Events

Up to 1900 
 421 - Venice is said to have been founded.
 708 – Constantine is made Pope.
 717 - Theodosius III resigns from the throne of the Byzantine Empire in order to enter the clergy.
 1199 - King Richard I of England is wounded by a crossbow while fighting in France, leading to his death on April 6.
 1306 – Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scotland.
 1409 – The Council of Pisa opens.
 1555 - The city of Valencia, Negros Oriental, Venezuela is founded.
 1634 – The first settlers arrive in Maryland (led by Lord Baltimore).
 1655 – Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.
 1655 – Protestants take over Maryland at the Battle of the Severn.
 1802 – The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and the United Kingdom.
 1807 – The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing slavery in the United Kingdom.
 1811 - Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled by the University of Oxford for producing the pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism.
 1821 – Greece declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire, beginning the Greek War of Independence.
 1865 – The "Claywater Meteorite" explodes just before reaching ground level in Vernon County, Wisconsin. Fragments having a combined mass of 1.5 kg are recovered.
 1865 – American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman from the Union.
 1894 – Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio for Washington D.C..

1901  2000 
 1901 – At the five-day "Week of Nice" race in Nice, France, Mercedes wins its first racing victory.
 1911 – In New York City the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire kills 146 garment workers.
 1913 – Floods kill 300 people in Dayton, Ohio.
 1918 – The Belarusian National Republic was established.
 1924 – Greece proclaims itself a republic.
 1931 – The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
 1939 – Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli becomes Pope Pius XII.
 1941 – Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers.
 1947 – A explosion in a coalmine in Centralia, Illinois kills 111.
 1949 – The extensive deportation campaign was conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Soviet authorities deported more than 92,000 people from Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.
 1955 – United States Customs seizes Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" as obscene.
 1957 – The European Economic Community is established (West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg). It later becomes the European Union.
 1960 – In London, United Kingdom, Jacqueline Boyer wins the fifth Eurovision Song Contest for France singing "Tom Pillibi".
 1961 – Sputnik 10 is launched into space.
 1965 – Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. complete successfully their 4-day 50 mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery.
 1969 – During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace in the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31).
 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: Beginning of Operation Searchlight of Pakistan Army against East Pakistani civilians.
 1972 – In Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, Vicky Leandros wins the seventeenth Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg singing "Après toi" (After you).
 1975 – Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by a mentally ill nephew.
 1979 – The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.
 1980 – The UK announces that it will participate in the Summer Olympics in Moscow.
 1988 - The Candle Demonstration in Bratislava is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
 1990 – In New York City, a fire at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87.
 1992 – Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.
 1992 - The Pakistan national cricket team wins the Cricket World Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia.
 1995 – Ward Cunningham opens the first wiki, the Portland Pattern Repository.
 1996 – An 81-day long standoff between the antigovernment group Montana Freemen and law enforcement in Jordan, Montana begins.
 1996 – The EU's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (BSE).

