Events

Up to 1900 
 49 BC – Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon which signalled civil war.
 9 - Beginning of the Xin dynasty in China.
 69 - Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus is appointed by Galba as Deputy Roman Emperor.
 236 - Fabian became Pope.
 1072 – Robert Guiscard conquered Palermo.
 1475 - Stephen III of Moldavia defeated the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.
 1776 – Thomas Paine published Common Sense.
 1806 – Dutch in Cape Town surrendered to the British.
 1810 – The marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais is annulled.
 1821 - Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen discovered an island near Antarctica which he names Tsar Peter I Island.
 1840 - Isaac Pitman introduced long-distance learning; his students are able to send him their work by post.
 1861 – Florida seceded from the United States.
 1863 – The first section of the London Underground Railway opened (Paddington to Farringdon Street).
 1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.

1901  2000 
 1901 – The first great Texas gusher - oil is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.
 1910 - British passenger ship Loodiana disappeared off Port Louis, Mauritius - a mystery that has not been solved to-date.
 1916 - World War I: In the Erzurum Offensive, Russia defeated the Ottoman Empire.
 1920 – League of Nations held its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.
 1922 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Irish Free State.
 1923 – Lithuania seized and annexed Memel.
 1927 – The movie Metropolis by Fritz Lang premiered.
 1929 – Tintin, a comic book character created by Hergé, made his debut. He went on to be published in over 200 million comic books in 40 languages.
 1941 – Lend-Lease is introduced into the U.S. Congress.
 1946 – First General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. 51 nations are represented.
 1946 - The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the Moon and receiving the reflected signals.
 1954 - BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland DH. 106 Comet 1 aircraft, explodes and falls into the Tyrrhenian Sea off Italy, killing 35 people.
 1957 – Harold Macmillan becomes the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
 1962 - NASA announces plans to build what would become the Saturn V rocket.
 1964 - Panama temporarily breaks off diplomatic relations with the United States. These are restored on April 3.
 1969 – After 147 years, the last issue of the Saturday Evening Post is published.
 1971 – Masterpiece Theatre debuts on PBS.
 1972 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman becomes President of Bangladesh.
 1984 – The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
 1985 - Daniel Ortega becomes President of Nicaragua.
 1989 – Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola.
 1990 – Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.
 2000 – America Online announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion, the largest corporate merger in history.

From 2001 
 2001 – Wikipedia started as part of Nupedia. It becomes a separate site five days later.
 2005 - A ban on smoking in public places came into force in Italy.
 2005 - A mudslide occurred in La Conchita, California, killing 10 people.
 2007 - Daniel Ortega became President of Nicaragua for the second time.
 2011 - 2010-2011 Queensland floods: Severe flooding occurred in the Lockyer Valley around Toowoomba, Queensland.
 2013 - Over 100 people are killed in bomb attacks in Pakistan.
 2015 - A mass poisoning at a funeral in Mozambique involves beer that was contaminated by crocodile bile. 56 people died and 200 hospitalized.
 2015 - A traffic accident near Karachi, Pakistan, between an oil tanker truck and a passenger coach killed 62 people.
 2016 - Singer, musician and actor David Bowie died of cancer two days after his 69th birthday.

Births

Up to 1800 
 1479 - Johann Cochlaeus, German humanist (d. 1552)
 1480 - Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy, Regent of the Netherlands (d. 1530)
 1493 - Miklos Olah, Hungarian archbishop (d. 1568)
 1538 - Louise of Nassau (d. 1574)
 1573 - Simon Marius, German astronomer (d. 1624)
 1607 - Isaac Joques, French priest and missionary (d. 1646)
 1628 - George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (d. 1687)
 1654 - Joshua Barnes, English scholar (d. 1712)
 1702 - Johannes Zick, German painter (d. 1762)
 1715 - Christian August Crusius, German philosopher and theologian (d. 1775)
 1729 - Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist (d. 1799)
 1738 - Ethan Allen, American military leader (d. 1789)
 1741 - Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain (d. 1759)
 1750 - Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine, British Lord Chancellor (d. 1823)
 1780 - Martin Lichtenstein, German physician and explorer (d. 1857)
 1797 - Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, German writer and composer (d. 1848)
 1799 - Petrache Poenaru, Romanian revolutionary, engineer and mathematician (d. 1875)

