Events

Up to 1900 
 314 – Pope Miltiades ends his reign as the Catholic Pope.
 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople.
 1158 – Vladislav II becomes King of Bohemia.
 1569 – First recorded lottery in England.
 1571 – Austrian nobility is granted freedom of religion.
 1693 – Mount Etna erupts in Sicily, Italy.
 1759 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
 1779 - Ching-Tang Khomba is crowned King of Manipur in present-day northeastern India.
 1787 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
 1805 – Michigan Territory is created.
 1861 – Alabama secedes from the United States.
 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post – General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.
 1866 - British passenger ship London sinks in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, killing 220 out of the 239 people on board.
 1867 – Benito Juárez becomes Mexican president again.
 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War begins.
 1880 – Total solar eclipse blackens the sky of San Francisco one day after the funeral of Emperor Norton.

1901  1950 
 1902 – Popular Mechanics magazine was published for the first time.
 1908 – The Grand Canyon National Monument is created.
 1917 - The Kingsland Munitions Factory explosion occurs in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.
 1919 – Romania annexes Transylvania.
 1922 – First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
 1923 – Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to pay its reparation payments.
 1927 - Louis B. Mayer, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
 1935 – Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
 1938 – Frances Moulton is the first woman to become president of a US national bank.
 1942 – Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
 1942 – The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
 1943 – The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
 1946 – Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania with himself as dictator.
 1946 – Porfirio Barba-Jacob's ashes go back to Colombia.
 1949 – First recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California.

From 1951 
 1954 - A series of avalanches in the state of Vorarlberg in Austria kills 135 people.
 1957 – The African Convention is founded in Dakar.
 1960 – Chad declares its independence.
 1962 – An avalanche occurs in the Huascaran region in Peru; 4,000 deaths.
 1962 - Cold War: While tied to its pier in Polyarny, the Soviet submarine B-37 is destroyed when fire breaks out in its torpedo compartment.
 1963 – The Whisky A Go-Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the USA, is opened.
 1964 – United States Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry reports smoking may be hazardous to health. First such statement from US government.
 1972 – East Pakistan becomes Bangladesh.
 1973 – Beginning of the Watergate burglars trial.
 1974 – The world's first surviving set of sextuplets are born to Susan Rosenkowitz in Cape Town, South Africa.
 1976 - In Ecuador, Guillermo Rodriguez Lara is removed from power by the military.
 1980 – Nigel Short, 14, is the youngest chess player to be given the degree of International Master.
 1981 - In Spain, Cantabria becomes an autonomous community.
 1982 – A cold snap sends temperatures to record lows in dozens of cities throughout the Midwestern United States.
 1986 – The Gateway Bridge, Brisbane in Queensland, Australia was officially opened.
 1990 – 300,000 march in favor of Lithuanian independence.
 1992 – Paul Simon is the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott.
 1994 – Irish Government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin
 1996 – Haiti becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
 1996 - Ryutaro Hashimoto becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
 1998 – Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria; over 100 people killed.
 2001 – The Federal Trade Commission approved the merger of AOL and Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner.
 2002 - The first prisoners arrive at the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay, on the island of Cuba.
 2003 – Illinois governor George H. Ryan announces decision to grant clemency to all inmates of death row.
 2005 – Black Tuesday bushfires swept across the southern Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.
 2013 - President of France François Hollande authorizes military intervention in the conflict in Mali.
 2015 - Over a million people march in Paris for freedom of speech after the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine a few days earlier.
 2015 - Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic is elected to become the first female President of Croatia.
 2018 - US President Donald Trump is involved in a racism controversy over words he is said to have used to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African countries.

