the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
The owls' hunting depends on surprising its prey.
Their most important adaptation is their almost silent flight.
The feathers are soft, with fringes on the back edge, and the base of each is downy.
This all muffles noise, and makes for silence.
Also, they glide when coming in for the kill.
The dull colors of the owls' feathers make them less visible by camouflaging the owl.
This helps them as they roost during the day.
Owls have fantastic hearing.
The shape of the head helps slight sounds reach the ears.
The feathers of the facial disc are arranged in order to increase sound delivered to the ears.
Their ears are asymmetrical allowing the owl to locate a sound.
They can hear a mouse move in the grass.
An owl's sharp beak and powerful talons allow it to kill its prey before swallowing it whole, unless it is too big.
Owls usually regurgitate the parts of their prey that they cannot digest.
These parts include bones, scales, and fur.
Scientists who study the things that owls eat can get clues by studying the parts that the owl spit back out, called "owl pellets".
These "owl pellets" are sold by supply companies to schools for use in the students' biology and ecology lessons.
Many animals store food during times of plenty to prepare for leaner times.
Owls may store dead mice for winter.
Swivelling the head
Owls have special adaptations which help them swivel their heads 270 degrees.
They have 14 neck vertebrae instead of our seven.
Also, the big carotid arteries, instead of being on the side of the neck as in humans, are carried close to the centre of rotation just in front of the spine.
So these arteries get much less twisting and stretching, and the potential for damage is greatly reduced.
This arrangement  is seen in other birds, but in owls the vertebral arteries – the vessels that travel through channels in the neck bones – are given extra space.
Owls also have wide parts in their carotid arteries just under the base of the skull.
Researchers found these could dilate and fill with a reservoir of blood. "
We believe this is kind of a new structure not really known before", said a researcher. "
It's probably a way to pool blood and get some continuity of flow even if there is disruption below at the next level".
Owls in culture
The owl is the symbol of the Greek goddess Athena (Minerva to the Romans)
Nursery rhyme: "The wise old owl sat in an oak, the more he heard, the less he spoke".
Poem by Tennyson: "The wise owl in the belfry sits..."
"Wol" is a character from the Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne.
Owls carry the mail in the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling.
Facts about Owls
Copyright infringement (or copyright violation) is the use of material which is covered by copyright law, in a way that violates one of the original copyright owner's "exclusive rights", such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it.
The slang term bootleg (from the use of boots to smuggle items) is often used to describe illegally copied material.
Some people call illegally copying movies and music, "piracy" or "theft".
Richard Stallman says people should not call copying and distribution "piracy", because piracy is robbery with attacking ships, killing and stealing people, and owners of copyright use the word to say that such copying is as evil as piracy.
Some courts say that the word "piracy" may be used, but the word "theft" may not be used.
When people use the word "piracy" for copyright infringement, it usually means "selling of many copies without permission", but sometimes any "big copyright infringement".
There are a few reasons why people violate copyrights.
Copyright infringed goods are usually cheaper than legal ones, because the people distributing them don't need to pay for the copyright.
That can make them easier to sell.
Normal goods might also not be as useful as copyright infringed ones because of legal limitations.
Internet piracy
Copyright laws have tried to keep up with the development of technology, such as radio, television, and the internet.
Now many people upload some articles to websites that allow people to read free articles on it without the permission of the author.
In this way, people can read many articles easily, but it is illegal.
As a result, many authors prosecute the website.
The normal behaviors of copy infringement
Copy or photocopying.
Let other people browse for free in public.
Distribute or sold after reforming.
The harm of copyright infringement
Piracy goods are usually at low price because they don't need to pay for copyright and carry out research.
So it is popular with the people who don't have awareness of copyright.
On the surface, it will limit the monopoly of big company.
But in fact, it is a means of unfair competition and damages the fair competition pattern.
What's more, it will have a bad consequence on the competitiveness of middle or small sized companies.
Benefits of copyright infringement
There are some benefits to society of limiting copyright.
One is to expand readership of newspapers and books to a wider section of the public.
Newspapers were once relatively expensive, but copies were freely available in coffee houses throughout Europe.
The invention of public libraries had the same effect for books.
Many great people in the 18th and 19th century came from poor backgrounds.