From 2001 
 2001 – Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland implement the Schengen Agreement.
 2002 – An earthquake in Afghanistan kills 2,000 people.
 2004 – Air Holland files for bankruptcy in response to unproven allegations of marijuana abuse by the their pilots.
 2006 – Several anti-Government demonstrators are arrested in Belarus.
 2012 – Hong Kong elects CY Leung as Chief Executive.
 2014 - The first cases of the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa are officially reported in Guinea.
 2015 - British Top Gear television presenter Jeremy Clarkson is fired by the BBC over a physical attack on a producer.
 2015 - It is announced that Zayn Malik is leaving the boy band One Direction.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1157 - Alfonso II of Aragon (d. 1196)
 1252 - Conradin, Duke of Swabia, King of Sicily and Jerusalem (d. 1268)
 1259 – Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1332)
 1297 – Andronikos III Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1341)
 1345 – Blanche of Lancaster, wife of John of Gaunt (d. 1369)
 1347 – Catherine of Siena, Italian saint (d. 1380)
 1479 – Vasili III, Grand Prince of Moscow (d. 1533)
 1539 - Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1612)
 1541 – Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1587)
 1545 - John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg (d. 1622)
 1593 - Jean de Brébeuf, French-Canadian missionary and saint (d. 1649)
 1661 – Paul de Rapin, French historian (d. 1725)
 1714 - Matthew Griswold, American politician, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1799)
 1767 – Joachim Murat, King of Naples (d. 1815)
 1782 – Caroline Bonaparte, Queen of Naples (d. 1839)
 1786 - Giovanni Battista Amici, Italian astronomer and botanist (d. 1863)
 1808 - José de Espronceda, Spanish writer and poet (d. 1842)
 1819 - Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb, Faroese Lutheran minister and linguist (d. 1909)
 1821 - Robert Bentley, English botanist (d. 1893)
 1840 – Myles Keogh, American soldier of fortune (d. 1876)
 1860 - Friedrich Naumann, German theologian and politician (d. 1919)
 1865 – Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian-German painter (d. 1941)
 1867 – Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor (d. 1957)
 1867 - Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor (d. 1941)
 1868 - Bill Lockwood, English cricketer (d. 1932)
 1871 - Louis Perée, French fencer (d. 1924)
 1872 - Horatio Nelson Jackson, American racing driver and physician (d. 1955)
 1873 – Rudolf Rocker, German anarchist (d. 1958)
 1874 - Emperor Sunjong of Korea (d. 1926)
 1876 - Irving Baxter, American jumper and pole vaulter (d. 1957)
 1881 – Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (d. 1945)
 1884 – Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (d. 1950)
 1886 – Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople (d. 1972)
 1887 - Chuichi Nagumi, Japanese admiral (d. 1944)

1901  1950 
 1901 - Ed Begley, American actor (d. 1970)
 1905 - Pote Sarasin, Thai politician (d. 2000)
 1908 – David Lean, British movie director (d. 1991)
 1910 – Magda Olivero, Italian operatic soprano (d. 2014)
 1911 – Jack Ruby, assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967)
 1914 – Norman Borlaug, American agronomist (d. 2009)
 1920 – Patrick Troughton, English actor (d. 1987)
 1920 – Paul Scott, British novelist (d. 1987)
 1921 – Alexandra of Greece and Denmark, Queen of Yugoslavia (d. 1993)
 1921 – Simone Signoret, French actress (d. 1985)
 1921 - Nancy Kelly, American actress (d. 1995)
 1922 - Eileen Ford, American model agency executive (d. 2014)
 1924 - Machiko Kyo, Japanese actress
 1926 – Laszlo Papp, Hungarian boxer (d. 2003)
 1926 - Riz Ortolani, Italian composer (d. 2014)
 1926 - Jaime Sabines, Mexican poet (d. 1999)
 1926 - Gene Shalit, American journalist and critic
 1927 - P. Shanmugam, Indian politician, 13th Chief Minister of Puducherry
 1928 – Roald Aas, Norwegian speed skater (d. 2012)
 1928 – Jim Lovell, American astronaut
 1930 - Carlo Mauri, Italian mountaineer (d. 1982)
 1931 – Paul Motian, American jazz drummer and composer (d. 2011)
 1932 - Roger Wilkins, American civil rights activist and journalist (d. 2017)
 1934 – Gloria Steinem, American feminist and publisher
 1934 – Karlheinz Schreiber, German-Canadian industrialist, lobbyist and arms dealer
 1937 - Tom Monaghan, American businessman, founded Domino's Pizza
 1938 - Hoyt Axton, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1999)
 1938 - Daniel Buren, French sculptor and painter
 1940 - Mina, Italian singer
 1940 - Anita Bryant, American singer
 1940 - Anker Buch, Danish violinist (d. 2014)
 1942 – Aretha Franklin, American singer (d. 2018)
 1942 – Richard O'Brien, English actor, writer and composer
 1942 – Kim Woodburn, English television personality
 1946 - Daniel Bensaïd, French philosopher (d. 2010)
 1947 – Elton John, English singer and songwriter

