Events

Up to 1900 
 1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.
 1554 - In present-day Chile, Mapuche forces under leadership of Lautaro, score a victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Mairihueno.
 1574 – The 5th holy war against the Huguenots begins in France.
 1660 – Charles XI becomes King of Sweden.
 1732 – First performance of George Frideric Handel's Orlando, in London.
 1778 – American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
 1820 – Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
 1836 – The Siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
 1847 – Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista – In Mexico, American troops defeat Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna.
 1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, DC after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.
 1870 – Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
 1874 – Walter Winfield patents a game called "sphairistike" which is more commonly called lawn tennis.
 1883 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
 1886 - Charles Martin Hall produces the first samples of man-made aluminium.
 1887 – The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
 1893 – Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine.
 1898 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse", a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Captain Alfred Dreyfus in jail.
 1900 – Battle of Hart's Hill: In South Africa the Boers and British troops battle.

1901  1950 
 1903 – Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
 1904 – For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
 1905 – Chicago, Illinois attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
 1909 – The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
 1917 - Beginning of the February Revolution in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
 1918 - The last monarch of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Adolphus Frederick IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, commits suicide.
 1918 - The Red Army recruits its first soldiers.
 1919 – Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.
 1927 – The Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
 1927 - German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.
 1934 – Léopold III becomes King of Belgium.
 1940 – World War II: Soviet Union troops conquer Lasi Island.
 1940 – The animated movie Pinocchio is released.
 1941 - Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Glenn T. Seaborg.
 1942 - World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the California coast near Santa Barbara.
 1943 - Fire breaks out in St. Joseph's Orphanage in County Cavan, Ireland, killing 35 children and one adult.
 1944 - The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the north Caucasus to Central Asia.
 1945 – Early in the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Surabachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize.
 1945 – World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
 1945 – World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań, city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
 1945 – World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.
 1947 – International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is founded.

1951  2000 
 1954 – The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
 1955 – First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
 1955 – Edgar Faure becomes Prime Minister of France
 1956 – Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality".
 1957 – The founding congress of the Senegalese Popular Bloc is opened in Dakar.
 1958 – Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
 1966 – A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government.
 1970 – Forbes Burnham declares Guyana a republic, severing ties to the British crown.
 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
 1975 – In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly two months early in the United States.
 1980 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
 1981 – 23-F, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
 1982 - In a referendum in Greenland, most voters choose to leave the European Economic Community.
 1983 – The Spanish Socialist government of Felipe González and Miguel Boyer nationalizes Rumasa, a holding of José María Ruiz Mateos.
 1983 – The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
 1987 – A supernova is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud (see Supernova 1987a).
 1991 – Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.
 1991 – Thailand: General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
 1992 – The Socialist Labour Party is founded in Georgia.
 1993 – Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
 1995 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33, closing above 4,000 for the first time.
 1997 – A large fire occurs in the Russian Space station, Mir, though it is extinguished after 14 minutes, without anyone on board coming to harm.
 1997 - A fire disaster in Orissa, India kills over 100 people.
 1998 – Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
 1998 – Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
 1998 – Netscape Communications Corporation announces the foundation of mozilla.org, to co-ordinate the development of the open source Mozilla web browser.
 1999 – Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
 1999 – White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr by dragging him behind a truck for two miles.
 1999 – An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.

