January 12

Events
Up to 1900
475 - Basiliscus becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1528 - Gustav Vasa becomes King of Sweden.
1539 - The Treaty of Toledo is signed by King Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
1554 - Bayinnaung is crowned King of Burma.
1616 - The city of Belem, in the present-day state of Para, Brazil, is founded by Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco.
1807 - A ship loaded with gunpowder explodes, killing 151 people in the Dutch city of Leiden.
1846 - In France, a General Amnesty is given to people who took part in the French Revolution.
1848 - The Palermo Rising takes place in Sicily against the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
1866 - The Royal Aeronautical Society is founded in London.
1872 - Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum; the first coronation in Axum for over 200 years.
1888 - The Schoolhouse Blizzard sweeps across the Great Plains states of the United States, killing 200 people, many of them schoolchildren.
1895 - The United Kingdom's National Trust is founded.
1898 - Ito Hirobumi becomes Prime Minister of Japan for a third time.
1899 - 13 crew members and 5 apprentices are rescued from stricken schooner Forest Hall by the Lynmouth Lifeboat, after getting into difficulty off Devon, England.
1901 2000
1905 - The Riksdagshuset, the seat of Sweden's parliament, is inaugurated in Stockholm, after eight years of building work.
1906 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet begins widespread social reforms after a landslide victory in the United Kingdom Election.
1908 - A long-distance radio signal is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
1915 - The United States House of Representatives rejects giving women the vote.
1918 - In Finland a law takes effect that makes Jews full Finnish citizens.
1920 - French passenger steamer Afrique is blown against a reef on France's coast during a storm, and sinks, killing 575 out of the 609 people on board.
1921 - After the Black Sox Scandal, Kenesaw Mountain Landis is elected Major League Baseball's first commissioner.
1922 - Prime Minister of France Aristide Briand resigns.
1932 - Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate, representing Arkansas.
1937 - Melilla, a Spanish territory bordering Morocco, becomes a German submarine base during the Spanish Civil War.
1945 - A magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Japan kills 1,900 people.
1959 - The Caves of Nerja are rediscovered in Spain.
1962 - Vietnam War: Operation Chopper, the first US combat mission of the war, takes place.
1964 - Rebels in Zanzibar revolt and proclaim a republic.
1967 - Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future revival.
1969 - The New York Jets of the American Football League defeat the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League in the final of the Super Bowl, in one of the biggest shock results in American football history.
1970 - Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian Civil War.
1971 - The sitcom All in the Family is first broadcast on CBS.
1976 - The last Spanish troops withdraw from Western Sahara.
1991 - The United States Congress authorises military force in reaction to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
1998 - Nineteen European Nations agree to forbid human cloning.
From 2001
2001 - Downtown Disney opens to the public at Disneyland resort in Anaheim, California.
2004 - The ocean liner RMS Queen Mary 2 makes its first voyage.
2005 - Deep Impact launches on board a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
2006 - A stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage kills 362 Muslim pilgrims.
2010 - 2010 Haiti earthquake: A major earthquake hits Haiti, killing over 200,000 people, and leaving millions of people homeless.
2016 - A bomb attack in Istanbul, Turkey, kills at least 10 people, most of them German tourists.
2019 - The roof of a mine in Shenmu in the People's Republic of China's Shaanxi province collapses, killing at least 21 people.
Births
Up to 1800
1483 - Henry III of Nassau-Breda, German nobleman (d. 1538)
1562 - Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (d. 1630)
1576 - Petrus Scriverius, Dutch writer (d. 1660)
1580 - Jan Baptist von Helmont, Flemish scientist (d. 1644)
1588 - John Winthrop, English-born politician (d. 1649)
1628 - Claude Perrault, French folklorist (d. 1703)
1711 - Gaetano Latilla, Italian composer (d. 1788)
1716 - Antonio de Ulloa, Spanish general and politician (d. 1795)
