Events

Up to 1900 
 1281 – Martin IV becomes Pope.
 1288 – Nicholas IV becomes Pope.
 1371 - Robert II of Scotland becomes King, starting the Stuart Dynasty.
 1494 – King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne.
 1632 – Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
 1651 - St. Peter's Flood: A storm surge floods the Frisian coast in present-day Germany and the Netherlands, killing about 15,000 people.
 1744 – The Battle of Toulon begins.
 1784 - William Herschel discovers the spiral galaxy NGC 3521.
 1797 - The last invasion of the Great Britain begins when a force of 4,000 French troops lands in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, Wales. They surrender two days later.
 1819 – By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sold Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
 1847 – Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops drive off 15,000 Mexican.
 1848 - The French Revolution of 1848 begins, later leading to the creation of the French Second Republic.
 1855 – The Pennsylvania State University is founded.
 1856 – The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
 1857 - The Bavarian Weisswurst sausage is allegedly invented in Munich.
 1862 - Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia.
 1865 – Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery.
 1872 - The Prohibition Party holds its first national convention in Columbus, Ohio, with James Black as its nominee for President of the United States.
 1876 – Johns Hopkins University is founded in Baltimore, Maryland.
 1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
 1889 – President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
 1890 - The Walmut Grove Dam breaks in Arizona, causing a flood that kills between 50 and 150 people.
 1899 - Filipino forces led by General Antonio Luna launch counter-attacks for the first time, against American forces in the Philippine-American War, though fail to retake Manila.

1901  2000 
 1901 - A Pacific mail steamer sinks in Golden Gate Harbor, killing 128 people.
 1904 – UK recognises the South Orkney Islands as part of Argentina, in 1908 claims them again.
 1915 – Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
 1920 – In Emeryville, California, the first dog race track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.
 1923 – The United States begins the first transcontinental air mail route.
 1923 – Barcelona (Catalonia): Albert Einstein visits the city, invited by the scientist Esteban Terradas i Illa, as part of the monografics course of High Studies and Exchange organized by the Mancomunitat de Catalunya and conducted by Rafael de Campalans.
 1924 – Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
 1940 - Then-four-year-old Tenzin Gyatso is enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama.
 1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense collapses.
 1943 – Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
 1944 - World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch cities of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, killing 800 in Nijmegen alone.
 1948 - The Communist Revolution begins in Czechoslovakia.
 1949 – Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.
 1956 – Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel".
 1957 - South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem survives a Communist shooting assassination attempt in Ban Me Thuot.
 1958 – Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
 1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
 1960 - A mining accident in Zwickau, East Germany kills 123 people.
 1969 – Barbara Jo Rubin wins a United States thoroughbred horse race making history as the first woman to do so.
 1972 - The Official IRA detonates a car bomb in Aldershot Barracks, killing 7 people.
 1973 – Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to China, the United States and the People's Republic of China agree to establish liaison offices.
 1974 - The Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit begins in Lahore, Pakistan and Bangladesh is recognized by Islamabad Officials.
 1979 – Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
 1980 – The United States men's ice hockey team defeats the Soviet Union team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in an upset dubbed the "Miracle on Ice".
 1986 - The People Power Revolution in the Philippines begins.
 1987 - The first Airbus A320 lifts off.
 1994 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.
 1997 – In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned.

From 2001 
 2002 – A MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashes into the ocean near the Philippines, killing all 10 aboard.
 2004 – Ralph Nader announces his intention to run as an independent candidate for President of the United States.
 2005 - An earthquake in Sarand, Iran, kills 420 people.
 2006 - The Al-Askari Shrine in Samarra, Iraq, a Shi'ite Holy Site, is badly damaged in a bomb attack.
 2009 - Slumdog Millionaire is the most successful movie at the 81st Academy Awards.
 2011 – 2011 Canterbury earthquake: A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hits Christchurch, New Zealand, causing major damage and more than 180 deaths. Among the collapsed buildings is the spire of Christchurch cathedral.
 2012 - A train crash in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 51 people.
 2014 - Matteo Renzi is sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy, making him the youngest holder of this office, at age 39.
 2014 - In Ukraine, parliament votes to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from power and to install a caretaker government. Yanukovych is reported to have fled to Eastern Ukraine, while former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is released from prison.
 2015 - A ferry capsizes in Bangladesh, killing at least 70 people.
 2015 - The 87th Academy Awards are held. Among the winners are Julianne Moore (Best Actress) and Eddie Redmayne (Best Actor), for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
 2017 - Scientists announce the discovery of seven planets of similar size to Earth orbiting around the dwarf star "TRAPPIST-1".