1801  1900 
 1803 - Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen, Prussian politician and Prime Minister (d. 1890)
 1810 - Ferdinand Barbedienne, French engineer (d. 1892)
 1810 - Jeremiah S. Black, 23rd United States Secretary of State (d. 1883)
 1812 - Georg Hermann Nicolai, German architect (d. 1881)
 1834 - John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, English historian, politician and writer (d. 1902)
 1835 - Fukuzawa Yukichi, Japanese writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and journalist (d. 1901)
 1836 - Charles Ingalls, father of Laura Ingalls Wilder (d. 1902)
 1840 - Louis Nazaire Bégin, Canadian archbishop and cardinal (d. 1925)
 1842 - Luigi Pigorini, Italian archaeologist and ethnologist (d. 1925)
 1843 - Frank James, American outlaw (d. 1915)
 1847 - Jacob Schiff, American banker, businessman and philanthropist (d. 1920)
 1848 - Reinhold Sadler, Prussian-born 9th Governor of Nevada (d. 1906)
 1850 - John Welborn Root, American architect (d. 1891)
 1858 - Heinrich Zille, German illustrator and photographer (d. 1925)
 1859 - Francesc Ferrer i Guardia, Catalan free thinker (d. 1909)
 1864 - Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia (d. 1931)
 1865 - Mary Ingalls, sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder (d. 1928)
 1873 - George Orton, Canadian athlete (d. 1958)
 1875 - Issai Schur, German mathematician (d. 1941)
 1879 - Bobby Walker, Scottish footballer (d. 1930)
 1880 - Manuel Azaña, Spanish politician (d. 1940)
 1881 - Leslie Rainey, Australian cricketer and footballer (d. 1962)
 1883 - Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1945)
 1883 - Nadezhda Udaltsova, Russian artist (d. 1961)
 1887 - Robinson Jeffers, American poet, dramatist and natural philosopher (d. 1962)
 1890 - Grigory Landsberg, Russian physicist (d. 1957)
 1890 - Pina Menichelli, Italian actress (d. 1984)
 1891 - Louis A. Johnson, American politician (d. 1966)
 1893 - Vicente Huidobro, Chilean poet (d. 1948)
 1898 - Katharine Burr Blodgett, American scientist and inventor (d. 1979)

1901  1925 
 1901 - Henning von Tresckow, German general and Resistance activist (d. 1944)
 1903 - Barbara Hepworth, English sculptor (d. 1975)
 1905 - Albert Arlen, Australian pianist, composer, actor and director (d. 1993)
 1908 - Bernard Lee, British actor (d. 1981)
 1910 - Jean Martinon, French conductor and composer (d. 1976)
 1911 - Prince Carl Bernadotte, Swedish royal (d. 2003)
 1912 - Maria Mandl, Austrian Concentration camp overseer, convicted Nazi war criminal (d. 1948)
 1913 - Gustav Husak, President of Czechoslovakia (d. 1991)
 1913 - Mehmet Shehu, Albanian politician (d. 1981)
 1914 - Yu Kuo-hwa, Premier of Taiwan (d. 2000)
 1915 - Dean Dixon, American conductor (d. 1976)
 1916 - Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist (d. 2004)
 1916 - Don Metz, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2007)
 1917 - Jerry Wexler, American record producer and journalist (d. 2008)
 1918 - Arthur Chung, President of Guyana (d. 2008)
 1919 - Terukuni Manzo, Japanese sumo wrestler (d. 1977)
 1920 - Georges Marchal, French actor (d. 1997)
 1920 - Richard Nelson Frye, American orientalist and historian (d. 2014)
 1920 - Rut Brandt, Norwegian-German author, wife of Willy Brandt (d. 2006)
 1921 - Rodger Ward, American racing driver (d. 2004)
 1922 - Michel Henry, French philosopher and writer (d. 2002)
 1922 - Billy Liddell, Scottish footballer and manager (d. 2001)
 1924 - Eduardo Chillida, Basque sculptor (d. 2002)
 1924 - Max Roach, American musician and composer (d. 2007)
 1925 - Peter Colotka, Slovakian academic, lawyer and politician (d. 2019)

