Events

Up to 1960 
 313  The Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-Emperor Valerius Licinius granting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, is posted in Nicomedia.
 1373  The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance takes effect.
 1381  The Peasants' Revolt in England, led by Wat Tyler, ends in the burning of the Savoy Palace.
 1525  Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora.
 1625  Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland marries Henrietta Maria of France.
 1665  Anglo-Dutch War: English victory at the naval Battle of Lowestoft.
 1733  The island of Croix in the Caribbean goes from French control to the Danish West India Company.
 1740  In the present-day United States, Georgia's Governor James Oglethorpe begins an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of Saint Augustine.
 1774  Rhode Island bans the import of slaves.
 1777  American Revolutionary War: Marquis de Lafayette lands near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.
 1805  Lewis and Clark Expedition: Meriwether Lewis and four companions see the Great Falls on the Missouri River.
 1858  Up to 250 passengers are killed in an explosion on the paddle steamer Pennsylvania on the Mississippi River, near Memphis, Tennessee.
 1881  The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
 1886  A fire destroys much of Vancouver.
 1886  Ludwig II of Bavaria is found dead in the Starnberger See (Starnberg Lake). His doctor was also found dead. The exact circumstances of their deaths remain a mystery.
 1893  Grover Cleveland secretly undergoes a successful operation to remove a large cancerous  portion of his jaw.
 1898  The Yukon Territory is split from Canada's Northwest Territories. Dawson becomes the capital. Later, the capital moves to Whitehorse
 1910  The University of the Philippines College of Engineering is founded.
 1917  A World War I German air raid on London kills 162 people.
 1927  Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York City.
 1934  Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet in Venice.
 1935  Jim Braddock wins the World Heavyweight Boxing title by defeating Max Baer.
 1946  King Umberto II of Italy goes into exile in Portugal as Italy becomes a republic after a referendum on June 2.
 1950  Hugo Koblet wins the 33rd edition of the Giro d'Italia cycling race. As a Swiss, he is the first non-Italian to win the event.
 1952  Catalina Affair: A Swedish DC-3 aircraft is shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.
 1955  The Mir Mine, the first Soviet diamond mine, is discovered.
 1956  In football, Real Madrid wins the first European Cup, defeating Stade Reims 4-3 in Paris.

1961  2000 
 1967  Thurgood Marshall is nominated as the first African American justice on the United States Supreme Court.
 1967  The Soviet Union calls for action against Israel.
 1970  The Long and Winding Road becomes The Beatles' last US Number One hit song.
 1971  The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.
 1974  The 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany begins.
 1977  James Earl Ray, who was convicted of killing Martin Luther King, Jr., is recaptured following his escape from prison three days earlier.
 1978  Israel's Defense Forces withdraw from Lebanon.
 1981  Marcus Serjeant fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II during the Trooping the Colour parade.
 1982  Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia, succeeding his deceased half-brother Khalid.
 1982  Racing driver Riccardo Paletti is killed when he crashes on the start grid of the Canadian Grand Prix.
 1983  Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the Solar System.
 1990  Official demolition of the Berlin Wall begins.
 1991  The 1998 Winter Olympics are given to Nagano, Japan.
 1994  A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazlewood for the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989.
 1995  Jacques Chirac announces that France will continue to carry out nuclear testing in French Polynesia.
 1996  Guernsey votes to end its ban on abortion.
 1997  The Uphaar cinema fire in New Delhi kills 59 people.
 1997  Timothy McVeigh is sentenced to death for the Oklahoma bombing.
 2000  South Korea's President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il meet at the first inter-Korean summit, in Pyongyang.
 2000  Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot at Pope John Paul II in 1981.

