomes the Copa America.
 1922 - Victor Emmanuel III of Italy names Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister.
 1925 - John Logie Baird creates the United Kingdom's first television transmitter.
 1929 - The Stuttgart cable car is built in Stuttgart, Germany.
 1938 – Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a nationwide panic.
 1941 – World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt approves US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
 1944 – Anne Frank is deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
 1945 - Baseball player Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, leading to the breaking of the color barrier in the sport.
 1953 - George Marshall wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
 1960 - Michael Woodruff performs his first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
 1961 – The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba. It is the largest nuclear device ever detonated. Nikita Khrushchev says that the scientists had planned to make it larger, but had reduced the yield to prevent breaking all the windows in Moscow.
 1961 – Due to "violations of Lenin's precepts", it is decreed that Joseph Stalin's body be removed from its place of honour inside Lenin's tomb and buried near the Kremlin wall with a plain granite marker instead.
 1965 – Vietnam War: Just miles from Da Nang, United States Marines stop an large attack of NLF forces, killing 56 guerrillas. Among the dead, a sketch of Marine positions was found on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.
 1970 – In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit the area in six years causes large floods, kills 293, leaves 200,000 homeless and virtually halts the Vietnam War.
 1972 - Two commuter trains collide in Chicago, Illinois, kills 45 people.
 1973 - The Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul is completed.
 1974 – "The Rumble in the Jungle": Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire to regain the World Heavyweight Boxing championship.
 1975 – Prince Juan Carlos becomes Spain's acting head of state, taking over for the country's ailing dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco.
 1980 – El Salvador and Honduras sign a peace treaty to put the border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the International Court of Justice.
 1983 – The first democratic elections in Argentina after seven years of military rule are held.
 1983 – An earthquake in eastern Turkey, near Erzurum, kills around 1,300 people.
 1985 - The Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off on what would become its final successful mission.
 1988 - Ayrton Senna wins his first Formula One title.
 1991 – The Madrid Conference for Middle East peace talks opens.
 1995 – Quebec independence referendum: Voters in Quebec narrowly choose to stay part of Canada.
 1997 - Mary McAleese is elected President of Ireland.
 1998 - 5,500 people are killed by Hurricane Mitch in Honduras.
 2000 – The Somoni replaces the Rouble as the currency of Tajikistan.

From 2001 
 2002 – British television Service Freeview starts transmitting throughout parts of the United Kingdom.
 2003 - Basketball player LeBron James makes his first appearance in the NBA, for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
 2005 – Having been destroyed in the Firebombing of Dresden in World War II, the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), is reconsecrated.
 2007 - The hosting of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup is given to Germany, and it is announced that the 2014 FIFA World Cup would take place in Brazil.
 2013 - A bus fuel tank catches fire in Mahabubnagar, India, killing 45 people.
 2014 - Emergency rule is declared in Burkina Faso after protests in the capital Ouagadougou against President Blaise Compaoré extending his time in office.
 2014 - Sweden becomes the first European Union country to recognize the State of Palestine.
 2015 - A fire at a nightclub in Bucharest, Romania, kills 64 people.
 2019 - Chile withdraws as host of the December 2019 International climate change summit over the 2019 Chilean protests; Madrid offers to host it instead.

Births

Up to 1850 
 39 BC - Julia the Elder, daughter of Augustus Caesar (d. 14)
 1218 – Emperor Chukyo of Japan (d. 1234)
 1327 - Andrew, Duke of Calabria (d. 1345)
 1513 - Jacques Amyot, French writer (d. 1593)
 1580 – Dirk Hartog, Dutch explorer (d. 1621)
 1624 - Paul Pellisson, French writer (d. 1693)
 1632 – Christopher Wren, English architect (d. 1723)
 1668 – Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen of Prussia (d. 1705)
 1735 – John Adams, 1st Vice President and 2nd President of the United States (d. 1826)
 1741 – Angelica Kauffman, Swiss-Austrian painter (d. 1807)
 1748 - Martha Jefferson, first wife of Thomas Jefferson (d. 1782)
 1751 - Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish satirist, playwright and poet (d. 1816)
 1763 - Heinrich Cotta, German forester (d. 1844)
 1776 - George M. Bibb, American politician (d. 1859)
 1778 - Benjamin Ames, Governor of Maine (d. 1835)
 1785 - Heinrich von Pückler-Muskau, Prussian lieutenant (d. 1871)
 1789 - Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark (d. 1864)
 1794 - Prince Frederick of Prussia, Prussian prince and general (d. 1863)
 1804 - Charles II, Duke of Brunswick (d. 1873)
 1816 - Henry L. Dawes, American politician (d. 1903)
 1829 - Suzanne Manet, wife and model of the painter Edouard Manet (d. 1906)
 1836 - Camillo Boito, Italian writer and architect (d. 1914)
 1839 – Alfred Sisley, Anglo-French painter (d. 1899)
 1844 - Harvey W. Wiley, American chemist (d. 1930)
 1847 - Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist (d. 1897)

