Events

Up to 1900 
 845 - The first King of Brittany, Nominoe, defeats Frankish King Charles the Bold at the Battle of Ballon near Redon.
 1412 - The St. Cecilia's flood kills around 30,000 people on the lower Elbe.
 1497 – Vasco da Gama sails round the Cape of Good Hope on his voyage to India.
 1574 - The Juan Fernandez Islands in the Pacific Ocean, now belonging to Chile, are discovered.
 1635 - Dutch colonial forces on Taiwan launch a campaign against native villages. It results in them taking control over the Central and Southern parts of the island. 
 1718 – Off the coast of Virginia, English pirate Edward Teach (best known as "Blackbeard") is killed in battle when a British boarding party cornered and then shot and stabbed him more than 25 times.
 1812 - War of 1812: 17 Indiana rangers are killed at the Battle of Wild Cat Creek.
 1837 - Canadian journalist William Lyon Mackenzie calls for a rebellion against the United Kingdom in his essay "To the People of Upper Canada", published in his newspaper "The Constitution".
 1847 - Fire rips through a paddle steamer on Lake Michigan, killing 250 people.
 1858 – Denver, Colorado, is founded.
 1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: Confederate General John Bell Hood invades Tennessee in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Union General William T. Sherman from Georgia.
 1869 - In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched.
 1873 - French transatlantic steamer Ville du Havre collides in the North Atlantic Ocean with the clipper Loch Earn, breaks apart and sinks within twelve minutes, killing 226.
 1880 – Vaudeville actress Lillian Russell makes her debut at Tony Pastor's Theatre in New York City.

1901  2000 
 1908 - The Congress of Manastir establishes the Albanian alphabet
 1917 – In Montreal, Canada, the National Hockey Association breaks up (on November 26 it was replaced with the National Hockey League).
 1928 - The first performance of Maurice Ravel's Bolero takes place in Paris.
 1933 - Qatar Airways is founded.
 1935 – The China Clipper takes off from Alameda, California in an attempt to deliver the first airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean (the airplane later reached its destination, Manila, and delivered over 110,000 pieces of mail).
 1940 - World War II: After the initial Italian invasion of Greece, Greek troops counter-attack into Italian-occupied Albania and captures Korytsa.
 1942 – World War II: Battle of Stalingrad – The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack Operation Uranus and General Friedrich von Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German 6th army is surrounded.
 1943 – World War II: War in the Pacific – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan (see Cairo Conference)
 1943 – Lebanon gains independence from France.
 1954 - The Humane Society of the United States is founded.
 1956 - The 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, begin.
 1963 – John F. Kennedy assassination: In Dallas, Texas, US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated, Texas Governor John B. Connally is seriously wounded, and US Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn-in as the 36th President of the United States. Suspect Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested but is himself shot two days later by Jack Ruby.
 1967 – UN Security Council Resolution 242 is adopted by the UN Security Council, establishing a set of the principles aimed at guiding negotiations for an Arab-Israeli peace settlement.
 1968 – The Beatles release The White Album.
 1972 – Vietnam War: The United States loses its first B-52 Stratofortress of the war.
 1974 – The United Nations General Assembly grants the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.
 1975 – Juan Carlos is declared King of Spain following the death of dictator Francisco Franco.
 1977 – British Airways inaugurates regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
 1985 – According to ancient Aztec mythology, the future saviour of the world would be born on this date.
 1986 – Mike Tyson knocks-out Trevor Berbick in a round 2 fight, becoming the youngest world heavyweight-boxing champion (20 years, 4 months old).
 1988 – In Palmdale, California, the first prototype B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is revealed.
 1989 – In west Beirut, a bomb explodes near the motorcade of Lebanese President Rene Moawad, killing him.
 1990 – Margaret Thatcher resigns as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
 1995 - Toy Story is released as the first feature-length movie created completely using computer-generated imagery.