Such people as Michael Faraday (the son of a blacksmith) and Alfred Russel Wallace had no university education, but used libraries to get their knowledge up-to-date.
The aim of copyright law is to have a balance between these two sides: the needs of authors and publishers, and the broader needs of society.
1.Well-known writers vs. Baidu On March 15, 2011, HanHan and many other well-known writers prosecuted Baidu Library because it allowed people to read and download their articles for free.
They asked Baidu to pay for it but Baidu rejected the compensation.
Michigan Document Services was involved in creating packages of study material for the students of the university.
A professor supplied the course material and Michigan Document services, a photocopying organization, took photocopies of the material and converted it into a booklet for sale to students at the university.
Here was a clause of "Fair use" in this case.
The photocopying company could have paid a nominal fee to the university and then used the material.
This was available to anyone who wished to use the material.
However, the photocopying company paid for only the original and then started making photocopies of the study material.
The court considered that it was not "fair use" and penalized the photocopying company.
This is one of the most famous cases of copyright infringement related to the music industry.
As peer to peer file sharing increased, Napster started a website.
This website offered downloads of songs of all genres – new and old.
You may know someone who used it.
A & M Records brought in a joint copyright infringement case which accused Napster of stealing music and making it available to people worldwide.
Before closing the site in 2002, Napster had to settle US$26 million to different recording companies and songwriters.
It could have even more if Napster had not apologized and folded the site.
Several websites still thrive on offering free music to people who can download it at no cost.
As mentioned in our article on "Internet Ethics and Copyright Laws", the music industry faces most copyright infringement cases.
The Napster case, though an example of the consequences, still does not act as a deterrent for other music websites that offer free music downloads.
The opinions of the public
As opposed to the writers, many people think it's convenient and cheap to read books and other articles on the internet.
They think free articles are good for them.
On the other hand, some people think it is illegal to provide free articles download without authors permission.
They think the best way to avoid this problem is to pay for reading on the Internet.
Copyright test case
The photos had been sold widely by David Slater, a professional nature photographer, whose camera was temporarily carried away by a group of macaques.
After the photos were uploaded to Wikipedia, the organisation refused to delete them, claiming "This file is in the public domain, because as the work of a non-human animal, it has no human author in whom copyright is vested.
International Women's Day is celebrated every year on March 8.
International Women's Day has been observed since 1909 in the United States.
After a while the people of United States stopped celebrating this holiday.
In the 1920s Soviet Union, and then some other Communist countries like China and Cuba, started celebrating this day as a holiday for women and world peace.
Since then the holiday has become more and more popular around the world.
In many places, the day does not have a political aspect, and is simply a time for men to express their love for women.
It is similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.
Men present their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc.
with flowers and small gifts.
In some countries International Women's Day is observed like Mother's Day, where children give small gifts to their mothers and grandmothers.
In some countries, women get a half day off work.
Often, schools will have a celebration where students will honor their teachers.
In 1975, the United Nations also started to recognize this holiday for women's rights.
The UN chooses a political or social theme for the holiday each year.
For example, the 2011 theme was ""Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women."
and the 2012 theme is "Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world".
In this way, the holiday is a time to look at the social and economic problems women have around the world.
May 1 is known in many countries as May Day or International Labor Day for human rights of workers.
This day is a holiday in most countries, including UK,China, Cuba, Czech republic, France, Russia, Brazil, Austria, Germany, Serbia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kenya, Slovenia, Slovakia, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Portugal, Bulgaria, Vietnam and Argentina.
May events
It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities of the world.
It is on a hilly promontory on the eastern Mediterranean surrounded to the east by the snow-capped mountains of Lebanon.
Before the civil war it was a cultural center of the Arab World, a major international financial, banking and media center and was called the Switzerland of the Middle East.
It was called the Paris of the Middle East.
Linda Jones Hall, Roman Berytus: Beirut in Late Antiquity, 2004.
Samir Kassir, Histoire de Beyrouth, Fayard 2003.
Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (), p. 69.
Official website of Beirut
Downtown Beirut
Discover Lebanon - Beirut photos and images, virtual tour, Allenby street, parliament, museum
Nancy Ajram or Nancy Agram (, born May 16, 1983) is a popular Arab singer from Lebanon.
Her musical videos, directed by Nadine Labaki, also Lebanese, revolutionized the Arab music industry.
