Events

Up to 1900 
 888 - Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
 1328 – Edward III of England marries Philippa of Hainault.
 1733 – James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive at Charleston, South Carolina.
 1750 - Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Madrid to agree on their colonial policy.
 1822 – The design of the Flag of Greece is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
 1830 – The Great Fire of New Orleans begins.
 1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks 4 miles off Long Island, New York, killing 139 people.
 1893 – The independent British Labour Party holds its first meeting.
 1893 - United States marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the ship USS Boston to prevent Queen Liliuokalani from abandoning the Bayonet Constitution.
 1898 - Émile Zola's J'accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.

1901  2000 
 1908 - The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, killing 171 people.
 1910 - The first public radio broadcast takes place from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
 1915 - An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy, kills 29,800 people.
 1917 - A train crash near Ciurea, Romania, kills between 600 and 1,000 people.
 1930 – An expedition led by Douglas Mawson discovers the Aagaard Islands off Antarctica.
 1935 – Most voters in Saarland decide to become part of Germany.
 1939 - The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, killing 71 people.
 1942 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile.
 1951 - First Indochina War: The Battle of Vinh Yen begins, later ending in French victory.
 1953 – Josip Broz Tito is chosen as the President of Yugoslavia.
 1963 – A coup in Togo kills the country's first President, Sylvanus Olympio.
 1964 – An Anti-Muslim riot in Calcutta leaves 100 people dead.
 1964 – Karol Woityla, later Pope John Paul II, becomes archbishop of Krakow.
 1972 – A coup occurs in Ghana.
 1974 - Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport opens to the public.
 1982 - Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, DC's 14th Street Bridge, shortly after take-off, and falls into the Potomac River, killing 74 people on board, and 4 motorists on the bridge.
 1985 – Africa's worst rail disaster occurs in Awash, northeastern Ethiopia, when a train plunges into a ravine, killing 428 people.
 1986 – Voyager 2 discovers three moons of Uranus: Desdemona, Belinda and Rosalind.
 1986 - A civil war begins in Yemen.
 1990 – The US' first elected African American state Governor, L. Douglas Wilder, takes office in Virginia.
 1991 – Soviet troops crush a pro-independence demonstration in Vilnius, Lithuania, killing 14 people, and wounding over 1,000.
 1993 – Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off, as STS-54 launches from Cape Canaveral.
 1993 – Erich Honecker and his wife Margot go into exile in Chile.

From 2001 
 2001 – An earthquake that was 7.6 on the Richter scale hits all of El Salvador, killing over 800 people.
 2012 – The 2012 Winter Youth Olympics begin in Innsbruck, Austria. These are the first Winter Youth Olympics.
 2012 - Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia crashes onto rocks off the island of Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany, Italy, killing 32 people.
 2018 - 2018 Hawaii false missile alert: An alert falsely claiming there was an incoming missile causes panic in Hawaii.
 2019 - Pawel Adamowicz, Mayor of the Polish city of Gdansk, is stabbed during a charity event; he dies the next day, aged 53.