Births

Up to 1850 
 1300 BC - Ramesses II, Egyptian pharaoh (d. 1213 BC)
 1403 – King Charles VII of France (d. 1461)
 1440 - Ladislaus the Posthumous, King of Hungary and Bohemia (d. 1470)
 1500 - Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian cardinal (d. 1564)
 1514 - Tahmasp I, Persian shah (d. 1576)
 1631 - Peder Syv, Danish philologist, folklorist and priest (d. 1702)
 1645 – Johann Ambrosius Bach, German composer (d. 1695)
 1645 - Johann Christoph Bach, German musician (d. 1693)
 1705 - Peter Arbedi, Swedish naturalist (d. 1735)
 1732 – George Washington, first President of the United States (d. 1799)
 1756 - Georg Friedrich von Martens, German diplomat (d. 1821)
 1761 - Erik Tulindberg, Finnish composer (d. 1814)
 1778 - Rembrandt Peale, American painter (d. 1860)
 1785 - Jean Peltier, French physicist (d. 1845)
 1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (d. 1860)
 1796 - Alexis Bachelot, French missionary (d. 1837)
 1796 - Adolphe Quetelet, Belgian mathematician (d. 1874)
 1806 - Jozef Kremer, Polish philosopher (d. 1875)
 1817 - Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician (d. 1880)
 1819 - James Russell Lowell, American poet (d. 1891)
 1823 - Robert B. Ogilvie, Governor of Illinois (d. 1888)
 1824 - Pierre Janssen, French astronomer (d. 1907)
 1836 - Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya, Indian Sanskrit scholar and social reformer (d. 1906)
 1840 - August Bebel, German political activist (d. 1913)
 1847 - Duchess Sophie Charlotte of Bavaria (d. 1897)
 1849 - Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, Russian mathematician (d. 1915)

1851  1900 
 1857 – Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, German physicist (d. 1894)
 1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, British founder of the Scout movement (d. 1941)
 1864 - Jakob Jakobsen, Faroese linguist (d. 1918)
 1878 - Walter Ritz, Swiss physicist (d. 1909)
 1879 - Johannes Nicolaus Bronsted, Danish physical chemist (d. 1947)
 1880 - Eric Lemming, Swedish athlete (d. 1930)
 1881 - Joseph B. Ely, 52nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1956)
 1882 – Eric Gill, British sculptor (d. 1940)
 1883 - Marguerite Clark, American actress (d. 1940)
 1887 - Savielly Tartakower, Polish chess player (d. 1956)
 1888 - Owen Brewster, Governor of Maine (d. 1961)
 1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, British co-founder of the Girl Guides (d. 1977)
 1890 - Beatriz Michelena, Latin American movie actor (d. 1942)
 1891 - Vlas Chubar, Soviet politician (d. 1937)
 1892 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet (d. 1950)
 1895 - Victor Raul Haya del Torre, Peruvian politician (d. 1979)
 1897 - Karol Swierczewski, Polish general (d. 1947)
 1898 - Thillaiaadi Valliammai, South African activist (d. 1914)
 1899 - George O'Hara, American actor (d. 1966)
 1900 – Luis Buñuel, Spanish movie producer (d. 1983)
 1900 - James Sisnett, Barbadian supercentenarian (d. 2013)