From 2001 
 2002 - In Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt is kidnapped by FARC guerrillas.
 2005 - In France, a controversial law on the teaching of French colonialism is passed. After protests, the law is abandoned about a year later.
 2005 – Slovakia Summit 2005 begins, marking the first occasion when a sitting American President visits Slovakia; Bush and Putin are in attendance.
 2007 – A passenger train crashes near Grayrigg, Cumbria, killing 1 person and injuring 22.
 2010 - Unknown criminals pour more than 2.5 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the River Lambro in Northern Italy, sparking an environmental disaster.
 2014 - The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Southern Russia, end. The host nation, Russia, ends the games with the most gold medals, making it the second Winter Olympics in a row in which the host country achieves this (after Canada in 2010).
 2018 - One of the biggest surprises occurs in Olympic sport occurs, when Germany defeats Canada 4-3 in their men's ice hockey semi-final at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1417 – Pope Paul II (d. 1471)
 1443 – Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (d. 1490)
 1583 - Jean-Baptiste Morin, French mathematician, astrologer and astronomer (d. 1656)
 1633 – Samuel Pepys, English naval officer and diarist (d. 1703)
 1646 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (d. 1709)
 1649 - John Blow, English composer (d. 1708)
 1664 – Georg Dietrich Leyding, German composer and organist (d. 1710)
 1680 - Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, French Governor of Louisiana (d. 1767)
 1685 – Georg Friedrich Handel, German/British Baroque composer (d. 1759)
 1723 - Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (d. 1791)
 1729 - Josiah Hornblower, American statesman (d. 1809)
 1730 - Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti, Austrian composer (d. 1793)
 1744 - Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German-born banker (d. 1812)
 1751 - Henry Dearborn, American statesman (d. 1829)
 1792 – Jose Joaquin de Herrera, President of Mexico (d. 1854)
 1803 – John Sutter, Swiss pioneer in California (d. 1880)
 1809 - William Sprague, American minister and politician (d. 1868)
 1817 – George Frederic Watts, British painter (d. 1904)
 1821 - Amos T. Akerman, United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1880)
 1842 – Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher (d. 1906)
 1846 - Luigi Denza, Italian composer (d. 1922)
 1850 – César Ritz, Swiss hotelier (d. 1918)
 1852 – Duc Duc, Emperor of Vietnam (d. 1883)
 1868 - Anna Hoffman-Uddgren, Swedish director and actress (d. 1947)
 1868 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American academic, writer and social activist (d. 1963)
 1873 – Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (d. 1929)
 1874 – Konstantin Pats, President of Estonia (d. 1956)
 1879 – Kazimir Malevich, Russian painter (d. 1935)
 1883 – Karl Jaspers, German psychiatrist and philosopher (d. 1969)
 1884 - Casimir Funk, Polish biochemist (d. 1967)
 1889 – Victor Fleming, American movie director (d. 1949)
 1889 - John Gilbert Winant, 60th Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1949)
 1889 - Musidora, French actress and singer (d. 1957)
 1893 - Charles Merz, American journalist (d. 1977)
 1899 – Erich Kaestner, German writer (d. 1974)
 1899 – Norman Taurog, American movie director (d. 1981)

1901  1950 
 1901 - Ivar Lo-Johansson, Swedish writer (d. 1990)
 1904 – William L. Shirer, American historian (d. 1993)
 1904 - George Docking, Governor of Kansas (d. 1964)
 1906 - Samuel Joensen-Mikines, Faroese painter (d. 1979)
 1908 – William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
 1911 - G. Mennen Williams, Governor of Michigan (d. 1988)
 1914 - Theofiel Middelkamp, Dutch cyclist (d. 2005)
 1915 – Paul Tibbets, American Air Force pilot (d. 2007)
 1923 – Yiannis Grevas, 87th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2016)
 1923 - Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan politician (d. 2014)
 1924 – Allan McLeod Cormack, South African physicist (d. 1998)
 1924 - Claude Sautet, French director (d. 2000)
 1925 - Louis Stokes, American attorney and politician (d. 2015)
 1927 – Willie Ormond, Scottish footballer (d. 1984)
 1928 – Vasili Lazarev, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1990)
 1928 - Hans Herrmann, German racing driver
 1929 – Patriarch Alexius II, Head of the Russian Orthodox Church (d. 2008)
 1929 - Jaan Einasto, Estonian cosmologist
 1929 - Elston Howard, American baseball player
 1932 - Majel Barrett, American actress (d. 2008)
 1935 – Diane Shalet, American actress (d. 2006)
 1937 - Tom Osborne, American football player
 1938 - Paul Morrissey, American movie director
 1938 – Diane Varsi, American actress (d. 1992)
 1940 – Peter Fonda, American actor (d. 2019)
 1942 - Dioncounda Traoré, Malian politician
 1944 – Johnny Winter, American musician (d. 2014)
 1944 - Bernard Cornwell, British writer
 1947 - Pia Kjaersgaard, Danish politician
 1947 - Boris Kuznetsov, Russian boxer (d. 2006)
 1948 - Steve Priest, British musician
 1949 - Marc Garneau, Canadian astronaut and politician
 1950 - Rebecca Goldstein, American writer and philosopher