1851  1900 
 1853 - Louise Abbéma, French painter (d. 1927)
 1857 – Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French neurologist (d. 1904)
 1859 - Karl von Stürgkh, Austrian politician (d. 1916)
 1861 - Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor (d. 1929)
 1871 - Paul Valéry, French poet (d. 1945)
 1871 - Buck Freeman, American baseball player (d. 1949)
 1873 – Francisco I. Madero, President of Mexico (d. 1913)
 1877 - Hugo Celmins, Prime Minister of Latvia (d. 1941)
 1881 - Elizabeth Roberts, American poet and writer (d. 1941)
 1882 - Oldrich Duras, Czech chess player (d. 1957)
 1882 - William F. Halsey, Jr., American naval commander (d. 1959)
 1885 – Ezra Pound, American poet (d. 1972)
 1886 - Zoe Akins, American playwright (d. 1958)
 1887 - Sukumar Ray, Bengali writer (d. 1923)
 1887 - Georg Heym, German writer (d. 1912)
 1888 - Louis Menges, American soccer player (d. 1969)
 1888 - Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, Greek Olympic champion (d. 1913)
 1890 - Tommy Cairns, Scottish footballer (d. 1967)
 1893 - Charles Atlas, Italian bodybuilder (d. 1972)
 1893 - Roland Freisler, German Nazi judge (d. 1945)
 1894 - Jean Rostand, French biologist (d. 1977)
 1894 - Peter Warlock, English composer (d. 1930)
 1895 – Gerhard Domagk,  German  doctor,  won the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1964)
 1895 – Dickinson W. Richards, American physician (d. 1973)
 1896 – Harry Randall Truman, Guardian of Mt. St. Helens (d. 1980)
 1896 - Ruth Gordon, American actress (d. 1985)
 1896 - Kostas Karyotakis, Greek poet (d. 1928)
 1897 - Agustín Lara, Mexican composer (d. 1970)
 1899 - Nadezhda Mandelstam, Russian writer (d. 1980)
 1900 – Ragnar Granit, Finnish neuroscientist (d. 1991)

1901  1950 
 1905 - Johnny Miles, Canadian marathon runner (d. 2003)
 1906 – Giuseppe Farina, Italian racing driver (d. 1966)
 1906 – Alexander Gode, German-American linguist (d. 1970)
 1908 - U. Muthuramalingam Thevar, Indian politician (d. 1963)
 1908 - Patsy Montana, American country music singer-songwriter (d. 1996)
 1908 - Dmitry Ustinov, Marshal of the Soviet Union (d. 1984)
 1909 - Homi J. Bhabha, Indian physicist (d. 1966)
 1909 - Jerry Dawson, Scottish footballer (d. 1977)
 1910 - Luciano Sgrizzi, Italian harpsichordist  and composer (d. 1994)
 1911 – Ruth Hussey, American actress (d. 2005)
 1914 - Anna Wing, British actress (d. 2013)
 1914 - Leabua Jonathan, 2nd Prime Minister of Lesotho (d. 1987)
 1915 - Jane Randolph, American actress (d. 2009)
 1915 - Fred W. Friendly, American journalist (d. 1998)
 1917 - Maurice Trintignant, French racing driver (d. 2005)
 1917 - Anna Marly, Russian-born French singer and songwriter (d. 2006)
 1917 - Nikolai Ugarkov, Marshal of the Soviet Union (d. 1994)
 1925 - Gus Savage, American politician (d. 2015)
 1926 - Tommy Ridgley, American singer (d. 1999)
 1928 – Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist (d. 1999)
 1930 – Clifford Brown, American musician (d. 1956)
 1931 - Vince Callahan, American politician (d. 2014)
 1932 - Louis Malle, French movie director (d. 1995)
 1934 - Frans Brüggen, Dutch conductor and flautist (d. 2014)
 1935 – Agota Kristof, Hungarian writer (d. 2011)
 1935 – Michael Winner, English movie director (d. 2013)
 1937 – Claude Lelouch, French director
 1938 - Ed Lauter, American actor (d. 2013)
 1939 – Leland H. Hartwell, American scientist
 1939 - Eddie Holland, American songwriter
 1939 - Grace Slick, American rock music singer, songwriter, musician, artist and model
 1941 - Theodor W. Haensch, German physicist
 1941 - Otis Williams, American singer
 1943 - David Triesman, Baron Triesman, English politician
 1944 - Ahmed Chalabi, Iraqi politician (d. 2015)
 1945 – Henry Winkler, American actor, director and producer
 1946 - William Thurston, American mathematician (d. 2012)
 1946 - Robert L. Gibson, American astronaut
 1946 - Chris L. Slade, Welsh drummer
 1947 - Timothy B. Schmit, American rock musician