From 2001 
 2001 – Jack McConnell replaces Henry McLeish as First Minister of Scotland.
 2002 – In Nigeria, more than 100 people are killed at an attack aimed at the contestants of the Miss World contest.
 2003 – England wins the Rugby World Cup, defeating Australia in the final.
 2003 – In Tbilisi, Georgia, opponents of President Eduard Shevardnadze seize the parliament building and demand the president's resignation.
 2003 – The Heritage Classic, the first outdoor hockey game in the history of the National Hockey League is played in Edmonton, Alberta.
 2004 - Orange Revolution: Protests begin in Kyiv, Ukraine, over the previous day's election result, in which Viktor Yanukovych was announced as the winner over Viktor Yushchenko.
 2005 – Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany.
 2007 – Steve McClaren is sacked as the manager of the England national football team, which had failed to qualify for the European Championships.
 2010 – A stampede occurs on a bridge in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, during the Bon Om Thook water festival, killing 347 people.
 2013 - Magnus Carlsen wins the World Chess Championship over defending champion Viswanathan Anand.
 2015 - Mauricio Macri is elected President of Argentina over Daniel Scioli.
 2017 - Ratko Mladic is found guilty of war crimes by the International Court of Justice in relation to the Srebrenica massacre.

Births

Up to 1800 
 1428 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, English politician (d. 1471)
 1515 – Marie of Guise, Regent of Scotland (d. 1560)
 1532 - Anne of Denmark, Electress of Saxony (d. 1585)
 1536 - Johann VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, German nobleman (d. 1606)
 1602 - Elisabeth of France (d. 1644)
 1643 – Robert Cavelier de La Salle, French explorer (d. 1687)
 1698 - Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, French Governor of Louisiana (d. 1778)
 1709 - Franz Benda, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1786)
 1710 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer, eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1784)
 1722 - Hryhorii Skovoroda, Ukrainian poet (d. 1794)
 1728 - Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden (d. 1811)
 1744 - Abigail Adams, First Lady of the United States (d. 1818)
 1753 - Dugald Stewart, Scottish philosopher and mathematician (d. 1828)
 1766 - Charlotte von Lengefeld, German writer (d. 1826)
 1767 – Andreas Hofer, Tyrolian patriot (d. 1810)
 1780 - José Cecilio del Valle, Honduran politician (d. 1834)
 1787 – Rasmus Christian Rask, Danish linguist (d. 1832)
 1791 - John Winston Jones, American politician (d. 1848)

1801  1900 
 1808 – Thomas Cook, British holiday entrepreneur (d. 1892)
 1819 – George Eliot, English novelist (d. 1880)
 1837 - Franklin MacVeigh, American politician (d. 1934)
 1840 - Emile Lemoine, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1912)
 1849 – Christian Rohlfs, painter and graphic artist (d. 1938)
 1852 – Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant, French diplomat (d. 1924)
 1856 – Heber J. Grant, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1945)
 1859 - Fusajiro Yamauchi, Japanese founder of Nintendo (d. 1940)
 1861 – Ranavalona III, Queen of Madagascar (d. 1917)
 1868 – John Nance Garner, 32nd Vice President of the United States (d. 1967)
 1869 – André Gide, French novelist (d. 1951)
 1875 - Tomas Berreta, President of Uruguay (d. 1947)
 1876 - Emil Beyer, American gymnast (d. 1934)
 1876 - Pierre Petit de Juleville, French cardinal (d. 1947)
 1876 - Percival Proctor Baxter, 33rd Governor of Maine (d. 1969)
 1877 – Joan Gamper, Swiss-born businessman, founder of Barcelona Football Club (d. 1930)
 1881 – Ismail Enver, Turkish general and politician (d. 1922)
 1883 - Martin Flavin, American playwright and novelist (d. 1967)
 1889 - Gordon Browning, Governor of Tennessee (d. 1976)
 1890 – Charles de Gaulle, French general and statesman, President of France (d. 1970)
 1890 – El Lissitzky, Russian painter and designer (d. 1941)
 1893 – Harley J. Earl, automobile designer, father of the Chevrolet Corvette (d. 1969)
 1897 – Paul Oswald Ahnert, German astronomer (d. 1989)
 1898 - Wiley Post, American pilot (d. 1935)
 1899 – Hoagy Carmichael, American composer, singer and actor (d. 1981)
 1900 - Helenka Pantaleoni, American actress and humanitarian (d. 1987)