Births

Up to 1900 
 347 – Theodosius I, Roman Emperor (d. 395)
 1209 - Möngke Khan, Mongol Emperor (d. 1259)
 1322 – Emperor Komyo of Japan (d. 1380)
 1359 – Emperor Go-En'yu of Japan (d. 1393)
 1395 - Michelle of Valois, Duchess of Burgundy (d. 1422)
 1503 - Parmigianino, Italian artist (d. 1540)
 1591 - Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, English Civil War general (d. 1646)
 1638 – Nicolaus Steno, Danish physician, scientist and bishop (d. 1686)
 1642 - Johann Friedrich Alberti, German composer and organist (d. 1710)
 1671 - François-Marie, 1st duc de Broglie, French military leader (d. 1745)
 1695 - Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch, Scottish nobleman (d. 1751)
 1755 or 1757 – Alexander Hamilton, American politician (d. 1804)
 1757 - Samuel Bentham, English mechanical engineer (d. 1831)
 1760 - Oliver Wolcott, Jr., American politician (d. 1833)
 1786 – Joseph Jackson Lister, English optician and physicist (d. 1869)
 1788 - William Thomas Brande, English chemist (d. 1866)
 1793 - Cave Johnson, American politician (d. 1866)
 1805 - Johann Nepomuk Geiger, Austrian painter (d. 1880)
 1807 - Ezra Cornell, American businessman and university founder (d. 1874)
 1814 - James Paget, English surgeon and pathologist (d. 1899)
 1814 - William Bigler, 12th Governor of Pennsylvania (d. 1880)
 1815 – John A. Macdonald, Scottish-born first Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1891)
 1838 - Giovanni Cagliero, Italian diplomat (d. 1926)
 1839 - Eugenio Maria de Hostos, Puerto Rican educator and nationalist (d. 1903)
 1842 – William James, American psychologist and philosopher (d. 1910)
 1852 – Constantin Fehrenbach, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1926)
 1853 – Georgios Jakobides, Greek painter (d. 1926)
 1858 – Harry Gordon Selfridge, American retailer (d. 1947)
 1859 - George Nathaniel Curzon, British Viceroy of India (d. 1925)
 1862 - Joseph Nelson Rose, American botanist (d. 1928)
 1865 - Johannes Franz Hartmann, German astronomer (d. 1936)
 1868 - Cai Yuanpei, Chinese philosopher, academic and politician (d. 1940)
 1870 – Alexander Stirling Calder, American sculptor (d. 1945)
 1872 - Herbert Baddeley, British tennis player (d. 1931)
 1872 - Wilfred Baddeley, British tennis player (d. 1929)
 1872 - George Joseph Smith, British serial killer (d. 1915)
 1878 - Theodoros Pangalos, Greek general (d. 1952)
 1885 - Alice Paul, American suffragette and women's rights activist (d. 1977)
 1890 - Harold Bride, British wireless officer on the RMS Titanic (d. 1956)
 1895 – Laurens Hammond, American inventor (d. 1973)
 1897 – August Heissmeyer, German SS officer (d. 1979)
 1899 - Eva Le Gallienne, English-American actress (d. 1991)

1901  1950 
 1901 - Kwak Ki-ok, Korean pilot (d. 1988)
 1902 - Maurice Durufle, French composer (d. 1986)
 1903 - Alan Paton, South African writer and activist (d. 1988)
 1906 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist (d. 2008)
 1907 – Pierre Mendès France, Prime Minister of France (d. 1982)
 1908 - Lionel Stander, American actor (d. 1994)
 1910 - Nikos Kavvadias, Greek poet and writer (d. 1975)
 1911 - Nora Heysen, Australian artist (d. 2003)
 1911 - Brunhilde Pomsel, German broadcaster (d. 2017)
 1911 – Zenko Suzuki, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2004)
 1917 - John Robarts, 17th Premier of Ontario (d. 1982)
 1918 - Gunnar Sonsteby, Norwegian Resistance activist (d. 2012)
 1923 - Carroll Shelby, American racing driver, automobile designer and businessman (d. 2012)
 1923 - Jerome Bixby, American author and scriptwriter (d. 1998)
 1923 - Ernst Nolte, German historian and philosopher (d. 2016)
 1924 – Don Cherry, American singer and golfer (d. 2018)
 1924 – Roger Guillemin, French Nobel Prize laureate
 1924 – Slim Harpo, American musician (d. 1970)
 1926 - Lev Dyomin, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1998)
 1926 - Grant Tinker, American television executive (d. 2016)
 1928 - Mitchell Ryan, American actor
 1929 - Rafael Eitan, Israeli general and politician (d. 2004)
 1930 - Ron Mulock, Australian politician (d. 2014)
 1930 - Rod Taylor, Australian actor (d. 2015)
 1932 - Alfonso Arau, Mexican movie director
 1934 - Charles Antony Richard Hoare, British computer scientist
 1934 – Jean Chrétien, 20th Prime Minister of Canada
 1936 - Eva Hesse, German sculptor (d. 1970)
 1938 – Arthur Scargill, British politician and activist
 1938 - Frankie Randall, American singer-songwriter, actor and dancer (d. 2014)
 1938 - Gavin Millar, Scottish movie director
 1940 - Andres Tarand, Estonian geographer and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Estonia
 1941 – Gerson, Brazilian footballer
 1942 – Clarence Clemons, American musician (d. 2011)
 1942 - Bud Acton, American basketball player
 1943 - Eduardo Mendoza, Spanish writer
 1944 - Mohammed Abed Elhai, Sudanese writer and academic (d. 1989)
 1944 - Shibu Soren, Indian politician
 1945 – Christine Kaufmann, Austrian-German actress (d. 2017)
 1946 - Naomi Judd, American singer
 1946 - Tony Kaye, British pianist and organist
 1946 - John Piper, American theologian
 1948 - Wajima Hiroshi, Japanese sumo wrestler
 1948 – Terry Williams, Welsh rock drummer (Dire Straits)
 1949 - Daryl Braithwaite, Australian rock music singer
 1949 - Bogdan Borusewicz, Polish historian and politician
 1949 - Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Mexican writer
 1949 - Chris Ford, American basketball player
 1949 - David Rotem, Israeli politician (d. 2015)
 1949 - Mohammad Reza Rahimi, 2nd Vice President of Iran

