Events

Up to 1900 
 561 - King Chlothar I dies at Compiegne, the Merovingian dynasty is continued by his four sons, Charibert I, Guntram, Sigebert I and Chilperic I, who divide the Frankish kingdom.
 800 - Charlemagne arrives in Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III.
 939 - Edmund I is crowned King of England.
 1394 - Korean king Yi Seong-gye, founder of the Joseon Dynasty, moves the capital city from Kaesong to Hanyang, present-day Seoul.
 1729 - Natchez Native Americans massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women and 56 children at Fort Rosalie near present-day Natchez, Mississippi.
 1777 – San Jose, California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. It is the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California.
 1781 - The crew of British slave ship Zong murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea to claim insurance.
 1783 - A magnitude 5.3 earthquake strikes New Jersey.
 1830 - November Uprising: An armed rebellion against Russia's rule in Poland begins.
 1847 - The Sonderbund is defeated by the joint forces of other Swiss cantons under Guillaume-Henri Dufour.
 1850 - The "Punctation of Olmütz" treaty is signed. Prussia surrenders to Austria, which will take over the leadership of the German Confederation.
 1864 – Indian Wars: Colorado volunteers, led by Colonel Chivington, massacre at least 150 people from the Cheyenne and Arapaho groups, who were unarmed, inside Colorado Territory.
 1864 – American Civil War: In the Battle of Spring Hill, in the Confederate advance into Tennessee, the Confederates fail to crush the Union Army.
 1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.
 1885 - End of the Third Anglo-Burmese War and the Burmese monarchy.
 1890 – The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan.
 1899 - FC Barcelona is founded by Joan Gamper.

1901  2000 
 1922 – Howard Carter opened the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun ("King Tut") to the public.
 1929 - US Admiral Richard E. Byrd leads the first expedition to the South Pole.
 1943 - World War II: The second session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the Liberation of Yugoslavia, held to determine the post-war ordering of the country, concludes in Jajce, present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 1944 – World War II: Albania is liberated by Albanian partisans.
 1945 – The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia is declared.
 1947 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine.
 1950 – Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force United Nations forces to retreat from North Korea.
 1952 – Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.
 1961 - Project Mercury: The Mercury-Atlas 5 mission - Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space.
 1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
 1963 – Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8, crashes near Montreal shortly after take-off, killing 118 people.
 1965 - The Canadian Space Agency launches the satellite  Alouette 2.
 1967 - The Sempor Dam breaks on the island of Java, flooding the town of Kebumen, killing between 160 and 200 people.
 1967 – Vietnam War: US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns.
 1972 - Atari announces the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game.
 1975 – The name "Micro-soft" (for "microcomputer software") is first used in a letter from Bill Gates to Paul Allen.
 1982 – The United Nations General Assembly passes United Nations Resolution 37/37, stating that Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan.
 1987 – Korean Air Flight 858 explodes over the Thai-Burmese border, killing 155 people.
 1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes UN Security Council Resolution 678, allowing military action in Iraq if that nation did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