She had quite a normal childhood with her small family that consisted of her parents, her sister and brother and herself.
But when Nancy Ajram was 12, she participated in a television program called "Nojoum Al Mostakbal" (which means "Stars of the Future") and actually won first prize.
Soon after, Ajram began studying music under the supervision of some of the finest teachers in her country.
When she turned 18, she joined the Syndicate of Professional Artists in Lebanon - after they made an exception because of her age.
Her first album; Mehtagalak, was released in 1998 and marked her first official step in the world of show business.
But, it took the young singer another 3 years to launch her second album Shil Eyounak Aney in 2001.
Then her true hit came with her third album Ya Salam in 2003.
The singer stressed the success of the album by shooting four of its songs; Akhasmak Ah, Ya Salam, Yay - Sehr Eyounoh and Nasseto Gar7o in the form of video clips.
The clips were a tremendous hit and gained popularity in such a short time and gave the singer incredible fame in the Arab world.
Her most popular album is Ah we Nos which was released in 2004.
Nancy shot again four video clips for this Album.
Ah w Noss, Lawn Oyounak, Oul Tani Eih and Enta Eih.
As for other activities besides singing, the Lebanese diva has agreed to be the spokesperson for the international soft drink company Coca-Cola.
After signing the contract with Nancy Ajram, Coca-Cola sold much more drinks in the Arab world.
Second Official website
Nancy Ajram Zone
Nancy Ajram VideoClips
Popular FanPage
Listen to all Nancy ajram songs
Lebanese Christians
Lebanese singers
Fairuz (born Nouhad Haddad (, November 21, 1935) is a Lebanese singer.
She is a living legend who has been performing for over 50 years all over the world.
Her vocal range is contralto.
Her first album was released in 1952.
She has released 98 more albums since then.
A sword is a hand-held weapon made for cutting.
It is often made of metal.
It has a long blade, and a handle called a hilt.
Often there is some form of hand protection, such as a cross-guard or a basket.
It can be used either for cutting, slashing or stabbing, depending on the type of sword.
Swords were first created from bronze by blacksmiths in Ancient Egypt in 1150 BCE.
Soon other cultures adopted them, and they began to spread quite quickly.
Before guns were invented, swords were much more common as a weapon.
After the invention of the gun, swords remained as sidearms, as secondary weapons used in man-to-man fight once the battle lines had contacted after shooting.
Since after the American Civil War, swords have not been used as much by armies, except as a ceremonial part of uniforms.
Some guns, however, have bayonets to perform the same function.
Today, Sport fencing, is an Olympic games sport which uses very light swords and a strict scoring system.
Western Martial Arts use swords that are much closer to the original blades, such as longswords, rapiers and sabres.
The blades used are blunt, but they are much heavier than a sport fencing sword, which means the fencers need much more armour.
Likewise, the Japanese sport kendo is swordplay in armour with two-handed bamboo swords called shinai.
Types of swords
There are many kinds of swords.
One kind of sword is a sabre (or saber).
A sabre is a curved, light sword, sharpened on one side and at the tip, and was generally used on horseback.
A broadsword is a straight sword that is sharp on both sides and at the tip.
A rapier is long and thin, with a basket protecting the hand.
Another type of sword is a foil, used in sport fencing, and is long and thin, with a button at the tip to protect the fencers from injury.
Larger swords, such as Longswords or claymores are used with two hands.
In Eastern martial Arts, swords like the Katana are used.
A Katana has one sharp edge and a small guard near the handle.
Some Katanas are used with one hand, while other larger versions are used with two hands.
Famous swords
In a Vietnamese legend, the Dragon King gives a sword called Heaven's Will to Emperor Lê Lợi so he can free Vietnam from the Chinese.
The Frisian freedom fighters Pier Gerlofs Donia and Wijerd Jelckama are known to have wielded swords of great size.
Donias sword was a long as 210 cm (seven feet) and weighed 7 kg (15 lbs).
The swords are kept in the Frisian Museum in Leeuwarden.
Moses (;  in both the Septuagint and the New Testament; , ) is a person in Abrahamic religions.
He was a religious leader, lawgiver, and prophet according to the Hebrew Bible.
Generally, he is also seen as the author of the Torah.
He is often called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew (, Lit. "
Moses our Teacher/Rabbi") and seen as the most important prophet in Judaism.