From 2001 
 2002  The US withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
 2002  Two 14-year-old South Korean girls are struck and killed by a United States Army armored vehicle on the Yangju highway, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the US and South Korea.
 2005  Irish becomes one of the official languages of the European Union.
 2005  Michael Jackson is found not guilty of child molestation at his Neverland Ranch.
 2011  Two strong aftershocks, following the February 22 earthquake, hit Christchurch, New Zealand, measuring at 5.5 and 6 magnitude, causing more damage, liquefaction, and 10 injuries.
 2012  At least 93 people are killed in a series of bombings across Iraq.
 2014  2014 FIFA World Cup: Previous champions, Spain, are beaten 5-1 by the Netherlands in a group match. They had beaten the Dutch in the final of the previous World Cup. It is the worst opening-day result of any defending champion in the history of tournament.
 2019  Two oil tankers are attacked in the Strait of Hormuz; The governments of the United States and United Kingdom blame Iran for the attacks.

Births

Up to 1800 
 40  Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman general (d. 93)
 823  Charles the Bald, Holy Roman Emperor and King of the West Franks (d. 877)
 839  Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks (d. 888)
 1508  Alesandro Piccolomini, Italian writer and philosopher (d. 1579)
 1584  Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese Samurai warrior, artist and writer (d. 1645)
 1595  Jan Marek Marci, Bohemian physician and scientist (d. 1667)
 1615  Pope Innocent XII (d. 1700)
 1649  Adrien Baillet, French scholar and critic (d. 1706)
 1672  Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg, Grand Duchess of Tuscany (d. 1741)
 1752  Fanny Burney, English novelist (d. 1840)
 1753  Johan Afzelius, Swedish chemist (d. 1837)
 1761  Antonin Vranicky, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1820)
 1763  José Bonifacio de Andrade, Brazilian statesman (d. 1838)
 1773  Thomas Young, English polymath (d. 1829)
 1775  Antoni Radziwill, Polish politician (d. 1833)
 1786  Winfield Scott, American general (d. 1866)
 1790  José Antonio Sáez, President of Venezuela (d. 1873)

1801  1900 
 1809  Heinrich Hoffmann, German painter and writer (d. 1894)
 1821  Albert, 4th duc de Broglie, French historian, publicist and statesman (d. 1901)
 1822  Carl Schmidt, German chemist (d. 1894)
 1827  Alberto Henschel, German-Brazilian photographer and businessman (d. 1882)
 1831  James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish inventor and physicist (d. 1879)
 1854  Charles Algernon Parsons, Anglo-Irish engineer (d. 1931)
 1863  Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, English fashion designer (d. 1935)
 1864  Rudolf Kjellén, Swedish professor (d. 1922)
 1865  William Butler Yeats, Irish writer (d. 1939)
 1866  Aby Warburg, German art historian (d. 1929)
 1870  Jules Bordet, Belgian doctor, won the 1919 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1961)
 1874  Leopoldo Lugones, Argentine poet (d. 1938)
 1875  Paul Neumann, Austrian swimmer and physician (d. 1932)
 1876  William Sealey Gosset, English chemist and statistician (d. 1937)
 1882  Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia (d. 1960)
 1884  Dobri Bozhilov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria (d. 1945)
 1884  Burrill Bernard Crohn, American physician (d. 1983)
 1884  Anton Drexler, German political figure (d. 1942)
 1885  Henry George Lamond, Australian novelist (d. 1959)
 1887  André François-Poncet, French politician and diplomat (d. 1978)
 1887  Bruno Frank, German writer (d. 1957)
 1888  Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese writer (d. 1935)
 1892  Basil Rathbone, British actor (d. 1967)
 1893  Dorothy L. Sayers, English writer (d. 1957)
 1894  Dr. Leo Kanner, Austrian-American physician (d. 1981)
 1894  Jacques Henri Lartigue, French photographer (d. 1986)
 1894  Tay Garnett, American movie director (d. 1977)
 1897  Paavo Nurmi, Finnish athlete (d. 1973)
 1899  Carlos Chavez, Mexican composer, conductor, theorist and journalist (d. 1978)

