Events

Up to 1900 
 461 - Libius Severus is declared Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
 1404 - Severe flooding occurs in the Netherlands, as 3000 hectares of land are washed away, with the flood waters also completely wiping out the towns of Ijzendijke and Hugevliet.
 1421 - A major flood in the Netherlands kills between 2,000 and 10,000 people.
 1493 – Christopher Columbus goes ashore on an island he first saw the day before. He names it San Juan Bautista (later renamed Puerto Rico).
 1806 - French troops occupy Hamburg during the Napoleonic Wars.
 1816 - In Poland, Warsaw University is founded.
 1819 – The Museo del Prado in Madrid opens.
 1847 - The second Canadian railway line is opened between Montreal and Lachine.
 1850 - Alfred Tennyson is named Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom by Queen Victoria.
 1863 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
 1869 – The Hudson's Bay Company sells Ruperts Land to Canada.
 1881 - A meteorite lands southwest of Odessa, present-day Ukraine.
 1885 - Serbo-Bulgarian War: Bulgarian victory in the Battle of Slivnitsa officially unifies the Kingdom of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia.
 1887 - In the English Channel, Dutch ocean steamer W. A. Scholten sinks after a collision with a British freighter, killing 132 people.

1901  2000 
 1911 - The Doom Bar in Cornwall claims two ships, Island Maid and Angele, in which the entire crew, except the captain, is killed.
 1912 - The five hundred-year rule of the Ottoman Empire over Macedonia is ended.
 1916 - Goldwyn Pictures is founded by Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn.
 1941 - World War II: The warships HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran sink each other off Western Australia, with the loss of 645 Australians and 77 Germans.
 1942 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad - Soviet Union forces under Georgy Zhukov launch Operation Uranus counter-attacks at Stalingrad, turning the battle in the USSR's favour.
 1942 - Mutesa II is crowned as the last Kabala (King) of Buganda.
 1946 – Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.
 1950 - Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes Supreme Commander of NATO Europe.
 1952 - Alexander Papagos becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
 1967 - TVB is founded, as the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong.
 1969 – Apollo 12 lands on the Moon. Charles Conrad and Alan LaVern Bean become the 3rd and 4th people respectively to walk on the Moon.
 1969 – Brazilian footballer Pelé scores the 1,000th goal of his career.
 1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin seeking a permanent peace settlement.
 1979 – Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran.
 1984 - Oil depot explosions in Mexico City cause a large fire, which kills around 500 people.
 1985 – Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet.
 1990 – Pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award because they did not sing at all on the Girl You Know It’s True album.
 1994 - The United Kingdom's first National Lottery draw is held.
 1995 – Aleksander Kwasniewski is elected President of Poland.
 1996 – The case of the Port Arthur massacre comes to trial.
 1998 – The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton.
 1998 - Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of the Artist Without Beard sells at auction for $ 71.5 million.
 1999 - The People's Republic of China launches the Shenzhou 1 spacecraft.
 1999 - Russia withdraws its military from Georgia.