1951  1975 
 1951 - Maizie Williams, Montserratian-English performer (Boney M.)
 1952 - Stephen Dorrell, English politician
 1952 - Antanas Mockus, Colombian mathematician, philosopher and politician, Mayor of Bogota
 1955 - Lee Mazzilli, American baseball player, coach and manager
 1955 - Jim Shannon, Northern Irish politician
 1957 - Christina Boxer, English runner
 1957 - Aleksandr Puchkov, Russian hurdler
 1958 - John Ensign, American politician
 1958 - James McDaniel, American actor and director
 1960 - Steve Norman, English saxophonist, songwriter and producer (Spandau Ballet)
 1960 - Brenda Strong, American actress
 1962 - David Nuttall, English politician
 1962 – Marcia Cross, American actress
 1963 - Karen Bruce, English dancer and choreographer
 1964 - Mike Henry, American voice actor, writer and producer
 1964 - René Meulensteen, Dutch footballer and coach
 1965 - Avery Johnson, American basketball coach
 1965 – Sarah Jessica Parker, American actress
 1965 – Frank Ordenewitz, German footballer
 1966 - Frank Ferrer, American musician (Guns N' Roses)
 1966 – Jeff Healey, Canadian guitarist (d. 2008)
 1967 – Debi Thomas, American figure skater
 1969 - Cathy Dennis, English singer-songwriter, producer and actress
 1970 - Magnus Larsson, Swedish golfer
 1971 - Sheryl Swoopes, American basketball player
 1972 – Yuichi Yoshimoto, Japanese footballer
 1972 - Phil O'Donnell, Scottish footballer (d. 2007)
 1973 - Michaela Dorfmeister, Austrian skier
 1973 - Anders Fridén, Swedish singer-songwriter and producer
 1974 - Kseniya Rappoport, Russian actress
 1975 – Melanie Blatt, British singer

From 1976 
 1976 – Reema Vakarua, New Zealand-Italian rugby player
 1976 - Cha Tae-hyun, South Korean actor and singer
 1976 - GiGi Leung, Hong Kong actress and singer
 1976 – Wladimir Klitschko, Ukrainian boxer
 1979 – Muriel Hurtis-Houari, French athlete
 1981 - Casey Neistadt, American YouTube personality and filmmaker
 1982 – Danica Patrick, American racecar driver
 1984 – Katharine McPhee, American singer and actress
 1985 - Carmen Rasmussen, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and actress
 1987 – Jason Castro, American singer
 1987 – Nobunari Oda, Japanese figure skater
 1987 – Jacob Bagersted, Danish handball player
 1987 – Victor Obinna, Nigerian footballer
 1988 – Erik Knudsen, Canadian actor
 1988 - Ryan Lewis, American DJ and producer
 1989 – Scott Sinclair, English footballer
 1989 – Alyson Michalka, American actress
 1991 – Seychelle Gabriel, American actress
 1991 - Samia Yusuf Omar, Somali sprinter (d. 2012)
2005 - Zack Raines,Great Canadian

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 752 – Pope-elect Stephen
 1223 – Afonso II of Portugal (b. 1185)
 1345 – Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (b. 1281)
 1558 - Marcos de Niza, French friar and explorer (b. 1495)
 1583 - Juan de Garay, Spanish conquistador (b. 1528)
 1620 – Johannes Nucius, German composer (b. 1556)
 1732 - Lucy Filippini, Italian saint (b. 1672)
 1751 – Frederick I of Sweden (b. 1676)
 1801 – Novalis, German poet (b. 1772)
 1818 - Caspar Wessel, Norwegian-Danish mathematician and cartographer (b. 1745)
 1860 - James Braid, Scottish surgeon and physician (b. 1795)
 1862 – John Peisley, first Australian born bushranger, hanged (b. 1835)
 1873 – Wilhelm Marstrand, Danish painter (b. 1810)