1951  1975 
 1951 - Philip Tartaglia, Scottish Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow
 1952 - Bille Brown, Australian actor and playwright (d. 2013)
 1952 - Ben Crenshaw, American golfer
 1952 - Lee Ritenour, American guitarist, composer and producer
 1952 - Diana Gabaldon, American author
 1953 - John Sessions, Scottish actor
 1954 - Vicky Peña, Spanish actress
 1954 - Kailash Satyarthi, Indian children's rights activist, joint-winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize
 1954 - Barbara Prammer, Austrian politician (d. 2014)
 1956 - Israel Yinon, Israeli conductor (d. 2015)
 1957 - Claude Criquielion, Belgian cyclist (d. 2015)
 1957 - Darryl Dawkins, American basketball player (d. 2015)
 1957 – Bryan Robson, English footballer
 1958 – Vicki Peterson, American musician
 1961 – Jasper Fforde, British writer
 1961 – Karl Habsburg-Lothringen, Austro-Hungarian nobleman, son of Otto von Habsburg
 1961 - Eva O, American musician and singer-songwriter
 1962 – Kim Coles, American actress
 1962 - Chris Bryant, British politician
 1963 - Jason Connery, British actor
 1964 - Yolanda Hadid, Dutch-American television personality and model
 1965 - Edyta Bartosiewicz, Polish singer, songwriter and composer
 1968 - Tom Dumont, American musician
 1969 - Manny Acta, Dominican baseball player
 1970 - Manfredi Beninati, Italian painter and sculptor
 1970 - Chris Jent, American basketball player and coach
 1970 - Malcolm D. Lee, American actor, director and screenwriter
 1970 - Mustafa Sandal, Turkish pop singer, producer, dancer and actor
 1971 - Tom Ward, British actor
 1971 – Mary J. Blige, American singer
 1972 – Amanda Peet, American actress
 1972 - Konstantin Khabensky, Russian entertainer and actor
 1973 - Rockmond Dunbar, American actor
 1973 – Rahul Dravid, Indian cricketer
 1974 – Jens Nowotny, German footballer
 1975 - Matteo Renzi, Italian politician, former Mayor of Florence and Prime Minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016
 1975 - Timbuktu, Swedish rapper

From 1976 
 1977 - Jerome Kerviel, French bank employee
 1978 – Emile Heskey, English footballer
 1980 - Geovanni, Brazilian footballer
 1980 - Gökdeniz Karadeniz, Turkish footballer
 1981 – Jamelia, English singer
 1981 - Tom Meighan, English singer (Kasabian)
 1981 – Jaime Valdés, Chilean footballer
 1982 - Ashley Taylor Dawson, English actor
 1983 – Adrian Sutil, German racing driver
 1984 - Vagner Love, Brazilian footballer
 1985 – Kazuki Nakajima, Japanese racing driver
 1986 - Rachel Riley, English television host
 1987 - Jamie Vardy, English footballer
 1988 - LunchMoney Lewis, American hip hop singer
 1988 - Junjun, Chinese singer
 1991 - Hyolyn, South Korean actress
 1992 - Lee Seung-hoon, South Korean rapper, choreographer and songwriter
 1996 - Leroy Sané, German footballer
 1997 - Cody Simpson, Australian singer
 1998 - Louisa Johnson, English singer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 705 – Pope John VI
 782 - Emperor Konin of Japan (b. 709)
 812 – Staurakios, Byzantine Emperor
 844 - Michael I Rhangabes, Byzantine Emperor
 1055 – Constantine IX Monomachos, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1000)
 1083 - Otto Nordheim, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1020)
 1494 - Domenico Ghirlandaio, Italian artist (b. 1449)
 1495 – Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, Spanish cardinal and statesman (b. 1428)
 1547 - Pietro Bembo, Italian cardinal, scholar and theorist (b. 1470)
 1696 - Charles Albanel, French priest, missionary and scholar (b. 1616)
 1713 - Pierre Jurieu, French Protestant leader (b. 1637)
 1753 - Hans Sloane, Ulster-Scottish physician and collector (b. 1660)
 1762 – Louis-François Roubiliac, French sculptor (b. 1695)
 1763 – Caspar Abel, German theologian, historian and poet (b. 1676)
 1798 - Erekle II, King of Kartli and Kakheti in present-day Georgia (b. 1720)
 1801 – Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (b. 1749)
 1812 - Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, Scottish nobleman (b. 1746)
 1843 – Francis Scott Key, American lawyer and lyricist (b. 1779)
 1867 – Stuart Donaldson, colonial governor of New South Wales (b. 1812)
 1882 – Theodor Schwann, German physiologist (b. 1810)