1951  1975 
 1951 - Harry Hamlin, American actor
 1952 - Ana Paula Ribeiro Tavares, Angolan historian and poet
 1953 - Pete Hoekstra, United States Congressman
 1954 – Mario Testino, Peruvian-born fashion photographer
 1954 - Mahmoud El Khatib, Egyptian footballer
 1955 - Heidi Heitkamp, American politician
 1956 - Juliet Stevenson, English actress
 1957 - Kevin Pollak, American actor and director
 1960 – Diego Armando Maradona, Argentine footballer
 1961 - Giorgos Papakonstantinou, Greek economist and politician
 1962 - Courtney Walsh, Jamaican cricketer
 1962 – Stefan Kuntz, German footballer
 1964 – Jean-Marc Bosman, Belgian footballer
 1965 - Gavin Rossdale, British musician
 1966 - Scott Innes, American voice actor
 1966 - Zoran Milanovic, 10th Prime Minister of Croatia
 1967 - Brad Aitken, Canadian ice hockey player
 1969 - Stanislav Gross, 5th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (d. 2015)
 1969 - Snow, Canadian musician
 1970 - Xie Jun, Chinese chess player
 1970 - Nia Long, American actress
 1970 - Ben Bailey, American comedian and talk show host
 1970 - Tony Belleci, American visual effects designer and TV host
 1971 – Fredi Bobic, German footballer
 1971 - Emma Tate, British voice actress
 1971 - Tzanis Stavrakopoulos, Greek basketball player
 1972 - Jessica Hynes, British actress and writer
 1973 - Edge, Canadian actor and professional wrestler
 1975 - Maria Thayer, American actress

From 1976 
 1976 – Stern John, Trinidadian footballer
 1978 – Matthew Morrison, American actor and singer
 1979 - Jason Bartlett, American baseball player
 1981 - Jun Ji-hyun, South Korean actress
 1981 - Ayaka Kimura, Japanese actress
 1981 - Ivanka Trump, American model, businesswoman and socialite
 1982 - Manny Parra, American baseball player
 1983 - Diana Karazon, Jordanian singer, television host and actress
 1984 - Tyson Strachan, Canadian ice hockey player
 1984 - Eva Marcille, American actress, TV host and model
 1986 – Thomas Morgenstern, Austrian skijumper
 1986 - Margareta Kozuch, German volleyball player
 1988 - Janel Parrish, American actress and singer
 1989 - Jay Asforis, British actor, singer and dancer (S Club 7)
 1989 - Vanessa White, British singer (The Saturdays)
 1989 – Seth Adkins, American actor
 1989 – Nastia Liukin, American gymnast
 1989 - Ashley Barnes, Austrian-English footballer
 1996 – Mizuki Fukumura, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
 1998 - Meimi Tamura, Japanese singer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1226 - Ly Hue Tong, Emperor of Vietnam
 1459 - Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, Italian humanist (b. 1380)
 1522 - Jean Houton, French composer (b. 1459)
 1553 - Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck, German statesman and reformer (b. 1489)
 1602 - Jean-Jacques Boissard, French poet (b. 1528)
 1611 – King Charles IX of Sweden (b. 1550)
 1626 - Willebrord Snell, Dutch astronomer and mathematician (b. 1580)
 1632 - Henri II de Montmorency, French naval officer (b. 1595)
 1654 – Emperor Go-Komyo of Japan (b. 1633)
 1685 - Michel le Tellier, French statesman (b. 1603)
 1757 - Osman III, Ottoman Sultan
 1802 - Charles Alexandre de Colonna, French statesman (b. 1734)
 1809 – William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1738)
 1816 - Frederick I of Württemberg (b. 1754)
 1842 - Allan Cunningham, Scottish author and poet (b. 1784)
 1853 - Pietro Raimondi, Italian composer (b. 1786)
 1883 - Robert Volkmann, German composer (b. 1815)
 1893 – John Abbott, 3rd Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1821)
 1894 - Honoré Mercier, 9th Premier of Quebec (b. 1840)