1901  1950 
 1903 – Frank Plumpton Ramsey, British mathematician (d. 1930)
 1906 - Donald S. Russell, 107th Governor of South Carolina (d. 1998)
 1907 - Georg Braun, Austrian footballer (d. 1963)
 1907 - Sheldon Leonard, American actor (d. 1997)
 1907 - Robert Young, American actor (d. 1998)
 1908 - Romulo Betancourt, President of Venezuela (d. 1981)
 1913 - Buddy Tate, American jazz musician (d. 2001)
 1914 – Renato Dulbecco, Italian virologist (d. 2012)
 1917 - Jane Bowles, American writer and playwright (d. 1973)
 1918 - Sid Abel, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2000)
 1918 – Robert Wadlow, tallest person in history (d. 1940)
 1918 - Don Pardo, American television and radio announcer (d. 2014)
 1921 - Giulietta Masina, Italian actress (d. 1994)
 1921 - Sune Andersson, Swedish footballer (d. 2002)
 1921 - Wayne C. Booth, American literary critic (d. 2005)
 1921 - Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic (d. 1996)
 1921 - David Greene, British director (d. 2003)
 1922 - Joe Wilder, American jazz trumpeter (d. 2014)
 1923 - Bleddyn Williams, Welsh rugby player (d. 2009)
 1925 - Kenneth Williams, English actor (d. 1988)
 1925 - Cyril Leonoff, Canadian civil engineer and historian (d. 2016)
 1925 - Gerald Stern, American poet
 1927 – Florencio Campomanes, Filipino chess player and official (d. 2010)
 1927 - Gus Douglass, American politician (d. 2015)
 1928 – Bruce Forsyth, British entertainer (d. 2017)
 1928 - Paul Dooley, American actor
 1929 - James Hong, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
 1930 - Giuliano Montaldo, Italian movie director
 1930 - Bill Mitchell, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2014)
 1930 - Marni Nixon, American singer (d. 2016)
 1932 – Ted Kennedy, United States Senator from Massachusetts (d. 2009)
 1933 – Sheila Hancock, British actress
 1933 - Katharine, Duchess of Kent
 1934 - Sparky Anderson, American baseball player and manager (d. 2010)
 1936 - J. Michael Bishop, American biologist
 1940 - Judy Cornwell, English actress
 1940 - Billy Name, American photographer and filmmaker (d. 2016)
 1940 - Chet Walker, American basketball player
 1941 - Hipolito Mejia, former President of the Dominican Republic
 1942 - Christine Keeler, English model and showgirl (d. 2017)
 1943 – Horst Koehler, former President of Germany
 1944 - Robert Kardashian, American lawyer (d. 2003)
 1944 - Jonathan Demme, American movie producer and screenwriter (d. 2017)
 1944 - Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player
 1945 - Leslie Charleson, English actress
 1946 - Kresten Bjerre, Danish footballer (d. 2014)
 1947 - Maurizio De Angelis, Italian singer
 1949 - Olga Morozova, Russian tennis player
 1949 – Niki Lauda, Austrian racing driver
 1950 – Julie Walters, British actress
 1950 - Julius Erving, American basketball player
 1950 - Miou-Miou, French actress

1951  1975 
 1951 - Ellen Greene, American singer and actress
 1952 - Bill Frist, United States Senator
 1952 - Bernard Silverman, English minister, statistician and academic
 1953 - Nigel Planer, English actor
 1955 - David Axelrod, American political advisor
 1956 - Philip Kerr, British author (d. 2018)
 1958 - Dave Spitz, American musician
 1959 – Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
 1961 - Akira Takahashi, Japanese guitarist
 1962 – Steve Irwin, Australian wildlife expert and TV personality (d. 2006)
 1963 – Vijay Singh, Fijian golfer
 1963 - Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, British politician
 1963 - Devon Malcolm, English cricketer
 1964 - Gigi Fernandez, Puerto Rican tennis player
 1965 - Chris Dudley, American basketball player
 1965 - Pat Lafontaine, American ice hockey player
 1965 - Kieren Fallon, Irish jockey
 1968 - Shawn Graham, Canadian politician, 31st Premier of New Brunswick
 1968 - Jayson Williams, American basketball player
 1969 – Brian Laudrup, Danish footballer
 1969 – Marc Wilmots, Belgian footballer
 1969 - Clinton Kelly, American television personality
 1972 – Claudia Pechstein, German speed skater
 1973 - Philippe Gaumont, French cyclist (d. 2013)
 1973 - Claus Lundekvam, Norwegian footballer
 1973 – Juninho Paulista, Brazilian footballer
 1973 – Archil Arveladze, Georgian footballer
 1973 - Shota Arveladze, Georgian footballer
 1974 – Chris Moyles, British radio presenter
 1974 – Markus Schopp, Austrian footballer
 1974 – James Blunt, British singer
 1975 – Drew Barrymore, American actress

