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Events
- 86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of
a Roman Republic army, enters in Athens, removing the
tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus.
- 286 - Roman Emperor Diocletian raises Maximian to the rank of Caesar.
- 293 - Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint
Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as
Caesares, thus beginning the Tetrarchy.
- 317 - Crispus and Constantine II, sons of Roman Emperor Constantine I, and Licinius iunior, son of Emperor Licinius, are made Caesares
- 589 - Saint David, patron saint of Wales, dies.
- 1457 - The Unitas Fratrum is established in the village
of Kunvald, on the Bohemian-Moravian borderland. It is to date the second oldest Protestant denomination.
- 1562 - Over 1,000 Huguenots are massacred by Catholics in Wassy, France marking the start
of the French Wars of Religion.
- 1565 - The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.
- 1593 - The Uppsala Synod is summoned to confirm the
exact forms of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.
- 1628 - Writs are issued in February by Charles I of England that every county in England (not just
seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date.
- 1633 - Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as
commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal
Richelieu.
- 1642 - Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) becomes the first
incorporated city in the USA.
- 1692 - The Salem witch trials begin in
Salem Village, Massachusetts.
- 1700 - Sweden introduces its own Swedish calendar, in an attempt to gradually merge into the Gregorian calendar, reverts to the Julian calendar on this
date in 1712, and introduces the Gregorian Calendar on
this date in 1753.
- 1781 - The Continental Congress adopts the
Articles of Confederation.
- 1790 - The first United States census is
authorized.
- 1803 - Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state.
- 1805 - Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of
his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.
- 1811 - Leaders of the Mameluke dynasty are killed by
Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali.
- 1815 - Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba.
- 1836 - A Convention of delegates from 57
Texas communities convenes in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico.
- 1840 - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of
France.
- 1845 - President John
Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
- 1847 - The state of Michigan formally abolishes
capital punishment.
- 1852 - Archibald William
Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton appointed Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland.
- 1854 - German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; two years later his remains are found in a canal near
Charlottenburg.
- 1867 - Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital.
- 1868 - Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is founded at the
University of Virginia.
- 1872 - Yellowstone National Park is
established as the world's first national park.
- 1873 - E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York start production of the first practical typewriter.
- 1873 - Henry Comstock discovers the Comstock Lode in
Virginia City, Nevada.
- 1886 - Anglo-Chinese
School, Singapore is founded by Bishop William Oldham.
- 1896 - Battle of Adowa: an Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo–Ethiopian War.
- 1896 - Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity.
- 1912 - Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
- 1914 - The Republic of China joins the
Universal Postal Union.
- 1917 - U.S. government releases the
plaintext of the Zimmermann Telegram to the
public.
- 1919 - March 1st Movement begins in
Korea.
- 1932 - The son of Charles Lindbergh,
Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, is kidnapped.
- 1936 - Hoover Dam is completed.
- 1936 - A strike occurs aboard the S.S. California, leading to the
demise of the International Seamen's Union and the creation of the
National Maritime Union.
- 1941 - World War II: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, allying itself with the
Axis powers.
- 1941 - W47NV (now known as WSM-FM) begins operations in
Nashville, Tennessee becoming the first FM
radio station in the U.S..
- 1942 - HMAS Perth, and USS Houston sunk by the Japanese in the Suda Strait, Indonesia
- 1943 - World War II: Battle of Bismarck Sea
begins.
- 1946 - The Bank of England is nationalised.
- 1947 - The International Monetary Fund
begins financial operations.
- 1949 - Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch.
- 1949 - Ripley's Believe It Or Not! debuts on television
- 1950 - Cold War: Klaus
Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by giving them top secret
atomic bomb data.
- 1953 - Joseph Stalin collapses, having suffered a
stroke. He dies four days later.
- 1954 - Nuclear testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the
Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United
States.
- 1954 - Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives. (See U.S. Capitol shooting incident (1954).)
- 1955 - Allen Fieldhouse at the University of Kansas hosts its first college basketball
game.