1901  1950 
 1901 – Joaquín Rodrigo, Spanish composer (d. 1999)
 1902 - Albert Leduc, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1990)
 1904 – Louis Néel, French physicist (d. 2000)
 1909 - Mikhail Mil, Russian engineer (d. 1970)
 1913 – Benjamin Britten, English composer (d. 1976)
 1913 - Gardnar Mulloy, American tennis player (d. 2016)
 1914 - Peter Townsend, English captain and pilot (d. 1995)
 1917 – Andrew Huxley, English physiologist and Nobel Prize winner (d. 2012)
 1918 – Claiborne Pell, former United States Senator (d. 2009)
 1921 – Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian and actor (d. 2004)
 1922 - Eugene Stoner, American weapons designer (d. 1997)
 1923 - Tu An, Chinese poet and translator (d. 2017)
 1923 – Arthur Hiller, Canadian director (d. 2016)
 1923 - Hanna Maron, German-born Israeli actress (d. 2014)
 1924 - Les Johnson, Australian politician (d. 2015)
 1924 – Geraldine Page, actress (d. 1987)
 1925 – Gunther Schuller, American jazz composer and director (d. 2015)
 1925 - Jerrie Mock, American pilot (d. 2014)
 1926 - Gene Berce, American basketball player (d. 2018)
 1926 - Arthur Jones, American businessman (d. 2007)
 1928 - Willie Fernie, Scottish footballer (d. 2011)
 1929 - Isa Barzizza, Italian actress
 1930 - Owen Garriott, American astronaut (d. 2019)
 1930 - Peter Hall, English theatre and movie director (d. 2017)
 1930 - Peter Huford, English organist and composer
 1932 – Robert Vaughn, American actor (d. 2016)
 1936 - Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of Bahrain
 1936 - Alex Scott, Scottish footballer (d. 2001)
 1936 - John Bird, English actor and comedian
 1940 - Andrzej Zulawski, Polish director and writer (d. 2016)
 1940 – Terry Gilliam, American-born British comedian, actor and director, member of Monty Python
 1941 – Tom Conti, Scottish actor
 1941 - Jacques Laperriere, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
 1941 - Jesse Colin Young, American singer-songwriter and bass player
 1942 - Guion Bluford, American astronaut
 1943 – Billie Jean King, American tennis player
 1943 - Peter Adair, American director and producer (d. 1996)
 1943 - Gary M. Heidnik, American serial killer (d. 1999)
 1946 - Aston Barrett, Jamaican athlete
 1947 - Paloma San Basilio, Spanish singer-songwriter and producer
 1947 – Nevio Scala, Italian footballer
 1948 – Radomir Antic, Serbian football manager
 1949 - Richard Carmona, 17th Surgeon General of the United States
 1949 - Godfrey Bloom, English politician
 1950 – Jim Jefferies, Scottish football manager
 1950 – Lyman Bostock, American Major League Baseball player (d. 1978)
 1950 – Steve Van Zandt, musician
 1950 – Tina Weymouth, musician