1926  1950 
 1927 - Otto Stich, Swiss politician (d. 2012)
 1927 - Megumu Tamura, Japanese footballer (d. 1986)
 1928 - Philip Levine, American poet (d. 2015)
 1929 - Derek Hammond-Stroud, English operatic baritone
 1930 – Roy E. Disney, American businessman (d. 2009)
 1931 - Massimo Vignelli, Italian designer (d. 2014)
 1931 - Will McBride, American photographer (d. 2015)
 1931 - Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Malaysian politician (d. 2015)
 1931 - Ron Galella, American photographer
 1932 - Louis Rwagasore, Burundian politician
 1934 - Leonard Boswell, American politician (d. 2018)
 1934 - Leonid Kravchuk, former President of Ukraine
 1936 - Robert Woodrow Wilson, American physicist and radio astronomer
 1938 - Donald Knuth, American mathematician and computer scientist
 1938 - Lois Capps, American politician
 1939 - David Horowitz, American writer and political commentator
 1939 - Scott McKenzie, American singer (d. 2012)
 1939 - Bill Toomey, American athlete
 1939 - Davie Wilson, Scottish footballer
 1940 - Walter Hill, American movie director
 1940 - Yesudas, Indian singer and classical musician
 1941 - Tom Clarke, Scottish politician
 1942 - Walter Hill, American director
 1943 - Jim Croce, American singer (d. 1973)
 1944 - Frank Sinatra, Jr., American singer (d. 2016)
 1945 – Rod Stewart, British singer
 1945 - Günther von Hagens, German anatomist
 1945 - John Fahey, 38th Premier of New South Wales
 1947 - Peer Steinbrück, German politician
 1947 - Tiit Vahi, Estonian politician
 1948 - Donald Fagan, American musician
 1948 - Mischa Maisky, Latvian cellist
 1949 - Walter Browne, Australian-American chess player (d. 2015)
 1949 - George Foreman, American boxer and entrepreneur (George Foreman Grill)
 1949 - Harald Hove, Norwegian politician (d. 2014)
 1949 - Linda Lovelace, American pornographic actress (d. 2002)
 1950 - Suchitra Bhattacharya, Indian novelist (d. 2015)
 1950 - Roy Blunt, American politician
 1950 - Barbara Orbison, German-born American record producer and music publisher (d. 2011)
 1950 - Winfried Schaefer, German footballer
 1950 - Ernie Wasson, American gardener and writer

1951  1975 
 1952 - Oleh Romanishin, Ukrainian chess player
 1952 - Scott Thurston, American musician
 1955 - Franco Tancredi, Italian footballer
 1955 - Michael Schenker, German guitarist
 1955 - Yasmina Khadra (real name Mohammed Moulessehoul), Algerian writer
 1957 - Greg Walden, American politician
 1958 - Eddie Cheever, American racing driver
 1959 - Chandra Cheeseborough, American athlete
 1959 - Samira Said, Moroccan singer
 1959 - Maurizio Sarri, Italian football manager
 1960 - Gurinder Chadha, British movie director
 1960 – Brian Cowen, former Taoiseach of Ireland
 1960 - Jurrie Koolhof, Dutch footballer (d. 2019)
 1960 - Claudia Losch, German athlete
 1961 - Evan Handler, American actor
 1961 - Janet Jones, American actress
 1961 - Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Italian-American violinist, author and educator
 1963 - Kira Ivanova, Russian figure skater (d. 2001)
 1963 - Francesco Panetta, Italian runner
 1964 - Brad Roberts, Canadian singer
 1965 - Hiroshi Hirakawa, Japanese footballer
 1965 - Butch Hartman, American animator
 1966 - Bert Cooper, American boxer (d. 2019)
 1966 - Murali Nair, Indian movie director
 1972 - Thomas Alsgaard, Norwegian cross-country skier
 1973 - Glenn Robinson, American basketball player
 1973 - Tanya Streeter, British freediver
 1974 - Sabrina Setlur, German rapper
 1974 - Jemaine Clement, New Zealand actor, singer and guitarist (Flight of the Conchords)
 1974 - Hrithik Roshan, Indian actor
 1974 - Bob Peeters, Belgian footballer