1901  1950 
 1901  Tage Erlander, Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1985)
 1903  Red Grange, American football player (d. 1991)
 1905  Doc Cheatham, American trumpeter, singer and bandleader (d. 1997)
 1905  Xian Xinghai, Chinese composer (d. 1945)
 1906  Bruno de Finetti, Italian mathematician (d. 1985)
 1908  Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Portuguese painter (d. 1992)
 1908  Hassan ibn Yahya, Prime Minister of North Yemen (d. 2003)
 1909  E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Indian politician, 1st Chief Minister of Kerala (d. 1998)
 1910  Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, Galician writer (d. 1999)
 1910  Mary Whitehouse, British campaigner (d. 2001)
 1910  Mary Wickes, American actress (d. 1995)
 1911  Luis Walter Alvarez, American physicist (d. 1988)
 1914  Barbara Reynolds, English author and lexicographer (d. 2015)
 1915  Don Budge, American tennis player (d. 2000)
 1917  Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguayan writer (d. 2005)
 1917  Teddy Turner, English actor and comedian (d. 1992)
 1920  Rolf Huisgen, German chemist (d. 2020)
 1921  Lennart Strand, Swedish runner (d. 2004)
 1926  Paul Lynde, American comedian and actor (d. 1982)
 1926  Jerome Lejeune, French physician and geneticist (d. 1994) 
 1927  Slim Dusty, Australian singer (d. 2003)
 1928  John Forbes Nash, American mathematician (d. 2015)
 1928  Giacomo Biffi, Italian cardinal (d. 2015)
 1928  Li Ka-shing, Chinese businessman
 1929  Ralph McQuarrie, American production designer (d. 2012)
 1929  Robert W. Scott, 67th Governor of North Carolina (d. 2009)
 1932  Bob McGrath, American actor and singer
 1935  Samak Sundaravej, former Prime Minister of Thailand (d. 2009)
 1935  Christo, Bulgarian artist (d. 2020)
 1935  Jeanne-Claude, French artist (d. 2009)
 1937  Erich Ribbeck, German football manager
 1939  Siegfried, German-born tiger trainer and magician (Siegfried and Roy) (d. 2021)
 1940  Bobby Freeman, American singer-songwriter, pianist and producer (d. 2017)
 1940  Gojko Mitic, Serbian actor
 1941  Esther Ofarim, Israeli singer
 1941  Marcel Lachemann, American baseball player, coach and manager
 1942  Abdulsalami Abubakar, former President of Nigeria
 1943  Malcolm McDowell, English actor
 1943  Jim Guy Tucker, 43rd Governor of Arkansas
 1944  Ban Ki-moon, South Korean Secretary-General of the United Nations
 1946  Gonzalo Aja, Spanish cyclist
 1946  Sher Bahadur Deuba, 32nd Prime Minister of Nepal
 1946  Paul L. Modrich, American biochemist
 1948  Garnet Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player and executive (d. 2001)
 1948  Joe Roth, American director and producer
 1949  Ulla Schmidt, German politician
 1950  Gerd Zewe, German footballer
 1950  Nick Brown, British politician