From 2001 
 2002 – The Prestige oil tanker breaks apart near the coast of Galicia, Spain, causing a large oil spill.
 2010 – Twenty-nine miners are trapped after an explosion in the Pike River Mine near Greymouth in New Zealand. They are pronounced dead after a second explosion five days later.
 2013 - A storm affecting Sardinia causes heavy rain, flooding and kills 18 people.
 2013 - Bomb attacks in Beirut, Lebanon, kill at least 22 people.
 2014 - Nicola Sturgeon becomes the 5th, and first female, First Minister of Scotland, succeeding Alex Salmond.
 2016 - The German Wikipedia publishes its two-millionth article.
 2017 - Talks about forming a governing coalition fail in Germany, after September's election to the Bundestag.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1464 – Emperor Go-Kashiwabara of Japan (d. 1526)
 1503 - Pier Luigi Farnese, Duke of Parma (d. 1547)
 1563 - Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, English statesman (d. 1626)
 1597 - Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatine, Electress of Bavaria (d. 1660)
 1600 – King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland (d. 1649)
 1600 - Leo Aitzema, Dutch historian and statesman (d. 1669)
 1616 - Eustache Le Sueur, French painter (d. 1665)
 1700 - Jean-Antoine Nollet, French priest and physician (d. 1770)
 1711 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian writer and polymath (d. 1765)
 1722 – Leopold Auenbrugger, Austrian physician (d. 1809)
 1770 - Adam Johann von Krusenstern, German-Baltic admiral of the Russian fleet (d. 1846)
 1770 – Bertel Thorvaldsen, Danish sculptor (d. 1844)
 1779 - Duchess Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (d. 1801)
 1797 - René Caillié, French explorer (d. 1838)
 1802 - Solomon Foot, American politician (d. 1866)
 1805 – Ferdinand de Lesseps, French diplomat and businessman (d. 1894)
 1805 - Edouard Drouyn de Unuys, French politician (d. 1881)
 1808 - Janez Bleiweis, Slovenian journalist and politician (d. 1881)
 1814 - Girolamo de Rada, Albanian-Italian writer (d. 1903)
 1831 – James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States (d. 1881)
 1831 - José Evaristo Uriburu, President of Argentina (d. 1914)
 1833 - Wilhelm Dilthey, German theologian, philosopher, psychologist and educator (d. 1911)
 1843 - Richard Avenarius, German philosopher (d. 1896)
 1859 - Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Russian composer and conductor (d. 1935)
 1873 - Elizabeth McCombs, first female member of the New Zealand parliament (d. 1935)
 1875 – Mikhail Kalinin, Soviet politician (d. 1946)
 1875 - Hiram Bingham, United States Senator and explorer (d. 1956)
 1876 - Tatyana Afanasyeva, Russian-Dutch mathematician (d. 1964)
 1877 - Giuseppe Volpi, Italian businessman and politician (d. 1947)
 1879 - Mait Metsanurk, Estonian writer (d. 1957)
 1887 – James B. Sumner, American chemist (d. 1955)
 1888 - Jose Raul Capablanca, Cuban chess player (d. 1942)
 1889 – Clifton Webb, American actor (d. 1966)
 1893 - René Voisin, French classical trumpeter (d. 1952)
 1894 – Américo Tomás, 14th President of Portugal (d. 1987)
 1898 – Arthur R. von Hippel, German physicist (d. 2003)
 1899 - Allen Tate, American poet and literary critic (d. 1979)
 1900 – Anna Seghers, German writer (d. 1983)

1901  1950 
 1902 - Princess Mafalda of Savoy (d. 1944)
 1904 - Nancy Carroll, American actress (d. 1965)
 1905 – Tommy Dorsey, American musician (d. 1956)
 1908 - Alan Baxter, actor (d. 1976)
 1909 - Elmo Smith, Governor of Oregon (d. 1968)
 1910 - Adrian Conan Doyle, English racing driver and author (d. 1970)
 1912 – George Emil Palade, Romanian biologist (d. 2008)
 1912 - Bernard Joseph McLaughlin, American bishop (d. 2015)
 1912 - Robert Simpson, American meteorologist (d. 2014)
 1914 - Mills E. Godwin, Jr., two-time Governor of Virginia (d. 1999)
 1915 – Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., American physiologist (d. 1974)
 1917 – Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (d. 1984)
 1919 – Gillo Pontecorvo, Italian movie director (d. 2006)
 1919 - Alan Young, British-born American actor (d. 2016)
 1920 – Gene Tierney, American actress (d. 1991)
 1921 - Roy Campanella, American baseball player (d. 1993)
 1924 – Knut Steen, Norwegian sculptor (d. 2011)
 1925 - Zygmunt Bauman, Polish-British sociologist (d. 2017)
 1925 - John Gordon, English author (d. 2017)
 1926 - Jeane Kirkpatrick, 16th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2006)
 1928 - Dara Singh, Indian actor and bodybuilder (d. 2012)
 1930 – Kurt Nielsen, Danish tennis player (d. 2011)
 1930 - Christian Schwarz-Schilling, German politician
 1932 - Eleanor F. Helin, American astronomer (d. 2009)
 1932 - Jerry Sheindlin, American judge and author
 1933 – Larry King, American television personality (d. 2021)
 1934 – Valentin Kozmich Ivanov, Russian footballer (d. 2011)
 1934 – Kurt Hamrin, Swedish footballer
 1934 - David Lloyd Jones, English conductor
 1935 - Rashad Khalifa, Egyptian biochemist and computer scientist (d. 1990)
 1936 – Yuan T. Lee, Taiwanese chemist
 1936 - Dick Cavett, American talkshow host
 1936 - Wolfgang Jeschke, German science fiction writer (d. 2015)
 1937 - Tamara Bunke, German-Argentine revolutionary (d. 1967)
 1938 - Warren "Pete" Moore, American singer-songwriter and record producer (d. 2017)
 1938 - Hank Medress, American singer (The Tokens) (d. 2007)
 1938 – Ted Turner, American businessman
 1939 - Emil Constantinescu, 3rd President of Romania
 1939 - Tom Harkin, American politician
 1939 - Garrick Utley, American broadcast journalist (d. 2014)
 1941 - Tommy Thompson, American politician, 42nd Governor of Wisconsin
 1941 - Dan Haggerty, American actor (d. 2016)
 1942 - Sharon Olds, American poet
 1942 – Calvin Klein, American clothing designer
 1943 - Aurelio Monteagudo, Cuban baseball player
 1943 - Fred Lipsius, American musician
 1944 – Klaus Fichtel, German footballer
 1944 - Agnes Baltsa, Greek singer
 1945 - Hans Monderman, Dutch road traffic engineer (d. 2008)
 1947 - Bob Boone, American baseball player and manager
 1947 - Anfinn Kallsberg, 10th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
 1947 - Lamar S. Smith, American politician
 1949 - Raymond Blanc, French chef