1901  2000 
 1914 – Frédéric Mistral, French poet (b. 1830)
 1917 – Spyridon Samaras, Greek composer (b. 1861)
 1918 – Claude Debussy, French composer (b. 1862)
 1919 - Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German sculptor and artist (b. 1881)
 1931 - Ida B. Wells, American journalist and activist (b. 1862)
 1932 - Harriet Backer, Norwegian painter (b. 1845)
 1945 – Franz Oppenhoff, German jurist and Mayor of Aachen (b. 1902)
 1957 - Max Ophüls, German director and screenwriter (b. 1902)
 1967 - Renato Cellini, Italian conductor (b. 1913)
 1969 - Max Eastman, American poet (b. 1883)
 1973 – Edward Steichen, Luxembourg-American photographer (b. 1879)
 1975 – Faisal of Saudi Arabia (b. 1906)
 1975 – Juan Gaudino, Argentine racing driver (b. 1893)
 1979 - Akinoumi Setsuo, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1914)
 1980 – Roland Barthes, French literary critic and writer (b. 1915)
 1980 – Walter Susskind, Czech conductor (b. 1913)
 1988 - Robert Joffrey, American dancer, choreographer and director (b. 1931)
 1991 - Marcel Lefebvre, French archbishop (b. 1905)
 1992 - Nancy Walker, American actress (b. 1922)
 1994 - Max Petitpierre, Swiss politician (b. 1899)
 1999 – Cal Ripken, Sr., American baseball manager (b. 1936)

From 2001 
 2002 – Kenneth Wolstenholme, British football commentator (b. 1920)
 2005 – Paul Henning, American TV and movie producer (b. 1911)
 2006 – Buck Owens, American singer and TV personality (b. 1926)
 2007 – Andranik Margaryan, Armenian politician (b. 1951)
 2008 – Abby Mann, American movie writer and producer (b. 1927)
 2009 – Yukio Endo, Japanese gymnast (b. 1937)
 2010 – Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, German political scientist (b. 1916)
 2012 – Antonio Tabucchi, Italian writer (b. 1943)
 2014 - Nanda, Indian actress (b. 1939)
 2014 - Ralph Wilson, American businessman (b. 1918)
 2014 - Jerry Roberts, British World War II code breaker (b. 1920)
 2014 - Mohammad Ebrahim Bastani Parizi, Iranian historian and writer (b. 1924)
 2014 - Jonathan Schell, American writer, journalist and activist (b. 1943)
 2014 - Sonny Ruberto, American baseball player (b. 1946)
 2015 - George Fischbeck, American weatherman (b. 1922)
 2015 - Ivo Garrani, Italian actor (b. 1924)
 2015 - Dick Bond, American politician (b. 1921)
 2015 - Bill Slayback, American baseball player (b. 1948)
 2015 - Ron Suart, English footballer (b. 1920)
 2016 - Abu Ala al-Afri, Iraqi militant (b. 1958)
 2016 - Clodomir Santos de Morais, Brazilian sociologist (b. 1928)
 2016 - Paolo Poli, Italian actor (b. 1929)
 2016 - Imre Pozsgay, Hungarian politician (b. 1933)
 2016 - David Snellgrove, British Tibetologist (b. 1920)
 2017 - Teodor Oizerman, Soviet-Russian philosopher (b. 1914)
 2017 - Cuthbert Sebastian, Governor-General of Saint Kitts and Nevis (b. 1921)

Observances 
 Annunciation of Blessed Virgin Mary (Catholicism)
 Lady Day – Old official New Year's Day, before it was changed to January 1
 Mother's Day (Slovenia)
 Independence Day in Greece
 Maryland Day

Days of the year