- 1956 - The International Air
Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling
alphabet for the International Civil Aviation
Organization.
- 1958 - Samuel Alphonsus Stritch, is appointed
Pro-Prefect of the Propagation
of Faith and thus becomes the first American member of the Roman Curia.
- 1961 - President of the United States
John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
- 1961 - Uganda becomes self-governing and holds its first elections.
- 1962 - American Airlines Flight 1 crashes
on take off in New York.
- 1966 - Venera 3 Soviet
space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first
spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
- 1966 - The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria.
- 1966 - Chancellor of the Exchequer James Callaghan confirms the decision to change over to
decimal coinage.
- 1969 - During a performance at Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium, Jim Morrison of the Doors is arrested for exposing himself during the show.
- 1971 - A bomb explodes in a men's room in the United
States Capitol: the Weather Underground claims responsibility.
- 1971 - Pakistani President Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil
disobedience in East Pakistan.
- 1972 - The Thai province of Yasothon is created after being split off from the Ubon
Ratchathani province.
- 1973 - Black September terrorists storm the
Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan resulting in the Khartoum diplomatic
assassinations.
- 1974 - Watergate scandal: Seven are indicted for
their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct
justice.
- 1975 - Colour television transmissions begin in
Australia.
- 1976 - Bradford Bishop bludgeons his mother, spouse
and three children to death and is still at large.
- 1978 - Charlie Chaplin's coffin is stolen from a
Swiss cemetery.
- 1980 - Voyager 1 probe confirms that Janus (moon of Saturn) exists.
- 1983 - Swatch introduces its first
timepieces.
- 1989 - The United States becomes a member of the
Berne Convention copyright treaty.
- 1990 - Steve Jackson Games is raided by the
United States Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- 1992 - Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its
independence from Yugoslavia.
- 1995 - Polish Prime
Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Józef Oleksy.
- 2000 - The Constitution of Finland is
rewritten.
- 2000 - Hans Blix assumes the position of Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC.
- 2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan:
Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan.
- 2002 - The Envisat environmental
satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 kilometers (500 miles) above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date
at 8500 kilograms (9.5 tons).
- 2002 - The Peseta is discontinued as official currency of Spain and is replaced with the euro
(€).
- 2003 - Management of the United States Customs
Service and the United States Secret Service move to the
United States Department of Homeland Security.
- 2004 - Terry Nichols is convicted of state murder
charges and being an accomplice to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
- 2004 - Punycode adopted by the national registrars of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
- 2004 - Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum becomes President of Iraq.
- 2005 - Absinthe was officially re-legalized in
Switzerland.
- 2006 - Tarja Halonen is inaugurated as President of Finland for the second and last time.
- 2006 - Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the new debating
chamber for the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff, a milestone in devolution.
- 2006 - The first confirmed case of H5N1 bird flu virus in Switzerland, a dead swan on Lake Geneva, near the city of
Geneva.
- 2006 - English-language Wikipedia reaches its
one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station.
- 2007 - Tornadoes swarm across the southern United
States, killing at least 20; eight of the deaths were at a high
school in Enterprise, Alabama.
- 2007 - "Squatters" are evicted from Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, Denmark, provoking the March 2007
Denmark Riots.
Births
- 1445 - Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter (d.
1510)
- 1456 - King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and
Hungary (d. 1516)
- 1474 - Angela Merici, Italian nun (d. 1540)
- 1547 - Rudolph Goclenius, German philosopher (d.
1628)
- 1597 - Jean-Charles de la Faille, Belgian
mathematician (d. 1652)
- 1610 - John Pell, English mathematician (d. 1685)
- 1657 - Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian (d.
1740)
- 1683 - Caroline of Ansbach, wife of
George II of Great Britain (d. 1737)
- 1732 - William Cushing, 2nd Chief Justice of the United States. (d. 1810)
- 1760 - François Nicolas Leonard Buzot, French
revolutionary (d. 1794)
- 1769 - François Séverin
Marceau-Desgraviers, French general (d. 1796)
- 1807 - Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d.