From 2001 
 2007 – Martinique is struck by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake.
 2008 – The 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks come to an end after a stand-off at the Taj Mahal Hotel.
 2009 - Rwanda joins the Commonwealth of Nations. It is the second country, after Mozambique, to join despite having no colonial links to the United Kingdom.
 2012 - The UN General Assembly approves a motion granting Palestine non-member observer status.
 2013 - LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 crashes in northeastern Namibia, killing all 34 people on board.
 2013 - A police helicopter crashes into a pub in Glasgow, Scotland, killing all three people on board, and seven people in the pub, including one who died nearly two weeks later.
 2017 - Bosnian-Croatian politician and general Slobodan Praljak dies after drinking cyanide at the end of his war crimes trial in The Hague.
 2019 - Two people are stabbed and killed in the 2019 London Bridge stabbing; a separate stabbing in The Hague a few hours later injures three people.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1338 – Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (d. 1368)
 1427 – Zhengtong Emperor of China (d. 1464)
 1484 - Joachim Vadian, Swiss physician, scholar and politician (d. 1551)
 1711 - Laura Bassi, Italian scientist (d. 1778)
 1781 - Andrés Bello, Venezuelan poet and philosopher (d. 1865)
 1787 - Ramon Freire, President of Chile (d. 1851)
 1797 – Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (d. 1848)
 1798 - Ramón Freire, President of Chile (d. 1851)
 1798 - Alexander Brullov, Russian painter (d. 1877)
 1798 - Hamilton Rowan Gamble, 16th Governor of Missouri (d. 1864)
 1799 – Amos Bronson Alcott, American writer and educator (d. 1888)
 1802 – Wilhelm Hauff, German poet (d. 1827)
 1803 – Christian Doppler, Austrian physicist (d. 1853)
 1803 – Gottfried Semper, German architect (d. 1879)
 1816 - Morrison Waite, American jurist and politician (d. 1888)
 1818 - William Ellery Channing, American poet (d. 1901)
 1823 - La Fayette Grover, 4th Governor of Oregon (d. 1911)
 1825 – Jean-Martin Charcot, French neurologist (d. 1893)
 1832 – Louisa May Alcott, American writer (d. 1888)
 1835 – Empress Dowager Cixi of China (d. 1908)
 1839 - Ludwig Anzengruber, Austrian writer (d. 1889)
 1842 - William E. Cameron, Governor of Virginia (d. 1927)
 1843 - Gertrude Jekyll, English horticulturist and painter (d. 1932)
 1849 - John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and engineer (d. 1945)
 1850 - Agostino Richelmy, Italian cardinal (d. 1923)
 1856 – Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1921)
 1857 – Theodor Escherich, German-Austrian  physician and bacteriologist (d. 1911)
 1862 - Gustav Ritter von Kahr, Prime Minister of Bavaria (d. 1934)
 1874 – Egas Moniz, Portuguese physician (d. 1955)
 1876 – Nellie Tayloe Ross, 14th Governor of Wyoming (d. 1977)
 1878 - John Derbyshire, English swimmer and water polo player (d. 1938)
 1879 - Jacob Gade, Danish composer (d. 1963)
 1880 - Nora Bayes, American singer (d. 1928)
 1882 - Henri Fabre, French pilot (d. 1984)
 1888 - Joe Slater, Australian footballer and captain (d. 1917)
 1891 - Julius Raab, 19th Chancellor of Austria (d. 1964)
 1895 – Busby Berkeley, American director and choreographer (d. 1976)
 1895 – William Tubman, President of Liberia (d. 1971)
 1896 - Yakima Canutt, American actor, stuntman and director (d. 1986)
 1898 – C. S. Lewis, Irish writer (d. 1963)
 1899 - Andrija Artukovic, Croatian lawyer and politician (d. 1988)
 1899 - Emma Morano, Italian supercentenarian (d. 2017)

1901  1950 
 1901 - Mildred Harris, American actress (d. 1944)
 1902 - Carlo Levi, Italian writer, painter and politician (d. 1975)
 1904 - Egon Eiermann, German architect (d. 1970)
 1905 - Marcel Lefebvre, French pilot (d. 1991)
 1912 - Jock Shaw, Scottish footballer (d. 2000)
 1915 – Eugene Polley, American inventor of the TV remote control (d. 2011)
 1916 - John Arthur Love, American politician, 36th Governor of Colorado (d. 2001)
 1917 - Pierre-Gaspard Huit, French director and screenwriter (d. 2017)
 1917 - Merle Travis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1983)
 1918 – Madeleine L'Engle, American writer (d. 2007)
 1920 - Joe Weider, Canadian-American bodybuilder (d. 2013)
 1920 - Yegor Ligachev, Soviet-Russian politician
 1920 - Joseph Shivers, American chemist (d. 2014)
 1921 - Jackie Stallone, American astrologer, mother of Sylvester Stallone
 1922 - Michael Howard, British historian (d. 2019)
 1923 - Minnie Miñoso, Cuban baseball player (d. 2015)
 1924 - Jane Freilicher, American painter (d. 2014)
 1924 – Erik Balling, Danish director (d. 2005)
 1925 – Ernst Happel, Austrian football manager (d. 1992)
 1926 - Beji Caid Essebsi, President of Tunisia (d. 2019)
 1928 - Shulamit Aloni, Israeli politician (d. 2014)
 1928 - Paul Simon, American politician (d. 2003)
 1929 - Derek Jameson, British journalist and broadcaster (d. 2012)
 1930 - David Goldblatt, South African photographer (d. 2018)
 1930 – Shirley Porter, British politician
 1931 - Shintaro Katsu, Japanese actor (d. 1997)
 1931 - Wallace Smith Broecker, American scientist (d. 2019)
 1932 – Jacques Chirac, former President of France (d. 2019)
 1932 - Diane Ladd, American actress
 1933 – John Mayall, English blues singer
 1933 – James Rosenquist, American artist (d. 2017)
 1934 - Guillermo Sepulveda, Mexican footballer
 1938 – Kashiwado Tsuyoshi, Japanese Sumo wrestler (d. 1996)
 1938 - Michel Duchaussoy, French actor (d. 2012)
 1939 - Abdelmajid Lakhal, Tunisian director and producer (d. 2014)
 1939 - Hugh Robertson, Scottish footballer (d. 2010)
 1939 – Sandro Salvadore, Italian footballer (d. 2007)
 1940 – Denny Doherty, Canadian singer (d. 2007)
 1940 - Chuck Mangione, American horn player and composer
 1941 – Lothar Emmerich, German footballer (d. 2003)
 1942 – Ann Dunham (d. 1995), American anthropologist, mother of Barack Obama
 1946 - Brian Cadd, American singer-songwriter and keyboardist
 1946 - Suzy Chaffee, American skier and actress
 1947 – Petra Kelly, German activist and politician (d. 1992)
 1947 - Mario Aurelio Poli, Argentine cardinal
 1948 - David Rintoul, Scottish actor
 1949 – Jerry Lawler, American professional wrestler
 1949 - Garry Shandling, American comedian, actor and scriptwriter (d. 2016)