Christianity, Islam,  the Bahá'í Faith, and the Rastafari, also see him as an important prophet.
Moses has also been an important symbol in American history, from the first settlers up until the present.
According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people were increasing in number and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might help Egypt's enemies.
Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed,  hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed, and he ended up being adopted into the Egyptian royal family.
After killing an Egyptian slave-master, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian where he tended the flocks of Jethro, a priest of Midian on the slopes of Mt. Horeb.
After the Ten Plagues were unleashed on Egypt, Moses led the Hebrew people out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, where they based themselves at Horeb and compassed the borders of Edom.
It was at this time that Moses received the Ten Commandments.
Despite living to the age of 120, Moses died before reaching the Land of Israel.
Moses was born of the Levi tribe.
The new Pharaoh, afraid of the ever-growing Israelite population, ordered every new-born Hebrew boy to be thrown into the Nile River, but let every girl live.
Moses' mother Jochebed gave birth and kept him hidden for three months from Pharaoh's soldiers.
When she could no longer keep him hidden, she fashioned a basket lined with tar and pitch, and placed him in the reeds along the riverbank, while his sister Miriam kept watch from a distance.
A princess, one of pharaoh's daughters, went down to the Nile to bathe.
There she discovered a crying baby and noticed he was a Hebrew child.
Joining the attendants, Moses' sister offered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for the princess, who agreed.
Bringing Moses' real mother, the princess asked her to be the baby's wet nurse, for which she was paid.
When the child grew older, she took him to pharaoh's daughter, who named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water."
Moses grew up a privileged member of the court.
He was well educated academically and physically.
He was taught hand-to-hand combat tactics and leadership.
Moses fled to Midian, where he married Jethro's daughter, Zipora.
Zipora had two sons.
The old Pharaoh died and the Israelites cried loudly.
God heard him.
One day Moses was tending his father-in-law, Jethro's, sheep and came to Mount Horeb.
God's angel made a bush burn with fire, but it did not burn up.
When he came nearer, God spoke to him and ordered him to remove his shoes as he was on holy land.
God commanded him to be a leader for the Israelites and bring them out of Egypt.
At first Moses did not want to do it and said that he was not good with words, but God commanded him and gave Aaron, his brother, to speak for him.
Moses returned to Egypt and told the elders what happened.
Moses then went to the Pharaoh and asked him to let the Israelites go.
However the Pharaoh did not agree.
Finally God inflicted ten plagues upon the Egyptians before Pharaoh agreed to release the Israelites.
The last plague was the killing of all first-born, both human and animals.
However, to save the Israelites, they were instructed to mark their doors with blood from a lamb, so that the avenging angel would see it and know to "pass over" that house.
The Pharaoh finally decided to let the Israelites go who then migrated in large numbers from Egypt.
The Pharaoh later changed his mind and followed Moses and his people with an army to attack them.
But Moses made the Red Sea to part and give way for Israelites to pass.
The Israelites were safe but the Pharaoh's army was destroyed.
Journey in the Wilderness
Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness, and God gave them manna and quails to eat, and water from rocks to drink.
He also caused the Amalekites to lose in a battle.
When Moses came to Mount Sinai, he went up to receive the Ten Commandments and other laws from God.
The Ten Commandments were written by God on two tablets.
God also told him the instructions of the priests' duties.
Moses was up the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
When the people waited for Moses and did not find him, they made Aaron, his brother, make a calf out of gold and worshiped it.
God warned Moses about it, and when Moses came down and saw what they did, he was so angry that the tablets fell and they smashed into pieces.
The people of Levi tribes are commanded to kill people who worshiped the calf.
Later on Moses asked God to forgive the people.
God wrote for Moses two more tablets, and put them in the Ark. Moses also asked craftsmen to make the Tabernacle as God wanted.
While the Israelites were wandering around the wilderness, Moses was the one to whom God spoke.
However, the people kept complaining about the hardships.
God instructed Moses to send twelve spies to scout the land God is giving to them; however some of them became afraid because the people living there looked stronger and more powerful than they.
They told the others not to go there.
Only Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Jephunneh, reported the truth as God wanted.
God decided because of this that the Israelites would wander forty years in the wilderness, and every one except Joshua and Caleb from that generation would die without seeing the promised land.