1951  1975 
 1951 - Charles Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, British politician
 1951 - Mihai Ghimpu, Moldovan politician, former Interim President of Moldova
 1953 - Robert Beltran, American actor
 1954 - Kathleen Quinlan, American actress
 1954 - Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, 6th President of Egypt
 1955 - Glynnis O'Connor, American actress
 1956 – Eileen Collins, American astronaut
 1956 - Ann Curry, American broadcast journalist
 1956 - Jim Hodges, former Governor of South Carolina
 1956 - Peter Carter, English diplomat (d. 2014)
 1957 - Ofra Haza, Israeli singer (d. 2000)
 1957 - Joel Goldsmith, American composer (d. 2012)
 1957 - Tom Virtue, American actor
 1958 - Terrence Carson, American actor
 1958 - Algirdas Butkevicius, 12th Prime Minister of Lithuania
 1959 - Jo Bonner, American politician
 1959 - Allison Janney, American actress
 1960 - Matt Sorum, American musician
 1960 - Miss Elizabeth, American professional wrestling promoter (d. 2003)
 1961 – Meg Ryan, American actress
 1962 – Jodie Foster, American actress
 1962 – Sean Parnell, American politician, 12th Governor of Alaska
 1964 - Petr Necas, 9th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
 1965 – Laurent Blanc, French footballer
 1965 - Gary Ablett, English footballer (d. 2012)
 1965 - Douglas Henshall, Scottish actor
 1966 - Kakhaber Kacharava, Georgian footballer
 1966 - Gail Devers, American athlete
 1966 – Jason Scott Lee, American actor
 1967 - Dhafer Youssef, Tunisian jazz musician
 1971 - Naoko Mori, Japanese-English actress and singer
 1974 - Arun Vijay, Indian movie actor
 1975 – Sushmita Sen, Indian beauty queen and actress

From 1976 
 1976 – Robin Dunne, Canadian actor
 1976 - Jack Dorsey, American founder of Twitter
 1977 - Mette Frederiksen, Danish politician, Prime Minister of Denmark
 1977 – Kerri Strug, American gymnast
 1979 - Ryan Howard, American baseball player
 1980 - Adele Silva, English actress
 1980 – Vladimir Radmanovic, Serbian basketball player
 1980 - Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of the Humanists UK
 1980 - Yipsi Moreno, Cuban hammer thrower
 1981 - Marcus Banks, American basketball player
 1983 - Chandra Crawford, Canadian cross-country skier
 1983 - Meseret Defar, Ethiopian runner
 1984 – Jorge Fucile, Uruguayan footballer
 1984 - Brittany Maynard, American assisted suicide activist (d. 2014)
 1985 – Chris Eagles, English footballer
 1986 - Milan Smiljanic, Serbian footballer
 1986 - Jeannie Ortega, American actress, dancer and songwriter
 1986 - Dayron Robles, Cuban athlete
 1986 - Hovi Star, Israeli singer
 1987 - Feng Zhe, Chinese gymnast
 1988 - Xavier Barachet, French handball player
 1988 – Patrick Kane, American NHL ice hockey right winger for the Chicago Blackhawks
 1989 - Roman Sergeyevich Trofimov, Russian ski jumper
 1989 - Tyga, American rapper
 1992 - Tove Styrke, Swedish singer-songwriter
 1993 - Suso, Spanish footballer
 1994 - Ibrahima Mbaye, Senegalese footballer
 1997 - McCaughey septuplets
 1999 - Evgenia Medvedeva, Russian figure skater
 2002 - Gaia Cauchi, Maltese singer

