Events

Up to 1900 
 211 – Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta.
 960 - Song Taizu, founder of the Song Dynasty in China, comes to power in a coup.
 1169 - Mount Etna on Sicily erupts. It is known exactly how many people were killed.
 1454 – In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederacy sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
 1546 - The Siege of Pskov in the Livland War ends with the last Polish-Lithuanian forces leaving the city.
 1703 – The day that forty-six of the forty-seven ronin committed sepuku.
 1783 – American Revolutionary War: The United Kingdom formally declares that it will cease hostilities with the United States of America.
 1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected to be the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
 1792 – George Washington is unanimously elected to a second term as President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
 1794 – The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic.
 1797 - An earthquake in Riobamba, Ecuador, kills up to 40,000 people.
 1801 – John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
 1810 – The British Navy seizes Guadeloupe.
 1820 - The Chilean Navy completes the 2-day long capture of Valdivia, with just 300 men and 2 ships.
 1825 - A flood along North Sea coasts kills around 800 people.
 1846 - The first Mormon pioneers leave Nauvoo, Illinois, westward to what later became Salt Lake City.
 1859 – Codex Sinaiticus discovered in Egypt.
 1861 – American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama the Confederate States of America is formed by delegates from six break-away United States.
 1862 – Bacardi, one of the world's largest spirits company, was founded as a small distillery in Santiago de Cuba in eastern Cuba.
 1897 - Germany's first-known ice hockey game takes place in Berlin.
 1899 – The Philippine-American War begins.
 1899 - The German football club Werder Bremen is founded.

1901  1950 
 1915 – Germany establishes a submarine blockade around the UK and declares any vessel in it a legitimate target.
 1927 – The first talkie is released – The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson.
 1932 – World War II: Japan occupies Harbin, China.
 1932 – 1932 Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.
 1932 – Asteroid 1239 Queteleta discovered by Eugène Joseph Delporte.
 1934 – Asteroid 2824 Franke discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth.
 1936 – Radium E. becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
 1938 – Thornton Wilder's play Our Town opens (New York City).
 1938 – Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released, and it went on to become a major box-office success, making more money than any other movie in 1938.
 1941 – World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
 1943 – Battle of Stalingrad ends.
 1945 – World War II: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin begin the Yalta Conference.
 1948 – Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.

1951  2000 
 1957 – USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, logged her 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional Nautilus described in Jules Verne's novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
 1960 – Lorraine, Quebec is founded.
 1962 – Ian Fleming's The Living Daylights first published.
 1966 – All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 jet plunges into Tokyo Bay killing 133.
 1967 - Lunar Orbiter 3 launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
 1968 – Bowie Kuhn becomes the fifth commissioner of Major League Baseball, replacing William Eckert.
 1969 – Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.
 1975 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurs in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.
 1976 – In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
 1976 – 1976 Winter Olympics open in Innsbruck, Austria.
 1977 – Fleetwood Mac releases one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Rumours.
 1980 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran.
 1991 – The Baseball Hall of Fame votes to ban Pete Rose.
 1992 - Future-President Hugo Chávez leads a failed coup in Venezuela against Carlos Andres Perez.
 1996 – A major snowstorm paralyzes the Midwestern United States. Milwaukee, Wisconsin ties its all-time record low temperature at −26 °F. (−32 °C)
 1997 – O. J. Simpson is found to be civilly liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
 1997 – En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.
 1997 – After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
 1998 – An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
 1999 – Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.
 2000 – USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) launched.
 2000 – German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with sabotage of German railway lines.