1898)
- 1810 - Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French composer and
pianist (d. 1849)
- 1812 - Augustus Pugin, English-born
architect (d. 1852)
- 1817 - Giovanni Duprè, Italian sculptor (d.
1882)
- 1821 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Catholic
bishop (d. 1896)
- 1837 - William Dean Howells, American writer,
historian, and politician (d. 1920)
- 1848 - Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Irish-born
American sculptor (d. 1907)
- 1852 - Théophile Delcassé, French statesman (d.
1923)
- 1858 - Georg Simmel, German sociologist and philosopher
(d. 1918)
- 1863 - Alexander Golovin, Russian painter (d.
1930)
- 1865 - Abe Iso, Japanese politician (d. 1949)
- 1871 - Ben Harney, American composer and ragtime pianist
(d. 1938)
- 1876 - Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian
IOC president (d. 1942)
- 1880 - Giles Lytton Strachey British writer (d.
1932)
- 1886 - Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian painter and poet (d.
1980)
- 1888 - Ewart Astill, English cricketer (d.
1948)
- 1889 - Watsuji Tetsuro, Japanese philosopher (d.
1960)
- 1892 - Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japanese writer (d.
1927)
- 1893 - Mercedes de Acosta, American socialite (d.
1968)
- 1896 - Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek conductor and
composer (d. 1960)
- 1896 - Moriz Seeler, German writer and producer (d. 1942)
- 1899 - Erich von dem Bach, Nazi official (d.
1972)
- 1901 - Pietro Spiggia, Italian poet
- 1904 - Paul Hartman, American actor (d. 1973)
- 1904 - Glenn Miller, American bandleader (d. 1944)
- 1910 - Archer John Porter Martin, English
chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 2002)
- 1910 - David Niven, English actor (d. 1983)
- 1912 - Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter, archbishop
of Toronto (d. 2003)
- 1914 - Harry Caray, American sportscaster (d.
1998)
- 1914 - Ralph Ellison, American writer (d. 1994)
- 1917 - Robert Lowell, American poet (d. 1977)
- 1918 - Roger Delgado, English actor (d. 1973)
- 1918 - João Goulart, President of Brazil
(d. 1976)
- 1918 - Gladys Noon Spellman, American politician (d. 1988)
- 1920 - Howard Nemerov, American poet (d.
1991)
- 1920 - Max Bentley, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1984)
- 1921 - Terence Cardinal Cooke, American Catholic
archbishop (d. 1983)
- 1921 - Richard Wilbur, American poet
- 1922 - William Gaines, American publisher (d.
1992)
- 1922 - Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of
Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1995)
- 1923 - Kuczka Péter, Hungarian writer and editor (d.
1999)
- 1924 - Deke Slayton, American astronaut (d.
1993)
- 1926 - Robert Clary, French-born actor
- 1926 - Pete Rozelle, American commissioner of the NFL (d. 1996)
- 1926 - Cesare Danova, Italian-born American actor (d. 1992)
- 1927 - Harry Belafonte, American musician and
activist
- 1927 - Robert Bork, American legal scholar
- 1928 - Seymour Papert, South African mathematician
- 1928 - Jacques Rivette, French film director
- 1929 - Georgi Markov, Bulgarian dissident (d.
1978)
- 1930 - Gastone Nencini, Italian cyclist (d.