Births

Up to 1900 
 5 BC - Emperor Guangwu of Han, Chinese ruler (d. 57)
 101 - Lucius Aelius, adoptive son of Roman Emperor Hadrian (d. 138)
 1334 – Henry II of Castile (d. 1379)
 1338 - Jeong Mong-ju, Korean politician, diplomat and scholar (d. 1392)
 1505 – Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1571)
 1596 - Jan van Goyen, Dutch artist (d. 1656)
 1610 – Maria Anna of Austria, Electress of Bavaria (d. 1665)
 1615 - Henrik Bjelke, Norwegian admiral (d. 1683)
 1683 - Christoph Graupner, German composer (d. 1760)
 1698 - Metastasio, Italian poet (d. 1782)
 1763 - Louis Alexandre Andrault de Langeron, French-Russian general (d. 1831)
 1777 – Elisa Bonaparte, Grand Duchess of Tuscany (d. 1820)
 1779 - William Badger, 20th Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1852)
 1787 - John Davis, 14th and 17th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1854)
 1805 – Thomas Dyer, Mayor of Chicago (d. 1862)
 1808 – Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1873)
 1812 – Victor de Laprade, French poet and critic (d. 1883)
 1832 - Horatio Alger, Jr., American minister and writer (d. 1899)
 1836 - Giuseppe Abbati, Italian painter (d. 1868)
 1845 – Félix Tisserand, French astronomer (d. 1896)
 1855 – Otto Lehmann, German physicist (d. 1922)
 1858 - Oskar Minkowski, Lithuanian biologist (d. 1931)
 1859 - Kostis Palamas, Greek poet (d. 1943)
 1861 – Max Nonne, German neurologist (d. 1959)
 1864 – Wilhelm Wien, German physicist (d. 1928)
 1865 - Princess Marie of Orleans, French-Danish princess (d. 1908)
 1866 - Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian composer (d. 1901)
 1869 - Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta, Italian aristocrat (d. 1931)
 1869 - William G. Bulow, Governor of South Dakota (d. 1960)
 1870 - Jedrzej Moraczewski, Polish politician (d. 1944)
 1870 – Ross Granville Harrison, American biologist (d. 1959)
 1880 - Herbert Brenon, American director, screenwriter and actor (d. 1958)
 1883 – Prince Arthur of Connaught (d. 1938)
 1884 - Sophie Tucker, Ukrainian-American singer and actress (d. 1966)
 1885 - Art Ross, Canadian ice hockey coach (d. 1964)
 1887 - George Gurdjieff, Russian-French mystic and philosopher (d. 1949)
 1887 - Hedd Wyn, Welsh poet (d. 1917)
 1890 – Jüri Uluots, Prime Minister of Estonia (d. 1945)
 1892 - Ermanni Aebi, Italian-Swiss footballer (d. 1976)
 1893 - Clark Ashton Smith, American sculptor, writer and painter (d. 1961)
 1893 - Roy Cazaly, Australian footballer (d. 1963)
 1898 – Kaj Munk, Danish pastor, poet and Resistance activist (d. 1944)
 1898 - Carlo Tagliabue, Italian baritone (d. 1978)
 1899 - Lev Kuleshov, Soviet-Russian director (d. 1970)

1901  1950 
 1901 - Mieczyslaw Zywczysnki, Polish historian and priest (d. 1978)
 1904 - Richard Addinsell, British composer (d. 1977)
 1905 - Kay Francis, American actress (d. 1968)
 1906 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist (d. 2017)
 1908 - Enrico Paoli, Italian chess player (d. 2005)
 1908 - Earle G. Wheeler, American general (d. 1975)
 1909 - Danny Barker, American jazz musician and bandleader (d. 1994)
 1909 - Martinus van der Lubbe, Dutch Communist (d. 1934)
 1911 – Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Australian politician, Premier of Queensland (d. 2005)
 1911 - Guido del Mestri, German cardinal (d. 1993)
 1913 - Jeff Morrow, American actor (d. 1993)
 1916 - Liselotte Landbeck, Austrian skater (d. 2013)
 1919 - Robert Stack, American actor, sportsman and television host (d. 2003)
 1920 – Knut Nordahl, Swedish footballer (d. 1984)
 1922 - Albert Lamorisse, French movie director and producer (d. 1970)
 1923 - Daniil Shafran, Russian cellist (d. 1997)
 1923 - Willem Slijkhuis, Dutch athlete (d. 2003)
 1924 – Paul Feyerabend, Austrian philosopher (d. 1994)
 1924 – Roland Petit, French choreographer (d. 2011)
 1925 - Rosemary Murphy, German-born American actress (d. 2014)
 1926 – Michael Bond, British writer, creator of Paddington Bear (d. 2017)
 1927 – Sydney Brenner, South African-British biologist
 1928 - Gregory Walcott, American actor (d. 2015)
 1929 - Joe Pass, American jazz guitarist (d. 1994)
 1931 – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor (d. 2007)
 1932 - Barry Bishop, American mountaineer (d. 1994)
 1933 - Shahnon Ahmad, Malaysian writer (d. 2017)
 1934 - Carolyn See, American novelist, professor and critic (d. 2016)
 1934 - Rip Taylor, American actor
 1935 - Mauro Forghieri, Italian racecar designer
 1936 - Renato Bruson, Italian operatic baritone
 1938 - Daevid Allen, Australian singer, guitarist and composer (d. 2015)
 1938 - Richard Anthony, French singer (d. 2015)
 1938 - Cabu, French cartoonist (d. 2015)
 1938 - Shivkumar Sharma, Indian composer
 1939 - Jacek Gmoch, Polish footballer
 1939 - Edgardo Cozarinsky, Argentine author, screenwriter and director
 1941 – Pascual Maragall i Mira, Catalan politician
 1942 - Carol Cleveland, English actress
 1942 - Piero Marini, Italian archbishop
 1943 – Richard Moll, American actor
 1947 – Jacek Majchrowski, Polish politician and Krakow Mayor
 1947 - Erland Kolding Nielsen, Danish academic (d. 2017)
 1947 – Carles Rexach, Catalan-Spanish footballer
 1948 - Gaj Singh, Maharaja of Jodhpur
 1949 – Rakesh Sharma, Indian astronaut
 1950 - Gholam Hossein Mazloumi, Iranian footballer (d. 2014)