From 2001 
 2002 - The charity Cancer Research UK is founded.
 2003 - The Hindu minority of Bangladesh declares the independence of Bangabhumi.
 2003 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
 2004 - The social networking site Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
 2006 - A stampede at the ULTRA Stadium in Manila kills 71 people.
 2007 – Super Bowl XLI takes place from Dolphins Stadium in Miami, Florida, USA.
 2013 - It is announced that the remains dug up in a car park in Leicester are those of King Richard III of England.
 2014 - The Scottish Parliament approves the legalization of same-sex marriage in Scotland, after England and Wales had also legalized it, in 2013.
 2015 - TransAsia Airways Flight 235 crashes shortly after take-off from Taipei, Taiwan, killing 31 people.
 2018 - American football: The Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl for the first time, defeating the New England Patriots.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1483 - Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, Italian painter (d. 1561)
 1505 - Nicolaus Rey, Polish poet (d. 1580)
 1620 - Gustaf Bonde, Swedish statesman (d. 1667)
 1639 - Alessandro Melani, Italian composer (d. 1703)
 1646 – Hans Erasmus Assmann, Freiherr von Abschatz, German statesman and poet (d. 1699)
 1676 - Giacomo Focco, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1753)
 1677 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German composer (d. 1731)
 1740 - Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet and composer (d. 1795)
 1746 – Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Polish general and national hero of Poland and Lithuania (d. 1817)
 1808 – Josef Kajetan Tyl, Czech playwright (d. 1856)
 1811 – Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, French organist (d. 1899)
 1831 - Oliver Ames, 35th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1895)
 1840 - Hiram Stevens Maxim, American inventor (d. 1916)
 1846 - Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist (d. 1915)
 1848 - Jean Aicard, French poet, author and playwright (d. 1921)
 1849 - Jean Richepin, French poet (d. 1926)
 1860 - Jackson Showalter, American chess player (d. 1935)
1862 - Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Swedish politician (d. 1953)
 1868 - Constance Georgine, Countess Markiewicz, Irish political activist (d. 1927)
 1871 – Friedrich Ebert, President of Germany (d. 1925)
 1872 – Gotse Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1903)
 1873 - Mikhail Prishkin, Soviet-Russian writer (d. 1954)
 1875 – Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (d. 1953)
 1881 - Yakov Protazanov, Soviet-Russian movie director (d. 1945)
 1881 - Kliment Voroshilov, Soviet-Russian politician (d. 1969)
 1881 - Fernand Léger, French artist (d. 1955)
 1881 - Eulalio Gutiérrez, Interim President of Mexico (d. 1939)
 1882 - Princess Louise of Orléans (d. 1958)
 1883 - Jakob Sildnik, Estonian photographer and movie maker (d. 1973)
 1891 - M. A. Ayyangar, Indian politician, Speaker of the Lok Sabha (d. 1978)
 1892 - Andreu Nin, Catalan politician (d. 1937)
 1893 - Raymond Dart, Australian scientist (d. 1988)
 1895 – Nigel Bruce, English actor (d. 1953)
 1896 – Friedrich Hund, German physicist (d. 1997)
 1897 – Ludwig Erhard, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1977)
 1897 – Emperor Iyasu V of Ethiopia (d. 1935)
 1900 – Jacques Prévert, French poet (d. 1977)

1901  1925 
 1902 – Charles Lindbergh, American pilot (d. 1974)
 1902 – Hartley Shawcross, British lawyer and politician (d. 2003)
 1904 - Deng Yingchao, wife of Chinese leader Zhou Enlai (d. 1992)
 1904 - MacKinlay Kantor, American writer (d. 1977)
 1906 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian (d. 1945)
 1906 - Sabine Bonhoeffer, twin sister of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (d. 1999)
 1906 – Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)
 1906 - Colette Darfeuil, French actress (d. 1998)
 1907 - Otto Ohlendorf, German SS group leader and war criminal (d. 1951)
 1912 – Byron Nelson, American golfer (d. 2006)
 1912 - Louis-Albert Vachon, Canadian archbishop (d. 2006)
 1913 – Rosa Parks, American Civil Rights activist (d. 2005)
 1915 – Norman Wisdom, British actor and comedian (d. 2010)
 1917 – Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, Last President of United Pakistan (d. 1980)
 1918 – Ida Lupino, English actress and movie director (d. 1996)
 1920 - Morton Deutsch, American social psychologist (d. 2017)
 1920 - Janet Waldo, American actress (d. 2016)
 1921 - Lotfi A. Zadeh, Soviet-born mathematician and computer scientist (d. 2017)
 1921 – Betty Friedan, American feminist, activist and writer (d. 2006)
 1922 – Bhimsen Joshi, Indian singer and musician (d. 2011)
 1923 - Conrad Bain, Canadian-American actor (d. 2013)
 1923 - Bonar Bain, Canadian actor (d. 2005)
 1923 - Belisario Betancur, 53rd President of Colombia
 1925 - Jutta Hipp, German-American jazz pianist, composer and painter (d. 2003)
 1925 - Christopher Zeeman, British mathematician (d. 2016)