1723 - Samuel Langdon, American college educator (d. 1797)
1724 - Frances Brooke, English author and playwright (d. 1789)
1729 - Edmund Burke, Irish statesman and philosopher (d. 1797)
1737 - John Hancock, American merchant and statesman (d. 1793)
1746 - Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss educator (d. 1827)
1751 - Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies (d. 1825)
1772 - Mikhail Speransky, Russian statesman, liberal reformer and professor of Mathematics (d. 1839)
1801 1900
1808 - Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Alsatian botanist and geologist (d. 1880)
1810 - Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies (d. 1859)
1822 - Etienne Lenoir, French engineer (d. 1900)
1846 - Prince Geatan, Count of Girgenti, son of Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies and Infante of Spain (d. 1871)
1849 - Murphy J. Foster, Governor of Louisiana (d. 1921)
1849 - Jean Beraud, Russian-French painter (d. 1935)
1852 - Joseph Joffre, French general (d. 1931)
1853 - Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro, Italian mathematician (d. 1925)
1856 - John Singer Sargent, American painter (d. 1925)
1863 - Swami Vivekananda, Indian philosopher (d. 1902)
1869 - Bhagwan Das, Indian politician and educator (d. 1958)
1873 - Spiridon Louis, Greek athlete (d. 1940)
1874 - James Juvenal, American rower (d. 1942)
1876 - Fevzi Cakmak, Turkish field marshal and Prime Minister (d. 1950)
1876 - Jack London, American writer (d. 1916)
1877 - Frank J. Corr, American politician (d. 1934)
1878 - Ferenc Molnar, Hungarian writer and journalist (d. 1952)
1879 - Anton Uesson, Estonian politician and engineer (d. 1942)
1882 - Milton Sills, American actor (d. 1930)
1884 - Texas Guinan, American actress (d. 1933)
1890 - Johannes Vares, Estonian poet, physician and politician (d. 1946)
1892 - Mikhail Gurevich, Russian engineer (d. 1976)
1893 - Hermann Goring, Nazi official (d. 1946)
1894 - Georges Carpentier, French boxer (d. 1975)
1896 - Keen Johnson, American politician, 45th Governor of Kentucky (d. 1970)
1899 - Paul Hermann Muller, Swiss chemist (d. 1965)
1899 - Pierre Bernac, French baritone (d. 1979)
1901 1950
1903 - Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist (d. 1960)
1905 - Tex Ritter, American country music singer and actor (d. 1974)
1906 - Emmanuel Levinas, French philosopher (d. 1995)
1907 - Sergei Korolev, Russian rocket scientist (d. 1966)
1908 - Jean Delannoy, French director (d. 2008)
1910 - Luise Rainer, German actress (d. 2014)
1910 - Gery Leuliet, French bishop (d. 2015)
1910 - Patsy Kelly, American actress (d. 1981)
1916 - Pieter Willem Botha, South African politician (d. 2006)
1917 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian spiritualist (d. 2008)
1920 - Katja of Sweden, Swedish fashion designer (d. 2017)
1923 - Ira Hayes, American marine who raised the US Flag on Iwo Jima (d. 1955)
1923 - Alice Miller, Polish-born Swiss psychologist, author and painter (d. 2010)
1925 - Katherine MacGregor, American actress (d. 2018)
1925 - Bill Burrud, American television host (d. 1990)
1926 - Ray Price, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
1926 - Shumon Miura, Japanese author (d. 2017)
1926 - Morton Feldman, American composer (d. 1987)
1927 - Ignatz Bubis, chairman of the Federal Council of Jews in Germany (d. 1999)
1927 - Leopoldo Federico, Argentine musician, arranger, director and producer (d. 2014)
1928 - George E. R. Kinnear II, American admiral (d. 2015)
1929 - Jaakko Hintikka, Finnish philosopher (d. 2015)
1929 - Alasdair MacIntyre, Scottish-American philosopher
1932 - Des O'Connor, British television presenter and entertainer
1933 - Michael Aspel, British television presenter
1933 - Boris Khimichev, Russian actor (d. 2014)
1934 - Ebrahim Nafae, Egyptian journalist (d. 2018)
1936 - Sir William McAlpine, 6th Baronet, British engineering businessman (d. 2018)
1936 - Raimonds Pauls, Latvian pianist and composer
1936 - Brajanath Ratha, Indian poet (d. 2014)
1936 - Jennifer Hilton, Baroness Hilton of Eggardon, English police officer and politician
1937 - Vicente Sardinero, Spanish opera singer (d. 2002)
1937 - Marie Dubois, French actress (d. 2014)
1944 - Joe Frazier, American boxer (d. 2011)
1944 - Vlastimil Hort, Czech-German chess player
1944 - Jim Gray, American computer scientist (d. 2007)
1946 - George Duke, American keyboardist (d. 2013)
1946 - Hazel Cosgrove, Lady Cosgrove, Scottish lawyer and judge
1948 - Gordon Campbell, Canadian politician
1948 - Brendan Foster, English athlete and athletics commentator