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 496 - Pope Gelasius I
 498 - Pope Anastasius II
 1478 - Emperor Baeda Maryam of Ethiopia (b. 1448)
 1481 – Anne Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk (b. 1472)
 1492 – Jami, Persian poet (b. 1414)
 1557 - Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland (b. 1494)
 1577 - Matsunaga Hisahide, Japanese Shogun (b. 1510) 
 1581 – Ivan Ivanovich, son of Ivan IV of Russia (b. 1554)
 1665 – Nicolas Poussin, French painter (b. 1594)
 1703 – The Man in the Iron Mask, French prisoner whose identity is unknown
 1772 - William Nelson, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1711)
 1785 - Bernard de Bury, French composer (b. 1720)
 1798 - Wolfe Tone, Irish general (b. 1763)
 1804 - Pietro Guglielmi, Italian composer (b. 1728)
 1822 - Johann Georg Tralles, German mathematician and physicist (b. 1763)
 1828 – Franz Schubert, Austrian composer (b. 1797)
 1850 - Richard Mentor Johnson, Vice President of the United States (b. 1780)
 1863 – John O'Meally, Australian bushranger (b. 1841)
 1883 - Carl Wilhelm Siemens, German-English engineer (b. 1823)
 1887 – Emma Lazarus, American poet (b. 1849)

1901  2000 
 1918 – Joseph F. Smith, American Mormon leader (b. 1838)
 1924 - Thomas H. Ince, American actor, director, screenwriter and producer (b. 1882)
 1931 - Xu Zhimo, Chinese poet (b. 1897)
 1938 - Lev Shestov, Russian philosopher (b. 1866)
 1943 - Miyagiyama Fukumatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1895)
 1958 - Vittorio Ambrosio, Italian general (b. 1879)
 1959 - Joseph Charbonneau, Canadian archbishop (b. 1892)
 1962 - Grigol Robakidze, Georgian writer (b. 1882)
 1963 - Carmen Amaya, Spanish dancer and singer (b. 1918)
 1970 - Andrey Yeryomenko, Soviet-Russian military (b. 1892)
 1975 - Roger D. Branigan, 42nd Governor of Indiana (b. 1902)
 1976 – Basil Spence, English architect (b. 1907)
 1983 – Tom Evans, English musician (b. 1947)
 1988 - Christina Onassis, American-Greek businesswoman (b. 1950)
 1990 - Sun Li-jen, Chinese general (b. 1900)
 1992 - Bobby Russell, American songwriter (b. 1941)
 1992 – Diane Varsi, American actress (b. 1938)
 1998 - Alan J. Pakula, American director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1928)

From 2001 
 2004 – John Vane, English pharmacologist (b. 1927)
 2004 - Piet Esser, Dutch sculptor (b. 1914)
 2005 – Erik Balling, Danish movie director (b. 1924)
 2011 - Basil D'Oliveira, South African-born English cricketer (b. 1931)
 2012 - Pete LaRoca, American jazz musician (b. 1938)
 2012 - Boris Strugatsky, Russian author (b. 1923)
 2013 - Frederick Sanger, British biochemist, two-time Nobel Prize winner (b. 1918)
 2014 - Otieno Kajwang, Kenyan politician (b. 1959)
 2014 - Gholam Hossein Mazloumi, Iranian footballer (b. 1950)
 2014 - Mike Nichols, German-born American television, stage and movie director (b. 1931)
 2014 - Richard A. Jensen, American theologian (b. 1934)
 2015 - Armand, Dutch protest singer (b. 1946)
 2015 - Allen E. Ertel, American politician (b. 1937)
 2017 - Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, Italian cardinal (b. 1925)
 2017 - Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, Vice president of Nigeria (b. 1932)
 2017 - Fernando Matthei, Chilean air force general (b. 1925)
 2017 - Warren "Pete" Moore, American singer-songwriter and record producer (b. 1938)
 2017 - Jana Novotná, Czech tennis player (b. 1968)
 2017 - Della Reese, American actress and singer (b. 1931)
 2017 - Tai Chen-yao, Taiwanese politician (b. 1948)
 2017 - Mel Tillis, American country singer (b. 1932)
 2017 - Charles Manson, American cult leader (b. 1934)
 2018 - Apisai Ielemia, 10th Prime minister of Tuvalu (b. 1955)
 2018 - Alí Rodríguez Araque, Venezuelan politician (b. 1937)
 2019 - José Mário Branco, Portuguese singer-songwriter, actor and record producer (b. 1942)
 2019 - Purita Campos, Spanish cartoonist, illustrator and painter (b. 1937)
 2019 - Basil Feldman, Baron Feldman, British politician and businessman (b. 1923)
 2019 - D. M. Jayaratne, Sri Lankan politician, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (b. 1931)
 2019 - Tom Lyle, American comics artist and illustrator (b. 1953)
 2019 - Fazlollah Reza, Iranian politician (b. 1915)

Holidays and observances 
 Brazil – Flag Day
 Mali – Liberation Day
 Puerto Rico – Discovery of Puerto Rico (1493)
 Norway – The Liberation of the Sami people of the coast
 Monaco – National holiday
 International Men's Day
 World Toilet Day (See also: World Toilet Organization)

Days of the year