1951  1975 
 1952 – Brad Whitford, American musician (Aerosmith)
 1953 - Satoru Nakashima, Japanese racing driver
 1953 - Adnan Polat, Turkish businessman
 1954 – Viktor Yushchenko, former President of Ukraine
 1955 - Flip Saunders, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
 1955 - Francesca Simon, American author
 1956 - Paul O'Neill, American producer, composer and songwriter (d. 2017)
 1956 – Reinhold Beckmann, German journalist and television presenter
 1957 - Andreas Schockenhoff, German politician (d. 2014)
 1958 - David Sylvain, English musician
 1959 - Clayton Anderson, American astronaut
 1959 - Ian Liddell-Grainger, Scottish soldier and politician
 1959 - Linda Nolan, Irish singer
 1959 - Graeme Morrice, Scottish politician
 1960 – Emperor Naruhito of Japan
 1963 - Radoslav Sikorski, Polish journalist and politician, foreign minister
 1964 – John Norum, Norwegian guitarist
 1965 - Michael Dell, American computer manufacturer
 1966 - Alexandre Borges, Brazilian actor
 1969 - Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer
 1971 – Melinda Messenger, British television presenter
 1973 – Lars-Olof Johansson, Swedish musician
 1975 - Wilfred Kibet Kigen, Kenyan marathon runner
 1975 - Michael Cornacchia, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter

From 1976 
 1976 – Kelly Macdonald, Scottish actress
 1976 - Satoshi Yoneyama, Japanese professional wrestler
 1978 - Jo Joyner, British actress
 1978 - Dan Snyder, Canadian ice hockey player
 1980 - Kim Kyung-roul, South Korean billiards player (d. 2015)
 1981 – Gareth Barry, English footballer
 1981 - Jan Böhmermann, German satirist and comedian
 1982 - Anna Chapman, Russian agent
 1982 - Adam Hann-Byrd, American actor and screenwriter
 1982 - Karan Singh, Indian politician
 1983 – Mido, Egyptian footballer
 1983 – Mirco Bergamasco, Italian rugby player
 1983 – Emily Blunt, British actress
 1983 - Aziz Ansari, American actor, comedian and writer
 1984 - Jeong Yu-mi, South Korean actress
 1986 - Skylar Grey, American singer-songwriter
 1986 - Ola Svensson, Swedish pop singer
 1988 - Nicolas Gaitan, Argentine footballer
 1989 - Evan Bates, American ice dancer
 1989 - Amara Baby, French footballer
 1990 - Kevin Cheung, Mauritian swimmer
 1992 - Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Greek footballer
 1993 - Kasumi Ishikawa, Japanese table tennis player
 1994 – Dakota Fanning, American actress
 1995 - Andrew Wiggins, Canadian basketball player
 2012 – Princess Estelle, Duchess of Ostergotland, second-in-line to the throne of Sweden

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1011 - Willigis, Archbishop of Mainz (b. 940)
 1072 - Peter Damian, theologian (b. 1007)
 1100 – Emperor Zhezong of China (b. 1076)
 1270 - Isabel of France (b. 1225)
 1447 - Pope Eugene IV (b. 1383)
 1447 - Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (b. 1390)
 1464 – Zhengtong, Emperor of China (b. 1427)
 1603 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician and botanist (b. 1519)
 1669 - Leo Aitzema, Dutch historian and statesman (b. 1600)
 1766 – Stanislaw Leszczynski, King of Poland (b. 1677)
 1781 - George Taylor, Irish-American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1716)
 1792 – Joshua Reynolds, English painter (b. 1723)
 1821 – John Keats, English poet (b. 1795)
 1848 – John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States (b. 1767)
 1855 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)
 1859 - Zymunt Krasinski, Polish-Roman poet (b. 1812)
 1879 – Albrecht Graf von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (b. 1803)
 1896 - Justo Arosemena, Colombian politician and writer (b. 1817)
 1897 - Woldemar Bargiel, German composer (b. 1828)