1949 - Bagrat de Bagration y de Baviera, Spanish royal (d. 2017)
1949 - Ottmar Hitzfeld, German football manager
1949 - Haruki Murakami, Japanese writer
1949 - Kentaro Haneda, Japanese composer (d. 2007)
1949 - Hamadi Jebali, Tunisian politician
1950 - Dorrit Moussaieff, former First Lady of Iceland
1950 - Sheila Jackson-Lee, American politician
1950 - Patrice Dominguez, French tennis player (d. 2015)
1951 1975
1951 - Kirstie Alley, American actress
1951 - Rush Limbaugh, American radio personality, writer and political commentator
1951 - Larry Hoppen, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans) (d. 2012)
1952 - Walter Mosley, American writer
1952 - John Walker, New Zealand runner
1954 - Felipe Rose, American musician
1954 - Howard Stern, American radio personality and writer
1956 - Marie Colvin, American journalist (d. 2012)
1958 - Alexander Pochinok, Russian economist and politician (d. 2014)
1958 - Christiane Amanpour, Iranian-British journalist
1959 - Nick Nairn, Scottish celebrity chef
1959 - Per Gessle, Swedish songwriter and musician (Roxette)
1959 - Blixa Bargeld, German musician
1960 - Oliver Platt, American actor
1960 - Dominique Wilkins, American basketball player
1961 - Andrea Carnevale, Italian footballer
1962 - Joe Quesada, American comic book writer and artist
1964 - Jeff Bezos, American entrepreneur, founder of Amazon.com
1964 - Laura Gildemeister, Argentine tennis player
1964 - Clare Holman, British actress
1965 - Rob Zombie, American musician
1966 - Olivier Martinez, French actor
1968 - Heather Mills, British activist
1968 - Mauro Silva, Brazilian footballer
1969 - David Mitchell, British writer
1970 - Zack de la Rocha, American musician
1970 - Raekwon, American rapper
1971 - David McAllister, German politician
1971 - Scott Burrell, American basketball player
1971 - Peter Madsen, Danish engineer, entrepreneur and murder suspect
1972 - Priyanka Gandhi, Indian politician
1972 - Espen Knutsen, Norwegian ice hockey player
1973 - Hande Yener, Turkish singer
1974 - Tor Arne Hetland, Norwegian cross-country skier
1974 - Melanie Chisholm, British singer, formerly of the Spice Girls
1975 - Jocelyn Thibault, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 - Jason Freese, American musician
From 1976
1976 - Piolo Pascual, Filipino actor, director and producer
1978 - Bonaventure Kalou, Ivorian footballer
1979 - Lee Bo-young, South Korean actress and model
1979 - Grzegorz Rasiak, Polish footballer
1981 - Amerie, American singer-songwriter, producer and actress
1981 - Tony Lochhead, New Zealand footballer
1982 - Paul-Henri Mathieu, French tennis player
1982 - Dean Whitehead, English footballer
1984 - Oribe Peralta, Mexican footballer
1984 - Andrew Chan, Australian drug trafficker (d. 2015)
1986 - Pablo Daniel Osvaldo, Argentine-Italian footballer
1986 - Kieron Richardson, English actor
1987 - Naya Rivera, American actress and singer
1987 - Edoardo Mortara, Italian racing driver
1988 - Claude Giroux, Canadian ice hockey player
1989 - Axel Witsel, Belgian footballer
1990 - Sergey Karjakin, Ukrainian-born Russian chess player
1991 - Pixie Lott, English singer-songwriter and actress
1992 - Mao Kobayashi, Japanese model and singer
1992 - Georgia May Jagger, English model
1993 - Zayn Malik, English singer (One Direction)
1994 - Emre Can, German footballer
1996 - Ai Hashimoto, Japanese actress and fashion model
1996 - Ella Henderson, English singer-songwriter
1998 - Nathan Gamble, American actor
Deaths
Up to 1900
690 - Benedict Biscop, English saint (b. 628)
1167 - Aelred of Rievaulx, English saint (b. 1110)
1321 - Maria of Brabant, Queen of France (b. 1256)
1519 - Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1459)
1665 - Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician and lawyer (b. 1601)
1674 - Giacomo Carissimi, Italian composer (b. 1605)
1705 - Luca Giordano, Italian artist (b. 1634)
1735 - John Eccles, English composer (b. 1668)
1759 - Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (b. 1709)
1781 - Richard Challoner, English bishop (b. 1691)
1829 - Friedrich von Schlegel, German poet (b. 1772)
1834 - William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)
1856 - L'udovit Stur, Slovakian politician and writer of the Slovak language (b. 1815)
1875 - Tongzhi Emperor of China (b. 1856)
1875 - Thomas E. Bramlette, Governor of Kentucky (b. 1817)
1897 - Isaac Pitman, British inventor (b. 1813)
1901 2000
1909 - Hermann Minkowski, Polish-German mathematician (b. 1864)
1911 - Georg Jellinek, German public lawyer (b. 1851)