1951  1975 
 1952 – Jeff Fahey, American actor
 1953 - Christine Pascal, French actress (d. 1996)
 1953 – Huub Stevens, Dutch footballer and coach
 1953 - Rosemary West, English murderer
 1954 - Joel Coen, American director, producer and screenwriter
 1955 - Howie Mandel, Canadian actor and comedian
 1957 – Janet Napolitano, American politician
 1957 - Mario Salieri, Italian pornographic film director and producer
 1958 - Michael Dempsey, British musician
 1958 - John Dramani Mahama, President of Ghana
 1959 – Rahm Emanuel, American politician, 55th Mayor of Chicago
 1961 - Kim Delaney, American actress
 1962 - Ronny Jordan, British guitarist (d. 2014)
 1964 – Don Cheadle, American actor
 1964 - Ken Monkou, Dutch footballer
 1964 - Tom Sizemore, American actor and producer
 1965 - Yutaka Ozaki, Japanese poet and pianist (d. 1992)
 1965 - Ellen Cleghorn, American comedienne and actress
 1967 - Zbigniew Szewczyk, Polish footballer
 1968 - Hayabusa, Japanese wrestler (d. 2016)
 1968 - Jonathan Knight, American singer
 1969 - Pierre van Hooijdonk, Dutch footballer
 1969 – Kasey Keller, American footballer
 1969 – Mariano Rivera, Panamanian baseball player
 1970 - Larry Joe Campbell, American actor
 1970 - Frank Delgado, American keyboardist (Deftones)
 1970 - Nathan Hines, Australian-Scottish rugby union player
 1970 - Mark Pembridge, Welsh footballer
 1971 - Gena Lee Nolin, American actress
 1972 - Jamal Mashburn, American basketball player
 1973 – Ryan Giggs, Welsh footballer
 1974 – Pavol Demitra, Slovakian ice hockey player (d. 2011)
 1975 – Andreas Ioannides, Greek-Cypriot footballer

From 1976 
 1977 - Juan José Gurruchaga, Chilean actor
 1977 - Paul Goodison, English sailor
 1977 - Eddie Howe, English footballer and coach
 1978 – Dimitrios Konstantopoulos, Greek footballer
 1978 - Lauren German, American actress
 1979 - Simon Amstell, English comedian, actor and television host
 1981 - Fawad Khan, Pakistani actor and singer
 1982 - Gemma Chan, English actress
 1982 – Lucas Black, American actor
 1982 – John Mensah, Ghanaian footballer
 1982 - Ramya, Indian actress, singer and politician
 1982 – Imogen Thomas, Welsh television personality
 1983 - Albert Bunjaku, Swiss footballer
 1985 – Shannon Brown, American basketball player
 1987 - Stephen O'Halloran, Irish footballer
 1988 - Nika Kiladze, Georgian footballer (d. 2014)
 1988 - Russell Wilson, American football player
 1989 - Stefan Bradl, German motorcycle racer
 1990 - Lee Minhyuk, South Korean idol, singer, rapper and dancer
 1991 - Zac Sunderland, American sailor
 1991 - Becky James, Welsh cyclist
 1992 - George Atkinson III, American football player (d. 2019)
 1995 - Laura Marano, American actress and singer
 1995 - Siobhan-Marie O'Connor, English swimmer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 521 - Jacob of Serugh, Syrian poet and theologian (b. 451)
 561 - Chlothar I, Frankish King (b. 497)
 1253 – Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1206)
 1268 - Pope Clement IV (b. 1190)
 1314 – King Philip IV of France (b. 1268)
 1330 - Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, English soldier and statesman (b. 1287)
 1342 - Michael of Cesena, Italian theologian (b. 1270)
 1378 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1316)
 1530 - Thomas Wolsey, English cardinal (b. 1470)
 1544 - Jungjong of Joseon of Korea (b. 1488)
 1590 - Philipp Nikodemos Frischlin, German philologist and poet (b. 1547)
 1595 - Alonso de Ercilla, Spanish soldier and poet (b. 1533)
 1600 – Nanda, King of Burma (b. 1535)
 1632 - Frederick V, Elector Palatine (b. 1596)
 1643 – Claudio Monteverdi, Italian composer (b. 1567)
 1682 - Prince Rupert of the Rhine (b. 1619)
 1694 - Marcello Malpighi, Italian physician (b. 1628)
 1759 – Nicolaus I Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1687)
 1780 – Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, a Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and a Holy Roman Empress (b. 1717)
 1797 - Samuel Langdon, American clergyman and academic (b. 1723)
 1830 - John Maurice Hauke, Polish general (b. 1775)
 1847 - Marcus Whitman, American physician and missionary (b. 1802)
 1856 - Frederick William Beechey, English naval officer, explorer, geographer and politician (b. 1796)
 1872 - Horace Greeley, American newspaper editor and politician (b. 1811)
 1883 – Hiep Hoa, Emperor of Vietnam (b. 1847)