1980)
- 1935 - Robert Conrad, American actor
- 1936 - Monique Bégin, French-Canadian politician
- 1936 - Jean-Edern Hallier, French author (d. 1997)
- 1937 - Jed Allan, American actor
- 1939 - Leo Brouwer, Cuban composer and guitarist
- 1940 - Robert Grossman, American illustrator
- 1942 - Richard Bowman Myers, Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff
- 1943 - Gil Amelio, American venture capitalist
- 1943 - Akinori Nakayama, Japanese gymnast
- 1943 - Richard H. Price, American physicist
- 1943 - Rashid Sunyaev, Russian physicist
- 1943 - José Ángel Iribar, Spanish footballer
- 1944 - John Breaux, U.S. Senator from Louisiana
- 1944 - Mike d'Abo, English singer (Manfred
Mann)
- 1944 - Roger Daltrey, English musician (The Who)
- 1945 - Dirk Benedict, American actor
- 1946 - Lana Wood, American actress
- 1946 - Gerry Boulet, French-Canadian singer (d. 1990)
- 1946 - Elvin Bethea, American football player
- 1947 - Alan Thicke, Canadian actor and songwriter
- 1948 - Burning Spear, Jamaican singer and musician
- 1952 - Steven Barnes, American writer
- 1952 - Leigh Matthews, Australian rules footballer
- 1952 - Martin O'Neill, Northern Irish footballer and
manager
- 1953 - Richard Bruton, Irish politician and
economist
- 1954 - Catherine Bach, American actress
- 1954 - Ron Howard, American actor and director
- 1956 - Timothy Daly, American actor
- 1958 - Bertrand Piccard, Swiss balloonist and
psychiatrist
- 1958 - Chosei Komatsu, Japanese conductor
- 1960 - William Bennett, English musician
(Whitehouse)
- 1963 - Rob Affuso, American drummer
- 1963 - Thomas Anders, German singer (Modern
Talking)
- 1963 - Ron Francis, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1963 - Dan Michaels, American musician and record producer
- 1964 - Paul Le Guen, French football manager
- 1964 - Clinton Gregory, American musician
- 1965 - Stewart Elliott, Canadian jockey
- 1965 - Booker Huffman, American professional wrestler
- 1965 - Mary Lou Lord, American singer/songwriter
- 1966 - Susan Auch, Canadian speed-skater
- 1967 - Yelena Afanasyeva, Russian athlete
- 1967 - George Eads, American actor
- 1967 - Aron Winter, Dutch footballer
- 1969 - Javier Bardem, Spanish actor
- 1969 - Doug Creek, American baseball player
- 1969 - Dafydd Ieuan, Welsh drummer (Super Furry
Animals)
- 1971 - Tyler Hamilton, American cyclist
- 1973 - Ryan Peake, Canadian guitarist (Nickelback)
- 1973 - Carlo Resoort, Dutch DJ
- 1973 - Chris Webber, American basketball player
- 1974 - Mark-Paul Gosselaar, American actor
- 1976 - Peter F. Bell, Australian rules footballer
- 1977 - Rens Blom, Dutch athlete
- 1977 - Esther Cañadas, Spanish actress and supermodel
- 1978 - Jensen Ackles, American actor
- 1978 - Donovan Patton, Guamanian television star
- 1978 - Alicia Leigh Willis, American actress
- 1980 - Shahid Afridi, Pakistani cricketer
- 1980 - Djimi Traoré, Malian footballer
- 1981 - Ana Hickmann, Brazilian supermodel
- 1981 - Adam LaVorgna, American actor
- 1981 - Brad Winchester, American ice hockey player
- 1981 - Will Power, Australian racing driver
- 1983 - Daniel Carvalho, Brazilian
footballer
- 1983 - Elan Sara DeFan, Mexican singer-songwriter
- 1983 - Chris Hackett, English footballer
- 1983 - Blake Hawksworth, Canadian baseball player
- 1984 - Naima Mora, American model
- 1984 - Alexander Steen, Canadian-born Swedish hockey player
- 1985 - Andreas Ottl, German footballer
- 1986 - Jonathan Spector, American Footballer
- 1987 - Sammie, American R&B singer
- 1988 - Katija Pevec, American actress
- 1989 - Sonya Kitchell, American singer
- 1989 - Carlos Vela, Mexican footballer
- 1990 - Nikolas Tsattalios, Australian
footballer
Deaths