From 1976 
 1976 - Ian Poulter, English golfer
 1977 - Michelle O'Neill, Northern Irish politician, leader of Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland
 1978 - Gavin McCann, English footballer
 1979 - Edu, Brazilian footballer
 1979 - Anna Lesko, Romanian singer
 1980 - Nelson Cuevas, Paraguayan footballer
 1980 - Sarah Shahi, American actress
 1981 - Jared Kushner, American real estate investor, developer and publisher
 1982 - Ana Layevska, Russian-Mexican actress
 1982 - Josh Ryan Evans, American actor (d. 2002)
 1984 - Marouane Chamakh, Moroccan footballer
 1986 - Abbey Clancy, English model
 1986 - Kirsten Flipkens, Belgian tennis player
 1986 - Hideaki Ikematsu, Japanese footballer
 1986 - Chen Jin, Chinese badminton player
 1987 - César Cielo, Brazilian swimmer
 1988 - Leonard Patrick Komon, Kenyan long-distance runner
 1988 - Vladimir Zharkov, Russian ice hockey player
 1989 - Emily Meade, American actress
 1990 - Tao Li, Chinese swimmer
 1990 - César Ruiz, Peruvian footballer
 1990 - Mario Innauer, Austrian ski jumper
 1991 - Romain Wattel, French golfer
 1992 - Emmanuel Frimpong, Ghanaian footballer
 1994 - Mohammed Aman, Ethiopian middle-distance runner
 2004 - Kaitlyn Maher, American actress and singer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 314 - Pope Miltiades
 681 – Pope Agatho
 976 - John I Tzimiskes, Greek Byzantine Emperor (b. 925)
 1218 - Hugh I of Cyprus (b. 1195)
 1276 – Pope Gregory X
 1321 - Mary of Brabant, Queen of France (b. 1254)
 1645 – William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1573)
 1654 - Nicholas Culpeper, English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer (b. 1618)
 1662 - Prince Honoré of Monaco (b. 1597)
 1778 – Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (b. 1707)
 1794 - Georg Forster, German scientist and revolutionary (b. 1754)
 1811 – Marie-Joseph Chénier, French poet (b. 1764)
 1824 - King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia (b. 1759)
 1825 - Ioannis Varvakis, Greek national hero (b. 1745)
 1833 - Adrien-Marie Legendre, French mathematician (b. 1752)
 1855 - Mary Russell Mitford, English author and playwright (b. 1787)
 1862 – Samuel Colt, American inventor (b. 1814)
 1863 - Lyman Beecher, American Presbyterian clergyman (b. 1775)
 1895 – Benjamin Godard, French composer (b. 1849)

1901  1950 
 1901 - James Dickson, Premier of Queensland (b. 1832)
 1905 - Karlis Baumanis, Latvian composer (b. 1835)
 1917 – William F. Cody, American frontiersman (b. 1846)
 1918 - August Oetker, German businessman (b. 1862)
 1926 - Eino Leino, Finnish writer (b. 1878)
 1934 – Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist, accused of Reichstag fire (b. 1909)
 1935 - Edwin Flack, American athlete (b. 1873)
 1941 – Frank Bridge, English composer (b. 1879)
 1941 – Joe Penner, Hungarian-born comedian and actor (b. 1904)
 1941 - Issai Schur, German mathematician (b. 1875)
 1949 - Erich von Drygalski, German geographer and polar scientist (b. 1865)

1951  2000 
 1951 – Sinclair Lewis, American writer (b. 1885)
 1951 - Yoshio Nishina, Japanese physicist (b. 1890)
 1957 – Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet (b. 1889)
 1959 - Michael Grzimek, German nature filmmaker (b. 1934)
 1960 - Jack Laviolette, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1907)
 1961 – Dashiell Hammett, American writer (b. 1894)
 1968 - Ali Fuet Cebesoy, Turkish general and politician (b. 1882)
 1969 - Sampurnanand, Indian politician, 2nd Governor of Rajasthan (b. 1891)
 1969 - John Brownlee, American tenor (b. 1900)
 1970 – Pavel Belyayev, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1925)
 1971 – Coco Chanel, French fashion designer (b. 1883)
 1972 - Aksel Larsen, Danish politician (b. 1897)
 1976 – Howlin' Wolf, American musician (b. 1910)
 1978 – Pedro Chamorro, Nicaraguan journalist (b. 1924)
 1978 - Don Gillis, American composer and conductor (b. 1912)
 1980 – George Meany, American labor leader (b. 1894)
 1981 – Katherine Alexander, American actress (b. 1898)
 1981 – Richard Boone, American actor (b. 1917)
 1981 – Fawn M. Brodie, American historian (b. 1915)
 1982 – Paul Lynde, American comedian (b. 1926)
 1984 - Souvanna Phouma, Prince and Prime Minister of Laos (b. 1901)
 1985 - Anton Karas, Austrian zither player and composer (b. 1906)
 1986 - Jaroslav Seifert, Czech writer (b. 1901)
 1987 – Sir David Robinson, British philanthropist and entrepreneur (b. 1904)
 1990 - Tochinishiki Kiyotaka, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1925)
 1997 – Sheldon Leonard, American producer, actor and director (b. 1907)
 1997 – Elspeth Huxley, British journalist and writer (b. 1907)
 1997 - Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist (b. 1907)
 2000 – Sam Jaffe, American producer (b. 1901)