1951  1975 
 1951 – Bernard Loiseau, French chef (d. 2003)
 1951 - Kim Manners, American television producer, director and actor (d. 2009)
 1951 - Antoni Szymanowski, Polish footballer
 1952 - John Lee Hooker, Jr., American blues singer
 1954 - Bruno Coulais, French movie score composer
 1954 - Trevor Rabin, South African rock musician and composer
 1955 – Huh Jung-Moo, South Korean footballer
 1955 – Paul Kelly, Australian singer-songwriter
 1955 - Jay McInerney, American writer
 1955 - Anne Pringle, English diplomat
 1955 - Eduardo Bonvallet, Chilean footballer (d. 2015)
 1956 - Toshio Nakanishi, Japanese musician (d. 2017)
 1956 - Greg Trooper, American singer-songwriter (d. 2017)
 1957 - Claudia Emerson, American poet (d. 2014)
 1957 – Mark O'Meara, American golfer
 1957 - Daniel Scioli, 33rd Vice President of Argentina
 1957 - Mary Glindon, English politician
 1957 - Dusan Bukovac, Bulgarian footballer
 1958 - Francisco Buyo, Spanish footballer and manager
 1959 - Jay Lomenzo, American musician
 1960 - Eric Betzig, American physicist and chemist, 2014 Nobel Prize winner
 1960 - Matthew Bourne, English choreographer and director
 1961 – Suggs, English singer (Madness)
 1961 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress
 1961 - Jeremy Bamber, English murderer
 1963 – Charles Muscat, Maltese footballer (d. 2011)
 1964 – Bill Bailey, British comedian
 1964 – Penelope Ann Miller, American actress
 1964 – Ronan Rafferty, Northern Irish golfer
 1966 – Patrick Dempsey, American actor
 1966 - Simon Shelton, English actor (d. 2018)
 1968 – Chara, Japanese singer and actress
 1968 - Antonio Tartaglia, Italian bobsledder
 1969 - Stefania Belmondo, Italian skier
 1969 – Stephen Hendry, Scottish snooker player
 1970 - Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (d. 2004)
 1970 - Gavin Whittaker, Australian rugby league player (d. 2017)
 1970 - Shonda Rhimes, American screenwriter, director and producer
 1971 - John Mallory Asher, American movie actor and director
 1972 - Nicole Eggert, American actress
 1972 - Park Jin-young, South Korean singer-songwriter, producer and actor
 1973 - Nikolai Khabibulin, Russian ice hockey player
 1974 - Sergei Brylin, Russian ice hockey player
 1975 - Daniel Kehlmann, Austrian-German writer