1901  2000 
 1910 – Henry Dunant, Swiss founder of the International Red Cross, co-winner of the first Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1828)
 1912 – James S. Sherman, Vice President of the United States (b. 1855)
 1915 – Charles Tupper, shortest-serving Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1821)
 1923 – Andrew Bonar Law, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1858)
 1951 - Tom Perry, 14th Governor of South Dakota (b. 1879)
 1956 – Pio Baroja, Spanish writer (b. 1872)
 1957 - Fred Beebe, American baseball player (b. 1880)
 1961 – Luigi Einaudi, 2nd President of Italy (b. 1874)
 1963 - U. Muthuramalingam Thevar, Indian politician (b. 1908)
 1965 - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., American historian (b. 1888)
 1968 - Ramon Novarro, Mexican actor, singer and director (b. 1899)
 1968 - Conrad Richter, American author and playwright (b. 1890)
 1968 - Rose Wilder Lane, American journalist and writer (b. 1886)
 1975 – Gustav Ludwig Hertz, German physicist (b. 1887)
 1979 - Barnes Wallis, English scientist and engineer (b. 1887)
 1979 - Rachele Mussolini, wife of Benito Mussolini (b. 1890)
 1985 - Kirby Grant, American actor (b. 1911)
 1993 - Paul Grégoire, Archbishop of Montreal (b. 1911)
 1997 – Samuel Fuller, American movie director (b. 1912)
 2000 – Steve Allen, American comedian, writer, and composer (b. 1921)

From 2001 
 2002 – Juan Antonio Bardem, Spanish director and screenwriter (b. 1922)
 2004 - Peggy Ryan, American actress (b. 1924)
 2005 - Shamsher Singh Sheri, Indian Communist leader (b. 1942)
 2006 - Junji Kinoshita, Japanese playwright (b. 1914)
 2007 – Robert Goulet, American entertainer (b. 1933)
 2009 - Juvenal Amarijo, Brazilian footballer (b. 1923)
 2009 – Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist (b. 1908)
 2010 – Harry Mulisch, Dutch writer (b. 1927)
 2013 - Ralph Tarrant, English supercentenarian (b. 1903)
 2014 - Thomas Menino, American politician, longest-serving Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts (b. 1942)
 2014 - Bob Geigel, American wrestling promoter (b. 1924)
 2015 - Mel Daniels, American basketball player (b. 1944)
 2015 - Al Molinaro, American actor (b. 1919)
 2016 - Tammy Grimes, American actress (b. 1934)
 2017 - Fred Beckey, American rock climber, mountaineer and author (b. 1923)
 2017 - Frank Doran, Scottish politician (b. 1949)
 2017 - Kim Joo-hyuk, South Korean actor (b. 1972)
 2017 - James D. Martin, American businessman and politician (b. 1918)
 2017 - Judy Martz, American politician, 22nd Governor of Montana (b. 1943)
 2017 - Melanmai Ponnusamy, Indian writer and journalist (b. 1951)
 2017 - Daniel Te'o-Nesheim, American football player (b. 1987)
 2017 - Daniel Viglietti, Uruguayan singer, guitarist, composer and activist (b. 1939)
 2018 - David Azulai, Israeli politician (b. 1954)
 2018 - Whitey Bulger, American criminal (b. 1929)
 2018 - Bill Fischer, American baseball player (b. 1930)
 2018 - María Irene Fornés, Cuban-American playwright (b. 1930)
 2018 - Jin Yong, Hong Kong essayist and journalist (b. 1924)
 2018 - Erika Mahringer, Austrian alpine skier (b. 1924)
 2018 - Beverly McClellan, American singer and musician (b. 1969)
 2018 - Teodoro Petkoff, Venezuelan journalist and politician (b. 1932)
 2018 - Sangharakshita, British Buddhist writer and educator (b. 1925)
 2018 - Bob Skoronski, American football player (b. 1934)
 2019 - Russell Brookes, British rally driver (b. 1945)
 2019 - Ron Fairly, American baseball player and broadcaster (b. 1938)
 2019 - Jim Gregory, Canadian ice hockey coach and executive (b. 1935)
 2019 - William J. Hughes, American politician and diplomat (b. 1932)
 2019 - Mobolaji Johnson, Nigerian military officer and politician (b. 1936)
 2019 - Bernard Slade, Canadian-American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1930)
 2019 - Azam Taleghani, Iranian politician, activist and journalist (b. 1943)
 2019 - J. Bob Traxler, American politician (b. 1931)

Observances 
 Anniversary of the Declaration of the Slovak nation
 Mischief Night (United States)

Days of the year