1951  1975 
 1951  Richard Thomas, American actor
 1951  Stellan Skarsgaard, Swedish actor
 1953  Tim Allen, American actor
 1954  Andrzej Lepper, Polish politician (d. 2011)
 1954  Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian economist and politician
 1955  Alan Hansen, Scottish footballer
 1957  Roy Cooper, American politician, 75th Governor of North Carolina
 1958  Peter Scudamore, British jockey and trainer
 1959  Lance Kinsey, Canadian actor
 1959  Boyko Borisov, three-time Prime Minister of Bulgaria
 1959  Klaus Iohannis, 5th President of Romania
 1961  Bob Crow, English trade union leader (d. 2014)
 1962  Ally Sheedy, American actress
 1964  Kathy Burke, English actress
 1964  Sarunas Marciulionis, Lithuanian basketball player
 1965  Lisa Vidal, American actress
 1965  Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, Spanish royal
 1966  Grigori Perelman, Russian mathematician
 1966  Naoko Hattori, Japanese racing driver
 1968  David Gray, British singer
 1968  Marcel Theroux, British writer and broadcaster
 1969  Virginie Despentes, French writer, novelist and movie maker
 1969  Svetlana Krivelyova, Russian athlete
 1969  Soren Rasted, Danish singer-songwriter, musician and producer
 1969  Jamie Walters, American entertainer
 1970  Chris Cairns, New Zealand cricketer
 1970  Rivers Cuomo, American musician
 1970  Mikael Ljungberg, Swedish wrestler (d. 2004)
 1973  Mattias Hellberg, Swedish musician
 1973  Kasia Kowalska, Polish singer-songwriter, producer and actress
 1974  Selma Björnsdóttir, Icelandic singer
 1974  Steve-O, American stunt performer and TV personality
 1975  Ante Covic, Australian footballer

From 1976 
 1976  Kym Marsh, English singer, actress and TV presenter
 1978  Mikako Ichikawa, Japanese actress and model
 1978  Richard Kingson, Ghanaian footballer
 1980  Sarah Connor, German singer
 1980  Darius Vassell, English footballer
 1980  Florent Malouda, French footballer
 1980  Juan Carlos Navarro, Spanish basketball player
 1981  Julie-Marie Parmentier, French actress
 1981  Radim Vrbata, Czech ice hockey player
 1982  Kenenisa Bekele, Ethiopian long-distance runner
 1982  Chris Cusiter, Scottish rugby union player
 1986  Mary-Kate & Ashely Olsen, American actresses
 1986  Keisuke Honda, Japanese footballer
 1986  Kat Dennings, American actress
 1986  Mans Zelmerlow, Swedish singer
 1989  Lisa Tucker, American singer and actress
 1990  Aaron Johnson, English actor
 1991  Barbara Bonansea, Italian footballer
 1991  Anatoly Zabolotny, Russian footballer
 1992  Kim Jin-su, South Korean footballer
 1993  Simona Senoner, Italian ski jumper (d. 2011)
 1993  Denis Ten, Kazakhstani figure skater (d. 2018)
 1996  Kodi Smit-McPhee, Australian actor

Deaths

Up to 1975 
 1036  Ali az-Zahir, Islamic ruler (b. 1005)
 1231  Anthony of Padua, Portuguese saint (b. 1195)
 1256  Tankei, Japanese sculptor (b. 1173)
 1645  Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese swordsman and author (b. 1584)
 1762  Dorothea Christiane Erxleben, German doctor (b. 1715)
 1784  Henry Middleton, American politician (b. 1717)
 1817  Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Irish author and engineer (b. 1744)
 1846  Jean-Baptiste Benoit Eyries, French geographer, author and translator (b. 1767)
 1881  Josef Skoda, Czech physician (b. 1805)
 1886  King Ludwig II of Bavaria (b. 1845)
 1898  Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, 5th Premier of Quebec (b. 1840)
 1901  Leopoldo Alas, Spanish writer (b. 1852)
 1905  Theodoros Deligiannis, Greek statesman (b. 1820)
 1908  Antonio Gonzalez de Aguilar, 8th Marquis of la Vega de Armijo, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1824)
 1918  Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia (b. 1878)
 1930  Henry Segrave, American-English racing driver (b. 1896)
 1931  Kitasato Shibasaburo, Japanese physician (b. 1851)
 1948  Osamu Dazai, Japanese writer (b. 1909)
 1951  Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1885)
 1957  Irving Baxter, American athlete (b. 1876)
 1965  Martin Buber, Austrian-born philosopher (b. 1878)
 1972  Georg von Bekesy, Hungarian biophysicist (b. 1899)
 1972  Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Austrian-German spy (b. 1891)