1901  2000 
 1901 – Francisco Pi i Margell, Catalan writer and politician (b. 1824)
 1924 – Giacomo Puccini, Italian opera composer (b. 1858)
 1939 – Philipp Scheidemann, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1865)
 1941 - Frank Waller, American sprinter and hurdler (b. 1884)
 1946 - Sandy Archibald, Scottish footballer (b. 1896)
 1946 - Johannes Vares, Prime Minister of Estonia (b. 1890)
 1953 - Sam DeGrasse, American actor (b. 1875)
 1954 - Dink Johnson, American pianist, clarinetist and drummer (b. 1892)
 1954 - George Robey, English comedian, singer and actor (b. 1859)
 1957 - Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Austrian composer (b. 1897)
 1962 - Erik Scavenius, Danish politician (b. 1877)
 1967 - Ferenc Münnich, Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1886)
 1972 - Carl Stalling, American composer (b. 1888)
 1975 – Graham Hill, British racing driver (b. 1929)
 1975 - Tony Brise, British racing driver (b. 1952)
 1979 – Zeppo Marx, American actor (b. 1901)
 1981 – Natalie Wood, American actress (b. 1938)
 1982 - Percy Williams, Canadian sprinter (b. 1908)
 1986 – Cary Grant, British-American actor (b. 1904)
 1991 – Ralph Bellamy, American actor (b. 1904)
 1991 - Frank Yerby, American author (b. 1916)
 1992 – Jean Dieudonné, French mathematician (b. 1906)
 1993 - J. R. D. Tata, Indian pilot and businessman (b. 1904)
 1998 - Frank Latimore, American actor (b. 1925)
 1999 - Gene Rayburn, American game show host (b. 1917)

From 2001 
 2001 – George Harrison, English musician (The Beatles) (b. 1943)
 2003 - Moondog Spot, American professional wrestler (b. 1952)
 2004 – Anne Samson, Canadian nun and supercentenarian (b. 1891)
 2005 – David di Tommaso, French footballer (b. 1979)
 2007 - Ralph Beard, American basketball player (b. 1927)
 2008 – Jorn Utzon, Danish architect (b. 1918)
 2009 - Prince Alexander of Belgium (b. 1942)
 2010 – Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet (b. 1937)
 2010 – Mario Monicelli, Italian movie director (b. 1915)
 2010 – Maurice Wilkes, British computer scientist (b. 1913)
 2013 - Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Russian poet and activist (b. 1936)
 2013 - Chris Howland, English-German singer, presenter, actor and author (b. 1928)
 2014 - Mark Strand, Canadian-American poet (b. 1934)
 2014 - Dwayne Alons, American politician (b. 1946)
 2014 - Luc De Vos, Belgian musician (b. 1962)
 2015 - O'tkir Sultonov, Prime Minister of Uzbekistan (b. 1939)
 2015 - Claire Aho, Finnish-Swedish photographer (b. 1925)
 2016 - Luis Alberto Monge, President of Costa Rica (b. 1925)
 2017 - Belmiro de Azevedo, Portuguese businessman (b. 1938)
 2017 - Jerry Fodor, American philosopher (b. 1935)
 2017 - Aminul Islam, Bangladeshi academic (b. 1935)
 2017 - Charles E. Merrill Jr., Polish-born American educator (b. 1920)
 2017 - Slobodan Praljak, Bosnian-Croatian politician and general (b. 1945)
 2017 - Heather North, American actress (b. 1945)
 2017 - Mary Lee Woods, British mathematician and computer programmer (b. 1924)
 2018 - Altaf Fatima, Pakistani writer (b. 1927)
 2018 - Eldon George, Canadian fossil hunter and geologist (b. 1931)
 2018 - Ruth Haring, American chess player (b. 1955)
 2018 - Viktor Matviyenko, Ukrainian footballer and manager (b. 1948)
 2019 - Irving Burgie, American songwriter (b. 1924)
 2019 - Fitzhugh Mullan, American physician and medical writer (b. 1942)
 2019 - Yasuhiro Nakasone, Japanese politician, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1918)

Observances 
 International Day for Solidarity with the Palestinian people
 Liberation Day (Albania)
 Tubman Day (Liberia)

Days of the year