1901  2000 
 1918 - Adolphus Frederick VI, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1882)
 1925 - Samuel Berger, American heavyweight boxer (b. 1884)
 1931 – Nellie Melba, Australian operatic soprano (b. 1861)
 1934 – Edward Elgar, English composer (b. 1857)
 1944 – Leo Hendrik Baekeland, Flemish-American chemist, inventor of Bakelite (b. 1863)
 1946 - Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (b. 1885)
 1948 - John Robert Gregg, Irish-born publisher and inventor (b. 1866)
 1955 – Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (b. 1868)
 1960 - Arthur Legat, British racing driver (b. 1898)
 1965 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (b. 1890)
 1969 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
 1973 – Dickinson W. Richards, American physician (b. 1895)
 1974 - Harry Ruby, American composer and writer (b. 1895)
 1976 – L. S. Lowry, English painter (b. 1887)
 1979 - W. A. C. Bennett, 25th Premier of British Columbia (b. 1900)
 1983 - Hubert Howells, English composer (b. 1892)
 1984 – Uwe Johnson, German writer (b. 1934)
 1990 – Jose Napoleon Duarte, President of El Salvador (b. 1925)
 1995 - James Herriot, British writer (b. 1916)
 1995 - Melvin Franklin, American singer (b. 1942)
 1996 – Helmut Schön, German football manager (b. 1915)
 2000 – Stanley Matthews, English footballer (b. 1915)

From 2001 
 2001 - Sergio Mantovani, Italian racing driver (b. 1929)
 2003 - Howie Epstein, American musician (b. 1955)
 2004 – Vijay Anand, Indian movie director (b. 1934)
 2004 - Sikander Bakht, Indian politician, Governor of Kerala (b. 1918)
 2004 - Neil Ardley, English jazz pianist and composer (b. 1955)
 2004 - Carl Liscombe, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1915)
 2006 – Diane Shalet, American actress (b. 1935)
 2008 – Janez Drnovsek, Slovenian politician (b. 1950)
 2008 - Paul Frère, Belgian racing driver (b. 1917)
 2009 – Sverre Fehn, Norwegian architect (b. 1924)
 2010 – Orlando Zapata, Cuban dissident, died after hunger strike (b. 1967)
 2011 - Nirmala Srivastava, Indian religious leader (b. 1923)
 2013 - Julien Ries, Belgian cardinal (b. 1920)
 2014 - Alice Herz-Sommer, Czech-born pianist, Holocaust survivor and supercentenarian (b. 1903)
 2015 - John Rowlands, Welsh author and novelist (b. 1938)
 2016 - Ramon Castro Ruz, Cuban revolutionary (b. 1924)
 2016 - Peter Lustig, German sound engineer and television presenter (b. 1937)
 2016 - Donald E. Williams, American astronaut (b. 1932)
 2017 - Alan Colmes, American political commentator and television presenter (b. 1950)
 2017 - Sabine Oberhauser, Austrian physician and politician (b. 1963)
 2017 - David Waddington, Baron Waddington, British politician (b. 1929)
 2017 - Leon Ware, American musician, record producer and songwriter (b. 1940)
 2018 - James Colby, American actor (b. 1961)
 2018 - James Laxer, Canadian political economist (b. 1941)
 2018 - Lewis Gilbert, British film director (b. 1920)

Observances
 Republic Day (Guyana)
 National Day (Brunei)
 Defender of the Fatherland Day (Russia)

Days of the year