1951  1975 
 1951 – Kent Nagano, American conductor
 1954 - Robert F. Coleman, American mathematician (d. 2014)
 1954 - Paolo Gentiloni, former Prime Minister of Italy
 1956 - Lawrence Gowan, Scottish-Canadian singer-songwriter and producer (Styx)
 1956 - Richard Kind, American actor
 1958 – Jamie Lee Curtis, American actress
 1958 - Bruce Payne, English actor
 1959 - Frank McAvennie, Scottish footballer
 1961 – Mariel Hemingway, American actress
 1961 - Stephen Hough, English-Australian pianist and composer
 1961 - Randal L. Schwartz, American computer programmer
 1961 - Gary Valentine, American actor, comedian and writer
 1962 - Sumi Jo, South Korean soprano
 1962 - Victor Peleven, Russian author
 1963 – Tony Mowbray, English football manager
 1963 - Brian Robbins, American actor and director
 1963 - Corinne Russell, English model, actress and dancer
 1963 - Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson, Icelandic actor
 1965 - Mads Mikkelsen, Danish actor
 1966 - Mark Pritchard, English politician
 1967 – Boris Becker, German tennis player
 1967 - Mark Ruffalo, American actor and producer
 1968 - Sidse Babett Knudsen, Danish actress
 1969 - Katrin Krabbe, German athlete
 1973 - Chad Trujillo, American astronomer
 1974 – David Pelletier, figure skater
 1975 – Aiko, Japanese singer

From 1976 
 1976 – Ville Valo, lead singer of Finnish rock band HIM
 1976 – Torsten Frings, German footballer
 1977 - Annika Norlin, Swedish singer
 1978 – Francis Obikwelu, Portuguese athlete
 1979 - Jeremy Dale, American comic book artist (d. 2014)
 1980 - Rait Keerles, Estonian basketball player
 1980 - Yaroslav Rybakov, Russian high jumper
 1982 - Steve Angello, Greek-Swedish DJ and singer
 1982 – Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Nigerian footballer
 1982 - Isild Le Besco, French actress
 1983 - Tyler Hilton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1984 – Scarlett Johansson, American actress
 1985 - Austin Brown, American singer
 1985 – Asamoah Gyan, Ghanaian footballer
 1986 – Oscar Pistorius, South African athlete
 1987 - Marouane Fellaini, Belgian footballer
 1988 - Jamie Campbell Bower, English actor and singer
 1988 - Jyoti Guptara, English-Swiss journalist and author
 1988 - Suresh Guptara, English-Swiss author
 1989 - Chris Smalling, English footballer
 1989 - Gabriel Torje, Romanian footballer
 1989 - Candice Glover, American singer-songwriter and actress
 1990 - Jing Dongwoo, South Korean singer and dancer
 1991 - Scott Bain, Scottish footballer
 1991 - Saki Shimizu, Japanese singer
 1992 - Will Young, New Zealand cricketer
 1995 - Katherine McNamara, American actress and singer
 1996 - Hailey Baldwin, American model and television personality
 1996 - Madison Davenport, American actress

Deaths

Up to 1950 
 385 - Antipope Felix II
 950 - Lothair II of Italy (b. 926)
 1286 – King Eric V of Denmark (b. 1249)
 1318 – Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Russia (b. 1271)
 1594 – Martin Frobisher, English explorer
 1617 – Ahmed I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1590)
 1710 - Bernardo Pasquini, Italian composer (b. 1637)
 1718 – Edward Teach (Blackbeard), English pirate (b. 1680)
 1774 – Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, British general (b. 1725)
 1813 - Johann Christian Reil, German physician (b. 1759)
 1875 – Henry Wilson, Vice President of the United States (b. 1812)
 1896 - George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., American engineer, inventor of the Ferris Wheel (b. 1859)
 1900 – Arthur Sullivan, English composer (b. 1842)
 1902 - Walter Reed, American physician (b. 1851)
 1916 – Jack London, American writer (b. 1876)
 1919 - Francisco Moreno, Argentine explorer and academic (b. 1852)
 1930 – Paul Raud, Estonian painter (b. 1865)
 1944 – Arthur Eddington, British astrophysicist (b. 1882)
 1946 - Burt McKinnie, American golfer (b. 1879)
 1946 - Otto George Thierack, German jurist and politician (b. 1889)
 1948 - Fakhri Pasha, Turkish general and politician (b. 1868)