2001  2015 
 2003 - Julho Botelho, Brazilian footballer (b. 1929)
 2004 – Spalding Gray, American actor, screenwriter, and monologue artist (b. 1941)
 2004 – Alexandra Ripley, writer
 2005 – Gene Baylos, comedian
 2005 – Margherita Carosio, Italian soprano (b. 1908)
 2005 – James Forman, American Civil Rights leader (b. 1928)
 2005 – Erwin Hillier, British cinematographer (b. 1911)
 2005 – Gordon John "Jack" Horner, sports journalist
 2005 – Joséphine-Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1927)
 2007 - Carlo Ponti, Italian movie producer (b. 1912)
 2008 - Maila Nurmi, Finnish-American actress (b. 1921)
 2009 - Bill Stone, British World War I veteran (b. 1900)
 2011 - John Dye, American actor (b. 1963)
 2011 - Margaret Whiting, American actress (b. 1924)
 2014 - Zbigniew Messner, former Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1929)
 2014 - Larry Speakes, American journalist (b. 1939)
 2014 - Allard van der Scheer, Dutch actor (b. 1928)
 2014 - Marly Marley, Brazilian actress (b. 1938)
 2015 - Francesco Rosi, Italian movie director (b. 1922)
 2015 - Junior Malanda, Belgian footballer (b. 1994)
 2015 - Taylor Negron, American writer, actor and painter (b. 1957)
 2015 - Harry V. Jaffa, American political philosophy professor (b. 1918)
 2015 - Walter Berns, American lawyer and political philosophy professor (b. 1919)
 2015 - Frans Bolweg, Dutch sailor (b. 1950)
 2015 - Robert Berner, American geoscientist (b. 1935)
 2015 - Robert Stone, American writer (b. 1937)
 2015 - Jorgelina Aranda, Argentine model, actress and singer (b. 1942)
 2015 - Elemér Hankiss, Hungarian sociologist (b. 1928)
 2015 - Inge Vermeulen, Brazilian-Dutch field hockey player (b. 1985)

From 2016 
 2016 - Abbas Bahri, Tunisian mathematician (b. 1954)
 2016 - Wim Bleijenberg, Dutch footballer (b. 1930)
 2016 - Cornelis Zitman, Dutch sculptor (b. 1926)
 2016 - Bob Oatley, Australian businessman, winemaker and yachtsman (b. 1928)
 2016 - David Bowie, English singer, musician and actor (b. 1947)
 2016 - Ann Z. Caracristi, American cryptographer (b. 1921)
 2016 - Teofil Codreanu, Romanian footballer (b. 1941)
 2016 - Jeanne Cordova, American LGBT activist (b. 1948)
 2016 - Ulrich Hahnen, German politician (b. 1952)
 2016 - Ralph Hauenstein, American philanthropist and businessman (b. 1912)
 2016 - George Jonas, Hungarian-Canadian writer, poet and journalist (b. 1935)
 2016 - Kalevi Lehtovirta, Finnish footballer (b. 1928)
 2016 - Yusuf Zuayyin, Prime Minister of Syria (b. 1931)
 2017 - Buddy Greco, American singer and actor (b. 1926)
 2017 - Roman Herzog, President of Germany (b. 1934)
 2017 - Clare Hollingworth, English journalist (b. 1911)
 2017 - Oliver Smithies, English-American geneticist (b. 1925)
 2017 - Hiag Akmakjian, American author, painter and photographer (b. 1926)
 2017 - Ronald Buxton, British politician (b. 1923)
 2017 - Ryszard Parulski, Polish fencer (b. 1938)
 2017 - Manlio Rocchetti, Italian make-up artist (b. 1943)
 2017 - Tony Rosato, Italian-born Canadian actor (b. 1954)
 2017 - Kenny Wharram, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1933)
 2018 - Eddie Clarke, English guitarist (b. 1950)
 2018 - Mikhail Derzhavin, Russian actor (b. 1936)
 2018 - Tom Luken, American politician (b. 1925)
 2018 - Doreen Tracey, English-born American actress (b. 1943)
 2019 - Theo Adam, German opera singer (b. 1926)
 2019 - Dianne Oxberry, English broadcaster (b. 1967)
 2019 - Lionel Price, English basketball player (b. 1927)

Observances 
 Majority Rule Day (Bahamas)

Days of the year