From 1976 
 1977 – Hakan Yakin, Swiss footballer
 1978 – Jenny Frost, British singer (Atomic Kitten), TV presenter (Snog Marry Avoid?) and model
 1979 – Brett Emerton, Australian footballer
 1979 - Lee Na-young, South Korean actress
 1980 - Jeanette Biedermann, German singer and actress
 1983 - Shaun Tait, Australian cricketer
 1983 - Ragna Ingolfsdottir, Icelandic badminton player
 1984 - Tommy Bowe, Irish rugby player
 1984 - Branislav Ivanovic, Serbian footballer
 1985 – Hameur Bouazza, Algerian footballer
 1985 - Ross Hutchins, British tennis player
 1985 - Larissa Riquelme, Paraguayan model
 1986 - Rajon Rondo, American basketball player
 1987 - Han Hyo-joo, South Korean actress and model
 1987 - Sergio Romero, Argentine footballer
 1987 - Enzo Pérez, Argentine footballer
 1988 - Efrain Juarez, Mexican footballer
 1988 - Ximena Navarrete, Mexican model and actress
 1989 - Anna Sundstrand, Swedish singer
 1991 - Robin Stjernberg, Swedish singer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 556 - Maximilianus of Ravenna, Italian bishop (b. 499)
 606 - Pope Sabinian
 965 - Otto, Duke of Burgundy (b. 944)
 1071 - Arnulf III, Count of Flanders (b. 1055)
 1111 - Roger Borsa, King of Sicily
 1371 – King David II of Scotland (b. 1324)
 1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer (b. 1451)
 1627 - Olivier van Noort, Dutch navigator (b. 1558)
 1674 - Jean Chapelain, French writer (b. 1595)
 1690 - Charles Le Brun, French painter (b. 1619)
 1727 - Francesco Gasparini, Italian composer (b. 1661)
 1731 - Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1638)
 1732 - Francis Atterbury, English bishop and man of letters (b. 1663)
 1750 - Pietro Filippo Scarlatti, Italian composer (b. 1679)
 1797 - Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Munchhausen, German officer and adventurer (b. 1720)
 1799 - Heshen, Chinese official (b. 1750)
 1816 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher (b. 1723)
 1819 - Thomas Johnson, Governor of Maryland (b. 1752)
 1875 – Charles Lyell, British geologist (b. 1797)
 1875 – Jean-Baptiste Corot, French painter (b. 1796)
 1890 – John Jacob Astor III, American businessman (b. 1822)
 1897 - Charles Blondin, French tightrope walker (b. 1824)
 1898 - Haungseon Daewongun, Korean king (b. 1820)