God gave many laws to the Israelites through Moses.
Moses made Joshua take over him before he died.
Moses died before he reached Canaan, the land God was leading his people to.
He was 120 years old when he died.
Today Jews around the world follow the laws of the Ten Commandments and the Torah that God gave to them through Moses.
He is also believed to be a prophet by Muslims.
The Historical Moses
The Bible, the Torah, and the Quran have references to a person called Moses in them.
The name they give to the person, varies.
Other people also have written about Moses.
These include Tacitus and Strabo.
It is not known how much these descriptions have taken from earlier sources, which may now have been lost.
No other written records from countries such as Egypt or Assyria have been found, that are from before about 850 BCE and that tell about the stories of the Bible or its main characters.
There is no known physical evidence (such as pottery shards or stone tablets) to say that Moses' really existed.
Pharaohs have ordered the destruction of records that put them into a bad light.
Several cartouches from monuments have also been destroyed in different epochs of Ancient Egyptian history.
It looks like the story written about Moses in the Bible has two different sources.
There were two groups of people who told the story.
The two stories were passed on separately.
Only later were they combined into the version that can now be found in the Bible.
Passing on the stories from one generation to the next has perhaps also introduced inaccuracies.
Some people added things to the story when they told it.
They also omitted other things.
According to the Torah, Moses ordered the death penalty for many offences.
He also had defeated enemies killed.
Jews, Christians and Muslims consider him to be a holy figure.
For this reason, criticism of these passages of the Hebrew Bible has been left to others.
In the late eighteenth century, for example, the deist Thomas Paine commented at length on Moses' Laws in The Age of Reason.
Paine also gave his view that "the character of Moses, as stated in the Bible, is the most horrid that can be imagined", giving the story at  as an example.
In the nineteenth century the agnostic Robert G. Ingersoll wrote "...that all the ignorant, infamous, heartless, hideous things recorded in the 'inspired' Pentateuch are not the words of God, but simply 'Some Mistakes of Moses'".
In the 2000s, the atheist Richard Dawkins referring to the same passage like Paine, concluded, "No, Moses was not a great role model for modern moralists."
The Geography, Book XVI, Chapter II The entire context of the cited chapter of Strabo's work
Canaan was an ancient country in the Levant.
In the Bible, it was the land promised to Abraham and his children by God.
The Canaanite people lived in this area from about 2000 BCE until the time of the Bible.
It covers part of the area that is now Israel, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
Ancient Israel and Judah
Former countries in the Middle East
History of Jordan
History of Lebanon
History of Syria
Prophets are people who said that God or gods talked to them.
They freely teach other people what they learned.
Most of them warn people that something very good will happen if they change their lives.
For the main Abrahamic religions, there are two kinds of prophets, major and minor.
Major prophets gave a lot of teachings while minor just re-teach things other prophets taught or they do not have many teachings.
Mount Cotopaxi is a volcano in Ecuador.
The mountain's altitude (height) is .
That is high enough for snow to fall on it, even though it is near the equator (a very warm part of the world).
If the volcano erupted, it would be very bad for the people living around it because of the destruction and damage it could cause.
Cotopaxi began showing new activity.
As of 25 June 2015, it was under active watch by the National Polytechnic School Geophysics Institute.
Volcanoes of Ecuador
Israelites were a Semitic people of the ancient Middle East.
They lived in part of what was Canaan during the time of the Bible.
This area came to be called the Land of Israel.
It usually refers to a member of one of the Tribes of Israel.
The term Children of Israel is also used, especially when talking about the period of the Five Books of Moses.
Israelites lived in the kingdom of Israel, in areas where the modern State of Israel is now.
Israel split off from a kingdom called Judah, whose people were later called Jews.
Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 721 BCE.
Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
Many Jews were taken away from Judah.
When the Achaemenid Empire defeated the Babylonians they let the Jews return to rebuild the Second Temple in Jerusalem about 70 years later.
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.
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.
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.
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 - 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 - 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
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
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 - 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)
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)
Kagami Biraki (Japan)
Republic Day (Albania)
Day of National Unity (Nepal)
Burning the Clavie (Old Scottish New Year tradition)
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.
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 Rocky Mountain National Park is created by an act of the United States Congress.
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.
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.
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)
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)