From 1976 
 1976 – Bic Runga, New Zealand singer
 1976 – Mario Yepes, Colombian footballer
 1976 - Tania Vicent, Canadian speed skater
 1977 – Orlando Bloom, British actor
 1978 - Nate Silver, American journalist and statistician
 1979 - Katy Brand, British actress and comedienne
 1980 - María de Villota, Spanish racing driver (d. 2013)
 1980 - Michael Rupp, American ice hockey player
 1980 – Nils-Eric Johansson, Swedish footballer
 1981 - Jason James, Welsh musician
 1982 – Guillermo Coria, Argentine tennis player
 1982 - Kamran Akmal, Pakistani cricketer
 1982 - Ruth Wilson, English actress
 1983 - William Hung, Chinese singer
 1984 - Raif Badawi, Saudi writer, blogger and activist
 1984 - Kamghe Gaba, German athlete
 1985 - Qi Hui, Chinese swimmer
 1986 – Joannie Rochette, Canadian figure skater
 1987 – Marc Staal, Canadian ice hockey player
 1987 – Lee Seung-gi, Korean singer & actor
 1989 - Triinu Kivilaan, Estonian singer
 1989 - Beau Mirchoff, American-Canadian actor
 1990 - Liam Hemsworth, Australian actor
 1991 - Goo Ha-ra, South Korean singer, dancer and actress
 1992 - Adam Matthews, Welsh footballer
 1993 - Max Whitlock, British gymnast
 1995 - Qaasim Middleton, American musician and actor
 1995 - Eros Vlahos, English actor and comedian

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 86 BC – Gaius Marius, Roman general and politician (b. 157 BC)
 533 - Saint Remigius, Bishop of Reims (b. 437)
 614 – Saint Kentigern (Saint Mungo), patron saint of Glasgow
 703 - Empress Jiti of Japan (b. 645)
 858 – Ethelwulf of Wessex (b. 795)
 888 – Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 839)
 1138 - Simon I, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1076)
 1151 - Abbot Suger, French statesman and historian (b. 1081)
 1177 – Henry II of Austria (b. 1107)
 1330 – Frederick I of Austria (b. 1286)
 1625 – Jan Brueghel the Elder, Flemish painter (b. 1568)
 1630 - Yuan Chonghuan, Chinese military commander (b. 1584)
 1658 - Edward Sexby, English Puritan soldier (b. 1616)
 1717 - Maria Sibylla Merian, German-Swiss entomologist and illustrator (b. 1647) 
 1766 – Frederick V of Denmark (b. 1723)
 1796 - John H. D. Anderson, Scottish scientist and inventor (b. 1726)
 1797 - Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Bevern, consort of Frederick II of Prussia (b. 1715)
 1832 - Thomas Lord, English cricketer (b. 1755)
 1838 - Ferdinand Ries, German composer (b. 1784)
 1852 – Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, German-Russian explorer (b. 1778)
 1853 – Theophilus Kairis, Greek revolutionary (b. 1783)
 1864 – Stephen Foster, American musician (b. 1826)
 1885 – Schuyler Colfax, Vice President of the United States (b. 1823)
 1889 - Solomon Bundy, American politician (b. 1823)
 1897 - David Schwarz, Austro-Hungarian aviation pioneer and inventor (b. 1850)

1901  2000 
 1905 – George Thorn, Premier of Queensland (b. 1838)
 1915 – Mary Slessor, Scottish missionary (b. 1848)
 1916 – Victoriano Huerta, President of Mexico (b. 1850)
 1923 - Alexandre Ribot, French statesman (b. 1842)
 1928 - Mara Buneva, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1902)
 1929 – Wyatt Earp, American Western figure (b. 1848)
 1932 – Sophia of Prussia, Queen Consort of Greece (b. 1870)
 1934 - Paul Ulrich Villard, French physicist (b. 1860)
 1941 – James Joyce, Irish writer (b. 1882)
 1943 - Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Swiss artist (b. 1889)
 1949 – Aino Aalto, Finnish architect and designer (b. 1894)
 1958 - Jesse L. Lasky, American movie producer (b. 1910)
 1961 - Herman Glass, American gymnast (b. 1880)
 1962 - Ernie Kovacs, American actor and comedian (b. 1919)
 1963 – Sylvanus Olympio, 1st President of Togo (b. 1902)
 1969 - Li Zongren, Chinese politician (b. 1890)
 1974 - Salvador Novo, Mexican writer and poet (b. 1904)
 1978 – Hubert Humphrey, Vice President of the United States (b. 1911)
 1980 - Andre Kostelanetz, Russian-born music conductor and arranger (b. 1901)
 1982 – Marcel Camus, French movie director (b. 1912)
 1982 - Arland D. Williams, Jr., American airline passenger (b. 1935)
 1986 - Abdul Fattah Ismail, 4th President of South Yemen (b. 1939)
 1988 – Chiang Ching-kuo, President of the Republic of China (b. 1910)
 1993 - Camargo Guarneri, Brazilian composer (b. 1907)
 2000 - Elizabeth Kerr, American actress (b. 1912)