1926  1950 
 1926 – Gyula Grosics, Hungarian footballer (d. 2014)
 1927 - Horst Ehmke, German politician (d. 2017)
 1927 - John Martinkovic, American football player (d. 2018)
 1928 – Kim Yong-nam, North Korean politician
 1929 – Jerry Adler, American actor
 1929 – Eduard Zimmermann, German journalist and television presenter (d. 2009)
 1930 - Arthur E. Chase, American businessman and politician (d. 2015)
 1930 - Jim Loscutoff, American basketball player (d. 2015)
 1931 – Isabel Perón, former President of Argentina
 1932 - Gerhard Hund, German chess player, son of Friedrich Hund
 1935 - Martti Talvela, Finnish bass (d. 1989)
 1936 - David Brenner, American comedian, actor and author (d. 2014)
 1936 – Gary Conway, American actor
 1938 - Donald W. Riegle, Jr., United States Senator
 1940 - George A. Romero, American movie director (d. 2017)
 1941 - Jiri Raska, Czech ski jumper (d. 2012)
 1941 – John Steel, British musician
 1943 - Wanda Rutkiewicz, Polish mountaineer (d. 1989)
 1943 – Ken Thompson, American computer scientist
 1945 - Tony Haygarth, English actor (d. 2017)
 1947 - Dennis C. Blair, American admiral, 3rd Director of Central Intelligence
 1947 – Dan Quayle, 44th Vice President of the United States
 1948 – Alice Cooper, American musician
 1948 - Marisol, Spanish actress & singer
 1948 – Ram Baran Yadav, 1st President of Nepal

1951  1975 
 1951 - Patrick Bergin, Irish actor
 1952 – Jenny Shipley, 36th Prime Minister of New Zealand
 1953 - Kitaro, Japanese composer
 1954 - Andrei Karlov, Russian diplomat (d. 2016)
 1955 – Mikulas Dzurinda, former Prime Minister of Slovakia
 1960 - Mark Dawson, English-American talent manager and producer
 1962 – Clint Black, American musician
 1962 - John Gordon Sinclair, Scottish actor
 1962 - Stephen Hammond, English politician
 1963 - Pirmin Zurbriggen, Swiss skier
 1964 – Noodles, American guitarist
 1966 - Viatcheslav Ekimov, Russian cyclist
 1967 - Sergei Grinkov, Russian figure skater (d. 1995)
 1969 - Dallas Drake, Canadian ice hockey player
 1970 - Gabrielle Anwar, English actress
 1971 - Eric Garcetti, 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles, California
 1971 - Rob Corddry, American actor, director and producer
 1972 – Giovanni Silva de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
 1972 – Dara Ó Briain, Irish comedian
 1973 – Oscar de la Hoya, Mexican-American boxer
 1974 - Mijntje Denners, Dutch field hockey player
 1975 – Natalie Imbruglia, Australian singer and actress
 1975 – Vittorio Arrigoni, Italian activist (d. 2011)

From 1976 
 1976 – Cam'ron, American rapper and actor
 1977 – Gavin DeGraw, American singer
 1979 – Andrei Arlovski, Belarussian mixed martial artist and actor
 1980 – Raimonds Vaikulis, Latvian basketball player
 1981 – Jason Kapono, American basketball player
 1982 – Ivars Timermanis, Latvian basketball player
 1982 – Kimberly Wyatt, American singer (Pussycat Dolls)
 1982 – Chris Sabin, American professional wrestler
 1983 – Miguel Garcia, Portuguese footballer
 1983 – Lee Stempniak, American ice hockey player
 1984 – Mauricio Pinilla, Chilean footballer
 1985 – Bug Hall, American actor
 1986 – Asif Ali, Indian actor
 1987 – Darren O'Dea, Irish footballer
 1987 – Lucie Safarova, Czech tennis player
 1988 – Jeff Horn, Australian professional boxer
 1988 – Carly Patterson, American gymnast
 1989 – Shogo Suzuki, Japanese actor and musician
 1990 – Haruka Tomatsu, Japanese voice actress and singer
 1991 – Mathew Leckie, Australian footballer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 211 – Septimius Severus, Emperor of Rome (born 146)
 708 – Pope Sisinnius
 784 – Hrabanus Maurus, German poet
 856 – Rabanus Maurus, Bishop of Mainz
 869 – Saint Cyril, after whom the Cyrillic alphabet is named (born 827)
 1161 - King Inge I of Norway (b. 1135)
 1615 - Giovanni Battista della Porta, Italian polymath (born 1535)
 1694 - Natalya Kyrillovna Naryshkina, Tsaritsa of Russia (born 1651)
 1713 – Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (born 1671)
 1774 - Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (born 1701)
 1781 – Josef Myslivecek, composer (born 1737)
 1843 - Theodoros Kolokotronis, Greek general (born 1770)
 1894 – Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone (born 1814)