1916 - Georgios Theotokis, Greek politician, 80th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1844)
1921 - Gervase Elwes, English tenor (b. 1866)
1926 - Austin Chapman, Australian politician (b. 1864)
1934 - Paul Kochanski, Polish violinist and composer (b. 1887)
1938 - Gosta Ekman, Swedish actor (b. 1890)
1943 - Jan Campert, Dutch composer and writer (b. 1902)
1960 - Nevil Shute, English writer (b. 1899)
1962 - Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams, Russian journalist and activist (b. 1869)
1964 - Boss Johnson, Canadian politician (b. 1890)
1965 - Lorraine Hansberry, American author, playwright and director (b. 1930)
1974 - Princess Patricia of Connaught (b. 1886)
1976 - Agatha Christie, English writer (b. 1890)
1977 - Henri-Georges Clouzot, French movie director and screenwriter (b. 1907)
1983 - Rebop Kwaku Baah, Ghanaian musician (b. 1944)
1983 - Nikolai Podgorny, President of the USSR (b. 1903)
1997 - Charles B. Huggins, Canadian cancer researcher (b. 1901)
1999 - Betty Lou Gerson, American voice actress (b. 1914)
2001 2015
2002 - Cyrus Vance, United States Secretary of State (b. 1917)
2003 - Maurice Gibb, British singer (Bee Gees) (b. 1949)
2003 - Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine military leader (b. 1926)
2004 - Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya, Russian mathematician and physicist (b. 1922)
2005 - Amrish Puri, Indian actor (b. 1932)
2007 - Alice Coltrane, American jazz musician (b. 1937)
2009 - Claude Berri, French movie director (b. 1934)
2009 - Arne Naess, Norwegian philosopher (b. 1912)
2010 - Daniel Bensaid, French philosopher (b. 1946)
2010 - Notable victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, including:
Zilda Arns, Brazilian pediatrician and aid worker (b. 1934)
Georges Anglade, Haitian writer (b. 1944)
Serge Marcil, Canadian politician (b. 1944)
Flo Mcgarrell, Italian artist (b. 1974)
Hedi Annabi, Tunisian diplomat (b. 1943)
Jimmy O, Haitian hip hop musican (b. 1974)
2012 - Reginald Hill, British writer (b. 1936)
2012 - Bill Janklow, American politician, former Governor of South Dakota (b. 1939)
2013 - Koto Okubo, Japanese supercentenarian (b. 1897)
2014 - Alexandra Bastedo, British actress (b. 1946)
2014 - Frank Marth, American actor (b. 1923)
2014 - John Horsley, British actor (b. 1920)
2014 - John Button, British racing driver (b. 1943)
2015 - Elena Obraztsova, Russian mezzo-soprano (b. 1939)
2015 - Carl Long, American baseball player (b. 1935)
2015 - James Naanman Daman, Nigerian bishop (b. 1956)
2015 - Frank Glazer, American pianist and composer (b. 1915)
2015 - Steve Gold, British computer scientist (b. 1956)
2015 - Robert Gover, American author (b. 1929)
2015 - Paul Morgan, Welsh rugby player (b. 1974)
2015 - Bonnie Christensen, American children's book author and illustrator (b. 1951)
From 2016
2016 - Ivan Bukavshin, Russian chess player (b. 1995)
2016 - Andrew Smith, American basketball player (b. 1990)
2016 - Robert Black, Scottish serial killer (b. 1947)
2016 - Rose Chibambo, Malawian politician (b. 1928)
2016 - William Needles, American actor (b. 1919)
2016 - Dave Sime, American sprinter (b. 1936)
2016 - Carolyn D. Wright, American poet (b. 1949)
2017 - Giulio Angioni, Italian writer and anthropologist (b. 1939)
2017 - Meir Banai, Israeli singer (b. 1961)
2017 - William Peter Blatty, American writer (b. 1928)
2017 - Anthony King, Canadian-British political scientist (b. 1934)
2017 - Milton Metz, American radio and television sports presenter (b. 1921)
2017 - Vsevolod Murakhovsky, Ukrainian-Russian politician (b. 1926)
2017 - Graham Taylor, English football manager (b. 1944)
2018 - Frankie Muse Freeman, American civil rights attorney (b. 1916)
2018 - John V. Tunney, American politician, former United States Senator from California (b. 1934)
2018 - Jean-Louis Koszul, French mathematician (b. 1921)
2018 - Keith Jackson, American sportscaster (b. 1928)
2018 - Doodhnath Singh, Indian writer (b. 1936)
2018 - Eddy Beugels, Dutch cyclist (b. 1944)
2018 - Bella Emberg, English actress (b. 1937)
2018 - Pierre Pincemaille, French organist
2019 - George Brady, Czech-Canadian Holocaust survivor (b. 1928)
2019 - Etsuko Ichihara, Japanese actress (b. 1936)
2019 - Joe M. Jackson, American United States Air Force officer (b. 1923)
2019 - Batton Lash, American comic book writer and activist (b. 1953)
2019 - Jaime Rosenthal, Vice president of Honduras (b. 1936)
2019 - Patricia Wald, American judge (b. 1928)
Observances
Memorial Day (Turkmenistan)
National Youth Day (India)
Zanzibar Revolution Day (Tanzania)
Days of the year