1951  2000 
 1954 - Jess McMahon, American wrestling promoter (b. 1882)
 1962 - René Coty, President of France (b. 1882)
 1963 – John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (b. 1917)
 1963 – Aldous Huxley, English writer (b. 1894)
 1963 – C. S. Lewis, Irish writer (b. 1898)
 1967 - Pavel Korin, Russian painter (b. 1892)
 1980 - Jules Léger, 21st Governor General of Canada (b. 1913)
 1980 – Mae West, American actress (b. 1893)
 1981 – Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochemist (b. 1900)
 1986 – Scatman Crothers, American actor (b. 1910)
 1989 – René Moawad, Lebanese politician (b. 1925)
 1992 – Sterling Holloway, American actor (b. 1905)
 1993 – Anthony Burgess, British writer (b. 1917)
 1996 - Maria Casares, Spanish-born actress (b. 1922)
 1996 - Terence Donovan, English photographer (b. 1936)
 1997 – Michael Hutchence, Australian musician (b. 1960)
 2000 - Christian Marquand, French actor, director and screenwriter (b. 1927)

From 2001 
 2003 - Mario Beccaria, Italian politician (b. 1920)
 2007 - Maurice Béjart, French-Swiss choreographer (b. 1929)
 2007 - Verity Lambert, English television producer (b. 1935)
 2008 – Ibrahim Nasir, former President of the Maldives (b. 1926)
 2010 – Frank Fenner, Australian scientist (b. 1914)
 2011 – Danielle Mitterrand, French activist and former First Lady of France (b. 1924)
 2011 - Lynn Margulis, American biologist (b. 1938)
 2011 - Svetlana Alliluyeva (Lana Peters), Soviet-born American writer, defector and daughter of Joseph Stalin (b. 1926)
 2011 - Sena Jurinac, Bosnian-born operatic soprano (b. 1921)
 2011 - Paul Motian, American jazz musician (b. 1931)
 2012 - Bryce Courteney, South African-born Australian illustrator (b. 1933)
 2013 - Georges Lautner, French movie director, screenwriter (b. 1926)
 2014 - Fiorenzo Angelini, Italian cardinal (b. 1916)
 2014 - Claire Barry, American singer (b. 1920)
 2014 - Marcel Paquet, Belgian philosopher (b. 1947) 
 2015 - Kim Young-sam, 6th President of South Korea (b. 1927)
 2015 - Joseph Silverstein, American violinist and conductor (b. 1932) 
 2016 - Ram Naresh Yadav, Indian politician (b. 1927)
 2017 - George Avakian, American record producer (b. 1919)
 2017 - Jon Hendricks, American jazz singer (b. 1921)
 2017 - Maurice Hinchey, American politician (b. 1938)
 2017 - Imre Hollai, Hungarian diplomat (b. 1925)
 2017 - Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian opera singer (b. 1962)
 2017 - Stefan Radt, German-Dutch historian and author (b. 1927)
 2017 - Charles C. McDonald, American general (b. 1933)
 2018 - Soslan Andiyev, Russian freestyle wrestler (b. 1952)
 2018 - Baishnab Charan Parida, Indian politician (b. 1941)
 2018 - Jose Peralta, American politician (b. 1971) 
 2019 - Stephen Cleobury, English organist (b. 1948)
 2019 - Daniel Leclercq, French footballer (b. 1949)
 2019 - Gugu Liberato, Brazilian television presenter, entrepreneur, actor and singer (b. 1959)
 2019 - Kaare R. Norum, Norwegian academic and nutritionist (b. 1932)
 2019 - Cecilia Seghizzi, Italian composer and painter (b. 1908)
 2019 - Henry Sobel, Portuguese-born Brazilian-American rabbi (b. 1944)
 2019 - Bowen Stassforth, American swimmer (b. 1926)

Observances 
 Independence Day (Lebanon)
 Day of the Albanian Alphabet

Days of the year