1976  2010 
 1979  Demetrio Stratos, Egyptian-Italian singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1945)
 1980  Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and activist (b. 1942)
 1982  Riccardo Paletti, Italian racing driver (b. 1958)
 1982  King Khalid of Saudi Arabia (b. 1912)
 1986  Benny Goodman, American musician (b. 1909)
 1987  Geraldine Page, American actress (b. 1924)
 1993  Deke Slayton, American pilot and astronaut (b. 1924)
 1997  Nguyen Manh Tuong, Vietnamese lawyer (b. 1909)
 1998  Birger Ruud, Norwegian athlete (b. 1911)
 2003  Malik Meraj Khalid, Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1916)
 2003  Hassan ibn Yahya, Prime Minister of North Yemen (b. 1908)
 2004  Dick Durrance, American skier (b. 1914)
 2006  Charles Haughey, Irish Taoiseach (b. 1925)
 2007  Walid Eido, Lebanese politician (b. 1942)
 2008  Tim Russert, American broadcast journalist (b. 1950)
 2009  Mitsuharu Misawa, Japanese wrestler (b. 1962)
 2010  Jimmy Dean, American singer (b. 1928)

From 2011 
 2012  William Standish Knowles, American chemist (b. 1917)
 2012  Roger Garaudy, French philosopher, author and Holocaust denier (b. 1913)
 2014  Gyula Grosics, Hungarian footballer (b. 1926)
 2014  Robert Peters, American poet, playwright and actor (b. 1924)
 2014  Mahdi Elmandjra, Moroccan economist and futurologist (b. 1933)
 2014  Chuck Noll, American football player and coach (b. 1932)
 2014  Robert Peters, American poet, critic, scholar, playwright, editor and actor (b. 1924)
 2014  Jim Keays, Australian rock musician (b. 1946)
 2014  Sara Widén, Swedish opera singer (b. 1980) 
 2015  Drs. P, Swiss-Dutch singer-songwriter, poet and writer (b. 1919)
 2015  Buddy Boudreaux, American jazz saxophonist and bandleader (b. 1917)
 2016  Ofelya Hambardzumyan, Armenian singer (b. 1925)
 2016  Oleg Karavaychuk, Soviet-Russian composer (b. 1927)
 2016  Chips Moman, American songwriter (b. 1937)
 2017  A. R. Gurney, American playwright (b. 1927)
 2017  Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma (b. 1924)
 2017  Jack Ong, American actor (b. 1940)
 2017  Anita Pallenberg, Italian actress (b. 1944)
 2017  Ulf Stark, Swedish screenwriter and author (b. 1944)
 2018  Arkangel de la Muerte, Mexican professional wrestler (b. 1966)
 2018  Anne Donovan, American basketball player and coach (b. 1961)
 2018  D. J. Fontana, American rock music drummer (b. 1931)
 2018  Charles Vinci, American weightlifter (b. 1933)
 2019  Pat Bowlen, American sports executive (b. 1944)
 2019  Nature Ganganbaigal, Chinese musician and composer (b. 1990)
 2019  Edith González, Mexican actress (b. 1964)
 2019  Geoff Lees, English footballer (b. 1933)
 2019  Heinrich Reichert, Swiss neurobiologist (b. 1949)
 2019  Wilhelm Wieben, German television journalist, actor and author (b. 1935)
 2020  Sheikh Md Abdullah, Bangladeshi politician (b. 1945)
 2020  Dick Garmaker, American basketball player (b. 1932)
 2020  Jim Grelle, American runner (b. 1936)
 2020  B. Kannan, Indian cinematographer (b. 1951)
 2020  Mohammed Nasim, Bangladeshi politician (b. 1948)
 2020  Maurice Rajsfus, French writer and historian (b. 1928)
 2020  Jean Raspail, French author and explorer (b. 1925)
 2020  Tineke Verburg, Dutch journalist and television presenter (b. 1956)
 2020  Marc Zermati, French record producer (b. 1945)

Holidays and Observances 
 Inventors' Day (Hungary)

Days of the year