1901  2000 
 1901 - Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian composer (b. 1866)
 1914 – Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer (b. 1842)
 1923 – King Constantine I of Greece (b. 1868)
 1928 – Thomas Hardy, English writer (b. 1840)
 1941 – Emanuel Lasker, German chess player (b. 1868)
 1944 - Galeazzo Ciano, Italian politician (b. 1903)
 1947 - Eva Tanguay, Canadian-born singer and entertainer (b. 1879)
 1953 – Noe Zhordania, Georgian politician (b. 1868)
 1958 - Edna Purviance, Canadian-born singer and entertainer (b. 1895)
 1965 – Wally Pipp, American baseball player (b. 1893)
 1966 – Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (b. 1901)
 1966 – Hannes Kolehmainen, Finnish runner (b. 1889)
 1966 – Lal Bahadur Shastri, Prime Minister of India (b. 1904)
 1968 - Moshe Zvi Segal, Israeli linguist and scholar (b. 1876)
 1972 - Padraic Colum, Irish poet, novelist, dramatist and biographer (b. 1881)
 1975 - Max Lorenz, German tenor (b. 1901)
 1980 - Barbara Pym, English novelist (b. 1913)
 1985 - William McKell, Premier of New South Wales and Governor-General of Australia (b. 1891)
 1985 - Edward Buzzell, American actor, director and screenwriter (b. 1895)
 1988 – Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist (b. 1898)
 1991 – Carl David Anderson, American physicist (b. 1905)
 1994 - Helmut Poppendick, German physician (b. 1902)
 1996 - Roger Crozier, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach and manager (b. 1942)
 1998 – Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (b. 1926)

From 2001 
 2003 – Mickey Finn, English drummer (T.Rex) (b. 1947)
 2008 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (b. 1919)
 2009 - Pio Laghi, Italian cardinal (b. 1922)
 2010 – Eric Rohmer, French movie director (b. 1920)
 2010 – Miep Gies, Dutch humanitarian, helper of Anne Frank (b. 1909)
 2013 - Mariangela Melato, Italian actress (b. 1941)
 2013 - Aaron Swartz, American computer programmer, writer and internet activist (b. 1986)
 2013 - Nguyen Khanh, South Vietnamese politician (b. 1927)
 2014 - Vugar Gashimov, Azerbaijani chess player (b. 1986)
 2014 - Ariel Sharon, Israeli general and politician, former Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1928)
 2014 - Keiko Awaji, Japanese actress (b. 1933)
 2014 - Arnoldo Foà, Italian actor (b. 1916) 
 2014 - Muhammad Habibur Rahman, Bangladeshi jurist and politician (b. 1929)
 2015 - Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress (b. 1931)
 2015 - Chic Littlewood, New Zealand television personality (b. 1930)
 2015 - Brian Clemens, British screenwriter (b. 1931)
 2015 - Jeno Buzansky, Hungarian footballer (b. 1925) 
 2016 - Berge Furre, Norwegian historian, theologian and politician (b. 1937)
 2016 - Brian Johnson, Australian rugby league player (b. 1956)
 2016 - Gunnel Vallquist, Swedish writer and translator (b. 1918)
 2016 - Monte Irvin, American baseball player (b. 1919)
 2016 - David Margulies, American actor (b. 1937)
 2016 - William Del Monte, American centenarian (b. 1906)
 2017 - Tommy Allsup, American musician (b. 1931)
 2017 - Tony Booth, English artist (b. 1933)
 2017 - Adenan Satem, Malaysian politician, 5th Chief Minister of Sarawak (b. 1944)
 2017 - Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani politician, Governor of Sindh (b. 1938)
 2017 - François Van der Elst, Belgian footballer (b. 1954)
 2017 - Brian Fletcher, English jockey (b. 1947)
 2017 - Nikolay Neprimerov, Russian physicist (b. 1921)
 2017 - Newman Hoar, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1920)
 2018 - Doug Barnard, Jr., American politician (b. 1922)
 2018 - Stephane Gauger, Vietnamese-American film director (b. 1969)
 2018 - Edgar Ray Killen, American convicted murderer (b. 1925)
 2018 - Takis Loukanidis, Greek footballer (b. 1937)
 2019 - Michael Atiyah, British-Lebanese mathematician (b. 1929)
 2019 - Steffan Lewis, Welsh politician (b. 1984)
 2019 - Dimitris Sioufas, Greek politician (b. 1944)

Observances
 Kagami Biraki (Japan)
 Republic Day (Albania)
 Day of National Unity (Nepal)
 Burning the Clavie (Old Scottish New Year tradition)

Days of the year