1901  2000 
 1905 – Louis-Ernest Barrias, French sculptor (born 1841)
 1928 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate (born 1853)
 1928 - Manche Masemola, South African girl and Christian martyr (born 1913)
 1933 – Archibald Sayce, educator (born 1846)
 1935 - J. Henry Birtles, English rugby player (born 1874)
 1936 – Wilhelm Gustloff, German leader of the Swiss Nazi party (born 1895)
 1941 - Louis Lincoln Emmerson, 27th Governor of Illinois (born 1863)
 1943 - Frank Calder, first NHL President (born 1877)
 1944 – Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (born 1867)
 1953 - Antonio Conte, Italian fencer (born 1867)
 1956 - Savielly Tartakower, Polish chess player (born 1887)
 1958 – Henry Kuttner, science fiction writer (born 1915)
 1967 - Albert Orsborn, 6th General of the Salvation Army (born 1886)
 1968 – Neal Cassady, writer (born 1926)
 1968 – Gilbert H. Grosvenor, President of the National Geographic Society (born 1875)
 1969 – Thelma Ritter, actress (born 1905)
 1974 – Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist (born 1894)
 1975 – Louis Jordan, musician (born 1908)
 1983 – Karen Carpenter, U.S. singer, musician (Carpenters) (born 1950)
 1984 – Anna Anderson, claimant to the throne of Russia (born 1896)
 1987 – Liberace, American musician (born 1919)
 1987 – Carl Rogers, psychologist (born 1902)
 1992 - Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish model (born 1911)
 1995 – Godfrey Brown, athlete and teacher (born 1915)
 1995 – Patricia Highsmith, American writer (born 1921)
 1999 – Amadou Bailo Diallo, shot by New York City police (born 1975)
 2000 – Doris Coley, singer, member of the Shirelles (born 1941)
 2000 – Carl Albert, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (born 1908)

From 2001 
 2001 – Iannis Xenakis, Greek-French composer (born 1922)
 2001 – J. J. Johnson, jazz trombonist and jazz composer (born 1924)
 2002 - Agatha Barbara, Maltese politician (born 1923)
 2002 - George Nader, American actor (born 1921)
 2005 – Ossie Davis, American actor (born 1917)
 2006 - Betty Friedan, American feminist, activist and writer (born 1921)
 2007 - Barbara McNair, American singer and actress (born 1934)
 2008 - Stefan Meller, Polish politician (born 1942)
 2009 - Lux Interior, American musician (born 1946)
 2011 - Lena Nyman, Swedish actress (born 1944)
 2011 - Martial Celestin, Haitian lawyer, diplomat and politician (born 1913)
 2012 - Mike deGruy, American documentary movie maker (born 1951)
 2012 - Andrew Wight, Australian screenwriter and producer (born 1960)
 2012 - Florence Green, British supercentenarian and last-surviving World War I service veteran (born 1901)
 2013 - Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (born 1941)
 2013 - Essie Mae Washington-Williams, American educator (born 1925)
 2014 - Wu Ma, Chinese-Hong Kong actor and director (born 1942)
 2014 - Keith Allen, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1923)
 2015 - Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, Iraqi terrorist (born 1970)
 2015 - Eduardo Laborde, Argentine rugby player (born 1967)
 2015 - Fitzhugh L. Fulton, American NASA research pilot (born 1925)
 2015 - Wes Cooley, American politician (born 1932)
 2016 - Maurice White, American singer (born 1941)
 2016 - Marlow Cook, American politician (born 1926)
 2016 - Edgar Whitcomb, American politician, 43rd Governor of Indiana (born 1917)
 2016 - Axl Rotten, American professional wrestler (born 1971)
 2016 - Dave Mirra, American BMX rider (born 1974)
 2016 - Edgar Mitchell, American astronaut (born 1930)
 2017 - Basil Hetzel, Australian medical researcher (born 1922)
 2017 - Bano Qudsia, Pakistani writer (born 1928)
 2017 - Georgi Taratorkin, Russian actor (born 1945)
 2017 - Hans van der Hoek, Dutch footballer (born 1933)
 2017 - John Howes, American professor of Asian Studies (born 1924)
 2017 - Steve Lang, Canadian rock musician (born 1949)
 2017 - Marc Spitz, American writer (born 1969)
 2018 - Alan Baker, English mathematician (born 1939)
 2018 - Martin Grüner, German politician (born 1929)
 2018 - Edwin Jackson, American football player (born 1991)
 2018 - John Mahoney, British-American actor (born 1940)
 2018 - Séamus Pattison, Irish politician (born 1936)
 2018 - Wojciech Pokora, Polish actor (born 1934)

Observances
 Independence Day (Sri Lanka)
 Rosa Parks Day (United States)
 Day of the Armed Struggle (Angola)
 World Cancer Day

February 04