1901  2000 
 1903 - Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
 1913 – Francisco I. Madero, President of Mexico (b. 1873)
 1914 - Thillaiaadi Valliammai, South African activist (b. 1898)
 1919 – Perito Moreno, Argentine geographer and explorer (b. 1852)
 1921 - Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1864)
 1923 - Théophile Delcasse, French statesman (b. 1852)
 1927 - Judson Harmon, Governor of Ohio (b. 1846)
 1930 - William Jeremiah Tuttle, American freestyle swimmer and water polo (b. 1882)
 1934 - Willem Kes, Dutch conductor (b. 1856)
 1939 – Antonio Machado, Spanish writer (b. 1875)
 1942 – Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer (b. 1881)
 1943 - White Rose Resistance Activists executed:
Christoph Probst, German resistance activist (b. 1919)
Hans Scholl, German resistance activist (b. 1918)
Sophie Scholl, German resistance activist (b. 1921)
 1944 – Kasturba Gandhi, wife of Mahatma Gandhi (b. 1869)
 1945 - Osip Brik, Russian author and critic (b. 1888)
 1958 - Abul Kalam Azad, Indian independence movement leader (b. 1888)
 1961 - Nick LaRocca, American jazz musician (b. 1889)
 1970 - Edward Selzer, American movie producer (b. 1893)
 1973 - Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Premier of Quebec (b. 1916)
 1973 - Winthrop Rockefeller, American politician, 37th Governor of Arkansas (b. 1912)
 1974 - Samuel Byck, American attempted assassin of Richard Nixon (b. 1930)
 1976 - Florence Ballard, American singer (b. 1943)
 1980 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian painter (b. 1886)
 1985 – Efrem Zimbalist, American violinist and composer (b. 1889)
 1987 – Andy Warhol, American artist, director, and writer (b. 1928)
 1989 - Moises da Costa Amaral, East Timorese politician (b. 1938)
 1994 – Papa John Creach, American musician (b. 1917)
 1995 – Ed Flanders, American actor (b. 1934)
 1998 - Donald S. Russell, 107th Governor of South Carolina (b. 1906)
 1998 - Abraham A. Ribicoff, 80th Governor of Connecticut (b. 1910)

From 2001 
 2002 - Roden Cutler, 32nd Governor of New South Wales (b. 1916)
 2002 – Chuck Jones, American cartoonist (b. 1912)
 2002 – Jonas Savimbi, Angolan politician and rebel leader (b. 1934)
 2002 - Daniel Pearl, American journalist (b. 1963)
 2004 - Roqué Maspoli, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1917)
 2005 – Simone Simon, French actress (b. 1910)
 2012 – Marie Colvin, American journalist (b. 1956)
 2012 – Rémi Ochlik, French photojournalist (b. 1983)
 2013 - Hasse Jeppson, Swedish footballer (b. 1925)
 2013 - Wolfgang Sawallisch, German pianist and conductor (b. 1923)
 2014 - Charlotte Dawson, New Zealand-born Australian television personality (b. 1966)
 2014 - Leo Vroman, Dutch-American hematologist, poet and illustrator (b. 1915)
 2015 - Kim Kyung-roul, South Korean billiards player (b. 1980)
 2016 - Wesley A. Clark, American computer engineer (b. 1927)
 2016 - Sonny James, American country singer-songwriter (b. 1929)
 2016 - Hans Reffert, German musician (b. 1946)
 2016 - Douglas Slocombe, English cinematographer (b. 1913)
 2016 - Yochanan Sofer, Hungarian-Israeli rabbi (b. 1922)
 2016 - Cara McCollum, American journalist and beauty queen (b. 1992)
 2016 - Cristiana Corsi, Italian taekwondo martial artist (b. 1976)
 2016 - Yolande Fox, American beauty queen, singer and activist (b. 1928)
 2017 - Frank Delaney, Irish author (b. 1942)
 2017 - Ricardo Dominguez, Mexican boxer (b. 1985)
 2017 - Eni Faleomavaega, American Samoan politician (b. 1943)
 2017 - Aleksei Petrenko, Russian actor (b. 1938)
 2017 - Ed Garvey, American lawyer and politician (b. 1940)
 2017 - John McCormack, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1925)
 2018 - Nanette Fabray, American actress and dancer (b. 1920)
 2018 - Forges, Spanish cartoonist (b. 1942)
 2018 - Richard E. Taylor, Canadian physicist (b. 1929)

Observances 
 Independence Day (Saint Lucia)
 World Thinking Day (Girl Scouts)
 Founder's Day (Scout Movement)

Days of the year