From 2001 
 2002 – Gregorio Fuentes, Cuban fisherman (b. 1897)
 2002 - Paul J. Fannin, Governor of Arizona (b. 1907)
 2004 – Harold Shipman, British doctor and serial killer (b. 1946)
 2006 - Marc Potvin, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1967)
 2007 - Michael Brecker, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1949)
 2008 - Sergej Larin, Latvian-Lithuanian tenor (b. 1956)
 2009 – Patrick McGoohan, American actor (b. 1928)
 2010 – Teddy Pendergrass, American singer-songwriter (b. 1950)
 2011 – Charles Muscat, Maltese footballer (b. 1963)
 2012 – Rauf Denktas, 1st President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (b. 1924)
 2012 - Lefter Küçükonyadis, Turkish footballer (b. 1925)
 2013 - Bille Brown, Australian actor (b. 1952)
 2014 - Menachem Zilberman, Israeli comedian and songwriter (b. 1946)
 2014 - Anjali Devi, Indian actress and movie producer (b. 1927)
 2014 - Mihai Fotino, Romanian actor (b. 1930)
 2015 - Mark Juddery, Australian author and journalist (b. 1971)
 2015 - Keith Wright, Australian politician (b. 1942)
 2015 - Hara Patnaik, Indian actor and movie director (b. 1958)
 2015 - Jack Hayward, English businessman (b. 1923)
 2015 - Robert White, American diplomat (b. 1926)
 2015 - Trevor Colbourn, Australian educator and academic (b. 1927)
 2016 - J. F. R. Jacob, Indian military officer (b. 1923)
 2016 - Giorgio Gomelsky, Georgian filmmaker, songwriter and record producer (b. 1934)
 2016 - Brian Bedford, British actor (b. 1935)
 2016 - William Craig, American philosopher (b. 1918)
 2016 - Bern Herbolsheimer, American composer (b. 1948)
 2016 - Conrad Phillips, British actor (b. 1925)
 2016 - Lawrence Phillips, American football player (b. 1975)
 2016 - Jim Simpson, American sportscaster (b. 1927)
 2016 - Tera Wray, American pornographic actress (b. 1982)
 2017 - Gilberto Agustoni, Swiss cardinal (b. 1922)
 2017 - Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon (b. 1930)
 2017 - Mark Fisher, British writer (b. 1968)
 2017 - Horacio Guarany, Argentine singer and writer (b. 1925)
 2017 - John Jacobs, English golfer (b. 1925)
 2017 - Magic Alex, Greek electronics engineer (b. 1942)
 2017 - David Modell, American businessman (b. 1960)
 2017 - Anton Nanut, Slovenian conductor (b. 1932)
 2017 - Ari Rath, Austrian-Israeli journalist (b. 1925)
 2017 - Udo Ulfkotte, German journalist (b. 1960)
 2018 - Doug Harvey, American baseball umpire (b. 1930)
 2018 - Tzimis Panousis, Greek rock musician and comedian (b. 1954)
 2018 - Jean Porter, American actress (b. 1922)
 2018 - Eliyahu Winograd, Israel judge (b. 1926)
 2018 - Byron Langley, American politician (b. 1926)
 2019 - Bonnie Guitar, American country singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1923)
 2019 - Phil Masinga, South African footballer (b. 1969)
 2019 - Alfred K. Newman, American Navajo code talker (b. 1924)
 2019 - Mel Stottlemyre, American baseball player (b. 1941)

Observances
 Korean American Day
 Old New Year (parts of Eastern Europe)
 Saint Knut's Day, end of the Christmas period (Finland, Norway, Sweden)
 Constitution Day (Mongolia)
 Democracy Day (Cape Verde)
 Liberation Day (Togo)

Days of the year